5 years young

My sweet Grace, you are so precious to me! Today you turn 5 and it's a Friday, just like the day you were born. 

 We celebrated you today with balloons and breakfast in bed! Just what you ordered French toast ( with Texas toast) and sausages. Don't forget the orange juice! Then we did pedicures on the front porch.  You have a love for your Dolly's especially your American girl ( also named Grace with the same birthday :-)) and Bitty Baby ( whom you haven't named). You have become good at changing their clothes, something you used to ask for help with a lot. 

All 5 of us went to the American Girl Bistro for lunch! We got Dad and Max out early! 

 

It was delicious! Then we went to the new Crayola experience also in the Mall of America. It wasn't busy at all on its opening week. We loved checking it all out! We spent 6 hours wondering the Mall including visits to the Disney store and the Lego store! It was such fun family time celebrating you! You got calls from all 3 sets of grandparents today! 

We got home and packed up out car to head to Merrifield to Nana and Grandpas "grabin" for  Memorial weekend. 

Grace at 5! She graduated from Zion PreK, goes to speech and Occupational therapy, loves to climb and within the last month mastered the monkey bars! You have become outgoing at the park, often saying " I hope I meet a new friend at the park today". You are a lover and a helper. You LOVE babies, not quite sure who you get that from! You are a great gymnast and just qualified to go up to the 'hot shot' level at Twin city Twisters!  You have done karate now for 2 months and you want to try dance so badly! ( we signed you up for a dance camp this summer to try it out!) you will be playing soccer again and mom will be coaching you! You play so well with both your siblings with, of course, the standard sibling tiffs. You will go to Kindergarten this fall at Dayton Elementary. I pray this is the best decision for you. You are sooooo excited! 

We are so excited to watch you bloom even more in this coming year! Love you, Gracie

Spring break 2016

We are currently occupying Nana and grandpas house while they are in Mexico (luckies) and our house gets painted, new carpet and a new bedroom! I am very excited and a little nervous to see if we like the paint colors or if it's too much. Guess we will see. 

We had this gorgeous 70 degree day Saturday to kick off spring break and then it's been rainy and overcast the last few days. I am grateful for a day off work today. We had an easy going morning and then went bowling! 

I think they all had fun! Then we got Easter shoes for the girls and tried to go see a movie but they were sold out so we bought tickets for the next time and came back for dinner. We aren't sitting pool side but this has better pretty nice. Wish Robb and I both could have had vacation to just staycation but someone has to pay for our new basement! Here are some pre-Reno shots!

Go or not go

This is the thing perplexing me. Grace doesn't totally have a summer birthday. It's the end of May. But her Prek teachers have had some worries about her speech and her hand strength. So we heeded the advice, had her tested 3 times and she finally met criteria for therapy and started in January. She does very well with therapy. I think she likes it and works hard with the therapists. In her fall Prek conference it seemed like socially she was doing fine and with math she was doing well. She seems to not be interested in letters so we have been hitting those hard. I feel frustrated. I want to send her. She knows she could go. The advice is to wait and give her a year to learn. They say it will help her be a leader and make better choices. So maybe it will. I wouldn't mind another year home with her. I just want to make the best decision for her. 

It makes me think of when we had to pick her  birthday. I debated over and over. I wanted to give her until close to her due date. But Friday, May 27th was 38+6 and was the Friday of memorial weekend which meant an extra day off for Robb and my mom who would be taking care of Max while we were in the hospital. Logically it made sense but I wanted to wait and give her time. Now with her speech etc I think about how the decision then might have impacted her. I don't want to do wrong by her again. The maternal guilt can hit you hard. And trust me, I know we have 3 healthy babies who are all just perfect. We by no means have it rough. I just want the best for her and wish it wasn't a decision I would make that could impact her life long again. 

I also struggle with not knowing the answers to will she be bored if she stays in Prek another year? Is she ready for kindergarten? I have no clue. She's different with us then in the classroom. I know she doesn't know everything but she knows a lot. I know she can be shy but not always. I know we have had swim lessons where she went in once out of the 8 days and then went right into to the classroom her first day of Prek no looking back, no tears. I know she is smart. I know she wants to go. I fear she may need lots of tutoring if she goes this year. But whose to say she won't even if we wait? 

And just to throw it out there she's off the charts tall. If we wait she will be dealing with the height thing even more than if we send her this year. 

If you have advice, I'm all ears! I feel like we have heard the whole gamut. Prayers are welcome!

