State of the Family #50

Oh I am so bad at this.  It has been almost an entire month since my last post.  I think I overwhelm myself with these SOF's because they get so long and it takes too long to type them.  I think I am going to try something new after this 50th SOF (so it might be the last one for a while or the last one altogether depending on how I do).  I think I am going to try and just do short posts of random things that we do to keep things updated.





For the most part.  You know not much has been going on when I wait so long for an SOF.

Of course there was Easter and celebrating our Savior's resurrection and victory over death.  We really tried to keep it centered on that now that the kids are getting more and more influence on the Easter Bunny and those types of things at school.  We of course still had egg hunts with the grandparents and cousins that were a lot of fun. 

The kids got kites from Grandma and Grandpa VW so that was a lot of fun.  Miss Firecracker was the most into it and flew her kite forever.  She got to be a pro, moving back and forth and side to side as needed to keep her kite in the sky.  Noisy Man needs a little more action than watching a floating thing in the sky and moved on after about 15 minutes.

Here is a photo blast of our Easter activities.

Cousins on mommy's side minus the two babies and C who lives in TX

Cousins on Daddy's side

I took a few pics for Miss Firecracker's 4 years out at a pond we fish owned by some friends.  They turned out really well.  I still need to get a few more of her with her hair down since it is fun to see how much it grows from year to year in these pictures. 

That night at the pond ended up being quite exciting.  But not really the kind of exciting that I would want.  The pond has a little island in the back corner with two huge logs acting as the bridge to get to it.  For some reason, Noisy Man realized he could cross it by himself and we let him.  In hind sight, this is where the problem started.  Well, Noisy Man, Miss Thumb Sucker and I were out on the island fishing when Noisy Man caught a fish.  He insisted that he take it off the hook himself which he can only do by using the pliers.  So he took off across the logs to get the pliers from daddy.  I was showing Miss Thumb Sucker the fish when I saw Noisy Man slip off the logs on his way back over.  I caught the end of the fall after he shouted.  Then followed by the splash and dissapearance of my little boy under the water.  It is amazing how many things can go through your mind and be accomplished in such a short amount of time.  I shouted his name, then yelled for daddy, who had gone up to his truck to get something.  I set Miss Thumb Sucker out of the way and told her to stay put as I did with Miss Firecracker on the other side of the logs who saw everything as well.  I threw off my camera and headed for the edge of the pond while picturing search and rescue teams draining the pond to find my son.  All of this happened in 2 seconds and thankfully he resurfaced, flipped over to his back and started floating/swimming.  He was headed toward the middle of the pond out of his shock, but as soon as he saw me at the edge he changed corse and turned for me.  Seeing he was doing just great, I decided to stay at the edge (where my feet were lodged in mud) and encourage him over.  Daddy, meanwhile, had heard me scream at him and ran straight for the pond, not even looking before he jumped in.  Noisy Man was 2 feet from the edge by the time Daddy joined him.  But it was good to have him there to help him out. 

The logs he fell off

What a scary time those 2 seconds were.  My heart was still racing more than half an hour later when we got home, but I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face due to the pride I felt for Noisy Man and how awesome he did in the situation.  I give all the credit to the Float 4 Life swim classes I enrolled him in last summer.  They made this (in hind sight) just a funny story rather than a tragedy.  They were very hard to watch them go through, if you remember me blogging about them last summer, but so worth it.  I highly recommend every parent check them out.  They offer them at most YMCA's. 

Our last exciting thing we did was going to the zoo with Grandpa G on his birthday, the day after Easter.  It was a busy day there, since I think most people had school off for an Easter break, but it was great to go, since we hadn't been in quite a while.

Checking out the sea lions who were
swimming around and showing off

Only other happenings around here have been some ornery fevers.  Both Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker have gotten these random fevers in the last 2 weeks.  They will run 100 -101.5 but they will act perfectly fine.  No other symptoms at all, just a fever.  Noisy Man thought this was great.  He got to stay home from a day of school and watch TV, play board games with mom and read books all day and he didn't even feel sick.  Miss Firecracker also thought it wasn't too bad.  Thankfully, they didn't last long, about 24 hours, and they were back to normal.  Noisy Man's came back after a few days but then stayed for less than 12 hours the 2nd time.  We just chalked it up to some weird virus.

The birdhouse daddy and Noisy Man built

I am still trying to find time to train for the 1/2 marathon.  There were a couple of weeks I only got in a quick 5K here and there or a lucky 5 mile.  I did do the State Farm 10 mile run the last week in March and was spot on for my goal time.  My training partner did the 5K and totally smoked it!  Here is our beautiful picture.  We are doing 9 tonight and 10 on Sunday, so wish us luck.  Only 17 days until its here!  I also am trying to get back into some circuit lifting at the Y.  I have been so terrible at strength training the last couple of years and it is starting to show.  I am a bit sore.

A car Noisy Man and daddy built.  This little boy is a builder.  Legos, wood, paper and glue, he'll build anything!

