Happy New Year!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

A complicated boy

We have now started to deal with a complicated little boy...he has an obsession with NOT wanting to get his snow boots snowy!!! Why? Because then they're wet and he can't wear them in the house!!! You're all probably laughing because it's such a funny issue we're having, and believe me, I laughed for a while too...but with all the snow we're getting now and for how big he's getting, I'm not laughing as I try to haul him, his book bag, etc every time we step outside the door!!! Oi Ve. Chad keeps trying to tell him that he wears his boots (which Kale has the same exact pair in his size) outside in the snow, but he's just not having it! Hopefully we get through this phase soon.

I also had a funny and complicated conversation with Kale yesterday - this is how it went:

"Mommy, why does the buck hanging in our yard have a band aid?

"The buck doesn't have a band aid honey"

"Yes it does Mommy"

"No honey, maybe you're seeing his tail or something"

"Why do we have a buck hanging from the tree?"

"Because daddy and some friends went hunting and someone shot it"

"But why is it hanging from the tree?"

"To drain all the blood so they can take it in to get the meat"

"Oh, so they put the band aid on to catch the blood? Just like I do mommy?"

"No honey, there is no band aid"

"Okay...but I still think there's a band aid Mommy"

With that I walked away from the conversation (because I have NO knowledge of deer and feared he'd ask me more! And honestly, he'd argue with me until I finally just gave in!) We later had to take some rope to Nick at a bin site and as we pulled out, I suddenly realized WHY he kept asking me about the band aid...it was the deer tag!!! He is way too observative for 3!!!!!!

My 7 year olds!!!

I have been so terrible about blogging lately and I'm so sorry...if I wasn't in the field, I was trying to catch up on everything that I was behind on here in the house. My poor daughters, they turned 7 November 18th and I haven't even written about it yet!!

I always feel so bad because their birthday is so close to Thanksgiving and they usually end up having at least 2 birthday parties (cakes anyway) because I hate to have everyone travel twice in 2 weeks so it always is jumbled up for them, but they take it in stride and probably enjoy the attention!!! This year I gave in and let them have their girlfriends from school for pizza at the Pizza Ranch. I have never heard so much screaming before in my life!!!! When it was over, I told the girls "don't think you'll be getting this every year!!!" I was amazed at how a couple little girls came up to me and said "so when are we getting started?? Don't you have games to play?" Of course we had little activities to do while we waited for the pizza, but obviously I'm new to the rules of birthday parties!!!

It's hard for me to believe that my little girls are already 7. I vividly remember the day they were born. It was unseasonably warm, there was no snow on the ground, and it was a very long day stuck in bed so both babies could have monitors on them. Chad was very nervous, but I was very calm...I can only imagine the fears and worries of the fathers - worrying about their wife, the health of their babies, the health of their wife if problems should arrise, etc.

The humor of the day: Nick and Kathy (Chad's parents) and his sister, Nikki, showing up at about 8:00 am after we had told them to wait because it would be a long day of induction so there would be no need to rush - I think they were excited for the first born(s) grandchildren to the family!!! - Chad having to duck tape the stirrup up on the bed so I could push and his quick reaction to NOT wanting to cut the umblical cord!!!

The scary part of the day: Mia being rushed out of the room to intensive care because she wasn't breathing and would later be on a breathing machine for 3 days.

The outcome of the day: The most beautiful, healthy, and special little girls in the world!!! Oh, and an expanded wasitline for their mother!!!! I wouldn't change a thing though - we are truly blessed.

Too much time on my hands...

Not sure why this 80's song lyric popped in to my head when I sat down to do this post, but it truly fits!! Not for me - but for Mia. During the 5 days that all 3 kids were sick, Mia obviously had too much time to rest and the boredom set in! After bath yesterday, I was combing her hair and noticed that she had a spot, right in the front where her hair parts, that had a big chunk taken out of it about 1/2 an inch from her head and about an inch wide...I about cried! She has been growing her hair out for a while now so I was so confused as to why she would even attempt it. When I asked her, I got the typical answer "I don't know mom, I didn't know it was that bad". While I am devastated that she did this to her hair I have kept my cool, knowing it could have been so much worse. So this morning while getting ready for school, I commented to her "seriously, I can't believe you did this to your hair (as I chuckled)...do you know how long this will take to grow out??" She was quiet for a moment then panicked..."what if my friends notice, Mom??" Hmmmmmm, should have thought of that one maybe!!! I didn't say that - I kept my cool. "If you don't point it out to your friends, they won't even notice honey" (that is, until we have to pull her hair back for dance on Monday night...can't cover that one up!!!) This isn't the first time this has happened in our house and for two girls who are almost 7, I didn't even think that this would happen again - I am FAR more worried about what Kale will cut up! Guess this was a lesson learned for me as well!!

