Things Emmy Says

Em likes to say "I have idea!!" but then she doesn't have one when you ask her what her idea is. =)

I gave her some yogurt yesterday for a snack and she stopped and prayed before she ate it even though I wasn't at the table with her. What a girl!

Em likes to do whatever I'm doing with Lainey with her baby doll and say "Look! Both have our babies!!" =)

We're going to the zoo. Anyone wanna come? Winter Wednesdays = $2.

Mitch

Mitch, version 1.0

I need to fix him so he stays bunched up and give him eyes and antennae. But for now, he's at least functional and Em likes him most of the time. =)

The Chair

Playing On The Deck

She was prayin'. =)

Noodles

They're fun, they're way yummier than store-bought, and you can make them as long as you want, lol. =)

Here's the recipe that came with the Kitchen Aid thing:

2.75 c flour (one of them was whole wheat in mine)
3 large eggs (crack into measuring cup and add water to 3/4 c - except that when I do it it's already 3/4 c and I need to add more water when I mix - I need to add liquid to everything here)

Using speed 2, mix with the flat beater for 30 seconds, dough hook for 2 min, then knead by hand 30 sec. Let rest 15 min and then pasta machine it.

Girl Pics

Randomocities

Lainey slept through the night last night! Ah, that was so welcome. She didn't get up until 7. I guess she feels a whole lot better now that her tooth's out. =)

Today we went to Hobby Lobby and Em was such a sweetie that I surprised her by taking her to Marble Slab. But it was closed! =( We were both bummed. We hung out by the fountain at Bradley Fair and I nursed Lainey while Em walked her baby in the baby stroller around the fountain and up and down the stairs. =) We went into Gap Kids just to make it feel like it wasn't a wasted trip. I found some things I want to make. I always leave Gap Kids wanting to sew. =)

So then we went to JoAnn's. I needed some more terry cloth for a belt for the bunny robe. And I got some soft green fleecey stuff and made Emily a caterpillar puppet. His name is Mitch and his sole purpose in puppetdom is to keep Emily from sucking her thumb. =) Hey, it's a little more fun than a sock.

Also got some more fabric for a quilt I'm making. I realized after I started cutting that I needed more. =) And they had super-cute summery fabrics on sale so I got some to make Em an outfit.

Then when we got home, the girls napped and I made Mitch, drew the pattern for a bed jacket for Grandy and cut the pieces out. And cut out Em's outfit and cut pink strips to bind the bunny robe belt.

Harp's at men's group tonight so I'm going to sew. Tomorrow is the girls' thing. And we'll probably get to play with Emily and Caleb tomorrow if they are home. They were going to see her sister's baby for a few days. =)

Harp's mom is in the hospital so please pray for her. They are just waiting to see if she needs surgery right now. I actually don't know many details.

Emily is in her room counting "One, Two, Three, Four, SIX!!" Supposed to be sleeping... =P Well I'm going to sew! Blog ya later.

First Tooth

Lainey Joy was cranky today. She's been kinda cranky for a while, unless she's being held. Well tonight I figured out why! One of her teeth is finally through the surface! You've been able to see it since she was about 2 months old and she's been chewing hard on things for months. My poor girl has a dry, dry face because of the buckets of drool she's poured out working on these teeth. I'm hoping the other one pops out soon so she can have a break!

I have thought she was having a growth spurt. I gave her that rice cereal for two days but then she started having man-toots and I thought she was crying because it hurt her tummy. And she still kept waking up at night. The other night, she woke up twice. Eeee! I have been nursing her back to sleep but now I know it's not hunger waking her up. I guess I'm glad to know that but I might still nurse her back to sleep if Orajel doesn't work within minutes. =P I want my sleep!

Coming Soon...

Kate & Em Designs

Yeah, baby! My girl is creative!! =) I was making her this plain white, kinda boring robe. I was going to embroider something on it and use colored fabric for binding around it, but that's it. She asked if I would put eyes on it. =D I started thinking what I could make with eyes other than a frog (who wants a white frog robe?) so all I could think of to make was a sheep (already have a sheep towel-hat thing that I made) or a bunny. So I asked her if she wanted bunny ears and a tail and the eyes could be Emmy's eyes. She said yeah!! =) What a team we are. =) I'm working on it right now...

In The News

This is mostly for our parents, I guess, because I think most of you know these people and know about this, but:

Please pray for our friends Paul and Melissa and Paul's squad. About 1/3 of his squad was injured in Iraq. Paul is in Germany right now and will be flown to the States, but we don't really know when yet. He lost one leg below the knee and his other foot his broken.

Tom and Connie Hellmuth are in Colombia and have met their new kids. There are pictures and updates at piecefulheart.blogspot.com You can just read what they are writing. =) It's so exciting!

Sweetie Girl

Last week when I left for Bible study, Em said "Bye, Momma! Have fun!!" It's the first time she said anything other than goodbye. =) I thought it was so sweet.

Yard Work & Whatnot

Today we worked in the yard almost all day. It was really fun. I was going to go to a Navigator's conference this morning, but I guess we sorta miscommunicated on that. Harp didn't know I actually was going. I asked what he thought and he said I could go so I thought that meant I was going and he didn't know I was planning on it. =) So last night he was disappointed that I was going and we decided I should just stay home. There wasn't going to be a nursery so it wouldn't have been a fun day baby-wise and I don't like the thought of being away from Harp and Em all day long! Well until 4. That's a long time to miss my girlies.