Noisy Man reads a book to his sisters while they hide behind the curtains

Daddy is busy planning our garden shed for the backyard.  Something he has been wanting since we moved in 5 1/2 years ago.  He also pulled a Handy Hubby stunt this past weekend, while he was watching the kids by himself nonetheless!!!  He stripped off the top of my peeling kitchen table and refinished it for me.  I wish I had before and after pics, but he did it before I could take a pic and had it done before I had my camera back from loaning it out for a couple of days.  My table looks great, but still has never been my ideal table.  If you haven't seen the farmhouse table from pinterest before check it out.  My wonderful, handy, hubby is also putting together plans to build it for me as soon as his garden shed is done (on a slightly smaller scale, as an 8 ft table would not fit well in my dining area).



One last bit of exciting news is that two of my best friends just had adorable baby girls.  I am going to love spoiling them (or would if they lived closer than 2 and 2,000 hours away!)

Not a Favorite

Time for another book review.  It has been a while.  Mostly, because my latest book to blog was "Not by Might" by Al Lacy and it wasn't one that kept my interest long enough to get it finished quickly.

An old western setting with wagons and horses and posses, the names used in the first few pages almost had me laughing.  It was so 'typical' that I had a hard time conitinuing.  It tells a story of two nurses with their own drama with their 'men folk'.  One wondering if she can recapture the love of an old flame who finds himself paralized and the other trying to save her husband from a trap.

The ending is very predictable as is most of the book.

Very Christ centered with many Biblical references, which is always nice to see.  I do enjoy reading through plots where the character use Biblical methods to think through and process their issues.

Sorry folks, that is about all there is to this one.  If you want a mindless, comfortalbe read, this a book for you.  If you like something a little more intense and original I'd look elsewhere.

I am sure this author is spectacular, but just didn't hit my fancy with this one.  Sorry Al.

I received this book for free for this reveiw from Waterbrook/Multnomah Publishers.

State of The Family #49

So, #49 for the SOF's, my 101st post.  Aren't you tired of reading yet?  I have to admit, my children can be quite entertaining.  Yesterday, would have qualified as one of those times.  I'll fill you in a little later.

The weather here has been beautiful the past few weeks (turning into lots of rain the last few days), but we were able to get a lot of sunshine time in while it was nice.

The kids had a small break from school for parent teacher conferences.  So after good reports from both teachers, we headed up to one of my kids' favorite places, the Lincoln Children's Museum.  It has been a while since we have gone and they were so glad to return.

Of course the big news around here was Miss Firecracker turning 4.  This girl has been waiting to turn 4 since the day after she turned 3.  (Thankfully, she hasn't said anything about her 5th birthday yet, except that she hopes some of her favorite aunts/uncles/cousins get to make it to her next birthday party since they couldn't make it to this one.)  She had a lollipop themed birthday and took lollipop cupcakes to school.  Daddy even went to eat breakfast with her while mommy volunteered in Noisy Man's classroom, then came to play with her a little bit later.  The highlight of her day, though was probably her best friend from preschool getting to come over to play at our house all afternoon.  They were giggle boxes and there was a little mishap with some sunscreen, but it was so fun to see them together rather than just hearing all about Little Miss S all the time.

Her party was a big success.  Most of our family was able to make it and all the kids left sufficiently sugared up with a 'thank you lollipop' in hand.  I'll let the pictures do the talking for the party. (They ended up down below because they wouldn't move up and I got tried of trying!)

The day before the party was St. Patrick's Day and those sneaky little leprechaun's made a mess out of our house.  I love St. Paddy's Day, mostly, I think, because green is my favorite color and any excuse to turn everything green for a day is fun!  Here is some of the mayhem the leprechaun's caused.  (The kids are still blaming missing, broken or out of place things on the leprechauns.)

Our scavenger hunt for our snacks that the leprechaun stole!

Noisy Man and the leprechaun trap he and daddy built for school.  Not sure what this face is.

Yes, out of place....I cannot get it to move and like I said...I give up.
But this is the Birthday cake!



leprechaun snow angel in powdered sugar from Miss Firecracker's cake



They made a fort!

undies on the TV!!!

I was so excited to get to attend a conference in Nebraska City with my favorite Christian author, Jen Hatmaker.  It was so relaxing and such a beautiful weekend.  Not to mention, I got to attend with a great group of women that made it even better.  Jen, of course, was an amazing speaker and left us all in tears at some point, convicted our hearts and gave us a missional view on God's church.  I continue to pray on what God wants me to do with this message.  If you want to know more about my somewhat obsession over Jen Hatmaker and the weekend you can check it out at my other blog.  Amazing weekend!

Enjoying her taco!

Opening presents....this was some new panties.  She was a bit embarrassed :)

The cake and the birthday girl.  The cake is minus one lollipop....it died.

