Our baby girl is turning 2 this weekend!

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We are having a family "Abby Caddaby"birthday party. Pictures to come :0)

August?

It is so hard to believe that school is right around the corner. Although we have super busy and done some really great things this summer, it still feels like we haven't truly gotten into a routine with summer vacation.

Quick update on the kiddos.....


Jakob has been quite the entrepreneur this summer. He has had steady jobs babysitting, dog sitting, and any other income producer that comes his way. It has been great to see him grow and accept responsibility in this way. It has also been nice to have the new found freedom of being able to leave now and again and have him hold down the fort. He does a great job and has even mastered the magic touch of getting his little sister down for a nap, a feat even mom struggles with!
Jakob will be starting 7th grade this fall and we head into a new season of parenting a junior higher. Wow!

Logan celebrated his 10th birthday in July. It is hard to believe that 10 years ago he was born on the exact day that we moved into our house. Yes, I'll do anything to get out of moving boxes!
Logan also had his first overnight camp experience a few weeks back. He and his friend Brennar were bunk buddies at Camp Geneva. He had an awesome time and said the only bad thing was having the week end. I guess he doesn't struggle with homesickness... Logan will be entering 4th grade and will remain in the Montessori program at Waukazoo Elementary.



Brayden is full of energy and life. He is the early riser of the family and has said numerous times that he just doesn't understand why people want to sleep in when they could get up and start the day. He has is always asking questions and working on "experiments" that often involve water and spices or food coloring. So far no huge disasters, just a little resistance when it comes time to clean up! He will be starting the 2nd grade in the Montessori program as well. One new thing for Brayden this summer was that he became the 3rd Sandstedt boy in birth order to be prescribed glasses. At first this was a very cool concept, although as I looked for a photo to post of him in them I couldn't find one because he isn't consistently wearing them! We are working on that!



Grant turned a "whole hand" (this is 5 in his language) on June 29th. He celebrated with some of his friends and cousins at Chuck E Cheese. He had been counting down the days to his birthday since Christmas, so this was a hugely anticipated event! He has hit some new milestones this summer. He is very interested in reading and is beginning to sound out words and put sounds together. He also mastered riding his bike without the training wheels. This probably happened about 2 months before he knew it as daddy had raised them up so high that they weren't actually helping him at all, but we waited for him to feel ready and off he went! After spending a good deal of time trying to keep up with his big brothers this summer it will be a nice change for him to start kindergarten in a few weeks and be surrounded by kids his own age. His five years of life have FLOWN by for me and I am feeling a bit emotional about it being time for him to go already. But he will do great, I know.



And last but not least there is Miss Ella. She certainly makes herself known in this household of busy boys! She has a full vocabulary and has learned how to talk each of her brothers into just about anything she wants. She has been having a lot of fun lately with her baby dolls. She also has a slight obsession with shoes. Any kind, any size, any color. The funniest was when she tried on her brothers that have wheels in the bottom. That was quite a surprise. She also likes to talk in 3rd person often. She will say "Ella fell down, Ella's ok, that's Ella's", and a not so favorite addition to her vocabulary is that she will sometimes refer to me as "Jenni" and daddy as "Uncle Nate". Not sure where that came from......
I am really getting a taste for the differences of boys and girls as I see her play with my jewelry and want her nails "pretty". She is a lot of fun!
We are looking forward to celebrating her 2nd birthday in just a couple weeks!

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Stay Tuned...

A fresh new update is coming soon!

Good-bye October...

Well today we say good-bye to October, but boy did we have a full month! We loved being able to be outside, watch the leaves change and gear up for Halloween! We also had a few "firsts" to celebrate this month.
Jakob has always been very interested in being in the kitchen, so as I looked at my pile of apples, I thought that I would give him the challenge of baking his first apple pie....from scratch! With a little instruction, but no assistance, he made a delicious pie from start to finish.
Another first is that at 13.5 months our little Ella started walking. She had been experimenting for a while by taking a couple steps, but now those days are long gone! She has definitely mastered the art, and it getting quite fast! Her brothers have loved watching her go into this next phase. Although she is also learning to get into their things too...good thing she has them wrapped around her finger! She has also started talking quite a bit too. Some of her new words are: cracker, No-No, thank you, and BOO!
After months of premature wiggling, it was a good day in The Sandstedt home this past week when Brayden lost his 1st tooth! He has been patiently waiting as most of his friends lost one and wondering why, why, why??? Now that is is out and the tooth fairy has made her first visit to him, he is starting to think it is really no big deal, although he says it is kind of cool to have a place for his straw!
And lastly we wrapped the month with Halloween. The boys had several candy-bearing events throughout the week leading up to it, so we are pretty set on the sweets around here!
Upcoming events....
* Mom starts working at outside the home one day a week, the 2 little ones will play with their buddies Everett and Solomon on that day.
* A trip to Lansing to celebrate Ethan's 10th birthday!
* A BIG trip to Washington DC to visit our friends the Valbak's for Thanksgiving.

We'll keep you posted.....

October 2008

Apple Picking?

Every October we go to Fennville to pick apples at Cranes. Last year Ella was in a front carrier but this year we anticipated her lending a hand. Well, we made it to Cranes at 6:05 on a Tuesday night only to find out they closed apple picking at 6:00 While the kids were bummed it wasn't long before one of the boys remembered the apple cider donuts which, quickly became just as good as picking apples. Cranes is a unique place that on the the inside is more like an antique shop than a restuarant. We decided to stay for dinner and it was fun to watch the little one's expressions as they observed wooden high chairs, civil war muskets, and things from the good 'ole days. Although we were not able to come home with bags of apples we had a great time as a family.