wilkernix

WOW!

2010-11-19T13:25:00.002-05:00

I didn't realize I hadn't said anything for 2 months. Believe it or not life is incredibly busy. Football season has come and gone, but wrestling is in full swing. He's LOVING this and having a great time. Eli loves the fact that he has an excuse to practice with Hannah and Cody. Dance is keeping us busy as well. Performance last weekend and another one on Sunday. And she wants to do a solo, so we'll have to add that into the mix of things. My sad news to report is that the camera has officially died. I think that's why I haven't posted anything. Stories are so much better with pictures. I'm having some serious withdraw over this. I follow the kids all over the place with the camera. I have had to resort to a (wait for it.....) disposable! I'm not happy about this. I don't take pictures of anything and everything because you have to PAY to have them developed! I do have Halloween, football, dance, and when Eli has his first wrestling match, that as well. Maybe when I get those developed, and a disk, I'll put up new pictures. Until then, and until my husband decides that his wife is super awesome and deserves a new camera, I'll try and write and keep you informed of all the happenings in the Wilkernix household.

Chicken Stock

2010-09-17T08:28:00.002-04:00

I guess it's a good thing nobody really reads this here piece of space. I've been awful about posting. The office is closed today, so that means a 4 day weekend for me! I've been collecting, and by that I mean freezing, chicken carcasses for awhile now. And my husband thinks I need to do something with them. (I'm pretty sure he would like that space freed up so that in the off chance he gets a deer this year we have room for it.) So today is chicken stock day. I have made freezer jams (which turned out wonderful) and we tried our hands at pickles. They aren't ready yet, not sure how they'll taste. We go through so much chicken stock in the fall and winter and since I like knowing what's in our food and trying to figure out how this whole living not so much on the grid thing works, I thought I'd try making it. Cody got me a pressure cooker for my birthday. Since I'm terrified of the thing and won't try it out without him being home, my job today is to get the stock ready and we'll pressure cook it tonight, after he gets home.

Homework time

2010-08-31T15:08:00.003-04:00

Homework time at our house happens right after school (and some days this happens with much eye rolling). Eli is always finished first, cause he has less. Hannah has to do math, work on spelling words, and read.

Eli hasn't made up his mind yet on what hand he wants to use. One day he'll do homework with his left and the next day with his right. He decided to use both to create his AB pattern.

Hannah likes to do her homework under the table. I'm not really sure why.

First Day of School

2010-08-11T07:23:00.004-04:00

My baby got on the bus this morning :(

He's been soooo excited about going to kindergarten. Excited and nervous and scared all at the same time. Monday night he had a few nightmares, we think they were from nerves. Last night, none. He's met his teacher and we've been to the school a few times so he could get a feel for where things are. This morning he was ready. "Bye Momma, love you!," followed by a hug and a big grin. I'm not worried, just a little sad that the baby is going to school. And Hannah, second grade with super cool light up twinkle toe shoes. You can see her coming!

Fishing

2010-08-03T07:42:00.003-04:00

We took the kids fishing a few weeks ago. My dad has a small pond near his house that is FULL of fish. We know there are catfish and blue gill. He claims there are bass. He hasn't caught any and Cody tried and was unsuccessful. That is still an undermined fact. There are LOTS of bluegill. The kids caught over 60 of those suckers. They would cast and within a minute or two would have a fish. Needless to say, that's a lot of taking fish off hooks for grown-ups. I think I got to cast out twice and then I just gave up. But it was a blast watching the kids catch and have fun.

Cody and Eli also each caught a catfish. Eli has this itty bitty pole with a light line on it. He casted out with a bee moth on the end and ends up with a catfish. That's like a one in a million chance that he caught it and could reel it in without the fish snapping the pole or his line. And in true fisherman likeness, when he tells the story the fish is always bigger :)

An Evening with the Indians

2010-07-20T08:18:00.004-04:00

After we went to the IMA, we headed back downtown for an evening of baseball at Victory Field. The evening was perfect. It was cool, cool enough for sweatshirts had I been better prepared. My mom got us great seats. The boys were unhappy being behind the net behind home plate. You just can't catch fly balls and broken bats being there. I was good with it.

Our children are nuts!

IMA

2010-07-13T09:29:00.002-04:00

After the wedding and really doing a pretty good job with the budget, we were looking for things that were on the cheap/free side to do with the kids. The Indianapolis Musuem of Art, perfect. The grounds are HUGE and sooooo pretty, and FREE! We packed a picnic lunch and spent a few hours wondering around through the gardens and the new 100 acre tract.

Canal Visit

2010-07-08T07:34:00.004-04:00

Man!! Things have been busy. We had the flu run like wildfire through our house 5 days before the wedding. Every. Single. Person got sick. Not fun. We had a wedding, then an absolutely too short honeymoon, a week of staycation with the kids, and two birthdays. On Wednesday last week we took the kids down to the canal to ride around and have a picnic. The kids had never been to the canal, they liked it.

This is what my husband does. Anytime he sees something that he could possibly climb, he does.

Maggie is obsessive about water. She wanted a drink and "accidentally" fell in. It was just like watching one of the kids deliberately do something they aren't supposed too.

There's my clan waiting for me. I get distracted and stop to take pictures of things and then they have to wait :)

Who'd a thunk it

2010-06-23T08:37:00.002-04:00

Not us. Not after the first practice. We were just out to watch little ones play baseball and cheer them on and be happy when one of them gits a hit, especially ours. Then we won, and won a few more, and half way mark and no loses, and then the end of the season and STILL no loses?!?!?! Who woulda thought that our team would win the championship game. I'm going to give huge props to the coaches. These are kind of coaches I would want in every sport every year. They were fabulous! All about the kids and making sure they are having fun and giving them support and encouragement. Congratulations Pirates!

Poor Maggie

2010-06-15T08:18:00.003-04:00

Sometimes, Maggie becomes a source of entertainment for Cody and the kids. I guess they thought she needed to wear clothes. I'm pretty sure she would disagree, given the fight she put up when Cody was trying to get the clothes on and off her. Although Hannah pointed out that she really should be wearing girls clothes instead of a boy's. Good point, but she wasn't OK with sharing her wardrobe with Maggie.

18 days

2010-06-08T09:09:00.003-04:00

We have 18 days left! Someone tell me why I let soooo many things pile up on the to-do list and now I HAVE to get them all done NOW? I'm super excited about getting married. No nerves at all on that front, the nerves are coming from making sure I get everything done. Today and tomorrow are jam packed with things to get done. We are off and running! It's a good thing I get to use Hannah's surgery as the reason we haven't been swimming. I timed that one perfectly. I don't think the kids would be OK with not having gone to the pool just because mama has lots of wedding stuff to do. :)

End of the year carnival

2010-06-03T09:24:00.003-04:00

For the last 5 years, at the end of the school year we head to the preschool carnival. This year's was the last one. We have absolutely loved this school. Each year the kids have had amazing teachers and the director is awesome. I'm sad to be leaving this behind, but also happy that the kids will be in the same school now!

The school puts on a fabulous carnival! They look forward to it and always have a blast. We worked the basketball game for the first hour. Then the clouds opened up and it poured. They didn't care. It was warm out so they just played in the rain.

The school brought these amazing face paint ladies in. I've never seen face paint like this and they were so fast! Hannah didn't care what she had, she just asked that she not have a tiara. And Eli asked to be a pirate.

Pretty good, huh? Less then 5 minutes per kid. This was the last thing we did. The sky was threatening to let loose again and they wanted to make sure Cody saw their faces. We grabbed our pizza and ran! They waited up until 9:30 just so they could show off before we had to wipe it off for bed.

