Kindergarten Graduation

Congratulations to Hailey Joy on the completion of her kindergarten year! It feels like it was just weeks ago that I was driving away from this unfamiliar place filled with unfamiliar faces. Now it is difficult to imagine months without bringing Hailey to this wonderful place. I can hardly wrap my mind around how much she has learned this year. She is now a fluent reader, an expert on the planets, the ocean, farms, Arabian culture, God's creation, and math. The other day I heard Hailey say to Taylor "Don't worry Taylor, it is not real, it is fiction."
We are looking forward to the adventures that 1st grade will bring.

Hailey and Mrs. Johnson

Hailey and Julia.

Hailey just lost her second bottom tooth just a few days ago.

Dance Recital

This spring Hailey and her next door friend Olivia decided to take a "Hip Hop" dance class at a near by dance studio. They really enjoyed it and performed their routine last evening. They dance to "Wild Wild West" by Wil Smith. She did a great job!

Taylor also took a dance class that included ballet, tap, and tumbling. She performed both a tap and ballet routine in the recital. Great job Taylor!

The faithful fans!

Carter Update

I just had to get a video of Carter walking in his brace. It has been one week since getting the brace and in one more week we will be getting some more x-rays to check on the status of the break. It was an excellent idea to put on the removable brace. There have been numerous times that I find sand, dirt, rocks in the brace when I take it off for bed or a bath. He does pretty well when the brace is off, but knows very well that it is better to crawl because walking is still pretty painful.
Carter loves to be outside and is very fascinated by animals: squirrels, bunnies, bird, and best of all dogs. In Carter's world they all say "grrrrrr". I officially put Carter's bottle away; kind of sad that his is getting so big. He just has grown up so much in the last couple of months. He seems to understand so much. He is not talking much, but I can tell him so many things and he will do it. He continues to be an excellent sleeper sleeping about 11hours at night with a 3 hour mid-day nap. Food has suddenly become of interest to him once again; this seems to come and go. His love for Taylor is quite obvious. I'm not quite sure why this is. Hailey does seem to "mother" him a bit more and therefore Taylor gets lots of snuggles and open mouthed kisses. Carter does have one down fall and that is he has temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way. He does them by falling to the ground on his stomach then rolling back and forth---The funny thing is that he does them quite gently since he has hurt himself in the past, but feels that he still needs to get his point across.

Memorial Day Weekend

Car Wash

Hailey went for an overnight with her next door friend Olivia. They ended up in the house by 1030--maybe next time.

A Beckering Family sleep over.

The big project. Apparently in 2007 there was a massive wind storm that took down a tree that was on the property line between us and our neighbors. Until this past weekend, it was a massive circle of roots, dirt, and weeds. It was quite the project with five kids running around and "helping", but the end result was great.

Before and after

Broken Boy

What is the diagnosis?
The incident happened at approx 715pm Monday evening. Carter was walking around our patio when his right foot slipped down the patio steps causing him to tumble down the two remaining steps of the patio.
At first I was mainly concerned about the obvious abrasion on his forehead, but later found out that his refusal to stand was the problem at hand.
Carter's right leg had no obvious bruising or redness, however it was very evident that it was very painful for him to stand or walk. We took him in to his pediatrician the following morning where we were told that it was most likely a sprain of some sort that would likely get better on its own. This was not the case. The following day I again took him to the pediatrician where they ordered a series of leg x-rays which showed an obvious distal fibular fracture.
Today we saw the pediatric orthopedic specialist that gave us the option of a removable brace or plaster cast. In light of Carter love for the outdoors we chose the removable brace that can be taken off for naps and baths.
In two weeks we will have a follow-up appointment with the peds ortho group for x-rays and possible removal of the brace.
Carter's sweet personality has been an unbelievable blessing throughout this week. He was very generous with his leg allowing for several exams without crying.

Happenings

Big news! Hailey has lost her first tooth. The level of excitement surrounding this event was rather odd. She danced around the room for an hour after having it pulled. She then made a special box for it and placed it under her pillow. In the morning the she discovered that the Tooth Fairy had left her $2. When asked how the Tooth Fairy got the tooth she promptly told me that "it is very small and has a magic wand that goes through windows. She collects the tooth and uses it to build her castle". She told me all of this at 6:30am the next morning after I asked her why in the world she was up so early. She already spent the money on a bug net and bug house from the $ store.

Today with the crazy, below average temps we headed to the Mall of America for some mini golf. I asked Taylor before we left if she would like to get her ear pierced and she was super excited and not worried in the least about pain. We did it at Claires in the MOA and she did awesome. The one problem was that they couldn't do two at one time. Needless to say the next picture is getting the second ear done; pretty hard after knowing how it feels with the first.

A sucker always makes things better!

Wedding Weekend!

We have arrived back home after experiencing the wonderful wedding event of my younger sister, Ginnie, who married Wil Zobel this past Saturday, May 2nd. It was a great weekend and I can hardly put my head around everything that we accomplished in the past 4 days. I tried to sort through pictures and I know that I will be posting more later, but here is just a start.

Grandpa and Grandma with all nine grandchildren. I sure wish Carter would have cooperated better with pictures!
Four flower girl cousins.

My niece, Cassie and I.

The flower girls and Ginnie showing off their matching slippers.

Very well behaved princesses.

All ready to go at Grandma's house

Getting ready

The beautiful Bride

Getting hair done

Out with the ladies for pedicures and manicures

Shooting Hoops

This is Hailey post-Calvin Fun Fest. She thought the hair spray was awesome.

Carter was doing so well shooting hoops and of course the minute we get out the camera he has to stop and check out the lens.