Hudson Joseph Julius

Our very first nephew was born December 10th, 2017 to Scott & Kaitlyn.

Introducing...

Hudson Joseph Julius

He is the sweetest. He was born at 4:11AM, so when I got the text at 6:30 AM, we could not get to Fort Dodge fast enough! We were guessing boy vs girl the whole way. The elevator ride up to the 4th floor maternity wing might've been the longest 16 seconds ever. 

 There was one Raymer kid who was most excited about holding Hudson. Evan's pretty pumped about not being the only boy anymore!

 Proud new papa

Evan's Christmas Program

Evan had his 1st grade Christmas program a few weeks ago. I found some great dress clothes on Black Friday for him. Chad told me he looks like he's running for president. 

 Two supportive sisters. What a lucky guy. 

 So handsome. But he couldn't stop messing with that tie. 

 I love that he spotted us in the crowd, and waved. Then he got embarrassed, but still. 

And the rambunctious behavior afterwards back in the classroom. Love these boys!

Scarlet's Thanksgiving Feast

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Scarlet's preschool class celebrated their Thanksgiving Feast.  

Both 3 and 4 year old preschool classes partied together, so it was a big group of kids and parents. Scarlet was so proud of herself with the personalized placemat she made, and the turkey hat she wore. Scarlet is going through a phase where she has a strong opinion about what she wears everyday. It's the same 2 or 3 outfits over and over again. They don't match, and one of them doesn't even fit. But I told her that if she would get dressed on her own every morning without a fight AND pick it out the night before, then she could wear whatever she wanted. So, on the morning of the Thanksgiving Feast, when she picked the striped Halloween outfit, I didn't have much of a case. 

Shark's Basketball

Evan played basketball for the first time this fall. Lauren decided not to sign up this year. Basketball isn't her thing, at least not yet. The 1st session of basketball is about 8 weeks long, and Evan had so much fun that he convinced us to sign up for the 2nd session, which will start after Christmas. About half of his teammates are fellow SHS classmates, the other half are some fun new friends from other schools. I'm not sure who had more fun during this season - the players or the parents. Evan has a great group of friends, with parents that are a lot of fun too. 

Introducing....the Ball Sharks!

We didn't have a winning record. In fact, we didn't win one single game. But to their defense, they only had 8 first grade teams sign up in this league, so we ended up playing mostly competition teams with a lot more experience than us. We were 0-8. Had a few more baskets fell, and a few less bad calls :) from those refs, and we might of had a solid 1-7 season. 

I am pretty thankful to be part of a team that didn't care about our record. Fun, and learning something were the coach's priorities. And we are definitely on board with that. 

Go Ball Sharks!

Halloween 2017

Halloween 2017 is in the books. Evan was a bat. Lauren and Scarlet both had fancy dresses, so I guess they were princesses? Or queens? I'm not really sure. We found these great costumes after a tip from Grandma and Laurie that HomeGoods had great costumes at a great price. I am definitely a buy-the-costume kind of mom. I wish I could say I was going to sew awesome Disney costumes like my Mom did for me when I was little, but I don't even own a sewing machine. 

 Halloween Carnival at school. Still my least favorite school event of the year, but this year was slightly less chaotic and stressful. 

 It was all worth it to see these 3 friends together. 

 LOTS of Evan's friends were there. Chase & Evan. 

Evan & Ian

 Gavin - Evan - Ian - Sam

 And Scarlet had a few friends there too! If you ask Scarlet about preschool, she will most definitely talk about Morgan. 

 Scarlet and Sarah Kennedy - these 2 have become fast friends watching their brothers play sports together. 

 Elijah - Evan - Luke

 We went to a very fun pumpkin carving party. Lauren and her 2 amigos came in 2nd place with their RIP pumpkin. Ask Lauren about it. She ran around the party telling everyone to vote for the Rip pumpkin. She pronounced it "Rip," as in rip a hole in your jeans. Griffin informed her it was short for "Rest in peace." Hilarious. 

 I don't know why this is blurry, but this is us on Hallow's Eve getting ready to trick-or-treat, the weird tradition in Des Moines where you trick or treat on October 30th. It was freezing!!!

 We met up at the neighbors for our annual Mexican potluck dinner before we ventured out. 

We lasted about an hour before we got cold. We made a last minute change to our costumes due to the weather. Princess dresses were not going to work. I put them in their ski socks, coats and long underwear, threw an old Mickey hat on Scarlet, and called it good. Warmth trumps costume. 

Evan's joke this year? (also a Des Moines thing)

Why are skeletons afraid of dogs?

Because they eat bones. 

Watch out, he came up with that one all on his own. 

Howell's Pumpkin Patch

The kids had 3 days off of school in October for Fall Break. Chad was in Texas for work, so I took one of those days off, and took the kids to Howell's Pumpkin Patch. It wasn't the sunny, beautiful fall day we had hoped for, but it worked. The kids had been to Howell's before on field trips, but this was a first for Scarlet and I.

Our neighbors were randomly also there, which was fun for Scarlet, because Charlotte is only about 6 months younger than Scarlet. Say that 2 times fast. 

