This post is coming in so very late, I know. But.. this is life lately! We are in this wonderful limbo stage. We are ONE WEEK from being in our new house! One week! It’s hard to believe that it’s finally here, but at the same time, it feels like we’ve been at my parents for a while now. We are SO excited to move in and just start living there! But, let’s back to Christmas. That happened, right?
It was nice to sort of take a Christmas off this year. Not to say it wasn’t busy, like they all are, but we didn’t do the tree, the decorating, and all of that! It felt like we got to relax a little more and enjoy December at my parents house. December was filled with Christmas concerts for the boys, decorating cookies, eating cookies, shopping for presents and spending some great time with our families! We spent Christmas Eve day at the Prosser side (I woke up with a lovely phase two of strep throat, so that day was a bit blurry to me).. but it was so fun like always! Christmas morning we spent just with our crew at my parents house then we opened more presents when Erin and Nathan and Ryan and Lisa and their family came in the evening!
The kids definitely enjoyed Christmas and have been doing so well with this season of change that we are facing! Leyton is busy as always and talks non stop. He loves all of his “activities” lately and definitely keeps us on our toes! Finn has been loving preschool and has become quite the silly wild man at school. But he loves his quiet, calm afternoons with me and grandma! Everett’s still.. Everett. Yes he’s so fun and occasionally very sweet, but still as stubborn as they come. Ivy smiles all. the. time! She’s a content little lady and has zero desire to crawl and just sits and watches the action all around her! There is so much to reflect on and remember from this stage of life. We are trying our hardest to enjoy each of them in their own unique ways. We love our Prosser 4!
This is a bit of a photo dump, but this shows our wonderfully chaotic December!
Christmas Eve at the Prossers!
Christmas morning!
He is so focused on his latest lego project!
Random shots of the house progress!
The rink by our new house!
Christmas service at Substance Church:
Watching Leyton’s hockey game!
Trip the Mall of America with the cousins!
And back to school with Leyton’s best friend Noah!
We had so much fun over the weekend celebrating Finn! It’s so fun to celebrate him. He’s usually so shy and humble and doesn’t draw a lot of attention to himself. Which makes us all want to freak out over him! On his actual birthday, we met some cousins at Sky Zone in the morning and then he and I went on a little date in the afternoon to pick out a present for him. And the next day, we had his big birthday party with his friends at Pinz, a bowling and arcade place close by. It was so fun to see him with his little friends! He invited Levi and Teddy from preschool, Roman and Kingston from church and Nolan and Emmett from hockey. And of course, Leyton and Everett! The boys had pizza and a Pokemon cake, went bowling and played arcade games. They all had so much fun and Finn was loving every second of it!
I can’t believe Finn is 5! It doesn’t seem like 5 years ago that he became our second surprise boy! I am SO happy that God blessed us with Finn. He is one incredible special and unique little boy. Our five year old has grown so much in the past year! While he’s still quieter and shy, he has a new sense of responsibility and confidence to him. He works hard in school and takes his job as a student seriously. He loves having friends and loves being so silly with them. He is a bossy, somewhat dominant older brother to Everett. (see! confidence!) He has a lot of emotions, although this isn’t new. He can be so happy but also so mad. He is sensitive and caring and so, so sweet. He has a solid relationship with Leyton and although Leyton tends to be the leader of the pair, Finn won’t be stomped on. He’s got some fire to him, it’s just rare that it comes out. He has such a tender, sweet spot for Ivy that I love to watch!
We pray for Finn that he will grow in his confidence and always be sure of who he is and who God created him to be. We pray that he would be never lose his sweet side and that he will always have a deep love for others. We pray that he would continue to have a strong bond with his siblings and that God would bring great friends and role models into Finn’s life. We are SO proud of Finn, our little five year old!
