Catch Up

Well, I think it's pretty safe to say I've sucked at blogging this past year. I could blame it on being busy with three kids, but I think it's safer to blame it on the 3 months I spent knitting 7 scarves for Christmas gifts nearly every free minute I had, and then after Christmas, reading the Harry Potter series with every free (and not so free!) minute I had. Seriously, how did I go for so many years without reading those?!? Anyway, life has been treating the Stanislavs well! I can hardly believe it's nearly Spring Break at NW. Time is flying. (Which means that the temperatures will start to consistently warm up...hooray!!!) Okay, so here come the life updates.

Kendall's schedule is pretty consistently busy with various meetings, noon ball (though not as often as he would prefer), late nights spending time with students, and making sure to spend plenty of time with us. And since most of his meetings involve drinking coffee or eating, I think they are usually pretty enjoyable:-) He still loves being a RD and we both get a little sad thinking that we are nearing the end of this stage of life. We really enjoy life in the hall! Although, I don't think he'll mind a few less late nights.

I'm still working part-time in the Admissions Office. I enjoy my job and I work with some awesome people. We've been extremely busy this spring with our RED101: Admitted Student Days, but so far they've been going well. We've been hosting a trivia night for the students that come, and that's kind of been my baby, which is right up my pop culture-loving ally. I've also gotten to plan some women's ministry events for church this year with a wonderful group of women. And of course, I still get to spend most of my time with my three favorite little people!

Mady is loving Kindergarten. Since Christmas, they've started writing in journals and doing quite a bit of work to begin reading. We've loved seeing her develop these skills. She's read a few books to us now, and her writing cracks us up! Mady has been taking piano lessons this year from Amanda Haverdink here in town. She's doing a great job and Amanda is a wonderful teacher. We're so thankful Mady was able to get in with her. She had her first piano party recently. We were really worried she wouldn't participate, as she tends to freeze up in front of large groups of people, but she got up there, introduced herself, and played her songs! Mady loves her brothers dearly. She and Drew are best buds and get along incredibly well, although from time to time they see things differently. Last week Mady really wanted to play school with him. She was the teacher, but her expectations were aimed at a five year old, and not an almost three year old. Drew was mad when she wouldn't let him have papers to draw on right away and Mady was mad when he didn't want to trace letters and listen to every word she said. She ended up walking up to me with a piece of paper that was Drew's report card. It said, "Drews dooing bad." So funny.

Drew turns three in less than two weeks. Where has the time gone? He is a bundle of energy. He loves his sister and brother a ton. Unfortunately for Jack, he often shows that be trying to be as close to him as is physically possible. Drew really loves the movie "Monster's University" and asks to watch it nearly every day. He pronounces it "Monsters Uninersity" and can often be found randomly breaking into the Monsters U school song:-) His imagination has just been exploding this past month. He loves to pretend with his superhero action figures and his Jake and the Neverland Pirates figures. He'll sit with his toy boat and those toys and pretend for long periods of time. It's fun to hear what he comes up with!

 Jack is nearly 10 months old (also hard to believe). He is a joyful little guy and smiles at the drop of a hat. He has an adorable personality! He army crawls all over the place and this weekend he pulled himself up to standing a couple of times. Look out world! He loves to walk holding our fingers too. He's been doing "so big" and clapping his hands a bunch. I think waving will be coming soon too. He says mama, and though he is quite the chatterbox, so far that's his only understandable word. He lights up for most people, but especially for his brother and sister. He does pretty well with his babysitters, but whenever I come home it's pretty clear who his favorite is. Jack had his checkup last week. They confirmed the obvious; he's very long and lean:-) He's not a huge fan of finger foods yet, but he's getting better at trying new things.

I took a video of the kids answering a few questions the other day. I was hoping to get Jack to do some of his tricks, but the best I could get were some sweet smiles. Anyway, here it is, for your viewing pleasure...