One little monkey jumping on the bed

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We need a little Christmas

A regular occurrence at our house is to break out into a musical number.

Olivia's tiny co-star wasn't quite cooperating this morning, but she danced on like a true performer.



- I wonder if things like this happen in other households?

"Sorry, we're a little late- I had to watch the grand finale, and the 2nd curtain call!"

Xoxo




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Harper's *very* belated birthday post

Dear sweet baby Harper,
          Two years (and two months) ago we were so blessed to welcome you into our lives.  You were my saving grace, my sweet angel, giving me concrete proof that life is good and you were meant to be here with us.  YOU. ARE. LOVED.

  On your actual birthday, we were so lucky to have your Aunt Mimi and cousin Dehlia staying with us!  I let Olivia play hookie from school, and all of us went to Lil Monkey Bizness for a fun morning of play time.  You loved every minute of it!  I am so glad we did that.

The Sunday following your Birthday we had a perfectly small Birthday party at the house to celebrate the big TWO!!  You chose Yo Gabba Gabba as your party theme!  You love that show.

We had a blast celebrating you sweet Harper!!  Happy Happy Birthday!!!  

Harper's two year old stats:

height = 36 inches (95th percentile)

weight = 26 pounds (40th percentile)

sass = 100%

We call you tiny boss! You know what you want, how you want it, and you want it NOW!  You can be as sweet as sugar, all "please" and "thank you" and " I love you so much!" and the next minute you are grabbing Olivia by the hair and physically dragging her out of YOUR chair, and screaming "MINE" at the top of your lungs.  You can empty a basket of folded laundry in 3 seconds flat, and you can sweetly sing "you are my sunshine".  We truly wouldn't change a thing about you, you are teaching me patience and grace.  I am learning the art of letting go and holding you close at the same time.  Thank you for coming to us Harper, and Happy Birthday sweet girl. You are going to do great things. xoxo

Mommy

just one day

I don't talk about it.  I have made my peace with it.  I had a baby boy and he didn't get to stay.  He was with me almost 20 weeks and then on October 21, 2010 our sweet baby boy went to heaven.  Today is third Birthday of our angel.  Sweet baby boy I haven't forgotten you, I carry you in my heart and I know you look over us. (especially your little sister Harper) I like to imagine you are her personal guardian angel- and that you hand picked her to be here and stay with us when you were unable to.  This is just one day that I let myself be sad about it.  I will always be sad I didn't get to know you, but I loved you, and I won't forget.

When I was wheeled off of the labor and delivery floor and my arms ached from the emptiness of them, a nurse gave me a small smooth glass blue stone.  That stone is always with me, just like you. xoxo

This is what awesome parenting looks like.

I haven't written in a long time.  I NEED to finish my lovey dovey sentimental post about sweet lovely Harper turning two.  sniff sniff.   

Reality - I am tired at night and want to sit on the couch watching TV.  I promise I will get caught up soon on all of the lovely happenings going on in the Koepke household, but today I am just keeping it honest.  

I took two minutes to sit with Olivia and read her school binder and start to hear about the big Booster-thon Fun Run going on at school - when I look up and Harper is coming out of the bathroom with the potty seat upside down around her head. 

Poor baby girl is scared to death because she can't get it off - I stifle a laugh, and run to help her.  I can't get it off.  It would not budge past her forehead.  I did not panic, I tried to keep her calm, I turned it every possible angle I could and kept trying to get it off.  She wasn't choking or in immediate pain (when I wasn't tugging at it) so I was able to not freak out.  I did realize I needed help - I called my neighbor.  God love her! She ran right over- we buttered the potty seat.  no luck. We called another neighbor.  God love her too!  She ran over- this is 6 children plus H all in the front yard.  The three moms tugged and pulled, buttered, shampooed , and slathered Harper's head and the seat with Vaseline.  I held her arms, Kelly and Amy pulled - Harper screamed and we got the potty seat off.   Elapsed time 25 minutes??  

I think it will take several bath nights to get the Vaseline out of her hair.  

Why didn't I read this??

So- If you called and I didn't answer - I was slathering my kids head with Vaseline to get the potty seat off.  truth.  

did I mention that Harper turned two??

xoxo

Morning snapshot

I love these no pants, Star Wars jammies, pony night gown, harper's "I'm still tired" zombie arm, Foofa and Mickey mornings. I can't think of a better way to start my day. Xoxo











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Milestones

My big kindergartener decided today she wanted to ride her bike without training wheels. Mission accomplished. Xoxo

The next milestone she wants to conquer?? Hot Lunch. I think she's got that one in the bag for tomorrow.

Xoxo


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Lazy mornings

Two weeks left of summer- I will miss these slow lazy mornings in our pajamas until 10. XO
















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minutes of my day

June 18th
    Summer days. Swim lessons. garden camp. pool time. library visits. Prairie Fest. play dates.

Harper talks and talks and talks some more.

This morning at breakfast she says   Olivia - "o -wiv-ya"

everything is "more"

   shoes?  more shoes!

dragon?  more dragon!

chicken?  bawk bawk  more chicken!

Mama come!!  Mama come!!  She is a woman who knows what she wants.

she sees a picture Olivia has colored and shouts "Star Wars!"

she sees hockey players "Go Back hawks!"

she says,  hey!  wait!  go!  mama!!  Dada!!

She will attempt to repeat everything you ask her to 100% percent of the time.  amazing.

she dances, colors, jumps, tickles, giggles and wrestles right along with her big sister.

after lunch both of my girls donned princess costumes and did over dramatic sweeping arm gestures to Beethoven.

we colored the ocean on the driveway with sidewalk chalk.

