Halloween

Updates

It's been a while since I've updated, and all of the kids are asleep, so now is as good of a time as ever. Charlie is growing like a weed. He has the chubby cheeks that his sisters had times ten. He is a serious chunk. He's also getting a sweet little mohawk. He's been battling a double ear infection for the last three weeks and is on his second antibiotic. We're hoping this one does the trick, as the doctor has already mentioned how this concerns him.

Jaymeson is still our wild and crazy child. She's transitioned into her Dora toddler bed, and elimintated the nook from her bedtime routine. She still gets it occassionally in the middle of the night when she can't be calmed (just so she doesn't wake up Ellie). She is a really great big sister to Charlie and takes great care of him. It's so sweet how excited she gets when he pulls the musical toy on his own, or when she walks over and gives him a kiss on the forehead.

Ellie is loving her 4K program. She rides the bus to school every afternoon and has tons of fun. We had her first parent-teacher conference last week, and the teacher said she is doing very well. She had her school pictures taken, and it's amazing how grown-up she looks.

Josh's volleyball team made it to the regional finals, which they played tonight, but lost. The had a great season, one of the best in a while. He has already committed to coaching volleyball again next year.

I'm pretty excited about some new opportunities. I've been speaking with some old friends from the Tribune, and am going to be writing a few feature stories a week for some of the local weekly papers. I'll also be doing a monthly bowling column, which I'm not quite as excited about, but still, it gets me back into writing, which I love.

As a family we've been battling several illnesses, but I think we're on the mend now. The kids are excited for Halloween...Ellie and Jaymeson are going to be fairies and Charlie is a monkey. Josh and I will have our first weekend away from all the kids when we head to the Cities for a David Gray concert.

That's all for now!

Times are changing

It's that time of year again. The time of year where showering becomes a daily thing rather than a whenever I have time thing, when kids need to wear close that sort of match, and when alarm clocks need to be set. Back to school time.

As usual the emotions are mixed. On one hand it's exciting to get back in the classroom to set up, plan and meet the kids we'll be spending time with for the next nine months. On the other hand it means seeing our kids less, dishing out lots of money for daycare, and saying goodbye to the laid back days of summer vacation.

Charlie started daycare on Monday, and did awesome. He, Jaymeson and Ellie all went to Kimmy's house, and Kimmy said he had the best first day of all of our kids. Yesterday when I picked them up she said his second day was even better. That makes me happy. I shed some tears Monday morning as Josh packed all of them up and dropped them off, making my life a little less emotional that it would have been had I dropped them off.

Ellie had her last day at Kimmy's yesterday. She has gone there for the past four years, so it was tough on all sides. Ellie starts school next Thursday. She'll be in the 4-year old kindergarten program and will go to a daycare closer to our house. She'll get to ride the bus to her new school, and is soooo excited about this!

Jaymeson is Jaymeson. She runs, she falls, she scrapes her knees, hands, nose, whatever. For the first time last night she took a big digger on the concrete, brushed off her knees and hands, and kept going. Not a tear was shed.

Josh is taking on a different role at school this year. He'll be in charge of a self-contained EBD classroom rather than a floating Special Ed teacher as he was last year. He's also taken on the role of assistant varsity volleyball coach at Central. He says he's catching on to the rules and the lingo, and seems to be enjoying it. They went 3-1 yesterday at a tournament in Stevens Point, and play Aquinas on Thursday.

Things are very much the same for me this year. I'm team-teaching fifth grade once again, but this year we only have 24 kids on our class list rather than 28. I'll enjoy this as much as I can, knowing full well that by the end of the year our numbers will be up again. I'm going to be the drop-off person for Jaymeson and Charlie this year. I'm used to getting ready after Josh heads out with the kids, but with him being so close to school it just doesn't make sense to do it any other way (until winter that is...when I refuse to drive on the I90 overpass in bad weather).

Here's to a good year!

Baptism

Charlie was baptised on Sunday, August 16th at Holy Trinity. Here are some pictures of the big day!

Family photo

Family photo.

Pictures

Pizza for breakfast.

Putting out the vibe.

Content.

Early risers.

Smiling.

More pictures...

Ellie riding her horse at the fair.

Jaymeson zonked out during lunch.

Jaymeson on her horse. She giggled for the first three laps because she loved it so much!

Jaymeson trying on Josh's Twins hat.

Smiley Charlie.

Family photo.

Charlie in his Mauer jersey.

All dressed up for his two-week birthday.

Photo updates...