 Giant pillows

 The bike races were one of my favorite parts, because these things had a mind of their own. Lauren and I took one for a spin, and it kept just going in circles or backwards. 

 Evan did the Corn Cannon. The goal was to shoot a piece of corn through the cannon and hit the huge pumpkin sign on the corn bin. Only in Iowa. But it was SO FUN. 

 Hayrack ride to the pumpkin patch and corn maze. 

We found all 5 hidden points in the corn maze. Scarlet didn't contribute a whole lot to our navigating the corn maze, but she was still pretty proud of herself. She does not lack confidence, that's for sure. 

After the corn maze, we called it a day and headed home. A fun trip to the pumpkin patch for sure. Our only regret was Dad not being able to join us. Next time!

Lauren turns NINE

Lauren turned NINE on September 28th. The only thing she wanted for her birthday, was a birthday sleepover. Of course, we agreed. She has the sweetest group of friends, so I thought it was a great idea.

The girls came over Saturday around 5. Lauren wanted to do some painting and art stuff with her friends, but we didn't even get around to all of it, because they spent most of the time in her room with Kids Bop playing on Alexa. 

Lauren's friend, Kathleen, has a little sister, Cece, who is Scarlet's age, and these 2 have become cute little friends. Scarlet was excited when Cece got to stay for the first hour of the party. :) 

I didn't take very many photos unfortunately. The girls got their jammies on, and were settling in to watch a movie. At this point, Lauren got one of her dreaded migraines. And it was a bad one. Of all nights. Going to bed is just about the only solution to her migraines, so I put her to bed, and the other girls stayed up to watch part of the movie. They were all so sweet about it. They didn't want to watch the movie Lauren had picked out "A Dog's Purpose." without Lauren. So, they chose to watch a movie they'd all seen 100 times, so that Lauren wouldn't feel like she'd missed out. Anna's idea, not mine. So sweet. Lauren woke up the next day feeling great, and we didn't let the migraine get us too far down.

I took Lauren in for her 9 yr check-up a few weeks later. 

Stats:

Height: 52.8 inches (54%)

Weight: 67.5 lb (59%)

Her migraines were the only concern at her well-child visit. Our pediatrician had previously referred to us to Blank Children's Neurology for Lauren's migraines. She had a complete workup there including bloodwork, and a Brain MRI. All of which was negative, thankfully. She doesn't have frequent enough headaches to warrant daily preventative medication, but we also haven't found anything that helps her either. I like Lauren's neurologist in Des Moines, but he also doesn't have anything else to offer her. Our pediatrician felt pretty strongly that we should continue to look for answers, so we are taking her for a 2nd opinion at the University of Iowa in December. I'm guessing that we will hear more of the same, but I'd love to be wrong and find out there's an easy answer. If not, my next step is chiropractic, which I'm not a big believer in, so that's hard for me to say out loud. But, desperation can make you do a lot of things you said you'd never do. 

Otherwise, Lauren is a happy and healthy 9 year old. She gave up soccer and basketball for dance and piano this year. We bought a piano, with the goal being for me to teach her the basics for a year before we start official piano lessons. So far, we're only 2 lessons in, so those official lessons might come sooner just to hold me accountable. ;) Lauren is having a great year at school, and truly seems like a happier kid being a little less busy this year. 

We could not love her more!

Auction Puppy

Chad and I had the pleasure opportunity task of helping out with the SHS school auction this year. The auction is the school's largest fundraiser, and 3rd grade parents are in charge of organizing it. Beings this was our first year of helping out, we bit off more than we could chew. While the auction was a lot of fun, and sometimes its more fun when you're more involved, it was a lot of work, and I'm pretty relieved it's over. 

However, one of our many responsibilities was seriously SO MUCH FUN.

Let me introduce...the auction puppy...

 This little lover spent 4 weeks with us. He is a miniature golden doodle with the personality of a golden retriever, and the no-shed coat of a poodle. 

 The school purchased him from one of my mom's friends. We dogsat for 4 weeks leading up to the auction. 

 Yeah, we pretty much fell in love with him. How could you not? He's adorable. And such a good puppy. 

 The kids did really well with him. They fought over who got to take care of him the first few days. That wore off pretty quickly. :)

 Chad fell in love with him too. We were already starting to wonder if we were going to have to bid on him at the auction. 

He joined us in many family activities. He rode in the Burley with Scarlet on a few bike rides, and he thought he was pretty hot stuff. 

 Another Sacred Heart mom, who is also an amazing professional photographer, took some professional photos of him for marketing purposes. Isn't he the sweetest?

Well, we successfully held up our end of the deal and brought him to the auction. I admit I was pretty tempted to keep him home, call off the deal, and buy him ourselves. ;) I had a pretty good idea of who was going to buy him that night, so I was feeling OK about it. Bailey was not a huge fan of puppy. He wanted to play ALL. THE. TIME. She wanted him to leave her alone and he never left her alone. :) And I really don't need 3 kids and 2 dogs to take care of right now, lol. 

He now has a great family, and a name. Otis. 

I missed him more than all of the kids combined. But he's got a great family, and we can visit anytime.

When Evan is in 3rd grade, I think I'll stick to another committee. :)