A Few More

Okay I just happen to have some time right now... These are all from Facebook so if you keep up there, there's nothing new in this post. =)

Last night, I was putting overnight curlers in Lainey's hair and Bekah asked "Will you make my hair octopus-y, too?" lol

Reading with Lainey often goes something like this: "The...dog...went... The dog went?? That doesn't even make sense." "Lainey, *finish the sentence.*"

Told Bek I'd make the girls some decaf later... She says "I like coffee... Laina spills her coffee." lol I said "Yeah, she's our clumsy Laina. We love her!" She said "Yeah. And sometimes she clums water on the floor." LOL She is SO CUTE!!! =)

We had a birthday party for Bekah (on Oct 22). She is still talking and talking about it and it is SO precious to me that what she's talking about isn't cake or presents or games that we played - it is "I loved having all of my friends at my party!" She keeps naming for me all of her friends that she loves. =) So sweet!

Oct 1:

Cuteness 1) Bekah called a friend's toy razor "a pretend scravy thing."

Cuteness 2) We were at an alpaca farm and I told Bekah "These alpacas make me want to sneeze!" She said "These alpacas make me want to smile! They make me want to KISS!" I asked if they made her want to kiss ME and she said "No, they make me want to kiss the alpacas!" =)

Cuteness 3) We were making a cake for a neighbor's birthday and Bek whapped my belly with a frosting-covered spatula. She said "Oh! I'm so sorry I got frosting on your baby!!"

Sept 26: Bekah, eating yogurt: "Cows are so sweet for makin' me have milk." =)

Sept 19: Studying the Sumerians today... Lainey's sitting there poking her clay making a cuneiform tablet and she says "I'm making a picture of your brain!!" LOL Well, I guess that's what they look like... =)

Sept 17: ..other day I said "Whoa, I think I might throw up. I don't feel good." Em said "Welp, life's not about you feeling good!" Hahaha!! She's learning something. :)

I felt baby kicks with my hand Sept 14. Harper first felt them the 17th.

Sept 13: Getting out winter coats and snow pants and Bekah goes "Those are coats!! Are we going snowing in those?!?!?" =P So excited. lol Actually, we are learning about the Ice Age today and we are going to pretend we are in one. For 2 minutes, most likely, lol. Long enough for a picture and some fun. =)

Sept 11: Me: Laine, I like your funky style. =P Laine: What's funky about it? Me: Well, the purple polka dotted tutu and the bright knee high socks with multicolored stars on them.... Laine: I don't think they're funky - they're pretty! =)

Baha! Bekah just totally rejected a fresh mozzarella ball, after delighting in sheep cheese, and then wanted more and more 1000 day aged gouda. That's my girl.

Sept 9: Em asked to do the "big kids'" activity in Science today. So she wrote her first report. =P So cute!! She researched Giant Anteaters and typed up a little report about them. Lainey did the "little kids'" activity and drew a mammal - an absolutely adorable elephant. I am so glad I am not missing all of this! =)

Sept 6 was feeling baby thumps.

Sept 6: Em: I only got infinity infinities. Laine: I got more. :) lol

Sept 1: Today Bekah showed me her "Leaning Tower of Babel" made out of Legos and dropped in on the ground. It landed on her foot and she said "Ow, that hurt my finger thing...I mean...my toe!" =)

Aug 31: Yesterday, I took a nap with Bekah in my bed. She ended up at the bottom of the bed, and I was at the top. I woke up feeling super sleepy and needed a Kleenex, and without my glasses, I thought Bekah's pigtail was a Kleenex sticking out of a box. I totally pulled her pigtail, lol. I'm glad she slept through that. =P

Aug 29: Em woke up and threw up this morning. Not good. She says "Now my breath smells like celery." LOL

Aug 24: Hahaha!! I was blowing into my bottle and Bek said "Momma, why are you singing into your beer?" lol

Aug 14 (road trip to TX for Lauren's wedding): Bekah's playing with a daddy and a baby beef jerky. Hehe! Road trip entertainment. :)

Aug 12: Played Life with the girls today. Had a little Rachael and Leah going on... Em had 4 babies, and Lainey had none. She was so upset about not getting kids. :)

Aug 10: Bekah loves limburger. Peew!

Aug 9: "This place take longer than gettin' booked inta jail." -guy at the DMV, to Harper

Aug 8: Lainey: I like cows. I mean, dead cows to eat. LOL Me too. :)

Aug 5: Bekah, taking about her plum: "I ate the paper, but the inside was dripping all over the where." :)

Aug 2: Only boys have innies. -Lainey

That's yucky syrup! It has honey on it! -Bek

Bekah calls watermelon "lalamelon." =)

July 22: I was measuring batting for our craft at the ladies' retreat. Bekah asked "is that for making treats on trees?" :)

Lainey spontaneously burst into tears. Turns out she is upset because she thinks when she turns 5, her pretty glittery flip flops won't fit her anymore. :)

July 21: Bek: Can I have one of your ginger candies? Me: Nope. Daddy got them for me because I'm pregnant. Bek (crying): But Lainey told me *I'm* pregnant!!

Em, eating cereal... "Why do they call it 'Life' if it's full of sugar?" LOL

July 20: Discovered in line at Chick-Fil-A that Bekah has a naked bum under her pants...& the only place her diaper could be is on the bathroom floor at Hobby Lobby. LOL

July 16: Bek likes to say "That is too cute to be cute!!" :)

July 15: The girls, playing Pet Shops... Lainey: I want to spend my money! Em: That is SUCH a bad idea because ONE meal is FIVE hundred dollars! lol

Have you seen that Asian workout video, with "I was robbed by two men?" Bek has ben running around, saying "Take anything you want! Take anything you want!" Lol

July 14: Bek came to me crying and said, "The wall hit me!!" :)

July 10: Bekah, drinking some water yesterday: "Whaaaaat? Dere's a callapiller in dere!" (That would be a snot caterpillar on her lip. Eew.)

July 9: At an outdoor wedding...Bekah starts crying and I take her up the road and find it's because she sees "red fireflies" everywhere and "can't see the sun." :(

July 8: "Mommy, you're cute. Can we have oatmeal?" -Bekah

July 6: Lainey, sorting out who is playing what role in their game of House: "Okay, you are going to be our baby that loves to be naked."

June 30: Bek: Can you tangle this out? (untangle) :) She is so cute!!!

June 11: Bek just came and said "Dude, can we watch Thomas?" Hahaha!

May 20: Bek: "There was a thunderstorm and it was gonna about to say BOOM! It said BOOM!!!!" (That morphed into "about to gonna" and she used to say that all the time!)

I think I'm finally to where I blogged this stuff before. And my Titus fabric is here and in my lap! Sooooo cute!! =)

When I Grow Up

Oh and the other day Em asked Lainey what she wants to be when she grows up. She said a famous singer and a famous ballerina. =P She asked Em what she wanted to be and she said a wife and a mommy. =) Then Bekah piped up "When I grow up, I wanna be Lightmeen A-Queen!!" That would be Lightning McQueen, the red race car from the movie Cars. lol Sometimes she says she wants to be Lightning McQueen AND Mater. =P The other day she was running in circles saying "When I grow up, I want to be a CAR!!!!" Em told her people don't just turn into cars, and she was really upset like all of her plans for the future were crashing down. lol I told Em to just let her play. So she is back to telling everyone she wants to be Lightning McQueen. =P

Titus, for Real, and Girls

So I didn't even mention Titus. Our baby is going to be Titus. The girls are sooooo excited and talk about him all the time. Bekah tells him how when he comes out and gets big she will take him on a roller coaster. =) She also wants to teach him how to use the potty. =P

Harper's mom came for Bekah's birthday and brought us our first Titus stuff. =) So now there are cute little boy clothes in Em's closet. She told me "I squeal every time I open my closet!! The Titus clothes are SO CUTE!!" =)

