High Five for Friday...but mostly Luke!

This week has been filled with lots of High Fives for Luke!

#1
Celebrating Luke's Birthday with Beckmanns/Moyers

Each February, Luke chooses an activity for my side of the family to do together in honor of his birthday.  This year's activity was ice skating.  Luke and Nora both gave it a shot for the first time.  It was rough going for Luke,  but he kept with it.  Nora made it around the rink once with one hand on the wall and one hand on Daddy's, then she decided she'd had enough.  Bridget and Ross even got Piper (18 months) on skates:)  Ross still wins for the most natural and comfortable on skates;)  It was a fun outing and new adventure for the kids.

Piper's first skates:)

Nora was adorable in her little skates!

Needing a little support

Go Piper! 

Happy boys:)

I always appreciate when I get a pic with my boy:)

#2
School Conferences

Tuesday night we had Luke's second conference for fourth grade.  He's doing great, making strides in all subjects, and was complimented generously by his teacher.  Specifically,  she said he follows directions well and that he's a quiet leader, meaning he leads classmates by example.  We are so very proud!

#3
Terrific Kids Award Recipient

Wednesday morning, Luke was also surprised, along with a few other kids in each grade, with a Terrific Kid Award for exhibiting good manners at school.   Gibbs Elementary focuses on different character traits each month and then students in each grade are recognized as examples of those traits.  It's always a surprise for the kids and the teachers secretly invite the parents to the assembly.  Even more to be proud of with our boy!

Getting his award from his principal and teacher

Recipients from kindergarten, second, and fourth grades

Man, he's looking grown up!

Luke's cheering squad:)

Certificate with comments from his teacher

#4

Celebrating Luke's Birthday with Pickers

Instead of throwing a birthday party this year, Luke decided he wanted to bring his cousins, Mekhi and Ethan skiing.  We opened the invite to the rest of the family and nearly everyone joined us (no Papa, Gma, Troy, Alaina, Nora).  We had a beautiful night at Welch Village and skied right up to closing time.   It was Brent and Audra's first time skiing since they were in high school, Ethan's first time snowboarding on a ski hill, Luke's second time skiing, and everyone survived without injury and improved throughout the evening:)  Luke and Mekhi even ended the night on a black diamond!  A good time was had by all:)

Chairlift fun

So proud of my man for coming...he was nervous getting back on skis.  Plus we had lots of fun:)

Looks like I was riding the chairlift with a couple of zombies;)

These two were partners in crime on the hills.

My guys

Tired boys after several hours of skiing/snowboarding

#5
Move In Date!

We finally (for this planner) have an official move in date!  This Picker crew will become Stewartville residents on March 15!!!  The house is quickly coming together.  This week we got paint on the trim and walls, cabinet doors/drawers, and light fixtures.

#6 Bonus!

Brent's city league basketball team won the league championship game on Thursday.

High Five for Friday

We're getting to the final stretch in the completion of our new house, so lots of our High Fives this week are house related:)

#1 Furniture Shopping

Before we moved out of our house last fall, we sold some of our living room and kitchen furniture with the intention of getting something different for the new house.  Last weekend we ordered a sectional for the downstairs living room and a couch, love seat, and chair for the upstairs living room. 

The kids hanging together at the furniture store:)

#2 Cabinets in the House

This week all of the cabinets were installed in the house.  It's so fun seeing it all coming together!  

Kitchen
(The separate cabinets to the left of the island are actually
for the laundry room, but haven't been installed yet.)

#3  These Two

I just love seeing them sleep, snuggled up together:)

#4  Luke Turns Ten

#5  Nora's Dance

Nora finished her six week dance class.  She had lots of fun and it was very sweet to watch her:)  A quick little video to see her in action.

And, a couple other cute pics from the week...

Luke and Nora exploring the new cabinets:)
Luke asked, "Are you going to have shelves in here?"
He wanted to know if he could fit in them once they were finished.

Nora requested a pic with Spot at Target

These two are becoming very sweet friends:)
Piper loves Nora and likes to do everything she does.
She came to sit next to her, Nora reading and Piper on the calculator:)

A Decade

Today, we celebrate a decade with our boy!

