It's been cold way too long....

This morning Ashlynn remarked that her orange tasted like a popsicle. How sweet.

Ryder then asks: "What's a popsicle?"

After briefly choking on my orange I answered: "Well buddy, it's that frozen fruity thing you eat in the summer. You know, the ice cream truck brings them."

"Oh, yeah mommy, the ice cream truck. Now I remember."

Poor guy, it's been so darn cold he has apparently forgotten the pleasure of a popsicle.

Eighteen months.....

I figure there are pros and cons to being eighteen months old, oh, the world of my sweet little Gage man.

Pros:

• If something bothers you, even just the tiniest bit, you can cry.
• You are still considered cute (baby cute) by most onlookers.
  
• It's considered "acceptable" if you spill food all over yourself, belch, or pass gas.
• You can bet to be carried around a good part of the day (to the high chair, to nap, to bed, or out of trouble-oops, I mean "redirected").
• You don't have to pay attention to anything that doesn't concern YOU.
• You are at the perfect age to be aware and make it appear as if your older siblings have wronged you-even though they totally had that toy first.
• You don't have to completely clean up after yourself-mom making you put a few toys in the basket doesn't count.
• Someone bathes you, puts nice lotion on you, changes your stinky buns, feeds you, and generally takes care of your well being.

Cons:

• Crying when you are bothered doesn't seem to get the attention it used to-they are so on to you.
• You never get to walk around where YOU want to (the end of the driveway, the grocery store, any place there are lots of fun little things you could play with).
• You can't communicate in clear concise sentences, which could hamper you getting what you really want, um, need.
• Your older siblings are on to you and run away and close doors so you can't "bother" them.
• You still have to go down the stairs backwards.
• Sometimes you wonder if your mom thinks you love your high chair THAT much.
• Markers,crayons and paint are totally off limits.

Happy Birthday Joshua!!!!

Happy Birthday bud! Hope your day is filled with lots of fun.....and a little warmer weather!


Love you, Randy, Liz, Ashlynn, Ryder and Gage

It's too early....

3:45 am: Ryder comes busting out of his room and into ours (somehow my constant pleas for him to be "more quiet" are not sinking into this boy's cranium). "Momma, can I sleep with yous?" First of all let me just get my eyes open here. Again, "Momma, can I sleep with yous guys?". Is this a mafia nightmare, why'd I watch that movie?

Assuming he had a bad dream, I obliged, really I was way to tired to get him back to his bed. He climbs up in bed, in the middle ofcourse and requests "Make room, momma". Again, "Momma, Momma, make room". Dude, don't know if you remember, momma's el preggo and Daddy's over six feet tall, I'll see what I can do. After moving myself to the edge of the bed (Randy wasn't budging, he doesn't exactly wake up real easy-how this works at the fire station is a mystery!), came another sweet request: "I need your pillow momma". Um, dude, once again, can you see how I have these five pillows precariously arranged to accommodate my pregnant self?

Let's put it this way, he fell comfortably asleep about thirty seconds after his sweet little requests and there I was, left with two pillows on the EDGE of the bed. Can someone say tired today?

It's a...........

GIRL!!!!!!!!

Well, we had our sonogram today and everything looked fantastic! There is no sign that there was ever a tear in the placenta and the baby measured and looks wonderful! What a blessing, thank you Lord!

Thanks to everyone who voted-looks like you guys knew what you were guessing for :-)!

Happy Birthday Wesley!!!!

Happy Birthday to a kid who can always enjoy a little vegetation at the zoo :-)! Have a fun day Wesley!!!

Love, Ashlynnie, Ryde, Gage, Auntie Lizzie and Uncle Randy xoxoxoxoxo

The highs and LOWS.....

So they didn't win, but at least we all looked good for the game, thanks to Lisa!!

Just some tips...

Tips for keeping a nearly perfect house:

• Rise early so you can: Read your Bible, exercise, get dressed, make your bed and start a load of laundry.
• Empty the dishwasher while the kids eat breakfast, then you can just zip the dirty dishes in the when they are done.
• Pick up any odds and ends and straighten what you might have *missed* the night before.
• Have the children make their beds and get dressed right after breakfast.
• Continually pick up odds and ends all day, while maintaining a pleasant attitude.
• Always have a menu planned in advance, whatever needs thawing out and all ingredients marked and accounted for.
• Provide you children with mind and body stimulating activities throughout the day.
• After putting the children to bed, take on one room at a time each evening and rid it of clutter. It makes it much easier to "pick up the odds and ends" as there won't be any left.
  

Things you must NOT do to accomplish above:

• Don't leave your home, EVER, it sort of "throws off" the routine. Definitely don't make any appointments early in the day, it will send you running around trying to "get it all together".
• Don't rise early, young children can sense this and they will rise as well (especially if your house is 30+ years old with squeaky floors). Good luck trying to get anything done.
• Don't empty the dishwasher (is it even clean?). That way when you need a spoon, plate and cup, they are all in one central location.
  
