"Sade"

I have had requests to post some up to date pictures of Sadie so here goes! She currently weighs 23 lbs 8 oz (50th percentile) and is 32 inches tall (75 percentile). Which is funny to us because she seems so short!
Case calls Sadie, "Sade" and I simply love it! No one else calls her that and I think it's so sweet. I can't believe how quickly Sadie is growing and changing. She's definitely our sweetheart/drama queen/giggly/silly little girl. She has a million different expressions mostly to tell you she's not happy about something - her scowls are pretty impressive.
Sadie just loves to do whatever someone else is doing! If I am putting groceries away, she thinks she's helping and doing the same thing by emptying the pantry. As soon as I walk in the door with a grocery bag in hand she immediately starts unloading the canned goods. Same goes for laundry, the second I start to walk up the stairs with the laundry basket to put clothes away, she is right behind me ready to empty any drawer within her reach. She also loves to think she's in on the joke. If we are laughing, she laughs like it's the funniest thing she's ever heard. Case loves to play "got your nose" and she runs over to play and laugh hysterically along with us. Here she is playing with Macey - just doing whatever Macey's doing!My little mama's girl has finally become a full fledged Daddy's girl. She loves to go back and forth between us, just sharing her love and snuggles with everyone. She learned to give kisses a while back and would go back and forth between us saying "mmmmm" the whole time meaning she's coming to give a kiss. She'll climb out of my lap, go sit with Matt and smile at me like, 'aren't you so jealous I'm sitting with him now?' and then 30 seconds later climb back in my lap and give Matt the same look. Back and forth, back and forth...

She's talking some, but her words are fairly inconsistent. She'll say a word one day because you'll ask her to, but won't say it another day. She does consistently say "Amen!" - Ever since the Eikum's were here and she yelled it out when we prayed at the table and we all laughed. She also loves to say "Cheeeeez" for the camera like she's doing here in the kennel with PorkChop (she's CRAZY about dogs).She is really strong, she can push Case in our toy shopping cart which he loves! And here she is pushing Jordan in the toy car.Sadie continues to be a really good eater which is so nice! She'll sit in her high chair and sing this little "cracka, cracka, cracka" song over and over again until she gets more food ('cracker' is used for all food). Here's her first attempt at using a spoon, not exactly a successful attempt!And here's a few more of my favorite recent pictures of her!



She makes this pouty lip face all the time! It's her "thinking face".
Being Silly with Auntie Kari! I just love this one!

Trick or Treat

We had a great day today with the kids! I am a little behind on my blog but wanted to get this up for family to see the kids - I'll try to catch up on other blogs later, I promise...

We had our first ever Wassink Pumpkin Carving which started off a little rocky, both kids didn't wake up well from their naps but quickly joined in on the fun. Matt did all the dirty work of taking the guts out of the pumpkin, the kids colored and I did the carving. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of the finished product but my carving skills are nothing to write home about.

We then enjoyed a papa murphy's jack-o-latern pizza and headed out to trick or treat with our little dinosaur and butterfly!

Our first stop was at Darrell's house. Darrell and Rhonda have been amazing neighbor's. Case adores Darrell and it's pretty clear the feeling is mutual, he tells us often how much he is looking forward to grandchildren and is happy to dote on Sadie and Case in the meantime! He had a baggie full of candy for each of our kids and had asked Case ahead of time what his favorite candy was (apparently it's M&M's - takes after his Nana).

Then we made a little loop through our neighborhood - it was a great opportunity to meet some of the neighbors we hadn't met yet. At first Case would say, "I want a trick or treat". It didn't take too long for him to figure it all out, he was great at saying 'thank you' and loved doing a little dinosaur roar for everyone. As soon as we would leave a house, he would remind me that we had to fill his pumpkin all the way to the top!

Sadie just rode in the wagon, happy to be along for the ride.

She got most excited when we were at a house that had a dog. She had to warm up to the idea of her costume, which I thought was funny since I didn't think it would feel any different than her jacket. Here's my best picture of her when we returned home and she got to enjoy some candy!

