i can't believe another year is almost up!

This is the cute little onesie my cousin made for him. It is so cute! Prior to picking up my camera, he was smiling at me.

I really remember last year at this time fairly well! It just amazes me for quickly time shot by this year!

Emily got 2 awards at the end of Quarter Award ceremonies. She got Principal's list for all A's and a Perfect Attendance Award. Sydney also got Student of the month of September/October. I didn't make it to her award ceremony because I was trying to get registered to vote.

Last week was rather awful.Karl was gone, the heater was not working for 2 full days, Sydney fell on her way to the bus and did a face plant and did not go to school, the next day she was sent home for a possible case of pink eye, and had to stay home the following day. I had a killer project, and was not sleeping well since Josh was also not sleeping well due to his cold. Poor baby still has the cold! Emily was a little whiny, but over all not too bad. We also found out Karl really does have diabetes. He meets the with doctor next Monday, but until then we are trying to figure out the best approach. I am trying to put my speedy reading skills to good use and go through a few books for him. It is much easier to get through fiction though!

Updates

So a lot has changed in 2 weeks. Josh is two months old tomorrow! yeah! He is growing so fast. He has had his first cold and had to sleep in his week for part of the night so he didn't choke. Sydney has struggled at night with coughing/asthma, but is doing well at school. Report card & parent teacher conferences are happening today. I have taken family photos for two families here which is exciting. Maybe some day i will include professional photographer to my repertoire.

The big news is the Karl just got told his blood sugar is out of whack and he has type 2 diabetes. This is crazy news and we have not quite figured out what all this will mean for him.

Happy Halloween

Here we are at the Annual Trunk or Treat with Jasmine, a little black cat, and baby Raja, Jasmine's pet tiger. We were suppossed to have another little Jasmine, or a little fairy, but Sydney decided to wear the other costume Grandma Pilz made for her. Note the really cool black wig I made:))

The wig took 2 skeins of yarn, 2 wig caps, 1 mannequin head, some saran wrap, lots of hot glue, 1 burnt finger, and one sewing machine. I should have taken pictures as I went, since I am pretty rpoud of my project. Note to anyone trying to make a yarn wig on a mannequin head, saran wrap is a great idea, but use wax paper if you want to use hot glue. My hot glue melted the saran wrap and stuck to the head. I was glad to have the second cap so I could stick it under the first wig and make it less pricky for princess sensitive skin! Emily looks completely different to me with black hair! She let me put on a little eye makeup so you could see her eye & eyelashes. The hair on the wig goes all the way down to her hips too! Major thanks to Grandma Pilz for making the costume. It was soft enough fabric so she enjoyed wearing it.

Art Show & First smiles

Yesterday we went to Emily's first (hopefully of many) art show. She was chosen along with 3 other students from her school to be part of an Art Show for Suffolk Public Schools. Her assignment was to draw a scarecrow (They were discussing making bodies and the shapes that are in the body. They were also supposed to include their favorite fruits and vegetables from the garden. She included carrots, watermelon, tomatoes, sunflowers, and zinnias. She also made the scarecrow a tiger.

She also is headed to school wearing a hat she made herself. Today is Crazy Hat Day. Carmen Miranda comes to mind! The hat is all fruit.



Josh is getting really big and strong. Yesterday I was holding him and he was awake and happy. We made eye contact, I smiled at him and talked to him, and he smiled back at me. I was so much fun!! He is till colicky at night, and I hope that goes away soon, but it is so wonderful to see him changing right before my eyes!

Sleepwalking

So apparently I have a incorrectly programmed baby. While I have no desire to exchange or return my little guy, I'd like a manual to reprogram him. Something about 3-5am is really exciting for him and he likes to wake up and be up at that time. He alternates between being really fussy and just being up. Two nights ago, he was great and slept through the night. I thought to myself Yeah probelm is solved! Silly me! Yesterday on cue at 3am he was up. I tried nursing him back to sleep. No dice. I changed his diaper & tried again. Still no deal. Then Sydney woke up and was coughing. I woke up Karl to deal with her, and though when he got back, maybe he would take him for a little while. It isn't really fair to ask that since I can nap during the day, so that didn't fly far either.

So I thought why not take him for a walk in the baby bjorn. He likes that, and I am sick of pacing the living room. If I have to be up, why not get some exercise in while I'm at it. So we walked up and down the street and headed out into the rest of the neighborhood, singing all the way. Abby and Carrie (my two cats) came with me. Occasionally they stopped and waited for me to turn around, but I had company. Finally he fell asleep. I came back inside, and saw his little eyes open up. Arrgh. So I went off the try & nurse him to sleep in the rocker. No deal. I tried the swing, I fell asleep Josh didn't. I tired lying down with him in bed, nope. Then the cats brought in a mouse & it woke up Karl. We saved the mouse. Karl had Josh, I got the mouse. Finally it was 4 minutes before Karl's alarm went off, so he took Josh and brought him back 20 minutes later after letting him cry himself to sleep in his arms.

The girls have headed off to school, and my little guy is sleeping in his swing. (He loves the thing during the day, it is just nights that it isn't all that popular) My plan is to take a nap!

So how do I get him to stay awake more during the day so he will sleep at night, or at least wake up, eat, and go back to sleep like he will do cheerfully during the daytime?

Heavenbound

Emily was concerned tonight after we read our scripture story ( the focus was on obedience, and returning to Heavenly Father) because she wanted to know what would happen to our house & all her stuff when we left it to "return to Heavenly Father".

Not wanting to dive into a lengthy explanation that would make her upset because we would end up talking about death, we veered off to another sticky topic, the fact that stuffed animals won't go to Heaven with her. But we fudged by saying that real tigers would not eat meat, and she could play with them. How do you explain "You can't take it with you to a 6 year old."

4 Weeks Tomorrow

So far the past 4 weeks have really flown by. This week was the hardest. My mother-in-law left last Sunday, and Monday was a big shock. Not only was there no fun companion to talk to during the day, I had to do it all myself. Yikes! By the end of the week I thought I was getting things a little more under control, although the house is not as tidy as it was last week, but apparently I was not looking so hot since Sydney's bus driver wanted to know if I was headed back in for a nap Friday morning. I was!

Well, Josh isn't crying right now, and is in fact sleeping. So I am going to pretend that will last for a little while longer and go to bed myself!

Happy little Piglet!

Josh had his 2 week check up on Monday, and I was surprised to discover that he had gained 1lb 5oz since his check up 4 days after he was born. He also grew 1/2 an inch. All was well on his end, except of course he did not like the appointment very much and cried throughout his exam. Poor little guy! He was blessed this past Sunday so at least one grandmother could be here to see it, and it was a lovely blessing. Karl and his mom are struggling with colds and we are hoping with a little rest both will get better!