Anyway so we are making progress. =) I went to Payless today and got those Airwalk garden shoes for Emily and me. I wanted them to match but they only had hot pink in her size (which is what I wanted) but no hot pink in big sizes. So mine are black with a yellow strap. It was BOGO 1/2 off and mine ended up $3. Not bad, huh? Hers were $12.99. But together, it was cheaper than buying the crummy ones for $9 apiece at Walmart.

Gonna go watch the Goodnight Gorilla movie Harp and Em got at the library this morning. =)

Yummy Leafs

Harp grilled some burgers tonight and I was cleaning the kitchen while he was outside. Em grabbed the bag of spinach we had on the table and started eating some. She said "yummy leafs!" So she had salad at dinner, too. =) I gave her a dipping spot of dressing and she liked dipping her spinach in it. I told her we're going to grow spinach in our garden and she's so excited! =)

Rub-Aid, Headband, What?

Emily hurt her finger and I didn't know it. She asked for a headband. I said "Oh, you want a headband?" And she looked at me like "Wait, that's not right." And she thought and said "No, rub-aid." I said "Oh, you need a Band-Aid?" And she said "Yeah! Hurt finger." =)

My Laundry Helper

Em just totally amazed me this morning. We were putting laundry away and it went SO fast because I had her! Usually, I will give her things to do like put everyone's socks away or her jammies in her drawer or put washcloths in the duck bathroom (the baby washcloths just all get tossed in a drawer and not folded). Well today she was just grabbing stuff left and right and announcing what and whose it was and putting it away! She even put all our folded bathroom towels and washcloths away in our bathroom cupboard. I love having a little helper that loves to help! =)

Fun Stuff

Today I put LJ in the cart at the grocery store. She can't sit all that well but she did a pretty good job. Emily was helping me push the cart and Lainey thought it was hilarious. The girls were laughing so hard together that everyone we passed started laughing, too. =) This went on for almost our whole trip. =) I thought it was the cutest thing!

Emily says "Oh, honey, honey, honey. Oh, hon. Oh, honey." just randomly. =P I guess I call her honey a lot? =) Tonight, Lainey pooped and Em said, "Ohh, honey. Oh, Lainey. I'm so sorry, Lainey. Oh, honey." Hehehe! =)

We went to the park and Harp flew the kite we made. The wind wasn't strong enough to mountainboard. Mike Black, a guy from work, came and flew it some. The girls and I mostly played at the playground, but we hung out with the guys for a while.

I recovered Harper's chair today while the girls napped. Not exactly the project I was excited for, but it wasn't too bad because I knew once I got it out of the way, I could do what I wanted. It's good motivation to have a fun new project waiting for your old yucky one to be through. =) The chair looks good though and Harp really likes it. In the end, I was happy I did it. =)

Big Girl Lainey Joy!

Lainey is 1/2 today! =)

I fed her her first food today, homemade rice cereal. The loose plan was to just wait until she could eat finger foods to start solids, but, well, it was loose. =) She is SO interested in everything we eat and she's having this growth spurt (that or my milk supply went *poof* - maybe a little of each) and she is always still hungry when she's finished nursing. This also means she's been up for a couple of nights. So hopefully the rice cereal will help.

She was delighted to be eating FOOD! She opened big and gobbled it up. It even had some chunky bits and it didn't bother her at all. Em would have puked! She smiled between every bite. Ohh, so cute! I fed her after I nursed at 3 and I fed her again when I nursed at 7 so (maybe) it'll help her sleep tonight and so Harp could see the cuteness. =)

Pic Load Again

Yummy jacket, happy girl. =)

Hehe, those cute ears! =)

Oh, gross! Look at that face! This was right after we had pasta one night. Poor Lainey, stuck in a little box with the marinara monster. Hehehe!

The marinara monster sharing her cell phone with Lainey Joy.

My cutie-beauty.

Uh huh, again. She's that cute. =P

Harp painted my door! This is the last picture of my unpainted door. =) And my cutie.

She thought Daddy's nose felt nice on her gums. =P

These girls have so much fun together.

Cutie Patootie and Daddy.

I just love her sad face.

Nice Day

Today has just been so good all-around. It is nice enough to wear short sleeves outside. Lainey and I just hung out on the deck for an hour reading my gardening book while Em napped. Then Lainey went down too and I got to blog a little. Then Em and I just started the dishwasher, swept the kitchen and living room, mopped the kitchen, and played on the deck. Then Lainey got up and I put a VeggieTale on and I'll read about veggies some more =) so I know exactly what to get tonight and find out where to get it all. I'm thinkin' chicken salad sandwiches for dinner because it's so hot out.

