Sushi Christmas and Beautiful Ballerinas

So we had a sushi-themed Christmas at the Abbots'. We gave people stainless steel chop sticks and Quin wind-up sushi and he also got a sushi recipe book and kit sort of thing from someone. It seems like there was something else sushi-related, but I can't remember. =P Oh! Someone gave the girls chop sticks that you stick in this little girl's feet and she holds them so they are easy to use. =)

Em and Laine got leotards and tights and tutus. Em got ballet shoes that match Lainey's that Alyssa gave her. Too bad I didn't bring them because I knew about Em's ballet shoes! Anyway they dressed up last night and danced and danced and danced and Em said "Maybe sometime when I'm bigger I can go to ballerina class. Like maybe when I'm four!" Hehe! We'll talk about it... I also heard that when Emily got all dressed, she said in this dramatic sort of voice, "I'm the most beautiful of all the ballerinas!" When we were getting them ready for bed I said "So, I heard you said you're the most beautiful of all the ballerinas!" She said "Yeah!" I said "Well what about Laine?" She said "Well, when I said that, Laine was still getting her ballet stuff on." lol They are always calling each other beautiful.

This morning Laine got up and got in bed with us and got in Harp's face and said "I want chips." Then a while later, she left and got in bed with Grandma and told her she wanted chips too, lol. Funny girl...

We went geocaching for the first time today. We didn't find it because Harp put in the wrong coordinates, lol. We'll go look again after lunch. It will be warmer then too so that's good. Harp went with his dad and Brittan yesterday and they had a good time and found 2 out of 3. I think Em and Laine had fun even though we didn't find it. They brought shovels and pretty much just played in the snow the whole time. =P

I finished Laine's sackboy and Em's is crocheted and the body is stuffed and closed off. The arms are ready to go on but the feet are lost in the car somewhere... So I may not finish her sackboy until we get home. I'll be working on her wedding dress as I have time here. I don't mind if she sees the white fabric but I want the sparkly stuff to be a surprise. =)

Update

Hey! So we had a fun night with my mom's jewelry group. They are a fun bunch of people. =) We did a Chinese gift exchange. =P I had the bottle of Bailey's but my sister stole it from me to give to me for Christmas, lol!

We had my aunt and uncle (Kay and Mark) and their kids and grandkids over another night. I hadn't seen them since I was pregnant with Lainey.

We went to see Harp's Great Aunt Shirley (Nonny's sister). We just had the kids call her Aunt Shirley 'cause Great-Great Aunt Shirley is a mouthful. =P She was really sweet and fun to talk to. She gave us a loaf of potica that was really yummy! It's a Slovenian nut/bread roll sort of thing. Both of our families are from Slovenia so it was fun when we met to find out that we both like potica. =)

We saw my Aunt MaryAnn and Uncle Larry on the way out of Pueblo, but not for long because MaryAnn is sick and she was afraid she'd get us sick. =P I couldn't understand a word she said this year. =\ I'm glad Larry was there to interpret.

On the way to Greeley, we stopped to see my friend Chris. He's in town from LA and I haven't seen him in forever! I think we saw him sometime the first year that we were married because we played a lot of Tony Hawk back then and we played with him and he seriously spanked us. He could get more points in one trick combo than I could get in the whole game, lol. I think that's why he does game testing for a living. =P Any so it's been like 6 years at least since we'd seen him and it was SO good to see him!

So we had a fun time with my family in Pueblo. We played Pirate's Cove, a fun board game that my parents got Harp. =P Anyone want to play when we get back home? =) We watched Wall-E because they hadn't seen it. They got the girls these huge Wall-E posters to paint and the kids had a blast. I sorta chilled out about paint. =P Maybe I can even handle it at home now, lol. The easel definitely made a difference though. You can't exactly stick your entire sleeve in the painting with an easel. =P

Emily LOVES the dinosaur/cupcake shirt Harp got her on shirt woot. I only brought 3 sets of clothes, not counting the dinosaur shirt, so I wash it a lot and she wears it over her other shirt on most days. One day when we were in Pueblo, she asked Aunt Laurin to get it for her so she could snuggle it for her nap. =P So cute!

My mom asked Laine what she thought of her (my mom's) boots. She said "They're sharp!" She had to have gotten that from my dad! =P

Today Lainey was all wet and I asked her what happened. "I spilled myself...all over the water!" lol She mixes up her word order sometimes and it's so cute.

Last night, I took Bekah potty and she pooped but then I took her quickly to put other clothes on because it was SO cold and I didn't flush it. While I was dressing her, Quin's dog went in there and ate it out of the toilet. EEEEW! Harp was on the phone at the time so he didn't know what was going on. At bedtime, Em said we should pray for Laine (she had a fever last night and wanted to go to bed even though we were opening presents) and for Quin's dogs. Harp prayed for Laine and then for Quin's dogs and Emily whispered "I meant Quin's dog that ate Bekah's poop out of the potty." LOL Harper just cracked up.

Okay this is long, huh? I'll stop for now. =) Later!

Randomness & Why I Am Not Blogging =)

Hey! Well I haven't read blogs in a loooong time - sorry. I saw on Facebook that I was tagged by Dana but I actually don't think I have pics on the laptop. I will look though. =P

We are in Colorado. We got here yesterday and we'll be back home sometime before Em's birthday (Jan 1). We're hoping to be at Jim & Tatum's for New Year's Eve! =) They are going to be playing games and they are too fun. It would be sad to miss out. =P We're in Pueblo with my parents and sister right now.

Lainey never answers the question why. You ask her "Why is your face messy?" She says "Because my face a messy!" Or "Why are you so sleepy?" "Because I a so sleepy!" =P It's cute. We ask her why all the time just to hear her do it. =P

Lainey cuteness:
gussert = dessert
yorgurt = yogurt

When Laine pretends to talk on the phone she always says "I a talkin' about can you watch my baby?" That is so funny to me because they so rarely have someone watch them! And nobody has ever watched Bekah. But the girls are always asking me to babysit their stuffed animals while they "go to work." Hilarious!

