Good Morning!

Here's a little video of Boo in the morning. She's not quite as smiley or talkative as usual b/c she saw the camera, but you get the idea. :)

Before Noon

A while back Beth Moore's daughter, Amanda, did a post that was a play-by-play of her and her two kids' morning. I thought it was cute and a fun idea so I can look back and see what we were doing at this time in our lives. So here goes...

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6:52a.m. - wake up to find T, completely ready for work, kissing my forehead and saying goodbye. Was so tired I didn't even hear his alarm go off or the shower going or anything. Fall back to sleep.

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7:57a.m. - wake up again to cooing and "singing" coming from Boo's room. Smile as I listen to the happy sounds. Here a thump and the running of little feet above me. By the time I finish straightening the covers there is a little monkey coming to kiss me good morning. "Good morning Mommy! I wait for the eight!" (Her clock is a few minutes fast...remind myself to fix that). We go into Boo's room to get her up. She's ALL smiles in the morning! Love it!

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8:05a.m. - start to feed Boo, tell Bug she can stay in the room if she's VERY quiet.

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8:07a.m - have to ask Bug to go play in the living room b/c it is impossible for her to stay quiet and Boo is too distracted to eat.

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8:15a.m. - Boo knows her sister is out there somewhere and still won't focus on eating. I give up for the moment and head into her room to change her diaper. Try to feed her again. That lasts a few minutes, concede that she's not hungry...she rarely is in the morning.

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8:23a.m. - The Shred goes in the DVD player, Boo goes in the Jumperoo, Bug gets out "her" hand weights and sits on top of the coffee table. Remind myself it's worth the effort to get up early and do this b/c it is SO much easier when they are both asleep. I bet Jillian Michael's never had a pile driver to the stomach when working on those flat abs of hers! :)

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8:27a.m. - Bug starts getting whiny b/c she can't get one of Boo's onesies on her Koala bear. Have conversation about trying again, all while huffing and puffing to the "cardio" section. Bug's disgruntled noises escalate.

Me: "I don't like to listen to whining so if you are going to do that please go in another room."

Noises escalate further.

Me: "Okay, I need you take that to your room until you are ready to have a better attitude."

Head down, lip out...Bug heads for the stairs.

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8:32a.m. - Bug returns like nothing ever happened. Smiling, asks me very politely to put the onesie on the bear. I happily comply as it gives me five seconds of relief from my burning thighs.

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8:45a.m. - I shut of the DVD thinking to myself, "Isn't exercise supposed to feel good?" I am sweaty, tired, and just a little nauseous. Head into the kitchen with both girls.

Me: "What do you want for breakfast?"

K: "Lucky Charms!"

Me: "We're out of Lucky Charms."
K: "Bummer dude!"

Me: "So what would you like?"

Silence. Narrow it down.

Me: "Pancakes or cheerios?"

K: "I just gonna SEE if we have some those Lucky Charms."

Checks the pantry. Surprise surprise, no Lucky Charms. She pulls out the Cheerios.

Me: "So, Cheerios?"

K: "No, pancakes!"

Me: "Make up your mind please, Cheerios or pancakes?"

Puts the Cheerios back.

K: "Pancakes!"

I take some pre-frozen pancakes out of the freezer and pop them in the microwave while cutting up some strawberries.

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8:53a.m. - Finally sit down with our breakfast. Boo lasts about three minutes in the highchair before starting to fuss. I used all her happy playtime to do my video, so now I have to hold her while trying to eat.

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9:10a.m. - Bug declares, "I'm full!" Look at her plate, food mostly gone. I ask her to go wash her hands and face.

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9:15a.m. - I check my e-mail for a few minutes before realizing the water has been running too long. Remembering my previous mistake, I hasten to check it. Find her squirting soap into the sink.

Me: "Are you wasting soap?"

K: "No, I'm just doing this." (another few pumps)

Me: "That's wasting soap."

K: "Ohhh." (as if this is novel information)

Me: "Please don't do that again."

