November until Now

The longer I wait in-between blog posts, the more I need to catch up on!

We had a great Thanksgiving minus some illnesses. The bug started with Will the Saturday before Thanksgiving and it spread to the girls by Monday night/Tuesday (Plus, we all seem to have a never-ending cold). This stomach bug was still around Wednesday morning but seemed to be gone by after nap so we decided to still have our first Thanksgiving that day at my brother Ben's house in Minneapolis. Thanksgiving on Wednesday was nice- my brother Jon couldn't make it but everyone else was there. We had a mini-birthday celebration, so the girls got to open a couple fun presents!

Langager clan (picture courtesy of Andy, along with all of the Langager Thanksgiving pics below)

Getting a ride from Uncle Ben!

With Uncle Andy! 

Oh, just chasing Uncle Ben (who has quite the outfit on, by the way)

Working on a new puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa 

Thursday morning we trekked to Duluth for Dan's side of the family's Thanksgiving, and Friday we had another mini-birthday celebration with presents and cake. Duluth had snow at that point also, so we did some playing outside (since then, they were pounded with more than two feet of snow during a recent storm!) The girls have been spoiled so far with their birthday, because yesterday for lunch we brought them to the Rainforest Cafe at the Mall of America. While eating there, we realized that was the first time we have been out to dinner at a restaurant with just our family! We had to celebrate the girls' birthday early because Dan will be out of town for their real birthday. They will open their presents from us when Dan gets back. We tried not to spoil them too much.

The kids on Thanksgiving day!

This doesn't give justice to the mess they made at the kid table!

Josie acting goofy- she was quite proud of herself!

4 Candles each! (M, S, J)

Mmm birthday cake!

Catching a quick Christmas show with Grandma before heading home.

A couple weeks ago, Josephine and Madeline went in for their mandatory preschool screening. This was Madeline's second attempt. It looked like it was going to be another lost cause until the teacher who was screening told them they could take home a new book if they cooperated. We checked out the books, and of course the girls got excited about them. SUCCESS! They both passed-phew! It seemed beneficial to have at least two together as they are usually more confident with a sister there. I wish we could have squeezed Sofia in but there were only two appointment slots at the time. Unfortunately, she gets a tougher test because she will be 4 when she tests (while the others got the 3 year old standards). She may not do well on certain parts. Hopefully she will still pass. I am going to bring Josie with to boost her confidence.

At the Rainforest Cafe. It was slightly scary- Will didn't like the thunderstorms, and Madeline didn't appreciate the swinging gorillas.

The girls' preschool conferences went well! They are doing how we suspected. It was fun to hear the teachers' perspectives, though. Apparently, they need to be reminded to keep their hands to themselves, as they can get rough with each other, and with a boy named Caden. They also need work on helping clean up (oh really?!- how shocking- not!) We learned that Josie is the most likely to try something new even without the back-up of her sisters. Madeline is the least likely to.

Got the tree up! (J, M, S)

Love between Josie and Odin!

Sofia!

Madeline had fun with Will in their "boat".

Sister picture! (M, J, S)

So much love under the occasional excluding, hitting, and petty fights!

Will is doing well- he is 11 months old! He's not doing anything new really besides standing with his back to the sofa without getting nervous about it. I think he wants to wait to walk until he is confident he can do it. He seems pretty content crawling around! His favorite activity is to "play catch", where he
throws to someone and we roll it back. I hate to brag, but he has a pretty good thrower's arm! He almost always throws with his right arm- if he is holding the ball with his left hand, he transfers to the right. I don't remember the girls being into that activity at all!

Mr. Will

I forgot how useless babies are in snowsuits. He had a fleece snowsuit,  plus this outer one and he could NOT move. 

This guy is so jolly, he still gave me smiles under those conditions!

I will do another update soon for the girls' 4 year birthday! Hope everyone has been doing well and keeping warm!

The girls and I went to a preschool field trip today- the play Cinderella at the Children's Theater. It was their first play and they did well- a little squirrelly towards the end, but overall it was a huge success!