Evan and Emily: August 2013

April 2013

We gently eased our way into April this year, as we sloooowly put our basement back together, in awe of how amazing it turned out. We are in love with the finished product and find ourselves spending a majority of our time down there, wondering how we ever survived without it "complete" like it is now.

Evan had his annual bank conference in Vegas and I definitely made sure I found my way onto that trip somehow. It was great getting to spend some time together, even if he was working for a few days. I took advantage of the down time to read a lot and relax by the pool, shocking to no one. We did enjoyed fabulous dinners out, and even went to an incredible Cirque De Soleil (spelling is completely wrong there, I think you get what I mean) show.

We also started potty training Luke this month and were amazed at how well he did. I think he only had a few "accidents" in the first few days and very quickly caught the hang of it. After only a few nights, he was completely pull-up free! I may have mentioned it once or twice before, but Luke loves listening to music and playing DJ in our house. We have a CD-player alarm clock, and he can be found constantly shuffling CD's in and out of it and playing them over and over. He is genuinely occupied by this for hours. His favorites are the storytime audio books, with Finding Nemo taking the top spot. He also loves the Beatles, but only because his daddy does too. We used this passion for music to our advantage to aid in our potty training efforts as you'll see below. Hard to believe that we're out of diapers (more like ecstatic)....and just in time, as we revealed in April our exciting news: we're going to have another baby in October! We are over the moon thrilled, and even more grateful to be sharing the news as this pregnancy has taken a terrible toll on me this first trimester - my tiredness, naseau, acne, heartburn, food aversion whatnot can now finally be linked to the best news of all - we will be a family of 5 this fall!!

Working on an art project from Aunt Katie

Rebel painter

Luke is actually very excited about his baby sister, despite the look on his face

He will hate me for putting this out there....

....and this one is just as bad. I mean, DJ Potty Trainer

We can't wait to meet you Baby Gottschalk #3 (due on Halloween!)

March 2013

After a whirlwind February, we were glad to slow things down a bit in March. Evan wrapped up his bank conversion by mid-March and we were all thankful to have him back in normal-life mode again. Our basement was still in remodel mode (but nearly complete) so we looked for more fun activities outside the house to cure our stir-craziness! We enjoyed a evening away with the kids in Shipshewanna, IN (Amish country), a town that hosts an indoor water park! The kids loved getting to play and splash around, and especially loved their bunk beds in the hotel room. We loved getting to do something different and Jane still talks about going back to Shipshewanna, pronouncing it near perfectly.

Evan was able to get away again this March for basketball season March Madness with his friends and I was happy he could do something fun after working for what seemed like months on end. Before we knew it, Easter had arrived and we found ourselves back at Mimi and Papa's house for an Easter egg hunt. The sun came out for all of us on Easter, and tempted us with visions of Spring!

Loving life in Shipshewanna

Smiling for daddy while he's away

A special trip to the all-time favorite, Chuck E Cheese's

Just relaxing with a good book

The hunters

Jane's Easter dress that she wants to wear every single day. No joke. Every. Day.

Not thrilled to be in front of the camera

Just Us Girls

I cannot even describe how wonderful of a time Jane and I had on our trip to Florida! It was great to spend quality one-on-one time with her, especially on her first airplane trip! She is a blast to travel with, and got excited over the littlest things, which was the best part for me. The weather was still a bit chilly, but we were able to enjoy the pool for one entire day, room service every morning (ordered by Jane and normally something super sweet like pancakes and waffles), a movie before bed, and of course, DISNEYWORLD!

I thought I'd take a quick moment here, since this post will be very "Jane-heavy" and provide further examples of some of the funniest things she's been saying lately, especially around being extremely literal and by-the-book. She is an incredibly intelligent young lady and she never ceases to amaze Evan and I with what she says, what she remembers, and just how she acts in general.

#1. Although 95% of the time Jane and Luke are amazing eaters, we found ourselves one evening struggling to get Jane to eat her dinner. Whether she was just choosing to be stubborn, or truly didn't enjoy the dish (I can't remember what it was), she was stating that she didn't want to eat dinner. Using all the old tricks in the book, Evan and I very calmly told her that she needed to eat dinner, and that she should be thankful to have a warm meal. We proceeded on our own diatribe for at least 5 minutes on how hard we work to have money to pay for food, and how there are some people who don't have enough money to buy food, or have dinner every night, etc. I'm imagining you all have found yourselves in this spot before too. Our barely 3-year old, very calmly, looks up at us, after graciously allowing us to finish, and states, "Well.."some people" (emphasized) can just borrow my money then." And that was it, problem solved. She rationalized to herself that if the problem was them not having money, they could borrow her money and therefore, end of story, she wasn't eating dinner.