K: "Okay. Sorry Mommy I won't do again!" (wish I could believe that)

Hops off the stool and kisses my leg. Skips out the door.

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9:26a.m. - Boo starting to get really fussy. Take her into her room, get her back into her sleeper. Read two little books to her and put her down. Bug dances into the room.

K: "Goodnight Boo!"

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9:30a.m. - Bug starts building towers with some blocks, I come back to the computer to finish checking my e-mail and start this post. :) I can hear Bug talking sweetly to herself as she plays.

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10:06a.m. - Realize I've been on the computer longer than I thought and we're all still in our pajamas, but Bug is playing so nicely I don't want to disturb her to tell her it's "roomtime".

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10:08a.m. - K: "Mommy look at this!" Look over to find a two chairs stacked on top of each other. Me: "It's time for roomtime!" :)

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10:10a.m. - Putting the blocks into a bag since she wants to take them upstairs. She starts to do the potty dance.

Me: "Do you have to go potty?"

K: "Yes! I have to go potty! I'm shaking!" Runs to the bathroom, shaking and trying to get her jammies off. Makes it. Pull up in the garbage, I head to the bedroom to throw her jammies in the laundry.

K: "Can I wipe my own self?"

Me: "Did you go poopy or pee-pee?"

K: "Poopy."

Me: "Let me help you then."

She's not the best wiper...things get left behind if she "wipes her own self". Sorry. TMI. :)

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10:22a.m. - Head upstairs. She runs straight to her kitchen and starts making me "breakfast" while I get her some clothes. She doesn't even pause in her preparations as I pull a dress over her head. I don't bother with socks b/c I know she'll just have them off in about fifteen seconds. This girl likes to be barefoot. Even in the dead of winter. She does her best to stall my departure by serving me a breakfast of lettuce on a hot dog bun with a glass of "lem-ma-made".

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10:30a.m. - Finally head downstairs, set the timer. Head to my room to do my bible study lesson and sit down, without another person attached to my body, for a few minutes.

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11:03a.m. - Successfully complete bible study with minor distractions. Neighbors radio. Little feet running back and forth overhead which causes a few whimpers from the direction of the nursery, but overall a success. :)

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11:05a.m. - Call up to Bug, "Nine minutes left on the timer! Why don't you go ahead and clean up now so when it goes off you can come down?"

K: "Can you help me?"

Me: "Not right now. Try to do it on your own."

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11:15a.m. - Boo wakes up. Time to eat again.

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11:25a.m. - Done eating, I take a few minutes to enjoy a little snuggle time and get some Boo kisses. Head to the stairs to check on Bug's progress.

Me: "How ya doin?"

K: "My room's clean! (pause) Well, sort of. It's a little bit clean...but not really."

Me: "Okay, well go ahead and do what you need to do and then I'll come check it."

I head to change another diaper and get Boo dressed.

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11: 43a.m. - Bug comes skipping down. "It's clean!" We head upstairs and it actually is clean! I give the proper accolades, "I'm SO proud of you! What a nice, clean room!" and dole out the allotted sticker. She proudly puts it on the chart.

K: "Do I get ice cream now?"

Me: "No honey, you have 8 more stickers to go and then you get ice cream."

K: "Okay."

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11:51a.m. - We head downstairs and I decide it would be nice to get out of my workout clothes, aka: sweats :) and put some makeup on before T gets home for lunch. I put Boo in the baby walker and change quickly. Contacts in, some quick makeup. I hear rolling wheels and then laughter coming from the kitchen. No crying so I leave well enough alone.

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11:56a.m. - Realize I missed a text from T asking if we wanted to go out to lunch with the ladies from his office. Text back. Too late, they already left. That's okay, we ate there and had the leftovers this week already.

Me: "What should we make for lunch?"

K: "Egg salad celery playdough."

Me: "Hmm."

K: "You say YUCK!"

Me: "Yuck."
Runs off laughing.

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11: 59a.m. - I get out the stuff to make peanut butter and jelly. Ask the question to which I dread the answer.

