Potty training and cereal!

Emily wants to be such a big girl! She wants to sit in a regular chair at the table, she wants to open doors herself and wash her hands herself and put stuff in the garbage herself and just recently she has been asking to go "wotty". She tells me everytime she is "ucky", after the fact, and so I know it is getting close to the time to start potty training, but not quite...I usually wait until they are much closer to 3 years old, but I don't think she will let me wait that long! Brian had me helping him clean up the basement a bit on Saturday and we uncovered the potty chair. He brought it upstairs, and I cleaned it all up today and told Em she could use it after her nap. Of course as soon as she saw it she wanted to give it a try! No luck, but she sure had fun trying!! =)




Pushing the fluids!! =)



Sweet Nate Dog turned 5 months old on Saturday! It doesn't hardly seem possible!! He is just the best baby! I can't get enough of him!! I gave him a bit of "Super Poridge" (homemade rice cereal) on Saturday...He had all of us in stitches with his shivers and facial expressions! I tried it again tonight and I really don't think he is ready for it...we will maybe wait a couple more weeks...I may try sweet potatoes over Thanksgiving!



He LOVES bathtime! He just kicks and splashes and looks around! Emily came in to say hello to him tonight and he flashed her this sweet smile!

He also loves his toes!! He has them in his mouth all the time!! He has even figured out how to get his socks off!!


I love being home with these two!! We have a very nice routine down! We get Andrew and Kelli to school and then head to the YMCA. They have a wonderful Kids Zone...and Emily loves going to play with the baby and her "friends" (what she affectionately calls the childcare workers). They are so sweet to her and they love on Nathan too! They very rarely have to come get me, and it is great to have that time to myself every morning!! I have been running and I love it! I would have never in a million years thought that I would ever say that! I am up to 25-30 minutes and go 2.5 to 3 miles. I have a wonderful gal who is helping me and encouraging me! Her daughter is in Kelli's class. She also has 4 kids and has shown me lots of techniques and tricks to help me go farther and longer! I am very grateful!! She has a hurt foot, and my knee has been bothering me a little, so this week we are swimming! Swimming to me for the past 7 years, well really for my whole life, has really just been play...well it didn't feel like play this morning swimming 34 laps! =) But my body is changing, and I feel great! I have so much more energy, I am less stressed, my mind is clearer, and I am fueling my body instead of making it sluggish! It is long overdue, but I am so glad to be headed in the right direction! 24.6 pounds in 11 weeks! =) SO after the Y, we come home and snuggle and play and maybe do a little work around the house, then I feed Nathan, get Emily her lunch and then both kids go down AT THE SAME TIME!!! It is such a blessing to have those hours to get things accomplished! The kids get home from school and I usually have just enough time to get them in the door and get them a snack before the little ones wake up...It is just a really nice routine that works really well and the fact that I get some "Me Time" each day, makes the evening chaos all the more tolerable! We have been blessed with wonderful children, certainly not perfect, but great hearts, sweet spirits, and for the most part very obedient! It is such a joy to be granted the priveledge to grow these precious kids!

Red-Violet

The other day I was being VERY productive. A friend of mine had on her facebook status that she was going to do a better job that day of "managing her domain". Shortly before reading that I had been frustrated and overwhelmed with all that was on my to do list, and that my to do list was continually interrupted by any number of things (good, bad, and sometimes unnecessary but self inflicted (like being on facebook for no good reason when I had a to do list a mile long!)). Anyway that day I set out to be productive. I made a pretty impressive to do list for just that day and went to work. Started a load of laundry. Put away all the folded laundry. Planned Novembers menu. Made a grocery list for said menu. Closed out October's budget. Filled out Novembers budget. Paid some bills. Edited some photos. And of course fed babies and snuggled babies. After Emily's nap, she was helping me switch the laundry over from the washer to the dryer. What I didn't realize is that she also included her red-violet crayon with the clothes she was putting in! I quickly realized it however when I opened the dryer door to get the clothes out a few hours later. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! I was most upset that there were 2 brand new shirts that Brian had given me the day before!!! He is being such a great cheerleader for me as I am trying super hard to loose weight and he is giving me fun gifts at each 10 pounds lost! I was certain I was going to have to toss all these clothes or turn them in to rags. The inside of the dryer was also a beautiful shade of pink! I went to the Internet to search how to best clean the dryer to avoid red violet remnants in the next loads of laundry and also found a recipe for a magic cleaner that all who responded said it worked wonderfully! SO I thought I would give it a try and IT DID WORK!!!!! I could have sang every stanza of the Hallelujah Chorus!! Hoping that it might work, I took before pictures praying that I would have a need to take afters!!! (Magic Cleaner Recipe below pictures)














I couldn't find the before for this one...but all of Nathans new white longsleve onsies (that can be hard to find) looked like they were pink tiedyed!!


The Magic Concoction


1 Cup Color Safe Bleach
1 Cup Shout Triple Action Stain Remover
1 Cup Borax
1 Cup Vinegar
1 Cup Hydrogen Peroxide
4 scoops of Sun Oxygen Cleaner

I filled the washer with HOT water, dumped in all the ingredients, and let the clothes soak in it for an hour. The water was completely pink at the end of that hour, so I threw in a Shout Color Catcher Sheet to prevent it from getting back into the clothes. They were all Spotless!!! Write this Magic Cleaner recipe down and tape it somewhere by your washer and dryer!!!!

