Mud Lover

Not so lazy summer days...

I really love summer! All winter I sit and mope about how if only it were summer all my troubles would vanish, and it is sort of true! I just LOVE being outside!Today the boys started out being turtles:

 

After that we went to the MOPS playdate after dropping off a meal for a friend who just had a baby. The kids mostly played in the sand, as evidenced by their sandy heads. We were all sweaty when we got home, so I suggested we get out the sprinkler:

 

 

They mostly liked running away from the water, I think it was too cold:

 

After nap time Tate was being a ham: (I have been LOVING Picasa,thanks Nette!)

 

..and I got a good picture of the three kids:

 

Then we beat the heat by having some yummy ice cream cones after dinner:(what a mess!!)

 

 

 

And a cute one of Callie:

 

A funny Hunter saying from this evening:
-I put my hand on Brent's shoulder and told him I loved him right before dinner as we were sitting down, and Hunter said that he loved him, too. He then said, "Everybody loves daddy!" and I asked him why he thought everyone loved him and he said, "Probably because he's so sweet."

My new hair

Here is my new haircut:


Its taken some getting used to, but I love how summery it is. (Not too much to look at first thing in the morning, however :)

Callie is FOUR months!

Callie turned four months on Wednesday! Up until this point time has gone kind of slowly, but it is blowing by fast now. This will probably sound pretty horrible, but I'm really starting to enjoy her. The first few months were so rough b/c she was a little colicky and didn't like to go to bed at a decent hour, and she was really fussy every night until she finally passed out. BUT, now we are getting into more and more of a routine with her, and I feel she has mellowed out a ton. Almost overnight when she was a little into her third month she just mellowed. No more fussy night crying and she is more content. For that I am very grateful, b/c it wasn't very much fun and I wasn't sure what I'd gotten myself into or how I was to handle it. She is really getting cute and I'm figuring more and more out about her personality.

Callie at four months:
-she wants to be in on everything. She'll sit for quite a while content as long as she is as upright as she can be and is in the middle of whats going on.

-she does NOT like to be tickled. The boys always giggled when I tickled them, but Callie makes a face as if to say, "What in the world are you doing to me??!?"

-she took her first long car ride to Iowa and did a fantastic job! A great traveler.

-she is starting to teeth and I am predicting a tooth will be through in the next month. She chews on everything and drools constantly. At church today she was sitting up on my lap and pulled her dress up to chew on and exposed her belly to everyone.

-can roll to both sides(not quite all the way over yet) and can scoot her body a full circle

-goes to sleep anywhere between 9-10 and gets up between 5-6.

-does not like a bottle.

-finally enjoys the stroller.

-is starting to grab things.

I look forward to what the next months with her bring!

We're back!!

We decided to come home yesterday instead of today. The boys were missing their house. (I was missing Brent)

New hair and picnics

I'm not going to post any pictures of my new hair until Brent sees it, but we decided to cut the boys hair shorter for the summer yesterday after they were sweating outside a lot. It'll be cooler for them I think. (Plus Laci said she'd do it, and I will do almost anything to get out of cutting it!) Here are their before pictures:



During: (Tate cried some, but we got a few cheesy smiles out of him. A rarity for haircuts with him):



And after:


I think Hunter looks more Lester-like now, and Tate just looks more ornery(if that is possible). I think Hunter looks a lot older now, too.

We went to see my Grandma Helen in the nursing home about 45 mins away yesterday. We found a school with a nice park and picnic tables in the shade and had a great time. We packed some sandwiches, fruit, and dessert and Grandma got to meet Callie:



A few other random pictures:
Hunter fell asleep watching a cartoon the other night around supper:


Tate likes Casey's doughnuts too!:


We are taking off for home tomorrow morning. I've had one of the most enjoyable visits ever this time. The kids have been a little bit of a handful here, which has been tiring, but overall its been a really good visit and I'm very glad we could come.

Busy days in Iowa

We've been keeping busy in Iowa. I've been enjoying eating lots of Yarsma bakery goods, a few Casey's doughnuts and tonight we are getting Breadiux pizza(YUM!) On Monday night we went to one of my dad's softball games. He hit a home run, and that was fun to watch. We also played at Edmunson park with my friend, Mariah, and her daughter. Yesterday we took Laci to IA City to check on her cat, Scar, and to do some of Alex's laundry(since he is called for duty, but is staying in IA City) We went to a park next to Laci's house while waiting for the laundry and looked at some geese around the lake. This morning we went to the cemetary and fed the ducks some bread. The kids really liked feeding the ducks. Callie just napped in the van. My friend, Nette, is on her way here for a visit, and it is always good to see her. And this afternoon at 3:30 I am going to go get my hair chopped off!! I'm pretty excited!
Here are some pictures of feeding the ducks:

Pictures from Iowa

The kids and I are in Iowa still for a few days yet. We just came back from the popular Sno Biz where we got all sugared up before bed. We've been hitting the park often, too. I'm hoping to have a relaxing couple of days, and Laci should be joining me since her work is currently under water. Here is a pic of our lovely van:
One of the boys on the way down:

And a family picture(Callie's head didn't make the shot:) )


Brent, if you read this, I MISS YOU!!

