Charlie #6!

 

Charlie is 6!!! The baby of our family is old enough to go to school now and truly feels like one of the big kids. He is wild and crazy and loves making people laugh. He is always smiling and up for a good time. He is generally easy going and loves to try fun, new things....just don't ask him to try new foods (haha!). He is the one keeping us on our toes! 

    Here's a little bit about Charlie:

• Charlie has no problem "hanging" with the big kids
• He has really done well transitioning to kindergarten. He often tells me he's "bored" though I don't believe that is truly the case. He has also told me that he doesn't like that only the teacher can do the talking allllll day long and he has to raise his hand to speak. 
• When Charlie gets in the car at the end of the school day, he immediately starts telling me every single detail.....from who didn't follow directions, to what Mrs. A said to the kids when they didn't follow directions, to how he pushed a kid on the playground and had to sit on the wall (more on that in the next bullet), to how great lunch was, etc. etc.! He vomits it alllll out.....and I absolutely love it! 
• Mrs. A called me from school one afternoon to tell me about an incident that happened on the play ground involving Charlie. One little boy was kicking another little boy....so Charlie shoved the boy who was doing the kicking. Mrs. A said she wouldn't have believed it but she saw it with her own eyes. The kid went airborne! So Charlie and the rest of the boys had to take some time at the wall during recess and they all talked it out and Mrs. A talked with Charlie about using words instead of pushing. She said he was upset and crying but that he was better at the time she called me. So when Charlie got in the car that day, it was the first thing he told me. And I couldn't be mad at him; that sweet boy was defending his friend and in my (and John's) opinion, it wasn't anything to get in trouble for. We were honestly pretty proud! And if I'm being real honest, I only think Charlie was upset and crying at school because he was so mad at the kid for kicking his friend. 
• He loves to be silly and tell "jokes" and he is actually really funny. He asks all the time: "Mom, am I funny?" 
• He loves to tell all of us that he loves us and he loves to give hugs. He loves for us to snuggle with him on the couch and lay with him in bed till he falls asleep. He will always hold my hand when we are walking together and loves any kind of one-on-one time he can get. His love language is definitely physical touch and quality time right now. 
• Charlie is loud....when he laughs he is loud, when he cries he is loud, when he talks he is loud....you will never have a problem hearing what he has to say
• Food makes Charlie really happy. He loves McDonald's chicken nuggets and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the most. He also enjoys a spoonful of peanut butter while I'm making sandwiches. He really is pretty consistent on what he likes to eat on a daily basis....cinnamon bread for breakfast, pb &j or chicken nuggets for lunch and then pizza for dinner. He really dislikes trying anything new....but he does ok with having 6 bites at a minimum. 
• He loves to watch Power Rangers, Transformers, Star Wars and loves the Top Gun movie 
• He loves tractors, trucks and any kind of construction equipment
• Charlie is a huge helper and loves to have a "job". Whatever job he is given, he really does well too!
• He loves to be outside! He loves to help John with anything....driving the tractor, yard work, tinkering in the barn, etc. 
• While driving, he will point out every single tractor, truck, lawn mower, semi, dump truck, excavator, etc. etc. etc. along the way. There is no such thing as a quiet ride with Charlie. He also asks thought provoking questions that sometimes I don't even have answers to.
• He is wearing size 6 & 7 clothes
• He is very kind to Winston and loves to walk him on the leash. He's even taken him outside by himself a few times.
• He really loves riding his bike to the neighbors house to play
• His favorite snacks are goldfish, pirate booty, clif bars and peanut butter granola bars
• He really only likes to drink water and apple juice
• He can follow simple directions very well (putting clothes in the laundry basket, throwing away trash, putting away a toy)
• He really enjoys playing just about any sport: baseball, flag football, ninja class....he loves to compete and has a blast playing with friends.
• He is currently working on counting to 100 and is starting to practice some sight words.
• His favorite songs are "Fishing In the Dark", "Highway to the Danger Zone" and "We Ready" 
• He loves listening to music on the radio and wants to know the name of each song too. We got all 3 kids a walkman this fall and he is really enjoying having control of the music he listens to. 
• He can shower all by himself.
• He wants to know about everything....he is curious about life and wants to see it all
• Charlie can very clearly tell you what he wants/needs and can explain himself very well
• His pout is seriously cute (and he knows it)
• He is pretty empathetic....Mellany had to get three shots at her checkup and while Mellany took it like a champ and breathed right through it, Charlie was in tears 
• He speaks very well. He has quite the vocabulary, he can say his words clearly enough for most to understand, and speaks in complete sentences.
• He loves to pick out his own clothes and easily dresses himself
• It may not seem like it at first, but Charlie really cares about what other people think. He had someone at school tell him his drawing was "creepy". When charlie showed me the drawing after he got home, I told him I loved it and he responded with "but so-and-so at school said it was creepy" and he started tearing up....I felt so bad for the poor guy....
• If he isn't at church or school, you will see him wearing a hat 
• He is very kind hearted and just wants everyone to have fun.  If he gets in trouble or upsets others he starts crying and runs to his room. 
• Charlie is very outgoing around familiar people, but when in front of people he doesn't know, he is extremely shy
• He loves to dance! (He's got some rythm too!)
• Board games are an absolute favorite for him and he's super competitive 