What a night

So last night we learned 3 things. Sydney has croup & asthma. The local ER clinic is wonderful. Joshua does not like it if I drink soda. (I had a nasty headache and killed it with my favorite combo-cola & lots of tylenol, but it was not well received.)

I was watching a movie last night with Karl and his mom and Josh. Josh was cranky, and finally we toddled off to my room to try and get him asleep. Karl & his mom finished the movie then heard Sydney upstairs coughing. We gave her a hit of Albuterol, but it didn't seem to work well, and so they went to the ER. Karl said by the time they got to the ER (5 minute drive) she was breathing better, but I am glad we did it since we have never had a doctor hear her in the middle of one of these episodes. The doctors gave her a nebulizer treatment, and some oral steroids to help her breathing settle down. They got back home & got Sydney settled in to bed around 1am. She coughed some more during the night, but seems much better this morning. Thr croup is contagious, but not too serious since there is no fever, and she is downright chipper! We just have to keep her from hanging on Josh, which she does pretty well by herself. She can't got to Primary tomorrow, and should be fine for school on Monday. Josh, once he finally fell asleep was wonderful for the rest of the night.

Doing well

So Josh is now a week old, and doing very nicely! He is getting a little chubbier around his cheeks and chin and is sleeping better at night now instead of staying awake from 12-3am. His sisters are doing very well having him home. Emily has complimented me on my tummy shrinking, but wants to know why it isn't small yet. I do too! I secretly hoped that under my very large belly lurked the body of supermodel which would magically reveal itself post delivery. Alas, my love of all things sweet has again proven to be my downfall. My supermodel body is currently hiding, but would be happy to reveal itself with just a bit more effort on my part!

Before Josh came, I had been stressing about dealing with a newborn. I had complained to friends that the newborn stage terrified me, and I really started enjoying them when they were a little bit less fragile. I had forgotten how much I love watching them sleep. I love the funny little faces they make, the way they stretch when they wake up, the way they smell after a bath, and all those uniquely newborn things. I also love that they sleep almost all day! So for now I am happy to snuggle with my little munchkin as he is sleeping and enjoy the quiet time during the day while the girls are at school!

Joshua Edward Pilz is finally here!

Monday the 15th at 4:32pm, Josh was born. he weighed in at 8lbs almost 11 oz (10.8) and 21.5 inches long. Labor went really well once it got started. Just like with the girls, I had false labor a few days earlier. I went in to the hospital on Tuesday thinking it was the real deal, and it really quite convincing, but I never got past a 3 so they sent me home assuring me it would happen any day now. I went walking almost everyday at the YMCA hoping he would just fall out due to my friend gravity, but no luck. At my appointment on Friday, I was at a 4, but not having regular contractions, so I went home again this time sure it would happen over the weekend.

On Monday, Mom (who sweetly came Thursday responding to my distress call Tuesday) and I planned to go stroller shopping. But as I was getting out of the shower, my water broke. So, that ended the shopping trip, but yeah it brought home Karl from work and I finally got admitted to the hospital.

Just like with Sydney, despite water breaking, I wasn't having hard contractions for the first 2 hours. I was in pain from my hip so asked to get my lovely epidural in before things really got rolling since I was at a 5 when I was checked in. After a few hours at the hospital we decided to start the pitoccin to get the ball rolling. That ramped things up quite nicely, and so an hour or so later, my wonderful doctor came to check me again, and did something magical with her exam which took me from an "Oh this isn't comfy, but I can still watch a movie in between contractions" status to "Oh my gosh, I'm having a baby RIGHT NOW." After a few minutes to get ready and set up, I was off and pushing and he was born after only a few pushes.

The girls came by with Mom that evening to see him. Both girls oohed and ahhed over him which was really fun! They seemed shocked at how cute & how small he was. However when asked if they wanted to hold him, they back pedaled away as fast as possible! Sydney just shock her head, but Emily, being her funny self, replied "I'm not big enough. Maybe when I am 12" That just made me laugh! It did not occur to her that when she is 12 her 6 year old brother probably won't want to sit on her lap:)

They kept me there in the hospital until today, partially because they like to keep new moms 48 hours, but mostly because they were concerned about his "large" size and whether or not he would have blood sugar issues at the 40 hour point. I thought he was normal size for one of my munchkins, but they have a better safe than sorry policy I guess. We scampered home a few hours earlier after promising we would take him to the doctor on Friday. Not that he ever had any issues with his vital signs, but, oh well. He is happy to nurse, doesn't cry too much, which I am sure will change very soon!

So now we are all home & very happy, if very tired. Mom has a link on flickr for some very cute pictures that she took at the hospital. click here

School Days are here again!

This morning Emily and Sydney were up and dressed and finished eating their cereal at 6:45. We picked out outfits last night, and I started getting lunches ready then. I was hoping to sleep in until 7am, but instead we got rolling as a family at 6:45! Emily had her backpack on at 7:00 and did not understand why I would ever suggest that maybe it could wait another hour until the bus was in our neighborhood.

So we brushed hair, double checked backpacks, added some clothes to Sydney's bag, brushed teeth, finished lunches and read two stories to kill some time. I went upstairs to get my camera, and got sidetracked on hunting down my sneakers so when I heard a bus rumble up around 8 am, I was surprised. Luckily I was downstairs, saw the route number and yelled for Sydney to come get on the bus. Very nice! So she came running down, I chatted with the bus drive about normal route times, since her route was the one I could not find in the paper, and took a few quick pictures. She was a tiny bit nervous at first, but not terribly nervous. I think riding the bus last year helped her out a lot! Our only major mistake today, other than not being outside, was forgetting to stick her name tag around her neck. I hope the bus driver catches that before she gets to school!

Emily of course was outside when Sydney left with her lunch box in hand. We waited the 10 more minutes and the neighborhood kids and their parents all waited taking pictures and laughing about the first day of school. Our cats were out amusing all the other kids, and everyone was excited. Emily was probably more nervous about the bus ride than Sydney was, but as soon as it came, she got in line and marched on the bus to find a seat. One quick wave, and she was off! After the bus drove away, on other the other moms started to cheer. Oddly enough, it was harder to see your kids get on the bus, than it was to take them to school and walk them to class. I wonder why!

Hanging in there

It is down to the final few weeks before the baby comes (2 and a half weeks left), and so far we are doing alright. Yesterday Karl and I made a big push to get our bedroom clean. Emily had pointed out on a few occasions when we asked them to clean their room that ours was not a shining example of tidiness. Well, it is not quite perfect, but it is a HUGE improvement! Yeah us! We also got the girls to get their room clean. They finished off the last little bit with some micromanagement from Karl. They are pretty proud of themselves, but that pride never seems to care over until the next round of toys come out, so here's hoping it works.

