Happy New Year

Oh, and by the way Happy New Year to everyone!  I can't believe it's already 2013!  Where has the time gone?!!  I am looking forward to a fun year.  We are busy planning our Disney trip for June and I cannot wait to surprise the kids with it!  They are going to be so excited!  Other than that, not too many big plans for us for the new year.  We just plan on having a typical year with everyone in good health and that's perfectly fine with me!!

Christmas

We spent a week in Peru for Christmas this year.  It was a very busy week, but we had a great time spending time with family.  Saturday before Christmas we spent the day with my father in law and step mother in law.  The kids were spoiled and had a great time playing with their new toys, Janet's cat, and uncle Josh!  Sunday, Shana and Jim flew into Indy to spend 5 days in Indiana for Christmas.  It was great seeing them since they hadn't been here for Christmas in years!  Always a fun time when they are here!  Christmas day is our Schrader family Christmas which is always a blast.  Unfortunately there were several sick family members who couldn't make it and we missed having them there!  But, it's always fun catching up with the goings on of all of my cousins and their families.  I love being able to see them all.  It's the best part of the holidays.  Wednesday we got a snow storm....the blizzard of 2012 as they called it.  Peru got maybe 3-4 inches of snow but Indy got around 8 inches.  We weren't sure whether or not Shana and Jim would be able to fly out on Thursday, but their flight was on schedule!  On Saturday, we celebrated my niece, Sydney's, 7th birthday at a pottery place in Peru.  It was lots of fun.  We also got to go watch her and Mason's basketball games that day as well!  They are fun to watch!  Sunday brought the Boettjer family dinner.  There were about 50 people there....all extended family on Parker's dad's side.  It was nice to see so many people that we had not seen in years.  It was a busy, busy week but we had a ton of fun!  I will try and get some pics posted later!

Polar Express

Tomorrow we are taking the kids on the polar express train!  They will be so excited!  It is a surprise and I can't wait to tell them.  They get to listen to a story about the polar express before we leave the Fishers train station.  It travels to the Indiana Transportation Museum (aka North Pole) to see the lights and decorations.  Santa and Mrs. Claus ride the train and visit all the kids.  They also get cookies and hot chocolate on the train.  It will be so much fun!

Blogging

Ok so I really am trying to find the time and creativity to do this whole blogging thing.  It's such a great way for everyone to keep up with the goings on in our family.  I just feel like I have no extra time for it but I am going to try and be a better blogger this coming year!

School's about to begin...

Wow, what a week the past few weeks have been. Getting ready for school to start has been super busy! From shopping for pencils and crayons to pillow cases and new shoes and socks, we have been to just about every store possible!! Mackenzie is so excited to start kindergarten. While, I on the other hand, can't believe my big girl is getting ready to start kindergarten- her school career is about to begin. How can that even be possible? It just seems like yesterday I was cuddling with my first born in the hospital. How could 5, almost 6 years have gone by that quick? I am very excited for her though. She's going to learn so many new and amazing things. I'm excited to see how she progresses as she learns new things this year.

Vaca

Parker and I got to take a trip without the kids to Clearwater/St. Petersburg, FL. to visit Shana and Jim. It was our first trip without the kids in 7 years!! We had a great time. However, by the end of the week we were missing the girls!

Here we are with the Hyatt in the background

The view from our room!

And it wouldn't be complete without an awesome pic of the beach!

New baby

I am so thrilled to say that I am going to have a new niece or nephew. Lauren called yesterday to tell me that she's pregnant with baby #3!! Yay! She is due approx. Dec. 5, 2011. We are praying for a healthy, happy baby! Congrats to the Barnes clan!

I know I haven't been on here in a while, but if you look at my blog every now and again then I hope you do now. This little guy needs many prayers. The picture is a little old. He's actually 18 months right now. He's the son of my friend at work who had to have open heart surgery the day after he was born. He also had open heart surgery again in December. Well, he went to his 2 month post op visit and they found that the pressure in his heart has not gone down like it should have. He had a sleep study done to see if he has sleep apnea (which can raise the pressure in your heart). If he does, then he will have his tonsils and adenoids taken out. If not, then they wait another 2 months to go back to the cardiologist. If at that time the pressure in his heart hasn't gone down or gotten worse, he will be diagnosed with pulmonary artery hypertension which is terminal. He would only live to his teens or 20's. Please pray for healing for this little guy's heart! He needs a miracle right now!

The girls outside with their pumpkins.

Mackenzie helping clean out the inside of the pumpkin

Ariel and my little Monkey!

What a month it has been!

Mackenzie's 1st Day of Ballet

1st Day of Preschool

Peyton exhausted the day after her 2nd birthday party!

Peyton's 2nd Birthday!

Our Big Week

Wow, what a big week it has been for us! Mackenzie started preschool yesterday at Legacy Christian School. She has been so excited about going to school and all the new things she will learn. We had talked about it every day for about 2 weeks leading up to the big day so that she would be prepared for what would happen. I thought she would be nervous about the fact that Mommy wasn't going to walk her into school and take her to her classroom. At her school, they have a drop off line so you just pull up to the school and they have a bunch of teachers out there to take the kids out of the car and walk them into school. It was so sad to see my once little baby now walking into school for her first day of preschool. She has grown up so fast. I think that day was harder on me than her! She had so much fun that day though. She even met a new friend but couldn't remember her friend's name!
Today she started ballet class. Her class is half tap and half ballet. They have a waiting area for all of the parents and siblings to watch outside of the ballet room. The windows are such that you can see in but they can't see out as to not distract the kids. It was so cute watching her. The past 2 days have made me realize how much she has grown up in the past year and what a big girl she is now. She's not the shy little 2 year old that she was only 3 short years ago where she wouldn't leave mommy's side let alone talk to someone she has never met before.
On top of that, Peyton had her 2 year check up. The doctor was happy with her development and how well she communicates. She speaks so much better than Mackenzie did at her age. She has been speaking in sentences for months now. Her stats are:

weight: 27 lbs. 14 oz. (75th percentile)
height: 34" (50th percentile)

I don't think she will be as tall as Mackenzie but we'll see! So far she's falling behind what Mackenzie was at her age for height.

