Better than Sears??

I took some(more) pictures of the kids today. I sure like my camera! (Callie was sleeping)

Things I liked about Thursday...

-a cup of coffee in the morning. I love coffee!
-getting to MAC on time.
-driving to MAC in our newly fixed van...that actually runs and doesn't overheat after seconds(although it shouldn't for $1300!)
-holding a sleeping Callie at MAC. She never is still anymore, so I cherish the times when I can cuddle with her.
-racing Tate in the gym at MAC. He would say, "Ready, go!"
-the BEAUTIFUL weather! It was 65 degrees and sunny out!
-the picnic the kids and I had outside on the porch.
-playing in the leaves with the boys after lunch.
-having a meeting with our grant guy about our house repairs. It IS going to happen!!
-baking chocolate chip cookies with Hunter.
-EATING chocolate chip cookies with Hunter while we read books.
-taking pictures of the kids outside, like this one:(Tate was still napping)

-watching Callie get her first Jeep ride. She LOVED it!

-having the boys come inside while I was making supper and giving me little flowers they picked. Hunter told me "Here are some flowers for you b/c you love us."
-going out with my friend after supper.
-finding the best stocking stuffer gift for the boys....magnetic dress up Lightning McQueens! I love the Target dollar isle! The boys will love them!
-coming home and finding that Brent doesn't have to go to work tonight!

It was a good day.

I love Fall

On Sunday Hunter and I went to get a pumpkin and we carved it, roasted the seeds and made carmel apples. The carmel apples were so sticky that our jaws were sore when we got done eating them(not to mention the kids...think sticky mess)

We should be getting our van back late tomorrow! I'm very excited b/c I have missed it. Although I'm not complaining, its been kind of hard on the back putting all the kids in the borrowed Bonneville. The kids are nice and cozy back there.

Last night Brent introduced the boys to going down the stairs on sleeping bags. I'd rather he not of done this, b/c I foresee an injury in the near future, but boys will be boys, right? The boys LOVED every minute of it, they laughed and laughed. So far staying inside every night hasn't been too bad. Its always hard at first when you are so used to being outside every night.

I've got a head cold right now, so hopefully it is over soon.

Pray for my bro and sis-in-law as they travel to Korea tomorrow to pick up my new nephew!!

Can I just say.....

...that I have the cutest girl ever??? I'm really loving dressing her in dresses all of a sudden. She's wearing the same shoes I wore as a baby:

Oh Happy Day

I am having a GREAT day! Gma Debbie called this morning and offered to take the boys for the day, so Callie and I have been hanging out today. I laid down while she was taking a nap and we just got back from a nice walk. The weather is just great. Also, Brent called me from work and asked me out on a date tonight!!! We are going to grill up some steaks(my mouth is watering just thinking about it) and then we are going to use our anniversary present of movie tickets to go see a movie. I'm very excited! Its been a real downer dealing with all these car problems and gloomy days and Brent having to work extra, so having a day to myself and a date with my hubs is a GREAT treat!!! Yay!

ps. Doc has been found....along with a missing dinosaur from the library kit we checked out. It pays to check under the bunk beds once in awhile.

Where is Doc??

That has been the question around our house lately. The doc I am speaking of is Doc Hudson, of the movie Cars. Hunter has a lot of the cars from that movie and he has lost Doc. The boys and I were sitting on the couch Saturday morning and Hunter saw our sign that says "Faith". He asked what it meant and I told him that faith is knowing something without seeing it. I told him that we can't see God but we know he's there and that is faith. He agreed with me and then said, "Hey, I can't see Doc but I know he's here in our house! That's faith!" He's even prayed to find him. I decided to try looking for him today, so I gave the boys flashlights and we checked under all the furniture. We didn't find Doc but we DID find lots of other things;) That got me cleaning. I feel like writing another version of "If you give a mouse a Cookie". I get sidetracked easily. I ended up putting some of the kids toys in containers and moving the furniture around in the play room. They seem to like some toys more when they aren't around all the time. I put away the musical instruments(hallelujah!) some construction machines and the doctor stuff. I know that when I put the food in a tupperware container last year and I bring it out once or twice a week they actually play with it and it is easier to keep track of. I got a lot done, but we still didn't find Doc. I got out some chalk for the chalkboard side of the easel, and Hunter really enjoyed practicing his name. Tate enjoyed coloring not on the easel but on his sister's face.

Speaking of Callie, she can add the Johny Jump up to the list of things she's fallen asleep in. I was getting lunch cleaned up and the boys down for their naps and she fell asleep while I was doing that.