The baby's room is not quite done. The room is painted, and it just needs to be decorated now. The crib & changing table are both us, I have everything I need in the room, but it just isn't really cute yet. So that is the goal for this week. I had forgotten how much my cats love changing tables & cribs. Apparently they are the best cat beds ever! So I am going back & forth between keeping the door to the room closed, and using my lint roller. When April & Caleb visited last week, Caleb got the crib, and he had no major complaints, but it needed to be de-furred before he could use it:) Sadly we also discovered that when Caleb is here in that room, the girls are more than happy to suggest to April that he play in that room with the BABY toys (translation...Get out of our stuff squirt!!). They even went so far as to politely shut the door once he was back in his designated area. Poor Josh. They have already moved all the artwork up on the fridge so it is out of baby height. I tried telling them that for the first few months, Josh won't be able to stand let alone crawl so their stuff really isn't in danger right away, but that didn't seem to impress them very much.

Mentally I am not exactly ready to deal with a newborn, but physically I am all for it. I guess the master plan is to make you unhappy enough with the last month of pregnancy that labor & delivery really doesn't seem that bad at all. In fact you are down right excited to go through it just so you can have your body back.

We also meet both the girls teacher on Thursday at their orientations and I like them all. Emily's teacher seem very nice, and I did warn her a little bit about some potential quirks. She doesn't have too many repeat friends from last year in her class, but then we didn't actually get a chance to see everyone in the class. Emily is beyond excited about school starting. Every morning I get a new daily count down.

Sydney will be riding the bus to her school (Logistically getting both girls to school that start at the same time was a little overwhelming, and since they offer and prefer busing for her preschool, we are going for it. Since she gets to ride the bus, I had to agree to Emily riding the bus as well.) The kicker will be that I was usually waltzing into school a few minutes before 9 last year. It will be more of a challenge to be ready for an 8:15 bus! I hope they can help me out until I am used to the new routine as they are such morning people and I am not! Sydney is also thrilled about school because her teacher has horses in the play area! She just loves playing with horses right now! I am worried about the nap-time hour in her class. She has not napped in 2 years. I took away naps because she would stay up until 9 or 10 with a nap. We will have to see how that part of school goes. Just 2 more days!! Yeah!!!

Hiccups

So what makes a baby get the hiccups anyway? I get them when I eat too fast, but it's not like this baby can even eat yet! He hasn't even been born! He has not come close to Emily's record of 3 days straight, but he gets them a lot!

Bet you didn't know this

"Some buggers stick to my skin and become skin!"

This was said by Sydney in all earnestness after giving her a pointed look at catching her mining for a particularly deep piece of gold.

Beasty Breakfast

I really should have Karl blog about this since he took the girls and I was at home but...Saturday the Virginia Zoo was having a special members only event where you got to wander the zoo at breakfast time before it was open to the general population. The girls had a wonderful time, especially at the lion cages. The young lions were especially playful and the male lion was about 4 inches away from Emily on the other side of the bars. They also love visiting the prairie dogs. Except that when Sydney mentioned she wanted to go see the prairie dogs, Emily said "You mean the fairy dogs?" Who knew they had a different name!

This is one of the funniest pictures Karl took. (Sadly my camera was home with me so this was taken by his phone) I have no idea what exactly was going through Emily's mind when she smiled, but it makes me laugh.

Superhero capes sewing project

I finally finished the superhero capes!! I started these about a month and a half ago. Yikes, but oh well, they are finally finished. I wanted to chose fabric that would go with their existing princess dresses, yellow & pink for Emily & blue and purple for Sydney, but at the store Emily insisted on getting red for Snow White. She does not actually have a Snow White costume, but I guess that didn't factor into her decision.

I needed to assemble the capes so both sides were wearable, and not scratchy using so velcro was out, and ribbons seemed like a bad idea. I found a link on another blog that I borrowed the general shape and crown idea ftom, but once I downloaded their template, I had to tweak it in illustrator just to make it a little crisper. Yup, I have accepted the OCD in me!

I printed out the crown, cut it out on double sided fusible web, added that to the cape, satin stitched it down, then assembled the cape, pressed, and topstiched them. Next I made a buttonhole and sewed on two button on the cape so you can use either side. I thought of that little adaption all by myself! I am so proud of that! It lets the cape get past the picky police. But I should have made Emily's button hole a little bigger, since she is still not great at doing buttons and hers is a little snug. I made the buttonhole before I bought the buttons. (A classic faux pas) I thought I had some round white ones laying around, but never found them so got some colored hearts that worked, but are a little tricker to get through the hole.

After I finished Emily's cape, she immediately mentioned that she wanted jewels on hers. Well, that would have been nice to know before I sewed both sides together. So she is campaigning for a trip to Michael's to buy some jewels to glue on her crown. Maybe if they get their room clean....

Feeling blue!

Emily got glasses about a month ago for reading. About two weeks ago she misplaced them. I can't find them anywhere. They were in the closet in her old room, but when we moved rooms they seem to have disappeared. My friend Jill helped me move the closet stuff around and she remembers putting them into the new bedroom, but the trail ends there. Emily does not know where she had them last, and thinks we should just get a new pair. I did explain that they were expensive, so that isn't really an option right now. So basically she had them in her possession 2 weeks. The warrantee we got for them covers all damages, but not loss or theft. I have not given up, but feel pretty gloomy at this point.

Snoring tips

I was lying in bed the other night, unable to fall asleep as has been my usual for the last few months, and beside me Karl was blissfully sleeping and snoring away. I nudged him once or twice, tried to ignore it for about 15 minutes, then gave up. I shook him again and said "Karl you are snoring." Normally when I tell him that, he grunts and rolls over and stops, for at least a few minutes. This time he replied, "so tell me to stop." (Now why didn't I think of that!) He didn't stop, didn't roll over, and just kept snoring away. I finally fell asleep a little while later after I just got used to the noise. When I told him about it the next day, he just laughed and laughed and didn't remember it at all. I think it is funny now, but I was a little annoyed right then.

Painting is done!

Yeah! The room is finally painted and we are just getting started bring the crib, changing table, bassinet, etc from the attic to get it all set up. It is pretty exciting. I have one or two display shelves that I am considering painting, but right now I am pretty sick of the smell or paint! No new pictures yet, maybe tomorrow.

Not a huge baseball fan but...

I absolutely love this song! JustinRoberts.org/popfly

We listen to kids music in the car most of the time.  I actually am starting to like several different artists, and this particular song gets stuck in my head and I don't even mind it.  I was even looking at the iTunes store thinking about buying his album, but didn't yet. So I was especially pleased to see that the artist, Justin Roberts has a video on his website of this song, so when I get it stuck in my head I can get it out again by listening to it. Of course the girls love music on the computer so now that they now I have certain songs, they ask to hear them again & again.

When school starts, I will switch back to my favorite stations again once they are out of the car. he he!

