State of the Family #26

OK, so this post was started on Tuesday morning, added a little more Tuesday afternoon and am just getting it finished up on Thursday. . .

Sleep update from Miss Thumb Sucker. . . not as good as last time, but I'll still take it.  I'll attribute this to her double ear infection she is still trying to kick.  She will be on her last day of antibiotics tomorrow.  I was hoping it might be a little better by now, but I guess it will take some retraining once again.  It never ends does it?  You finally get them sleeping great and then they get sick, or you travel somewhere or something else interrupts the wonderfulness of sleep.  She is also starting to try and talk a little bit more.  Most things are still a form of the "da", "ba" or "puh" sounds with a thrown in "ma" and "na" every once in a while, but some form of these she says ball, book, baby, bottle, puppy, papa, dada, mama and nana (for no no).  She also says hi and uh-oh clear as day just throw in some talent.  Her other latest deal is trying to keep up with brother and sister by attempting to run and to wrestle with daddy.  I really need to get some video of it, it just cracks me up.

I am coming up blank for Miss Firecracker. . . that must be a good thing.  She has been pretty calm lately except at bed time.  She is having trouble staying in her bed.  Always getting up for something, we have to remind her after she is tucked in and kissed and prayers said that we don't get out of bed.  "What happens if we get out of bed?" we ask her.  "I get a spankin." she replies.  However, she has figured out that we don't give spankings if she has to go to the bathroom (how do you tell them they can't get out of bed if they need to go potty?).  So, she sneaks to the bathroom and somehow manages to go, even though she just went 5 minutes before.  The other (actually kind of funny, but still in an ornery Miss Firecracker way) thing she likes to do at bedtime is try and talk to her brother.  He knows this is not allowed and since he is the compliant one he tries to tell her to be quiet, mostly to no avail.  The funniest part is, since he doesn't take naps anymore he is usually exhausted come bedtime and falls asleep within minutes, so we can hear Miss Firecracker attempting to tell him a story but gets no response.  So, after a few minutes you hear her start going, "Noisy Man? Noisy Man?!  NOISY MAN!" at which point we have to intervene and remind her of the 'no talking at bedtime' rule as well. 

Noisy Man has been going through a mean phase lately.  He seems to be picking on his sisters constantly and doesn't really show much remorse if he hurts them or makes them cry.  He'll say the required sorry, but that is about as far as it goes.  This just puzzles me as he is usually my tender-hearted little guy that wouldn't really want to hurt a fly (although he is really into the hunting stuff). So, we are having him work on memorizing 2 Timothy 2:24 The Lord's servant does not argue (it really says is not quarrelsome, but that is a bit tough for age 4) but is kind to everyone.  Hopefully, this will sink in or I will be searching for another kindness verse for him!  He is also totally in to all of the Christmas stuff!  We are doing an ABC Advent 'calendar'.  I say 'calendar' because we aren't really using a calendar, just doing a letter each night with a corresponding Christmas word.  A is for Angel, B is for Baby, etc.  They are really having fun with it and so am I.  We watched an awesome Veggie Tales movie on Santa the other night that did a great job explaining where he really came from and even had a very strong message tying him to Jesus.  I think it will be a yearly watched movie for us!  Just for reference it was Veggie Tales: St. Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving. We watched it on a Netflix instant play.

Daddy has sadly been using the treadmill more than mommy the last 3 weeks. He has been doing a pretty good job at getting on it about 3 times a week.  He is majorly busy at work lately too, with lots of meetings and such.  Gotta wrap things up for the calendar year and their fiscal year starts in October, so they have lots of new stuff coming in that way too.  He has also been battling a cold for the last 2 weeks as well.  Just kind of off and on sore throat and such but the last 2 days it seems to have gotten a little worse.

Mommy is still recovering from the musical.  It took me a good 2 weeks to really get my voice back and now I am getting all congested.  I was so tired all week, but was having fun watching movies and staying up late with daddy do I didn't really get any extra rest.  I am finally starting to feel like myself again, thus the main reason daddy has been using the treadmill more than I.  I got on it for the 1st time in 3 weeks 2 days ago.  I have been busy baking and making.  Along with all the stuff we did on family day Sunday, I have made monster cookies, homemade hot cocoa mix and peppermint, chocolate, marshmallow sticks for stirring.  These are my (I think) adorable gifts for Noisy Man's teachers, bus driver and other such gifts this year.  (must give credit to moneysavingmom.com for the ideas).  I think after today I might be done creating and being in the kitchen for a while, excluding necessary meals I guess.  I also finally got our Christmas card done.  My sis-in-law came down to snap the picture for us last night, I stayed up late putting it all together, then sent it to her to have her send it to the printers.  Hysterically, she sent me a copy of her Christmas letter and we had done the exact same thing centering around numbers!  Oh well, too late to change anything now.  Hopefully, I'll get them back in time to get them sent out by Monday.

Its Beginning to Taste a lot Like Christmas

 Today was the BEST!  While we have really been trying hard to stress the real meaning of Christmas to our little babies with reading Christ centered books at bed time, doing all sorts of activities and Bible verses centering around Baby Jesus and an ABC Advent Story every night as well, there are many other things about Christmas that are great too.  Today was one of those.  After church (where I rocked my sweater dress, leggings and tall, black shiny boots I was a little nervous to wear, but managed to get a few compliments), we spent the whole day at home.  We baked sugar cookies, decorated them and ate them.  We made chocolate covered pretzels and Oreo truffles and ate plenty of those too!  We also attempted some chocolate and mint bark, but I bought the wrong kind of mint so we gave up on that one.  Then, once the mess was somewhat cleaned up we sat down to a supper of popcorn on the couch and watched a Christmas Veggie Tales movie, followed by some hide-and-seek in the dark!  I had the best hiding spot of the whole game and was amazed that I was able to "hold it" with all of my repressed laughter!  Then, we finished off the night with 'L' for Lord of Lords and Laying in a manger with a few beautiful renditions of "Away in a Manger" accompanied by non other than the angel on top of our Little People Nativity Set!  Definitely one of the best days EVER!!



