Fall days

Alright guys, here I am for another update. Once again, I am so far behind that I don't remember lots of details. So I am going to cruise through updates as I remember them. Or rather, look at the pictures. 

One thing I know is we have gone through 2 holidays since last post, and are now on our countdown to Christmas! 

Halloween. We went back and forth multiple times on what we wanted to be, but I won out with my lollipop fairy. Heidi was going to be jelly beans, but she decided she wanted to paint and make herself a popsicle fairy. Lena completed the sweet Steffen sister set with being a gumball machine. The fun thing is we made all of our costumes ourselves! We had fun at our school parties (yeah, I actually dressed up like a bunny for that - because we were all animals and got to go on Noah's ark!). We also did our annual party at Avery and Mae's house. It's fun to look back at the old blogs and see how big we have all got. See, I told you I am getting big. Then actual Halloween night was so fun. A little cold, but we loved running to all the houses with our neighbors Avery & Rowan. We love playing with them - like every day. It is so much fun having them to play with.

Sticking with the holidays. Thanksgiving just happened. As we had just been to Nebraska and saw a majority of family (I'll come back to that), we stuck around here again. We decided that we didn't want a big turkey for just us like we did other years...so I asked dad to make nana's fried chicken. It was awesome. Lena was a big fan of green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. Lots of mmmm's coming out of her. We spent that long weekend raking (Playing) in the leaves and decorating the house for Christmas. Our lights are super fun this year, dad made a tent. I guess I should take a picture - next time. 

Not only did we have a long weekend over Thanksgiving, but we had the entire week off of school. Or as mom put it...9 solid days with all of us at home. (I think she may miss going to work!). We started off our long break with a weekend getaway to see my BFF Ava! They are moving from their fun house in Joplin to Arkansas, so we went for a last visit and had lots of fun playing with them. But then the next day we drove to Silver Dollar City. And go figure, even though it has been a very warm fall with no coats needed....we go to SDC and it is cold and rainy. Dad says we don't get to go back next year because we have the worst luck with the weather. Luckily it just sprinkled and that eventually stopped, so this time we got to ride rides. But before that, we went to all have lunch. With Santa! Yep, we got our 1st visit with Santa in. I told him right away that I wanted a barbie house. I wasn't nervous to talk to him, but I had no idea what to tell him I wanted - I just didn't know. So I told him I wanted a soccer ball. Hopefully it is cool! Lena didn't even flinch with her first sit down with Santa. I think mom was secretly disappointed that she didn't get the screaming pictures that we all had. Lena just sat on his lap, tried her best to not look at him, and waited for mom to pick her back up. Not sure if she is going to get something. 

The rides didn't disappoint. And bonus Maddie and Graham were also there. My favorite ride is Thunderation. I could have rode it all night. Mom didn't get any pictures of me, but I have finally made it into the zone where I can ride some little kid rides by myself. But I have yet to hit the 42 mark, so I can't ride those rides that Amelia, Maddie, Ava, & even Viv (who is younger than me) rode. Needless to say, that made me quite upset. It just isn't fair. As you can see in the video below, Lena wasn't super into riding rides. She preferred watching us. And looking at the Christmas lights. SDC is so pretty with ALL of their lights. We also braved the parade, much to dad's dismay. But I liked it. The next morning we even got some swimming in at our hotel. That is one of my favorite things to do. Mine too! I can pass. I'll wait till next summer to re-find the love of pools.

We were so lucky because the weekend before we got to swim in a hotel in Lincoln. That's right. I went out of order. Grandma Elmo has had a rough time of it as of late, so we wanted to get up to see her and then bonus our cousins Mallorie & Gabby and their volleyball team made it to state. So we had a busy weekend for sure. On top of playing at Elmo's house, we went to their games Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, they lost the state championship in a close match, but I think they were great. We got to see most all of our Steffen family and friends! Like BJ and Tanja! BJ even gave me presents for my birthday. I was very confused when he started singing to me, but I hadn't seen him. Isn't that nice?! She is obsessed with the game he gave her. We play it multiple times a day. Even Lena is starting to get the hang of it.