I got fabric to make Titus crib bedding and it is supposed to come today! Yay!! =)

Last night Em put a sash around Bekah's chest like a bikini and Bekah ran into my room and said "I have a bakumi!!" lol

Bekah has been saying "make suring." "I'm make suring there's no lions or robots in our basement." or "I'm make suring there's no bad guys in our basement." =)

The girls all got fish when we studied fish in Science and Bekah named hers Gilgamesh. Em's is Emma and Lainey's is Elizabeth. Then we went to a fall party a week later and they got three fish. Agh! So Bekah named hers Hammurabi, we don't remember what Lainey named hers, and Em named hers Jessica. Lainey's fish and Hammurabi died after about two days. It was so cute and so sad to hear Bekah crying "Hammurabi died!!" =( Poor girl! Em's isn't doing so well today but we are trying to do what we can to save it. Spent a lot of money on some chemical that might help. But we don't want Emma to get sick, too, and Jessica is in the bowl with Emma. Sad! Bekah said if she gets another fish she wants to name it Nefertiti. =P lol

The other day I left the garage door open while I lasered and forgot to close the screen door and some flies came into the house. Bekah and I were sitting at the bar in the kitchen and she said "There's two flies!" Then another fly came over and she said "Oh! Now there's free flies, just like I'm free." =P Too cute! She is very happy to be three years old now. =P

I've painted the master bathroom, but still have some spackling to do (and painting over that), and I painted most of Lainey and Bekah's room but I have one wall that I couldn't get to all the way. I can't move the bed myself. But three walls are done, except for right around the top because I'm still deciding if I'm going to put a cute scalloped border around the top (painted) or if I don't want that much work. I painted a ballerina on one wall, but it needs a few more coats. The girls named her Adelaide. =)

I built a bookshelf and an entertainment center for the basement and then the big girls and I spent Bekah's naptime making a doll crib for her for her birthday. It took a few days, but it turned out super cute!! It is dark pink like the ballerina in their room and the drawer under the crib (for doll clothes - yay!) is a medium pink, which is what color the last wall will be. The other three walls are light pink. No crazy argyle stuff this time. =P

Bekah actually helped with her crib before it looked like anything. All of the girls love to do wood putty with me and Lainey likes to sand. =) And of course they all like to paint, but Bekah couldn't do that on the crib. =) Bek was working with me and I asked her "Do you know what I'm making?" She said "Yeah!!!" I asked what. She said "Um...boards!!!" =) lol She didn't know it was even for her at that point. Later she did know it was for her and she saw some of it starting to come together and said "Are you makin' me a bookshelf?!" She probably would have loved a bookshelf as much as a doll crib, if not more. She comes to me daily with an armful of books and says "Can you read all of these books to me?" =) So precious! She could spend all day with books. =)

Speaking of reading, Lainey is doing a really great job. She has learned quite a few more phonograms and she is getting quicker at recognizing words without sounding every letter out. She likes to read her readers to Bekah. =) It's so sweet!!

I'm working on Christmas presents and trying to decide if I want to take a little break and make some baby bedding when my fabric gets here. =P But I can't find my rotary cutter anyway. So I guess that's the first thing I need to do... I have two - how do I lose them both? I don't know. But I can't wait to see my Titus fabric!!! =)

Titus & Girls

I have a couple of lists that I made at the Rabbit Hole of cute Bekah things. So these are pretty old, but I don't want to not blog them. Emmy and I have been reading things that she said and did when she was just barely 3 and it is so cute! I want Bekah to get to read those things about herself, too. =) This list is from when my parents were visiting.

One day she told me "I like your mom. It's cute!"

"I'm going to peepee on the parking lot!"

My parents were here and my mom has a neck pillow in their car. Bekah put it around her neck and said "Look! It's a bloon wif a Bekah head!" I love how a balloon is a bloon. =P

I'm pretty sure the context of this was drinking some Starbucks in Grandma and Grandpa's car. Someone (I think my mom) asked Bekah "Did you get some?" I said "She was suckin' it down!" She said "Yeah, I was making sure there was nuffing, nuffing, nuffing for Grandma." LOL!!

Bekah loves knock-knock jokes and she had so much fun doing the banana-orange joke with Grandpa. She never did get it quite right. She would say banana 4 or 5 times and then suddenly her response to "banana who?" would be "orange you glad I didn't say banana?" And we would all crack up while Grandpa said "But you DID say banana!!" =P She tried and tried and tried to get it right. I think she did get it right one time. It was really cute, though. =)

Bek told Lainey "I love what you are drawing. It's beautiful!!" (I love how all of my girls compliment each other's art work.)

Bekah was talking about the wedding we had gone to and called it "That princess thing."

One day at church Bekah was walking down the hall, leaning on the wall. She got to a doorway and just fell down. lol

Em: Bekah, where did you put your cow?
Bek: I was collecting it.
Em: ...Do you know what collecting means, Bekah?
Bek: No.

Bekah, to Laine: You're mean!!! You're interesting!!!!
Laine: Do you know what interesting means?
Bekah: No.

lol I love these girls. =)

Harp: Bekah, did you poop in your pants?
Bekah: Nope.
Harp: What is that horrible smell?
Bekah: I think it's bugs.

Bekah loved fireworks this year and one time she tried to smuggle a smoke bomb into bed with her.

At the playground, Lainey asked Bekah if she wanted to try eating an ant. Bekah said "No...it's plastic!!!"

The girls found a snail shell at the playground and brought it home. They were playing with it and calling it the "power rock." Harper asked them what a power rock did. Em said, matter-of-factly, "It's so you don't have to sign papers when you go on adventures and stuff." =)

Okay that is everything on that paper. I will try to find the others. =)

Boys and Hannitizer

We went for an ultrasound today and found out we are having a boy! I was totally surprised. =) When we told Bekah it was a boy, she said "Oh! Can we name him Alyssa?" lol She LOVES the name Alyssa. =) She has been telling me how excited she is to have a little brother, and of course how cute he is. =P Oh, during the ultrasound, Bekah stopped looking at the screen for a while and was just playing in her chair. When she looked up again she said "Is that a snake?!" LOL She is so funny.

The other day Bekah wanted to snack on a mini bell pepper (my kids LOVE bell peppers and especially the mini ones because they are cute and I'm much more likely to say yes because I don't have to go cut anything). I told her she needed to wash it first. So the next thing I see she is coming around the corner rubbing a mini bell pepper and I KNOW she hasn't been to the sink. Turns out she "washed" it with hand sanitizer. LOL! Good thing I caught it before she took a bite. That would have been one nasty surprise. =) And Bekah calls hand sanitizer "hannitizer." Too cute. =)

The girls and I already did a Christmas craft. lol =) We bought a wreath made just out of sticks and a bunch of bright jingle bells and we stuck them all over the wreath with some wire. It is really cute. It just needs a big bow. =) I got ribbon for it, but I haven't googled how to make a really good bow yet. =)

We have the craft room pretty much in order, except two boxes of Harper's stuff. I think it can just chill there for a while. =P The rest of the house is good except the main room in the basement, and I am building a bookshelf right now to help with that. I was almost done with it and then ended up having to re-putty a knot. So now I'm waiting for that to dry. It is mostly painted, and the paint dries quickly, so I MIGHT get it done and down here tonight, but definitely tomorrow... And I will be so glad when this basement looks good. I need to make a little entertainment center for the receiver and stuff too but that stuff is on a broken school desk right now so it's at least not all over the floor. Oh and the Glidden paint they have at Walmart now is amazingly good paint. I am loving it. I painted our bathroom with it and now the bookshelves... I can't wait to paint Lainey and Bekah's room but I don't know when I will really be able to.