Lainey recognizes lots of letters. Today my mom took her potty and Laine said "I pooped an S!" lol My mom said it really did look like an S. =P

Bekah's new nickname is Squinky (rhymes with Twinkie).

Oh before we left Derby we met with Pete DeGraaf. He's the guy that was running for State Rep (he won) that I took pics of a while ago. He's a financial counselor and we went to ask him questions about starting a business and saving for college and whatnot. He said don't put college money in a college account because it will keep you from getting scholarship money. He said put it toward your house and keep a personal record of what you owe to your kids and pay them interest. And he told us how to pay our car loan off at 0% interest so we're going to. Nifty. We're glad we went. He said it was cool to be counseling someone that was being proactive because he's usually counseling people with problems. I'm glad he was happy to meet with us. =P He's a really nice guy. Anyway... =)

Well our power supply didn't come before we left Derby so we're going to have to track it and then ask someone to get it off our doorstep (any volunteers?) sometime. =P Oh Harper also ordered some electronic thingie for his car to test sensors and stuff and that didn't make it before we left either. =\ Oops!

Okay I think I'm going to try to take a little nap before all my kiddos are awake. Hmm or maybe have a half caf. =P

Bekah's been nursing more often here and I'm thinking it's just the altitude change. I've been drinking a lot more water, too. Maybe we'll get used to it in a few days.

Tonight my mom is having her jewelry group over for dinner, so I am excited to meet the people that I hear about all the time. =) And I'm going to go get Nana and bring her.

Oh! I wanted to blog this... Today Em hit Lainey in the head with a 1-lb weight and she got a big lump. =P A little while later, I found her alone and crying in the front room. She would only tell me that she was sad, but she didn't want to tell me why. She tried telling me she was sad because she was just tired, but I knew something was up. So after a few times of "Girl, I love you and I want to know what's on your heart!" she finally let it out that she was sad because she had hit Lainey Joy on the head. That makes this mommy's heart so glad! Not that I want her to keep feeling bad about it, but I am so glad that it affected her conscience! Whew! It's good to know that she actually cared about what she had done. I love that girl!

Y'ello

Hey! Well last night Bekah did great! She had kind of a rough time yesterday and has a little today. I don't think she pooped yesterday and she finally did today and it was a little weird. I wonder if the chocolate had such a long-lasting effect because of that (or caused that)... I don't know but she's asleep right now so that's good!

Last night we went to our church's thing, Gifts of the Heart. It drives me crazy every year that it's of and not from. I don't know what Gifts of the Heart is supposed to mean. It just sounds weird to me. And doesn't make any sense. But whatever. It was fun and the kids have really grown up a lot in the last year. It's neat to see their talents develop.

This morning we went out in the freeezing cold to get me vitamins. I only have one left and I take 3 a day so I had to. We tried on Friday last week but we decided to meet H for lunch instead. Anyway Emily was so excited to tell Miss Bonnie (the lady that owns the health food store here) about her woot shirt. =P She forgot to tell her and wanted to go back in to tell her so I let her. =P It was cute how she was telling her I wrapped it inside a tube and she was like what?? It's a tube! But then she saw that there was a shirt in it. =P It was a present from Daddy - the first kid-sized woot shirt. =P A dinosaur holding a cupcake. She loves it.

We gave the kids their gifts from us yesterday and they were more like "oh, that's cool" than really excited about anything. lol It was cute. I'm glad they aren't crazy about getting stuff. They did enjoy everything a whole lot later on and they keep saying thank you for everything over and over. =P They love that fish game and Hannah gave them Elefun and they love that too. =)

Oh yesterday we were playing Elefun and Lainey said "Haffa clean up!!" and put all the butterflies back in the elephant. Then we started playing again and she looked distressed and said "Haffa clean up!" while we were still playing! lol That is too funny. She is my messy child yet she couldn't stand that the butterflies were getting all over the floor again. =P She got over it after that game - I guess she just needed to realize that they were supposed to be all over the floor. Haha! Then she had fun with it too. =)

Harp and I decided not to get each other stuff this year but then we did get each other LittleBigPlanet. =P Which I turned out to really like and Em and Laine like it too. We went and got 2 more controllers so we can all play together. =) We made Laine a level that just has her go back and forth down ramps so she learned how to move her guy left and right. We'll have to make her a level to learn to jump. =)

Anyway the girls and I got some red minky out and made a cape for Harper's sackboy. I need to take a pic now that I fixed him up. He looks more like sackboy now. =P And he's really cute in his cape. Harper almost always puts a cape on his sackboy when we play the game, so he loved it. The girls were more excited about giving him his cape I think than they were about getting their own presents. And they were super-excited to give Hannah her presents. Em made her a necklace and bracelet at the bead store. I let her pick the beads and everything. =P She picked nice beads, too. Anyway yeah. That's all. =) Later!

Source

That was part of an article I read here. There are sources cited at the end of the article. I was having issues getting out of the quote block...

Messed Up

The Belgian government’s authority over the health and education of its children is deemed by many as a mark of progress toward a “better society” where children’s rights are properly recognized and protected. Those that satisfy the government’s standards live in peace. For the rest, there is no peace, and sometimes, they are not even allowed to live.
Since 2002, Belgium has allowed doctors to terminate the lives of infants under the age of 12 months if they feel the baby is somehow disabled or deficient, and is likely to suffer in life as a result.¹⁴ More than half of the Belgian babies who die before they are a year old are killed by deliberate medical intervention.¹⁵ In 16% of cases, parental consent was not even considered.¹⁶ To put these numbers in perspective, the CIA World Fact Book estimates that roughly 106,000 babies are born in Belgium each year.¹⁷ Even using conservative estimates of Belgium’s rate of assisted-suicide in infants, one can estimate that some 470 children will die before they celebrate their first birthday. Of these 470, more than 200 will die not from natural causes, but from direct medical intervention. Forty (40) of them will die regardless of their parents’ wishes, objections, or pleadings. Such a program might produce a “better society,” but one is left in horror at the ultimate sacrifice of innocent babies.

