The Stiles 5

Sunflower Inn--Yoder, Kansas

2011-04-08T00:16:00.000-05:00

My friend Tammy gave the boys a big bag of clothes this week, and they've had so much fun picking out their 'new' clothes each day. Tonight they discovered the Batman pajamas! What a treat--even though she doesn't have twins, she somehow managed to pass along an entire bag of coordinating outfits in the same size. She has the best-dressed kid in town, and we are the LUCKY recipients of his hand-me-downs!

Sophie attempted to wrap her own collarbone tonight, and this was the end result. Ha! Maybe we should be more clear about where her 'collarbone' is??

Now for some older pictures from the past few months! Brent and I had won a night's stay at a bed & breakfast in Yoder, KS a while back, and it was getting ready to expire. Since B&Bs aren't exactly his cup of tea, I decided to take Sophie for a 'girls-only overnight.'

Brent was working, so the boys got to go on their very first overnight at Kelly & Roger's! They each had their backpack and sleeping bag ready for the big occasion. They had a great time!

Sophie in front of the Sunflower Inn. Yoder was having a Christmas event in their VERY quaint downtown, so Sophie wore her reindeer shirt!

Yoder is an Amish community (the Sunflower Inn is actually a former Amish home), and we saw a lot of horse-drawn buggies on our trip. I sat on the porch on Sunday morning waiting for Sophie to wake up, and I counted at least a dozen buggies passing by on their way to church. Such a neat sight!

A delicious breakfast was waiting for us! Egg casserole, fruit, muffins, real butter, fresh honey...and homemade apple cider. Awesome. Kendra made us feel so welcome.

We spotted the church where the Amish families were worshipping, and I couldn't resist snapping a picture of the buggies all lined up.

We'll definitely make this a tradition!

Is it APRIL already??? First blog post of 2011!

2011-04-05T09:37:00.011-05:00

Dad has been asking about the blog (and I'm HORRIBLE about e-mailing pictures to him), so the blog is back in action! I'll try to make your reading worthwhile, Dad. :-)

SO VERY MUCH to catch up on! Let's see...

The boys are potty trained, and Blake even goes all night without a Pull-Up (now if we could get Sophie and Graham to follow suit). It is AWESOME to finally be a diaper-free house. Two nighttime Pull-Ups is nothing compared to the 20-plus diaper days of the past!

Sophie broke her collarbone on St. Patrick's Day...she was trying to walk on the outside of the trampoline enclosure (BIG no-no at our house) and Graham pushed her off. Here are her x-ray pics:

You might remember that almost exactly a year ago, Blake broke HIS collarbone by falling when getting out of his seat at the kitchen table. This is HIS x-ray...almost identical to Sophie's. The ER doctor assured me that this is the most common break among the 'under 5' group, and her orthopedist told me to throw the trampoline away.

Happy GratiTuesday! We are thankful for:

The new Via Christi St. Teresa hospital for having an AMAZING emergency room staff. They took fabulous care of Sophie, and met us at the door when we arrived. NO waiting.
Aunt Kelly for taking the kids and I to see the movie "Hop" this weekend, which was such a treat!! The kids loved it, and did really well during the movie. They ate their weight in popcorn and M&Ms.
Dad for coming down to help Brent tackle his 'project list', and for administering last rites to the dying refrigerator. As much as we hated to lose it, it was nice to finally put it out of its misery.
Caryn for chauffeuring Sophie to preschool when I'm working. SUCH a lifesaver!
Brent for being amazingly gifted with power tools & lawn equipment. He added on to the swingset so there's room for 4 swings (3 swings and a glider). The yard has been meticulously manicured and treated with fertilizer. He's the king of the great outdoors at our house!

Recent kid-pics coming soon.

Happy GratiTuesday!!!

2010-11-30T20:16:00.000-06:00

We're baaaaaaaack! Lots to catch up on, so we'll start with Thanksgiving and sprinkle a few older items throughout the week. So many things to be thankful for! The short list:

Hotels with swimming pools! We had a great time visiting family over Thanksgiving, and found out what a blessing indoor swimming pools are. The kids loved, loved, LOVED it!
Laid-back family. It was so nice to spend some time in a low-key environment to recharge our batteries. Dad and Louise were the perfect host & hostess!
Good food. Louise whipped up a great dinner, Jimmy made an awesome broccoli/rice casserole, and Aunt Darci made some homemade macaroni and cheese that still finds its way into my dreams. My mouth is watering a little right now, to be honest.
Black Friday shopping! Louise and I found some great buys on Friday morning, and were back before anyone missed us.
Aunt Judy! She gave me 2 pairs of shoes and a mess of clothes when we were home! AWESOME. I need to start hitting the treadmill again (SOON) so I can fit into some of them. :-)
Kids that travel well. They did great in the car, and we didn't have any problems on the road.

A few pics:

Shirts made with their handprints

I think Grandpa was singing. :-)

Grandpa reading to Graham

Grandma and Blake perusing catalogs

Jimmy & Joshua

Thanksgiving dinner 'kids table'!

Treats for Sophie's preschool class

The boys thought they were chickens!

My cousins Matt & LeAnn

Uncle Leroy & Aunt Judy

At the T-Rex restaurant! This dinosaur came inches from Brent's head.
He acted like he was going to kiss it, but that picture didn't come out--drats!

Annie Banannie's Consignment Sale!

2010-10-06T11:33:00.000-05:00

It's time for my friend Annie's consignment sale for kids' clothing and equipment! Annie is one of the most detail-oriented people I know (and one of the friendliest!), which means she's PERFECT for this line of work. You can sell kids' clothes, shoes, toys, strollers, high chairs, etc, etc, etc.

The sale is next Friday/Saturday (October 15 & 16), so there's plenty of time to get your items together for the sale. For more details or to register, go to: http://www.anniebananniessale.com.

GratiTuesday

2010-10-05T22:46:00.000-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! This week we're thankful for:

Our friend Patti had knee replacement surgery last week and is doing great! We need to get over and see her soon.
Caryn started picking up Sophie for preschool this morning, and will be our Tuesday 'lifesaver' while I'm still working Tuesdays. Sophie loves riding with Ryan! You're the BEST, Caryn.
My friend Annie invited us to El Dorado Lake's fun day last weekend, and the kids loved it! (Despite Mommy's poor wardrobe choices that morning...once it warmed up a little, we had a blast!) They fished (Blake was thrilled--he kept saying "I caught a WORM! Look--I caught a worm!" We need to get them some fishing poles and take them to the park).
Brent's car has been making a horrible rumbling noise when taking sharp turns for a while now. We've been putting off taking it to a repair shop for fear of the unknown ($$$), and I finally Googled it hoping to get an idea. The forum I stumbled into said the rear differential fluid needed to be changed, so we got some fluid from Honda and Brent changed it himself. It worked beautifully--no more noise!! What could have been an expensive trip to the service shop ended up costing about $30. Brent's so handy. :-)
We have a new sitter for the kids, and she's working out BEAUTIFULLY! This has been such a source of stress for us--I'm hoping things continue to go smoothly.
My friend Christy came to town and the kids and I got to spend the day with her on Sunday! I just realized that I didn't take ANY pictures that day...what was I thinking?? Christy is awesome with kids, and brought fun stickers for them to make Halloween pictures. She was also very encouraging when Graham used his "S" and "L" sounds well, so it helped reinforce his hard work (Christy's a speech pathologist).
Sophie had school pictures today, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how they turned out! She has a genuine smile in them.

The only thing that would make this week better is if we could get rid of the allergies that are plaguing us right now...but I guess that leads me to our final thing to be grateful for this week:

8. Allergy medicine!!

GratiTuesday

2010-09-28T22:21:00.000-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! This has been a bittersweet week so far, since one of our newest sitters' last day was today (due to an out-of-state move) and we're reconsidering the babysitter decision I posted about yesterday (we're already having issues with scheduling and inconsistency). So...babysitting remains our family's biggest stressor right now. It's been a long summer in that department...

All that being said, there's still so MUCH to be thankful for!

There are officially over 65 people in the Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey) class now! It's exciting to see his program 'speaking' to people and helping families.
Dad and Louise's visit was so nice, but too short. It's nice to have them here, because it's obvious how crazy they are about the kids by the way they interact with them. It sounds strange to say, but it lightens the pressure I feel when they're here.
Brent is getting a few overtime days this month--perfectly timed since our vehicle tags/taxes are due this month!
Brent has an incredible ability to fix our possessed icemaker. It constantly freezes up and he fixes it. I'd have been using ice cube trays by now--but he doesn't give up on it!
Brent is grateful for the new Crocs I ordered for him!
Kelly went shopping with me and the kids this weekend, and I found some clothes! Woo hoo! Taking the kids to any clothing store alone is practically out of the question, so I'm super grateful that she came along. Plus, it was nice to be in REAL clothing stores (I can't tell you the last time I shopped for clothes anywhere other than Target or WalMart...seriously YEARS). I forgot how great the 'new clothes smell' is...Ahhhhh, I can't wait to go again!! (Anyone want to come??)
BEAUTIFUL FALL WEATHER! The chill in the air is so nice, and the kids are loving being outside.
The trampoline makes the list again--the kids are crazy about it!
My friend Laurel came by my office to bring me a Pepsi the other day, which was wonderful and unexpected. I had a good visit with her, and it reminded me that small gestures sometimes make the biggest impacts.
My friend Jen invited us to her in-laws' farm to see chickens, ducks, goats and donkeys!! It was SUPER cool!! The kids got to collect eggs (there was a chicken sitting on them, and she made the funniest noises as the eggs were being collected from underneath her) and play with the goats. The goats act like dogs! I'm not sure who had more fun, me or the kids. We all loved it! I'll post pictures soon. (I checked to see if I could have chickens in our neighborhood...and am sad to say that we can't. Bummer.)

Pumpkin Patch

2010-09-27T08:49:00.000-05:00

I was ***this*** close to being successful at my blog-post-every-day challenge!! We got a bit off track this weekend with the babysitter search and an early visit from Dad & Louise.

The good news?? We have a new sitter starting on Friday! We were really torn about whether or not to continue to keep the kids at home with a sitter or to start taking them to a daycare. Hopefully we're making the right choice.

We had a fun visit with Dad & Louise this weekend! They were on their way back from a week-long trip to the Grand Canyon. We celebrated the boys' birthdays with cupcakes and a trip to the pumpkin patch. Dad joked (joked??) that they spent three days in Sedona for the cost of what 2 hours at the pumpkin patch cost, but the kids had a great time. :-)

New shirts--cute!

One of MANY turns blowing out candles

Grandma & Grandpa gave them a racetrack!

Was it windy?? What's up with my hair??

Barrel train--BIG HIT with the kids!

Tires

2010-09-23T23:29:00.000-05:00

The highlight of today was getting new tires for the van! (If you classify spending money on boring necessities a 'highlight.' I can think of a LOT more fun ways to spend that kind of money.)

We're in the middle of the never-ending-sitter-search. Our summer sitter is moving back to Michigan next week, so we're in the middle of an intense search for the right person. Keep your fingers crossed for us--it's a little stressful around here right now!!!

Doughnuts and elephants and salsa...oh my!

2010-09-22T22:41:00.000-05:00

The big day started with doughnuts for breakfast (with candles, of course!), then Brent and the boys came to see me at the office for a bit while Sophie was at preschool. Afterwards, Brent took the kids to the zoo for a Happy Meal picnic lunch! Apparently the animals were all pretty active--especially the penguins--and the kids loved it. Sophie kept asking to see the elephants and the giraffes. They love the zoo so much!

We took the boys out to dinner for their favorite--chips & salsa! Kelly, Roger, Becky & Aaron joined us, too! (Which I'm pretty sure they regret, because...) See the salsa bowl in front of Sophie? Shortly after this picture was taken, Graham took a tumble off of his chair. Before his aerial-back-handspring-with-a-stuck-landing took place, he somehow hit the edge of Sophie's salsa bowl and sent it FLYING. Half of it went down her face and into her lap, and the other half went ALL over the walls (with some splatters on Becky's white shirt--sorry Becky!). MUCH CRYING ENSUED. Sophie was completely appalled because "Brother did this to me!" and Graham was just shocked and startled. (Blake, however? Glanced at them and kept eating. I wish I had a replay of the event! That might have been the funniest part!) We joked afterwards that we would never have guessed that the amount of salsa in that small bowl could cover so much ground! Apparently you CAN paint an entire room with just a quart.

Graham was SO embarrassed (but not hurt, thank goodness!), so we had to get pretty silly to bring him back around. Sophie was playing in her sour cream, and thought she was grossing us out with it. We were actually laughing at the finger she was using (she didn't know that, of course...and yes, we really ARE that immature), which made her try even harder to get us messy...

This look is too much (and how did she get sour cream on her forehead?!)!!!

All in all, they had a good birthday!

Happy 3rd birthday, Blake & Graham!!!

2010-09-21T08:59:00.000-05:00

Can this be possible?! Our boys are THREE today! It's flown by! I was (semi)joking the other day that I feel like the past three years have been such a blur, and we're just now to the point where we can peek our heads out of the cave and look around. What a three years it has been!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKE!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAHAM!!!

The night before you were born (whoa belly!):

You loved to sleep right next to each other from the very beginning:

Proud big sister!

You've always played right next to each other, too:

Best friends:

Giggling boys:

Into mischief!

And here you are at THREE!

Gentlemen, you have blessed us beyond words. Both of you have such sweet hearts and outgoing personalities. You are crazy about each other and are your sister's biggest fans.

Blake, your favorite food is pasta, you love your koala bear, and are so laid back and snuggly. Lately you like to go outside at night and look at the stars. You are such a gentleman, wanting to help carry even the heaviest items.

Graham, your favorite foods are fruits and vegetables, you love your Pooh bear, and have more energy than we could have imagined! You are so social, and from a distance start shouting 'Hi friends!' to anyone within earshot.

We love you, we love you, we love you!!!

XOXOXO

Pampered Chef Deep Dish Covered Baker

2010-09-20T20:23:00.003-05:00

I got a fun new toy for the kitchen--the Pampered Chef Deep Dish Covered Baker. It's glazed on the outside and stoneware on the inside. I was hesitant about it, because stoneware seems like it would dry the food out and would be a nightmare to clean, but I was wrong. The best part about it is that it cooks in the oven OR the microwave! Tonight we had a pork loin cooked in the microwave, and the pan was a cinch to clean up! (I have to admit that the loin I bought was WAY too lean, and I should have marinated it. The other half that I cooked in the crockpot was dry as a bone, and it was more moist in this baker. I can't wait to try the smaller Hormel seasoned pork loins next time, I bet they'll be awesome.) You can bake cakes, cobblers, etc. in the microwave--I can't wait to get it figured out!