6 Year Wellness Exam

Weight: 44.4 pounds

Height: 3' 10.85"

Charlie's appointment went great! He and Dr. Fahler talked about eating, personal hygiene, school, sports, screen time, playing outside and Dr. Fahler had a really good laugh when Charlie called him "Darth Vader". It was another year of great growth and for that I will always be thankful!

While we were waiting, Mellany gave Charlie an eye exam. (Her check up was the same day)

Birthday Celebration
Again this year, Charlie wanted to have pizza and play arcade games at Pizza King. We had no objection to that! He wanted to invite several of our family friends. With it being labor day weekend a couple families couldn't make it but a couple of them could and it was a great night! 

On his actual birthday, John had to travel for work. Charlie requested we have Culver's for dinner and I am always game for eating out during the week!

Happy Birthday Charlie!!!! We pray this is the best year yet with more amazing memories!! We love you so much and are so proud of you! 

Mellany #11!

Every year when it comes time for this post, I just can't believe she's another year older! How she is already 11 I don't even know. This has definitely been one of the biggest years of change and growth for Mellany. She's really becoming quite the young lady! 

Here's a little bit about our Mellany:

• Mellany's favorite subject is still art! She loves anything to do with art: drawing/coloring/painting, sewing, rainbow loom, bracelet making, air dry clay.....But it is her drawing skills that really continue to impress us! She even just won the Cargill Calendar Drawing Contest (again!) and won 4th grade grand champion in 4H for her drawing she entered! All of her papers from school have drawings all over them and previous teachers have said they miss getting her drawings and her 2nd grade teacher even has one hanging in her closet still!
• One of Mellany's strongest subjects in school is math and her least strongest continues to be reading. Though she will take any opportunity to read a graphic novel! 
• She still loves outer space and wants to be an astronaut when she grows up
• She really loves staying home by herself whenever she can.
• Mellany is really responsible and independent. She doesn't really need help getting breakfast/ready in the mornings anymore and after school she tackles her homework and getting ready for bed mostly by herself.
• She loves having one-on-one time with John and I. Even though she's 11 now, she still loves to snuggle and just needs a hug every now and then. 
• When she goes to bed she wants one of us to scratch her back.
• She loves to cook. Her specialty is (still) pumpkin chocolate chip muffins-she can make them all by herself now (including putting them in the oven and taking them out)
• She really loves when her brothers let her "lead/help" them. She loves playing with the boys, but most of the time she can be found playing/drawing by herself in her room. (with the music blaring)
• She is soooooo good at trying new foods! You can usually tell when she doesn't like something but she does a great job at trying to keep it to herself that she doesn't like it when in public or at friends houses. 
• Her favorite sport is dance! She made the StudioB Spotlight Dance Team this past summer and we are so proud of her. The team will walk at the Lafayette Christmas Parade, perform during halftime of a women's basketball game at purdue, perform in a competition in the spring and the recital as well. She has two classes each week which is perfect for our schedule. She has really enjoyed the "step up" in dance and I have loved the balance we can still have as a family. 
• She can now ride "shotgun" in the car and is constantly taking over my radio. 
• She continues to earn a monthly allowance by helping around the house and maintaining her room and she is quite the saver. 
• She still enjoys playing with her Barbie's, American Girl Dolls and LOL Dolls. (Especially with our neighbor Maddie) I have a feeling she won't be much longer though.
• Mellany is one of the most friendly, caring and kind 11 year olds I know. She has a true love for people. She will talk to anyone, is really good about noticing if someone might be feeling left out and truly cares about others!
• Mellany loves her yoga pants, tshirts and oversized hoodies. It is really pretty hard to get her to wear anything else.....and honestly, I can't blame her! She is now wearing some adult XS/S clothing so some things we can even share. She has grown into a women's size 10 shoe, so we can't share those! 
• She is about 50% homebody and 50% extrovert and loves to get out....She loves to go shopping, go to the movies, paint at our local pottery place, eat out....but at the end of the day, she wants to come back home (just like her mama!)
• We get the occasional attitude but as soon as I point it out, it goes away. 
• Her current favorite movies are the Harry Potter Movies, but she is also starting to watch more adult type movies like Hocus Pocus for example. 
• While Mel is very social and loves being around others, she definitely has her moments where she'd rather just be alone and have some quiet time. 
• She's so helpful--and even does things without me asking her to help.
• She loves to accessorize, especially with her earrings. I'm pretty sure she wears a new pair every day. The dangly earrings are her absolute favorite. 
• Gammy let Mellany drive her car from the garage to the barn and Mellany was ecstatic, and actually did a pretty good job. She has asked just about every other day since then if she can drive. 

