A Year of Reflection

It's been SO long since I've actually typed out a real post, that an ENTIRE year has managed to squeeze by! It's been a WHOLE year since I've told you about my precious babies and showed you pictures of our daily adventures. I will try to some it up with a picture or 2 of each month. I left off in August of 2010.
Zander turned FOUR and Gage turned TWO!

That was a great month, despite Jason's injury. That month ended the summer's adventures and brought on Fall's festivities. In August of 2010, Zander discovered his LOVE for fishing.

He just beamed when he caught his very 1st fish. It probably didn't even register at 2 inches, but Z's heart swelled with pride.

Zander also "caught" a very strange looking insect, and of course had to bring it in the house to show me. I had no idea what this weird alien looking bug was until I posted a pic of it on facebook.

Turns out it was a Cicada, and these things live underground for 10+ years, then come up for the last year or 2 of their life. It was like no other bug I've seen before. Zander carried the thing around for days in his bug box. Still not sure if it was alive or dead when Zander found it...

September...probably my most favorite month, was the month my beautiful Godchild Gavin was born! He's a spitting image of my brother!...(If you're reading his Brian, don't get a big head and think that I think you're beautiful.)  ;o)
The Lepak name continues for our family!

It also marked Zander's first day of Pre-K. I am just thrilled that he LOVES school! (I'll remind him of this when he's older!)

October we ventured out to my first home away from home...Arizona!

 I love that place!

 

McKenna especially loved reconnecting with her cousins Jersie and Sydnee.

I loved reconnecting with the SUN (and of course my brother and his family)! We drove up, around and thru the mountains to get to get to Heaven's playground, Apache Lake. It was well worth every heart palpitation to get there. It's been the most beautiful, peaceful and scenic place I have ever been. I literally felt God there. We flew back just in time for Halloween.
Trick-or-Treating consisted of a Funky Witch, Elmo and a Dragon.

Here's another (scanned) gorgeous pic of the kiddos taken by my BFF Sarah Gwidt.

If you haven't checked out her website, DO IT!! I love that her pictures grace the walls of our house!
November was the month of Elway....the most BEAUTIFUL, BEST dog ever! That's right, we adopted a 4yr old small Alaskan Husky from the shelter! This meant brisk morning walks, playtime, and SO MUCH love in our house!

Elway gave out kisses faster than he received them.

I'm SO SAD that Elway was with us for only 3 weeks before he passed away from complications of being hit by a car. Although he loved us, he also LOVED to run away. To this day, we still talk about our beautiful loving dog, who will always hold a special place in our hearts.

In late November, I also managed to sneak away for another Canadian Tenors Concert. Angelic voices!!...not to mention looks. HELLO FRASER!

December marked another year down in the books! If I was posting regularly at this time, I would have probably been complaining about the snow and cold already. I'm not a fan of Winter...at all. All of the grand kids received another pair of homemade PJ's from Grandma Bartel. Looks like this might be a tradition for her.

Here's a look at the Bartel Fam on Christmas Eve.

My "four" babies

January marked the end of McKenna's homeschooling, and her 1st day of "REAL" school! Needless to say she was quite hesitant when I dropped her off...tears were even shed.

Once I picked her up, she couldn't stop talking about how "cool" school was. Being the social butterfly that she is, she can't wait for school to start again. I'm so proud of her transition,...and mine. Mckenna lost her 1st tooth this month too!! My baby is growing!

February the Packers kicked some SUPERBOWL butt!! What a great game that was to watch! Everyone was decked out in their Packer gear!

Seeing the snow kept falling, the kids made many snowmen. This one in particular was pretty goofy. From the front, he was a nice, happy lookin' guy, but when we looked out the window, our view was him mooning us. The kids thought it was just hilarious.

We took the kids to their 1st hockey game. Zander was in awe. He didn't really know how to pronounce it, because he kept calling it "hawky".

Even now, he has his little "Zanderisms", like hangurber (hamburger), mazagine (magazine), hostaple (hospital), shelth (shelf). He can talk perfectly fine, it's just funny when he says these words, because he just can't seem to get them right. I suppose it would help if I corrected him instead of smiling at him because it's still a little part of toddler left in him that I don't want to see taken away just yet. Gage's funny thing, besides his adorable lisp, is when he talks about Boys and Grills.