Toby Mac

So Andrew has become a huge fan of Toby Mac....he asked me to burn him a copy of my cd so he could have his own copy for up in his room. I did and you can often hear it blaring and Andrew and Kelli singing at the top of their lungs with it! I can tell I am getting old, because my first instinct is always to tell him to turn it down, but I have decided that I will wait and fight that battle when it is not music that is such a positive message! He told me the other day, "Mom, did you know that Toby Mac preaches on that cd? He isn't a preacher, but he preaches!" So cute! Another day he was chanting..."I'm a dead man, I'm a dead man..." I stopped him and asked him what in the world he was singing and where in the world did he learn that song because I was not liking the words...I expected him to tell me from someone at school...but no he said, "Wait mom, I am not done singing it...Im a dead man, I'm a dead man...BUT I'M ALIVE IN CHRIST TONIGHT!" I almost started crying I was so proud of that sweet boy shouting it out! And now I find myself standing at the bottom of the stairs to his room to listen to him belt out..."I don't wanna gain the whole world and lose my soul..." Sweet sounds!

So today after school he went to his room, got his cd player (speakers blown by the way) and some earphones and sat at the dining room table coloring an awesome poster he has been working on for months...I had to get a video...He had no idea I was doing this...it is a little long, but watch it to the end, you wont be dissapointed! =) It's in the post below...I couldn't get it in this post for some strange reason??!!

A great giveaway

I found this great blog and she is having a super giveaway today! Go check it out!

http://itsthelittlethingsthatmakeahouseahome.blogspot.com/

Energy amongst the sickness

Hard to believe this one had a fever of 104.4 less than 48 hours ago!! This was a happy moment today that has been surrounded by crankiness and I couldn't help but putting this together while she is napping! Hope it makes you smile! =) Oh, and for those of you who are wondering why she is only in a diaper when the weather outside is as it is....well she had footsie pj's on and when she wears footsie pj's she cant put on her "lip lops" so she takes them off! =) She is now fully clothed! =)

Say it ain't so...

The 14th of each month, I find myself saying those words..."Say it ain't so...another month older..." Time is flying by...seems even more so than with the other kids...I guess just because there is so much more going on, time rarely pauses, and this newborn phase is quickly closing and changing to, rolling over, giggles, playing with toys....but for a short bit today, I did press pause. Instead of putting this precious boy down for his afternoon nap. I sunggled him in and just held him for an hour or so, and then took the opportunity to grab a few photos to remember this sweet moment. Our speaker at our retreat had a mantra she would say during a rough period of her life (that lasted 13 years)....THIS is a good moment! She would say that because many of her moments were not good and she wanted to take full advangate of the good ones. For me it is certainly not that most of my moments are bad, in fact, most of them are good. But I want to say it to acknowledge just how precious they are to me....wrestling on the floor, tickeling tummies, sitting around the dinner table as a family, snuggled up watching a movie, bedtime prayers, sweet conversations after discipline, the list could go on and on.....THIS is a good moment....Thank you, Jesus!

He's A Natural...

Andrew is doing so good playing soccer this year. It is his first year and most of the kids on his team, if not all of them, have been playing for at least one year. He really is just a natural at anything he does. He is so coordinated, and just has great instincts. He could be a little more aggressive, but I am convinced he is just being polite and doesn't want to "steal" the ball from another player! =) I guess that's what happens when the concept of sharing is beat into you! =) Brian and I didn't know much about soccer (and still know very little) but we have found that we love it! It is so fast and exciting and I have to keep myself in my chair or I start wandering up and down the field yelling (supportively of course) at Andrew! You can see from these pictures how much Andrew (and his teammates) enjoy playing! It is so fun to see them get so excited!








The only girl on the team...





The little boy with the longer blonde hair scored 5 of the 5 goals of this game! He is a good little player!

Pooped! I couldn't even begin to calculate the actual distance they run in a soccer game!

Our Littlest Bears Fan

Andrew bought this onsie at a garage sale when he was with his grandma and grandpa shortly after Nathan was born. Being size 9-12 months I thought we would have to wait until next bears season for him to wear it...oh how wrong I was! =)

Tummy Time

Andrew, Kelli and Emily all slept on their tummies by 6 weeks and LOVED playing on their tummies and so they had perfectly round little heads, no bald spots on the back and rolled over very early, thus never needing "tummy time". Well my big baby boy whose head is too big for his body sleeps on his back, doesnt like to be on his tummy, is getting a flat head and has a big ol' bald spot! So we have started concentrated tummy time several times a day because the poor guy has a really hard time lifting that big noggin up! =) He doesn't like it, but he is getting better, so we will keep doing it!

Really Mom??? Do I have to do this again?

Kelli could you come down a little closer

Man it is hard work holdin up this head

Look how good I am doing Andrew

It's getting heavy mom


But I sure do like all this attention!


Okay...I'm done...



Proud Momma


This pic is a little bit of a wierd angle, but look at those big blues and the eyelashes...I could eat him up!!!