Everyday life

Ella has found a new place to sleep at night. It doesn't involve her bed and it doesn't involve MY bed (as she's been told several times before). So she has caught me in a technicality and I've almost tripped on her too many times to count.


Back in February, Josh had his 1/2 birthday party. I, of course, forgot my camera so this is the one and only shot I have from our Hawkeye birthday party!!!



I've never really been a girly girl. So now that I have two girls of my own...I've been trying to figure out how to do their hair. I obviously don't do much with mine so when they ask for "braids" I panic a little. And THEN when you throw in curly hair to the mix....I'm completely lost.



On a side note, I absolutely adore Ella's hair. But that child does not feel the same way. Each and every morning when I ask her what she wants me to do with her hair for the day she says, "I want it straight." :-( This is Ella watching Annie intently. And still utterly convinced it is her in the movie!



This past weekend, Mother's Day, we had to go to Sam's for a big "stock up" shopping trip. Ella was obviously pooped out after the whole experience and didn't quite make it home before naptime started.



That evening we took advantage of the amazing weather and went and got a little ice cream snack. While Ella and I saved a patio table I got a lil' shot of my youngest baby and me!!!



And finally, I had gone to the Farmer's Market last Saturday on my way home from workout and picked up a few flowers for my front pot. As soon as I got home the three kids were more than happy to help me get a little dirty and replant the new flowers. Even though I think we got more dirt on ourselves than in the pot....I think they turned out nice!!



Other than that....not much else is going on.  Lauren does have her first loose tooth so we are on High Tooth Fairy Alert.  I started with a personal trainer last week and am slowly becoming acquainted with new muscles I never knew I had before.  ;-)  Lauren is getting excited for birthday party on the 2nd.  I, however, do not look so forward to turning yet another year older.  Josh is busy playing basketball every night and looking forward to a new summer basketball camp in a few weeks.  And Ella is 100% potty trained - both at day AND night!!  So we are officially a DIAPER free household!!  You have NO idea how excited that makes me!  The first time I ran to the store and didn't have to buy Pull-ups I did the same dance I danced after I threw all the bottles away.  Dustin and I each get new cars this spring, as well.  The van was on it's last leg and we decided it was time we could finally move down to cars again.  Dustin got a Chevy Impala and I got a VW Jetta.  The gas mileage on each of the cars alone makes me glad we made the change!

Hope all the mothers out there had a GREAT Mother's Day!  I know I did!!

Lauren's Field Trip

Lauren's class planned a field trip for last Friday and all the children's mothers were invited. She had been talking about it for weeks and was so excited for me to go with her. I was excited, too, and then I found out we were going to the Linn County Fairgrounds for a FFA and 4H event. And to top it off...she kept talking about how we were going to be all "stinky" afterwards because of the animals. Boy, way to sell it, Lauren? ;-) It was a PERFECT weather day for a field trip and the children all helped make their mothers a sack lunch. Lauren spent most of the day running around with her "boyfriend". Yes, I said "boyfriend". **rolling eyes** But once I reminded her that she was suppose to be spending the day with me she let Noah spend time with HIS mother. An interesting fact....the horse above is a relative of THE Secretariat. It was honestly the tallest horse I've ever seen. And pure muscle. We really did have a nice afternoon together and by the time we got back in the car to come home....she was out like a light.

Easter 2012

It's not the best photo of the kids....but we were running late and the sun was bright. :-) We went to church with Larry, Toni, Gretchen, Adam and the kids at Zion. It was nice seeing so many people we hadn't seen in a while. After church we all went for brunch at the Marriott. The kids have started making the elevator ride an annual even there. Even Ella got into it this year. But mean ol' Uncle Dustin took Avery on one ride and she was not too happy about it! After brunch we all went back to Larry & Toni's and the kids had an Easter egg hunt. It's so nice to see them all get along and look out for eachother. It was such a beautiful day out and a complete joy to watch them run around looking for treats!!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I know I'm a little behind in blogging but trust me...I've been busy. Busy with my workout routine, busy enjoying time with the kids, busy sleeping again and busy reclaiming my house after three months of ignoring everything previously mentioned and instead spending time at the office. Nonetheless...I am hoping to get some pictures posted soon because a lot has happened in the last month. Here's just a few teasers....there are two new cars in the mix and I had oral surgery. So yeah...we've been busy.

Conversation #1

Lauren's learning about so much at school and this week is all about nature - in fact tomorrow is a field trip to the Indian Creek Nature Center.

Lauren: Mom...do you know that we breathe out what trees need?
Me: Yes! It's called Carbon Dioxide.
Lauren: YES!!! You're right!!
Me: Did you know that trees breathe out what we need?
Lauren: Yes! It's called Oxi-clean!

I seriously busted out! You can tell we use a little bit of Oxi-clean around this house, eh?


Conversation #2

 I'm sure some day Ella will want to kill me for telling you all this...but she has a bit of an issue with constipation. We've tried everything to help the poor child and yet pooping is a big stress for the poor, little thing. Tonight she was on the potty and had a rather large...um...bowel movement. It hurt her a bit and I told her it would be okay.

Ella: Mommy....I have a big poop...and a wittle butt, wight? Too cute.


Conversation #3

Larry and Toni are completely gutting their house and having a total remodel done. We went over there to help in some of the deconstruction a few weekends ago and Ella was just in a tizzy.

Ella: Why you guys breaking Gamma's and Gampa's house?!?!?

We made another one of our weekly stops tonight just to check on the progress and she is feeling much better about their "new" house. :-)

Conversation #4


Lauren has experienced her first crush...and first heartbreak.  Poor Noah at school has been gushed over by her for weeks.  She carried his school picture around with her everywhere she went for a solid seven days straight.  And when I went to drop her and Ella off at breakfast the other day there was one chair open next to him and she asked if she could be separated from Ella that morning so that she could sit by him.

Only to have Lindsey, her best friend, steal him away on Monday.  Utter devastation.  She was crushed and Josh and I attempted to cheer her up.

Josh: Lauren, why are you so hung up on this kid?  I mean...there's gonna be like 500 boys in Kindergarten! You won't even remember who this Noah kid is anymore!
Me: He's right Lauren!
Josh: And besides...she's not even that cute.  You're way cuter!
Me: **intently listening**
Lauren: **starting to smile**
Josh: And besides...boys are bigger babies than girls so why ya wanna hang out with em' anyways?

I seriously just soaked up that entire conversation we had on the way to workout on Monday.  I got to see Lauren's big brother give her some "older, more experienced" advice.  And Lauren listen to it.  It was just the cutest little exchange and I had a flash forward to about ten years from now when one of Josh's friends from school breaks Lauren's heart and he consoles her and tells her what a loser he is anyway.  I hope he always defends her and sticks up for her like he did on Monday.  And I pray for my sanity if this is how boy crazy she is at four.