Fall

It's a day off and I'm just relaxing at home with the kiddies.  It's been a busy start to the fall, and we're in full swing with school and church activities.  We've been absolutely LOVING this amazing weather and we've been trying to enjoy it as much as possible.  We've had a couple of backyard fires in our little pit.  We're still walking to school most days and I've been able to keep jogging outside which I love!

We've completed the first term at school, including report cards and parent conferences.  I'm reminded again how amazing our kids are!  Jayme's teachers don't say a bad word about her behaviour or her academic abilities and Brady is doing amazingly well too, although with him there are a few "things to work on"!  That's the teacher way of saying he's been a little silly in class.  He's catching on to grade one and is enjoying the full day of classroom life.  He is such a likable and funny kid and he enjoys making others laugh which would be fine, except it's during times when they should be listening not laughing.  So we are working on making good choices.  Y'know, I would way rather have to work on behavioural issues than academic struggles.  I love seeing my kids catch on easily to their schoolwork.  We are certainly blessed.

Nicole is loving having the kids home today.  This morning they played some Wii while I got to sleep in, or stay in bed anyways.  They played Mario Kart and Nicoley grabbed her "gamote" and played too.  Her gamote is an old VCR remote, that she thinks is actually working, so cute.  Of course at first the kids tried to convince her that she wasn't really playing but she was adamant and so was I, so they changed their tunes and let her "play" with them.  So she chimes in sometimes, "I'll be Yoshi"  or "I'm in third"

Nicoley has made the full transition from baby to big girl and if you would ever slip up and call her babe, or baby, she will right away correct you and remind you that "I'm a big girl"  We finally cut out her susu about a month ago.  I thought it would have been more traumatic than it was.  She was allowed to buy bubble gum instead, because "big girls chew gum".  

Of course this is hard for me, and I stumbled across these so cute pictures this week....  wow she was so small, and Jay and Brade were so little!  Enjoy!

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First Day of School

Well it was the first day of school today and boy did my kids look cute!  They were SO ready to go back, we had an amazing summer but they really do thrive on the routine of school and they both adjust so well to that routine.  I really can't believe that Jayme is in grade 3 this year.  We went to her opening day conference yesterday and the teacher had a small list of questions for Jayme and one of the questions was "Do you feel that you get in trouble a lot at school?"  And as she read it she laughed and said "Jayme has a reputation already, I don't think I need to ask this!"  I'm so proud of that girl, she didn't inherit any of my in-class chatty-ness!

Brady is in grade 1 this year, first year of full days!  He looked so cool with his faux-hawk today! He has the same teacher Jayme had in grade 1 so it's very familiar to us which is nice.  Believe it or not I didn't shed ONE tear this morning, I was all smiles and felt very good.  We are blessed with excellent teachers this year and I'm SO GLAD I still have Colie at home.  I can only imagine how many tears will be shed that dreadful year when she starts school!

Nicoley-isms

My sweet Nicoley brings us so much joy and she is so sweet and oh my goodness is she ever funny!  I need to record some of her latest comments (most learned from her siblings and then used in her own way)  When she wants some thing from the kids or us she asks then says "I'll give you a hundred dollars and buy you some candy"

Yesterday she was looking at Mark and asked "Are you finkin' what I'm finkin'?"

At the lake this summer our friends teen aged daughter Amber was wear a cute plaid shirt with jeans and Coley was staring at her with her "figuring it out" eyes.  Jayme asked her why she was staring at Amber and Nicole answered with much gusto: "Yee Haw"

It is rather embarrassing that my 2 year old LOUDLY sings things like "Every body dance now...bah, bah, bah bah " or then the same tune "Party with your pants down".  (Punishments were given out to siblings who taught 2 year olds that fabulous verse to the song)  She also often sings "I like em big, I like em chunky, I like em round, I like em funky"  

She sang for the camera a sweet song that her Daddy sings to her, it's at the bottom of this post!

Although I am sad that the kids are going back to school soon and will be gone from me all day long, I am looking forward to all the time I will get to spend with Coley this fall.  She is great company and great fun.

Lake Holidays - Part 5 - Hanging Out

We had such an amazing time just relaxing and sleeping in each day, staying up late each night running on absolutely no schedule.  It was such a great break from "real life".  We had no agenda each day and we made sure we spent lots of time with our good friends from BC as we only get to see them in the summer.  We sat around in their garage drinking coffee in the mornings, sat around the lake in the afternoons and sat around campfires in the evenings.  