Me: "Do you want to help me make peanut butter and jelly?
K: "YES!"

Recall the last time and know full well that it is going to take about ten minutes to make three sandwiches, and another five to clean up the peanut butter and jelly pasted to my kitchen counter. Choose to count it as a blessing and remember that one day I will give anything to have little hands "helping" me and do it anyway.

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And THAT was our day before noon.

:)

Meat Parade

Okay, well it wasn't a parade of meat. This post is just about meat and a parade, but the title looked funnier when I put the two subjects together. :)

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Anyway...

We had a nice, easy-going weekend. On Saturday we went to a parade in a nearby town. Bug had so much fun! She kept pointing to everything saying, "Mommy! Daddy! Look! Look!" She especially loved the "princesses" on the floats and the horses. She waved to just about everything that went by. So cute. :)

I thought this was the funniest part of the parade. All this HUGE stuff was going by, floats, tractors, horses, etc. and then this tiny little dog walks by. SO funny. He was literally only a few inches long, and probably the smallest dog I've ever seen.

After the parade we met up with my Mom and Bug got to go spend the night at Noni and Papa's house. We headed into town to do some trouble shooting at our old house. All the rain we've been getting was causing problems. Well, I guess I should say the weather has been causing problems. First the huge windstorm apparently took out the gutters that T had installed in February, and then the 3 1/2 inches of rains we've had in the past week did their work of filling up the window well and flooding part of the basement living room.
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So that was fun. Not really. :) But it didn't take too long and then we were on our way home again. We went to a couple of graduation parties and then had a relaxing evening at home. I cooked some meat. Yes, it was exciting. :)
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Actually, it was kind of fun. I learned a tip from someone the other day and I think it's the best idea since sliced bread. Or peanut butter. Or whatever floats your boat. :)
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Since I am not a person who likes handling raw meat this method is especially nice for me. First you get some meat. This time I did hamburger but I've also done it with chicken and it works great.

Then you cook it all up at once. I used one package to make meatballs and the other to just do ground beef.

So you only have to handle the raw meat once and you get a bunch of meals worth of meat. Then you can just freeze it in sandwich bags and put those bags into a freezer gallon bag. The next time you want to make tacos, spaghetti and meatballs, hamburger helper, etc. you just grab a bag out of the freezer and you're good to go!

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The other day I was in a hurry and made a Hamburger Helper and T said something to the effect of he actually prefers that to a homemade pasta dish. Well, forget all the hard work then! It's going to be Hamburger Helper from now on. :)

This method really saves time and the unpleasant task of cooking the meat every time. I got four meals worth of meatballs and five meals of ground beef.

I'm sure that was just as exciting for everyone else as it was for me. Haha. Whatever works! :)

Johnny Jumper

It's amazing to me how fast this little one is growing up! She is starting to get really squirmy. She still wants to be held a lot but she also wants to be on the move and those two things don't mix very well, so we've been trying out various contraptions. Here she is in the Johnny Jumper.

She doesn't like to be confined in it unless her big sister is around to entertain her, and I have to watch them very closely. I was making dinner the other day (less than six feet away) and turned around to see Boo sailing back and forth through the air as Buggy was pushing her like a swing. Boo thought it was great! Mommy not so much. :)

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I love all the expressions she makes.

What do you mean my sister can't swing me three feet into the air??

The Elvis...hunk-a hunk-a burnin' love!

Happy baby.

We need to get the baby walker cleaned up and out of the garage. I think she'll have even more fun with that one! She'll probably be chasing her sister around the house before we know it. :)

Picnic By the Lake

It seems like it has been raining for weeks around here, but thankfully we had a nicer day yesterday! It wasn't exactly warm, but at least it wasn't wet! We met up with our good friends and walked to a really nice park by the lake. The girls headed straight for the playground when we got there.

Boo and Noni enjoying a little sunshine. :)

My mom and Jami's mom have been the best of friends for many years, so naturally Jami and I followed suit, and now our little girls are too! And Boo's friend will be born soon so she can have someone to play with too! Jami's mom packed us all a picnic lunch and we ate lunch in the warm sunshine. It was nice to be outside after having been cooped up the last few days.

