Singing in church

The kids sang in church last Sunday.  They sang for all 3 services, and this first time that I got on tape was definitely Lyla's best.  The other two times I don't think she sang at all, and the 3rd time she spent most the time staring at the kid's around her. Lincoln is on the top riser to the farthest left, and Lyla is on the right on the second riser.                                                                                                                                                                                        

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at mom and dad's this year.  Nate and Ang went to Florida for their 10th anniversary, so it was mom and dad, our family, and Caleb, Abby, and Ethan.  I had fun feeding Ethan in the high chair and carrying him around.  Ang, I think we spoiled him a little- sorry!  We just couldn't let that cutie cry!  Uncle Matt tried to watch him in the basement a couple times, but each time he wouldn't stand for it.  Guess him and Uncle Matt will need some more bonding time.:)

Beautiful Nails!

Grandma and Ethan

Matt teaching Lincoln and Caleb settlers. They did pretty well with this, and stuck with it the whole game.

Contemplating the next move

Black Friday shopping with mommy!  We went around 9 Friday morning and spent most the morning at Kohls.  This is at the mall standing in front of Santa

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

Lyla seemed to like the tricycles quite a bit this year. Lincoln was not interested in them at all.  I was thinking this was about our third year of going to the pumpkin patch, and the first time that we could did not have to help anyone on anything. I think last year I was still pushing Lyla on the tricycle, and helping her go down the slide.  This year she insisted on doing everything by herself, even the slide. It's a pretty big slide, even walking up to it is tricky because you have to walk up a big hill to get to it.  She wanted to walk up to it by herself and go down by herself.   After she got turned upside down going down one time, she told me she wanted to go with her next time.

Jumping

You can't see his expression but he looked pretty terrified.  First year doing this by himself.

success

Lincoln's consistent favorite from year to year.  That kid loves mazes so a live one is  right up his ally.  Lyla and I  opted out when he wanted to do it again...

racing down the slide

riding out to the pumpkin patch

Almost to the 4 ft mark.  I have noticed at 4 ft a whole new world opens up. You can go down the slide at the Y, and lots of amusement park rides require you to be at least 4 ft

painting pumpkins

Batman and a Cat!

I dressed up as Dorothy that day at school.  I randomly found the costume at a garage last last summer.  Most of the kids at school knew who I was but alot of the younger ones were guessing Alice from Alice in Wonderland.

tunnels, friends, and soccer

One day we walked to the park by our house and found a guy and his kids digging gigantic  holes/tunnels.  Lincoln found this beyond fabulous, and it is now a favorite activity.  The kids have always liked playing in the sand a little, but nothing like how they like it now!  

Matt's college friends get together about once a year. This time the wives and kids came and we all met up at one of their houses.  It was alot of fun seeing everyone, and neat to see the kids play together.  If you know this group of guys, it is not hard to tell which kids are theirs!

Lincoln's last game of the season.  He told me right after the game that he wants to play again next year!

Matt did a great job coaching again.

Grandma Jean's funeral

We all miss Grandma Jean so very much.  The kids used to pray that she would feel better, now they still pray for her but say that they are glad she is in heaven.  She used to tell me how much she loved reading these blog entries, so as I write this I am tearing up thinking about how she isn't here to read them anymore.  I am so thankful she is not in pain anymore, that she is with our Lord and Savior and I will get to see her again someday.

 My Grandma had 5 kids, so we are a pretty big group when we all get together.  I loved seeing everyone, and wish we could all get together more.  Thank you so much Uncle Randy for taking pictures and sending us all copies.

Cousins playing duck duck goose after the service.

All Grandma's great grand-children.  The little cutie on the left is my cousin Joel's little girl, Ayla.  Irelyn and Lyla are posing for the camera.  Lyla has never done this, but Noelle told me Irelyn does it alot.  You can tell she is pretty good at it so Lyla is learning from a pro!  Wishing I would have noticed Lincoln's untucked shirt!!!

Zoo trips

Lyla has really gotten into coloring and painting in the last couple months.  She will sit and do it for a long time!

We went to the zoo alot this fall.  After not going for months in the summer because it is so HOT, it is always fun to go  when the weather is nice.

Lyla showing us where to go with the map. 

Lincoln's class party and chuckie cheese

I brought Mario star cookies to Lincoln's class on his birthday.  He showed pictures of himself, and answered questions the kids had.  They were supposed to ask him questions about himself, like favorite food, day of the week, color, ect.  It was pretty funny and comical.  One kid asked him his favorite color, I guess after someone else had asked because he said bluntly, "I already said that."

Mat and I took the kids to Chuckie Cheese on the night of his birthday.

Proudly showing what they got with their tickets

Teeth, Preschool, and Birthday

He lost a tooth about a month ago, and then lost another a week later.   He was eating a banana when the first one fell out.  Didnt take much because the adult teeth were basically grown in so they just pushed the baby ones out!  He got 50cents from the "tooth fairy," and then we realized you can't buy much with 50cents so we gave him a dollar for the next one so he could buy something at the dollar store.  He told us he wanted an imaginex dragon (i think it costs $40), and when we told him he didn't have enough money, that he would have to save alot of money, etc.  he said "well I can just lose some more teeth."  

