Sweetness

Once again, I need to make a list of all the cute things I want to remember... I just keep forgetting stuff! =P

Bekah sings the ABC's very well, and then at the end sings "Now I A B C D E, next time won't you sing with me?" =)

Emily has been reading Anne of Green Gables and it's been fun to have reading dates together. =) We went to Starbucks the other day and had a huge free Frap (thank you Dad for the freebie card!) and read our Anne books. I read Anne of Green Gables and I'm on Anne of Avonlea, so we can sit together and read now. =)

Lainey has been writing SO much! I love how kids spell when they are first learning. =) She is LAINEY JOY (with a backwards J) ABET. =) She's doing a great job reading and now she knows OO, EE, and OY and sometimes she knows SH, CH, and TH. =) She is too cute. She will read 7 words with SH in them just fine and then on number 8, she starts sounding out S and H. =P

The girls drew panda bears the other day for art class, although I didn't give them any guidance so I'm not sure "class" is accurate. =) They call it art class if they are allowed to use the art markers. =) I still need to take pics. I have an album on Facebook of pictures they have drawn in art.

Em's in her second math workbook (Singapore has each grade split into two books) and probably 50 pages into it already. I haven't decided yet if I will let her hang out until fall or go ahead and start 2nd grade math this spring.

Bekah loves koalas. It used to be "kowawa" but she is saying her L's now. It's cute to hear her say "Lainey," but I miss "Nay-nay." =) Anyway whenever we go into a bathroom with a Koala changing table, she says "It's a koala bathroom!!" =P Too cute!

Bekah likes singing The B-I-B-L-E. =P "Da B-I-B-L-E, yes dat's a book a me. Stand alone a God. B-I-B-L-E. Bible!!!" She used to sing this over and over and over again. It's been a while since she has now, so she'd probably get more of the sounds in there now. =P But it's still super cute!!

The laser business has been going pretty well. We've gotten a bunch of Christmas orders, so it probably won't stay this busy, but it would be nice if it did! =)

Cuteness & Sadness

Bekah says "I yuh-you, Momma!" all the time. I love her so much!

Bekah's also allllways saying "I'm hungry, Momma!" As soon as she's done eating, she's saying it again. =P She must be growing a ton.

I love reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Bekah. She loves books and asks me to read to her alllll the time, but this book is just extra fun to read to her because of the cute way she says the words I leave out for her. =P We especially love the "but he was still....." "hungry!" part. She used to say "hun-gee" and we thought it was adorable. Then she started trying so hard to say the r and she would say "hun-gray." She usually still does say "hun-graaaayyyyy." Hehe!! =)

Bekah keeps bringing things to Harper and saying "Can you fix it, Daddy?" She is using complete sentences more and more. And her responses are just so funny sometimes. "Why are you doing that?" "Because I want to." lol Alrighty. =P

Last week we went for an ultrasound just for fun. I have been so sick with this pregnancy that we thought for sure nothing was wrong. I had told Harper early on that I didn't want an ultrasound because if I was going to miscarry I didn't want to know ahead of time and have to wait and wait for it. I should have just stuck with that thought because at 9 weeks we found that we lost our baby. I'm 10 weeks now, but not pregnant, but still throwing up and feeling sick and completely grossed out by kitchen smells. I have been crying a lot more this time than last time. Maybe part of that is pregnancy hormones. I am glad Harper is home to take care of the girls and me. I don't know how long it will be before my body figures out what's going on, or how much it will hurt to miscarry this far along. I was only 8 weeks last time.

This morning, I was crying and Bekah came and hugged me and said "Missin' babies?" How sweet is that? She snuggled me and kissed me and said "I'll kiss your hand, Momma!" and grabbed my hand and opened it and kissed my palm. What a cutie pie!!

The girls have been sweet and snuggly for me. =)

Oh the other day we woke up to Emily saying "Laine, don't wash your hands yet! We're still going to crack more eggs!" LOL! Whaaaaat? They were making us scrambled eggs. Emily is a very good scrambled egg cooker, by the way. Hers are better than mine. I don't know why but they always are.

Ha! And we have no TP in our house right now (we have baby wipes, yeah!!) and Lainey is calling from the pot that she is stranded... lol Which reminds me that this morning Lainey was stranded and called out "Iiiii'm straaaaanded!!!" and Bekah was eating breakfast at the kitchen table and called "Iiiiii'm straaanded tooooooooo!" Hahaha! She is SO CUTE!!

It seems like such a huge chore to me right now just to go to the store and get toilet paper. =( I hope after my body figures this out and I lose the placenta and all that that I feel normal again and capable of grocery shopping and stuff. I almost never want to watch a movie but lately I do. I just want to zone out. =\ Harp and I are watching Wives & Daughters, which is long and will last us a couple more nights... Anyway, that's all I can think of to say.

Oh! No also that someone in this neighborhood complained about the smell from the laser. I'm thinking it was probably from when Harp cut MDF when we first moved in because the letter was dated shortly after we moved in. But we don't know if it was that or doing caps. So anyway we found out we're not only in violation of the no bad smells rule, we're also in violation of the covenants because we have a workshop in our garage and cannot park a car in it. Yeeeah. So the laser is going to be moved to Harp's parents' house tomorrow and he will have to go do his lasering from there. He's been getting quite a few orders! It's really starting to pick up. It's not like it will support us or anything yet, but I'd consider it going well. =)

Colorado

So, we are in Colorado! It was a crazy two weeks, packing and still doing school. We had lots of help loading and time to hang out with friends. We planned on loading Saturday and finishing up Sunday and then leaving Monday. It just seems like we never get it all done when we think we will and then we're up late. Not this time! I'm so glad we planned for an extra day. It was perfect. We got to spend Saturday and Sunday night hanging out at the Tumultys' house. We will miss them!! We slept at our house, in sleeping bags. The girls thought that was really fun. =)

We drove Monday and Tuesday. We only got to Bozeman before dark on Monday, so we stopped there. It was only 6:30 our time (7:30 there) when we went to sleep. We woke up at 2:45 (3:45 there) and got back on the road. Right into a snow storm, lol! But it didn't last long. =P We had a good day and got to Greeley at 5 Colorado time. I listened to a Reb Bradley series on Philippians 2:14-15 on the way down, when I was awake enough that it wouldn't put me to sleep. =P It was really good!

Driving through Montana, Lainey said "This is a beautiful, beautiful land." =) It is.

Morning sickness hit hard the day we loaded the truck. It's been a week now and it's been pretty crazy. =P I'm just glad I haven't thrown up anything substantial or gotten meat up my nose. lol I feel awful if I eat anything sweet, which is good for me because I won't be hindering my iron absorption with sugar. =P

Bekah turned 2!!! She is so adorable! She loves that she is two now. When you talk about it, she gets giddy and hops around with a big grin. =) We had her Happy Day Day at Texas Roadhouse. She got to sit on the saddle and they gave her a yee-haw. =P And cake. =)

She is bringing me "Sop-sops" right now. I have no idea what the word is supposed to mean, but it is Cars. It might be Lightning McQueen. She has pointed out "Sop-sops" on a Pull-Up, on Titus' kiddie silverware, and on the movie. So I know it's Cars, but no clue what it actually means. lol =P Reminds me of when Emily called Toy Story "Mote" because Buzz Lightyear had a remote on his arm. lol

Ha! My husband needs me to go to Michael's. How awesome is THAT? lol =P He needs something for his tap handles. He's seeing if he can etch into a darker wood and put something (paint-like, but I don't know if I should say what?) inside the etching that will wipe off the finished handle or if he will have to mask the handle. Or if any of that even looks good. =P But yay, I get to go to Michael's. =P Later!!

A Lot Happens In A Month

=) So, I can't believe it has been a month since I blogged. I'm trying to even remember what all to blog about. I don't want to miss the fun stuff because I'm sharing about the big stuff...

We went to Mexico a few weeks ago. We spent a week in Nuevo Vallarta, courtesy of Harper's parents. =) Thanks again! We met them and Quin and his girlfriend down there and mostly played in the pool and ate yummy food. =) There was a wave pool and a big slide that you go down in a tube. Bek kept asking for the "big, big slide in a boat?" =) I like how the tubes were boats. The other day I asked her what she likes to do the most and she said "boats." Such a cutie! We tried to take her out on a real boat, but it ended up not working out. So I'm glad the tubes qualified as boats. =)

Emily and Lainey both learned to swim in Mexico. They can both swim "like a mermaid" under the water now. Yay! Bekah asked to swim, too, and tolerated being pushed in between us under water. She liked being big like her sisters more than she disliked swimming. =P lol

We had a swimming pool on our balcony and when the kids got up from naps one day I let Bekah skinny dip in it (nobody can see onto it anyway). Lainey got up and I told her she could swim naked if she wanted or she could go get a swimming suit on. She was still half asleep and said "Mommy? I want to be honest. I mean... I want to be...honest. I mean that I don't want my bottom to show to people." =P Hehe! Modest? Yes. =) She is too cute!

