Emmie is 6!

Our little stinker is 6!  Em keeps us laughing and also keeps us on our toes.  

 Tiger trot (it was on the rain date) was on Emmie's birthday this year which was super fun!

 MOST LAPS! :)

Dear Emmie, Zoom, Zoomie, Zuma, Ems, Emma,

Oh girl you are something else!  You are a silly, goofy, strong, loving, caring, smart, sensitive, leader!  Your laugh is the best and you have always acted older than you should!!!  You have been going to Jefferson for morning kindergarten and Roosevelt for afternoon kindergarten.  You eat lunch at school and you take bus.  You are a big girl!!!  You like school and have adjusted really well.  You are in class with Brenley and you two have become very close.  Ella is still one of your best friends as well and you two are hilarious together!  You started doing gymnastics and are taking piano lessons.  You love to sing, dance, act and be dramatic.  You also love makeup and getting your nails done.  You don't like being told "no" and we are working on having you cry less when you don't get your way.  You are quite the artist.  You love to draw and you have some natural talent!  You love to create and follow how to draw videos.  You also love Youtube and we have to set a limit for you because you would stay on way too long!!  You are a great runner and you and Brenley got the most laps at Tiger Trot on your birthday! :)  You are one awesome girl who we adore so very much!!

6 Year Old Emmie's Favorites:
Food: Mac and cheese
Candy: Nerds
Ice Cream: Mint Choc. Chip
Movie: Zombies
Song: Shotgun
Color: Blue
Sport: Gymnastics
Game: Tic Tac Toe
Subject: Art
Book: Plant A Kiss
Animal: Dolphin

Love you Emmie girl!!!
Mom

Dane is 9

 Pizza before the game at Dags!

Tips for the boys

Pregame huddle....

Dane has one request for his birthday - sports!  We looked into several ideas, then thought about heading to a Maine South Football game.  We had pizza before the game and then headed over for a special pre-game surprise.  The boys had a great time!

Dear Dane (Train),

Our boy is 9!  You are a very determined boy who is full of heart!  You continue to LOVE sports and it's your favorite thing to with your friends and with dad.  You have been playing lots of baseball and you made the all-star team this year which was super fun.  You pitch and play first base most of the time and you do a great job.  You can be hard on yourself as you want to be your best for your teammates.  You've been enjoying 3rd grade and you are in class with many of your good buddies!  Luca, Finn and Dane are back together (you were together in Kindergarten too) along with Rocco, Sully, Constantine and Bennett.  You are also in math with Mrs. Buti and you have been learning math at a very fast pace.  Your confidence is something you can always work on - you are so capable in so many ways!!  You are very fortunate at how most things come pretty easy to you.  You've been into golf since you were very young and your golf skills are really good as well.  You and dad love golfing together and dad says you will beat him in just a few years.  

9 year old Dane's Favorite Things:

Food - Ribs

TV-Show - Dude Perfect/That's Amazing

Book - Stink/Magic Misfits

Subject - Health

Color - Pink and lime green

Candy - Reeses and Skittles

Sport- Basketball and Golf

Sports Teams- Warriors, Saints, Chiefs, Bears, Bulls

Athletes - Steph Curry, Rondal Moore, Carsen Edwards, Klay Thompson, Alvin Kamara, Micheal Thomas, Drew Brees

We love you so much and we are so SUPER proud of you.  Keep smiling that big Dane smile and remember to keep it right upstairs!

Love, Mom 

New School Year

What a rainy first day of school!!

 Emmie's locker

Here we are soaking wet afterschool!  What a crazy start to the school year.

Happy 10th Birthday Maddie!

 A JoJo Siwa birthday party sleepover with your friends!  You can see your tired eyes at dinner the next night!

