Ouch, Owie, OW!

Tate was spinning around trying to get dizzy tonight while I was cleaning up the kitchen after supper and landed on the coffee table. He has a whopper of a goose egg....

Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!

One of the things that we got out garage saling in Iowa was a couple costumes for the boys. We got superman and buzz lightyear costumes. The boys really like being Buzz.

Fort

We recently got rid of a few pieces of furniture, so we had room to store what we had under the steps going down to our basement. I decided it might be fun for the boys to have a reading area, so I got some sleeping bags out, put a lamp in it and the boys really like reading books in their "fort"...

Progress!

I can finally say that something is being done about the exterior of my house! I am smelling a burning smell right now, which is the equipment trying to thaw out the ground for my new addition! The steps have been torn off, and things are going to take off from here! The kids really enjoy watching the work going on out the window:

Speaking of windows, they should be coming into town today, and Randy's going to start installing them next week, hopefully along with the door. I am excited to leave and come back having things changed!

I think I'll post the before pictures when I can have after pictures to go alongside them, but here is a picture of our hideous exterior before he started tearing the steps off:
And here is an explanation of the addition stuff:


Tate dressed himself all the way today(in Hunter's pants, though!)

So this is what its going to be like??

So, the lesson I've learned today is that there will never be a dull moment when you have three small children, one of which is completely accident prone. The completely accident prone one I am talking about is...you guessed it...Tate. At school each week they get to choose a toy to bring home and keep for the week. Most weeks the boys pick relatively small toys with lots of pieces that I usually have to hunt for all over the house for on Sunday nights. Anyway, today Hunter decided that he wanted this toy:
A teeter totter, or as I warmly refer to it now, the Tooth Breaker. The boys wanted to go on it after we got home, so I was helping them go back and forth b/c Tate couldn't push it down on his own. They were laughing and having a blast on it when Tate slid off and SOMEHOW(I really do not understand how this could have happened)Tate knocked out his front tooth. I was inches from the whole thing and saw it all happen. There was nothing I could have done to prevent it, it happened so quickly. The first thing I saw was Tate's tooth sticking straight out of his mouth. It bled some, but not as much as I would have expected. He didn't seem too upset by it, but I sure was. I bawled like a baby. I called the dentist here in town and asked what I should do, and they told me he'd have to go see the pediatrician dentist in the bigger town 30 mins away, so I made an appointment there for tomorrow morning, but then once I talked to Brent realized we are supposed to be getting a snowstorm and after talking with a lady from church who used to be a dental hygienist I decided to cancel the appointment and reschedule for later. The lady from church came over and checked out the tooth and said he'll need to have X-rays(although its not something that is needed immediately) to make sure all the root is out and won't hinder him from getting his permanent tooth in, but that won't be anytime soon, UNFORTUNATELY! So, I plan on making an appointment for when we are back from Iowa, unless he complains of it hurting before then. She recommended us giving him a softer food diet until he gets used to chewing without his tooth. At this time he looks like he's been in fight and lost b/c he's got a bruise on either side of his forehead and a cut below his eye from the various other injuries he's had. I tell you, that kid is going to keep me on my feet. Here is a picture of his "toothless grin".

Tate is...

...a lover of books.
...a lover of building blocks.
...intrigued by tools.
...into asking "Why?"
...very fond of his big brother.
...a tough little wrestler.
...a sensitive spirit.
...a talented little chef.
...afraid of bears and monsters.

He...
...is the messiest eater I've ever seen.
...tells me he loves me "6"(this means a lot)every night.
...likes to pick on his baby sister.
...loves his friends and asks us to pray for them every night.
...has the most contagious laugh and his eyes smile, too.
...does not like going fast.
...will probably be a great outdoors man, he loves to pretend to hunt.
...is always willing to help.
...means a lot to me!