I will post pictures this weekend hopefully!

Fun in the Sun

So, I guess I'm not very good at this blogging thing! It has been so long since I have posted anything on here. Not much has happened since my last post. The girls are growing like weeds! Peyton learns more everyday from her big sister. She's such a talker now. Mackenzie teaches her so many words....some better than others! We went on a family vacation to South Carolina in April. It was so much fun. Mackenzie had a blast at the beach and this was Peyton's first trip to the beach. She didn't care for the water as much as Mackenzie did at her age!

In a few months we will be preparing to send Mackenzie to preschool. I can't believe my little girl will be 5 this year and already a preschooler! How time flies. She will love it though. She's such a smart little girl....I'm a little biased though!

I will update with some new photos of the girls soon.

My little walker

Don't know why this is sideways. I couldn't figure out how to flip it. But anyways, here's a little video of Peyton walking!

I'm back!!

Wow, it has been forever since I have posted anything on our blog! So much has happened since I last posted. We have had the holidays and are almost to spring. Christmas time was so exciting this year for Mackenzie. She was really into Santa Claus coming to deliver her presents and helping with the Christmas tree. It was so much fun to relive the excitement of Christmas through the eyes of a child. New Years was spent at Lauren's house celebrating Sydney's 4th birthday. We had lots of fun. It's hard to believe the girls are 4. How time flies! Fast forward to this past week....Peyton finally started walking!!! Yay! We never thought it would happen because up until this week she really didn't care about walking and had no want to even try it half the time. But this week she decided she was going to do it and boy is she such a good walker now! We've also been researching preschools for Mackenzie for next year. I can't believe my little girl is ready for preschool. How sad! She is such a smart girl and has been really into learning her letters and writing them and her name. It's so fun to see her grow and learn.

Today we went to the pediatrician for Peyton's 15 month check up and Mackenzie's 4 yr old check up. Everything went very well. Here are their stats:

Mackenzie:
weight: 42 lbs (80th percentile)
height: 42 1/2" (95th percentile)

Peyton:
weight: 24 lbs. (85th percentile)
height: 31 1/2" (80th percentile)

Peyton didn't grow a whole lot from her last appointment at 12 months. She is about a pound and an inch behind what Mackenzie was at her age. Mackenzie grew like 3 or 4 inches in the last year. She's growing like a weed! I think she's going to be tall and skinny! Dr. Kain said she's really tall for her age. Not surprising since her Grandpa Black is like 6'5"! Peyton also had to get 3 shots today which she cried the entire time, but big sis Mackenzie was right there by her side consoling her! It was so cute!!

One Crazy Week

I know I haven't been on our blog in such a long time. It has been the craziest week this week. It's hard to believe that last week was Thanksgiving. So let's start at the beginning.....last Thursday was Thanksgiving. We had a great day with our families, spending time laughing and talking. It was also somewhat of a sad day since that was the last time we got to see Shana and Jim before they set out to move to the sunshine state of Florida. We will miss them living so close to us and having all of our Sunday cook outs in the summer. Moving on to Saturday....Parker's Grandma Rosie passed away. What a sweet lady! And boy could she talk your ear off. She always had a story to tell or something to say. So then we had to work Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday brought in the cold, rainy weather and Grandma Rosie's viewing. Such a sad time and it didn't look like the Grandma Rosie we all remember. Thursday was the funeral and burial. Not exactly a good day to say the least. So today we decide we are going to run errands and then go get our Christmas tree. We always to go the Boy Scouts Christmas tree stand in Fishers at Marsh. Cheap live trees and the money goes to the Boy Scouts. So we get home, get it in the stand, and takes about an hour or so to decorate it. Then all of a sudden we hear a loud crash only to find out the tree had fallen over and ornaments were scattered onto the floor- some of them were broken. So we rig it back up and tie it to the window!! Dad would be so proud! There were so many trees when I was a kid that we had to do that to keep the tree up. I think Dad became a pro at keeping the tree standing. So, needless to say, I think next year we will have an artificial tree!!! Maybe tomorrow morning I will tackle redecorating it!

Halloween

The girls had fun trick or treating on Halloween. Or should I say...Mackenzie had fun on Halloween. Peyton didn't really care about Halloween. She just wanted out of her Elmo costume. It was soooo cute though!!

Diaper change

Mackenzie wanted to be a little mommy and help me out by changing Peyton's diaper. So, I let her just to see how she would do because she is so good at changing her baby's diapers. I wanted her to see that it isn't as easy changing a moving baby!! She actually did a pretty good job and Peyton just smiled and had a great time. Mackenzie is such a great helper!

Mackenzie's self haircut

Here's the nice new hairdo that Mackenzie gave herself last week. She decided to take it upon herself to cut her bangs. Isn't it so pretty?!!