The Simonson's: Falling Leaves

The leaves are falling! At least at Sandi's they have. What a great time the girls and I had helping Sandi rake leaves and decorate for Halloween on Saturday but more about that later! Let's start with Monday and see how big Chunky Monkey and Becca are!

Monday after dropping Rachel off at school we headed to North Platte to see Dr Shawn for Becca's two year check-up and Alec's 4 month. Becca weighted in at 27 lbs which puts her in the 65th percentile. She is also 35 1/2 inches long which is the 86th percentile. I was a little worried about Becca because she is still wearing the same clothes that she wore last spring but I think she is just going to be smaller that Rachel. Overall she really is not that small. Now on to Chunky Monkey. He weighed in at 17 lbs 9.5 oz the 86th percentile and is 26 3/4 inches long which is the 74th percentile. He is such a happy baby! I just washed up and he started wearing 6-9 month clothes today!

After the Dr we went and picked Rachel up from school and went back to North Platte to have lunch with Grandma Priest. After lunch we came home for naps and then went to Rebekah's last volleyball game of the season. Babs team lost but they are so much better than last year. We are looking forward to watching her play basketball in the next couple months.

Tuesday neighbor Melissa took Rachel to school as Becca woke up and could not stop coughing. She then got sick after breakfast and I decided it was not worth putting her in the car and since Mike was gone I put in the call for help to neighbor Melissa. She is so great and Rachel loves riding to school with the boys. Thank you so much Melissa. Alec decided he was going to be a big boy while daddy was gone and rolled from his back to his tummy.

Wednesday after we took Rachel to school I came home and packed up the suburban to head to mom and dads. I took Rachel out of school on Thursday so that we could go back and attend a funeral for my classmate Nicole's 5 month old son. We got to town Wednesday evening and went to the shop to see mom. Sandi then came to the shop and rode into Nicky's with us. Katie and Sandi watched all the kids while Nicky and I went over to Nicole's parents' house for a quick visit. Thursday morning we got up and got ready. I then picked Sandi up at Nicky's and we headed to Stuart to drop off the kids with my cousin Amy. Grandma Kohle went over to Amy's to help with all the kids. The funeral was one of the hardest I have ever been to. It was so hard to see a friend and mother so heartbroken over a loss of a child. I believe that there is no pain like that of a mother and father losing a child. I hope to never be in those shoes and pray daily for the friends I have that have been there and have come out of the situation so much stronger.

After the funeral I went back to Stuart and the kids and I had lunch with Grandma Kohle. We then went to O'Neill to help Sandi. We raked, jumped and tossed leaves on the beautiful afternoon. We also helped Sandi create a leaf man and put up decorations. Rachel had a blast looking through all the Halloween stuff and Becca enjoyed playing and throwing the leaves. Alec was really tired and not so sure about all the leaves! We then went to supper with Katie and the kids and the girls went to play at Katie's while Alec and I went and visited with Grandma Tielke.

Friday we just spent the day at mom and dad's. Grandma Julie went to town around lunchtime and picked up Nicky's kids. We had a great afternoon cooking and playing. Nicky, Clay, and Sandi also joined us for supper and Katie and Jaidyn came out to visit later in the evening. The kids and I then packed up and came home on Saturday morning. We stopped at the Raatzs' when we got back to town and watched the football game while waiting for Mike to get to town. Saturday evening Lisa and Bab's watched the kids so Mike and I could go out to supper. Sunday we got up and tried church but the girls were so naughty we had to leave at half time and come home and do some praying and time out. We then went to town for lunch at the Troshynski's and enjoyed seeing Great Uncle Jim and Aunt Buttons. That evening we enjoyed some popcorn that Rachel helped pick and a movie.