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.

Nothing like a sleeping babe....

Pictures

We have had cold and snow the last two days and the kids and I are getting weary of it. Big time. We did a lot of different activities yesterday. We went on a "shape hunt" in each room of the house finding the different shapes in things. Then we traced around some shapes I found and colored them in with watercolors.
Then Hunter wanted me to take out the drawers under the bunk bed so he could go under them with a flashlight and look for stuff, so he did that.
After nap the boys were bouncing off the walls and it finally warmed up past zero, so I sent the boys outside for awhile. Callie really likes watching them from the window, so I put the highchair up to the window for her to look out at them. She liked it a lot and sat there saying, "Hunter!", "Tate!"
Speaking of Callie, at the current moment I can see 5 little while pokes of teeth popping through. She's pretty uncomfortable from it and has been waking up in the night again.
I imagine she'll pop them through while I'm driving by myself with the kids to Iowa. The kids have always seemed to be teething while we go there! We're leaving for my sister's place on Monday morning first thing. Our contractor(Randy) is coming tomorrow to start tearing out our steps, siding and chimney. He'll(hopefully) be putting in the windows and doors while the kids and I are gone next week. The weather has put a damper on the work he'd planned on doing this week.

Mostly Pictures

I've had writer's block lately. Either that or I've just become boring. Not sure which. I've been trying to get back into the swing of things, back to my old routine. It seems to be going pretty well. We're getting pretty tired of being cramped inside all the time, we can't go out when its this cold. For an update on the house, we had the upstairs insulated and IT HAS MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!! Huge! It is now the same temp as the main floor, actually yesterday when I woke up it actually felt warmer upstairs than on the main floor. Our kitchen is really really drafty, something that will be remedied here really soon. I am so happy to finally have a warmer upstairs. It doesn't even feel real. I'm not taking it for granted, I am absolutely estatic. The only downside I've noticed is that I don't really want to get out of bed in the morning b/c I'm so nice and toasty. So...mornings have been harder for me. But I can't complain!!! We are now playing more of the waiting game. Our windows were ordered last week and they'll take three weeks to come in, so we're stuck until then. This will (hopefully) give the snow time to melt off and get warmer out. Once the windows are here we can get going with everything, the doors and siding will only take a couple days to get in. Its hard to believe that its really happening! I'll post some before pictures closer to when the real work will start. I'm planning on taking the kids and going to Iowa for the week that they'll be replacing the windows. I can't wait to meet my new nephew! Here are some random pictures from the week. Callie has been wearing barrettes lately, and she looks extra adorable in them. I tried to take a picture of her in her cute heart dress yesterday, but she wasn't cooperating very well.

Some pictures

Hello all who are still out there....We are still alive(sort of) and are recovering from the evil flu. Parenting is pretty tiring when you feel good, but when you BOTH feel like death, it makes it a whole lot harder. I have issues with letting the kids watch TV as "babysitting", so that has been hard to deal with when I've felt bad. I just need to tell myself that its just a for a little while. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the night before Callie's birthday. Since I was upstairs in bed for most of her actual birthday, I'm glad we were able to make some cupcakes and have a birthday supper with the Loukota children the night before. Tate's friend, Ella, came over and helped us make the cupcakes: and they wore some robes around:

And here are some pictures of Callie and her birthday cupcake. I'll have a more official "Callie is twelve months old" post when I feel up to it:




By the way, we have received the most exciting news: we are starting our remodel NEXT WEEK!!!! I can't believe its really going to happen! I'll be starting to post some before pictures soon.

Weekend at Breezy

We had a GREAT time at Breezy this weekend! Thanks to the Loukota's for inviting us out! We went out around 4 or so on Saturday and came home today after supper. We swam, played games, and ate. The kids had a great time playing with their friends, and Brent and I FINALLY got to play games with Randy and Nikki(even though I did poorly at Monopoly). It was a very fun weekend, and just what I needed. Here is a slide show of some of the things we did:

Cutest Callie on the Block...

Mullet Pigtails

I just gave Callie her very first pigtails!! She looked so cute, but you could only tell from the back. She has a bit of a mullet going on. Some would say(Brent) she takes after me, but I still maintain that I just had a lot of bangs!!!!! Here are pictures of her pigtails:





And one of Hunter after he wrote his name and drew a picture of himself during quiet time yesterday:

Our Friday Night in pictures...