I've been trying to have Tate go pee on the potty lately. I know he's not near ready, but I am hoping he'll be ready sooner than Hunter was. He told me this morning that he was pooping and I hurried him to the potty and he went on the potty!! That is very exciting!

A funny Hunter saying:
-Brent usually says to me after a meal he likes, "You're a good cook and beautiful." Hunter has been thanking me for making the food lately and calling me beautiful right after.

Frugal....

....is my new middle name. We (sort of) figured out what is wrong with our van today. Brent spent a whole weekend not even a month ago fixing a part on our van to save us money, but unfortunately it wasn't the only problem it had and now it has to be replaced again along with other parts. All in all it will cost around $1400. We have spent the whole weekend and early week thinking and praying and trying to figure out what to do. It is so frustrating! We have decided to go ahead with the repairs and fix the van. There is no guarantee that it will fix everything b/c it could have a cracked something or other which would mean a new engine, so pray that they can fix it completely and that we will have NO repairs for at least a year!!!!! I can't even begin to explain how sick I am of having car problems. We would be so much better off financially w/out them. Having said that I am very thankful that car problems are the biggest worries on us right now. There are lots of people struggling with unemployment and the economy and health problems that I do want to make it clear that we are truly blessed. Its just one of those things that a person has to deal with in life.

We are going to have to come up with this $1400(and money for new tires) somehow. The cool thing about this is that I've seen many times God providing for us. I know with full confidence He will do it again. We want to remain as debt free as possible, and we still have to have our money for our part of the remodel, so I'm determined to reach an all new frugalness.

I think I do a pretty good job of being frugal. I buy 95% of the kids clothes at garage sales. The other 5% is either clearenced(b/c it is getting harder to find Hunter clothes in good condition at sales) or given/borrowed. I buy clothes for Brent and myself when I have good coupons at Kohl's.

For groceries(including toiletries) I stick pretty well to a $275 a month budget. I am going to try, however, to lower it to $200 a month until we are back on our feet. I shop sales for everything and plan out a month worth of meals at a time. I use coupons as much as possible. I try to have a breakfast for supper night once a week, a soup night once a week and we have homemade pizza every Friday. I make Callie her baby food and have definitely saved money that way.

We used Netflix and like it, but have cancelled that for now. We don't have cable but watch our favorite shows online.

We take advantage of the Pump Perks that our local grocery store offer. We've been able to save lots on gas that way.

I use Mypoints and have been able to get quite a few gift cards that way. (If you are interested in joining, leave me a comment and I'll send you a referral, I get points that way!) I've used them for birthday gifts, getting treats for Brent and myself and have funded outings with friends.

I really like the Pear Budget that we have set up. It is a very easy, user friendly way to keep track of your budget.

I think I'm going to resurrect my old cooking blog and am going to add a menu plan to the side of my blog. A relative just started doing that and its a great way to get ideas for new meals. I'll hopefully link any recipes to my cooking blog.

So, we'll get through this annoying car stuff and hopefully be even more disciplined with our money!

My little four-wheeler riders!

Callie is EIGHT months!

Callie was eight months this weekend. She doesn't go for a checkup this month, so I don't have any new measurements, but she is growing!


Some eight month facts:

-she has eight teeth, but is working on about 4 more it looks like.
-she slept through the night three nights this past week, which is the only nights shes slept through this month.
-she's still being a great eater! She has squash, sweet potatoes, green beans and carrots for veggies regularly and pears, plums and bananas for fruit. She does great with Cheerios too. I've been using the Happy Baby and grinding up some chicken or roast when we have it along with veggies.
-she loves baths! I usually give the boys a bath first and she stands at the edge of the tub and talks to them while waving her hands about. I've started giving her baths without her bathtub. She is much too squirmy for it anymore and she really likes being able to move around and splash. (All bath time is completely supervised, just so you know!)
-she's growing some hair! It's made me hopeful that I'll be able to put barrettes and clips in it before she's a teenager.
-she really likes to stand. She'll pull herself up on anything.
-she loves the Johny Jump up still.
-she's been saying "da da" and other noises that sound like words. She has such a girly voice.
-she'll finally sit on her own. I'm sure she could have done this months ago, but she just crawled too early, so that's all she wanted to do. Now she'll sit still for a minute or so.


She's a lot of fun!

Sarah and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very bad day!