Funny Quote

So last night at dinner (and of course we had friends over to witness this) Karl noticed Sydney bouncing all around as he was getting her dessert so he asked her if she needed to go to the bathroom.  She replied " I'm not grabbing my bottom, I was just touching it."

Emily Update

And now Emily is in tears because she misses the pink in her room and wants to know why little boys don't like pink.  Argh. I can't win.

Baby's Room Update

Before-Saturday Night

After-This afternoon

So far things are going well. I have 2 coats of paint in the room so the pink seems to be gone on the walls, and cut in the edges and trim. I am also out of my gallon of paint, so I am on hold with yellow paint for now. I still have the closet and the closet doors to tackle, then any little shelves that need to be painted to match the room. I also want to replace a strip of quarter round moulding that seems to be ruined by water damage. Not sure how it happened or when exactly as it is fairly recent, but it could have been a wet towel left on the floor, or a spilled sippy cup.

So now a survey for everyone out there.... Would you rather have a white closet or a painted closet?

When we bought the house each and every closet was painted. What was wrong with the default white?? I like plain closets! Since the house had some wild & bright colors, most have since been repainted. This means that the girls' room, which was pink when we bought it, had a pink closet. I skipped painting that one since I was in a major time crunch and their room was painted a lighter pink so a darker pink closet was not really a big issue. But pink & yellow don't work so well for me :) I can paint it white now (I should have enough white paint to do this after I prime the pink) or paint it yellow (after I buy more yellow paint). Textured walls really suck up more paint than regular ones.  I really like smooth ones!!!

Also to mural or not to mural. I had planned to take the frog stamp set that I got for decorating the room and use my scanner to blow up the frogs, then use an overhead projector (someone I know must have one) then trace them on the wall & paint them. But now I am not so sure. I think it would be very cute, but it will take lots more time to do, and I am nervous about doing it on the textured wall. Any thoughts? I could just blow it up, transfer on watercolor paper and make a nice piece of wall art instead.

The girls are doing really well in their new room, and have not complained about the down sizing at all.  It has been easier to get them to put away their toys in the new closet set up, and the dollhouse that had not been played with very much is getting lots of use.  They debated putting the kitchen in the babies room at some point just to have a little more room, but since that is played with by almost every child who comes over to the house, I'm not so eager to shift it out just yet. Maybe in a few more months when Josh might actually want to play with it too.  I also have not mentioned that the IKEA chair that has been in Sydney's room since birth is moving into the babies room.  That will probably not go over very well, but it really is my chair not hers!!

Moving Day

Saturday we decided it was finally time to shuffle the girls from one room to the other to start getting their bedroom ready to become a nursery. I had done some prep work with a friend the week before when we started consolidating toys from their plastic bin systems along the wall into bins that would work on their existing shelving in the closet. Despite the hours we put into the toy sorting last week, it took all day to get the room shuffled around. I am fairly happy with the way things turned out. We had planned to get rid of their large plastic dollhouse, but when I set up the rooms and started taking pictures to sell the dollhouse, Emily who had agreed to getting rid of the dollhouse a month or so ago was in tears. So we did everything we could to keep it. The room would have been a tiny bit more comfortable without it, but she is a happy girl. I am thrilled with what we did get out of the room though!

Today I am cleaning the other room and getting it ready for painting! I chose a soft yellow color that will go well with the bugs & frog theme. I was surprised that I was a little sad to seem things changing around. It seems silly to me somehow not be to excited about the changes, but what can I say, I guess I have never handled change well. Pictures to come soon!

Sydney is in!!

We just got the official announcement in the mail today that Sydney was accepted in the Suffolk Early Start Program. This means she will be attending a regular preschool program in the fall. Sadly there is not preschool program at Creekside, our local elementary school, but there is a program which we hope she will be at just down the road about 10 minutes away. Her teacher from last year will be teaching there, and had mentioned that if Sydney was selected, she will do her best to get Sydney in her class. That would be wonderful from my point of view since she knows Sydney and Sydney adores her. She will also have the one other 3 year old (a little girl who is deaf) in her class so she would have a friend at school already.

Hopefully we will get Emily's teacher and class information soon. I really can't believe how fast the summer has flown by!

Canning!

I just made my first batch of canned chicken. I was inspired by visiting Heidi to actually use the lovely pressure canner I bought a few months ago. I have made 1 batch of barbequed pork, but nothing has actually been canned until today. Part of it was just the uncertainty factor, and part of it was just not knowing what to do. So I asked lots of questions and tasted her end result. Yummy!

Here is what I learned about canning chicken. It is worth paying a little bit more to buy the boneless skinnless breasts because it takes a long time to chop up the chicken otherwise, and you end up throwing away a lot of bones. Yuck! It is also probably best done on colder days, but it really wasn't too much hotter in the kitchen when I was done, but here is the kicker! about 55 minutes after taking the cooker off the heat, (and I have to admit that I totally forgot I was waiting for the thing to cool so I could open it because I was working on my blog) I heard a ping. I remembered the chicken and trotted down stairs to open the lid and remove the jars. Although there was not pressure in the machine, the jars of chicken were still boiling inside!!! I was so shocked I almost dropped a jar! I did not expect them to be boiling still. I made 8 jars of chicken today, so I will have to get some more chicken the next time it goes on sale. I am planning to do some tomato sauce & soup this year, but need to food mill first so I don;t have to peel all those tomatos! Heidi has a soup recipe that is just amazing. I can never eat Cambell's tomato soup again!

Upstate New York Road Trip

Emily, Sydney, and I went on a week long trip to Ithaca, Syracuse, and Rochester to visit family. It was a wonderful trip, traffic & GPS issues aside. April, Gary & Caleb came to Ithaca, and fortunately for us we were there at the same time as Aunt Jane.

We started out the trip in Syracuse, where we arrived in time to help Heidi try to recover from her emergency appendectomy. No fun for her or Kenneth! But we got to meet Arianna for the first time, what a sweet little munchkin! And Emily & Sydney got to play with Emma. The last time they met her, she was just about 1 and not really talking so it was almost like meeting her for the first time as well. Most of the time the three older girls played well together, but not always.

Then it was on to Ithaca on Friday. We arrived in the afternoon, hit the Commons for a quick trip to Now You're Cooking to buy some replacement spoons, and 4 "very necessary" cat cookie cutters. Luckily for me they only had 4 different ones. Then we spent the evening with family. It was wonderful to see Grandma and Aunt Jane. April and family arrived shortly after we did. The next morning, we headed out to the Farmers Market, an Ithaca must! The girls loved looking at all the stalls, but we disappointed I did not buy more things. We are dealing with a bad case of the gimmies right now. It was great having the minivan since it was easy to pile into the van & go all together. After a Yummy lunch from Subway, April, Gary, Caleb & I headed to the local YMCA for a quick workout. The girls stayed at Buttermilk and had lots of fun with Aunt Jane & Grandma! We headed over to the falls for a quick visit, but did not have time for a dip. Then it was off for dinner and a tour of the farm at Uncle Hugh's. We got to feed to miniature horses, sheep & donkeys. I was amazed that my girls didn't get to nervous, and were actually able with Grandma's help to feed them & not get hurt. After dinner, we headed home to get the girls in bed.