Miss Thumb Sucker helped by eating a cookie! Seriously, this was the best 'help for her, out of the way of the messy frosting!



"The Gift": And Thats a Wrap!

Its over.  I am torn with how I feel about that as it is always a relief to be done, but sadness of not getting to hang out with my friends who I perform with.  I am glad to have the time back, especially after last week. . . 7 out of the last 8 nights were spent at church, rehearsing and performing.  It will be great to be able to spend more evenings with my kids and mostly my husband.  However, it is usually not until practices start again next year that I get to spend that much time with the friends I have in the musicals.  I made some great new friends this year as well, deepened some relationships and really got to know some people better than I had before.  It is a lot of work, but it is so worth it.  The message of the show is strong, but God doesn't just reach our audience with the message of the show, he reaches us through the time we spend with each other and the work that we do.  It is so worth it.

We had a great turn out at 3 out of the 4 shows, with a small audience on Saturday for obvious Nebraska reasons. . . frankly they would have had a better time at our show over watching the Huskers get beat! :) Many people commented that they laughed and cried throughout the entire show and most of all, the message of Christ and what He means to life was unmistakable.  People could not walk out the doors without knowing the true message of Christmas, delivered in a much different way than your ordinary nativity Christmas plays.  Our Creative Arts Minister at our church and his wife co-write the play and the music, from scratch!  God has really given them an amazing gift!  It is going to be hard to top this one Tami and Kevin!  It was amazing!



The entire cast



The girls!  So much fun will be missed!



I am SO ready for next year!

State of the Family #25

 I always start off typing, not really knowing what I have to write about when I start these SOFs.  Then, by the time I am done, I felt like I have rambled on forever.  Yet, it seems you keep on reading. . . for this I thank you.  It makes me feel like my mundane life and very entertaining kids have a little to offer.  Or maybe you're just bored. . . . either way, I'm good with it!



Checking out my sister's new DVD



Miss Thumb Sucker has been a wet-chested running monster around our house the last week.  Her next few teeth are working their way in (FINALLY!) and she is drooling like crazy.  I usually have to change her shirt at least once, if not twice a day.  Then, while at my dad's this weekend, he put a bib on her. . .now why didn't I think of that.  I know that I should do that, my aunt even made her these adorable little crocheted soaker bibs when she was smaller and went through a drooling stage.  I totally forgot about them and just kept changing her clothes.  Duh!  Anyway, drooling away, she had a blast at my families "ThanksChristmas".  My family combined Thanksgiving and Christmas this year since my niece was here from Texas for 4 days.  Miss Thumb Sucker was not much into unwrapping things or even playing with the paper, but wanted to check out what everyone had and liked the tags.  She was scared to death of an over-sized stuffed puppy that she got, but loved her singing, bouncing, ride-on turtle once we got it opened and home. 

Miss Firecracker had a bout of pink-eye but was a trooper with taking the drops.  She then passed the pink-eye on to her brother and that story will go in his section.  She is growing up way too fast for my liking and remembers everything.  Many of her "ThanksChristmas" gifts revealed just how much older she is getting.  We are now in to the Barbie stage (which I love, because I still LOVE to play Barbies) and she also got many things 'just like her big brother', which shows she is growing up as well.  She motors around on her pink scooter like a pro and has mastered her new Leapster2 with such ease it is almost frightening.  It will be a great educational thing for her though as she bores quickly with coloring and matching and tracing, but the active screen and changing games hold her attention really well.  And with just a little bit of help she is already starting to recognize a lot of her letters.  I am really having a good time with her new toys as well!  Her new favorite phrase is "remember last year?" in which "last year" is her code for an hour ago, yesterday or last week.  But remember she does.  She knows exactly what we did, ate, and who it was with.  Cracks me up!

Noisy Man, like I said, also had a run in with pink eye.  The day it was discovered, he was quite tired and at the word 'drops', he freaked.  He ran to his room closed the door and hid under his covers.  Surprisingly (lol), daddy and I were able to find him and tried to administer the drops.  He was kicking, flailing and screaming like we were going to cut off his arm.  We should have just waited until he calmed down to give them to him, but at that point all rational thinking had gone out the window and we were just determined to get the job done.  So, daddy picked him up and put him on the floor and pinned down his arms.  I sat over his legs and held his head with one hand while putting the drops in his squeezed-shut eyes.  Then, pried them open one at a time to let the drops run in.  After this whole process it took him almost half an hour to calm down.  This will surly be a story we laugh at later.  He also raked it in at "ThanksChristmas" with a hunting set complete with a camo rigged pick-up, tent, hunter, and deer, a new Leapster2 (since his old one quit working), a fun box/playmat for his legos and some clothes.  His favorite thing at the moment however, plastic army men! An inexpensive stocking stuffer from Aunt S and Uncle M have created hours upon hours of entertainment for this boy.  It is adorable!  Thank you Aunt S and Uncle M!

Not much on Mommy and Daddy this week.  We had fun at "ThanksChristmas" as well and received great gifts.  Daddy's favorite probably being his new Wii hunting game that proves to be pretty challenging and entertaining.  They hunted a Mountain Lion probably around 15-20 times before they were actually able to kill the thing before it killed them (see pic).  Mommy went Black Friday shopping (no, not at 3 am, but at 6 am) and still got some great deals!  The longest line I had to wait in was about 20 minutes and it was behind an old college friend I hadn't seen in years so it was the most pleasant line-wait ever.  I am also in crazy week for our church's musical with dress rehearsals S,M,T and productions Th,F, St, Sn!  Only night free is W.  Poor daddy!  My other dilemma. . . someone evidently forgot to tell my skin that I turned 30 last week and not 13!  I think if you are going to have the zits of a 13-year-old at least the wrinkles of a 30-year-old should go away.  It only sounds like a good trade to me.  What the heck is up with that?!?!  Anyone have any suggestions as to where they came from and how to get rid of them?  I do not like them Sam I am!! 