There were these big giant Mayan idol things in the entrance and Harper's mom asked Em if she liked them. She said "Not after I read the Chronicles of Narnia!" lol She has gotten better, but she was so scared for so long to be alone anywhere. She said the movie (she's seen the first one) is not as scary as the books because your imagination can't get carried away. It just is what it is. But with the books, you can imagine all sorts of horrible, scary things. We cut her off from the books in the middle of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It's a little sad because it would be fun to finish it and take her to the movie in December, but oh well. =P She is only 5. She can grow up first. =P lol

Oh the Mayan idol things had their hands out and Lainey asked why. I said I think they are offering a sacrifice or something. Lainey said "Oh. I think they have money in their hands." =P I asked if we should try to jump up and get some and she thought that was funny. =P They are WAY tall.

Bek asked for the "sempo" - the swimming pool. And she liked the "tiny slide." There's a kiddie park with slides that she had tons of fun on. =)

We had good flights and a fun trip. =)

When we got back, we talked to the rental place and came to the decision to move. They want to up our rent a bunch and go month-to-month or up it just a little if we commit to 6 months. We don't want to do either. So we're moving to Greeley, to live in the condo my sister lived in when she went to school there. My parents will be 3 hours away and Harper's parents live in that town, so we'll get to see Grandmas and Grandpas more for a while. =) Harp is still looking for a job, so we don't know how long we'll be there. He just applied for a job back in Wichita (at Cessna or McCauley), so that would be neat if we ended up back there!

Bekah has this game that she loves - "gonna fall!" lol She climbs up on the piano bench or couch or something and starts to roll off and says "gonna fall! gonna fall!!! gonna falllll!!!!!!" and then she falls off. lol She is too cute!

It will be Bek's birthday in 10 days! I have started on a princess dress for her, but I don't think I'll finish it until after we move. We have a lot to pack, organise, get rid of, etc. We're trying to pack boxes that we won't be too sad if we have to leave behind, too, just in case we can't fit everything.

School has been super fun. Em has been liking math quite a bit better since we got to a point that she's actually learning new things and going closer to the pace of the book. Art class has been a ton of fun and I have been so impressed with the kids' drawings. Yay for the Monart book. =P

For a couple of months, Bek's been saying "do that again" but it sounds like "do-da tagain." =P So cute!! She wants to slide again, get tossed in the air again, etc. =)

We're 5 days into a dairy-free diet for Laine. Trying to figure out what is hurting her tummy so often. We are suspecting gluten now, but we're going to finish out the two weeks of no dairy and then give her a ton and see what happens (this is what our pediatrician in KS said he recommends instead of blood tests). We have a friend with celiac and her mom was telling us how her tummy hurt all the time when she was little and they didn't know why because it would hurt two days later. It's not the same for everyone, but we had a ton of bread Tuesday morning because Harper made fresh bread... And then Thursday morning she said her tummy *really* hurt. So we are suspicious of gluten. I guess we'll find out pretty soon!

Yesterday, I took family pictures for some people that found me on Facebook. They turned out really cute! We have a nasty, nasty virus on both of our Windows computers. And come to think of it the laser computer runs Windows too and it is acting funky, although not the same. Anyway we have been using Linux exclusively for 3 weeks and Harper just got another drive put in to back up a bunch of stuff so we can reformat Windows. Then I'll be able to use PhotoShop again. =)

I sprained my ankle last night and I'm trying to stay off of it so it doesn't get worse. It doesn't really hurt, but I don't want it to get bad, so I'm giving it some time. =P Em's been super sweet offering to help me with everything. =) And she and Laine have been helping a lot taking care of Bekah - getting her water and taking her potty and getting her undressed for a bath... =P They are such good big sisters!

Lord willing, Bekah will have a baby to take care of in June, too. =P I think she is going to be a great big sister, too! =)

Funnies

Bekah says "toot" for "cute!" And she thinks EVERYthing is cute, so she says it all the time! =P

Today she pooped and pointed to it and said "toots!" I said no, toots are the sound, like (insert toot sound) and poop is the stuff that comes out. So later she was on the potty and she tooted and she said "soundin' like poops!" LOL!!

In school one day we were talking about the water cycle. The whole lesson was on the water cycle. And at the end I ask Lainey what the name is for the way the water goes from the oceans to the air to the clouds, to the earth, and back to bodies of water. Lainey just stares at me. I say "water..." and she says "water..." I say "cy...." She says "cy...." lol I said "the water cycle?" She said "the water cycle? What's the water cycle?" So I explained the whole lesson again. Then about 10 or 15 minutes later, I get out paper for them to draw a picture of the water cycle. Lainey says "what are we drawing?" I say "the water cycle." She says "Water cycle?? I don't know what a water cycle is. (Like that is just absurd!) I know what a motorcycle is!" lol I remind myself she's not even old enough to be in Kindergarten. =P Whatever she DOES learn is just a bonus. Right? Haha!

Laine's actually doing well with letters and reading and drawing (we had a real lesson today and she can classify the five basic elements of shape - guess that was more interesting than the water cycle, lol) and her Kindergarten math books. But she is just hilarious sometimes. If she's not interested, her brain is just turned off completely. Which I'm okay with for now.

Anyway so what else? I know I had funny stuff to tell my mom the other night... Oh, when we were at Lily's birthday party, Bekah had an accident in her panties. The bathroom was super far away because the close one was closed and she just didn't make it all the way there. So I threw away her poopy panties and as I cleaned her up she kept saying "dee-choo, Mommy" (thank you, Mommy) over and over. So, so, so, sweet!

Bek woke up from her nap the other day and said "fun in boats." She will randomly tell us "fun in a boat" too. =P I wonder if she had been dreaming about having fun in a boat. =P She really, really likes boats! =)

Bek sings parts of our goodnight song with us. =) So cute! Oh and she prays at dinner and it's mumble mumble, Mommy and um, um mumble mumble Daddy and um, um mumble mumble Pingu-Pingu. lol!! The um I'm sure is copying Lainey because Lainey's always saying "thank you for this and, um, thank you for that, and, um..." lol!!

Bekah adores Pingu and she'll say "Noot noot, Daddy-O!" lol Oh and I drummed on her bum the other day and she said "Pingu!!" lol Because in the newer Pingus, Pingu drums on his bum in the opening thing. Haha!

Oh! And yesterday Bekah sat down on the floor in the kitchen and dumped half a box of Cheerios in front of her and started singing "Happy Day-Day, hee hyou!" lol I guess the pile of Cheerios was supposed to be a cake??

Funnies & News

Bekah calls a birthday a "day-day." So she sings "Happy Day-Day to youuu!" =) It's going to be her Happy Day-Day pretttty soon! =)

The other day Harper was talking to Lainey about roly-polys. We haven't seen any since we were in Kansas and Lainey doesn't remember them. So Harper was explaining to her what they are. She said "maybe you can laser me some!" He said "No, they're real bugs." She said "You can make real bugs????" lol I love that girl. =P

Whenever Bekah sees a chicken or rooster she says "dock a loo loo!" It used to be "dock a doo doo!" =P

Yesterday, Lainey was coloring a Strawberry Shortcake coloring book that she got for her birthday. Em said "Why do you like Strawberry Shortcake so much?" Laine said "Because I like the smell of her." =P lol The little Strawberry Shortcake dolls (that are like Polly Pockets) smell like strawberries.

Huh, I don't know if I blogged about Lainey's birthday party. We had a party for her at the beach. We had a lot of friends out of town that weekend, but the Bryans and Ellises and Harrisons came. And Grandma and Grandpa A were here. Anyway Laine wanted PBJ's for lunch, so that's what we did. =P And a beach cake that was square with boats on it and red writing that said "Thank you so much for coming to my party!" =) How sweet is that?

The day before her birthday, we went to an amusement park, so I had our local grocery store do her birthday cake. It turned out great! They didn't have boats, but she liked the surf boards so it all worked out. =) And I didn't have to stay up all night after being out all day.

Lainey was a little bit too short for the big roller coasters, so we went and bought her some taller shoes and made it work. =P She rode the two big wooden roller coasters and thought it was awesome. She had a big Lainey grin and giggled the whole time. =) I asked Em on one wild ride if she was having fun and she said "not a ton." lol My Em... =) She is so funny.

The other day Harper asked me what a terrier is (like, what kind of dog) and Emily piped up, "Well, Bekah's a tarrier!!" Haha... =P She loves puns.