After it cooked in the microwave for about 30 minutes. I had used a dry rub (and no water), and worried that it would scorch--lots of juice in there, though!

You don't use soap on it--just hot water, so this is AFTER the roast was removed and I cleaned it up! It was a CINCH.

Spangles finale #1

2010-09-19T21:19:00.005-05:00

I can't believe it's been a year already since Brent did his first overnight at Spangles to win a free weekly Spangles meal for a year! Today he used his last meal...see how sad he is?! He still has a while left on the second book, though. It will be a very sad day for him when that book runs out, though!

(Please pardon his shirt...some guys from work got him that because they know we have cats, and he wears it all the time! He loves cats--don't call PETA.)

The kids and I were painting earlier today, and Sophie asked me to paint her some different shapes. She has the sweetest heart, and after each shape she said "Good job!" After we were done, I started cleaning up and noticed that my page was gone. Worrying about it laying face down on the carpet somewhere, I went looking for it...and found it on the fridge. That sweet girl put MY picture on the fridge. (Warm fuzzy, warm fuzzy!!!)

Visit with Leslie's family

2010-09-18T22:49:00.002-05:00

My friend Leslie was here with her husband and 3 kids today, and it was so great to spend some time with them. They brought us this adorable ghost! Check it out--it's kid-sized boots and jeans (the boots are filled with concrete), then the rest of the body is made of PVC material and styrofoam. Too cute! She said I should put it on the porch, but I think it might go next to the fireplace. (Blake is NOT a fan of it, and gives a wide berth as he goes by. If he doesn't warm up to it soon, it might have to go on the porch for fear of traumatizing the poor boy!)

Our three kids spent most of the day on the trampoline with Leslie's three kids. They all wore themselves out! I have to admit that I was skeptical about getting the trampoline in the beginning, but it was such a hit today that I have to give Brent credit for the idea!

Sophie spent the first half of the day in a princess costume getting ready for the 'princess tea' birthday party she was invited to, but the party was cancelled! :-( The mom got sick, so hopefully it will be rescheduled soon--I think it will be adorable to see all of the little girls dressed up! Luckily Leslie's crew came when they did, and Sophie forgot all about being sad about the party.

(p.s., I got the laundry caught up today--SUCCESS!)

TGIF

2010-09-17T21:38:00.005-05:00

Woo hoo for weekends! I'm hoping to get caught up on laundry/cleaning/meal planning, etc. this weekend. Sophie has a 'princess tea birthday party' to attend tomorrow, and we have good friends coming up from Oklahoma City for the day. We're really looking forward to their visit!

Hmmmmm...I thought this 'blog-post-a-day' thing was a good idea, but it makes me realize how boring things can be around here on a daily basis...(crickets chirping)...Ummm, we went to Sam's tonight...(chirp)...and bought a cake for our friends' visit tomorrow...(chirp)...and Sophie is sneaking down the stairs as I type this because she officially thinks she belongs in bed with me when Brent is working...my own fault, I know...(chirp)...

Wait--here's something cute! I often call the kids "Sugar" when addressing them, and tonight at Sam's Sophie asked for something. Blake said "No, Sugar" but when he says it, it sounds like "No, Chigger." Cute!

Soooo...that's about it...(chirp)...I'm off to research new mops on Amazon because mine broke tonight...(chirp)...does that count as exciting??

Shots for Sophie

2010-09-16T21:44:00.004-05:00

It was time for Sophie's 4-year vaccinations, so we went before school this morning to get them. Bless her heart, it was traumatic for her! She loves going to the doctor, but I'm guessing she'll be a little gun-shy after today. She got 3 injections, one in her right thigh and two in her left. She yelped so loud, then started crying so hard that no sound came out. It was heartbreaking! I always thought the baby stage was the hardest with shots, but now I think it's this age--she's old enough to realize the pain was inflicted intentionally, but young enough to not understand the reason. She did NOT want to go to school after that, she kept whimpering "I need to go home and go to bed...I need to go home and see brothers..." I ended up keeping her home from preschool (since we'd missed a good portion of it, anyway), and she went to Graham's speech therapy appointment with the boys and I instead. She took a good nap afterwards and seemed fine. She went to church tonight and was fine except for the tenderness in her legs, then when we got home and I changed her into her PJs, she started shivering. I took her temperature and it's 102.5. Eek! The doctor said it's ok and to give her some ibuprofen through the night to keep the temperature down. Bless her heart!

Tonight was the kickoff for the new FPU/Dave Ramsey class! We have almost 60 people signed up for it--I'm so excited! His message is so good, and he delivers it with such humor. I'm excited to get to know everyone and start celebrating their successes!

Happy birthday, brother!

2010-09-15T21:28:00.003-05:00

Today is my brother John's birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHNNY!

******************************************************************

We had some pretty wicked weather here tonight, lots of hail and tornado warnings. Our neighborhood got golfball-sized hail, but a lot of the city saw baseball-sized hail. Lots of window knocked out of cars and homes around the city. It left as quickly as it came, though!

I had dinner tonight with Pati, Caryn and Luci while all of the weather commotion took place, and about halfway through dinner Brent called to say he was taking the boys on a bike ride (Sophie was at Awanas). The storm had just started as I walked into the restaurant, so that shows how short-lived the storm was! The boys loved the bike ride, and Sophie loved Awanas.

Not much else to report! (Unless you want to hear about the spider Brent found in the basement tonight, and the frantic search for a new exterminator we're now on...those cats better watch their backs, because they're definitely falling down on the job...)

GratiTuesday

2010-09-14T21:47:00.002-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! This week we're thankful for:

Perfect weather for the kids' birthday party!
Friends and family who celebrated the kids' birthdays with us or called with well-wishes for the event. You all made it an extra-special weekend, and the kids had a blast!!
Companies who rent cotton candy machines, and for Kelly who wasn't afraid to give cotton candy-making a whirl with me. We are AWESOME cotton candy makers!
Richard and Pati for insisting that we GET the cotton candy machine, and picking up the tab for the machine rental--they have a soft spot for Sophie's sweet tooth. :-)
The kids and I are grateful for Brent spending an entire day getting the trampoline assembled and everything ready outside for the birthday.

The week seems to have been overshadowed by the kids' birthday party, doesn't it?! :-)

Watermelon (& furry friends)

2010-09-13T21:23:00.004-05:00

TV is our (my??) nemesis around here. The kids choose TV over almost anything, and it's making me crazy. Tonight I was bound and determined to get them out of the house for a while, and remembered this sign near our house:

Dirt! Plants! Perfect for kids! When we pulled in the drive, we were met by a sweet older couple who talked with the kids and helped us pick a good watermelon from the flatbed in their driveway. The kids wandered around and played in the dirt for a while, but it was close to supper time and we didn't want to overstay our welcome. We hopped back in the car and went for a drive in the country. The kids love to look at animals, and we found plenty of cows and horses to keep their interest (Sophie SWEARS she saw an elephant.) I'd love to find someone who sells farm fresh eggs, and show the kids the chicken coops. I wish we had some land--we'd definitely have chickens!

Then we came home, played on the trampoline for quite a while (their little heads were so hot and sweaty, and they were giggling like crazy--THAT'S what I want to see from active kids!), then they took baths. I finally took the final tape off of Blake's incision, and it looks good. We see the doctor for a follow up soon, and I think she'll be pleased.

[On a very somber note, my friends Melissa, Sue & Kelly are on my heart tonight--it's been a hard month for furry loved ones. Melissa had to put her cat, Jezzie, to sleep a few weeks ago, and then her mom Sue's cat, Missy, to sleep Friday. Today Kelly had to put her dachshund, Abby, to sleep. All of them were GREAT pets and will be sadly missed. My friends are all great pet mommies, and my heart breaks for them. Heaven is a greater place with Jezzie, Missy & Abby in it. I'm so sorry for your losses, girls.]

Nighttime

2010-09-12T21:52:00.004-05:00

We're having some issues with nighttime still. I mentioned that Sophie has been waking up around 2:30am to pray, but then she started to just come into our room in the middle of the night. Last night she came in around 11:00pm, so she's getting earlier and earlier! I hear her upstairs now tiptoeing around...she's probably waiting until we get settled in before she strikes again. I have to admit--I love having her there (she calls it a 'slumber party with mama'), but Brent doesn't sleep well when she's in our bed, so he usually goes downstairs and sleeps in the guest room. I feel bad about that, but to be honest, it's cold downstairs and he gets to turn the fan on full-blast...he really does love it down there. I'm doing my best not to make this a habit, though. Sophie's bed is a 'universal bed' that transitions from crib-to-toddler bed-to-full sized bed. Next in the budget is to get her a full sized mattress, box springs & rails, so maybe she'll like it better when it's more of a 'big girl bed'?

We got a good laugh out of Graham sleeping a few nights ago--note that Graham is NOT sleeping on the pillow, but his bear IS. Talk about a sacrifice! He's a great best friend already!

Birthday party!

2010-09-11T21:08:00.005-05:00

Today was the big day! We celebrated the kids' birthdays in our backyard and were blessed with GREAT friends and BEAUTIFUL weather. We hired a friend to take photos during the festivities, so I should have some snapshots to share by next weekend. (Seriously--this was such a gift to ourselves today. We normally are running around trying to juggle the cake/kids/gifts/guests AND trying to get a decent picture of anyone or anything. Today we were able to enjoy our friends while Jancy did all of the hard photography work! Awesome! I highly recommend it. Hopefully she was able to get some good shots!)

We gave the kids a trampoline for their birthdays! Brent worked hard on it yesterday, and since we wanted it to be a surprise it took a lot of planning and forethought to orchestrate. His solution? Tarps. He tarped off the patio doors and living room windows, and we didn't let the kids into Sophie's room until after dark last night. Great plan! (One of the neighbors wondered if we were having termite treatment done--ha!!)

This morning was a little tricky since they all woke up super early (they knew today was the party and were too excited to sleep!), and Brent and I had to be in the backyard finishing up the final details on the trampoline. We pulled it off, though--we put them in our room to watch a movie while we finished, then tag-teamed with the kids until our fabulous friends/sitters Becky & Kelsey came to take them on a walk until the guests arrived. Once everyone was here, we blindfolded the kids and took them around back to see the trampoline. It was a hit with the kids AND their party guests!

We had cake, ice cream, pinata candy, chips/dips (Kelly's specialties!) and the fabulous cotton candy--which held up beautifully through the night! I think we sent all of the kids home on sugar highs. The guests' goodie bags bags held pinata candy, coupons for free Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas, cotton candy and a helium balloon.

Whew--we're tuckered out around here--what a FUN day!!

Cotton Candy, part 2

2010-09-10T23:50:00.000-05:00

I'm too tired to keep my eyes open for much longer, but wanted to stay true to my 'daily blog post' challenge to myselft. Kelly and I were busy tonight, don't you think?! Cotton candy making is FUN! We made over 50--don't even ask how many we ATE. It was so yummy & fluffy! I can't wait to see Sophie's reaction.

The guy at the rental place said that cotton candy is very temperamental, and if it even gets a hint of moisture in the bag it will melt down to the size of a marble by morning. I'll be up in the night checking on it! It's kind of like hanging wallpaper and praying that it's still hanging the next morning...I've lost sleep over that, too. Fingers crossed for the cotton candy!

Cotton candy

2010-09-09T22:15:00.003-05:00

Cotton candy is a big topic of conversation at our house this week, because we've gone back and forth about renting a cotton candy machine for the kids' birthday party. My friend Laura discovered that you can BUY a small machine from Bed, Bath & Beyond for the same price as the rental of one of the larger machines, so we were ON it. The kids and I went to BB&B today, and--lo and behold--there it was! $39.95! When I picked it up, I wish I could have captured Sophie's reaction for you--"Is that for MEEEE?!?! I love it, I LOVE IT!!" Best reaction EVER.

It looks exactly like the machine pictured below, and there are a few things I can tell you for certain:

The hand pictured here is apparently a Barbie doll hand. This machine is not NEARLY this big.
To get the big, fluffy amount of cotton candy pictured here, they have had this machine running since the FIRST George Bush was in office. I ran it for an hour and was able to get a sparse web on the paper cone...reminiscent of the 'before' comb-over picture from a Hair Club for Men advertisement. Just enough to whet the kids' appetites...then they finally got bored and wandered off to the swingset.
After using this machine, I feel like I stood in a sandstorm. I have more pink sugar granules stuck to me than you would believe!

It's a cute little machine, but more trouble than it's worth. Sooooooo, we'll be renting one of the industrial machines tomorrow and see if we can spin it like the carnies do. :-) Pictures to follow!

Awanas

2010-09-08T22:17:00.002-05:00

Sophie started Awanas tonight at church! It's like a Bible class for kids, with lots of fun games and lessons to help the kids learn. This is from the Awana website:

The Awana club for preschoolers is built on two premises:
Young children can and should receive spiritual training.
Home is the primary place for spiritual training.
Our preschool program meets these needs through …
Fun – and lots of it! Awana is fun with a purpose – to reach and train kids for Jesus Christ. Games, puppets, crafts, awards and other activities transform our preschool program into a lively weekly experience where fun and learning go hand in hand.

It seems like a great program. She'll learn Bible verses and earn badges for different things. Sophie doesn't know any of the kids in her class, which feels unusual since this is the church that she's been involved in. I suppose this is a chance to meet lots of new little friends! She seemed to enjoy it. I worry that it might be too much for her as we get farther into the Fall. Between preschool, Awanas, church, Sunday school, and nursery when the new Dave Ramsey class starts (next week already!), it might be too much. We might have to re-introduce a short afternoon nap for her to recharge her batteries.

Treats & GratiTuesday

2010-09-07T22:47:00.003-05:00

Sophie took birthday treats to preschool today! She was so happy to be able to celebrate with her little friends! We made Rice Krispie treats and added Fruity Pebbles, then drizzled them in white chocolate and sprinkled with pink sugar. She loved them!

Happy GratiTuesday! This week we're thankful for:

Caryn has offered to be a TREMENDOUS help to us by taking Sophie to preschool on Tuesdays that Brent is working. That is such a load off of my mind!!
Our sitter Becky is so reliable, and always willing to help in a pinch if her schedule allows.
Again and again, we're thankful for my boss who keeps me around despite MY scheduling conflicts (between our other sitter calling in sick and Blake's surgery, I've been away from the office a lot during the past three weeks).
Our friend Tammy watched the trio while Brent and I went to dinner last night!
I won a prize at our church's open house for two free meals at Gobi Grille--that's why we went out for dinner. Can't beat it! It was delicious.
Brent had three things to add to the list: for Becky being so reliable, for the Dave Ramsey podcasts he listens to in the car, and for his favorite TV show "Cops." (Yes...that was his honest input.)