And with that, once again I have rambled on forever!  Good day!

Halleluiah!!!

She is sleeping!!  I almost hesitate to write this, but for the last week Miss Thumb Sucker has been sleeping great!  Since so many of my posts have been about her sleeping habits I figured I'd better put in an update.  So, in the last week she has been waking up around 7 am, then still takes a bottle in her bed and sleeps for another hour.  This morning she slept until 9:15 am!  I had to check on her about 12 times in those 2 hours just to make sure she was still breathing.  We have even been putting her to bed at 7:30 pm and she still sleeps this long.  I am starting to make a recovery on my sleep lost over the last year.  I feel like a brand new woman!  I think my worst sleeper is going to turn into my best sleeper.  She has even been taking 2 1/2 - 3 hour naps in the afternoon.  I can hear angels singing!  OK, maybe that is a stretch, but I feel a heck of a lot better, and when mommy feels better, everyone feels better!  Now, if only I could figure out how to solve all of my laundry dilemmas. . . . but I think that is a personal issue that I will always dread. :)

Handy Hubby!

Who else can say they have a hubby like this?!?! He decided while running on Thursday night that our 'tv stand' (aka 5 gal bucket) in our treadmill room was not sufficient. Since it was too low and off to the side we would have to turn a bit to be able to see it (challenging while running) and we would have to turn the volume up so high to be able to hear it, you could hear it upstairs. So, he just whipped this up for a whopping $12 in just an hour!! No plans, no searching for designs, not a thing! He just got out his saw and screw gun and tape measure and went to town. Have I mentioned lately how much I love this man!?!

I'm . . . 30!

My baby turns one and 2 weeks later I turn 30. So far so good. I think I can handle this 30 stuff. My hubby and kids got me flowers, a great friend and mentor got me The Pioneer Woman's cookbook, my secret sis from playgroup got me a cute little wooden plaque, another great friend made me brownies, my sweetie just brought home a very yummy looking chocolate cake, and I am relaxing on the couch while I should be folding laundry and cleaning up my kitchen. And I don't feeling guilty about it at all (well maybe just a tiny bit cuz I know I'll just have to do it later anyway) because it is my birthday. I am feeling quite spoiled. I think birthdays are great! We are going 'Rolling Pins" (bowling) tonight for some fun. It should be interesting. I am a terrible bowler, but we will have bumper pads, so that should help me out a smidge at least. I'll add some pictures of the awesome fun later!
My twenties were amazing! I finished college (had a blast during college btw too!), got married, moved too many times to count, owned 3 homes, had 3 kids and am still able to fit in my High School cheerleader uniform. I'd say my twenties were pretty good to me. Now, here's to hoping my thirties are even better!

Update: I totally rocked at bowling tonight - even beat my hubby who is a decent bowler(. . . I won't tell on myself that the bumpers were up - I really only hit them twice!!) hehehe! These are a few pics. There are some of all of us bowling, but with my husband in charge of the camera while I am bowling. . . lets just say those are not pictures that I will ever post or print! Ornery men!! (Can't say I didn't take some of him the same way though, but I will be nice and not post those either.)

State of the Family #24

My last day to enjoy being a twenty-something. . . not that I really dread being 30. It doesn't really bother me. Like my blog title suggests, I am just where I want to be. I have done everything I wanted to do by the time I turned 30 and God has so richly blessed my life I almost feel guilty. Almost. He is awesome isn't He!

Miss Thumb Sucker has now become a toddler, no longer an infant. While this makes me quite sad that my baby is growing up, I am really enjoying the stage she is in. She is so much fun! She just giggles about anything and everything and wants so much to be able to keep up with her big brother and sister that it makes me laugh! She has become quite ornery lately though. The bathroom and my pantry being her favorite places to hang out. It has now become a house rule that the bathroom doors stay closed as in the past week we have had a pair of sunglasses, a Sunday School Paper, a shoe and a sock all tossed into the toilet. And with a 2 and a 4 year old using the toilet you can't always guarantee it is clean water and this totally grosses me out!! Needless to say this house has been purged of 3 out of those 4 items! Her other favorite hang out is the pantry. . . she finds all sorts of goodies here. Mostly the cereal and such on the bottom shelf and anything that has been dropped on the floor (as you can see in the picture, my pantry is anything but clean). Her favorite find though, was the Oreo container which I thought was still sealed shut so I didn't take it away from her the first time I saw her with it. I figured she would shake and have some fun with it, but after a few minutes I noticed it was awful quiet so I peeked around the corner and there she was. She thought she was hilarious! She also got her splint off on Sunday and is enjoying the freedom! The other adorable thing she did this past week was learn how to fold her hands for grace at suppertime. It was priceless!

Miss Firecracker has had a pretty uneventful week. She has been a wonderful little girl and hasn't had many uproars at all. I wish I could figure this girl out, she is quite the roller coaster. Like I said last week, she is just too smart for her own good and sometimes I even forget that she is only 2 1/2! She had a blast at Grandma Susan's surprise birthday party last Friday and getting to spend the weekend at Grandpa Gary's. She has been a singing machine once again, turning any life situation into a Top 20's Hit!! Just the other day she added some great lyrics to Jesus Loves Me: "Yes, Jesus loves me, He doesn't like it when we're naughty, and He died on the Cross, the Bible tells me so." She likes to sing about her babies, and brother and sister and just about anything that can be made into a one-note-held-on-too-long-in-a-very-long-run-on-sentence song! I need to get it on video. She cracks me up! She decided to have a cowgirl day the other day as well and of course had to pose for a picture!