So, the news is that Harper's website is UP! www.wildhopsprintshop.com YAY!! =) Just in time for us to leave on vacation and have to figure out what to do...but oh well. It's ready, at least! =) =) =)

Tonight, Em put together this super cute scrapbook and said "Hey maybe I could sell these on etsy!" I bet she could! She did such a good job with it! So maybe Em will have an etsy shop now too. =P Or stick them in my shop and I'll just pay her for whatever sells. I had laser-cut MDF and paper and she Mod Podged them together perfectly and threaded ribbon through the holes and tied the pages into an album. I need to get more MDF! =)

Big Girl Funnies

Me: Why are you eating chips in my room, honey?
Lainey: I'm trying to catch the freckles.
lol Freckles, crumbs...whatever. =)

She is always mixing up words. =P The other day we had pancakes and she just asked me for the "stuff" because she can never remember the word syrup. lol She has called it soy sauce and mustard before. Not on purpose, it's just what comes out. But she was careful this time. "Stuff." =P lol

When we were camping, the girls made friends with a girl named Greta. On our hike, I overheard Emily say "Greta, would you like to be added to my Best Friends list?" =P Hehe! I thought it was SO CUTE! She actually does have a Best Friends list - she had written it earlier that week. =P

Bekah's Adorable

A dog is usually a "dog-dog" and she really, really likes dogs. =)

dike it = I don't like it
duckum = you're welcome
dit-choo = thank you

Fair

Oh I forgot to blog about the fair. Harper got 1st place for his German Lager, 2nd place for his Apricot Cream Ale, and 3rd place for his Vanilla Mead. =)

I got 1st place for 4 of my photos and 2nd place for one of them. And I got 1st in toys for my crocheted moose and 1st for a princess scrapbook I made. And I got 2nd for a crocheted headband that I had made Bek.

Woooooooobekah!

Bekah is so very, very cute. We say her name with a looooong rolled R at the beginning, just being silly... And she repeats it "woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobekah!!!" Sometimes it's "wwwwwwwwwwekah!" lol But she holds that first sound as long as she can. lol =)

"Bob-a-wee cake-cake" is strawberry shortcake. Lainey has some little Strawberry Shortcake dolls and Bekah loves them. Last night we were headed home from the high school football game (where we saw Ben Stein, lol!) and passed an ice cream place. Bek said "bob-a-wee cake-cake!!!" I don't know why ice cream is bob-a-wee cake-cake, but she was excited. We were in the left turn lane and when we started to turn, she said "No! ....Noooo." Like, in total disbelief and disappointment. lol She is too cute! She kind of frowned the rest of the way home.

Haha! That reminds me of the beese conversations we used to have. Beese = please. She would ask for something and say "Beese?" "no" "Beese?" "no" "Beese." "no" Beese." "no" "Beeese!!!" lol Yeah, we put an end to that... But it was still funny how it went from a question to a command to a totally frustrated "Beese!!!" as if the word was supposed to be enough to get anything she wanted.

We went camping at Priest Lake last weekend and had so much fun! Harp and the kids went out on Joa's boat and we all went hiking and found a geocache and we went to some natural water slides that were freezing, but fun and very beautiful. We spent a lot of time just hanging out, too, which was fun. And the kids spent a lot of time building a fort with the other kids. We went with a family with 6 kids and a family with 5. Big families make for lots of fun! =P The kids played capture the flag in the woods. Oh and of course Lainey found her friend. =) Whenever we go with other people, she finds someone to snuggle her and carry her and baby her by giving her band-aids for every little scratch... lol She is too funny. I'm glad she's snuggly with me at home or I might be offended. =P She is a very friendly girl. And irresistibly cute. =P Shea was going into 9th grade and she was Lainey's buddy. They snuggled by the fire and Shea carried her for a large portion of our hike. And gave her lots of band-aids. lol =P

So, I have been playing with felt quite a bit and I made Lainey a shirt with felt letters on it and then I made Kaylee a shirt for her birthday that turned out super cute. And Emily and I made little stuffed dogs. We cut pieces out on the laser. Wool felt smells a big like a burning sheep, but bamboo felt only smells like a faroff campfire. So I'm going to get some more bamboo felt and make sure it looks okay on the edges (realized last night I have only used grey bamboo felt so hopefully it doesn't look nasty on the other colors) and I'm starting an etsy shop selling felt cutouts. Alphabets, shapes, etc. And scrapbook albums! =) I'm going to sell my castle album, at least. Maybe out of acrylic, too. That would be fun!

Oh and we had our first week of school. It was good! =)

I think today we will go for a small hike. =)

Math, Reading, Randomness

Today, the girls and I went for a walk on this trail that goes around part of the lake. We had heard of it, but never checked it out. It is beautiful and SO close! We will be going back there often, I'm sure. Well we passed a lady walking two dogs and Bekah said "two dogs!" Super cute! It's the first time I'm aware of that she has just pointed out that there were two of something. She usually counts "one, two" as we put her shoes on or put her arms in her sleeves or her feet in her pants... =) But she gets what two means! =) At least, that it's more than one.

So, speaking of math... In Sunday School, the kids (and leaders) each got two teddy grahams on their cookie. (Yeah, I am not in charge of snacks - I reeeeally don't like that my kids get junk in SS and junk in AWANA but I live with it.) Anyway I covered the tray up and asked Em if there are 6 people and each person gets two teddy grahams, how many teddy grahams are there? She said 12. I said how do you know? Her answer totally surprised me. She said "Well, because 5 plus 5 is 10 and 6 is one more than 5, so it would have to be 2 more, which makes it 12." She does not have all her math facts memorized (something we'll be working on this fall, for sure) but she definitely understands the concepts and it didn't take her long to figure out the answer. Then I asked her if 5 people ate theirs, how many would be left. She said two. I said how do you know? "Because then only one person would still have theirs and they got two." =P I like to know how she thinks!

Em had her reading assessment the other day at the library. The lady that did it said it is the most widely used test and has an error of half a grade level. Crazy. Well Emily was off the chart for some of the exercises because they only went up to a 4th grade level. They thought it was going to take 10-15 minutes for a 5-year-old, but it took closer to an hour. They just had to keep going and going! We were there for an hour and 10 minutes. The lady was super nice and went through all Em's answers with me and just praised her nonstop. She said she's at a strong 5th grade level, going into 6th grade. Her comprehension was 6th grade. And she said if Em likes it, to go ahead with the 7th grade Grammar book that I have. It's not too hard for her. Wow. She got 75% of the 7th grade words correct, too. There were 20 for each grade level. She made me smile when she said she didn't recommend putting her in public school. =P

On Saturday, we drove down to Heyburn State Park and met Vickie and Jerry and Eric and Molly and Baby Micah. =) It was so much fun! We went tubing and I tried wakeboarding, but after getting water in my face three times, I was done. =P I got up for a few seconds, wobbled, and fell down. So I don't know if it's fun. But getting your face slammed into the water isn't fun. So I opted for tubing the rest of the time. =P

Next week is the county fair. We've never entered anything in anything, but Harper is going to enter some beer and some mead and I'm going to enter a scrapbook and some photos. And I might enter something in crocheting. I think I will. I just have to decide what. =)

Oh! Bekah is talking a ton. I mean, she has been. But she is using more complete sentences. "Hold this, Mommy!" Oh and she distinguishes between "nas-ee wow-ow" (nasty water, like from the lake or river) and "wow-ow, sink." So when she wants a drink, she asks for "wow-ow, sink." The other night, she was in bed and we had left the room, and we heard "juuuuuice?.....wow-ow, sink?.......pop?" lol She was sooooo tired. =P

Bekah saw a picture of Dora today and said "be-bums!" We have Dora Band-Aids. =P

And "be-bup" (clean up) has turned into this song, "be-bup, be-bup ca-nunna" over and over. We don't know what the ca-nunna part means. =P lol

Oh and Bekah has all her non-molars now. =P

Okay Emmy and I are going to make some tortillas. We've having chimichangas tonight, so we're making the tortillas early. =)

Funny...

We thought we were going camping this weekend. Turns out I had it on the calendar wrong and it's not for a while. =P Oops! Good thing we are still free the weekend of our reservations.

Today I took the girls to the beach and we went swimming in the lake. Lainey swam all the way out to the logs and back. She was so proud of herself! I said "Yay, Laina!" and Bekah said "Yay, Bekah!! ...Yay, Naina!!" Hehe! Bek's used to praising herself, lol.