The next day, we had a great quiet morning where Emily learned all about checkers, and lost rather gracefully too! Aunt Jane was her coach, and I was the opponent. Sydney explored all of the other antique games with Grandma. I got to spend an hour or so going over old pictures in an album with Gram, and taking notes so I could transfer the pics into an acid free album where they won't get destroyed. Then we grabbed some lunch, and spent the afternoon with April & Gary. We went together to dinner at Joe's, my favorite restaurant in Ithaca, and also Aunt Jane's favorite. I did not know that Joes had been open for 60 years, or that it was her tradition to get Spaghetti& meatballs there. She decided to try a new dish this time & get an excellent eggplant one. I decided it isn't that I don't like eggplant, I just can't cook the thing. And cheese and frying really seems to improve the flavor! Low fat eggplant just isn't that yummy. The girls made murals on the tablecloth which Aunt Jane & Gram cut out & took home with them. They were delighted by that!

Then we loaded back into the car for the short drive to Rochester to visit David, Lydelle, Greg & Chris. We got there fairly late, so we got the girls tucked into bed and happy as quickly as we could then chatted for a long time. It was wonderful to see all of them again. The next few days we spent at their house we wonderful, we hit the mall, played with the Wi, where Emily proceeded to rock the house with bowling. I got worse each round as she got better. She made it up to the pro level, but had a few bad rounds & dropped below pro. Chris played wonderfully well with them and was extremely patient as they chattered his ear off. I met Greg's new girlfriend, and just had a fun low key visit! Emily was in tears the morning we left, and has declared that we are moving to New York next.

We went back to Syracuse to spend a day with Heidi when she was not injured. Then we headed back into the car for the drive home. We split it up on the way home, stopping in Fairfax at April's house before returning home the next morning after lunch. Although I did not want to see the inside of the car for a week after we got home, it was a wonderful trip and I am so glad we were able to go!

Happy Cousins

April & Caleb came to visit this week from Wednesday to Friday. We had a wonderful time. We tested the baby proof nature of the house-needs more work, but plenty of fun new toys of Caleb, the air mattress-leaky, the community pool-out of order bathrooms-eeew! The Children's Museum-wonderful and huge hit with kids! (Mine are already clamoring for their next visit!), the playground-very fun, Local hot dog restaurant-so yummy!

Oh baby!

The girls did a great job on Saturday cleaning their room and playroom,(Emily even managed to get her dresser back down to wood and treasures uncovering at least 5-8 inches of stuff-yes we should have acted sooner) and an even better job today getting it messy again! I did not get on them about cleaning it before bedtime, since I was just a bit more scattered than usual, but I mentioned we would need to get on that tomorrow.

After I had hugged them and kissed them and sent them off to bed, I heard them still talking but didn't hush them up too much. I probably should have known they were up to no good! So ten minutes after I said goodnight, they came trotting out, one at a time, and gave me a pile of stuffed animals that they no longer wanted and now wanted to "sail" I think they mean sell! So I thanked them, and then with each kiddo there was one item I really wanted to rescue. I suggested to both girls-did I mention they came out separately-that maybe that item would be a great thing to save and give the baby. Oddly enough they changed their minds instantly and no longer wanted to get rid of the item in question. So if selling to a stranger is ok what does it mean when giving it to your prospective baby brother is not?

Too much in one day

So today was Sydney's birthday party. That ordinarily would be plenty for any one day, but she was also attending a birthday party on the same day as her own. Normally the girls go to parties together, but occasionally they are not both invited. This was such a party. It was small, and only for 4 year olds. Emily was crushed when we actually got to the door. All morning she had been fairly supportive and helpful, but I think she thought I'd change my mind at the last minute. Luckily Karl was able to stop his yard work and distract her so she cheered up fairly quickly after I left. I dropped Sydney off at the other party, and came back 30 minutes or so later to finish the prep for her party in the afternoon. It took a lot of work, but I got the food ready, and the house fairly tidy. I also had 2 extra helpers, friends of mine came over to help get it all done before the guests arrived.

We were having a princess theme-ed party, at Sydney's request, but since some of her guests were boys, we did not lay on the girly stuff too much! we invited everyone to bring their suit and set up the backyard slide as a water slide. All day long it had been hot and sunny. Sadly, 30 minutes before the party, the wind changed, the clouds drifted in a bit and the smoke of a local fire filled the air! It was not quite as pleasant an afternoon to be sure, but at least it did not rain! The kids had a wonderful time shooting down the slide, and running down the slip & slide. We did have to do some creative work with the mulch & the hose so we could keep the inflatable pool in place when the kids landed! And the yard got very well watered in several spots!

After the water games, we feed the little munchkins dinner, had cake, unfortunately I scorched Cinderella's arm when I carried in the lit cake, and opened presents! Then we pulled the string on the pinata, a safer but less exciting version. I was amazed that the string that opened the hatch was literally the second to last string pulled! The kids swooped in as they rushed to pick up the candy from the floor, but they didn't actually wait for it all to fall out of the pinata, so several of them kept yelping as they got hit on the back & head by falling candy!

All in all, it was a success. Everyone ate, had fun, and went home fairly happy. Although there were a few tears after a balloon drifted away on the way out the door. (Did anyone know that helium is a natural resource and currently somewhat restricted? Apparently the local grocery store, with attached floral & balloon shop is restricted in their helium intact, 2 tanks a month instead of per week, and really hate having to face unhappy moms who want their balloons! I just heard this today and no I was not a ranting mom at the store!)

Emily had really struggled today to understand why she could not...go to the other party, have the balloon she wanted (one of the fancy mylar ones), share the presents with Sydney, fill in the blank! You would not know she was the older child today!!! I don't think she fell asleep last night until about 9pm, which is terribly late for her, but still it was a long day for her.

She ended the night in hysterical tears in her bed in time out. Dinner was served at the birthday party, but she decided she was still hungry at 6:45pm even though she ate 1pb&pb sandwich, 1 chicken drumstick, 1 hot dog, watermelon, grapes, carrots, and cake . I offered her several choices for additional dinner which she refused. She then continued to sob to her sister about how sharing was a nice thing to do, as Sydney continued to color with one of her new presents, and refused requests to share. When the warnings did not have much impact, and the sobbing didn't lessen, I was extremely grateful to notice it was time to go get ready for bed. Then she began crying even harder because she was still hungry. 3 strikes later, she was in her bed in tears. I actually thought she fell asleep, so Sydney and I quietly finished bedtime routine without her, but that backfired too, since then she was sad that we didn't do bedtime with her. So now, I have finished, but both girls are out of bed-potty run this time, and I really hope they fall asleep soon. I am beat!

