Get well soon Grandma Jeanne

Greetings!

A great week back to school for Elsa and Jonas.  Elsa loves her school so far this year.  She waved bye and was on her way on the first day!  Jonas is still warming up to his new school but he is full of smiles by the end of the day.  It is great to see them really taking off at their new school.  We were really worried that the new location would take a long time for them to adjust!

Grandma Jeanne gets a special shout out in our blog this week.  She broke her knee-cap and Elsa and Jonas wanted to send a get well video her way.  We are sending lots of get well soon hugs!

Our final birth to three meeting was this week.  Birth to three is a support program for parents of preemies and helped us with appointments, aligning resources, and emotional support during the past three years!  What an amazing program!  We were given three dvds of all the birth to three visits from the past three years.  It is truly amazing to watch the videos with Elsa and Jonas and realize all those unique personality traits that we started to notice have blossomed into our wonderful and unique kids.

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Sand and the city

Greetings!  A quick update with more to come later this week.

Jonas and Elsa had a blast playing in olympia this week.  We went to the sand in the city event at the children's museum.  A huge sandbox was there and they had so much fun digging and playing with 50 or so other kids!

Pictures will come soon!

Tomorrow is Jonas and Elsa's first day of school.  We are cautiously optimistic that it is going to be a good day for them!

God bless,
Mari and Dan and Elsa and Jonas

That sounds like a great idea!

Greetings! 

A very friendly bear

 Canoe for two

 Just around the river bend

 Riding the bus

 Driving the antique car

 Elsa was very focused on the antique car

 Fire Engine!

 Fire Engine turn two!

 3

 Riding the steam train

 Riding the steam train 2

Elsa and Jonas are really becoming independent.  They love to say "I can do it myself" when we offer to help them.  It is so powerful to see these two growing kids really take on tasks and want to be independent!  They still let us rock them occasionally in our arms like little babies but I think that window is closing fast!

Speaking of closing windows.  Dan used that metaphor when the kids were listening to a kid's band called the not its.  Jonas looked at Dan and asked, "What window?"  He kept persisting and really wanted to know where the window was that was closing. 

This past week had several great music shows of local kid's bands.  Our kids really got into the music and were singing several of the songs the next several days.  It is a lot of fun to be able to go to a park, sit down on the blanket and see our kids have so much fun!

Over the weekend, we returned to Remlinger Farms.  It is a farm that has tons of young kids' entertainment:  rides, music (Eric Ode--Elsa's fav), antique fire engines (Jonas loves them!), and a steam train to take rides on!  It was a fun day and our kids slept hard afterwards.  We can tell when we have ran them hard because they crash hard!  The morning we were getting ready to go to Remlinger, Elsa told Dan that going to Remlinger, "Sounds like a great idea!" followed by a big hug. 

This morning, Elsa helped practiced for a song she and Dan and another very talented singer are going to be performing at church in a couple of weeks.  Elsa beamed with pride as she got to practice at the front of church today!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

Two ducks on the pond

Greetings!

Summer is so fun!  Jonas and Elsa are having a ton of fun playing on their bikes in our back yard.  They can do endless laps--at least until they start crashing into each other!  It is great to see them thrive and be so active.  We always remember how AMAZING they are doing and we are so very thankful.

This week Dan took Elsa and Jonas to story time at the library.  He headed up to sing a song for all the kids and Jonas bear hugged his leg and wouldn't let go.  Jonas really really really wanted to be a part of the show!  They had a blast and it was fun to see Jonas want to be involved!

Elsa is really excited to sing a song at the front of the church in a couple of weeks with Dan and another singer.  She practices all the time and is really excited to be in the front of the church!

Swimming lessons concluded this week and Jonas and Elsa learned so much!  Check out the videos above.  Notice how Elsa convinced the teacher that she has to sit on the edge of the pool and not in it.  She had been in the pool most of the time the previous day with a different teacher but she saw an opportunity to charm the new teacher.  Both kids really began to trust the teachers by the second week and amazed us by their hard work!

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas

What day is it? Really?

Greetings!
Another week has flown by.  Jonas and Elsa have been busy!  Last week they would barely put their toes in the water and this week they are brave explorers in our local pool.  We couldn't be more proud of our two little ducks.  It is such a powerful thing to see someone learn and get better at something right before your eyes.  Each day we inch a little bit further away from the pool as E and J get more and more comfortable with the water and their instructors.  Wow!

Elsa and Jonas have played a lot this summer.  They could right a book of reviews of all the local playgrounds.  Slides=good...wood chips=bad.  Climbing walls=good....bumping head on bars=bad.  They love the playgrounds and run and run and run at them. 

Pictures of our swimmers will arrive with our next update.

God Bless,
Mari & Dan & Elsa & Jonas