Bekah has started saying "Bekah Jane Abbot" randomly and "oh my goodness" and she repeats whatever she hears at dinner, as if it was her original contribution to the conversation. =P

Tonight, Bek took a piece of chalk and drew on the speaker and then turned around and smiled and Harper and said "Bekah Jane Abbot." lol

Band-Aids

Are "be-bums." =)

Camping

We went on the church campout last week, from Wed-Sat. It's the longest we've been camping and it was so much fun! We borrowed a friend's kayak (thank you, Sunny!!!) and had so much fun kayaking around the river. Another friend took their boat and we all got to go tubing. Bekah kept saying "Fun!!!" when I took her in the tube with me. As we were packing up to leave on Saturday, she kept saying "Boat!!" in this sad little voice. She wanted to go in a boat again. =P She will have fun when we go meet Vickie and Jerry and Eric and Molly and Micah in a couple of weeks!! =P Oh and she loves babies, too, so it will be awesome. What could be better than a baby AND a boat?? lol

Yesterday, Harp and Laine were eating together and Lainey said "Why are you sittin' next to me, Daddy? 'Cause you love me?" He said "Of course I love you!" She said "And why wouldn't you?" (in a that-would-be-absurd voice) He said "Maybe if you were a mangy beagle that belonged to someone else!" lol I'm glad I have such a funny family. =P

Bekah says "bee-bup" for clean up and she says it over and over when she's cleaning up. =P Bandaid is something really cute too with a "bum" in it - I'll have to get her to say it when she wakes up so I can write it down. =P She's been doing a decent job going potty! Not fully trained for sure, but she goes many times a day on the potty. So yay!

I've been getting things ready for school and meanwhile Emily has gotten to page 19 in her math book with no problem. I figure I'll try starting Lainey at the beginning of it and Emily will be a few units ahead. I'm using sheet protectors and dry erase markers and just taking pictures of completed pages. Not that I need to keep records in Idaho... So I don't know why I am bothering. Maybe I will get sick of it and stop. Emily has also been sneaking and reading her history book and begging me to do Science... This will be fun.

Harper started reading The Chronicles of Narnia to the girls and Em's been sneaking that, too. =P

Oh, while we were camping, Emily gathered a bunch of her friends to read By the Shores of Silver Lake. =P They took turns reading chapters. All the other moms told me their kids didn't normally like to read, lol. I guess Emily is convincing. =P They sat in the hammock together to read.

The kids all loved the hammock, too, that was at the campsite. Bekah asked me today for the hammock. =P

We had dates on our campout and when Harper gave Bekah one, she called it a hot dog. lol! I guess it looked like a Little Smokie.

That's all I can even think of to write for now. =P Later!

Bekah Fun, Emmy's Big...

Bekah calls Daddy "Daddy-O" but it's "Daddy-Doe." Super cute!

Today, Bek dropped something and said "Oh, my goodness!!" =P She is starting to repeat sentences and put more and more words together.

We had baby bok choi with our dinner and when Bekah finished hers and wanted more, she said "bok choiiiiiii!!!" lol It cracked us up. =)

Today, Emily sewed a tote bag. I had her practice sewing straight lines down a piece of notebook paper (on the lines) and she did great. Then I had her sew down the other direction, using the side of the paper as a guide. She did great again! So I let her do something real. =) I have had some Cars fabric around for a long time and I let her make a tote bag out of it. I showed her where to sew and she did all the sewing and ironing herself! I pinned a little for her, but she pinned a lot, too. It turned out super cute and she gave it to Titus. =) I did take a few pictures on her camera, so I'll have to get those off and post them. =)

Day before yesterday, we decided Em doesn't need to take naps anymore. I think we're going to have a little adjustment period, though, going from a 3-hour nap to no nap. But she takes a while to fall asleep at night and I think she is just ready to make this transition. I hope it goes well!

Yesterday while the little kids napped, Emmy and I went to Starbucks and we took our books and read in the big chairs, sipping Frappuccinos. =) I think it's so fun to have a girl big enough to do that with! And she loved that while she was sewing her tote bag, I was taking the zipper out of Lainey's princess dress and we were "sewing" at the same time. =)

We went to Selah's birthday party yesterday. I made her a princess dress out of the pink polkadot fabric that Lainey's last one was made out of. I think it turned out really cute! After we went to Starbucks, we went to the craft store for material for a petticoat and I made her a petticoat for it that afternoon. Emily found some heart-shaped lockets and asked for them and I said she could get them. She has been making lockets for Lainey and Bekah and me out of foam stickers and it is super cute, but they don't last. =P So there were 3 in the package and she made a necklace for Selah with one, with white glass beads. Then Lainey woke up and wanted to make Selah a bracelet, so she made her a purple bracelet. We had smooth and rough purple glass beads and she alternated them in a perfect pattern. I didn't even look at it until she was done because I was busy with the petticoat. I was impressed! =) I haven't seen Selah in the dress yet, but I will take pictures eventually. She wore the jewelry the girls made and she looked SO CUTE!! =P Em is going to make the other two for Lainey and Bekah. =)

Oh that reminds me that when Em did her brownie shop at the garage sale, she made $15 and she gave $6.25 to Titus so he could get a basket for his bike. =P So sweet!

The other day, Lainey asked me what I wanted her to draw me. I said how about a helicopter. She said "You mean a helicocter?" I said "No, a helicopter." She says "What's a helicopter?" =) She makes me smile.

We played in the fountain downtown this morning and then washed the cars when we got home. Then after naps, we ran in the sprinkler in the back yard. Fun day! =)

Cuteness

Lainey asked me earlier "How do you spell 'I love you, my sweet, sweet Titus?'" =P She was drawing a picture for him. She drew him one yesterday with flowers, that said I LOV UE (I think that was how she spelled it). Today she wanted me to spell it all for her, though. =P Yesterday they were running in the sprinklers and Lainey clawed his chest and gave him 4 fingernail scratches. Like he got clawed by a tiger. =( So I think she is making sure he knows that she really is sorry and she really does love him. (Now she better stop clawing him.) =P

Bekah is SO funny. I love how she always chimes in "me too!" if one of the girls says it. Or if I ask "Who want to ____?" and either of her sisters says "me!" she says "me!" =P Tonight, she was playing with a colored pencil and stuck it in between her toes. She grinned, stuck her foot in the air and said "Haha!" lol I like how she actually says "haha" instead of just laughing. =P TOO CUTE! I guess we all do that. =P

Tonight we had Rachel and her girls over for dinner and we played with glow sticks because it was actually dark enough to! We had a good storm earlier.

Bekah's still been talking about Essie-Poo now and then. And the other day Lainey was randomly crying in the car and told me it was because she missed Eden and her grandmas and grandpas. Poor girl. We miss the Bous!

Last night I was up late drafting a pattern for a princess dress for Selah (Rachel's daughter) for her birthday (2 on Sunday) and cutting out pieces. I got most of it done during naps today and I'll have a little more to do tomorrow. But I should get some sleep tonight.

Dress

Made Lainey Joy a princess dress today, for her birthday. I need to redo the zipper to make the dress a little bigger. I sized it down because she is skinny, but I used the chest measurement and didn't think about her belly pooch. =P So it is a little tight in the belly. It's beautiful on her, though! She got to try it on just so I could see how it fit and take some pictures. She won't get it wear it again until her birthday. =)

Today while I was taking pics of her I was kneeling down and a mosquito bit me on the arm. I said we need to get inside because the mosquitoes are biting me. Before I could even stand up, Bekah came and bit me on the arm. lol!

Okay gotta go sleep...

Kiddos

This morning, Lainey was snuggling Harper and said "Daddy, do you still love God even though your chest is hairy?" LOL

In case I haven't blogged it, Bekah says "beese" for please and it is tooooo cute!

The other day Bekah brought me her swimsuit and said "sim-soop." I told her we were going fishing. She said "simming." Then we went fishing and she fell off the dock. She had a life jacket on. Still scary, though! I told her she got to go simming. =P

We have been soaking up the summer. It is so nice here. We've been hanging out at the beach, the park, the lake(s), going for bike rides... This is such a beautiful place to live!

Emily & Lainey

So, my posts are usually about Bekah because she is the one changing a mile a minute. =P So I thought I'd post about Em & Laine.

When we were having our garage sale, I was going through books and found a junior dictionary. I handed it to Em, explained what it was, and then said "the words are in alphabetical order. That means A comes before B, then C, and on like that. And after you look at the first letter, you look at the second, like ba is before bb. So, will you look up the word 'family' and show it to me in the dictionary?" Freak of nature. She did it. She looked up a few words that I asked her to look up and showed them to me. So I said okay, you know how to use it - it's yours to keep. =P She is too cute!

Yesterday, we did this little craft with pipe cleaner and pom poms and pony beads... It was making a dragonfly. Well Em grabbed the pipe cleaners and a ruler and she cut the pipe cleaners to 6" just like the directions said. I hadn't read them yet and was like whoa what are you doing? She said she read it and that they needed to be 6". Yep. I checked them and they were exactly right. I'm pretty sure she could graduate from Longview High School at age 5. lol (I taught Geometry there and only 4 students out of 4 Geometry classes knew how to use a ruler. That was a depressing day.)

Lainey Joy is my adorable artist. =P I have some pictures to scan that she has done recently that are just too cute. She made one the other day and drew these extremely detailed ears. They had earlobes and the inside lines of a real ear. And the one that was me had stud earrings on the earlobes. I'm so amazed by the things she puts in her drawings.

