One Year Anniversary

  When I was about six months pregnant with Nora, my dad offered to retire in the fall when I went back to work after maternity leave so he could be our daycare provider.  We were blessed by his offer and are already celebrating the one year anniversary of Papa Daycare!

Each week over the past year, Papa has provided for the kids at least 20 hours a week while I worked (though mostly Nora due to Luke's school schedule).  We are beyond blessed by Papa and his incredible generosity.  He tells us regularly that he has the best job in the world and we know Nora's love and adoration for Papa is mutual:)  They have quite a bond and I love seeing them together every day:)  

This past year has been a rough one for my dad with lots of illness and loss in his family as well as a serious surgery and infection in his own elbow.  My hope is that his days with Nora are refilling his heart after this difficult year.

Enjoy a few pictures of Nora and Papa throughout the last year:

Christmas 2012

Trying on the new poncho Papa gave Nora

Can you tell Papa enjoys her???;)

Pure sweetness

Easter 2013 with Gma too!

Nora's birthday party

Nora loves her Papa

Kisses

So happy together

Visiting Papa in the hospital after his elbow surgery 

They were both so happy to see each other

Goof balls!

Beckmann family trip to Ely, August 2013

Last week

I walked to Papa's after work and these two
were out for a walk:)

Pure sweetness

High Five for Friday!

#1

Outside

This week was beautiful!  We were out every night either at football/the park, or on walks/runs.  It was glorious!  I also had lunch outside most days.  Loving this fall weather!!!

Signs of fall are everywhere!

Exploring the Gibbs park

A little downtown lunch beauty

Enjoying lunch outside

#2

Wardrobes

I started sorting out Nora cool weather clothes and the next size up and found that we already had a complete wardrobe!  We have been beyond blessed by gifts and hand-me-downs from friends and family.  It's so fun dressing our little honey up in the adorable outfits:)  I also had a good wardrobe for Luke heading into winter from gifts and end of season deals last year.  Score!

#3

Rear in Gear

Since we returned from our cruise I've been very motivated to exercise and it's been feeling so good!  I'm tracking my walks/runs/workouts on MapMyRun and I like being able to look back at my week to see all I've accomplished.  Back to #1, it's been great weather to get out too:)

#4

School

It's simple, but so important.  I had the following conversation with Luke one day after school this week:

Me: How was your day?
Luke: It was great! 
Me: I'm glad to hear, what made it so great?
Luke: We celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday and had fun apple treats. 

It warms a momma's heart to hear her son's love of school:)

#5

Support

I'll go into more details in a future post, but I'll just say that Brent had an emotional yet encouraging week at work and we are so very blessed by his employer. 

High Five for Friday

#1

We're Home!

After nine days away from the kids, Brent and I returned home and we're all back together again.  Right where we belong:)

My loves snuggling before bed last night

#2

Football

Luke is in his fourth week of football practices and he's finally truly enjoying himself.  We had some hurdles to get over initially (changing teams, getting his helmet to fit comfortably, and his nerves) but he had two great practices this week with little to no anxiety!  I'm sure this probably sounds like we're forcing him to play football, but it is quite the opposite.  Luke loves football, but he also struggles with anxieties over new experiences/settings.  We left the choice in his hands to play or not to play this year.  He chose to play.  Thankfully he's getting more comfortable with all things football, including his helmet fitting better.  Brent and I are very excited to go to his game tomorrow (our first game, Luke's second for the season)!

#3

Friends

I got to see three lovely friends on Wednesday.  The lunch date was planned, Another was a coincidental connection in the Target parking lot, and the last was an impromptu park date.  I am truly blessed by so many lovely women who enrich my life:)

#4

Sleep

After being on vacation, all of which was spent in time zones either 2 or 3 hours behind Minnesota, we have been a little off in our sleep patterns.  Thankfully last night I was able to get to sleep at 10pm and sleep all night.  Since we got back, both Brent and I were up until 12:30am every night.  That catches up with this lady!

#5

Tonight

We had a wonderful family night tonight.  We had dinner at Mr Pizza North, our favorite, then walked to the park.  Nora is so much fun at the park now that she's interested in crawling and climbing around on the jungle gyms.  Tonight her milestone was going down the large tube slide (with Daddy or Luke's help).  She seems to love the independence of exploring (even though we're always only an arms length away:)).  Luke also had fun playing catch with a football with Daddy.  He's geared up for his game tomorrow!

High Five for Friday (A Day Early)

It's weeks like this that I am grateful for my practice of finding "High Fives" for the week...

some weeks they just don't come easily...

it's been one of those weeks.

