Weekend Away

I can't remember what nursery rhyme this was, but it sure was a cute picture!


sliding down Jack and Jill's hill (hey, it beats breaking your crown!)


click on the picture to see whose face is whose...

Somewhere over the rainbow....


the whole group by Mary Quite Contrary's flower bed


We took very few pictures while we were swimming (although there are some videos to come...) mainly because we were 2 on 3 in water (Rachel was asleep in the stroller). But all 3 girls went down the big water slide with us and loved it!


Rachel liked splashing in the water


Final destination: BED!

For our fun little retreat we went to Aberdeen, picking up Kirstie on our way. We started out with Perkins for lunch, which went surprisingly well with 4 under 4 in tow. They were well-behaved and of course we got all the "you've got you're hands full" comments (many people thought that Elie and Kirstie were twins!). Then we were off to Wylie Park, where this time we had the camera for Storybook Land. The Land of Oz is now closed for the winter, but the girls had a blast anyway! They loved the slides and characters and ran from one thing to the next. We thought this would wear them out a bit, and sure enough, after about an hour there it was nap time. We couldn't check in to the hotel for another hour so all 4 girls slept in the car while mom got to go to Target all by herself! (thanks Mark!) Wow, it has been a long time since I did anything by myself :0) Then we were off to the hotel for swimming. Even Rachel joined in for about 5 minutes before she nodded off again. We order pizza in and just had a ball playing, singing, etc @ the hotel. It was a great way to take the day off for Mark, and we loved getting to have him all to ourselves for a day :0)

Congratulations!!!!

We're so excited that Rachel's new play-mate has decided to join us all in the wide-world...Adalyn Jean, what a beautiful name - congrats to Jess and Levi, we're very happy for you guys!

Brown-Eyed Girl

One of my favorite songs, because of course I'm a brown-eyed girl, and being such thought for sure (beings as brown is dominant in the gene pool) that I would have one myself, especially with 3 daughters, but if you look closely you can see, that none of my children take after me. Eliya has hazel eyes, Gabie's are the same color as Mark's a lite blue color and Rachel's are a deep blue. Not that I'm complaining, they all have beautiful eyes, but just a curious thought for the day...Mark just says we'll keep going till we get our brown-eyed girl....hmmm, I think I'll just write a new song about My Blue-Eyed Girl ;0)

Doctor Day

Today we had all 3 girls in to see Dr. Rena. Rachel's was planned as this was her appointment for her 4 month check-up, even though she's closer to 5 months now. She was 13 pounds 1 ounce and 25 inches long. She's pretty much at the 50th percentile for everything. She did have to get 3 shots, and so she definetly wasn't her normal easy going happy self today. Although grumpy for her is just wanting to be held a little more and fussing off and on. She's such a good baby!

Gabie and Elie on the other hand are battling colds right now. Gabie's had hers since last Thursday and Eliya seemed to be coming down with it today so we thought we better check out the situation. Gabie of course is sick as usual - ear infections (even with the tubes!) and an upper respitory infection, etc. So we made it the 6 months we had to with no antibiotics and now are starting again...ugh! Eliya seems to be just at the start of it, so she called in a prescription for her, but had them wait to fill it, and we can just call in and get it filled in a couple days if needed and see how she does in the meantime. She's only had 2 antibiotics before in her life, so we're doing great with her! She's as healthy as Gabie isn't :0)

Ode to Poop

* Warning * Yes, it's another poop story, and we all know how graphic I get with these!

Somehow it has become a constant in my life. From the first time I changed Elie's diaper and she pooped all over me (face, mouth and all) I should've known that poop would be a new phenominon in my life. Little did I know how up close and personal we would become. As if cleaning it off the rear-end of a child isn't enough. I have also collected it in speciman jars, cleaned copious amounts off carpets and other areas of the house, and wiped it out of my child's mouth when she tried eating it, and today we had another joyous encounter together. Mary agrees that Gabie must be obsessed with it, and rightfully so, beings as the doctors and labs are obsessed with hers as well. She currently is thinking that potty training would be a pretty cool thing to do, but it's hit and miss at the moment. For some reason today while I was doing laundry, Eliya decided to take Gabie's diaper off (to encourage her?) so when I went to pick her up and go back upstairs I realized that I had a soggy bare-bottom against my arm. I set her back down and opened my eyes a little wider taking in the scene before me. Somehow during the few minutes it took me to sort the laundry from the shoot, she had gone on the floor in the laundry room, over behind the weight machine and must've sat and played in it like it was a mud puddle (yes, she still has diarrhea), and proceeded to 'paint' the weight machine with it. EEWW EEWWWW, EEEEEWWWWW!!!!! So for all of you thoroughly grossed out, just say a little prayer of thanks that you didnt' have the joy of cleaning it up, lest you have your own ode to poop to write as well....Happy Tuesday everyone, I hope yours was less 'crappy' than mine :0)

Rachel's First Food

Okay, I'm ready, let's get this show on the road


Hey, this stuff is pretty good!


I'll do it myself mom!

