Stuff...

What a week! We've had a few "graduations" this week that have been very exciting. :) Annika graduated out of bedtime Pull Ups!! YEAH!! I always said that as long as they are potty trained during the day I didn't care how long they wore pull ups at night. I changed my mind. And, it was so easy.....I should have done it a long time ago! All I have to do is take her to the potty before I go to bed.....then I don't see her until she gets up in the morning. Tim thinks its terrible to go drag her out of bed, but she doesn't care. She just pees and goes right back to sleep. :)

And.....another exciting thing.....Isabel sleeps through the night! She has been a great sleeper since she's been born, but this week she dropped her 3:00 feeding and goes right on until almost 7! She goes to bed consistanty at 9....so that gives me a good break. It feels so good to sleep!! But, at only 3 months old, I'm already finding that I have to move up to 12 months sleep n play clothes and onesies! So, I guess her "extra" baby fat sustains her through the night. She's also taking a good hefty 4 hour nap in the afternoon. I am loving this child!! :) Let's hope she stays a good sleeper!!

Alaina finished up her first AWANA book (Skipper) and is now in the Hiker book! She came home on Wed. night with the biggest grin on her face. :) I'm amazed how fast she can learn these bible verses! And, Erik and An are learning them right along, so they'll have no problem when they get to the Skipper book!!

We've also had lots of "funnies" this week. The kids are just on a roll of "quotes"......I'm so afraid I am going to forget them!! I had Erik and Annika to the eye doctor this morning to make sure that their eyes are not like Alaina's.....all is well. :) When we were waiting for the doctor to come in he was asking me a million questions like he always does.......but then he asked if the doctor was going to hang him up on the wall! And, then if the doctor was going to take his eyes out to look at them like the eye mold. He is totally serious. But, no hanging was going on and if he was Grandpa Bob (not Papa Bob) then yes, they would take his eyes out!!

Alaina is still singing the Marker Luker King song!! And, Erik asked me today if I knew that corn dogs were afraid of shadows......because they are, mom! He said he learned it at school. And, yes, it was corn dogs! I then realized he was talking about ground hogs, b/c he had done a craft about a ground hog and his shadow!!

Tonight Annika went to bed at 5:45.....just couldn't go on anymore. So, Erik and Alaina were busy making crafts with some new crafty things I had gotten today. I was feeding the baby on the couch and was listening to their "oh so grown up" conversation:

A: Erik, don't tell Mommy this, but I don't ever want to grow up.
E: Why, Laina?
A: Because when I grow up then Mommy will have to be a Grandma. I don't want her to be a Grandma.
E: Then she will have white hair??
A: Yes, she will have white hair and then she will get really old and Grandmas that are really old die.
E: Just like Grandma Berniece died.
A: Yeah....I miss Grandma Berniece.
E: Me too.
A: When Mommy is a Grandma then she will go to heaven and see Grandma Berniece. I will miss her. Erik, did you know that Grandma Berniece can run really fast in heaven?
E: Oh.
A: Yeah, she can but I will still be able to beat her.

Oh....the conversation went on and on. I just could not stop laughing. It was just adorable. Its funny how most of our "deep" conversations always end up about Grandma Berniece. She would LOVE her Great Grandkids!! They would have so much fun with her now!!

My kids were just extra sweet this week. Annika found a dime and told me that it was for a "gummy ball" at the store. And tonight when I was putting her to bed she found her princess CD and called it her "singer". We have had a lot of laughs. :)

God has blessed us with 4 beautiful kids!! They are so sweet and so special. These preschool years are just going too fast! I just want to keep them like this. Tomorrow we are making Valentines......I'm anxious to see how they turn out. :) So, with Annika in the mix, I'm sure there be a lot more quotes to write down!! And, to see their excitement when they get up and open up the curtain to the deck! They do it every morning to see if it snowed.....we have a lot!! I'm praying for a snow day tomorrow. :) I'm already snowed in b/c Tim is in Milwaukee! Erik shoveled the sidewalk when we got home from school today, but that was only an inch. He may have a harder time with 6 inches!!

That's it for now.....I need to get to bed! I already took a little nap in the chair, but I'm fading fast. Its says its about 8:35 when I'm writing this, but its really 11:15. I'm not sure how to change the clock! Sorry if there's lots of typos!

The Shelf...

Here's the "shelf boob" I was telling you about, Amy!! Grandma Berniece would be so proud of me!! :)

Isabel's 3 Months!

