Twinkle, Twinkle

Happy Halloween!

Believe it or not these are actually pictures I didn't get uploaded from the Halloween party on Saturday that we took the girls to. But they had the same costumes on tonight as they did then, so you get the idea. All Mark and I needed to do was dress up as Piglet and Christopher Robin and we would've had the whole gang! Mark contends that he did his 'dressing up' for the season on Sunday when he had the full monk attire (wig and all!) on to preach as Martin Luther for Reformation Sunday.

Eliya is the lucky duck that is still out trick-or-treating with Kirstie this evening. We were so thankful that Bridget took her so she could enjoy the evening as we went to a half-a-dozen houses and Rachel was asleep and Gabie was just okay with being done. She was very fun though in that she would say "trick-candy, in there" and point in her bucket. ;0)

One Shot - One Bird

Andy and Mark went hunting and saw one rooster, and Mark shot one shot and got it! (we left the meat with them though!)

Landscaping

Monday was a gorgeous day here! Almost 70 and no wind. We have had good intentions for some landscaping/outdoor projects for awhile and it was a great day to start. We know some of this won't get done until spring, but we are getting some of the set-up process done now. We are getting a new front deck in the spring and there will be a triangular cement piece and mini sidewalk that mimics the one going to church and where the picnic table currently is. Hopefully sometime next spring I'll have the 'after' pictures to compare this to. We are also building a retaining wall for this front garden. Thanks Levi for you help and ideas! Mark is looking forawrd to getting more muscle help on this in the future - :0)

Little Miss 'Two-Teeth'

I think this picture shows the white a little better - I still can't believe that she has two teeth before six months (unlike her sisters who were 8 and 10 months @ their first). It's crazy to think that some babies are born with them even!

Decorating Cookies

Dan and Amy brought a special treat along for the girls - sugar cookies and frosting decoratoring tubes. They enjoyed baking and decorating cookies on Saturday.

Still Hungry

You would think that I starve my children sometimes! We eat 3 meals a day plus snacks in between, and yet still they are always hungry. I think they must take after their daddy's metabolism. Not even an hour after supper Eliya had the pot on the floor and was finishing the soup with the ladel!

We did enjoy going out with just Rachel Friday evening for supper, to take Dan out for his birthday we treated them to Bob's steakhouse.

Snuggleupogus

Rachel got a new book too ~ with a little pink dinosaur attached to it that has been thoroughly chewed on, because Rachel was working hard to get her 2nd tooth through this weekend - and caught a nasty cold in the mean-time - poor thing sounds like seal with she breaths or coughs, but no worries we had her into the doctor today and they said her lungs are clear, so we'll hopefully have her back to her normal happy self in no time.

Making Music with Aunt Amy

More Visitors from MN

Eliya got new 'pretties' for her hair, which she has been wearing ever since.


Gabie loved her new puppy book!

Dan and Amy came in Friday afternoon. They brought some presents for the girls - mainly for Gabie's birthday next month. The fun part about these pictures is the way Eliya had dressed herself for the day - an oragne halloween shirt, with pink stripes pants and originally purple socks, which were off for these pics - good thing we didn't have anywhere to go for the day!

Playing Train

Bryce came over to play for a little while on Wednesday. Eliya was playing @ Kirstie's house so Gabie, Bryce and I decided to play train (rachel was napping). We built this eloborate track and had 3 trains going. They were so facinated with the whole thing, it kept us occupied for about an hour - and with two two year olds that is amazing! Then I learned the difference between boys and girls. Gabie tripped on the track and one piece came off. She got tears in her eyes and started to try to fix it. I was just getting up to help her and Bryce was getting all excited - in the next 30 seconds the entire track was taken apart. He wasn't being naughty or breaking anything, he was just so excited to completed demolish the whole thing, every piece. Mark walked in just as he was finishing up and Gabie and I were just standing there open-mouthed. Mark started laughing and said, "okay, so you've always wondered what it would be like to have a boy - that's what they are like."

Pooped On

Yup, once again...this time little Rachel was the culprit. I was feeding her and thinking it felt warm and wet, sure enough I had to change both of our clothes! Through the onesie, pants and through my pants. Good grief!

We had one of 'those' mornings today. I was going to give the girls cereal, but the milk (that we just bought yesterday!) was rotten. So I mixed up some muffins and then forgot about them so they baked for 20 minutes instead of 11-14 like is recommended. I gave up and got them doughnut holes at the bakery before dropping them off @ daycare.