This year, we had two Christmas programs to attend! This is our 4th (and last!) year attending a preschool program at Eagle Brook. It’s so sweet to watch the little kids waddle up on stage and attempt to remember the words to the songs! Last year Finn was fairly shy about the whole idea. This year he was a wild man! There wasn’t an ounce of nerves and he was being silly with his two friends (Levi and Teddy) the whole time. Levi and Finn even snickered to me after the program that they replace some of the words with “poopy.” Haha, little boys are the best
And Leyton was a part of a 1st and 2nd grade program at his school and it was so fun! They worked really hard in music class on these songs and even though I’ve heard these songs recited multiple times at home, it was so fun to see all the kids together. Our month of December has been so busy (why is it always this way?!) but I love these activities that we can attend as a family! So many great Christmas memories!
We had such a great Thanksgiving weekend! I found out only a couple days prior that Leyton had the WHOLE week off of school! He told me, but I didn’t believe him.. until it was true. So! We had a lot of fun with him home! But it did make me realize how 3 isn’t so bad.. 4 is tough! (especially when that added 4th is a wild 6 year old) But we played in the snow a bunch, Leyton went over to his friends house (because we do that now!), they boys saw a movie with dad, had lots of hockey practice and a tournament, did some Christmas shopping, and just had lots of great family time! Thanksgiving day was great. We usually do both parents houses and since we live at one, it made it nice and convenient! We spent the earlier part of the day at mine then headed to Maple Grove for the Prosser side!
I love Thanksgiving! It gives us a chance to slow down, be with family and really think about all we’re grateful for. We honestly feel so overwhelming blessed right now. We are blessed with each one of our kids, the house we are building, a great job for Luke, incredible extended family and above all, our relationship with the Lord. We thank God everyday for everything He’s given us! It’s too much to count and we’re so grateful for all He has entrusted us with. We pray that we can honor Him with it all!
Even in the midst of this season of transition (as we wait for our house to be finished!) our kids are growing and changing daily and we are loving this season of life with them!
Not surprisingly, Leyton still LOVES school and has so much to report everyday when we pick him up! I love seeing his papers he brings home.. his handwriting is getting much better and he loves to draw and doodle on everything. He still has his “team” of boys from last year and has made many new friends in his first grade class. He’s definitely a social one! He also loves the days that he gets to ride home on the bus with his good friend Noah. My mom always comments that Leyton reminds her so much of me. He is thorough and detailed with his work and he works so hard. And he loves to memorize! On the way to school, he and I are working on memorizing a packet of 10 verses that I put together for him. He keeps repeating them over and over until he gets it! Leyton is busy with school, hockey and loves coming home to wrestle his brothers! He’s still a giant and already eats like a teenager!
Finn is doing so well in preschool and we are so proud of his confidence and just how comfortable he is at school! When I ask him about his little friends, he gets shy and doesn’t say much. But when he gets to school, he runs right to his friends. (Levi, Teddy, Zack and Reagan are a few of them!) He’s a lot more engaged this year with his writing and working on his letters. Finn and I still have our quiet afternoons together where we do puzzles, play games, just hang out! I will sure miss these years when he’s at Kindergarten Finn’s still in speech class twice a week and although he has made sporadic progress, he still is working on his stutter. He is the sweetest with Ivy and loves to smile at her any chance he can get. He and Everett do get along.. for the most part. We’re working on Finn not getting so angry when he gets upset. He’s a sweet boy, but definitely doesn’t like being messed with! He finally stopped needing pull ups at night (yay!) but is still our touchy sleeper. He’s notorious for having so many random aches and pains in the middle of the night!
