Muffins with Mom

Landon's school has a little event called Muffins with Mom around the holidays. The Mom's go to school with their kiddo to enjoy muffins and then we got to do a little shopping at Santa's Secret Shop. I think Landon enjoyed having me there as much as I enjoyed being there. He picked out a few presents and I got to bring home a couple of arts and crafts he made for the special occasion. He already told his dad what he picked out for him and he let his baby sister open hers early. He picked out a pink flamingo egg that hatches in water and a small bottle of pink nail polish for her. I let him pick out one thing for himself and he chose a dinosaur that hatches in water like the pink flamingo. Both were big hits and the topic of conversation and excitement in the Battreal household. MK carried her "pink amingo" around for days!

Mr Ornery Pants is not a fan of the camera as shown in these silly pictures I took on our fun morning.













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Maddie Kate's 2nd Birthday Party

We enjoyed hosting MK's birthday party at our house again this year.  I have the best time planning parties for the kiddos!  This year's theme was extra fun to work with.  We love Minnie around here and Mimi made MK's sweet party dress!  The weather didn't really cooperate - we had a light drizzle most of the day but it didn't get in our way as we spent the afternoon celebrating our girl and visiting with our family and friends.  Landon had the idea for the piñata and it was a big hit!

We can't believe our girl is already 2!  She's just about the sweetest baby girl we know and we are looking forward to her second year.

Pumpkin Tradition

We continued our favorite "pumpkin carving chicken pot pie supper" tradition this year and just in time for Halloween! Landon enjoys it more and more each year and MK even got in on the goop scooping action this year! Grody.

It's getting increasingly difficult to get good pictures amongst all the crazy. Someone's eyes are usually closed or the kids aren't interested. Still, fun memories were made and this is a tradition we look forward to each year!

Landon and Daddy carved a super scary vampire and MK and I carved a super cute lovey eye'd one.






















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Halloween 2013

This year Landon was a Ninja Turtle and MK refused to wear her adorable pumpkin costume I bought her…she threw a good ol' fit and I gave up…it wasn't a calm, laid back family affair but we got to trick or treat with the neighbors and Jim and the kids enjoyed passing out candy afterwards.  I enjoyed a glass of wine inside.  Happy Halloween!!

Fun at the Fair!

Today we took the kiddos to the fair. Jim and I have always loved going to the fair and taking our kiddos is the most fun! There just isn't much better than seeing the excitement in a kiddos eye and boy was Landon excited! When we got there we bought our tickets for the rides and then ventured out for lunch. Mommy was most excited about a corn dog and daddy was most excited about nachos! Landon was not super patient during lunch and kept asking us if we were full yet! Ha! When we finished with lunch we headed over to ride a few kiddie rides and along the way Landon was very intrigued by the games...and even though they are a gigantic waste of money we let him play a few. His first game was the ping pong ball fish bowl toss! For $2 you got 10 balls. He blew through the first 10 and no fish was won. A little later on he played a game where he could catch toy fish and for $5 he was guaranteed to win! He chose an inflatable sword and there are surely a few fair goers that wish he would have chosen something else since he hit several people with it while swinging it around through the crowd. After riding a few rides we let him play the ping pong ball fish bowl toss again and this time we let MK in on the action. And she won! It was the craziest thing ever and Landon kept saying "I can't believe my baby won a fish!!" He was so excited! MK didn't really understand what she had done. Ha! After watching the tiger show (and eating a funnel cake) we headed to the petting zoo. MK had been talking about feeding the animals all day! She liked them but wasn't too excited about actually letting them eat from her hand. Landon loved that part!! On our way out we stopped to pick up our new pet fish...and Landon named him Luigi. We bought a covered tank and I'm sure the resident cat wishes we had picked one without a lid so she might enjoy a late night snack!
We had a great time and look forward to taking the kids to the fair each year as they get older.























































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School Days

WAY back in August the kiddos started a brand new school year...and this time Landon started at a brand new school!!  Our dude is now a pre-k'er at Christ the King.  He went to Bear Camp there over the summer so he was already a little adjusted to the environment.

CTK starts earlier in the day than Second Presbyterian so I'm able to drop Landon off in the mornings and Nana picks him up in the afternoons.  He has to be there by 7:45 which gives me enough time to drop MK off at Nana's and still make it to work relatively on time.  I have been so excited about drop off!  Seems like such a big kid thing to be able to hop right out of your parent's car without them walking you in!  Since we had a teacher meet and greet in his classroom the day before, we decided that instead of walking Landon in on the first day we'd start the year dropping him off just like we'd do the rest of the year.  There is an aide helping kiddos out of cars and making sure they get inside with their belongings.  The first two days were picture perfect drop off perfection.  I just knew we were golden and I smiled ear to ear all the way to work.  Then...day 3 (which was a Monday) happened...and boy oh boy day 4 was worse!!  I'm talking kicking and screaming worse!!  The director and Landon's teacher had to pry him away from me.  It was gut wrenching.  Awful.  I was unsettled the entire day even though his teacher emailed to say he was fine minutes after I left.  I'm pretty sure they told him he wasn't going to act like that and that he was to come in to class and start on his work right away.  Wow, right!?  We know a new routine can be scary for a little big dude and we didn't want to make it worse...so, that night we talked to him about how he needed to act at drop off...and aside from one day when he was late because of a doctor's appointment he has done absolutely great!!  For the first few days that he did well I think I would sigh a  ginormous sigh of relief and say "yay bubba!" as we drove away...so now, still to this day, Maddie Kate says "yay bubba!" when Landon gets out of the car.  Sweet siblings.