Off to bed! Sophie's been waking up at 3am for the past few nights saying "Prayers, Mommy! Prayers!" Somehow she thinks we forgot to pray before bed, so we repeat them in the middle of the night. We'll see if it happens tonight! Zzzzzzzz......

Pictures of Sophie's birthday

2010-09-06T22:22:00.004-05:00

Grandma & Grandpa came down for the day to celebrate Sophie's birthday, and we must have been too busy having fun to take many pictures! Here one Dad took of the birthday girl!

He was really hoping to get a good picture of the three of them behaving on the couch...this is the best he could do. It does give a true reflection of how they really are, though!:

As I mentioned, I borrowed a pan from a friend to make a big cupcake as Sophie's birthday cake. The pan is a Wilton brand, and really high quality. I wondered if their pans were worth the price, and now I'm a believer that they are. The cake is baked in two pieces--the bottom portion is one piece and the top is another. I attached them together with a little frosting, then frosted the top. The whole time I was frosting it, I kept remembering the cake decorating class Melissa and I had planned to take by now...but HAVEN'T yet. I'm needing some lessons! But, Sophie was ecstatic, so I felt like a professional. :-)

Brent put Dad to work, of course--those two always seem to have a project! This weekend Dad welded some pieces of the fence that had come loose, and I think I overheard plans being made to fix some of the damaged siding on the house when the weather cools off. I wish we all lived closer together! Sophie's first question this morning was "Are Grandma & Grandpa coming over??" Awww!! She had a great birthday!!

Happy 4th Birthday, Sophie!!!

2010-09-05T23:05:00.000-05:00

4 years ago today, we welcomed our first baby into our family!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SOPHIA ADELINE!!!!!
We love you so much!!
**************************************************

THEN...

...AND NOW:

Sophie, you are a sensitive soul and couldn't be more sweet-natured. You are so affirming and encouraging of other people, and can often be heard saying things like "Good job!" or "I love it!". Your favorite foods are ice cream and cupcakes, your favorite toy is still Bunny, and your favorite color is pink (with purple running a close second!). You love to talk on the phone, HATE to go to bed, and are crazy happy about meeting new people. You shine from the inside out, and are truly more than we deserve! We love you!!!

More professional pics

2010-09-04T22:56:00.003-05:00

I'm in the process of making Sophie's birthday cake for tomorrow--fingers crossed that it turns out ok! I borrowed one of those large cupcake-shaped pans from a friend since Sophie's works the words 'cupcake' and 'ice cream' into almost all conversations (sweet tooth, you think??). She specifically asked for chocolate, so chocolate it is. Pictures tomorrow.

As promised, here's another picture from their photo shoot!

LeAnn & Laundromats

2010-09-03T22:15:00.001-05:00

Today is my cousin LeAnn's birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEE!

***********************************************

What did the boys and I do while Sophie was at preschool yesterday? We went to the laundromat. I needed to wash the big comforter because the cat got sick on it (which made me threaten to put her into kitty foster care, but I later decided that she's worth her weight in gold--story in a minute). A new laundromat was built near my office recently, so we took the comforter there. This place is incredible! They have two Little Tikes playgrounds (pictured below), WiFi, at least 6 big flat screen TVs on the walls, a small lounge area with a couch and bar tables, it's super clean and it's HUGE! More washers/dryers than I've ever seen. The boys had a blast! Where were laundromats like this when I needed them on a weekly basis??

Now for the value of our cats... The babysitter said she saw a 'big' (her word, not mine) spider downstairs recently but couldn't catch it. (She told Brent about it, and he begged her not to tell me.) She found another one (maybe the same one??) on Wednesday and caught/killed it, so she thought it was safe to tell me so I could talk to the exterminator (we just had him here to spray a couple of weeks ago). Well...tonight the cats had another 'big' (my word now) one cornered in the kitchen. So now I'm thinking that I'll deal with washing the comforter every now and then as long as they continue to patrol for spiders. (But I'm still calling the exterminator again tomorrow--this place can glow with toxicity if necessary, but get the spiders out of here!!) I feel like things are crawling on me right now...sorry if reading this is doing the same thing to you...

Sophie's first day of preschool!

2010-09-02T22:07:00.002-05:00

Today was the big day! The boys and I took Sophie to preschool, and she was convinced that we were staying with her. She got nervous and antsy when I told her we couldn't stay, but once she saw her teachers she ran right in to her classroom and said "Ok, mommy--you can go on! I'll stay here with them!" That was an awesome weight off of my mind--she's such a well-adjusted girl!

Here's the big preschooler in front of the house (like the bow on her shirt?? My handiwork!):

Her big girl backpack! (Embroidered by my friend Laura--cute, eh?!):

At the church in front of the banner. The boys kept trying to hop in all of her pictures, so Sophie let them in this one:

Sophie and Ryan! The best of friends!

She loved preschool! She reported that they went outside, played with friends and had snacks ('wands and candy' she said). She's already looking forward to next week!

GratiWednesday & a 'September blog challenge'

2010-09-01T22:30:00.004-05:00

I'm letting the blogging slip again! I'm challenging myself to blog every day in September, and if you're a blogger, I extend the same challenge to you. Happy September 1st!

This week we have a LOT to be thankful for:

Our friend Karie who rescued me last week when our babysitter called in sick. She ran over from her kids' bus stop to watch our kids until Brent could get home. Friends you can call at the crack of dawn are the real deal!!!

Our sitter Becky who covered that same afternoon so I could leave work to take Blake to his surgeon appointment. (Called her at the crack of dawn, too!)

The staff at Wesley Hospital for being so nice to us when Blake was having surgery for a hernia repair.

Kelly for going to the hospital with me and calming my nerves while Blake was in surgery.

Our neighbor Lucille for making us a huge chocolate sheet cake, a pan of mac-n-cheese, chicken croissants and ice cream cups for the kids. Yum!

My cell phone pooped out, and my friends Laura and Shannon came to my rescue! It's a perfect picture of 'old & new friends'--I've known Shannon since grade school, and Laura is one of my newest friends. They are both priceless. Shannon's phone arrived in the mail today, and Brent is upstairs setting it up for me as I blog. Kudos for him being so good at that sort of thing!

I had a Pampered Chef party to celebrate my friend Caryn's new business, and we had a great turnout of ladies to show their support. It was fun (& yummy!), and Caryn is on her way to being a top-notch consultant.

My boss might be the best thing ever. I had to be off work quite a bit this week for Blake's surgery and appointments, and my boss has been so flexible with me.

Sophie met her preschool teachers last night, and they are both so warm! Sophie had a top-notch FIT before we left, and was adamant that she was NOT going to 'playschool'. The staff and teachers were all so kind and fun that it was hard to get her to leave!

Roger, Becky & Aaron watched the boys while Sophie and I were at the preschool. We walked in and Aaron was playing ABCs on his guitar for them!

Now for some pictures of Blake on surgery day:

Playing in the play room before surgery--

Reading a Nemo book he borrowed the sweet nurse--

Still reading the book, but he was noticably 'loopy' from the medication they gave him before surgery. This was the most comical part of the day!!

When we got home, I had him arranged in our room to recover for the day. Sophie insisted on making lunch for him, so she took him a PB&J sandwich cut into dinosaur shapes, grapes and Goldfish crackers. SUCH a sweet big sister.

He's healing well, but complains of discomfort sometimes. I'm hoping by the weekend he'll be feeling more comfortable. What a little trooper!!

GratiTuesday

2010-08-24T14:38:00.003-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! This week we're thankful for:

My friend Serena and her awesome photography/editing skills. It's humbling to personally know someone that God has so amazingly gifted. We got the other photos back, and I'll be posting them on here as the week progresses.
Kelly who went to the photo shoot with me, and sat in a McDonald's playroom afterward with me while the kids 'celebrated' how well they did having their pictures taken.
Friends who came to the rescue with their old cell phones to help me in the interim since my phone pooped out. We're trying to decide whether or not to stay with AT&T since our contract is up, and this way I can get by with a borrowed phone until we decide. (Side note: Remember how convicted I was about not wanting an iPhone? I'm eating those words now. I want one BADLY.)
The ER doctors and staff who bumped Blake to the head of the line last Thursday night. He has a follow-up doctor's appointment tomorrow, so I'll post about our 'experience' after that.
My friend Melissa who came over for a 'tutu tutorial' Sunday and didn't seem to mind the three extra pairs of helping hands!
Our friends Tammy and Rob who (again) amazed us with their generosity this week. Brent went over to look at a small ladder they had, hoping to find out the brand so he could buy one for us, and they GAVE it to him. What an awesome surprise!

Teaser photo...

2010-08-23T12:14:00.003-05:00

We had the kids' pictures taken on Saturday, and this is the "teaser photo" we got. I love it!! I'll post more as I get them!

Happy GratiWednesday!

2010-08-18T21:27:00.004-05:00

So much to be thankful for, and it's been a long time since our last "Grati" post. I know I'm forgetting to add a lot, but here are a few:

We found a great sitter for the Fall! We are losing our sweet Tara (she's graduating this semester), so she'll just be able to watch the kids as her school schedule allows. We changed gears and actually found someone who nannies professionally, and we're hoping we don't burn her out! She started this week and (knock on wood) we think it will be great.
Fun birthdays! We celebrated our sitter Becky's 21st birthday this week, and (of course) Brent's birthday yesterday. Brent's birthday ended with a great dinner at the new Mongolian grill (Genghis) and a movie ("Expendables" with Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mickey Rourke, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin...you get the picture). He had a great birthday! (& yes, for those of you keeping score, it WAS complete Hell for me. He totally paid me back for making him watch "Letters to Juliet" on my birthday.)
Tara brought the kids all kinds of fun goodies last night when she babysat for us--dress-up necklaces, magnets, butterfly tattoos and more--and the kids had so much fun playing with her.
Air conditioning! Mercy, the AC has worked its tail off.
Average bill payment for electricity (for #4 above). I'm sure we'd pass out if we had to *guess* how much to budget for electricity. Woooo, last month's was a doozy!
The last FPU class ended a couple of weeks ago, and we still have a couple of weeks "off" before the next one starts. It's nice to get a break, but I'm anxious to meet our new classmates for the next session.
The kids' pediatrician for filling out the necessary forms for Sophie's preschool without making us come in for an office visit. She's the best!
Kelly helped me take the boys for their 'big boy' haircuts at the salon! This was their second time getting 'real' haircuts (Mommy's been doing it at home), but we wanted a good haircut for their upcoming pictures. The boys did amazingly well! (Side note, we won't be going back to that salon--Kelly and I almost fainted when the total was $18 EACH! For toddlers??)
My friend Laura and her daughter Jaiden invited us to a movie last weekend. We saw "How to Train Your Dragon" and the kids were really good. I was surprised that it held their interest for so long!
Mucinex and Vicks. I'm battling a summer cold this week and the 'Vicks + socks' bedtime routine is a lifesaver!

So many more that I'm forgetting right now--I'll have to add more to next week's list.

As promised, here are some pictures of the kids!

After the boys' haircuts--you can see the slight "spikiness" of the front of their bangs. Cute!

At the movie with Jaiden:

Purely for blackmail later (their favorite movie right now is Cinderella--you should see them ballroom dance!):

More pics to come as the week progresses!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRENT!!!!!!

2010-08-17T08:40:00.005-05:00

We celebrated with doughnuts this morning--candles and all. Here are the kids singing to their Daddy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENT!!!

We made a Happy Birthday sign, and Sophie was thrilled with the results. She couldn't wait for Brent to see it--she stumbled out of bed barely awake this morning saying "C'mon brothers, look at Daddy's sign!" Graham saw it and said "TA DA!!" Classic Graham--such a showman!

We're back in blogworld now after a not-so-brief hiatus. Somehow there haven't been enough hours in the day for the past few weeks. I'll be posting a GratiWednesday post tomorrow along with pictures and updates on the kids.

Happy birthday Kelly!

2010-06-28T16:26:00.001-05:00

Today is my friend Kelly's ("Aunt Kelly" to the kids) birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY!!!!!

I ♥ my toaster oven

2010-06-28T16:12:00.003-05:00

Like most people, I hate to turn the oven on when it's this hot. We've come to rely on the toaster oven for things like frozen pizzas, fish sticks, cookies (wow, I feed my family a lot of frozen junk), but I recently started making things like breakfast casseroles and main dishes (now we're getting healthier) in it, too.

Last night I made a stacked enchilada in a springform pan, and it turned out really well. So well, in fact, that I had to take a picture of it to show you:

This is such a versatile dish, and the recipe combinations are limitless. This is what I used in mine:

4 flour tortillas
1 lb. ground beef
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can corn, drained & rinsed
Salsa (about 1 1/2 cups)
8 oz. (2 cups) shredded cheese

Brown ground beef with taco seasoning. Add beans and corn to beef. Place a flour tortilla in the bottom of a springform pan. Top with 1/4 of the meat mixture and spread a thin layer of salsa over meat. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat with remaining tortillas/meat/cheese, ending with a layer of meat and cheese. Bake for 30 minutes at 350, then let rest 10 minutes on cooling rack before removing sides of pan.

Next time I'm going to try shredded pork roast/fat free cream cheese/green chiles. So many options!

Now, on a non-toaster oven related food topic, we had a play date here this weekend and these are the sandwiches I made:

Ha! Aren't they cute?? There were turkey/cheese and PB&Js in each shape. After lunch we turned on the sprinklers, and the kids loved it! (I completely forgot to take pictures of the kids with their little friends...)

GratiTuesday (late again?!)

2010-06-23T15:17:00.002-05:00

Late again! Things we're grateful for this week:

My friend Laura loaned us two potty chairs so we could get started on potty training the boys. I'm seriously thinking about starting tomorrow with one of the boys, but we haven't decided which one should be first yet. (Which reminds me...I'd better stop at the store for a bottle of wine...)
VBS was a success! Sophie loved it, and loved coming to work with Mommy in the mornings before heading to the church.
Having a boss that's understanding of juggling a career and small children, so he didn't mind #2 above.
My friend Christy is on a road trip, and we've gotten two postcards from her! The kids love carrying them around and talking about mountains and snow. Fun mail rocks!
Brent's friend and his wife came over for dinner last weekend, and it was a really fun night. The guys haven't seen each other in over 15 years! They had a great time catching up, and his wife and I had a chance to visit. SUPER nice couple!
Air conditioning--in the car and in the house. I can't imagine living without them!