Cute, Scravy Things, Biscuits

If I have never blogged this, it most definitely needs to be blogged. Bekah calls everyone cute. She tells random people at Walmart (usually elderly people) "you are SO CUTE!!" lol She also tells Keller (Tatum's boy) that he is cute and he turns red and has no idea what to say to her. lol It's a good thing that he doesn't enjoy it. =P She draws him pictures all the time and just thinks he is great, so it's a little extra awkward. =P lol Yesterday I put a shirt on her and she wasn't sure it went with her skirt. I told her it did and that the fabric on the sleeves was the same fabric as in the skirt, and I told her to go look in the mirror when I got it on. So she went over the the mirror and said "You're CUTE, Bekah!!! You're CUTE, mirror!!" lol

Bekah says such sweet things to me. =P Especially when we snuggle in the morning or if we have a nap together in the afternoon. She will say "I love you, Momma, Momma biscuit!" with any number of Mommas and any number of biscuits. =P lol She also says "I am so so glad to be your Bek!!" and "I am so so glad that you're my momma!" She is precious. Oh and she calls me precious, too. lol She is too cute! Just now we put her to bed and she said "I love you, Momma, Momma, Momma, biscuit, biscuit, biscuit, girl, girl, girl, cute, cute, girlie, girl." lol =)

We went to Kenna's birthday party today and when we got home, Bekah was telling Harper about how the Blanchettes have "a pretend scravy thing." LOL She was talking about their toy razor that they have in the bathtub.

A couple of days ago Bekah and I were making a cake for a neighbor's birthday and Bekah accidentally whapped my belly with a frosting-covered spatula. She said "Oh! I'm so sorry I got frosting on your baby!" lol

Oh and on Friday we went to an alpaca farm on a field trip. Learned all sorts of interesting things about alpacas. =P But after about 45 minutes, I was sneezing. I told Bekah "I think these alpacas make me want to sneeze!" She said "These alpacas make me want to smile! They make me want to KISS!" I asked her if they made her want to kiss ME. She said "No, they make me want to kiss the alpacas!" =)

School has been great. Lainey is reading her little books and having fun coloring them. We are having tons of fun in Science and History. This week we made a little Stonehenge out of cheese and wrapped Bekah up like a mummy. =P We made maps of Crete and Greece when we learned about the Minoans and Thira. We crumpled them up and tea stained them and then burned the edges. Emily was amused when I accidentally burned Turkey off her map. lol It wasn't important to the project, so that's okay. It just happened to be there. =) We looked at lots of Aunt Laurin's pictures from when she lived on Santorini. The girls really loved seeing pictures taken by someone they know! =) And Aunt Laurin was in some of them, too. =)

We were going to go to Colorado but since our friends that were going with us can't go, we decided not to. It was supposed to be a vacation/hiking trip. But we don't feel like going to hike alone and we don't really feel like a visiting trip that is only 2 days of visiting and 2 days of driving. And Harper was also sick for a week and missed three days of work, so he doesn't want to take vacation time anyway now. =) So anyway we scheduled an ultrasound for Wednesday to find out if we're having a girl or a boy. I am not excited about paying $75 just to know and have 2D pics. Oh well. =P I will be glad to know. Harper has felt kicks more, but the girls aren't patient enough and haven't stuck around to feel the baby kick.

Last night I went to CK's 18th birthday party. It was a campout and a ton of fun. I can't stay up that late when I'm pregnant, but I stayed up until midnight. I was sorta bummed to miss watching movies outside (we took our projector and set up a little campout theatre) but I knew I couldn't make it even though the first one. Now I sorta want to watch That Thing You Do and Sahara. =P lol Goin' up to watch Monk with Harper. Later!

Bek

Harper has been sick for a week. He is finally feeling better and today he got to pick Bekah up. She said "Do you mean that you love me?!" Poor girl!! He told her of course he loves her and he never stopped loving her! Later I was snuggling her for a nap and I told her you know, Daddy always loved you. She said "But he didn't want to hold me!" I told her he DID want to hold her, but he didn't want to make her sick like he was. She totally didn't get it. Poor girl. But she is happy that he can hold her again and that he loves her now. =P

Bekah likes "bascaragus" (asparagus) and she says "bacept for" for "except for." She says so many cute and funny little things. This morning she was eating yogurt and said "Cows are so sweet for makin' me have milk." =P

Funnies, Cuteness, Baby Stuff

Bekah calls watermelon "lalamelon." She just wanted some cantaloupe and asked me for "some of that lalamelon thingie." =)

The other day I said I felt sick and I didn't feel good. Em said "Welp, life's not about you feeling good!" lol I said I know it's not, I was just warning you that I might run and throw up. lol =P

I have been feeling baby kick a whole lot. I started feeling kicks Sept 6. I had looked on my blog for when I first felt Bekah and calculated the equivalent date in this pregnancy to be Sept 7. I felt movement - just wiggles and squirms it felt like - for the week or two before. But real thumps started the 6th. =)

Bekah asks me every day if she can have a Tum because her tummy hurts. I always tell her Tums aren't for an owwie tummy but you can have one anyway... =P

School has been really great so far. I'm liking everything I planned for this year, so far. =)

I still need pictures on the walls. I never like doing that. I need someone to come over and just do it for me. =P

Bekah and I were talking about what words start with different letters the other day. I showed her an A and she said "alligator" even though there was an apple on the card. I don't know if she really gets that it starts with A or just knows she has heard A for alligator before. She didn't contribute anything else that started with A or with C, but I asked her what starts with B. I said Bekah, banana, etc... and asked her if she could think of another. She said "butt." LOL Good job, Bekah... =P

Bekah DOES know butt starts with B though because every time she would say it her sisters would say "Bekah just said B-U-T-T again!!" Now she says "B-U-T-T." Nice, huh? My 2-year-old can spell butt. (Emily is standing here cracking up. No pun intended.)

Bekah says "Ja." Harper said it reminds him of Wayne's World. I don't remember ever seeing that... But if you ask her if she did something or if she likes something or whatever... she says "Ja!"

Oh and Bekah calls Walmart "Warmart." (War rhymes with car.) =)

House!

After tons of house drama, and a crazy last week (we're closing, we're not closing, we're closing, we're not closing...there is an error in the closing cost, there is no key to do a final walkthrough...), we are finally in a house. We closed late Friday and had our stuff delivered out of storage on Monday. I have been pretty exhausted since then. I don't know if I'm sick with no other symptoms or if you can be this tired just from a couple of late nights. Harper ordered me Floradix in case it's an iron thing. I don't think I look anemic, but I might as well get started taking something now that I'm not feeling too sick.

I still throw up if I don't eat, but I'm getting less sensitive to WHAT I eat, which is nice. And I can change a bad diaper with only a reasonable amount of discomfort.

Speaking of which...Bekah has totally regressed since we have been here. She was going on the potty in Colorado. But Harper didn't want her peeing on the floor in our temp housing, so he said to put her back in diapers. Well she has gotten lazy and it's almost like starting over. If I remember to tell her to go, it's not too bad, but she doesn't go on her own very often anymore. Pretty lame! I was so happy about not having to change poopy diapers. lol

The movers broke a ton of stuff, so we're going to have to claim a bunch of damage. Not really anything that can't be replaced, though.

We went to Lauren Bourcier's wedding in Texas a couple of weeks ago, and my sister got engaged the same day. =)

My dad's mom passed away the day the movers brought our stuff. She was my last grandparent.

My house is still sort of a wreck, but I have been making progress slowly. I really don't know what is up with my lack of energy, but cutting up some oranges this morning felt like lifting weights, and my water glass just felt sooo heavy. I feel a little better now.

My veins are starting to bug me - I'll be 15 weeks Friday. I don't really want to go get pantyhose yet but I may have to soon. I think moving day was just too much, being on my feet all day.

We are going to start school after Labor Day. Maybe I'll get more of the house in order by then. Or at least the main floor. I am almost done, and if I get something to wrap up a bunch of souvenir things, I will be done. I have started a box of them. The basement and my bedroom still need work. Especially the basement. But Harper will do a lot of that.

