Busy Busy Busy!

Things have been super busy lately! My new job is going great and I love it. I feel blessed to have found my dream job before I'm 30! It keeps me busy and I'm exhausted at the end of the day and ready for bed by 8:30 most nights! We're saving money because I'm not out browsing stores during the day and I'm too tired to shop at night! For some reason I woke up at 3:30 this morning thinking about all of the things I need to get done so I decided to write and add pictures to the blog too!

The kids seem to like the transition to a babysitter too. Megan usually wants to stay there all night and Jacob points and grunts at Michelle's (babysitter) van when it's time to leave...he wants to go in her van, not my car! The babysitter has a little girl, Sophia who is exactly 1 year younger than Megan so the two of them equally enjoy playing and bickering together!

Megan has been super busy this fall. She enjoys preschool 3x a week, speech 2x week, gymnastics 1x week, soccer 2-3x week, and Purest Praise 1x week (Children's choir and bells at church). Needless to say she goes to bed by 7 most nights that she doesn't have activities! It certainly takes a village to raise our family this year and yesterday Megan was bounced from babysitter to daddy to Uncle Jon to Grammy to Daddy! She seemed happy about it all because Uncle Jon and his girlfriend Laura spoil her during their time with her!

Jacob is all boy times 10. He used to talk, he used to have about 8 words, poof they're gone! He now communicates through grunts and sadly we can usually decifer about 20 different meanings for these grunts! Jacob has skinned knees and we are very happy about cool temperatures so he is in pants and his knees are finally healing. He always has some kind of bruise on his head from his various bumps around the house. He can now throw a ball across the room and kick a ball like crazy too. He climbs like a monkey most of the time. He takes risks and doesn't seem to care, he is definitely going to be our bone breaker.

Here is the Candyland Program for Parents as Teachers. Megan's birthday party was such a huge success that we thought it would work well for a program and boy did it! We had almost 30 families (80+ people) and it was a great time. Megan especially liked painting with the pudding and Jacob just ran around everywhere!

Sleeping beauty!

It's a monster!!!! Jacob is huge like always, he was in the 95th% for height this last time at the Dr's office and this is trouble because he can reach things that kiddos his age are not ready to reach!

Megan playing soccer! Megan is loving soccer and our team continues to improve, the first game the score was probably 50-0 and then the next game we scored our first goal, the next game they won, another slaughter, and a game on Saturday! Megan is one of the younger players and she likes to trail after the ball and sometimes gets a toe on it if nobody is around. She enjoys going but says her favorite part is snacks at the end! Eventually she'll find her competitive spirit!

Here she is with a teammate waiting for their turn to play!

Megan's Preschool Days!

Megan has started her new preschool at Small Fry this year. She is loving it so far and it's a cooperative preschool so we are able to be in the classroom once a month to help out. She will have field trips and parties too! They do a special "Super Star" week for each child and Megan was lucky number one. So the first week of school she was the superstart and Mommy had to work on her poster. Our hard drive is toast so the pictures we used were mostly from Michael's mom and when Megan was a baby. I think it turned out pretty well considering!

Here she is posing with her poster.

The first day of school picture! She also has show-and-tell every Monday so she brought her flamingo for the first one and the next week she brought her piggy bank she decorated.

Megan and Jacob playing in a box. Somehow they found a way to both fit side by side in the box put this was the best picture! Who needs toys when you have a box!

Megan all geared up for her first soccer practice.

Megan's cousin Jessi came over a few weeks ago and the girls had a blast. They destroyed Megan's room taking all the clothes off the shelves so they could pretend to sleep on the shelves and they found fun pajamas to change into! It's going to be fun seeing these two grow up together since they are only a year apart!

Megan Soccer Star!

For Megan's birthday Pop-Pop gave Megan soccer lessons and all the equipment needed. She is very excited for practices to start and in the living room her skills on the ball are awesome! We can't wait to see what she's like out on the field!

Jacob likes to get into our cabinet with all the food. This day he found powdered sugar and had a blast, big sister went in and found him, told us but then got right in there with him!

This picture scares me. She is dressed up in high heels, policeman's outfit, and a weight in her hand! And she looks super old!

Megan completed her birthday Dr. Seuss puzzle and is proud of her accomplishment!