What's that you say? Lena can play games and hang with us now? Yeah, she thinks so. But she still won't stand by herself or walk or talk for that matter. She is getting better and will stand up if we hold her hands. She has started trying to get up on furniture, so there has been some progress. Mom says not enough, but we don't like to see her complain. Well, especially Amelia. I am starting to get used to her fussing a bit more than her. But I am tired of her non-stop grunting, I try to get her to say my name but apparently Nala is still her favorite. One day, she can't grunt forever right? 

Hey all this talk about me, I should get to add in a word. I heard them talking about my lack of motivation (something called laziness) at the doctor. So I have been trying to throw them a bone and seeing about this whole standing thing. In the meantime, I did figure out how to go downstairs. I have mastered my butt scoot so well that the stairs are not too much of a challenge, but I do go down them nice and slow. I'm nothing but cautious.  Oh, and I LOVE dancing - like all the time.  She does. She grabs the remote all the time and tries to turn on music. Check out her videos below, they are pretty funny. In fact, all the videos are of her. It's ok...i get it, babies are cute. I look back at all the old ones from when I was little. Back to the doctor, why do they make those appointment so horrible? I mean those shots - HURT. In fact, I am still dealing with repercussions of the Chicken pox vac weeks later. Ouch. Outside of those, I did at least pass my doctor test by still making the growth charts. Barely. I weighed in at 16lbs 13 oz (3 percentile) and 28 1/2 inches (also 3%). Apparently I am staying right on my (small) track. And that is an ok track to be on. It sure is! Ok, good enough of an update for now. We have things to do!

Amelia OUT. Adding in a few other random pics

Lots of sister bonding:

I love any opportunity I have to cook with mom or dad. So a day of making butterballs with mom. Sign me up! We made a lot!

FALLing behind

Happy Fall y'all. The goal was that we would all get our own post for our birthday....but that goal was not reached. Story of our year, right? Oh well. Yeah, sis....we pretty much share everything, and all birthday celebrations were together so we can share our post about it. Since I'm better at sharing, I'll even let you go first. 

She may be right there. Anyway...I'm SEVEN. My 7th birthday also coincided with Heidi's first day at her new pre-school. See I share. Do you see my dabbing rainbow unicorn shirt? Pretty cool, right? Mom didn't get me the shirt I wanted in time, so Amazon to the rescue. I have discovered I can pick out things and they come like the next day. Side note, I have also discovered I can ask google about anything. I don't know what all of you old people did before all this technology. Speaking of technology, when being told again - ie. every day - to scoot my chair in, I decided life would be much easier if there were electric chairs that did it for me. Great idea, right? (dad calls it laziness, I call it a great invention in the making). 7 year old entrepreneur right here. I digress.....You can see my video below answering my yearly birthday questions!


 We get to go out to dinner to celebrate our birthdays, of which I have been waiting all year for. You see, I love buffets....mom does not, so I patiently waited till the big day. I ended up picking a new place, Cinzettis which was an Italian buffet - and boy was it yummy.  Grandma Elmo made it to town the next day to help celebrate and brought us our birthday presents. I love presents. Mom says too much so, but whatever. New things to play with are awesome. We had fun doing our crafts with her. We love all things crafty. In fact, we are currently making our Halloween costumes. Oh yeah, way more fun than picking one out at the store.

I think being 7 is pretty cool and look forward to doing big kid things. 1st grade has been going well, I am now reading chapter books and giving myself math quizzes. Mom had a conference with my teacher and confirmed I am just as great as she thought. Ha. You are funny, sis. I mean, I do think she is pretty darn great. But believe me, she has her areas of improvement. Like maybe to play what I want sometimes. It is always Amelia's way.  She tries to say she 'shares' by sleeping with me the past few months, but I think she secretly loves it as much as I do.