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Having some swing time.

And those are all the pictures I have b/c Bug hurt herself and I didn't get any pictures after that. I watched her slip and fall, hitting her mouth on the way to the ground but I was a good thirty feet away and couldn't do anything about it. It was the most she's ever bled. Yuck. As much as she hurts herself, she rarely bleeds, but she was fairly brave after a good bout of crying and wanted to get right back on the playground. Here's what the damage looked like this morning.

Other than that we had a wonderful day spending time with our good friends! Now we're back to the chilly rain. At least the farmers are happy! You can practically see the wheat inching up in the fields. But I'm hoping the sun comes out soon...I'm definitely ready for summer!

Welcome Back

Okay, here is one of the posts I am behind on...last Tuesday night we got to see our good friends the Gustafsons! They are missionaries to Siberia and are home for the summer! Just a few more days now and they will be welcoming a new little Gustafson! Here is Boo with Jami and baby Ella. I have a picture of Jami holding Bug when she was pregnant with Anneka but I can't find it.

Anneka and Bug got to play together when they were babies but they haven't seen each other in a couple of years. They warmed right up to each other and were so cute! It probably helps that they see each other on our blogs and they both LOVE to watch videos of each other. We had dinner and then walked over to a playground to let the girls play.

I don't think my camera was on the right setting, b/c these action shots are a little blurry, but you can tell they were having fun together!

They held hands all the way there and all the way back. SO cute. :)

It is so nice to have them here for a while and we are looking forward to a summer full of fun activities together!

We have a playdate tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll have more cute pics of the girls after that! Welcome home Gustafsons! We're so glad you're here!

Fun on the Farm

We headed down to Grandma and Grandpa's for the long weekend! The newest little cousins got to spend some more time together.

Waylon got a haircut...well actually he got his 4th haircut! I'm so jealous! Do you know how many cute things I could do with Boo's hair if it was that long? We'd be in bow heaven. :) He looks really grown up with his new 'do!

Our girls in their matching jammies. Boo looks like she's contemplating some serious thoughts. :)

Waylon and Boo have similar jackets, so of course we had to get a picture in them. :)

On Sunday we went to Auntie Nae and Uncle Wade's church. Then we had a BBQ up at a remote cabin near the lake. We were going to go to the lake but it ended up being fairly cold and drizzly. Bug didn't mind! She had her "fends" and they made their own fun. This was the best thing...adults see a pile of mattresses, kids see an awesome slide/jungle gym!

Bug needed a little help so Uncle Wade and Auntie Nae were there to lend a hand.

Havin' a ball!

Whee!

While we there a humming bird flew in! He kept throwing himself against the window so T tried to guide him out with a broom but he wouldn't have any of it so T had to actually catch him and take him outside! I didn't get a great picture of it, but here he is showing it to Bug.

Grandpa and the babies

Bug has SO much fun at Grandma's. We went in the "swimming pool" aka: hot tub, made mud pies in the sandbox, played games, read books, explored Grandma's toy closet, and did all sorts of fun stuff...including splashing in the mud.

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It rained all weekend and there were some big puddles on the front patio so I told her she could put on the rain boots Grandma bought her and go splash. After just a few splashes she said, "Can I go up to the shop?" I didn't really understand why but I said sure and followed her. She knew where the action was at! She led me all the way around the side of the shop to this...



You can't really tell from this picture, but she is a soppy, muddy mess!

After a quick bath we had lunch and then she had to take a nap before we went home. She slept so long that I had to wake her up so we could leave. When she woke up I told her it was time to go home and she said sadly, "Ohhh, I was gonna have some more fun!" She sure had a lot of that! We had a great, relaxing weekend, and I forgot that I had given myself a present and cleaned the house before we left on Friday so we walked in and I was very happy. :)

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Thanks for the fun weekend everyone! Now I better go unpack...