• Don't have the children get dressed, they like staying in their jammies all day.
• Don't pick stuff up all day, wait until five minutes before daddy gets home and make a mad dash around the house with a slightly raised voice.
• Wait until five o'clock before deciding what to make for dinner, then you don't have to think about it before that. What else is the defrost on the microwave for?
• Let your kids minds' be sucked away by the TV. It keeps them quiet and engaged while you figure out what to make for dinner.
• After getting jammies on (oh, wait, they already have them on), brushing teeth, last potty time, last sip of water, prayer, last question, another last question and you finally get your kids in bed (not that they will necessarily stay there): sit down and enjoy some mindless TV so you can "unwind". Pick up? They're just going to take it all out again tomorrow.
  

What else do you do when it's twenty degrees?

Pack Gage up for priority shipping.




Make a "snow train" out of the plethora of boxes from the garage.


Hey, at least they were entertained for the afternoon. And a note on Gage and that box-he WANTED to get in so he could jam to his tunes.

Chris, potato peels and the garbage disposal.....

So the other night I was making dinner and had a sink full of potato peels. Eight potatoes worth of peels to be exact. Still hearing dad's voice ringing in my ears from childhood "the garbage disposal is not meant for that much stuff", I intended to put them in the trash. Well, what would you do if the trash can was completely full?

Empty the trash, you say? Um, how about just run them down the disposal, just this one time. I flipped the switch and away it went for the first couple of seconds and then all of a sudden they were spitting back up at me and the water was NOT draining down the sink. Crud.

What now, you say? I stuck my hand down in the drain to get it unclogged ofcourse(yes, I turned off the disposal first). If only it were that easy. There wasn't a peel to be found, just a sink of soppy potato peel bits and water.

Fortunately a light bulb turned on in my head and I remembered I have a plumber for a brother-in-law. Unfortunately, he lives seventeen hundred miles away, but surely he could "walk" me through this little problem over the phone. He answered right away, thank goodness, and exlpained exaclty what I need to do.

"Do you see a ninety degree attachment coming off the disposal?"

"Um, yes."

"Good, now just take that off and clean it out, you'll probably have to clean the p-trap out too".

"Um, Chris, what is this allen wrench thingy that says I should use it in case of a clog so I don't have to call a plumber".

"Don't use that, you would have to take the whole unit off. Trust me, don't use that". (Thinking in his mind-aren't you already calling a plumber?)

"Um, ok."

So I follow his instruction and get the ninety and p-trap off, clean it out (it was FULL of the peels) reattach and turn on the water see if we had success. The sink starts filling with water, again. Crud. Take the ninety and p-trap back off, realize I didn't clean it out that good. Re-clean it, thank you screwdriver (very versatile tool), and try again. This time before putting it back together I ran the water and disposal (yes, a kaleidoscope of peel bits went everywhere under my sink), just to make sure it was clear.

Now I have the whole thing back together and working, but it wasn't a pretty site under the sink. I did manage to catch most of the water in a container, but the peel bits could not be contained.

Well, I suppose it was a good excuse to clean out under the sink. Thanks for coming to the rescue, Chris!

Working the system or perfect angel?

For the most part Ryde and Ashlynn play really well together. Often, you'll find them side by side, painting at the kitchen table or deep in the land of make believe and superheroes. Sometimes though, if Ryde doesn't play by Ashlynn's "script" she pulls the "I'm not going to be your friend anymore".

Ok, Ryde is three, so she is the only "friend" he has and that can often make him go along with whatever her highness has prescribed. After letting her know those words were unacceptable, I told her I didn't want to hear it again.

So, that brings us to last night. They were playing and I was in the kitchen finishing up the dishes when I heard her utter "Well, I'm not going to-" and then we made eye contact. My arm flew out in the direction of upstairs and she headed to her room. After several minutes, I made my way up there to have a little chat.

"Do you know why you shouldn't say that?" And listen to what she said: "I'm really glad you sent me to my room to think about it. I know that it makes God sad when I disobey and I know that it is mean to Ryder to say those words. I just sat here and thought how happy I was that you made me come up here so I could think about it." Tears were welling up in her eyes when she said all of this.

Now how in the world am I supposed to respond to this? She took the words right out of my mouth and seemed so legit doing it. "Are you for real kid?" So is she a kid genius at working the system or an angel who can admit mistakes?

Gage and the crib.

All of our kids have gone to nap and bed pretty good, but Gage takes the cake. This kid never even makes a whimper when I put him down for snoozy or night, night.

Yesterday, I announced it was time for snoozyville and he just cruised right up the stairs to his crib, pointed to his noisemaker (for me to turn it on) and reached up for his crib.

At night I will say "time for night, night; let's go brush your teeth." And off he zooms up the stairs, to the bathroom, pointing to his toothbrush. When I take him to his crib he literally dives into it. Randy and I are just in awe of how much this kid loves being put to bed.

