17 months

Kyleigh turned 17 months a couple of days ago (yes I forgot). She's doing good, loves to climb and still not talking. As must as I want her to talk in true Kyleigh style when she starts talking it'll be in sentences and I'll wish for the days when she was quieter. I think she's entering her 2's with her tantrums and I do think a lot of the frustration comes from not talking but she does get her point across when she needs to. She also hasn't been sleeping very well and is up 2-3 times a night.

Things were pretty quiet around here this week. Which is always a nice reprieve. Valynn has basketball tomorrow and I am her coach. We are then going to visit our friends in Bloomington. It should be a quiet weekend as well, enough for Mark to get a couple of paper written.

Progress

Here is where the closet stand right now. It's been a busy week but will definitely add much needed space when it's done. Mark's parents left this morning, I think we wore them out. I have some painting that I need to do before Mark can get anymore done on the closet. That will have to wait until the kids are napping or in bed because I had help painting from a 1 year old yesterday, the proof was the white paint on my back. The kids got a snow day yesterday due to power outages around the district. Our driveway has been very slick and even the roads around our house were icy because they weren't salted. Tomorrow Valynn has her first reconciliation (first confession for the non-Catholics). We have the Bowdoin's going away party tomorrow and next Friday there will no longer be two Chantels living on the street. I have a new tutoring job. I'll be working one hour a week with a student prepping her for her ACT.

Mark finished one of his classes this week and started another one. He'll be home one more night a week now but that time will be spent studying so we still won't see as much of him as we would like, but we understand it's only temporary.

My favorite quote of the week.
Grandpa: Kyra do you talk a lot?
Kyra: I surely do.

How many three year olds say surely? I talked with her teacher this week, Kyra is doing wonderful in class. The teacher loves how much she talks (you don't hear a teacher say that very often). She said Kyra is just as smart as the other two only more talkative.

Kyleigh is a busy as ever. She must be going through a growth spurt, she's back to taking two naps. This morning she fell asleep on the living room floor.

Mason is still feeling good and he can't seem to get enough to eat. He is getting a second snack at school now which seems to help.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. Go VIKINGS!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving!!

We had a great weekend here. The weather was beautiful. We worked outside and got some spring bulbs planted and cleaned the garages. We even started hanging Christmas lights. Sunday we did some shopping in town. After church we went to Bob Evans for brunch. The kids were wonderful and we got compliments because of their behavior. We then went to Kohl's and finished shopping for the wedding, the kids should now have everything they need. While there a lady gave us Kohl's cash for $30 off our purchase. We then went to Sam's and picked up a few items before heading home.

Tomorrow we're heading to Indiana for Thanksgiving, Mark and the kids have the day off. The kids are excited to see Rick, Cindy, the cousins, and great grandma. We are also hoping to visit a high school classmate of mine and meet their new baby.

Funny Kyleigh story. Why is it one of the first words a child learns is "uh-oh"? The other night while sitting in her high chair after struggling for a couple of minutes to push her sippy cup under the high chair table and over her legs when it finally falls to the floor she says "uh-oh" like it was an accident that she dropped her cup. And when I say "Kyleigh", she looks at me and smiles like "that was a fun game and I know you love me mom". Kyleigh got moved to Mason's room this weekend. She has been doing great in her new room. It's a little bittersweet having her out of our room because it means she's growing up. Mason is loving having a roommate even if it's only for a couple of years.

Take care.

Mother Daughter Banquet

We attended St. Timothy's Mother Daughter Banquet on Monday night. Valynn looks forward to this every year. We had a good time, the kids each got a flower and a balloon. I won a backpack filled with picnic supplies, plates, glasses, etc. We will hopefully try that out this weekend, unfortunately it's only a place setting for four so I'll have to add to it. Mark and Mason went out to eat and then to the movie Monster's vs. Aliens. Yesterday Mason talked me into getting the slip n slide out. I didn't think it was quite that warm but it didn't seem to bother the kids. Even the neighbors came over to play, they played on it for 3 hours yesterday which meant they slept well last night. Valynn has her first softball game tonight and her field trip tomorrow. I am going with her and Mark is meeting us for lunch, it should be fun.

Recap

Just a few things that have been happening around here. Tuesday night I had some "girl" time with some friends getting a Mary Kay facial. Always fun to try out different make up colors. Wednesday night Valynn had a sleep over at the Johnson's. The other three kids went over there while Mark and I went out for supper and then did some shopping. We had a wonderful meal at Granite City and can't say enough about the wait staff. The kids had a great time and Valynn can't wait to do it again. Yesterday Kyleigh had her follow up appointment for her ear, it's still red so she's on another antibiotic. The good news is she has slept for a 5 hours stretch the last four night, now that I've jinxed myself, onto other things. I got my "boot" off yesterday, I can now wear matching shoes again, hooray.

