Sunflower Inn--Yoder, Kansas

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!

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!!!

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:

1. 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!
2. 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! 
3. 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.
4. Black Friday shopping!  Louise and I found some great buys on Friday morning, and were back before anyone missed us.
5. 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.  :-)
6. 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!

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

Happy GratiTuesday!  This week we're thankful for:

1. Our friend Patti had knee replacement surgery last week and is doing great!  We need to get over and see her soon.
2. 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.
3. 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).
4. 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.  :-)
5. 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.
6. 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).
7. 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

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!

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Brent is getting a few overtime days this month--perfectly timed since our vehicle tags/taxes are due this month!
4. 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!
5. Brent is grateful for the new Crocs I ordered for him!
6. 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??)
7. BEAUTIFUL FALL WEATHER!  The chill in the air is so nice, and the kids are loving being outside.
8. The trampoline makes the list again--the kids are crazy about it!
9. 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.
10. 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

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!