And a short version of my exciting children yesterday.... I was up to my elbows in 'the runs'.  Believe me, a 2-year-old that is trying very hard to go on the potty with diarrhea is not much fun.  The poor thing was trying so hard, though.  I'll spare you the details, but it was reminiscent of a few years ago.  My poor Noisy Man had an incident at school, they cleaned him up quickly and was put on the bus home.   The poor guy was in tears as he came through the door.  Long story short, a 30 min bus ride is not the place for a little boy with diarrhea.  I don't think the teachers thought that one through or really realized what was going on.  They did call me, but not until after the buses had already left.  Miss Firecracker escaped with the least drama and it was all very short lived.  No more mishaps past 5 pm last night, thankfully.

Dr. Seuss Post #100!!

I was needing to do a SOF, but lacking anything to update on.  Things have, thankfully, been pretty normal around here.  So there isn't too much to report on. 

But just in case you are in withdraws...LOL.


Here are some pics from our fun day of celebrating Dr. Seuss and his books that we love to read.

We swirled some colored dough together to make some crazy cookies.
They didn't quite turn out like the ones I found online, but they still tasted great!

We had 4 Thing 2s and only 1 Thing 1, and getting 5 kids to sit for a
picture is impossible when wearing silly hats.

This is also my 100th post!  How exciting is that!??!  Thanks for humoring me and reading.  Looking forward to many more!

State of the Family #48

Whoops.  Its been a whole month plus a few days.  Thankfully, things have been pretty calm around here so there isn't too much to catch up on.

Most of the excitement around here has been with family happenings.  Cousin's birthday parties, baptisms and births.  Getting to meet new baby Broden aka "Gus"  on Feb. 3rd has definitely been a highlight.  It was hard on mommy seeing a baby boy with many resemblances to Noisy Man when he was a newborn.  Where does 5 1/2 years go?

The other highlight has been the final arrival of winter!  I can always do without the cold, but my motto is that if it is going to be cold at least give me some fun white stuff we can play in.  We all love to play in the snow.  Sledding, snowmen, forts, snow ice cream and my personal favorite, snow angels.  Then to come inside to some nice hot cocoa with cute rosy cheese and noses is the best!

I had been feeling pretty blessed to have such a healthy winter, but just heard on the radio yesterday that the flu is just starting to make its rounds.  Miss Firecracker and Miss Thumb Sucker got a nasty little cough and fever over the weekend but seem to be on the mend.  Miss Firecracker got the brunt of it and is still doing some breathing treatments on the nebulizer to keep it under control.  She gets into some doozies of coughing spells that just make your chest hurt watching her.  So far, everyone else has avoided it.

Noisy Man's 100 days of school project - his favorite thing - LEGOS

Mommy had her bi-annual scrap and only was able to accomplish finishing her digital calendar.  Oh well, fun time with the girls no matter how much you finish is always worth it, right?  I could adapt the old fishing saying to, "A bad day's scrapbooking is better than a good day's work"!  Totally true.  I also got to get pampered at out MOPS spa day, so much fun.

Noisy Man has been on a total Monopoly kick lately and is actually very good.  He is learning so much with numbers and adding and money stuff that it has a double whammy effect.  It keeps him entertained for hours and its educational!  Little stinker actually ends up winning 75% of the time too, without mommy and daddy even having to try to lose. 

Miss Thumb Sucker has finally crossed the threshold for potty training!  She hasn't had an accident in weeks and only has to wear pull-ups for bedtime, she even makes it through nap.  So. Fabulous.  She continues her ornery ways though, and I had just implemented a Pinterest find, the Time Out Jar.  If you put her in time out she just keeps getting up every 20 seconds to ask if she is done.  So, the time out jar was brought into play.  Shake it up when the time out starts and once all the glitter is at the bottom, you can get up.  Now she just has to learn not to continually move it around while she sits there so that it actually all gets to the bottom!

Miss Firecracker has learned to do a cartwheel and land on her feet!  She is so proud of herself.  And if I can learn how to upload a video on here you'll get to see it - if not a cute pic of her dance leg warmers will have to suffice (sorry).

Doing a fun Valentine's Day craft with red noodles!

That about sums it up.  Amazing how I can think nothing has gone one in the last month and then type on for 7 paragraphs.

No More Time-Outs

So, I had to get this down before I forgot it, and by the next time I have time to sit down and do an SOF, I'd probably forget.

Anyway, we were doing our little devotional which, tonight, was about God loving us so much that He sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins.  So, to bring it down to their level a little bit more, I said it was like one of them got into trouble for doing something naughty and mommy or daddy went and sat in time-out for them.  Or if one of Miss Thumb Sucker disobeyed and had to get a spanking but Noisy Man took the spanking for her.  It was really cool to see the connection being made on their faces.  We have told them this time and over again.  They can tell you very easily who Jesus is and what He did for us, but it was a really great analogy for them to be able to really understand it.

OK, so the real memorable part came a little later when we were doing bed-time prayers.  Miss Firecracker chimes in "We thank you for Jesus and that we won't ever have to sit in time-out again or get any spankings because he died on the cross for us."

Hillarious!  Of course I had to set the record straight and clean that up quickly, but we'll see what she says next time she gets into trouble.