Happy 2016! Time for another Manke Family update!
I’m pretty impressed with myself… this time I only have about 5 months’ worth of blogging to catch up. Last time I had to catch up on an entire year’s worth!
More changes for us, but so far all positive ones! The biggest change was for me: I decided to leave my awesome team at Target in Minneapolis and take a job with United Healthcare in project management that was a 100% telecommute position. The absolute biggest draw for me was telecommuting – working from home every day and being closer to the kids. Our new routine has been getting up at 7am and being to Little Lambs by 8am. Then I’m able to work from 8am – 5pm or so. This allows all of us (except Ryan, poor guy!), more sleep in the morning and not feeling like we’re so rushed to get out the door. Also, working from home has allowed me to not only work more during the work day (so I don’t feel like I also have to work at night which I was doing before), but also keep the washer going or take a break and do the dishes, prep supper, etc. It’s been a much better balance for our family and an amazingly different pace of life for us, which has been AWESOME!! It’s been quite the adjustment for me not being around people all day, which can be very lonely, however when I am feeling down, I remind myself why I took the job and that the kids would be home later that day to fill the house with lots of talking, laughter, or whining :). The team I joined is also amazing – welcoming and easy to get along with, which I’m so thankful for. Working relationships can be different when it’s all virtual, but you learn to adjust and still make those connections!
Another exciting change is that the Produce moved to Milaca! After many days and weeks (actually make that months…) of deciding how to grow the business after the fire, it was decided not to rebuild in Pease, but to purchase an existing building in Milaca. There needed to be some updates (an office is being added and also a loading dock), but construction should be finishing up in the next week or two! It’s incredibly exciting to finally be able to move forward and Ryan and my dad are SO SO SO thankful to be out of their temporary working arrangements (reefer trailers and a construction trailer for an office is not a fun way to run a business, especially when it was getting so cold!). It’s been a little over 9 months since the fire, so this is a huge milestone for us and we are very excited! The other thing we’ll be really excited for is to finally finish working with the insurance company – we think the end is in sight there, too!
The kids welcomed two new cousins to the Hubers side and two more cousin to Ryan’s side! Mckinley Kay was born on August 1 and we got to meet her for the first time when Tom, Val and kids came home for Christmas a few weeks ago! Lauren Marie was born on September 8and is such a little honey (and I might add that she’s my goddaughter so she’ll turn out to be perfect :)). She’s adorable and Anna is a great big sister! And on Ryan’s side, his sister had a baby boy, Andres, in mid-August and his brother and wife had a baby boy, Oliver, a couple of weeks before Christmas . So many fun baby cousins that are close in age!
It was a very mild and warmer than usual fall for us so the kids spent a lot of time outside. We were even able to still use the pool and sprinklers until September which is pretty unusual. Another big summer highlight for us was the last weekend in August, we spent the weekend at Ryan’s family cabin in Spicer: “Happy Ours”. We enjoy going there and the kids had fun playing with their cousins, lounging around, boat rides making s’mores, reading by the campfire and swimming in the lake. We also bought a bigger tent this year and were all able to sleep in it together. Abbie had a hard time sleeping while there, and then ended up getting sick with a fever which was no fun. I think she was cutting molars, and the cooler temps at night wasn’t helping (it’s hard to keep a toddler tucked in at night!). But we love to go and can’t wait to go again next summer!
In September I celebrated my 30thbirthday. Ryan and I had a date night going out to eat, doing some shopping (for fun adult things like mattresses and clothes!), then getting dessert at Nadia’s Cupcakes in Maple Grove. It was a fun date night and a reminder that we need to spend more time alone without the kids!