Now there has been one minor exception to his amazing behavior: when we are not home. If we try to put him down for a nap on Sunday afternoon at Dale and Linda's, he screams like crazy. One of us has to lay on the bed so he can see us until he falls asleep. And last week at Mimi and Papa's it was a nightmare. Almost every night and naptime Randy had to get him to sleep first or the kid would just scream and scream.

He does the same thing every Sunday at the church nursery too. They eventually have to bring him to us in service because they can't get him to stop.

How can a kid be so easy going at home and a nightmare everywhere else? Is it separation anxiety? How can I help him?

Seeing as how we spend 99% of our time at home, it's not a huge issue, but it can be a little annoying when you get so spoiled with the usual routine.

Pics from Mimi and Papa's!

Ashlynn playing in the leaves.



Ryde and Ashlynn collecting eggs for Aunt Betty.



Future prodigy?



Ashlynn lovin' on the baby goat.



Gage-are the cows checking him out or what?



Something is seriously wrong with this picture. I don't think this will ever wind up with his resume.



Ryde checking out Marilyn's goats.



Ryde playing in the leaves.


We had a great visit to Mimi and Papa's! It could not have worked out better for Ashlynn's lesson plan-last week was G for goat and this week is C for cow!! Both kids were able to try fresh goat's milk and now when they ask for milk they specify the animal!
The highlight for Ashlynn was holding the baby goats at Marilyn's and illustrating Marla's Scottish cows with their curly hair. Ryder's would have to be collecting rocks and acorns, while Gage enjoyed three tacos from Mimi and three helpings of Stromboli at Saturday night dinner. I suppose at his age, food is the most important thing?

We played lots of cards (sorry for beating you Marilyn!) and enjoyed being outside in the fresh air with the kids. It's always a good visit and we look forward to it every time!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!

Happy Birthday to the best mom in the world! Thanks so much for your MANY sacrifices in raising us, a child can NEVER appreciate it until they are adults in the throws and chaos of raising their own. And then it seems all to late to be so grateful for what a mom does, but thank you anyway!

Have a fantastic day, wish I could be with you, LOVE YOU!

Headed to Mimi and Papa's!

We're taking off today for Mimi and Papa's. We haven't been down there since October! Can't believe it's been so long, but circumstances have sort of ruled our schedule lately.

The kids can't wait and any time I can gt my kids excitedly in bed before 8pm the night before is FABULOUS! They are already discussing coffee with Mimi and how good they are going to be so they can join her!

Will post some pics when we get back, have a great weekend!

Real Poll!

Ok, I added a real poll to the right, so vote and vote often!

My 19 Week Bump:

If you haven't voted boy or girl, get on it! Two weeks to go and we will find out!

I'm so tired...

As we wrapped up pizza and movie night on Friday, Ashlynn came dragging over to tell me how tired she was. Looking at the clock and seeing that it was 8:30 I recommended "bedtime". Her response was: "No, no, I'm not tired in my head, just this part (she motioned from her neck down). I don't need to go to bed, mommy, my head is awake, just the rest of my body is tired."

Why does she have to be so darn smart?

It's all gone.

Yesterday I was a driven woman. Every Christmas decoration in the place came down. I don't know if it's the endless snow we've had or what, but I was fine seeing them go. Usually I'm a little bummed with the change, but I couldn't get going fast enough yesterday morning. The furniture is back in place and the floors are vacuumed (can anyone spell that word w/o spell check?).

For a moment, my house is clean (the downstairs anyway) and the world is at peace.

2007, what really happened...

The idea of a year end review is great, if you can actually remember what happened.

In January, I do remember starting this blog. Well, I had to actually look up the first entry to get the date, but I knew it was somewhere around that time.

We flew to San Diego in February for a great visit with the fam and soaking up of the California sun. I love going out west in the dead of midwest winter, it makes the final weeks of the freezing cold seem more bearable.....almost.

Unless I were to cheat and look up my blog for March, April, May, and June I couldn't really tell you what happened. I have three kids people, call it a slight distraction of time and life events.

July is easy. Up north to the cabin for three weeks, with a visit from mom and dad-AWESOME! We had the best summer! Golfing, fishing, and just plain relaxing...makes me look forward to this summer.

August, anybody's guess.

September was the start of homeschooling Ashlynn. She loves the curriculum and I love teaching her. September also added a bun in my oven, so I'll consider that one a relatively productive month.

October brought another trip out to San Diego for Johnny's wedding. Just Ashlynn and I flew out, good times.

November, a complete blur of pregnancy hormone induced nausea. A bit of a scare with the pregnancy (ok, a big scare) that brought on seven weeks of "taking it easy".

December, finally by the week of Christmas I felt like a new person, back to my old self again-thank you Lord.

In summary, the kids grew like weeds, became smarter (especially at negotiating and rationalizing) and continue to amaze Randy and I everyday. We catch ourselves watching them and then looking at each other smiling with the "can you believe they are so incredible?" look on our face. We look forward to welcoming another member to clan and the unique personality that will come with him/her.