Backpacks for preschool

Lincoln's new bike

Since I have gone back to work, everyone is pitching in more with housework.  We hired someone to clean our house, Matt does his and the kids' laundry, and Lincoln and Lyla unload the dishwasher pretty much every afternoon.  Matt says it takes them almost an hour, but they get it done!  Lincoln stands on the stool next to the cupboard, and Lyla stands by the dishwasher and brings him the cups/plates.   We haven't had any broken dishes yet, and most things get in the right spot.  This particular time Lyla did it all by herself.   I had told Lyla I would play a game with her after I rested on the couch for a few minutes.  I went in the living room and laid on the couch, and then realized that I was getting away with laying there  for quite awhile so I knew she must have gotten distracted with something.  I asked her what she was doing and she said something about putting the dishes away while I rest. Love that girl. 

Standing in front of preschool

Lincolns first day.  He likes it for the most part I think, but has commented a couple times that he wants to stay home. I am hoping this is because we ended up switching preschools for various reasons, so after two weeks at the old preschool, adjusting to another one might take awhile.  He has always been pretty content to stay at home, it seemed to me more then most kids would be probably, so I am not too surprised by this.

Lyla's first day.  So far this girl has loved going to school!

Lincoln's 5th birthday party!  He and 3 of his cousins, Brock, Blake, and Caleb, and also his friend Jake,  all slept in the tent in the backyard.  Abby, Lyla, and Bethany (Jake's sister) got in on the pizza and ice cream but no tenting.  Apparently Lincoln told Gm Pam that there were "no girls allowed" in the tent."

He wanted a Mario cake (Super Mario Brothers), but after looking at all the way too complicated Mario cakes on the internet, I went with the Mario star!

Matt organized a pretty cool hunt where the kids had to use maps he had made to find graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate, and firewood.  The boys all thought it was great to read the maps.  I think he had graham crackers hanging in a sack on the fence here.

Lyla carried the graham crackers. She tried REALLY hard to keep up!

This is right before Blake yelled, "Could somebody PLEASE help me carry this??!!!  He had been the only one hauling the wood around and had definitely had enough of it.  What cracked me up more was when the other boys came and took some from him, they were not that helpful because as Blake told them; "you keep taking it from the bottom!" I understood the frustration- whenever they would pull a stick out it would make another one drop to the ground!

Making a fire and roasting the marshmallows for smores. 

Ready for bed, although Brock may have been the only one who seemed ready to sleep!  I guess they were asleep by 10 and I didn't hear them till about 6:30 the next morning so that seemed pretty decent for a tentover! Definitely could have been worse!  I heard the next day from Brock, Blake, and Jake, that Lincoln and Caleb kept talking and kept everyone up, although when I was in the tent at 9:30 Jake was suggesting pillow fights and Blake was showing "movies" with his hand/shadow.  Brock did look pretty tired the next morning, and had his clothes on by 7am so I think he was ready to go home! Both he had Blake are quite a bit older then the others but they were good sports.

We gave them little plastic guys with parachutes in their party sacks, so everyone  tried launching theirs out Lyla's window upstairs.

Playing with toys the next morning


These quotes are mostly for mom's of the kids at the parties but  they are pretty funny:

Brock: While everyone was playing with new toys.  "Who put the screws in without looking at the directions?"

Jake: "I have been a Froese forever," with an accented EVER.  I had mentioned that all the Schroeder kids like eating with their fingers since Jake and Caleb were the only two who wanted forks to eat with their cinnamon rolls.  Brock said he liked to make things with his food, food art from what I gathered. Anyway, somehow we started talking about how they were boys so they would always be Schroeders, and Caleb said, "my dad has always been a Tofteland."  That's when Jake said how he had always been a Froese.  Cracked me up.

Caleb and Lincoln:  When the kids came out of the tent in the morning, I heard Caleb saying Ow, ow, etc. and then I heard Brock say, "he says he broke his arm but he can turn it around."  Caleb then came and told me that people were jumping on him and "Lincoln did it the worst." They sort of did this all morning where one would come up and tell me the other one had hurt them, and then I found out they had been wrestling and basically just doing the same thing back that the other had done to them. Anyway, when I told Lincoln to apologize for jumping on Caleb's arm:

Me:  Lincoln did you apologize to Caleb for hurting his arm?  Lincoln: "Oh, I forgot."

Brock:  One of the maps took the kids to the "forest" (tiny tree/wooded area in the park).   Brock takes a glance at it and says; "Could you like mow this so we can walk through it?"

Blake" "Can someone PLEASE help me carry these sticks?  You keep taking them from the bottom!"

Jake:  When everyone was in the tent for bed he asked politely for some water.  "Can I please have some water?" (Thought you would like to know how polite he was Sara!)  Anyway, Matt brings some back and he tastes it and says, "This isn't FRESH water. Can i have some FRESH water?  It was funny seeing Matts reaction because he said something like how he just went and got water from the fridge but he would go and see if he could get some fresh water.  He went back and got some more and then gave him the 2nd glass.  Jake wrinkles up his nose and says, "this still isn't fresh, but it's fine, it will be Ok, etc"  This whole thing is CRACKING me up.... when I finally figure out he means he wants some ice.  I said "you mean ice?", and he says, yeah! "FRESH, ICE!"

Thanks parents, for sharing some great boys.  They all were so easy to have around, it is obvious they have great parents!