This morning after we went to the doctor (which was a good experience - both the girls were super-good), we went to Emily P's house to play. Emily and I had a lot of fun and Em and Caleb had a lot of fun. =)

I'm hoping to get to some sewing projects tomorrow & Friday so tonight I'm getting all the laundry finished and put away. I didn't do laundry Thurs last week because the basement was a mess and the door was blocked so you could barely squeeze through. Then we all got sick. So I had TONS of laundry to do. I think I only have 2 loads left. Yay! But lots to put away. Anyway I've kept everything else up so I can probably do my sewing stuff this week. =) I have a quilt, Harper's chair, and I want to make Em a robe because she always asks to wear Lainey's and it doesn't fit. =P Well you can get it on, but her toosh sticks out of it, so it's not much of a robe! =) There was some of that one-sided terry cloth stuff (is that still called terry cloth?) in the 75% off bin at JoAnn's when we went on Friday, so I got it. And some other things I didn't need like brown microsuede (cute Scotty dogs, I'm thinkin') and a dark pink net (hey, it was like 17 cents and it'll take 5 min to make a tutu). =)

Square Foot Gardening

Jaime, I got your comment and sorry it took me so stinkin' long to respond to it. =\

Okay so square foot gardening is basically making a bottomless box above-ground and filling it with 6" of super-good soil. You don't mess with your own soil because it's work and this works better anyway. You only need it deeper than 6" for carrots and stuff that grows down and for that you just make a section (or separate box) that is 12" deep.

You make a grid because it makes it look better, easier, less intimidating, whatever. Easier to know where to plant stuff and you can mess with one square at a time when you plant something new (after you've harvested one thing out of it).

You can plant plants closer together than the packages say. If it says you can plant them 6" apart, then you can plant 4 in a square foot. They are 6 inches apart, but the packages say in rows spaced 3 feet apart. That's the part that's not necessary. If 4" apart, you can plant 9 in the square. If 3" apart, you can plant 16 in the square. Makin' sense?

So you can easily get to all your plants because they are no more than 2 feet away from the outside of the box. You don't have to step in the dirt. You don't have to deal with as many weeds because you're not watering, fertilizing, etc, a whole bunch of dirt where you don't have plants planted.

The plants produce just as much as if you single-row gardened, only you've done it in 1/5 the space, it looks prettier, and it is oodles easier. Like so easy ya just wouldn't believe it.

I have been reading the book I got on interlibrary loan. It's by Mel Bartholomew called All New Square Foot Gardening. And get the new one because he talks about the differences in the book (between this and the old one). The old one is still good, but this one is enough better that I'd just pitch the old one if I owned it.

It tells you how to grow specific things, how & when to clip them and stuff. Ohhhh my goodness I am so excited! I told Harp we may do power bars for dinner and shop for our dirt and stuff. Oh if you want to know the dirt mix... I haven't read the chapter about it yet but it is basically:

• 1/3 peat moss
• 1/3 vermiculite
• 1/3 blended compost (so get different bags of different kinds) or homemade compost (which he says is better if you have it)

But I still think you should read the book because now I'm looking at that chapter and I want to type it all out, too, just like I want to type everything else out. =D

Emmy-O is up! Yippee! =)

6-Month Checkup

We went for Lainey's checkup this morning. Everything's good, she's 16 lb, 11 oz and 26.5" long.

Utter Hilarity

Over the weekend, the parking lot where Harp works was repainted. The compact car area is painted with "compack" in every spot. I can't stop laughing. I think I might cry. ROFL!!

Speaking of Puke...

We got sick again. Twice in a week. Last week I was throwing up Saturday night and then I felt yucky until Tuesday. This week, I didn't feel like eating anything Saturday night or Sunday morning but I didn't feel bad. We stayed up really late Sat night finishing painting the basement and moving stuff back and we listened to Bruce's message from a Wed night thing at Crossroads. It was really good. Anyway so Sunday we went out to lunch with Mike and Felicity. Oh it hurts to blog this and I guess I've sort of been avoiding it, but they are moving to Hawaii. Movers are coming in 3 days and they leave the 6th. =( But I am super-excited for Felicity and Bree to meet because I really think they will like each other. Anyway I ate lunch, but not a whole lot, but then I just felt tired when we got home. I slept for 2 hours while the girls did and later for another hour and then I went to bed early. I'm glad I got that sleep 'cause the night was rough. =( No fun at all. Today I just feel tired. I slept a whole bunch today. Harp went to work this morning and started to feel sick, so he came home. I am so glad he was here. He never did actually throw up or anything, so I hope that's not coming tonight or tomorrow.

Ashley, I just got your message today and I would call but I just feel too icky to talk. But yeah Emily used to gag herself and she even made herself puke a few times. I think it's just a fun experiment. I didn't do anything about it and she just got over it. =) I wonder if all kids do that or if we just got hyper-experimental kids? =P

Pretend Cake & Puke

Emily made a pretend cake and started singing "Happy Birthday to pretend cake!!" =)

She showed me a picture of the Duke characters (from a VeggieTales show) and pointed out Duke and said "Puke! Here's Puke!" =) Harp said a couple weeks ago she asked to watch the Puke movie and it took him a while to figure out it was Duke. =) She says it just like the vomit word, not like Duke with a P...