Guess that's all for now. =) Later!

Some Lainey Funnies

Tonight, Lainey said "Mommy, do you know why I love you?" I knew the answer, because she is always telling me... =P I said "'Cause I have a baby in my belly?" She said "Yep!" I said "So if I didn't have a baby in my belly, you wouldn't love me?" She said "Well, I still would. But I just love you MORE because you DO have a baby in your belly!" lol =)

The other day at the women's retreat, Donna told me that in Sunday School, she overheard this conversation between Lainey and Silas...

Lainey: I'm not going to marry you someday. I'm going to marry Titus.
Silas: But I'm braver and stronger! (he doesn't even know Titus, lol)
Lainey: Well, I'm still going to marry Titus.
Silas: But I AM stronger.
Lainey: You're a LITTLE stronger.

Hahaha!!

Wow, I Can Blog! =)

Hi! It has been forever since I've been able to blog, because my phone internet wouldn't load Blogger. But Harper bought me the full version of EasyTether this morning and now I can. =)

I have LISTS of cute Bekah things to blog, but I'll try to give sort of an update on the last couple of months.

First, I'm pregnant again. We found out on Father's Day. =) We had an ultrasound this last Friday and saw a little 8-week baby with a strong heartbeat. We are very excited! =) I'm due February 24th.

That second house we ended up not getting, either. Two walls were going to have to be braced in the basement, which entailed removing a very large patio and then replacing it afterward. And we didn't really want to wait for that, or be the ones finding out if it worked, or finding out what was going to happen with the front wall and front porch that was sinking, too. The patio in the back had sunk about 8" and crushed in the foundation. Bad stuff. Wish they had disclosed all of that so we wouldn't have had to pay for the inspection, but oh well.

We have a new contract on a house close to our old one. Closing was supposed to be tomorrow, but it is bank owned and the bank has been slow to communicate. We found out two weeks ago that the roof wasn't insurable and it took them 6 days to say they wanted proof of that from the insurance company before they would fix it. They got that the next day and it took them another 3 or 4 days to say they wanted something from the bank guaranteeing the loan. So the bank took a while because they wanted a bunch of paperwork that we have in storage (because they told us we didn't need it) and they had to go through a process to get that overridden. So yesterday they guaranteed it, and supposedly a new roof will be put on the house. The insurance company also said they need to replace light bulbs, fix the garage door, repair a small hole in some drywall, clean the chimney and furnace, and I don't even remember what else to make it insurable. Some of that was a little ridiculous. I think they are going to do it all, though, but we will be paying for it, and we will be paying "professionals" to do all of it. And we could have done it ourselves. That's annoying. And it needs a new water heater. I don't know how long all of that will take, but when it is done, we are ready to close. I hope it all happens quickly.

We went to a wedding on the 9th. Josh Wisner got married, and it was outdoors at a summer camp. Didn't know you could get anywhere that pretty only an hour and a half from Wichita. =) It was tons of fun. We played in the lake. Em says it wasn't "tons of fun" because Bekah almost passed out. That part was not fun. I had to take her out of the wedding because she was crying (which was unusual, but I didn't really realize something was actually wrong). By the time I got up the road, I saw that her eyes were rolling around and she was having a hard time keeping them open. She said "I can't see the sun" and also said that she saw red fireflies everywhere and they were scary. Poor girl was just dehydrated. I had left the water down at the wedding and couldn't take her back there screaming... It wasn't fun. But once she got some water, she felt better and we had a fun time. I did miss the whole wedding, but I was up the road at the car and saw the bride and groom leaving on a little tractor thing, kissin' the whole way. =) lol

Speaking of weddings, we're going to Texas in just under 4 weeks for Lauren Bourcier's wedding. We are so excited!!! I don't think there is any way this house stuff could take that long, but Harper tells me to not get so excited that I will be upset if we have to be here for closing or something. I don't see how that could happen and I am excited. =P I would say just wait to close, then! lol

Bekah is so big and so cute. Yesterday I chomped her arm fat to be funny and she gave me a look and said "That was not cool." lol She cracks me up. She LOVES going to the library and if we don't have something checked out, she will ask to go every day until we go back. She does NOT like to have to return things, especially Baby Einstein movies that we have been checking out.

Bekah calls anything scary an alligator. Harper turned on some video game music one day and she cried and said "there are alligators in that music!"

I love how Bekah says "ack-shwee" for "actually."

One day we went to High Park and the next day Bekah asked if we could go to "Tall Park" again. =) I guess the mental image of a high park is all that stuck. =) So cute!

Bekah says "reggie" for "regular" and talks about her "reggie friends" or her "reggie toys." I'm not sure exactly what she thinks it means, but I know it's supposed to be "regular." =P

We were at the zoo looking at the elephants and Bekah said "There are stripes on his boom boom thing!" LOL I had NO clue what she was talking about. I asked if she meant the wrinkles on his trunk and she said yes. Then a few seconds later she said "He goes boom boom thomp!" Haha! It's from one of those wiggly books - Waddle or Gallop, but I don't remember which. I wonder if the elephant moves his trunk in that picture - I will have to look when we get it out of storage.

When we went to (Josh's wife) Melissa's bridal shower, Em and Laine were at VBS, and Bek came with me. We rode with our neighbor so Harp could take the others to VBS. When we were getting ready to come home, Bekah said "What car should we take home?" as if we had our pick. =P Too cute!

Em bought Gobstoppers 2 months ago and Bek called them "gumsnappers." Toooo cute! =)

There was a storm one day and Bek came and said "There was a big thunderstorm and it was gonna about to say BOOM! It said BOOM!" That has morphed into "about to gonna" and she says it often. "I'm about to gonna slide!!" =P

I don't know why lobsters are sometimes "halobsters," but they are and we think it is so cute. I wonder if someone got a "whole lobster" when we went to Red Lobster in Colorado for Quin's birthday? She talks about Red Lobster all the time and wants to go there. She picked Red Lobster gift cards for Grandma's birthday. lol

When the girls were at VBS, Bekah told us "My Emmy and Lainey are at a PBS." =) I love how she calls them "her" Emmy and Lainey. =)

When it was our anniversary, I explained to the girls that it is celebrating a certain number of years from your wedding, like a birthday is celebrating a certain number of years from when you were born. Bekah said "Can I come with you? To your anni-birthday?" =)

At the bridal shower, toward the end, Bekah said "Where is the birthday?" I had told her we were going to a party, but I guess I didn't explain. =) She was sad that nobody was having a birthday. I think it was probably that there wasn't birthday cake. =P lol She also told random people "My mommy has a baby in her belly!" Before we had planned on telling anyone. Haha!

When I get Bekah out of the tub, I wrap her in a towel and pick her up and then we go look in the mirrors in the bathroom. There are two mirrors opposite each other, and she says "Where are all the Bekahs?" and "Where are all the Mommas?" And then she says "Let's switch!!" And we look in different mirrors and then switch which mirror we're looking at... over and over... =P It cracks her up!

Harper got a bean bag and Bekah called it his "jelly bag bean" and then his "jelly bean bag" and sometimes his "jelly bean bean." =P I think she just calls it the bean bag now, but it was still cute. =)

The girls have gotten used to Harper going to work, but they don't like it. Bekah says "You go to work a lot of days and a lot of days!" And one day Lainey said "It's like you live at work." He's not working crazy hours or anything - they are just used to having him home. =)

Well I am having morning sickness. =\ For a few days I thought it was pretty much done with and then I threw up 5 times last night. I mostly feel okay today, but I am afraid of throwing up again tonight. =\ It is worth it, though! But I'm starting to feel nasty, so I better go eat something before it gets serious. Later!

