School Days

It's official.  We have a kindergartener!  Ben started school on Thursday.  Brant was able to drop him off on the first day of school and reported that Ben was a trooper, finding his classroom, putting his bag away and joining the other kids in looking at books, while a teary eyed Brant left (and I'm not making that up - he admitted it).  Although I would have loved to have been part of that, I was at my own school greeting kids and teary eyed parents.  I think since I was emotional about Ben starting school for the past six weeks, the actual first day was kind of a relief.  On the second day of school, Ben rode the bus to school.  If I'm being honest, this is probably the part that made me the most nervous of anything.  However, Ben willingly got on smiling ear to ear and made it to school just fine.  I know I work for Ankeny Schools so I might be a little biased, but I have to send out a big kudos to everyone who makes the beginning of school comfortable not just for kids, but for parents as well.  Having never been on the parent side of the fence, it really does matter when the school nurse takes extra care, when the kindergarten teacher emails over lunch the first day to report everything is going well, and the bus driver gives a personal phone call to ensure she understands Ben's allergy and reports that he had a great first day on the bus.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our first full week goes well!  I have a feeling we'll have a pretty tired kiddo by Friday!

In my own mind, the start of school marked the start of three weeks of change/challenge at our house.  Ben's week of change/challenge was last week, and this week is Abby's.  Abby has her surgery in Iowa City on Wednesday and we are keeping our fingers crossed that this time she stays healthy and we can actually get the surgery done.  She will be in the hospital one or two nights, depending on how she is doing, but we are expecting her to feel pretty under the weather and sore the first few days home.  Keep us in your thoughts and prayers that everything goes smoothly.

And, Brant's week of change is next week.  At the end of July, he was offered a great opportunity to work for HyVee at their corporate office in the marketing department.  It is a great opportunity for him and his first day of work will be August 26.  However, that will definitely change our lifestyle and be a shift for me in the kind of flexibility we have with pick up and drop off of our kids, and tasks around the house.  Brant has worked at home for five years, so we've (and myself especially) become pretty used to having him around a lot.  We will have to get used to him leaving earlier and getting home a bit later and just getting back into the swing of an actual office setting for a job.

And as for me, I'm 28 weeks pregnant and as you can imagine from what has been written above, have shed plenty of irrational pregnancy-induced hormonal tears, whether that be for happy, sad, or stressed reasons!  However, Baby Girl is active and I still feel really good, so I'm counting my blessings and excited that we have so much to look forward to in the next couple of months!

Success!

 Ben is proud to announce he can now tie his shoes!  Woo hoo!  When we set the goal and engaged in some serious practice, he was successfully tying by the end of the afternoon.  Mind you, 

there were a few months of "kind of" trying here and there prior to this!  He thinks he is now officially ready for kindergarten.  He might be... But I'm not sure I am!

Lake of the Ozarks 2013

We recently spent a week at the Lake of the Ozarks with the whole Ausenhus family and we all had a great time!  Ben and Abby both swam a lot, although we are pretty sure Ben would have spent every waking moment in the pool if we would have let him.  They also both enjoyed going on the waverunner with Daddy, Papa, or Alex.  Ben and Abby went mini-golfing for the first time, had an adventure at a restaurant where there would later be a Nelly concert (so you can imagine the crowd we contended with - it was quite a people watching experience!), had a "kid's night out" that ended in a ferocious game of Spoons while Grandma and Papa watched the actual kids, and enjoyed the several days worth of fireworks over the lake.  The day after we came home, Ben got out his backpack and began packing up for his return to vacation with his stuffed dog Max.  Apparently he was not ready to come home!

 Abby was as interested in all the swim wear options as she was the water... at least to begin with.

 Abby loved her cousin Kiley!  These two cuties are ready for a dip in the pool!

 Ben enjoyed diving for rings or any other object thrown under the water.  We were all amazed at how his swimming skills progressed in just a week!

 Abby is on her first wave runner ride!  She loved it!

 I suppose that is one way to eat an ice cream cone... nose and all.  Hey - it wouldn't be vacation without a little messy ice cream eating!

It was down right HOT!  Good thing Abby had a cool treat!

