Noah, Elliot and Olivia's Blog: 1/3/16

Elliot is 4!

Elliot is 4! He has been talking about turning four for a long time now, and was excited for the day to finally arrive. What can we say about Elliot; he is an active, smiley, tricky, lovable little guy. He has a smile that will light up any room, but is also as tricky as they come :) Some say that he is exactly like his Grandpa Randy at that age, and frankly, that scares me a little, ha! He loves anything that has wheels, and is very curious about how things work and are put together. He is always 'under' something looking at the various parts of cars/lawnmowers/bikes/you name it. He is fully potty trained now (whew!), can ride a bike with training wheels, and can get ready by himself in the morning.

Opening presents

Opening presents

The new workbench was a hit with everyone!

Elliot and I went to his 4 year check up the day after his birthday (after a quick stop at the donut shop of course), and he was very concerned about shots (poor little guy). Turned out he had to get quite a few of them so it wasn't his favorite day. Dr. Paulson asked him all sorts of '4-year-old' questions like his address, phone number, why he needs a bike helmet, and why he needs to buckle up in the car. He also got his vision and hearing tested, and did great on both of them. His skin is SO much better and he only has occasional breakouts (so thankful for that). He is still active for peanut allergy, but we have an appointment to be re-tested next week and are hoping that he maybe has outgrown the allergy (not a high percentage of kids do, but hoping)

Here are his stats at 4:
Weight: 37 lb (68%)
Height: 39.72 inches (38%)
BMI: 16.8 (normal)
BP 88/46 (normal)

Overall he is a happy, healthy little guy (a little on the short side, he has his mama to thank for that)! Happy Birthday Elliot, we love you!

Christmas

Christmas this year was right in the middle of the week, which made it a little tough for traveling. We decided to take Noah out of school on Wednesday so we could avoid the traffic later in the day. After Nick took the boys to their dentist appointments in the morning, we packed up and headed to Grandma's house. Wednesday night we celebrated with the Owens family, Christmas Eve we spent with the Ploeger family, and the plan was to spend Christmas Day with Grandma Patty but Elliot got the flu and was super sick all day so he missed out :( Luckily Grandma Arlis had nothing to do all day, so she snuggled him and kept him company. Highlights of the holidays included our ugly Christmas sweaters on Wednesday night (Lindsey's idea), Patty and Nick enjoying a 'wee bit' too much Crown Royal, Olivia throwing up all over her pretty dress minutes before we left for church on Christmas Eve, and being blessed with so many presents that we couldn't fit them all in the car on the way home (did we mention we are trying to de-clutter?) As always the boys were SO excited to open presents and celebrate Christmas, but Olivia wasn't that into it this year. She preferred to sleep versus opening presents (3 times in a row), so maybe next year will bring more excitement :) Cheers to another fun, memory-filled Christmas!

Ugly Sweaters :)

Candyland before church

Uncle Jeff dancing with Olivia after dinner...she wasn't a
huge fan of that, but tolerated it well.

Ready for church (Olivia is
concerned that it's already past her bedtime)

Cousins!

Bath before presents...again, concerned
that she hasn't seen sight of her crib

Grandpa let Olivia open all of her presents first so she
could get her wish and go to sleep :) Thanks Grandpa!

Didn't quite understand ripping the paper yet

The boys were a big help to everyone opening their presents

Helping Grandma

Helping Daddy

Counting to 20 in efforts to calm down a bit :)

Grandpa Randy made us these blocks!

So many blocks to play with!

Opening presents at Grandma Patty's house

Noah loves Grandma's various boxes. :)

Cheese!

Noah finally got his hockey coat!

Excited for night 3 of presents

Wearing his hockey coat and reading a Mario book...heaven for Noah

Dancing with Daddy

Another soft blanket to add to the collection

A huge garage to park his cars

Teamwork

Disney on Ice

A few of Elliot's friends invited him to Disney on Ice a few weeks ago, so the moms and kids went and we all had a blast! Elliot was one of two boys that went, and I was a little worried that the show would be too 'girly' for him. Fortunately I was wrong and he absolutely LOVED it!

Waiting for the show to start

Excited!

Elliot and Emma enjoying a little snack

The best we could do for a group shot...we should have
tried before the show

Holiday Fun

The holidays are busy, but we managed to slow down to take a little time to enjoy ourselves and remember what the holidays are for. The kids had their Christmas program at church, and after 2 back to back 3-hour Saturday practices, all of the kids did great! Elliot had some trouble keeping his shirt down at the dress rehearsal, but managed to behave during the actual program (whew, this mama was relieved). Nick and I had to take turns enjoying the program from the hallway as Olivia wasn't a fan of church that day, but in her defense it's hard being a one-year-old during nap time :)

We also made it to the breakfast with Santa this year, and it was fun. We ate breakfast then got to sit on Santa and Mrs. Claus' laps. Daddy was gone that day, so Mommy took the 3 of us to the event. She warned us that we better be good, and all of us listened very well :) I think it was because Santa was watching us.

Practice makes perfect

Ready for church!

Good job kiddos!

Breakfast with Santa!

Thanksgiving 2015

Since Noah didn't have school the whole week of Thanksgiving, Grandpa Randy came the weekend before to pick him up so that he could stay a few days before the rest of us arrived. He loves spending one-on-one time with grandparents, and he complained when we showed up because it hadn't been long enough :) We stayed with Grandma Patty for Thanksgiving this year, and everyone had a great time.