Unfortunately, the program has been deemed so “successful” in Belgium that in March 2008, the government began considering legislation that would also make assisted-suicide available to teenagers and younger children who are terminally-ill.¹⁸

Life

Hey! Well the girls finally stopped coughing yesterday. We bundled up and went out for a Starbucks date and then for a carriage ride at Bradley Fair. It was a fun night. =) Harp got sick yesterday but he still wanted to go do that stuff. He stayed home from church this morning though.

I took the girls to church and Em had issues - not being quiet. So Laine stayed with CK in the nursery and then went to Sunday School while Em and Bekah and I went home and Em had to sit still and quietly on the couch for 30 min. Ended up extending it 5 min when she didn't stay still... But last time we had to do that, it really made a difference. She started sitting still and quietly. I think the issue this morning was because we missed the last two weeks and they haven't had to sit still for that long. I don't know. Anyway Em hates to miss Sunday School.

Well Bekah had been just fine for over a week - ever since I started my food diary. I stopped doing it because she was fine all the time and figured it must have been that we didn't swaddle her or something. It happened again last night though. She's still having a rough time. I took a sip of Lainey's hot chocolate last night, not even thinking, to see if it was too hot for her to drink. Chocolate is definitely on the NO list. I can't believe such a tiny bit can do that but that's all I can think that it would be. Unless Starbucks coffee has something in it that my coffee at home doesn't have. I didn't order a frap in case it was something in the frap base that bothered her. I just had an iced latte, which I didn't like, but I think it's just brewed coffee and milk and ice. So I don't think it could have been that. So I guess it was the chocolate. Bek and I were up until 1ish. I don't think I even fell asleep by the time it started up again at 1:20 and we were on the couch downstairs until 2:50. I did fall asleep for some of that time. I put her down and at 5, Em woke up totally freaking out that we didn't pray and sing before bed. We did. She must have had a dream or something. But she was totally flipping out. It woke Bekah up so I nursed Bekah. Sometime after Em got back in bed, Lainey came out and had pooped. She asked Harp to change her because I was nursing Bek and he told her to get him a diaper. She left and never came back. lol Weird! He fell asleep and I didn't know he hadn't changed her, so she slept the rest of the night in it. Bek woke up again at 7, was not happy but didn't want to nurse. So I snuggled her in my bed and she was fine. Now she's supposed to be napping but she's just crying so I'm going to go get her... =(

Computer Probs & Pics

Hey! Well our desktop just randomly turned off yesterday and won't turn back on. Thinking it's just the power supply, we ordered a new one... We'll see! =)

Today Emmy and I went and took pics of Emily and Whitney and Caleb and Eden. It was fun and Emmy was a good assistant. =) I took her to hold the reflector for me. =P In the family pics, the kids didn't end up where I had originally put them, but Eden was much happier with Mommy, so whatever works, right? =P I'm hoping my edits turn out okay because this screen isn't really great for editing pics. And there is a lot of glare! You'll have to let me know if they are yucky and where... (In the black, it might not be 100% black is what I mean - so let me know if it's not or if you see brush streaks in it.)

Thermometer Mess

If you have a Galileo thermometer, put it somewhere that there is NO chance of someone knocking it over and breaking it! Seriously! Harp broke ours and whatever was in that thing ate our furniture, ate the paint off the wall and baseboard, ate the underside of the carpet, so the carpet is loose in that corner of the room now, and dissolved our vacuum cleaner. It is serious stuff! He is still cleaning it up. One of the little bubble things busted too and last I checked he wasn't able to get it out of the carpet. Good thing this all happened behind our dresser. =P

Eve

Here is Emily's picture of Eve. =P So cute! =)

The girls are watching Wall-E. This morning, we cleaned the bathrooms, swept the kitchen, sorted wheat berries (I still don't know what the pirates are), made bread (one loaf and then different fun shapes with the other half of the recipe), swept again, mopped, ate bread, swept again... =P Then Lainey peed. I was sick of dealing with that floor so I just wiped it up. =)

Anyway I ditched this post when Harp got home so now it's been a whole day and I am just going to hit post. =)

Cuties

I was looking at a friend's Facebook pics and found this! lol She drew Emily and Lainey (from a picture, I'm guessing) and I never knew it. It was kinda funny to look through her drawings and then see my kids!

Glimpses of a Wise Girl

Today I was changing the sheets on the girls' bunk bed. I put some flannel sheets on Em's that the Nusses had given us. Emily was not thrilled about them - especially the pillowcase. She said it wasn't soft. She looked really sad and kind of cried about it a little and then she asked me if she could please have a different pillowcase. I did happen to have another pillowcase that went with the sheets on the trundle bed, so I let her use that one. She commented that the sheets were still not soft. I went ahead and changed the sheets on Laine's bed and Em said "Mom? I love you. I'm going to be happy and sleep on those sheets even though they aren't soft, because that's what you put on my bed." Whoa!

That reminds me that yesterday we were getting ready to go to Walmart and she was having a hard time with her car seat buckle. She asked me if I could get out and help her, so I did. When I got back there, she said "I started to freak out but then I thought what would be a better way to say it? So I just asked you to help me!" lol It was cute.