Oh Deer!

We decided to come to Iowa a little early for various reasons and left yesterday around 4:30. All was going well and we were making good time till we hit a deer right by the Iowa/Minnesota border. It smashed up the side of our van pretty good. We can't open the driver side door and we have no turn signal left. We called the sherif, but an Iowa one came and couldn't write up a report since it happened in MN still, so hopefully we'll have no issues when I call our insurance agent soon. Fun times. I'll post a picture of the damage when I get a chance. At least no one was hurt, we hit it going 70 miles an hour.

We have giggles!

Callie has just started giggling! I was changing her and blowing on her stomach just a little bit ago, and she was laughing. Not the normal hiccup silly sound she makes, but an actual laugh! It was so cute! She did it several times. She's growing so fast!

Brent went to work today and feels better. He's still achy, but he looks a ton better. I think we are finally going to be past being sick. I'm feeling even better today than yesterday. I'm very happy about that. Also, we've decided to go ahead with our planned trip to Iowa, so I'm VERY happy about that. I've been trying to do the first phase of packing today. I find that if you start enough in advance, the chances of forgetting something are slimmer. It's forecasted to be 80's and sunny next week, my kind of weather! Now if we just don't float away.

The boys were waiting eagerly for supper tonight. It was pretty cute:

Back from the dead.

WOW! I was pretty sick! I was sick in the night on Wednesday night, felt crummy on Thursday and expected to feel better on Friday. I didn't. I expected to feel better on Saturday. I felt WORSE. And on Sunday I thought the Lord could just take me away. I was really bad on Sunday. I wasn't able to eat much, and what I did eat eventally came back up, and I tried to drink as much fluid as I could, but it wasn't enough, so I got pretty dehydrated. I was still trying to nurse Callie all though this, also, and was having a difficult time making enough milk for her. So, after being sick all night Sunday night I woke up yesterday morning at an all time awful. I called gma to come take Callie, got Brent out of bed(from his all of two hours of sleep) and had him take me to the ER. I spent about 6 hours there, I got two bags of fluid, some blood taken(the first try!...God knew I couldn't handle anything more..) and a couple peices of toast(the best toast I ever tasted!) My pulse was pretty high, my blood sugar pretty low, but it got better the more fluids I got. Turns out that when you are on anitbiotics(which I was, for sinus infection) sometimes if you get a bug the side effects the antibiotic could cause can be worsened by the flu. I'd never heard of that before, but I'm sure the doc was right, b/c I was pretty sick. He told me to stop taking the antibiotic, drink gatorade-type drinks, avoid caffine and carbonation and slowly start eating again. Today I am pleased to report I feel MUCH better! I've eaten a couple waffles and some toast, been drinking my gatorade and trying to take it easy. I think I lost about 7-9 lbs in four days. Never care to be that sick again. Just wanted to tell everyone thanks for prayers, and a HUGE thank you to Gma Debbie, who took the kids for a little over three days. That was a tremendous help! Now Brent is sick, keep him in your prayers.

It has turned into a nightmare.

Yikes, we are not doing so well in the Norman house! Had I known what the week would bring I would NOT have started in on Callie's room just yet. I went to sleep on Wednesday with a stomach ache and then got sick in the night. Brent was home yesterday since he is working nights, so he took the boys while I napped with Callie. That was nice, but today I am still not feeling well at all. My arms and legs feel like they weigh 100 lbs. and I have no appetite and am pretty weak. (NO, I am NOT pregnant! This is a good weight loss help, though, if you want to see the glass half full) I want to go hibernate for a few days. But...I can't b/c we are trying to get Callie's room painted the rest of the way and all set up. We have had a run in with some painter's tape, and I do NOT recommend EVER using that lousy stuff. Brent got a call that he has to go to work at 3:30, so it looks like the kids and I will be heading in to Movie City and picking out a fun movie, b/c I am shot and not exactly thrilled about taking care of them on my own tonight. It's a "survival day". Tate woke up this morning and it appears he has the bug, too. He must have thrown up in his sleep, poor thing. He seems to be fine today, he has been running around as active as ever. It has been raining forty days and forty nights around here(I'm exaggerating a tad) and it was partly cloudy out this morning so I let the boys go out. Our driveway has reached an all time lake-ness and so they had fun splashing about in it. I knew how it was going to go, so I planned a bath at the end of it and had them wear dark clothing. It took some of the stress out of it. Some pictures for you:




Well, I'm going to try to go fold the mound of laundry on my couch... *sigh*

The reason for no blogs lately...

We've been busy getting Callie's room painted and the playroom moved downstairs. The house is torn up, but we hope to have the room finished by this weekend.