End of VBS week

2010-06-21T07:39:00.002-05:00

Vacation Bible School ended with a grand finale singing performance and family night at the zoo. All of the kids wore their VBS shirts and sat on bleachers to sing. Sophie lasted about 30 seconds before she came and sat on my lap (who knew she could be such a shy thing??), so I'm glad I got a couple of good pictures early in the performance.

Sophie's buddy, Ryan, stayed up there for the whole performance, though. Their teacher (Ryan's mom) Caryn said she had to separate them during story time each day at VBS because they'd talk and giggle, taking each other's shoes off and having a fun time with each other. Cute!!

Sophie's already looking forward to next year, and the boys will be able to go with her!

Speaking of the boys, Sophie and Blake have found a way to get on top of Sophie's dresser. Check out their "stepstool"...a trash can turned upside down with a play drum balancing on top. Oy...

GratiTuesday (...a little late...)

2010-06-16T13:49:00.006-05:00

Graham still hasn't been sleeping well this week, so our schedule is a little off kilter around here. I slept in his bed one night, and my back is still recovering. :-) Here's a picture from the other night when all 3 were in our bed!

Here's our GratiTuesday list for the week (...a little late...)!

Our church is having Vacation Bible School this week, and Sophie is LOVING it! Our friend Caryn is the teacher in her room, so that makes it even better. It's AMAZING how cool the church looks right now--it's a safari theme and they've gone all out with decorating. Every time Sophie walks in to the church, she says "It's a party!", and there really is a festive feel!
The sump pump in our yard (called a "French drain") went out this past weekend, but Brent's super handyman skills saved us. He had to replace the pump and this one is working perfectly.
Our friend Josh came through with awesome Tostito's coupons this week--the kids are in heaven!
Our newest sitter started this week, and she seems to be handling everything well. I can feel my stress level going down a few notches...

Now for a few pictures...first is the cute view I had when they were sitting on the side of the bathtub:

Sophie getting her toes and nails painted in preparation for VBS:

First day of VBS!

Weather

2010-06-13T21:17:00.002-05:00

Graham suddenly has storm phobia...and since wherever Graham goes, Blake goes, I have two 2-year-old bedfellows tonight. Sophie was fearful and joined us for a little while, but it was too much for her and she asked to go back to her own bed. That child's smart beyond her years, I tell you. More tomorrow, since I'm laying here in semi-darkness with Graham practically burrowed into my ribcage and listening to Blake talk non-stop while I peck this out on my iTouch's tiny screen. Wish us luck. (Won't Brent be surprised by this sight when he gets home from work??) Oh mercy, I spoke too soon--Sophie decided it was safer with me & brothers...now the entire trio is in here...

GratiTuesday

2010-06-08T09:53:00.003-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! Things we're grateful for this week:

We had a fun day on my birthday--a bike ride with the kids, lunch at McD's (kids' pick), and dinner at Kobe for Brent and I. I didn't make it to Borders, but I'm determined to get there next weekend! Brent PROMISED I could. :-)
The internet! Brent found two buddies that he hasn't seen in years--I sense a couple of fun reunions in our future!
Facebook--it was nice to open my e-mails and see birthday wishes from family and friends. It made me feel warm and fuzzy. :-)
My boss took our office to lunch yesterday--to Gobi Grill, my favorite!
Our first weekend using our new babysitter went great. She watched them Saturday night (Brent and I went to see "Letters to Juliet") and Sunday night (dinner at Kobe), and the kids seemed very relaxed and comfortable when we got home. That puts Mommy's mind at ease!!
Kelly came over for some much-needed "margaritas on the patio" time after I put the kids to bed. I need to schedule "patio" dates with friends more often!!
"Miss Jennifer", Graham's speech therapist. We had our first real lesson time with her last week and Graham LOVED it. He's not very far behind, which is great since he spent so much of his first years not hearing. She doesn't think we'll have to do therapy for very long before he catches up.
The garden is looking great--amazing how well plants do when rabbits aren't eating all of their leaves. Hmmmm.... :-)

Happy birthday to meeeee!!

2010-06-06T09:25:00.003-05:00

I'm 37 today! I'm celebrating on the blog with you today, because it's a fairly hush-hush event around here. Every time Brent or I mention my birthday, the kids determinedly argue that it's THEIR birthday, not Mommy's. What a bunch of ego-maniacs. :-)

The kids have a play birthday cake set, so the morning started with us "making" a cake for Mommy (...or themselves...). The only good picture I could get is this one of Graham. Inches outside of the frame of this picture, Sophie and Blake are in a full-fledged (kicking, biting, I'll-scratch-your-eyes-out) cat fight over whose cake it is. NOT Mommy's, I assure you. Ahhhhh, motherhood.

On the bright side, Brent picked up doughnuts from Lamar's for breakfast! I had a glazed one--5 Weight Watchers points for anyone counting. :-) Tonight we're going to a hibachi grill for dinner (sans children). Now...what to do between breakfast and dinner?? Maybe I'll see if I can get an hour away to browse around the bookstore...I'll run it by Brent and report back tomorrow...
**********************************************************
UPDATE!! Apparently loading the kids full of a sugary breakfast makes them more agreeable! Sophie insisted on "making" Mommy a cake and singing Happy Birthday...to her "friends"...THEN to "Mommy"... :-) This day is looking up!

Brent's outdoor projects & Graham's drum solo

2010-06-04T07:36:00.004-05:00

As I've mentioned before, Brent is the handiest husband! Here are a couple of his latest projects.

He had put up the walls to house the trash carts last year, but we wanted something to enclose the air conditioner to keep "little hands" from dropping sticks, rocks, etc. into it and getting hurt. This fence works perfectly! He placed the landscape bricks, mulched the fenced area in and sodded around it.

His next project was putting "rabbit guard" fencing around the garden. We've had bunnies eating the plants--some of them are pretty abused right now, so I'm not sure if they'll produce any veggies or not. You can't see the fence very well, but it looks awesome and will hopefully serve its purpose!

(Side note: We didn't want to put a fence around the garden because we were afraid it would look tacky--think chicken wire here--so I looked for alternatives. One that I read about was taking human or pet hair and placing it around the perimeter of the garden. Apparently rabbits get fearful from the scent of possible predators so they steer clear of that area. Fast forward to the next day where I'm standing in the salon with a sack asking for hair from a slightly startled hairdresser. I took it home and donned rubber gloves to put it around the garden. The whole thing gives me the heebie-jeebies and I will NEVER do that again...)

This morning Graham performed a drum solo for me. His new thing is saying "thank you, thank you" after his performances. Ha!! Where do kids get this stuff?? He's not drumming with his usual vigor in this video, because he's holding a banana in the other hand...

Fun with Grandma, Grandpa & Joshua

2010-06-02T16:42:00.003-05:00

We gave Joshua a remote-controlled car for his birthday while they were here Sunday, and he was a gracious cousin who let the little ones have a chance controlling it. They loved watching it zoom up and down the street.

Sophie taking a break in the flowerbed:

Dad and Louise brought waterguns, so the water fun began:

When we came in and dried off, the adults were having coffee and the kids wanted some too. Here they are drinking their "kiddie coffee" (lots of milk and a few drops of coffee):

Sitting with Grandma and Grandpa:

It was a fun day! We were sad to see them leave!

GratiTuesday

2010-06-01T16:14:00.003-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! I feel like I should apologize to our faithful handful of readers who check in for pictures of the kids on a regular basis. You wouldn't BELIEVE the amount of grief Brent has been giving me about my pathetic upkeep of the blog, so I've been challenged to update on a more regular basis again. That starts now.

Things we're grateful for this week:

Last Thursday I had a very special treat of dinner out with my friend Patti at Jose' Peppers. It was SO much fun, and the food was great. I had forgotten what it was like to have dinner, drinks and conversation sans-children! She spoiled me. :-)
While I was at dinner, Roger and Kelly watched the kids for me (Brent was working). Kelly had a meeting, and Roger didn't bat an eye when he found out he'd be alone with the wild trio for part of the evening. How great is that?! Kelly said she got home to find them all sitting at the table eating watermelon, fresh from watching a movie (on Kelly and Roger's FABulous TV) and eating popcorn. We are lucky, lucky, lucky to have them.
Dad, Louise and Joshua came to visit on Sunday! The kids had SO much fun chasing Joshua around, and he wore them out. Dad and Louise brought the kids some water guns, so we turned on the hose and let all the kids run around in the water. It was a great day!
Caryn and Ryan met us for lunch on Memorial Day, and she brought us almost 3 dozen farm fresh eggs! She's been petsitting for a family who has ducks and chickens, and she was told to keep all of the eggs that were laid this week. (Apparently this client's 12-year old son has a business of selling eggs--with his own client list and everything! He's a budding entrepreneur!) I'm planning on fixing some for dinner tonight, but had to snap a picture of them because they're so pretty. Awesome!!

GratiTuesday

2010-05-25T16:02:00.004-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! This week we're thankful for:

Allergy medicine--the kids have unfortunately inherited their mom's hayfever.

The kids don't have any problems with sleeping through thunderstorms! Last night we had a doozy, and all of them slept right through it.

My friends Kelly and Edna, who made a 5K walk a lot of fun! I had to stop a couple of times because Edna had me laughing so hard, but other than that we finished our walk in record time.

My boss who gave me praise and told me he's glad to have me working for him. It went straight to my heart. Yay for happy bosses!!

As I mentioned yesterday, we're so thankful to have had Leslie as one of our sitters for as long as we did. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't shed more than a few tears about that chapter ending for us. It's an exciting new chapter for her, though, so we're excited about that!

The FPU class is going GREAT at church! The new format has made the class 100 times more interactive, and we learn a lot from class members each week. I'm so glad I decided to stay on for another session!

Farewell, Miss Leslie!!

2010-05-24T22:48:00.003-05:00

Miss Leslie has been watching our kids for almost three years (since the boys were 7 weeks old!), and Friday was her last day with us. She graduated this month from WSU and is moving on to greener pastures. We are SO proud of her, but SO heartbroken! Looking back, I know my transition back to work would not have been as smooth without her. She will be enormously successful in whatever she does--our lives are exponentially better for knowing her. This picture was taken on her last day. Each of the kids is holding the quilt she made for them two Christmases ago, which they sleep with every night!

Keep in touch, Miss Leslie!! We miss you already!!

Happy GratiTuesday!

2010-05-18T14:05:00.002-05:00

Before I get to the GratiTuesday list, we have a big anniversary wish to shout out:

HAPPY 19th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY, DAD & LOUISE!!!

This week we're thankful for:

Riverfest! We had a great time at the parade, river run and fireworks. Sadly, the rain put a damper on the other events we had planned to attend, but we're glad we got to participate in what we did.
Craigslist! We found an awesome playhouse for the kids, and two tricycles for the boys--all for a fraction of the price of buying them new. (Pictures soon!)
The internet--I don't know what I'd do without allrecipes.com. I can whip up dinner in no time after a quick search online!
My friend Christy for arranging our next girls' movie date in KC! I can't wait to see you ladies!

I'll get some pictures taken tonight to show you the new playhouse--it's super cute!

GratiTuesday (& pictures!)

2010-05-11T21:48:00.005-05:00

First things first, here's my GratiTuesday list for this week:

The weather was great for our garage sale last Thursday! Caryn came over and kept us company while we juggled the kids for the day. We didn't have nearly as much stuff as we have in years past, but it was nice to make some extra room in the garage and closets. We were able to sell almost everything by the afternoon, so I'd call it a success!
It's RIVER FESTIVAL time in Wichita! We LOVE this time of year--a parade, two walking events, lots of fun events for the kids, and fireworks. We got to watch the parade with Kelly, Melissa and Sue on Friday night--it was kind of chilly, but fun! We walked in the River Run last Saturday, then had a picnic lunch by the river while we watched a jet ski competition. It was a great day! We have the Walkfest this Saturday, then more events by the river and hopefully the fireworks Saturday night.
Brent and the kids helped plant a vegetable garden for me for my Mother's Day gift! Brent has moved tons of rock, soil, cages and mulch this week, and has the blisters to prove it!! The garden looks GREAT--I'll post pictures of the finished project soon. (Now if I can just keep the rabbits from eating the plants...any suggestions??)

Now for pictures! Here the kids are waiting patiently for the River Run to start:

With Clifford and Arthur at the KPTS tent after the race (Blake's face is priceless here). Sophie LOVES Clifford and has been talking about meeting him all week. Where is she in this picture? AS FAR AWAY FROM CLIFFORD AS SHE COULD GET.

Our picnic lunch by the river:

Sophie had a birthday party later that afternoon, and needed to wear a costume. Doesn't she make a sassy cowgirl? I love her smile in this picture--she's a happy little thing:

The garden worker bees!!

I LOVE THIS PICTURE:

I'll post more River Festival pictures during the week!

GratiTuesday

2010-05-04T22:30:00.003-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! This week we're thankful for:

The kids' imaginations--they say the FUNNIEST things at this age. Some of you have heard this story, but Blake recently stood up in the bathtub and pointed...(ahem)... DOWNWARD...and excitedly announced "Look Mommy! My TAIL!" Then tonight, Sophie had a full (imaginary) telephone discussion with her friend Ryan about a birthday cake. Funny stuff!

April 30th was a big deadline for us at work, and our boss took us to lunch to celebrate. We went to my favorite restaurant, Gobi Grille. It was an awesome treat!

I interviewed a young lady this week that will help watch the kids this summer, and I think she'll be a great addition to the summer "family." The kids warmed up to her right away, and she works as a para educator for the school district during the school year...so you know she must be good with kids!

We bought a LOT of containers, soil and rock for our container vegetable garden, and Brent hauled all of it without complaining a bit. He's a workhorse. There's NO WAY I could have done that without him! (Side note: Remember the plants I was growing downstairs under the grow lamps that were looking AMAZING? I put them outside and they shriveled up and DIED. ALL OF THEM. Now we have to go BUY plants to put in our containers. Grrrrr...I think we watered them too much, so their roots were puny. I'll be doing some research before next year's planting, because I really want to master this vegetable garden thing. I need to channel my inner 'Grandpa Schuler'.)

Happy Derby Day!

2010-05-01T16:38:00.004-05:00

Graham in his Kentucky Derby finest!

Isn't he gorgeous?!