October brought a day spent at Great Grandma Bev’s house helping with yard work and play time with cousins. “Children’s Day” is usually spent doing fall chores for grandma, but such a fun day to spend with family, too! Another October highlight was a fun Halloween this year… we had Iron Man and a little piggy that made their debut! They both loved wearing their costumes and were able to wear them on multiple occasions. Friday, Oct. 30 was a Halloween party at Little Lambs and then I took them trunk or treating at a nearby church that evening. Then Saturday, Oct. 31, we went to another trunk or treating event, which then followed with trick or treating in our neighborhood with our neighbors (who have a 2 year old and a baby – close in age to our kids!). Let’s just say that Ryan and I had more than our fair share of candy after those events…
The highlights for November and December were of course being together with family for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving was spent mostly with my family in the morning and early afternoon, but after Abbie woke up from her nap, we then headed into Milaca to be with Ryan’s family (and take family pictures in the windy, cold weather!). And as for Christmas… it was a busy three days of seeing family! Christmas Eve the kids didn’t have daycare and I was able to spend the day with them. That night we had Christmas with Ryan’s side of the family. On Christmas morning, we spent time together with just the four of us, opening gifts and then Christmas Day was spent with my entire family (plus Tim & Cindy, Dan & Mattie!). That day went entirely too fast for my liking! The day after Christmas we went to Annandale to be with Ryan’s dad, Grandpa and Grandma Manke and then ended the day visiting Great Grandma Sorenson. This year Christmas was really magical because Cameron really understood most everything – from giving to others, to Baby Jesus, to Santa Claus – and Abbie loved opening presents and being excited for anything that she got to rip out of wrapping paper! This is just the first of many Christmases that I hope God blesses us to have as a family together <3.
And to top off our busy Christmas weekend, my side of the family went to a bounce house in Otsego to celebrate December birthday’s (Val, Jillian and Cameron) and also to spend more time together as a family because Tom and Val were still home. The kids had a blast jumping around and burning off some energy while the adults could mingle and still play with the kiddos. We rented the place as a birthday party, so it was really nice that we had the place to ourselves while we were there!
For me personally, the kids are at an age that I absolutely love (although I feel like I’ve said that a few times over the years now…). Cameron turned four at the end of December and we’ve FINALLY seen him turn the corner with his attitude and behavior. We struggled so much the last couple of years with tantrums and overall behavior – constant hitting, spitting, biting, kicking, etc. It was pretty tough to go through and hard to watch – we know he has such a sweet heart! It felt like a week or so before his fourth birthday he slowly started to turn the corner. Then when he turned four, he grew up and was such a big boy! Ok, ok, he’s not totally perfect – we still have our moments of tantrums when he hears “no”, or when he doesn’t want to do something he’s asked (brush teeth or go to bed are two of the biggest protests :-)), but he has definitely gotten much easier to work with and so much better to live with!! Abigail has turned into quite the little girl – she is obsessed with Minnie Mouse and Elmo lately, loves to talk to her Daddy on the phone in the mornings (she whines until I hand her the phone, she wants to talk to him so badly!), enjoys wearing pretend jewelry and LOVES to wear a little pony tail. She doesn’t have much hair yet, but she’s getting some and it’s just enough to get a little pony tail in the top of her head. I was even successful to get her first tiny little pigtails in – yay!!
Other highlights for the kids:
Cameron:
· His latest toy obsessions are the Avengers and PAW Patrol. Guess what he got a lot of for Christmas and his birthday?!
· He had his first visit to the dentist in October and did SO incredibly well!! I was pretty proud of him!! He was very curious about everything and a little reluctant at first, but the staff was patient with him and he let them do a full cleaning (just no x-rays yet, he didn’t have patience for those!). Afterwards he went to Target and got to pick out new shoes (that he needed anyways :-)).
· He got a battery powered dune racer back in August and he’s pretty dang good at driving it!!! He loves riding around in it and at first his sister was incredibly reluctant to ride with him, but now she’s his best passenger (and trust me, I tried to ride in it so he could give someone a ride, but I did not fit!).
· In September, my mom, Cameron and I took a road trip to Kanawha, IA, to visit Great Grandpa Glen and Great Grandma Carolyn – or as Cameron likes to call them: the ones who made him the racecar quilt (my Grandma made him a racecar quilt for Christmas two years ago and STILL sleeps with it every night). It was a pretty fun weekend – tractor rides, seeing my Uncle’s semi’s, golf cart rides, playing with old toy tractors my grandparents still had – we all had so much fun. Cameron still asks to go down and visit them! In fact, just two mornings ago, he woke up crying. When I asked why he was so sad, he said he really misses his Nama and his great grandma who made him his racecar quilt :-) Seriously, that boy as quite the heart <3.