The UPS man delivered some sick little critters

Are these not the saddest little trick or treaters you've ever seen??? Of all times to get sick, all three of them started running a fever on Friday morning so were unable to go trick or treating this year. We still got dressed up though!! The kids STILL continue to run fevers today - now on day 4. All three have developed a cough as well and the clinic says they are treating all flu like symptoms as H1N1 but they are too far along to get Tamiflu so we just need to let it run it's course. Hopefully they will be well again in a day or two - I think the 4 of us are starting to want our own space. I had such high hopes this morning when Amilia and Kale woke with a fever just over 99 so tried to wade the day out without medicine, but by lunch it was back up over 100. Anabelle, who it all started with early Friday morning, continues to jump from a temp of 103 then down to about 99 with Motrin/Tylenol but goes back up quickly when the meds wear off. We go in for the flu mist on Thursday so hopefully we won't have a reoccurance of this later this winter!!

On the bright side, Chad has promised the kids a tea party once the crops are out since they didn't get to enjoy Halloween - dressing up for it and everything!!! It will definitely be photo worthy, that's for sure!!

Little Helper!

I could post over and over again about the funny things Kale does and how much of a 'boy' he is, but this was so cute...my garbage disposal has been broken for about a month but field work kept us from getting it fixed. Last weeks rain allowed Chad to finally put a new one in, to which Kale thought he should help! At 3, Kale totally knows what tools are what and was quite happy with grabbing tools for daddy - even offering up his thoughts as to what tool would work best for whatever Chad was doing!!! So, thank you, MEN of the house...the disposal works great!!!

Great news!

As I'm writing this post, I realize that the great picture I took of the tree in my yard is past due - it needs to be a tree with no leaves or possibly even snow on the ground (which hopefully the snow done until December now!!). But none the less, we have great news to report. After Ana's yearly check-up with her neuroloist, we now know that as long as she doesn't have any seizures between now and June (which is very unlikely since she hasn't had any for a year now) we will be able to take her off her meds!!! Thank you, Lord, for letting our little girl continue be the happy and go lucky little girl that she is during all of this and for making her strong enough to go down this road...we're nearing the stop sign and we're very excited.

My little man is making BIG steps!

After 3 weeks of preschool, and not letting me leave without my sneaking out, he has finally turned a corner. This morning, while dropping him off, he turned to me, gave me a high five, and said "bye mommy"...I was so proud of him and wanted to squeeze him for being such a big boy, but instead I had to leave!!! I've always loved the fact that he's held on to me so tightly, because in ways, I have needed to hold him just as tightly - not wanting my last child to grow up so quickly. But go figure, our sending him to school so he can find some independence is harder for me than it is for him! I'm so proud of him though and it's definitely one for the books.

Farmers in the making...

I've always been a farm girl, having grown up on a farm, but rarely drove a tractor unless my dad let me drive while I was with him. Now, I can officially say I'm a "farm girl" - I've been helping in the field during the day until I need to pick the girls up from school and it's actually been quite fun! I am driving the tractor hauling the grain cart to catch on the go and then dump it into the semi to haul to town. I was probably more nervous dumping it in to the semi than anything. I've done pretty well though and think I'll probably be able to keep my job!!! The funniest though is Kale - he's always been OBSESSED with anything tractor so he's in absolute heaven and asks every morning when we will be heading out to the field. Getting him to go to school on Monday and Tuesday morning was a challenge but we got it done! I picked him up from preschool on Monday and he turned to his teachers and said "see ya later, I gotta go combine" as if it was literally HIS job!!! Like I said in the title, we're farmers in the making...

Fall Soccer Season

(Mia redirecting the ball towards goal)

(Mia score)

(Ana stealing the ball)

(Ana's corner kick)

Fall soccer is underway for us - what were we thinking letting the girls play soccer in the FALL??? We will soon be in the field so it will make for some busy weeks for a while!! They really enjoy it though and had been asking to play in the fall for quite some time which makes it easier to allow them when it's something that they WANT to do. We're off to a good start though, 2 wins and 1 loss. Dance has also begun but doesn't take as much time committment now that it's in Emmetsburg - no more driving to Spencer...although I really do miss my Walmart hour!!!