Change

Well. It's been a while. We ended up not buying that house. We went for the inspection and discovered that to put in a bathroom where we wanted, we would have to redo all the plumbing because it wasn't the right size. The realtor and inspector both said it would be an expensive addition and probably not worth it. Harper couldn't vent his laser out of the concrete-walled garage...no attic (which we should have noticed before), and we just didn't love it. =(

So we went to see this other house that is full of animal smell. We ended up with a contract on that, but we went for the inspection yesterday and we really don't think the guy is going to be willing to fix all of the things that would have to be fixed for us to get a loan on it. I'm pretty sure we'll be hearing in the next few days that he's not fixing it and we're on the hunt again. There are shingles missing from the roof, some hail damage over the garage, all the siding needs to be replaced, and there are drainage issues and three leaks in the basement (which they didn't disclose, even though the carpet was wet the day of the inspection). I was a little irritated that they didn't disclose that stuff because we would have already been pretty sure the guy wouldn't fix all of that, and if we had asked him and he had said he wouldn't, then we wouldn't have paid for another inspection. We've spent over $500 on inspections now for two houses that we're not buying. Ack. I'm just assuming we're not going to be buying this house... We'll see what he says, though, because we do still like it.

There are three houses that we might see... Two of them we saw a while ago, but just liked other houses better. Another one must have been under contract before and back on the market. I'm okay with renting for a year if we need to, because we need to get the business up and running again.

We've been having fun playing bocce ball, hanging out with friends, etc. We've spent a lot of time on house stuff and I'm looking forward to that all being done with.

We're off to the zoo. =)

Update

We have a house! Almost. =P It's under contract, at least. It was one that I kind of liked when we first started looking online, but it was off the list because it only had a 1-car garage. But our requirements gradually changed and we went to see it. I'm glad we did. =) It isn't by power lines, it doesn't need work, it's plenty big, and it was below our limit by quite a bit. =P It is old, and has some quirks, but that's okay. Oh and it is right across the street from a park. Yay!

We went on a field trip to the botanical gardens here last week. We planted sunflowers, dissected a bean, listened to a story about vegetables.... and did a scavenger hunt. Em was really bummed at the end of the day that there was nobody around to turn the scavenger hunt sheet into, because we stayed late. I told her I didn't think we were supposed to turn it in anyway and she was really upset. I asked her what she was expecting and she wouldn't really give me an answer. I think she thought it was a race? But she kind of shut down and wouldn't tell me what she had been expecting. I told her I would tell the lady that had been at the table (she's one of our friends) that she had finished the scavenger hunt if she wanted me to, but that frustrated her more. She got over it by the time we got home. Hmmm...

Bekah is funny. =P She is always singing, and singing loudly... =P In the car she usually sings Down by the Bay, and it's the same made-up "rhyme" every time - "Have you ever seen a dolphin eating his ca-comma? Down by the BAYYYYY!" lol I asked her one day what a ca-comma was and she said "I don't know!" in the funniest voice! She totally cracks me up!

One day Bek asked if we could go to the "condola" again. When we go to the condo in Frisco, we go to Breckenridge and ride the gondola up and back down. =P I guess it was a condo-gondola? lol

I am still working on Bek's quilt. I am making a feathered border for the first time and I'm happy with how it's turning out. I made Lainey a dress that I still need to get buttons for. And I got fabric to make Bekah a dress with dogs on it. lol

I took one of Laine's dresses that she likes and drew the pattern off of that for the dress I just made her and it is adorable. For Bekah's, I have this pattern that Ginger let me borrow that is really cute. It is a boutique pattern from portabellopixie and it uses a bunch of different fabrics. I think Bek will like it.

Oh, we went to Dustin and Ginger's house on Friday and Sam was there with his kids, too. I went out to play with the kids a few times throughout the night. When we left Lainey said "Mom, I liked playing with my friends but I missed playing with YOU!" That was sweet because they have been asking me pretty much every day when they can see friends. =P

Em finished piecing a quilt top that she did SO well with. Her seams are so straight and perfect. She was very meticulous. I'll have to post pictures when it's all quilted. =)

Kansas

Well, the movers came and packed our stuff. =) That was nice! We drove here last week, Saturday and Sunday. It was nice to stop for the night, too. We are staying in an apartment attached to the house of some members of our church. Most of our stuff is in storage, so all we have here is pretty much the bare minimum. And my sewing machine. =) We are sleeping on air beds on the floor, we have one plate each, one bowl each, one cup each, etc. The movers will deliver our stuff to our house from storage, and unpack, so we didn't want to have too much dropped off here. We are kind of tired of moving. =) We are responsible for everything here.

We still haven't heard back about the house we made an offer on, so we went looking again today. We found a couple of houses that we like. One Harper even likes better than the one we made an offer on. It needs some work, but it is really cool. I'm going to guess that most people would just think it's weird and not like it. =P It has character. =) We might make an offer on it, but we haven't really decided.

Anyway our first week here, we went on a field trip with the Blanchettes and the Bradshaws and some other people I didn't know. =) And we spent a lot of time with the Wisners. We have missed them!! We are going to their house tomorrow after church, too. I miss holidays at Grammie's. =)

I've been working on Bekah's baby quilt. I think it is going to be really cute. =)

I love how Bekah says "sanks!" for "thanks" all the time. =) The other day she fell down and hurt her head and said "I fell and cracked my head open and it tried to pop my head off." One day she wanted me to uppie-a her and I said I couldn't because I was peeling a cutie. She said "You are uppie-a-ing the cutie!!" I think it's funny how uppie-a has become an everyday verb. She says "will you uppie-a me?"

I have a list somewhere of other cute stuff.... =P I have to help get kids in bed and I kind of want to be asleep myself. =) Later!

Yay

We made an offer on a house! And it's in Derby! =) We really like this house and it is a short sale, too! =) =) =)

House Hunt

We're on day three of looking at houses and still haven't found one. =\ Bummer. I'm hoping we find one we love today. We started out looking in Wichita and today we're going to look in Derby and Haysville. There is a house I hope we like in Derby (we like the pictures!) and we are looking at two on our old street, with our old floor plan. Kinda funny. =P

The girls spent the first day and night with Harp's parents. Then my parents had them the second day and second night and most of the third day. Then they went back to Harp's parents and they're there today. We get home tonight. Yay! I miss them. It has been very weird doing all of this without kids.

I finished the 6th Anne book and started the 7th. I'll have to make sure I still have a decent charge on my phone for the plane ride home. I have been reading on my phone.

I have also been reading Little Women and I'm maybe 10 chapters into that. I like it much better than the movie so far! =)

Oh, we found a place to rent short-term, from a family that goes to our church. They didn't go there when we moved away, but now they do so all of our friends know them. =) They have an apartment attached to their house and we will stay there until we find a house. It will be nice if that's not too long, but I'm glad to know we have somewhere to stay and we don't have to worry about that.

Off to eat breakfast and look at more houses. =)

Skiing =)

Bekah keeps asking me if we can go skiing. Yesterday at church she was standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at me, and said "Can we go skiing?!" I think the stairs reminded her of how fun it would be to ski down. =P

Bekah has made up her own knock-knock joke. It is:
Knock, knock!
Who's there?
Stink
Stink who?
I don't know. I will find you if you know!

She totally cracks up every time, and it cracks us up, too. =) She thinks it is so hilarious. =P She used to do "knock, knock" and say Jesus was there, and then sing Jesus Loves Me when you asked "Jesus who?" =)

We're planning our house hunting trip today. We are so happy that movers are going to move our stuff this time. Yeah!! =P I don't have to pack! =) And we will get to fly out. Sooooo nice! Bekah just happened to ask me yesterday if we could go on an airplane and I got to say "Yep! When we move to Kansas!" =) She is excited!

Lainey pouted yesterday that we were going to our church in Colorado, because she wanted to go back to our church in Kansas. =P

Hmm I don't know what else to blog, so later!

