All Christmas'd out

What a wonderful holiday we had! It was fabulous, exciting, tiring, but really good. The kids were beyond excited for the whole time and by yesterday afternoon, their little bodies were showing that they were all Christmas'd out. Emma was over tired, so goofy, disagreeable, and stubborn. Evan was just tired and coming down with a cold, so challenging in different ways.

But, let it all be known, that it was great. The kids were excited by Santa and happy with the presents he bought. The two most cherished were a Baby Alive Doll for Emma and a Cars trike for Evan. Both were unwrapped with bows on them under the tree and they were instantly discovered when the kids came down from their bedrooms. Then, the insanity started. Santa was clever and wrapped all Evan's presents in either Cars or Thomas the Train wrapping paper. Emma had TinkerBell or Princess wrapping paper. So, the kids were off and unwrapping presents as fast as they could be identified. This year was the year of Cars for Evan and he easily tripled the amount of Disney Cars paraphernalia he had and he couldn't have been happier. Emma was delighted with her own digital camera, dress up clothes and of course, a pillow pet! Both kids were full of energy and were often seen jumping about, exclaiming that "Santa camed! Santa camed!" He ate the cookies they laid out and we are pretty sure the reindeer ate the carrots and celery as well.

Santa was good to me as well, with a pair of earrings and a new video camera. :-)

More stories from Christmas at a later date - tomorrow hopefully- and more details about the 4 days of Christmas the kids enjoyed. Emma grumpily said today "What? No more Christmas parties?" and Evan stomped around the house, "No presents? WHY?" so, it is time for that holiday to be over. I did try to keep reminding Emma what the true meaning of Christmas is about, but it is hard for a 4 year old to understand.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I made a promise to myself...

to succeed,
keep smilin',
to stop and smell the roses,
to make the most of every day,
to keep trying,
to love,
to not judge others,
to have fun,
to be my best,
to dream big,
to reward myself,
to be true,
to stay young at heart,
to be positive,
to never stop,
to find the good in everything,

to endure.

(www.whoohagear.com)


Isn't that wonderful? It was on a shirt I received for Christmas from an old, dear friend of mine and I absolutely love it. There have been a lot of changes in my life this past year that have made life crazy busy, but this shirt will remind me that I need to stay true to myself and to my family and it will all work out.

Anticipation

Finally! It is here! The kids are beyond excited, Tim and I are ready and I am saying "Bring it On!" I don't know if I have ever been this prepared before actually. Presents are bought and wrapped, house is cleaned (yes, I just got it done), and Tim is cooking the supper tomorrow. Fabulous!

The kids had a Christmas daycare party today so they were all sugared and excited when they got home. They had a jammie day, had pizza, exchanged presents, ate sugar, danced, ate sugar, watched a Christmas movie, and ate more sugar. This will carry to tomorrow when we have the neighbor party! Starting with a french toast breakfast, sledding, holiday movie, maybe pizza?, presents, and of course there will be dancing, the kids will be over the moon. Then, tomorrow night is dinner with family and to bed early - hopefully. All I hope is that we can fit in naps tomorrow. Well, nap for the older one, the smaller one will definitely have a nap!

The buzz of the holidays is so exciting, but draining too. I am very ready for it to be here, but also ready for the after-buzz. The time when I can sit down, have a glass of wine and reflect on the wonderful memories of this Christmas.

Pictures! I am sure I will have tons of pictures soon :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Drive safe and enjoy the time with your loved ones!

The sweet smell of freedom

School is done for 7 weeks! After a busy week of tests and final, I am done!! Now comes the list of things I have been meaning to do since school started. :-)

I just noticed it has been awhile since I post pictures. Here a few from the past few weeks.

Of course, the big news from this past weekend - SNOW! We got roughly 17 inches of snow and the kids loved every inch of it! We made it out Saturday morning around 9:00 so the kids could play before it got too heavy and too cold. So, laden with 2 kiddie sized shovels, one big shovel for me, and of course Tim on the lawnmower/snowplow, we were ready to go. Let's just say, lots of snow, lots to move, and the kids were having a ball. Well, Evan wasn't so happy as he really couldn't walk in it. So, not only did I have to carry large shovel, and small shovel, he was insistent that I carry him. They were good troopers and we stayed out for about an hour shoveling, playing, throwing ourselves in snowbanks. By the time we went in, it was a full blown blizzard. I tried to take a picture of our back deck with all the snow.

It really set the scene for the day. We decorated our Christmas Tree, made Christmas cookies and enjoyed all that the holidays have to offer. That night, the fireplace came on, a movie was played and the quietness of winter came upon us. It was wonderful. A real blizzard during the holidays. I know, I sound like a sappy holiday card, but I really thought it was wonderful. (aside from the pregnant with twins "I know better than the weather people and can make it to work and back just fine on my own" stubborn woman.) But, that really isn't a story for me to tell.

Some pictures of the day - decorating the tree and such.