Noisy Man has calmed down this week too. I am realizing however that this poor boy needs some other boys to play with! He is surrounded by girls at home during the day, especially when my two daycare GIRLS are here as well. I now have one of his preschool classmates (a boy thankfully) coming on Tuesday mornings before school, so hopefully this will help. It did help me realize the play habits of my son. After about 10 minutes of playing farm, Noisy Man was ready to move on and color then was on to the kitchen and playing house. Oh dear, I think mommy needs to "boy it up" a little more. Don't get me wrong, he does enjoy his farm stuff and he is always up for a good "hunt", but even his preschool teacher says he spends most of his free time at school in the dramatic play area. What can I say? The boy loves to cook. His one saving "boy" grace is Legos. He will always trade playing anything to go play with his Legos. He was so excited the other night to FINALLY be able to ride his bike. Daddy took a look at it and realized that the brakes had been paritally engaged the entire time, which is why he wasn't strong enough to pedal it. He was thrilled to be able to do it all by himself! Too bad it will be too cold to be riding it much in the upcoming months!

Daddy got his deer. I don't have a pic of it on my computer yet, as he took the picture with his "hunting" camera and I have to find the cord to download them. It wasn't anything too impressive, but after sitting in a stand for 2 whole days not seeing much, he gets pretty bored and just shoots. The body of the deer was pretty good sized, he got 84 pounds of meat off of it (yippee, I get 60 lbs of ground meat for 80 cents/pound!) He always acts like it is such hard work and so boring sitting there, but he just loves every minute of it! Why else would you go sit in a tree for hours upon end, year after year? He is also loving that Noisy Man is getting older and can accompany him on parts of the process. He helped hang the deer and got too cold during the slicing it up part, but thought it was cool, nonetheless.

Mommy got 2 whole (well, almost whole) days to herself this last weekend. While the entire family was at my dad's for deer weekend, I had to be back at church for our Christmas Musical rehearsal most of the day Saturday and 2 different times on Sunday. So, I drove back Saturday morning and stayed here until Sunday night. It was so quiet and eery I wasn't sure what to do. Thankfully, a few friends saved me Saturday night by coming over to play some games and eat some good food. I am also thrilled at my new running shoes. After putting it off forever, I finally broke down and realized my knees were going to give out if I didn't get new shoes. I gritted my teeth and prepared myself to spend $100 for a pair of running shoes. I was thrilled to death when I went down to a local sports store and the shoes I wanted were on SALE, $20 off AND I found a coupon for that store where if I spent $75 or more I got $25 off! I got my running shoes for $55!!! I was jumping up and down (OK maybe just on the inside, but I saved $45!!!) and now I can run without limping around constantly. WOOO WHOOO!!

State of the Family #23

Hunker down folks, this ones a doozy. . .you might have to split up your reading time or just skip it altogether, we really aren't that interesting.

So it happened. The baby of the family turned one and we all survived. What else has been going on? Not sure I really remember. Where has the time gone? Halloween was in there somewhere.

Here are my cuties (and a couple of friends/cousins) in their costumes.

Miss Thumb Sucker continues to toddle about with her poor broken arm in a splint. It will be weird to see her without it (but oh so much easier to get her dressed!) come Sunday when we can finally take it off. But, oh the stories we will be able to tell her! She is completely on whole milk and doing quite well. Even only having a bottle in the morning most days! And that is only because she still insists that she needs to eat at 5:30 am and mommy is too lazy to sit and feed her so I just give her a bottle to drink in her crib and go back to sleep. She drinks the bottle better than a sippy cup, so I know she'll go back to sleep with the bottle better than a sippy cup as well. I know, its terrible of me, but you can throw stones later! Her birthday party was a blast and she did great! She hardly made a mess with her cake and it took her quite a while to dig into her birthday pudding. She was spoiled by all our family and friends! She is very in to babies and puppies and stuffed animals right now. Always loving on them and giving them kisses. Every single animal is a "puh puh" and everything else is a "ba ba". This includes babies, bottles, cups and balls. She also started saying "pa pa" for grandpa we think. Either that or she is calling grandpa's puppies too. Its hard to tell at this point.

Miss Firecracker has become quite the artist the last couple weeks and thus has been banned from any type of writing or coloring utensil for quite a while. In the last two weeks she has taken a crayon to the carpet and our tile kitchen floor, a pencil to our bathroom tile floor, a colored pencil to our kitchen table and an ink pen to our banister wall. . . every time the crime has been followed by a spanking, a time out and her having to help in the clean up process. You'd think she would figure it out, but she continues to find random things and color away on something new, none of which seem to be paper. Heaven help me! On a positive note for my fiery red-head. She had her 2 1/2 yr check up (finally) and quite impressed our new pediatrician. When she asked if Miss Firecracker could count to three for her. . . I asked her to count to ten. Although Miss Firecracker was being shy and would not comply the Dr was quite impressed with the fact that she was able to do so (truth is she can really count to 12 without help!). She was also blown away by her knowledge of her ABC's, body parts, shapes, colors, ability to copy a circle and x mark, to dress herself and attempts to skip and hop. My ornery little girl is functioning closer to a 4-yr-old than a 2 1/2-yr-old (could this be why is is such a trouble-maker?). Thus concludes my bragging-on-my-babies section. :)

She was not impressed with carving pumpkins, but liked the end product!