I may have snuck into the school to put a few decorations in her locker on her birthday. 

On her actual birthday, we celebrated by opening presents, eating her dinner of choice: Olive Garden, and having more cookie cake. Her wrist fracture from her birthday party required a cast, which she got that day! 

11 Year Wellness Exam

Height: 5' 3.78"

Weight: 97.4 pounds

Mellany's 11 year checkup went great! Dr. Fahler asked her about her wrist, school, eating, friends/neighbors, screen time, athletics, nose bleeds, personal hygiene and they could have chatted forever. She got 3 vaccinations and a baseline blood draw and we were out the door. Overall, Mellany is completely healthy and we are beyond thankful for a clean bill of health!

Charlie had his checkup on the same day....Mellany loved giving him an eye exam while we waited. 

Celebration!

For this year's party, Mellany really wanted to roller skate with the entire neighborhood and all her school/church friends. Since we hadn't had a big party for her before, we decided to let it happen. We rented out the rink and invited just about everyone we know! I think everyone had such a great time!!! And several friends are asking to skate for their birthdays! 

Of course, it's not a party until someone gets hurt.....and about half way through Mellany fell backwards and fractured her wrist. She was such a trooper for the rest of the party and even got back out there to skate!! But once we left the party, she was asking to see a dr because it was hurting. So the 5 of us went straight to get it looked at. After trying to get into two urgent cares (even though they closed at 8, they didn't accept patients after 7....grrrr!!!...), we ended up at the ER for 3 hours, only to learn early the next morning via a phone call from the ER dr, that she has a buckle fracture in her wrist. We saw Orthopaedics a few days later on her actual birthday and he said she would need to be casted for 4 weeks. Thankfully it isn't longer, (sometimes you can get away with a brace on these types of fractures, but in kids, the dr doesn't want to take the risk of it taking longer than it should to heal), but we are definitely counting down the days till she can take it off! 

I just love this picture!! The sun is in her eyes, but it truly shows her personality! So genuinely happy and loving life! 

The "after party"!

Happiest of birthdays to our sweet, sweet Mellany!! Praying that this next year is full of the happiest of moments!! We love you to the moon and back! 

LOTS & LOTS of Fall Fun!

I'm not going to lie....fall has been a rough start for me. It's been overwhelming and one of those types of overwhelm that is hard to catch a breath from. We've had a lot of fun (and looking through these pictures makes me so happy) but we've also had a lot of "heavy". Most of the overwhelm has come from lots of minor things piling (5th grade homework being all-consuming, Mellany fracturing her wrist, unexpected household repairs, etc.) but we've also experienced some family and friend losses and my uncle's cancer diagnosis that have been really difficult for us. 

One of the minor situations I've had is that somehow my external hard drive no longer works and I've potentially lost every single document, video and picture I've saved over the past 13 years. Thus the reason it's been over a month since I last put together a post. I'm so crushed I could throw up. I know that in perspective, we are all healthy, we have a paycheck, food, a home, anything we could ever need, etc., but taking "hit after hit" is just hard and the external drive crashing is kind of the "cherry on top". I'm hopeful that the hard drive can be recovered (our tech guy in town wasn't able to recover anything yet, so he will be sending it to a forensic company to see what they can get off of it.) and that going into the holiday season will be a bit more easy than it has been going into fall. 