It would only figure that once we want to get harvest started, we would FINALLY get some rain!! I haven't mowed in almost 2 weeks because our grass was almost dead - but boy has it begun to green up since yesterday!! I'm gearing up for my first harvest in the tractor - I'm a little nervous since I'll be driving the grain cart and catching "on the go", so hopefully Chad and Nick are patient with me!! I'm looking forward to it though and glad I can help out.


We have a small sandbox under our slide but Kale got a digger for his birthday and we've been TRYING to find time to get a bigger sandbox built so he can play with his digger before snow starts flying, but time just isn't cooperating with us!!! As you can see by the picture below - he desperately needs one!!! Enjoy this rain!!!

And he's off...

My little boy is growing up!!!! Look at him, so proud to be walking in to preschool!!! He's been very excited about school starting because as he says "I'm a BIG BOY, mommy, just like you're big!" I knew that it would be tough for him when I left though, and indeed it was. His teacher brought another little boy over to build blocks with him and she sat down to preoccupy him so I could sneak out...I was sad to do it, but know it was the best thing to do. Now, I'm just trying to get used to having such a quiet house!!!!! I can't wait to hear how it went.

Picture fun

I finally got around to taking the kids' yearly pictures yesterday after school. With the weather being a little cooler and beautifully sunny, I thought it was my best chance of getting some good pictures. I've probably said it before, but I absolutely LOVE the camera Chad bought for me - it allows me to take such wonderful pictures of the kids and catch moments I may not have gotten with a smaller camera that you have to wait for the flash. It's definitely been a great investment for us.

If you'd like to view the pictures, the site is http://fankfamilypage.shutterfly.com

A little chuckle

The past 4 years that we have lived at our house LOTS of hunting has been done by many people. I always chuckle and give them a hard time because they go out in freezing cold weather, sit high up in a tree right along the river, and most days come back with NOTHING... yet I probably saw 8-12 deer in my yard or turkeys in the field just south of our house while they were sitting in those trees. My advice has LONG been to just set up your hunting tents on the deck in front of our house and I'll even bring you out some coffee now and then if you'd like!!! My case in point - check out the picture I took the other morning, from my kitchen window RIGHT NEXT to my deck:

(some day people will listen to me!!!)

Birthday Bash

What a great birthday weekend!!! My little man turned 3!!! We enjoyed celebrating with cousin Matthew again this year...but this time we did it at his house in Ankeny on Saturday! Kale's cake was a tractor and trailer carrying a load of cows! TOO FUN! I always go crazy with the kids' cakes, but it's the one fun thing that they will always have pictures of so I like to try to make it memorable!! We'll be celebrating with the Fank family during Labor Day weekend since schedules allow everyone to be together that weekend but had supper with Grandma and Grandpa Fank on Friday to celebrate. I think all stores were sold out of tractors/combines/trucks/bob cats (or bob bob's as Kale calls them) etc. as Kale got many of them and was SO excited about every single one - especially since that's the only type of toys he likes to play with. So excited that he has YET to even touch the bike we got him!!! Now he'll be getting ready to go to 3 year old preschool a couple mornings a week for a couple hours starting the middle of September. I think he's excited about going, but not excited about ME not staying there with him!!

What started out as a cold for Kale has officially spread to EVERYONE in the house!! It's not much fun feeling miserable on these beautiful days we've been having. Hopefully no one at the party caught anything from us. Enjoy the wonderful week!!!

Big girls

(getting ready to head out the door)

(Mia's locker!)

(Ana's locker...with her sidekick, Kale)

It's official, the twin towers are now grade schoolers!! They started 1st grade this morning without any hesitation at all...there was probably more from Kale and I than anyone!! The girls were up bright and early to get themselves ready for school. It helped us a lot that we had the opportunity to go in to the school last night to meet their teacher, get their lockers, and find their desks. They made sure to point out to their teacher their lost teeth, tell her all about their American Girl dolls, and many other things that they thought the teacher should know!!! It's still just so hard to believe that they're this big already.

I decided to celebrate with Kale that it was "our" time again by taking him to McNally's bakery here in town and we've spent all morning cuddling and watching cartoons - I felt I needed to celebrate with him to let him know he's important too!!! Kale and I plan to take the girls to Dairy Queen for ice cream when we pick them up at 1:00!!!