Noisy Man has been quite the comedian the last couple weeks. A few of his comical quotes include "I just want what I want!" (during one of his own little fits in which he wasn't allowed to have yet another piece of Halloween candy), "Mom, we should have another baby so we can name him the Muffin Man" (yeah, good luck with that one honey!), and "We don't want the animals to get hurt and die, Mommy. We want to get to hunt them down!" (this one came from a conversation about litter, and a book we had read about how animals can try to eat litter and it can hurt them.) He has also had his fair share of fits lately as well. He has started yelling at the top of his lungs about how unfair his punishment for disobedience is and/or how he should be able to have something he has been denied. Not sure where this is coming from as he is usually my even-tempered, soft-hearted one. I am guessing from a lack of sleep mostly as he has still only had about 2-3 naps in the last month. It isn't for a lack of trying, but with preschool in the afternoons he doesn't take naps those days and on his non-school days I make him lay down for a nap, but he will not fall asleep. Either way I need to figure out how to end these rantings from both of my older children before they teach their baby sister how to do it as well.

He thought digging out the guts of the pumpkin was a great time!

Duck hunting has gone down hill for daddy the last few weeks. Not shooting much, but he still considers this one of the best seasons he has had in over 5 years, so I guess not all is lost. I just have to figure out a good way to cook up some of this new meat that has now entered my freezer. Most of the time it just sits there and we end up throwing it out. Now we move on to deer season. I like deer season best. It is much shorter than duck season and daddy isn't very patient with it. He usually shoots his deer by the end of opening weekend because he is already tired of sitting still for so long. I do like getting the very cheap meat as well since we have the majority of it made into ground meat to use in place of hamburger. It is also a much healthier alternative. If anyone is interested, he has two tags to fill, so if you want to process the meat, he would gladly shoot a 2nd deer for you!

I am on cloud nine today as I am no longer nursing and am not pregnant. Like I said in a previous post, this is a first in a little over 5 years for me! I am ready for the break, but I do miss the quiet time with my baby. Luckily, she is a cuddle bug so I still get in some good snuggles. Also on cloud nine as I am wearing a pair of my pre-pregnancy, "skinny" jeans (I put this in quotes since I would never consider my thighs to be skinny, but this is almost as small as they get). They are still a bit snug around the thighs, but with my legs I am accustomed to this. I am just thrilled to be able to wear them and not look like I had to jump off a building to get in them! We'll see if they still fit in a couple of months after no nursing and the holidays!! Speaking of holidays, Christmas #1 for us is just around the corner as we are celebrating it at Thanksgiving since my niece will be here from TX. I can proudly say I only have one more gift to buy for this one! It is nice to have almost 1/2 my shopping done! It will also be nice to take a little of the gift getting/giving pressure off my kids so we can focus a little more on Jesus. Speaking of Jesus, I am currently reading an awesome book that I highly recommend. It is called "A Modern Girls Guide to Bible Study" by Jen Hatmaker. If you have ever felt (or always felt) a little stuck in your personal Bible reading time or like you don't get much out of it, this book is great! I am only in the 5th chapter. I have already learned so much and have a new view on my quiet times and personal Bible Study. Read it!

I'm One!

I turn one today!






I have a splint on my arm and a buggery, stuffy nose, but it is still my birthday and I am going to enjoy it.

Not quite sure where the time went! As I sit here and type my baby girl has transformed before my eyes. She is no longer the tiny little thing we are just bringing home from the hospital, but instead she is standing by my knees playing peek-a-boo with me from behind my laptop. Time flies. uiiko'











7421

'WOWZA!!" Wednesday

This is what we did today. . .

It was a blast. They were so well behaved and we had such much fun creating, imagining and running around.

And then when we got home, this is what my kids insisted on doing. . . .

Seriously, they ASKED to vacuum. I didn't force it upon them or anything, really! Now if only they picked up their toys with such enthusiasm. Oh well, I'll live in the moment. I am one blessed mommy!!

State of the Family #22

Lots going on, but I am going to try and be brief. . . I'll let the pictures tell the stories!

Miss Thumb Sucker is walking all over the place now as long as she doesn't have on shoes! I put shoes on her and she just doesn't know what to do. It is kinda funny. The splint hasn't slowed her down a bit, that is as soon as we got it trimmed back far enough that she could still suck her thumb! Heaven forbid we lose our nickname. She also became a candy thief and thought she was quite funny when we were bagging up some treats for her upcoming birthday party. She is also eating like a small horse! I think she out-eats her big sister at most meals. She was quite intrigued with her first tractor ride with G'pa Gary and really had a good time. Peek at the base of his hat in the tractor pics and you'll see where the red comes from. His is a little faded due to some greys, but. . . .

Miss Firecracker is going on little sleep this last week for some reason, and she is like her mama. When we don't get sleep, watch out! So it has been a little rough around here with her. She is in a girlie mode too. Always wanting to wear dresses and lip gloss, boas and her dressy shoes. But like a friend of mine said, she is a tomboy with a tiara because she is right on the floor wrestling with her brother and playing tractors in all her pink and glitter glory. She loved the tractor and combine rides we took on Sunday with G'pa Gary. She actually fell asleep in the combine for a little while. This was the first time she got to ride in the combine and really had a great time.

Noisy Man continues on his no-nap streak and still wakes up at 6:30 am or earlier every day, with no exceptions for the weekend. Anyone know how to teach your kids how to sleep in? I would really like to know! He was all over the tractor and combine rides as well and was quite upset we couldn't stay all day and camp out in the combine like one of the other combine drivers' daughter was doing that day. His preschool teacher came last Friday for our home visit and gave us quite the insight! Really, it was just what we expected. He gets a little loud at times, LOL wonder how he got his nickname. He loves to play in the kitchen and they have to set a timer for him when he is at the computer. Yep, that's my boy. He also really only plays with the girls. Oh dear! I am in trouble all ready. They are going to start him and a few other kids on reading, so at least he is doing great there. I also need some tricks on teaching him how to recognize his numbers, we have done a lot of different things and he still doesn't know much past 4! I guess we'll keep working on that one.