Dear Maddie,

You are double digits!!  That's crazy!  You've been such a sweetheart these past years and we love the young lady you are growing into.  People are constantly telling us how you care for others, have good manners and are a role model to younger girls.  You have patience, creativity and get along with everyone.  Your teacher, Mrs. McCoy, said that you are the child that she hopes her kids turn out to be like.  (May have made dad tear up!)  As far as friendships go, you've continued to maintain old relationships and gain new friends as well.  You don't like when your friends aren't getting along with each other and try to bring everyone together.   As far as activities go, you enjoy piano, singing, dancing, cheerleading, gymnastics, tennis, running, battle of the books, roller blading, golf and swimming.  You like to be busy and busy you are!!  You don't know what it means to be bored as you can always find something to do and someone to play with.  You still love Mandy and have your "friends" that you sleep with.  You are one all around awesome and amazing kid and we are blessed to call you our daughter.

So much love for you!
Mom and Dad

Happy Birthday Emmie!

Dear Emerson (Ems, Emmie, Zoom, Zoomie, Little Zoom),

You are something else!!  You make us laugh every day.  You are so funny and also super strong willed!  Makes for quite the combination.  You are going to school at Edison Park this year and you are with Charlie and a bunch of new friends.  Ella and Brynley are your best friends.  You love to dance and sing and take after Maddie in many ways.  You two are super close sisters and you play well together.  You absolutely ADORE baby Mack!  You can't get enough of him and think he is the cutest baby ever.  You also love your baby dolls and are a good "mommy" to them.  You enjoy taking long baths and play with your Barbies in the bath.  You tell me that you want to be a mommy when you grow up.  In some ways you are older than your age because you want to keep up with Maddie and Dane.  You watch what they watch and want to do what they do.  You do enjoy Team Umi Zoomi and Barbie movies and will pick out those DVD's to watch in the car.  In other ways, you want to stay the baby and love being held.  You've learned to ride a bike without training wheels and you are quite coordinated.  You love books and enjoy picking them out from the library.  You are into Pete the Cat books, Disney books and are starting to get into Fancy Nancy.  You are great at coloring and love making pictures.  You are getting great at your letters and we are working on reading.  You also enjoy cooking and baking with me and like to help out most of the time.  You are good about getting rid of things that you don't play with anymore and you don't like when your room gets messy.  You often tell Maddie that she is the messiest (and that's correct)!  You are a very loving girl and you love to cuddle.  We are very proud of you Miss Emmie!!!!

Happy 8th Birthday Dane

Dear Dane (Train, The Train, Bro, D-Train),

Happy birthday to my determined, caring, creative,  kind, mature, silly, intelligent boy.  You are loving 2nd grade and are with a bunch of new friends.  You are into reading books about sports and are naturally good at math.  Flag football is new to you this year and you absolutely love it.  You are on Team Alabama with Coach Eli.  You've spent many recesses playing football with your friends, so you were so ready to get out there and play.  You have good hands and love being QB.  You are a kind brother to your sisters although you and Emmie can get into it in both fun and funny ways.    You like to create things and you get ideas that are totally original.  You sport your pink shoes in basketball and everyone takes notice of you and you own it.  This year you spent your birthday in St. Louis on our way to Big Cedar Lodge/Table Rock Lake/Branson.  You loved having time with your buddy, Conlin.  You wanted a football party for your birthday, so that is what we had!  You had many great ideas, split the teams and it was super fun!  All the boys came back for Papa Johns Pizza and long john donuts from Dunkin Donuts - your choice of course!

We could not be more proud of you for so many reasons.  We love you so so much Dane Train!!!!!! 

New School Year!