3 Cuties

Hey Again

Hi! =) This morning Nancy called and she was able to bring over some dresses she made for her granddaughters so I could do the buttonholes. The sewing machine my parents got me is the awesomest thing ever and it does automatic buttonholes. You put in the button so it knows the right size and you just pick the shape of buttonhole you want. Yeah. Anyway it was so nice to actually see somebody. =P Emily was very excited to show Nancy her level on LittleBigPlanet. Harp made "Emily's training ground" and Em can pass it by herself now. =P Harp came home for lunch and played it with Emmy right before Nancy got here.

Other news: I finished my sackboy. Before you get all excited, he doesn't look that much like sackboy. I had looked all over the internet for a pattern but didn't find one I liked. There are two for sale on etsy and they didn't really look like sackboy - their heads were round! His head is supposed to be kind of lopsided with a flatter top. So I decided to make my own. I didn't feel like ripping things out and taking forever on it, so I wrote down my pattern and made notes about what I will change next time. That way I at least get something done (even if he's not quite sackboyish enough) and feel like I can accomplish the next one. =P Even though I'm not 100% happy with it, I do think he looks a lot more like sackboy than any of the ones I found online! (There were more than the two on etsy but most people wouldn't share their pattern for fear of being sued - he's trademarked.) So yay for me. =P Bigger head, gonna change a few things with the mouth (maybe not even have it open because I like the stitched mouth too)... And the arms and legs need work too I think. =P Oh I never did his zipper or the whip stitching in light brown. I don't have light brown yarn so I will have to get some and do it. So I guess I didn't finish my sackboy. Oh, well! Eew, and his fingers are bent back funny in the picture. lol Oh well.

Baby Update

The last day I blogged about her, she did go to sleep fine at 10. But that was only after hours of discomfort. If she's going to have a bad tummy, I definitely prefer it at a normal hour! =P But then yesterday was perfect. She was just fine all day long. And I wonder if being swaddled had something to do with it. We used to always swaddle her when we put her down and we haven't for the last week or so. Maybe that has just comforted her enough that she was able to sleep? I know now that it isn't nuts. I'm not sure about the eggs still, but I'm definitely going to wait a while before I eat another egg. I'm second-guessing the chocolate too but I'm still going to wait a very long while before I eat chocolate again. She is happy again today. Yay! Oh and I took pics of the big girls this morning (and more of Bekah!). =)

Hehe

Harper is putting Emily through LittleBigPlanet school. =P She gets so excited every time she accomplishes what he's teaching her.

Janie-Bot

So I haven't taken pictures in a week!! I do that whenever my kids get sick... Life just sorta stops. Poor Bekah! =P But I made up for it by taking good pics today (see the toenails?). Still no pics of the big girls, though. Sorry!

Bekah, Bekah

Well. Since Sat night last week when I was up until 4 and did the Aussie blog party, I want to say there has only been one night that Bekah went to sleep right away when I put her down at 10. She's had little tummy troubles during the day every once in a while - fairly major one bc of the frap and today a fairly major one. Both times I put her in a sling and she was able to sleep through it. It just seems to all come at night though and I don't know why. It's definitely tummy trouble though. The one night she went right to sleep, I didn't eat any eggs for breakfast. I don't know if it can make a difference that much later in the day or not. But I did have a coffee (half caf) at 11:15 and 4:15 on the day she DID sleep at night. So what's the deal? I had an egg this morning - the thought didn't occur to me until I was eating it to check and see if I had eaten an egg on the day she slept. It's weird. I'm ready for it to be over. I don't like being tired during the day. And I feel so sorry for her. =( I can tell she just feels horrible. Some nights it only lasts until 11 or 12, some until 1 or 2. I have no idea what's doing it. Maybe it's just totally random and has nothing to do with what I eat? Maybe she's just a baby. =) At least she's a cute one and I like to snuggle her. But I fear if this goes on a whole lot longer, I'm not going to be enjoying the midnight snuggles. I'm going to be way too tired to think about anything but sleeeeeeeep. Well... We'll see how tonight goes. She's had a rough time since about 4, so maybe all the roughness will be done by 10! That would be cool.

Anyway... We had roast today. Mmmmmm. One of my favorite things ever! I went to a craft show this morning with Judy for an hour or so and the guys watched the kids (not together bc mine were sick) except for Bekah. I took her so Harp could take the girls to the pet store to get Lucy crickets but they were really snotty and coughing so they just stayed home. I didn't get anything but I am seriously considering being a part of it next year. There were SO many people there because it was free to get in. It was just packed. I don't know what I'd make. Maybe baby slings. Everyone kept asking me about the one I had. I would want it to be something I could bring at least Em with me to help at. I wouldn't like being away all day. I have seriously mellowed to have been perfectly happy with going this morning with Judy. I used to hate being away from my kids even for an hour, lol. They have been a little emotional lately being sick (Lainey is on day 5 today)... Maybe I was only okay because they have been so needy this week. =P Ha!

Tonight, Lainey snorted and I said "You aren't my two-year-old! You are a scary snort!!" And she said "No, I Yainey!" =P Then right before bed, Harper called her something (I can't remember what atm) and she said "No, I a scary snort!" =P

Oh, last night, Harp went to a get-together at Dustin's. I couldn't go bc of sick kiddos, so the kids and I went to the church and I spread my stuff out and finished piecing Laine's quilt and finished up something else I was working on. (I'll tell ya in Jan, if I remember.) ;) I took the kids' big tent and the laptop and let them camp out and watch movies in there. I didn't want them running around anyway being sick and especially getting their yuckies on the toys and stuff at church. So they were pretty much confined to the tent. =P Laine coughed until she gagged and puked twice - got it on her shoes and Bekah's jacket... They spilled at least 4 glasses of water and a whole plate of green beans. Hehe! It's kind of amazing that I got stuff done, huh? =P Anyway... I'm supposed to be getting Bekah's swaddling blankets out of the dryer, but I was killing time because they weren't dry when it stopped and I ran it some more. They're probably dry now. Later! =)

Gnarly

That's such a funny word. One of the hows of the day on our Google page was how to split gnarly firewood. I knew a kid from CA that used gnarly to describe everything. Anyway...