He's a boy, and I'm a Grill.
Zander also lost his 1st tooth!

March my little baby, my first born, turned SIX! One of her gifts was a Karaoke machine. If you you're my friend on fb, check out her version of Celine's "All By Myself". HILARIOUS! I can't get over what a beautiful soul this girl has! All she talks about is being a Mommy and a Teacher when she grows up. Little does she know that she's taught THIS Mommy SO much!!

April was the month of our beloved cat Tanqueray aka "Tanq"! (okay, I thought her name was cool when I was in college) I've posted about Tanq before, as she's been my first true love. After all, I've known her before I even knew Jason! When I first bought her I took her to my Grandma Lepak's  house and my Grandma fell in love with her too. My heart smiles when I think about it, because my Grandma could NEVER get her name right. Even before my Grandma passed away, she would ask how "Tangerine" was doing. I remember missing class, just to sit and watch Tanqueray play with a candy wrapper. She had the most beautiful BIG blue eyes I've ever seen on a cat.

 

I couldn't look at her without going up to her and petting or snuggling her. I loved how she laid on her back to sleep too...just like a dog.

 

Once I had babies, I would measure their growth by laying them next to her.  

McKenna 

Gagers

Our blue eyed beauty is now buried in our backyard, with a blue solar light, among other things, marking her grave.

What I would give for one more snuggle and chin-nudge from her...

Easter Family Pic

Our beautiful niece Emery was born in April!

May flew by! Probably from the anticipation of Summer's arrival. I don't even have many pictures taken from May. McKenna and Zander continue to lose teeth and grow them just as fast. McKenna has now lost her 2 top and 2 bottom teeth, and Zander is catching up with 2 bottom. The Tooth fairy knows her way to this house!

I did manage to see another Canadian Tenors Concert too! (insert drool bucket)

I think I've got my CT fix for the rest of the year...maybe.

June marked the end of the school year for McKenna and Zander! Kenners graduated from Kindergarten and Zander proudly accepted his Pre-school graduation diploma.

When receiving his diploma, his teacher asked him what he would like to be when he grew up. He looked up and stared at his Daddy for a bit, then turned to the teacher and said, "CHEF!" Huh? I didn't even know he knew what that meant. I was expecting a response like "Spiderman or a Fire Chief, like some of his other classmates. 

June was a bit chilly this year. During a windy day, we found a robins nest that was knocked down. 2 of the 3 didn't make it, and I couldn't stand to watch the 3rd just freeze to death...so naturally I scooped up the little fella and wrapped it up in some warm towels and fed it some syringed worms. Zander loved my request for him to dig up some worms!

Within an hour the little guy was feeling better. I can't believe how much these things eat and POOP! Every 20 min from Sun UP to Sun DOWN!

FEED ME!...which Zander did! Z LOVED this responsibility!

We named him Harry. By the evening we made a nest and put him back outside. HE SURVIVED! His parents came back! I felt such a sense of accomplishment and purpose that day.

ALL 3 kiddos played T-Ball this year!

Gage was SUPER excited! Their cousin Brecken was on the Sliders Team again this year too. Jason even coached! Here's some pics from the TBall season.

 The kids just had a BLAST!!

My awesome Mom turned the BIG 6-0 too!

LOTS of family bdays during the summer!

July meant my youngest babe of them all, turned another year older. Tissue please!

Gage turned THREE!!!

Since every summer seems to be booked with festivities, this one being no exception, we managed to celebrate Gage's birthday while camping "Up North" with the Bartel side for our annual camping trip. This year he picked out a Buzz Lightyear theme.

We celebrated his birthday again last week at Bay Beach with Zander and his cousin Shannon. I'll post pics from that next!

The kids also started their annual swimming lessons at Marble Park. This meant splish-splashing, water slides, jumping off the dock, and loving EVERY SECOND of it! Zander can officially float now! McKenna's almost there. Gage, well, he just enjoyed playing in the water trying to catch the tiny minnows.

The kids loved their swimming instructor Megan! 

Well, I'm sure I missed a couple of things, but that about catches me up to this month, August! Whew!

I'm never waiting THAT long to post again!

Procrastination

I know, I know, I know....

I'm such a sLaCkEr when it comes to updating my blog!!

Well, that and it's hard to keep up with these little monkeys.