Finger Weaving

2010-06-02T08:25:00.004-04:00

Nawny taught Hannah how to finger weave on Monday. She's been making all kinds of things for everybody! Maggie seems to get most of the gifts. Her and I have been making earrings, bracelets, headbands, and collars. Now she has no more loops, so we must take a trip to Michael's or Hobby Lobby and get some more. That's fine, I love those stores and Maggie loves her new collars :)

New Trunks

2010-05-25T10:03:00.003-04:00

I'm trying to rack my brain and remember the last time the kids had new bathing suits. They just don't gain weight. They grow taller, but not tall enough to grow out of last years suit. I think they got new ones 2 summers ago. Yep, it was time for new ones. Eli first, cause he's home more, and they were having a pool party at school today and tomorrow. (I love Walmart at 8 in the morning.) He's talked about a Phineas and Ferb suit for almost a week now. Luckily they had one in his size. He got an x-small and I had to cinch the inside drawstring AND the outside as much as they would go AND the suit is still too big on his belly. But he's got some cool new swim trunks.

Presents on the doorstep

2010-05-19T18:51:00.007-04:00

I feel like I should know the UPS and FedEx drivers by name. They've been bringing us lots of different online purchases for the wedding lately. But they aren't social (apparently neither am I if I've been doing lots of shopping online), they just drop presents, ring the doorbell, and run. Reminds me of the dog poop in bag tricks. Anyway, plants came today!

We ordered our tomato plants from Burpee. We have 3 sweet tangerine and 3 steak sandwich plants. I was curious how they would ship live plants. Pretty cool little set-up they have. Now I need to plant. Tomatoes, a few pepper varieties, and corn. And this dark purple clematis is going out front. But guess what? More rain!!!! They will have to wait until Saturday.

A late Mother's Day post

2010-05-17T14:54:00.006-04:00

I take pictures all the time and always have the camera with me, I'm just not good and putting them up anywhere. My Mother's Day was awesome. And it might have been the last nice day we've had in over a week. It didn't rain and I think it's rained every day since then. We went to breakfast at LePeeps. We met my mom, grandmother, Aunt and cousins, brothers and sister, sister-in-law, and nephew. After brunch we met my mom, Ash, and Landon at Mallow Run. A few hours relaxing, sipping on wine, and playing with the kids. I could not have asked for a better day.

Oh, and my present...a finch feeder! Please excuse the dirty window, Maggie doesn't understand that she doesn't need to put her nose on it ALL the time. One of these days, when we are rich, I'll get a camera where I don't have to perfect the army crawl without being seen to get a better picture of these guys. And maybe one where you can't tell how dirty the window is :)

The accident was bound to happen

2010-05-05T07:17:00.004-04:00

Cody had Eli last night. They went for a bike ride around the high school. The boy knows no fear on his bike. Cody and I keep talking about how he's going to wipe out and it's going to be bad. It happened last night. Mama was not around to see it, which is probably a really good thing. This is what I saw when they got home last night...

I think I asked a blue million questions....what happened, did you love on him, did he ride home, did you clean it...

He's fine, they got a blizzard and you know ice cream fixes everything. Now he has a battle wound and a story to tell everyone at school today.

Things are happening...

2010-05-04T13:39:00.006-04:00

Lots of things are happening around here. Kids are crazy busy, wedding meetings to set-up, a HUGE to-do list with wedding things on it. My not so crazy thing is the garden and the small amount of time I get to read. You would think the whole not having a job thing would make life a little less crazy and I'd have lots more time to read and work on my tan...so not the case. Anyway, the sugar snap peas have come up!

My husband-to-be rocks. I think I might have mentioned that one or a million times before. I consider myself fairly simple. It doesn't really take a lot to make me happy. I was asked to come out and help unload a few groceries Sunday morning. There were no groceries but some plants for me. The man knows just what I love. He brought home a rosemary (last years didn't survive the winter), thyme, and cilantro plant. I love having herbs out in the yard :)

Batter Up!

2010-04-28T11:08:00.005-04:00

Baseball season has started. What this means is that our evenings and weekends got twice as busy. Parade and opening day were on Saturday. We have a Pittsburgh Pirate this year.

And Cody has been working with him and he's batting left handed this year! And the coaches are ok and remember to put him on that side if he forgets.

A Year in the Making

2010-04-20T14:18:00.002-04:00

This tooth...

has been loose for 1 year. A year people! This time last year she was SOOO excited about FINALLY having a loose tooth. She went to school the next day pumped to show her teacher it was loose. I figured it would take awhile, but a year, really? She was chewing gum yesterday afternoon and it finally fell out. The tooth fairy left her $3. She thinks the front teeth are special. I think the tooth fairy felt bad that it took her a year to get it out.

Engagement Pictures

2010-04-13T10:57:00.005-04:00

We had our engagement pictures done on Sunday. Talk about being nervous. I would much rather be behind the lens. I detest having my picture taken. This actually went better then I thought. Two hours to just focus on this man that in a short 2.5 months I get to call my husband. To really look at him and be able to see in his eyes and on his face how much he loves me and how happy he is. For him to be able to look at me and talk to me and make being taken out of my comfort zone OK and forget about what's going on around me. To have a few hours where the trials of life seem to melt away and we can forget that life is hard. Life is always going to be hard, but I'm lucky, really lucky. I hope I do my job well enough and he can say the same thing :)

Spring Flowers

2010-04-08T16:59:00.002-04:00

We have lots of pretty flowers in bloom around our house right now. The tulips are multiplying. I'd forgotten what colors we planted. And we thought most of them were destroyed last fall when we redid the flower bed. We were very surprised when so many came back. There are some dark purple ones too, but they haven't decided to open up yet.

I love the rhododendron. It has such a pretty flower. And virtually fool proof.

Next up, the garden. It is patiently waiting for it's plants. I, on the other hand, am not as patient. I want fresh veggies now please.

He's got it folks!

2010-04-07T14:27:00.003-04:00

Riding without training wheels has been achieved! And a monster has been created! Eli wants to be outside riding his bike ALL the time. Now we are spending lots of time riding up and down the side walk. He figured out to get started by himself also. Good and happy times!

Garden in motion

2010-03-30T07:55:00.006-04:00

Cody has been busy the last few weekends. We decided we wanted a garden this year. So, we've been reading books. Yeah, I'm a nerd. I love books, I love reading them, I love learning new things (more so now 'cause I can pick what I learn). We all worked hard (kids included) on getting the spot ready 2 weekends ago. Last weekend he tilled up the area and laid fertilizer. It's coming along. I can't wait until we can actually get plants out there.

This is another thing we are trying our hand at. From what I've read there's a science to getting your compost pile started. But you can't mess it up either. We'll see, they could both totally flop.

Stories about shots

2010-03-23T10:47:00.003-04:00

Eli had his kindergarten shots done last week. I didn't tell him until we were on our way to have them done. He didn't lose it until we walked into the room and he saw the nurse and the shots up on the counter. Then he became screaming, crying, limbs going in every direction child. My job, as his mother and the person he hated most at that moment in time because I brought him, became to control the limbs going in every direction. This required a great deal of force on my part to restrain the 32lb little boy. I succeed (and only got stuck once by the nurse) and he had the 3 shots he needed to be officially enrolled in kindergarten. He walked out with a sticker and toothbrush and like he hadn't transformed himself just a few minutes prior. Ice cream was in order, for all of us, we deserved it.

While I was eating my ice cream I laughed about his experience and Hannah's. Hers was similar, just 2 years before. When she realized what was going to happen to her, she threw herself under two chairs AND then the table. It took the nurse, the doctor, and myself to pull her out and then hold her down. 30+ lb bodies are really hard to control when they are fighting with everything they have to avoid the dreaded needle. I can't say I blame, needles suck and they hurt for a second.

