2012....Almost complete

It really is amazing how fast time flies, which is the excuse I will use to why I'm so far behind on this blog!  So, now I have to think back to see what has been happening since September!!

Well, back in September, Jeff and Tricia were married.  They announced at Thanksgiving that they are expecting a baby in July.  We had Thanksgiving at the Arbaugh's this year on Thanksgiving Day.  We traveled this Christmas, first to GR to Todd and Kristin's and then to Jody and Brian's, just in time to be home on Christmas Eve Day and go to church.  We were home Christmas Day as well, which was really nice. This Christmas was a lot of fun.  The kids enjoyed their gifts and seemed truly thankful.  It was nice to see that it did not seem to be all about Santa or all about presents.  Of course, they certainly enjoyed their presents and all their new toys!  Tom and I had most of this week after Christmas off which has been very enjoyable as well (especially since the kids have slept in until 8am the last 4 days!!).  Some of the things the kids got for Christmas this year include: Blake - magic kit, race car track, R/C motorcycle, R/C dinosaur, super hero action figures, board games, nerf guns.  Cora: My Little Ponies, lots of barbies and accessories, princess castle with princesses, dresses, pj's, marker/crayon sets, drawing paper, paints.  I know there is lots of other little stuff.  They both got new bikes as well.

Blake is halfway through kindergarten.  Seems like yesterday was his first day of school!  He LOVES school and is disappointed when there is a snow day.  His teacher is very energetic and seems to be very good at his job.  We had our first parent-teacher conferences in November and Mr. Williams had nothing but good things to say about Blake.  He is accelerating very well and is ahead of many in his class.  Blake loves to work on "homework" that the teacher sends home for extra practice.  It amazes me how fast he can whip right through it without having to work very hard.  I truly hope he always keeps this enthusiasm for education.

Cora Jane.  She is such a smart little cookie herself and has really developed quite the personality lately.  She really does have an easygoing temperament.  If you ask her to do something, 98% of the time the answer is "Sure!" and she goes and does it.  (Much the opposite of Blake!)  She has really been into painting, coloring and her barbies lately.  And dresses.  She wants to wear a dress everyday and it's usually the first thing she says when she wakes up - "Can I wear a dress today?"  She does not like any kind of hair accessory - barrettes, pony tails, head bands - nothing!  So we ended up cutting her hair a couple weeks ago into a cute little bob.  She is just adorable! :-)

Tom's job is still going quite well.  He enjoys it for the most part, especially the flexibility of it.  He is home early enough to have dinner on the table for us when we get home!  My job has been going good as well, it was a very busy fall as I had to fill in for other offices.

We recently had to replace our dishwasher and our TV, so it's been an expensive fall!!  Seems like we have replaced every appliance except for the stove (knock on wood!).

It is hard to believe that 2013 is literally right around the corner.  We are looking forward to the year - lots of fun things ahead.....camping, Jeff's baby, Michelle & Dave's wedding, Nick & Katie's wedding, a graduation party or two, Kindergarten graduation....phew, it will be busy, but a good busy!  I'm definitely going to try to keep the blog a little better updated, although I think I make that resolution every year!

School so far

Blake is loving school but was like a zombie the first two weeks. He seems to be better the last couple of days. The adjustment of no naps was tough, but I think he is getting there. He has had two minor time outs so far for talking too much at school. The first was apparently the first Friday of school. Had we not run into the principal that night when we were out for dinner, Blake may not have fessed up! As soon as he made contact with Mr. Luis, he looked down and turned his head the other way and said, "I have to tell you something....I got into a little trouble at school today." He told us the story...apparently when they were lined up to go out for recess, he was talking too much and had to miss five minutes of recess. The same thing happened again the following Tuesday. We are hoping for no more incidents, but as some people have said, there is going to be worse than this as he gets older. Oh well, I'm just glad that he likes school and is very eager to learn.