About the cake, just a little side note, I decided to make it this time, since Sydney liked a really simple cake, and I figured it would be fun to buy the princess toy set, so she could have cake decorations and actual toys to play with later. Normally I would have picked the set myself since they are not always painted the same, but I had to order this set. I was extremely disappointed to discover that whoever painted this set decided to make the princess look like drag queens. I was even more annoyed since I did not have time to send them back & get a new set! But she does not seem to care, so I will just be quiet about it from here on out! I wish the picture wasn't blurry too! Oh well. Enough griping! It was my own fault for not bracketing the shoot.

School's out

Today was the last day of school for both girls. I am definitely sad that the year is over as are they. Emily spent most of the mornings this week crying at breakfast for various different reasons, but usually related to school. First it was finding out that her sister will be in a different preschool next year and not at the same school as Emily. Then it was finding out that she would have a new teacher next year. Then finding out Sydney would be in a different school next year, and on and on. She will miss her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Porter, but she was reassured today she was always welcome to come back & visit.

Faraway Cookies

So we have 3 wonderful song & story books by Sandra Boynton. They are so funny and I just love them! Emily & Sydney have several favorite songs and don;t often like to hear the other songs on the cd because they just want to listen to their favorites again & again! Well this morning at breakfast, the cd was going in the background, and they listened to a new song today from Philadelphia Chickens called Faraway Cookies. I had heard the song & seen the picture in the book, but didn;t know too much about it other than that I thought it was a cute story about a puppy who wanted cookies that were on top of the fridge.

Emily heard the song and wanted to know why she was sad. Then she started to tear up. Luckily I distracted her so we did not get the full waterworks before breakfast this morning. After school, I was not so lucky! She wanted to listen to it again and started bawling! I got out the book and made up a rather clever back story about the Puppy's mom saying it could not have more cookies since it would hurt the puppy's tummy to eat to many, but that the puppy still wanted them and that was why she was she was singing to the cookies. She kept crying. She also asked to hear it again. I made her calm down before I would play it again. She finally calmed down and we listened to it again. I thought we were done with the song, but apparently while I was out at church tonight she really confused Karl with a piece of paper with a picture of someone crying and cookies and wanted to hear the song again, and was in tears again.

I officially don;t have a clue about what to do with this situation, but here is a link to a video on YouTube playing the song. It is just adorable (the song not the video) so I hope you all enjoy it. I don't think I should post the picture from the book for copyright reasons, but the picture is of a puppy looking wistfully up at chocolate cookies up on the top of the cabinet in the kitchen.

Babysitting Emily & Sydney

Tonight Emily & Sydney had a babysitter. She is a friend of our from church, and Emily's Primary teacher from last year. She is absolutely wonderful and a real lady, with a wonderful accent. A month or so ago she sweetly offered to babysit the girls and told us to pick a time, so I asked her if she could babysit so we could go out for a pre birthday date night. We not only did she babysit for them, but she also took them out to eat at the tasty Mickey D's. We don't go often, but the girls love the occasional trips-normally we go there on road trips only, so this was an extra treat! Well, we had a great evening and when we got home, we heard about how everything went on their outing. They both ate all their dinner (albeit slowly on Sydney's part) and played in the play area. Emily finished first, and ran off to play. After a little while, she came back, Sydney was still eating, and told our friend, "You call me when dessert is ready." And she scooted off to play.

Emily is a creature of habit, and I don't know when this habit started, probably over the summer when Karl was in DG and I bought popsicles for after dinner snacks, if they were good, but it has become part of Emily's little quirks. Dessert is only dessert if it is frozen. Occasionally though watermelon is an acceptable dessert. Other things are nice, but not usually considered actual dessert. She will inform you that those are "snacks". She will turn down cake or brownies for her ice cream sandwich or popsicle. She also has learned to like the frozen fruit sorbets we bought for Sydney's post operative recovery which she obviously never ate.

So we forgot to warn the babysitter about her dessert habit. Emily never eats a lot of sweets and will be the first one to stop eating something-which is why the Halloween Candy ran out right around Easter time this year. Being the wonderful person she was, the comment struck her as really funny and not rude or pushy, so when they were ready to go, she asked if they could eat in the car. " Oh no, we have to eat here." was the response. So the girls got cones and enjoyed them right there! Apparently they were really wonderful angels all evening which as a parent is always great to hear and while they may not do it for us every night, at least they will shine their halos up for the occasional babysitter!

So many thank you's to our wonderfully kind friend for our fun relaxing evening out!

A Picnic and the ER

So today started off fairly smoothly. We overslept (and by we I don't mean the children who were up promptly at 6:45 despite or late drive) got ready for the Church memorial picnic by banging down a section of fence, pulling a few weeds, digging in the dirt, making a salad and batch of cookies, then showing up almost early to finalize setup arrangements and drop off the yummy by overly gooey cookies & salad. People showed up, kids had fun with their activities, everyone ate, and we were headed home. Sydney tried to sit down on the bench to get her shoes on when she lost her balance on her hand, slipped and smacked the corner of her eye on the table and got a nasty gash on her cheek/eye socket area.

Luckily for us, not 1 doctor was there, but 3; a surgeon, a pediatric doctor, and an anesthesiologist. It's good to have friends! If you do find yourself in a position to need stictches, do it with lots of doctors on hand to evaluate your case! We debated what could be done, and where, since the two men could not legally work together in one facility, and in the end, we opted for the more immediate option instead of the putting her under to sew it up and waiting until after 8 hours had passed since her last meal. We followed our friend to the office, aka the Naval Hospital and went to the procedure room where Sydney very patiently and bravely allowed him to numb her cheek, poke her with a needle and then tape her eye closed and put in a few stitches. She was not happy, but held still enough that he was able to get everything over and done with relatively quickly.

Here is her little face at bedtime. For the record, except for the initial shock at the park, she has not let it bother her much at all. She even fell asleep while she was getting examined, probably more to do from the night before & lack of sleep than anything else, but it was a good thing she got a little extra rest today.



We had planned to spend the afternoon working in the yard & weeding, with a possible sidetrip to Lowe's to order a replacement door, but instead spent some time at the ER, at ToysR'Us getting the promised consolation prize (promised by Dad not me), at a small True Value Hardware (where we finally got a replacement guard so we won't ever have birds in the bathroom fan vent again), then Lowe's.

We spent then next 3 hours in Lowes. We ordered our door, spec-ed out a deck, almost bought lumber, then changed our mind, then remembered the dirt & mulch we needed for the yard, then a fan for the office, and then a bunch of other little things before we finally returned home to hungry cats. We need to unload the van still, but we got the kids in bed by a lovely 9pm. What a mess. They are still awake at 9:45 whispering to one another. Tomorrow will be awful, but for now I am going to drag my tired self down and get ready for bed & another early day.