Moving

We drove out to Kansas last week for an interview with Cessna. Harper was offered a position in Advanced Design, and it sounds like a great fit for him. He is excited! And if for whatever reason it turns out to be not so great, his boss at McCauley called him over after his interview and said he wanted to hire him back there. So he could probably transfer back to McCauley. He is excited about the Cessna position, though, and I am excited for him. =)

We got to see lots of friends in Kansas. One of my friends even had her baby while we were there (YAY!!!) and I got to meet little baby Cyrus the day after he was born. =)

We don't really have a schedule right now - we will probably make a house hunting trip, but we don't know if Harper and I will fly out or if we will all drive out again. Gotta use our last 2 ski days. Gotta get the new website up. Gotta pack. =) Fortunately, we don't have nearly as much stuff as we did when we left Kansas. =P And I'm inclined to get rid of more, but we'll see. It makes a little more sense to wait and have a garage sale in Kansas, I think. If we can stand to pack and move it all. =P

"Whazzadat" is now also "Whazzadis?" =) Bekah calls a triangle a "squangle." She knows all her colors and is consistent with them now. =P

In Kansas, Lainey didn't remember anyone and she didn't remember the front of our house when we drove by. But when we walked into The Spice Merchant, she said "Hey, I remember this place!!" =) Haha! She did also say she remembered playing in Grammie's back yard. She was 2 (almost 3) when we left, so I'm kind of surprised she remembers anything!

We stayed with Jim and Tatum and the kids had tons of fun with Keller and Kenna and Katen. We were there for a week (Wed-Tues) and as far as I know the kids only had one problem with each other. One night, three other girls were over and Keller was only letting the "big" girls into his room because he didn't want the "little" girls to wreck it. Em was offended that she was a "little" girl and told the big girls "You're at the top of my enemy list!" Gotta be creative when you don't know bad words and your heart is spewing out meanness. =P lol She was pretty quick to change her attitude and apologize, though. I'm not sure how many families we could stay with for a week and still want to hang out with them. =P But we had a great time with the Blanchettes the whole time! =) I'm excited to be moving back.

My hubby's web site is now on page 1 in a Google search of custom bottle caps. Yeah!!! That is awesome. Free advertising. =) Might as well throw an extra link out there for Google, right? Haha! custom bottle caps =D

Some Quilts =)

http://quiltstory.blogspot.com/2011/01/absolutely-little-girls-quilt.html

http://cuttopieces.blogspot.com/2011/02/quilt-story-block-party.html

http://quiltstory.blogspot.com/2011/02/fabric-tuesday-23.html

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2011/01/stars.html

Mostly Bekah Funnies =)

Bekah started saying "Whazzadat?" when we read books. lol She points to things on the page and asks "Whazzadat?" even though she knows what it is. Then she'll point to three or four things and say "Whazzadat? Whazzadat? Whazzadat? Whazzadat?" and I'll say "a beak, a foot, a wing, a foot." lol She often points to the same thing multiple times. She likes the rhythm of it, I think. =P

We went skiing over the weekend and Bekah got pretty good at it! She is still skiing on a harness, but she can "do pizza" and turn some. =) If I put any tension on the harness, she sits down, so I try to keep it floppy. =) Lainey and Emily are skiing on their own and we had so much fun skiing with them! Lainey especially loves tree trails. =P

Whenever Bekah would fall down, she would say "I think this is dangerous." And at the end of the first day, she was saying "This is too dangerous." The second day, she fell asleep on the first run, about halfway down. =P She zonked out in the lodge for a couple of hours, and we ate lunch during part of that time. When she woke up, I didn't think at all about the fact that we didn't feed her, and on the last run we did, Harper's mom told her to do pizza and she started to cry and said "I want to EAT a pizza!!!" lol And on that run, Harper's mom fell and Bekah said "I really think this is very dangerous." Hahaha!

Bekah used to be my girl that would say "I'm sleepy. Will you put me in bed?" Now she has decided she will not admit to being tired. =P We even got her out of bed one night to snuggle her and we said "Are you sleepy?" She said "No." In her sleep. lol! =)

One time in the car, Bek said "I'm tired." I turned around and said "What?" She said "I'm not tired!" =P

Bekah loves the letter B. She points it out everywhere we go and says "B for Bekah! B for Bekah!" One day she had a B from a puzzle at Harper's parents' house and she was running the loop through the foyer/living room/laser room/den/kitchen, chanting "B for Bekah!" every time she went through the kitchen (where Grandma was). Yesterday I told her B is for Grandma B's name too because her name is Betty. She said "Noooo, B is for Bekah, NOT for Betty." As if all the B's in the world are devoted to her. =P lol

At the lodge, Harper's mom gave Em and Lainey candy bars. Lainey gave half of her peanut butter cup to Emily. Then Emily gave Lainey one of her Kit Kat bars. Lainey gave her the funniest look, like "I'm surprised you're so awesome!" It cracked me up. =P

One day at church, Em said "This (song 409) is halfway through hymnal. Because there are 818 hymns and half of 800 is 400 and half of 18 is 9."

I met a friend at Starbucks the other day with my 3 kiddos and her 4. A local car dealership met us on the way in and said they were buying our drinks today. So we got FREE Starbucks for us and all of our kids. AND then a lady that worked at Starbucks came over while we were drinking our coffee and gave us each a coupon for a FREE drink to say thank you for having such well-behaved children. YEAH!!! She said people don't often come in with well-behaved children and we have way more kids than they do. Rockin'! I love my girls. =)

The other day, Bek said "Momma, Momma, come on and skinny dip with me!" ROFL! Apparently Harper told the girls they could get it the hot tub and Bekah didn't have a swim suit.

"Mommy, can you read me lots of books and lots of books?" - Bekah =) She loves to carry a pile of books to me and have me read them to her. I think she would rather read books than do just about anything. =)

My girls waited like a week for their homemade rock candy to be big enough to take out and eat...and Lainey dropped hers in the potty. The tragedies of childhood... =P She was going to go potty and she just put the rock candy in her teeth to hold it. =P It didn't hold. lol Harper and I tried not to laugh when she came crying to us about it. We failed.

One day Harper was driving down the road wondering why the car was spontaneously honking at everybody. I didn't know I was sitting on the other set of keys. =P

Awana store was open a couple weeks ago. Em got me a blank calendar to craft and some yummy-smelling shower gel. She got Lainey a piggy bank to paint (which she had been wanting) and flavored chap stick. She got a 2-pack of nail polish and gave one to Laine. She got a lip gloss for all of us to share and a lip gloss for my mom. She loves to give gifts!

Emily: Bekah, you are my best friend. Lainey (sad): No, I'm your best friend!

They decided they are all best friends together. =) I thought it was sweet that they all want to be best friends. =P

Bek: Owwie!! Me: What's owwie? Bek: My fist bump!!!

One day Word World was taking a while loading on Instant Watch and Bekah said "I'm gonna slap the TV!" lol!!! Our receiver doesn't work until you slap it - so this was logical to her, not destructive. =P

A month ago, Lainey asked, "Mom? Is it ALWAYS winter in Colorado?" I don't remember the last time they were here when it wasn't cold. It has been getting pretty nice out!

Last month when after went sledding, we got home and Harper took Bekah's snow pants off... She had NOTHING on underneath!! =P lol I thought it was so cute that she came to me with them on and said "I peepeed on the potty and I'm ready to go slide!" I've put her to bed without a diaper twice since - she gets her jammies on and I think someone else got her ready for bed. I have learned to check. =P

We are heading for Kansas soon for an interview with Cessna. Harper also had a phone interview with GE last week that went very well, and he was recommended for a second interview. That job is in Boulder, which is expensive, but close to family, camping, hiking, skiing, etc. We'll see what happens. We may end up having to make a decision with Cessna before we hear more from GE (they said it would take 4-5 weeks!), so we are sort of hoping we don't end up in that situation, but we'll just see. Cessna would be good, and it would probably be silly to pass it up if he gets an offer. 10 people are supposed to be interviewed again at GE. It looks like a really good job, though.