Minneapolis

What a great short long weekend we had!!! Sounds so funny to say it that way, but we enjoyed ourselves so much, it just went too quickly. Unlike here at home, it rained at some point almost every day we were gone!! My tomato plants reflected just how badly we needed back here when we arrived home!!

The kids and I took off early on Thursday and headed to Medford to do some shopping for school clothes. Chad drove up with his parents after work. We didn't arrive in Minneapolis until late and it became even later when we couldn't find our hotel!!! Who knew there could be 4 Hilton hotels in a 5 mile radius!!!??? We stopped at every single one of them!! It was a good laugh for that late at night!!! We enjoyed time at the Mall of America and IKEA the next day because it was raining. The girls were super excited when they were surprised with the opportunity to pick out the bigger American Girl doll (which they had been begging for for their birthday this November) and chose the dolls that looked like them!!!! So Emma, Ana's doll, and Melissa, Mia's doll, have now joined our family. I don't think they have hardly put them down since they got them! Kale, being the simple boy he is, got a big bucket of legos from Lego Land and is in heaven with those!!! ME, I was excited to find the handles that I really wanted for my kitchen cupboards at IKEA for HALF the price of Menards...and for Chad - the pure excitement of getting to put them all up for me!! HA HA For some reason, I highly doubt he is as excited about it as I am!!!

The rest of our time was spent at the Como Zoo, Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America, and the pool. It's always nice to get home, but it always seems to take me the whole next week to get everything put away, laundry done, etc.

Good times...

What a great weekend...the kids and I enjoyed having lunch with Grandma Luedtke on Friday and then we headed to the Algona pool and spent about 2 1/2 hrs!! Kale had a hard time understanding (15 minutes after we got in to the water) that we had to get out of the water for 10 minutes for break, but what's a little crying and screaming at the pool, right?!? I had promised the kids snacks when we left the pool and we weren't even out of Algona and Kale had fallen asleep...pretty rare to see him fall asleep during a bag of skittles!!

Saturday was spent at Arnolds Park for the Kerber Milling employee appreciation day. The kids had SO much fun, and great strides were made on the fears of both Mia and Kale. Mia had promised before we even went that if we bought her some cotton candy, she would try all of the rides...and she held true to her promise, as did we!! Before we knew it, I was riding every single ride 3-4 times in a row with the girls while Chad watched Kale. Needless to say, we were ALL exhausted by the time we got home. But the trip was topped off with a quick stop at Mrs. Lady's for supper!!!! There is nothing that makes me happier than their cheese and jalapeno nachos!!

It was a great family weekend!!! Now we're ready for a great family vacation!!!

Good weekend

(Carla with Grandma (Kerber) Langan)

(my brother, Mark, Grandma, myself, and sister, Angela)

What a nice weekend we had this past weekend...my brother and sister and their families stayed with us - it was a great big slumber party!!!, we celebrated my Dad and Ruth's 25th wedding anniversary, and my Grandma and Aunt and Uncle from Arkansas were here to celebrate too!!! We're always so excited to spend time with them since we only see them once, possibly twice, a year so it was definitely a wonderful treat.

Now we're gearing up for our vacation to the big city of Minneapolis!!! HA!! No, we're really looking forward to going and doing a few new things that we haven't done in the past with the kids and honestly, the kids and I are just REALLY ready to get away from the Fank acreage for a while!!! The girls are especially excited about the possibility of going to the American Girl Doll store and are trying REALLY HARD to convince daddy that it's important to go to Chuck E Cheese!!! Grandma and Grandpa Fank are going with us as well, so it will be a welcomed treat for the kids to get a little spoiling too.

My poor kids have had NO pool time this summer - always just content to play on the slip and slide, so I'm surprising them tomorrow (Friday) and taking them to Algona to have lunch with Grandma Luedtke (which we haven't seen in far too long) and then we're heading to Algona's big water complex they have. I'm sure I'll have LOTS of pictures to share. Our time is running out for doing all these fun things that I've promised since summer began!

One year down

It's official - yesterday marked 1 year since Ana's seizures began. Again, we are so very blessed that her med's continue to work so well for her and that she has been seizure free since the start of them. Congratulations Anabelle - I look forward to many more days of your craziness, feistiness, courage, and love without any seizures!!!!

