School pictures time.  Every year I wonder why I bother to spend money on school pictures.  They never turn out great.  I just wish for the price that they took a few seconds more with each child to get a relatively good picture of them.  The boys turned out fine, but Ashtyn, hmmm. . . .it would be nice if she was actually smiling at least.

Time Is Flying By

Ok, so here it is and it's been another couple of months since I've posted anything.  Summer is gone and school has started again.

Jaden is big man on campus as a 5th grader this year.  I can't believe that this is his last year in the elementary school.  I hope that it goes slowly as I'm not ready for a middle schooler.  He's in a mixed age classroom of 4th and 5th graders and while I love his teachers I'm not thrilled with the whole mixed age thing.  Most of his day they switch classes around so that the 5th graders are on their own, but still it's different.

Colten is in 2nd grade and doing great.  The class caterpillars are all now in cocoons and he's anxiously waiting for them to come out as butterflies.  Both boys just joined the swim team and are loving it.  They have practice 3 times a week for an hour each time and they work them HARD.  The boys are exhausted but happy after each practice.  I'm hoping that their love of it continues through the 6 months that they have signed up for it. 

Ashtyn is finally in school with her big brothers.  She's in Kindergarten this year and for the first time our school is having all day kindergarten.  She loves school and is doing great.  She's our perfectionist and determined to do her personal best on every assignment.  She was just thrilled this week when she finally had homework to do.  Our only issue has been her exhaustion when she gets home.  I'm wondering where my sweet little girl went because by the time she gets home she's just falling apart and the attitude all comes out.

Hoping that the school routine settles in well as we all adjust to a new year.  It's my first year in 10 years that I haven't had a child at home with me.  Don't worry, I'm keeping more than busy.  Still working for the clinic, trying to get the house taken care of, and then the kids are home by 2:30pm and I really have to juggle hats for the rest of the day.

Piano

Going back to the first of May, Jaden had his first piano recital.  At that point he had been playing for just under 9 months.  He was pretty nervous about playing in front of a large group, but he did really well and was pleased with how it went.  Enjoy!

Fiddle On The Roof

Roller Coaster

Zum Gali Gali

He's currently working on learning the Harry Potter theme song and still enjoying his piano learning.

It's been awhile

wow, it has once again been a long time since I've blogged.  I really do want to get back in the habit of blogging regularly.
It's now almost the middle of summer vacation.  We finished out a crazy busy school year, took a vacation out to Washington DC and Virginia (more about that in another post to come), and are still trying to settle into a good summer routine.  The kids are finishing up 4 straight weeks of daily swimming lessons and the progress that they've made is fabulous.  The boys are still taking taekwondo twice a week, and we are trying to remember to have Jaden practice daily for his piano lessons.  He's getting some extra motivation through the book of Harry Potter music that his teacher started him on.  My sister and brother-in-law came out for an extended weekend visit which was great fun.  And now the July 4th weekend is practically here.  Where is the summer going?
So I'll try to catch up with a few extra blogs this week with the highlights of what we've done the past several months.  I hope that you all are having a great summer!

Oh, and to share a funny story:
Jaden brought me the kid's bottle of vitamins earlier this week with a concerned look on his face.  He said, "Mom, it says here not to take if you are pregnant or may become pregnant."  I nodded and waited for where this was heading.  "So Ashtyn shouldn't take these then."  As I am thinking, "what?  Where did this come from?" he continues. "All girls can be pregnant so Ashtyn shouldn't take these."  Hmmm  . . . . how to respond.  I smiled at him and said that no, Ashtyn can't be pregnant until she grows up and gets married.  He looked a little bewildered but relieved and I decided I really didn't want to take the conversation any further.  We'll leave that conversation for Daddy to have with him when he's a little bit older.  Why do they have to grow up?