I was feeling a little sentimental so I created a collage to show his growth and changes through the years.  I could really see a difference between years 6-7 and 8-9 (though that could just be the hair;))

At ten years, you are...

• A polite and considerate boy
• A wonderful big brother
• A dedicated student who self-initiates homework and extends himself in Math Masters and non-verbal GATE (Gifted and Talented Education for math and science)
• An active and sports-minded boy who loves watching, playing, and talking basketball and football
• Very responsible.  You remember to clean and wear your retainer every night and remind me mos of the time to take your allergy pills.  
• A handsome boy (I know you don't like to hear it, but you are;))
• A gamer.  When you're not playing sports or doing homework, you're likely to be found on your tablet playing apps and games or playing sports on the Xbox
• Desire a lot of daddy time, but I get occasional random side hugs, "I love yous", and compliments on meals.  
• Have lots of deep thoughts and share them with us on occasion.  You were very intrigued by your matter unit in Science which lead to some interesting questions about the universe and things unseen.
• 4 feet, 8 inches tall and  82.6 pounds (for the record, Nora is 3 feet, 4 inches and 34.8 pounds...she didn't want to be left out) and clearly growing quickly because we had to buy you new pants twice this winter!
• Into: basketball cards, football cards, Michigan sports, logic and math puzzles, crossword puzzles, and reading a variety of books
• Happiest when doing any of your favorite things with your cousins, Mekhi and Ethan:)
• Beginning to have more preferences on your clothing and shopping with me for them
• A frugal boy.  We recently noticed that your wallet still had gift cards in it from the past year as well as cash from gifts.  We did a little shopping today and you were very selective of what was worth your gift money 
• An incredible blessing to our family and we are beyond blessed to call you ours

We love you, Luke!

High Five for Friday!

T'was a good week...which makes it hard to limit to only five highlights!

#1
Facebook Fast

As part of my non-food fasts for Lent, I've decided to fast from Facebook (with two exceptions :a Bible study group I'm in and following our friend's adoption journey while they're in Uganda).  I started on Tuesday night and really felt the difference Thursday morning for the first time.  I truly save a lot of time not scrolling through updates each morning (it's part of my breakfast routine each day).  I was running so ahead of schedule that I was thinking of other things I could accomplish before heading to work for the day.  This never happens.  I'm not a morning person so I sleep as long as I can and then I'm on a tight docket until the kids and I leave for work/school/daycare.  As I should have suspected, I am finding more time on my hands without Facebook.

#2
Date Night

Brent and I got a date night...on a Monday night.  Again, this never happens.  I had been craving Mexican for a month and we finally got a chance to go!  After dinner, we headed out for massages I had scheduled.  It was a lovely night and nice to relax together on a weeknight.

#3
Michigan Game

This high five is Luke's alone.  Luke, Mekhi, Ethan, and Papa Kerry were all given tickets to the Michigan vs Minnesota basketball game for Christmas from Greg and Cally and the date finally arrived!  Papa drove the Rochester boys to the cities and met up with Mekhi and Greg.  The boy cousins love being together, so a gift for them to have time together is such a blessing:)

#4
Family Date Night

Last weekend ended up being a quiet weekend around home, which was lovely and unplanned.  We took the kids to Kung Fu Panda 3.  It was a nice night together and the movie was very cute.

#5
Luke's Birthday

We couldn't hold out until Luke's birthday next week.  We decided to give him his gift tonight, so Papa and Gma joined in too:)  We can hardly believe our sweet boy will be 10 next week, but it's just so fun to celebrate how very special he is to us.

A few random pics from the week...

Luke standing in the newly tiled shower!

Nora made a bed on the floor and started reading books to her stuffed animals

Awww, I love capturing snuggles

Nora created a game today: sort a deck of cards by suit then
line them up in numeric order.  She was so proud and loved
 teaching me the game!

House Dreaming

We're getting to the final stretch of building our new home in Stewartville!  (More on moving here and here.)  That exclamation point is used with excited apprehension as we don't have a move in date set, but things are moving quickly and we're anxious to move in.  All signs are pointing to a move in date of mid-March, but many contractors and supply orders need to align to make that a reality.