GratiTuesday

2010-04-27T11:45:00.002-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! This week we're thankful for:

The nurse in the ER that let Blake use her iPhone to watch VeggieTales videos while we were waiting for his x-rays. (Remember my post about wanting a phone that only made calls, and how I didn't need a smartphone? She converted me to a smartphone believer.)
My friend Caryn won a limo ride and offered to give it to us after the horrid week we had last week. How sweet is THAT?! We declined, though, since the restaurant I'd want to go to in a limo isn't exactly within our Dave Ramsey budget. :-) Someday!
Our sitters who have taken such good care of Blake this week, and given him so much TLC.
The latest Dave Ramsey class came to an end last Sunday, and the new one begins next Wednesday. I'm excited for the new class and the new format! It's like the first day of school...I might go sharpen some pencils to celebrate.
My medical tests all came back normal! The only problems they found is that I'm deficient in iron and vitamin D. If you haven't done it already, I encourage you to have your vitamin D level checked--the more I read about it, most Americans are deficient and it's linked to increased risks of some types of cancers. It's easy to correct, too, so it's worth checking into! Doctors typically don't check for it unless you ask, so be sure to mention it! (That's my public health announcement for the day.)

Brent in line AGAIN!

2010-04-24T10:20:00.002-05:00

Brent is too funny! The Best Buy near our house had their grand opening this morning, and the first 50 people in line got a $20 gift card. My husband? #50. Isn't he a riot?? He used his prize to buy the movie "Avatar" (which we didn't get a chance to see in the theatre).

WARNING: Your collarbone will hurt if you look at the following pictures!! These are the x-rays of Blake's collarbone, from two different angles. OUCH.

The doctor said to expect the break site to turn black, then green as the bruising subsided. When we saw him on Thursday, he was pleased with Blake's bruise and said it looked "ahead of schedule." What can I say?? He's advanced! :-) The doctor doesn't think he necessarily hit this area when he fell--I didn't think he hit the table as he fell off the chair. The break is most likely from him hitting his shoulder when he fell, and the bruise is most likely from the bone pushing up from beneath the skin when the impact hit. There was a small (dime-size) black bruise when I took him to the ER.

Here he is sporting his new sling. Dinosaurs! We're not noticing the shoulder drooping as much today as it has been.

Brent's yard hobby

2010-04-23T15:21:00.002-05:00

Meet Brent's nemesis:

He's been slowly and methodically combing the lawn for the past few weeks armed with weed killer, trying to stay on top of the dandelions. Last night we took the kids on a walk, and Sophie wanted one of the "flowers" in someone else's yard. I picked them each a dandelion, and I could sense Brent's anxiety level increase. The SECOND we got back onto our property, he said "Ok kids, give me the flowers..." and they went into the trash. Ha! He's a die hard on the anti-dandelion front! This is serious business. It's paying off, though--the yard looks awesome!

Blake's spirits are improving. He's keeping his distance from Graham and Sophie, but watches them with a big smile while they play. He's been sleeping on his stomach, and is able to use his right arm a lot more than he has been. We got him a smaller sling from a medical supply place yesterday, and it's made a big difference. (Plus, it has dinosaurs on it, which instantly brought smiles to Blake --and jealousy from brother and sister!)

This weekend will be a challenge since he'll be in nursery at church on Saturday night and Sunday morning...we might have to make other arrangements for him...

Horoscope

2010-04-21T16:47:00.002-05:00

I was scanning through the newspaper this afternoon, and my eyes were drawn to my horoscope for the day:

HAAAAAAA!!! How perfectly appropriate!!! Whooo, it gave me a much-needed laugh. I suppose "Out and about" means I should take them on a long wagon ride tonight to enjoy the fresh air.

Blake goes back to the doctor in the morning for follow-up x-rays. The appointment got moved up a few days because when he stands, his right shoulder is significantly lower than the left. I'm hoping that's normal with this type of break, but if it's not I want the doctor to see it before the bone heals in that position.

He's obviously in a lot of pain still, and cries quite a bit. Poor little guy, he just wants to be held all the time. Luckily, Brent and I are both off tomorrow and our entire day's agenda is to "hold Blake" and "wear the other two out so they leave Blake alone." :-)

Me and my big mouth... (& Happy GratiTuesday!)

2010-04-20T09:48:00.005-05:00

In my last post I was rejoicing about the kids' good health and hoping I didn't jinx them. Me and my big mouth.

As I've mentioned before, our health insurance has a ridiculously high deductible which makes us less apt to go to the doctor on a whim. Well...here's the sequence of events that's occurred since then:

I've been experiencing shortness of breath for a few months, and decided to go to the doctor to see if maybe an allergy medication would help clear it up. The doctor ran a quick blood test to see if anything alarming popped up, and my clotting factor was high enough to indicate a possible blood clot in my lung. (What?!?) They took me for a CT scan which (praise God!) didn't show a clot. I've also had a respiratory analysis (scored great on that) and an echocardiogram (waiting on results) since then. Our checkbook ran screaming from my purse at the mention of "CT scan" and I STILL don't have a prescription for allergy medicine (growl...).
Sunday night Blake took a tumble off of a kitchen chair and wouldn't stop crying. He just wanted me to hold him and he was holding his arm tightly between us. I determined that his pain was in his shoulder, and thank God Brent was getting off work shortly. I took him to the ER where they determined his collarbone was completely broken in two pieces (ouch, ouch, ouch--poor child!!!). They put him in a sling and finally let us go home 4 long hours later with an appointment to see a specialist first thing the next morning. (At this point, the checkbook applied for a passport and left a note saying "You're on your own. I'm outta here.")

The orthopedist wants to see Blake back in a week, and said that it would be 6-8 weeks before he felt back to normal. Poor little guy!! He just wants to be held, and is naturally fearful when anyone gets too close to him...especially Graham and Sophie. Have you ever seen kittens play? How they lay in wait for an innocent littermate to walk by to pounce on? That's how these 3 play. Blake constantly scans the room so the whereabouts of Graham and Sophie are concretely on his radar.

On the light side, though, the trip to the orthopedist had a couple of funny moments. The nurse told Blake she'd bring him a book that had lots of colorful pictures, and she came back into the room with the "Encyclopedia of Spiders." (Who knew there was such a book?! And how did it enter the life of the most arachnophobic person on Earth?!) Then when the doctor was discussing the treatment options, Blake let out the longest (...ahem...) TOOT ever heard. The doctor actually stopped mid-sentence and waited to continue. I turned a dark shade of crimson and wanted to die.

Now for our GratiTuesday highlights!

We're grateful that we have insurance at all. We can slowly bite off paying the $4,000 deductible--I know there are a lot of people who are saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical expenses, and I know we are very lucky.
I'm grateful that Brent wasn't with us at the orthopedist appointment, because he would have been in a full-fledged howling-with-laughter frenzy at Blake's tooting episode, and I might have died of embarrassment.
We're grateful that we've found great babysitters so the kids are at home while we work--I can't imagine leaving Blake somewhere at a time like this. I love that he can be in the comfort of his own home while he heals.

I'll have more updates on Blake during the week! Please pray for his comfort and healing.

GratiTuesday

2010-04-13T14:16:00.002-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! This week we're thankful for:

This WEATHER! It's an honest-to-goodness Spring! I love having the windows open during the day (I'd leave them open at night, too, if I wasn't such a chicken).
Sandals--for us AND the kids. Shoes/socks/coats/hats are a challenge with this crew, so I'm rejoicing to be able to slip sandals on the kids and head out. It's liberating!
My work's dress code--capri pants & sandals are no problem around here.
The kids' health (praise God!)--I keep putting off their checkups/shots because I think "Ah, they'll have to see the doctor pretty soon for something anyway and we'll take care of it while we're there." I hope I didn't just jinx them...
The turtle sandbox from Karie makes the list this week again. The kids are crazy about it!

Monday

2010-04-12T17:03:00.002-05:00

The title of this post should be a pretty clear indication of the creativity of the post itself--if I can't come up with an interesting title, I must not have anything interesting to blog about. So...I'll just chat about nothing in particular.

Kelly and I took the kids to the zoo on Saturday for a picnic lunch. We went to the petting farm area and the kids fed the sheep and goats (side note: Speaking of farms, Kelly has three dogs and Sophie calls her house "Kelly's Farm"). A goat ate my dress once at a petting zoo, so I'm personally leery of goats. I pretty much stood behind Kelly and handed pellet food to the kids. After that, we caught the feeding time for the giraffes and Kelly took Sophie up on the platform to feed them. Apparently the giraffe thought Sophie's hairbow was part of the meal, and it gently wrapped its tongue around the bow and part of Sophie's hair. Ewww! Giraffe slobber!

The boys acted so tired on the drive home, but didn't take a nap that day. Then, Sunday after spending the morning in the church nursery playing hard, they came home and played outside again. No naps that day, either. Therefore, I've come to a conclusion: Our boys are solar-powered.

That's about it around here...

Haircuts, part deux

2010-04-08T22:05:00.006-05:00

Peer pressure. I thought it was just for teenagers.

I talked to my dad today, who was FAR less than enthusiastic about his grandsons' new haircuts. So...out came the clippers and the 'faux hawks' are gone:

In my defense (so you don't think I'm a big pansy who does everything her dad says to do), I've been on the fence about the mohawks from the beginning. Today the kids wanted to apply the tattoos from Aunt Kelly's Easter baskets, and the sight of the boys with mohawks AND tattoos covering their arms pushed me off the fence.

However, I'm going to change the name of this incident from "peer pressure" to "pa pressure" (hee hee...chuckle...snort...).

Happy, Grandpa??? Please send these poor bald babies some ballcaps.

Happy GratiTuesday & "This Week in Pictures"

2010-04-06T10:26:00.008-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! It's been a busy week of celebrating Easter and enjoying the beautiful weather. This week we're thankful for:

A schedule is coming together perfectly for our new (Dave Ramsey) Financial Peace University class that will be held at the church this summer. The course is designed to fit into a 2-hour timeslot, but the church had been trying to squeeze it into 75 minutes. I'm excited to report that we'll be scheduling a full 2 hours this summer!
This gorgeous weather we've had lately! The flowers and trees are amazing.
Aunt Kelly for spoiling the kids rotten (yet again!) with fabulous Easter baskets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for pictures of the week!

We celebrated our friend Caleb's 1st birthday this weekend with a pizza lunch and Easter egg hunt. Caleb's big brother, Ryan (3) is the second one in the picture:

Caryn, Caleb & Ryan hunting eggs:

Blake, Sophie and Graham hunting eggs:

Kelly with the kids--the boys are wearing their new Toy Story shirts she got them, along with their bunny ears. Their baskets were full of candy, stuffed animals, wind-up toys, tattoos & cotton candy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, hold onto your hats...I gave the boys a haircut this weekend! Remember how sweet they looked with their longer hair?

Here they are now...looking like little toughguys! They were supposed to be mohawks, but kind of ended up in a "high & tight" military fashion. Brent loves it, and I'm kind of on the fence about it. They look too big boy-ish to me! Any opinions??

In fact, here's a better picture of the cut--Graham is trying his hardest to chew his way through the wrapper of a "carrot" full of Reese's Pieces. The haircuts have as much attitude as his facial expression in this picture!

GratiTuesday

2010-03-30T21:29:00.007-05:00

Happy GratiTuesday! This week I'm thankful for:

Our friend Karie handed down a turtle sandbox to the kids. They are CRAZY about their new sandbox! Brent got it to fit under the slide of our swingset, but he had to cut the turtle's head off...which feels very, very wrong. He made it look really nice by filling in around the sandbox with gravel. Anyone else would think it's a neat round sandbox--you can't even see its feet under the gravel. For me, however, it's kind of like Edgar Allen Poe's "Telltale Heart"...I KNOW that under that decorative rock lies a headless turtle. Freaky.
Birthday parties! A surprise party was given for my friend Christy's 40th birthday, so I made a trip to LaCygne for the soiree. She was surprised! There were over 50 people in attendance, and I loved seeing her laughing and having fun. It was nice to see her friends and family--many that I've 'adopted' as my friends, too!! Happy birthday, Christy!!
Brent had to work, so the kids and I roadtripped alone. The kids did GREAT! Surprisingly well, actually. Now I feel a little more confident about making a trip like that with them alone, so we can do it more often. (Check out this first picture...Blake's sunglasses are upside down! The kids wore those glasses on the WHOLE drive, even when we had to stop for a potty break.)
Dad and Louise met up with me and took the kids while I went to the party. I even got to drive Dad's new Chevy HHR...new car smell and all!
Dad bought a new battery for the Jeep, and the kids could have driven it all day.
This weather! Today was 70 degrees here, and we spent the evening with the windows open. Blake fell asleep in his dinner, so I snuggled him up on the couch for a while while he napped. The breeze coming in the windows felt great.
Our neighbor stopped by tonight to show the kids a baby bunny. I'm so glad she did! The kids LOVED it, and Graham gave it kisses. They all liked petting it, and Sophie kept asking to hold it. They're usually a bit fearful of animals, but not this bunny!
Brent's aunt sent us the nicest note tonight--she's so encouraging and uplifting. Everyone needs an aunt like her in their lives--we love you, Aunt Jenny!!!!

(Late) GratiTuesday and some fun with dairy

2010-03-24T09:29:00.003-05:00

I've got a bad head/chest cold and am running at turtle speed this week. I put Vicks on my feet and wore socks to bed last night, and slept surprisingly well (we swear by that trick in this house).

Things we're grateful for this week:

Vicks Vaporub
Despite the snowy weather, I was pleasantly surprised at how many of my items sold at the the consignment sale last week. I had a few of the kids' clothing items in it, and didn't have to bring much home. Now I need to start hunting for Spring/Summer clothes and shoes for the trio.
Brent installed a "grow light" for my seed-planting project downstairs, and the seeds are doing great! I'll post pictures soon.

Now for a little kitchen fun!

First, the kids can eat almost a quart (yes, 32 oz.) of yogurt in one sitting. I read that you can make your own, so I gave it a try. Here's how:

Slowly bring 1/2 gallon whole milk to 190 degrees. Let cool to 110 degrees. Into a small amount of the warm milk, mix one packet unflavored gelatin and 4 Tablespoons plain yogurt (with active cultures). You can also add sugar and vanilla, if desired (I did). Stir this mixture into the rest of the milk. Cover and keep in a warm place (I turned the oven on to 200 degrees, shut it off, wrapped the pot with a large towel and put into the oven) for 8-12 hours. If you like it thicker, you can try to strain it through cheesecloth or a clean white kitchen towel. Here's how it looked afterwards:

The verdict? The taste was surprisingly good, but the consistency was too thin. In my opinion, it's WAY too much work unless you have a lot of milk that you need to use up or need to use a different kind of milk (goat, etc.) for food allergies.