Wedding Ramblings

2010-03-16T10:08:00.005-04:00

One of the biggest downfalls of losing a job while in the midst of planning a wedding, well and just living life, is the complete 180 you have to do. So we do just that, we adapt and change the vision and what we view as important. The future has always been what's most important. Not throwing ourselves into debt over a day. The meaning is more important then the show or the party. One of our big things is being able to reuse what we are spending money on. With the ceremony location being outside we don't have to do much to it. Flowers in flower pots, that's it. Our flowers pots can be used at our house or maybe given away. Getting a few pots at a time and just buying things we like. No color or pattern or size or shape to stick too, whatever floats our boat. We got these over the weekend...

Cody thought we should get a few stands just to give a few of the plants some height and make things not so boring. We got 2 of these stands...

I can't decide if we should leave them the color they are or paint them a different color. A different color might make them pop a little more, but then that's another decision I have to make. And I'm over those at the moment :)

Almost spring babies

2010-03-05T10:04:00.002-05:00

I'm a sucker for babies. Almost all babies, human and animal alike. I love springtime animal babies. Even though this one was born with snow still on the ground it's almost spring, so we'll count it right? It's going to be 50 this weekend! Time to be outside (when not inside for dance competitions this weekend)! I've been trying to pump my baby up to getting on his bike. He's sooo ready to ride without training wheels and he wants to be able to ride around the high school. Keep your fingers crossed it'll happen without any broken bones.

On the way home...

2010-03-02T13:41:00.002-05:00

There are a few farms we go by on our way to and from preschool. As we approached one of them, I told him how there was a new calf in one of the fields. He's brand new, like he wasn't there yesterday. This morning he chased my car from behind the fence. Super cute! Anyway, I was telling him about the calf and showed him where he was. He wasn't playing this afternoon, he was sleeping. Then this is what Eli told me...
(Eli) Mama, Maggie wouldn't be happy about that. She might not like cows.
(Me) But if we lived on a farm and had cows Maggie would want to herd them and help keep them safe.
(Eli) Right, but if she got hurt she would heal really fast. Cause Maggie is a heeler and they heal really fast. She would hurt anyone that tried to do anything to the cows. If we had a burglar come in and they hurt Maggie, then she would be ok. Remember when she was sick and she got better really fast? A heeler is the best kind of dog to have.
Being a mom, seriously the best job in the world.

I miss green

2010-02-25T14:55:00.002-05:00

This is what happens when ice fog rolls in. Everything gets coated in ice and is white. I've never seen this (that I can remember). It was very pretty while it was happening.

I love this picture. He's such a ham.

Do you see the green? Just a little poking out of the snow. The lavender plant was buried under the snow, all but this little bit. I miss green. I'm ready for spring. I'm ready to be outside, to go to the park, to plant flowers, to try our hand at a vegetable garden, to have our engagement pictures done. I'm just ready for spring. Spring, you can go ahead and come now. I think I speak for a lot of people...I'm over winter.

Some more snow

2010-02-23T07:26:00.005-05:00

One of the perks of getting 12" of snow and it staying cold is that the snow sticks around. We were fine with the snow sticking around so Lucas could play in it. Being a California kid, he doesn't see much snow, unless he's here. For the week before he got here he was so excited about all the snow we got. Cody took the boys over to the high school last Sunday morning. This was the first time sledding has been tried there. This is a great place to go. It's very close to home and nobody goes there. The hills are perfect. Just the right distance to walk back up after the trip down. I love finding great places to go so close to home.

Snow number 2

2010-02-15T10:12:00.003-05:00

The second snow storm came 2 days after the first one unleashed it's anger on us. I will say that one nice thing about having joined 10% of the population who does not have a job because of crappy economic issues, is not having to worry about what I'm going to do with the kids if school is cancelled. No worries, just stay home with them. The second storm came during the week. Hannah's school closed for 2 days, and preschool was closed for 1. Of course we played in it. I will also mention that I shoveled the driveway. For the record, I don't like doing that. So, Mother Nature, please only send snow on the weekends when Cody is home to be the man and shovel. I'm good inside cleaning, doing laundry, and playing with kids.

Snow number 1

2010-02-11T10:29:00.005-05:00

It started snowing last Friday...this is what we woke up to on Saturday morning. The roads were nasty. I'm very thankful we have a truck with 4-wheel drive and a new set of tires. My car never would have made it out of the neighborhood. The kids were at their dad's so that left us and Maggie to play in the freshly fallen snow. We decided to take a walk to the back of the neighborhood and walk through the woods. It was so pretty. Cody decided to make a snowman. I wonder if anybody else was back there and saw his snowman.

Camera

2010-01-27T12:40:00.004-05:00

We have a point and shoot camera. It has decided that it would like to not work. The menu button doesn't work. See, that's kinda important. Especially when I can fill up the memory card really fast. No erasing, no changing the settings, but I can still use the macro. I'm thinking this is the camera's way of encouraging me to use the other camera in the house. It's an old one. I'm not sure how old, but Cody's parents used it when he was little, so you know it's gotta be up there in age (hehehe, I'm sorry honey, I didn't mean to imply you are old). Truthfully, I'm afraid of this camera. It's all manual and I don't know jack about how to work it. It has two lenses (I think) and this big flash thingy (see, I'm stupid really). I like the instant gratification digital gives you. I don't want to wait for film to develop, or pay for film, or pay to have it developed, or pay for the digital files (I'm seeing a trend here). But I do want to be able to take pictures of the pretty orchid we have spent two years babying so it would re-bloom (those suckers are hard to have bloom again). I want to take pictures of baseball games, and dance competitions, and whatever else I feel the desire to take a picture of. Maybe it's time to embrace this fear and bust the vintage camera out of it's hiding place, and maybe buy a book about how to use it, I don't think the digital book I got for Christmas will help me here. :)

A Movie

2010-01-21T12:24:00.003-05:00

We watched a movie this week. I'm sometimes very impressionable and I wasn't sure how I would take this movie (it's flaw and I can own up to it). I had read some things about the movie Food, Inc. and decided to add it to the Netflix queue. MAN! Talk about a movie that will really make you think. We aren't the average family when it comes to what we eat everyday and what we buy at the grocery store every week. We make a lot of things from scratch. I perimeter shop, not much comes from the middle of the store. I'm not a big fan of putting processed crap into my body or the bodies of my family. I don't really like putting things into our bodies when I can't pronounce it and really couldn't tell you what it is. We aren't perfect when it comes to this, but I do try. We don't eat out much, it helps that we are doing some of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace stuff, but most of it just comes from liking what we can cook at home better then what we pay a fortune for out. After watching this movie, I have a different mind set on much more. The animal treatment was the biggest thing for me. I just had no idea how horribly these creatures that think and feel and are pretty smart are treated. Now we are doing our research on finding local farmers to get meat from. Yes it's more expensive. This part is absurd. Why does it cost so much more to eat healthy, but the junk stuff is always what's on sale and has coupons? But the way I'm looking at it is like this...we can punish our bodies and these animals or our checkbook can be punished...we are going with the checkbook. Seriously good movie that will really make you think about what you are putting into your body.

Uncle Blake's Gingerbread Cakes

2010-01-14T10:25:00.002-05:00

Hannah and I made cookies Sunday. She got a book called "Crumbs Bake Shop in a Box" for Christmas. With the book she also got pink measuring spoons, a stencil, and recipe cards. We went through the cards and the only recipe that we had everything for was Uncle Blake's Gingerbread Cakes, so we made those. She really enjoys cooking and baking. This is good, because I really enjoy it also. I think her favorite part was getting to lick the mixer blade and her hands after we rolled the dough into balls. They weren't bad, if you like gingerbread cookies.

I'm glad he's not old enough to do that by himself

2010-01-13T14:03:00.002-05:00

He asked Uncle Kempis if he could drive the 4-wheeler. Of course Uncle Kempis said "sure." The squeals of excitement were made the whole way up the hill. He was soooo excited he got to do this. He's going to want to do this every time we gone there now. He's just one of those kids that loves to do all kinds of things, and tends to be pretty good at them. We were talking about that after we got back to their house. He loves to play football, basketball, soccer, baseball, play video games, board games, watch movies, go to school, stories...I could go on and on. And I know that when he's old enough to go to a shooting range with Cody he's going to be ALL over that. Then he'll want to go hunting with him and do all those boy things that I don't have any desire to do, but I will gladly reap the fruits of their labor with a freezer full of meat.