"I'm just looking at it mommy"

So, the other day I decided I would bake a cake for the kids since they had been begging me to make one. I waited until Kale went down for his nap to do it so it had plenty of time to cool down before I let the kids frost it. As soon as he got up from his nap, I wanted to get the toys picked up first but Kale was intrigued by the smell and refused to help me. I could hear him scooting one of the stools so I asked him what he was doing to which he replied "I'm just looking at it mommy". I told him not to touch it and continued on with my picking up. When I came to the kitchen, this is what I found...

So much for NOT TOUCHING IT!!! Little stinker.

July 19th marks one year since Ana began having her seizures. We are SO thankful that the medicine continues to work and that we've had absolutely NO seizures since starting the medication. We will go meet with the pediatric neurologist again to check her progress. I really hope she tells us we can start weaning her off the med's, but I figure Dr. Wirrell will keep her on them for one more year as she planned we would probably do. I think back to when it all began and thank God every day for giving her the strength to go through all of the blood draws, MRI's, sleep tests, etc. She's such a tough cookie.

The girls finished up soccer camp on the 10th and were sad to see it end. Their coach was really great with the kids and I see this being a continuous summer activity. Before we know it, Fall soccer will be starting!! It's so depressing to be doing school shopping already!

4th and family!!

What a wonderful 4th of July we had. We were ALL OVER the place that weekend, but it was a wonderful weekend and we got to spend time with family. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if we would have gotten to see even more family and the weather had been a little sunnier. The pictures above are some from the past couple of weeks. Kale is holding a pea in one picture, which came from our field!!!

The weekend started with rehearsal on Friday night and a wedding on Saturday in which I sang for. I hadn't sung for a wedding in quite some time, I was actually a little nervous!!! After, we headed to the reception for a bit, then headed home to change clothes and go back to town to watch the fireworks. We enjoyed spending the evening with Grandma and Grandpa Kerber, Uncle Mark and Aunt Roberta, and cousins, Katelynn and Matthew, on Grandma and Grandpa's boat. I'm not quite sure if there were actually any children still awake once the fireworks started!!! On Sunday, we went out to Grandma and Grandpa Fank's and spent time with them and Aunt Nikki and Uncle Ryan, and cousins, Hailey and Addisson. Upon returning home that evening, we had received a phone call to go out on the boat again with Grandma and Grandpa Kerber...so we enjoyed some lazy/fun time on the boat once again!!! So much fun!

Now the girls are enjoying soccer camp this week. It's hard to believe that summer is already half over! I can't imagine the kids heading back to school...we still have so many things yet that we want to do this summer!! I guess we better get on the bandwagon!!! I hope you all are enjoying your summer...until next time!!

The time has finally come.

Yes, everyone, Ana has FINALLY lost a tooth!!! After months of watching her sister lose tooth after tooth, Ana has finally begun the process! She announced to me a few days ago that she finally had a loose tooth. Then, tonight while eating toast (as you can tell by the jelly on her cheek!), she got a funny look on her face and pulled something out of her mouth, to which she announced "Mom, IT'S MY TOOTH!!!" Everyone was so excited for her because she has been so very patient. Congratulations, Ana!!!!

In quiet moments...

See, already another post!!! After a great day with the kids today, we rented some movies - one of which I've been wanting to see since it came out, "7 pounds". Such an emotional movie, and I come from a long line of emotional people so I knew I would be crying a lot!!! It lived up to what I expected it to be and I indeed did cry. After the movie was over, it was time to put the kids to bed - Chad was already in bed because he wasn't feeling well and was very tired. Most nights Kale requests for daddy to lay with him for a little bit (a job which used to be mine since Chad traveled quite a bit for work previously). On cue, Kale looked at me when he climbed in to bed and asked "will you lay with me for a bit mommy?" So I laid down with him, leaned over and gave him a kiss and a hug, told him I loved him and that he needed to close his eyes. Next thing I knew, he grabbed his blankie and covered me up (because I lay on top of his covers for an easy escape!!!) and snuggled his puppy in to my arms as if to give me something to comfort me as well as it does him. He then put his hands on my face and said "there mommy, you're all better now. I love you too" and wedged his little arm under my neck and fell to sleep. As I lay there waiting for him to fall to sleep, I thought about how he was comforting me with his puppy...but what he probably didn't realize is that all I needed was that little arm around my neck to make my world better. The girls used to do sweet little things like this all the time when they were his age, and honestly still do - I think that's the difference between boys and girls. I'm usually conning Kale in to giving me a kiss by using bribery of some sort so I can get one!!! Every night when I go to bed, I thank God for all the wonderful moments I have been given throughout the day - even when it seems like there are few - but this was one of those moments that makes my life the most complete. Thank you God, for the most wonderful blessings in my life.