· He transitioned into the Pre2 classroom at Little Lambs at the end of November and it has been going very well! So far in the last 8 weeks that he’s been there, he’s only had one red zone day – hallelujah!! Pre1 was tough for him – a lot of red zone days and the behavior I described before. We were starting to wonder if he would grow out of it, but I think his age and the new challenges of Pre2 have really helped. He’s getting so FAST at identifying letters and is getting good at writing letters now, too! He’s also still a little book worm, which warms my heart so much because I love to read, and he’s started to “read” books to himself. It’s so cute to watch :)
· Cameron also had a pretty big change in December – he got glasses!!! We noticed in October that he was starting to cross his right eye. At first we didn’t think much of it, that he’d grow out of it, but then it got worse and his teachers at Preschool were even telling us how consistent it was getting. We went to an eye doctor, who then referred us to a pediatric optometrist to see if vision therapy would be needed. We were told that essentially his brain had trained itself not to use his right eye because it was crossing, so glasses should help retrain his brain. We go back mid-February to see if he needs vision therapy or if the glasses are correcting what it needs to (which I think it is – he crosses them way less!). He’s adjusting very well to the glasses and I think that’s partly because he needs them! We also think his behavior issues before may have had to do with the fact that he couldn’t see well – if I couldn’t see well, I would also be pretty frustrated! We’ve only had one major incident with the glasses, which was him breaking them only after having them for 26 hours. I was absolutely furious, because I had just asked him to stop playing with them shortly before he broke them. I think he got the joke after he saw how mad I was, he’s pretty responsible with them now! Even his sister thinks they’re pretty cool and tries to copycat and wear plastic ones :)
· We tried swimming lessons this fall, but he didn’t seem to like them too much. He enjoyed being in the pool, but getting him to jump in and put his head underwater was quite a challenge. We decided to take a break from lessons this winter, but will probably try again this spring.
· Cameron sayings: “Are you mad at me?” “Mom, let’s make a deal” (when he wants something, ha!) And bed time one night: “Let’s talk about the next few Christmases coming up. Where will we go and what will we do? But we can’t plan out too many because we’re going to die and see Jesus soon”. Seriously this kid makes me melt!
Abigail:
· Her personality now days is such a hoot! She gives the best “looks” and eye rolls – she’s definitely mastered those!
· She loves to dance around the room and pretend to be a ballerina. It’s so adorable when she stretches her arms out and spins around in circles in the kitchen. I think we may have a gymnast or a dancer on our hands!!
· Her vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds! This girl can really talk (look out!!). Her best response to things is “Yeah” (which is very staccato and sounds like Yap) or “Okay? Okkkkaaaay!!!”
· I did parent/child swimming lessons with her right after Cameron’s lessons and she seemed to enjoy it (better than her brother!). She wasn’t crazy about putting her head under water either, but she did well and definitely got the back float and kicking part mastered!!!
· She cut all of her teeth except her two year molars – we’re ALMOST done with teeth!!!! Her top eye teeth are still making their way down, but for the most part, they are there.
· Elmo and Minnie Mouse… oh wait, I know I mentioned that already but her obsession with them is worth enough to mention them again here :)
· Potty training is going! The longest she’s been dry is about 8 hours during a Saturday (aside from wearing her pull-up during nap time) and we’re continuing to practice! She’s being going and sitting on the potty daily at daycare, so we’re just waiting for the lightbulb to really go off and for her to be consistent! In the meantime, we’ll keep practicing and encouraging it!
· Abbie really looks up to her brother and loves him! Although they squabble just like true siblings do, she’s always doing whatever her brother does (both good and bad, so we have to remind Cameron to be a good role model for her) and wants whatever her brother wants. This has brought on lots of sharing lessons and playing nice together. Although on that note, it is really fun to watch them play together and want to be together – we’re thankful for that!!!!
· She also LOVES to read and takes after her mommy with this… it seriously melts my heart that they both love to read so much!!
· Other Abbie sayings: “Manson go ouside” – When she says Manson, it’s an emphasis on the first “n” which makes it sound like “Mannnnnso” “I do!” “I potty” “I get it” “Abbie toot! Stinky… P U” as she scrunches up her face and plugs her noise. I know, it’s not very lady like, but it’s hilarious!!
Playing the role of Baby Jesus at Great Grandma Bev's house the day after Christmas.
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