CandyLand Birthday Party!!!!!

Megan's 4th Birthday!

Megan chose a Candyland theme for her birthday this year and we loved it! I searched the internet for ideas and came up with a lot on our own. We were able to create an awesome cake to look like the game board. When it was time to eat the cake everyone wanted a different part...except for Mr Mint, no one wanted him!

Notice Megan looking out of Candy Castle!

Megan and Mommy with the cake. She couldn't keep her eyes off of it! She helped bake the night before but that was it, everything was a surprise!

Outside we (my mom and I) created a life-size Candyland for the kids! The first station was Lord Licorice (aka Michael). To pass this station the kids had to beam Michael with a water balloon! Unfortunately we didn't think to take a big picture of the whole thing from the deck!

Here is another picture of Lord Licorice.

At Mr. Plumpy (which apparently is no longer a character in Candyland) the kids (and Norm!) had to pick a balloon and sit on it to pop it. Inside they found a pixi stick.

At Mr. Mint the kids had to wrap an adult in red and white crete paper to make new candycane trees! Luke wrapped Jon and his girlfriend Laura up together!

In the background of this picture you can see Mr. Mint's area. It was the best one complete with 3 Christmas trees and 4 pool noodle candy canes!

After Mr. Mint the kids continued on to Gumdrop Mountains which I didn't take a picture of! After that they continued on the game until they got to Princess Lolly. They had a great time picking a lollipop out of her head!

In the background you can kind of see Gumdrop Mountains! This station was Queen Frostine and they had to fish for a balloon. Apparently we put the balloons out too soon because it was hot and they kept popping!

Here is Gloppy. They had to dig through the pea gravel to find treasure! Gloppy even had a red tongue sticking out! The finale was making it to Candy Castle where they had to climb up and go down the slide and get a goody bag! Overall it was a huge success and Megan had a blast. She was so excited that 2 of her friends came too! This would not have been possible without my mom's help...and Michael's!

Family Fun!

The aftermath of fireworks. Michael and his brothers love to blow stuff up. I had to hear about the plastic dinosaurs that "daddy burned" all week long. Megan would randomly think about it and burst into tears, poor kid!

Hanging out watching the fireworks!

Cousin Jessi playing in the water!

Family picture with everyone! This only happens every couple of years!

Look out Tiger, here comes Jacob!

When Grandpa Dierking does something he goes all out! Here is the crazy big slide he built for the kids. It's 3 regular slides put together. Norm said he wanted to make sure the kids could grow into it...Matt (Michael's brother) said he's almost old enough for it.

Norm and Matt working on the slide to get it done!

Grandma Dierking's Pictures!

Megan petting a snake! This was part of the PAT carnival in May. I was busy making I-Spy bottles during their other activities so it was nice to have some pictures of their day!

Jacob sitting so well getting his hand painted by the wonderful Jessica!

Megan finding treasure in the corn.

Bubbles! Definitely one of the messy activities that would have been great outside if it hadn't rained and rained!

More bubbles!

This was Leah's station in the same room as me so I was able to do one activity with Megan before it got busy.

I-Spy in action!

Cute sibling picture. I can't get Jacob to smile like this...he always smiles with his face scrunched up!

Megan holding a kitty that she would love to take home!

Family pic!

Nothing like an Easter egg hunt in May! This was a nice weekend that the kids stayed with grandma and grandma Dierking. They had a blast and can't wait to go back again! Both kids warmed up to the new puppy "Mario".

Summertime!

This summer is flying by! As you can see from the pictures they are growing and changing all the time! This past week they enjoyed terrorizing a little worm...well I should say Jacob tried to squish it and Megan tried to make it a new home (in the process the worm swam and got stretched!

Jacob getting ready to swim. We love to spike his hair with sunblock, he helps too!

This was a special early morning treat to eat cereal and watch cartoons on the couch. They were hamming it up for a long time!

Megan attended 2 VBS's this summer and she really enjoyed herself. The first one was at Trinity where we go to church and this picture is of the end of week celebration. She doesn't seem to be afraid of the bounce houses anymore!

Here she is enjoying her popcorn taking a ride in the bucket train! She thoroughly enjoyed herself!

Her friend Emma was a big help. She took Megan around to all the stations while I chatted with friends!