State of the Family #36

I seem to really be lacking in the blog entry dept.  Although it has been just 1 day since my last post, it has been 3 weeks since my last SOF!  Something about 3 kids and summer has me away from my computer.  Hmmm. . . wonder what that could be?

Another entry in the 'Successful Blogging' article I was reading the other day said something about keeping paragraphs short, so I will be changing the format of my SOF's.  Instead of 1 long paragraph on each kid, I'll try to break it up a bit so there isn't such a chunk all at once.  You'll have to let me know if this makes it easier to read.

One of her 18 month pics

Miss Thumb Sucker is a talking machine as of late.  She repeats anything and everything you say.  Thankfully, around our house that isn't too dangerous, but if you are around her, please be careful of your vocabulary.  She'll just be listening to your conversation one moment and picking some random word you just said to repeat.  It is completely hilarious to see her brother and sister react to this.  They get so excited for every new word she says, running to me or daddy yelling, "Miss Thumb Sucker just said a new word!"  Half the time it is one she has said numerous times anyway, but it is great to see their enthusiasm for their sister's growing vocabulary.  She is even saying a number of few short sentences as well.  The other day she was stuck in her high chair finishing her lunch while the rest were reading books on the couch.  As soon as she was set free she ran to the living room saying, "I read books."  Then hands me one and says, "Peas, mommy?" (meaning 'please' of course).

Sleeping in my big girl bed.  My blankets
don't match because this is my favorite one.

Our baby girl's other big news lately (along with 4 new eye teeth coming through) is her new bed.  Well, it is new to her anyway.  She is now in the toddler bed.  Sniff, sniff for this mommy.  I was a little leery of trying this out quite so early with her.  Even though Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker were both in the toddler bed by right around 18 months as well, they were pretty much forced there by necessity (another baby needing the crib).  That, and Miss Thumb Sucker seems to be the most ornery (the sneaky kind of ornery, that is) out of all three.  So, I was just sure she wouldn't stay in the bed for anything.  The first night was a little rough, but I don't attribute that to the bed, she had done the exact same thing in her crib the night before.  The next 4 have been smooth sailing.  It is too cute how she knocks on her door when she wakes up and wants out.

A pic I snagged while taking the other ones

Miss Firecracker has been troubling me lately.  Not through her regular avenues, but in a new way.  She seems to be quite the sassy and snobby little friend.  I am not liking how she is playing with other kids lately and I am really struggling with how to teach her the right way to play.  Where does she pick these things up?  When there are more than 2 girls (or even just kids for that matter) she seems to pick one friend to want to play with and is quite seclusive and mean to anyone else who wants to join them.  She is also overly bossy to the friend she is playing with.  I have tried reasoning with her and the 'do unto others' technique as well as a couple of  'friend' Bible verses for her to learn.  I have her recite the verses in times of trouble, but the effects only seem to last a matter of minutes before she slinks back into the old routine.  Help!  I don't want my daughter to be the snobby, mean girl that no one wants to play with.  And again, where does she learn this type of behavior?  On another note, she is the best friend to her baby sister.  She plays so great with her and includes her in all sorts of activities.  She is soft and gentle with her and shares like a pro.  I just need to get her to transfer this behavior over to other kids and situations.

The new bunk beds

New beds also prevail for Miss Firecracker and Noisy Man.  Bunk beds, that is, and they are way excited about them.  So much so, that even after a whole week of having them they are still hard to put to bed at night.  They chat and giggle (which would be very cute if it didn't last half an hour) and take forever to actually go to sleep.  I am sure this will ware off eventually.  Hopefully sooner than later.  Besides just playing in them at bedtime, they are loving playing on the top bunk together during the day.  It has been a struggle keeping Miss Thumb Sucker on the ground and a strict 'closed door' policy has been established since it took a whole 3 hours of having the beds set up before she learned how to climb the ladder.

My fun and silly 5 year old!

Noisy Man will be the death of me by the end of the summer.  I joke.  It is just quite an adjustment to get used to having him here every day for nap time once again.  I am used to having one or two to play with a couple of times a week, but every single day is a change of pace.  I covet my nap time.  Not that I get to nap, but it is quiet and I can usually have at least 1 1/2 hrs to do what I need to do without being interrupted.  This is not the case with Noisy Man around.  He covets his mommy time, which I am very glad for as well, but it makes it hard to get the other things done that need to get done.  We are still learning how to find some quiet time activities (given his well-deserved nickname) that don't involve just sticking him in front of a screen.  I have done simple craft projects, play dough, book corners, and puzzles.  He usually lasts about 10-15 minutes before he is yelling up the stairs for help or something else to do.  Any suggestions on this one, too?

