Picture Compilation of Kieran

Just so that we don't forget what this little guy was like at 4.

He loves himself some good zoo time.  I think he'd be great if we took him there once a week.

Always into mischief:)

Monkey at Halloween.  He loves going to school and telling us was his "vocabulary words" are.  The other week he used the word feast, colossal, and preposterous in sentences that made sense. 

The other night he crawled into his bed so nice and read to himself/looked at the pictures in his book and proceeded to fall asleep right in the middle of this. 

All Things Fall

Pumpkin Painting!

Tongues out for concentration!

Almost done!

All Done!

Our favorite tree out our front window.  It isn't ours, but our neighbors.  They can't see it from any of their windows and it's about a foot from our property so we claim it for pictures!

Random

These are some random photos from the past two weeks. I don't have any of Dan so we'll work on that! We are doing well and in a good routine. I took up coffee and Dan goes to work before 8 am now, which is really weird for us. The cool thing is he surprised us the other day and beat us home. Fun treat! Kids are doing great with school! We had a Food For Kids event at church on Sunday and the kids were such hard workers it made me want to tear up how helpful they wanted to be. Svea even went back for a second shift with Dan

First Day of School 2016: Kindergarten and Pre-School

 Svea wants to be a Kindergarten Teacher and Kieran wants to be taller.  Ha!  I love that!

 Kieran is going to the school pre school and Bethesda as well.  He's loving both so far although it's taken longer for him to get used to Bethesda.  A few times he's said he wanted the bus to take him home after school.  He's getting there!  

 Svea was so incredibly worried about starting Kindergarten.  It's been a hot topic all summer. At the last minute we decided to send her to private school at Oak Grove.  It was the best choice for her.  She has a really small class size and is getting lots of love and attention!

We're so thankful for a good start.  Everyone is wiped out at the end of the night.  Kids go to bed on time, Dad doesn't stay awake longer than 10 minutes after the kids, and mom started drinking coffee.  No kidding....hated it, but it's now a need.  We couldn't be happier.  Thing are good and we are thankful for every day we have together!

Kieran turns 4!!

Kieran had a party at the wade pool for his 4th birthday. Maci, Morgan, Lauren, Nathan, Haley, Ryder, and Svea celebrated with swimming, cake, and presents. Every time we would ask him what kind of party he wanted he always said a different type of animal  (armadillo, hippo, etc.). We just had a big animal party and he loooove it. He is obsessed with any and all types of animals.

So much joy! Kieran enjoyed his party and knew the day was about him.  The party was at 10:30 in the morning and we lucked out that it was a warm morning.

Here he is with all of his miniature animals lined up that he played with for hours.  Our little guy is getting bigger! He's 4! Happy Birthday sweet guy.  We love you so much.

 Chocolate Chip muffins for breakfast!

 Swimming with my friends!

 Some bear at the party!

 Silly time with mom.

 Playing animals with Maci!

 Opening presents!

Family pic with the animals cake!

Kieran's Potty Training Adventures

January 1st 2016- Kieran went pee in the potty for the first time. It was so cute...I read him a book about using the potty and when we finished asked him if he wanted to go. He said yes, so in we went, but he "couldn't" go. I told him he didn't have any pee in him, but he could drink some water.  He did and immediately came back, sat on the potty again, and then was frustrated that it wouldn't come out then.  I told him it takes awhile so maybe he should read for a little while.  He said ok, looked at one book, and came right back again.  He sat there and sat there until he finally went!  He was so proud of himself and excited! He hasn't had much interest again until now.

March 15th I was at volleyball and Dan texted me that he had gone again! He's gone at least once a day since then. He is so excited to go with me next week to pick out underwear! He picked out Jurassic Park boxer briefs and Captain America/Ironman briefs.  His favs are the dinosaur ones of course. Since then he hasn't had much interest, but will wear underwear at home and stay dry.  He won't go #2 in the potty yet, but we are getting there.  Daycare isn't too interested in him showing up in underwear so I'm guessing that come summer we'll just bit the bullet and go for it! This afternoon he wore underwear and used the potty four times!  He was doing his water thing again where he's sit on the potty while drinking water and then look down.  I tried explaining how it doesn't come out that fast, but he wasn't quite getting it.  Ha!

