My boy turned 7 in 2011!

It is so hard to believe that my baby is already 7. Where have the days, months and years gone??? 2011 was a busy year for you buddy. You played organized hockey for the first time (mini-mites) at the beginning of the year and went straight from that into Coach Pitch Baseball with Harris and played soccer with Echo. You absolutely LOVE playing any sport and at this point we are pretty much allowing you to try it all. Anytime you see or hear about someone playing a certain sport, your first response is “I want to play that”! You had a great season with baseball, you and Carter were on the same team and Todd and your Dad coached you boys! You also had tons of fun with soccer. You loved the fact that you were playing Echo like your big sister Allie! You also finished Kindergarten at Mary Frank in May of 2011. Mrs. Schindewolf was your teacher (the BEST Kindergarten teacher on the planet by the way) and you loved her! You made lots of friends and learned to read and do so many other new things.

The summer of 2011 was spent playing at the lake and swimming at Arlington pool. We spent as much time as possible hanging at the pool with our friends. You learned to swim a couple of summers ago, but this year you really took off. You took swimming lessons at Penn and things really seemed to click with your strokes. You were doing front crawl, backstroke, elementary backstroke and you even tried breaststroke! You continued to do your flips off the diving board and got even better at that when Jacob showed you how to bounce before you went off the end! Many, many weekends were spent at the lake! It is our favorite place to be during the summer! You tubed, knee boarded and learned to SKI this year! Your dad, Papa and Uncle Ryan and I were so surprised when you just stood up on those skis! You were amazing!! One thing that had a pretty big impact on you this summer was us getting stuck in a pretty big storm at the lake over Memorial Day weekend. A storm moved in and tornado sirens started going off, which forced us to head out to the garage to take cover in the room under the garage. It all happened so fast and to be honest it scared you quite a bit. From that point forward, you were officially scared of storms. You would watch the weather and you could see the look of fear in your eyes if a storm was even in the forecast. I sure am hoping and praying that this is something that you grow out of…quickly!

2011 was also a big wedding year for us/you. Papa and Carol got married in August at the lake. You were the ring bearer and couldn’t be more proud of your role! Then in September we traveled to Kansas for Uncle Ryan and Aunt Jobrina’s wedding. What a fun time we had! We stopped off in St. Louis and went up into the Arch! You thought that was pretty cool! At Ryan and Jobrina’s wedding you carried a sign down the isle that read “Here Comes the Bride” and then on your walk down the isle after the wedding you turned it around and it read “They Lived Happily Ever After”. You were so handsome all dressed up in your tux and you showed off your dance moves at the reception. Somewhere you learned to break dance and you showed off your skills that night! You had people cheering you on like crazy! You also got to spend time on that trip with Grandma Peterson and Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob from Utah.

The Fall/Winter of 2011 flew by. You played MSA soccer with Dad as your coach and Carter on your team. You went from soccer right into hockey (Mites) with your Dad as your coach too! You also tried out flag football and you keep telling me that you want to play tackle football. I sure hope your mom can take you playing hockey and football when you get older You started 1st grade at Mary Frank School with Mrs. Krieger and for the first time you and your sisters are all in school full time at the same school. I better enjoy it this year, because next year it all changes (when Allie goes to Middle School). You seem to have many friends, but tend to be drawn more to the girls…hmmmm!!!! Anytime I am in your classroom or go to lunch with you there tend to be a lot of girls around You love the fact that you have Carter at the same school as you and I hear about many recesses spent playing basketball, football and soccer with Carter, Braden and many other boys. My favorite thing so far in 1st grade has been watching your reading just explode. Reading, at this point, is not your favorite thing (especially if there are alot of words on a page) but you are very good at it. It is just so fun to watch all of your academic skills change by the day! You are also growing like a weed. At the doctor this winter you were 49 1/2 inches tall and 57 lbs. You are still struggling, at times, with asthma and allergies.

Tyler, I cannot even begin to explain to you how much your mommy loves you! You are such a sweet, kind, loving little boy! You have always made my heart melt and that hasn’t changed. I can’t imagine not being a mommy to a little boy! You and I have always had this special bond, and though that is still there I have seen you really bond with your Dad over the last year! You don’t like it when he isn’t around and when he is home you are constantly asking him to play hockey or some other sport with you! You add so much joy and “boy” to our family! The constant tackling your sisters, shooting anyone or anything in sight with nerf guns or swords, kicking the soccer ball with Allie, throwing the football or shooting the puck with your Dad and doing anything to make someone laugh is constant reminder that you are all boy! The last 7 years have been some of the best of my life and I can’t wait to see (at a slow pace please) the teenager you become in the next 7.  I pray you always know how much God loves you and that you follow hard after him all the days of your life!