On a positive note, I am typing on my computer once again, which means as soon as I find the camera I will update pictures.

Grandma and Grandpa

This was just an extra picture from grandma and grandpa's trip here last weekend that I'm getting around to uploading.

Silly

Still no computer, which means still no pictures, but we did get a phone call from Dell this morning that it is fixed and they are shipping it out today - hooray!

Last night was a very long night! Gabie woke up @ 3:45am and then woke Elie up because apparrently she wanted someone to play with! Ugh! I finally got them both back down (with Mark's help!) around 4:45 and then Rachel woke up at 5 after 5. So, being the mean mom that I am, when I got up around 7 (I really slept in!) I got them up too! They were so tired, but I figure that's the only way to keep this from happening again. They both laid on the floor in the hall while I was getting ready and I thought they were going back to sleep, so I kept pestering them. Finally, after the 4th time of me saying "Are you up?" Eliya said "Mom, our eyes are up, what more do you want?" I just cracked up, which got them giggling too, and finally got them up and going. She is currently playing @ Kirstie's while her sisters are both napping. Hopefully we'll have fun picture updates again soon. Thanks for checking on us!

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

Elie and Gabie each got their own bed-time story from grandma and grandpa tonight



I'm gonna get you! Rachel wants to crawl so much, but her face keeps getting the brunt of the work, she gets herself up, pushes off and then does a face dive into the floor.


Learning how to play Phase 10 from Grandpa and Daddy


They soon learned which side of the table to sit on if they wanted to win :0)

Thursday/Friday Pics and Stories

While Mikenna and Elie were @ dance, Mark had a hospital visit, so Gabie, Rachel and I headed to the mall. Both girls were sound asleep in the stroller, so I just wandered aimlessly. I found something called Disney Princess Zizzlingers clearanced out for a couple bucks. So we tried it out when we got home. The girls thought the pink fizz was pretty cool, and out came 3 disney princess figurines for the bathtub.

On Friday after lunch Gabie was on a 'helping' kick. She got up from the table and took her plate into the kitchen. We thought that was pretty cute so when she came back we handed her another plate, and then the bread, the cheese, she carried everything into the kitchen. We finally looked at each other and said, so where do you suppose she's putting it all (she can't quite reach the counter). We went to look fully expecting to see a big pile on the floor, but this is what we found :0)




I'm not sure if this will work, but Rachel's tooth is in there, you might have to click on the picture to enlarge it to see it.

Happy Birthday Dan!

The First of the Firsts

I remember going through this with Eliya and Gabie. It seems like when you bring a baby home they don't do a whole lot of anything for quite awhile. And then somewhere between 4 and 6 months it begins...the 'firsts'. The first time they eat solids, the first time they sit up, the first tooth, the first crawl, and it continues until they start walking and talking. Well Rachel has begun her 'firsts'. She sat up for the first time on her own earlier this week (and continues to do so, and for longer periods) and today she got her first tooth!!! I was actually quite relieved as she has been teething for awhile (and not sleeping as well because of it!) and I thought it wouldn't pop through for quite some time since it was closer to 6-7 months with Elie and Gabie, but I found it today as she was gnawing on my finger for some relief. I tried getting a picture of it, but it didn't turn out the best. And w/out my computer I don't have the resources to upload the adorable video I got of the girls today, but will hopefully be able to share it soon.

Being Silly

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Mission Festival

Our first set of exciting news is that Rachel is sitting up on her own now! I tried to get the camera in time, but by the time I did, Gabie had tried to help her, and as you can see, they both were down for the count! But she did go on her own for a good 30 seconds this evening!
This weekend we had mission festival @ the churches. Mark was able to schedule our district president to be the guest preacher. He and his wife stayed @ our house Saturday night. Someone this morning asked me if it was at all intimidating to have the president of our district spend the night, I just laughed and said, I don't think our house has been this clean since we moved in! They are such a nice couple, and very laid back (they had kids too once! :0) so we had a nice time.

Our other exciting news from today is that we won prizes!!! The GIA (Gettysburg-In-Action) group had their annual Craft Fall Harvest Fund-raiser. They bring in anyone and everyone to sell their crafty stuff and had different businesses in the community donate 'baskets' of stuff to raffle off. You can then purchase tickets to stick in the bags for each of the baskets and if they draw your ticket you win. Well, we won $120 worth of BABYSITTING!!!! WOohoo!!! And we also won a hand-made wooden airplane rocker. (valed @ $75 I think) - Wow! So we now have 3 girls with 3 rocking things for them. I guess we know what we're passing on as heirlooms in this family! I'm very excited for all that babysitting!