The big elf:

The little elf who had to do everything his hero, his Daddy, did: (he saw his Dad put on gloves to move the tree, so he had to also)

The little project manager watching over and making sure everyone was doing their job:

The next day we were still snowed in for the most part. We tried to make it out to Sunday School, but our road wasn't plowed out yet. So, more time in the house playing and coloring. I printed out some Advent pictures and Nativity pictures for Emma to color and we had Sunday School at home. The neighbors came over for a bit to help decorate cookies and play. All in all, a wonderful weekend.

More pics:

Emma by the Christmas tree

Evan being goofy after going potty:

Life is good otherwise. Evan is doing awesome with potty training. He often has dry diapers now throughout the day and really is getting the hang of it for the most part. He continues to think he needs to go potty about every half an hour, which gets tough, but enjoys the M&M's and stickers he receives when he does well.

Emma continues to do her homework and play school and learn every day. Tim and I have her kindergarten open house tomorrow! AH! How can it be here already?! She is so excited and truly cannot wait for school. She is giddy about Christmas and loves opening up her advent calendar every night. I love experiencing the holidays with her and Evan. The holiday season means so much more because I have little people to enjoy it with.

I think I mentioned their need to constantly move the stockings around. Here is the conglomeration of chairs/stepstools/stockings to make it work.

Emma's picture of the Christmas Tree, Stockings, and her and I decorating.

And Evan naughty and in the naughty corner:

The kiddo's: healthy and happy!

Evan still is a little "Handy Manny"on his own and can often be found "fixing things" around the house. While decorating the Christmas Tree, he decided that if the ornaments did not have a hook on them, they were broken and required his play drill to fix them. Unfortunately, he actually broke one and ended up with pieces of ornaments on my carpet. He also had the bright idea that instead of stringing popcorn with a needle, he would just drill a hole in the popcorn instead. Let's just say, it didn't work out that well for him.

Emma really got into decorating the tree. She loved looking at all the ornaments, especially the ones with the pictures on them and could be found strategically placing them on the tree. She got into stringing popcorn for about 5 minutes. That idea of mine didn't go over that well.

I have a day of vacation tomorrow (all by myself!) to watch sappy Christmas movies and wrap presents. Then, as previously mentioned, the open house. The nice thing is Tim is taking off the afternoon as well so we will enjoy a nice lunch before the school meeting!

Happy Holidays!

O Christmas Tree

Boy oh boy, Do I love the holidays!

I love the decorations, the snow, the Christmas cards (mine due out next week hopefully!) and everything about it. I had off Monday from work, so I dug out all the Christmas decorations and the kids helped me decorate. Emma was so excited about it, she could barely contain herself. She was running from place to place tossing things here, decorating there, it was fun to watch. It literally looked like a snowman puked in here or something because I had stuff all over. I love watching her think about things. She placed a garland of fake white/silver berries on a door handle. Why, not so sure, but she thought it was lovely. Emma overloaded my entry way table with 3 snowmen, a decorated house, pine boughs, Christmas boxy thing, and a family picture. Take my word for it, the table is not that big :-)

Evan busied himself with the stockings. We have 7 stockings in our house that must be hung and for the two little ones, the manner in which they are hung is very important. (if you are doing the math in your head, yes, we have one for Sage. It is an old one that I had in my cute little apartment in St. Paul. So, no, I didn't buy it. The kids just thought it would be good for Sage) Anyway, as I am watching Emma skip from place to place, leaving glitter and pine cones in her wake, Evan has dragged the bathroom step stool all the way to the fireplace so he can busy himself with the stockings. He probably arranged those for an hour. it didn't help that Emma kept coming over to him and moving things around. She felt that her stocking always needed to be front and center.

I did not put up my Christmas village this year. I really like it and miss it actually, but with the craziness of life right now coupled with the fact that my Halloween village people mysteriously lost 2 heads this year, I thought it was best to leave it until next year.

Otherwise, we are good, healthy, and happy. We got our tree tonight which was a lot of fun! We thought it best for tonight - or the calm before the storm- to buy it. we will see if the forecast is accurate. I hope so! I want to wake up to tons of snow so I can make hot chocolate and decorate our Christmas tree with the kids. Sounds idyllic, doesn't it?! Anyway, we buy our tree local in Lake Elmo and of course, it is always a production. The tree farm is very nice and caters to the suburban family. Walking paths among the Christmas trees, a cozy fire to warm rosy cheeks, sleds for the kids,a tee pee, a warming house filled with apple cider and smiles, and of course, the damn expensive Christmas tree. It is pretty and smells great. I love having a real Christmas tree, but man! they are expensive. The kids love it and agree on it and it is sitting in my living room screaming for decorations!

We got it in the house and my little Mr. Fix-It had to help Tim center it in the stand. He got down really low and was turning the metal prongs. "I help Daddy. I do it!" and borrowing Tim's gloves to help with the branches. Emma was sitting on the staircase writing the plan for how to bring the tree in the house and where to put it. She takes after her Mama - a project manager already!

So - I am looking forward to this weekend.