Rainbows

So we are on our way home today and we see a rainbow. Cora says, "momma, how did God put that rainbow in the sky?" I said, "how do you think he did it?" she responds, "I think he took a paintbrush and painted the sky." Blake pipes in, "I think the people in heaven helped him." Awe....they melt my heart!!

Kindergarten time.....where has the time gone?

Labor Day is here...summer is winding down, garden is becoming so overgrown that I've decided I'm done with it and cannot keep up....and ....Blake starts kindergarten tomorrow.  This is so bittersweet.  It's so hard to believe that he is old enough to go to school all day, everyday and ride the bus back to daycare with "the big kids."  Now he will be one of the "big kids."  He is so smart, though...I'm so very proud of how intelligent he is and how willing to learn he is.  He has been counting down the days for kindergarten for almost a month now.  He went to the open house last week and got to meet his teacher, Mr. Williams.  He also learned that his buddy Max Hoag from pre-school is also in his class.  They quickly picked out lockers next to each other and seats next to each other.  It is comforting that he is going to pre-school and already has (at least one) a friend.  My only concern is that he will be able to stay awake all day (and not be grumpy) because of no nap.  I know he will adjust, it will just take some time.  It will also be strange for Cora to be one of the older kids at Mary's house during the day.  I know she will do fine, though.  Speaking of smart cookies, she surely is one herself.  She can kick any adult's butt when it comes to playing Memory!  And at not even 3 years old, can whip through the alphabet flashcards and name every single one.  This amazes me, especially since I was just reading Blake's material for kindergarten last night and one paper said that while most kids can sing their ABC's before they are 5, many cannot recognize the letters until they get to kindergarten.  I would say she is well ahead of the game!  Both kids have an incredible vocabulary that they always use in context.  They are really starting to play well together, which now makes me sad that they will be separated all day during school.  Oh well, hopefully they will appreciate each other even more since they won't see each other as much.  It makes me sad that these last five years have literally flown by, but it makes me much sadder to know that these next 12 will be gone in the blink of an eye.  I just hope and pray that both of my children will never lose their passion to learn and will always push themselves to be the best that they can be. I really do love them both more and more everyday. :-)

Garden update

I picked our first tomato last night! I think it will be awhile yet before the rest are ready...at least I hope so, I'm not ready for all the work yet! We've also been picking cucumbers. Melons
will be ready pretty soon too!

Garden update

We have peas, zucchini, broccoli, cabbage, and onions that we've eaten so far!!!

Blake-isms

Tonight as I'm tucking Blake in, he says to me, "mom, when you were a kid, did you want to have a kid when you grew up?" I said, "yeah, I think I did. Why...do you want to have a kid when you grow up?" he responds, "I don't think so, they just mess up the house."

He also asked me tonight when I'm going to sharpen my nails again? Pretty sure he thinks my nail file is a sharpener! Lol! Gotta love him!

Bed Time

So our normal bedtime routine for the kids is: brush your teeth, go potty, give the other parent a hug and kiss, the other parent takes them up, says prayers, reads them a story, tucks them in.  Every night.  Well if we happen to get home late, we skip the story.  Last night we got home late and they went potty and we tucked them in.  Well, within 5 minutes both kids were yelling down to us because they didn't get to say their prayers.  Neither of them asked for a story (which they love their stories), but both had to say their prayers to be able to fall asleep.  This makes my heart very happy! :-)

Garden update

Well so far we have eaten romaine lettuce, broccoli and strawberries out of our garden. It's doing surprisingly well, as it looks like everything that we planted is coming up and growing like crazy!! We planted broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, Brussels sprouts and strawberries all from plants about the second week in. May. The Thursday before Memorial weekend we planted: seeds-peas, carrots, beets, green beans, wax beans, cucumbers, zucchini; plants-watermelon, muskmelon, buttercup squash, green peppers, habanero peppers, tomatoes. I think that's it!

The kids are having fun with it as are Tom and I. It looks like we will have lots of canning to do! Yah!!