Next up: Homemade butter! I heard about this and had to see it for myself. Put a quart of heavy whipping cream into a food processor, and turn it on for 10 minutes.

You'll be left with quite a bit of liquid (buttermilk!)--drain that off and add 1 teaspoon of salt.

Verdict? The finished result is FABULOUS, but not at all cost-effective (unless you have some heavy whipping cream to use up). The cost of the whipping cream was $3.20/quart, and left me with an average-sized tub of butter. This would be a neat project to show kids how butter is made, though! It would also be tasty if flavored with herbs from your garden or neat to form into fancy butter molds for a party. (p.s.--Yes, I realize that there is a whole table-full of my farm-raised ancestors sitting around a table drinking coffee in Heaven laughing at me for "just now figuring out" how butter was made.) In all seriousness, I'd love to have a couple of dairy cows and some chickens...but we'd need to move.

Today's blog post should have been sponsored by the National Dairy Council.

Peek-a-boo!

2010-03-18T08:30:00.001-05:00

A little doughnut fun! As I was uploading these pictures, I started getting a complex about what you must think about the food choices at our house. Tuesday I talked about pizzas, and today I'm showing doughnuts. EEK! I promise that we eat healthy meals at out house most of the time...

Planting time

2010-03-17T13:05:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I have some tomato plants starting from seed. Sophie helped me plant them! Now every night she asks "Mommy, wanna play 'dirt'?" She thinks it's a game!

She said "Bunny wants to try" and pretended Bunny was scooping the dirt. She is such a stitch!

We have bell pepper, cucumber, yellow squash and zuchini squash seeds to get started, too. We're debating on whether to do the bag gardening, a traditional tilled garden or container garden this year. I'm leaning towards using large pots or another type of container. Brent's question is "How much of my lawn are you destroying for this project?" (My response? An evil laugh while wringing my hands--"All of it! Alllllll of it!!! Mwah hah hah!!!")

GratiTuesday and (finally!) pictures

2010-03-16T08:43:00.007-05:00

This week I'm grateful for:

Online shopping! I love being able to shop for a gift late at night without having to worry about "store hours."
My grandpa's patience and love for gardening--I have tomato plants starting from seeds in the basement, under a lamp hooked to a timer. He'd be proud! :-)
"Hot 'n Ready" pizzas from Little Caesar's. We can buy a large cheese pizza and a large pepperoni pizza for a grand total of $10! It's a weekly "treat" that saves me from having to cook.
Online banking! I love paying bills without having to write checks, and reconciling the accounts at any time of day.
Brent's friend Brad, who gave him the tent in the pictures below. (Funny story: Brad had the tent so they could take their "Sugar Glider" flying animal outside without it getting lost. Yes, Brent has a hand-me-down tent from a flying animal...give him a little grief about it.)

Now for some pictures! These are the kids and Kelly at the Elmo Live event. As I mentioned before, we had amazing seats and the kids loved it. Sophie is CRAZY about cotton candy! She calls it "candy ice cream." I might have to rent one of those machines for their birthday--I wonder how hard they are to operate? Sophie ate this ENTIRE cotton candy by herself. She was too sticky to pick up her drink, so Blake had to help her out. Awwww! Isn't that cute??

Graham had a fistful of popcorn and was chowing down. Not the best picture of Graham chewing, but a cute picture of Kelly!

This is a good shot of their cute Elmo outfits!

Now for Brent's big campout at Spangles! We took dinner to him that night (hey--speaking of Little Caesar's, those are Hot 'n Ready pizzas we're eating!). Brent got such a laugh out of us climbing into his tent for dinner--he's still talking about it.

And the winner is...

2010-03-10T10:07:00.004-06:00

WOW. If there was an award for "Worst Upkeep of a Blog", I'd win by a landslide. Want to hear my excuse? Without our laptop (may it rest in peace), I have to go to the cold basement to use the computer. Clothing I'm selling in an upcoming consignment sale is spread out on the table down there, so I'm avoiding taking the kids downstairs for right now. So the kids stay upstairs. And I stay upstairs. And the blog remains updated. (I didn't say it was a GOOD excuse.)

Here are some random tidbits about life in the Stiles household:

Brent camped out at Spangles AGAIN last night to be one of the first 100 customers at their new location (this time in Derby). He took a small tent, blankets and a sleeping bag and said he stayed surprisingly warm. He succeeded--he won a free meal per week for a year! His "winnings" from the last campout last for another 6 months, so for 6 months he'll eat TWO meals per week. The kids and I took pizza up for dinner last night, and I have cute pictures of his "campground." I PINKY SWEAR THAT I'LL HAVE PICTURES POSTED IN THE NEXT 48 HOURS. (Sorry for the caps--I was yelling that at my reflection in the mirror. I'm hoping to motivate myself.)
Kelly took the kids and I to see Elmo at the new arena. It was a fantastic performance, and the kids LOVED it. Our seats couldn't have been better!! Kelly rocks. I have great pictures of this that I'll post, too.
We're losing our main babysitter in May when she graduates, and I'm sick about it. I'm on the search for some great sitters for the summer!
The prayer we say at mealtime is: "Thank You for the world so sweet, thank You for the food we eat. Thank You for the birds that sing, thank You God for everything." As we were driving the other day, Sophie said "Look Mommy! I see the birds that sing!!" Then she whispered to herself "Thank You for the birds that sing, thank You God for everything." I melted!!

More soon. I SWEAR.

GratiTuesday

2010-02-23T09:37:00.002-06:00

HAPPY GRATITUESDAY!!

Last week marked our 6th wedding anniversary! We were able to go out to dinner (Gobi Grille--a Mongolian restaurant that's become our new favorite) and to a movie ("Blind Side", which we LOVED).
Our friends Becky and Jim took me to the George Strait/Reba McEntire/Lee Ann Womack concert last week!! Brent had to work (and truth be told, wasn't interested in seeing George Strait again...what's the matter with him?!). IT WAS AMAZING!! It was humbling to be in the presence of so much talent!! The artists and their bands are so gifted.
I'm lucky to have worked with great people at great companies in the past, but am constantly reminded how perfect my current job and my current boss are for this stage of my life and the current ages of my children. God's timing is perfect, isn't it??
Brent and I were able to pay off two of the debts on our Dave Ramsey debt snowball last week (with our income tax return)!! Woo hoo!! We're making progress!
Brent's company had a soup contest last week and we won first place!! He took "Buffalo Chicken Wing" soup and homemade croutons. To vote, everyone paid a quarter...so our prize was $22.75! I'll post the recipe this week.

More posts and pictures of the kids this week!!

What will $218 buy??

2010-02-11T21:41:00.005-06:00

$218 at your local pharmacy will buy you 3 TEENY TINY bottles of antibiotic eyedrops to treat 3 cases of pink eye! Woo hoo! (...it's with a great sense of nostalgia that I recall a day when our insurance was much, much better and this kind of thing didn't come directly out of our pocket...sigh...)

Picture of one of Graham's eyes...the picture doesn't do it doesn't do it justice, but you get the point:

They've all had three doses in each eye today, and it seems to be helping already. Poor Graham's eyes are the worst, I feel awful for him. He's such a trooper, though. The doctor said they could be around other people within 24 hours of taking their first dose, so that's a big praise--otherwise I would have had to stay home from work tomorrow with them. (Side note to our babysitters: If they infected you earlier this week before we knew about it, I will feel AWFUL and will gladly pay for your prescription...and make you food...and clean your houses...and do your homework...!)

Today was MAPS at church, and I stayed up late last night making food for brunch (and also finishing sewing sequins and beads on a shirt for Sophie so she could be dressed in "Valentine's style"...). Such a bummer that we couldn't go! Here are pictures of the cute cookies I decorated, though. (Remember the cookie decorating class Melissa and I took a while back?? I'm finally getting the chance to practice!):

...and a couple of shots of Sophie's glittery shirt:

Please pretend to be impressed. It would be REALLY great for my ego.

GratiTuesday!

2010-02-09T08:28:00.006-06:00

Happy GratiTuesday! Things we are grateful for this week:

My friend has been going through an ordeal settling her dad's estate. It's been an awful two-year battle that is finally coming to a close. I can almost see the weight being lifted from her shoulders. Praise God!
Sophie had the stomach flu last week and the boys didn't get it.
Someone shoveled our driveway yesterday! Brent was ecstatic!! We have no idea who it was... Thank you anonymous friend!
I've been waiting for overalls to go on sale so I could get some for the boys (because, really, is there anything cuter than little boys in overalls??). Apparently they clearanced them at the Target stores and sold completely out. "Something" told me to walk through the little girl section, and lo and behold...TWO 2T overalls with $11 clearance tags were stuffed between some little girl sweaters. They were the only two I found, and they were exactly what we wanted. NOT coincidence. :-)
My co-worker keeps the birdfeeder full outside of our office window, so we're always in the company of squirrels and birds.
A new entertainment place opened in Wichita--it's a huge building full of inflatable bounce houses (moonwalks). The kids LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!! We bought a punch card, so all 5 of us got in for $12!! Blake was hesitant at first, but we finally tossed him onto one and he was hooked. They bounced until they were panting and red-faced. Brent even went on some with the kids--pictures coming soon!
Our MAPS group was lucky to have Gracia Burnham speak last week (she is the missionary who was taken hostage with her husband for over a year, then lost her husband in the same gun battle that saved her). She spoke about "hope" vs. "wishful thinking" and it was incredible.
My friend Melissa transferred to a new job with her company and loves it! Better yet, one of her best friends that she's known since kindergarten has accepted a job in the same office and will start next week.

Valentine's cookies

2010-02-07T20:51:00.003-06:00

This extra day at work every week has really thrown off the balance in my life, and I'm frantically trying to get the balance back. I'm struggling to come up with meals that the sitters can throw in the oven for me; I'm struggling to keep on top of the housework; I'm struggling with getting exercise time in; I'm struggling to keep up with friends and their needs. By the time I get home from work and we get finished with dinner and baths, I find myself just snuggling up with the kids wishing time would slow down. There are several things that would be helpful (meal prep, help cleaning, etc.), but are expensive and would negate my reason for working the extra day. I'm trying to understand God's lessons in this, and know I'll come out on the other side a better mom and stronger person...but BOY it's an exhausting phase of life right now.

I know for sure that I'm missing blogging! Especially the GratiTuesday posts. I go back and read them occasionally and feel RICHLY fortunate.

The kids decorated Valentine cookies today! We rolled them out and baked them yesterday. Sophie was BESIDE herself with excitement--she kept running around telling everyone in the house. "Daddy! Mommy's making COOKIES!"..."Brothers! Mommy's making COOKIES!" Who knew sugar cookies could elicit such a response?! They each had a turn at rolling out the dough, too.

This is a video of them decorating their cookies. They used paintbrushes to apply the icing, then decided it was more amusing to rub the frosted cookies all over their faces. I wish the video did it justice...they were a MESS!

I'm looking forward to this week's GratiTuesday post! It's been too long!

2010-01-11T07:51:00.004-06:00

I have a GREAT treadmill downstairs that sadly hasn't shared my company yet in 2010. I'm happy to report that these three enjoyed hanging on it after their baths last night, though! I kept trying to put their robes on them, but they kept stripping them off. Hot-bloods like their daddy!

Speaking of their daddy, he figured out how to take a video on the digital camera and wanted to showcase his master culinary skills. I joke that every lunch he fixes the kids while I'm at work has a "side order of potato chips", so he had to make sure to document his chip-less lunch. Good job bud!

Happy GratiTuesday!

2010-01-05T12:44:00.004-06:00

The first post of 2010! As I look back at last year's new year's resolutions, I was initially sad that so many of them were unfulfilled: We didn't spend more time with friends, I didn't find a hairdresser I liked, and I really didn't simplify meals like I had planned.

However, 2009 marked a dramatic change in our family goals with the implementation of our debt-reducing, frugal living, Dave Ramsey lifestyle. Therefore, our only new year's resolution for this year is to remain steadfast and work as hard as possible to eliminate as much debt as possible!

Things we're thankful for this week:

Brent's been off for the holiday for the past two weeks, and it's been nice having him home.
Internet radio--I love listening to music at work.
As much as I miss it, I'm thankful that I don't have my petsitting business during this time of year! Holidays were so rushed and stressful when I had my furry clients to take care of. It's nice to not have to worry about trekking outside in the cold weather!
My friend Jeannette gave me a great book--"Becoming More than a Good Bible Study Girl" by Lysa Terkeurst. I'm enjoying it and recommend reading it!
The coin-operated toys at the mall (the ride-on kind)--our kids will pretend to ride them forever! They actually prefer them to NOT be turned on...which was an unexpected pleasant (frugal) discovery! This is a fun way to get them out of the house when it's too cold to play outside.

Happy New Year's Eve!

2009-12-31T13:32:00.005-06:00

I hope you have fabulous New Year's Eve plans! We will most likely ring in the new year pretending to be rock stars while playing Rock Band 2! :-) (Have I mentioned how addictive that game is??) We might even get wild and crazy and go rent a movie or something. We live on the edge, you know! Ha!

I worked half of a day today and came home to a very "lavender-smelling" home. Apparently Sophie tried to "wash" the boys' hair with Johnson & Johnson's bedtime lotion. Brent had to wash their hair in the sink!

Brent is now off to an eye doctor and to see the ear, nose & throat doctor...we're trying to cram everything in at the last minute before our insurance deductible resets! The kids and I are entertaining ourselves until he gets home. They asked for capes so they could "fly", so here's their makeshift capes. Sophie and Blake are wearing scarves and Graham has a tea towel. Ha!!

Totally off topic, I posted this information on Facebook and have gotten a great response from friends who have found "lost" money through the Kansas Treasurer's website. Follow this link and search for your name. We "found" a $9.33 check payable to Brent from a Godfather's pizza job he had in the 1980s!! We filled out the form and the KS Treasurer's office sent us the check. Too fun! There's no charge for the service. I've had several friends find money on there, the latest found $1,000 from an old retirement fund. Check it out!!
http://www.kansasstatetreasurer.com/prodweb/index.php

HAPPY NEW YEAR! SEE YOU IN 2010!!

GratiTuesday

2009-12-29T22:25:00.004-06:00

Brent is on vacation this week, and his GratiTuesday input is "I'm grateful that the day ended well and there were no injuries." Ha! He's watching the kids while I'm working this week, if you can't tell. :-) However, Blake does have an unexplained bruise by his eye--undoubtedly from wrestling with his brother.