News - Evan is being potty trained and doing really awesome actually. I created his potty chart on Monday and he already has 13 stickers on it! He was dry all day today and is really good at telling us when he needs to use the potty. Granted, it takes him maybe 10 minutes for the whole thing, but I am loving it! I bought some pull-ups yesterday I may pull out soon. He is getting so big and feels really proud of himself I think.

Notable quotes:
Emma has been involved (and jealous) of the whole Evan being potty trained as he is getting a lot of attention the past few days. So, she was in the bathroom with Tim and Evan once and looked at Tim and said "wow, it must really hurt when he poops out of that thing" Lovely, right?! We are trying to make the bathroom a private spot for the kids, but it is hard when it seriously takes Evan so long now PLUS, he thinks he has to go potty every hour. I spend a lot of time in the bathroom now.

A few weeks ago I was at a cousins birthday party. I was holding my little cousin Jaycee and Evan didn't want any part of that. He was trying to climb on my lap, trying to get Jaycee to move and then he finally looked at my Mom and proclaimed, "Take Her!" so he could reclaim his spot on my lap.

I do have some pictures, but don't feel like posting them at the moment.

that's all for my midnight ramblings tonight. Here's wishing for snow!

The holiday recap

The past two weeks have gone by so fast. It seems like just yesterday I was furiously cleaning and making pies for Thanksgiving. Now we are sitting at 3 weeks to Christmas. Thankfully, I am almost done Christmas shopping. Like seriously almost done. This is amazing for me actually. Usually I still have a lot left to do at this point. Kristen and I ventured out at 5am the day after Thanksgiving and had a very productive trip. We really left at the correct time as usually the busiest store, Walmart, was tame and quiet actually. There were not lines for the registers, the aisles were not crazy, and they still had door busters left. Awesome! I got a lot done there. Target was a different story. I bought a few things, but that store was busier with a checkout lines around the store. Kmart was the last one and my shopping was basically done. So awesome.

Thanksgiving was very nice too. We had a small Thanksgiving here with the neighbors, my parents, Eric & Gaeb and us. Very nice. Tim and I cooked and baked, the kids watched some of the holiday shows, and then we did Thanksgiving crafts at Kristens. We all made turkeys out of gumdrops and other various candies PLUS holiday costumes with Native American headresses and coats. pretty fun. I remember making them when I was in preschool and thought they were pretty cool.

Dinner was on time (amazing with my husband) and fabulous! Games were played, kids ran around and watched Kung Fu Panda and all were gone around 7pm. Even better - ha :-) We feasted on traditional fare and I went crazy with desserts. I made a french silk pie, pecan pie, and cheesecake. YUM! All three were yummy.

After dinner is my favorite part. Relishing the quiet and looking at all the ads and making a gameplan for the next day. I have to admit, I wasn't really looking forward to going out that early as past years haven't proven to be as good, but this year I am happy I did. Around 10pm was Thanksgiving leftovers (the best part in my mind to hosting) and then bed.

Deer hunting in Durand was good for some, not for others. I did not get a deer. I did see one, but didn't get a shot at it. Tim did well for the hunting party and helped the others out as well. Let's just say he shot more than 1 deer and less than 4.

What else?? Work=good. Kids=awesome. Tim = good. School=thankfully almost done. Let's just say you know you picked the wrong professor when he keeps you late every class (usually 10 minutes) and declares at class the week of Thanksgiving at 8:59,"Happy Holidays! You will get out 1 minute early this time." Gee - thanks. don't you dare go overboard!

I have a whole list of things to do when class gets out. One of which is pray I get a B so I can apply for tuition reimbursement. Pray with me please. The one thing I always have to laugh/envy at class is the girl who sits in front of me. Each night of class she brings in a large candy bar/large cookie or something similar PLUS a whole tupperware full of cookies (at least 12, yes I counted one night in awe) and she eats all of it! Seriously, who does that? I would love to, but would be guilty the whole week after. She is not overweight also, just a killer metabolism apparently.

The next few weeks will be busy with holiday stuff - the normal hustle & bustle. And with that.. I have to run. I have a little boy who wants to play Thomas on my laptop.

No proofreading this time - what you see is what you get :-)

Happy Holidays!

To Nuk or not to Nuk.... that is the dilemma

Most of you may be aware of the fact that Tim and I are struggling with how to take the Nuk's away from Evan. Evan loves his Nuk. We have pictures of him less than 2 weeks old and he needed his Nuk then. Ultrasound pics show him sucking on his hands - there was always something in his mouth. Okay for a baby, but now at 2 years old, we need to break him of that habit.

Tim and I discuss it a lot and we decided that this weekend would be a good weekend to try. We were at my parents for deer hunting and according to an OT expert that I know, it is sometimes easier when the kids are out of their routine and in someplace new to try and break them of this habit.

So, Tim and I lay Evan down in his pack-n-play. We didn't give him a Nuk and he didn't ask for it (although, I did have it with me just in case) and we thought that was a good sign. A few minutes later we can hear him talking in there and he asked for a Nuk, but he wasn't crying or anything, so we let him go. We assumed he fell asleep.