SO many memories and "moments" have been captured on my camera and in my brain that I don't want to lose them! (months worth!!)

 Stay tuned...I WILL update soon!!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas & a Happy & Healthy New Year!

I know it's been some time since I last posted. So much has happened it will take me a few posts just to catch up. Hopefully I will have some time to post this week. Until then, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We did. Here's to a prosperous 2011!! Since I'm SO on top of things, I didn't even send out my Christmas cards until today. (Yes, I realize it's 2 days after Christmas.) I didn't even mail out that many, so we're sorry if you didn't receive one. I'm posting a pic of our Christmas card here to share with everyone. Once again, my BFF took another awesome photo of the kiddos. Enjoy!

I can't believe it's August already! Where does the time go? I'm already seeing the "Back to School" commericals on TV and getting that queezy feeling in the pit of my stomach. 

Summer T-Ball has come to an end. We really enjoyed watching McKenna and Zander every Thursday night. Every game they got a little better.

 

The kids were just tickeled when they received their very first trophy after the last game. The trophies are proudly displayed in their rooms. Well, at least Zander's is. McKenna's trophy is in our vehicle right now so she can show it off to people wherever she goes.

Jason is finally out of his cast and doesn't have to wear his "moon boot" anymore either. We were watching Twilight the other night and noticed Bella had the same walking cast on as Jason. The kids were all excited about it...Jason, not so much. Dr's orders, he can only be on his feet a maximum of 2hrs per day.

(Shyah right!)

I was in WalMart the other day and noticed a good lookin' crippled man trying to decide which beer to put in his scooter. Of course I couldn't resist snapping this photo. I just might tag him on this so he can use this as his new fb profile pic. Ha! I was literally laughing outloud.

Gage's new thing is to spend 80% of his day with his chubby little finger up his nose. Seriously, it's gotten to the point where it's not even embarrassing anymore when we go out in public and my child says, "Wook mommy, I gotta booogie!", and repeats the process over and over and over.  He gets seriously pissed off when I tell him to stop or take his finger out of his nose. When we've tried to stop him he immediately sticks his finger up his nostril, not even searching for a booger, and intentionally walks around looking at me with that "oh no you didn't!" stare.

We went up north 2 weeks ago and had a really nice time with the Bartel side. Gage didn't like the boat too much, but McKenna and Zander loved it. We saw an eagle swoop up a fish, and on the way back to the cottage we even saw a big black bear running across the road. Besides completely freaking out, I thought it was pretty neat to see. I also hope I never have to see one again.

It's Tornado Weather here in Wisconsin. The other evening the storms were pretty intense. The sky turned to a calm, ire shade of orangish red before round 2 of lightning, rain and tornado warnings came, lasting the entire night and into the next day.

Since it's been hot and muggy outside, the kids are constantly outside swimming and having a blast. When it's hot it makes for a better day at the beach.

Which also means the kiddos are practically passed out come 8 o'clock.

Happy Birthday to my litte boys!

Gagers turned 2 yrs old July 25th and Z will turn 4yrs old on August 9th!

I can't believe life is passing by so quickly.

Buzzzzz on Over for a ROARIN' good time!

Well, it's that time of the year again, where I say good bye to a little bit more of "baby" in my babies. Zander, my little man will be turning FOUR...and Gage is close behind turning TWO!

I was thinking the other day that I will never again be able to say I have a one year old. Cry. I have 3 more days to tell everyone I know that this little giant toddler of mine is, "only one year old."

Because my life revolves around my crazy kiddos, I was left with no time to send out bday invites yet.

BIG Surprise, I know.

So, for those of you who have not received an invite by either email or in conversation, here ya go...

You can click on the picture to enlarge.

We're still undecided if this will be a Dinosaur party or a Creepy crawly bug party, seeing the two are obsessed with both. Either way, stop on over to help us celebrate another year with these crazy beautiful boys and eat some "grub". Kiddos don't forget to bring your swimming suites!

Red White & Bruise, Happy 4th!

It's been an eventful couple of weeks to say the least. Another update from the past post: Jason's MRI showed that he does NOT need surgery on his Achilles tendon after all. His tear was higher in the Achilles and according to the Dr. should heal up after 2 months in a cast. This was great news for us.

Now it's a summer filled with no splish-splashing around for Jason and our niece Shannon, who broke her arm last month.