A bad dream

The other morning, Blake got up and was acting really quiet, not like himself.  I asked him what was wrong?

He said, "I had a bad dream, mom."

"What was it about Blake?" I asked.

He puts his hand up, palm towards me and says, "I don't even want to talk about it."

So, we get downstairs and are getting ready and he's still not being himself.  So, I asked him again what was wrong.

"I had a bad dream mom.  I just don't want to talk about it."

"Ok, you don't have to tell me," I say to him.

"Ok, mom.  I'll tell you," he says, as serious as can be.  "We were having ice cream, me, you, Brianna, Kelsie, Cora and Daddy.  And YOU wouldn't give me any black sprinkles on my ice cream."  The pain is still so fresh to him that it almost brings him to tears to tell me this story.  Then he continues, "Momma, that wasn't even the bad part......Then Daddy gave me PINK ice cream!"  I really thought he was going to bust into tears at this point.  How devastating!! LOL!!  It was so hard not to bust out loud laughing at my little guy.  He is so anti-pink or anything girly.  He refuses to drink out of a pink cup or use anything that is girly colored or frilly. :-)

Cookout with the Regentin crew - Mother's Day 2012

It seems like the Regentin side only gets together about once or twice a year these days.  We got together to celebrate Mother's Day over at Dad and Lyn's house.  It was great to see everyone!

 Grandpa taking the kids for a gator ride!

 Enjoying food and good company

 Cora Jane with her Great Grandma Regentin

 Cora & Uncle Jeff

 Tricia & Jody

T-ball time

Blake started T-ball in May.  It's only a six week program and is pretty low-key, as the goal is to teach the kids the fundamentals of the game.  Tom got roped in to helping coach, but he doesn't mind!  Blake is on the McDonald's team, which he thinks is pretty darned cool!

Blake with assistant coach Dad

 Blake's biggest cheerleader!

I think is favorite part is getting dirty!!



My pre-school grad!

It's been a busy May and it's not even quite over yet.  Probably the biggest excitement was that Blake "graduated" from Peace Lutheran Pre-School.  His end of the year program was on May 23rd and his last day of school was actually on May 25th.  We were given a little booklet of his work from throughout the year, complete with his year end assessment.  Boy, did my heart swell with pride when I saw that!  There was a checklist of milestones that most kids know by now and he knew all of them.  They included:
1. Colors
2.  Days of the week
3.  Numbers 1-10
4.  How high can you count with no help? 100
5.  Shapes - circle, rectangle, square, triangle, oval and diamond
6.  Capital letters
7.  Lower case letters
8.  Coins - penny, nickel, dime and quarter (he was one of only a few children who knew them)
9.  His address
10.  His phone number (he was the only kid in his class who knew it.)

His teacher's comments were:
"What a smart young man you have in Blake.  He always surprises me by what he knows and doesn't forget it.  He would ask intelligent questions about things he wasn't sure of.  He is doing much better about his talking too.  (Side note --- He LOVES to talk).  We have really enjoyed having him in class.  I'm sure he will do well in all things."

So..it might not sound like a big deal to everyone else.  However, his teacher gives very little feedback throughout the year unless you constantly ask, so you never really know how he's doing or if he's where he should be.  The main reason that I was concerned about his development is because I was a little on the fence if he should start kindergarten next year because of his late birthday (July 30th).  So, he will be young for his class and a lot of people have strong opinions both ways about sending him or not sending him.  His teachers have reassured me on several occasions that they feel that he's definitely ready for kindergarten.  I guess I will know for sure this week.  On Wednesday he has to go to Maple Valley for "observation" as they call it.  They will see if he is ready but don't call it a test.  As far as I know, they read him a story to see if he can sit still through it and then maybe ask him a few questions.  I know he will have no problem with that because we read every night and he LOVES it.  :-)  It really is hard to believe he is getting this big.  But I could not be a prouder momma!!