Season 2 of hockey in the books!

After more then a year hiatus, I've been feeling the urge to keep the blog going. So yes, Max played mite hockey last year as a kindergartener, his team was Mite D Lightening! This year as a 1st grader, he was a Mite C Maple Leaf! Robb decided to coach this year, too! So fun to have both my guys out there!  e is feeling the call of the GOAL to be tended. This year we signed him up as a goalie. The only difference for being a goalie is that he had extra training every other Monday nights. One of the fun parts was that the head guy from goalie training was a dad from Maxs first year team! He owns MEGA goaltending and does these training for goalies in different associations around the twin cities! We are so lucky to know him personally!  

Max played Goalie whenever he could and defense the rest of the time! He was encouraged to skate up and shoot. He did score the occasional goal but that's not what drives him! Some of his team mates love puck-handling but it doesn't seem to interest our boy.  

One story from his Jamboree weekend. He did all his goalie training in his normal skates but the last weekend we got him goalie skates. Apparently, they are very different to skate in. His last game of the year, he was going to play goalie and wanted to try his new skates. Without ever skating in them. Not once. Jamboree weekend is fun because the get to dress in the varsity locker room which is all decked out with a team poster, name plates individualized and a whole bag full of goodies. They get their name announced and skate out to the blue line for the national anthem. Picture it, the last kid to get called out : Max Akerson!!! He tries to skate out but falls, then falls again and again. He finally gets to his team and the anthem plays. He's in tears. I am, too. At the end Robb asks him if he wants to change skates and he says no. He proceeds to play the next hour and a half. He totally shook off the falling and just played his heart out! His perseverance and determination amaze me. I can't say I played it as cool. I was banging on the glass to complaining to Robb that he wasn't ready. But he was. He showed me! 

Great year Leafs! Both my boys had so much fun. And we meet some really nice hockey families! 

Out of diapers!

Over Christmas break our diaper Genie broke. That gave me a big push to get our baby potty trained. She was 2.5 at the time but We lucked out with her. She was ready months before. In the late summer she was completely stripping when she had a wet diaper so I knew she understood. She has done so well and usually only has an accident as she's trying her hardest to get up in a high seat. Sorry about that baby. You got mommy's short Book legs! 

Feels really good to be diaper free! At least during the day. Advice on getting rid of the bedtime ones??

Christmas Eve 2014

Let me paint you a picture...

Tucked in a not so small cabin in the northern woods of Wisconsin with 30 of our most favorite people, on snow covered roads with a fair snow falling my little family of 5 nestled in one room to channel sugar plums dancing in heads. All except sweet baby Georgia. She had a hard time adjusting to the new bedtime environment. Max, Grace and Robb were all snug in their beds soundly by 9:45. For fear of not allowing everyone else sleep by 10:30 this momma had no choice left but to take my little honey wrapped in her blanket and head to the car. We drove out into the dark night. My Subaru's heat blasting, Amy Grants Christmas cd softly lulling and the white Christmas commencing we drove for about 15 minutes. She finally relented and I turned around. It was peaceful. It was a picture perfect Christmas Eve. It was time with my baby. It was reflecting on how blessed I feel to have this life I was given. It's by far not perfect. There is so much stress with holidays. I am thankful for that time. I am thankful for the family tradition. I am thankful to bear witness to the lessons and carols, the breaking of bread and the bonding of family strewn about the country gathered here now. ( and a handful celebrating at home this year).

I am thankful that my kids get the chance to experience what I got to as a child there in the middle of the woods. Blessed by a wonderful family. 

My mini pumpkins

One year I was in the vegetable barn at the state fair and thought I could do this. The next year I entered. I've entered 3 times and have taken home a 5th place, 1st place and this year a red 2nd place ribbon! Always so fun! Waking at the crack if dawn to bring them down the first day if the fair! Love it!! 

Thanks to Jen, the state fair fanatic I found out by noon I had the red ribbon! Thanks, Jen! 

So I'm a farming nerd. But I don't care. It's fun! Maybe I should try something new too! 

Our fall trip to Duluth in pictures!

Sept 19th -21st  2014

We had great weather. We did fun family things. So glad we did it. 

The pizza Luce hotel picnic

Early morning walk to the lake, skipping stones

Georgia fell in the lake, no big deal we camped out in the bathroom and dried her pants, shoes and socks. 

We also had breakfast at Amazing Grace, biked around canal park

We rode the train to Lester river 

We liked that! 