I've posted about a lot of the things we've been thankful for over the past week, so I won't add a list to this post tonight. I WILL, however, show you a couple of cute pictures! Sophie didn't take a nap yesterday and fell asleep in her dinner. In her mouth is actually a bite of sandwich that she hadn't even started chewing yet:

Graham is enjoying Daddy's new Wii game, too! He got Sophie's guitar and started jamming with Daddy tonight. This game is addictive for all of us!

You might notice that I changed the family photo at the top of the blog. This picture was taken on that same day, and Brent and I laughed so hard that we cried when we saw it. Is his face PRICELESS or what?! As you can see, Blake was throwing a fit and Daddy wasn't handling it so well. This has "Calgon, take me away" written all over it!

Bedtime woes

2009-12-28T09:07:00.002-06:00

Bedtime is a problem at our house. The way the boys' beds are set up, their dresser is between them and houses their lamp, radio, humidifier and baby monitor. Almost nightly, the boys change the channel on the baby monitor (which makes the monitors in the other rooms beep to let us know they're "off radar"), turn the radio on full blast (occasionally they figure out how to change it from lullabies to the hard rock station), pull the curtains off the rod, pull all of their shoes/socks out of the drawers and turn their lamp on.

Last night, Brent was working and I was fine for the first, second, third, fourth and fifth time I'd gone in to put them back in their beds and tuck them in. The SIXTH time, however, I was OVER IT and opened their door with the intention of spanking. Blake had finally fallen asleep, but I saw Graham's silhouette standing on his bed. As I started walking toward him, he collapsed on the bed and started pretend SNORING. I stood there for a minute in stunned amusement, then had to leave the room for fear of laughing out loud!

How do they learn that?! They're barely 2 years old! It saved that ornery child from a spanking, though, so it worked. :-)

2009-12-27T08:42:00.004-06:00

As you've seen, this was a great Christmas for clothes for the kids! These shirts are from Uncle John and Aunt Amy in Memphis. Aren't these adorable??

I've heard that monogramming is the equivalent of a Southern girl's tattoo--which means that I should have been born Southern! I'd monogram EVERYTHING if I had the ability. When Brent and I were in South Carolina several years ago, all of the ladies had everything monogrammed--their purses, shoes, keychains, jackets...CUTE, CUTE, CUTE. Maybe I can get connected with someone who has an embroidery machine and work out some kind of deal??

Last night at dinner Graham was entertaining the other two with his antics. I had to snap a quick video of it, because it's funny to see what makes toddlers laugh.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Sophie a tea set, and she was hosting a tea party in Bunny's honor (see Bunny in the high chair in the lower left corner of the photo). She was the best hostess and kept offering Bunny more tea and pastries. I need to get some fun hats, gloves and scarves for her to wear when hosting tea parties. Cute!

Sadly, about 30 seconds after I took this picture, the boys came in and ransacked the party--they were on the plastic pastries like a pack of wild dogs. "Tea" (water) was everywhere...sigh...sometimes I feel bad for poor Sophie--it's tough being a girl with two little brothers!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

2009-12-25T23:19:00.004-06:00

Santa came to our house this morning and greeted the kids as they woke up! The boys hesitated for a few seconds, but warmed up quickly. (They said "Daddy" a few times which was pretty funny.) Sophie opened her eyes and went right over to give Santa a hug. (Maybe we should work on "Stranger Danger" with the kids??) He brought them candy canes, so he won them over immediately!! We love you, Santa!

Brent got a Rockband 2 game for the Wii, which comes with a guitar, drums and a microphone. We have had so much fun playing it today!

As promised, here are pictures from yesterday's gift-a-palooza from Aunt Kelly & Uncle Roger! The first gift Sophie opened was the birthday cake set, and we could barely pry it out of her hands to open anything else. The "faux" aquarium is a big hit with all three of them AND the two cats--it's mesmerizing, beautiful AND I don't have to clean it. Score!! They also got clothes, books, tambourines, jammies and a tent. Spoiled, aren't they?! :-)

Here are the boys in their new jammies from Aunt Kelly & Uncle Roger! "Toy Story" characters--Buzz & Woody. Trying to get them to stand next to each other resulted in a 20-minute wrestling match. Ha!

This morning we got a pleasant surprise visit from our neighbors next door who brought gifts for us and the kids! A HUGE box of chocolates for Brent and I, cars for the boys and an alphabet game for Sophie. They are the nicest people--we're lucky to have moved next door to them. (I didn't even BAKE anything this year...am I a slacker neighbor or what?!?!)

Last night we got a visit from our friends Tammy, Rob & Logan who brought us a turkey, ham and gift cards for the kids! SO generous!! There's a preschool homeschooling program that I've been wanting to get for the kids, so we can finally order it!!

The lighting on these next pictures isn't very good, but this is what happens when Mommy and Daddy are too busy rocking out on Rockband to realize that they accidentally said "yes" when Sophie asked for a cookie. Little did we know that she took down an entire village of gingerbread men. Here's the carnage:

(p.s., I use the term "rocking out" as loosely as possible. I'm the girl with NO rythm who won't even do the Electric Slide at weddings for fear of embarrassing myself. Brent's pretty great at it, though.) :-)

Santas, Santas everywhere

2009-12-24T21:06:00.007-06:00

The kids are having so much fun with Christmas gifts already! Melissa came over on Tuesday with a tower of gifts for the kids--they got a tower of blocks, an Elmo See 'n Say and a magnetic puzzle (that has a magnetic "fishing pole" that you pick up the pieces with). They are nuts about them!

Wednesday they (and I!!) were feeling loved by the sitters...Leslie got them this great toy that spins and plays music. The kids are supposed to jump over it as it turns--I hadn't ever seen one of these before! She said she needed to give them a toy that would burn off some of this excess energy--ha!! (Why hadn't I thought of this?!) Have I mentioned that we have the greatest babysitters??

Wednesday night Becky brought gifts in the cutest bags ever! The kids each got a long-sleeved shirt and a super-cute sweatshirt jacket. Sophie's jacket is fur-lined, and is SO soft! Blake was hysterical when he opened his--he pulled the jacket out and said "so cute!". Ha!!! There was even a bag for ME that had Bath & Body Works lotion/shower gel (in "Twilight Woods" scent--AWESOME) and a pair of the softest socks (that have shea butter in them). I'm wearing them right now and looooooving them. I also put the lotion on after my bath, so I smell delightful, too. :-) Yes, it's GOOD to be me! AGAIN, have I mentioned that we have the greatest babysitters?? :-)

The kids decorated birthday cakes for Jesus tonight! I thought you might like to check out a video of them in action--they had a ball doing it, but I think they might have eaten more frosting than they used!

I know this post is getting long, but an AMAZING thing happened this afternoon. The doorbell rang and a young man was carrying two huge bags of goodies--he said he was being a delivery man for someone who wanted to be our "Secret Santa." After I stood there speechless with my jaw on the floor, I took the bags from him and noticed that this note was enclosed. It reads: "Yes, Brent & Jennifer, there really is a Santa Clause, and, I too, worship Christ! Kisses & Hugs, Santa." Inside is a $100 bill. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! I had to stumble over my pride for a minute (then burst into tears for another minute), but realized that this is obviously someone who really cares about us. As you know, I've been giving talks at churches about this frugal lifestyle that we've chosen to live for the next several years, and I can't help thinking that it's someone who heard that message, too. The gentleman said that the person wanted to remain anonymous. Again, HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! God willing, I can't wait to get a little farther in this Dave Ramsey lifestyle so we can be doing this for other families in future years. Awesome!!! Praise God!!! If I knew who it was I'd probably smother them with hugs, so it's probably safer for them that I don't know who they are. :-) Ha!!

Kelly and Roger came over tonight and spoiled the kids rotten (of course!)--I'll post those pictures tomorrow!

GratiWednesday & some photos of "home"!

2009-12-23T15:27:00.006-06:00

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but AGAIN I'm ashamed of myself for being a day late with my GratiTuesday post! This week we are thankful for:

Two more of my friends, Sarah and Laurel, brought meals last week after my surgery. Laurel even stayed to eat with us AND gave the kids baths for me!!
The biopsy results showing no cancer!
PERFECT weather last weekend for traveling--for us and for my brother and his family driving from Memphis.
Dad & Louise's new sunroom! It's beautiful and adds a lot of room. We had a LOT of people at their house and it didn't feel crowded.
A friend of our mom's came by and delivered scrapbooks to my brothers and I when we were home. It was VERY thoughtful and touching. I'll post more about that later.

Here are some of the pictures from this weekend! I have a lot more that I'll sprinkle into future posts.

Sophie & Grandma:

Blake climbing on Grandpa:

Graham playing by the squirrel feeder:

Blake was enamored by the train under the tree!

The cousins!!

Blake and Graham got cowboy hats! Blake thought Uncle Jimmy needed a hat, too!

Aunt Kris made Dad blow out birthday candles!

John, Dad, me & Jim in the new sunroom!

Brent's New Wreath!

2009-12-21T23:40:00.004-06:00

We had a great time at Dad & Louise's this weekend! I'm busy editing those photos, and I'll get them posted later this week.

In the meantime, I'll show you how Brent spent his Christmas gift from Dad & Louise! He's been eyeing a HUGE wreath for the front of the house for months, but it was too expensive to justify buying. When he opened the envelope with money inside, he KNEW what he wanted to spend it on--we barely got back into the Wichita city limits on Sunday before he was making a beeline for the store! Plus, it was even on SALE! Woo hoo! I had my doubts that it would fit it into the car, but it did:

Look how big this box is (and how big Brent's smile is!)!!

The finished product on the house. The picture is a bit blurry and doesn't do it justice--it's stunning!

Biopsy Results

2009-12-17T14:48:00.002-06:00

The biopsy results are in:

BENIGN!!!!! NO CANCER!!!!!
PRAISE GOD!!!!!!

Gifts from Tara...and stinging ants...

2009-12-17T07:57:00.004-06:00

Like I've mentioned time and again, we have the best babysitters ever. Tara was with the kids yesterday and brought Christmas gifts for them. (There was even one for me! An awesome picture frame set for the stairway once the painting is done!) Here is the stack of gifts:

"To my favorite kids"--how sweet is that?!

Getting ready to tear into them! They got a Hungry Hippo game, a fun pizza PlayDoh set (which has entertained them for HOURS), activity coloring books and stickers. Awesome!!!

On the topic of Christmas gifts, I got my nephew an ant farm for Christmas, and was worried that the ants wouldn't be shipped in time. Lo and behold, look what showed up at my office yesterday! 25 ants arrived in a small vial in a padded envelope that read:

I don't want to ruin the fun for my nephew, so I'm letting him put the ants into the habitat himself. In the meantime, my job is to simply keep them alive... Their current residence is in a jelly jar (with TINY holes in the top--I was getting tired of Brent making gasping noises because he thought I was suffocating them, so I tapped some holes in the lid).

The white matter is "sand" from the habitat--I had to sprinkle it with water to make it moist. Apparently that's how they drink. I also had to feed them, so I put a small piece of apple in there. They attacked it! It was gone by this morning.

I think this is a SUPER cool gift, but here's where the whole thing goes South: The instructions said that these ants sting and leave welts (good heavens, what did I BUY??), so not to touch them. I dreamed all night that they had escaped and were in my bed biting me. My friend at work said "His parents don't mind that you're giving him this for Christmas?" Um...well...to be honest I didn't ask them. (I wonder if I should have??) Oops. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a jar full of stinging ants, right?

GratiTuesday

2009-12-16T08:10:00.002-06:00

I had every intention of being "on time" with my GratiTuesday post this week, darn it! I had a little surgery on Monday to have some lymph nodes removed along the left side of my neck. Here's a picture taken at the surgery center after the doctor marked me with a surgical marker. We're waiting on the biopsy results.

This week I am thankful for:

My doctor's gentle bedside manner.
The staff at the surgery center for being so warm and calm.
My anesthesiologist. After hearing about the troubles I've had with general anesthesia, he consulted with the surgeon and made some changes to the anesthesia they used during surgery. I handled it MUCH better than in the past.
Kelly, who stayed during the surgery and took me home (with brief stops at the pharmacy and the chinese restaurant for soup)!
Pain medication!!
Barbara Jean and Brooke for bringing dinner Monday and Tuesday night.
Sharon for being with me Monday evening and Kelly for being with me Tuesday evening--they both got the kids ready for bed and tucked in for me. I can't lift the kids yet, and bedtime is a full-contact sport!
I understand that friends from church will bring dinner for the next three nights...how AWESOME is that?? I'm back at work today, and already can tell that I won't be up to cooking tonight. I'm not sure who to thank for organizing that yet...but I think it might be my friend Laurel...
Friends and family who have called or e-mailed. Waiting on the results is the hardest part.

I'm sure I'm leaving something or someone out...this week has been kind of a "fuzzy flurry". The kids are really cute--I showed them my bandages and told them I have an "owie." Every now and then they'll touch me and say "You have an owie, Mommy?" (which comes out sounding something like "Oohabanowiemommeeee?").

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!

2009-12-13T09:31:00.002-06:00

TODAY IS MY DAD'S 70th BIRTHDAY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDPA!!!

WE LOVE YOU! SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!

Mist & Mattresses (& some Santa, too!)

2009-12-12T23:14:00.002-06:00

The kids needed their H1N1 "booster" vaccinations (30 days after initial vaccination), and Brent needed to get vaccinated, too. The kids got the nasal mist, but Brent OPTED for the injection. Who does that?! He's a toughie!!

Sophie getting hers...(notice Graham to the side showing off his abs...):

Graham was next...

Then Blake...

Afterwards we picked up the boys' new mattresses!! You might remember that we changed them to "big boy" beds a couple of months ago, but the mattresses we chose then were "bunkie mattresses" designed for beds that don't use box springs. They're a solid board covered with foam, and MIGHT be the most uncomfortable things we've ever laid on. We decided to upgrade to REAL mattresses and try to sell the almost-brand-new bunkie mattresses on Craigslist. Sooo, we needed support for beneath the mattresses, so we made our own "bunkie boards."

Brent had the plywood cut...

...and I covered it with thick material purchased at the fabric store.

But the BEST part was getting to use the air-compressed staple gun! I can't believe Brent let me use his "toy" unsupervised--it was too fun!

NOW for the Santa pics! Last week (before we all got sick), we took the kids to see Santa! Santa made his appearance at the event in the bucket of a fire truck--really neat! The kids all ran right up to him to sit on his lap.

Happy GratiTuesday (a day late!)