Here's Isabel's 3 month diaper pictures. What a little chunk!

I added Annika's 3 month picture just to see how they compare weight-wise! I thought Annika would have been bigger, but Isabel's got her beat! Annika really "porked" out in month 5.

Erik's Big Day

What a big day yesterday! We had a great time all together. Erik woke up and he couldn't believe the table had presents on it and donuts!! How exciting!! Sometime soon we will start waking the birthday person up....singing and with donuts and presents, but Erik is our early riser and if we had to wake the girls up first it wouldn't be pretty!! (Well, Annika would be fine, its Alaina that would be a bear!) So, we had some time with E before the girls got up. :) He got a new Disney Cars Garage.....its so big! I can even play in it! And, I know I've never made it on my own blog site (other than the pic yesterday from 3 years ago!), so here I am courtesy of Alaina.

The kids helped me make Erik's cake on Friday night. Its suppose to be a race track....the green is the grass.....it turned out a little limey! Oh was it fun to go find cars to put on it. So, it does look more like a "Sunday Drive" than a racetrack! They had fun, though. And, one side only caved in one time! I was expecting more of a disaster.




Erik went to basketball at 10:30, so after that we had our "lunch" party and cake. He requested Macaroni and Cheese, so that was an easy lunch to prepare! We even offered to get him a Happy Meal from McDonalds, but nope!




We played in the afternoon for a while and then went to Toys R Us so E could spend some birthday money. We were there for an hour and a half! I meant to bring my camera, but forgot it at home. He picked out an addition to his Geo Set track....thanks Nana Bev! All day today we tried to find his original set.....its nowhere! Its in a big rubbermaid bin....it shouldn't be hard to find! But, they still played and played with this all day today. After that we went to Red Robin so the waitstaff could sing to him like they did to Alaina. That was just great. :) Then we came home and played some more. The kids tried to sleep in the big garage (we moved it to the "bouncy bedroom" but the girls ended up back in their beds. E made it though.


It was a really fun birthday! Erik said he wishes it could be his birthday everyday. :)

Happy 5th Birthday, Erik!!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear ERIK!
Happy Birthday to you!

We can't believe you are FIVE years old!! We love you so much!! You are such a nice little guy and are growing up so fast. May God bless you on your birthday and ALWAYS!!

Funny...

Alaina came home from school on Wednesday and asked me if I knew Marker Luker King, Jr. She said he was a guy, but a another guy shot him with a gun. (She did go into greater detail on Thursday and does know more about him!)

Erik was singing in the bathroom:

Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
La la de de da da.

Annika hangs her jacket and backpack on her hooker!!!


Now we just came from Chuck E Cheese for Erik's "best friend" Jeremy's birthday. Yeah.....I feel like I have friends now. :) Its a good feeling to know people! (I feel like I could sing the Mr. Rogers song!!) We are going to make Erik's racetrack birthday cake now and get all geared up for his big day tomorrow!! Its sounds like we are going to go to a boat show in Schaumburg......Erik is pumped up!! And, either Rainforest Cafe or Red Robin. We'll see. It will just be the 6 of us......unless anyone wants to come help celebrate!!

Birthday Greetings!

Happy Birthday to You,

Papa Bob on January 15th!!

We hope you have a super duper day!!

Trial Video!

Just trying out a short video of the kids sledding behind the 4-wheeler.....I have a bunch, so if this works good I'll add some more! That's Annika in the front!

Sledding Fun

Here's some sledding pictures from "Chuck & Buck's house" or "the 4-wheeler Farm"....depending on which child you are talking to! Next year it will be Papa and Nana's house!!

And.....Back Again!!

This time I brought the camera. Erik's glue came unglued today and we noticed that it was getting pussy......gross, I know! So, we had to take him back. Luckily it wasn't infected on his deep wound....just a topical where he hit the floor and scraped his skin. He didn't even get stitches or new glue. :) Just a nice big band aide and some bactriban cream.

Here he is on our way in. You can't see the mom with her son racing us to the front door so they can get checked in first. We had the last laugh when Erik got a room first!!

Just getting his blood pressure!

And his oxygen and heart rate!

After 2 hours we finally got to our room. We hung out in the waiting room with our own big screen plasma tv. We watched some cartoons and some bull riding! But, it wasn't as nice as the room where he could actually veg out.

Just waiting now for the doctor to come back with some ointment and a band aid!

