Ho-Ho-Holidays

So I actually started writing this 3 weeks ago and thought I was going to make 2 posts in one month. That obviously didn't happen, so instead I have a ton of catch up to play yet again. So be ready for lots of pictures and videos! We will go youngest to oldest:

Lena managed to get her first cold. And second...actually let's just call it a month long cold with a 4 day hiatus. It didn't help that in the midst of learning to deal with coughing at night, etc. I had to go in for my 4 month check up. Actually the 'check up' portion was quite enjoyable. It was the 3 huge shots full of a ton of medicine after that really sucked. Yep, I said it. The shots themselves were less than enjoyable, but it was the entire day and night after it that made me (ok, all of us) miserable. Misery loves company right? Anyway, since the last blog I turned 3 and then 4 months old. Eek. Here are my stats: I weighed in at 10 lbs 12 oz and am 23.75 inches tall (21%), all in all I'm barely making the weight charts that they like to talk about. But I keep being reminded that I don't catch up to my age till I'm 2. So I am not that much smaller than other 3 month olds. Plus my head is at 50%...got to fit that big brain of mine. 

I am getting bigger and stronger, but still have some work to do in the development department. Rolling over, sitting up, etc....they will come I am told. Mom says she likes it when I smile and talk to her, but lately I have been digging daddy and even giggled at him once or twice. As always, I love my sisters. I keep getting told I look like Amelia (hey that isn't SO bad is it?), right now I guess I am shocking them that I don't have brown eyes. Yet. Or maybe I will be the unique one in the family! One thing that may or may not make me unique....is I absolutely LOVE baths. I mean love. I would spend all night in there if they would let me ! 

Not a fan of tummy time

Hey sis..we are all unique! I don't have a ton of updates, school is good. I am continuing to become a master colorer like Amelia and am also getting really good at writing all my letters, numbers, etc. I am taking a break from gymnastics and focusing my time on my dance skillz. Yeah, they are good. I do plenty of gymnastics at home...much to moms delight. I am a great big sister. In fact, I watch Lena every day while mom is at the bus stop with Amelia. I usually take pictures or videos of her. I know she loves it. As you can see, sometimes I get confused on selfie/video mode. 

I have had a cold for like a month. Dad is getting real sick of it, I don't love it either. I am trying to be good like Lena and sleep all night. That's right, I have been a good sleeper the past 4 nights...going 8-7, everyone seems so happy with me in the morning when I do well...so I will try my best to keep it up. Amelia sometimes sleeps with me to make sure I don't get up because she wants to ensure that Angel our elf comes (yep, she has made her appearance and I LOVE going around trying to find her every morning!)

Can you guess which one is mine?

lost my 2nd tooth
at school!

I started basketball. And guess what...dad is my coach! Boom. I love it. Partly because I am one of the only ones who can make a basket on my team, it makes me feel pretty special. So far I have scored like 8 points. I am working on my ball handling skills though. Check out me in action in some of the videos below. I still really love school. I got an award. Called R.O.A.R. (you see, we are the bobcats that Roar!). It stands for being Respectful, staying On task, Acting safely, and being Responsible. They give the award at the all school pep rally each month and I got it in November. Yay me. :) Outside of that, I have had fun at our Thanksgiving play/party and I am really doing well learning to read. I'm on book 7 and flying through (when mom and dad remember to sign off for me!). They also had me go show some of my work writing sentences and writing to 100 to the first grade teacher and then the principal! Oh boy...mom said usually you don't want to go to see her, but this time it was good. There was a boy in there getting in trouble before me. Yikes.

I was an artist for 'career' day

Ok, now on to fun activities in no particular order:

Rhonda and Siera came for a visit, because Siera is going to move here! Ok, I may be getting ahead of myself but she did interview to go to grad school at Rockhurst (and got accepted by the way. No surprise there!). As you can see, we are totally hoping she comes here...but only time will tell! We had fun playing with them. Yeah...and we went out to eat to a Japanese steakhouse. I personally was a bit freaked out by the big fires. Well I loved the steak. I ate mine and mom's. Mom said that I have too expensive of taste. I guess she would prefer me to just pick on the rice and veggies like Heidi did. 