Yesterday we put up the tree. We got out this snow globe and I laughed and said "So who's going to break the snow globe this year?" Em said "Not me!!" And then "Why did you say that?" I told her we have a tradition of breaking a snow globe every year - at least, it's happened for the last two. Not five minutes later, Em knocked it off the end table and it broke all over the floor. I laughed and laughed and she looked at me like that's not something to laugh about! Haha! I think we're done owning snow globes. =P

Today we took Bekah for a checkup with the pediatrician. We like him. =) She weighs 10lb 11oz and she's doing great. Her eyes don't track together very well but he said 99% of the time, it's no big deal, and at her age, it's still acceptable. But he'll check it out again next month. He said one of his kids was cross-eyed for months. =P After the doctor's visit, we went for a hot chocolate date at Starbucks. I had a peppermint mocha frap and I thought it tasted really really fake. I won't get it again. But I was glad for the caffeine. =P

Laundry day today and tomorrow starts our weekend, so I need to get some stuff cleaned up and finish making some presents I have almost finished. Later!

Drawing

At my baby shower, Tatum had these bees that she made out of egg shells. She gave one to each of my girls to bring home and as soon as we got home, Laine showed hers to Harp. He took it, not knowing it was an eggshell, and smashed it in his hand. Lainey was SO sad and he felt horrible. The next day, Laine was talking about her broken bee and Em said "I'll draw you a bee!" First, she drew the letter B as a joke. =P Then she drew a bee for Lainey. I have it around somewhere - I meant to scan it. It was really sweet.

A couple of nights ago, Lainey had a colored pencil in her hand when she was playing with Harp. He has this thing about points pointing at his eyes (even from across the room, he'll move or go move whatever is pointing at his eyes) and Lainey accidentally poked him with the pencil, which freaked him out about his eyes. =P He snatched the pencil out of her hand and stabbed her in the lip with it. She cried and cried and he was telling her he was so sorry. She said, crying, "I'm so sorry you broke my bee." lol

Last night Emmy drew Eve, from WALL-E. It was SO cute!! I couldn't believe how good her drawing was. I wanted to scan it, but she sealed it up in an envelope to send to Grandma A. Terrie, you'll have to scan it for me. =P It's adorable. She put the stamp on and they went to the mailbox (there is one big mail thing for our whole street, like for an apartment complex - that seems to be really common around here) and mailed it last night.

Bekah has been doing great! I guess at least I have a list of things I can eat! Today we went to the doctor's office to drop off Harper's flu vaccine study packet and I had them do a weight check. They said 10lb 10oz but it was still very tipped so my guess is 10lb 11 or 12oz. Which is good because our Wii balance board had it looking like she lost weight over the last week. We got an appointment for a well baby check with the girls' pediatrician. They had to contact him and make sure he would see a new patient. I guess he's in demand. =P We like him.

I'm crocheting a sackboy for Harp. His head and body are done and I've started on a leg.

Oh, Lainey is sick. Nadia came down with something after they played all Thanksgiving afternoon and we thought we weren't getting it, but we did. It sounds horrible. Nancy said they thought Nadia had croup. Harp said that he read the flu shot can prevent croup, which makes me almost glad Em and I got it. =P

Okay I ditched this post for a while day... I'm supposed to take Em today for her 2nd one, but the weather is icky, Laine is sick, and the health dept is supposed to call me back today about getting a thimerosal-free shot. So I'm not going.

Hey Yo

This morning we went to Pump It Up. First time since Bekah came along. =) Alyssa and Vickie (Scott's mom) brought Hannah & Joshua and it was fun. The girls were so excited to see Hannah again. They haven't seen each other all that much since the babies came. And since it got so stinkin' cold outside (and it's not even really cold yet).

Then to meet Daddy for lunch. The first two places we went were closed. One is always closed on Monday and the other was closed for good. =P Ate at Freddy's Frozen Custard. Then home for naps. I did Bible study and pieced together the top half of Lainey's quilt while the girls slept.

Bekah has had a great day today. I've started keeping a food/baby journal to try to figure out what makes her tummy hurt.

Some funnies from the other night: we were playing with play food and Em said the ice cream was only for kids, but then Lainey gave me some. I asked her if I was a kid and she said "No, you're a guy!!" And the other night when we prayed before bed she said thank you for her "guys." I guess that's Harp and me? Haha!

The same night playing with the ice cream, Laine gave me some and said "Here's some ice cream. It's from my boobies!" What?? lol I think it's because when Mike and Felicity were here Mike was telling us how Ben and Jerry's wants to make ice cream with human milk.

I never blogged that, but Mike and Lissy came the week before Thanksgiving. They're the ones that moved to Hawaii over a year ago. They have a little girl now and it was so fun to meet her! And her middle name is Jane, too. =P

Okay Harp and Em are playing LittleBigPlanet and I want to get in on the action. Later!