Skiing and Stuff

We saw that the weather was going to be great Tues and Wed this week, so we headed up to Frisco Monday night. We went skiing Tuesday and the plan was to go Wednesday too, but we all got such bad sunburns that we decided not to go Wednesday. We will NEVER forget sunscreen again. We are all bright red. I'm peeling and poor Lainey has blisters on her face! How horrible is that? =(

Bek liked to ski, but she didn't snow plow. We showed her what to do and put her feet in position, but she just couldn't do it on her own. I'm sure it didn't help that we got there at 10:00 and she was already exhausted. She didn't have a real nap the day before and we got locked out of the condo, so she didn't get to bed until after 9:30. She actually fell asleep skiing. lol Harper was taking her down the bunny hill and she was kind of flopping over. When he got to the bottom, a lady said "I think she's asleep." lol He put her down in the snow and she slept for a long time.

Anyway when she was awake, she liked to point her skis down the mountain, scoot until she was moving and then just fly down the mountain, laughing hysterically, until I caught her. =P It was an accident the first time - I actually had to race to catch up to her before she crashed. But the was just cracking up when I caught her, and she wanted to do it again and again. At least she is brave. =P When she learns to turn and snow plow, at least she won't be timid. =) When she gets toward the bottom of the hill and slows down, she can get herself back over to the magic carpet and get on it all by herself. Oh and she is super cute all dressed in ski gear. =P Hehe!

Lainey didn't really remember how to turn and she needed to stay on the bunny hill all day. Harp and Em took some green runs together while I stayed with the littles and then Em and I went up two lifts and down a bunch of green together while Harper stayed with the littles. Em did great.

We went swimming at the condo and the big girls didn't really remember how to swim under water like they did in Mexico. But they at least put their faces under and tried. They would swim as far as they could go just from pushing off the wall or something, but they didn't really move on their own.

Bekah found Duck Goes Potty at the thrift store the other day and bought it with some money Grandma B gave her. =P She loves that book! lol And she cracks me up every time she says "He tooted on the floor!"

We went by the quilt shop in Breckenridge and I got some fabric from Moda's Fandango line. I got reds to piece together to make a deer and greens to make leaves for a tree on Bekah's baby quilt. I'm just now getting around to making her a baby quilt. =) It's not going to be like Emily and Lainey's (19 applique blocks and 1 block with name & birthdate, with sashing in between). It's going to have a big tree with an owl on a branch and a deer at the bottom and maybe her name and birthdate in a cloud or something. I haven't gotten all the fabric for this yet. I think it will be cute, though. And I will have lots of leftover green, so if Kirby has a baby boy, I will be set for a baby boy quilt. =)

Tonight is our first night of small group. I'm excited! And the girls are excited to see Christina. She is 12 and she is the daughter of our small group leaders. She is really sweet!

Lots of laundry to finish... Gotta get it done. Later!

Flate Things

Last night, I asked Lainey to inflate our air mattress for our family movie night. She asked which button to push and I said "The one that says INflate." She found it an inflated the mattress. Today I asked her to deflate it. She looked around for the controller and couldn't find it. She came to me and said "Mommy, I can't find the flate thing." =P Hehehehe!!

Bekah told me the other day "You are my precious lady, Momma!" and she keeps telling me over and over "You are my best friend!" =) Soooooo sweet! Oh and we have this little joke where I pretend I'm going to chomp her and she giggles and says "Don't chomp me! Just kiss me!" =P She did that once and I thought it was SO cute that I told her to do it again. =P And now she just knows it's cute, so it's our silly thing. =)

Em finished her first grade math book last Friday. We finished a bunch of school books on one day and she decided to go with it and do the last 28 pages in math. lol! I gave her $5 and she gave $1 to Bek, $1 to Lainey (which Lainey spent on Harper and Bekah), and she bought something else for Bek or Lainey, too. She ended up spending $1 or $2 on herself and she gave all the rest away. I love that my girls are so giving, and especially to each other. They are always making crafts to give to each other, too. =) Sometimes for their friends, but most often for each other. =)

Tomato Mash

For a while, we thought "Tomato Mash" meant mashed potatoes, because Bekah calls potatoes "tomatoes." But even if it does mean that, we definitely know now that it means Mr. Potato Head. She asked to "play tomato mash" yesterday, she "cleaned up tomato mash" yesterday. Funny girl.

I am sick. =( I woke up yesterday with a sore throat. Hurts to talk. I felt really weak and weird, too, so I spent most of the day on the couch. I'm feeling like I should get back to the couch soon. My head just feels so funny and I'm exhausted.

My knee has been hurting in the morning for about a week. It goes away by maybe 10:00. Yesterday, though, when I was on the couch all day, it hurt later in the day, too. I Googled a bit this morning and it looks like it could be early arthritis! I'm not that old. =\ But everything that talked about pain that comes and goes said early arthritis or gout, and if it's only in the morning, then early arthritis. It doesn't get red or swollen or anything. Just hurts.

I think I'm going to head back to the couch and enjoy the quiet. Harp has all the kids with him at church. Later!

Funny Kids...

Yesterday, Lainey and Bekah were doing cheers in the car. They didn't know that's what they were doing, but they were. lol Lainey was getting Bekah to spell things.

Lainey: Bekah, say B!
Bekah: B!!!!!!!
Lainey: Say O!
Bekah: O!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lainey: Say Y!
Bekah: Y!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lol Then Lainey said "You sure are a yeller this night!" Haha!!

Then I don't remember what else they were doing, but Harper commented to me that Bekah is such a leader. Bekah overheard and said "I not a leader. I'm Bekah!!"

Bekah has finally come around to the fact that Emily and Lainey are cute and precious. =P She used to say "No! Only Bekah's cute and precious!" We were going into Target today and Bekah was just chatting to Harper and she said "When I'm naughty, I'm cute and precious...but I'm not naughty." lol Whenever she is naughty, she says "I not naughty. I'm cute and precious!" We say "You're cute and precious, but sometimes you're naughty." =P

Yesterday we went sledding and Bek had put her own snow pants on. She had just gone potty, like I told her to. I was kind of surprised that she was already dressed and ready to go, but she was excited to "slide." I didn't find out until we got home from sledding AND the grocery store that she was completely naked underneath her snow pants! lol

The day before that we got to sled a little bit on the hill in front of our house. It's pretty small, but it was still fun. Then the girls and I made snow ice cream. Kinda good, kinda weird. =P

This week in Science we learned about volcanoes. We watched a bunch of YouTube videos and one showed some guys motorcycling through ash in Indonesia. There were dead sheep lying all around, covered in ash. So later, we painted volcanoes. Lainey painted a dead sheep with hers. lol

Bekah was playing with the potato heads (she did paint, but was done as soon as she painted "a suitcase") and she was sooooo cute singing and talking to them and dressing them up, saying "You are a precious tomato!" =P Today she was playing with her potty Elmo doll, saying "You are so precious, Emol!" Hehe! She kept calling him Emol, and I don't think she got him to the potty in time once. =P He says he has to go potty and then you take him to his potty. =P He plays music if you get him there in time and if you don't, he says "Oops! Sorry!" or "Maybe next time!" or "Sorry! Accidents happen!" lol

Bekah calls Colorado "Codowado." An avocado is also a "codowado." Guess it's just too confusing. =P

About a week ago, we were getting in Harper's parents' hot tub. I had asked Bek if she needed to go potty before we got in and she said no. A few minutes after we got in, she said "POTTY!!" I asked if she needed to go inside. She said no. I said "Did you peepee in the hot tub?" She said "No. I peepeed in my sim-soop (swimsuit)." Hahaha!