Nana, papa, and Rachelle came for a quick visit one weekend too, and mom and dad even got a dinner out without us. So needless to say we had a couple of fun weekends with everyone.

In between there we celebrated Thanksgiving as a family of 5. Dad made an awesome turkey. I ate a whole leg by myself, and some rolls. I loved the pumpkin pie...and I, as usual, sat in my chair and watched them all eat. You just wait till next year when I can join in the fun. My favorite part was we pulled out all the Christmas stuff to get ready for the holiday. I love going through the ornaments and making the tree pretty. Our tree may be a bit bottom heavy in the ornament department, but we love it that way. We also got a little tree for downstairs and we color and make an ornament every night for advent. We learn a verse and sing a song. It is fun. I love everything about Christmas season and keep reminding everyone it is not about the presents it is about Jesus' birthday! But of course, I won't turn down any gifts. 

We did get to go see Santa one day after church so I told him that I want some walkie talkies. I actually told him what I wanted too. AND smiled for the camera. Dad totally didn't think I would. Maybe it was because I didn't have to sit on his lap (which was totally NOT going to happen). He is coming again to my school, I'm hoping he doesn't require me to sit on his lap this time either.

when picture ideas fail.

daddy with all the girls!

We took my first trip to Branson, and I was a rockstar. I didn't mind the car ride and was totally chill being toted around everywhere while the big kids had fun at the park. And boy did we! Ava & Viv met us there, so we had so much fun riding rides, eating, and watching the parade with them! It always seems to go too fast, I wish we could spend multiple days there. I may have a better chance at that than Disney. Yes, I have been working many angles to try and schedule another family trip to Disney. Dad said when I save up $300 of my own money then we can go. I'm on it!

Things are starting to get really cold around here (yes, I have gone from short sleeve no coat weather at the beginning of this blog to now below 0 temps!). We did not let the cold keep us down after our first big snowfall (1 inch) of the year this weekend...we made dad go out sledding with us twice! I could only talk mom into hot chocolate once though. 

As always....ending with a sister selfie! Merry Christmas to all! Steffen Sisters...OUT!

Life's a Treat

 

I know! It has been over a month since I last posted. I guess we are still adjusting to life with 5 of us that having free time to write has not really happened. I mean after Heidi joined us, the post frequency went down so once a month is about all you should expect. Today we woke up to find out that the boy will be our president, this is not what anyone thought but I know we will be OK because we have a mommy and daddy who love us and will take care of us. Even if it is in Costa Rica.


Lena's eyes are still grayish....but mom says they will eventually change like ours

So much has happened in the last month....in no particular order:





remember you can see ALL of our monthly pictures by clicking on our pages on the right side of the blog!

I took this picture of Lena, budding photog?

Lena turned 2 months old. Yes, and what did I get? A trip to the doctor where they gave me 4 shots. Are you kidding me? Not cool. I weighed in at 8 lbs 11 oz. I guess smaller than my sisters, but remember I'm technically younger with that whole 'adjusted age' thing. Actually she is now 12 weeks - which means mom started back to work. Mom keeps saying she should have another 4 weeks because she really is only like an 8 week old. For example, she just this past week has finally started smiling and talking (or cooing). Which is SOOOOO cute! I guess I did that way earlier. But let us all remember how much Heidi talks. Anyway...we are trying to make her neck stronger, but she still has some work to do in that department. She isn't rolling over or anything, but she is sleeping pretty good. Last night she slept 10+ hours till 7:30! But about 1/2 the days of the week she still wakes up one time to eat. Luckily only mom has to wake up with her. The rest of us get to keep snoozing. Speaking of eating, apparently mom forgets more in her older age, because I have heard her on a number of occasions say she flat out forgot to feed Lena. I know! I guess I should give her some sort of a sign....but I just don't get THAT hungry. 

I also took this one. :)

You know we had to get a comparison at some point. Here we all are for our 2 month pictures. Can you tell who is who? I love it when I hear that Lena looks like me. I hope she has curly hair like me. I just love her so much, She is so cute and her skin is so soft. I tell mom all the time while I rub her.

