Category: Packer

    13.8 and 38

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    Raymond Thomas – 2 months

    cute baby chubbiness

    Raymond is 13 and a half pounds – 2 months – pretty chunky. Everything checked out healthy at his 2 month appointment. He has been such a sweet baby. He is usually pretty chill. I find myself just wanting to sit and hold him in the evenings when the chaos has gone to bed. He is not a snuggler though, he prefers a little bit of space, usually facing out. In fact when he is fussy a lot of times the solution is just to put him down and let him stretch out. We love baby Ray so much. It makes me wonder if I had 100 kids would I still love them all so fiercely. Do our hearts and minds have a love limit – so far my answer is no limits. Ray has been sleeping from 10 or 11 pm until 5 or 6 am and then back to sleep for a few more hours while we get our morning started. Like I said before – sweet sweet baby.

    mr. smiley

    4-19-12 he is waving hands and kicking feet constantly these days.

    Packer weighs 38 pounds. He went in for his kindergarten shots this week. He was super brave. He told me that there is a sucker trick for doing shots. The trick is to get a sucker and then when they are going to give you the shot you crunch the sucker really hard and then you won’t feel the shot so much. That is exactly what Packer did. He crunched hard and didn’t cry or yell or anything. What a good boy. He didn’t do very well on the eye exam but the nurse said that it was normal for his age and not to worry about it yet. Everything else he did great and is a healthy boy almost turning 5 in a few days.

    Tiger Packer after a fun day at preschool.

    Categories: Packer, Raymond

    Packer Art Man

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    uncle Sean's happy face bday card

    Packer still loves art. When I told him it was Uncle Sean’s birthday he went in the kitchen and made him a card right away. Now the problem is that he just doesn’t want to learn to write. He is almost done with preschool and he is just starting to write his name. The other kids are all writing theirs but his is a little longer and he just doesn’t care. I am working with him over spring break to see if we can at least get his name down.

    Rose is busy learning her letters

    Categories: Packer, Rose

    TUESDAY SNOW DAY

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    We finally got some snow! The kids have been making snowmen and snowflakes at school in hopes of snow and we finally got an inch or two! so we took that inch or 2 and had a fun few hours. We had snow ball fights and tried out their sled at ‘the corner’. We are ready for more snow, some real sledding, and we didn’t get to make a snowman. (Rose and Ben were in the house napping.)

    Benji was busy throwing snow balls at me so I couldn't get a good picture of him in action.

    Packer trying to figure out the snowball launcher.

    Cali loved the snow - I don't think she has any recollection of playing in it before.

    Categories: Benji, Cali, Packer

    SHOWER TIME

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    Our kids are WIMPY. Lots of little things that shouldn’t be a big deal are a big deal. While out on our date night Ben and I decided that the boys should not be crying when water gets ‘near’ their eyes in the bathtub. Something had to change because they are wimpy bathers, don’t like to bathe and need to bathe more than once a week. So … our solution, a SHower CHart! We are into Potty Charts so this is good timing. If they fill up their Shower Chart then they will get a prize. A new Skylander! We presented the idea and they started. Packer worried about taking a shower all day but we finally got them in there – with their goggles on 🙂 and they LOVED IT. They loved taking showers! The goggles came right off and Packer ended up staying in to enjoy the water for quite a while! Benji was asking if he could take 2 showers tomorrow – he really wants to fill up his chart 🙂

    the new shower is perfect for the boys!

    Categories: Benji, Packer

    Hair Cuts

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    it was time for some hair cutting around here Tuesday night…

    BEFORE

    BEFORE

     

     

     

    Sporting the mullet like his Uncles

    Packer loves Spikey

    Cali thinks she got a hair cut - we are still waiting for her first Cut

    success!

     

    Categories: Benji, Cali, Packer

    Fun in a Box

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    I love that Packer read a book from the library about a boy that decorated a box and played in it so next time he saw a box he knew exactly what he wanted to do 🙂

    Fun for all ages.