The kids had great times hanging out too, there was never a lack of friends to play with.  We are so blessed to have our trailer at the lake where we can feel safe letting the kids go off and play.  They are making some of their "friends for life" already and it's so fun!

Lake Holidays - Part 4 - Boating

We had a great time going for boat rides with our good friends the Janzs, mostly we just went for rides in the boat and looked at the beautiful sights around our lake.  One afternoon it was warm enough to go in the water and Jayme was the only brave one to jump in.  Janz's have an old windsurf board without the sail that they attach behind the boat and Jayme went on it.  She FREAKED me out by deciding to stand and surf on it!  I didn't know she had this adventurous side in her.  Crazy girl!  She was actually upset when we told her she was done!

Lake Holidays - part 3 - Pool Fun

Thankfully the pool at the lake is heated so even though the weather wasn't killer hot, we managed to have a couple of pool days.  The kids enjoyed jumping off the diving board and were really into me taking "action shots" of them.  Her are the best 2 shots.  

 And here is Colie with her Dora Floatie with a big "Cheese" for the camera!

Our Lake Holiday - Part 2 - Sports

Mark would take the kids to the field and play soccer, baseball and football.  What a great Daddy he is!  Colie would do whatever she could to try and keep up with the kids!

So proud of himself for climbing up there by himself!

Our Lake Holidays - Part One- Quadding

We enjoyed quadding a lot during our holidays, the weather dictated that for us.  It was quite a bit cooler than normal for July, but we still had an amazing family time.  I think it's soon going to be time for us to invest in another quad, we only went on one whole family ride and I don't think we were very comfortable on our "Kodi".  Mostly it was Daddy and the kids going for rides.

Mark couldn't leave the yard without Colie on the quad with him.

And of course after riding, Daddy had to teach the kids his good habit of cleaning up... of course with a mischievous little 6 year old, it wasn't only the quad getting wet at the end of the ride!

Swimming Lessons

Both Jayme and Brady took swimming lessons in the pool again this summer.  Jayme was in level 4 and Brady in level 3.  They both worked really hard and tried a lot of things that they haven't before.  These were tricky levels and even though they both will need to repeat their level, I am proud of how hard they tried.  Jayme was learning front crawl and treading water and diving from the side of the pool and Brady was also learning front crawl and "shredding" water.  The instructors are great down there and it's really important for us for the kids to learn to swim well.

Summer Fun

We had some beautiful days at the lake already this summer (we had some miserably cold ones too, but we wont talk about those!)  My little Colie loves to wear her summer dresses and she looks SOOO cute in them!  I spent a lot of one on one time with her this last week while we were at the lake with out Mark.  The kids had their Chapel services in the morning and evening and there was a staffed nursery if babies were so inclined to let their mommies listen to a service, but unfortunately this cute little baby was not so inclined, she developed a dislike towards the nursery worker and would have nothing of it!  Who would have thought that a 2 year old could be so convinced of something!  Oh well, they are only little once and forcing an issue like that makes for a miserable time. The kids enjoyed their ministry time though and there was no forcing them to go to Chapel.  They had so many friends and each summer at the lake they are allowed more and more freedom to be away from us.  They love that.  I guess as parents that's the whole deal right?  We start from when they are little basically teaching them and training them to be able to live without us.  Hmmm, good for them, bad for me I think.  But we had lots of learning experiences and "teaching moments"  (aka discipline)  when they (ok just Brady)  took advantage of his newfound freedom.   Biking into the lake while fully dressed is not "going for a little bike ride" and disapeariing for 10 minutes looking for minnows WAAAAY down the beach without telling anyone can cause quite the stir. 

Kody was still a highlight of lake time. Mark could not leave the yard on the quad without Nicole riding with him!


Brady and Abbey enjoying the Sea Doo.  One day last weekend, while Mark was down, we borrowed a 3 seater tube and Mark took our kids and their friends for rides ALL afternoon long.  What a blast!

We're excited, because even though the kids and I were at the lake for 2 weeks already, Mark is taking his holidays in another week and we will go back for another 2 weeks!  It's so much more fun with Daddy and Mommy there!

My Soccer Star

Here's one of the soccer pics from our busy soccer season.  I just love Brady's hair in this picture, he had it in his favourite style for school that day and it kinda got mussed a bit before soccer... it's his take on the "faux-hawk".  

