The Wagners

Monday, April 30, 2012

The Latest

Here's what we've been up to lately:

Swinging

Hanging out with Daddy in the shop

Helping Daddy with the tractors

Playing while mommy makes dinner

Swinging at the park near Grandma's house

So tired

The grass isn't so bad

Dollhouse people and cars are fun to play with

Coye's new bottom teeth

Happy birthday Grandpa!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

I know it's been way too long since my last blog post. In my defense, we had computer problems for about a week and a half so I didn't even have my computer to use. Now I'm working on getting caught up on things and blogging has been on my list for several weeks. I just don't know where the time goes and why I don't seem to have enough time during the day to get things done. Hmmm....maybe children have something to do with it? :)

Easter this year was different than it's been in the past, mostly due to the fact that mom and dad live closer. It was so nice to go to their house and eat dinner rather than having to host it myself. The kids and I went down the Saturday before Easter to color eggs and visit. We stayed most of the afternoon but then had to leave before dinner to go and pick up Danielle from the train. Easter morning we woke up and went to Easter breakfast and church at St. Paul's, and then drove to mom and dad's. The weather was beautiful and sunny, so the girls were able to hunt for Easter eggs outside. They loved it! We even got to walk down to the park near the lake and sit there while the girls played some.

Gabe and Coye - Gabe still loves to pull Coye's hair

Coye was supposed to be decorating his Easter egg but decided that the crayon was better used for chewing

Waiting for the egg to turn pink

The boys played with placemats while we colored eggs.

Scott and Aubrey

Gabe - he's such a cheeser

Part of the Wagner cousins (Edwin, Aubrey, Chloe, Sophia, Coye, and Clare) - Ang and I didn't plan their outfits, but they sure coordinate well!

Edwin and Coye

Our family

Sitting on the front steps at mom and dad's

Gabe and Coye

My three

Mom and dad with the grandkids

Hannah and Gabe

Coye's Easter basket

The girls' Easter baskets and presents

Hunting Easter eggs

They found them all.

Gabe's birthday cake

Gabe really enjoyed his cake!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

My Birthday

Last week it was my birthday. I feel like we've been celebrating birthdays for the past month, so I opted to not make myself a birthday cake. It was pretty low key, which was fine with me. I had lunch with a good friend at a local Chinese restaurant. It was delicious and fun to go out to eat and only have the two boys. I made manicotti for supper and then opened presents. The girls each wrapped up a picture they made me. They have gotten to be quite good at wrapping gifts. Calvin got me a TV for our bedroom. (I secretly think he wanted it for himself and just disguised it as a gift for me.) I was pleasantly surprised and am excited for him to get it hooked up and working. My birthday was on a Thursday, so my parents and my sister and her friend came up on Saturday to babysit the kids while Calvin and I went to dinner by ourselves. It was so nice to go out just the two of us - we hadn't done that since Coye's been born. When we got home, they had made me a birthday cake so we did some more celebrating. All in all, it was a good birthday.

Growth Board

I love Pinterest. It has some great ideas. One idea that I found a while ago was to make a growth chart using a 1x4 that you then measure your kids and record their heights. This way you don't have to do it on a wall. I loved this idea but just hadn't found the time to get it done. Plus I had to wait for Calvin to remember to get me a board. We were finally in Menards about a month ago together and got a board. Luckily for me they were staining trim for a job and Calvin stained it for me. I then measured off inch marks and marked them with some tool that Calvin had and a Sharpie. After tracing on the numbers, it was ready to be varnished. Again I lucked out. Eileen was working on her trim for the shop so she gave the board two coats of varnish. It looked great, but Calvin really didn't want to screw it to the wall, so I found some command strips that were supposed to hold up to 16 pounds and Calvin attached it to the wall with those. I love how it turned out and am excited to have a visual that we can look at and see how much the kids grow.

10 Months Old!

I'm a little late in posting this but just last week Coye turned 10 months old! I know I say this every month but I just can't believe how fast this little boy is growing. Last year at this time he was still inside my belly and now he's a mobile machine getting into everything. Here's what he's been up to this month:

He finally gained some weight and now weighs 18 pounds 2 ounces. All that getting up in the middle of the night paid off. :)
He loves yogurt! Hannah brought me some Yo Baby yogurt that he loves, but I also just blend various fruits with plain yogurt and he loves that too.
He's starting to eat more finger foods and food that is cut up into small pieces. He will eat toast, cheese, carrots, peaches, pears, bananas, crackers, peas, and other small items.
He can now feed himself. This is huge because now we can put food on his tray and he can feed himself instead of you having to put each bite in his mouth. Sometimes it backfires though and he shoves too much in and then gags because his mouth is too full.
He likes to stand up next to everything. He'll crawl over to something and then pull himself up so that he can stand next to it.
He loves to play in the garbage cans, so most of the time, they are put up and out of his reach.
Paper is a close second of top things to play with.
He's started throwing things - food, blocks, balls, socks . . . and he loves to play catch. You roll the ball to him and then he can pick it up and throw it back to you. It's quite cute!
He still gets up in the middle of the night at least once if not twice. I need to work on breaking him of this habit, but it's so much easier just to nurse him back to sleep and I'm still struggling with figuring out if he's waking up because he's hungry or if he just wants someone with him.
The girls love him dearly and continue to fight over who gets to talk to him, play with him, sit by him at meal times, etc.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Happy Birthday Aubrey!

On March 2nd, Aubrey turned 6. Just as I said with Chloe, I can't believe that Aubrey is 6 years old. She's gotten so big and grown so much. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that she is now as old as the kids I used to teach when I taught first and second grade. It doesn't seem possible that she could be this old already! She has gotten taller and lankier. According to the nurse at her well check, she is 45 inches tall and weighs 41 pounds, which is up 3 inches and 4 pounds from last year at this time. (Although when I measure her she's only about 44 inches and only weighs 38 pounds.) She is definitely an oldest child - her bossiness comes out quite frequently, especially when dealing with Chloe. She often wants Chloe to do things her way, and then gets upset when Chloe refuses. She continues to be very sensitive and can be found in tears when she gets hurt or things don't go her way. (This only occurs at home though - she's pretty tough at school.) She loves to be a helper and LOVES to take care of her brother. She can't wait until she's old enough to carry him around. :) She loves school and has learned so much this year. Her handwriting is gorgeous and the sentences she makes up with the words they are learning is amazing! Last weekend I was folding clothes and told her to read me a book while I did it. She picked up an easy reader chapter book and read me the whole thing. I only had to help her with a handful of words. She's such a sponge and just continues to soak everything in. I'm so proud of her and the things she is accomplishing and learning!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Aubrey and Chloe's Birthday Party

The end of February we had a birthday party for the girls together. They chose an Ariel themed birthday party. I always make a cake that goes along with their theme, but this year I really struggled to find a cake that I liked that was possible for me to do. After lots of internet searching, I finally found a cake that would work. It ended up being my favorite cake that I've made so far. We had family over for dinner following church and then presents and cake. The girls loved playing with their cousins and had a great time opening their presents.