Slip and slide

2010-01-12T08:55:00.003-05:00

While we were sledding, the kids found a pretty nice size ice patch. They would get a running start and slide on their bellies, backs, feet, and knees. They spent just as much time slipping and sliding on the ice as they did sledding.

Sledding

2010-01-11T13:31:00.005-05:00

First, we are pretty outdoorsy people. We all love being outside. Maybe not so much when it's cold and snowy, but we'll play in the snow. You would think that we would be prepared for sledding. Well, we aren't. We decided it's because we've never had a place to go sledding. Now we do and we went Saturday. The only problem...we are a house without sleds. Oh, and every store we went to was sold out. SO, we are now looking for sleds to be prepared next time. Good thing others are willing to share. The kids may not have wanted to, but you have to do what your parents tell you to :)
Hannah and Eli had to borrow the boys' sleds. They all ended up taking turns on going down the hill. Then Uncle Kempis would drive the 4-wheeler down and get them. They had a great time.

Our Morning

2010-01-07T09:36:00.002-05:00

It's snowing this morning. At school yesterday, they talked about maybe not having school today. We are supposed to get 3-6" and for the half of the kids that live out in the country, this could be not very safe. They were both up earlier then they had to be hoping for no school. No suck luck guys, go get dressed...but 2 districts that border ours closed? Drama began. Eli did not want to go to his Nawny's. He wanted to stay home with me and play in the snow. Hannah wanted to stay home and play in the snow too. She's very concerned about me getting her if they close school early. "Don't worry, I'll get you if they close early. But how will you know Mama? Don't worry, I'll be there." When we were getting in the truck (woohoo new tires in the snow!) to leave, Eli informed me that when we get the 6" it's going to be bigger then he is! I love little ones and the things they say :)

On a roll

2010-01-06T13:30:00.003-05:00

I thought after Christmas the whole spending money thing was supposed to stop. O, so I was wrong? OK. Since we have been on a spending money roll lately, with the holidays and all, why not throw these in the mix too. Sure, no problem. Wait, aren't we supposed to be using this money to pay off our debt? The positive side is that we can count our blessings because we can do this. I just want a fun purchase. Tires aren't fun, necessary, but not fun. A new camera, now that's fun!

Some Christmas fun

2010-01-04T13:46:00.005-05:00

Christmas came and flew by again this year. We never seem to have enough time to just sit and relax and enjoy the holiday. We have lots of fun, but it just seems so busy.

There are gingerbread houses to construct.

Then there are gingerbread houses to decorate.

And finished products that really should have won had our mom not been playing favorites with the baby of the family. Sarah, do you find it strange that the babies in both families won?

We mustn't forget the whirlwind of present to unwrap.

And the obscene amount of Wii that was played.

The most important of all things was just being able to spend time with our families. We are both so blessed to have great families that we love being around.

But I shouldn't forget that my mom is crazy and thought it would be awesome if her boys, her son-in-law, and almost (less then 6 months!!!) son-in-law had matching shirts!! We shall call them "The Front Pocket Boys" except CJ messed that up.

Family

2009-12-30T09:17:00.003-05:00

I love my sisters. I remember when we were younger and Sarah and I didn't really like each other all the time. Mom always said we'd grow up and love each other and appreciate each other. Mamas are always right.

This just makes me laugh. Everybody doing something different. I spend more time being awkward in front of the camera. This is why I hate having my picture taken. Engagement and wedding pictures?!?!? Anybody want take bets on how many panic attacks will be had prior to these pictures?

I like this one :)

Matt, you crack me up with your faces! Hey Hannah, how about a smile? Eli without glasses...

Woohoo, Landon! Hannah smile! Eli, up here and with glasses. And Matt, oh Matt...hehehehe...

Santa Race 2009

2009-12-30T09:16:00.005-05:00

Every year my family gets together a day or two before Christmas to have the Santa Race. This really just consists of of us running around downtown looking like crazy people who are having a great time. My mom and aunt really enjoy coming up with new ways to make us look insane. This year they decided to add cameras to capture said craziness. The other members of my team were my sister-in-law, Brittanny, and my cousin, Brad. Here they are in a scene from The Nutcracker. Well, our version of The Nutcracker.

This is an ant's view of our group.

This is Brad playing an instrument.

And here we are spelling out CAT.

Neither of them got to participate in the madness. Cody had to work and missed the race, but did join us the Gingerbread house making event. Santa Landon, well, pushing a stroller would just slow us down. No group wanted that. It's all about winning baby! Unless you are unfortunate enough to be put on my team. We have done this for 4 years. Guess who has lost every year? Yep, I rock at races!

Christmas Program

2009-12-28T09:30:00.003-05:00

O man...the last few weeks have been super busy and we've had lots of stuff going on. Eli had his Christmas Program at school. Because he is the only boy that goes 5 days a week in his class, he got to play Joseph. This was a huge deal. He was so excited for a week before his program. Everybody comes dressed in their Sunday best. They did their circle activities, sang some songs, and then did their production of the birth of baby Jesus.

Polar Bear Express

2009-12-16T10:40:00.004-05:00

Cody and I were given tickets to the Colts/Broncos game on Sunday. We had asked my mom if she would watch the kids for us during the game. She jumped at the opportunity. She wanted to take her grandbabies on the Polar Bear Express train ride. I don't know how she hears about this stuff, probably because she's a teacher and has access to this fun stuff. Her request to me was that the kids have matching jammies. We came up with a matching theme. Aren't they cute? They had so much fun. They sang Jingle Bells to get Santa and Mrs. Claus to come with them on an actual train ride, sat on Santa's lap, they got hot cocoa and cookies, a polar bear stuffie, and listened to The Polar Express story. I need to get the Santa picture with the three of them, cause it's pretty cute.

Pictures with Santa

2009-12-14T09:01:00.003-05:00

We had success!! After 5 years of waiting for him to come on board with sitting on Santa's lap, he was brave enough this year! The last picture I have of them together was when he was 6 months old. Every year since then he bolts and turns white as a sheet when it comes time to actually sit on his lap and tell Santa what he wants

We went to the Indiana State Museum. When I was looking at how much pictures cost at the mall, this seemed like a better option. Your admission covers seeing Santa (and you can take your own pictures), riding the little train, and seeing the museum. Mrs. Claus was with her husband and volunteered to take our picture. After we saw Santa we spent about 3 hours wondering around the museum. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning in December.

Deck the Halls...

2009-12-08T09:37:00.002-05:00

I love this time of year. Seriously, one of my favorite times of the year. They only thing that might top it would be when we have an anniversary and all the kids birthdays within 2 weeks. That might also be my favorite time of year. The good thing is they will be about 6 months apart. Right now though, I love Christmas. I love watching the kids get excited about putting their ornaments on the tree. Each year, everyone gets a new one and they have a blast waiting until one of theirs get unwrapped. They are very quick to inform one another that one of theirs has been unwrapped. I was looking at the tree over the weekend and I noticed that Hannah had clustered all of her's together. I should take a picture of that, it was pretty cute. I also can't remember who's stocking is who's. *gasp* I know, as mama I should know this. But every year I say I'm going to write names on the inside and every year I forget and pack them away...unlabeled. They have a discussion at least once a day about who's is who's and I again say "this year I will label them." hmmpf...right, like I'll remember to do that. On Saturday we put lights up around the house and in a couple of trees. Kelly, I took a picture last night for you and it sucked big time. But they are super pretty. Hannah said it looks like a different house.

