Wordless Wednesday

Projects

We have so enjoyed this summer!  Without any major projects to do we were a bit baffled at first with what to do with all our extra time, but we’ve quickly learned how to fill it with walks, bike rides, movie nights, golf, swimming, games, books, and just spending time together as a family. 

But of course we couldn’t go the WHOLE summer without doing a project!  So…we are going to remodel the downstairs bathroom. 

Once upon a time we had big plans to turn the two bedrooms and bathroom downstairs into a master suite, but after four years of completely re-doing the house we’ve decided to scrap that idea and just do a bit of updating. 

We have a really old jetted tub that shoots little bits of…grime(?) into the water, the shower has cracks in the surround, the linoleum is wrinkled up in one corner, and our sink has a little hole in the bowl part.  BUT before we can remodel our bathroom we have to fix the upstairs shower that has been leaking (and unused) for a couple of years now.  Grandma and Grandpa spent the weekend helping us cut a hole in our ceiling and getting the problem figured out. 

Thankfully it just seems to be a loose joint, which is an easy fix. 

Since the bedroom is mostly cleared out I decided to give it a fresh coat of paint.  We have hardly touched our bedroom since we moved here.  I even hung pictures on nails that were already in there so it kind of had a random feeling to it.  Hopefully I’ll be able to give it a little more of a personal touch after we get the ceiling patched back up.

On Saturday morning our church had it’s summer golf tournament and T talked me into playing the front 9 so Grandma and Grandpa came and watched the kiddos.  They said the girls did great but they must have been busy because that afternoon when I let the girls watch a little TV they both fell asleep on the couch.  :)

Yes, that would be our bed…in the living room.  Hopefully it won’t be there for long!  I’ll post pictures when I get the bedroom put back together!

Baby Mozart

We might have a future Mozart on our hands...Peanut LOVES the piano!  She crawls over multiple times a day to play her own music.  I love how her face lights up when she hears the notes.  She's definitely learning some good cause and effect here!

 

Puppies

The other day we went over to a friends’ house and got to see their adorable schnauzer puppies! There are 7 of them including a little girl who is about half the size of the others.  You can see her in the middle there next to the one with the green collar…

The girls were thrilled, of course, to hold the puppies.

Bug wanted to hold all 7 of them.  I think she ended up holding four different ones. :)

Boo wasn’t the most gentle so we had to keep a close eye on her. She wasn’t intending to be rough, but she was so excited she kept squeezing them. :)

“Ma-ma, dey so cute!”

“I yike dis-ah-one!”

Of course they both asked if we could take one home!  I am a sucker for puppies, but I had to say no.  Our next dog will be a Rottweiler.  I’ve been researching different breeds and they seem to fit us best.  I want a big guard dog that is great with kids and Rottweilers fit the bill.  They get a bad rap but the breed itself is great…it’s just people that make them have a bad reputation.  Any breed of dog will be mean if you train it to be.

I’m excited to get one.  All in good time though!

Bye-bye

YouTube hasn't been letting me sign in lately so I've resorted to using the Blogger upload.  Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out soon since this takes a lot longer. 

I stepped outside to grab something I'd left in the stroller and Peanut saw me and said, clear as day, "Bye-bye! Bye-bye!" and started waving.  I tried to get a video, but she wouldn't say it very good.  She kind of says it in the video, and you can see her wave.  When she gets excited both arms start moving but she mostly waves with her right hand. :)

Bikes

We have been doing a much better job of being active this summer!  We’ve been trying to go for either walks or bike rides several times a week.  The girls are loving it!  Boo Bear is doing a great job on her little bike!

But she usually can’t make it very far, so when we bought a bike for me so we could start riding all together, we also bought one of those pull trailers for the little ones.

Buggy is still just a couple of inches too short for her new bike so when we go on a longer ride (two miles is long for her) she rides Boo’s bike and Boo rides in the trailer.

T needs a new bike too…this is an old hand-me-down one and the brakes do not work very well!  He’s making it work but we’ll probably get him a new bike next summer.

It’s not too hard to pull the little ones but the other day we’d already gone for  two miles and Buggy was exhausted.  I’d ridden over to worship team after dinner and he decided to bring the girls up to the church to play so he had Bug and Boo in the trailer and Peanut in the hiking backpack!  He got a good workout toting all three of them around! 

