No more training wheels!!

Merry Christmas to all!! The Stutelberg's had a fantastic Christmas. We went to church on Christmas Eve. It was an early 5:00pm service for children. Unfortunately there was a really small turn out. The electricity went out in the middle of the service so it ended up being a candle light service. Matt spotted Santa on the way home! We quickly wrote a note and put out cookies for Santa before bed. Sure enough Santa came!! Matt came into our bed at 5:30am asking me if Santa had come and I told him I wasn't sure because it was still the middle of the night! :) He went back to bed until 6:30!
We had a special morning opening gifts, skyping with family and eating a yummy breakfast. In the afternoon we met the Fitch's at my parents house for more gifts, dinner and family time. We had a special day. We are now gearing up for our trip to CO. We are leaving in a few days. We will spend a few days with Karl's mom on our way to and from CO. The boys are looking forward to skiing!
Our goal for this Christmas break was to teach the boys to ride their bikes without training wheels...mission accomplished!! We started teaching them on our street and Matt was proficient on Christmas day! Micah got the hang of it today when we took the bikes to the high-school parking lot to ride. Karl and I are so proud of the boys!! We have incredible kids!! Melea also achieved some milestones...she is rolling and prop sitting! The Amazing Stutelberg kids! The boys also ran in their first race on Christmas Eve day. Karl and I ran in a 5K (thanks to Bill for watching all the kids) and the boys ran in a 1K! They had fun and are so proud of their participation ribbons. Both boys say they can't wait to run it again next year.

Notice at the end of the clip Micah says "Let me go Dad!" Oh Sweetie, if you only knew how hard that is for us Mommys and Daddys!

Our 3 Wise Men

The boys participated in the Christmas play at church today. They did great! They were very sceptical at first but with Karl's gentle encouragement they agreed to participate. Matt was the leader and Micah and Luke followed him up and down the isles on their journey. The boys ended up having a good time and LOVED their "king costumes." "Joseph" was a little boy Matt goes to Kindergarten with and they had fun during rehearsal goofing around. The wise men last year were in high-school so the costumes didn't fit. I had to run out to the fabric store on Saturday afternoon and find material. I think they look great! I think everyone in the congregation liked the play and numerous people said it was the best one in years!


Micah kept dropping his gift! During rehearsal Micah kept picking at the wrapping on the box. I think he was curious to what was inside! I was feeding Melea so I had another mom run up to the front and tell Micah there was nothing in the box!! Problem solved!

Lydia turned ONE on Dec 8th. It is so hard to believe a year has passed since she was born. Louise and Jon had a little "family party" this weekend. Lyd performed well with her cake. Of course the cake was frosted with purple icing! I'm not sure I want to know how my sister created purple frosting! She even took her first real walking steps at her party!
Our Christmas tree is up! Matt has one more week of school before the long break...Christmas is coming fast!

Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all! We spent a wonderful afternoon at my parents home. My grandma and uncle were visiting from out of state and it was wonderful to see them.

This was taken a few days before Thanksgiving at our house. I made a fire while the boys watched a movie and Melea took a little nap. Doesn't that look like the perfect spot to nap? So cozy!
Grandma made crepes on Sunday morning. This was Lydia's first crepe! An epic moment! Everybody loves crepes. I think Matt and Micah ate 4 before I cut them off! Our favorites are filled with lemon juice and sugar. YUMMY
Uncle Ray helped Micah paint an airplane. Micah was so proud of it and decided to give it to Ray before he left! It was Micah's idea to give his project away. I am proud of him for being so selfless. He knows Ray is a pilot and loves planes.

Micah and my dad- good hugs!
The family- minus Karl who was taking the picture. My sister hosted Thanksgiving at her house for Jon's family.

4 generations of girls!!

Other news in our house:

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  Matt got "lunch on a tray" for the first time this week. He felt really proud of himself! Of course the crap they serve at school tastes better than the lunch I pack him so he keeps asking to buy lunch again. Karl and I are still deciding how often we should allow him to buy...hummm!


• 
  
  We are in full "advent mode" in our home! This means we do a different activity relating to advent each night. It will be a challage to add something else to our evening activities, but this is important so we will make it happen


• 
  
  Hans, our elf Santa sent from the North Pole, arrived this morning. He came with a note telling the boys he would be watching the boys during the day then returing to the North Pole at night to report to Santa the boys behavior! Last year the boys would find Hans doing silly things in the morning! They found him on the piano or in the pantry or playing with their toys! Fun stuff!!
  

4th birthday video interviews

Me: What is your favorite food?
Micah: Watermelon
Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Micah: An Astronaut
Me: If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Micah: You mean when I'm an astronaut?
Me: No, like right now, if you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Micah: To the farmer's market, because they have watermelon there!

Awesome

Melea's Baptism

Melea was baptized this past Sunday. Tom flew out last week and was able to perform the actual baptism. It is special that our kids were baptized by their Grandpa Tom.
We had a busy but fun weekend. Jeanette, Brad, Jack, Raina and Brayden made the trip from Las Vegas. My mom put together a wonderful lunch reception after church.
Karl and I are so blessed to have love and support from our families! Our children are loved by so many people!!

Jon, Louise and Clark are Melea's sponsors

All of the kids have been baptized in this gown. It is a family gown and we know my Grandpa Crane wore it. It could have been worn before that...but it is at least 80-90 years old.

Micah's 4th birthday party!

More pictures and summary to come!