On that note, here are some of the happier fall moments! 

I ordered 15 mums from a dance fundraiser and got them all put into the ground in my flower beds....I'm hopeful that some of them will come back next year! They are so pretty! 

Little brothers waiting on their sister to finish dance. 

Night time favorite!

The boys absolutely loved playing flag football this season! They learned so much!

Sunday afternoon = BB Guns! 

Winston is always up for a good snuggle...

One of the losses we experienced was John's cousin Lisa. She was such an amazing young lady who was taken way too early at age 39. She had such a happy, bubbly, "let's do it" attitude; she will defintely be missed. I wasn't able to make the funeral, but John, his sister and mom were and they even took a family picture....I always love a good family picture. 

John turned 43!!! We are so blessed to have him as our husband/dad. I cannot imagine doing this life without him. 

Charlie got a certificate in kindergarten for reading 100 books!! 

The kids were taking turns running and jumping into John's arms. So I told the kids to step aside and watch out so I could have a turn. They just laughed like "yea right mom".....we blew their minds when I actually did it. Mellany even snapped a picture.... :) 

Another of the losses we had, was John's Aunt Nina. She lived a great ong life, at 83, but se will also be missede so much. She's one of those family members who doesn't miss a single event, so all of the activities going forward are just going to feel a bit "empty" without her. For her funeral, we all traveled to KC. We were there a couple of days, then made our way back home. 

After getting back from KC, John and I had purchased tickets to the Chiefs v Colts game in Indianapolis for our birthdays. While the Chiefs didn't get the win, it was still a great game and always a good time with our neighbors!

Charlie waiting a the bus stop one random morning....

Mellany working on her 5th grade state pizza project...our girl really does love anything creative.

I got sent this picture from a friend in church....she said Charlie was so proud of his tower. 

Charlie's first school field trip....the pumpkin patch. It was such a cute little place and we both had a wonderful time. It was so nice spending the day with him and seeing him in his "school mode".

Winston watching the construction at the neighbors house. 

Mellany's state pizza box project....after several weeks of work, it was finally finished!!! She did a really great job!! Now I kinda want to visit New Hampshire and all the places she researched. 

Driving home one afternoon and couldn't pass up a picture of how pretty our place looks with the trees changing colors and the mums planted....so peaceful out here! 

Mellany wore her new earrings to church one Sunday and wanted a picture of her wearing them. She is just so beautiful! 

Last Sunday was the last day of flag football. The boys loved every single minute of it and can't wait to play again next fall. 

The picture doesn't do it justice, but the moon was so incredible coming home from small group last week that Mellany wanted to take a picture. 

We had a bit of a rain storm this past week which produced the most amazing rainbow where I saw both ends....I couldn't help but try to get a picture....(apparently I'm amazed by anything in nature lately!)

Winston is so miserable while driving in the car (specifically back and forth to KC) that I thought we would sign him up to be boarded. I thought he might enjoy that so much more than traveling. Part of the boarding is that you can put them in doggy daycare. For the daycare the dogs have to be assessed. So this past week, I took Winston to be assessed. He did ok for a while but about 30 minutes after I left, the facility texted me asking that I come get him. He had finished exploring and playing and was just in the corner sitting....basically looking miserable. So, I picked him up and brought him back home. They said that they offer a one-on-one option for him to have some play time, but now I'm second guessing if he will like any of the boarding at all.....

The kids' school celebrated fire safety month by getting to meet with our local fire department and actually get to use some of the equipment. Mellany's teacher took a class picture and sent it to the parents. I think they all had so much fun. 

Mellany celebrated Charlottes birthday at All Fired Up this past weekend. It was a combination of all her favorite things: a birthday, art and her best friends!

My dad and Teresa came into town for Fall Break! John and dad worked on our bathroom remodel, Teresa and I took the kids shopping, and we ate dinners at TX Roadhouse and Pizza King! We even celebrated dad's birthday a little bit late! We had such a great time! 

So, so, soooo thankful for all the good and happy memories in the midst of hard/"down" times.