Once again, struggling for note-worthy news on Daddy.  He has a new trainee at work, and his old trainee has been properly trained so he will be taking off for his own office within a week.  He continues to help take care of 'my' garden and is hoping for it to dry off and warm up enough for some good fishing trips.  They went last weekend again without much success, but Noisy Man got to tag along and had a fabulous time. 

A rare pic of all 3 smiling!

Mommy doesn't have much going on either.  Same ol' same ol' here.  Cooking, cleaning, digging out of the depths of my laundry pile without much success.  Running, playing, and trying to get in some good reading time for some personal enjoyment.  I am loving the extra one-on-one time I am getting with Noisy Man since this will be the last chance for it before he starts school.  We have played tons of boards games, car races, baked lots of goodies and colored many pictures in just the 2 short weeks he has been out of school.  I love it.  Even though I do miss my more secluded mommy time as well, I'll take what I get while this awesome time with my oldest lasts. Oh yes, we also made a trek to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo last week with Grandpa G.  We decided to splurge and get a family membership (since it would only take 2 visits to pay for it).  So now we are very excited to get to go to the big zoo lots!

Another Book Blog, The Daughter's Walk

My latest blogging book, once again, had me trapped.  I just love getting lost in a book.  While this one didn’t capture me quite as much as the “Sisters of the Quilt” series, it was still a very engaging story with a lot of history to tell.

The Daughter’s Walk was started by the historic tale of the mother-daughter team who walked from Spokane, Washington to New York City in 1896.  They mostly followed the railroad for their adventure, collecting signatures of various dignitaries in most major towns along the way.  They started off with $5 in their pockets and had to work or sell pictures of themselves wearing the new reform dresses they were advertising and supporting in their journey in order to continue their voyage.  The trek was made to try and earn a $10,000 prize promised them if they made it in time.  The money was desperately needed to save the family farm.  Through trials and illnesses, discoveries and heartaches, the women returned home over a year later. 

The family they left behind in the journey did not welcome them home, and the daughter, Clara, decided to go on life’s journey separately from the coldness of her family’s feelings and rejection of the walk.  The rest of the book tells the story of Clara’s ups and downs, investments and heartache; friendships and money made and lost, but a life well-lived. 

Would she ever find true love or know full acceptance anywhere?  These were the questions I continually asked myself throughout this book.  I so badly wanted Clara to find true happiness and someone to completely accept her, but this only seemed to come from the two women she came to know as family after her real family shunned her.  Truthfully, Clara needed to come to peace with God and get past wanting to control everything in life with money.

You’ll have to read this for yourself to find out what all comes to pass at the end of the book and where Clara at last finds peace, if at all.  It was undeniably a page-turner, but not one I found myself neglecting other priorities to curl up with. 

I received this book for free from Waterbrook-Multnomah Press for this review

Milestones and Marathons

Better late than never seems to be my mantra when it comes to blogging.  I saw a post the other day on a blog I follow about how to have a successful blog.  The top two things listed where frequent posts and unique subject matter.  Neither of which I have, but I'm not in this to be successful, just to keep an online journal of our oh-so-exciting life.  This will be so fun to look back on in 10 years when I wonder where my babies went and on their graduation days. . . oh how the tears will flow.

This is the cutest graduate I have ever seen!

Speaking of graduations. . . .I mentioned in the last SOF that Noisy Man had a preschool graduation last week.  It was the cutest thing ever and I was totally amazed that I didn't even tear up.  I was SO proud of him and how well he did, but nothing got me overly emotional.  Not even the adorable little slide show of pictures they did.  Putting him on the bus today for his last day of preschool, however, did make me choke up just a tad, no tears, but choked up.  I just keep thinking that after this summer he is going to be in school all day, every day (except for summers and weekends) until he leaves me. . . oh how sad I am to think about that.  When will I get my Noisy Man play time?  This is going to be tough on this mama.  Anyway, I digress.  Back to the graduation.  He looked so adorable in his cap and gown and they sang the cutest little songs.  Almost every kid messed up the whole crossing action of shaking the Principal's hand and grabbing the diploma, even though they said they practiced.  It was a pretty short little ceremony, but cute nonetheless. 

