Christmas Card 2013

Another year has gone by!  Here is what the Meyer Crew has been up to!

Ryan:

• Year 8 at Bettendorf Hy-Vee with various different positions.  His current one is product manager (he does all the ordering)
• Loves the Hawks and still constantly annoys me with all of their new football recuits =]
• Plays the drums in the basement for fun!
• Enjoying the new house and new backyard

Katie:

• Year 10 of teaching and last 8 years at Madison.  Still working with students with autism
• Loves hanging out with the kids and watching their antics!
• Reading
• Working out
• Decorating the new house

Addison:

• 5 years old!
• Loves to perform on our fireplace.  I am sure you have seen those many videos =]
• Loves princesses, ponies, and her little brother
• Loves school
• Enjoys the new neighborhood, especially Savannah (next door neighbor)
• Wants to help all the time (dishes, making her bed, putting away clean clothes, etc)
• Played soccer this fall, she liked it, I am not sure if it will be her sport but it was fun!!!!

Gus:

• 2 years old!
• Loves to talk! Right now it seems like every word starts with "b" (ex: Bomas is bumming! Translation: Thomas is coming!)
• Loves choo choo trains, wee-oos (firetrucks), and anything with wheels!
• Still loves Mickey and has a new love for George the monkey!
• Loves his big sister more than anything and every night after reading one book together, Gus goes to bed and tells his sister "good night, peanut" (that is what I call Addison so that is what he calls her too)
• He is a character!
• Loves to sing happy birthday!

Plans for 2014

• Swimming lessons for both kids
• Junior theater for Addison
• Gymnastics for Addison
• Family vacation (don't know to where yet)
• Wisconsin Dells for Mini vaca weekend

Happy 2nd birthday little man

Gus is two!  I cannot believe it.  Gus is always entertaining us with his goofy faces and all of the things a future class clown would do.

• He is exploding with words (my favorite word is cookie, Gus calls them eee-coos).  He is speaking in sentences and when you ask him his name, he says  "Gussy!".
• He loves going to grandmas house, playing outside, swimming, wee-ooos, tractors, trains, anything and everything that a boy would love, he does.
•  He loves milk and like his cousin Isla is a fruit, veggie, and carb eater.  Meat is a bigger problem.
•  He continues to be a good sleeper, going to bed around 8:15 and getting up at 6:45.  He takes about a three hour nap in the afternoons as well.
• He has started to sing and likes to sing baby beluga and happy birthday and will blow out the candles every time (spit)
• Loves his baby beluga
• Next big transition will be a big boy bed.  He doesn't climb out of the crib so I am trying to hold off until Christmas break.  If I have a loss of sleep, it will make it easier.  After that, potty training will be the next adventure.
• He always wants free rides down the stairs and will jump into my arms from the fourth step to the landing.
• Always wants to do what the big kids do.  We got out the slip-n- slide earlier this summer and Gus wanted nothing to do with it. A couple of weeks ago Addison and savannah were playing on it and Gus decided that he wanted to as well and he had a great time.
• He just started riding with Addison in her princess mustang
• Grammy and papa combine bought him a battery operated toothbrush that he thinks is pretty great.
  
  

Here is my first post on my Gussy Man!

http://www.meyerfamily-kmeyer62406.blogspot.com/2011/09/august-john-meyer.html

All about Addison

Happy 5th birthday, my beautiful baby girl!  We have been through a lot of challenges, trying times and successes with you but we wouldn't change anything.  You are a sweet, empathetic, and genuine little girl who loves to perform, laugh, and have fun.  You never want the fun times to end and when they do, you are sad.  Here are some things that have happened to you in the last year.

• Completed first year of preschool.  You loved Mrs. Whiteman and Mrs. Myers.  You were good friends with Kadence, Addisyn Reed, and Riley.  You love school!  
• Went on a trip on a train to Chicago. We saw the aquarium and the children's museum.  
• At the beginning of the summer, you were very apprehensive about swimming and the pool.  It took you almost all summer to venture away from the side.  
• You started your second year of preschool last Wednesday, and like it so far! 
• You got a princess mustang from mom, dad, Grammy and papa combine last weekend. So far, you are a pretty good driver.
• We sold your first childhood home, the one we brought you home to. 
• You love your new room in our new house.  You also love Savannah, who lives next door!
• You can and will try to make friends in all places, including public restrooms.  You will talk to any little girl that you see and introduce yourself.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Here is my first post about my little lady!

http://meyerfamily-kmeyer62406.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-addition-addison.html

When did my kids get so big!

It has been a busy summer so far! Lots of swimming, trips to the library, trips to the Y, and hanging out with mom! We just got a fence so we will be enjoying the backyard even more! We go to Chicago in a couple weeks (on the train) so we are super excited about that!  Then camping the 1st week in August with the Meyer's and then back to school for me. :(

Kid updates!