Eliya just cracked us up when we found her taking her nap



too tired....changing Gabie's diaper apparently just wiped her out!

Still Here

the laptop was supposed to go off to the shop over a week ago, and still we wait for the box to ship it in. So it's been ready and then put back up off and on this week when I've needed it, but that's really limited my blog time as we are trying to get it off to the shop still. Thanks for checking in on us, I'll try to update from Mark's computer soon.

Memory Work

I love kids. I love the way they smell right after a bath. I love the way they play with their stuffed animals and dolls. I love the names they give to their stuffed animals and dolls. I love the was they will talk by combining two or three words into one new made up word ~ Nivia is what they call the twins, Neva and Olivia; Thankum, is what they say for thank you and your welcome all rolled into one. I love the way they remind me of the simple things. I love the way they always want to help. I love the way they always need my help (everyone likes to be needed, right?) I love the way they say they are sorry "shauwy". I just love kids.

My favorite story from today was this evening when I was trying to help Eliya learn her memory work for Sunday School. Her verse is "God care for you". I would have her repeat word by word, then couple the words and finally tried to go to all four repeating back and forth. She got frustrated but kept trying and fumbling. Finally she said "Jesus loves me" I was about to correct her (since that wasn't the actual memory verse) and realized how stupid that would be! Jesus does love you - can't argue with that; what an awesome reminder from my 3 year old of faith like a child - even when learning your memory work! :0)

Daddy-Pile

Rachel is becoming little miss independent. She has discovered her feet most recently and thinks it's fun to try her toes since fingers taste so good (or in Josiah's case - sock! :0) And when I gave her a bottle this evening she wanted to hold it herself!

Gabie is so funny, she is learning the idea that it's not enough to just close her eyes for us to not be able to see her, but she still isn't very good at hiding well, so imagine her surprise when we found her trying to hide when we were getting jammies on last night.

Can you tell the girl's haven't seen their dad in awhile. He has been so crazy busy with work that when he does come around they just dog-pile him!

Videos Galore!

I'm going to be putting a whole bunch of videos on this post from the past 2 months. Since we got the new camera I haven't been able to figure out how to get certain aspects of it to talk to our computer. Slowly I've been solving many of the kinks, and the final was solved today in talking to my good friend, Claudia (thanks!). She helped me to figure out how to get the videos, and there are so many cute ones from the past couple of months, that I just can't resist sharing them all, so enjoy or ignore, whatever is your pleasure.


ring-around-the-rosie


Jesus Loves Me


They LOVE the Music Machine tapes I found from my childhood


it's hard to believe that in just a few more months, these sounds will be real words


Just to prove we really did churn our own butter...


Twinkle George Bouncing


a George bouncing


Peek-a-Boo


Rachel's first 'chatter' video


Rachel being just plain cute


Rebecca and Hannah teaching Elie and Gabie how to dance


This one just cracks me up, as they are dancing to the same song and yet one is slow dancing and one is crazy fast dancing.

Bedtime Stories

Eliya got Paige (her doll) all dressed for bed, tucked in and then got good ol' Brown Bear out to read her a bedtime story. Naturally, whatever big sis does Gabie wants to immitate, so Annie (her doll) is getting similar treatment tonight.

You know you're really tired when...you fall asleep mid-step onto the blanket bucket

I switched the clothes bins around yesterday to get Rachel into the 3-6 month clothes, so she is proudly displaying her first 3-6m outfit

Gabie was just too cute this morning when we were off for daycare that we couldn't resist a pic

Beth and Justin's Wedding

Beth pauses for a minute from the party to say goodnight to two tired little girls

We were able to get an awesome family photo in amongst all the picture taking of the day

Our dear friends Beth and Justin got married on Saturday. A huge wedding! Our church holds almost 300 if you take turns breathing and 525 RSVPed yes. Wow! Not everybody came to the church part since they knew it would be insane. It all went smoothly and it was absolutely beautiful. We are so blessed to have their friendship here and are so happy for them. The only downside to the whole ordeal is that every babysitter we know was at the wedding with us, which was great for extra hands when Mark had to run and do church in Lebanon, but it also makes for a much earlier night (although I think I'm getting old ~ I was relieved to have an excuse for some extra sleep!). We had SUnday School and Bible class starting up today, so I was glad for the extra zzzz's this morning. We took Kirstie home with us, since John and Bridget were host/hostess @ the reception so that she was able to get a decent night of sleep as well, which meant that Elie got to have her best friend with her all weekend long - what more could she ask for :0)

Rehersal Dinner

These are just a couple of shots of the girls @ the rehersal dinner our @ Bobs. It was a wonderful meal!

Homecoming

This is the crazy homecoming week that is always fun and busy. We added a funeral and wedding to the craziness of it all.

Gabie showing off some of the candy the youth group threw at the parade - it was gummy lifesavers which we put stickers on that said "Jesus is your lifesaver" - awesome idea!