Catching Up

Oh my goodness, I can not believe that it has been over 2 months since my last post... 

We have certainly had a very crazy 2 months, we've had the kids soccer 4 NIGHTS A WEEK!  Brady had Monday/Wednesdays and Jayme had Tuesday/Thursdays.  Yah, busy.  They did so great!  I didn't get out to nearly as many games as I would have liked, well OK I'm lying, it was a cold May and I didn't want to sit out there freezing under a blanket.  But with tonight being Brady's last game, and it was a beautiful night, I felt like I should have enjoyed a few more games of his.  He is such a good player, he scores lots of goals, and stops lots when he's in the net and if you think I'm bragging about him, you should hear him after a game!  Jayme is also an amazing player.  She's intense and focused and Mark says she really "gets" the game.  It was a fun soccer season, but I am glad it's over and we can move on to enjoying more of our summer, now that it's finally warm out!  Add Mark's baseball to the mix and there is where our last 2 months have gone!

We have had some new-ness around here, our dryer died and so we bought a new washer and dryer pair (Not very exciting news for anyone else in the world, but I'm pumped - we bought a front loading... so cool!)

Mark got a new BBQ which we will call his Father's Day present.  It's big and manly but unfortunately still not hooked up to a propane tank and therefore it's still clean and shiny, and I'm still BBQing on the old one.  Oh well.

The most exciting "new-ness" is... We put Nicoley into a "big girl bed" and she transitioned well.  She's so cute in the mornings and after her nap, she gets out of her bed and comes to the door of her room and knocks.  So polite!  Along with her big girl bed came "big girl panties".  She is potty trained!!  For about a month now,  and she caught on so quickly!  I'm so proud of her.  Her only "accident" this week was when she decided to be like her big brother and pee behind the shed... needless to say she got a mid-day bath!

I really am overwhelmed by how cute she is... she is so smart and so funny and so incredibly enjoyable.  

The countdown is on... only 7 days left of school.  This is bittersweet for me, I can barely believe that Brady is finished Kindergarten and that next year he will have to go for the whole day (sniff sniff) and Jayme is done grade 2, can that be right?  I'm looking forward to summer holidays so so so much.  I love the warm relaxing days that I get to spend with the kids.  I love having them around, I really miss them when they're gone.  I'm excited for our holidays at the lake, and our lazy summer days around home, for me this may be the most wonderful time of the year!

Oh and I'll post soccer pics soon... and hopefully some others.

Easter 2009

I hope everyone had a superb Easter season.  We certainly did.  We tried to hammer home to the kids the true meaning of the season, but wow, what a heavy idea of our Saviour choosing the cruelty and brutality  of the cross so we could have forgiveness of sins.  Sometimes I wonder how much we as adults "get it."

This year we spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the States with my family.  Each of my siblings and my parents took rooms at the Clarion in Grand Forks and we had a blast!  The hotel has a water park that was perfect for the ages of our kids.  They LOVED it!  And they had so much fun with their cousins in the pool.  It was a perfect set up with tables and chairs surrounding the water park so everyone could watch and enjoy if they weren't wanting to get wet.  (Except when Brady took out his new supersoaker, some of the "watchers" were also getting wet!)  We did some shopping, some resting, had a treat hunt, we played some games and generally had a FANTASTIC time.

Auntie Cate with Baby Jenelle.

Nicoley enjoyed the "hot pool" the most!

On "Resurrection Sunday" we went to church and had supper at Papa and Nana's.  The kids got another treat hunt and had a great time with their big cousins.  All in all it was an Easter to remember!

Craziness

OK it's happened.  Nicole jumped (safely) out of her crib tonight.  We put her to bed, all was quite, then we heard some crying, so I assumed she had dropped her susu, but when I opened the door, she walked out of the room!  Cousin Ashleigh is spending the night and Coco said she wanted to see her, so we let her walk around a bit and visit a bit, then we heard her go back to her room and climb back into her crib, she asked for more milk and went to sleep!  What a girl!

So that was tonight, last night Jayme's extremely loose tooth literally fell out of her mouth while she was sleeping.  She woke up around 10:00 and it was lying on her chest.  Brady asked her this morning if the Tooth Fairy had come and she said that she guessed mom hadn't called her yet.  (I guess that mom just didn't have any change yet!)  Yikes, she's only the first child loosing teeth, and they lose a ton of teeth, I need to get that Tooth Fairy on speed dial.   Brady asked if I would call her right then at breakfast time, but of course I couldn't because the Tooth Fairy sleeps during the days because she works nights.