Ok. Let's discuss me now. As she said, I started my new preschool on Amelia's birthday. I felt like such a big girl with a big backpack. I really like it. The teachers and all my friends are great. My biggest complaint is that my days aren't long enough there. I like learning, and I like playing with my new friends and just wish I had more time. But, I also like getting to go home and hang out with Lena and mommy. I must say I am quite the good big sis. I know what to do to make her giggle. That is what 5 year olds do. That's right...back to subject at hand. I had a birthday too! On the big day, we got to go to lunch with dad after school. I picked Potbellies. Why? Because....pickles. They have big ones. And I love pickles. Here are a few more of my favorite things in my birthday video.  

Enjoying pickles with Papa on their last visit!

Now that the Royals baseball season is over, we have still been cheering on some baseball teams. I continually tell dad when he has sports on that I like baseball much better than football. Speaking of sports though, while dad says I have some mad t-ball and basketball skills - I'm too little for those. So I started up soccer. Did you know that you run a lot at soccer? I am not really a fan of that. BUT, I actually am pretty good at getting the ball away from others and I did almost score a goal once as you can see in this video. Almost. I did score one my first game. It may or may not have been on purpose. 





I also am still doing gymnastics...and getting pretty good at it! Here is a quick bit of me during cartwheels up on stage one day when we went to a park. Kind of funny, that day on the very same stage there was a little girl wearing a Sooners cheerleader outfit. Mom said back in the day there may have been a battle between us...but instead we danced  together.



Hey, I have started basketball back up too. Don't forget about me! I keep getting told how great of a ball handler I am. I like dribbling it by everyone down the court and sometimes shooting a basket...or I dish it off to Vivian on my team. We are a good duo. Mom says to not get too big of a head. Whatever. Needless to say our Saturdays have been a little busy lately!



But before all the activities started we did fit in a birthday party! Yay! We got to pick a handful of friends and we went to a nail salon and got pretty nails. Yeah, everyone got to pick their colors and they gave us little massages and we all got flowers! Then after we all walked to the park! I love playing at the park. We also got to have the cupcakes we helped make with mom. Don't you like our little fingernail polish marshmallows? I had so much fun doing those. I love helping in the kitchen whenever I can. We also opened presents

Hey, Lena here. Feeling left out so far. I thoroughly enjoyed all of their birthday celebrations. Why you ask? Dessert. Oh, how I love cake, ice cream, any of that yumminess! The last month or so for me has been good. No major updates. I have fully mastered the butt scoot. And after the last trip to the doctor and listening to mom yet again complain about my 'lack of motivation' I decided to throw them a bone and prove that I can in fact stand up. I still really don't care to do it much unless there is something super interesting to look at. 

I'll get there....it's just the more I stand the likelihood of falling. And well, that idea is not fun. Speaking of falling, I took a big one a few weekends back during a family bike ride. After a trip to urgent care, then the ER, I got the all clear and a pat on the back for wearing my helmet. Mom on the other hand has been told she doesn't get to take me on her bike anymore. Well sis, I am getting pretty good at riding a bike so soon enough you can ride by yourself in the pull with dad. Yep, I have mastered my balance bike and LOVE going out on rides around the neighborhood daily. We took the training wheels off my big bike, so I am getting close to getting that mastered. Then I can ride all around with Amelia. And yes, I am 2 years ahead of her on learning to ride!

Ok, i am sure we are missing out on other key updates but this has to eventually end right? Here are a few more pics mainly of the littles while I'm at school. They get to go on walks, play games, go to fun places, help mom clean - not cool. Ok....I did get to join in on some fun too. Like going to the pumpkin patch, our last Royals game of the season (where we got an unlimited pass to the outfield games!), and to our high school football game. Ok, I guess I get to do some things. Enjoy the pictures.

I hit the target on my 1st throw!

Mom finally loaded snapchat so we had fun playing around...

We are OUT!