Whale Watching

2009-12-07T11:11:00.002-05:00

Whale watching tours are a blast! The dolphins had lots of fun playing in the waves off the front of the boat. There had to have been 100 in this school. And the babies were adorable jumping right next to their mommas. Totally worth getting soaked to see them.

This is what we were really after. Humpback whales. There is a huge dip on the bottom of the ocean that creates just the right atmosphere with water temp, and food sources to bring the whales here every year on their way south to their breeding grounds. Taking pictures of whales was not in the cards for us. Two reasons...those suckers just surface whenever and wherever they want (not easy to take a picture when you have no idea where they will be!), and the camera didn't like the rain and waves. Go figure, the camera got wet and quit working. So, good luck finding the whale in the only picture we got of them, but I promise there is a smidgen of a humpback whale up there.

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

2009-12-03T09:08:00.003-05:00

After we left the Aquarium, we drove on Highway 1 towards Big Sur and the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. The park is famous for the waterfall into the ocean. We got there in just the nick of time. Watching the fog come in from the ocean was really cool to see.

See the fog starting to roll in?

A little more...

And a little more...

And now it's getting really thick.

There was a lookout down a little ways on the trail, but the fog got so thick you could really only see what was right in front of you. Can you imagine being on the water and that rolling in? Talk about scary.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

2009-12-02T09:02:00.004-05:00

Since we weren't at home this year, Thanksgiving day was a non-traditional year. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. This place was awesome! As someone who wanted to be a dolphin trainer (really any marine animal trainer) or a marine biologist, I'm in complete awe of the ocean and all it's creatures and the complexity of it all. But living in Indiana and having to move that far and paying that much for college to achieve either of those goals just wasn't in the cards. The Aquarium is located on Cannery Row. It was a sardine factory at one time. When you walk in the door, there are a few of the boilers that used to help run the sardine cannery. There are 550 different species of creatures that can be found in the ocean. Outside of the Aquarium you can see seals, sea lions, dolphins, and whales at various times of the year. Super cool place to visit.

Big Basin and it's Redwoods

2009-12-01T15:17:00.006-05:00

On our way down to Monterey, we drove through Big Basin and looked at the Redwood trees. Pictures don't do these trees justice. They are massive and strong and beautiful trees. Some of the trees have survived fires that literally burn a hole in the trunk, but they keep growing...like the one below.

A lot of times the tree splits. They share the same base and root system, but have two trunks. New trees can grow from a fallen trees old roots. New trees can grow after another tree has been cut or fallen. It will start right in the middle of the trunk.

The first of many

2009-11-30T14:59:00.004-05:00

Such a handsome boy

2009-11-23T13:20:00.004-05:00

He's a pretty handsome boy in his new Sponge Bob glasses (we really need to talk about how much I dislike Sponge Bob, but these have spring loaded hinges so they bend down 180 degrees, super important when he's ripping them off his face). There is a picture of Sponge Bob on the earpiece against his head, and he has loved showing that off. He's done great with them so far. He's complained a few times about his eyes hurting. Hopefully this won't go on too much longer. The best part...he can see clearly!!

Christmas performance

2009-11-19T11:23:00.002-05:00

The girls have been hard at work. They did an awesome job. The hours of practice time are paying off. The hours of practice time are also lots of fun for them. They have a blast. She's loving this. It's lots of fun to watch them go from not really knowing what comes next to knowing and being confident. I'm all about my girl being confident. It's harder to knock down a confident girl.

He didn't really want to watch. He was a tired boy. Check out the size of his hands! They are huge!

The boys did a great job. By default, Eli is taking a boys tumbling class. This class is at the same time as one of Hannah's classes. Why should he just sit there? It gives him something to do and play with other boys and burn off some energy. This was hilarious. They laughed, I laughed, and they couldn't remember what was supposed to come next. It was awesome :)

Igloo house

2009-11-17T16:06:00.003-05:00

Yes please. I would like one of these. It's an igloo house...surrounded by books. It's supposed to be for kids, but I want one. The kids would love something like this in their bedrooms. There aren't backs to the shelves, so they can grab a story any time they want. We were just talking about bookshelves last night. I asked Cody if his winter project could be a bookshelf in each of the kids bedrooms. Since he loves to do things for me, or maybe cause he likes to build stuff, he said sure. I think he might look at me like I was nuts if I said this is what I wanted.

images from inhabitots

Glasses???

2009-11-13T08:44:00.002-05:00

The little things are beginning to make sense. The frustration when he sits down to work on pages out of the preschool books, not wanting the books so close to him during story time, having a hard time following the lines when he colors. Eli needs glasses. I was not expecting that when we went to the eye doctor yesterday. Neither one had ever had their eyes checked, so I was just making sure things were fine. I guess they weren't. The doctor said it's a pretty bad case and he'll need to wear them on a full time basis. He's nervous about this big change. We are trying to pump him up and make it an awesome and cool thing. We picked out frames last night and he looks adorable. You know I'll put up a picture when we get them in :)

A visit from the Tooth Fairy

2009-11-11T08:28:00.002-05:00

We had a visit from the Tooth Fairy last night. Hannah lost her first tooth yesterday morning. She walked into school and decided it was time for it to come out. She said "mama, I counted to 3 and then pulled really hard and it fell out!" The very mini tooth fairy paid her a visit last night. The kids have both decided that the tooth fairy is about 6" tall. They agree that it makes it easier for her to put things under pillows. The tooth fairy left her a note, $2, and her tooth for me. She's so thoughtful :)

My boys

2009-11-09T09:45:00.003-05:00

I love my boys.

Rings

2009-11-03T12:59:00.004-05:00

I know we have a little while before we have to have them picked out and paid for, but he wants something unique and that fits us. Sarah and Kelly, you both are bad for me, you introduced me to Etsy. Etsy will not be good for me either. So much cool stuff! I'm in love with these rings! I'm gonna bet that the rock likeness will make him love them too :)

Beth Cyr Jewelry shop

Mariposa, Optimus Prime, and a Witch

2009-11-03T09:02:00.003-05:00

Mariposa is a butterfly fairy princess. Doesn't she make a beautiful butterfly fairy princess? This costume took her weeks to decide on. She doesn't make decisions quickly. I'm not sure who that comes from :)

Optimus Prime made his decision quickly. We were actually really surprised he picked this costume. Since he was about a year old he has been terrified of masks. He has hated seeing anyone dressed up. He would find his way as far away from anyone in a costume. That would include Santa. He would turn ghost white and look like he was going to pass out or throw up when it came time to get near Santa. No picture with him and Hannah and Santa since he was about 6 months old. Since he picked a costume with a mask and didn't run from anyone else dressed up this year, it might be our year for a Santa picture.

I believe she is giving a "WTH" look. Or maybe that's a "my people are soooo stupid" look. She just didn't seem as excited about wearing her costume as the kids did.

Carving time

2009-11-02T09:47:00.003-05:00

We got "punkins" carved! Woohoo! And on a weeknight too! This is Hannah's pumpkin pre carving.

Look! She was actually cleaning out the guts! Huge improvement from the last time we carved pumpkins. She wouldn't touch it, would have no part of it. I do love the face she's making. Still disgusted by it, but at least participating.

This is Eli's pumpkin pre carving. I love the faces, so silly.

He had no problem cleaning out his pumpkin. After Cody had used the spoon to do the scraping, he was all about cleaning it out by himself. He even helped me get all the seeds. The seeds still need to be roasted. Supposedly they are better after they've sat for a day or 3. Toasting will happen tonight.

And here's Cody's pumpkin. His always has the scary face.

All the pumpkins, even the babies with the sticker faces, and Eli's from his field-trip to the pumpkin patch. That one did not get carved. That one, and the babies, will probably hang out until Thanksgiving, and that will be the extent of our decorating for Thanksgiving.

Silly and scary jack-o-lanterns :)

So many pumpkins

2009-10-29T09:03:00.003-04:00

We went to the pumpkin patch on Sunday. Picking just the right pumpkin is such a hard decision. So many pumpkins, so little time.