Then we headed to the hot air balloon festival at bayfront park where we saw the largest steamship on the Great Lakes the Paul at Tregurtha run aground right infront if the balloon festival! It made the news! So crazy!

We got up close but couldn't get a great picture! The kids flew kites from the Kiwanis club and did the big trampolines. 

Sunday we ventured out for a yummy breakfast up the shore a little bit in lakeside and then hiked at Lester River. 

Always so great to get away. Great trip even with 3 small kids and 2 old dogs in tow! Hope to see you again soon Duluth!

  

 

Our little gymnast.

Grace chose gymnastics. We were not surprised! She is a natural monkey!

I knew twin city twister was just down the road but knew it was a bit pricey. I'm so glad we tried it! Grace was one if 6 kids with 2 teachers. They have 2 preschool rooms to work in and then go into the big gyms for different things at the end. 

This was the last week. Grace has really liked it. One if her preschool friends was in the class, too. I think we will do an ice skating class this winter to get us out but maybe another class in the spring. I'm not ready for year round sports yet! ;-)

She can do monkey flips on the bar, hand stands against the wall! She was not the most graceful kid out there. And that's okay! She loved every minute of it! 

Our hockey player

So on a whim, we signed Max up for the 6 weeks of a 'free taste of hockey' that our local association does. I was super impressed with the coaches and how great they were with encouraging the kids and teaching them. Max was very green and cautious on skates. He used the walker the first several times but was very determined. He has impressed me with how fast he has picked up skating and the game. He's a natural defenseman. The practices are mostly drills and short scrimmages and playing minnows and guppies! You should see done if these cute little people whip around the rink! I was nervous about Max being behind at first but he's totally getting it figured out! Each time on the ice he's better. 

A very Star Wars halloween

Still on a Star Wars high after prepping and participating in the Westies big birthday bash the kids chose stars costumes. 

Introducing our clone trooper, Luke Skywalker (totally her choice :-)) and yoda! 

I was able to join Maxs class field trip on Oct 29th to Anoka county farms! It was so fun! 

We carved pumpkins from our garden at nana Mary's with Liss and Brandon! 

And Gia and I watched Graces Prek parade! She was princess Sofia at school because if the costume code of no superheroes. 

We trick or treated with the neighbor boys again! We all did our entire Parkside trail and then the big boys even went over to Lakeside trail for more! These kids got so much candy! I gave them free reign if it for Halloween night and the next day but then we sorted it and they had to pick 25 pieces. Then we donated the rest, a large shopping bag full, to the fairview clinics in exchange for a book! I think they send the candy to US troops over seas!  

It was a great Halloween season! 

Sweet sixteen

On the eve of Gia turning 17 months I wanted to squeak in a sweet sixteen post/update! She has definitely been smooched, by the way! 

This little lady is amazing. What she has been lacking in talking she makes up for in agility and daredevilness! During this 16th month she's definitely been trying to say more. She communicates well with nonverbal cues. She does some signing. But oh man, does she climb! She's figured out the "push the stool over to the counter and climb on the oven/counters and scare the crisp out of mom" trick! It's so funny how the little ones think they can do everything the big kids do! GG really understands so much! You can ask her domething and she will run off and grab what you are talking about or point to her head if you say something about a hat! It's amazing! 

She has developed the best cheesy grin! 

Gia is a great sleeper! She will at times even ask to go to sleep! She occasionally cries for a few minutes but otherwise will settle in on her own to sleep! Praise God! We got one right! We definitely had bad ways with the big two so it's wonderful to have one go to sleep on her own. Well after she does her bedtime routine and waves and smooches goodnight. Then it's a few minutes of cuddles and she will lay down! Wow! Why didn't we do that sooner? I give all credit to Robb. I think with getting all 3 to sleep when I work evenings she's had to cry it out a bit but it's worked out. She's sleeps about 11 hours at night and one nap in the afternoon. 

I stand by thinking she is the funny one. She has the best sense of humor and giggles do much! Her favorite thing is to tickle tickle people and belly laughs about it! Love her so much! 

Georgia is figuring out her will. Rarely defiant so far, but she tries it out. 

She's a great eater. Eats lots of fruits and veggies. If any of the kids become vegetarian my guess would be George. 

She still has many alias'. I wonder if that confuses her? Georgia, Gia,George, GG, jumbo, little G. And on and on. 

Cheers to 8 crazy years!

