EB Spring concert

Tuesday, 3/12/13

East Buchanan's theme for their spring concert this year was, "PBIS - Positive Behavioral Intervention & Support" - PBIS. The entire EB elementary uses this theory and it seems to be working out great. In a nutshell, you reinforce the positive behavior... individual, classroom, etc. The kids really love it. They earn tickets, receive prizes as a class, have monthly assemblies where students are rewarded individually and as classrooms. Very cool. Super happy that my girlies have an opportunity to be part of such a positive environment :) The songs all talked about all the things that PBIS stands for... very sweet songs.

Here is Lindsay's Kindergarten class...

love this picture of Laynee & Lindsay

Here are the specktators :) At first we did not think that Chris would be here to go to the concert.. but he was and girls were super pumped that he was :D

And Lauren's 2nd grade class. Wearing western wear was the option for this year's concert... the girls went right to the cowgirl hats that Aunt Jody got them at Christmas time, and planned their outfits around that :D

This coupled with a few Flicka movies from Netflix.... the girls have been playing horses non-stop ever since!

Not to forget about Lydia.. she ALSO plays horses with the big girls. This was Sunday, 3/25.. she rode 'my horse Flicka' down the stairs and proceded around the living room :D Notice the hat?? She said today (3/26) while riding in to sign up for 3-yr-old-preschool, "Lauren I'm a big girl right? I can chew gum, but LeaAnn can't... b/c I'm a big girl like you." :) If you ask her how old she will turn on her next birthday... she will tell you six... and somedays I believe her ;)

Here was the finale, the entire K through 5th grades

I love this side profile shot...

Don't they all look adorable?? Awesome concert as usual! I MUST write Mr. Brown a thank-you.. he does an amazing job with all of these students.

girls week

Monday, 3/4 through Friday, 3/8

And so our lives transformed 2-years ago in March when Ms. Wiam was born (3 to 4 - big jump (!) for us)... and it transformed again this March. Chris (& I ;) took a leap of faith, and ventured into a new job. Not a whole-career-change (as this job is in the feed industry), but none-the-less, a new, untraveled, somewhat scary & unknown path. We both have faith that this was/is 'it'... this was the change that needed to happen. And the circumstances of how the job appeared seemed more than happenstance. (Much the same as how we met I think :) New Balance Commodities is the name of the company -  New Balance Commodities - and after meeting his supervisor this week, I am more in love with the company than I was before. Small, young CEO (40!), his wife works within the company as well, non-corporate, they care about all of their employees equally from the sales force to their office support... it's amazing.

However, that being said... this job also required him to be 'away' for what we thought was going to be three weeks! It ended up being one full week and a few days (whew!) but none-the-less, it was a great challenge for the girls and I ... and we did it! We were super proud of ourselves as Friday rolled around, the house was in-tact (fairly clean too), laundry done, homework done, everyone in one piece :) And that's b/c we all worked together. Well, maybe not Wiam ;) but everyone else did for sure. Lydia at one point even said, "Mom... princesses don't have to pick up!" 

Chris did say when I talked to him on Tuesday, "this wasn't part of the deal... snow days were not supposed to happen in March." :) But it happened all-right. In fact we've had TWO now in March... 

Monday, 3/4 we were at school and it started to snow, a LOT. And they let us out early. I was a bit nervous about the driveway... but look what we came home too! Craig had already been down to rescue us :)

Was pretty sure the snow day was inevitable... here we are entertaining ourselves on Tuesday. :) Sent this to dad on his phone... he 'officially' has a smart-phone now! :D

Then we headed outside! Holy cow there was a lot of snow. It was one of those days where I walked outside, looked around, and thought, "this is Iowa???" No wind, beautiful-big-snowflakes falling, mild temperatures (I didn't have gloves on!)... it was amazing. Gorgeous... EXCEPT it was March 4th :(

I had fun taking pictures... I had this grand plan of trying to get a gorgeous/coordinated one of all four of them... well, not so much ;)

Still, they are pretty pictures.  They had tons of fun finding and eating icicles.

Pretty girl :) like Lindsay lounging in the background?

There's my one-tooth girl ;) Just found out this week (after perfect check-ups at the dentist for all three!) that her front tooth is on it's way down :)

Yup... plenty of deep snow... neat.

They had fun on the swings, jumping into the snow.

complete with the tongue out! :D

super-high!

Adorable. Wouldn't these hats on all four made an adorable pic?? Maybe next year ;)

We actually had an over-night at the Peck's which helped pass the time, new tires on the van (wow!!! who knew how much new tires would help with driving on snow ;), dance on Thursday, 9-miles w/Maggie on Friday... and then Dad came home!!! Here is the result :)

Look at that... four-blonde-blue-eyed-beautiful-girls... oh we feel SO blessed. On so many levels.

It's been a great ride so far... can't wait to see what this next phase on our journey will bring us (mom's hoping for a new house! ;)

LeaAnn Claire is TWO!

Sunday, 3/3/13

Sad day... the Koontz's had to head home :(

Though the Lexus had had enough I think ;)

Picked up the house and remembered, 'that oh-yes, it's big-girl's bday today!'

And I should take some pictures :)  Since I still don't have a 2-yr pic appt scheduled yet... I thought it was giong to eventually turn somewhat nice out, and I could maybe take them... not so much. New baby for her birthday... she's been attached at the hip to it ;)  Actually, when we got home from her birthday party, she promptly walked upstairs with her, laid her in the baby-crib, covered her up, walked back downstairs and whispered, "baby sweeping!" SO cute!

Look at her little butt! :) None of the other three did this... she was following the flowers on the rug ... walking in a straight line, talking the whole time :) She is quite the talker and dancer.

Her hair... this is what it looks like if I don't do something with it ;)

Carrying her 'picnic' from Kelly Kress :) this later turned into her puppy-dog purse that her aunt Jody got her... she sleeps with it now!  Notice her cute little butt again?

And the reason you can 'see' her little butt is b/c she's not wearing a diaper!!! :D  She deemed herself potty-trained on Tuesdsay, February 26th. The conversation turned from, "thanks for trying", to 'this is not an option' on Friday, 2/22 :) Monday, 2/25 she did pretty good, and then on Tuesday, 2/26, she TOLD Barb at daycare that she had to potty everytime! She stayed that way all three days at daycare.We had a few accidents throughout the weekend... like this one at Craig & Kris' on the porch :) But she's been great ever since!

So proud of herself. Even dry through the night...better not say that too loud ;) I'll let you know if that changes.

Tuesday, 3/5/13 - threw these in here as they scream, "I am LeaAnn, I am two!" We had a snow-storm on Tuesday the 5th... a lovely, beautiful 6-inches. Too bad it's March :(

Here's what else I like to do...

This is the mess I leave in my tracks...

This is a classic face I make...

She dressed herself ;)

Here's my girl!!! :D

Guess who this is??? :) Lindsay Rae in the same shirt... at age 2 :) wow.

Loved it so much.. here is the same pic, not zoomed in.

I scream, "I do it!" all the time...

I say, "I funny... dat funny"

And I am an escape artist as well... if you don't pay close attention... out the door I go. Culprit at home, daycare & at the Peck's :)

Thanks for making our days fun-filled LeaAnn Claire! Can't wait to see what year three brings :)

Iphone video from Mimi :D taken on Thursday, 3/21/13

Saturday... after the party

The kids put their snow-clothes back on and headed outside :) Mimi did not like that they were across the road... but she headed out to take pictures :)

Her quote here was, "trying to get a group shot - like trying to herd cats!" :)

I took this one and posted to FB, "I think the Koontz's like Iowa, but not so sure about the Lexus" ;)