Roughly 45 minutes later, I am downstairs doing homework and Tim comes to find me. "Kelly" (he says laughing) "you need to come up here." He prepares me with... "Well, Evan was still awake and asking for his Nuk. It was "Dada! NUK! Daddy- NUK!" so I went in there to see what was going on. Then I hear "Help! Diaper. Help" So, I turn on the light and there he is." By the time Tim gives me the back story, I reach the room where Evan was supposed to be sleeping. I go in there and see a naked Evan. No jammies, no diaper.... nothing. Just his white little butt in his pack-n-play. His diaper and jammies are laying on the floor. I muster a "naughty Evan!" while turning my head to laugh as I was not prepared for that one at all. He just smiled sheepishly and lifted his arms up to be picked up. Apparently he was protesting the "No Nuk" policy with a little nakedness.

He has been a little stinker lately with sleeping. Friday he was up in his room and avoiding sleep also. Granted, there was a lot going on in the house as Tim was around, people were there to clean carpets, and there was a lot of noise. So, maybe Evan couldn't sleep. Anyway, at one point, I go in his room and see that he had thrown everything out of his crib. His stuffed animals, his blankets, his Nuks AND his mattress pad and sheet. Lovely - completely stripped everything. That was another "Naughty Evan!" but this one prompted him to crumble up and sob. Then I got him to lay down and sleep for 2 hours until I woke him up.

All is good here. Tim has another 2 deer under his belt. I have none. Not the best weather today to hunt, so hopefully I will get one another time. Emma and Evan both love being down here and are excited when we come in from the woods to see if we got one. When I told Emma that Daddy got one, she excitedly asked "Yea Daddy! Can we eat it tonight?" Yup - that's my girl.

Emma did good at piano lessons and proudly showed Tim and Papa what she can do. I told her she now has homework to do every night and practice. Hopefully her interest remains.

This week should be good! I love Thanksgiving!

A case of the blah's

You know in the movie Office Space, where the annoying admin says, "Well, it looks like someone has a case of the Mondays!" well, I feel like I have a case of the Blahs. Not a specific day, as they are all running into one another. I just have a case of the blah's.

I am not motivated to do my homework anymore. I do not like this class. Our homework assignment for the week of Thanksgiving is crazy in my mind. I knew it was going to be hard to juggle it all, I really did. I know this is all my doing and my undertaking. It is my fault my life is now crazy. Trust me, I get it. But that doesn't mean I have to be totally on board all the time with my homework. If I was more interested in the topic, I think it would help. So, it is now Thursday and I haven't touched my homework for next week yet and I know that will be a problem. But, I will have to deal with it later. Or, more accurately, when I am done typing up this blog post :-)

The kids are awesome. Emma continues to sing daily and dance daily and is always carrying a pencil and notebook in her hand so she can draw or do her "homework" or just write random letters. I saw her on the toilet the other day drawing something, so that is a real testament to her dedication to "homework". And no, she didn't get that from me :-) I, as you can tell from my previous paragraph, am not THAT dedicated to my homework - HA! but, I do tell her now that she needs to have a rest time if she doesn't nap because Mama has to do homework while Evan is napping. At night is the same thing. I won't tolerate now (now that I did much before anyway) her getting up after we lay her down. I have to get homework done now - I don't have much choice in that. I think it will be good for her and Evan to see though, the drive for education and how valued it is in our household.

Emma is very excited now that she may have a piano lesson with Aunt Linda this weekend. She loves music, really loves it. Her and I have conversations about country music and the singers. She does not like the song "Boys of Fall" by Kenny Chesney and (and in her words) "Well Mama, it is about boys and they fall and that must hurt them, so, I don't like that song." Her favorite now is Sugarland "Stuck Like Glue." Maybe I mentioned this before and I apologize if I did, but she honestly thinks the song is called "Snug like blue" and her and I had a serious discussion one day about how she thought it was and I told her it wasn't and how "Snug like blue" makes absolutely no sense. So, from all of this, I thought it would be a good idea for her to learn the piano (and then the guitar! I have always wanted to play the guitar!). She was all excited at first because she thought she would learn to play "Snug Like Blue" right away, but I told her she was a little way away from learning that. So, anyway, I asked my Aunt Linda for this favor to "teach" Emma a small piano lesson, as Linda taught me piano when I was a kid. Thankfully, she was willing to take on this challenge. To, which, Evan had to reply "Me too! Me piano too!" Then Emma started to protest and I had to tell Evan he was too little. ahh... the fights between the two kids. I see them a lot already.

Evan is good as well. Every day he is getting more like a little boy. which is good, but scary :-) I was laying him down for bed yesterday and gave him a little hug. Evan turned to Tim and gave him a kiss and then I asked Evan for a kiss. He looked at me and said "DID!" as in "Gee Mom, I already gave you one show of affection. Lay Off!" and he refused to give me one. He just wanted to lay down in his crib and fall asleep. Already, rationing his affection for me. I had to talk this over with Tim last night and my fear that it will only get worse from here :-) They grow up too fast!

