Go Blue! (and a road trip too!)

Happy Birthday to Aunt Nelle and to Baby Alexa!!! Today Anna, Luke and I took a road trip to the Ann Arbor area to help celebrate Alexa's first birthday. We were all dressed in our big game day gear and had a lot of fun. Luke cried the whole way there and back (2.5 hours each way!!!). It was awesome to see Meg again and to celebrate her little girl, who one year ago weighed less than 6 pounds!!! Jake stayed home with daddy and put up christmas lights on the house (I can't keep track of three kids at a lake and Jakey LOVES to help daddy!!) When we got home, we were greeted by Jake screaming, "Go Michigan!" and asking for high fives....while the last 2 quarters were very nerve racking, Jake knew they would pull it out! Sorry for any MSU fans!....o.k. maybe not!!!

Halloween Night

We started our night at Mrs. Burgess' house (I work with Pat). The kids did awesome the whole night. We went to a few friends houses then all around our neighborhood. They had a blast even with the rain. Tara, the rainbow is for you!!! We weighed the kids candy when they got home....between last night and tonight??? 12.5 pounds of candy!!! (and we didn't even collect any candy for Luke tonight!!!) The kids had fun, each house they went to, Jake was in charge of the knocking (otherwise they did it twice), they both said, "trick or treat" "Happy Halloween" and "Thank You" to everyone they went to.

Anna's School Halloween Parade

Anna's school had a Halloween celebration today, the PreK and Kindergarten classes paraded around the school and playground before returning to their rooms for a party. Anna is supposed to be a "ballerina" according to her, I told her she is actually a "fairy ballerina princess". That about covers it right?? Thank you to Aunt Katie for driving me to the school as I am still on medication prohibiting me from driving!!!

Halloween Night 1

We decided Halloween is going to have to be a two day process now that Anna is old enough to go Trick or Treating. So, tonight was Lowell Halloween night. I had surgery early this morning so I was in a great deal of pain, but really didn't want to ruin the kids fun. They did great. We stopped at Great Grandparents (Smith) house, The Fleets (honorary aunt and uncle) and both sets of grandparents. Calli Jo met us at G & G Rottier's house for some photos. Then, the brothers decided to "dress" up for a photo. Steve is the bumble bee, Mike is Thomas the train and Dan is the tiger. Happy Halloween!

The pumpkins...all carved and ready for the big night!

You can't tell, but these are actually in the pitch blackness of the night Saturday night. We carved our pumpkins during the Michigan/Minnesota game. Anna and Daddy (mostly Daddy) carved a pirate skull face on her pumpkin....not easy...not recommended!!! Jake and I made a happy face on our pumpkin and Anna helped Daddy do Luke's in the traditional pumpkin style. All three kids had a blast posing next to their pumpkins, however, it was VERY difficult to get any good photos....oh well, I can't win every year right??? P.S. Happy Birthday Aunt Meg! See you on Saturday for Alexa's first birthday party!!!

Too Cute to Not Share!

I had a friend come over today so I could take some photos of her little (tiny) daughter. Jake decided before our guests arrived that I should practice on him. He sat nice and said "Cheese Mommy" like a little champ!! Then I found Reagan curled up on the middle of the back yard sunbathing and thought that was just too funny not to share as well!!

15 Months Old...and Lovin' It!!!

Luke is growing up, his new favorite thing is to be a big boy!! He says "CHEESE" and smiles like a little goof ball! His weight hasn't changed too much in the last 2 months, but he is getting sooo tall! Luke now has a very STRONG opinion about almost everything! He communicates quite well, when he can't say a word, he will point, or grunt!! He is such a joy to have around! Everyone has runny noses at this moment, the changing of seasons, oh joy!!

Anna's school photo

I can't believe how OLD Anna looks in this picture! It just is not fair! She loves school very much and wishes that she could be in school 5 days a week!!!

Our Little Pumpkins

As is my tradition, I sat the kids on our couch and took our Halloween shirt photos. They were all really hammed up this time! Enjoy!

Post Family Farm School Trip (part 1)

This was Anna's first field trip of the year for school. We went to Post Family Farm and had lots of fun! They got to pick a pumpkin to bring back to school to decorate, went on a hay ride, listened to a story about how pumpkins grow (Anna's role was the farmer's wife), learned lots about the farm animals, had a donut and cider, played in the hay maze, rode on a tractor ride, and finally played on the playground. LOTS of fun, I am sure the rest of the day at school was pretty low key as ALL the kids were pretty tired on the bus ride back to school!