Brent came home from work saying that his cousin had invited us out to the resort he's staying at for the week to swim, so we decided to go. It's always a gamble taking the kids to a pool, b/c the last few times we've gone they have whined and been scared and not enjoyed it at all(which means WE don't enjoy it at all). I think the many trips to the beach this past summer helped them with their fear of the water b/c they LOVED it. They had a ton of fun.

We started the evening by having our traditional Friday night pizza. This night we had chicken bacon ranch pizza...
...the boys sat nicely at the table reading books while I made the pizza...
...Callie got into the drawers while I was making the pizza...
...and then we were off to Breezy. Here's some pictures of our pool time:



I was SO surprised at Hunter. He put on his floaty arm things and was happy swimming by himself! He did a great job!
A little snack was necessary after swim time...

Bits and Pieces

Brent is on the phone as I write this setting up the first of our bids for our house stuff. SO EXCITING!!!!!!!! Hopefully we'll be starting it all off by the beginning of March. Hopefully. This whole process has truly been a blessing to us. Brent and I were just talking about how awesome this is and what a huge blessing it is for us this morning. We're going to try to be as good of stewards with our resources as we can. We're thinking of putting a second bathroom in, also. It will probably be relatively inexpensive b/c of my husband's awesome skills. It would be SO NICE to have an extra bathroom, especially when my family comes for a visit. I still can't believe we'll be getting this remodeling done, but I'm excited!

My friend called me to see if I needed anything from town the other day, and I mentioned the mail box idea I'd seen and she picked herself up a couple for her two kids and she came over today and we made them. They were a little more complicated than I was expecting, but I think they turned out nicely!


Callie enjoyed my friend's baby.



She also poked him in the eye.

And here is my family room.
It looks like a toy store threw up in there. I'm going to ignore it a little bit longer and try and watch Lost with Brent when he gets off the phone.

We've got a busy weekend ahead. Brent is working tomorrow morning, then we've got a wedding(yay, Alaina!) and then we are becoming members of our church on Sunday night. The next week will also be a doozy I'm sure, having our normal Monday and Tuesday ECFE classes and then me having my surgery next Thursday. Tonight we are probably heading to hang out with Brent's cousin and his kids at a resort he's staying at. Not really wanting to put on a bathing suit right now, but when does one ever want to put one on after having three kids???

I hate laundry

Here's what happens if I don't do laundry every day:

Yuck. I need a maid.

Gulp!

Well, I had my appointment with the surgeon this morning and I will be having my surgery on Thursday, January 29. That is NEXT WEEK! I supposedly won't be able to lift over 25 pounds for SIX WEEKS! I'm not sure how that'll work, but it has to be done. I'm pretty excited to not have this nagging pain anymore, so I'm actually looking forward to the surgery. What I could use prayer for is how the kids will do. I won't be able to nurse Callie for a day, so she probably won't be overly happy. Pray that she is a good girl for the lucky person watching her. I'm not worried about the boys, I'll just have to make sure they don't push my stomach. They were asking what I was going to the doctor for yesterday and I told them I have to get my belly button fixed up and Tate almost started crying! He told me to be brave and then he grabbed my hand and told me to hold it. He's very sensitive(and sweet!)

Gma watched the kids while I went for my appointment and I got the privilege of listening to Focus on the Family on the way down to my appointment. I highly recommend listening online to today's speaker. This week is sanctity of life week and it was about a former abortionist worker. I can't wait to listen online to the rest of it tomorrow.

I stopped at Target to get some panty hose for a wedding we have this weekend, and I had seen on a blog an idea with these little mailboxes they're selling in their dollar isle. So, I picked up three and am going to make these for the kids.

Here's a picture of our little leopard:

Pizza Pajama Movie Night

I think we may have started a new thing tonight. We had our good friends over for some pizza, all of us in our pj's and then watched the movie Chicken Little. We're borrowing my sister and Alex's "Top 108 Disney Movies" that he got overseas. So...we have 107 more movies and LOTS of cold winter nights still left in the season. We're gonna keep it fresh around here!