June 2016- I was done with school and able to focus on this with Kieran.  As soon as VBS was done it was underwear for Kieran full time.  He picked up peeing in the potty pretty quickly with only a handful of accidents so far.  The one in the carseat after Dan had already left for his mission trip was a bit challenging.  The neighbors had to help me get it out and then in after washing it.  Pooping "brown stuff" as he calls it (sorry, gross I know) was harder.  There was the time he pooped in his underwear and then ran away from me when I tried to help him.  We had to carry him in the house in a garbage bag.  He asked if we were going to throw him in the garbage:)  The next day I found lumps of his poop in the yard.  Another time we were at a park a half mile away from home.  He had to stand up in the stand up stroller the whole way home.  Thankfully he's getting that down too.  We still have to watch him closely as his instinct is to just go, but he's now trying to and letting us know.  We are very proud of him and he asks us after he goes if we are.  Of course we are!  He's such a sweet boy and we're so happy for him as he makes this new big accomplishment.

Cute sayings

Auntie Jill (my cousin) was visiting for a night and she's pregnant. Kieran thinks babies get into mommies tummies because they eat them (we're working on it) Jill is also a dental hygenist so when I asked her to look at the kids' teeth K was a little hesitant. When it got to be his turn he said, "Jill, dont put a baby in there".

The kids play with a neighbor boy, Simon, at the park. They play this game where they pretend they have powers. Kieran said one that that he was going to take his power and swallow it.

Way back in May before K was potty trained he announced across the whole library that he pooped brown stuff.

Fast forward to August and K is well trained. We were visiting Grandpa Marlan and I asked him to go potty before we left. He told us that his penis told him that it doesn't need to go. Grandpa laughed so hard at that one.

Svea was packing up her backpack with Gaga and told her, "it's going to be a real budget getting this into my backpack". We think she meant "bugger ".

Svea has been pretty apprehensive about school to start (post on that soon) and to pump herself up she told Gaga one day....."Kindergarten here I come"!

First Half of June + Father's Day

I'm so behind on blogging that I get overwhelmed knowing where to start so I figured I'd just pick up where we are and if I can slowly fill in and back date I will!

Summer so far has been a blast.  I know Dan might not say the same thing since his work schedule picks up it seems here, but it's been a nice requiescence for me and the kids.  So far in June we've had....swimming at Lake Ida, my best friend Pam got married to Rob and I was her maid of honor plus got three nights away to celebrate (thanks Dan and Gaga for making that happen), we swam at a friend's pool twice, played on our new play-set for hours and hours, attended two potlucks one with friends and one at church, attended a week long of vacation bible school, visted Grandpa Marlan and had a nice visit, played with other friends on their inflatable water slide while the parents sipped margaritas, attended our new outdoor Wednesday worship, Papa came for a visit to help put together the play-set (slowly working on staining it), Svea started gymnastics (she LOVES it), Kieran started bi-weekly speech, Dan's done more wedding and funerals than I can count one of them being for our music and worship leader/Jon from church, and I finished a book, which doesn't happen that often during the school year.

Finally, we celebrated Dan's 42nd birthday yesterday and now today is Father's Day!  We just want Dan to know how much we love and appreciate him.  Here he is with my Dad putting together the "new to us" play-set for the kids.  They've spent hours on this thing already.

Swimming at our friend's pool while they were away for the weekend. It was a huge gift to our family!

I'm not sure, but I think he likes it?

Happy Father's Day Dan!  These two know how much you love them and that's the most important thing! 

Christmas in Wisconsin 2015

After a 10 hour drive the kids were SO excited to be in Wisconsin to see Grandma and Grandpa and their cousins! They are always wound up after being stuck in a car for so long and run around like crazy with excitement.  They always pick up right where they left off with Dean and Kathy.

It was the first year that the kids could just go off and play with their cousins and we didn't have to follow them to make sure (Kieran) wasn't getting into anything he shouldn't.  Ashlyn is old enough to be that watchful eye and they enjoyed the freedom to soak in some time with them. They LOVE their cousins!

Opening presents!

The Dornfelds open one gift at a time starting with the youngest person so we get to watching everything happening.

We enjoyed our time.  The kids always struggle with sleeping the first night, but after that it went well.  

They love coming to Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Merry Christmas 2015!