This was our first family ride…we’ve since bought Peanut a helmet.  She loves riding along with the wind in her….fuzz…and chewing on toys!

Last week we biked over to the baseball fields and threw the ball around for a while before heading home, and a couple of days ago we walked to get an ice cream cone while Buggy rode the bike.  We stopped at the park on the way home and ran into two sets of friends that were already there.  It was one of those loving-life-in-our-small-town moments.  The kids took off to play with their friends.  The dads stood in a circle chatting.  The moms sat at the picnic table talking about paint colors and babies.  It was a warm with a nice breeze, and just the perfect end to a hot summer day!

We’ll have to find ways to keep this active lifestyle going once the weather turns cold again.  It’s been so nice to be out in the fresh air!

Wordless Wednesday

Parading

We had our town days this weekend, and, as always, it was a great time! 

Our church worship team got to play at the gazebo again this year.  I was supposed to go help set up at 8:30, but since I know nothing about wires and amps and speakers and sound boards I sent T in my place.  Thank goodness I did because they had problems getting it to work and he saved the day!  The girls and I went down at 9:30 to begin our fun day!

Papa, Noni, Uncle M and A arrived shortly after.  Sweet girls!

Noni kept the kiddos in the shade where they danced to our music.  I felt bad for the singers who had to stand in the sun…I got to sit under the gazebo and it was nice and cool with a breeze.

After we got done playing it was time to stake out a spot to watch the parade go by!

The girls favorite truck/vehicle was one of the fire trucks that was being driven by one of our friends.  Every few feet he would send a spray of water shooting out.  Pretty cool!

The girls were excited to see our town’s float! 

A loved the horses!  She was waving and saying, “Hi horsey! Hi horsey!”  So cute.

Bug held her hand so she could stand a little closer to see better.

This was my favorite float, other than our own.  I couldn’t believe the detail!  It must have taken forever!

The octopus was especially neat!

After the parade we got some lunch.  The girls wanted to go in the bouncy house.  There’s no way I could go bouncing around like that right after eating! :)

But they had a great time!

We wandered through the booths for a while before finally heading home.  Peanut didn’t get a single minute of her morning nap so she was pretty exhausted. 

She fell asleep just as we got home, but I transferred her to the crib without a peep.  Boo was tired too and said, “I weally need a nap today Mommy.  Just a wittle one.”  I let her lay down and had to wake her up two and half hours later!  I guess that’s the sign of a really fun day! :)

Lake Day

We’ve been busy going and doing around here!  Uncle M and Auntie N are visiting and brought their adorable granddaughter A.  She is 2.5 and is such a sweet little girl.  Bug and Boo love her! 

We decided to have another lake day last week so we packed up the kiddos and spent some time soaking up the sun!

We swam, and ate, and read, and swam some more! 

Boo has been getting “sick” lately and we finally realized that it is the sun! 

After spending the day at the lake for my birthday she started to get a fever… for the third time within two weeks…and Papa said, “Do you think it might be too much sun?”  I thought back and realized that all three times we’d spent most of the day outside.  I don’t know if it is because her hair is so dark it just soaks up the sun or what, but she will be going along 100% and all the sudden get really tired and want to lay down.  She starts feeling warm and gets a fever that shoots up to around 102 (102.6 was the worst).  So after realizing that might be the problem I just made her drink a lot of water and keep a hat on whenever she was in the sun and that seemed to do the trick.  She had no side effects from this lake day.

Peanut was really sleepy, and I was afraid she wouldn’t take a nap like she did on my birthday, but Noni ended up walking around with her until she fell asleep. She got a short nap but it was enough to keep her from being too cranky that evening. :)

It was nice to spend another day at the lake.  The only thing missing was T…he had to work.  Hopefully we’ll get a few more lake days before fall hits! I am loving these warm summer days!

11 Months

In one month we will be celebrating Peanut’s birthday!  I didn’t time our little “photo shoot” very well this month.  She was ready to go down for a nap, so she wasn’t real happy that I was making her sit in a chair.  She also wanted to pull the sticker off her shirt and I kept scolding her and putting it back on.

This was as big of a smile as I got…mild amusement at my antics. :)

Escape!

Silly girl!

“Okay Mommy, I’ll take pity on you and pose nicely.”

The biggest change this month has brought about is talking.  It is way too often to be a coincidence.  She says, Ma-ma, Da-da, a version of both her sisters names, Mo (more), and Ah-don (all done). 