And now for our brag, we had Valynn's conferences last night. The teacher said she almost called to cancel because there isn't anything to discuss. Valynn is doing wonderfully, she gets along well with others, her work is top notch, and Valynn is respectful. The only area to improve on is she sometimes gets sloppy with her writing and coloring which we know is her sign of boredom. Her reading is still scored at a 3rd grade level because she is having trouble with the critical thinking and the teacher is going to try to work on that the rest of the school year. An example of this is if in the story Anne mentions her brother but the brother isn't actually part of the story, Valynn needs to be able to infer what Anne thinks about the brother. All in all a wonderful report and Valynn is headed to 2nd grade next year. We joked with the teacher on why Mark is now the one checking her math homework. See I was checking it but missed a couple that Valynn got wrong and so Mark thought he could do a better job. I still think he should check it while cooking supper, answering questions from Mason and Valynn with Kyra throwing a tantrum at your feet while Kyleigh is crying in the background just to see how well he can do it. So far, Mark checks it after supper when it's quiet.

We are having a nice relaxing day at home before we're off to the races this weekend. The kids have meet the coach for teeball and softball, Valynn has soccer practice, Valynn has bowling with Girl scouts, and we have friends coming over. Sunday we have church and Mason has soccer practice. Well, back to reality, laundry needs to be folded and Kyra is ready for her nap, now if only she will nap (she didn't yesterday).

Family pictures

We are definitely enjoying the nice weather that we've had the last few days. They kids have been outside playing and I finally gave up on Mark taking down the Christmas lights and did it myself. Which in turn made the neighbor finally take his down as well. Saturday we had family pictures taken, here is the link I think the pictures turned out nice, she commented on how hard it is to get 5 let alone 6 people looking the right direction and smiling, especially when one is 2 years old and the other is 6 months. On Sunday after soccer pictures we decided to go out for supper and as we were deciding where to go the Donsbach's called and invited us to Elmwood so we went there. You can never go wrong with beer battered fries. Mark has been busy stimulating the economy, on Saturday he bought most of the electrical supplies he needs to wire the garage, with the help of Conrad who was working at Lowe's that night. Tonight we are buying oak doors for the house since they are on sale. Mark has a lot of trim work ready to install and needs the doors to complete the project.

This is a busy week for us. Wednesday night Mark and I get a much needed date night while the kids are at the neighbors, Valynn is having a sleep over over there. Thursday are parent teacher conferences, doctor's appointments, and another playdate. Saturday is all kinds of crazy, from practices, to meetings, to friend coming for supper, oh, and girl scouts bowling in there too.

Sigh....

Kyleigh's 6 month stats
Weight 15# 2 oz. (23%)
Height 26 in (55%)
Meeting a developmental milestone, except for rolling. The doctor will give her 2 more months to figure that out.
Ear infection.
The ear infection would explain the lack of sleep the past week.

I'm doing good with my foot. I still need to keep it elevated some during the day otherwise it starts to swell.

Valynn had her last basketball game last weekend. She got a trophy and has decided to want to do the basketball camp this summer.

Mark's brother Lloyd is back in Afghanistan for 3 months.

Mark's parents are coming tomorrow night for the weekend.

Valynn and Mason have meet the coach for soccer on Sunday.

Girl scout cookies come in tomorrow. I'm watching Annika for about 7 hours tomorrow.

Kyra is flexing her independence more and more every day. Kyra just learned how to spell her name orally.

I think that's a brief summary of our lives, I'll try to post some pictures soon.

Pretty low key.

There hasn't been too much excitement this past week. Valynn's sleepover went very well, the kids had fun. They each got to make their own pizzas and play the Wii. They stayed up until 10:00 and then were awake at 6:15.

We have had a nice relaxing weekend. We decided to take it easy and haven't accomplished much but we need to do that every once in a while. Valynn had a basketball game and she is learning more every week on how to play the game. It was also Softball and Tee ball sign ups so Valynn and Mason are signed up to do that in June.

We have an extremely busy week ahead of us. We'll be playing musical kids with the neighbors this week as we each take turns babysitting. In addition to babysitting I decided to work one afternoon. I'm also meeting with the other officers of the HOA one day this week to get ready for the annual meeting. On Wednesday I'm having minor surgery on my foot and will have to take it easy for a few days. Otherwise it's the normal everyday stuff that's keeping us busy and running everywhere. Have a good week.

