First Day of School!

So today was the first day of school!  It doesn't seem totally real...yet.  Hailey started 2nd Grade and Lexi went to Kindergarten!  When did my girls grow up?!

Lexi ready for her first day of Kindergarten!  Showing off her backpack.

Hailey ready for 2nd Grade

Waiting for the bus

Getting on the bus for the first day!

Hailey was happy to be getting back to school and her friends.  Lexi was excited to start this new chapter, but you could also tell she was a little nervous.  I stopped by her classroom so she could give her friend Elsie a birthday card and it was so cute to see all of them sitting at their tables...nervous excitement!  I left the room smiling.

Hailey's first day of Kindergarten was tough for me.  I'm not one that cries easily, so I was a little suprised at myself when Hailey rode off on the bus her first day.  I didn't cry dropping her off at preschool, so I didn't figure I would when she went to Kindergarten, but I was wrong.  I was crying for at least 30 minutes after the bus left.  So, based on what happened two years ago, I figured I'd do about the same thing with Lexi.  I will admit, there were a few tears, but nothing dramatic!

Driving home from bringing in Lexi immunization records to the school, I got to thinking about how far we've come in the last 5 years.  We had a couple scares with her during her stay in the NICU and we could have not been sending her to Kindergarten.  I'm so thankful that God brought us thru that and she is a perfectly healthy, happy 5 year old.

Winding Down

So our crazy summer schedule has started to settle down now and we're liking having some time at home. It's been about a month since updating my blog, so let's do a quick re-cap.  July started off with a weekend trip to Minnesota to celebrate Aaron's Grandpa's 80th birthday. We were able to see most of the family as only 1 of the cousins wasn't able to attend. There was lots of time for playing outside, jumping on the trampoline, riding horse, going to a parade, and watching fireworks.  I'd post some pictures from the weekend, but I don't have any of my pictures right now.  We were able to consolidate all the pictures from everyone's digital cameras onto Brian's laptop, so I deleted them off my camera after we got back home.  Well, our computer had been on hospice care for quite some time and finally decided to call it quits after we got back.  Thankfully, we had backed up everything on an external hard drive, so I only lost a few pictures (maybe 10).  I'll have to post some from the weekend in the next blog post after I get them copied to our computer.  :)  Hailey got to ride a horse (finally!) so there were some pictures taken of her with a huge smile on her face.  The colt also seemed to really like her, so there's a couple cute ones of them.

Aaron's brother, Brian, and his family were able to come home from Quebec for a visit and then stayed that following week.  Praise God for beautiful weather all week!  The kids had a blast playing with their cousin, Melina, all week.  On the 10th, we celebrated the girls' birthdays with Aaron's side of the family.  We had grilled chicken kabobs for lunch and then went to Splasher's South Seas indoor water park at the CanadInn in Grand Forks.  Everyone had fun playing in the water and going down the slides.

Brian, Susie, & Melina left on Sunday, the 11th, so we had some time to relax and get the kids in bed early.  The 12th thru 23rd, Hailey participated in the STEM program at Mayville State.  It was kind of like a fun summer school where the teachers got to "practice" teaching the 2nd graders and the kids got to learn about different countries.  The class was only for part of the mornings, so we'd drop Hailey off at 8:30am and then Lexi, Jacob, & I would go to the park or Rainbow Garden until 10 when we'd pick her up.  Hailey, Kyra, & Jacob learned about Australia and got to do different crafts.  On the last day (23rd), all the parents got to come and see a little presentation from the kids about what they learned and then see their projects they did throughout the last 2 weeks.  It was a lot of fun to see how proud they all were of their art projects!

Jacob, Kyra, & Hailey with their teachers.

Hailey standing in front of her projects.

That pretty much sums up the last month.  This coming week is pretty low key, and I'm looking forward to it!  The first week in August will be filled with Hailey going to our church's Day Camp (Vacation Bible School) from 9am-3pm.  After that, we'll be starting to get ready for Hailey and Lexi to go to school!

I'll close with some of my favorite pictures from this past month.

Lexi, Hailey, & Melina jumping into the pool

Jacob @ Island Park

Lexi @ Island Park

Hailey @ Rainbow Garden

Zinnias @ Rainbow Garden

My Favorite! (Straight out of the camera...no editing or cropping)

10 Year High School Reunion

We just had another great weekend.  Saturday we started out the day by going to Lowe's in Grand Forks to their Build & Grow Clinic.  The kids go to build Monster Trucks!  They're pretty neat.