It should have been a great, relaxing day. Today I decided to do something I very rarely do. I thought it would be fun to take the kids to town and get pumpkins and do a little shopping research that I've been wanting to do for ages. I've wanted to go to three different grocery stores and price compare to see if I'm getting the best deal on things or not. I'm all about saving money(to pay for car repairs, read on...). Anyway, I thought today would be good....we've been home all week except for MAC yesterday and story time on Tuesday. The laundry is caught up and supper isn't too hard tonight(thank goodness). So, we left at 10:30. I had planned on going to the first grocery store, then to the next, then to McDonalds for lunch for the kids and then to the last store. We got to town about 11:00 or so and we got one of those fun car carts, so the boys were happy and Callie was happy. We left the grocery store about 11:40 and as I was leaving the parking lot I noticed the van was shaking pretty bad. It didn't stop as I accelerated so I made the decision to just head back home and not go anywhere else. That went over GREAT with the kids!! I got to the outskirts of the big town and the lights all came on in the van so I pulled off the highway, thankfully, just as it died. So, I call Brent but can't get ahold of him. I proceed to try for quite a while to get ahold of various people. I called six different people before I finally got ahold of someone who could get me the number of Brent's uncle who could give me his cousin's number who was with him. They were just finishing up a job about 15 mins from where I was so I waited about 25 mins for them(with two boys asking a LOT of questions....really fun!) Brent and Ben came and tampered with the van for awhile, decided we'd try to drive it home little by little. It took THREE AND A HALF HOURS to get home. That is a long time, especially when you have to listen to two boys asking question after question after question. Boy was it not fun. I have never been so happy to see my house. We had to stop SO many times to let the van cool off. Brent thinks it is either this very inexpensive problem or this very bad, very expensive problem. I'm hoping for the inexpensive problem. I can't handle any more car problems, and I know Brent is weary of them as well. It was not fun. The boys didn't take naps, so early to bed for them!

I'm going to go take whatever headache medicine is allowed nursing moms and hope this day is over soon.

Finally, a good nights sleep!!!

Callie fell asleep in her highchair while I was making the boys lunch yesterday, so cute!

Callie slept through the night last night AND took a two hour nap! I can't tell you how awesome that makes me feel. That was the longest nap I've seen her take in months, and I can't remember the last time she slept through the night. Brent and I determined that she is getting her top incisors and possibly her bottom ones as well. We've decided that is why she is constantly waking up, so last night we gave her some oragel before bed and she didn't wake up! Praise the Lord, I needed a nights sleep. This morning I woke up at 6:30, went down and read my morning Bible reading, made coffee and some muffins for the kids, it was a GREAT morning!

I decided today that fall is my favorite picture taking season. The leaves around here are still so pretty! I took more of the kids yesterday:





Brent got the dishwasher completely installed in our cabinets. It is SO nice having a little extra space to walk around. He is very handy. Also, yesterday I got a call from our grant guy, Jason, and he seems to think that our remodel could still happen this year after all!! He is working on our project list and hopes to mail it out next week and all we have to do is approve it and then we get to start looking for a contractor. He said lots of contractors are willing to work through the winter since its been such a slow year, so we are hopeful. It would be great to save some on energy costs this winter. I'd love the house to be less drafty(not to mention nice to look at on the outside). We decided we are going to just go ahead and build on a mud room. With three kids I really think we need one. Esp where our new door will be located. The grant won't cover it, but we are going to go ahead and do it ourselves b/c I know I will get frustrated with it pretty quick. It'll be nice to have a place for our shoes and coats and also a place for the sand:)

Well, I better go make use of the time I have!

I'm it!

Britt tagged me to reveal seven random things about myself, so here goes!
this is me in my peanut butter chocolate shirt from my awesome friend Nikki!
1. I love chocolate. This isn't new information or anything, but I REALLY love chocolate. I have to have some every day or I would probably start to shake. In fact, the very first conversation Brent and I had involved chocolate(and my competitive side, can't say he didn't know what he was getting into!) I had just eaten a pound of chocolate molten cake at the restaurant I worked at(on a bet) and then decided to go play a game of capture the flag....I ended up on Brent's team. I love chocolate and peanut butter the best, every afternoon directly after the kids go down I measure out chocolate chips and eat them with a big scoop of pb.

2. I've been pregnant the last five years straight. Pregnant in 2004,2005(albeit days, but still!)2006,2007,2008. That's a long time.

3. I hate pets. I really don't like cats and dogs. Cats always seem to sense that I don't like them and jump on my lap.

4. I have TERRIBLE luck with cars. Absolutely terrible luck. So far I've wrecked the engines of TWO of our cars. One was within 24 hours of us buying it! I've been in numerous accidents. One of which involved a little old lady named Ethel who screamed at me(even though SHE was the one parked illegally), one of which involved me hitting my friend Sarah's car while she was driving(coincidentally on the same day at the same time we hit there were two other Sarahs that hit each other, so I still maintain that it was just a cursed day for Sarahs), and one that involved me chasing a foreign man all around the countryside after he hit and ran(I actually said to him after he hit me and was telling me we didn't need to exchange insurance that my mom said I had to get the insurance information the next time I got in an accident).

