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!

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!

Loathing Laundry

Is there anything worse than laundry? I suppose whichever housewife you were to ask, she would have her specific household duty that she loathes to do. Mine is laundry. It is never ending and the entire process takes entirely way too long. Yes, I realize that if I had one of those awesome new washers and dryers that do your laundry in 20 minutes I would be singing a different tune. But, we are on the "Dave Plan" and a set of those just are not in our budget. I first need a new pick-up for my husband and a treadmill . . . but I digress. I have realized that if I just fold it and refuse to put it back in a laundry basket after it is folded it gets put away much more quickly. If I do, however, fold (lol, sorry I am terrible with the cheesy jokes) and put it in a basket, it seems to stay in the basket until I need the basket to haul another load of laundry out of the dryer. Laundry baskets just seem to be my rival. If I put unfolded clothes in, they seem to sit in my laundry room unfolded until I get tired of tripping over them. And believe me, when it comes to laundry it takes me a little while to get sick enough of it to fold it. If I put folded clothes in, well, I already covered the time it takes for those to get put away. Long story short, I avoid laundry at whatever costs I can. Anyone want to come help with the 4 loads I am trying to tackle today on top of baking cookies, drying apples, making applesauce, cleaning my bathrooms and killing time on the computer cuz I really don't want to get back to work? OK, I better get back to work, another batch of cookies is beeping at me.

State of the Family #17

Prepare yourselves for a long one! Lets see if I can remember what has gone on in our lives for the last 2 weeks. I kept notes at the bottom of my prayer journal so hopefully it will help me keep track of what was going on and when but I can see as I flip through it I didn't do that great of a job. . .

Miss Thumb Sucker has taken off with a fury. Heck, I feel like she will be walking next week! Probably not, but it sure feels like she is moving that quickly. She is pulling up to everything and even starting to walk around it. Her favorite thing to pull up on is the back of my legs, to get my attention and try and get me to pick her up. Most of the time she does this when I am in the middle of something and can't. So, I am stuck standing there with a baby attached to the back of my legs, my hands full and not able to move! It is even difficult to be able to turn around to pick her up without knocking her over. She absolutely loves to open any drawers and doors that she can reach and see what treasures she can find. Her favorite is the junk drawer on the bottom of our coffee table and the DVD drawer on the bottom of our entertainment system. She is also trying to master crawling while wearing a dress, without getting stuck on it, and crawling on the cement when we are playing outside without tearing up her knees. I must say she is pretty smart and does quite well at both. She has moved to eating quite a few chopped up table foods but hates it when they are slippery things like peaches and bananas and can't get them picked up very well. Furthermore to show her growth, she had her 9 month appointment and was in the 88th % for her height and 22nd for her weight. Her height was right at the end of our infant seat limit, so we are going to have to move her up here pretty quick. Why can't they just stay little?

Miss Firecracker is loving the attention she is getting now that Noisy Man has returned to preschool. With a little one on one time with mom if Miss Thumb Sucker is sleeping it has really helped her attitude. She is still our little spitfire and one to find trouble wherever it can be found, but the fits and other episodes have really seemed to decrease with having a little more mommy time. We have gotten in quite a few games of Candy Land in the last 2 weeks, which seems to be her new favorite thing to do. She also got to graduate car seats since her baby sister will be needing the one she was in. Our solid and tall little firecracker is big enough for a backed booster seat, so she now gets to ride in a big girl seat like her brothers. Only hers is pink with flowers! She loves it. . . now we just have to learn not to unbuckle our seat belt in mid-drive! She is showing me my true colors as well, with her new favorite mommy quote being "You are just fine, CHILD!" I cringe every time I hear it cuz it is something I say to my children way too often when I don't want to deal with their whining or when Miss Thumb Sucker thinks she needs to be held and I am trying to do something else. She uses this phrase when playing dolls, house with her brother or daycare kids, or she says it to Miss Thumb Sucker before I do when she starts to get crabby. Oh, out of the mouths of babes. . . we learn the things we need correct in ourselves. A friend of ours just said at a recent Bible Study that they refer to these types of things as "God Spankings!" So true! There is more of me in this little Firecracker than I care to admit!

Like I said, Noisy Man returned to preschool last week! He was SO ready to go back. He is such a social kid, he just loves being able to see all his friends and teachers. The first and second day were quite eventful. Being the attached mother I am (and since he is my first born) I drove him to school and picked him up on the first day (which is better than last year where I did this for the whole first week!). They almost sent him home on the bus though. . . oh the bus. I was terrified that 2nd day that they would forget to drop him off at our house or worse yet, make him get off the bus at the ESU with no one there to get him. Since I had daycare kids, we had G'ma set up post and watch for him at the ESU then I stood outside our house and watched for the bus so I could see it if it took the wrong turn. . . Hello, woman! Whatever happened to trusting, God? This was a little lesson for me that I can't control it and just need to give it to Him. (My fears are justified, however, with the 2 horror stories I know of TC buses leaving small children at bus stops with no one there to pick them up). Anyway, he made it home safely and loves his bus ride.