Happy Memorial Day to all!

Weekly Highlights

So this week went by in a bit of a blur! Let me go over some of the highlights...

Sydney and her friend Caden decided to get creative at his mom's work, Our Run A-Round and they practiced their numbers on C's and S's on the glow in the dark mini golf course! What little artists! It took Caden's mom about an hour to clean up the mess. I had caught them drawing one number, and thought that was it, so we left figuring it would not be too bad to clean that little spot up. Sadly they hit almost every hole on the 9 hole course. I came back the next day to touch up the paint if necessary, but she decided it was alright. It is a step more than my initial carving, but not a good step!

We also had a Mom takes toys on the floor to timeout day this week for the playroom. The toys have not earned their way free from time out just yet, but that is fine with me.

Sydney had a field trip with her class to the zoo, which was really fun. We have been there quite a few times, but never with her classmates. She liked being able to tell her friends about her favorite animals. The weather, which looked pretty gross in the morning ended up being helpful. The skies were overcast, so the animals were out and more playful than on hotter days. We got to see all the lions, which is rare because they are usually sleeping in their cave.

Emily had a "pet rapt" on Friday at school to kick off next week which is the SOL or testing week at school. "Pet rapt" is otherwise known as a pep rally. She got an orange school shirt last week and was thrilled to get to wear it again. The whole school was decked out in the school colors Friday, so that was pretty fun to see the range of orange that everyone has at home! She was surprised to learn the actual pronunciation of the rally!

Yesterday was our biggest day. The girls had their last swimming class. Both girls did remarkably well this session. They won't have another class until fall though as the schedules don;t really work for us that well over the summer. I was very proud of their progress. Emily needs to work on her back stroke, but she can actually swim now! Sydney is fine on her back, but goes only about 5 feet before she starts to go down. Then after the swim lessons, we had a few hours to get ready for a birthday party on Saturday for our neighbor's daughter. We went to their gymnastics studio/gym. Both girls had a really wonderful time (as did the rest of the party guests!) I have always suspected that Emily would probably be good at gymnastics given her strength but worried she would be too scared to try. On some of the things they had the kids do, she was not willing to try, but I bet if she went back, it would be a different story. She was able to get up the courage to jump into a foam pit off the vault block, and to run almost full force along a bouncing ramp (imagine the gymnastics vault ramp but a little bouncy) and land on the mats with a flying summersault/flip. I was really amazed when she pulled that off. Sydney had a more laid back style of super hero belly flop. She did get one good summersault in though. The girls also hung like koalas upside down on the balance beam. I had planned to sign just Emily up for an 6 class gymnastics program this summer but I am thinking maybe I should do both girls.







Then in the evening I had a very fun card making class at our house, which was accented nicely by Abby bringing in a good sized pigeon for all the guests. I am amazed at how quickly I caught the bird and got it out of the house. They are training me well I guess. I was most impressed with how quietly she got the bird into the house. No one heard her or the bird until the bird was literally at our feet under the table. I also had another special pet moment when I found a very well done lizard wedged between the dryer wall and the dryer door. Luckily no one else saw that but me!

Karl has started running with a friend of ours from church 3 days a week which means we are trying to get to bed at a reasonable time now. It hasn't really worked too well this week, so we will have to do better this week.

I am also really proud of the fact that I got 3 2 page scrapbook spreads done this week. I decided to get cracking on my pages since I am working with a monthly scrapbooking class. At first my goal was just to get the blank pages we had made in our class done, but this week I finished a class page and two others. I had gotten about 200 pictures printed about a month ago to fill in the first two class projects, but until recently everything sat on a pile on my desk! Yeah for computers so I can add the journaling elements without griping about my less than perfect handwriting! I am a bet of a nut in class since I like to get things lined up just right, so the computer lets me be anal to my heart's content. I am not even stressing over the typo I found after I got the page together. Ok, well I'll be honest, it bothers me, but I am not fixing it today.

And my final confession, I am now the proud owner of a (lightly used) Playstation 2. I told Karl I really wanted to get it for the kids, but I confessed today that I have wanted a game system since I was about 13, so after 16 years of waiting I finally have one. It is not the latest and greatest one like the Wii, but it sure if fun. After my friends left last night I am up for about an hour playing the game I bought for me at the Game store. he he he! It was lots of fun!

So there you have it, my week all at once!

Dental Visit

The girls had a long overdue cleaning today, and were exceptionally well behaved! It was a very pleasant change of pace from Emily's last cleaning where she ended up in hysterics and being physically restrained by me. This time, they were perfect quiet little angels. I was very proud of them! I was a little disappointed to learn that the dentist thought both girls would need braces when they get older. We had better start saving up for it!! Emily's baby teeth are fine for now space wise, but her adult teeth won't have nearly enough space. Sydney's on the other hand are crowded now, and the X-ray of the adult teeth was just incredible. There was no space at all and the teeth are just all jumbled in there. I had never seen a whole mouth X-ray before, so that was pretty neat to see. We knew that given Karl's teeth, braces were fairly likely, but I had hoped to skip out on it for one of them. On the other hand, neither girl had a cavity! Yeah!!

The girls did not have school today because it was a staff day at school, so we went strawberry picking today for the second time and had a very yummy strawberry shortcake tonight! With the last batch we had a fresh strawberry pie. The rest of the time, we just munched on berries for breakfast, lunch & dinner! Tomorrow I am thinking about strawberry spinach salad. But the rest just have to be eaten as it. They are too yummy to turn into jam, plus the girls have decided they only like the PB in PB&J, so we just aren't using jam like we used too.

Nature Channel

I know cats are natural born predators, but I am getting tired of my very active hunting cats right now. I miss the good old days when they missed more than they got! They are loving the spring. They have found bunnies, birds, mice, voles, lizards, and crawdads in the last few weeks. Some I have been able to rescue, and others sadly I have not. The other morning I woke up ready to toss the cats outside for chasing one another around the bedroom only to discover a bird flying around the room followed closely by the cats. Yeah! That will wake you up in a heartbeat! I was able to rescue that bird when it got it's claws (talon?) hooked in the fabric of my curtains. I picked it up thinking it was dead, but felt a very steady pulse. After a little struggle trying to figure out why I could not detach the bird, I turned it on the side and pulled it free from the fabric. When I got to the kitchen door and opened it, the bird shot out of my hands.

It would help cut down on the bird sightings in the house if the little darling had not decided that the bathroom vent would make an ideal nest site. We are now home to a small family of extremely noisy and hungry baby birds. I have never seen parents work as hard to keep babies feed as these birds have! It is amazing. And Loud!

Oh well. As soon as we can (when the babies leave), an eviction notice is going up and we are going to cover up the vent with some extra mesh as the flap just isn't doing much good.