We received some very bitter sweet news the same day this picture was taken. My Grandma Lepak passed away June 20th. I can't say enough about how wonderful of a person she was. She died less than 3 months shy of her 98th birthday. I would marvel at the pictures taken with her and my kids thinking about the 90+ year age difference. She lived a very full life and had a very sharp mind, pretty much until hours before she reunited with my Grandpa Lepak. I have the most amazing memories with her. For our wedding rehearsal dinner we had a luau. Of course she showed up with coconut shells on.

Her humor and laugh were contagious.

Me and my Grandma at my bridal shower.

She will be missed more than she could have ever imagined.

And so life goes on...

Summer swimming lessons and T-Ball continue at the Bartel household. McKenna and Zander are doing so well this summer compared to last summer's swimming lessons. In no time at all they will be swimming on their own, ...and then driving, graduating and getting married...sob.

Gagers loves hangin' at the beach too.

Best Buds

McKenna's first bikini. She struts her stuff in it. It may be her last bikini.

Look at these princesses faces! They are NOT liking this pre-game warm-up.

After a great day of swimming and t-ball, the night couldn't be completed until Gage took a digger on the garage step after tripping on a shoe.

Poor little guy. As if cutting teeth isn't enough.

Hope you all have a nice 4th of July.

Hello Summer!

So it seems that summer is finally  here! Boy did that take forever. This summer will be busy and crazy as ever. Lots of FuN fUn FuN!

We've signed McKenna and Zander up for T-Ball. It's been a work in progress for both. Last week Zander wasn't paying attention during "batting" practice. He didn't have a helmet on and was too close to a little girl swinging her bat. Needless to say he had a pretty good goose-egg after a good 15 min of crying.

By the time the game started he was back to his normal self, which then gave McKenna the go-ahead to be a drama queen and start crying for no reason at all.

Gage can't wait to partake in the fun next summer, even though he won't quite be 3. He's already got mad skills for a 22 month old.

He impatiently stands on the sidelines just waiting for me to take my eyes off him so he can run on the field and try to steal the other little players gloves and ball.

Check out the hilarious team photo of "The Sliders". McKenna was still a Drama Queen at the time the team photo was taken, so naturally she refused to take part.

Once again, Jason had his annual Neenah Street Ball tourney this weekend. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by! It seems like I was just posting about this from last year. I would love to say Jason kicked butt and his team took 1st, however; I can't. (sigh) Jason ended up getting hurt in the 2nd game, which may result in a couple of weeks (hopefully not months!) off work and me taking care of a 4th "kid". He goes to the Dr. tomorrow but we're pretty sure he tore his Achilles tendon or calf muscle. BuMmEr x 10!

The kiddos start their summer swimming lessons tomorrow. They are really excited. This summer should be extra interesting, seeing Gage can now make a mad dash into the water vs. "drunk baby walking" to the shore like last summer.

Seeing Zander and Gage will be celebrating their birthday's soon, we decided to get them an early present. 

We may have spoiled them just a bit.

All I had when I was their age was one of those Banana sprayers. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Ghetto. I think we might have had a slip-n-slide too. My parents finally came to their senses when I was in 5th grade and put in a pool, which brought me many years of summer fun. Maybe once the 3 musketeers master their swimming skills we could do the same. I would love for them to experience that. Until then, it's the outdoor lake at Marble Park and the new water toy.

GUESS WHAT!? 3 of the 4 Canadian Tenors accepted my friend request on facebook! (Go ahead, rip on me all you want.) I'm still holding out for my fave...C'Mon Fraser!!

Just press accept!

His voice eyes, mouth, teeth, hair, body, clothes, everything about him is just AMAZING!

On a serious note: Prayers for Stephanie (click on her name). She is such an inspiration to me and many others. And prayers for my almost 98 year old grandma Lepak who is getting ready to be with my Grandpa. I pray the Lord welcomes her peacefully without suffering. She's the best grandma/great-grandma/wife/mother/everything in the whole world. 

Update: Jason went to the hospital today and it's confirmed that he DID tear his Achilles Tendon and he WILL be needing surgery in the next week. Because of this he will be off work for about 5 months. Not sure what the future holds but I guess it involves me dusting off my resume to bring in some income. Say a prayer for him (and us) too!