Life on our corner

 Seriously painting This is his rocket and launcher made from K'Nex.  (I thought it was cool!)  Our 4th annual gingerbread house.  I buy a kit because I am not that ambitious.  Measuring out his duct tape to make a wallet.  So proud of his finished project.  And so sad that he has nothing to put in it!

Is there anything better than... a little boy excited to read. a baby who wakes up happy, who greets you with the biggest smile as she reaches out of her crib.  a two year old grabbing your face to kiss you. crossing things off the list. dry nights. dry days. empty laundry baskets. chocolate and mint.

Jordan loved this so before I lost the recipe I thought that I should get it down!  Baked Potato Soup INGREDIENTS: 6 large baking potatoes, cut in 1/2-inch cubes 1 large onion, chopped (optional) 2 cups broth 2 cloves garlic, minced (or pressed) 3 Tbs butter 2 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon pepper 2 cups milk 1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese 3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives 4 oz cream cheese 8 slices bacon, fried & crumbled   cheese, for sprinkling PREPARATION: Combine  first 9 ingredients  in a large crock pot; cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 8 hours (potato should be tender).  Mash mixture until potatoes are coarsely chopped and soup is thickened. Stir in cream cheese and chives.  Top with bacon and more cheese.

I received an email today informing me that I have failed to update my blog in a timely manner.  I didn't know that these posts were so popular!  We'll so as not us disappoint my 8 readers here we go! Our most exciting news probably comes from the littlest ones in our family.  Reuben started wear undies and gave up his paci last week.  So far so good with the undies!  He has even started telling us when he has to go (sometimes!)  He has done just fine without his paci.  He gave up his nap for a few days, but it is back.  Whew!  Elise is standing!  It took her a LONG time but she got there!  She loves it! Jonah and Audrey started Children's Choir this month.  I am so excited for Audrey especially. She is loving having a little something that makes her feel like a big girl.  Jonah is doing great with school.  We have been hitting the 3 R's pretty hard.  He reminded me this week that we need to spice it up a b...

She is supposed to be asleep, but she must have missed that memo. And then came the crash! Jonah was playing photographer again! Elise will be 9 months on Sunday so she had a little check up today.  18 lbs 11 ounces puts her right at 50% on the charts.  She is a little longer (70%) at 28 inches.  As always I had to look up my others.  Audrey was 18-8 and 28 inches.  Wow that is similar.  They boys were 3 and 5 pounds bigger.  (I will let you guess which boy was which!) 9 month shots are not typical, but Elise didn't have her 2 month (our decision) or 6 month (she had a fever from a virus) so she is "behind."  She carried a fever when she got her 4 month so I asked if we could just do one this time and got a "YES!"  A huge thing in the DSM area where some of us feel that our parental rights are being compromised and the individual needs of our babies ignored for the sake of administration. (Yep, this whole thing gets me...

We found a caterpillar and got to watch him turn into a butterfly.  So Cool!  I had never seen this before and I think I was more excited than the kids! Our homemade worm farm when we were studying "The Underground." Jonah trying his hand at being a blacksmith at Living History Farms. LHF-The broommaker's. And a little magic wand art project!

A couple weeks ago Jordan said "I have a few days off I need to use up.  Let's go camping!" I must have twitched the wrong way or something, and I said "Yes."  It is not that I am down on camping, I am not.  For me camping is kind of like coffee.  It takes a few cups before you fall in love with it, and it is going to take me a bit to get to get used to it and then I will really enjoy it.  We set up camp on Thursday afternoon.  It was chilly but we were having a good time.  After supper Audrey started complaining that her ear hurt and was itchy.  It was bright red!  A few minutes later she was yelling at the top of her lungs "Stop it!  You are so annoying."  We asked her to keep it down and quit talking to Jonah that way.  She started hitting her ear and explained that she was talking to it and not her brother.  I wiped off her ear, and we began to getting everyone bedded down.  About a half hour later she...

Camping story is to come after I get the pictures loaded onto the computer, but first a few little things that I wanted to get written down so that when Audrey has a daughter and is embarrassed of the things that she says I will have something to show her. My sister came to visit.  She was no more than out of the van when  Audrey looked her up and down and asked "Why aren't you wearing pretty shoes today?" Later that day we met the son of a neighbor.  He had a little more of a "New York" to him than the farmer or engineer crowd that we tend to hang with.  Audrey noticed this and said to him " I have never seen a guy that looks like you before."  Thankfully he rolled with that one nicely, made  a funny face and said "You mean like this?" Last week I wore a brown shirt to church.   As we were getting out of the van Audrey said "I like your shirt mom."  I should have said "Thank You!"  But her complement took me off gua...