Mark's birthday

Happy Birthday Mark!

It's been a busy two days here.
1) Valynn lost one of her top front teeth last night. Actually dad pulled it out with a string. Unfortunately the toothfairy didn't come last night (Mark said he would have a talk with her).

2) They started working on Mark's birthday/Christmas/what ever holiday I decide to include gift today. They broke ground on the garage. I'll get pictures as it goes along.

Summary of my day. 7:30 the appraiser came to appraise the house for our loan. The good news is he said our home value will more than likely go up $5000-$10000 since the appraisal a year ago. I then talked to Chantel and Tonya to get their groceries lists and took Mason to school. It took me about 30 minutes longer to get groceries today. Imagine what the cart looks like buying for one family of six and I was buying groceries for another family of six as well. It was a very full cart and I wasn't too fond of the grocery bill either. I start my job today. This week the kids are going to Carrie's while I'm working, except for Kyleigh, she's going to Danielle's. Mark will pick the kids up when he gets home from work. Brad and Chantel are coming over for supper tonight to help celebrate Mark's birthday, I got most of supper ready yesterday for that. I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

Company's here!

Just a quick summary of our activities. Valynn was in the Heritage Day parade on Saturday. She had a great time walking and throwing out candy. On Sunday our company arrived. Grandma and Grandpa Larson, Aunt Paige, and cousin Ty. The kids are having fun with them here.

Yep it was

an ear infection. So now Mason is on antibiotics as well. After some masterful maneuvering, Mark left work early to take Mason to the doctor while us girls got our haircut. Kyra sat in the seat by herself while her hair was being cut. She wouldn't smile but she didn't move either. Normally I've had to hold her on my lap and she keeps turning her head to see what Megan is doing. Kyra looked straight ahead, she just got her bangs trimmed. Valynn got about 2 inches cut off and I got about 3 inches cut off.

I had a doctor's appointment today. So far so good. I'm already to the point where I have to go every two weeks. I haven't heard from Mark yet about how his meeting went with the county board. I'm assuming there were no problems. Off to pick up Valynn for dance class.

Update

Janice (Mark's sister) and her family are all safe. A tornado swept through Suffolk, VA yesterday. The tornado went right over their house, but their house received no damage. Their neighborhood was evacuated and Mark's parents haven't heard from them yet today. So in the last two weeks our families have had earthquakes, tornadoes, blizzards (MN), and drought (ND).

We survived the weekend of activities. Valynn had her first TBall practice. She had fun. Valynn won her soccer games on Saturday and Sunday. She really stepped up and played on Sunday. She's starting to get the hang of it more each week. Mason's team won both of their games as well. There's one boy on Mason's team that really took charge this week and scored more goals than we can count. Mason would step up his playing when this boy was the goalie. He almost scored a goal but was a little wide. Saturday's game the coach's had to take a time out due do some boys getting rough. There was a lot of pushing going on. Saturday is their last games.

We got a little done in the yard. Mark got a tree transplanted and most of the mowing done. Valynn had her last CCD class for the year. I have to teacher 2 more weeks of Sunday school and I'm done with that for the year.

We're still shaking...

I guess we had another sizable aftershock this morning. Once again, I slept through it. It was another busy weekend at the Rinkel household. After spending Saturday morning working around the house we went fishing in the afternoon. We came home with three fish, cleaned them, and then went into town for supper and to do some shopping. Sunday was spent at Sunday school, church, and soccer. After soccer (Valynn and Mason played at the same time on fields next to each other so it wasn't an all day event) we came home and the kids and I went fishing while Mark did homework. We didn't catch anything which was good, otherwise I would have had to clean them. We had a nice supper outside and then it was bedtime.

Rundown of the family
Mark- only has a couple of weeks left of school. He'll get about a month off before summer school starts. His classes are going well. He's itching to get the rest of the garden in.

Chantel- has about 9 days of work lined up through the end of the year. This is on top of the kids' trips and activities.

Valynn- has about a month left of kindergarten. She played goalie yesterday in soccer for a period. She stopped two balls and didn't let any get by her. She has improved the last couple of weeks. She's in her final weeks of dance practice before her recital the beginning of June. She has a field trip to Wildlife and a Spa day for mom coming up at school.

Mason- he is done with school on May 9th. That day he is going on a field trip to the zoo. He didn't do as well in soccer yesterday. He said he was tired and didn't want to get in on the action. He is our farmer/fisherman.

