It's that time of year

It is hard to believe that it is already December 4th. Christmas is 3 weeks away, and the house is getting ready! We kicked off the Holiday season with Thanksgiving with the Burke/Maring/Cribari families. Our entire house has been fighting sickness since October so we kept it relatively calm. Even with sickness we have been able to enjoy several fun events:

• Going to see Santa
• Decorating the tree
• The kids help Geema and Geepa decorate the tree
• Aunt Pam's 50th Birthday
• The lighting of the lights in Downtown Littleton
• Zoolights

We are looking forward to another weekend of fun with birthday celebrations, making Christmas cookies and snow football for Ben. Of course, since Denver hasn't really seen snow, it will be a dry event this year.

This was one of the only pictures John would willingly take!

Petting a snake at Zoolights - Daddy stayed in the hall

It was SO much warmer this year! Last year it was about 10 degrees, this year it was a balmy 40!

Going to see Santa with Poppie!

Cousin Lily having fun at zoolights

Guess who is 6!

Antonette Eileen turned 6 last week, and the weekend was FULL of celebration! Nettie wanted to have a skate city birthday party. It was more fun than I thought it would be, the idea of getting on roller skates was rather daunting to me, I have never been very coordinated (as most who know me know). There was lots of family time, and of course lots of cake and fun. Here are a few pics from the weekend!

Practicing out back with her new skates


Twinkle Toes - She is SO excited

Nettie and her Barbie cake
At her party
Skating with Daddy

End of Summer

It has been a great summer. The kids are loving playing outside, driving in the Barbie Jeep, swimming whenever possible, and the sun being up until 9:00 at night. Of course, with new schedules all that is starting to change. Nettie started at our local school a couple weeks ago. She is enjoying her kindergarten at her school, although it took some convincing that "Yes, you want to go to kindergarten again".
John has moved to the next classroom in the day care center, so he is now doing preschool all day, which is good for him. He is our artist and enjoys drawing, cutting, playing with play dough. All fun stuff when you are 3 years old.
Ben is doing well, ready for the summer to end so that he can stop mowing the lawn for a few months. While he enjoys the yard looking as wonderful as it does, it is a chore to cut the grass.
After being laid off in May, although I still had a job until October, I recently accepted a position with a new company. So after 9 years with Western Union, I am moving on. I am very excited for the new prospect and will be starting tomorrow morning.
Here are some recent pictures:

Nettie enjoying her new American Girl Dolls
Getting a pedicure with Mommie and Nonna
First Day of School
Daddy and John hanging out (check out the shoes, they are about 3 sizes too big)

Nettie playing dress up

 

Family Picture

 

We took this picture at my cousin Mel's wedding a few weeks ago. It was a wonderful day and the kids had fun.

Something to get your toes tapping

I found this on another blog today and thought it is good to share...(from Kottke)

You may have to click and view in You Tube to see the entire screen

Flying By.....

Can you believe that it is almost August already? I am having a hard time with the fact that this weekend is the last weekend of July (at least half of it). But the better part is that we get to celebrate Ben's birthday on Sunday, and that is always a highlight of the summer.

The summer is going so fast, as usual, but we are enjoying all we can. It has been warm, but not unbearable. We have been enjoying seeing Nettie thrive in swimming, and hopefully with a few more lessons will overcome her fear and take off in the pool. She is getting very good, but likes to make sure someone is close by at all times and the wall is easily attainable. John is starting to ride his bike more and loves playing outside whenever possible. It makes it nice to open the back door after work and let the kids run out for a bit before dinner.

Nettie is helping me with a garden that we have with our neighbors, I will attach pictures soon. It is a wonderful garden and we should have more food than we can handle in about a month. Right now we are starting to get lots of tomatoes, but the rest is coming:) I never thought I would say that I love to garden, I love picking the weeds, I love watching the plants grow and I love seeing the vegetables coming on, and knowing that it all started from a seed.

