Bunny Friends

Since today is Chase's birthday and I was re-reading old posts I was realizing how much I enjoy doing just that - reading old posts. So much gets lost in the day to day of kids that if you don't write it down it's L.O.S.T! I'm going to try really hard *AGAIN* to stay somewhat on top of updating the blog so I have my memories!

I found this video in my photos today. I don't remember anything about this but I think it's cute. Cameron must have left a bunny out for the Easter Bunny to play with? No idea, but enjoy cuz it's cute!

It's February???

Seriously, where does the time go? I feel like that's how I start every blog post lately. I'm just going to jump right in and mention what's going on here with the Herbies.

Chase is WALKING! He's 18 months old and he's finally realized that if he walks he can keep stuff in his hands while he moves. He is such a fast crawler it seemed as if he didn't care about walking because he could get there twice as fast crawling. He is no longer using bottles but he still has his binky. We try to let him have it only when he's ready for nap or bedtime but sometimes we cave and he gets it if he's fussy. He has quite a few teeth already but I am confident he's still teething and it seems as if the binky helps relieve some of that pain for him. He is talking a little. Some of the words he says are mama, daddy, bubba (Cameron), Hey E (Haley), GG, Mima, poop, no, ball, catch (sorta), Ya, go. If we ask him if he had a good day he will say "Ya." It is the cutest thing ever. What's also cute, while also being very bad at the same time, is the way he says no. He says it with such an attitude and shakes his head too. It is REALLY hard not to smile when he tells us no - but we are staying strong! He loves to dance now that he's figured out how to keep his balance standing up. He's in size 5 diapers, 18-24 mos bottoms and 18mo-3t tops. He's still drinking SILK and eating all sorts of things. Oh yeah, he can also say nana for banana.

Cameron is doing great in first grade. They are having a Star Spangled performance on Friday and he's been practicing the songs for a couple weeks now. I just love to hear him sing patriotic songs. He sings God Bless America, America the Beautiful and God Bless the USA. I can't wait for their show and I'm sure I'll be crying. He loves to read so much that we've had to put him to bed 30 minutes earlier than normal so he has time to read in bed and still get to sleep at a decent hour. He loves checking out the Star Wars books from the library. He and Haley are playing floor hockey in Boulder City and they are loving it. Haley loves it most when she gets to sit out on the high bench and watch.

Haley's in kindergarten and has quite the social circle. There are 4-5 girls in her class that have formed an all girl club. It is so cute. She's taking gymnastics at Gymcats and she does really well and really seems to love it. Joan picks her up from school on Tuesdays and takes her there. She's at about 130 sight words and books are finally starting to interest her now that she can read some of them herself. She loves to play with her barbies and dolls. She's in Daisy Girl Scouts and we are in the middle of cookie season. With the help of me, BJ and Mima she's sold about 850 packages of cookies. That is INSANE!

Almost Christmas

As always, I can't believe so much time has passed. Christmas is next week. We are all absolutely jazzed and it is so fun. I love this time of year, much like my mother did when I was a child. I thank her for sharing her love for the season with me and I hope to pass the same on to my children. The kids are always asking me to turn Christmas music on in the car and that totally excites me. Yesterday on the way to school was no different. Then I told them that pretty soon Chase will start asking for Christmas music too and then it will be 4 against 1 when daddy says no Christmas songs and we will win hands down. They just giggled. It was awesome!

Chase still isn't walking, but he is standing up in the middle of the floor sometimes. He is talking very little. He says thank you, daddy, GG, Chase and cracker. If I remember correctly, he has four teeth each on top and bottom. We have a wooden train that spells out Herbolsheimer under the kids' Christmas trees. As soon as that train is placed he loves to go up to it and throw each letter as hard as he can. Needless to say, Herbolsheimer hasn't been spelled out very often because the letters just end up somewhere else anyway! That's about all the destruction he does with the decorations which is quite surprising to all of us, considering he's such a monkey and in to everything else. I can't remember if I had it in the last post or not, but he climbs on everything. We've found him on the kitchen counter, dining room table, game table, edges of the couch, Haley's dresser drawer....EVERYWHERE. It's a good thing he is so cute!

Haley is doing great in kindergarten. She sometimes loses a penny for talking to her friend, Chloe, in class. I reminded her one day not to talk to her and she said "But we're friends!" So cute. Haley's mastered 90 sight words already and she is loving to read now that she knows so many words.

Cameron has fallen in love with reading too and his teacher says he is reading at the benchmark level for end of 1st grade right now. We are proud of him. He also just got straight A's on his first report card. He went to his first birthday party alone a few weeks back. It was for a girl friend of his, Delaney. They went to Bounce U and then out to lunch at Rainforest Cafe. He had a BLAST! He and his friends play some sort of Scooby Doo game everyday at lunch. They've all created this fun game and it is so cool to hear him talk about it.

Enough for now...

Where did it go?