The funny thing is, that many of those items 1-10, I taught to Blake in the car.  We spend close to 40 minutes a day in the car going back and forth to Sandusky.  Rather than turning on the DVD players (which is always tempting), we spend the time constructively by playing games like I Spy, counting, (if he wants to play a game on my phone he has to count to 100 first!), we think of things that start with a designated letter, we work on our phone number (he also knows my cell phone number) and our address.  It amazes me what sponges these kids are and how quick they pick up on things.  The great thing is, is that now Cora knows so much of this stuff just from listening to Blake and I.  I asked Blake one day what my cell phone number was and Little Miss Cora belts out our home phone number! She's 2!! :-)  It's a good reminder to me that they are always listening, are eager to learn and can retain so much at this age.

 Mrs. Rachow giving Blake his diploma.

 Our graduate!

 Giving his sister a quick squeeze!

 Me & My Boy

 Blake & his daddy

My little man!



My little competitor

Blake and I have been going for 1.5 mile bike rides most nights since it has been nice out. I thought it would be a nice leisure ride where we might chat about our day. Not so much. It's a straight competition of who can ride the fastest. I do my best to let him stay ahead if me, but when I come close to passing him, I see him watching me out of the corner of his eye and he starts peddling like crazy! When I go go ahead of him, he will stop and "take a break." So, I will stop too and next thing I know he goes flying past me!!!! The other night he figured out how to cut me off so he can stay in the lead. I'm going to take his training wheels off one of these nights....that'll show him!!!

No cavity club!!

Blake visited Dr. Gorringe for his dental check up today. He had X-rays for the first time and found out he still has NO cavities!! We are so proud of him!! He was very brave and not scared at all.

The other day, out of the blue, Blake points to his heart and says, "momma...I wish boys had circles instead of hearts." I asked him why? His response was: "hearts are for girls, not boys."

I finally snuck in a photo shoot of Cora tonight. I can't believe it's been a year since I've taken her pics!!! In my defense, she would not even look at the camera much in the last year. She did a great job and I can't wait to edit them!

Field Trip

I joined Blake's class on 4/25/12 for a field trip to Liberty Lanes in Sandusky. It was highly entertaining and the kids had a great time. Blake managed to get two spares and a final score of 89. It surely helped that he gutter blocks were in!!

My Garden

With the help of co-worker Dave Messing, my garden is coming together!!! I think it's a little bigger than what I need at this point, but I'm sure I will grid into it! It's 30'x50! I'm looking forward to planting later this week!!

Unbelievable

This weather has been completely unbelievable! All week it has been in the 60-high 70's!!! For mid March, that is just unheard of! The kids loved it and we took advantage of getting some early yard work done. We also had a nice night out last night with friends for St Patty's day.

Some of Blake's latest quotes...
"momma, I need to eat a lot because I'm a growing man."

"I don't think I should wear these jeans anymore, because they make me fart a lot."

"Mom, can we take a break from getting library books for awhile? Cause I want to read my bible more often"

Cora has been talking a lot, we are able to understand pretty much everything she says. She can even say the entire Lord's Prayer all by herself.

The kids are really at a fun age and we are enjoying them everyday!!

Falling behind...

I received a "gentle" reminder from my mother that I'm falling behind on my blog.  Which, I knew.  As I told her, we are just very boring people this time of year!  We tend to stay home and get inside projects done on these wintery weekends.  This is truly the first wintery weekend we've had.  We finally have about 5 inches of snow which is the most we've had all year.  It has been a very unusal winter compared to most years, especially last year! 

The kids have been staying healthy (knock on wood!), which sure helps.  Cora has become a real chatterbox, but I guess that is to be expected because she has some fierce competition with her brother!  The other day I was in the bathroom getting ready for work.  Cora came in and told me that she "turned the winds on".  It took me a minute to realize that she turned the ceiling fans on in the living room. :-)  Then on the ride home the other day, the roads were super muddy and would pull my van from side to side every now and then.  Cora kept on telling me "stop wiggling momma!"  Then yesterday as we were driving into Sandusky, Blake pointed out a truck on the side of the street, "Mom...I think that's a Transformer truck!"  I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he has been playing with his big transformer truck at home quite a bit lately!