9-9-14

We tied the knot 8 years ago today and made it official! It's been a joy! We've had ups and downs. Really, we are blessed by more ups than downs thus far. Since I could gush about the connection God made between us, I'll stick to my top 8 things I hold dear about my husband. 

1. He is patient. 

2. He is hard working. 

3. He is a family man. Especially to us, but his parents are important to him and his siblings! 

4. He is multi-faceted. He can program a website, build a playhouse ( thats in mint condition 2 years out) he can clean a drain, he can get 3 kids to sleep all by himself. He cooks...the list goes on.

5. He is generous with his time, talent, money etc

6. He has vision. 

7. He has faith. 

8. He loves me for some unknown reason and I love that I've found him. He makes each day so much better. He is So many things I hoped for in a husband and so many things I didn't know we're important in a mate. 

Love you, robby! 

Gia Monster 13/14 months

These months seem to fly right by! Gia got that first tooth ampere few days shy of a year and then by 13 months had the top 2 and bottom 2! Loving her toothy grins! 

Lousy picture but cute pig tailed kid with some big top toothers! 

She is such a joy! She knows what she wants and expresses as best she can. Often leading us somewhere. She's getting better with sign language knowing: more, eat, all done and please! Her rebellious side takes her to the street giggling which is terrifying. She's pretty much got a second gear in speed walking. She's been a trooper this summer for numerous bike rides in the buggy with Gracie, Max's soccer games, camping for daddy's birthday, the state fair, hiking at minnehaha! I think she giggles the most. She can keep herself occupied like Max does and loves his Legos. She also is getting along so well with Gracie and loves her little toys and purses. She's climbing on everything. Up stools, up chairs and onto the table, up ladders. 

I think GG recently had a growth spurt. She seems so tall. Yet still so petite! Her hair has a ginger tone to it and I'm really hoping it sticks around. She stopped nursing on August 22nd her 14 month. She's done super well with the weaning which I'm glad about. Yet sad that my last baby is done. We are unbelievable blessed! 

Kindergarten week one

Week one is in the books! His first day went well! He was tired but happy and has lots of fun. Only half the class was there the first day, then he got a day off so the other half could have their day. Thursday and Friday they were all together. He remembered his 6 digit lunch pin that we practiced all labor cay weekend. He has his friend from preschool the last two years and a pal from soccer this summer in his class of 18. I was thrilled to hear that! Even better Adam his soccer pal lives on our same block! 

I tried to remember from last school year about what time he would get off the bus and we waited for him! I had chocolate chip cookie fresh out of the oven when he got home!

Good news is he liked it! Lunch and riding the bus the best! I did okay. I missed him. I teared up the second day, too. It's good just different! Very excited for all the new things we will learn having a child in school. 

First day of kindergarten

9-2-14

I worked evenings yesterday, Labor Day. So we talked through things, packed up Max's backpack, picked out a first day outfit (Star Wars shirt dad made) and sharpened 24 #2 pencils Labor Day morning!

 

Then I headed to work and Robb got the last of the "summer projects" completed amidst the trio of Akerson. He read a book our wonderful friends sent us " the night before Kindergarten" and made sure Max got a shower! 

Max was at 7 am today. His bus comes at 8:50 so he had plenty of time to let the nerves get the better if him! He got dressed, ate a small breakfast because he wanted something but he will get a free breakfast at school! Something new for a good start to this all day everyday kindergarten! Then it was only 8am! We got the girls ready. Robb came home from his dentist appt that still hadn't happened by 8:15! I was so thankful to have him there! Nothing major needed to happen but it was nice to have someone for the girls and someone to tend to Max's first day nerves. When Max started to get a little melty I took him down stairs to his room. He decided his jeans were cramping his style so we changed him to sweats and snuck a Legos husky dog in his back pocket to help keep him calm.

Then we got shoes on and headed out for pictures! 

After this shot he decided it was too hot already and that he should wear shorts! With 5 minutes until the bus comes I ran down got some shorts and meet him in the hall. We got him changed AGAIN! then headed to the bus stop at the end of our sidewalk out front! I walked him over there with middle sisters help and then realized he needed to be wearing his first few weeks if school lanyard to signal to the teachers and staff he is a kindergartener! So there was a mad dash in his backpack for that as the bus pulled up! But we got him zipped up and on the bus.

All the nerves must have gone away as the bus came because he got on without a problem, sat with a girl in the front seat and waved! That's when I teared up. I looked away but had to look back and wave! I'm so proud and nervous for him! What a big day! Now to make the Chocolate chip cookies per his request that I can trade him for first day stories!