After Lowe's, we dropped off a bunch of stuff at a thrift store.  It sure feels good to have all that stuff out of my house!  It's nice to be able to give away the clothes that are too small for the kids and/or the excess of clothes and other household stuff that we don't need.  We stopped and got a few essentials from Walmart and then headed to Binford.  We went thru Thompson, so we were able to see the path where the tornado went West of town.  It's crazy how just the path had mangled trees and flattened buildings, but not even 1/4 mile away, things were just fine.

Saturday afternoon was my class's 10 year high school reunion.  There were a total of 25 of us that graduated and a few others that didn't.  I just realized I had been counting 13 of us that were there, but it was actually 15.  Not too bad of a turn-out for the 10 year!  We met up at the park in Binford, the kids played, we grilled some burgers and hot dogs, and visited.  It was fun to see everyone and kind of funny to see some of the guys as dads.

After the reunion, we headed to my mom's in Jamestown.  We enjoyed visiting for a little while before heading to bed.  Sunday morning we went to church and then celebrated the girls' birthdays with my mom & step-dad, my uncle, and my Grandpa.  It's hard to believe that they are going to be 7 & 5 years old already!

Sunday afternoon, we went to Kathryn.  My Grandma has been battling cancer for the last couple years and just finished up a round of radiation treatment.  Her church in town hosted a benefit for her.  I enjoyed seeing my dad's side of the family.  The last time I seen most of them was for Grandma's 80th birthday which was about 5 years ago.  Hailey was only about 15 months old at the time, so they were able to meet Lexi and Jacob for the first time.

When we were heading home from Kathryn, we were able to watch a rainbow for most of the trip to Fargo.  As we got closer to Fargo, it got brighter and brighter.  There was even a faint 2nd rainbow, too!  Once we got to the North side of town, it pretty much disappered.  This was the only picture we got on my camera and it was just before it disappered.  You can just barely see it right about in the middle of the picture.

When we got home, we were greeted by 5 little 1-inch long frogs by our front step.  They were pretty cute!  Hailey caught one this afternoon while playing outside.

Isn't he cute?!

Here's a few more pictures of some of mom's flowers and my red geraniums.  :)

Mini-Vaca #2

This past weekend, our family headed to Omaha.  We enjoyed getting to see some good friends and visiting a little.  The kids did so well in the van on the way there and back...it's so nice that they travel well!  I think we actually make record time for us by getting to Omaha in 8 hours!  It was so funny listening to the kids be in awe of all the lights of the city.  It was like they were seeing it for the first time even though we lived there for 4 1/2 years.  One of the funniest moments was when we were heading to "our" church Sunday morning.  As we waited at the light after exiting off Dodge, the kids seen the church on the left.  Hailey said she remembered that's what the church looked like, Lexi said she didn't remember it, and Jacob goes, "I remember it!"  Aaron & I had a good laugh about that one being he was 10 months old when we moved back to ND.  :)
It was so good to be back at Trinity that morning!  We still feel like that's our church even though we love and feel totally at home in our church here in Mayville.  It was fun to see all the changes they've been making in the nursery and other Sunday School rooms--new paint, murals on the walls, electronic check-in stations, new registration desk.  The most exciting part was seeing our friend Kurt & Emily leading worship for the elementary school kids!  They looked right at home leading and I'm so happy they have found a spot to serve.  Lexi was quite excited after class to tell me that she knew and sang along with one of the songs.  It was one that we had learned in Sunday School.  "I Am Free"
The main reason for us heading to Omaha was to help Kent & Colleen celebrate their 25th Wedding Anniversary and Vow Renewal.  We consider Kent & Colleen our parents as they were a huge help to us when we lived there.  They loved on us just like we were their kids and our children their grandchildren...how awesome is that?!  K & C have been participating in Rendevous for many years now and they decided to have their vow renewal Rendevous style.  It was really neat seeing the whole set up of everyone that was there.  We had perfect weather for being outside most of the day.

The Wedding Party

The girls with Leenie and the dresses she made for them.

Jacob wearing Papa's hat.

The kids with Leenie & Papa and their pop-guns!

The kids with Tiffany & Leenie.  The kids loved helping Tiffany and playing with her.  Jacob helped wash dishes and all the kids helped find sticks for her to build a fire.

The weekend was great, but was too short!  We would have loved to have seen more of our friends, but just couldn't fit it all in.  Next time, we'll need to make it a longer stay.