Hiding, Walmart, Gettin' Hurt

Emily likes to play "where's Emmy?" Usually it's behind our curtains or with her eyes covered or something obvious. She'll hide and whisper "say 'Where's Emmy?'" She wants us to pretend we lost her at Walmart and we have to go back and look for her because Harp said that once. And one time she hid in the coat closet and I said "Where's Emmy? I hope she's not off getting hurt somewhere!" so she'll go in the closet and say "Emmy's gettin' hurt!" It is so fun having a two-year-old. =)

Tickle Sticks

At the Keltons' Hannukah party, we got these unidentifiable little brightly-colored sticks in the white elephant gift exchange. I asked the Kientz girls what they were and they had no idea. That's why they brought them. LOL! Anyway we decided they were tickle sticks, for tickling each other. =)

One night, Em stuck out her index fingers with this silly grin. Harp asked what that was and she said "tickle sticks!!" through a hilarious giggle. So now Harp sticks his fingers out and asks her what they are and she laughs and says "Um, fingers!!!" and he says "No, they're tickle sticks!!!" And she cracks up and gets tickled. =)

Nothingness

The other day when we checked out at Walmart, Em pointed out that there was "no somebody" in the checkout next to us. Last night, she was playing with Harp's Lactaid wrapper and said there's "no something" in there. =)

Ravioli

We were going to make noodles tonight but Harp got carried away looking at recipes. Then we had dinner and put the girls to bed and now we need to paint but he has to rack his cider first or it might start to get a yeasty flavor. Anyway here is a recipe he found for salmon ravioli in cucumber sauce. Interesting, huh? I never would have thought of that, that's for sure. But I think it could be really good. We'll let ya know. =)

Randomness

Em and I had a blast making sugar cookies on Wed before the girls' thing. We made hearts and one snowman, for her. =) We decorated them with icing and sprinkling sugar that Grandy sent us for Valentine's Day. Then we washed the cutters in the sink with very soapy water so we could play with bubbles too. Fun stuff.

Thursday, Ashley and Samuel came over and we just had fun. =) Then Emmy and I went to the quilt shop for quilt ideas and then grocery shopping.

Oh one day last week Harp hung out with the girls and I played through all three movements of Pathetique. It was so fun. I still need some practice, but I don't think it will take all that long because I played it in high school. Wanna hear it (not me)? It's long. Here are the first, second, and third movements.

We've been painting the basement. We were going to finish up during naps tonight and after bedtime, but we decided to figure out what was up with my piano key instead. =)

Ooh, ooh! My noodle maker just came in the mail! Harp ordered me the Kitchen Aid noodle maker attachment for Valentine's Day! =) =) Okay that was just the excuse to buy it. =) Gonna go play!

My Piano Man

My piano broke yesterday and my hero of a man took it apart and figured out what we need to get to fix it. There is one place we found to buy piano-fixing stuff and they even said that it's hard to find because piano tuners/repairmen have a tight-knit community and manufacturers only sell to them. Sneaky, sneaky. The site tells you everything you need to know to fix your piano. Want to know what a wippen or a capstan is? www.balaams-ass.com

All we actually needed is jack springs for two keys, so that's cool. It won't be super-spendy. But as long as we're ordering, we're getting stuff to tune it, too.

Ooh, Ooh, Ooh! (SFG)

Ashley is doing a square foot garden and she's been telling me about it. So we looked it up on Google and we are soooo excited! Harper is into gardening, if ya didn't know. =) I never really was but now that we have the girls I'm way more excited about it. It will be fun to water and weed with Emmy and pick our veggies. Oooh, yippee!! Now if we could just fast forward a few months... =) No not really, it will all be fun. I can't wait!

What To Plant

We have seeds for:

• sweet corn
• roma tomatoes
• plain ol' tomatoes
  
• cucumbers
• cantaloupe
• carrots
• acorn squash
• zucchini
• brussels sprouts
• cauliflower
• cabbage
• serrano peppers
• spinach
• strawberry spinach (thanks, Ashley!)
  
• green beans
  
• snow peas
  
• peas
• dill
• cilantro
• sweet basil
• st john's wort
• onion bulb thingies
  

Crazy! I'm pretty sure there is no way we can plant all that! We better start planning. =P

Scared Out

The newest cuteness is if something scares Em, she'll say "that scared me out!" And she said something "scared Lainey out" the other day too. Guess it's a combination of freaked out and scared. =P I was changing Lainey's crib sheet and the mattress slipped and fell back into the crib and it was loud and it scared Em out. =)

Whew

The girls just left. Wow. I feel so in over my head, just on the cross stitch thing. Some of the girls couldn't follow copying a cross stitch font and wrote their verses wherever and however on the page... Everyone was asking questions, I had to keep running downstairs to photocopy designs out of the library books (which was the plan, but it took longer than I thought). There are 3 girls that haven't cross stitched before and I didn't even get to sit down with them and show them what to do. =( Fabric got passed out, but hoops and needles are still sitting here. Ack! Some of it was crazy like a girl wanted to stitch a panda and asked me for a verse to go with it. I told her to read Job 38-41 and she'd probably find something that could sort of go, but she wasn't going to find the word panda or bamboo in the Bible. I just didn't have time between all the photocopying and whatnot to really help her pick a verse. She did find one in Job though, which is good. But it was exhausting. I'm glad I didn't spaz out or anything or just fall in a heap laughing... =P But it did wear me out. Now I just wanna sit here and read blogs. And drink tea. =) Hey we used our china and nothing got broken! We even had two 6-year-olds using it! I told Harp if we haven't used it in 5 years ourselves, I really won't be brokenhearted if something gets broken. But I'm glad it didn't. =) Okay my teapot is screaming. Later!