Doing the garage sale, I also found a book with step-by-step pictures of things to draw and Lainey entertained herself with that for a loooong time, drawing cute bugs. =)

Oh the other night at dinner, we were playing "Which number is bigger?" Em kind of made it up and then Lainey wanted to do some. They did a great job! Then Harper gave Emily "1/2 or 1/4" and she got it right. So then Harper gave her a brief definition of negative numbers and she totally understood it and answered all those questions correctly too! The only question she got wrong the whole time was "-1/4 or -1/2" and after she thought about it, she understood why she got it wrong. That was a pretty hard one. =P

So I have to get my math figured out for the fall. I'm still deciding between Saxon and Math-U-See and Singapore! But I haven't been able to actually look at any of them on my kids' level. I have looked at the Singapore books that Jen ordered and I've seen high school Saxon... But this is such a hard decision. And actually I'm not sure if I want to use math curriculum yet anyway or if I want to just do it myself. At this point, that really wouldn't be hard and it probably wouldn't take much extra time... But it would also be nice to not have to think about it and have everything ready. =P

Today, the girls played with a slug all morning that they named Sluggy. Sluggy ended up getting crusty and dry and he died. Lainey cried. =( So sad! Ooh that reminds me that I have tomatoes growing, which reminds me it's Farmer's Market day... Gonna see if Harper wants me to go. =P

Bee-bup, No-nees

Bekah says "bee-bup" for clean up. =P Most of her words are normal, so the cute ones are extra cute. =P She says nose, but she can't say noses. It's "no-nees." When she has to go potty, she says "poopoop" no matter what she has to do. =P

Yesterday we went to CDA and got fabric to make Lainey's princess dress. Her birthday is in over a month, but we are pretty much busy until then, so I need to get movin' on it. We have two camping trips, a week of AWANA, and Harper's parents coming. I think her dress is going to be so pretty! It's a blue brocade with white chiffon sleeves and collar.

We have been having fun playing in the downtown fountain, at the beach, and having picnics. =) Summer here is so much fun!

Oh, the big girls and I hiked Mickinnick, to the top (3.5 miles one-way), and they are asking to do it again!! I didn't think Em would want to do it again, but she asks Harper every day if we can all go. 7 miles is a lot of hikin'.

Bekah says "EEEEAT!" =P I feel the same way. Later!

Meatball Fights & Picnic Tables

Today, Harper went to play paintball with some guys from church. When he got home, Lainey said "Did you have a good time at your meatball fight, Daddy?" LOL!!! She was totally serious.

Anyway, the girls' picnic table is green and they have been enjoying it. =) We made a tiny one for their dolls, but it needs another coat of paint. And probably a little adjustment. =P I eyeballed instead of measuring and one side has angled benches. =P I was so frustrated with that little thing by the time I got it together that I didn't care. I had nailed it, but then putting the benches on made other parts fall apart, no matter what I tried to keep them together. Finally, they fell apart to where I couldn't even get them back together and I had to pull everything apart but the top and pull the nails out and then screw it together. In the heat, dripping sweat. Yeah. Didn't care about that bench at the time. =P

Oh we had our second garage sale. We only did Friday, didn't make much, got sick of it... Took stuff to Goodwill and Kinderhaven. And now we're organizing the garage and getting stuff out of the house. My entryway has NO tubs in it! We can open the door and walk straight in our house!!! lol We were always dodging the pile of tubs that belonged in the garage but wouldn't fit until we had the garage sale. =P I have still been finding more things to get rid of. I just do not have room in this house for extra stuff. And that's good for us, I think. =) We had way too much stuff. I might miss my bloomin' onion cutter, though. =P Even if we did only use it a few times, it was cool and I know I'll want another bloomin' onion someday. Like now. I'm gonna crave one now. =P

Bek's working on another tooth. She's kinda sad and needy and snotty. But this morning at church, she RAN to Miss Bonnie. Usually it's kind of an ordeal leaving her with Bonnie and Danette during Sunday School. She cries and Bonnie tries to entice her with crackers. But this morning was awesome! And later Bonnie was holding her and put her down and she wanted back up!! I hope this continues. =)

Oh have I said Harper and I are teaching the little kids' Sunday School every other week? We have done it once and we are up again this coming week. They are so cute! We have to work on involving the other kids next time because Sarah and Emily will just answer all the questions and dominate the discussion if we don't do something about it. They are too cute. =P

Lots

Bekah's book-a-byes are now book-a-wyes. So cute!

We went to Slate's for dinner the other night and she was calling all the animal heads on the walls "horsies." I was telling her what they were and she was repeating after me (she always does that when I read her books too - I love it!) and she was SO CUTE trying to say antelope. It was different every time and so so so so so cute. We took a video on Harper's phone but it was loud in there and it's hard to hear.

Lainey did alright with the bear this time. =P

We had a garage sale on Saturday and sold a ton of stuff! We're doing another this weekend, with the Bouchers' stuff added in and I think Anna is going to bring some stuff over too.

It has gotten warm finally and we have been at City Beach the last two mornings. SO much fun! Anna was there this morning and we were wondering what we did for fun in Kansas. lol Even the zoo doesn't really compare to all the hiking, camping, fishing, playing at the beach, etc that there is to do here. All I miss is people. They should just all move here. =P

The kids' picnic table is done and they ate on it tonight! It is green. Very green. =P Emily wanted to make a picnic table for Emily (her doll), so we bought 2 1x2 boards for 99 cents a board and cut them today. This time we'll paint before we assemble. =P Touchup will be easier than painting a bunch of coats on a finished table. =P

Bekah's been stringing lots of words together. I can't wait for full sentences! =P And she has been going potty on her own some. Still not "potty trained" but she is getting more consistent. And staying dry at naptime always means a good pee on the potty when she gets up. =P Oh and whenever you give her a high five, she follows it with a fist bump. =P SO FUNNY! Harper taught her that... =P

Book-a-bye

Bekah is SO into books right now - especially those little tiny board books. =) She calls them "book-a-byes." If you tell her you'll read her a book, she says "book-a-bye!!!!" and runs to get one. =) They are pretty much always scattered throughout the house right now. lol

Yesterday, the Bouchers left. =( We spent the morning helping them get their house cleaned and the cars loaded. There were many tears. =( Emily didn't cry until later, though. And I don't think Lainey cried at all. I heard her telling Ephraim she didn't know why Emily and Eden were upset. Guess it comes with being 3. =P We will miss them a ton.

Today Bekah peed on the floor and Harp offered Em $1.50 to clean it up. She was more than happy to. lol! Lainey had some money and wanted to go to Dollar Tree, so we were going to go. Em didn't have any money. So it was his way of avoiding cleaning it and letting her earn a little money so she could get something too. =P That was definitely an above and beyond job. Water is one thing. Pee is another. lol =)

Oh so we were going to have a garage sale today, but it's rainy. Tomorrow should be better. We will do tomorrow and next week, assuming next week is nice. =)

I found the drill today!!! YAY! So I can finish assembling my (their) picnic table. I decided since it has stains around the old nail holes, that I want to paint it. I think it will be cute. We're going to go pick paint in a little bit.

My house is a complete and total wreck. If I was loaded, I would hire someone to deal with it. We were just so busy all week (fun busy, though - hanging out with the Bous all we could until we had to say goodbye) that I let the house get AWFUL. And I don't feel motivated to clean it. We did tackle the kids' room this morning. I still think I'd rather make a picnic table than deal with the house, though. =P

Bekum

Wow, long time no blog. Again. =P

Bekah has been ending words with "um." Not her name, actually, but we jokingly call her Bekum. =) Words that she used to say correctly, like sucker... It's a suckum now. A buckle is a buckum. A pickle is a pickum. =P

She has stopped saying her name "Bekah tttt." I don't know where the t-sound came from, and there was always a delay before it. =P It was very cute. =P Sometimes it was "Bekah kkkk."

So, I'm sure I can't remember everything there has been to blog since weeks ago. We went hiking with the Bous and Rob and Janice to this really cool beach on Lake Pend Oreille. My parents came to visit the week after and we went there again, minus the hike (you can drive to it, too) because Harper sprained his ankle trying to get a geocache the first time. =P It was hard to get to. =P He was climbing up rocks that no sane person would try climbing, lol. At least, not without a rope. =)

My parents and I went to get some wood from the new Super 1 that is being built here. I have some pics, but not on this computer. They busted apart some pallettes so I can make a kids' picnic table. I stepped on a nail - ow. Harper and I were both gimpy for a few days. =P He actually reinjured his ankle this morning. =(

The wood has been cut for the picnic table, but I've been waiting to borrow a sander. =) I'm excited to build this table! And I'm glad that it is MY project. =P lol

The website (for our business) is allllmost done, but still not. =P Soon, though. We sort of changed everything. It was going to be mycrowncaps.com but then we decided to sell more than crown caps so we changed it to Wild Hops Print Shop. Got a nifty logo and we've been lasering samples. Actually, Harper has. =) Cap catchers, bottle openers (like the kind that mount on a fridge), and growlers. Fun stuff! It's nice to have stuff coming together! We got our ridiculously huge order of bottlecaps. Totally awesome. I bet we could fill half a bathtub with a rainbow of bottlecaps. =P

Bek has some more teeth, but I haven't actually checked recently to see how many are in. She's working on those last 4 front teeth. She won't look like a baby anymore. =P

Oh and she is doing better on the potty! Sometimes she will go all by herself! Still learnin' though. =)

Lainey's Princess Dress

These are so old! I put them on Facebook, but never on my blog. Oops. =) Isn't she pretty? =)

City Beach, April 16

Bekah and Esther

Chasing birds was so much fun. =P

The lake was so low! Now there is a whole lot of water between the shore and these logs.