The Preschool class

The cake and birthday boy

Another milestone for Noisy Man was his recent birthday.  FIVE?!?!  When did I lose my adorable little toddler and get a handsome little boy?  Have I mentioned how traumatic it has been for me to switch from shopping in the toddler section to the big boy section.  I just about can't handle it.  Thankfully, he still fits in 5T pants and shorts and I can ease myself over to the big boy section for shirts and such.  I need a slow transition.  Again, I digress.  We pulled off the pirate birthday bash with a bang.  Everyone had a blast, the cake turned out (despite it's attempt to melt and have the bow of the ship fall completely off), the weather could not have been better and the treasure was found.  His favorite gifts (he loved all of them, but a few stand out) turned out to be a bathtub shaving kit (which thankfully his sensitive skin handled without breaking into a rash - I was a bit nervous) and a light saber sword set.  I must admit seeing your 5-year-old shaving is a bit of a puller on the ol' heart-strings (thanks Aunt J) and the light sabers have been a ton of fun.  We have a daily battle.  They light up (of course) and make all of the fun noises a light saber should make.  They even attach in the middle, which has proven to be more of a hazard than anything, but quite impressive.  Uncle M gets kudos for this one and it might even make up for the small Obi Wan Kenobi (totally had to look up how to spell that) figurine, with 6 - yes SIX!- tiny guns and tiny light saber, he gave him for Easter.  Lastly, with his influx of very generous birthday money, he was able to buy the Buzz Lightyear toy he has been saving for.  It cost $35 which is a pretty hefty amount for a 5-year-old, but he did it!  It made me so proud to watch him count his quarters and dollars and save them up, but at the same time was very generous to his savings and tithing as well. 

The pirate birthday boy

As for the marathon, it was great.  I was so nice to be able to run healthy.  Last year was such a bummer to have trained so hard, just to feel so yucky on race day.  I was spent at mile 6 last year, but made it clear to 10 this year before I even really started feeling a bit tired.  Thanks to my awesome running pal and her GPS watch we were able to pay close attention to our times and make sure we were on track to finish in our goal time.  2 hours 10 minutes and 46 seconds!  A 9:59 min/mile average!  This shaved 18 minutes off my last year's time.  Again, many thanks go out to many people (the 1st 3 in order, last ones not particularly):

Julie, Charles and I (Charles, Julie's cousin, left us in the dust!)

#1:  My Awesome God for giving me the strength and endurance to be able to do this. . . . if you knew me in high school you would be amazed that the girl who never ran anything over 100M is doing 1/2 marathons, so it is only by the grace of God that I am able to do so.
#2.  My Amazing Husband for buying me a treadmill so I didn't have to get up at 4:45 am to go run at the Y, for being overprotective and making me run with pepper spray, for staying home with the kids while I ran, for dragging the kids up to the marathon to watch me finish, and for being so supportive and loving.  Truly, I've got the best catch around!
#3.  My kids for being the best cheerleaders ever!  They always were so interested in my runs and how I did.

Julie and I trying to look like we are going fast

#4.  My friend Julie for running with me and not getting mad at me for asking how we were doing according to her awesome GPS watch every single mile! :)
#5.  Again, to the volunteers of the race who took the time to put straws in the water cups!  SO much easier to drink out of a straw while running.  :)

You can see my bright green shorts
crossing the finish line

#6.  The fun cheerleaders along the race path and your amusing signs that kept me entertained.  A special thanks to all my friends I saw (even though many of you weren't there to specifically watch me it was still great to see a familiar face) the Robertson Family, the Hofer Family, the Rash family, Danya, Kim, Julie & Terry, and especially to Brooke who made Julie and I our first ever personalized race sign cheering us on!!  Can't wait to have you join us next year, Brooke!
#7. My sis-in-law for letting me crash at her place the night before and shower there when I was all done. 
#8. My awesome friend Bly, who is one of my biggest encourager's when it comes to my wanna-be-runner status!
#9.  Dennis Hofer for taking some awesome pictures!



 I know I am missing so much more, but I am running out of blogging time once again. . . .

State of the Family #35



Eating her traditional chocolate bunny



OK, so I realized that the 1 year anniversary of my blog came and went and I totally didn't even think about it until I was eating a Cadbury egg (I am still convinced that this company exists only to add pounds to my thighs, of which it does very successfully) and remembered one of my first posts about my obsession with unwrapping them.  But then again, things have been so crazy around here that I haven't posted in over 3 weeks so I am not surprised I missed the 'oh-so-exciting' 1 year blog anniversary.  Anyway, on with the family update....



Miss Thumb Sucker continues in her ornery ways.  Continually crawling on top of things, unraveling toilet paper, running the opposite direction when you ask her to come here, pooping on the floor if she escapes without a diaper for even 2 seconds (yes, it is true), and so many other things that make you tired just watching her.  But, man, this girl makes me laugh and smile almost every second of the day (when I'm not having to tell her no or pull her down off of the kitchen table, again).  She is hilarious.  She has these faces she is making right now that just crack me up.  They are not pretty or cute, rather they are quite unattractive, but hilarious nonetheless.  I have been trying to catch one on camera for a while, but haven't been successful.  She has also started copying many different things her siblings do or say.  For example, the older two are great about putting on their own shoes, but always come check to make sure that they have their shoes set up for the right feet by asking "Are these the right feet, mommy?"  So, lately, Miss Thumb Sucker, who has an obsession with playing with and trying on any and every shoe in sight, will bring me a pair of shoes and say, "Feet?  Feet?" as she is trying to put them on.  The poor thing probably has nightmares about tissues right now.  She is cutting all four of her eye teeth (poor thing has dealt with it like a trooper) and her nose is just running like crazy.  If she even sees me head towards the direction of the Kleenex box she darts in another direction.  One last note is that she, along with everyone else around us, is elated that the weather is finally nice enough to spend most of the day outside.  She will run to the door at any available moment and pound on it saying "Side!  Side!"