    Categories: Benji, Cali, Packer, Rose

    nettesheim news

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    Nettesheim News: (random order with random pictures dispersed throughout)

    Great Pumpkin Party 2011 - we had a great turnout!

    Rose is finally drinking milk! really her birthday was only 18 days ago but my other children switched over so easily that this has felt like forever.

    I am still in love with this wink!

    Benji is a READING machine. He loves to read and I love that he has picked it up so fast. After a week or 2 of school I sent a note in his backpack that his baggy books were to easy so they bumped him up a level and give him two books at a time and he is still flying through them. He can read just about anything BUT he doesn’t do much reading outside of what is required.

    Benji loves having Tay, Ky and Mar living with us - non stop fun.

    Packer can spell his name! He wouldn’t even try at Joy School last year so I was excited to see him get it. We were at the park and they have letter blocks and he told me he was going to make his name – I assumed that meant finding a P, which he did find, but then he just kept on going! He is still Mr Project, today he helped me deep clean his bedroom and played with every little thing we found like it was Christmas morning.

    Soccer is over for the season, we'll be back in the spring.

    Rose is a standing machine – by that I mean she loves to pull herself up to everything, if she is awake then she is most likely standing up holding on to someone or something. She cannot stand by herself yet. She also loves to climb. Her favorite spot is up on the couch. And she is discovering the Love Sac this week since we have it back, it has been being babysat by Bens brother since our house is FULL.

    My Big Girl at one of many soccer games

    “So is Cali potty trained?I mean you don’t have much time before the new baby comes and YOU DO NOT WANT 3 in DIAPERS.” Thank you mom for the reality check! 🙂 I would love for Cali to be out of diapers but it just isn’t happening. She sits on the toilet, grunts, makes fake pee sounds, talks about using the big girl potty BUT she has never physically ACTUALLY used the toilet so we are still waiting. I think I will force it when she turns 3 if it hasn’t happened yet.

    Cali with Aunt Michelle at Soccer - it takes all of us to keep her happy - she is my toughest child (still)

    Benji is a social machine lately. He keeps making knew friends at school and comes home itching to play with them. He tells me that he is one of the funny guys but Isaac is super funny and Tye is kinda funny like him. He also enjoys playing with Truman and seeing guys from school at soccer. He hasn’t made any lasting friendships yet but he is getting the friend thing down. Having older cousins live at our house is giving him some insight on how the friend thing works.

    Caramel apples for FHE this week!!

    We got a few Halloween costume items in the mail today. Packer lit up SOO bright when he got his. He was grinning from ear to ear. He is still stinking cute and innocent and easy to please and … I just want him to stay this way forever 🙂

    Tara and the girls dipping the apples in butterfinger.

    “I am the Mom, you the sister, you the brother and Rosie is the baby.” This phrase comes out of Cali’s mouth several times a day. She is ALWAYS the mom and she is good at it. She is bossy, calls everybody sweety, and takes care of everybody. Sometimes I forget that she is still just 2.

    let me help with the apples - please

    Ben has become the Master Chef around here. He cooks EVERY Sunday and we ALL love it. My siblings have a standing invitation to Sunday dinner and he has never disappointed. Some of his specialties are Benoganoff, Bensagne, Corn Ben and Chili, Ben Vida (pork burritos), and classic ‘Sunday Dinner’. These are 3 to 6 course meals for 10 to 16 people so it is no small task. I wish every day were Sunday.

    We celebrated Taylee's 11th birthday on the 11th!!

    Rose is always sick lately. Not necessarily take me to the Dr sick but just enough to make her GRUMPY. It seems about weekly that she gets a little fever and just can’t be happy. On Sunday she was a monster. She had a quick nap from 10:30 to 11am and then I brought her home from church at 12:30 and let her have another little nap until 1:00. I wanted to go to the last part of church so we headed back over and she lasted maybe 5 minutes before yelling loudly and then waving to all of the women when she got her way and we exited the building. I never leave church early but this time I did. Ben says he will wrestle her next week and we both think there will be a better outcome.