I Can't Believe He's Six!

Oh my goodness, is my little boy really six?  Where has the time gone?  He is such a handsome and sweet six year old.  I am quite proud of him!  He had a tobogganing party with a few buddies, some from school and some from church.  Thankfully it was a beautiful day and they played outside before and after the tobogganing, which was helpful for keeping my house clean!  Nicole heard us singing to him and then walked down the hallway singing Happy Birthday to Coco, and of course she had to have a turn blowing out the candles.  I guess she's used to it being all about her!  This was at the end of a week of Jayme being sick all week, so she didn't do a lot of partying, poor girl.  Brady was concerned that he would catch her sickness and then his birthday would be cancelled.  Maybe I should get sick around my birthday for the next few years... if you don't have a birthday you can't get any older right?!

15 Random Things

First of all, Happy Valentines Day!!!  We celebrated with Heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and heart shaped pizzas for supper!  We bought Mario Cart (a new Wii game) for the kids and they loved it!

Mark and I had a dinner and a movie night at the church and we watched "Fireproof" I would definitely recommend it.

So the new Facebook trend seems to be the list of 25 Random Facts (I faithfully did mine!)  But here I will post a list of Random Facts about The Letkeman Family.  Enjoy!

1. Jayme has not worn her hair down in at least 2 years.  I would say 96% of the time it's in one single ponytail and the other 4% she lets me braid it

2. Brady doesn't wear sweatpants.  It's either jeans, cords or cargos for my stylish dude!

3. Coco wears  "dasses"  (see photo)

4. We love to bike ride as a family.  I take Nicole in a bikeseat behind me and I've only fallen once.

5. All 3 kids' favourite meal is chicken fingers and fries.

6. Nicole wore her purple rubber boots for 3 days straight this weekend.  (see photo)

7. If Nicole has a sweatshirt with a hood, she insists on the hood being up. (same photo)

8. Jayme doesn't wear a lot of pink (OK so really none)

9. Jayme can read at a grade 5 level.

10. All 3 kids have very good phone-talking skills.

11. Jayme and Brady are learning to play piano.

12. Nicole is learning to pee pee on the potty.

13. Brady likes to do his hair in a "faux hawk".

14. Jayme LOVES the Calgary Flames (and Mark still loves her!)

15. We have a quad and his name is Kodi and he is 5, almost 6, just like Brady.

 

Mama's Boy

I volunteered in Brady's classroom on Friday and he was so excited to have me there.  There was no embarrassment over PDA's, he hugged me, sat on my lap and held my hand while walking in the hall.  I enjoyed every second!  That night we had a movie night at the school, the feature presentation was Kung Fu Panda, at one point during the movie, Brady moved close and snuggled against me because it was a scary part and he didn't want me to be scared.  Then he leaned over and whispered "Don't worry Mom, it's just a movie, it's not really real."  I'm so thankful for my boy and his soft heart, I pray that he will continue to have that heart as he gets older.

Coping and Cuteness

So I'm actually managing through the winter, I still don't like the weather, the extra clothing, the extra time to put on the extra clothing, but I am managing.  We've gone sledding a few times now, and we've even sent Nicoley down the hill on her own a few times.  She really likes it, she gets to the bottom, claps her hands and says "One more time!"  Mark bought the kids a GT Snowracer and that's been fun for them!  (I think he's sad that he can't ride it... crazy weight restrictions!)  Jayme and Brady also enjoy trying to snowboard down the hill, and of course they all enjoy the warm up hot chocolate after the trip!

Nicoley has been amazing us with her incredible intelligence... she's barely just turned 2 and she can count to 10, usually without missing any numbers... she can recognize 10 of the 26 letters... and she is talking so much and we laugh so much at the cute and funny things she says.  My favorite one lately is that when she sees anyone of us without out clothes (we're still a pretty open family) she says "Nakedbaby" (all one word)  When she says something, she expects us to repeat it back to her, just to make sure she's understood.  If we aren't paying attention, or just answer with an umm hmm, she will continue to repeat it until we say it back.  She has also been heard telling us "I funny" so she knows she is still the star of the show around here.

A look back...

My sweet little baby, she was so cute as a newborn and even cuter as a 2 year old!  Even Jayme and Brady look so little in these pics.  Where did these 2 years go?!!