Joyful

Emmy-girl

My Baby

I never had an ultrasound, so this is the only picture I have of my baby. =) Lainey Joy drew it for me when we first found out I was pregnant and I thought it was totally adorable!!! It is even more special to me now. =)

Life With Cuties

Today, we ate the animal crackers that we made last night. We waited all day yesterday to make them, hoping it would work out sometime for Titus to come make them with us. But we just never had our schedules line up such that it would work. I let the girls decide if they wanted to go ahead and make them last night or wait until today and do them with Titus. They were ready to make those crackers. =P But they did invite him over to share them this morning. I love having the Tumultys as neighbors. Have I said that??? =)

We went around the loop (our road and another road make a loop with very little traffic and there is a sidewalk for part of the way, so it is really awesome!) with Anna and Titus and Lily. The kids all biked. =)

During the kids' naps, I fixed their princess dresses. Laine had stepped on hers and ripped out the stitching that made one of the lettuce bits. =P Emily cut hers up while cutting some plates and potatoes and cheese out of posterboard. =P So they were both very happy to have their dresses back. =)

Then I made Bekah a pair of training pants. This potty training thing... I'm tellin' ya, I think infant potty training is easier. Shoulda, shoulda, shoulda stuck with it. REMIND me of this next time around! =P I don't like touching poop. Potty training a toddler means dealing with nasty, stinky poop in the panties. Potty training a baby means only buttery smellin' poop, and never down the legs and on the floor. Well. Maybe it would be possible, but I guarantee I've dealt with more nasty toddler poop than baby poop. =P Babies go in the pot or in the diaper. Not in panties that smear the poop all over when you pull them down. Uh huh. Eew.

So anyway I want Bekah in cloth and I want her to hate being wet. Thing is, she doesn't much mind being wet, even in cloth. And then there's the poop in the panties... SO! I made her some training pants. I cut apart some store-bought training pants that we have had forever and used them for the soaker inside the new pants. You don't even see them! =P And I used super cute scrap fabric for the outside, some white fabric that came from an awesome-quality sheet I got at a garage sale for the inside, and some industrial-strength velcro my mom sent me for something totally different. (I sorta forgot about that towel, Mom.) =) So they pull on and off like panties BUT they velcro open at the sides in case of a poop-mergency. Wahoo! And the coolest thing is, she peed in one of them and totally hated how it felt. YAY! So maybe this potty training thing will happen after all. =) It's been a little frustrating to know that she knows what to do on the pot. She just doesn't do it on her own. =P

Anyway so I made another pair of training pants after the kids went to bed. So now I have two. Let's hope all the poops happen in those until I get some more of them done. Can you tell how I feel about poop in panties? =) =) =)

Oh, Emily woke up from her nap first today, so she and I took a walk around the loop together. She picked a bunch of daisies and she was wearing her daisy skirt. It was very cute. =P We talked about how fun it's going to be to start school in August and all of the fun things we are going to learn. We are going to start with weather in Science and since Titus is totally obsessed with learning about weather, he is going to join us. =P He may already know everything! lol =) He is too cute! And we talked about doing handwriting. She told me she doesn't ever write little e. I didn't realize that. =P So she'll be practicing lots of little e. =)

Today was a good day. Yesterday, I felt sad and depressed. I don't even remember what we did yesterday!

Anyway Bekah made me smile so big this morning. She and Lainey were in the tub and they each had a thing of soap. I got these colored soaps that roll on (like a roll-on deodorant container) from Avon a long time ago... Anyway Lainey took Bekah's from her to put the cap on and shake some more soap into the ball. Bekah started going ehhh, ehhh, ehhhh! And I thought she was going to freak out. But she stopped herself and said "Please?" (Beese?) Lainey finished getting the cap back off, handed it to Bekah, and Bekah said "Thank you!" (I think it's dee-choo, but I will have to listen more carefully.)

Bekah has been saying thank you all the time. I gave her a fork for dinner the other night and she said "Thank you!" She has been saying it every time someone gives her something, and sometimes when she gives something to someone else. =P lol! I love when they start being so sweet of their own free will. =P

The other day, Lainey was making a Mii. I said "Oh, are you making a Mii?" She said "No, I'm making a Grandma. You already have a you." =P Hehe!!

So, I'm hoping that we'll go hiking tomorrow. It is supposed to be a nice day. It has been raining for so long that a nice day is a huge deal. =P

Baby

We got the call this morning (or, yesterday morning 'cause it is 1:40am...) that my hcg is very, very low. So I did lose the baby. I am happy for my baby that it is with the Lord, and I will meet my son or daughter someday. The sadness for myself comes and goes. We actually had a pretty good day today.

This morning was nice and warm and I took the girls to City Beach to meet some friends. They played in the lake (brr!) and on the playground. When we first drove up, Lainey hopped out of the car and said "I LOVE that rock!!! I'm gonna go climb it!" =P There is a huge rock at the corner of the grass by the parking lot. Jen got a picture of all of our kids standing on the rock. I'll try to remember to get it from her so I can post it!

We had some fun riding bikes today and playing with Titus. =) I started making a pattern for some training pants for Bekah. I got totally rabbit trailed today looking at cloth diapers/patterns/fabric... =) I have cloth diapers so I don't need to make any but these were so CUTE that I was very tempted. But I am supposed to be potty training. =P So I decided I would make training pants that pull up and down, but also have snaps or velcro. The #1 thing I don't like about potty training is having to pull down poopy panties and deal with the mess that results. It's enough to make me put a diaper on her for a few days, which does not help potty training one bit. =P Today she peed on the potty. She always tries when she gets on and definitely knows what to do. It's just a matter of teaching her to know when she's gotta go. And taking her so she can do her thing in the pot... =P I am going to use all her old training pants for the insides (soakers) of the ones I am making. Yay! =P

So, I just cut my own hair in my bathroom at 1am. Harper thought I was a little crazy. But I think it turned out. =P Maybe I will be brave enough to cut the kids' hair tomorrow. =P Lainey's is so scraggly, but I don't want to cut those precious curls off the ends. What if they don't come back? They are too cute! I probably should make her look a little more presentable, though (if I can)! You can still tell where she cut her own hair a loooong time ago. I'm afraid I may not do much better. We'll see. =P

Muck

Bekah LOVES the book Duck in a Truck. We read it many times a day. =P Today, she woke up from her nap and said "Muck!!" It's about a duck that gets his truck stuck in the muck. =P There is a frog in it and she calls him the "sog." She is so cute!!!! And today she called it a book instead of a gook. =P

Bek was helping me do laundry today and telling me who all the clothes belong to. "Daddy's!" "Nainey's!" "Bekah's!" "Emmy's!" =P

I let Em stay up from her nap today and go with me to the midwife. We did a second hcg test because the one we did Friday showed that my hcg was low-normal. Not enough to really know anything. =P Em wouldn't look at the needle or my blood coming out. She kept her eyes closed the whole time. I didn't look, either. =P

Today I felt like I had morning sickness. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I'm ready to just know. Mostly I'm tired of having people be "encouraging" by saying the baby is probably okay. Because I'm not going to get my hopes up and have them smashed again tomorrow. It's been a rollercoaster. I feel like I'm finally on this flat part and I'd like to just stay here a bit. I really could just stay here and NOT know and just wait, except that people seem to want me to think it's one way or the other. I'm glad after tomorrow I can finally just tell them.

We stopped by the Bouchers to give them some stuff back that they needed to pack. They are moving back to Wisconsin at the end of the month. =( We are really going to miss them!

Then Emmy helped me with laundry and cleaning the kitchen. She started mopping and Lainey woke up. She came down and saw that Em was mopping and ran up and got her swimsuit on and came back down before I ever knew she was awake. =P I let them put swimsuits on and mop the floor with kitchen towels. We just use water and vinegar to clean, but I let them put baking soda in the water first so they could watch it fizz. =P They love to do that.

Played a lot of those Sesame Street games today. I think I have blogged about them? They're from when I was little and there are 20 different sets of cards, with about 7 games for each set. We did an addition one today that Em was too good at. I helped Lainey with it. We were supposed to spin the spinner and get a number and then find two cards on the table that add up to that number. There were only 4 cards left and Em spun a 9, but nothing was out that would add up to 9. But she said "too bad I can't use three cards 'cause I could do 4, 3, and 2." They were all out there.