Danger

I was painting the basement the other day and standing on the desk and cabinets and futon... Em kept telling me "Danger, danger! Dangerous, Mommy!" She's my sweet girl. =)

Memories

Emily gives Harp collision hugs every night. The first one is a hug that knocks him over. Then she drops on him for more collision hugs. It sounds like "kissin' hugs" and it always takes me a sec to remember what she's talking about. =)

Things we hear all the time: "See, yookieyookieyook! See, yookieyookieyook!" and "One'f dees? One'f dose? One'f deese? One'f dose?" (One of these? One of those?) when asking if she can eat something. =P "Tank you SO much, Mommy!" "Whassamatter you, Yaina?"

Tonight I started singing the ABC song and Em sang a lot of it! Then about five min later, she started singing it by herself. =)

niminim = m & m
yaina = alaina
pencil = pretzel
pi-yo = smile

Dogs

Aren't they so cute?? Terrie, you could sell them on etsy. =)

Pictures Pictures Pictures

Em getting tickled by Lainey. =) I think Em really thinks Lainey tries to tickle her. It's cute. =)

Harp's mom got Em this cute cute shirt! I had seen it at Target when I was shopping for Lainey with Quin's gift card and I wanted to buy it but it was really Lainey's money so I didn't. I didn't tell anyone about the shirt except for Harp. Cool, huh?? Thanks, Terrie! =)

Who put the basket on Lainey's head? Um, Emily. This baby is so happy and content even with a basket on her head. She's pretty much the ideal little sister. =)

My cutie patootie in Valentiney clothes. =)

Aww, I love that face.

LOL! Doesn't she look bad? If she was really being defiant I wouldn't like this picture, but I think it's hilarious because I just snapped it randomly.

"Dat's Funny" Face

I guess I should crop it but I'm too lazy right now. I've gotten so bad about editing pics that I only do if I'm going to print them.

Cutie Pies

Lainey Joy Pictures

Her hair just suddenly looks darker and thicker and longer. Cuteness! =)

Coolest Ever Sweet Potato Head

Babysitting Caleb, Monkey Sheets

Pics

I haven't put pics on my computer for almost 2 weeks. I don't like when I do this because then it takes like half an hour to blog them. =( Well hmm how's about a VeggieTale? Okay pics are a'comin'.

Things

Terrie made the girls these super-cute elasti-dogs for Valentine's Day. =) I'll have to post a picture. They love them! =) And she got them some cute Valentineish clothes and Em some monkey pants (my girl loves monkeys) and LJ some monkey socks. I'll have to post lots of pics. =) She sent Harp's Animalia book, too. I got through N with Emily today before she said "I don't like that book." =( She liked the first few pages at least. Oh and I got to F and asked her what's after F and said "A B C D E F, ???" And she said "G, H, I!" I guess she knows more than I think. =P I actually remember like a month or more ago singing the song and leaving out letters and she would sing them. Hmm.

I don't know if I blogged that we sing the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy song about Lainey. You know, I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart... We sing I've got the Joy Joy Joy Joy in Momma's arms (or wherever she is) and Emily does the "where?" part. And she sings a lot of the song too. It's cute.

Em sings "This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long" all by herself. And she still adds that Jesus got hurt. And I always say yep, Jesus got hurt for us. The other day she asked if Jesus got in a car wreck. =) I said no and I told her some of the ways he got hurt. I sort of expected her to be a little freaked out but it was just like oh okay I just wanted to know if it was a car wreck.. =)

Well LJ pooped and it's been explosive so I'm afraid to look in my lap to see. =P Here she wants to type something:

cbtfgtgbbfvvdcvgbhnjmbfvtrgcfvb

Okay I had to help her because all she was hitting was space. =) Haha, okay off to change a diaper.

Starfall

Just FYI, I found a cool site called Starfall that has really cute stuff for learning to read. There are printout sheets for each letter of the alphabet with pictures of things that start with that letter and little tracing things to help kids draw the letters. Really cool! They have animations too for every letter and Em thinks they are so cool. And there are learn-to-read books too that are really cute. =)

I'm sad that the only letter Em might recognize is E. She thinks everything is an E so I don't know if she even does recognize it, lol. My mom said I knew all my letters by the time I was 2 and I wouldn't perform for the doctor at my 2-year-old checkup. =( I had a puzzle and my mom would give me each letter and ask where it went as we cleaned up. I haven't really done much with Em except play with fridge magnets and bathtub letters. And these alphabet cards my mom brought us that are really cool. Well and she has quite a few ABC books. Maybe I'm not depriving her of the alphabet and she just hasn't picked up on it yet. I should sing the song. I hardly ever sing the song.