All done. :)

We had to get some cool band aides being he'll have to wear one for a few days....so he picked out Nascar. And, it was cute when he found the huge collection of reading glasses next to the band aides! The glasses really go good with the elderly looking sweater!! Its his "boy" sweater, as he calls it!

Back to the ER

Okay.....so tonight it wasn't Annika. Although, she did want to go with! Here is what happened.....I had Isabel at the Dr. because she was getting sick. I don't want to take any chances with her after her RSV episode....got home at 5:30 and was suppose to go scrapbooking at Debbie's at 6. Every time I am suppose to go something medical comes up.....the first time Isabel was born, another time we were in the hospital, and something else came up once that I can't remember at the moment. I had emailed Debbie on Thursday telling her I'd be there b/c I can't see anything "coming up" for me to miss it! So, I'm trying to get some supper made so I can go and Erik and An are sliding on the hard wood floor with their "slippery" pajamas on. As soon as I heard Erik hit the floor I knew we were going in!! He decided to try the superman slide rather than the butt slide. Whoops!! Tim said that he would take him in, but got a little woozy just after putting a band aide on it. So, I'm off.....back to the ER. Its not too bad.....the doctor just glued it rather than put stitches in. I was glad for that. This is an after shot. I looked at my "dead" camera twice yesterday thinking I should charge it up just in case I need it.....but just didn't do it.

Erik was so proud of himself.....he about drove me crazy though! He didn't cry, which was good, but he is just on fire with the "why" questions! "What is that??? WHY?" to everything!! When Tim is home I just tell him to ask his dad, but I was the only one in the room with all the medical equipment that I don't even know what half the stuff is......so I would just say, "we'll call Auntie Amy and ask her.....she'll know." We were home by 9.

Oh....and Isabel is fine. No real issues....just a cold. I was glad for that.

Ring

We were at Costco yesterday and Alaina had to show me the ring that she had picked out for me for my birthday. The present that "she couldn't tell me what it was, but it goes on my finger" one... It was beautiful! It had three beautiful, sparkly diamonds set in platinum. She really did a good job. And, at only $6999.99, I am kind of wondering why Tim didn't let her get it for me!! *grin*

We're Back...

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year's. We did. What a fun 11 days. Lots of playing outside. Sledding with or without the 4 wheeler was the highlight of this Christmas break! I can say that I really missed out on it last year, but made up for it this year as my bum is still sore and my knee should have a monster bruise on it for the way it feels, but has no mark at all! We did have fun. I have video and pictures that I'll show when my camera decides to cooperate and download onto my computer! Maybe the 466 pictures are just too many. Gotta love digital!

We made it home in record time on Tuesday night. It took us 5 hours on the dot. :) Erik and I didn't even get out of the van....the rest had one potty stop! Its nice to be back home again, but its also sad to say good bye!! We drove into our neighborhood a little scared about what we were going to see in our driveway. There is lots of snow here!! It looked like our house had been abandoned! Tim jumped out of the van into the 6 degree weather and ran into the garage, got the snow shovel and shoveled a little path so we all could walk up it and get in the house! He had to snowblow so he could get the car in the garage. The whole way down from MI we watched the temperature drop....we both wished we were heading to Collierville!! Tim puts it the best, "I don't like cold." I agree!

Now I'm just waiting for the Peapod grocery delivery guy. I think he is my new best friend. We did got to MOPS today and Costco for Cheerios and eggs, but I think about one trip out every two weeks is about all I will be able to handle for a few months! A lady told me today when we were at Costco that my kids were very well behave and that I am very fortunate to have good kids! Thanks! I wish they were always that good!!

Isabel had a rough day yesterday.....I think she is missing everyone holding her! Now, today she has slept all day, so I think she is making up for it. Amy weighed her on Sunday....15.4 pounds. What a hefty!! She is so cute, though!! :) I love it. But, I don't love carrying her car seat around with her in it! UGGH!

Now the kids are counting the days until school starts. Just 4 more.....it is kind of nice to just stay home and not take them anywhere, though, but I think they are getting sick of me! It was so fun getting the mail yesterday and opening all the Christmas cards that came when we were gone. The kids love getting them and seeing their old friends from Tennessee! We had to read all of them and then put them on our card wreath. Its loaded this year and has fallen twice today! Last year I had it up until July....we'll see about this year. After I took it down then I just felt so far away from everyone!