Here are a couple of recent pics from this month...The 4th of July parade, the family picnic, birthdays, some of the flowers in the backyard, and of course SuperDad, allowing both kids to help him mow the lawn..

Yeah for Summer Haircuts

Tonight was haircut night. This happens for John every 4-6 weeks, but for Nettie only about every 12. Tonight she said "I want a haircut like cousin Paige" so here it is.......

Summer fun

Ben and I went to Red Rocks to see Sting in June
Cousin Lily playing with bubbles
The whole family camping Memorial Day weekend
The kids playing croquet

40 years

Last Saturday we spent the day celebrating my Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary. It was a fun party full of friends and family. It celebrated 2 people that I admire and strive to be like as a parent, a spouse and a person. I feel so blessed to have them as parents and can't imagine a better reason to have a party! Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad (take that Al and Tipper!)

Her first tooth

Last Friday I took Nettie to get her toenails painted. The woman at the nail salon gave her an apple as her "going away present". A little odd, but she seemed to like it so I said it was fine. As she was eating it, it occurred to me that her front tooth was pretty loose and this could be interesting. As we were sitting in the driveway she said..."Here is my tooth" and after shoving a napkin in her mouth for the blood, she proceeded to finish her apple.

Here is the pic from the first tooth down, only a few more to go....

Not so good at the update thing....

Enjoying kite day at Mother Cabrini with Nonna, Poppa and PoppieDaddy and Nettie acting silly
Nicole and Tiffany after complete the Platte River Half Marathon
Nettie practicing her writing
Hanging out with the cousins at Geemas and Geepas

So, it has been, as usual, busy in the house. Lots of things going on and as I sit here thinking of what is going on and I am suddenly drawing a blank. So, here is a list that I can think of..

John is out of diapers at home - YIPEE!! Even at night, he doesn't wear them.

Nettie is learning how to read and is doing a great job. She is working on her sight words and can read some books in part. She is also practicing writing whenever possible.

Tiff ran her second 1/2 marathon and finished (always the goal). 2 more are in the plan for this year, although the one is May is a maybe.

Ben survived a weekend with the kids while Tiff went to Vegas with a friend. The trip was fun, but Ben was more excited to see Tiff than the kids.

Cousin Lily spent a few days with us, always fun to have cousins around, and Lily loved playing with the big kids.

Tiff survived a few days while Ben wen to visit his Dad. Jack enjoyed having Ben in town for a visit. They got lots of stuff done and enjoyed the time together.

That is about it for now, we are getting excited for summer and ready for warmer weather. Although we are expecting snow this week, so who knows when the warm weather will arrive.

The things kids say

I have been sitting here thinking about the things that come out of our 5 year old's mouth. I think at 5 kids don't have a filter, this is definitely something you learn. Now, I will be the first to say that in my family we tend to speak our minds, and the problem occurs at a younger age with each generation. I am a prime example that sometimes I speak my mind and then think later - "Maybe I should not have said that" - but it is too late at that point. 2 things that still strike me as funny are:

Mommy when I am grown up you will be old - Yes Nettie, I will.
Mommy - (as she is putting on lip gloss) look you can put it on your lips and then use this to shove up the buggers. Note to all reading this - NEVER use Nettie's lip gloss, you have NO idea where it has been .

What a difference 3 years makes

So it is amazing to say, but the Wismer household is working out way to a diaper free world. Now this does not come without some messes, and some tears, on both John's part and mine, but it is true. Over the last week, I have stayed home with John (as well as our neice Lily) and have been potty training John. I don't remember Nettie being as difficult, and I was sure on Friday that John was not ready, but somehow over Saturday and Sunday he has turned a corner. I am still keeping my fingers crossed on continued success, but so far he is doing well. Thanks to Ben and his pushing me and John, I think I would have stopped if not for him. Nettie has been a supportive big sister, getting (and taking) jelly beans, clapping, and allowing Mom and Dad to take extra time.