Our junior high youth group did a 'float' (decorated golf carts) for the big homecoming parade.
Elie and Kirstie pause a moment from their candy grabbing during the parade so I could get a picture (now that's asking a lot of a toddler!!!)
Rachel chilling in her bed @ the start of another day.

Dance!

Today was Elie's first day of dance. She was a last minute 'student' as I the nearest dance studio is in Pierre, and I just couldn't see myself driving that far once a week for lessons. But here is another perk of teaching preschool ~ you find other moms in the same boat whose daughters also want to dance. So, with 2 other drivers I only have to drive about once a month, and Eliya was estatic to be able to start dance lessons today. She even gets to do tap! What fun for a 3 year old :0) Otherwise life is good, quiet and happy. Mark had a funeral this morning and a couple people in the hospital down in Pierre so he ended up coming with us to visit them, which gave the girls and I a chance to visit our friends Jess and Levi while down there. They are expecting a baby any time now - she's in the "safe" stage hitting 37 weeks! We are so excited for them, and it was a nice chance to catch up a bit.
On a side-note - my computer is going back to the shop, the down-side is another thing isn't working, and the up-side is that it's under warrenty from it just being in ~ in other words boo on being w/out a computer again for a week or two, but yay that it will be fixed for free!!!!

No Camera :0(

I was so sad I didn't have my camera along while Rachel, Gabie and I went to Storybook Land In Aberdeen today. What a fun place to play! Especially when we're almost the only ones there! Eliya went to daycare with Kirstie this morning and then went home with her so I would have one less for Gabie's check-up with the ENT about her tubes. Everything looked good, although the doc wants to run some immunity and allergy tests, so we'll see where that takes us.

Blanket Bucket

Does anyone else out there have what we call a blanket bucket? If you do not and you have a toddler aged child, I highly recommend this wonderful delight. We could part from every other toy in this house and as long as we had the bucket and a few blankets for it we would be set. The girls pull the blankets out countless times a day and play with them, the bucket or both. The great thing about it from the parent-point-of-view is that it is so easy to clean up!
We had another GREAT day today. The girls were able to spend the afternoon @ daycare as opposed to my usual picking them up right after school (which is around 11:15am). I got SO MUCH done! Yay! Rachel was an angel and slept for about 3 hours this afternoon which helped as well. I even got a plum pie made! Why you might ask? Well, I had just finished caughting up on the mail, dishes, cleaning etc. (woohoo!) and a friend from church who has his own mini-orchard brought a bucket of plums by. I still had an hour before I needed to get the girls and Rachel was still zonked so I decided to explore the possibilities for plum filled goodies as opposed to my usual of just eating it as fruit. I found a recipie for plum-pudding which had a list of about 17 ingrediants (1/2 of which I didn't have on hand) and then found a one for plum-pie, which was quite simple. In fact I'd say this was way easier than the apple pie I tried last month, even though the plums were about as small. It was very yummy - my first ever plum pie eating or making. We even shared some with Rachel's babysitter and her husband so I hope they liked it!

Church Day

It was much cooler here today, and considering last Sunday was in the 90's, it was a drastic change to this Sunday being in the 60's. No wonder everybody's nose is running!
Today was Elie's first unofficial day of Sunday school. In other words they didn't have class today, but the Sunday school sang for church. I knew what songs they were doing, and Eliya LOVES to sing, so we practiced a couple times and she was addicted. All evening yesterday, through supper, bath-time and going to bed we sang them over and over. She knew them all. She even sang most of them in church today. I was impressed at how well she knew them and listened to me (watch Lori, don't play with Kirsite, sing and smile) she did it all!

Nap-time

Gabie likes to fall asleep snuggling something, sometimes it's her hair, sometimes a blanket, sometimes a pillow. This afternoon it was Rachel's hand. Rachel was wide-awake and not real keen on keeping her hand still, but Gabie would not let go until she was sound asleep!
Nap-time was lap-time with daddy during the Cornhusker game

Once the game was over Mark slid out and Rachel woke up, so these two snuggled in together and kept on sleeping.
Rachel is the big 4 today (months that is!) and doing great. Her actual check-up/shots aren't till the end of the month because that's when our doc schedules immunization day, so we will update that info then, in the mean-time here is her 'growing' picture of the month.

The girls were so cute playing with their dolls today. They would say "Oh no, she spit up!" and run and get one of Rachel's spit-up rags and wipe their baby off.

School Starts/CM Stops

These last couple days have been a blur. Thursday was a very long hard day and today was a very long awesome day. Thursday was the first day of school - 14 kids (a couple with special needs) and only one of me. However, today was awesome, because I now have an aid (yay Deb!) and even a back-up aid, so that should make the school days go much smoother. I also found out that I was accepted into the graduate program at Concordia Seward to get my master's degree in Early Childhood. I also had my final crop tonight, as I am getting out of the creative memories business. Mark and the girls had fun hanging out. They are all doing well. Rachel had fun hanging out with Brenden (Barb's son) while she shopped. She was plum tuckered out after that and fell asleep sitting up :0) Elie and Gabie both crashed on the couch since I told them they could stay up for my 'party'. 10 just does them in!