Olivia is mastering her front torpedo at swim lessons and rocks the 'big slide" at the pool.

life is fun, I am grateful and can only pray that I will always have a vivid memory of all these moments that make up our days.

Olivia at her dress rehearsal for her first ballet recital

dancing at Prairie Fest

5 days post Walt Disney World

After a long month of waiting May 10th finally arrived and we were off to Walt Disney World!!!!!

 My parents came to pick up Harper the night before for her week long stay with both sets of Grandparents. I was SO apprehensive about leaving her, and was very relieved when Harper happily went with my parents - laughing, waving and giving me the thumbs up out the window as they drove away.

Friday morning we were up very early and off to the airport.

We were all so excited!  Jon and I hadn't been to Disney since we were children.  I have been making these plans and saving for this trip for a long time! Olivia tracked our progress the entire way to the airport by using the GPS on my phone.  

After arriving in Orlando and traveling via Disney bus to our hotel, it was very quickly apparent that Disney knows how to make sure you have a perfect experience.  I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive about staying at a "value" resort.  I had heard some negative things - small rooms, lots of waiting for the bus, etc".  I was so pleased that as soon as we got off the bus, we were greeted by Disney employees blowing bubbles, giving Olivia a hula hoop, giving me a flower, putting buttons on us and ushering us to the check- in desk.  Our room (yes it was small, but just right for the 3 of us) was ready early, extremely clean, and a very short walk to both the pool and the bus stop.  We never even had to wait more than 5 minutes to catch a bus from our hotel to any of the parks.  Our hotel (Pop Century) had its own bus, so we never had to make multiple stops either!  

Our first night there we checked out the hotel, tried to rest (Olivia was NOT having it) and hopped on a bus to go have dinner with the princesses in Epcot.  Olivia was thrilled to be meeting Disney characters right away.  ( She still calls them Disney correctors )   The next 6 days were jam packed full with getting up early, hitting a park, one sit down meal a day, afternoon naps and pool time and finishing our evenings catching various fireworks shows or parades.  

Rather than rewrite every single day of our trip, here are the bullet points in no particular order, just how I remember them.  

Disney Magical Memories

1. Olivia loved our hotel's flower shaped pool.  She participated in the hotel staff lead games and dance parties.  The lifeguards loved her dance moves and knew her by name before our stay was over.
2. Olivia would call out LOUDLY to any characters she saw in the parades or street shows- waving wildly the whole time, believing 100% that they were looking right at her and waving back.  Half the time, the characters actually DID hear her (she's that loud) and would come over and hug her or kiss her.  
3. After the Beauty and the Beast stage show Olivia was chosen to go up and receive the red rose from Belle and wave to the crowd. (only one girl is chosen)  Her luck blows my mind :)  She must have had pixie dust sprinkled on her that day.    
4. Olivia's favorite two rides were Star Tours in Hollywood Studios and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in MK. 
5. I wore a poncho on the raging rapids ride......i embraced my nerdiness- but i was the only one with dry undies afterwards!  luckily no cameras were allowed on the water rides- but you'll have to imagine how I rocked that poncho. 
6. Olivia was just a touch shy of the 44 inch height minimum to ride Space Mountain, and Mount Everest  so we packed her some platform flip flops and she put them on right before the rides.  She got on without a problem!  Yay!!  She was so brave and got right on - but after twice on Everest and once on Space Mountain she said "uh uh- no way - I am not going on those rides again- no way- no how"   Now she'll only talk about how they didn't bother her at all.  I guess technically you only have to ride once to earn bragging rights.  
7. While walking thru MK we spotted Anastasia (one of the step sisters) Olivia ran up to her and they held hands and walked together (alone) past several attractions.  Anastasia said she had to go find Drizzella (sp) and kept telling Olivia she was her new best friend.  She put Olivia in the front of the line for autographs and both step sisters kept shouting "bye Olivia bye Olivia" while we walked off.  (pixie dust!)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

8.  We went to MK for only a few hours on our very last day- before catching the bus back to the airport.  We let Olivia dictate what she wanted to do - we ended up riding Big Thunder Mountain 4 (maybe 5?) times in a row, getting one last Little Mermaid ride and meeting Rapunzel from Tangled.  The perfect end to a perfect vacation.  

9.  Olivia was the Rebel Spy on the Star Tours ride. 

10.  Watching Jon tear up as Olivia defeated Darth Vader during Jedi Training Academy. 

11.  It was always SO hard to make ourselves leave the park and go back to our room for a nap, but we were always so glad we did.  Olivia doesn't nap at home anymore, but Disney wears you out and she napped every day of our trip, but would then be able to stay up until 10 or 11 each night.  

12.  Eating lots of ice cream!!  

dance party with Stitch

pool time on Mother's Day

her special seat after being picked to get the rose

receiving the rose from the Prince and Belle

We had an amazing trip!!  There were too many happy memories to write them all down, but I am officially hooked on Disney.  I won't be wearing Mickey Mouse outfits anytime soon- but I will be having sweet dreams of princess parties, light saber duals where the good guy always wins, and TWO little girls wearing their mouse ears.  I am now counting the days until Harper turns five and we can go on this magical trip again.  I'm sure that at any age you take your kids to Disney it is so fun, but I truly think that for us, this was the perfect time.  She had the stamina to walk a lot, wait a lot, and stay up late - but was still young enough to truly BELIEVE in all of the magic.  perfection. xoxo

view from our balcony - how can this not make you smile?

our room was on the third floor right past the first giant bowling pin