Happy 9th Birthday Maddie

 

Dear Maddie,

Happy 9^th Birthday to my sweet big girl!  May you always be as fun loving as you are right now!  People often comment that you are such a nice girl and so polite. It makes it very easy to be your parents!  For your 9^th birthday, you wanted to go to AG Place.  You’ve had this in mind for many months!  You continue to do well in school and you seem to be friendly with everyone.  You often play with the girls in your class.  You have become close with Jill, Hannah and Mia.  You still have your old buddies, like Arianna, Sophia, Charlotte and Karin.  You love to do arts and crafts and you still express your creative side often.  When a Maddie project comes along, it often involves a mess – Maddienado is still in effect!  Since you have so many awesome qualities, we are trying to embrace you along with your messiness!!  If that’s the biggest concern, we are in good shape with you!  You can be a very hyper girl and can be very silly.  You can also have a side that is a bit shy, but your closest friends acknowledge you can be CRAZY and loud.  You enjoy dance, gymnastics and dance and you keep busy afterschool.  You and dad have a silly bedtime routine and you try to take him down.  You are a pretty strong girl and he says it’s getting harder to not get tackled by you!  You often wear your hair up with a big Jojo bow in it.  You like bright clothes and you have a fun Maddie style.  You like Justice clothes, flip shirts and mermaid and unicorn themes.  You still have MANY friends you like to sleep with and you don’t like to get rid of anything!  Mandy is still your most special and you take her to every campout and sleepover.  You love your family so much.  You and grandpa especially have a special bond (always have!) and you and Emmie call each other besties.  You and Dane has always been close and although you have different interests, you still find ways to play together.  We love our Maddie so very much!!!  I still call you Moo, moods and moodles – funny which names end up sticking! J  LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Stats:

Weight – 59.6lbs (35%)

Height – 4’6” (75%)

BMI: 13%

Some of your favorites:

At school: Art Class

At home: Playing AG girls with Emerson, Play dates, gymnastics

Food: Sushi

Sport: Gymnastics and running

Team: Purdue

Movie: You aren’t a big movie girl, you do like to go to the theatre, but once you watch a movie you don’t desire to watch it again! 

Show: Liv and Maddie

Song: Any song by JoJo Siwa

Book: You’ve been into Just Grace books this year

Happy 4th Birthday Emerson!

Dear Emerson,

My baby is 4 years old and I can’t believe it!  You love being the youngest in the family and happily pretend to be a baby or tell us things you did when you were a baby.  At the same time, you love being with older kids and are not dependent on me at all.  You are super good at making friends and ask for play dates all of the time.  You are a silly and mostly happy girl though you are still a little quick to cry at home. 

You love to sing and dance.  You take dance class with your friend to Brenley and you love it!  You like to dress fancy for class and show us your dance moves.  You would love to do gymnastics too and are strong like your brother and sister.  You are quite dramatic and like to make us laugh.  Maddie has influenced you!  On the other hand, you like to play sports like Dane too!  You like football and enjoy chasing and tackling your brother and daddy. 

You did 2 year old preschool last year and are doing 4 day a week 3 year old preschool this year.  You like school and are always happy to go and see your friends.  While at school you love learning new things and enjoy doing art projects.  You also like dolls, imaginary play and singing school songs.  The only thing you don’t love is chapel day on Wednesday and I think part of the reason is because you have to wear your polo shirt.  You change out of it the second that you get home! 

When you are at home, you love taking baths!  You would take 2 baths a day if I would let you.  You always have your Barbies and toys and have the Barbies talk to each other.  Many times, I will ask you what you want and you will tell me, “I’m just playing with my girls!”  You also like play dough a lot and also will pull out paint.  You have been into dress ups off and on and like playing with little figurines.  You love to play and I love to watch you play! 

You are a good helper and always want to help me with baking or adding in the cheese for the mac and cheese.  When it’s time to eat breakfast, you like to sit on daddy’s lap and ask for his food.  You goof around together at breakfast time and it’s funny.  You tend to like your things to be organized and are good at putting shoes or toys away. I hope this continues!   You still like to sleep with your blankie at night and if you do nap (in the stroller only at this point), your blankie helps you cuddle up and get cozy.  You are an early riser and are almost always the first kid up in the morning.  You tend to get up between 5:50 and 6:10.  You come into our room and climb into bed with us.  Maddie is usually up shortly after you and sometimes you cuddle up in the chair and watch a show together.