On the charts

John turned 3 on Monday the 22nd and we have had a month of celebrating so far and it is just going to continue. We had the first big party on the 13th so that we could celebrate with the Gresh's who came into town just in time for the party.The kids had a blast playing with all their cousins. Nettie even got to have a "girls only" sleep over at Geema and Geepa's after. The girls all had a good time, and I am sure as they will get older this will occur more often. We were supposed to have another party with Tiffany's family on the 21st, but thanks to the flu the party was canceled. Thankfully, it was for John and he said "ok" when Ben told him we couldn't have his party that day. For the actual day we had a quiet day at home and then the 4 of us went to dinner at Red Robin, one of the kid's favorites, and John got to open a few presents. John was not so thrilled the next day when he had to go for his 3 year check up. Everything went well, but he cried almost the entire appointment, we are hoping it goes better next year. He is healthy and growing, finally getting truly on the charts in the 5th percentile for both height and weight. He is actually the exact same height Nettie was at 3 and only weighs 1 lb less. We have been seeing the gastroenterolgist for all his "issues" and are continuing to work on potty training.
Nettie is doing well. She is working on learning to read and has sight words each week and is loving writing them as well as learning to read them. She is getting very excited to go to school next year, and loves to drive the school.
I am home with John for the next few days working on potty training and we are having fun with cousin Lily who is staying here for a few days.

Some recent pics

Enjoying zoolights - It was a COLD night, but a good time was had by all. (above - the kids trying to stay warm in the stroller with many layers and hoping for hot cocoa. below - Poppa is testing out his glasses)
Sitting on Santa's lap - Amazing to finally have 2 kids smiling in the picture:)
Mom and I found these hats in Grandpa Pal's basement and couldn't resist having all the boys wear them for present time on Christmas Day. And yes - they are packed up and ready for next Christmas.
Building a snowman with Geepa while Nettie was sledding down the hill.
Nettie loved sledding - Thanks to Geema and Geepa for the fun sleds for Christmas!

Geema taking a run down the hill

Finally an update...

I think I am getting better at updating, but it has still be over a month, although I am going to have to send the link out to family and friends again to welcome in the new year - Yes, Julie Kay Marie I am talking about you:)

Happy New Year to everyone! It is nice to be in another new year although I tend to not make resolutions anymore, at least not once a year. I am working on continually improving myself - organization, working out, etc... Nettie learned about resolutions this year and had a list of about 10, all of which seem to have gone by the wayside, except watch less TV, we have control over that one!
This is going to be another busy year in the Wismer household. Nettie has been attending private kindergarten this year at her daycare. We have noticed some changes in her writing, and she is trying to read more. She enjoys going to school most days, but we think that most days it is more day care that school, so we have decided that she will attend kindergarten again in the fall at our home school. She should be starting kindergarten next year anyway, so the last year has been good preparation and will hopefully only help her to succeed. We attended an open house and learned about what she will be doing and thanks to the stimulus package we have free full day kindergarten, which we believe is a big plus for Nettie. It gives her additional time in the classroom and will allow her to have more time to learn the basics.
John is doing great, he is getting ready to turn 3 next month, and we are remembering how much fun a 3 year old can be. There are moments that Ben and I both have to stop, count to 10, and remember we survived one 3 year old, we can survive another. John will be going to potty training boot camp in the next few weeks, he seems to be ready. He can tell us when he needs to change his diaper, wants to put on his own underwear and seems interested, so why not try? John has been talking more and now loves to be able to tell us what he wants, thinks or needs. He is also turning into quite the negotiator. He loves playing with cars and trucks and trains and keeps us laughing when his guys are driving the trucks.
John has been talking more as well, but a disadvantage of more talking, is more talking back. So, John is also learning what time out is, and how much it stinks to lose toys. I am still trying to figure out how to get to him and so far the main thing is closing his bedroom door. He HATES that, so when he is really in trouble the door gets closed. He learns his lesson for about an hour.
Hope all is well with everyone. Pictures to be posted soon!