So I seriously can't believe next week is Thanksgiving. I mean, like 4 days from now. Is that possible? Holy smokes - where has the time gone? I am absolutely excited for the holidays to be here though. Both Cameron and Haley can't wait for the Friday after Thanksgiving so they can decorate their Christmas tree again. I allowed them to choose one ornament at the store yesterday. Cameron chose R2D2 from Star Wars and Haley chose a really sweet tiara. For Chase we chose Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story.

Speaking of Chase, he is quite the monkey. He loves to climb on everything he can find. He pulled himself up on the piano bench one night and just started playing the piano. He was sitting with perfect form and everything. Eek! He has also climbed into Haley's dresser drawer and thrown out all her clothes to make room for himself. Cameron and Haley never climbed on anything so this is a whole new world for us. We may actually have to invest in safety equipment for Chase! We are pretty sure we will need to tie our Christmas Tree to the wall this year so he can't pull it down. Chase is 15 months old now and still not walking. Again, this is totally fine by me. He only says Daddy and sometimes Thank You. And if we say "One" he will say "Doo." It's quite cute. He has four teeth on top and two on the bottom. He's wearing mostly 24 month tops and about 18 month bottoms. He hates to have socks on his feet. As soon as we put them on he usually pulls them right off. He loves the Gerber Graduates lil munchy things in the Garden Tomato flavor. He is on Silk right now because he had major diarrhea about a month ago and it appears he may be lactose intolerant. The same thing happened to Cameron around this age and now he can drink cows milk so we aren't too worried about Chase.

Haley is as spunky as ever. She is really starting to learn to read and she loves to read to me before bedtime. If there's a word I know she doesn't know I just read it and she keeps reading the words she does know. It's quite cute. She knows about 60 sight words. This morning she told me she was reading to her Barbies while she was waiting for me to wake up. So cute! The hamper in her bedroom was overflowing with clothes this week and she told me "Mom, I sure do have a big loaf of laundry!"

Cameron is doing great as well. We all love his 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Lombardo. He is also loving to read and he has to read a homework book each night and then he also likes to read me some portions out of Star Wars books before bed. I am so excited about this because about six months ago the only thing he liked to do was watch TV and play the Wii. He just finished his first season of flag football. They didn't win any games but he always had so much fun. He is already looking forward to next year.

Here's hoping for a great holiday season filled with all sorts of memory makers. Enjoy your time with your families - I know I will!

2010 Fall Family Portraits

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Cameron's 5th Birthday

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School Has Started!

Yesterday was the first day of school for the kids. Cameron in 1st grade and Haley in kindergarten. I still cannot believe it. I took the morning off so I could take them (and their pictures, of course) and also so I could pick Haley up to hear all about her first day. She loved it (as we expected) and said she met friends but she didn't know their names yet. As we were walking to the car she asked where she would go tomorrow. I told her back to kindergarten. She got a huge smile on her face and said "Oh, I forgot." She is so funny. Her teacher, Mrs. DelGiorno, commented to me that she is a smartie pants. She asked the kids to write their name on their paper if they 'could' and she said Haley looked up at her and asked, "My last name too?" Yup, that's right, our little girl knows how to write and spell Herbolsheimer!

Cameron's first day went well also, with his only complaint being that he didn't have enough time to eat much lunch. We asked if it was because it was just a hectic day or if he spent too much time talking or what, but he just plain said he didn't have enough time. Guess he's going to have to learn to eat fast! I'm suspecting at day care they were given much more time for lunch so he's just not used to it. We'll see! Today he is trying hot lunch for the first time. It's two mini-hot dogs. I'm anxious to see how he liked it. It is hard to believe lunch is only $1.75. He's also trying Safe Key for the first time. He said he liked that as well. We are really hoping he'll try to get his homework done at Safe Key so he can have more time at night for himself.

Chase, of course, is still at the babysitter while we work. He is almost 13 months now and so much fun. He finally learned to do a real crawl just a couple days before his 1st birthday. Now he is quite fast when he wants to be. He loves to be in the fridge and freezer so we have to look around before we open them because if he hears them open he is at our feet and crawling inside before we even have time to grab the butter! He is starting to realize he has legs and that they are useful for standing. He pulls himself up on lots of things but he's still quite unsteady. As far as I'm concerned, this is ok. I am sure once he learns he can walk he will be all over the place in no time! He loves loves loves to be in Cameron's room playing with his Legos. We have to be really careful to keep his door closed at all times. He likes Haley's room too and he is allowed to go there. Most of the time he heads straight for the bright blue princess heels and a baby doll. He loves to give dolls kisses (or maybe he's biting them, who knows!) He loves any and all music. Whenever he hears music he twists his torso and swings his arms. Sometimes he rocks side to side too. He is quite the dancer.

As far as food goes, he prefers pureed baby food over chunks of people food. BJ gave him some baked potatoes the other night and he really liked those. We've been using sign language with him for quite some time and he definitely understands things. He is getting better about signing what *HE* wants, but I suspect some day soon he will just start signing and we'll be able to communicate much better. He is wearing 18mo - 2T clothes and size 4 diapers. He has three teeth (two on bottom, one on top) and the 2nd one on top is about to come through. He loves to wave bye-bye when anyone says the word. He's very social and has the warmest smile.

Well, I know it was a brief update but it's an update!