Another busy weekend here with the holidays approaching - but what fun! It will be Christmas cookies and Christmas shopping and Christmas music and all the fun stuff coming up! I cannot wait!

My New Mr. Fix It

Evan has taken on a new role in our house: Mr. Fix It. If there is anything that is broken, by-golly, he knows how to fix it.

He was watching Caillou on my I-Pod yesterday and of course, he cannot watch without pushing buttons. So for the third time, he hands it to me and I have to restart it. While I am doing that, he cocks his head at me and says with a questioning voice, "Broken?" And then more sure of himself, "Broken Mama." So, he scrambles off of the couch, runs to his little tool bench and grabs his beloved battery operated drill and scurries back to me. He dutifully presses the button and proceeds to "drill" my i-Pod. The cartoon finally starts and he nods at me assuredly. "Fixed Mama."

Then, later he is wrestling and playing with Tim - one of his favorite things to do. They are laughing and rolling around when Evan notices a tear in the knee of Tim's jeans. "Broken Daddy?" He puts his little finger in the hole and studies it. Then, he cocks his head and again and says. "Broken." Already knowing what needed to be done, he gets up off the floor and runs to find the precious drill again. He goes back to Tim and starts to drill his jeans (or his knee) and then his shirt, which also has a small hole in it. I think he runs back to his tool bench again at one point while fixing the clothes to grab a nail and a screw, but all-in-all he got it. Well, in his own way of course.

Just another day in the life of my little Mr. Fix It.

A nice witch and a reluctant shark

The Halloween Story:

Emma couldn't have been more excited for the Halloween weekend, of course. They started celebrating on Friday with a daycare party. The kids dressed up, brought goodie bags for their friends, and danced to Halloween songs and watched Halloween movies.

Evan was just kind of taking it all in. He did NOT want to wear his shark costume for the daycare party. He tolerated it for the pictures, but couldn't wait to get it off. I was still optimistic however, that we would fully engage in the Halloween festivities that were coming up and would have a great time.

Saturday was pumpkin carving. We waited patiently all day for Tim to come home from hunting. We brought all the pumpkins from outside to the garage so they could "warm" up a bit. We shucked all the ears of fieldcorn that were supposed to be used for decorative purposes, but didn't quite make it. Then, with two small sandbuckets full of shelled corn we walked around the yard feeding the little critters for fall. We put two little piles of corn around one of the apple trees and spread some corn out on the garden. We put a few more piles all around the yard so the squirrels, mice, deer, whatever, would have something to eat as winter approaches. Then, when Tim got home and supper was eaten, we marched out to the garage; arms laden with coats, "kid friendly" knives, markers, and camera.

The kids, of course, didn't want to pull the guts out of the pumpkins. Emma was convinced we were killing the pumpkins as that is what one of the characters says on "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." "I didn't know you were going to kill it!" Tim and I heard that about half a dozen times. Evan kept scrunching up his face, holding his little hands out and saying "Dirty! Yuck!" Finally, the pumpkins were all cleaned and we gave them the markers to draw the faces. That went over well. Then, we got out the safe little knives and the kids had a blast. Tim showed both kids how to use them and then let Emma do it herself. SHE LOVED IT! Evan got to help also, but Tim was always close by to make sure it went okay. Finally, we ended up with 6 carved pumpkins and 2 tired kids.

The next day was Sunday School for Emma, which prompted the previously posted blog. And it was nice. Tim was home that day so I didn't need to drag Evan along to church with us. He is doing much better at church, but it requires a bag of snacks, books, colors, stickers, and coloring book. Then, the usual trip to the back so we can walk around for the last 10 minutes of mass. This is after the predictable conversation at home:

Me: "Evan, we have to get ready for Church - let's go!"

To which Evan responds, "No! Why Church? No!" Why Mama?"

Church was good, then cleaning at home, naptime, decorating the boo-train and finally, after about 15 times of Emma asking throughout the day, "Mom - when can I dress up? Mom, when is it time?" We were finally able to get ready for Trick-or-Treating. Emma was easy. We dressed her up in all black, painted her face green, and she was ready. But, mind you, she was not any, old witch. She was a NICE witch and would tell anyone that if they asked. Other witches scare her.

Evan was hard to get ready. He did NOT want to be a shark.

"Why shark? Why Mama? No. No Shark!" Over... and over.... and over.... I tried to explain it was Halloween and he was going to go out and get candy, but he didn't understand and my explanations just prompted more "Why?" questions. "Why" is his favorite response for everything now.

Finally, I got him dressed in the snug little shark costume and he was happy being outside.

But, he did make a cute shark.

The decorated Boo Train:

The kids:

They had a great time. We were out for maybe an hour and a half and everyone did well. Evan wasn't as excited as he was last year, but he still was a trooper. Emma was giddy and loving every minute of it. We stopped at the neighbors afterwards to dump out all the candy and for some hot-chocolate and then back home so the kids could pass out. All-in-all, a great day! (Which, Evan refused to put on the shark costume when we were leaving Kristen's to come home. He totally refused.)