 

Some fun moments from the past two weeks:

Little honey wanting to join the big kids (Luke and cousins)
on the bed watching cartoons

Sweet big brother and cousins invited her in:)

Nora enjoying one of her favorite past times:
Playing with Momma's shoes

 

Nora "riding" her bike at Papa's house
a.k.a. getting a push from Luke

Big girl!

Sassy face:)

Reading some Women's World while waiting
for her doctor appointment

Buddies:  Ethan & Luke walking home
from school together

Nora having fun in the suitcase
while we packed

#1
After a week of multiple doctor visits and multiple trips to Mayo optical for new glasses for Luke, I am once again reminded how very blessed we are with our benefits and quality health care!  And, the benefits don't stop with medical, dental, and optical provisions.  We also have a children's R&R that provides child care for kids who are sick and unable to attend their regular daycare.  It is run by nurses and the kids are very well taken care of while mom and dad work.  Nora needs to attend tomorrow because of the rash she has had this week. 

#2
I am grateful for our sweet, sensitive, intelligent, good-hearted son.  This week posed some difficult moments with the start of school and the start of football practices.  He loves both school and football and has so much talent in both, but sometimes his anxious mind can get the best of him.  We've had lots of good talks this week about how he's been feeling and how he can cope through situations that get overwhelming.  It will no doubt be a continuous process, but we've already seen him turn the corner quickly in his comfort level with being back at school. 

#3
My husband is amazing!  To name just a few blessings he provided our family this week: he slept with Nora in the recliner the night before we learned she had another ear infection, took care of details for Luke starting football and practices, rearranged his work schedule so he could be home with Luke so I could get Nora to the doctor...he is a good, good man.

#4
I never want to see our kiddos sick, but I did appreciate the opportunity to have extra snuggles with my sweet girl this week.

#5
We are so very blessed to have family near by.  On Sunday, we had impromptu visits from both sets of parents and all of our siblings. Not many people have the opportunity for that to occur all on the same day:) 

Second Grade

It has officially begun...second grade!

Luke has the same teacher as last year because she "looped" (meaning she moved from being a first grade teacher to second grade teacher with her students).  He also has about 20 of the same kids in his class from last year.  Quite a different experience than most kids have going from first to second grade:)

Saying goodbye to Daddy before work

New backpack

Oh this sweet, sweet boy

Caught a pic with Miss Nora too

Last night Luke started feeling anxious about starting school today.  He didn't eat much for dinner and said his stomach was upset and made frequent trips to the bathroom.  This morning he seemed in better spirits when he got up, but I could tell his anxiety was rising as the morning progressed.  He asked that I walk him into school to where he lines up with his teacher.  We made it all the way to the line without any tears.  Then they came:(  I took him aside to chat and got him calmed down, but I had to leave him with tears still on his cheeks but no longer crying.  Oh a Momma's heart!  Brent and I have both been nervous nellies too hoping that Luke's first day goes well:)

I told Luke that he had to get through the "firsts" so it would start feeling normal.  Then I found this quote as a reminder:

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. ~ Lao Tzu

Water Ski Show

One final item on our summer bucket list was to attend a water ski show at Fisherman's Inn in Oronoco.  We decided to attend the final show on Labor Day.  It was a pretty chilly (only in the 60s) and cloudy day, so it wasn't exactly what I envisioned for us sitting on the patio eating.  But, we got a great spot by a window inside and Luke could see the entire show while eating lunch!  He loved it:)  I told him if we get back another summer hopefully we could sit outside to hear the music and announcer that accompanies the show.

Luke's great view of the ski jump on
Lake Zumbro

Little lady digging in

Love this boy

Silly girl

 

Labor Day Weekend 2013

After a fun-filled summer, we knew we only had labor day weekend to get in our yard projects for the summer. 

 

We added landscaping around our mailbox with stepping stones

We plan to add plants in the future.

 

We finished a landscaping project, as a joint effort with our neighbor, around the electric boxes between our houses.

Work in progress

Finished product
(with hoses for watering new plants)

View from the street

We applied two coats of stain to the floor boards and stairs on our deck. 

(We have an additional coat to add on the railing this week.)

This gives you an idea of the
transparent stain color we chose

We also harvested a lot of green beans (that we had been neglecting) from the garden.

 

It was a full weekend of projects and wonderful weather to be outside tackling it all:) 

 

Oh, and the kids kept themselves busy too:)

Nora supervising the landscaping projects

 

Luke with the caterpillar friend he found

Mr. Caterpillar