2009-12-09T15:15:00.003-06:00

I started working 4 days per week last week, so my Tuesday schedule has changed a bit. I'm getting into the groove of working the extra day, but bear with my sporatic blog posting for a bit!

Things we're grateful for this week:

Brent had a good review this week at work! It's not time for raises yet, so there was no monetary reward, but the encouraging feedback from his boss was as good as money. It was nice to see him with a little spring in his step!
My friend from church treated me to lunch last week, and it was so timely. I was really struggling with the decision to start working an extra day, and she helped me sort it out.
I really believe that being offered this extra day at work is a blessing, but it's SO hard being away from the kids. I'm grateful to have a job that's close to home and has a relaxed atmosphere. Hopefully this extra day at work will help us on our Dave Ramsey debt payoff plan!
On top of number 2, we are continually grateful for the sitters that come to our home to watch the kids. Having them there relieves me a little of the mommy guilt that comes along with working more, because I know that the kids are really loved by the sitters and they get a lot of personal attention from them. If the kids were at a daycare facility, I'm afraid my stress level would skyrocket.
Brent and Kelly for running errands for me while I was sick at home with three sick kids.
Karie for filling in for an open sitter spot at the last minute!
Caryn for taking care of me again--we had a MAPS Christmas party last night and I didn't have a scarf for the scarf exchanged. Caryn saved the day with the perfect scarf, wrapped in a bag and everything!
For my dad, who knows that timing is everything.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOUISE!!

2009-12-07T20:50:00.003-06:00

Today is Louise's birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!

We love you! We'll see you next week!

Bleh... (updated with pictures)

2009-12-06T15:56:00.004-06:00

The kids and I are sick, sick, sick with a head & chest cold. No fun! We've been homebound this weekend, and Brent's been at work. Thanks to his late-night errand running and Kelly picking up a few things at the store for us, we at least have food and medicine! We've spent a lot of time watching cartoons and coloring pictures. It would be a lot of fun if we felt better!

I gave the kids some candy cane sticks thinking it would help soothe their throats, and Blake had his EVERYWHERE. I finally confined him to his chair until he finished, and you can see in this picture that he's a sticky mess! The kids LOVE candy canes. I'm a big fan of the cellophane-wrapped Christmas peppermint nougat candies that have a Christmas tree design in them--do you know what I mean?? They're like peppermint taffy deliciousness. I haven't seen them this year, though...I'll have to watch for them.

On weekends I usually get a lot of cooking and baking done for the week, but for obvious reasons that's fallen by the wayside this weekend. Unfortunately, so has cleaning... I have a couple of loads of laundry finishing up right now, though, so I'm not a total slacker. I had Kelly pick up some "vapor bath" for me (it's kids' body wash that has a mentholatum scent to it--I use it like bubble bath for the kids when they have colds and it really helps them breathe better--I'm a HUGE fan!), so they'll be getting baths when they wake up from naptime.

Does anyone know how to make Asian hot & sour soup?? I'd give my kingdom for a bowl of it right now. If anyone has an easy recipe for it, I'd love to have it!!

**Updated: I took these pictures after their bath and dinner. You can tell they're not feeling 100%, but they each ate TWO pb&j sandwiches, apple slices and bananas for dinner. That's a good sign! Poor babies, they just want to snuggle, so I'm off to oblige!

Our other "kids"

2009-12-01T21:51:00.006-06:00

The kids' favorite "toys" are our cats, so I thought I'd better showcase them here for a change. :-) They are the best cats ever!! Seriously, the kids will tackle them to give them "hugs", and I'm sure it bruises every one of their internal organs every time.

Edge is our boy cat (left) and Heidi is our girl cat (right). As you can see, they're curled up together on the couch. The kids were in bed when this was taken, so you know they're enjoying their kid-free rest!

A family tradition we've done the past few years is to load everyone up in the van and go look at Christmas lights, which we did tonight. We stopped first at Starbucks for hot chocolate for Brent and I (peppermint hot chocolate for Brent, which is waaay yummy!). Lots of great lights this year! (Between you and me...I think Brent uses this activity to do "research" on what gawdy blow-up Christmas decor is on the market. If he had it his way, our yard would be COVERED in that kind of stuff. So far I'm winning the battle, but I'm worried what he has up his sleeve for future seasons...) The kids loved tonight--it's fun that they're so "aware" this year!

Tonight we put the kids to bed slathered with Vicks Vaporub--the fevers from Sunday were apparently a warning of worse things to come. Sophie's chest is really congested, and the boys have coughs which seem to be developing into something deeper. So far Brent hasn't been affected, but I've been getting progressively more congested as the day has worn on, so I'm off for a hot bath and some Vicks Vaporub myself. :-)

GratiTuesday

2009-12-01T07:18:00.002-06:00

Happy December and Happy GratiTuesday! Since I posted on Thursday last week, this week's list will be a little shorter. This week I'm thankful for:

Good girlfriends! Thanks especially to Kelly for breaking away and coming over for a long visit last night after the kids were in bed. Couch time with friends is the best therapy sometimes.
This weather! I can't believe it's December 1st and I don't have to take a coat with me.
Our Christmas decorations! Our house looks very festive inside and out.
My friend Jancy, who exhibits a great amount of patience and enthusiasm when taking our family's photos. We spent some time with her on Friday taking snapshots for our Christmas card. I haven't seen any of them yet, but I'll post some when I get them. (Also, she's a steal! If you need any photos taken, let me know and I'll connect you with her!)
My husband, who didn't flip out when I told him I wanted to throw the boys' beds out the window. (They're so big and impossible to change the sheets on! We made a big mistake when we chose the mattresses--unfortunately, it might be an expensive mistake, too.)

Decking the Halls

2009-11-29T19:00:00.003-06:00

We decorated the tree on Friday! Here are pictures of the kids putting the finishing touches on the tree.

We decided to put the gate up again this year to keep the kids away from the tree, but especially to keep some distance from the fireplace. **Side note--I started painting the living room, and you can see the new color in this picture! The left wall is the new color. What do you think??**

Sophie woke up with a fever this morning and has been pretty lethargic all day. Brent's working, so the four of us have spent a lot of time curled up on the couch watching movies. I noticed that Graham is really warm this evening, too. A little bit of a cough and a little runny nose, but other than that the fever is all that's keeping them down. Hopefully this will pass quickly! I made pancakes for dinner and all three of them ate and ate and ate. They haven't eaten very much the rest of the day, so hopefully that's a good sign!

2009-11-28T11:04:00.004-06:00

We gobbled 'til we wobbled on Thanksgiving! For lunch we had "snack-y" foods (Brent's request) that consisted of BBQ smokies, meatballs and nachos. The kids got a bath after lunch...BBQ sauce was everywhere!

We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with a family from church, and Fran made the cutest turkey desserts for the kids! The kids loved them! The body was a chocolate covered cherry, and the base was a chocolate covered cookie. Cute!

Yesterday we decorated the tree (I'll post those pictures tomorrow), and along with the tree all of the musical Christmas toys came out. Graham loves this dog...Blake is afraid of it. Here's a video of Graham dancing along with the dog!

Happy Thanksgiving & GratiThursday!

2009-11-26T08:39:00.007-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving!! In honor of the day (and due to the week slipping by me), this is our GratiThursday list for the week:

Health! Last year Blake and I spent Thanksgiving in the hospital. Today we're all together as a family and the kids are healthy!
Friday I met up with a group of fabulous ladies to see "New Moon", the new Twilight movie. It was a great day and a great movie! I'm so grateful to Christy for organizing it, Jen & Sarah for being my driving partners, and Meagan and Melissa for welcoming a new friend into the group. It was so much fun!! Here's a picture of our "group":

Dad saved the day again! While in KC with the "movie girls", I met up with Dad to get a new icemaker for the *possessed* refrigerator and parts for the *possessed* dishwasher. Woo hoo! Hopefully these will do the trick. (Dad, can you do anything about a 20-year old TV that's showing spots and rainbows during TV programs?? Does that mean a tube is bad?? Do TVs still HAVE tubes??)
Kelly and Roger got a new couch, and gave us their old love seat! One of their dogs had chewed up the bottom, so I got a chance to try my hand at furniture repair. Here's the before and after--not too shabby, eh?? :-)

My friend Kim, who is always willing to share when she has an abundance.
My friend Brooke, who invited Brent and I to join their Small Group (Home Team) for our church. Since our church is so big, the church encourages Home Teams to meet during the month so you have a smaller group to feel connected to.
My friend Sharon and her kids, who watched the kids while I went to our first Home Team event (Brent was working, but will hopefully join us next time!!). The kids had a BLAST at her house, but I'm pretty sure they traumatized the poor guinnea pig. When I saw it, it looked like it needed a little valium... Also, Blake tried to eat a small gourd from their Fall display... (I wonder if Sharon will ever invite us back??) :-) She fed them dinner, and was surprised by how much they could eat! HA!! I told you, they can attack some groceries...I promise I feed them at home. :-)
My friend Fran, who invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with her family today. We're looking forward to it!

Official Christmas Lighting!

2009-11-21T19:02:00.003-06:00

Brent decided tonight would be the grand lighting of his Christmas lights! The kids love them--they were excited. Here are some videos of the "event".

Kids' reaction (you can't see them, but you can hear their reaction...when this video is viewed on my camera, you can see the kids really well. I guess when it's loaded to the computer it's much darker. Bummer!! The sound is cute, though--Sophie was loving it!!):

View of the front of house:

View of the back of house/shed:

Cookie Class

2009-11-19T08:51:00.003-06:00

Melissa and I learned a lot at our cookie decorating class! I really thought it would be easy, since I consider myself fairly 'crafty', but it was surprisingly hard! It's going to take a lot of practice for me to get good at it. The teacher had a lot of neat tools that I'd like to get (spreaders, etc.), and he introduced us to all kinds of sanding sugars, edible glitters and food colorings. Really neat stuff!!

Here's a picture of Melissa and her masterpieces:

These are my cookies:

The second one is my favorite, and I wish we had more time left in class to practice more. We were getting a little better at it by the time class was over!

Appliances

2009-11-18T21:06:00.008-06:00

Dear Santa,

Our *possessed* refrigerator has now stolen the dishwasher's soul, too. Since the most brilliant appliance repairman hasn't been able to diagnose the problem long-distance, I'm going to need some help from you.

I'd be really, really happy if your elves could build me a new refrigerator and dishwasher and load them in your sleigh. I'm attaching pictures for your reference. What the heck, I'll add a picture of a new oven, too...I'm sure you can imagine how powerful the refrigerator's spell is, and it will only be a matter of time before the oven is hexed, too.

Working hard to stay on the "nice" list,
Jennifer

Happy GratiTuesday!

2009-11-17T22:46:00.002-06:00

Today I am thankful for this post, because I'm really in a "GrouchyTuesday" type of mood. This post makes me flip the switch on my attitude and look at the positives.

I had a CT scan this week to check out the lymph node problem, and the doctor wants to monitor them for another month before he decides if a biopsy is the best course of action. I'm grateful that they aren't growing at a startling rate--and hopeful that it just goes away altogether!

Living on this strict budget is a complete bummer sometimes--Monday I ran out of yummy-smelling lotion, and knew it wouldn't be a justifiable splurge for a while. Unexpectedly, when I got to work that morning, my friend Ronda gave me four bottles of lotion in my FAVORITE scents! WAY too coincidental to be coincidence. Ronda's boss is allergic to the scents, so Ronda had to get rid of them. God is so good!

I'm grateful for Kelly, who watched the kids for me last night so Melissa and I could go to a cookie decorating class. The kids absolutely loved spending time with her!

I'm grateful for Melissa, who is a very patient friend--this cookie decorating class was my gift to her to replace a 'promise' of a cake decorating class from THREE years ago.

I'm grateful to have such an industrious husband, who almost has the Christmas lights on the outside of the house finished! He put a LOT of effort into them, and they're going to look great!!

I'm grateful that anyone still looks at this blog since I've been so lax in updating it. I pinky-swear that I'll post a lot in the upcoming weeks and get some pictures of the kids on here! Here's a cute one of them after their bath the other night. You can tell they're 'winding down' watching TV right before bed:

www.BeTheMatch.org

2009-11-13T12:53:00.001-06:00

Brent and I are officially members of the national bone marrow registry! We've volunteered to donate bone marrow if we're picked as matches for patients. The initial process was simple--they send you a kit with swabs that you sweep the inside of your cheek with and send back. The testing is completed and added to the registry, and if you're determined to be a good match for a patient they request more thorough testing. If you'd like to help, click on this link: How You Can Help - help patients in need of a life-saving transplant.

Happy GratiTuesday

2009-11-11T08:26:00.002-06:00

A day late, but this is what we're grateful for on this beautiful Veteran's Day!

All of the soldiers who fight for our freedom, and continue to re-enlist even during hostile times. For their families who support them and keep things running smoothly in their absence.
To the Sedgwick County Health Department for holding H1N1 vaccine clinics--our kids were able to get vaccinated yesterday!! It was very well run and a smooth process, even with three toddlers in tow. :-) I am EXTREMELY grateful that we were able to get them vaccinated. I know a lot of people have differing opinions about this vaccination, but I am THRILLED.
For my friend Caryn who's always eager to share.
For my husband's skills in dealing with the *possessed* icemaker, which went out AGAIN. ("Dear Santa...")
For my friend Karie, who is helping watch the kids today!!

Happy GratiTuesday!

2009-11-03T21:46:00.003-06:00

Things we're thankful for this week:

Melissa and Kelly and their co-workers that made our kids' pre-Halloween trick-or-treating experience great! Their offices are so welcoming to our trio, and we look forward to it every year!
Kelly, Kelsey, the Bowman's and the Cantrell's for putting together awesome goodie bags for our kids for Halloween! The kids are loving them!!
Sophie's last gymnastics class was Monday. We loved the class, but are grateful it's over so we can have some 'home' time on Monday evenings.
My friend Christy for inviting me to the 'New Moon' movie premier! I am REALLY looking forward to it! I'm thankful for Brent encouraging me to go, too!
Health! So far, so good--the kids have managed to stay well this week!
Friends' suggestions for a new doctor. Brent and I are in the market for a new doctor, and we appreciate the help finding a good one!
Our babysitters. I'm thankful every day for them, but am especially thankful during this cold/flu season that they're so reliable. Their immune systems must be amazing--so far they haven't had to take any sick days, which makes ME have a happy boss at work! Hooray for that!

Here are some pictures of Sophie's last day of gymnastics! We might sign her up for a new class after the first of the year--she really enjoys it.