My Poor Sick Baby’s 2nd Birthday

Abigail started feeling sick the night before her birthday. She didn’t do much on her birthday besides sleep. We managed to make her happy a couple times by giving her presents to open.

We got her a doll baby with cute red hair just like hers and grandma and grandpa got her a little doll with a stroller. She managed a cheese with each one but didn’t actually play with them too much. Her energy level was REALLY low!

She ended the night with a few blueberries for dinner.

Happy Birthday sweet thing. I promise this isn’t where it ended for your birthday celebrations! We made up for it.

Out with the old in with the new

We replaced out countertop in the kitchen. We LOVE it. I have more pictures but we are still working on a few things so this will have to do for now and I will put the FULL kitchen makeover a little later (or a lot later depending on how long it takes us!)

The Magic of Television

On this night (a couple months ago) I decided I would give this a try… I put all the clean clothes on the bed as I washed them throughout the day. That night after Luke had left to his meetings, I popped some popcorn and put on a movie for the kids. Having them all contained and entertained I started folding the clothes. By the end of the movie and after I had put the kids to bed I came back to take another picture….

It was a perfect plan!

Micali’s update

I found some pictures that I haven’t managed to get on the blog of Micali. She has totally been loving Kindergarten. Other than her getting sick all the time I really have enjoyed having her go and then come home and tell me all about her great day.

I love this family picture she drew. It is from the 1st quarter. It was given to us by her teacher at her first parent teacher conference.

This next picture is a timeline of “special” events in her life. Sadly it is actually a collection of the few pictures I have actual prints of. Everything else is digital so we had to go with what was available for this project.

 

Her Christmas program was really short. I laughed at one of the songs---Decorate the tree (repeated like 6 times) and a few other words. She did have a speaking part though that she memorized and said it with good confidence. I definitely like what school is doing for her socially. It helps her out of her comfort zone a lot.

 

This store she made on our first snow day Dec. 1st. She had a lot of fun finding items she would like to buy. She was learning how to order her numbers from 1-10 now being almost March she has been counting to 100 for quite a while. I am amazed how fast she is learning both in math with patterns, fractions, time, money and reading-phonics, blends, sight words. Her little brain is just like a sponge right now.

We had a lot of fun together making her valentines for her class. I thought it would be fun for her to make them instead of just getting a box from the store. She loved it, and she said her classmates said they were SO CUTE!

Eli turns 4!

I am pretty sure I figured out how to make a four year old a very happy boy on his birthday…

The day before show him all sorts of cakes you could make him. Let him pick anything he wants. If you get lucky he might just pick a Snake Cake.

Cheesy? Yes! But it made him oh so happy. It works for me.

Next you let them pick the menu. If you know a little boy doesn’t like restaurant food even if it is his birthday he probably won’t be impressed. So Cars macaroni and cheese with a side of blueberries and watermelon will have to suffice.

A nap before the celebrations begins really helps too. All the excitement can get a little tiring.

Oh and before the party make him change into an ADORABLE outfit you found on clearance when you were shopping for all the birthday necessities.

It just helps the picture look better and the four year old will look so proper and well-mannered.

Then take it easy. Let them eat all the mac and cheese and blueberries they can handle because, we know even though he wanted a snake cake doesn’t mean he is going to actually EAT it.

Get through the cake and candles as quickly as possible. There is a present waiting still.

Bring out the present and leave the rest of the night open for him to play with it.

Before bed let him talk to his Favorite Aunt KayKay so she can hear all the fun details of the day.

Then let them stay up playing in their room until they crash because they know when they wake up it won’t be their birthday anymore.

Also if you have a child who has watched Signing Time---the Birthday one, they will automatically assume that party hats, whistles, and balloons are absolutely a MUST.

Family pictures with the Kueser Side.

We had these pictures taken a few days after Christmas. They sure do make me happy!

The great WHOLE family picture was taken first. The kids did pretty good.

The grandkids picture was next. Micali for some reason got all sorts of grumpy. I tried bribing her with gum. Didn’t work. The photographer took a picture of her grumpy face and showed it to her….

Then we got this cute shot of all the grandkids. Micali even smiled.

She was happy as can be for our little family picture. I think it turned out great. Definitely shows the kids cute little personalities.

Next up is the Original Kueser Klan minus Dustin who is on a mission in Paraguay and Karissa is of course still in heaven watching down on us. We are a great looking crew.

The spouses and girlfriend make some of us look better but I won’t single anyone out!

And my amazing parents who work so hard and love us all.

When we all get together the only thing my mom wants scheduled is family pictures. I am so glad we were able to capture these this time. What an awesome family I get to be a part of!

Kueser Family Christmas

We flew down to Kansas and had a week to spend time with my family. We had a great time seeing everyone. Unfortunately my camera died soon after we got there so I don’t have a lot of pictures but we did get a couple Christmas morning.

I do have a video that is too cute not to share. Eli sure does appreciate anything he is given. Here is a little video showing that enthusiasm.

Peless Eve of Christmas Eve

We got together with Luke’s family on the eve of Christmas Eve this year. We enjoyed some delicious chinese food and then the kids enjoyed  a little treasure hunt Grandpa put together. At the end they had to wear all the stuff they found. They looked pretty silly!

After the silliness the kids were ready to open presents. This time Grandpa got to decide how everyone would open presents (not sure if he does everytime). He said, “1, 2, 3, GO!” The present unwrapping was done in about 30 seconds. It was really funny. In my family we drag it out a little longer but it seems to work either way. There was still a room full of happy kids.

--I had been packing up our stuff to go to KS the next morning and Abigail insisted that she get to wear that swimming suit.

And they came from afar

I am so glad I saw this while Eli was playing. I think my little man understands just how important Baby Jesus was. I hope we can all keep this in our hearts at Christmas time and not let the commercialism and busyness of the season distract us from where our focus should be, on our Savior Jesus Christ.

Snow Day-- Dec. 1st

Let it be known that we really are wimps down here when it comes to snow days. Although this was the FIRST snow fall of the season and there was some freezing rain before the snow started but many of our Alaska friends reminded us that several FEET of snow doesn’t close the schools there. This was about 4-5 inches. When the kids woke up and saw all the snow they were so eager to get outside and get there hands in it. I am sure Abigail didn’t remember it from last year and Eli has been waiting for the snow to fall since the leaves fell off the trees in late September. Marley was quite entertaining to watch too. I would throw snow balls at him to “fetch” and he was so confused when they would crash to the ground and he couldn’t find it at all. He also liked it when I would throw them straight up in the air and they would come down on his nose.

 

Here is a flashback to REAL snowfalls in Monticello. Luke took a couple hours digging the van out of this one.