Third generation Chocolate lovers

My inspiring, former teacher friend, Erin and I were talking about ideas for things I could do with Hunter after his quiet time. I want to work with him and teach him, but I find that I have been extremely worn out lately. I don't know if it is the fact that the temp has been so frigid, or the fact that Callie has been waking me up in the night since she is teething.(A side note: last night at 2 am I got her to go back to sleep WITHOUT nursing her!!! THIS IS HUGE! I might end up not having to nurse her till she's four after all.) Anyway, Erin told me about this blog "The Crafty Crow" and it is AWESOME! She has craft ideas daily for kids just my age. I am really excited to try some of the crafts I've seen on there. So this morning the boys and I made chocolate play dough as featured on the site. It smells heavenly. Hunter just sat smelling it for awhile. They made chocolate men, popsicles, cookies and other sorts of pretend treats.
Tate blowing out his candles on his birthday cake


They had both had a later breakfast, so I knew lunch would be hard to get into them, so we made some delicious chocolate chip peanut butter cookies and had them. I want to try this idea featured of crafty crow with Hunter after his quiet time today.

The day did not start out so great for me today. I had to be at the chiropractor's office at 8:30 for my ultrasound treatment and I left the car running while I was there(which everyone does here). I locked it b/c I'm not trusting, and then I went to the grocery store to pick up some sale items and locked the door and left it running again. Except as I was going inside I felt in my pocket that I did not have the other set of keys, I had forgotten to put them in my pocket after unlocking it at the chiro. So...called Brent on my cell phone(thanks AGAIN Laci) and he called the car guys who came and thirty five dollars later unlocked my door. It is in the teens below zero here, and I got so very cold standing outside, not to mention the poor guy who had to bail me out. I was SO frustrated with myself. I work so hard at saving us money and Brent works so hard at making us money that spending $35 on my mistake was very hard for me to forgive myself for. Luckily I was where I was, had my cell phone and did NOT have the kids...that would have been horrible! Brent was very understanding and sweet when I came back from the store bawling my eyes out. I have a rough time in the winter and has been hard for me to function in this cold. I really hope for a warm up soon, but I am really thankful for my sweet husband and my great friends who care and are willing to give me things to look forward to and ideas to make life easier!

Boys

Boys are wild and crazy. I imagine this was JUST the way Brent was as a boy.




PS. The mess on the couch is future garage sale stuff. I don't normally have tubs on my couch.

The weather outside is frightful

When the view from your window is this(it's been snowing steady all day):
The best thing to drink is this:
I enjoyed my hot chocolate today. Today has been a challenge. Hunter woke up crying this morning and said he'd had a bad dream. Well, I thought he was just being crabby(b/c some days he wakes up really crabby...I usually send him back to bed and tell him when he's more ready to be happy to come on out and it works every time) but today was different. He wanted me to make him Malto Meal but once I did refused to eat it, and wouldn't get off the couch, so I figured out it was more than just the bad dream. He's got a fever of 102 and has been sleeping all day. I'm not kidding ALL DAY. I wonder what this will do to bedtime??? I'm really hoping he feels better by tonight or tomorrow morning, I'd hate to miss out on all the fun Christmas things we have planned. While I was trying to coerce Hunter into eating something this morning I turned the corner to find Tate using HIS Malto Meal as finger paints on my walls. That was a mess that took a while to clean up. Then, after Hunter was in bed and Callie down for a morning nap(the first one in a week Praise God it was today!)I decided to whip up some banana bread with some bananas that were going bad. Tate wanted to help, and while I was measuring the second cup of flour out he turned on the mixer and banana bread batter went flying everywhere! It was another big mess, but the stove top is nice and clean now;) I've decided not to expect too much out of this day. Tate ate about half the loaf of bread for lunch. It felt like I just had two kids all morning. I got to spend some one on one time with Tate and I've never heard the kid be so chatty before! He talked the whole time. We built some towers with his blocks:

We are VERY excited to not have to drive to Iowa in this snow, we have over a foot, and when we went over Thanksgiving there was no snow at all. We are also excited to be able to be at our own house on Christmas morning this year. I love being able to see my family for Christmas, and I will miss seeing them, but it is SO nice to be able to have our first family morning Christmas EVER! I'm so happy the kids will get to open their presents on the actual day of Christmas. Tomorrow the kids and I are going to make my mom's homemade cinnamon roll recipe for us to have on Christmas morning.

