State of the Family #18

Hmmm. . . I am coming up a little blank for the next update. I can't really think of what we have been doing. I know we have been busy, but we just haven't been doing anything that exciting.

Miss Thumb Sucker continues to scoot about. She is walking around all of the furniture and zooming along on all fours. She can get anywhere she wants, much to her brother and sister's dismay. She likes to find out what is inside doors and drawers and is adorable to watch when she tries to look under something. At the moment she is having a ball chasing her sister and one of the day care girls all over as they keep running away from her because she'll get their stuff. It is pretty funny. She has also started saying 'uh-oh' which she uses all the time for any situation. Even more in the communication realm, she has started using a few signs. . . all done is one she is great at and we are still working on more, thank you and please. She is growing up way too fast that is for sure. One thing she isn't too excited about growing out of is nursing. I was hoping to move her straight to a sippy cup of milk instead of having to do the bottle then sippy, but she doesn't like that idea. Thankfully she will take the bottle just fine and even does it herself, but it will just be another transition we will have to make. She likes to play with the sippy cups, but most of what she tries to drink out of them just comes pouring back out.

Miss Firecracker has thankfully continued to do well. She loved the day we spent out at the lake and going tubing with daddy. She wasn't quite sure about the whole lake thing at first since her brother informed her she would be swimming with the fish. But she had a blast on the tube! Pictures below. She loves wearing her Husker cheerleader outfit on game days, so much so that she didn't want to take it off to go swimming in the kiddie pool at the family get together at the lake, She jumped in fully dressed in her cheerleader outfit. She is also been on a singing kick lately, with her favorite tune being Jesus Loves Me. She belts it out whenever her little heart desires. It makes a mamma's heart proud!

Noisy Man had a blast at the lake as well, but was not so keen on the tubing stuff. They started off a little fast for his timid little self. He was crying by the time we had made it about 20 ft. We couldn't convince him to go again either, even if we would go slower. Oh well, he had fun riding on the boat. He was majorly bummed about not getting to go with daddy on the weekend long fishing trip (more on that in the daddy section) and almost cried every night when we called him or when I tucked him in bed. It was so sweet. It will be great when he is old enough go along! He is all over this apple stuff. . . we went out and picked 4 more bags worth last week! He just loves being able to grab one out and eat it up, knowing that I won't stop him.

Like I said, daddy went on his annual fishing trip this last weekend. They were gone from early Friday morning til past midnight on Sunday. If the fishing would have been better, they would have stayed through Monday, but they weren't having much luck so they decided to call it quits a bit early. I always feel so bad for him. They haven't had a great fishing trip in years. He finally gets to go out and get in some good fishing time, and they just sit on the water all day. I guess what they say is true though, "A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work."

I have still been up to my elbows in apples, since we went and picked some more. I have peeled, cored and sliced about all I can take, but I still have 2 whole bags left to do. I will be thankful for all of it in 3-4 months when I can grab things out of the freezer and they are all ready to go. The kids are loving the applesauce though and I am still having a hard time keeping up with my dehydrating. I am also trying to start training for a 15K in October. . . yep a tad late to just be starting, but hopefully I will get there. I have been so terrible about keeping up with my runs I needed something for motivation. We'll see how it goes. The last new thing with me is play practice. Every year our church does a huge Christmas musical and after having to sit last year's out due to a newborn, I am very excited to get back into it! It means 2 practices per week most weeks but it is so much fun and totally worth it. I just love it!