While we wait (I'm trying so hard to be patient), I have been thinking of some of the things that I am most excited for in the new house.

• A mud room!  This was one thing that we really couldn't change or add to our old house.  I am looking forward to having a separate entrance from the garage into the house that our family can use daily and use to store every day items (backpacks, sports bags, snow gear, etc). 
• A recycling bin in the kitchen!  Simple right?  Well, I'm excited:)  I am pretty serious about recycling and am looking forward to it being even easier for our family (read: Brent, you have no excuse not to recycle your cereal boxes now;))
• A soaker tub!  I really love taking baths in the winter and it will be so nice to have a deep, soaker tub in our master bath.
• A fireplace!  I cannot wait to have a gas fireplace in the basement living space.  It will be so cozy for Minnesota winters!
• Storage!  We had minimal storage in our old kitchen and I am very excited for the extra kitchen storage in the new house.  We'll also have cabinets in the laundry room, cabinets around the fireplace, a third garage stall, and a storage/utility room in the basement.  Sometimes I even imagine where I'll store things in the new house.  Yep, I'm that excited by organization.  I recently read a book on organizing...just to solidify my nerdiness for you:)

There isn't much left for us to choose or work on for the house, so now we wait and hope to be in sooner than later!:)

Exterior as of February 6

A Trip Down Memory Lane

New Year's Day 2016 started off with a really fun night!  A friend of ours from high school (Brett) got married and we got to spend the evening catching up with a few other high school friends (Matt, Isaac, and Micah) and their parents.

We get to see Brett occasionally since he lives in Rochester, but we haven't seen Matt since Luke was a baby, Isaac since our 10 year class reunion, and Micah...I'm not sure how long that had been.  We also got to hang out with Matt's parents, Gert and Janet, and Isaac's parents, Mark and Cheryl.  We spent A LOT of time at Gert and Janet's throughout high school. They are great people and opened their home and fridge to us always:)  We even got to know their next door neighbors well since we were there so much.  I didn't spend as much time with Mark and Cheryl, but Brent spent LOTS of time with Mark, since he was the varsity basketball coach at Mayo High School.  They're also a lovely couple and it was great catching up with them.

Janet and Gert, Mark and Cheryl

Brent, Isaac, Matt

Brent, Brett (groom), Matt, Isaac

Brent, Brett, Matt, Isaac, and Me 

Guys with Coach Kieffer

Guys with Mark and Cheryl

Guys with Janet and Gert

Guys with Doug (Brett's Dad)

Guys (add Micah) with Cindy (Brett's mom)

While we were at Gert and Janet's after the wedding, we found some fun, old pictures of the guys too:)

Matt is #33, Micah is #31, and our friend, Luke,
who grew up in Rochester is #23

Same team as above, Matt in the back row,
Luke and Micah in the front row

Brett, Brent, Matt, Isaac, Micah at Senior Homecoming Dance

There were a few things about the night that really stuck out to me.

• It was awesome to see Brett find a lovely girl to spend the rest of his life with.  
• Fifteen years out of high school makes a big difference.  I remember seeing friends from high school while we were in our early 20s and it honestly felt more like a comparison/competition to see who was at what school, getting what degree, etc than actually enjoying each other's company.  Seeing Matt, Isaac, and Micah (Brett was pretty busy with the wedding;)) was nothing like that.  We genuinely enjoyed our time together, learned new things about each other, and reminisced.  It was wonderful.
• Fifteen years also skews the memory:)  Matt, Isaac, Gert, and Janet were all recalling a night in the winter that the guys decided to camp outside.  It stuck out to them because there was also a call to the cops involved, but Brent didn't remember a thing.  Everyone swore he was there, but he had no recollection.  It's tough getting old;)
• I was reminded how blessed and amazed I am that Brent and I met at such a young age and have made a life together for the past 12 years.  I am so grateful for the path we've taken together and the family we've been blessed with in Luke and Nora.  

There is a recent country song called, I Got the Boy, by Jana Kramer, that makes me think of Brent and I.  I got the boy, in eighth grade, but I also got the man.  I am truly blessed.