Doesn't she look so excited? She had a really hard time finding just the right pumpkin.

Very unlike him, who was super excited about the pumpkin he choose and found it about 2 minutes after we got there. Now we need to find time to carve them. We were going to do that last night, but I should know better then to think we would have time to do more then what's absolutely necessary during the week. Eli was upset, he thinks we won't get them carved. We will buddy, I promise. It might be Saturday afternoon or even Sunday afternoon, but the pumpkins will get carved.

Monterey

2009-10-28T09:31:00.002-04:00

Plane tickets are bought, the hotel and car are booked...Monterey, CA here we come! Cody and I are going to California to visit Lucas for Thanksgiving this year. I am super excited now. Our drive from San Jose to Monterey is along a coastal highway. Our hotel is 2 blocks from the beach. Oh, and my super awesome fiancé booked a whale watching tour for us! How cool is that? He knows me so well, put me by the beach and I'm happy as a clam. Take me out on the ocean and you will be my favorite person forever. We are also going to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Seriously, I'm like one of those little kids that that stare at the glass with their mouths open in complete aw. I should have been a marine biologist. We are also within driving distance of Redwood National Forest and will probably spend a day there too. As long as I can be on the beach at sunset, I'll go wherever he wants me to. I can't wait!

Mustache on a stick

2009-10-21T08:48:00.003-04:00

These were a hit and we had lots of fun playing with them! Such a great idea Sarah!

Wedding Time!

2009-10-20T09:19:00.008-04:00

We did not escape the weekend without sickness invading our family. We were not sure Hannah would make it. She is a trooper and she sailed with flying colors. Friday night was really rough, and Saturday had moments of her looking like she was a ghost.

Paul was sick too. You can't tell in the pictures. He didn't tell my sister until they got in the car to leave the reception. And then he crashed. Let's just say my sister had lunch with my mom, Ashley, CJ, and Landon on Sunday. Sarah's husband was asleep all day Sunday. Poor guy.

Our baby girl looks so grown-up. She got to have her hair and makeup done with all of us big girls. She had a blast.

This might become one of my favorite pictures. I'm not sure when the last time was that the three of us had our picture taken.

Oh my. Really don't have much to say other then, that's my boy :)

Can you see where he dumped the bubbles all over his pants?

One of the only things I wanted was a picture of all of us together. With all of the hustle and bustle, we forgot until the end of the night. Shirts not tucked in, hair taken down, and forced smiles because they are tired. O well.

Hannah caught the bouquet. But, she will not be getting married anytime soon :)

I think they might have been ready to go home. They did awesome and it was a long day.

A bubble would be nice

2009-10-14T09:53:00.004-04:00

Sometimes I wish I could keep the kids in a bubble. I detest trying to fend off sickness and worrying if Hannah will develop a fever to go with her cough and she'll be sent home from school. I hate that they go to school and are surrounded by germs. But I only would want to keep them in a bubble when big, important events are only a few days away. My sister's wedding would classify as a big event that both kids and myself are in. We can all crash and be sick as long as it starts Sunday. No, that won't work either, we have many things to do Sunday. And next week won't work either. Dang it...a constant bubble doesn't really sound too bad. Ready or not, good or bad timing, sicky season is here.

Brown County

2009-10-12T08:53:00.002-04:00

Her and I went for a walk yesterday. Cody has been itching to get on his mountain bike and Brown County has some great trails for him to ride. Maggie and I were on different trails at 11:00. It was chilly!

It's not peak color time yet. I want to go back when you can see more orange and red. The yellow is pretty. I wish we lived closer to this, like it was right out our backdoor.

After he was done riding the bike we went into the Abe Martin Lodge. It's rustic and would be a great wedding location. We've had a rough go at trying to plan our wedding, so many things that we want to be right but that are so far out of our hands. We have decided to stick with June and let what we can't control fall as it may. We like the idea of a Brown County ceremony. The only downfall is that we've picked the busiest wedding month of the year and now we would like to try and see if a popular area has anything available. We'll see what happens. Maybe one of the few places that can do a ceremony and a reception will have something.

Walk-a-thon

2009-10-09T14:19:00.003-04:00

Little man had a walk-a-thon at school. This is a BIG deal for these little guys. They walk around the BIG circle drive around the school. Each class is a different country, so it's also called a Parade of Nations. His class represented the Philippines. His teacher's family is from this country so he was pretty excited. They each make a flag and wave it around as they walk around. The best part? He didn't know I was coming. When he saw me he gave me the biggest grin and said "there's my mama!" I love it when they can make my heart burst :)

Soccer time

2009-10-07T11:45:00.002-04:00

I love watching 5 and 6 year old kids play soccer. It's funny. They tend to stay stuck to the ball. Do you like all the different colored jerseys? Not everybody showed up, so we spiced things up a little by combining a few teams to have enough players.

Cheer Clinic

2009-10-05T11:13:00.004-04:00

So, Hannah wants to be a cheerleader. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I can do the whole soccer, baseball, and football mom thing. I can kinda do the whole dance mom thing. Cheerleader mom? Not sure about this one. Typical stereotype from high school I guess. They were mean to kids like me. I don't want my kid to be the mean girl. I don't want my kid to be the dumb jock either, but I had friends in high school that were the jocks and smart too. Oh, and they weren't mean to me either. But, I can put my feelings aside and cheer her on and support this desire to be a cheerleader. The high school squad did their clinic for the elementary school kids last week. She had a blast. We learned a few cheers and if someone could have been a fly on the wall at our house, they would have laughed their arses off, especially at Cody.

This is Hannah and Katie doing a happy face.

And another happy face.

This is the silly face.

This is the mad face.

And here would be the sad face.

I think this might be the rocker pose.

And now I need one of those programs for photos, cause I have yet to break out the money it takes to buy one of those neat editing programs. It will happen! It would be great to circle or draw an arrow to the girl in the blue pants with the white strip cause then it wouldn't be a game of "Where's Hannah." She's in there, I promise.

Flowers

2009-09-30T08:51:00.004-04:00

I have lots of pictures on the camera to upload, but I need to find time to do that. Maybe tonight. I do have some pretty flowers that are growing at our house. I'm sad that they will be disappearing soon and we'll have to wait until spring to take more pictures. Next year there will be lots more, we have some landscaping to finish and my job is to figure out what we are going to plant. Cody has said to fit that in when I can find time, but that I need to decide soon.

Crazy busy

2009-09-28T13:08:00.003-04:00

Crazy busyness has started. What do we have tonight? Soccer and dance. Dance ends at the same time a game begins. Thank goodness for younger sisters who love their niece and nephew and will gladly help a sister out. Tomorrow night will be dance and soccer practice. Too bad both end at the same time. Good thing Cody is a godsend and will watch practice while I watch dance. Eli has another soccer game Thursday night and another one on Saturday. Y'all remember that he's 5, right? I should mention that tonight's game is a make-up from Saturday, so hopefully there won't be something soccer related 4 days every week. Oh, and dance on Saturday. Game starts and dance ends at the same time. If I could have one superpower it would be to be able to be two places at the same time, then I really could be "supermom!" Maybe laundry could be caught up, and the house spotless, and showers done faster, and I could go on and on and on. One positive, chili is made and in the refrigerator for dinner tonight! It should be yummy after sitting outside for the chilly, super windy soccer game :)

Apple Orchard

2009-09-24T10:01:00.003-04:00

We went to Anderson Orchard on Saturday. This is one of our favorite fall-y things to do. Eli missed his field trip with school on Friday because of the surgery, so I decided to take them Saturday. They had a ball. We love trying to find the best, most perfect, reddest apples. They only look for red. The green ones are too soury (their term, not mine). We did decide that we need someone taller then me to go with us. Cody had to work so he couldn't join us. There were lots of apples that we admired just out of my reach. If only I were a little taller. We decided that we need to go back. Some of the apple varieties weren't ready yet.