GASP! Harp just came in with a box of Valentine stuff from Grandma A so I'm going to go check it out. Thanks, Terrie!! =)

Lazy Day

I nursed Joy early last night because I wanted to go to bed. I ended up unable to sleep and finally threw up around the time I would have nursed her anyway. Then Harp threw up too. That meant Lainey was up at 4:30 for milk. I nursed her and put her back in bed. With the exception of getting up at 6:30 to change Em's diaper (funny story there), I slept until 10 and so did LJ. Actually I sort of remember hearing some little grunts sometime before that but that's all. At 10, Em went into their room and woke Lainey up and she was covered in poop. So I got up to clean her, nursed her, and then she was acting SO tired that I put her back down. I woke her up at 1 and nursed her again and then we both fell asleep and got up a little after 3. She had a temp of 101.1 at 1 and Harp gave her some baby something for it. She's fine now.

When Em got up at 6:30, she came in and said Emmy pooped. I was afraid I'd get pukey again if I got out of bed so I asked her to go get wipes and a diaper and I'd just sit up and change her in my bed. She came back with wipes and I asked her to go back for a diaper. I heard her opening and closing drawers and then she came back and said "Here's diaper!" I reached for it and grabbed nothing but her hand. I asked her where the diaper was and she said "Um, pretend diaper." LOL So yeah I got up and got one out of the closet. =)

This also reminds me that the night before last, Em came in around 4 and said Emmy peepeet. Harp got up and was totally freaked out that Em was naked. I said she probably peed and then took her jammies and diaper off. But no. She said she peepeet on the carpet. Yup. And the bed. That was the night I came home from craft night and after Harp let her come give me a hug, she did not want to go back to bed. She kept saying "good morning" and "Emmy's happy" and "Emmy feels better," as if one of those things would mean she could get up. =P So I guess while she was bored in there wide awake, she decided to get naked. =P

Emily took a 3-hour nap today and woke up totally weird. Crying and freaking out for no reason for a good 15 minutes. We'd think she was back to normal and then she'd freak out and ball up on the floor crying. I asked if she had a bad dream (she was also really sweaty when she woke up) and she said yes but she can't tell us anything about it, if it even happened. =(

I have a headache. I thought maybe because I usually have a cup of coffee but I hadn't had one today. So I forced one down even though it tasted repulsive to me. And I don't feel much better. I really just feel like a hot bath and lying around doing nothing. Not even blogging. Something is so wrong with me, huh?

I looked at etsy some more and realized why I knew about it before! It has something to do with Craft: magazine, doesn't it? When I got Make: for Harper, I saw a thing about Craft: but it wasn't out yet. And there was a link to etsy, but it wasn't big yet, so I didn't think a whole lot about it. Now it's huge! It's crazy! I was thinking about making old-fashioned dresses or renaissance dresses... But only doing custom orders. Do they charge you like eBay?

Okay gonna go snuggle my sick baby girl. Later!

Carseats

I need to measure LJ and make sure she's not too big for her carseat. It says up to 26 inches or 20 pounds. Anyway that reminds me that last week at the Superbowl party, Em and I were eating and I put Lainey back in her carseat unbuckled next to us. She got out of it all by herself! My wiggly baby Joy... =)

Yookieyookieyook!

The other day, Em ran up to Harper saying "Yookieyookieyook!" (That would be lookie, lookie, look.) He asked what she was trying to show him and she said "doin' tip tip!!" She was running around on her tip toes. =)

Vitamins

I got a bunch of vitamins today that I'm really supposed to be taking for my veins. I haven't been taking them. =( I hope it makes me feel better all-around because I just feel nasty. I would say I feel pregnant except that I know I'm not and I felt this way a whole lot after I had Em too. Harp's dad says it doesn't have to do with having a baby bc my hormones wouldn't be crazy this long after. So I don't know what it is. But I even feel like puking when I think about these crackers I made today. Ughhh.

Rubberband & Sorry, Momma

Em hurt her knee yesterday and she started to tell me she needed a rubber band. She said "rub" and got all frustrated because she couldn't think of the word. She knew rubber band wasn't right.

A couple weeks ago, she hurt her finger and asked for a rubber band and I giggled and said you mean a Band-Aid? And I happened to have a rubber band sitting right next to me and I pretended to put the rubber band on her. (She didn't really need anything on it...)

So I got her a Band-Aid and a couple minutes later she came and said "Sorry hurt knee, Momma" and gave me a hug (like an oh-poor-baby hug). I'm always saying I'm sorry you hurt your finger or whatever and giving her a hug. =P Hehe! =)

Oh and there was something else.. Hmm... Oh that Emily says thank you for everything. It's the sweetest ever thing! I put pictures on the wall and she says "ohhhhh, thanks put pictures on wall, Momma!" and she thanks me for doing the dishes, making dinner, taking her potty, changing Lainey's diaper. Everything! I love it! It's so cute!! The "ohhhhhhhh" is the cutest, too. I'll have to try to get it on video. That'll be hard to get, but I'll try. =)

Out Of It

For 2 reasons. 1) I just feel sick. Pukey and sort of dizzy and like my head is in another room of the house. I've felt yucky all day. 2) I don't pay enough attention to the news. I was just reading Hillary's invitation to join her for web chats so the people of America can have a voice. Um, why not obliterate the House and the Senate? What are they for if she needs to go to the living room of every American? Barf, barf! I'm sorry, Hil, but that's just dumb. But wait! Americans are dumb so who wins? Hillary. Puke. Puke, puke, puke. Seriously, this country is on its way out.