Happy Halloween

Micah-Captain Hook, Lydia-Tinkerbell, Luke-Green Lantern, Matt-Captain Hook, & Melea-Belle

Melea's costume change into Miss Bones

There is WAY TOO MUCH candy in my house right now! I wanted to give out pretzels and pencils but Karl said I would have to be the one to clean the egg off the front of the house! So we gave out candy. Unfortunately we didn't get as many kids coming by as last year so we have a lot of left over chocolate. I have very poor self control when it comes to chocolate so this is not a good thing!

The boys had a blast. They both wanted to be Captain Hook. We borrowed Micah's costume from a friend and got Matt's online. Both boys had parties in their classrooms today. I went into Matt's class to help for awhile. I feel bad for his teacher tomorrow...28 kids hopped up on sugar is scary!

We are celebrating Micah's birthday at his preschool tomorrow because he doesn't have school Wed-Fri this week. Louise and I are planning take all the kids to Kidspace on Wed for Micah's birthday. I will pull Matt out of school for the day. I feel a little weird about this but it's only Kindergarten...

Pictures from Micah's birthday to follow soon...It feels like yesterday I was waddling around huge and pregnant with Micah while we trick-or-treated with Matt!

Micah and Melea

Micah sings to Melea! The boys are such great helpers. They are very sweet with their sister. Matt often wants to cuddle a little too much with Melea. We have to remind him he should give her one hug and one kiss then back up so she can see his face!

Apples, Soccer, Smiles and More!

Jeanette came to visit last weekend. She and Karl ran in a local trail race and had a great time. Micah started soccer last Saturday so I loaded up the kids and made it to the park by 8:00am! I was very proud of my ability to get myself and the 3 kids dressed, fed and out of the house that early! The boys even got their teeth brushed!! We had a little cold spell last weekend so I got to bundle Melea up and she looked very cute. Karl and Jeanette were home in time for Matt's game in the afternoon. I know Matt loved having his Grandma watch his game! We went to pick apples on Sunday afternoon. The weather was warm and the apples oh so good!
This weekend was filled with soccer, church and work around the house. I got out for a run with Dawn this morning and it was awesome! I had missed meeting with her for early morning runs! I made it 5 miles...the longest yet since Melea was born! It felt so good to move!!

Apple Picking (Matt took this picture!)

Yum Yum!

Melea at Micah's soccer game last Saturday. I think she looks like a little MN baby!!
Micah was so excited to play soccer! He ran over to me in the middle of the game to ask if he got to keep the uniform. Okay, so he was more excited about the red uniform than the actual game!

Melea is smiling more and more! This picture is of her taking a bath tonight. Poor little girl had to get shots yesterday. Our family all went to get flu shots after soccer on Saturday. The boys were so brave...and very proud after their shots. Melea had to get her 2 month immunizations. She was sick at her 2 month well check and the docter found she had ear infections. She was put on an antibiotic and we had to wait until she finished the meds before getting her shots.
I'm not sure how I can claim this little girl...she looks just like Karl in this picture! WOW

The Flying Stutelbergs

Fun in the backyard!!

We went to a Star Wars birthday party this afternoon. The kids dressed up. Micah was Chewbaca, Matt was Darth Vader, Luke was Han Solo, and Lydia was R2D2. Melea decided she would rather stay in her dress from church and didn't dress up this time! The dad of the birthday boy dressed as Anakin and Karl, Bill, and Jon corrdinated Clone Trooper outfits. They made a surprise enterance in the middle of the party. The kids were so shocked and surprised! I'm not sure who had more fun the dads or the kids! They had some great duels. The kids then went through a "Jedi Training" obstacle course and got "Yoda Soda" at the end. The kids and parents had a blast!

Darth Vader used a mean "force push" while fightning Han and Chewy!

Han and R2D2...Lydia was pretty cute and Luke was very much into character.

September Wrap Up

It is hard to believe September is almost over! The past two months have flown by! To recap... baby girl born, boys starting school, tough kindergarten adjustment, tough preschool adjustment (which we are still dealing with), soccer, and mom goes back to work for a few hours on Tuesdays. Karl is Mr Mom on Tuesday mornings and is doing great! I set cloths and breakfast out for everyone and Karl gets the kids dressed, fed and off to school. I really admire moms who juggle breastfeeding and working! I only have to deal with it for one morning a week but to do it full time would be quite a challange! I have been volunteering in Matt's class for an hour on Weds. It is fun to be in the background and get a sense of how he interacts in class. We have parent conferences at the end of the week and I'm interested in what his teacher has to say. I have no doubt he is keeping up in class and doing great! Micah starts soccer this weekend and because we are not busy enough, Karl will be assistant coaching his team! Micah's preschool adjustment is a little slower. He seems to be having separation issues again. Much better than last year but he is not his usual happy/silly self when I take him to school. Melea is doing great. She started "half smiling." I have not seen a full grin yet but it is coming soon! She is a champion sleeper and has been going to bed around 7:30 and sleeping until 5:00am! I hope I didn't jinx it by writing that! Melea loves to be held and cuddled! She is a sweetheart...like her brothers!

Recent Pics of the Kiddos

The boys are such helpers! They LOVE "helping" give Melea a bath. Micah ran to the bathroom and came back with his Mater bath toy for Melea to play with!
Melea and I before we went to our baby shower that the women I work with gave us.

Matt working on his homework. It was such a nice evening last night he did his work outside.

You would never know it but 20 minutes before this picture and before Micah was given Motrin he had a 105 degree fever! He will stay home from school the rest of the week but is doing better.