This is the smile I get when I ask for one. She says this is how she smiles. I have to work on getting her to relax and not force them.

Bucky

2009-09-22T09:03:00.004-04:00

I would like to introduce Bucky. He is (was) around 3 or 4 before my other half decided that he would feed us for the year. Bucky has scared the crap out of me a few times since we brought him home over the weekend. He has managed to stop the dog dead in her tracks as she tries to figure out why this head is now on the wall. Eli gave Bucky many hugs before he is now out of hug reach. A friend of mine says I am becoming countrified. We want to live in the country, now I have agreed to Bucky hanging in our house, and the reasons continue. She's right, but I'm OK with that. I did insist that he not be the first thing you see when you walk in the front door.

Air Guitar

2009-09-17T09:16:00.003-04:00

He won't be mad at me for putting up this picture :)

I can't say the same thing for him, but I'm not sure how often he reads this so I might be OK :)

Doesn't Landon look like he's playing the air guitar? Uncle Cody can teach him a few chords when he gets older.

Lazy Days

2009-09-15T09:09:00.003-04:00

I love lazy days. The kids love them too, as long as they don't have a lot in a row, because boredom sets in and I hear 100 times a day "mama I'm bored!"

They come up with all kinds of different ways to chill out. They make chairs on the couches and beds on the floor. When they walk away from the beds on the floor, someone else takes over...

Cross Country

2009-09-14T09:15:00.003-04:00

CJ ran his personal best when we were watching this race. Super cool to watch him knock 31 seconds off his previous best time.

Now this little guy wants to be a cross country runner. He ran "miles" around us :)

It was early and these two were still tired I think.

Have you seen my phone?

2009-09-08T12:32:00.002-04:00

Cody: Have you seen my phone?
Me: No, not lately.
Cody: Where was it when you told me who called yesterday?
Me: On the desk. (then I pick up mine and call his...insert ringing phone and then me laughing hysterically) Is it in your pocket? (more laughing by both of us)
Cody: I'm an idiot.

Bumbo

2009-09-03T09:13:00.004-04:00

The bumbo is an interesting seat. I wish they had been around when Hannah and Eli were little. Landon loves his. He loves to sit and watch everything go on around him. As long as he stays right in the middle of it all, and you are still paying attention to him. He doesn't like it when he's not the center of attention.

Time to play

2009-09-01T09:20:00.002-04:00

The kids love going to the park. We can spend hours at a time there. The monkey bars and the swings would be favorites. Although, Eli had just gotten a new football and it has become his favorite toy. It's still his favorite toy. He plays football every night and takes it to Nawny's everyday to play with after school. Hannah and Cody have been going to the park after school too. Maggie likes to go and play fetch and catch her Frisbee. She's even gone done a slide or two, but based on her reaction I don't think she's a big fan. She's pretty excited when she gets up there, but that all changes when she has to go down.

Guests

2009-08-28T09:07:00.003-04:00

We have a few guests living in our planters on the back porch. I don't mind these guys. I do mind the spiders that think they own everything. I don't want them living in the planters. The others are more then welcome to stay. The spiders, I make them find a new home.

Climber

2009-08-26T10:19:00.002-04:00

We've had this wall up in the garage for about a year now. This is one of Hannah's favorite things to to when she and Cody get home. He spent some time last weekend changing the holds around and creating new routes. Before, she would spend most of her time on just one part of the wall. She was upset at first that he made changes, because it was harder. That lasted about 10 minutes. Now she's all over the place She climbs everything. She's figured out how to climb the fence. The crazy thing is that she does it naturally the way a climber would. I told him the other afternoon that he'd created a monster. He looked at me with a grin and said "No, I've created a climber."

Photos with baby

2009-08-21T10:05:00.008-04:00

Our nephew is 3 months old. I can't believe 3 months already. He changes so much from week to week. We aren't lucky enough to get to see him everyday, but pretty much once a week. It's been almost a week and I miss his rolls and his baby smell.

Aunt Fofo, these are for you. He wanted me to tell you that he misses you and Uncle Paul. He can't wait to see you in a few weeks. Oh, and then be uber cute in his tux at the wedding.

Uncle Cody is very good at getting him to go to sleep. Actually, he sleeps really well all the time. The kids sleeps 8-10 hours every night.

This little girl loves him lots too. She'll help protect him. She loves him and treats him like a little brother.

Told you he could

2009-08-19T13:17:00.002-04:00

He's getting so much faster, better, and more confident at tying his shoes. He went from it taking about 20 minutes one week ago to about 5 minutes this morning. Cody had also told him that when he got better he would be able to tie them with his eyes closed. Guess what he started practicing yesterday? Yep, tying with his eyes closed. Forget waiting until he he's got it down pat. He does the two bunny ears method. Cody can take full responsibility and credit for this one, since he showed him how. Before he and I met I had never seen anyone tie there shoes this way. Little did I know that my oldest younger brother ties his shoes the same way! It was pretty funny Sunday night when we all discovered this.

Wilkernix

2009-08-17T10:37:00.002-04:00

Cody thought I should change the title. He likes "Wilkernix" better. I didn't know he read my piece of space, but I thought, just in case he did come back, I would change it. I like it better too :)

A boy and his bike

2009-08-17T10:24:00.004-04:00

Eli has been working on this for about a week. I wouldn't use the word hard, because he really hasn't been working hard on it at all. He works for 5-10 minutes each day. Cody will go behind him and hold onto the seat, and Eli pedals. The minute Cody takes his hand away Eli hits the breaks and stops. He's pedaled on his own a few times, twice I think, and then he stops. Frustrated isn't really the word (for Eli anyway). We just keep trying to encourage and maybe after another week or so he'll see that he really can do this.

School Pictures

2009-08-13T08:52:00.004-04:00

I'm truly amazed at how much they've grown-up and changed the last year. We are raising little people with their own thoughts, and opinions, and more defined personalities. It's pretty cool...most of the time :)

School Days

2009-08-12T13:34:00.003-04:00

Hannah's first day of school is today. This morning started day 1 of 180 that I have to get up before 5:30 so I can get myself, 2 kids, a fiance (I don't really have to do much for him, and he makes my coffee and I love him for that) and a dog all taken care of before 6:45. This morning it was earlier. The first few days we have to be at the bus stop 10 minutes before, I guess just in case the bus is early and not 10 minutes late. We had a new stop today, notice I just said today and not this year. Last year we just walked across the street. This morning, at 6:35, we walked to the entrance of the neighborhood. And then we waited and wondered why none of the other kids from last year were told to come here and what time the bus would really come. The bus came at 6:55. The bus driver said, "you're at a different stop this year!" I then asked the bus driver, "are you still picking up across the street from our house?" She said she was pretty sure she was. Great! Eli and I started walking back to the house. Cody's job was to see if a bus picked up in front of our house and he was doing a great job on his assignment. I talked to one of our neighbors (who lives closer to the new stop then we do), her girls are getting on across the street. Awesome! The bus picks up in the same place as last year! Hannah will not be getting on the bus where the transportation office thinks she should. We came to the agreement that walking across the street will be MUCH easier!
Eli's first day of preschool was yesterday. He had a blast. He is going 5 days a week this year. He's pretty excited about this. He was always disappointed that Hannah got to go more days then he did. Now he's just mad that he only gets to go for 3 hours and Hannah gets to go ALL DAY! I wonder if he'll think the same way next year when he's in Kindergarten and going all day. Guess what he did this morning? He tied his shoe! So awesome! We are super proud of him! (I did take pictures of them, but I didn't have time to upload them this morning...I'll put them up tomorrow.)