4th of July

Charlie

Jaymeson eating smores.

Ellie enjoying cotton candy at Riverfest.

Champion sleeper.

Three bathed and happy kids.

Introducing...

Charles "Charlie" Crawford Buxton

June 22, 2009

7:49 p.m.

7 lbs 6 oz

20 1/4 inches

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow (Monday) is the big day, or at least we hope. I'll be a week overdue, so we're heading in to be induced at 7:30 a.m. Hopefully things will move a little faster this time than they did with Ellie and Jaymeson, but I guess we'll see. We'll update you very soon!!!

Updates

Jaymeson had Botox injections.

Kidding...she fell on the sidewalk.

We close on our new house on June 26th.

Ellie had her last day of school on June 4th. I'm posting pictures from the beginning of the year and end of the year to show how much she's grown!

Finally

We finally found a house to make an offer on last week, put in our offer, received a counter offer in the price range we were hoping for, and signed the papers. We tentatively close on June 26th. The house has four bedrooms, two main floor living/family rooms and a large kitchen/dining area. It is very close to Central, and one of Josh's softball players lives right across the street. She has a little sister Ellie's age, who Ellie has played with numerous times at softball games, which is awesome.

We're super excited to go out and buy appliances, paint, curtains, all that fun stuff. We will really miss this house and the yard, but are so excited to be nearly doubling our square footage!!!! The basement has an office as well as a finished dry bar area that could use a little updating, but is totally functional space-wise.

Aside from the housing situation, here are some updates on what we're doing: The baby is due in just over two weeks, which blows my mind. This pregnancy seemed to fly by, and now with everything going on it seems to be creeping at snail's pace. I think all of the excitement of wanting to move into the house and have a room ready for the baby is making it seem like things are moving backwards. I've had weekly doctor's appointments for the past three weeks, and continue to have consistently high blood pressure. As long as it doesn't keep rising, the midwife is okay with it. Usually she'll retake it at the end of the appointment, and it will be in a completely normal range, which is great.

Last time I was in she said I had dialated to 2 cm, but that was about it. She said, "It's possible you could have this baby tomorrow, but I'll probably see you next week (at your appointment)." The third pregnancy has definitely been a lot more painful than the first two. All my muscles, bones, joints are in a constant aching state. At school the staff bathroom in our wing is broken, which is super convenient:-)

We have some baby stuff washed and ready to go, so we're semi-prepared. The girls are excited and Jaymeson points to my stomach and says, "Baby!" She does the same to herself and Josh though, so she doesn't fully understand. The bags are packed for the hospital, which I told Josh almost guarantees I won't go into natural labor. I was hoping that by procrastinating and not packing it would lead to something happening. No luck. I have nine days of school left, and six sick days, so I'm ready to go at any time. For now the plan is for the baby to stay in our room for the first however many days (depending on the arrivale date) and then the girls will share a room at the new house, while the baby gets its own room. Ellie and Jaymeson got bunk beds recently, and when Ellie is ready she'll move into the spare bedroom at the new place.

Josh finished up his softball season last week with a 14-5 record in his debut season. I'm not sure how he deals with all those crazy high school girls. Just sitting near the bench and listening to them talk makes me want to hurt someone. He submitted a letter of interest for the assistant varsity volleyball coaching job at Central, so we'll see what happens with that.

Ellie has her last two days of school this week, which I think will be sad for her. She has learned so much, and impresses us every day. She went to her first "friend" birthday party at High Roller last week, and roller skated for the first time. They also had this huge play area made out of seat belt material, which she loved. It's so crazy to see how fast she is growing. She will start 4-year old Kindergarten in the fall in Holmen, unless we can find somewhere for her to go in La Crosse, so she can go to a school closer by. When she goes to Kindergarten she should be able to go to Harry Spence if we can make it work with our schedules. It's just easier to send her to Holmen next year with the times Josh and I start and end our days.

Jaymeson is our wild child. She has no fear, and runs around like a mad woman. She has fallen off the couch numerous times, and I would bet good money that we will be making a trip to the ER for stitches sometime this summer. Since having tubes put in her ears her vocabulary has increased tremendously, which makes me glad that we made the decision we did. Not that she wasn't hearing before, because she was, but I think things are a lot more clear now. She passed the 6-week follow-up hearing test last week, and her doctor said that everything looks really great.

I need to start updating more, so I don't have pages of ramblings....sorry. I would imagine the next update will involve our new addition, but we'll see. I've added a pictures from Sunfish Days and Memorial Day. Enjoy!!!