We are back!  After a long break - some because life was just crazy and some because the computer I was using would never stay connected to the internet!  Life has slowed down a little and as a father would do, my dad got me a new computer to make life a little easier. 

 

Now that everyone has had at least 2 birthdays, I thought the focus of the blog would turn into weekly updates on pictures and stories of our life as 5!

Ryder:  To get everyone caught up - this is the wild child!  I was talking to a woman while waiting to check in for Ryder's ENT appointment and she had some interesting insight.  She was talking to Ryder and I told her he was the third child and by far the most daring.  She had 5 kids (including a set of twins) and said she thought that sending a 'wild' one was god's way of letting you know that you had fulfilled his plan.  It definitely worked for us - Ryder completed our family :)

He is exhausting some days, but always entertaining.  He is starting to talk in sentences more and it is so fun to have insight in to his little mind.  He recently moved up rooms at daycare and he was talking to me as I rocked him this week "I push Rowan.  Not nice."  I said "you are right, that isn't nice to our friends.  Are you going to push Rowan tomorrow?"  Ryder's response:  "Yes" He is also our honest one :)  One of my favorite things right now is when we are riding in the car and hit a bump and I hear "Whoa Momma!" 

Addisen:  She is our princess.  Aunt Jenny's sister, Julie made her a beautiful Cinderella dress and she LOVES to wear it.  Most nights she is dressed in it and asking Daddy or Ryder to dance with her.  Her preschool teacher has said she reminds her of Punky Brewster - and it is so true!  She loves to wear sparkles, skirts, tights, really anything girly with color.  She keeps us on our toes and has a great imagination.  Some of my favorites things recently have been:  watching a show one night she came to me and said "mom, if you know a giant you can crawl in their hand and they will walk you around."  I said, "Didn't you say that you would grow to be a giant before?  When you do, will you walk me around in your hand?"  She said "I will, I will watch where I am walking so I don't break any houses or roads.  Actually, I better crawl so I don't break the roads".  She also said to Ryder one night at dinner: "When you grow up to be a superhero will you rescue me?".  And our favorite right now is her time in the bathroom.  She has decided that she has to make an angry face to go #2.  She has made sure that all of us and her teachers and daycare are aware that she can not go while making a happy face, it has to be an angry one.  No modesty :)

Brody:  He is our big boy, the one that is teaching us all the lessons on being a parent.  We have recently been going through tougher times.  I thought dealing with all the breathing issues as he grew up was difficult, it is nothing compared to emotions and self awareness!  I just can't fix all his problems anymore, and that is tough to accept.  I have spoken to many moms and it seems that what he is going through is pretty normal, but as they all say, it is so hard.

Brody is our sports guy (and daddy is enjoying every minute of it) - he loves all sports but recently started learn to skate.  It took a lot of hard work (hard for mom to watch practice) but he has excelled and recently started in the learn to play lessons.  He has some tough decisions to make as he grows up :  NFL or NHL.  It is so fun to listen to him reason through what team he should play for, the innocence of not knowing how thankful he would be just to make the high school team :)  It is good to dream big.

 

My plan is to update weekly with a few pictures and stories of the week - so plan to check back in on us again.