I tested the girls with some math placement tests. I found one for Saxon and one for Singapore math. They tested in the same level in Saxon math, but there wasn't any addition on the test. I kind of want to look at it before I buy, because Em is definitely at a higher level than Lainey, but if it was hard enough by the end of the year, it would be cool to teach them together. I'm thinkin' Em needs something more challenging, though. She didn't test in the next level because she can't count money. She can count by 5's and 10's though so I can probably have her at that level in like two hours, lol. I really liked the concepts in Math-U-See too but again I kinda want to see the books! It is kind of a hard decision, but I like having the freedom to find something that really fits her. =)

What?! It is late. Good night!

Bored Mama

Yesterday, I started spotting and I am still bleeding today. So I'm supposed to take it easy, but it's getting really old. I have watched 4 movies, played Big Brain Academy, and played Solitaire on my cell phone. Ugh. I don't actually feel like going anywhere or doing anything, though.

My friend Jen lost her baby last week (second one since we all moved here) and yesterday I just didn't feel at all hopeful. Today I feel better. Maybe not really all that hopeful, but I at least feel like there is a chance, even if it's a slight chance, that everything will be fine. It's probably a bigger chance than I think anyway. Today I just feel like there is no point worrying or being upset because I don't know either way. I don't feel like going and getting poked just to find out a few days earlier if I'm going to miscarry. So I guess I'll go watch another movie. =\

Bobaweese & Bekah

Bekah called strawberries (and blackberries, and raspberries, and blueberries...) "BOB-a-weese" for so long. It was adorable! We went to video her saying it and she started saying "berries." =P Too late!!

She has also stopped calling herself Dotot. She says Bekah very well now. She is so cute!! =)

She loves berries, broccoli sprouts, and chicken. =P She has started hitting and pinching a bit and after we correct her, she is always quick to give the offended party a hug. Sometimes she just sees that we saw what she did and quickly hugs her sister. =P

Lainey has been wanting to do so much for Bek lately. Lainey wants to help her get her jammies on and help her get her shoes on when we are going out. Today she put a diaper on her after she tried to go potty. =P I tried to help, but she said she really wanted to do it herself. =) She is such a helpful girl! I was thinking about giving our kids buddies when the new baby comes and pairing Emily up with Bekah and Lainey up with the baby. But Lainey and Bekah seem to already be buddies on their own. =P

The other night, we made potstickers for dinner. Usually it takes a while and Harper and I do it together. We decided that night to make it a family effort. Lainey and I were on a team and Emily and Daddy were on a team. We put the filling in a bowl between the kids and gave them each a teaspoon. They had so much fun putting the wrappers on little plates and scooping filling onto them. Then they'd send the plates to us and we'd wrap them. Each team had two plates going, so everyone was busy the whole time. It took us about the same amount of time to seal the wrappers as it took the kids to get them on plates with filling. It went so quickly and the girls were so proud of themselves. Yummy, fun dinner! =)

We are totally addicted to kale chips. We have made them three times since Harper's cousin made them for us in Montana. That was just over week ago! =P The kids love them too.

We've been having fun in the kitchen this week. I canned a bunch of organic beans. They ended up way cheaper than even the non-organic canned beans in the store. I figured, adding in $2 for power (just a guess - I actually have no clue) that it came out to 33 cents per can. I did black beans, kidney beans, and red beans. Mmm!

We made bread yesterday with a new recipe. There are two soaks involved, so it takes a long time, but most of the time it's just sitting there, so it doesn't really take extra time, just a little planning. And Harp made soy yogurt today. Mmm!

Haha! Oh and we made cheese the other day too. That was kind of crazy. Some of it did turn out, but some of it ended up salty and nasty. Guess checking the pH is pretty important. =P And we really should have planned a bit better for that - Harper was up until 3am because there were so many steps that took so long. We were making mozzarella. =P If I make cheese again, I'm making ricotta or cream cheese, lol! =) They are quicker and easier. =P

Hehe! So today we took the kids to the dollar store because Emily's claw hair clip broke and she wore it all the time and loved it. We let her and Lainey each pick something. Em got a pack of 4 claw hair clips and Lainey got a jar of pickles. LOL!! She totally loves pickles. All of the kids do. Lainey shared her pickles with Bekah when we got home. =)

Bekah Cuteness

Bek ripped out one of her stitches on Friday, so Harper just took them out. =P Then the doctor called to find out if I made an appointment to get them taken out. Then asked me if I thought it could be infected. Like I can't take stitches out and I can't tell if it's infected? I need an appointment for these things. What?! They did actually offer me a prescription for antibiotics when she got the stitches, saying most parents would rather do that than have to look for signs of infection. I said I'd deal with it if it got infected. They probably think I'm nuts.

Bekah says "bap!!" and climbs into my lap. =) She says "upppppppppp" with a very strong, spitty-soundin' p when she wants up. =P A bug is a "bub" and a cup is usually a "bup." =P A book is a "gook."

I took the girls to Starbucks yesterday because my parents send a coupon for a free drink (thank you, thank you!) and we shared a decaf mocha frap. When we were getting ready to go, I told Em to get her shoes and her book and Bekah said "shoes! gook!" =P

Cuteness

Lainey was telling Grandma about something that happened "a half long time ago," earlier that day, I think. =P

We had a guy over to fix our dishwasher and Bekah watched him, and then grabbed a plastic knife, pulled a kitchen drawer out, and started sawing at it. She'd stop and watch him and then saw a little more. She was workin' just like him. =P

One thing I love about this house is there is a low cupboard that I can put dishes in! The girls love to unload the dishwasher and put the dishes and silverware away. All I have to do is the knives and the glasses. =P They are such great helpers!

So, we went to Montana for the weekend and right before we left, Bekah fell and hit her head on the side of her bed. She got three stitches. She was crying at the doctor's office until I started singing her the Little Bek song. =P "Little Bek, Little Bek, we've loved you since you were a little speck, a little speck, a tiny thing. You were so small like a piece of rice and we said ooh another baby's gonna be so nice! And it was you. And it was you. And we're so glad...that it was you." That calmed her down for all but the very worst parts. My poor baby!

She was our first to get stitches. And now I'm kinda paranoid. I was always the parent that didn't worry enough (Harper's the parent that worries too much, lol) and now I'm freaked out about her cutting her head open again or reopening this cut. I used to be like yay good job climbing that ridiculously high rock and now I'm like don't run!! =P I'm sure I'll chill out eventually. lol

So after all that we headed for Montana and got there around dinner time. We had a fun time with Harper's aunt and uncle and cousin, and her kids. Anna is a little bit older than Lainey and the girls had lots of fun together.

On the way home, we stopped at a carousel in Missoula, which was fun. =)

Not much else going on. Oh I am meeting with the midwife on Friday! And we are having a garage sale this weekend. Or that's the plan right now at least. =P

Facebook Stuff

Ha. Here's a way to remember SOME things: steal 'em off of Facebook. =P

We LOVE Go Fish. We listen to Go Fish every day and dance around the living room. I love The Mom Song. =P

The other day, Bek picked up a dog turd and took a nibble. Ick. I wasn't there - Terrie had the kids out back and saw it just in time to rescue her from worse. =P

Lainey: Mom, what does "bomb" mean?
Me: Something that explodes and hurts people
Lainey: What does, like, "that smell is the bomb" mean?

We borrowed a movie from some friends called Monsters vs. Aliens. I didn't like it. But we watched it together and one of the lines is "These disguises are the bomb!" Lainey keeps saying "Deeses guyses are the bomb!" lol =P And now the girls are telling us "This dinner is the bomb!" and doing the little hand motion the guy does with it. We don't like our kids quoting movies (we just find it annoying) but I think this one is so hilarious that I take part. =P Lainey finished all her dinner the other night and I said "Lainey Joy, you're the bomb!" lol

Emily: Who wants to be the princess?
Lainey: ME!!!!
Emily: Okay. I'll be the queen!

Oh, and she made it sound really exciting, too. =P

Hiking Funny and Babiness

When we were hiking with Titus, he said he was scared and wanted to hold my hand. So after a few minutes, Lainey said "Titus, ALWAYS remember: my mommy is NOT your mommy!" =P

I spent a good part of my day trying to find a doctor or midwife here. The midwife sounds awesome! But it will cost a LOT more to use her. =\ I feel much safer with a midwife and without a hospital. We'll have to figure out if we can manage it. I guess a couple months will tell what is going to happen with unemployment (we may lose it because of the laser business), or we could move if Harper finds a job somewhere, or the website could be launched and do really well and then yay. I really, really, really don't want to be induced with pitocin when my baby is 7 days late and then end up with a c-section. =( And the doctors here (there is one practice) all see you throughout your pregnancy and there are 4 of them. So you get like what 2 or 3 appointments with the doctor that will deliver your baby and you don't know who that will even be? Very lame. Oh well. I guess if I end up having to do that, it will somehow be okay. If I don't spaz out about it. =P

I am still sick. =( I keep getting only like 4-5 hours of sleep. I don't know how I make it through the day, 'cause this has been going on so long now. I'm going to go try to sleep. Ha.