The candy dump at our house. They made a haul.

All is good at the Heuer House. I am settling into work well and really love my job. Balancing school and other duties can still be a struggle at times, but I am still happy with my decision to go back to school. I am not really enjoying my current class, but only have 5 more left and a closed book test. Ugh. Then, a nice break for Christmas!

Tim is doing well and enjoying his time away hunting. He was happy to get 3 deer this weekend and spend time with his family. Sage is good and growing like a week. She is already about 50 pounds but is thankfully mellowing out a bit and has lost all of her baby teeth :-)

I don't think Emma and Evan could be doing any better. We went down to the farm this past weekend for a day and the kids loved going for a tractor ride. Papa even let them drive the tractor for a bit. He and I laughed at what the neighbors must have thought of us driving in circles in the fields! But, they had fun.

This week is more of the same. Not much else to report.

A bible lesson

On the way home from Sunday school on Sunday (duh!) Emma and I were chatting about the lessons she learned.

Emma: "We got to eat Animal Crackers today and they were yummy!"

Me: "Good! What did you learn?"

Emma: "Well, we learned a new prayer Mama! Want to hear it?

Me: "Of course! What is it"

Emma: "God, help my mouth to pray you. Help my hands to serve you and help my heart to love you. Amen"

Me: "Emma! That is wonderful!" and then, me prompting more as I know they learned about Noah's Ark. "Emma - did you learn a story about an arc?"

Emma: "Yeah! We did. There was a big boat."

Me: "AND?? Was it raining a lot?"

Emma: "Oh yeah! It rained for like two thousand hundred YEARS! Mama, that's a lot."

Me: "Yes, that is a lot. And... were there animals on the boat?"

Emma: "Yup. They had alligators and snakes and EVEN spiders!"

Me: "Wow- Spiders too?? And did a guy named Noah make the boat?"

Emma: "No, just one of God's friends did it."


So - there you have it. Your bible lesson for the week.

Pictures of Fall

As promised almost a week ago - picture of Fall! Yup, I have tons of them!

Here we are picking pumpkins at Nana & Papa's:




And... the beloved combine ride! You can almost see all of us stuffed in there!

And.. Evan's tractor ride! Which, personally, I think he enjoyed more than the combine. Can you see his little seat there? It even has a little seat belt in there for him! Love it! I wish the tractors had these amenities when I was little :-)

Collecting leaves and doing other fall things. This first one here is the nature hike in the coulee.

The group of kids in the coulee. Most were getting pretty sick of pictures at this point.

The visit to the "cabin" in the woods. I think the kids enjoyed riding the golf cart and playing the creek more.

And - the ride to the coulee in the back of the 1 ton farm truck. Evan just plopped right down in the middle and waited for the ride.


Evan's trip up the bluff.


And - playing in the leaves the next day!




I thought this picture was cute as he was mad I took the rake away from him for a moment. Poor, dejected little boy! I am the worst Mom in the world - I know!

And- climbing the small tree in our front yard. I have to say, not to toot my own horn (or my sister's as she took some of these pictures as well) but, for what Tim and I paid to get some professional pictures taken last year, I like some of these just as well. If only I knew where to get them professionally printed - or on better paper than Target or Shutterfly.

Yes, of course, Sage was playing with us as well outside. She liked jumping the leaves too and would make Emma mad when she would mess up the piles.

The impromptu group shot of the family.

Evan in the tree again. He really loved climbing the tree!

And, so did Emma! Of course, whatever one does, the other needs to as well.



And Evan, all tired from the raking.

That's all! This weekend has been good so far. Tim was gone today so the kids and I did some fall cleaning and fall playing! We took some ears of corn that we brought home from the farm, shucked the corn, and put little piles of corn all around our yard for the birds and little critters to store for the winter. We made a tent in our house and mopped the floor, I did about 5 loads of laundry and am still going strong, made a yummy supper, Evan got a big goose egg on his head from jumping on his mattress, and carved pumpkins! They are so excited for Halloween! It should be a great night tomorrow.

Not a good thing!

As witnessed by me this morning:

Evan wanted his Nuk. Well, we only let him have his Nuk's when he is in his crib (mostly!). So, he comes to me with his pitiful, blue eyes. . . "Nuk? Nuk, Mama?" "No Evan - You know the rule. Only in your crib." So, he drops his head, droops his shoulders, and walks to his room. Then, I see him climb up the side of his crib and drop/fall into his crib. He joyfully gets his Nuk and pops it into his mouth. Then (and I have never seen him to do this) he puts his arms up on the top of his crib, hoists one leg over, struggles at the top, then hoists the other over and hangs there. He is moving his little feet back and forth to find something stable, finds the lower bar with his foot, braces it and then drops to the ground. He gets up on his feet, runs to me while smiling the whole way, "Nuk MAMA!" I just shake my head (hide my smile/laugh) and know that this is NOT a good thing.