In our house, it wouldn't really be vacation or any other fun event without a little sickness creeping in.  This time would not disappoint, as Ben started vacation with a cold and Abby ended vacation with a cold, which then turned into a sinus infection.  Unfortunately for Abby, this delayed the bladder surgery she was supposed to have on July 10.  On the upside, it bought us a few more weeks of "regular" summer.  However, the new surgery date is August 21 and I will already be back at work, so the convenience factor is gone.  This was definitely the right move to make though as she really was not feeling well by the time we got home... maybe it was just too much fun!  Vacation can be exhausting!

Seeing Pink... And Other Summer News

IT'S A GIRL!!!

We all know that with every baby there is a 50/50 chance of being a boy or a girl, but if I'm being honest, I had myself pretty convinced that this little peanut was a boy.  Maybe it was a subconscious comfort with the boy-girl-boy family patterning that both Brant and I come from, maybe it was my underlying reaction to some of sweet Abby's two year old spiciness, or maybe a feeling that I would never really experience what the whole sister dynamic is really like, having never lived it myself.  So, I will admit that even though I knew the odds, I was quite surprised to learn our new baby will indeed be a girl.  We are very excited about this new adventure and Ben has definitely accepted the news graciously, after very much hoping for a brother.  Abby has insisted that we name the baby Abby, to be just like her.  I can't wait to see how this child will be alike and different from Ben and Abby and what kind of personality will be added to the mix.  We will be seeing pink, dresses, hair bows, and dolls for many years to come!!

That is probably the most exciting and happiest news of the summer.  However, we've been keeping ourselves very busy with other summer fun.  I worked a variety of days in June and attended a conference for four days, so our summer didn't consistently start until about a week and a half ago.  Here are a few things we've been up to:

 T-ball!  I love this picture with both Ben and Brant in the "ready" position.  They finished up the season this week.  Ben seemed to enjoy playing, and I think he especially liked having his Daddy for a coach.

 Abby + DQ Dilly Bar = Happiness (and messiness).  The kids are both keeping a log for the Ankeny library summer reading program.  Who can pass up free ice cream for reading?!

  This week we went to Union Park in Des Moines to ride the carousel (always a hit) and play in the wading pool.  I love summer afternoons like this one! The kids would both say this was fun, but going to the "real" pool in Ankeny the following day took the cake.  

 First of all, yes, Abby is not wearing a shirt.  I will just say that I have chosen not to fight that particular battle if we are inside our own house.  Second, yes, they are both wearing homemade super hero capes.  Thank you Pinterest for the brilliant idea of using old T-shirts, iron-on letters (Ben is "Iron Man" and Abby is "Super Abby"), and fabric paint to entertain!

Ben took swimming lessons this past week and wearing his goggles, so Abby has really wanted a pair.  Therefore, here she is in her new pair of goggles.  She is prepping for our vacation to the Ozarks.  I guess she'll need to learn to hold her breath and put her head in the water, huh?

And finally, Abby is having surgery on July 10 to correct her urinary reflux, so thought and prayers coming our way that day would be great for both a smooth surgery and speedy recovery.

Our Graduate

 We celebrated Ben's preschool graduation on Friday.

 It is hard to believe Ben will be off to kindergarten in a few short months.  When the kids were announced as the class of 2026, I thought to myself that even though that seems so far away, I know in thirteen years it will feel like yesterday we sat through his preschool graduation.  We are proud of you, Ben! 

After graduation, Ben chose to go to Village Inn for lunch, a favorite restaurant for his favorite pancakes.  However, apparently the post-graduation milk and cookies spoiled his appetite, because his lunch consisted of bacon and chocolate milk.  I couldn't help but laugh!  He and I then spent the afternoon at the park practicing riding his bike on two wheels because he is determined to be done with training wheels, practicing playing catch with his baseball glove, and playing on the equipment.  We had a great day together!

 Believe it or not, these baseball pictures are related to preschool graduation.  As part of the graduation program, there was a video played with pictures of the kids throughout the year, and then each child saying what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Ben said he wanted to be a baseball player when he grew up.  Apparently he is really enjoying t-ball!  So, here's to our little baseball player and potentially many more years of summer afternoons at baseball games!