Daddy continues to have good luck in the duck blind, which is great because that makes for a happy daddy! I bought him some new running shoes on my shopping trip so hopefully he will keep up with me on the treadmill.

I had a blast on my shopping trip with my sister and my aunt down to Kansas City. Got lots of great deals and even came home with some money! I am cramming to get everything planned for Miss Thumb Sucker's birthday party and also had a blast riding the tractor with my dad. It has been a VERY long time since I have done that.

State of the Family #21

Oh dear. . . almost 2 weeks again and there has been a lot going on around here. God is good and God gets us through that is for sure!!

Miss Thumb Sucker of course had her little mishap with brother, that ended with her arm in a splint. But she had some other fun stuff going on as well. She got to go on her 1st adventure to the pumpkin patch and was quite the trooper. She was along for the ride and hardly ever made a fuss. Which is amazing considering she did not take a nap until almost 3 o'clock that day! She is transferring to the sippy cup pretty well these last few days and only nurses at night and in the morning now. Still an almost walker, but not quite all the way there yet. She will take 6 to 7 steps as long as the destination in mind is relatively close, and of course exciting to get to. She didn't like the 2 days she couldn't crawl at all after she hurt her arm and before she got the splint on. She would be stuck in one spot unsure of how to move and just get MAD. It was kind of cute actually, but pathetic at the same time. She also started saying "puh puh" for puppy and "ba" for ball too. She has 2 more teeth on the top poking through as well, which is what I am hoping the early mornings have been coming from.

Miss Firecracker absolutely LOVED the pumpkin patch and everything it entailed. She was AMAZINGLY well behaved. Probably the best one out of the whole clan of 5 kids! I don't remember a single whine or fit from her at all. She was ready to go and even stopped to take pictures like a pro. She has also been talking non-stop lately. Don't get me wrong, she has always been quite the chatterbox, but the last week seems to be continuous. So far, it hasn't driven me nuts, but I can see if she keeps it up it just might. Right now it is just darn adorable all the things she comes up with. Today it was quite revealing all that she thinks she knows about Heaven and Jesus. . . she isn't naughty there, Jesus lives there, and she is going to go there all by herself like a big girl. There was much more to this little conversation that didn't make sense at all to me or her (when I would try to answer some of her questions to the best of my ability) but heck, Heaven is a hard concept for most seasoned Christians, let alone a 2-yr-old. I need to keep a record of all the crazy things that turn in her little mind!

Noisy Man hasn't had a nap in over 2 weeks. . . I think that covers it for him. OK, maybe not quite. He dropped his sister and cried harder than she did when he realized that she was really hurt. He was truly just trying to be helpful and keep his sister away from the toys he knows can hurt her. Thankfully, both have seemed to recover pretty quickly. He was all over the place at the pumpkin patch and not quite so well-behaved as his sisters. Mostly before lunch though. Pictures were cramping his fun-to-be-had style and he must have been hungry, cuz the rest of the day he was really quite agreeable. It is fun to take him to the same pumpkin patch for the 5th year in a row and see all the new things he can try every year. The first year we took him I think the only thing we did was take pictures of him! He also got to have his cousins come spend the night with him the night before we went and he thought that was great! I am getting anxious for our parent/teacher conference with his teachers this Friday! I hate not being able to know exactly what he is doing every day, and he isn't exactly a wealth of information when asked about his day at preschool. It usually goes a little like this; me: How was your day? NM: good. me: What did you do? NM: Played. . . . and so on and so forth. I think he learned this from my father. One word answers. Drives me bonkers!!

Hunting season (ducks that is) has begun and daddy is in 7th heaven! They have a new spot thanks to some friends of ours from church and they have had a great season so far. He actually shot his limit of birds by 10 am last Sunday. I think this is the first day he has bagged a limit in over 4 years. He has "burn" days left at work and is planning to burn them in his duck blind! He is also continuing to enjoy the treadmill almost as much as me and is getting his endurance up quite well. Maybe by next spring I'll convince him to run the Lincoln 1/2 with me!! Yeah right! He was a trooper as the only "dad" at the pumpkin patch as his sister's hubby had to sit out for harvest and his dad was still laid up by ACL surgery. Secretly, I think he really likes going anyway.

Me, I am still here. Praying through it all. I just don't see how mothers of young children make it in this world without God to lean on! I forgot to add into both the girls' spots that they had croup as well this week. So we have been hacking away around here. I had to say good-bye to one of my best friends after a depressing NE football game on Saturday. I ran a 15K in the Governor's Cup last Sunday and did great until mile 7 where my body decided it had had enough. My legs started cramping (I haven't had a cramp in my legs since High School) my lungs were burning and I felt like the little water I had during the race was going to come right back up. The last 2 miles were not pretty, and the rest of the evening was even worse. I'm not sure how I drove home without having to stop and I spent the rest of the night on the couch. Even got a slight fever. The next morning had a RAGING headache and was very, very thankful for an awesome hubby who took a couple hours off of work to let me sleep in. Then I got to spend the next 2 1/2 hours at the Dr.'s office diagnosing croup and getting Xrays! Not to mention all this time I should have been enjoying myself at MOPS! OK, now I am just complaining. God is good, isn't He! I am thankful I was able to enjoy a full day with my family at the pumpkin patch, able to even survive through 9.3 miles and still be able to walk at the end even though I felt a little worse for the wear. Thankful that my son cares enough about his baby sister to want to keep her safe, and that it is just a splint. Thankful that I have 3 amazing children I get to stay at home with and most of all thankful that they make me want to pull my hair out some days because that means they are healthy, normal kids! God is definitely good!