Let's get back to that whole mom starting work thing. Talk about turning my world upside down. First I dealt with her being sad for a few days and then boom....I go from 24/7 mom to where did she go? But turns out this school place isn't so bad. My teachers are nice and Heidi comes to visit me. I haven't really got to know the other kids, dad said to stay away so I can be healthy. After school I tell mom ALL about my day. My first day I talked to her for like 10 minutes. Here is just a sample of some of my talking.


Hey Lena, don't you forget that I am getting a bum end out of this deal too. I now don't get to stay home with you guys on Fridays. Or run errands such as grocery shopping. I am a GOOD shopper you know!

We bought a new car! Mom seemed sad to get rid of her Prius, but I am glad I will get to ride in her car again. I was only able to ride in dad's car. I guess we bought a car right before mom went back to work with each of us. Does this mean we will never get another new car since we are not having any more kids? Yikes! Here you can see me driving each of the new cars!

 

Halloween was awesome. I have been waiting forever for it and it did not disappoint. I had fun at my school parade and party where I was a cool rainbow unicorn. Mom & Lena even came to my party at school and brought some mummy juice boxes. I really like kindergarten and am doing super good learning all my sight words and am sounding out words and reading. I love it! I guess my teacher told my mommy at conference that I remind her of a 1950s woman. Sounds weird to me, but mom said that just means I am very polite and proper. I like my teacher a lot.


We also celebrated Halloween at our friend Avery and Mae's annual bash. I was worried we weren't going to get to go because dad was away for a boys trip and mom seemed to be tired of carting us around, but we went and it did not disappoint. It had been forever (a year?) since we saw them last so we had fun. We made all of our costumes this year. Heidi was a rain cloud, Lena was the sun, which makes me the rainbow (that I painted all by myself!). Mom even was mother nature. I made dad a sign with the weather forecast so when he came home for trick or treating he could join in fun too. I loved trick or treating around our neighborhood! Me too! Well, except for houses that had dogs...those I ran from. Fast! Our neighbors Rowan and Avery came with us too which made it so much fun! Now we love getting a piece of candy every night! Yummy.

My cloud may have been mistaken for a pillow by the Ludlow kids!

Visitors:
We have had lots of visitors. Grandma Elmo came for a last visit before she took off winter in Arizona. I skyped with her and saw her house and the cool palm trees outside!

Grandpa McLain also stopped by for a quick visit en route back home from his travels. He got to meet Lena and told us about his long driving trip to like 14 states! He also told us that his grandma was named Lena how cool is that?!

My godfather BJ and Tanja came to visit one weekend too! We had so much fun playing with Tess, Norah, & Kaiden. I think they liked holding me! I wish they were closer so we could see them more often.


Uncle Matt and family also came down and as always it was so much fun. They stayed in a hotel, so you know what that means. Swimming pool! I love swimming with Jay, Will, & Gabby! We all went to a pumpkin patch one day and had so much fun. I loved the slides. And the cousins even helped us mine for some rocks that we still like to look at! It was Jack's birthday while he was here. He is 19! So Gabby stayed back with us while the big kids got to go out to fancy dinner for him. Oh, and aunt Brenda gave us both a trim. Heidi wouldn't let mom take her to a hair place - yes, only Brenda - so we had to wait for her to do her magic. My curls haven't looked so good for a while!

 
Enjoy some more random pictures over the past month.Amelia OUT!
Sisters just bonding:

 

I finally got to feed her...and introducing her to smart phones. We all like watching videos of ourselves.

most of the time we play baby and mommy, butsometimes doctor is in order.
Before mommy went to work I would get to hold Lena in the AM.

We learned how to leg wrestle!

Look at those tiny feet!

It is fall and dad did put us to work. But don't worry, I jumped in the pile once it was complete! We also did our volunteering at the church food pantry. We have SO much fun doing it!

Little Ava comes over with her family a lot so we can eat and watch movies, while mom and dads play cards. You would think we would take some pictures, but of course that is asking too much. So here is one with her and Heidi at dance during dress up week.

we went and picked out our seats for next year and looked
at trophy! Hopefully we will get another next year!