On a side-note, my computer is FINALLY going to get fixed, (yes, we've still been waiting, just stopped taking it apart and putting it back together) so updates may be limited till it returns.

Climbing the Walls

Literally! I was about ready to when @ 3:45 I still had 3 wide awake girls w/out naps this afternoon. They all did finally go to sleep around 4, but then the only problem is that they are extrememly grumpy when you wake them up right away @ 5, and of course this extra evening energy has them climbing the walls (or the bunk-bed). Mark was gone a good chunk of the day visiting with a family with a member in hospice(sp?) care, and for the most part other then the usual playing toys, reading stories, etc. I tried to catch up on laundry and cleaning ~ I'm down to one load, and the entire house is dusted!

Ruby, the Red-Jammied Reindeer

Okay, so I'm a little behind on laundry. And Rachel was out of p.j.'s when I went to get her ready for bed. We actually put her in halo sleep sack's almost every night and she just happen to have over-flowed (from one end or the other! :0) on both of them. But in her clothes their was this adorable outfit (I believe was Hannah's from her first Christmas?) so even though Christmas is still aways off (unlike what all the stores would have us believe in sporting their Christmas stuff already!) I put her in it and it fit perfectly, and I'm sure it will be too small by the time Christmas actually rolls around. As for the name Ruby, well she's actually had that nick-name here since she was about 1 day old. I noticed her little birth-mark on her face and told her it was an angel kiss, and they left her a beautiful ruby to remember it by (like she had any idea what I was saying...but it was one of those I-just-had-a-baby-sentimental-moments). We call her Ruby-kins a lot. So there is a long explanation for a simple thing like a different pair of jammies for the night.












The girls are sporting their new princess water bottles ~ these are so cool, they are dishwasher safe and spill-proof, but cheap little juice bottles you can get @ the grocery store. They will come in handy for traveling as it seems inevitable that we always are loosing sippy cups when we travel (which are a lot more expensive!)

Flu

I had the stomach flu today ~ nuff said!
(unlike if it was one of the girls and you would all get a thorough disortation on the whole afair in gross order...let's hope they don't get it too!)

Battery Issues

Rachel loves her jungle gym!


I did a double take, as she almost passed off for Rachel when I glanced up, how long will it be before the 'little' sister is the 'bigger' sister?



saying goodbye after a fun play is so hard to do!


Yesterday when I went to update the blog the batteries in the camera died shortly after getting Rachel's 5th month (thanks Elizabeth!) picture up for all to see. But of course did I plug them in? No, because that would be the logical thing to do. I have lost all sense of logic long ago. SO instead I waited till the perfect picture moment today, grabbed my camera and sigh could not take a picture because the batteries were still dead (imagine that!). So I plugged them in and now have them charged up enough to finish putting pictures on from yesterday (Amber, Neva and Olivia came over to play and then Mark and Andy joined us after work so we could all have supper together ~ funny how 4 kids was actually relaxing because when we're all so used to the chaos!)
Hopefully tomorrow we will be fully charged for new pictures to share...

In the meantime, here is a fun story for your amusement. I was asked to help line-judge in the big battler volleyball tournament here on Saturday. For those of you wondering what a 'battler' is, it is a big muscular bunny ~ our Gettysburg school mascot. Hmmm....nuf said there. Anyway, I'm judging the lines and I even wore my glasses so that I would look really smart. Well, apparently the glasses just weren't enough to impress one purple shirted team player. She STRONGLY disagreed with my call and made a point to tell me multiple times (since they called time-out right after this call) - I finally looked her in the eye and said "honey, I have a 3 year old and 2 year old @ home, do you really think you're whining has any affect on me?" She turned and walked away. Ahh, the joys of being a mother, whining has lost all power over me! It takes at least a full-throttle fit in the middle of the aisle during the sermon @ church to get my attention anymore :0)

I'm 5 Months Old!

Nap Time

The girls are sleeping on the air-mattress in the nursery while the grandmas are here. I sent them in to take a nap and even started a movie for them. A few minutes later I went to check on them and couldn't see them anywhere...

I almost turned to see if they'd gone in their room, before I saw something out of the corner of my eye....






There they are! Good ol' blanket buckets strike again, although this one isn't as much of a bucket, it's where we have all the baby blankies, and I guess they thought it was cozier than their make-shift bed


look at what great-grandma brought for me!