#2. We waited in many lines in Disney World to meet all characters, and I was stunned with how patient and excited Jane was for this. She hasn't had that much exposure to the Disney characters but she definitely wanted to meet every single one. We were next in line to meet Daisy Duck, and the Disney employee stated to us that Daisy would be right back, that she needed to go to the bathroom (aka, a change in shifts). Upon hearing this, Jane became very puzzled, and almost agitated, so I quickly told her that Daisy would be right back and it would be our turn to meet her soon. And, yet again, I was wrong in reading my daughter's body language. She simply said to me, "But Mommy, Daisy doesn't even have a bottom, so0 she can't even go to the bathroom". Grrr. Uh, yes, Jane, er..that's right. I quickly recovered and said she needed to check her make-up and somehow that got her back on track.

#3. It's unreal how much our daughter observes and remembers. Her memory would rival anyone's and sometimes can make for some funny moments. Evan's mom (the kids call Mimi) watches Jane and Luke every Friday and the kids love going over there to play and hang out. One Friday Jane walked into the house, and the first thing she said was, "Uh, Mimi. You wore that last week". Unreal! The same "wardrobe identification" happened again when Aunt Leslie asked Jane if she wanted to have another slumber party at her house. (Last summer, Jane and her 2 cousins, Maddie & Katie, spent the night at Aunt Leslie's house and I remember - because I also have a freaky good memory - that Jane was wearing a multi-colored striped tank top for that trip). As soon as she heard "slumber party at Aunt Leslie's" she immediately ran over to me, and in an excited tone asked if she could go with Aunt Leslie and wear her striped tank top again because it was sooo pretty. This was an ENTIRE YEAR later and she was only 2 1/2 for the first trip!

Ok, enough stories, on with the great pictures!

Very excited for the plane ride. She said, "You hear that Teddy, we're going to Florida!"

As soon as the plane took off, Jane shouted "WA-HOOO"!

Waiting patiently for our luggage. As we were flying over Florida, she told me that "Florida looked like a big pool".

Skip nap and stay at the pool? Um, yes please!

Ah, now the real Ariel.

Here she is with Daisy, post-makeup application.

I have no idea why she is standing like she's in the military. She was beside herself to meet the princesses. I was more just tired as we waited for over 2 hours....

It looks like she's telling Cinderella the saddest story...maybe the one about the kids with no money to buy food.

My favorite picture of all. She loved the Teacups.

Definitely a trip to remember!

February 2013

February was quite an interesting month for us this year; we found ourselves completely over-worked and overwhelmed by a myriad of things! Not only was Evan working nearly 12-hour days (including weekends!) right in the heart of his bank conversion, but we started our entire basement remodel this month as well. While super exciting, not having use of our basement for nearly 7 weeks was crazy for us, as we crammed all the kid's toys and such into every nook and cranny we could find. AND we even had to make use of Grandma and Grandpa Gottschalk house to store almost everything that we traditionally store in our storage space!

That being said, Jane and I found some reprieve with a girls-only trip to Orlando, FL. It started as an idea to simply get away, and once I realized there was no convincing Evan to come with us, I cooked up the idea that Jane and I could go together for a long weekend. We had a wonderful time....more details and pictures in post to follow.

We are thrilled that February is behind us! Come on March!

Jane's first trip to the dentist. (Her feet really are NOT that big; it's just the angle of the camera, I promise!)

She did amazingly...

....up until the flouride part. Then she wanted out of there!

Color coordinating her purple look, complete with matching bracelets

The kids put on Jane's white tank-top undershirts and found these old baby board books for me to read to them. They come up with some unreal stuff!

They love bathtime together and here are seen arranging all their animals for some sort of exhibition, I think.

On a trip down to Nana's, this is how I found Luke 15 minutes after putting him to bed. Fell asleep clutching his book, still open.

Luke is 2!

I know I say this every year with every child, but it really is hard to believe that Luke is 2! When I look back on the last year or so, it's hard not to feel that the time is going by even faster than imaginable. I remember when we brought Luke home from the hospital, when Jane was just 13 months old, and thinking how little he seemed compared to her. He was such a long baby that even at just a few days old, I knew I was smitten with my first son. He was a tremendous eater, good sleeper, rarely fussed (mini-Uncle Joel) and in general was just fine going with the flow....as long as mommy was nearby. While I'm sure it irritated others, I loved that he was attached to his mommy.

Luke has always been very sweet, shy around others he doesn't know, content to play by himself reading books (as long as someone is nearby), and forever adoring of his older sister. I think most 2nd-borns can appreciate that Luke was just kinda along for the ride wherever our lives seemed to take us. He really got into books this past year, and loved to flip through the same books and look at the same pictures. He loves any and all kinds of food, but bananas seemed to really do it for him! He is crazy strong and it won't be long before he's picking on his older sister vs. being bossed around. Oh, I can't wait for those days.

I can't promise I won't do this with every child at every birthday, but I enjoyed looking back through Luke's life in pictures so bear with me as, of course, I felt inclined to really remember how amazing these last 2 years have been with such a kind, sweet, wonderful little boy.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lukey!