Bekah Pics

I call her Bekah here and when talking to other people, but when I'm talking to her I call her Jane or Janie half the time. Or Janie-Bot. =)

Quilt & Sister Pics

=)

I Partyed hard at the Scrapware Blog Party

Gas Pains = Aussie Loot

Oh. My. Goodness. When I hear people talk about being up with their baby all night, I think didn't you try just putting them in bed? They'll fall asleep! Well Bekah Jane had big time gas pains from 11 until 3-something. They only bothered her like every 10 minutes but it was rotten. =(

I remembered that there was a blog party at scrapware this morning. It was 7-9pm for them, in Australia, but 2-4am here. I was kinda bummed that it was going to be in the middle of the night when I saw the post about it last week. But I had never done a blog party so I didn't really care that much. =P But anyway Bekah was keeping me up anyway, so I did it! My first blog party. =P And I won a bunch of scrapware stuff. And learned some Aussie words. =P

dummy - pacifier
lollies - goodies
textas - markers (felt-tip)
Chrissy - Christmas
prezzies - presents
bubby/bubba - baby

There were others that I didn't ask about or figure out, lol! Every other sentence they wrote had a funny word in it. =P

Corn & Stuff

Tonight Harper was playing with Lainey and tickling her and stuff and he picked her up and did this thing like he was nibbling on her belly. She said "you eat me a corn!!!" LOL She thought it was hilarious. She ran around the foot of the bed and said "I not 'tending a corn!" (I'm not pretending to be corn!) Hehehe!

Well today was my birthday. =P We went to PF Chang's for dinner and then to Cold Stone for ice cream. If you aren't signed up for their birthday club, you get a free ice cream on your birthday. Actually it's a coupon good for a week before and after your birthday. =P Then on the way home Harp and the girls went into Dillon's (Kroger) to buy me flowers. =) Em really wanted to buy me flowers. They are pretty and Em put them on my nightstand. She made my bed this morning so tonight she was pretending our room is our hotel room because it has flowers and she made the bed. =) So cute!

When we got to Cold Stone, Em ran ahead to look at the ice cream and then ran back to me and said "They have egg nog ice cream!!!" I asked how she knew and went to see if they really did (I wanted it at Braum's the other night but they had just run out). I got over there and she pointed to the label that said egg nog and said "See?" So I asked her to read some other labels. I wanted her to read cheesecake. She stared at it for a little bit, just intimidated by the size of it I think. So I told her I'd give her a quarter if she could figure it out all by herself. She wasn't all that interested. But after we had our ice cream she wanted to try again. So she went back and was like "Well, there's a c-h and then two e's..." I said "Girl, just say the sounds and you'll figure it out." She looked at it for like ONE second and said "Cheesecake!!" Sometimes I don't know how her brain works. She stares at it for a long time and then when she gets it it takes one second and she doesn't even sound it out? Anyway then I pointed to a few more and she read pumpkin, strawberry, and mint. Pumpkin is the only one she sounded out. So when we got home I gave her some quarters. =P We had egg nog ice cream, btw, and it was so good! And Harp got raspberry sorbet with gummy bears in it.

Black Friday didn't seem to be a big thing here. I ran to Kohl's this morning because they had hooded bath towels for $7.99. I had already gotten Em one for her birthday at Target for $15 - returning that! I got Em and Lainey towels at Kohl's. So they'll be for Christmas now I guess. =P Maybe I'll have to change around what Em's getting for Christmas and for her birthday... =) Then later we went to Walmart to get a turkey and stuff for a Thanksgiving meal, which we're going to cook tomorrow. =P There was no line at Kohl's and I don't think Harp had to wait in line at Walmart either. I wasn't there when he checked out because I ran into Diane and her son was selling popcorn for Boy Scouts and he and I went out to their car so I could buy popcorn from him. Not really crowded either. Walmart wasn't even as busy as a normal Saturday, I don't think. Kohls was busier but they had more checkers.

Oh today Harp and I got Little Big Planet for each other for Christmas. It's going to be the only thing we get each other and he's been wanting it for a loooong time. We played some today and it's pretty fun. And I want to make some sackboys now! =P

Happy Thanksgiving and 116

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a fun day at Grammie's house. Grammie is our pastor's mom and she is so sweet to always invite us to their family get-togethers. =) I love that we know so many of the aunts and uncles (the pastor's siblings & spouses) and some of their kids. It's just fun. =)

I keep forgetting to blog that Emily's new favorite big number is 116. I guess she decided that 115 wasn't quite big enough. =P

I finished stitching the binding on Em's quilt today while we played Settlers and Carcassonne at Grammie's. Yay! Emmy is so happy about it. Now I need to get to work on Lainey's! =)

I got fabric to make Em her wedding dress for her birthday. The princess dress thing has become a tradition and when I asked Em what color she wanted it to be, she said she'd like a white wedding dress.

A new consequence for lies and whining has made a huge difference in our house: vinegar. My friend Emily told me she puts vinegar on a rag and cleans their mouth out if her kids let bad things come out of their mouth - including whining. I talked to Harp and we decided to give it a try. They HATE the vinegar. Em has caught herself so many times starting to have a bad attitude and then changing it right away. Yay!

Baby cries. Talk to ya later! =P

Pics

Emmy took the ones that aren't of her and Laine took the pic of Em. I still had the camera on the tripod from taking the pirate pics. =) Oh and I cropped them. =P

Bekah Pics =)

At Chuck E Cheese and Bekah

Zoo Pics

Bekah

Bekah slept through the night last night. I woke her up this morning after 8 hours! I'm sure that's fine for her 'cause she's a chunk and a half and gaining weight just fine. But I don't know if I'll have milk supply problems if I let her do that this early (she's 4 weeks and 2 days old). She's been going 6 hours pretty often and the longest was about 7 hours before last night.

You Know You're A Dork When...

...your 3-year-old says "Chuck E Cheese. Hey!!! That alliterates! 'Cause it's ch, ch!"

Lest you think I'm abusing my kid by cramming high school English down her throat... I promise I'm not trying to "teach" her this stuff. She knows what alliteration is because she used to tell me things rhymed when they really alliterated. So I gave her the right word for it. I'm actually surprised she remembered it because she hasn't ever told me anything alliterated before and she hasn't called an alliteration a rhyme in a long time either.