Hi, Hi!

Okay another quick one. The cleanness of my house is inversely proportional to the frequency of my blog posts. Which means: my house is clean. Yay!

Anyway not much to blog about, really. Craft night last night but I left early bc Lainey couldn't sleep. I don't usually take her but I didn't have time to nurse her before I left. She didn't want to sleep in the nursery and I didn't want to be up at 4am (which happens when she's up late) so we came home. I talked to Janet for a while. I didn't know Deb's pregnant!! You Texas people should blog these things for me even though you all know. =) I have been thinking about calling her for months and Harp said the other day he wanted to call Bruce. So maybe that will happen this weekend. =)

I painted around the ceiling in the basement so all we have to do is roll the rest and it'll be done. Well and paint the corners I guess. But it shouldn't take too long! The trim is just tacked up so we can take it down easily to paint and then we'll put it on for good. Hmm what else?

Lainey is almost sitting. She really wants to sit! Won't be long. Oh and she plays with my hair and necklace while she nurses now. Sooooo sweet!! That's one of my favorite things about having a baby. =)

Yesterday Em and I had noodles for lunch. She said "Emmy like noodles!" I said "Yeah, Momma likes noodles too!" and she said "Yeah. Daddy like noodles too. [He's] growin' big." Hehe! We always say she and LJ are growin' big. Funny stuff.

Oh I talked to Hannah for a while this morning! =) She has pics on her blog. The girls are soooo big!

We are going to CO sometime in March for a weekend snowboard trip. We got some kid skis in the mail which I think are from Harp's mom. Thanks! They may have been from my mom - I don't actually remember who told me they were ordering them. =( Bad, Katie. But thank you to whichever grandma bought them. =)

And my parents are coming I think in April and we're going to dress up so my dad can take wedding pictures of us for his website. =) He and my mom are going to a conference for wedding photographers in Las Vegas pretty soon. I'm going to find some other people to take pics too. Maybe Mike & Lissy and Scott & Alyssa. Hey Anna do you still have your dress too? I'm trying to think of other people...

Okay I'm gonna go play with playdough with Harp and Em. I'm missing out!! Bye! =)

Blech

Harp stayed home sick today. Em is totally acting fine, but she had diarrhea in her pants. Oh, it was bad. I almost threw up cleaning it up. I had to stick her in the shower in the basement because I couldn't take her anywhere and I had to get in with her to clean her up. Oh, so nasty. And then it was freeeezing and we had one towel so I gave it to Em and we ran, freezing, through the house, to get clothes. Not a fun morning. Em desperately wanted a nap at 10, which is when Lainey wakes up from her first nap. So I took LJ to Walmart and the library to get Airborne for me and food and movies for Harp. Got home and Em got up. Lainey went back down not long after that... It's kinda nice having Harp home even though we aren't with him. =P Well we're watching Nemo, just chillin' in the basement. I think I'll scrapbook some during Nemo.

There were a few things I was going to blog but now I don't remember what they were... I need a notebook with me at all times. =P

Oh one is that Emily asked if Mommy and Daddy got married at Walmart. =)

And she always sings "Swing low, sweet chariot..." and last week she was saying Cheerio instead of chariot. I don't think she actually meant Cheerio but that's what it sounded like. =)

Spam

I turned the word verification thing on and I am still getting spammed. Anyone know what to do about this? It doesn't tell me where the comments are being posted so I can't delete them, either. I think the only option is comment moderation (where you have to approve every comment before it posts) and I don't want to do that unless there are no other options.

Mommyin' & Soup

Last night, Dustin came over to play Xbox with Harp. He was getting kicked out because it was Bunco night for Ginger's church group. They were missing someone and Ginger knew I wouldn't be busy so she asked if I wanted to sub. I had no idea what it was going to be but I said sure. I've wanted to hang out with her and talk about something other than teaching. =P It was pretty fun. The game itself is really pretty stupid but it's really cool to be able to hang out with different little groups. If you've never played it I don't expect you to have any idea what I'm talking about. Anyway I got home and Em had woken up when Dustin left, thinking it was me getting home. So Harp let her stay up and wait for me with him. I got home and I was SOOOO glad to see her. I had really been missin' my girls because everyone there that had babies (which was most) left them with a sitter and worked. I thought how horribly incredibly miserably sad I would be to leave my girlies, how much I'd be missing out on, how much they'd be missing out on, and just how much fun life is being a stay-at-home Mommy. (Now, I understand there are situations where women HAVE to work and I'm not saying they never should. But I am saying it's not the ideal situation and that I am so so so so glad it's not mine.) So I let her stay up a little longer, snuggling with me on the couch, because I was just so glad to be with her. Then we had some soup because Harp and I were hungry and she said she was too. She ate a bunch of soup and then she still didn't want to go to bed. It was 10:15 before she stayed in her room and went to sleep. She came out crying "I'm hungry about soup!! I'm hungry about soup!!!"

Oh LJ just woke up so I'm gonna go grab her before she wakes Em up. Bye!