5. I once fell waist deep in pig manure. It was back in early high school, I was playing Sardines and someone hid out of bounds. I was chasing them and started running towards what I thought was dried mud, but alas, I sunk down waist deep in the stuff. Very gross and I was introduced as the girl who fell waist deep in pig manure for a long time after that.

6. I get violent while playing the game Trouble. Not really violent, I wouldn't hurt anyone or anything, but that game brings out the worst in me. I remember being sent to my room a few times while playing that with my family as a little kid. I'm super competitive at any game, but Trouble is definitely the worst.

7. If I wasn't a stay-at-home mom I think I would either be a storm chaser or a social worker. I have always loved a good storm and have always wanted to see a tornado(at a safe distance of course). If I hadn't wanted a family so much I totally would have bought a van, moved to Kansas and chased tornadoes. I would have wanted to be a social worker b/c my heart always breaks when I hear of children being neglected. If someone wants to give me lots of money I would love to adopt them all and take care of them.

Well, I did it! I actually managed to come up with seven things! I now tag Keri, Erin, Fabulous Jen, Susan and Nikki. Good luck ladies!

I thought this was great...

I was reading a post at Simple Mom and this just really struck a chord with me. I very often say some of the things she has listed and have never thought about it the way she writes. A good reminder of how powerful words are!

No more houseguests

Well, it is now back to just us. My parents came on Thursday night and left yesterday morning and took my sister back with them. I'm a little sad to see her go, she was SO MUCH help. I would have seriously had a rough time a couple days without her. She watched the kids while Brent and I visited the new cool coffee shop in town one morning. She was so much help on the field trip, and she also watched Tate and Callie on Thursday for an hour and a half while I took Hunter for his Pre-Kindergarten screening. It started at 11 and I had to take him to three different places so I can only imagine how it would have gone with the other two along as well. NOT fun. But...since I just had him it was kind of fun to see him be so grown up. First he went to the eye doctor and that went well. He was worried about getting an owie, but he cooperated wonderfully. Then we went to the dentist, and he had no cavities! That was good for me to hear. Next we went for his weight and measurements and a little testing. He passed the hearing(so he CAN hear!) and was in the high percentile for height. I am a little concerned with his umbilical hernia, and am going to have that looked at on his official well child checkup. I think there is a strong possibility that he'll have to have it fixed with surgery, so that stinks. He passed his screening test. He needed a 23 to pass and he got a 37. It is weird to think of him going off to school in the next couple years.

Callie is still going a mile an hour with the crawling and pulling herself up on things. She fell and hurt her ear the other day. She's so independent and on the go. Tonight I was giving the boys their bath(I give her hers after theirs) and she crawled right up and stood at the bathtub just hollering in at them at the top of her lungs. She was pretty excited and was waving her hands up and down(I think she really wanted to splash) It is VERY DIFFICULT to keep my floors clean of crumbs of the boys. I'm on a constant patrol of our floors now so she doesn't get ahold of something she shouldn't. She's been waking about 30-40 mins after we put her to bed at night crying. I am really quiet puzzled by what is waking her, she always has her fist in her mouth when I go to get her, so maybe more teething??? I'd sure like a break from that! She's also been waking in the night, too, which I definately would like her not to do...esp when no one seems to want to nap at the same time anymore or at all. Today she took a morning nap for around an hour then woke up at lunchtime. The boys went down for nap/quiet time after lunch at around 12:30 and Hunter never slept and woke Tate up at 1:50 being loud. It makes for an extremely long afternoon when everyone is up before 2. So since it was nice out we went on a little "leaf hunt". Luckily Brent pulled in the driveway when we were at the end of the block so he came with us. He had an early out day today which was SO nice. I asked if he could put the dishwasher in our cabinets since its been on our list of things to do, and he's still working at it. He's so handy and willing and awesome.

Speaking of him being awesome, we celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary yesterday. I still love thinking about our wedding day and all that went along with it. He asked gpa and gma to watch the kids so we could go out and they did. I always want to do something fun and exciting and out of the ordinary on our dates b/c I spend most of the days at home with the kids, but yesterday we just came back and covered up with blankets and watched Lost all afternoon. I was thinking about it and it IS something out of the ordinary...we don't really ever get to sit on our behinds at home, so it was very relaxing. We have only two more episodes of the current season to watch and then we have to wait till next season starts...what will I do?!?!?!