When I was in Jr High my mom found this really funny article by Erma Bombeck about treating kids and friends the same.  I actually have been writing down some of  the crazy things that I say during the day.  Here is a sample.. "Who put put their fingers in the butter?  Stop eating butter!" "Put down the bat and stop hitting your bother like a pinata." "Put the stick down and stop hitting the van. " "Stop hugging her so tight,  I think her head is going to pop off." "Whoa, that was a lot of raisins. Would you like a banana?" "Yes, Honey, I am sorry."  (The question was "Mommy did you fall asleep sitting there while I was talking to you again?") "Sit down please...sit on your bottom...Honey, where is your bottom? Please sit on it!" Reading the list made me smile, and I just had to dig up the old Bombeck article.  Here's to you Mom! Erma Bombeck: On TV the other day, a leading child psychologis...

I took Elise to the doctor today because I thought something wasn't quite right.  She has been fussy the last couple of days (It is funny how relative the term "fussy" is-these would have been really good days for a couple of my other babies!) She has been making a couple funny little sounds and woke up screaming at 4:00 this morning.  She eats fine as long as she was on pain reliever otherwise she just sucks a few times and cries.  I felt a little silly taking her in without a fever, but she had Hand, Foot and Mouth a couple of weeks ago, and I wondered if something was connected to that.  Turns out Dr. Van Roekel thinks that she has seasonal allergies.  She has some serious post nasal drip going on.  For the most part he wants us to keep her inside with the AC on until pollen counts go down.  Ragweed is highest at dawn and dusk so hold off on the after breakfast and after supper walks.  She is not really old enough for meds howev...

Out of the their 4 front teeth they both just have one!  Audrey at her Amanda's wedding.  We are already counting down to her Shanna's next weekend!  (She thinks they are all about her!) Sorry nothing too exciting going on with Reuben right now, but I couldn't leave him out!

Jonah is loosing teeth fast!  I pulled his second one out at the beginning of week, and I am trying to convince him to let me pull another.  He looks really silly with one crooked tooth in the front!  He just finished up 2 weeks of swimming lessons.  I put both him and Audrey in the same level of class because neither had had lessons before.  To say that he loved them would be an understatement.  I thought that maybe I should have put him up a level, but we kept him where he was.  They ended up separating out the "more confident" kids out of the class and when he got his passing certificate tonight the bumped him up to level 3 so all was not lost in the easy class.  He is trying to exercise more freedom every day.  I am trying to figure out where the boundaries should be.  I structured our week a bit more and worked out for the best but I am so tired!  He loves spending time in his workshop creating all sorts of traps and inventions...

I wanted to show these to my mom and this was faster than sending a bunch of emails! My Girls... and my boys! He would only smile if he was hugging me! 4 years old 5 months (the flower in her headband looks like the ones in the bushes!) You decide do the boys look like their dad... Or thier Papa?

These two have become quite the playmates in the past few months.  (Sometimes they even get along while they play!) Yes, she is as sweet as she looks! No training wheels! Birthday bars instead of cake?  That is what she wanted!

I got sucked into this website this weekend so I thought that I would share.  The BBQ Chicken Pizza was a hit! http://onceamonthmom.com/

Jonah had a blast this Saturday with Uncle Joel learning all about fish and fishing!  What a lucky boy.  Uncle Colin and Aunt Auburn have promised a squirrel hunting trip later this summer.  Oh boy!

Last week Friday we had an ice cream party around here to celebrate a big accomplishment...we finished Jonah's kindergarten curriculum!  We started in July because I didn't know how much time we would take off after Elise was born, but as it turned out we didn't take off much time at all and now we are done!  So far homeschooling has been a good experience for us.  Sure there were many times that Jonah lacked concentration or a good attitude so I would send him outside to run a few laps and then come back in and get back to it.  (Um, truth be told there were a few days in there were I lacked concentration or a good attitude too!)  We started doing school in the morning, but then when Reuben dropped his morning nap we switched to the afternoon.  I never liked the math with our program so we did our own.  We have learned a few tricks as we have gone along.  My goals for the year were simple: teach Jonah his letter sounds, numbers and not co...

Everyone has been talking about the wildlife exhibit at Merle Hay Mall so I loaded up my crew for a field trip after naps yesterday!  (As I was loading them in I thought "I am either the coolest mom or the craziest!")  It was really neat!  The kids got to see wolves, foxes a wild cat and got to pet a black bear cub,  baby wild cat, skunk and baby opossum!  I am pleased to report that while it was a little tricky with Reuben in the stroller (it was so hard for him to see the animals in the cages so I had to let him out and he can't be trusted!) the trip was a success!  The pictures are not very good because I was wrestling a toddler and wearing a baby, but I thought that I should share!