Enjoying the beautiful weather and some bubbles!



Hallelujahs are being sung in regards to Miss Firecracker!  She got into the preschool where her brother goes.  I was so excited when I found out I all but did a cartwheel.  She is rather excited about starting school as well and I am sure summer won't quite go fast enough for her.  It isn't coming fast enough for her either.  She received a little splash pool for her birthday and asks at least once a week if it is warm enough outside to use her fish pool.  Breaks my heart to have to tell her no every single time.  One of these days I'll tell her yes and she will be elated, I can't wait for that day.  She has been rather ornery herself lately.  Just small things, but they add up when she seems to pick one day a week to pull all of her ornery stunts one after another.  Then the rest of the week she is my happy, bouncy fireball.  I guess she just has one day a week she likes to sit in the time-out spot most of the day.  Still quite the princess in the making, she thought watching some highlights (no, I did not wake my daughter up at 4 in the morning to watch it, nor did I get up myself) of the Royal Wedding last week was very impressive.  She had lots of questions about how Kate was a real princess and who the prince was and who all the other people were in the pictures.  It was really cute, and she was quite enthralled for about 5 minutes, then was ready to watch Curious George.  Her new favorite way to be a princess herself is to have her toes and nails painted and she asks for it every single day. 

Receiving his awards at AWANAS

Noisy Man graduated from preschool tonight.  It was an adorable little ceremony and he looked quite dashing in his little cap and gown.  I am hoping to do a post near his last day of preschool and I'll post graduation pictures then.  He also had a little 'graduation' ceremony for his AWANAS class at church.  I am always amazed at how well he does at these types of things with how shy he usually is.   One of his main highlights the past few weeks was getting to go to the Nebraska Football Spring Game.  We had a great time and Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker were very well behaved (we left Miss Thumb Sucker at home with Grandma).  They thought it was pretty awesome to get to see the Huskers in person.  He is also all over the nice weather.  Always on his bike, chasing bugs or digging for worms, he is all boy.  He was quite thrilled to see some of our potatoes come up in the garden as well as a volunteer pumpkin (we think) from lost seeds from last year's.  He is counting down the days until his pirate party birthday and is really looking forward to the celebration.  He constantly asks about what we will be doing and had a blast looking at pictures of cakes until we decided on one that I thought I could handle.  Still quite obsessed with the new show on PBS, Wild Kratts, he is easily motivated.  It has become a great tool for me to use.  If ever he becomes hesitant to do something he should to doing or struggles to listen, the single mention of Wild Kratts makes him move pretty darn quickly.  He was rather disappointed when he was included in the fishing trip daddy went on last week.  So, daddy had to promise him lots of fishing excursions this summer to appease him. 

With Daddy at the Spring Game

Like I said, daddy went on a fishing trip last week.  While it wasn't a complete failure, the wind really put a damper on things.  In fact they ended up deciding to come home a day early.  They caught quite a few fish, but not quite the size of fish he was hoping for.  I was thankful to have him home in time for the 1/2 marathon though! He also planted our potatoes, watermelon, muskmelon, and made the cages for our tomatoes and peppers.  I always call it my garden, but really he does just as much work in it as I do.  And the sweetheart he is, still let me call it mine.    He wasn't entirely thrilled at having to leave the spring game just shortly after half time, but was expecting it nonetheless.  He really enjoyed watching the kids get into the game, but I could tell he wanted to pay a little more attention to the game than he was able.  I always feel bad that I don't have much to type about him, but he isn't one who would like be blogging much about him anyway.



A rare picture with mommy



I feel like I have just been running around like a chicken with my head cut off lately.  So many things going on and so much to do for all of them.  It seems like all of them require trips to Wal Mart as well.  I think in the last 3 weeks I have been to that darn store at least an average of 3 times.  I really don't like that place.  Sadly, I have to go back again tomorrow. . . The other running I did was the Lincoln Half Marathon which went perfectly.  I'll post more on that later as well.  The excitement of preschool acceptance, preschool graduation, marathons, fishing trips, PTO meetings, Easter (Totally forgot this fabulous holiday occurred during my blogging sabbatical - we had a fabulous Easter and I really had some great conversations with the kids about Jesus' death on the cross for our sins and how it all works, it was amazing!) the end of a fabulous first year of MOPS, and so many other things I can't even remember, I am pooped and going to bed.