We went to the park the other day with my friend, Erin, and I took some pictures. Here they are, along with some other ones of the week/weekend...









Tate was feeding his penguin(I like to call him Pugsley) the other day and I thought it was cute...

A funny Hunter saying...
-He must be feeling tired as well lately b/c I heard him tell Brent the other night after he told him it was time to get ready for bed, "My energy is out of breath!"

On the move

We've been on the move lately, this being the reason for lack of posts. Also on the move: Callie. That girl will be walking before a year, mark my words. She can now pull herself up to standing on things. Yesterday I found her standing next to one of Tate's toys and only holding onto it with one arm!
She is pulling herself up on everything, which means I'll be spending my days making sure she doesn't fall.

My sister has been here so we've been busy. Yesterday we made these(I gained five pounds just looking at the picture) and they were so good. Then we've been working on some magnets. They required some serious glue, very stinky stuff, so we had fun going around in masks. It's been really nice having her here.


Yesterday we also had a field trip for our ECFE class. I was SO glad to have Laci here, it would have been so difficult to watch all three kids without help. We rode on a school bus. The boys were very excited for that:




We toured their campus and it was very interesting. We made a recycled craft of a bug.



The boys put on quite a show for us last night. They were REALLY hyper...I think letting them have one of our chocolate creations did that to them. They were dancing around and jumping all over the place.

Where to begin?

Well, I haven't been able to get away much to blog this week. The kids have either not been napping at all or napping in such a way that I never have a moment to myself. This week is another of those weeks which I do not enjoy. Brent has been working LONG hours, nights and days. I feel like we haven't seen much of each other at all, and that makes for a long week. Also making this week long is my lovely daughter, who is as I type crying in the monitor. She has woken up crying THREE times in the last 40 mins since I put her to bed. She only took one hour long nap today and that is ALL the sleep she's had all day. Also, she was up numerous times in the night crying and this means that I was up numerous times in the night. I don't know why this is. I'm assuming its teething since she popped ANOTHER two teeth this past weekend while we were in Iowa. I'm SO ready for the teething phase to be done with. She has eight teeth now, so we have to be getting close to being done. I wish there was something I could do to help her.

As I went down to comfort her I heard the boys talking in their room(after I tucked them in) and so I put my ear to the door and I heard Hunter tell Tate, "I don't have the energy to talk anymore. Goodnight." So cute! They have been interacting nicely lately. This morning Hunter told Tate that he loved him "five hundred" which I take to mean a lot. Then they hugged it out, it was very cute.

I think this will be a long post.

We had a great time in Iowa. It was so much fun getting away and seeing my fam. The weather was gorgeous, so we had fun being outdoors. Dad took me on a couple motorcycle rides, which I find to be very fun. It was fun to ride, but also fun to go through neighborhoods that I haven't been in for several years. We saw my gma and Laci came down for a day. I got to eat some Jaarsma and Breadiux Pizza, so that was grand. On Saturday mom found some of my old dresses she had made me when I was a baby, so we tried them on Callie. It was fun seeing her in them(although she doesn't really look like me....all the kids take more after Brent I think...not that I'm saying Brent looks like a girl) Here are some pictures of that:


Brent worked his hieny off on the van while we were gone. He took the whole front end apart and replaced the expensive parts that needed fixing. He is such a hard working man and very handy to have around! I'm sure he could have found more fun ways to spend his free time, but I really appreciated him doing that.

I've been feeling really tired lately. I think tiredness is the root of a lot of my emotions. I will probably feel tired for the next couple years at least, but for some reason this week I really figured out what my problem is. I would feel like I've died and gone to heaven if I were able to sleep ALL night long without being woken up and able to sleep in as late as I want. Next year that is what I want for my birthday. Sleep. All day.

Hunter came home from his Kid's Together class with a picture. An actual picture of something that he drew. Now I'm sure a lot of kids his age have been coloring pictures of things for awhile now, but Hunter has NEVER been into coloring. He'd much rather play with his trucks and tractors or play a game with me. But I think seeing other kids coloring has made him more interested. I actually thought maybe another kid drew it on his paper for him, so yesterday I had him draw me a picture like the one he brought home. He did and here it is, his first ever picture! I think it is adorable.


I did a little photo session today with Callie when she woke up and was being smiley, so here are some (more) pictures of her:




We have my parents coming the next two weekends! This weekend they are coming up and bringing my sister with, and she is staying for the whole week while Alex is gone! They'll be back to pick her up the next weekend. I always LOVE having her here, so I know I will enjoy next week.