She also has done the sign for more several times, but most often just screams and claps her hands for more food.  She LOVES food and feeding herself.  Cheese and bananas are still holding onto the reign as the favorites.  She eats almost anything we eat in small pieces.  I give her oatmeal from a spoon for breakfast but that is the only “baby” food she eats.  She wants to do it all herself!

She likes loud noises.  When I vacuum she screams and squeals like she’s trying to out-do the noise.  When we were at the farm and started doing fireworks she started jumping in my arms and saying “Ooo-oo-oo!” like a monkey and clapping.

She loves to “sherbet” and smack her lips together, kind of like a kiss.  We were shopping and an older lady saw her and smacked her lips together and Peanut did it right back.  The lady said, “Oh my word! She’s a genius!”  Haha, I didn’t tell her that Peanut just happens to do that same motion 100 times a day. :)

She LOVES to be outside, and especially to be around water!  She missed most of her afternoon nap and was SO crabby the other evening so we put her in the stroller and went for a walk.  She was happy as a clam.

She’s not too interested in walking, but she crawls like lightening everywhere.  I don’t think she’ll walk before her 1st birthday like her sisters did.  She is pulling herself up on the couch and piano bench and starting to cruise a tiny bit, but nothing like they were at this age.  She doesn’t attempt to stand on her own, although while I was taking her pictures she kind of slid out of the chair and stood for about .5 seconds before sitting down on the ground…

We’re enjoying this beautiful summer with our baby!  Next month we’ll have a 1 year old!

“Dat Funny?”–Part 7

Okay these are the last of Boo’s since the great loss….

December 18th

She brought me an ornament that had fallen on the floor.  "Oh-no Ma-Ma!  Dis ord-da-ment yost it’s hooker!”

December 23rd

After our Christmas light cruise we walked around the dock to see all the lights up close.  She wanted me to carry her but she was super squirmy.   Finally I said, “I can’t hold you if you are squirming!”  She looked at me nervously and said, “Is dere a twoll (troll) un-dah dis bwidge??”  Realizing she had just read the Three Billy Goats Gruff I assured her, “No.  It’s a dock.  No trolls.”

December 30th

“We gonna go shoppin’.  Me, you, K, Daddy, A.  Not Izzy. Cause no dogs ah-wowed.”

January 1st

She was playing doctor with Noni and Aunt Karen and she told me, “My wegs are bwoken cause I was going bare-feeting at camping.”

January 8th

She randomly said, “I like A’s eyes. Dey pwetty.  Yet’s call her sweet pie Pascal.”

January 17th

She was wearing her Rapunzel dress and couldn’t get her wig to stay on.  Finally, she threw it to the side and told me, “It’s okay Eugene. My hair dust turn brown all-weady.”

Shower Girl

Ever since Peanut started sitting up and being able to take a bath with the big girls the tub has been just a little crowded.  I noticed that Buggy was waiting longer and longer before getting in, and eventually just waiting until Peanut was done before hopping in herself.  I asked her if she wanted to take a shower one night instead of a bath, and she got very excited about the idea.  Now she only wants to take showers after the little ones have had their bath.

Showers are great for being silly!

Our little girl is growing up!

Wordless Wednesday

No More Naps

Over a month ago Boo decided she was done with naps.  I was REALLY hoping that it would just be a phase and she would start napping again, but I’ve officially given up that hope.  By now we’ve worked out a new “normal” and we’re getting along just fine.  It’s actually working out nicer since we don’t have to stop for her to take a nap during the day. 

It seems WAY too early for her to stop napping since K stopped napping just last year at 5 years and 3 months (on the day Peanut was born), but I think she really is ready.  When she does take a nap she’s down for 2-3 hours and is a little big grumpy all evening after she wakes up.  Now she just plays hard until bedtime. 

When she was napping we would put her to bed at 8:30 and she would quietly lie in bed looking around or talking softly to herself until 10:00-10:30! Now we put her down at 8:00 and she is out like a light.  It seriously takes less than 5 minutes.

So I guess it’s all for the best, but it does make the day a little long. Especially in the afternoons when I catch her laying somewhere and sucking her thumb…

“Who me?? No, I’m not tired…I was dust hiding!”

“See Mommy?”