Landon has done pretty well so far!!  He's apparently having a little trouble focusing on his work during "table" time but his teacher has assured us that he'll get the hang of it.  We talk to him about it but we try not to nag.  We sternly explain that it's important that he get his work done and do what the teacher says but we don't want to punish him since he's still little and this "real school" thing is kind of new!  He is only 4, right!?  He likes to play with his friends at recess and the bristle blocks is his favorite activity center.  He is also going to speech twice a week.  He's learning a lot about God and the church, they do a lot of story time and reading/listening comprehension, basic math consisting of finding differences and matching and they do quite a bit of art.  They also go to Spanish and music class!  He's learning to write his name better and has improved so much.  Most recently he spelled yellow and red for us!  Smarty pants!  So far we just love Christ the King and we are looking forward to lots of fun there over the years!

Luke and Landon - Best Buds!  They're not in the same class but they get to play together at recess!

Maddie Kate started in her new class at Second Presbyterian a couple weeks after Landon started.  She has moved up to the Toddler C class - which of course is the most advanced toddler class.  Ha!  Nana drops her off and picks her up each day.  Maddie Kate is a toot!!  Her best friend Papi wasn't originally in her class but the story goes that he didn't do well not being in the same class as MK so they moved him!  Aside from the fact that he likes to bite our girl they remain best friends and MK always has a Papi story for us!  Her other friends are Julia, Hazel and Charlie Gray.  One time, before she said much about the girls I asked her if she had any friends that are girls in her class and her reply was, "nope, just boys".  Lordy! I'm thinking Miss Maddie Kate keeps everyone in line around there...apparently she's bossy and likes to talk...hmmmm, where could she have ever picked up those traits?  We really like Maddie Kate's teachers and we know she'll have a great year!

Definitely not interested in the first day of school photo session - she brought her cheese for breakfast along.

Sweet Kiddos

One of these days I'm actually going to post about the first days of school and such...but until I find the time I will share a sweet picture I took tonight. They had no idea I was spying on them...Mr Landon, as ornery as he is, can be so sweet with his baby sister. Moments like these sure melt a momma's heart.



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Pool Night!

Tonight was our last Friday night pool night before Landon starts pre-k! Luke and his mommy came to play and we had a great time! Luke and Landon have so much fun together and I'm so glad they came to our last night at the pool before our sweet boys start big kid school. MK had fun too! She will move up to the 2 year old class in a couple weeks and we just can't believe our kiddos are growing up so fast!



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Maddie Kate - 21 Months!

Maddie Kate is 21 months old and is just about the cutest, sweetest, funniest, orneriest, smartest and silliest baby girl we know.  She has center stage at the Battreal house most of the time and we all love her a lot.  Landon is so sweet with his baby sister.  He calls her "my baby" and he's gentle with her most of the time - even after she smacks him around.  She has brought so much joy to our house - she's also brought sleep deprivation and I know...I just know that 20 years from now we'll be laughing about this phase in our lives and wondering how we survived it...that is if we actually do survive it!

At 21 months MK:

weighs 29 lbs 4 ounces (90%)
is 36 inches long (99%)
has a head circumference of 20cm (99%)
wears a size 4 diaper - but 5's are starting to fit better
wears a size 6 shoe and 24 month and 2T clothes

She talks up a storm...she speaks in sentences and the first sentence I remember her saying was, "Mommy, I want more orange juice".  Of course it wasn't perfectly clear but I remember thinking, wow!  She just said a lot of words!!  To list her words would take up an entire post - she can say anything...her vocabulary is crazy!  Sometimes she rattles stuff off that makes us stop in our tracks.  We love it when she tells us to "watch this!" and she's already started asking "why" and "mine!" has for sure caught on.  She says "okay mommy" or "okay daddy" when we ask her to do something - but sometimes she says, "no!".  Just this week she started saying "1-2-3, go!" and she also likes to throw her hands up and yell "hooray!" When we pray before a meal she says a couple of the words and then says "amen!" at the end while attempting the sign of the cross.

She loves music!!  I mean loves it!  She loves to sing and dance and she loves for mommy to sing to her.  One of her favorites right now is The Wheels on the Bus.  For the longest time she'd push her arms out in front of her and say "mooo back moo back" and then throw her arms up and say "all town!".  It took us forever to figured out that she was singing that the driver on the bus says move on back, move on back all through the town!  When we finally figured it out she was so happy!  She knows all the moves to that song and we love to sing it with her.  She also love to sing Jesus Loves Me and puts her muscles up when we sing "but he is strong".  She calls it the bible song.  She loves Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - she calls that one "up up sky" and Ba Ba Black Sheep is "ba ba ba".  She is also a fan of the Justin Bieber and can sing Baby - which is mine and Landon's favorite!  She also loves to sing her ABC's and can even get some of the letters!  Smarty pants!

She got her mommy and daddy's love of food...she loves it all.  She and her brother share a crazy love for cheese and she eats her fruits and veggies.  She likes milk and loves apple and white grape juice.  She is still a huge fan of chocolate!

She loves school!  Her teachers this summer were Darby and Melanie.  She can say both their names and talks about them a lot.  Her very best friend is Papi.  He's a cute little guy!  Julia is in her class too!  She loves to read books and loves it when we read to her.  Sometimes she picks up a book and crawls up in a chair and looks through it.  Tonight she flipped one over and said, "the end!".

She is starting to potty train!  We are using the little potty we bought for Landon...he never much cared for it but MK uses it almost daily!  She tells us when she needs to go and can even hold it sometimes until she gets to the potty.  I'm hoping this means she's going to be easy to train!

Maddie Kate - we love you so much!  You make mommy and daddy smile and your bubba thinks you're pretty awesome too!  You are so sweet and we love your caring soul and eskimo kisses.

Here are a few pictures from our 21 month photo shoot.