After getting home, my plan was to get my house back in order after being neglected for the last few weeks.  This summer has been crazy and the weekdays end up being used to get ready for the next trip that weekend.  My plans for cleaning got side-tracked by Lexi having a high fever and Jacob having a super runny nose and fever.  Thankfully, Lexi's only lasted 1 day and Jacob was much better the next day.  I think the reason being is they decided to share their symptoms with me.  I came down with Jacob's leaky nose and Lexi's fever!  Today is going well so far and I actually feel like I have some energy to do some of the chores around the house.  I'm looking at this cold as God's way of saying that we needed to slow down a little and rest.  It'll be good to get rested up and healthy again so we can be ready to go for the next 3 weeks.  After that, I think things will slow down as we don't have any big travel plans.

God's Provision in Unusual Ways

This last week was kind of crazy.  We had planned a mini-vacation to Rapid City to visit some friends and family.  I took the week leading up to it to get things ready...namely laundry!  We were set to leave Thursday late afternoon once Hailey was done with school and drive part of the way and stay with Justin & Annette.  Earlier that morning, the school had a Cookies for Caregivers event for parents, grandparents, and other caregivers.  I had found a parking spot right by the grocery store and closer to the school, but didn't feel like taking a bunch of time to try to parallel park, so I went a little further and found a much easier place to park.  During this event, we were able to participate in Team Time (basically announcements and a fun exercise), reading time, have cookies, and help our child(ren) pick out their new book they get monthly thru the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program at school.  After leaving, I walked to my van and found a completely flat tire on the rear passenger side!  This is where we see God's provision.  Had I parked in the spot closer to the school, I wouldn't have seen the flat tire because I would have approached the van from the driver's side, whereas the other spot I approached from the passenger side.  Thankfully, I was able to get a little air in the tire and drive the 5 blocks to get it fixed so we could still leave that afternoon for SD!  It ended up being a cut in the middle of the tire.

My completely flat tire!

Hailey eating her cookie and reading me a story.

We have a new addition!

So it's been over a month since I last posted...where did the time go?  Is it really May?  :)  We are currently in "end of the school year" mode at out house.  I can tell Hailey is ready for school to be done, especially now with our new lttle addition!  He's currently laying on my lap sleeping.  This is Turbo, our new puppy!  We are all loving having him in our family and he seems to be loving being with us, too.

We are also getting geared up for our crazy summer.  We have many trips to take and also to get Lexi ready for Kindergarten.  Not sure what Jacob and I will do with Lexi & Hailey both in school, but I'm sure we'll adjust and enjoy ourselves.  Lexi's really excited about going to school and keeps thinking that she'll be starting tomorrow.  Kind of hard to explain that she won't be starting until this Fall, so I usually just tell her it'll be when Hailey's in 2nd grade.  Then comes the, "Are you in 2nd grade yet, Hailey?"  :)  This picture is Lexi after she got her school immunizations.  I told her if she did really well with them, she'd get a special treat.  She got 3 shots and didn't cry until the last one and it was mostly because of the medicine stinging (I think it was the polio vaccination).  I was so proud of her!

Jacob keeps us going, keeps us laughing and smiling.  He's truly a silly boy.  He likes to tell jokes, that only make sense to the kids which makes them funny for us, too.  This week, Aaron and I have been working on painting his room.  Jacob got to help a little bit with the primer, the blue Aaron and I have been doing when the kids are sleeping.  It takes a lot longer to do a room when you have 3 kids and a puppy wanting your attention! :)  I'll post some pictures of the completed project after we get everything back up and Jacob's stuff back in the room.

Here's a few more pictures from the last couple weeks!  First one is of the kids from when we did the Lowe's build & grow workshop.  They build planter boxes which were super cute!

The tulips are blooming!

Hailey during her school's spring program.

Lexi & Hailey at the Park

Jacob coming thru the tunnel on the playground.

Where has the time gone?

Yesterday, while everyone else was celebrating April Fool's Day, we were celebrating a different day for our family...Jacob's 3rd Birthday!  I cannot believe he's 3 years old already...where did the time go?  He has been such a blessing for our family and it's going to be a lot of fun seeing the kind of man he'll grow to be.  Thought I'd share a couple pictures of him from when he was born and then from yesterday when we went out for dinner.  Happy Birthday, Little Man!

In the NICU - 3 days old

Hailey seeing him for the first time!

Ready to take him home after 3 weeks in the NICU!

Jacob - 3 years old!

I've been a slacker on publishing my 365 photos.  To "catch up" on them, here's the link:  http://365project.org/angieberg/365