At least the little one still takes two good naps for me! :)

Clap Happy

“Dat Funny?”–Part 6

December 5th

I went into her room to get her up in the morning and found that she had SHREDDED this foam cow that T had got for her.  It was everywhere.  “Boo!  Why did you do that?!?” S: “Because he was moo-ing too loud and he waked me up!”

December 7th

Me: “Girls! Time for bed!”

Boo: shaking her head…”Dat is un-ah-sept-able.”

December 10th

I was changing Peanut’s diaper with some new diapers someone had given us.  I think they were Huggies and had Mickey Mouse on them.  We’d never had that kind before and when Boo came in and saw them she said, “Noooo!  Don’t let her poopy on Mickey!”

December 11th

When S gets really frustraated she pulls out all the stops!  She knows that there is power in the word of the Lord so it is so funny to hear her scolding Bug.  I heard them arguing and wrote it down.  “Twust me K!” she shouted so frustrated she was turning red in the face.  “Twust me in the Wourd (Lord)!  FROM MY ENEMIES!”

December 12th

When she gets really excited she will say, “YAY!  SUPER YAY!”

December 15th

We let her pick out a present for K and when we got in the car she told K what it was. “I got you a wapunzel weg (wig).” Bug, who speaks “Boo” said, “You got me a Rapunzel…leg?”  I scolded, “Boo! Don’t tell her or it won’t be a surprise!”  S turns to to K.  “SHHH!  It a su-pise!”

I’ll just do these for now and do the others next week.

“Laugh With Me!”–Part 22

I am SOO mad at myself!  I’ve been keeping these on my phone and thinking that I should make sure they were recorded somewhere else, but I just kept telling myself as soon as I got caught up with them it wouldn’t be a problem.  Then my phone freaked out and T had to do some fancy re-setting type stuff and I lost everything back to January when it had last been updated.  So I lost all the girls’ funny sayings from January till now!  Grr.

For K I only had two that I hadn’t posted.  I am going to keep up with them from now on!!!

January 25th

We have a bad habit of going to Mexican food about once a week (sometimes every other week) because it’s good food and nice to get out of the house and one of the two restaurants we eat at here in our little town.  We had been trying to get K to try out some of her Spanish phrases there and this time when we left she said, “Gracias Sen-yorta!”  Haha :) Now she is very good at saying, “Gracias, Senor Pablo!”

January 31st

We were doing our schoolwork for the day and came across the word cartographer.  I explained what it was, and then said, “You learned a new word! You can tell Daddy about it when he gets home.”  She responded with, “I already knew that word.  I just don’t use it very often.”

And the one that made me realize I lost all the others…

July 8th

Playing a game of cooties.  “My cooties are moving to Maine.” Me: “Really? Why?”  K: “Because they are mad at Boo’s cooties so they are moving to Maine to have lunch and then they are going to drive to Alaska.” She then proceeded to walk them into the other room. :)

Maybe I’ll remember some of the funny stuff they said…but not likely.  If I don’t write it down ASAP I forget.  Like even an hour later.  :P

Happy Birthday to Me

I had such a good birthday on Tuesday! T had to be at work early for a meeting, but the girls made me pancakes for breakfast!  I mixed up the batter, turned on the griddle and let them have at it.  They did a great job!  They also woke me up with sweet homemade birthday cards…the best kind!

T got off at 11:30 and Noni and Papa joined us for Mexican food.  Yum.  Then we headed down to the lake to soak up some sun!

Peanut absolutely loves the water! And she loves to try to eat rocks so she really loved the lake! But not so much the squeezing of her cheeks to make her spit out all the rocks she kept putting in her mouth. :)

Bug and Boo love going to the lake.  We really need to get down there more often!

The water looks really dirty in this picture! It was clear when we got there…we just kind of stirred up the sand/dirt.

Peanut would not sit still and was crawling all over in the water in search of things to put in her mouth.

She seriously wanted to dive into the water and swim away!  She is hard to hold onto around water because she just wants to be IN it!

Noni made sandwiches and my favorite…German chocolate cake.  Yum!

My friend B and her daughter joined us. 

The family went together and got me a pretty new suitcase since our current one in this size is broken in several places because we use it all the time.  Noni also brought me back a beautiful aqua colored bag from her trip.  So pretty!

T bought some wooden boxes and then had the girls paint them.  So sweet!

They did a great job.  I love them!

What a wonderful birthday!