Post Family Farm School Trip (part 2)

Back to school, I took a photo of Anna in her classroom, the first one I have taken, as I don't ever visit...too many munchkins still at home!!!

Dancin' Machine!

Luke has taken up dancing like the big kids. I thought about entering him in that show, Dancing with the Stars...but he isn't famous yet!!! I wish I would have video taped the earlier dances from today, he was all over the place and singing all at the same time! Too much fun!!! P.S. Happy Birthday (yesterday) to cousin Elin and Happy One Month Old (on the 9th) to cousin Calli Jo!!

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

It was time for our annual trip to Post Family Farm to pick out our pumpkins. This year it was 90 degrees!! Kind of hard to wear festive clothing when you need to dress like it is July!! We managed to do o.k. Luke wore another one of Nick's halloween shirts and the other two wore orange. Anna was super excited to sport her other pretty headband for the occasion. Next Monday, Anna goes on a field trip to Post Farm with her Pre K class. Everyone had fun decorating the front of the house for the Autumn season (which is apparently starting tomorrow!!! Enjoy!

How much fun it was for all the kids to be together. I only caught the tail end of the "photo shoot" on video, the first part would have been better to see. Uncle Dave was singing songs to Elin to get her to smile and talk for the photos. It really was quite sweet. As you can tell, I think Luke was a little confused about the whole thing. Anna, of course didn't care, as long as she was holding Calli Jo!! (That is something my older two fight over...who gets to hold little Calli!!) Jake is still asking when I will have another baby! NEVER, is what I tell him EVERY TIME!!!!!!!! Enjoy!

All the Rottier Grandchildren

Here they are, and shockingly (or not shockingly) they all have STRONG Rottier genes!! Elin will be one on the 10th, Calli with be 1 month on the 9th, Anna (5), Jake (2 1/2) Luke 14 months. I will try to upload the video, it was quite humerous!!

Luke and Elin

I feel like I am looking at mini Dave and Mike when I look at these two together! Actually, Elin has a lot of features of both her parents as does Luke. The two were very fun to watch play and communicate together! Elin saw Luke's binkie and took it away, so we had to give her a binkie too! Then they just sat and stared at each other in awe that they both had a binkie!!!! It really was too cute!!

Beautiful Blue Eyes!

Auntie Rebecca in Colorado hand made two beautiful headbands for Anna. Anna actually asked me if we could take "beautiful" pictures with her pretty new hair bands...I NEVER pass up an opportunity for photos!!! Thank you so much for the lovely headbands Auntie Rebecca, sure do wish we could come over sometime!!!

Other photos from our busy Saturday!!

A very busy day packed with family and fun for all of us! I did the Walk to Remember early in the morning at Fallasburg Park, then it was off to help host a baby shower for Aunt Noelle and Baby Calli Jo. After all of the afternoon festivities were over it was off to our house for a "surprise" birthday party for Elin, since Uncle Dave, Aunt Heidi and Elin live over 5 hours away!! It was a lot of fun. Uncle Dave even jumped on the trampoline with the big kids. A very busy...and tiring day, but it was great to see everyone together again!!!

Monster In Training!

My little Luke, truely of the boys, he is probably not the Monster In Training, but he is the one wearing the shirt! We are borrowing this from our bestest buddies (who live 19 hours and 5 states away from us, not that I am counting!!) Thank you Nick, don't worry William, we will return them in time for you to wear them next year! Luke is all over the place now, he goes up and down the stairs with no help. (We took the gate down!!). He is talking up a storm, although most are not real audible! He can say: Anna, Dada, Mama, Ja (think that is Jake), gin (think that is Reagan), Yes, all done, and bye bye. He says tons more, but again, I don't know what they are!!! He sleeps 12-13 hours at night and one nap during the day, sometimes two when he is really cranky! He is getting four teeth at the moment, eye teeth and molars! OUCH! Talk about a mean combo! He is probably our most mellow child now, a HUGE change from the first 6 months of his life when he was by far our most INTENSE baby! Jake is wishing that he was in school now, everytime we go to the bus stop he says, "Is it my turn mommy?" It is really cute. Any helpful hints on potty training a boy would be appreciated, considering he can't go to preschool until he is trained! Anna is still talking about cheerleading and wants to do it again, I explained that she only gets to do it once a year at this age, not the right thing to tell her! Maybe she will be like mommy after all? Nah, probably not, she is more athletic and into intense sports!!