Oh Yeah...

And I'm pregnant! =P

Neglected Blog

I am so sad that I have neglected my blog 'cause I have just been reading all these cute and funny things Emily and Lainey did around the time I got pregnant with Bekah. =) There are so many cute Bekah things that I haven't blogged and I'm sure I won't remember them all.

Harper's mom is here to visit and she got Bekah a little trike. Bekah loves it. She can't really do it, unless it's pointed slightly downhill. =) But she loves it. Terrie also got Lainey a big girl bike and she has been riding it around without training wheels! The Like-A-Bike really taught my girls to balance. We have been letting Titus practice on it a bit because he wants his training wheels off now too. =) The other day, Harper had Bekah in Walmart and she kept saying "bikes!!" and pointing in the direction of the bikes. SO cute!

The other day at Yoke's (grocery store) Bekah was complimented on her singing. =) She sings alllllllllll the time and it is adorable. =) I can't wait until I can understand the words. =)

The other day Lainey told me I wasn't as pretty as before, but that I was still pretty. I asked why. She said "Because your shirt is ugly. But you are still pretty." I asked what was ugly about my shirt. "It's just blue and ugly." I like my plain blue tank top. =P

Tonight Lainey started toward arguing with me and I said "Lainey, do you really want to argue with me?" She said "No. I don't want to argue with you. 'Cause you are my sweet mommy and I love you." =P Too cute.

Bekah asked for a sucker today. =P I think it's the first time she's asked for something specific other than juice (which is milk). We got this huge thing of organic suckers on Amazon and mmmmmmmmm they are so good. They taste real! Way yummier than chemical suckers! =)

So, I have been sick. =( I don't really know when this went from bad allergies to actually being sick. For a few days, I couldn't talk at all. That would have been Tues & Wed. I have been very quiet ever since 'cause it still kind of hurts to talk. I'm coughing now and have a sinus headache off and on. I told Harper tonight I feel like I will never get over this. I can't even imagine not being sick. Yeah, I have a short memory. =)

Oh on Monday I took the kiddos hiking. We tried the Maiden Rock trail again, where Em fell in the ice water a few months ago. It was nice up there, but after a little ways, the trail just kind of disappeared. I had Titus with us and he took me very seriously when I told everyone they had to stay on the trail so they wouldn't get lost. So when I told Em to stand at the end of the obvious trail while I went to see if I could find which way it continued, he kind of freaked out that I went off the trail. Lainey had already said she was tired, too, and since this hike is 2 miles down and then 2 miles back up to the car.... I thought that could turn bad and I was the only adult with 4 potentially tired kids to try to haul back to the car. =P So we turned back and had a picnic at the car.

Oh wow it has been a long time since I blogged, huh? Well a few weeks ago Em had her last day of swimming and she got a medal, along with the rest of her class. That was cute and she wore it the rest of the day.

Then the next night was AWANA awards night and I'm going to brag on my kid, okay? =) She is 5. She isn't even supposed to be in Sparks, but I thought it would be better for her than Cubbies, so that's what we did. She finished her book, finished her review, and finished the extra credit. There are about 40 kids in Sparks on any given night so I'm going to guess about 50 kids in Sparks? Anyway only FOUR of them finished the extra credit book. So I am very proud of my girl. =) She got a Sparks t-shirt for it and she loves to wear it, even though it is a size 10/12! lol

Last Friday was Lost in the 50s weekend in Sandpoint. Jen and I got together and made our girls and a couple of friends' girls poodle skirts. Very cute! =P Lainey loved the car parade, of antique/classic cars. She especially like the Bel-Aires because she had one on her poodle skirt. Yes, Lainey asked for a pink skirt with a pink car on it. =P Em and Bek had poodles.

Bekah's in the stage of copying everything. Harper burped the other day and she faked a burp, too. =P She was super cute playing duck, duck, goose with the girls the other day too. =P

Okay I am sick and sleep would probably be good. I will try to remember more stuff to blog. =P Later!

Lalalala Wee, Lalalala Woo

My ringtone when Harper calls me is this song that goes Lalalala Wee, Lalalala Woo. Bekah brings me my cell phone, singing that. =) And the other day Lainey came and said "Daddy's calling you." (As in, he was upstairs and needed me, but I couldn't hear him.) Bekah said "Lalalala Wee, Lalalala Woo!" lol!!

Yay

Much cuteness: Today after dinner Em and Lainey asked if they could get a fruit pop (popsicley thing). I said yes and they ran to the freezer to get them out. As soon as they got the box, Bekah said "YAY!!" and ran over to them as fast as she could. Hehehe!! I love how she is growing up. =)

Since we have moved to this house, she has been sleeping on the trundle bed and she loves it! It is too cute.

I can't remember what I was asking the girls about, but today I said "Who wants a _____?" and Emily said "Me!!" and Bekah said "Me!!" =)

I went to the old house today and vacuumed and obliterated 5 Magic Erasers just on the cabinets and walls of the main floor (and it's not even finished). I got most of the rest of the stuff, but again, I left it in the van for the night. The weather has been pretty much dreadful. Cold, windy, and rainy. And I'm not enjoying moving in it. The carpet cleaner can't come until Wednesday anyway so now there is really no hurry. We have to have it professionally cleaned as part of our contract. Oh well. Gonna watch a Jeeves and Wooster. Later. =)

Crazy Life

Whew. So. We have almost everything moved over to the new house. Some stuff is still in the van, lol, and in the cab of a friend's truck, but at least most of it is present in Ponderay and no longer in Sandpoint. =) Today, we will unload that, grab the few things that are left, clean the place like crazy, and go turn in our keys. At least, that is the plan right now. =) I have a roast in the crockpot, so dinner is taken care of. Yay. =) The new house is kind of a wreck, with stuff that needs a home everywhere. Our garage is actually mostly organized, but about half of it is taken up with garage sale stuff. We have been trying hard to dig deep and get rid of things. This new place is smaller than the old one and at the old house (shhhh) I don't think we ever parked in the garage. Stuff everywhere...

Bekah is so so so so cute. She calls Emily "Emily" or "Emiwy" and she calls Lainey "Nay-nay" and she calls herself "Dotot" or "Totot." Haha!! We got video of it, but right now our internet is through our phone and we have a usage limit that I'm a little paranoid about just because I have NO concept of how big all this stuff is. We will get cable internet again on the 6th, so then I can post more stuff.

Oh yesterday we stopped by the Tumultys' house so Em could run to the door and give Titus a toy that he left at our house. Bekah screamed and screamed and screamed. I said "Bekah, what in the world is the problem?" And she said "Titus!!" =P She wanted to go up to see Titus, too. =P

The weekend of the 14th is Lost in the 50s in Sandpoint. There are events at the fairgrounds and stuff, but I think we'll just go to the parade (of classic cars) and the street dance after the parade. Lainey is going to LOVE seeing all these cars. =P Jen and I are getting together and making all the girls poodle skirts. =) Fun!

Easter

We had lunch at Tim and Anna's after church and they did an egg hunt for the kids. Lainey covered her face in chocolate, as usual. =P Hehe!! I don't know how she manages to get it all over her face every time. =)

Random Pics

Harp took these pics of Jen, Bonnie, Diedre, Lainey Joy, and me at our parachute party. =)

These pics are from our trip to Montana to pick up the laser. The night before, I cut up one of Harper's old undershirts and tied the big girls' hair in rag rollers. It came out SOOO curly! It was adorable. On Em's hair I learned that if you wet it, it is ridiculously curly and stays curly all day. If you don't wet it, it's kinda curly (pretty though) and mostly falls out by the afternoon. How do I know? I only wet one side of her hair. lol What was I thinking? I just got a little lazy and decided it was just as easy to roll it dry. Ha! And Lainey looks a bit silly in these pictures because she is shivering cold. =P We hopped back in the car right afterward. Oh, and our trailer said Wichita, KS on the side. Fun, huh?! Annnnd I don't know if I blogged Lainey's funny comment from that trip... When we got to Missoula (this is 3-4 hours away), Lainey looked out the back window and said "Hey! There's a Uhaul truck behind us!!" Haha! Yes, Lainey, that would be the trailer we picked up this morning, that's attached to our van. =P She is too cute.

My silly Laina and her organic sucker. Yeah, we are freaks. We ordered a HUGE bin of organic suckers on Amazon. =P We've been doing a good job rationing them and the kids have been doing a good job not asking for them all the time. =) They are the BEST suckers I have ever tasted. Hmm, maybe 'cause the flavors are real. =P Chemical suckers just aren't as yummy!