Terrible mommy

It feels like forever since I've sat to write - for some reason I keep busy!! It has proven to already be a busy summer and doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon. Before we know it, the girls will be heading back to school again!



As most parents do, you try to teach your children the value of hard work and the rewards that can follow. The girls, and even Kale, spent time with me picking rock this year!! The days were not without whining or fighting! Like all rock picking days, they were hot, so that didn't help things either. They did work as hard as I expected and even more at time, but not without reminder that they got "paid" for their work and that helped things along a little. A couple of weeks after we got done, we took the kids to Spencer to buy them their surprise, which was a trampoline!!! They have been BEGGING for one for almost 2 years now and we finally decided to give in. It's been a great investment though and many hours have already been spent on it. We were very excited to spend some time with my step-sister Carrie, and her family, from Texas this past week. It was fun to see their daughter, Melissa Grace (3), play with our kids and hold hands with the girls when they crossed streets! Hopefully she didn't leave for their journey to Michigan with too many bad habits!!!



Now we're in the process of trying to make our summer vacation plans. We had planned to go to the Black Hills the last week of July, but all of Chad's employee's are taking their vacations during that month so we're trying to figure out a shorter trip to Omaha or something for the first part of August. I'm ready for a vacation and I think the kids will be soon too. Like me, they like to be on the "go" and feel restless being home for too long. So far I've been able to remedy that by going to the park and summer reading at the library, or even just a quick trip to one of the Grandparents houses. I think we're all itching to just get out of Emmetsburg for a bit!!! I'm already bringing up options for Chad and my vacation this winter!!! When flights are pretty reasonable like they are, it's hard not to think about!



The terrible mommy that I am, I haven't taken much for pictures yet this summer!!! I will have pictures to post soon and probably many good Kale stories to tell as well! Please say a few prayers for my Grandma who underwent emergency surgery last week. She's home now and recovering, so we pray for a speedy recovery for her. Love you Grandma!!!

"Can we keep it???"

Yes, you're seeing correctly - that is a baby deer in Chad's truck!! Friday night I was out weeding the garden after mowing and the kids came running up to me to show me this baby deer stumbling through the field who was crying for his mother. We watched it run in to the neighbors grove of trees and proceeded on with our activities. About 20 minutes later, while I had Kale in the tub, Chad comes downstairs holding the baby deer. The neighbors dog was playing with it so Chad decided that maybe he should take it to a local person who raises deer. By the scratches it had, we think it was probably tangled up in something and that the mother was probably mangled in it as well or hit by a car. Such a fun moment for the kids though!!!



Thank you to everyone for the cards, calls, emails, etc. for my birthday. We spent the night on Saturday night in downtown Minneapolis doing a crawl for cancer event. Such a fun night with a really fun group of people!!! I spent my birthday on Sunday sleeping in, doing some shopping, and not cooking a meal! Doesn't get much better than that!!! It was nice to get home to the kids, though, so I could spend the evening cuddling with them.

It's official

Well, it's official - my babies are now 1st graders!!! Where did that time go?? It was hard enough adjusting to the fact that they were kindergarteners, but now that I am imagining them heading off to 1st grade it makes it so official...they are growing up! I just keep picturing them as tiny little babies sitting in their carseats at the hospital and how we had to stop twice to make sure they were okay on our trip home. Man I miss those days. I try my best to absorb every single moment but I'm finding the moments are moving faster and faster!!! Thank goodness for pictures and my obsessive behavior towards them!!! HA HA I'm very sad that the girls' teacher is leaving this year - she was a wonderful asset to the school and absolutely wonderful with my kids. Miss Miller is getting married next month and will be moving.

Their last day of school consisted of the Little Irish Relays. You'll notice by their pictures that they weren't in very nice clothes but the relays are normally outside so I thought they'd be best in clothes that they could ruin since it was raining!!! Ana came home with a first place and two fourth place ribbons and Mia came home with two first place ribbons. It was so fun to watch and was even more fun to watch them all cheering for each other. There are many moments where I cherish the fact that my children go to such a small perochial school - and this was one of them - to see them be more excited for others than for themselves!!!

Now we're focusing on our summer. Can't wait!!!