Kyra- she has definitely become a handful. Yesterday in church, half way through the service she loudly stated "all done" and tried to walk out, then threw a fit when I wouldn't let her. She is 20 months today and every bit of the two's. The only good part is that she speaks well enough to get her point across, but she still won't take no for an answer. Her favorite game lately is "Where's the ....?" She will hide something and then ask us where it's at.

We have a busy week ahead of us. Mark has a test tonight. I'm working Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. We have soccer games on Saturday and Sunday.

Went south to find this snow!

We had a busy week last week. Friday I was excited because I was supposed to sub for the Biology teacher, finally something I'm qualified to teach. Right before school started I got called down to the office, they changed my assignment to Kindergarten, Valynn's kindergarten class. Needless to say, she was excited to see me walk in but I had other thoughts. After Friday, it's still safe for me to say, "I am not a Kindergarten teacher"! They have too much energy for me and I'm not equipped to deal with the noise and whining and chaos. Friday night we went to Indiana for a baby shower. They got around 6 inches of snow so the kids and Mark headed outside because all of our snow has melted. We had a great time with Rick and Cindy and the cousins. The men took the kids to McDonald's while Cindy and I got things ready for Lori's baby shower. I guess the Diet Coke there was the best you'll find (leave it to the men to spike their diet cokes at McD's while in charge of 3 kids) We'll be anxiously awaiting to hear all about Ethan's arrival in late April. I was supposed to start my new job last night but because of the last start we got I'm going to start tonight. I will be tutoring a local high schooler in Biology one day a week.

Valentine's Party

Valynn hosted a Valentine's Party yesterday. The kids had fun decorating cookies, playing relay races, and finding the hidden Valentine's. They also were served cake that dad had to decorate. It was a busy weekend we finally got our family pictures taken on Saturday. Valynn had a Daisy Scout outing at Jump Start Gymnastics on Saturday as well. On Sunday we went to church and had Valynn's party. We've started to work on her Valentine's Box and hope to have that done tonight. Valynn, Mason, and Kyra are excited to share that they will have a baby brother or sister at the end of August!!

When is snows....

it snows. On Saturday we left for Minnesota. Valynn wanted to go to Chris's funeral until 10 minutes before it was time to go, she changed her mind, so we packed up the Suburban and headed north. The funeral was on Monday, the kids were good for me during mass since Mark was a pall bearer and wasn't sitting with us. We headed home yesterday, we hit snow around Waterloo and then rain around the Quad cities. Last night when we got home we found that our furnace wasn't working. We are currently waiting for the replacement part but are keeping warm with the wood burning stove and space heaters that we borrowed. We are getting hit with a storm today, about 2 inches of snow and lots of wind. Mark's classes were canceled tonight. Hopefully that's all the excitement in our lives for awhile.

Uncle Vern

Mark's uncle Vern Rinkel passed away yesterday. We are waiting for details on the funeral to decide if just Mark will go to Minnesota or if we'll go as a family. He was one of Mark's godparents.

I've been meaning to write about this for awhile but kept forgetting.
Mark: "Kyra what are you doing in the tupperware drawer?"
Kyra: "Nofin (nothing)."

Yep, my youngest already knows about trying to deceive her parents. It's her answer for everything.

More pictures

Here are a few more pictures from the trip and around the house. Kyra is walking around in mom's shoes. She has really had a mental growth spurt in the last few weeks, she is saying more words (happy, kitty, quack, rooster sound), and is always trying to copy sounds. She is also really perceptive as anyone with a rice krispy bar in the vicinity can attest to. Kyra is also into having books read to her, so it's a big help that Valynn will read to her. There is a picture of Grandpa sleeping with Kyra after the plane ride, Mason is in the stroller in the background. I have a picture of the kids watching the airplanes at the air port, our plane left at 1:00 am Pacific (3:00 am central). A picture of Valynn and Mia, one of Grandpa giving Kyra cake and ice cream (if you want to be Kyra's friend give her food). I also have a picture of Kyra in the wagon with Matthew, the boy from across the street, he's 6 weeks older than Kyra. Here is a link to some pictures that I haven't posted.

100 Years in the Making!

We were in Lignite for their Centennial Celebration. It was a whirlwind trip but we made sure to relax by the pool and have fun. Valynn and Mason took part in the kid games, they won the wheelbarrow race. I kept busy, I was in the Centennial Band float, the kids and I were part of the Al's Electric float. The kids also collected candy during the parade and will be on a sugar high for the next 6 months. I was also in the style show and modeled three outfits. The kids enjoyed dancing during the street dance.