I love you Tyler Ryan!

All my love,

Mom

I can still remember the day I brought you home from the hospital! You were such a sweet, happy, smiley baby and that sweetheart hasn’t changed! You were in 3 rd grade, in this past year, with Mrs. Seufert’s  for the second year due to looping! Mrs. Seufert told me several times that you would just come in to the room and tell her all about your evening and what was going on at home. She said “Rachel just loves to talk” You did very well in 3rd grade and got great grades and had lots of friends! You are just one of those kids who gets along with just about anyone. You have some BFF’s, Abby, Izzy and Meadow, but you play with many different people. Your 3rd grade year was also when you seemed to find a boy that you really liked That is when mom began reminding you that boys can be friends, but there will not be any” boyfriends” for a many years to come!

The summer of 2010 brought many fun times for our family! We spent as much time as possible swimming at Arlington pool and the on the weekends you would find us at the lake! You absolutely love to swim (though the hot tub may be your most favorite thing ever) and you took swim lessons at Penn. You are a great swimmer and greatly improved your strokes and began the beginning stages of breaststroke and butterfly. During our weekends at the lake we could always find you either playing in the sand or searching for shells on the bottom of the lake. You tubed, knee boarded (which you seem to have a natural talent at, like your Nana), and tried to get up on skis. It didn’t happen in 2010, but I know that 2011 will be your year!  You also got to spend a week at Springhill overnight camp in Michigan. You were a little nervous about going, but you went with one of your BFF’s and Allie was there with you too, which made you feel much better! When we picked you up you were all smiles and said that you had a great time, but that you really missed us You would much prefer to be at home with your family than anywhere else!

The fall of 2010 found you playing MSA soccer and practicing with the U9 Echo team! You had fun playing with MSA and you were one of the quickest girls on the team and knew what to do most of the time. You also like to play goalie, which Allie just couldn’t understand There were many times that the other parents would say “put Rachel in, she knows what to do”! You were hoping to be able to play for Echo, which is why you were practicing with them, but you decided after soccer season was done that you were done with soccer. It just wasn’t your sport!  You decicded in the winter of 2010/2011 to try out cheerleading. You cheered for an Upwards basketball team with 2 of your really good friends, Megan and Meadow!  You had fun learning the cheers and being a part of the pyramids. It was at this point, that you dad and I both thought, “this might just be her thing”. I guess only time will tell.

Summer 2011 is starting as you are turning 9, you are the lucky one in the family who gets a summer birthday. For your 8th birthday you tried to have a swimming party, but a storm came through and we ended up celebrating in our basement! This year though luck was on your side, the weather was perfect and it was a birthday at Arlington pool all for you! You invited all of your friends and had a fantastic time! One of the things you love in life the most is your family and friends! You absolutely love spending time hanging out with your friends and playing American Girl doll, barbies or moxie girls. You and Abby have also been known to do anything that involves animals! Your heart beats fast for any kind of animal. You have begged and begged for us to get a pet (dog), but since your daddy is allergic that can’t happen. It absolutely breaks your heart that you don’t have a pet to love on! I am pretty sure you are the only one in our family who LOVES all types of animals. We actually had a dog in our house for a few days this year and you couldn’t have been happier!!! The only problem is that the dog had to leave, which made you not very happy! I can totally see you doing something with animals when you grow up.

Rachel Lauren you are the light and joy in our life! You are constantly making us laugh and smile. You have this way about you, where you will just walk into a room and say something that will crack everyone up! You also have an “attitude” about you. It is what I would call sassy and I love it! You are constantly making your dad and I smile and say to you “where did we find you again?”, to which you respond, “the zoo”! Always the crack up! Though you are sassy and funny you are also emotional. You don’t like to do things wrong or disappoint your dad or I. You strive to do what is right and to be a good friend. Your favorite place in the world is our house and whenever we are gone for a few days, the first thing you do is come in the house and lay on the couch face first and say “ahh, I love the smell of our house”! You love to be at home cuddled on the couch with your dad or I. There are still SO many times where you will do something or say something and all I can think is there is your Nana all over again! You, my girl, are a spitting image!

My prayer for you sweet girl is that you take the joy that  flows out of you and  you use it to love and serve God all the days of our life. You are making a big decision this year by going public with your faith through baptism and I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am of you!  I have been praying for this since the day you were born! No matter what you do or where you go, know that your mom and dad will always love you! But always remember that Gods love for you far exceeds our love for you! So live bodly for him babe!

I love you with all I have! You are and will forever be “my little girl”!

All my love,

Mom