Our 2012

Here's what we were up to in 2012...

January was full of doctor appointments for Ryker, and a trip to the aquarium at Mall of America.

Ryker started using the PECS system.

In February, we played a lot.

Makaylin started getting serious about potty training. Finally. ;) 

March was the beginning of our kitchen remodel. KK was also fully potty trained.

In April, the kiddos turned 3. We celebrated with a Yo Gabba Gabba birthday party, of course!

Adam & I also celebrated our 5th anniversary in Savannah, GA. 

May... well, apparently I didn't blog in May. I'm going to guess we were really busy? ;)

June was the start of summer break for Ryker. As always, we spent most Monday evenings at the park for the puppet show and community concert. We all really love that part of summer.

 I also feel like KK started to lose her "baby face" around this time.

Lance, Kimberly, Addy, and Hailey also visited us the last weekend of June. Such a short trip, but we were so happy to spend a couple days with them.

July was filled with lots of playing and outside time.

KK could also write her first letter- "M"! 

I also went to Vegas for my brother's wedding.

August was spent enjoying the last of our summer days and getting the kids ready for a new school year. 

We also helped with my brother's wedding reception which was at the end of the month. 

September was a big one. Ryker's 2nd year of preschool, and Makaylin's first year. 

We also spent a little time at Flandrau. 

October. I didn't blog in October, but October happened. ;)

November got the shaft, too. 

Play date with cousin Daxxon.

Adam's parents visited for a weekend.

 Twinkle the Elf returned a couple days after Thanksgiving. 

Adam also had surgery to repair his hernia.

December was full of holiday fun. Lots of art projects, decorating, and baking.

St. Nick came on the 6th and brought the kids treats and little gifts.

December also brought our first "big" snow. It was perfect snowman making snow. 

Christmas will get it's own post because, well, I have been too lazy to upload the images. :)

We were blessed in 2012 and can't wait to see what's ahead in the new year. Our biggest goals for 2013 are to pay off my student loans, see more improvement with Ryker and get him ready for Kindergarten (they start this process the year before for the autism kiddos), and spend more time with our family.

Cheers to 2013!

Snowy Sunday

Last night a winter storm moved in and we were ready to spend the day in our pj's eating the holiday treats I baked with my mom and sister yesterday. We watched Muppet Family Christmas (twice, at KK's request), napped, and wrapped Christmas presents.

But, before any of that could happen there were snowballs to be thrown and snowmen to be made!























Later on the snowman had a little accident and fell over. He recooped later during round 2 of snowy fun and even gained some arms and a buddy snowman.

I love snow days.

October

Here are a few picture I found from October... 

We had sick kiddos. Ear infections and fevers all around. 

Ryker had it worst. He had a double middle ear infection and double swimmers ear. A whole week off school and two doctor visits. 2 1/2 weeks of antibiotics. I've never seen the kid stay still for so long! 

With two kiddos sick and on medications, it was sticky notes to the rescue! 

We had a little station set up in the kitchen. 

Mom got sick, too. Dad's medicine was made by Schell's. ;) 

After we all got over our sickness, it was pumpkin time! 

We had treats, too. 

Ryker liked Makaylin's bumpy pumpkin best. 

KK put together treats for her school friends. She also helped with treats for Ryker's friends!

Halloween!

If there was an award for World's Worst Blogger- I would definitely be in the running! I'm pretty sure I haven't posted since the kids started school... which was September. Now it's DECEMBER. Woah. Instead of one big, long, post about the last few months... I'll try to do smaller posts. Less overwhelming!

Makaylin was SO excited about Halloween this year and she even picked out her own Halloween costume. She was Dashi Dog from the Octonauts show on Disney Junior. Dashi Dog is an underwater dog photographer for the Octonauts. Fitting, yes? Of course, Disney doesn't make Octonaut costumes because it's a newer show. Handmade, it was! I think it turned out pretty good.



Ryker wore a super hero shirt that had a cape on the back. Costumes don't go over too well for him- maybe in a few years it will be easier. He did a pretty good job visiting with Nana & Pa, Uncle Snake, Great-Papa & Great-Grandma Clyne, and Tristin (our AWESOME babysitter). He had enough by the time we had gotten to Great-Grandma's, but that was an improvement from last year. :)

KK's First Day of Preschool!

Today was a big day in the Hester house- KK's first day of Preschool! She has been nervous about this for a while now, and it definitely showed this morning. She told me this morning that she was scared about going and I did my best to calm her nerves- it seemed to work until we actually got inside the school. She clenched onto Adam's leg and wouldn't let go and we ended up leaving her in the classroom in full tantrum mode. Whew- that was tough!

We picked her up 2 1/2 hours later and she was so happy to see us! She just kept saying "Mom!" and then started crying (she did the same to Adam, too). She was very upset about school and said "The teacher doesn't like me.", "The teacher told me 'no' and that made me so sad!",  "The kids don't like me.". She also told us she saw Ryker on the playground and then as we pulled away from the school she started crying and yelling "I want Ryker!". She had me crying by this point, too. Breaks your heart, doesn't it? She was pretty cranky throughout the rest of the day, but towards the end when Auntie came to visit she was doing better. She told Auntie all about school and the things she did- Kels got more info out of KK than I did the entire day. I'm thinking tomorrow will be a little easier on all of us.

Since I have always been home with the kids, they've never been alone and away from me like that. I'm guessing that kids who have been in daycare have a much easier transition to school since they are used to being separated from their parents. It might take her a week or two to get used to this new phase in life, but I think she'll end up loving it!

Not having either of the kids home this morning was a very strange feeling. Adam & I went out to breakfast and then grabbed a (decaf) latte on the way home. When we got here, it was so quiet. QUIET! It was so strange and we were kind of at a loss at what we should do. It was the first time since the kids were born/home from NICU that we've been in the house without any kids. Thursday will be interesting for me because I'll be here alone since Adam will be at work. Crazy!

2nd Year of Preschool

Ryker's 1st week of preschool went great! He was super excited to get on the bus in the mornings, even though we got off to rough start on the first day. The bus didn't get here until 8:00- I even called making sure they were going to pick him up! The bus was on time the rest of the week, which made things much better!

He rocked it in communication during the 1st week- getting 95% on all of his tasks. It's funny to look back at his logs from last year and the first few weeks he was getting 0-25% consistently. So much growth in just one year. He is imitating different songs by humming or using different sounds (ga, hm, gee, etc)- his favorite right now is "Wheels on the Bus", but he also does "ABC's", "BINGO", and "Mary had a Little Lamb".

Flandrau

Yesterday morning I had a family session at Flandrau. I haven't been there in years, and it was so much fun! I decided that later in the day we would try to take the kiddos out there, since I had a day pass. Ryker wasn't too happy about being there, so Adam took him back to the car while KK and I headed down to the "beach" and the river. We took a few pictures, watched a group of kyaker's go by, and threw some rocks. We headed back to the car, where we decided I would stay home with Ryker and Adam would take KK back to Flandrau. They had so much fun- she came home covered in dirt and with a rock shaped like a heart. So sweet. :) She ended her night with a "dirt" pudding cup and fell asleep pretty quick. Such a fun evening!