Ollivander

After Luna's passing the kids immediately began to beg for a new pet.  It was probably my fault as I had always told them that 3 pets were the maximum at our house.  We briefly talked about another cat, but Fleur is a little bit litter box picky and we didn't want to rock the boat with her.  Joshua has had two mini dachshunds in the past, one that became family to me too when we got married.  He's been commenting that he'd really like another mini dachshund if we ever got another dog, and dropping hints every so often.  Now I loved Frankie (the last mini dachshund) but she really could be high strung, especially with the barking.  Not sure if it was a breed thing or just the training of two high school boys.  So I started to research dachshunds to see if there were differences in temperament, etc. that we should be aware of.  According to numerous websites and "experts" long haired mini dachshunds are supposed to be calmer than the short haired dachshunds (and on a side note the long haired ones aren't supposed to really shed at all).  Then we discovered the English Cream Dachshunds.  They are supposed to be calmer than the reds or black dachshunds.  We also liked that they are more unique and not often seen.  We had been wanting a dog that was different in appearance from the previous dachshunds too.  So I continued to research and found a breeder that shows her dogs about an hour and a half away from us.  She had a new litter of puppies that the mom was an English Cream Mini Dachshund, and two of the pups were "shaded" English Cream.  The shaded English creams have a tiny bit of black shading on their ears and tail when full grown.  But hey this is probably all a lot more information than you wanted to know.  Anyway, we decided on the little boy long haired shaded english cream mini dachshund.  Quite a mouthful huh.  We had to wait a couple of weeks until he was old enough to come home, but he's been home with us for a week and a half now and we are loving having him as part of our family. 
We named him Ollivander, but just call him Vander.  How did we get that name?  It's a minor Harry Potter character name, and we unknowingly had named both of our cats with minor Harry Potter character names so decided to continue the trend.  
Here are a few pictures of Vander.  He'll get lighter in color as he gets older until he is completely cream except for bits on his ears and tail.  His hair will also get longer.

Yes, Mishka is quite a bit bigger than Vander, but Vander adores him and follows him everywhere.  Mishka has a lot of patience with him.  Fleur isn't playful with him, but she doesn't seem to mind having Vander around.  This is a relief as she really dislikes Mishka and will case Mishka out of her area if he dares to enter it.
The kids (ours and the whole neighborhood) are loving having Vander around so he is never short on playmates.  I'll post more pictures as he gets bigger.

Chicago Fun

Joshua's twin brother and his family came for a visit this week. This is big news around here as it's only their second visit out to see us and we've lived here just shy of 10 years now. They only had a couple of days here to visit, but we really filled those days up seeing things. Their first day here we took the train into Chicago and showed them some sights. It was a rainy, chilly day in Chicago, but we still had a good time. We went up the Sears/Willis Tower (although we saw mostly clouds while up there on the 103rd floor),

got amazing Chicago style pizza at Giordanno's for lunch, got caramel popcorn at Garrett's walked through Millenium park,

and visited the Museum of Science and Industry (what a great museum! We've been twice and still haven't made it all the way through and the kids are begging to go back again).  Then caught the train back home.  What a full day!

The next day we took them out to Shipshewana, IN where there is a large Amish community.  We had lunch at the Blue Gate Restaurant (An Amish style restaurant) and then visited the Amish grocery store.  They really loved it all.  We finished off the day going to the South Bend Chocolate Cafe for treats, stopping by the College Football Hall of Fame, and then watching the kids swim at the hotel pool. 

We wish that they could have stayed longer, but it was great to visit with them for at least a couple of days.  Hopefully next time they visit they'll come in the summer and we can venture to the beach together and enjoy outdoor activities more.

Shrek The Muscial

Here are some pictures from the wonderful performance the 4th and 5th graders did of Shrek the Muscial last night. Jaden was part of the chorus as a clown, and a good friend of the family played young Fiona. Most of the pictures are of the two of them.

Luna

It's been a hard weekend for me.  Our cat Luna is not doing well.  Yes, she's old so it's to be expected.  She has been losing weight and decreasing in health for the last year or so, well at least more dramatically.  The end of this last week she has reached the point where she seems to really have to work on her breathing, and then yesterday was barely able to get enough energy to walk across the room.  My heart is just breaking for her.  I know that these are her final days and out of our desire to not cause her more suffering than necessary I think we've decided to take her in and put her to sleep later this week. I say "I think" as I can't bear to actually make the decision for sure until it's time to do it, and secondly because I know I can't bear to take her in and Josh can't take her in until Tuesday so I want to savor these last days with her.

I know this is what happens to old cats, and that she's a cat not a person, but it still is sad. 

We got her 6 months before we got married.  The first pet that we picked out together and that was truly ours from the first.  She's traveled around the states with us as we've moved back and forth across the country.  She's been a wonderful pet.  I never wanted a cat, I am a dog person.  That is what I told Josh when he suggested we get a cat.  Well, having Luna definitely changed my mind.  I now love cats, I know that they can be sweet, funny, and just great companions although in a different way than dogs.  She will be dearly missed.