We have truly been enjoying the beautiful weather (well of last week). The kids and I have been outside as much as possible taking it all in, as we know that soon, we will not have the warm/sunny days. Last weekend we went to the farm for 2 days & 1 night so we can experience fall on the farm. Evan and Emma were very excited to ride in the combine, so that is one of the first things we did. They easily climbed up the ladder and got in. Emma thought it was so awesome (yes, her words) that there was a little seat in there just for her. It was a tight fit with 3 of us on the seat, but we made it work! Both loved it - we rode with Dad for probably 2 hours in the combine; talking, listening to the radio and to Evan say excitedly "Tractor!! Tractor!" as the tractor would drive alongside of the combine so he could unload the corn. Evan got very excited about the tractors and eventually Papa took him on a tractor ride also.

After the combine was the pumpkin patch! Mom and Dad planted a little pumpkin and gourd patch and the kids loved picking pumpkins. Emma was a huge helper here, skipping from one to another and putting them in the wagon. Luckily, they had plenty to go around as the Kellogg's joined us later on Friday afternoon for the autumn festivities. We tried a few times to get some pictures of the everyone, but we really only got this.


That night we decided to go to Club 10 for supper. After a lot of greasy food and one tasty beer :-) we decided to take the kids bowling for the first time. Up came the bumpers and out came a bowling ball ramp (which is pure genius for the under 6 year olds) and with 8 stocking feet, we had a recipe for awesomeness! Evan was first and he could not have been more excited! He picked out a ball, then we found him a lighter ball, and up it went on the ramp. (Keep in mind that he was exclaiming "Ball!" every 5 seconds) Papa was in charge of the ramp aim, so all the littles had to do was push. Evan marched up there, gave the ball a push and everyone clapped! Then, he was off like a shot down the lanes to try and retrieve his ball! "No Evan! Come back!" we all yelled as I went to go and get the little guy. Obviously, no one told him that he couldn't run after it; thankfully we were the only ones in the alleys. After Evan, all the little ones proceeded through and had a great time! This was the first time for Emma as well and she had a lot of fun picking out other balls to use (no matter what the weight) because some were more pretty and sparkly! Many of the kids got strikes, more got spares, but in the end, Evan was the big winner!! All of the kids had a blast and I am hoping we do it again soon.

The next day we picked more pumpkins, decorated Halloween cookies and roasted hotdogs and made smores outside. I again stress that the weather could not have been more beautiful! The kids loved playing outside and I wanted to be out there as well. After a much needed nap by everyone, we toured a neighbor's "cabin" in the woods, played in a creek, and went on a nature hike. The nature hike was a great time. We gave each of the little kids a plastic bag and drove to the coulee in Dad's big farm pick-up so the kids could ride in the back. (yes, adventure at every turn!) Emma was good at scouting out acorns and pretty leaves. She marched along the path like a trouper. Evan did okay. He easily tripped over sticks and was a bit behind, but every once in awhile he would bend over and stuff leaves and sticks in his bag. The big adventure was climbing the bluff - or the partial bluff. We shortened it a bit due to age and leg length. The girls actually ran up most of it - Emma and Kaylee taking turns at who was in the lead. Evan did okay for a little while. I carried him up for some and Dad did the other. We made it to the top and everyone liked the view. Emma was excited as she thought she could slide down to the bottom on the leaves on her butt, but we quickly changed her mind on that, so she ran down some of it.

After that was a quick supper and then the kids and I left the farm for home. Everyone had a great time and was exhausted when we got home. The combination of fresh air and exercise did us in.

Sunday we had Sunday School and Emma is really enjoying it this year. She doesn't want to miss a class and excitedly tells me about the projects they worked on and the stories they heard. Evan does not do well in church, even with the snack, coloring books, cars, and crayons/notebooks I try to be prepared with. I have found the best thing is when the children's center is open or (gulp) a Nuk. I know, I have to let my "Nuk only in crib" rule slide for church. I think God understands....

After that - leaves!! We had a lot of leaves in our front yard so we grabbed a rake and a snow shovel and started to make the piles. Emma really enjoys jumping in leaves and throwing them in the air. She will plop right in the middle of the pile and hurl them in the air. She will do somersaults in the pile and chase me around with her arms full of leaves, just waiting to throw them. Evan... not so much. He preferred to rake them in a pile.

After all the fall fun - the predictable work week:
Monday - kids at daycare, Tim and I work. I do homework most of the night.
Tuesday - kids at daycare, Tim and I work. I have school that night, kids have a "Daddy night"
Wednesday - kids at daycare, Tim and I work; Sage has puppy class, kids have swimming lessons. Unfortunately, there was a bit of drama at swimming lessons last week. There was, hmmm... let's say an accident at swimming lessons, so the pool was closed. Unfortunately, we found that out at the time of swimming lessons, after the kids and I had changed into bathing suits and showered. Emma understood why we couldn't swim and was enjoying sharing her newfound knowledge about the pool and their cleaning system. Evan, however, did not understand, and had to be carried away from the pool screaming "Swim! Swim!" and crying the whole way. No fun....
Thursday - kids at daycare, Tim and I work - we have a family night at home, usually dividing up cleaning duties and errands.
Friday - Mama day! (although now Evan will announce that he wants a "Daddy Day" too!"