Everett’s a wild man, as always! If it were up to him, he would have a ball in hand at all times. He would be running, throwing something or wrestling. We’ll be sending him the bill for all the marks in my parents wall! Oh, speaking of him costing us money.. we had an incident the other day when we got to skating practice. I was loading everyone out, while the boys are standing in the median area waiting for me. First, they are throwing rocks up in the air and watching them come down. Before something bad happened, I yelled at them for that. Next thing I know, I hear a huge noise only to realize that Everett chucked a rock at the car right next to him. Long story short, we had to exchange insurance information with the not so happy lady that was sitting in her car. (side note: during all this, Leyton is running around the parking lot yelling “vote for Trump! vote for Trump!”) Oohhh, my boys. Also, the other day Luke asked who made the toothpaste mess in the bathroom. Leyton said,”Everett did it!” When Luke asked how he knew this, Leyton said, “Well, Everett and I are the wild ones. And I for surely didn’t do it.” Haha! So yes, Everett’s still wild. When people ask how old he is, he says “six” and he honestly thinks that’s the age he is. He prefers to run with the big kids at hockey practice and will play catch with any six, seven, eight year old who’s around. He’s crazy, he yells and he gets disciplined more than any of our kids. BUT, he’s hilarious and such a funny kid. He will do great things in this world and I love watching that kid, even if I credit all my headaches to this 2 year old.
And Ivy! She’s SWEET! She’s such an easy and happy baby. I love this age. She sits up on her own and just plays with the toys we put around her. She gets so excited when anyone (but especially me!) walks into the room. She loves to be held and will just stare at you smiling while you hold her. She loves to be tickled and that sweet giggling noise just melts me! She points her toes when she’s excited and folds her hands when she’s happy. She stares at me when I get ready and loves to sit on the couch and hang with the boys. She’s just the best. Well, not at sleeping. She’s really hanging onto this feeding at night thing. It isn’t terrible, usually just once at night, but we’re just going to deal with it until she’s in her own room (!) and in her own crib (!) She’s eating more food and doing pretty well at it, when I can remember to feed her! I know that’s terrible but I keep forgetting to give her food. 4th child!
These kids make us laugh everyday and keep surprising us at the kids they are becoming! We couldn’t be more proud of each of them!
We had tons of events for Halloween this year! The boys all wanted to be ninjas so I found this pretty cheap costumes online and they got so much use out of them! And for little miss Ivy.. she was a cute little lamb! Last week there was a trick or treating thing at Kowalskis grocery store then the big boys went to Spooky skate (oh! Finn is doing pretty well at skating lessons and scooting his little body all around the ice!) Then of course, trick or treating around my parents neighborhood on Halloween night. It was so cute to watch the boys go around together.. Everett is definitely one of the boys now! I love his cute little voice when they rang the doorbells.. “tick ow teat!”
We also had a busy weekend with tons of Leyton things. On Friday afternoon, we did a community service event with his school, raking leaves around the neighborhood. My boy is such a hard worker! It was so fun to do that with him. Then on Saturday morning, he ran a half mile race at the school (another chance to wear the costume!) He takes his job so seriously and sprinted the whole way. His face lit up when we told him he was the first 1st grader! Then after a donut run, he had Mite hockey tryouts in White Bear. It’s so fun to watch him, he really loves it and even scored 5 goals! I love how involved we have become in the White Bear community, but it makes me excited to start this again in our new city and get to know all the families in our little world. With all these kids I’m sure we’ll have tons of chances to be involved!
We are halfway through our stay at our parents and we are loving it here! Everyone is quite comfortable and we are definitely making our mark around here (like literally, the walls are full of Everett marks). We are SO excited about the progress on our house (it’s framed!) but are cherishing this time of being with my parents. We have gone on a lot of beautiful fall walks, we are constantly at the park and even made a few new friends in the neighborhood. The kids are doing great and are so comfortable here! Over the weekend we went to visit my brother’s family in Iowa and had so much fun playing with the cousins! But Mr. sensitive Finn was whimpering as we put him to bed the first night saying that he wanted to go back to grandmas!
As we were driving to this photo shoot, Luke commented how this one feels extra special because it’s finally of our complete family! These can be hung on the wall with no one missing. We just grow up from here! As always, this was a pretty chaotic half an hour, but we got some good shots! It’s pretty much action shots these days, but I love them all!