Then came the best part of the night, trick or treaters coming to our house. I was really excited for this since it's our first time in a house! I wasn't really sure what Case would think when we had our own bowl of candy and gave it away, but he loved it! He called all of the trick or treaters, 'costumers' and would yell super excitedly "more costumers are here!!" whenever the doorbell rang. Sadie loved it to, she just ran happily to the door each time and smiled and danced around, I'm sure she was thinking everyone was here to see her!

When we ran out of candy, we turned the lights off and snuggled in to watch a movie and enjoy some roasted pumpkin seeds. When the doorbell rang a couple minutes later, I was just going to give away a piece of Sadie's candy. But when Case saw someone at the door he said, "A costumer's here! I'll give him my candy!" It was so sweet to see his heart to give away his own candy! It probably didn't hurt that the little boy was dressed as Captain Hook :)

Now I just have to figure out how to tell Case we can't do this all again tomorrow!

"I'm Freeeeee!"

For some reason for the last 6 months if you asked Case how old he was he'd say 3 (or 'freeee')! I have no idea why this started, but I couldn't convince him to tell people he was 2. So pretty much every conversation an adult had with him started like this,
Adult: "Hi buddy, what's your name?"
Case: "Caserman!!!!"
(adult gives me a strange look)
Me: "It's Case, but his nickame is Caserman."
Adult: "And how old are you?"
Case: "I'm freeee!"
Me: "He's actually 2 but for some reason, he always says 3."
Finally I can just let him tell them he's 3!
Here's a picture of him working on showing that he's 3
Case's birthday was so much fun, it was just a great day! We started the morning out by filling his room with balloons so he'd wake up to a fun surprise. I was down stairs making his birthday breakfast when I heard little footsteps behind me. I turned around and Case said in a very 'this is so silly' voice, "There are ballooooooons in my room." Like,'can you believe it, isn't that so crazy'!
Then we all enjoyed his birthday breakfast of pancakes with LOTS of syrup :)
After that we headed to church, came home for naps and then it was time for the party!

It was so fun celebrating Case's birthday with a few families from church. Ever since Sadie's party in June, Case has been talking about his Cars party and which character all of his friends would be. He has never been to a party where kids were different characters or anything but all of a sudden he would say, "I'm having a cars party and Joseph is going to be Ramone, Luke is going to be Chick Hicks..." So he was very excited for the big day to arrive. I don't think he really understood what was going to happen at the birthday party except that there would be cake!

When our friends arrived, there were beverages from Flo's V8 cafe and tattoos from Ramone's Body Shop (that's what the green sign says if you can't read it)!

A couple of older girls came and were a tremendous help with the little kids and did all of the tattoos, here's Case showing the tattoo he picked out.Then it was time for the car races! I got this idea at howdoesshe.com and even though I am completely not artistic or crafty (although Matt says he thinks I'm becoming "crafty") I was excited they turned out looking like the characters and the kids had a blast racing them across the yard.



After the races, Case loved opening all of his presents!Then we all enjoyed some chili, (mac & cheese for the kids), and the cupcakes and cake I made. The Mater cupcakes were another idea I got online.


Then there's sweet Sadie... I barely even saw her during the party, she just happily went around to all the different moms and older girls at the party and snuggled with each one of them. I constantly saw her sitting in someones lap, holding her arms up to be picked up and of course, eating anything anyone would give her :)
After supper the kids continued to play with the cars as we visited with the parents. It was a great party, surprisingly very relaxing for a three-year-old party! We had lots of people who really helped out so we didn't even have to clean up after the party was over. When everyone left, Matt and I gave Case his present from us, Woody and Jesse figurine's that I had bought at a garage sale this summer (maybe my best garage sale find ever!). He loved them!
Happy 3rd Birthday, Caserman! We love you to pieces, pieces (as he likes to say!)

Fall is Here!!

Fall has really kicked into gear at the Wassink house and I am loving it! We have such a busy week ahead and I am so excited for it. Our church ministry year has kicked off so we've already had a couple of meetings. While it definitely takes Matt away from us more, I love having our church calendar up and going and doing more things with the amazing people of PCC!