This past weekend we were up at the cabin so Tim could finish the garage. Finally! It is mostly done. With the crappy weather (which Emma did tell me this weekend that the weather was crappy) we stayed in.

A few more short things:
--Yeah Packers!! We needed that win!
--Yeah kids! They both slept in until 7:30 this morning!! Love it! I got to take advantage of it as I had today off from work and Tim didn't set his alarm. Unfortunately, I work Friday - boo.
-- AND.... looking forward to Sunday!

Pictures!! I have TONS of pictures- but I am having difficulty loading them tonight. I will try soon!

The internal conflicts of my little man

Evan is growing up so fast. As much as I can see it and am excited (or sometimes sad) he wishes he were so much older.... like Emma's age :-)

He is constantly demanding to do things on this own now. I am always hearing now: "NO! ME!" Or "EVAN!" or my favorite "I DO IT!" when I try to help. Which is great, but frustrating. He thinks he can put on his own clothes now, but, sorry little man, you can't. He puts shirt sleeves on his legs, tries to stuff his head into pants legs or puts on roughly 3 of his treasured "Cars" socks on each foot, backwards and wonky. I have seen him wearing pants (that I put on him) and he is wearing 2 pairs or shorts somewhat over them on his legs. He always thinks he can zip up his own coat. He will angrily step back from me when I try to help and proclaim "NO! DO IT" then, he will try to make it happen for what seems like eternity before he helplessly says "HELP!". Ahhh.. the push and pull of having a stubborn two year old.

It is all really happening too fast for my liking. Yes, it is great to be out of the bottles, out of the 3 times a night feedings, and out of the total dependence. But the independence is hard. I KNOW it is my job to make him independent; to make him a functional, responsible, and giving member of society. But, I don't see that happening at two years old.

It really hit me last week at his water babies swim class, which he loved, thankfully. He was in the class with babies that were 8 months old and it honestly hit me like like a smack in the chest -or heart- that my little man is no longer a baby. While he still depends on me to kiss his owies, give him hugs before bed, and of course the basic necessities of life, he is pulling away slowly. He doesn't want me to help him get things off of shelves any more, he would rather build his own unsafe ladder or climb up dresser drawers to reach things. He doesn't want me to show him how to do things, he fully expects that he can do things on his own by watching his idol, Emma. I guess I am not as prepared as I thought I would be when my baby grows up. . . or grows to be a toddler. While I am fine with not having any more babies, I really am, it is still hard to see them go from stage to stage sometimes.

So, when my tears drop whenI don't expect them too or when the heart strings are pulled at the "NO! ME DO IT" I have to remember that this is expected, this is how life is supposed to be with children.

But even with knowing that fact and knowing what my role is, it doesn't make it any easier for me.... I love what my little man is growing into and each age brings new joys and fun, but I miss him all the same.

pictures and words

Me to Emma tonight: "Emma - you have to go to the bathroom before bed."

Emma: "Mama, the real word is restroom. But, yes, I have to use the restroom before bed."

And.. something Tim was dreading:

The scene: Tim and I are cooking in the kitchen and in walks Evan, clothesless but with a diaper on. He is happily sucking on a Nuk and carrying his beloved B (his blanket). Now, mind you, before this, he was fully clothed and playing with Emma. So, Tim and I exchanged looks and then Tim finally asks "Evan, where are your clothes?" "Emma! Emma!" says Evan, ratting her out. Hmmm... so, Tim goes to investigate. He finds Emma in their room: "Emma - what happened to Evan's clothes?" And of course, the answer:

"Daddy, I had to take them off because I wanted to put a skirt on him!"

We were up at the cabin this past weeked for Friday and Saturday and had fun. It was nice to have some good family time. We fished a lot and the kids were happy that we were catching a lot. We went out in the boat fishing Friday morning, which the kids LOVED! Not so much for the fishing really, but for the fish that Tim and I were catching and throwing in the live well in the boat. The live well was positioned so that the kids could play with the fish, net them, try to pick them up, whatever. We had Sage with us on the boat also and she enjoyed this part as well because a few times she stuck her paws in the live well. She also had fun trying to catch the fish that the kids dropped :-) At times I thought Sage was going to jump out of the boat as well because she liked the bobbers and when we were casting. Overall, the fishing trip was a success.

And now - pictures:

The race last weekend:

Here is Evan getting antsy before the start:

And - Emma with her friends:

And - the whole group of kids.

Finally, at home: resting.

And - Tim on his birthday.

And one more quote from Emma:

I was getting ready for school the other day, packing up my books/laptop/etc. Emma asked me why I was getting ready for school:

"Mama - why do Mama's need to go to school? Mama's know everything all ready!"