Tell All Tuesday

Brother tried to move me out of his legos and dropped me. . . Now I have some kind of a "buckle" in my forearm. . . just a step below a hairline fracture and have to wear this splint for 10 days.

Weary Wednesday

Truthfully, it should be weary first part of the week. Miss Thumb Sucker is throwing me for a loop again. Waking up at 5:30 every morning which is just enough time for me NOT to be able to go to back to sleep after I am done feeding her before my alarm goes off at 6:15. She is genuinely hungry most times though. I have found that if she isn't hungry I can lay her back down and she will go back to sleep, but if she wants to eat. . . there is no going back to sleep. And letting her cry it out is not an option at 5:30 am because it wakes the whole house up and there is no going back to sleep for anyone. Believe me. That is what started this whole weary week!

My other weariness is nursing. I have absolutely loved nursing all of my kids until they were a year old. Noisy Man I even did morning and night feedings until he was 14 months. Miss Firecracker 13 months and with Miss Thumb Sucker I am SO ready to be done! Perhaps it is because I have either been nursing or pregnant for the last 5 years and 3 months! Perhaps it is because she is a mean and restless nurser. She pinches me and pushes and pulls and wiggles and even bites every now and then. Why do I feel so guilty about wanting to be done? I think, honestly, part of it is a fear on my part as well about the fact that I won't have a bodily need for 300-500 extra calories per day any more and might blow up like a balloon!! YIKES!

State of the Family #20

Wow, 20 SOFs. . . OK so it isn't that many, but it sure is fun to look back and see what has all been going on. Now if only I had the time to do that. :)

Miss Thumb Sucker is days away from walking. She is taking a few steps here and there and will stand on her own for quite a while. She loves it when she can grab your fingers and have you walk her around the room, and she loves to push things around. You can tell she is just longing for the day she can chase after her brother and sister. She had a short bout of thinking that she didn't want to chew her food. It seemed that if it wasn't pureed or soft, she decided not to eat it. It would go in her mouth and then, after a couple chews, come pouring back out. Thankfully, that was short lived when she found out she got hungry pretty quickly when she didn't eat. I was glad for this, cuz I do not want to be buying or making baby food forever. Still waiting for some more teeth to come in. She only has four. Maybe this food thing was caused by some teeth troubles. Time will tell.

Miss Firecracker is on a "When I get big. . . " kick. Everything she knows she can't do now she is going to do "When I get big." The quotes become quite amusing as she decides exactly what she is going to do when she does get big. Some examples are not taking naps, pushing mommy in the stroller, drink coffee, and many others I can't ever seem to remember when it comes time to record them. She has also discovered the joy of hand-me-downs. We have been talking about Halloween costumes, and this year she will be an elephant, which is a costume Noisy Man wore a couple of years ago. Evidently, she doesn't want to be an elephant for Halloween and has her own ideas. Every time you ask her what she wants to be her answer changes, but momma will have her frugal way and, in the end, the poor girl will end up being an elephant. It is an adorable costume and I'll be darned if I am going to let it go to waste!

Noisy Man is on a Lego kick. He has had some legos that daddy brought out of hiding from his childhood, but the other day we hit the jackpot at our neighbors garage sale and found a huge box for only $5! Every waking hour he wants to be playing Legos. The kid has some creativity, I'll give him that. But he gets so frustrated when his sisters interfere. Miss Thumb Sucker, obviously, cannot be around the legos, so he has to move to the kitchen table to play when she is awake or put them away. This, of course, is a big inconvenience and aggravates him to no end. To top that off, Miss Firecracker is allowed to play with him, but all she ends up doing is breaking things apart and taking the hats/helmets off all the little lego people. I'm not sure which sister annoys him more in his lego world!

Daddy loves that Noisy Man is so into legos, but he isn't thrilled that they aren't able to play as 'gently' with the contraptions he built as he would like. He is constantly fixing things and putting them back together. He act annoyed by this, but secretly I think he loves it because it gives him an excuse to keep playing legos. The chill in the air and the distant quacking of ducks has daddy itching to get out of the house and into the duck blind. I think their first time out will be this weekend.

I am in 7th Heaven, as my new treadmill was delivered last Friday. It is so awesome to be able to go run whenever I want. OK, so not whenever, but I have many more options of time to run than before. Like, during nap time or after bedtime or even when it is dark or raining outside! It is good to be able to run whenever cuz I am signed up to run a 15K in less than 2 weeks! Yikes! That could be interesting. I have also been keeping myself busy trying to do some of my own freezer cooking. I can't do the regular freezer cooking group during the winter because of Daddy's pickiness, but I know I am totally going to miss being able to grab supper out of my freezer. So, I have been trying to do some on my own. So far, I have done meatballs, Stromboli and cinnamon rolls. Not that cinnamon rolls would make a great supper, but who can resist cinnamon rolls. And, as a side note, if you haven't tried the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe you are missing out! It is amazing. I leave the coffee out of the frosting and have used both maple and vanilla to flavor it and they are both great! I highly recommend it and will never use another cinnamon roll recipe again!

Until next time. . .

State of the Family #19

2 weeks to cover again. . .

Miss Thumb Sucker, thankfully, hasn't made too many leaps since the last post. I am just not ready for my baby to be walking yet. . . but she gets closer everyday. She has started getting much more brave in letting go when she is standing up and is trying to pass between the couches and coffee table on two legs as well. I have a feeling she will be running all over before her 1st birthday arrives. Where did my baby go? I am also pretty sure I heard her say "no,no" last night too while I was feeding her before bed. She was repeating after her brother who was screaming, not wanting a sliver removed from his hand. She hasn't said it again since then though, so I am hoping it was just a fluke! She also had a bout of the croup this last week, but seems to be recovering well.