I think it is time to buy a bell for each cat! Maybe that will slow them down if the birds hear them coming.

Let's talk cereal

Karl went shopping at the commissary by himself and came home with about 30 boxes of cereal. I didn't really think much of it at the time, except that they have not been put away yet and that was frustrating, and because this has happened before, never quite on this scale. He loves to find a good deal and only by cereal if it is under $2.00 per lb. He usually brings home 12 to 15 boxes so this was really a big purchase. Well, anyway, this afternoon Sydney had 2 friends over after school, but when their parents came over, we all went through the back door into the kitchen and they saw the cereal collection and they wondered if we were either collecting empty cereal boxes for a massive art project, or setting up a cereal collection for the tornado victims. Nope, just my wonderful husband cruising through the cereal aisle on his own. They were amazed, especially at the fiber content of the cereals!

And we are so lucky!

A tornado did hit the area, and some of our friends sustained some damage to their homes & property, but we are just fine.

Yard work galaore

The Pond is almost an ex-pond! Today the missionaries in our ward came over to do a few fun filled hours of service, namely hauling smelly pond water out and dumping it. They dumped it under the swingset, the grass, the flowers & the fence. Hopefully it is good fertilizer and not bad for the yard in general. It certainly is smelly! It took them about 2 hours to get most of it out. Then they were able to pull up the tarp and dump the last of the sludge into the hole, which I plan to fill with dirt as soon as possible. I need about 5 cubic yards of dirt. I called and asked a "dirt expert" to be sure. It will cost about $220 including delivery to get the lovely dirt. I am hoping to get some grass to grow there and mesh with the rest of the yard.

I am also hoping so we will no longer be home to the charming barking frogs of Virginia. It was about this time last year that we discovered they really do bark during mating season, and I don't need to repeat lesson this year. There were 4 frogs in the pond which the missionaries thoughtfully transported down the street to the much larger neighborhood pond. I am sure the frogs will be much happier there. The elders also got all of this done in time for them to get headed home before the Tornado warning struck. Yeah!! We saw some clouds that looked like they were trying to funnel up, but so far just thunder & lightening has come our way. Well, and lots of rain. It sure is a good thing that tarp is gone so we don't collect anymore rain tonight in the pond. Karl was thinking that we could keep the pond and use it to scoop water and water the garden that way, but I am tired of the overall yuck factor, and since he didn't actually scoop any major number of buckets, I hope he won;t complain about the lack of pond. He was also thinking maybe we could get it all clean and try again, but let's face it, if you want a fish killed, I am your girl! Anyone need about 3 lbs of fish food though? I have some!! I'll keep you posted on the dirt!

And did I mention I got rid of the palm trees about a month ago??? It was so easy! I put an ad on craigslist and they walked away the next day with no effort on my part! I probably should have charged a little for each tree, but I just wanted them gone. We replaced them with 4 lovely hydrangea and 4 crepe myrtle. I will have to baby the hydrangea this summer, but hope to have them flourishing soon. the rose bushes which were never really noticeable behind the trees are also doing very well. They burst into bloom this week and are just lovely.

This is the Before shot.



I think it says a lot about the general feeling about the palm trees when total strangers pullover to stop and let you know how nice your yard looks if they happen to see you outside! But hey, someone who really loves those trees has them now! And I love what I have instead so it is a win win situation.

I will take some after pictures too and show off the garden improvements, just after I get some dirt! I planted everything on my list, and then added some strawberries that friends had that needed a new home. They won't flower and produce berries this year, but next year, if all goes well we should have some yummy berries!! As for the rest for the garden, I see lots of sprouts, but mostly lots of grass so I have being working on my weeding. I have not started in on the front flower beds yet.

Hip Hip Hurray!

We're cleaning out the office, we're cleaning out the office! Hip Hip Hurray it's a wonderful day! (Now sing this 3 more times to some odd little children's song ditty and you will get my happy mood! ) We started working on this yesterday, and while it isn't done, it looks better than it has in months. We realized 3 things. We are having a baby and it will probably live in our room for the first few months. Karl can't work in his office space in our bedroom/messy area after we have the baby, and we can't claim the home office because of the complicated non resident status, so.....bring on the family office yet again! I am just thrilled on so many levels! The bedroom will be cleaner, the office will be cleaner, and Karl's large desk which was just sitting there collecting and paper that could be stacked there will be usable space! I'll post pictures once it is closer to being finished, but I am just so excited!

My apologizes to everyone who has gotten a chance to sleep in the office/guest bed space. You can come back now and marvel at the transformation!! And by guest bed space, I mean the largest clear space we could make so that we could put down an air mattress. Nothing fancy here folks, maybe next time!!

We mentioned to the girls the whole baby coming equals baby needs a place to sleep, and asked what they wanted to do to solve the problem. Naturally they thought that the baby should just sleep with us. But when asked if they would like the baby to sleep in their room, or if they would like to give up some toys to combine their bedroom & playroom, they counter offered with the suggestion we either build a baby room, (Sydney) or move and get a new house (Emily). This is funny when you know that Emily always bursts into tears when we talk about moving next year. She has never offered that we do this, so I was pretty interested to see exactly how much she is willing to put up with to keep her space. It doesn't solve the problem though.

If anyone has any brilliant suggestions with regards to combining a bedroom, playroom, and 3 kids, let me know. I am all ears! We plan on 4 months with us, but after that, we are just not sure the best plan. I am not against putting the baby in the playroom and letting him us that as his room, but the kids are not excited about not being able to us it during his nap time. And to be fair, the odds of this baby being able to sleep during the dancing elephant hour, well, let's just say I hope this little fellow is an easy going baby who is already hearing the noise of his sisters, and will be born not really caring what it sounds like in the house. If not, well, maybe they make baby sized ear plugs. If not, maybe I'll get rich inventing them :) I am sure other mothers could use a pair or two.

First time Rollerskaters

I will have to upload some pictures, but yesterday was the girls first time on skates. One of Emily's primary classmates had a birthday party at the local roller rink and we were all invited. Emily got her skates on, and went out on the rink. I told her to hold on to the wall and take tiny steps. As I was getting Sydney ready, she turned to April and said, "But I could fall! and hurt my bottom."

Unfortunately she was not a natural skater. She had a funny little sidestep shuffle that she used to inch along which usually made her lose her balance and fall down. She fall at one point & hurt her head, but not too badly. we got her a new pair of skates, tightened so the basically didn't roll, and she tried to skate for the rest of the party. Sydney also had non-rolling skates, so she had a good time too. She was annoyed at how little she could roll, but she didn't fall.

On the other hand, both girls are doing wonderfully well in their swimming lessons and Emily can swim now without her float belt. She can't swim too far, maybe 10 feet or so but she is swimming! Yeah!!!