Hunter was a shepherd in our church's Christmas program the other night. He had a hard time keeping his hat on and he tried to talk into the mic(even though he didn't have any lines). He looked pretty cute, though, and Brent was sure that he was wearing his old bath robe from when he was a kid.

Have a Merry Christmas!!

Making cookies with the kids

We are going to the cities early tomorrow morning for our nephew's baby shower. It'll be fun to meet him finally and get to spend some time(albeit SHORT time) with Brent's side of the family. We were asked to make cookies, so the boys and I made them this morning. They were great helpers. They take turns dumping the ingredients in, and they BOTH have to help hold the mixer every time we need to use it.
They really like to cook. Anytime Tate sees me taking anything out of a cupboard he immediately drops what he's doing and pushes a chair over to the counters.
Here they are "cheersing" each other with their beaters.
They then used them to sword fight.
They did a really great job pushing the stars in. Don't worry, they washed their hands with soap before touching the stars.And of course they had to make sure they were edible for tomorrow!
I've begun saying that Tate could get dirty taking a shower. Do you see why I think that??
Hunter said I was wonderful for making cookies.

Since Callie wasn't included(she was too busy getting into my Tupperware) here is a picture of her sleeping on me last night after I fed her...

Another reason you can tell I live with boys...

They use your attachment hose spot on your vacuum as a good place to store a gun. I mean, you never know what kind of characters you'll run into while vacuuming!

Funny from Tate...

First off, we've decided to forgo the potty training for awhile. I don't think he's quite ready. He's getting a lot closer though. I feel as though a ton of bricks has been lifted off me, b/c it was so much hard work. We'll try in a few more months.

Anyway, he's been talking a lot more. Yesterday Brent came downstairs from sleeping in his long underwear and sat down on the couch. Tate went over and touched them and asked, "What that daddy?" Brent said they were called long underwear. He asked, "Why" and Brent said they were to keep his legs warm. Tate said, "Oh yeah! Makes sense!"

The latest injury...

Tate fell off a chair today at our friend's house. He was just sitting there and fell off. He cut open his top lip really bad, it bled a lot and there was a giant piece of skin hanging of his lip(I about passed out). The poor kid!! I am thinking of starting a tally of his injuries...and a savings account for all the crutches, braces, doctor bills, etc... Right now he has a top lip that would give any botox gal lip envy.

Pictures...

Well, its been a week since I've posted a picture! That's probably some sort of record. Here's some pics for you:

As I was giving the boys their haircuts this morning(Hunter went first), Tate came over and held his hand and kept saying, "Be brave". It was SO CUTE!!!! Tate is such a sweetheart! I had to stop and take a picture of it.

I let the boys have some chap stick a couple days ago, and they came into the kitchen this morning(luckily before bath time) with chap stick ALL OVER their faces. I don't know if you can see it or not, but its covering Hunter's face, even his eyebrows:(this made holding his face while cutting his hair REALLY DIFFICULT!)


Here's one of Tate with his crayon hat from ECFE. I think we were playing mosters or pirates or something:


This was of our first snow last Saturday. The boys wanted to go outside immediately and drug up all of their snow gear. Hunter said he wanted to brush all the snow off the porch and make it into a snowman. But...they settled for licking the steps instead.

And last but not least, here are some of Miss Smiley:

Superpowers

Dear Hunter and Tate,

I love it that you think my kisses magically make your owies better. When you fall or get a scratch, you immediately come over and have me kiss it and the crying stops. It makes me feel like a superhero. I will mourn the day that you no longer have me kiss your owies. Please don't grow up too fast!

Love you bunches,
Mommy

M-E-S-S!

The boys "helped" me clean out my file box and shred some old documents. Then it got a little crazy...

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.

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!"