Daddy has been working on small projects at home and at the farm. Hauling hay and fixing the hay rake, putting in a vent for the basement bathroom and sealing the cracks in the cement under our deck. Which brings me to this man's issue's with water. . . he is terrified of it. OK, not in the swimming sense, but in the it-might-get-in-our-house sense. He put the vent in the bathroom so that we can finally use the shower that we installed in our basement 2 years ago. We weren't allowed to shower in it because there was no where for the 'steam' to go and it might cause mold. He sealed the cracks in the cement so that water wouldn't seep in under it and get in our basement. Heck he even wants to completely tear out the back yard and move dirt so that it slopes away from our house more. I can't say that I have a lazy husband that is for sure. He is one of the hardest workers I know and takes extremely good care of everything he cares for. I just have to make sure to remind him not to go overboard sometimes. He needs a few trusting in God lessons as well.

I have also had a busy couple of weeks. I got lots of little projects done with no computer to fill up my time. I finally painted the other 2 walls I wanted to do last October when I painted the living room, I stewed tomatoes to freeze for making soup this winter, we picked apples and I have made 3 batches of apple sauce and wish I could keep up with dehydrating them faster than we eat them, and have done very well at keeping up with my housework. Now, if only I could say I kept up with the laundry I would be in great shape! I got to go on a fabulous shopping trip with my sisters, who showed me the trendy things to get instead of the boring ol' plain colored shirts I always seem to wear. Seriously, I folded a pre-shopping day load of laundry and there were 4 plain black shirts 3 black t-shirts and 5 pairs of running shorts. Sad. But they were able to help me pick out some cute stuff! We also had our MOPs kick-off, which I am totally excited for. It was so much fun and I am really looking forward to the adventure that it will be!

Well, I think that about covers it. . . thanks for sticking in there with me!

Here is Miss Thumb Sucker's 9 month picture and a family game night picture!

Survived the Sabbatical

Ok so sabbatical isn't the greatest word to describe my 2 week break from the computer, but it made for a catchy title. Anyway, God taught me a lot on my break. #1) How much I can get done when I am not sitting on my butt at the computer. #2) How much I rely on a computer for just about everything. #3) How much social stuff I miss when I am not on FB, but that I really can survive without knowing it all. #4) How I will be changing my computer usage in the future.
#1). Holy buckets! I spend way too much time on the computer. I knew this and knew this was why God put my little hiatus on my heart. I got so much accomplished in the 2 weeks I stayed away from my computer. I have kept my house much cleaner (most of the time), finished some projects that were put on the back burner and played so much more with my kids. It has been great and it will really make me think twice before I plop my butt down on the couch and spend an hour on the computer.
#2)When you are trying not to use something at all, you realize how much you really use it. I look everything up on the computer, I do most of my shopping on the computer, I use it during my quiet times to find definitions and some cross references, I use it for recipes, for banking, for communicating and just about everything else. I must confess. I could not stay completely away for 2 weeks. I did have to check email to keep up with groups I am in that do all their communicating via email and my Pampered Chef business. I also broke my code to do things that my husband asked me to do that required computer and a few other things that saved my family money and time that had time restraints on them. But as for frivolous computer usage and all FB (other than one time that I had to get a phone # off my inbox) I stayed away. But it was crazy how much, whenever I was done with one task and searching for the next to do, I would think "I'll go do a scrapbook page, or look at recipes on Pioneer Woman, or read up on some one's blog." So, when I couldn't do these things that didn't necessarily need to be done I was getting necessary stuff done.
#3) Man, I felt out of the loop for those weeks. I had no clue what friends were up to and what was going on in their lives, but you know what? I survived. It didn't really matter at all and I got to catch up when I saw them next. I have resolved to be on my FB account much less in the future, like only once or twice a day.
#4) I will be using the computer significantly less in the future. I think my little break has really showed my how much I over-used it before and will cause me to be more conscious of how much I use it from here on. I decided it would be a great idea to charge my laptop at night and unplug it in the morning. If I close it between uses the batter should last about an hour and a half. With all computer usage throughout the day, when the battery runs out, I am done. An hour and a half seems like tons of time on the computer and I hope that I don't even require that per day. But I like to scrapbook in the evening after the kids go to bed and that is computer time as well and can take quite a bit of time, so hopefully pre-bedtime usage is closer to 45 minutes.
We'll see how that idea works.