I've also joined BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) which I am really looking forward to. We are doing a study on Acts and I have already loved the first week. I'm also really grateful that it provides the first "structured" setting Case has been in. Up until now he's gone to church nursery, the play area at the fitness club... things that have been primarily open play. At BSF, he'll be doing more of a class setting where they will sing hymns, learn a bible story, structured play time, sit in a circle taking turns answering questions, etc. He had a great time last week! When I went to pick him up, all of the kids were standing by the door waiting for their moms and Case was still sitting on the floor while the teacher read him a book. I'm pretty sure this is the first weekly commitment I've had since having kids, besides laid back things like a weekly play group. It doesn't seem like all that much but since Monday is Matt's day off and our family day and now Wednesday morning is BSF it only leaves three days a week to plan other things. I'm just realizing it's the beginning of the transition from really being a stay at home mom (actually being at home everyday doing whatever we want) to having a busier family schedule.

Anyways - back to the fun of this week! We have BSF tomorrow, then a play date with friends from church and on Saturday we have our first PCC women's ministry meeting which I am helping to lead. I've loved working with the two other women planning our meetings and am looking forward to this first meeting.

Then on Sunday my baby boy turns 3! Yes, I realize he is no longer a baby but like every mom, I'll probably always call him that. We are really looking forward to having a couple of the families over from church to celebrate with us. It's been really fun to plan this party because Case is aware that his birthday is coming and that he's having a party. He picked his own theme this year and to no surprise, picked Cars! This is whats really been keeping me busy this week as I've gone maybe the slightest bit over board planning games, food, etc. But your first born only turns 3 once,right? :) And there are just so many cute and cheap ideas out there on the internet!

Then... drum roll please, on Monday we are road tripping up to MN! Woo-hoo! Matt played football at BU for 5 years (he had a medical red-shirt one year) and then coached for 2, so to say Bethel Football is close to his heart might be an understatement. As I have slowly lost interest in who is All-American, how BU is nationally ranked, how many yards we rushed or threw for, whether or not our o-line has an average weight of over 300 lbs... well I certainly haven't stopped hearing about it! All that to say, we were really hoping to make it up for a football game, so we are heading up for BU Homecoming! I do enjoy football, and especially Bethel's games but I am most looking forward to seeing our friends from College (and specifically some new born babies)! We feel really blessed to visit MN again and are looking forward to soaking it all in since we probably won't be heading back until April!

I'm off to do laundry, make cupcakes, clean the house and pack several suitcase's!

First Birthday Party

We had a great time celebrating our little birthday girl! My parents got to join us since they were driving through town on their way to Oklahoma - we really enjoyed having them! We also invited the Gimotty's over which made for a nice little group for Sadie's first party! We did a little flower theme, nothing too over the top - that's for second birthdays, right? :)
Here's the cupcake bouquet I made for the flower theme

We started out by playing a little game of "pin the bumble bee on the flower". The Gimotty kids really enjoyed spinning their dad!
Here's Matty missing the entire poster board (let's just say he wasn't the only one!)
Sadie enjoyed watching and laughing at everyone!
Then it was time to open presents! She got some adorable and super fun gifts from everyone! Here she is with the kitchen we got her and the phone my parents got her. It was really fun to get a "girly" gift!

She's got this whole cooking thing figured out!
Then we ate supper and it was time for Sadie's birthday cake feast! On their first birthday, I make the kids a cake all for themselves and they get to just dig in!!
She was a little tentative at first, like - 'you want me to do what?!?'
But it didn't take her long to figure it out!


Sadie would've eaten the whole thing if we let her!
Case really did pretty well during the party. He helped bring the presents to Sadie and waited fairly patiently for her to open them and after much reminding, let her play with them! He led us all in singing Happy Birthday to Sadie (I think more than once), but then he did the cutest and funniest thing!

The whole process of Sadie eating the cake lasted probably at least five minutes while we all laughed and smiled and encouraged her to eat it. Case sat quietly and watched the whole event and when it was all over I heard a little, "Mama, look at me".

When we all turned to look at Case, he put his finger in his cupcake and smeared frosting all over his lips! He just smiled at everyone and kept doing it, as if to say, "is this what I need to do to get a little attention around here??" Almost like even he thought it was a little weird, but hey if that's what it would take, he'd do it! It was hysterical!!