I am so behind on what is going on with my kids!  I have 7 more days of school and let me tell you, I am ready to be done and READY for summer!  I loves summers because I get to spend tons of time with my kiddos!  Here is some of the things that they are doing now!

Addison:

• Addison finished two day a week preschool today!   Next year, she will be in preschool four days a week!  She loves school and has made some good friends that we will probably have to have playdates with this summer!
• She did dance class and swimming lessons (she did not pass swimming lessons =[ )Oh well, we will work at it this summer!
• Addison still loves to sing and tell stories! 
• She loves babies and is always around Isla, singing to her or talking to her.  She even helps feed her (even though Isla would prefer to eat herself) They are so cute together.  We are so blessed to have cousins so close!
• She is finally getting a chance to ride her bike that Santa brought her.  She is not too sure of it yet and still likes to ride her trike. 
• She is running in the color run in June

Gus

• Talk about a big boy!  He is 20 months old.
• New words are flying out of his mouth all the time.  Here are a few: dog, daisy, truck, car, uh oh, wee-eww, book, shoes, socks, mickey, guk (milk), juice, mom, dad, cheese (when taking a picture, not the food), coat (probably because we had to wear one for so long this spring!), poop, bath, lights, broke, help,etc.  There are many more and he is repeating a lot of words after you say them but not spontaneous yet!
• Growing like a weed.  Lately, because of the weather, he has looked like he needs to be wading in flood water because his pants are so short!
• He LOVES to be outside.  We have major fits when it is time to come in!
• He follows Addison everywhere and does whatever he can to make her laugh.  I have a future class clown, I think.

March of Dimes 2013

It is that time of year again that we walk in the March of Dimes Walk for our beautiful Addison and preemie babies everywhere.  Ryan and I were blessed with our beautiful baby girl September of 2008.  She decided to join us 9 weeks earlier than planned.  I was sent to Iowa City by ambulance for what I thought was going to be at least a 4-week bed rest.  My blood pressure did not cooperate and I spent a week on bed rest before we decided to induce labor for my health and Addison's.  I was induced Tuesday night and my water broke on Wednesday morning.  She came into the world at 8:32 in the morning and was rushed into the NICU.  She weighed 2 lbs. 15 oz.  I wasn't allowed to see her for 24 hours due to the drugs I was given to induce labor.  Addison spent 6 weeks in Iowa City in the NICU up there and then came back here for 2 more weeks.  We would not be where we are today if it weren't for those doctors and nurses in the U of I Children's hospital and Genesis.  We also would not be as advanced in research about Premature births if it weren't for March of Dimes!

Goodbye Little House!

Well we have taken a giant step these past couple of weeks!  We sold our first home and bought a bigger house for some more space.  We officially put our house on the market at the beginning of February and it sold in two weeks.  After selling the house, we got started packing and deciding what to keep or donate.  During all the packing, I really began to think about all the wonderful memories we had in that house.  The first winter and spring, we had the hardest time keeping water out of the basement.  We discovered the people who owned the house before us were "do it yourself" kind of people but they didn't do a very good job so we had some things to fix!  It had the biggest bathroom in the world when we moved in (a toilet and sink in an unfinished space) =]  We brought three babies home to that house (1-four legged baby and 2- two legged babies).  We re-finished the basement for a rec room/toy room for the kids.  We had great neighbors who were always willing to lend a helping hand.  My very first blog post was all about our first home including pictures.  It changed a lot from those first days and we loved it.  It was harder to leave than I thought it would be.  Not that we were not excited about our new house but closing a chapter is hard and beginning a new one can be hard too. 
Out new "tall" house (as Addison calls it) is in Bettendorf and closer to Ryan's work and my mom's house.  Addison and Gus will be PV Spartans (=[ ) but thats okay.  PV is a great school, it isn't Bettendorf but oh well!  Addison loves her new room.  We were able to get into the house on Thursday before we moved in and painted Addison's room bright yellow.  She and her cousin Callie and Carter helped her put princesses on the wall.  We have not done anything to Gus Man's room yet because I want to wait until he has a big boy bed with big boy bedding!  It is really nice to have more space for the kiddos to run and play.  Pictures to come!!

I missed 15 and 16 months!

Gus is 16 months old now and I have not posted about what he is doing!  He is not my baby anymore!  He is an active, bouncing, and energetic toddler!  

• He loves to play outside.  I let him out of the car at my moms in the morning and he immediately runs to the blue push toy.  He gets so angry when I pick him up to take him inside.
• He says uh oh and guk (which we thought was milk but turns out to just be "I want")
• He jabbers ALL THE TIME!  It is so adorable to listen to him talk.
• He eats fruits, vegetables, cheese, and yogurt.  He still does not like to eat meat.
• He is getting into all of Addison's things and she is not happy about it.
• He loves to throw food to the dog.
• He loves Mickey Mouse and Santa brought him one that is taller than he is.
• His favorite book is called I Love Trucks.  Every night when we ask him to go get a book that is the book he comes back with.