Teachers

2009-08-11T15:23:00.003-04:00

Sometimes, as an adult, I wish I still had the freedom and the lack of inhibitions to just roll down a hill. In a skirt no less, with a crowd of people around, and a mother who didn't think this far ahead and remind her to put on her bloomers like she does when she wears a dress to school. If I thought like they did maybe fear wouldn't set in so often. I would go ahead and take a picture of the sunset or whatever food I find that looks cool and/or pretty, and tell the people around me to eff off it they find it weird. I would be able to speak my mind better and more clearly. I would be able to say more often what's really bothering me. Wait, aren't I the one who's supposed to be teaching them?

Finishing the shelves

2009-08-07T11:03:00.003-04:00

We got the kids a few shelves for each of their rooms. Hannah's bedroom is very girly, her walls are pink and green, so we opted to paint one shelf white and the square boxes pink (to contrast the green wall). In the boys' room we opted to stain the shelves a similar color to their bunk bed. The kids got to help to do this. They had great fun doing this. I haven't found anything crafty or hands-on or cooking related that they don't enjoy.

I love our backyard

2009-08-05T09:03:00.004-04:00

We made the backyard even better over the weekend! We (and I use that term loosely, I only helped the second day hold up boards) put the fence up at the end of the summer last year. You have to let it sit before you can stain or paint it.

We opted for stain. There was much moaning and groaning about the price (way more then we were anticipating) and the work. We (and I really mean we) worked really hard on Saturday. It was a very long day and Cody is paying for it now, his back is making him suffer.

So worth it now. It looks great. Now we just need a table for the patio that's big enough for all of us to sit at.

Oh, I forget to tell you...this is all that's left. ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! 35 gallons of stain and there's a 3'x4' area that didn't get covered. So now we have to get one more gallon to cover this spot. Since he has to do this he's decided to stain the swing set too. He said it makes the yard look bad and it stands out. Go for it my dear. I'll follow behind with the roller, because I can rock the roller!

Just some randomness

2009-08-03T09:26:00.005-04:00

The baby's a ham. He's started doing this when we take pictures. I don't really understand why. It's not from lack of attention. Jeez, all three of these kids are rotten. The best part is that I (we) know they are rotten, but still some of the best kids on the planet.

This dog, oh my. Some mornings I think this dog will be the death of me. The mornings when I'm trying to get myself and the kids ready after getting up just a few minutes later then I should; these are the mornings when she decides to snatch stuffies off the kids' beds and run around the house with them, not listening when I calmly (but firmly) say "drop-it" over and over again. Threatening to disintegrate them in front of their owners does not create good vibes between Maggie and the kids. They tend to get a little upset.

Then she does stuff like this and all is forgiven. She believes she is really one of our kids. She even believes she should sit in the chair like a big girl. Patience, she's still a baby. Another year and (so I've been told) she'll be an awesome dog.

School starts next week. I can't believe summer is almost over. We get to meet Eli's teacher tonight. The rest of the week should be pretty quiet. This weekend, I'm going to call it 'the weekend in which I will spend a small fortune'; shoes, backpacks, lunch boxes, school supplies, clothes, and I'm sure they'll come up with other things that they just can't live without will have to be gotten. Since summer is almost over I'll start a countdown to our mini vacation to Chicago. Should be lots of fun :)

Captain

2009-07-31T12:39:00.002-04:00

I wasn't thinking it at the time, just after I uploaded them to the computer. Isn't that the Captain Morgan pose? Now she just needs the outfit.

Why must s'mores be worn on the face?

2009-07-28T15:05:00.004-04:00

I'm sorry Eli is so blurry...

This is to be expected. Every time we go camping, and have s'mores, it's always all over their faces. I think Hannah always wins the messiest eater of s'mores award. Knowing her, she'd accept the award with a gooey smile and sticky wave.

Love

2009-07-24T10:58:00.003-04:00

"If I know what love is, it is because of you."--Herman Hesse
I really like this. It's very fitting to the 4 most important people in my life. Maybe there's a way I can incorporate it into the wedding. It definitely applies...

"Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."--Oliver Wendell Holmes
My sister talks about having a wall of art and photography when they get into a bigger place. This is something I've always wanted too, (probably with more photography then other art) but we don't have the room right now. Whenever we decide the time is right to make that move to what we dream of, I want this quote somewhere in the house. I think in a wall full of our kids, us, family, and other cool photography pieces it would be pretty neat.

I borrowed this image from my sister and she borrowed it from Pottery Barn.

Tomato

2009-07-22T09:29:00.002-04:00

Look at what we have! This is our first tomato of the season! It's a pretty perfect tomato. Very few flaws and so round and cute. Do you like his hair on top? I think BLTs and corn on the cob will be on the menu for dinner tonight. We have lots more growing, maybe enough to make our own salsa...now I just need to find a really good recipe. I was hoping to try and make our own spaghetti sauce and can some tomatoes, but we need way more then one plant. Next year we will have a garden and not just in pots :)

Can we bury you?

2009-07-20T14:16:00.003-04:00

I fear my family is crazy. Who would willingly want to be buried in sand? This started with the boys asking Cody if they could bury him. Each of the kids was buried not once, but twice. Maybe I'm the one that's nuts. Watching this raised all kinds of levels of anxiety and fear. Then Hannah said, "Mommy, can we bury you?" That would be a big fat no. Talk about an instant panic attack.

West Baden Springs Hotel

2009-07-16T14:01:00.004-04:00

Last week, for a few days of our much needed week off, we took off and went south. Not as far south as we would have liked, a beach would have been awesome, but still a get away from the daily grind. On our way to Patoka Lake, we stopped at the West Baden Springs Hotel. This hotel was awesome! The kids asked if we could just stay there instead of going to the Lake. The hotel has been around for a very long time under different owners.

It was vacant for many years. You wouldn't believe it unless you saw the pictures. They have pictures around of the hotel when it was empty and decaying. There was even a wall that partially collapsed in 1991.

It really is cool. It's a freestanding dome, full of light and huge.

There is a room that has different items found during the most recent renovation. There was china, original lobby chairs, the shoe shine stand, and menus from the restaurant.
We spent over an hour just wandering around and looking at everything. The kids really wanted to see one of the rooms and look down at the ground level. Too bad you had to have a key to go up to any of the floors. They weren't understanding that we would have had to rent a room. They understood that, but not that we couldn't afford to rent a room.

The Canal

2009-07-15T08:56:00.006-04:00

We took the bikes downtown on Sunday. We wanted to ride something different, (and he wanted to use the new bike rack) and decided the canal and some of the Monon Trail would be fun. It was fun. Aside from the fact that I have no grace or coordination. This would be a good trait to have when maneuvering around lots of people and tight spaces and turns. Now, I didn't fall off at all and by the end of the ride I was getting better at doing some of these tricky things that he just flies through. Another way I'm just a little jealous of him, he has grace, good balance, and coordination :)

I had never seen all of the Canal. I really like it. I'm thinking I would like to have our engagement pictures taken here. Maybe we could even get the kids and Maggie involved. I wonder if we are allowed to do that?
These guys are cute. There were some babies, but they were on the other side and I couldn't take a picture of them...I needed more zoom :(
He makes me laugh and smile all the time. I love him very much. He lived in North Carolina for about 5 years and used to climb ALL the time. In Indiana, land of flatness, he doesn't get to do this much. Climbing requires at least a 3 hour drive. When he sees something, anything really, (his brother's house included because they have a stone front) he will climb it. Barefoot and with his helmet on. When he does this I always giggle. Then he laughs at me because I take pictures of him climbing the wall between the canal and the zoo. I just hope the bears aren't on the other side.

The view

2009-07-13T12:41:00.002-04:00

This is the view from the bottom of the drop-off (not really, but a little scary with little ones...in my head they all went rolling down the hill and didn't avoid all these boulders...oh, to live in my head *sigh*). See our tent at the top? I have so many pictures and stories, but I must do many other things that were not done while I was on vacation last week first. Maybe tomorrow...