    I love when babies pass out on the floor - adorable.

    Benji is growing up, this months milestone… he can walk to or from school by himself! I am soo excited for this because that means I shouldn’t have to load the van with lots of kids to go get one kid a football field length away from our house! And once he is independent then he will be able to take Packer next year and Cali after that and… ahhh I see a light at the end of this tunnel 🙂 I know winter will bring its own challenges with walking to school and he still convinces us to take him when he can BUT he is capable of going by himself and that is huge.

    Our big First Grader! showing off his desk.

    I have been helping out in Benji’s class on Thursday mornings! It’s fun to see him in class with his classmates. I am helping a few of the kids with their reading. At first I figured that some other mom probably had more time than I do to help but after parent teacher conferences I signed myself up and it is working out great. I love it.

    the Legos have resurfaced - I hid them for the last 2 months to keep the clutter under control BUT we all love the Legos.

    Categories: Ben, Benji, Cali, Jana, Packer, Rose

    Pumpkin Harvest

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    Ben and the kids cleared out the garden today. The kids have soo much fun “working” with Dad. I love it.

    everyone hard at work

    Cali loves picking tomatoes and raspberries - she eats as she goes.

    Packer wanted to show me the cool little zuchinni!

    Benji is the family Ham, he is always trying to get a laugh

    Rose trying to eat a pumpkin

    these are still my favorite part of the garden

    the final crop

    and my 2 favorite pics:

    ohhh

    cool kids

    Categories: Ben, Benji, Cali, General, Packer, Rose

    Nettesheim’s Got Talent

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    Our ‘crazy’ sister in law decided that we should have a family talent show to give the kids a chance to perform and show some of the things they are good at and have been practicing hard at….

    Dancing to "Robot Parade"

    So our problem is we don’t really have any true talents. We haven’t started piano lessons or anything musical. No dance classes, art classes, or classes of any kind and the only sport we do is Soccer which I can’t consider any of our children as being talented in that area 🙂 so… we enjoyed watching the cousins perform their talents and we joined in with a few songs and dances.

    Cali and Packer singing Ghost of John

    Our talents: silly dancing and more silly dancing and Cali sang and so did Packer and they danced some more. They did really love the attention and the atmosphere so it was worth it. And Packer just asked if they could do the ‘cousins skit’ again cause he loved it. It was a successful and FUN night.

    Benji's part in the "cousins play" - he LOVED this

    I'm a Little Tea Pot!

    Categories: Benji, Cali, Packer

    First Week of School

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    Benji is a first grader and he is loving it! He got his same teacher that he had for kindergarten last year which made the transition easy for him. His first day was a long day he said but it got better each day. My brothers family is staying with us right now so he has been walking (actually running) to and from school with his older cousins Taylee and Kylee. That is probably his favorite part of the day.

    Taylee (5th), Benji (1st), Kylee (3rd)

    I'm home! (2:30pm)

    At the end of the week I asked Benji what is favorite part of school is, here’s his answer: “Recess, actually lunch recess cause it is longer. I like Isaac and funny Isaac. In class I like books and the listening centers. There are 3 cd players you play and follow along with book. I like math cause it has fun tools but we can’t make weapons.” And I had to ask him what he didn’t like: “Hmmm, I’ll say, ummm, is when I have to go home. I like school. I love school! School is soo fun. There is this funny guy I sit by for computers – oh wait computers is my favorite. This guy dances to lunch and I am after him.” and then we got distracted and the conversation ended there.

    Packer's first day of Preschool!

    Packer is going to school on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. He is excited. He has been wearing his name tag around and loved his magic play dough that he made on the first day. He is in the same class as his cousins Luca and Sam. And Cali had to have her first day of school picture even though she just got to stay home with mom.

    all grown up

    Categories: Benji, Cali, Packer