But I will accept the accusation of teaching her high school math, lol. There is this They Might Be Giants song about polygons (it's called The Nonagon - it's really cute if you want to google it - your kids will never be confused about those prefixes because they're all associated with the number of sides in the song) and one day we were drinking water and examining our glasses. Emily asked how many sides they had, so we counted and there were 10. So I taught her what a decagon is. =P My Geometry students at Longview High couldn't have told you what that is!

The other night, we were getting the kids ready for bed and Laine started feeling my belly squish. She said it was soft and then she said I had a baby in my belly. I told her I did have a baby in my belly but it came out and it was Bekah Jane. She pointed to my belly again and said "You have baby in your belly. You have big, big a baby in your belly!" LOL I guess I have too much belly squish to not be pregnant. =P

Reminders

I heard "It's not lotion. It's not lotion. It's not lotion." coming from the bathroom. Lainey was rinsing the soap off her hands. =P We got a stool last week and now that she can reach, she's been getting soap, thinking it's lotion, and rubbing it into her hands. I keep telling her it's not lotion. =P

That reminds me that when Harper's mom was here she said Lainey got some crayons and said "Only on paper that Mommy gives me. Only paper that Mommy gives me." lol

She is kind of a flaky girl. =P She calls herself dingy because one day I was telling Harp that my friend Casy called her dingy (I don't know how to spell that, but it sounds like dinghy, as in the boat) and Lainey thought it was a funny word. She kept saying it and cracking up, which only made it more funny to us... =P

This was all weeks before Bekah was born. I had told Casy how when Em was little I could tell her to do anything and she would just do it. Lainey is not the same way. I told her that morning I gave Lainey this little figurine and asked her to go put it on the changing table (which is where it always was before we got new carpet). She said "okay!" and started walking into my bathroom. I said "Laine, the changing table is that way." She was like "Oh!" like she really just forgot where she was going. And she headed for toy room. Then I figured she had done it, didn't think about it at all, until I was in toy room a couple of hours later. It wasn't there! I asked her where it was and she said "I don't know" like she had never seen whatever I was talking about. =P I said "You don't know? I asked you to put it on the changing table!" She still looked a little confused. Then like 10 seconds later, she remembered and she jumped up and opened the middle drawer of the changing table to show me where it was. =P Yes, she's weird! She's going to be the kid that puts the ice cream away in the microwave. =)

What's weird is she is really good at cleaning up. I tell her to pick something up (even a bunch of somethings) and she's at it until it's done. And she's quick about it too. She picks up better than her big sister... =P

A Few Funnies, Stuff

Have I said Emily has SO MANY QUESTIONS? lol, She cracks me up! She asked me how the leaves turn yellow and red. I told her I didn't know exactly how it worked, but God made them to change when it starts to get cold because he likes it that way. =P Then she said "Well, maybe they are just green on one side and then yellow or red on the other side and now we are just seeing the other side." lol She really wants an answer as to how! I guess I need to learn something about plants... =)

Yesterday, she asked me "Mom, where do your boogers go when you go ::big sniff::?" She did this huge sniff that just cracked me up. LOL Such a funny girl...

Em was eating dinner the other day and said "Hey! 'Stop' backwards is 'post!'" She kept the 'st' sound together, but she said 'post' with a long o, like the real word. I thought that was pretty cool that she figured that out in her head. And funny that that's what she thinks about at dinner... =P

I just crocheted Bekah one baby bootie. I'm waiting for her to wake up and try it on before I make #2. I didn't have the right size crochet hook and there wasn't a gauge and I never use the same size as the pattern because I crochet tightly. So they might be small. They are Mary Janes and they're pretty cute! =P Hmm, actually it's time to get my Bekah Jane for some milk. Later!

A Piratey Morning

CK had a birthday party for me last night and Harp made a list for us to do a video scavenger hunt. We had a blast. And I think the silliness from last night affected Harper. =P This morning Em and I were playing pretending we were at the beach and then Em wanted to be a pirate. We had this package of eye patches that Harp bought in August to take to work on National Talk Like A Pirate Day... =P And then forgot them that day. So I opened them and we were going to be pirates. But then Harp got involved and we all ended up in piratey clothes with mustaches and goatees. And the camera on a tripod. =P I made Bekah's eye patch really quickly out of sticky-back felt (two pieces with the elastic sandwiched between them). =P You have to zoom in on this and see Bekah's cuteness. =P

Bad Stuff

LOL

Today I was quilting while the kids napped. I was pretty close to done with the part I was working on when they got up so I let Em play in the living room while Laina stayed with me (they have been getting into trouble together or fighting SO much for the last few days that I decided to split them up since I wouldn't be watching). Em came running in with a plate with a chalk egg on it (it's sidewalk chalk that my mom got around Easter) and handed it to me and said "Here, I took all the good stuff out of this." I said "You took the good stuff out? This is the bad stuff?" She said "Yeah. All the good stuff is out of it. This is McDonald's." Hahahaha!! I laughed so hard! She has asked me a few times recently why we never eat at McDonald's. And then that's always followed with "Well, why do other people eat at McDonald's?" lol She is too funny.

Cawy Nort

Em's favorite book right now is Are You My Mother? She reads it over and over and over. And never fails to crack up on the page that says "Oh no! You are not my mother! You are a scary snort!" =P

So when Bekah snorted the other day, I said "Oh no! You are not my baby! You are a scary snort!" The girls thought it was so funny and it's become a new Abbot joke. Lainey is so cute when she says it because she can't say scary OR snort and it sounds like "cawy nort!" Hehe!!