What have we been up to?  Well, the girls and I had our annual scrapbooking weekend up at the Arbaugh B&B in Harbor Beach last weekend.  We had a great time and the time away from everything is a much needed annual event!  Tom had it pretty easy too, as the kids were at Dad's one night and Mom's one night, so I didn't feel too guilty!

I have the Kiwanis Crop fundraising event coming up next weekend.  This is the 6th year that I have organized it, and quite honestly I am looking forward to it being over with! LOL!  It gets easier each year but would be even more easier if I weren't such a perfectionist!  Lyn has been very helpful with organizing it along with me, so that makes it much more manageable.

Disneyland

My conversation with Blake the other day...

Blake: hey momma, I wanna go to Chuck E Cheese for my birthday when I turn 5.
Me: we'll see Blake
Blake: then for my 6th birthday I want to go to Disneyland
Me: i don't think so Blake
Blake: why not?
Me: it's too expensive, Blake
Blake: no its not mom. It's free when it's your birthday
Me: (under my breath) damned commercials!!

Canning & Pressure Cooking

Couldn't help but snap this shot when Cora made herself at home in the canner!  I made a huge batch of cabbage soup last week and am looking forward to canning some more chicken this week!!

I have also had fun experimenting with some other homemade goodies lately.  Over the past few months, I have made homemade laundry soap, dishwasher detergent, dish soap, febreeze spray, wrinkle release spray...I think that's it.  I was going to make some handsoap as well, but I'm still pretty stocked up!  I'm pretty sure I won't be buying any of the above items for a very long time.  The savings is unbelievable and the quality is excellent as well!!

Alvin Sightings....

Over the holidays, our elf "Alvin" was a little more creative than last year.  However he is always sure to stay where little hands can't touch him, because if they touch him....he loses his Christmas magic.  The story of our elf..he arrives once we put up our Christmas tree and each night he goes back to the North Pole to report to Santa how the kids have been behaving.  When he comes back, he is always in a different spot the next morning.  The kids love coming downstairs in the mornings to find out where Alvin might be.  However, at their ages...if they don't find him right away, they get bored and forget about him.  He leaves Christmas Eve when Santa arrives and goes back to the North Pole until next year.  Each Christmas Eve morning he brings the kids a farewell gift of new Christmas pajamas.  Blake named the elf Alvin (he was really into Alvin & The Chipmunks at the time).  The kids just adore him and it keeps the Christmas magic alive in the Arbaugh household!

Christmas morning 2011

The kids actually "slept in" a little on Christmas morning, until about. 6:30am. They enjoyed opening up gifts and wanted to play with everything right away! Blake's favorite gift was his remote control helicopter (which lasted about 3 days before crashing into the wall and breaking! Cora's favorite gift was her Chapstick (which was accidentally flushed down the toilet within 24 hours) and her bike helmet (or space helmet, as she called it).

We spent Christmas day at home. My mom came by in the morning for a bit, and John and Florence came for a lasagna dinner. Dad and Lyn came over on the 26th to see all the kids goodies!! A great holiday overall!!

We went to Christmas Eve service in Argyle with mom (see pic of mom and Blake below).

Making Christmas cookies for Santa

It seems to be coming a tradition to make sugar cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve morning. The kids had a great time decorating the cookies and could not wait to taste them!! The kids left Santa a couple cookies and chocolate milk!!

Christmas at Dad & Lyn's

We celebrated Christmas with Dad & Lyn on Sunday, December 18th.  Jody and Brian brought the cheesecake bites again this year, but they didn't get eaten up quite as quick as they have in the past years. :-)

The Grandkids!!



Cora & Brianna.  Brianna told me that she can't wait to be able to babysit for the kids!




Cora loving her Grandpa time!