Miss Firecracker has been doing significantly better the last few weeks. She seems to go in spurts. Her fits have really diminished, not completely, but at least to a manageable level. She is so much more fun to be around when she can control her temper. . . but isn't that true of all of us! :) She was the dancing queen at the two weddings we attended the last 2 Friday nights, even copying Aunt Kelli in a "Poker Face" move. (Which I can't really tell you what song it is from or anything else, other than it was adorable and most people who listen to more than one radio station will probably know what song it is and what the move is.) She was shaking her hips and swinging her arms. . . this girl has rhythm! She has also been reallying enjoying joining mommy on her runs lately. She even told me the other day that when she gets big she is going to run and push me in the stroller! I thought that was a great idea!



Noisy Man has been testing boundaries these last weeks with his sisters. He is constantly picking fights with Miss Firecracker and has gotten his fair dose of reciting his Bible verses to "be careful to do what is right and live at peace with everyone" and "love is kind". They seem to remind him of how Jesus wants him to treat his sisters for about 5 minutes and then we start over again. :) But that is probably a 4-year-old for you! He had quite the even getting off the school bus the other day. We were running a bit late getting home from the bank, so our neighbor came over to meet him as he got off the bus. We were just 2 minutes behind as we met the bus pulling off our street. He was upset and crying that we weren't there, but mostly because he wasn't feeling well. He wanted held so I picked him up and he was just a sweaty mess. He said his head really hurt so we started to head inside to get him cooled off. . . then daddy came out after taking some papers inside and took him from me. As soon as I handed him off he tossed his cookies all over daddy. Poor thing (both him and daddy). But, man was I glad daddy asked for him! He ran a fever the rest of the evening and into the night but was much better by the next morning, thankfully. He also had his first ever sleepover party at the neighbors house as well. He had a blast at the Star Wars Fest they made it and is ready to do it all over again. . . I'm not so sure the mom of the sleepover would agree though. She had 10 kids there!



Daddy is preparing for duck season. . . that might cover it for him! He will be gone very early in the morning every Saturday morning and absent from church here and there for the next 2 months. It is his vice. I guess there could be much worse things to lose my husband to for a few mornings. :)



I have been lazy lately. My house is a mess. . . I still have some apples to finish up. . . I don't know what my problem is. I did so well for quite a while, keeping my house pretty clean, peeling coring, and slicing apples almost every day, keeping up with my laundry. . . then a busy weekend hit and it all went to pot. Now I can't seem to catch up. As daddy would say to our kids, I need a swift kick in the pants. Well, I guess that is my cue. . . get off the computer and get to work!



Oh yeah, I guess our other big news for the last couple weeks is that we refinanced our house for a 15 year mortgage and other than that we are DEBT FREE! We are pretty excited! We also mailed in our final check for our van. So, now we are done and the 15 yr will save us a TON of money in the end and hopefully help us get to build our dream home in the country a little bit easier as well. Although, I must confess. . . it will be hard to start another mortgage after whittling away on this one so well.

North! to Alaska!

Oh if only it were that easy. . .

You see, one of my dearest and best friends and her family have decided to move BACK to Alaska after only a little over a year BACK in Nebraska! I am so sad to lose her and her fun children, and yes even her hubby who is a good friend of my hubby and yes, Jason, I'll claim you as a friend too. LOL. But I am happy for them to really know where they want to be. And, evidently, God is in their corner on this one. They have been hashing the idea for some time and a job opened up for him, and he got it plus some extras they needed to be able to make it work, then they sold their house after only 2 days of announcing their move back. They never even listed it! Talk about a God thing!

Anyway, to my dilemma. . . they have asked if we (the hubby and I) would accompany them on their road trip back north. The trip would even include airfare to return home. Immediately I wanted to jump up and down and say, "Yes!" But then the adult/mom part of me kicked in about a millisecond later and realized that I had to think about the logistics of this and my kids. Darn you adult/mom part! Yes, I realize the trip wouldn't be all roses as it would be A LOT of time in a vehicle WITH their 3 children and Miss Thumb Sucker (as she is too little to leave behind for over a week), but it would still be a great adventure. The hubby and I would even stay in AK for a few days to do something fun before we returned. After thinking about the fun it would be all the "If-we-go, I-would-have-to's" started to kick in.

If we go, I would have to:

-figure out what to do with my other two children while we are gone.

-figure out how Noisy Man would get to preschool

-figure out how to get passports in 3 1/2 weeks since we will drive through Canada

-figure out how to survive more than a few days away from my little darlings

-hope our director wouldn't axe me for missing a 3 or more play practices for the musical

-do some math on how much the trip would cost, including me taking more than a week off daycare

-and I am sure there are many more my hubby will bring up tonight when we sit down to talk about it

But, oh what an opportunity! What an adventure! Am I completely nuts for wanting to go?

All the pics are ones from our trip up to AK to see them when they lived there before. Back when Noisy Man was younger than Miss Thumb Sucker. . . I think just 4 months old. He was so cute (and of course still is). Can't you see why I want to go back and can't blame them for returning? :)

Update: We discussed the trip and decided that the challenges outweighed the fun. Mostly, the $330 it would cost us to get our passports without the guarantee that we would get them in time and the fact that it would be VERY hard (on us and them) to leave the other 2 kids for 10 + days. I am pretty bummed, but we promised since we weren't going this time that we would start saving up to go up for a full vacation in 2 or 3 years. Would be fun to do for our 10 yr anniversary in 2013. Seems so far away, but then we would have more time to fully enjoy Alaska. We would have also had to cancel our Colorado Ski trip plans for this upcoming Valentine's day if we did this, so now we can still look forward to our ski trip!