Hehe

Dana's post about a bag of chips being spilled... Somehow reminded me to blog this. Whenever Lainey has an accident and Harp is home, he says "Lainey! Why did you peepee in your panties?!" And she says "Um. Because I peepeed in my panties." lol So the other morning, I was feeding Bekah when Lainey woke up and she came in and said "I peepeed in my diaper. Because I peepeed in my diaper." LOL, I think she's sick of being asked... =P

Fun Stuff

Hey! So yesterday we drove up to Newton - about 45 minutes away... To go to the Carter's outlet. I love, love, love the Carter's outlet. =P Anyway I don't ever go because it's so far away that by the time you spend all the gas money to get there you might as well just go to JC Penney or whatever and maybe pay a little more. But they had some onesies at the outlet that went with some outfits my mom got at the mall while she was here and they are SO cute that they were worth driving up there for them (I called ahead to see if they had them). =) Bekah is now well-outfitted for the cold. =P And oh-so cute!

I didn't give the kids naps, except for letting them fall asleep in the car. The idea was to put them to bed a little early because we had Cori and Aaron over to play Carcassonne and have dessert (which was fudge but somehow it didn't work out like it did last time and it was just tasty fudge soup - okay it wasn't exactly soup but you had to eat it with a spoon!). We stopped by the scrapbook store for some ink that I needed to finish birth announcements and a Christmas gift. Lainey picked some flowers and brads for Emily for Christmas (Em stayed in the car - the whole front of the store is glass so I could see her so I didn't care that she didn't want to come in). That reminds me that a few weeks ago we saw these pink snowman baby silverware sets at Target for $1 and Em wanted to get them for Bekah SO bad. I let her get them for her for Christmas. =P She is so excited. She already wrapped them all by herself. =)

After Cori and Aaron left, Harp started getting stuff together for green chili for a potluck today. He didn't want to cook the peppers in the fireplace again because it was 10:30 (he did a trial run night before last and did them in the fire) so he steamed them and they were gross. So I ran to Walmart for more and I picked up some presents for the girls. It's rare that I am shopping without them. Emily has been asking for a guitar for a long time and we've been looking at garage sales but it's kind of the end of garage saling. So I got her a pink one for her birthday. She is going to be SO excited. She wants me to make a wedding dress instead of a princess dress for her birthday. =) And I got her that fishing game with the little fish that open and close their mouths... I loved that when I was little. My parents actually probably still have it somewhere but oh well. She saw a travel version at Hobby Lobby the other day and thought it was cool but she doesn't know there is a big one. And it will be easy for Lainey to play too I think. Anyway... Oh I got Lainey a Dust Buster for Christmas. =P She is always bummed when I vacuum that Emily has a vacuum and she doesn't, but I do not want two vacuums. I don't know where I'd put another! And this one is totally functional and she will be SO happy to clean up anything I ask her to clean up with it! =P She can clean the stairs! Woo hoo! She will love it. =) And it has a charging station you can mount to the wall so I will just keep it in the kitchen by the pantry where she can reach it herself. =) Oh and it's wet/dry so she can't break it as easily, haha! =P Harper said the other day she's not accident-prone, she's disaster-prone. =) Uh huh!!

Okay anyway so today was so nice out! Still is. But we went to the zoo this morning and I planned ahead and took lunch. It was really fun. =) I guess there's not a whole lot to say about the zoo is there? =P Baby lions were cute...

Lainey has this recent obsession with boobies. A couple weeks ago she grabbed some nursing pads, held them up to her chest, and said "I am a Mommy and these are my boobies!" lol And yesterday morning she was running in circles singing "I have boobies!" over and over. (EDIT: Harp corrected me. It was "I yike boobies!") Weird kid! lol She cracks me up. If I hadn't laughed the first time, she probably wouldn't have an obsession. But if anyone might think something's funny, Lainey's gonna do it again.

Okay I should get back to real life... =) My kids are all asleep. I might scrapbook or something.

Busy Day

Hey! So my parents were here until Sat morning. We had a fun time together. =) My dad took some awesome pics, too, which I'll have on here eventually. =P

This morning, we drove into Wichita to take Lainey's toddler bed to Lida. First we stopped by Alejandro's for breakfast burritos because Harp was starving at work. We took him one and we shared the other at Lida's house. We set the bed up for Corli and headed to Hobby Lobby. About 5 minutes from Lida's house, I hear "That's my bed.... That's my bed.... That's my bed..." Lainey coming to the realization that her bed had just been left for Corli. It started out as a simple statement and built into a crying, sobbing "That's my beeeeeeeed!!!!" Kinda funny because she sure hasn't missed it! She loves her bunk bed. =P

Anyway fun at Hobby Lobby. I got lots of stacks with birthday money (I know, it's not my birthday for another week and a half but it was on sale!) and batting for the girls' quilts with a coupon. I spent over $100 total on those two quilts. Yikes. But at least I can make matching pillows, right?

Then we went to the mall because I thought Sears had Bekah's Christmas dress in 3/6 months and I decided I would go ahead and exchange it (hers had a little hole in the bow) but then it was really 6/9 months (I had called earlier - sorry this is all just coming out as I think). So anyway I will call the other store and ask them to look for 3/6 months. They already looked and they don't have 0/3.

Then home to devour lunch and off to a Cookie Bookie. Em is so funny. She cut out this owl mask and the beak to glue on it. All she had left to do was glue the beak on and glue on a popsicle stick. Then she lost the beak and she said she didn't want to finish. She just wasn't going to cut out another beak. Then when she got up to leave she found that she had been sitting on her beak, was really excited, and wanted to finish. It's like if any of her work is wasted, she wants to ditch the whole project. Weird kid!

Oh the baby shower yesterday was fun! Tatum is really creative. And you so can't go wrong with Tastefully Simple's onion onion dip. Or garlic garlic, but she had onion this time. Yum! I filled up on carrots, using them as a vehicle for the dip. =P

Oh and Tatum told me she met Kendi the other day! Too cool! I need to figure out what I'm doing this week and call her! I still haven't met her!

Okay off to play with my baby!

Pics

My dad was reading Em her postcard from Harp's mom in different silly voices. She thought it was hilarious. =)