Academic Star

Well of course as a Mother I'm expected to brag a little bit about my kids, right? Torin prior going to Kindergarten we thought was SO smart. After all he could count over 100 at 4 years old. Funny thing is, is that once they get into school you tend to realize, rather quickly, that there are a lot of kids that can do that too. Being our first though we have no other comparison except what we were doing at 4. And I know that I wasn't counting past 20 at 4 :)

Kindergarten was fine for Torin, 1st grade was more of an awakening to that he is an average kid and trust me we feel VERY blessed for having an average kid. It wasn't until this past month that Torin has broken out a little more. He's trying more and things are coming more easily to him.

We got an email from his teacher last week that stated on his achievement test that he had gone 11 points over from where they had hoped he would be at the end of the year. Now, we really don't take these tests too serious and especially myself NEVER being good at standardized test don't get too hung up on them. However, the test that he had taken at the beginning of the year projected his growth to be at a "20" by the end of the school year and mid way he is already scoring "31". His teacher was really impressed by this and said that it was the most growth out of the entire class. Then Torin came home last night and said that for the math achievement test they had wanted him to be at "100" by the end of the year and he scored "203".

So I am bragging a little bit and the reason why is that I am just SO proud of him. Reading is by far not his favorite thing to do but he knew that it was something that he had to work on. He tried hard and is now gleaming from the results of it. This is such a rewarding thing to see as a parent. Just so proud of our little bug-a-boo :)

Peefooo

Well our little Bercan is definitely getting older and has started a new little "trick". When he is stinky or his diaper is too full "for him" he'll touch his diaper and then wrinkle his nose and wave his other hand saying "peefoo". Then he will want to be changed. Not sure that this is a sign that he's going to be good at potty training or not but I'm not willing to take up that adventure for at least another year.

When I have a wife....

I have to blog this quick before I forget it so I apologize that I still haven't gotten California pictures up yet...They are coming I promise!!!

Monday night we dropped the kids off at Bjorn's parents to try and pick out some tile. It was an errand that needed us both focused versus one of us gathering the troops and ensuring they didn't take the store down. We had met at Bjorn's parents house thus we had two cars. Vaughn of course picked me to drive home with. He and I always have our little conversations when it's just the two of us. I treasure these moments and this is why....

Out of the blue he says to me, "Mom, when I have a wife you can come over and watch our kids, okay?". I of course am thinking this is too cute and ask if I could come over once a week to watch their kids so they can go on date night. A silent pause, "Ahh...yeah that would work out great Mom. And sometimes we drop them at your house so they can sleepover, that okay?" I love these so grown up conversations that will most likely end in the coming years and not be brought up again until he really does have a wife and kids.

On the other hand Torin still tells me that he is going to have 11 children. I hope that Bjorn and I are still active enough to keep up with ALL of these potential grandchildren :)

Christmas Card Photos

This year I decided to not put us in the Christmas card and just do the kids. It was super cold outside and there was a ton of snow already so really trying to get all of us was just too hard. Bjorn's parents had given us the toboggan and with borrowing a few santa hats from a neighbor the picture just worked out. I know any one looking at the blog has probably already seen them but I just wanted to post them...

Bercan ~ 1 year

Vaughn ~ 4 1/2 years old

Torin ~ 7 1/2 years old

My boys....

Vaughn and hockey

Vaughn is just so excited to be doing hockey this year. Unfortunately, we have missed a hand full of his practices from being out of town but if you ask him if he likes hockey he'll tell you "I can get up." with a huge smile from ear to ear. He's definitely a hard worker and doesn't like to give up. It's fun to see how hard he tries and he is definitely getting better with each practice.

So excited to even being trying on his equipment.

Vaughn was so happy to get number 99 and tells us

that he is Gretzky. Not sure that he lives up to that

but he definitely tries hard and has a great spirit.

Going down the ice...

Staying up....

Leaning into it...

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Door County with Noni. The boys love the hotel that we stay at, love swimming in the pool and the playground. We went out to dinner for Thanksgiving and it was a great time. We hung out with Sara, Slade, Josie and their new baby. Torin is in awe of Slade as he fishes and hunts. Slade is actually pretty cute with Torin about it showing him video of some of his fishing trips and talking to him about it. Torin just sits there in awe listening to him, mouth wide open. We of course went to paint pottery as the boys love doing it. It was a great weekend and a lot of fun!

Noni and her boys...

Sleepover at Noni's....For Mommy's birthday Noni took all of the boys for an over night. They were actually really good as there was a promise of cinnamon rolls in the morning...a Noni special :)

Three Generations

Papa Bernie is definitely someone that the boys love. They love to visit him even though we don't get there as much as we would like to. Here are some pictures from his 93rd birthday party. I love all the boys together with Papa!

Vaughn, Berc, Bjorn, Bernie and Torin

This was a cute pic from the day....