Toy: Barbie

At school: Sand table

At home: Play with Barbies

Food: Mac and cheese, bunny soup and goldfish

Sport: basketball

Color: Pink

Book: Princess books and Pete the Cat

Movie: Barbie – Princess and the Popstar

Show: Paw Patrol and Team Umizoomi

Song: Downtown by Kidzbop

Best friends: Aubrey, Ella, Brenley, Cal, Charlie, Nico Guacamole, Baby Mack

Favorite thing to do with mommy - “Make some mac and cheese, baby!”

Favorite thing to do with dad: “Going in the car with dad with super loud music and having a dance party.”

Favorite Maddie – playing AG dolls

Dane – Play Hatchimals

Stats

Weight – 35.2 (53%)

Height- 40.75% (73%)

BMI 15 (36%)

BP – 104/38

You are so much fun and we all adore you!!!  Love you forever!

Happy 7th Birthday Dane!

 

Dear Dane,

Happy Birthday to my sweet 7 year old boy!  You have really matured a lot these past couple of months and we are so proud of you for so many reasons!  You have a very loving heart and have become a very good and thoughtful friend, brother, cousin and son. 

Last year you often struggled when leaving dad and I and this year that is not the case.  You are super sweet when we drop you off at school and give us a hug, wave and smile on your way into school.  When dad or I volunteer you seem so happy to have us there and always hug us and tell us you love us.

You have a lot of friends!  You seem to make friends super easily and we will often hear kids calling out to you wherever we go.   You got really close with your baseball team and many friends from your kindergarten class.  This year you added more friends and you like to play with everyone.  Your best friends are Conlin and Luca.  A new friend, Emmett, is someone that you enjoy playing with a lot this year.

You have such determination and when you put your mind to something – watch out!  This is especially apparent on the sports field and recently at track-a-thon at school.  You ran more laps than any other 1^st grader and received the “most laps” again in your class just like you did last year. 

You love sports and have played soccer, basketball and baseball this past year and you enjoy them all.  You also love that dad is your coach.  Afterschool I always find you playing wall ball and football with the boys of all ages.  You just love to play!  You also love to watch sports as well and have a really good understanding of how it all works.  Your sports IQ exceeds mine already at this point.

You are very good at school and it comes easy to you.  You are strong in reading and math.  In the words of your teacher, “You work hard and play hard.”  You get along with everyone, you are kind to children adults and you pay attention and listen.  Mrs. Proenza had many nice things to say about you and we are super proud of you. 

Some of your favorites:

At school: Recess, Math

At home: Play Basketball and golf

Food: Guacamole, pizza

Sport: Football, Basketball, Golf, Baseball

Team: Blackhawks, Bulls, Purdue, Bears, Saints,

Movie: BFG, Pete’s Dragon

Show: Dude Perfect

Song: Downtown, I Like to Win, Believer, Thunder

Book: Minecraft, Stink series

Stats

Weight – 47.2 (30%)

Height – 47.75” (46%)

BMI – 15 (22%)

BP – 90/42

You love spending time with your family.  You are now fine when sitters come, but you prefer if Dad or I can put you to bed.  If we can’t you make sure we tell you “special things” before we leave.  You are super lovable and still have a little bit of feist from time to time.  When you clench your jaw tells us you are frustrated or tense.  It is happening less and less and you have pretty good control over your emotions.  Your headache and migraines have lessened as well so thinking that less worrying is helping you in that area.  You are turning into one awesome dude and we love you so so much. I would freeze this age if I could.  Big hug!!!

Love you forever and always. 

December

We went to California and had a wonderful time celebrating Grandpa's 70th Birthday!  We are so fortunate to have such an awesome and inspiring man in our family.

Highlight video of our California trip...
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Wpi7LrAhRMEzmWOX2

December