Random Funniness

Some things I have been forgetting to blog:

The other day, Em was playing with Pooh Bear stickers that had bees on them. She said "two beeses!" Harper thought that was the cutest double plural ever. =)

Em pulled an index card out of my Bible and Harp asked her what it was. She said "Um, email!!" =)

Harp's parents gave us some gummy monkeys and gummy bananas. We finished them off the other night and Em asked for more "gummy monkey bears." =)

Last week, I must have been doing laundry because we were hanging out in our room and you could see the dust in the air by the window. Em started batting the air and freaking out, saying "Noooo! NO!! Get OUT! Get OUT!!!!" lol It was the weirdest thing you've ever seen... =P

Quick

Went to a Superbowl party but didn't watch the Superbowl. =P I sang karaoke with CK and Raven and Bethany and then played Mafia with Nellie, Luke, CK, Sean, Daniel, Ben, and Asa. And played with the girls. We just kinda avoided the football thing altogether. Well mostly the commercials. I could get into football if there weren't commercials. I don't like commercials. Harp took his ginger ale and it was yummmmmy!

Anyway I might think about selling the albums on etsy. Do things sell well on there? I looked at those links and I want to make one of those car trash bags. =)

I had to add the word verification thing to my blog. Sorry. =( I guess I was the last one to do it anyway so y'all won't mind. I just got two comment spams after a year and a half of blogging. I was bummed. I thought I was immune. =P

I have lots to blog but I'm sooooo tired so it'll just hafta wait. Night!

Yaaaaaawn

Well we are watching this movie called Radio. I don't remember it being in theaters, but I don't think I've paid a bit of attention to what's in the theaters since I stopped working in them. That was before college. It's paused though because Harp is helping Quin know what to order from a brew supply shop. Anyway it's a really good movie so far.

I got LJ up and nursed her. I think because it doesn't wake Em up for me to go get Lainey and feed her, I'm going to keep doing it. Every once in a while, it's sort of inconvenient (like I wanna sleep at 8 or something) but Katy reminded me that it'll keep the periods away longer to nurse more. Heck, yeah! It may not be worth getting up in the middle of the night to me (Katy does), but feeding LJ at 10 is definitely worth it.

The other day I was telling Em she's getting so big I think maybe we need to stop with the thumb-sucking. I told her I'd talk to Daddy about it but for now not to worry about it. About 5 min later, she asked if she could suck her thumb. Well I forgot about it and today Harp said hmmm how long are we going to let her suck her thumb? I told him how I had talked to her about that the other day and she asked if she could suck it. So we decided no more thumb sucking unless it's bedtime or naptime and she's in bed. We told her that and she did a really good job not sucking her thumb! She caught herself so many times about to suck it and stopped. She likes to suck her thumb and twirl her pigtail so we told her to twirl a pigtail with each hand when she feels like sucking her thumb. So she did that a whole lot. What a good girl!!

Earlier when we first told her the rule about sucking her thumb only in bed she kept running into her room and climbing in bed for a quick suck and then coming back. LOL She came running into our room after this one time, holding her thumb out and said "Feels better!!" Hehehe. So we had to clarify the bed rule. =)

That reminds me, she keeps talking about things making people feel better. "Mommy have coffee! Feel better!" "Daddy have beer! Feel better!" lol I don't remember what else. It's about everything. =)

My sewing machine upgrade is SO cool. One of the new things is a setting where it will make pivots quick. Explanation: You press the start/stop button and it stops with the needle down and raises the presser foot. You turn fabric. You press the button again and it lowers the presser foot and keeps sewing. Cool huh??

I made Lainey some sheets for the Pack N Play this morning. They are pink flannel with monkeys and bananas and palm trees. Sooooo cute! She likes them, I can tell. =) Seriously, she does. She picked at the monkeys for a while. =)

Oh the saddest thing happened. It's not a bommen anymore. =( It's a bowwam and sometimes even a bottom. Ouch!

Harp made the best ever peanut sauce tonight. Mmmmm! We did stir fry with rice noodles. Yummy, yummy!

Tomorrow we get to babysit Caleb! Emily and Whitney have a Spanish class to go to and the babysitter couldn't babysit. Emmy is so excited!

Well it's getting so late that I'm thinkin' we won't finish the movie tonight so I'm going to get ready for bed. Night!

Albums & Stuff

Yeah, I'll post a pic when I'm done! I hadn't covered all the covers yet, so I'm picking paper to make albums for friends. The people that were making them in Frisco were so happy with their December sales that they decided not to quit. Agh! Oh well. I'm sure it would get really old anyway. =) I have enough scrappin' to get caught up on myself. I'm going to make one of them be kind of a journal of notes/stuff to remember from the Beth Moore study. I have always wanted to do that because there are good things to read again but you never want to go through the whole book to find them. =P Anyway so yeah I'm making one for Ashley for Samuel pics. =) And one for pics of us sledding in CO last month. 'Cause I already had a snowy one started. I think maybe we'll go to Hobby Lobby tonight. Ohhhh guess what? We finally have some pictures on our wall!! 3 frames with multi holes and 4 little frames around them. Lots more to go but I am so excited to have some of them up! =) =) =)