Last weekend a bunch of ladies got together to scrapbook at the church. I was going to go all day Friday, but then Harper had some work he needed to do. His mom offered to watch the kids, but she was going to take them to the bouncy place! lol I wasn't gonna miss bouncing with my girlies. =P Bekah talks about it ALL the time. My parents took them (and Harp and me) to a bouncy place in Pueblo and they had SO much fun. Bekah has asked almost every day to go "bouncin' and slidin'" again. =P So I went bouncin' and slidin' with my Bek and I just scrapbooked for a little bit in the afternoon. It was still fun to go out there. They got together Saturday, too, but Harper went to a men's conference, so I couldn't go. The girls and I had fun crafting at home, though. =)

Last week, I was folding laundry and Bekah was entertaining herself, singing and singing, "5 little monkeys jumpin' on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Lainey called the doctor and the doctor said '4 more monkeys jumpin' on the bed!'" Hehehe. That's one observant doctor.

Harp and Em had an "inventing date" last Wednesday. Lainey and I walked out the door to grocery shop and go on a Starbucks date and I told Harper "don't catch the table on fire, okay?" Guess what they did? lol They made little oil lamps on the kitchen table and Harp went into the living room to talk to his mom on the phone. Em came in and was like "Dad, the fire's going back into mine!" He said "We'll deal with it later." She was like "No, it's an emergency!!" lol He looked and by the time he got over there, the table was on fire. Oops.

Emily wanted to invent clay, so Harper got out flour and baking soda and I don't even know what else they used, but they made clay. =P Then they tried to make oil lamps out of it and bake it, but it puffed up in a weird way in the oven and didn't work. But they had fun! Emily loved having an inventing date. =) Oh, when they were measuring out flour & baking soda & stuff, Harper asked Em what half of 1/4 cup would be. She said 1/8. So he asked her what half of THAT would be. She said "Um, a sixteenth." ??? Crazy! Later, I asked her how she figured it out. She explained that if you want half of 1/8, then you have to do 8 *times* 2, because that's kind of like dividing them in half. So I explained back to her what she said and told her if she had something cut into 8 pieces and was going to cut one in half, then cutting all of them in half would make twice the number of pieces. So then I asked what half of 1/16th would be. She said 32. I said that's the number you're looking for, but think about if it makes sense. Would half of 1/8 of a cup of flour be 32 cups of flour? She said no. She wasn't ready with the answer and I thought she might be getting sick of it, so I just told her the answer. She thought it was funny. =P

Last week, Bek hit her head on the table and almost fell to the ground. She was hanging onto her high chair with one arm and had one foot on a chair. lol Poor girl! I caught her before she fell and she said "See? I'm not falling!" lol

The girls have been doing a ballet video I got them. Bekah runs around the house saying "coupe, passe, coupe, passe!" =P

Oh! A week or so ago, Bekah told me she had an owwie on her "no." I apparently looked as confused as I was. =P She said "I have an owwie on my NOSE." lol She is probably confused because we told her it isn't eyeses and mouf-es (mouths). =) When she prays at night, she says thank you for eyeses and mouf-es and walls and ceilings... =P

Last week, Em wanted to do an experiment. She got a bowl of water and put some pepper in it. She showed Lainey what she had done and said "Now, I'm going to put in some dish detergent. And what do you think is going to happen?" Lainey said, hopefully and excitedly, "It's gonna explode?!" =P Hehehe!!

A couple of weeks ago, Em came and told me "in a few days, there's gonna be a diaper drought!" lol They were almost out of diapers in their room. =P

My parents came up last weekend or maybe it was the weekend before... Anyway we played Mexican Train. It was fun! So we have taught the girls how to play and Em and Lainey love it. Bekah sits with me and plays with my dominoes. =P

Oh! And we also remembered that the college here has a music school, so we looked online and found that there are tons of student recitals that are free to go to! Harp and I went on a date to a jazz piano & voice recital, and the next day I took Emily and Bekah to a cello recital. So fun! Pretty much everyone else there is a college student, a college student's parent, or a professor. lol But that's okay! I like that my kids can see these performances, and for free! Em told me she would like to play the cello someday. =P But only after she read on Facebook where I told Alyssa I hoped it would influence one of my kids to play cello. =P Hehe! I like cello!

Math Challenges

Last night, we gave each of the girls a math challenge. They both got the answers! I had been asking Emily things at dinner like what numbers add together to make 4, and multiply together to make 3. That first one took her a while, but then she listed out loud two ways to add to 4 and figured out the answer. She didn't list 4+0, so I asked her what adds to 4 and multiplies to 0. She got it. I asked her what adds up to 7 and multiplies to 12. She got that, too. So Harper told her he would give her 50 cents if she could figure out what number times itself is 25. It didn't take her too long to come up with the answer!

Then he told Lainey he'd give her 50 cents if she could figure out what plus 6 equals 11. Well Em blurted out the subtraction problem. So Harper and Lainey just worked through it together with counters. But then Harper gave her 4 plus what is 7. Lainey figured it out all on her own! =) So she still got her 50 cents. =) I love math challenges. =P

I'm stuck on the girls' dresses without brown or white thread, and I might not have light pink, either. I need them all for top stitching. Em's just needs the lining hand stitched down and the ribbon (white) put on. Lainey's dress is brown with tiny white polka dots and I have sewn most of it with black and the wrong shade of brown. But now I'm to where stitching will actually show, so I need the right color for the sleeve ruffles, the zipper, and the hem. And then the pink for her ribbon. But that is still super close to done! =)

She's A Big Duck Now

We got this book from the library, Duck Goes Potty. I didn't read it before we checked it out, lol. The duck pees and poops on the floor and falls in the potty. But in the end he learns to go on the potty all by himself and then it says "You're a big duck now!" So Bekah has been doing great on the potty (I don't remember the last time I changed a poopy diaper) and we have been telling her "You're a big duck now!" =P And she says "Quack, quack!!" Hehe!

Bek's been snotty, so we didn't take her to Puggles yesterday. She asked a few times to go to Puggles and to go "play with the boys" (she is one of two girls), but she was okay with staying home. Harp took Em and Laine, so we had a Mommy and Bekah date. It was so much fun! First, I sewed a little on Em's dress while Bek watched Word World. She had really been wanting to watch some on the DVD. We found a ton on Netflix instant watch, but they don't have the little PBS trailer thing with the fish that goes "glub, glub, glub... doi!... PBS kids!!" And that is Bekah's favorite part. She cried when we watched the instant watch episodes because they didn't have "blah, blah, blah" on them. =P Okay so anyway she got to watch the fish. Then I cleaned up my stuff and we played on the floor. She cracked up when I taught her how to roll across the room. =P We did that for a long time. And played giddy up horsie. She likes when I buck her. lol Then we made a card. I let her cut up some patterned paper and put a B on it and some flowers and a butterfly. She loved it! I was going to make one too, but she pretty much needed constant help & supervision on that still so I didn't. That's okay. =P Then we made dinner together. She stirred taco meat and rolled out tortillas with me and she dumped spices in the guacamole. She LOVED cooking with me and I could tell she felt so big. She seemed so big, too. You know how there are just times when you feel like you blinked and they grew a ton? Yeah. It was one of those times. She was a great helper! Definitely a big duck. =)

Harper started P90X again. I guess I will join him.

So, the kids' dresses are colonial, not pioneer. Oh, well. The Wild West library book we had had a section on how to make a pioneer dress and it looked just like my pattern, so I used my pattern. But a friend told me my pattern is actually colonial. She's bringing me patterns on Wednesday to show me the difference. =) It's too late for these dresses, but at least I will know. I'll still let the girls wear these dresses to the Wild West thing at the museum even though they're not the right style. =P

Waayah

Hehe, I haven't blogged about waayah! When I hold Bekah like a tiny baby (usually when I get her out of the tub) she says "waayah, waayah!" It's like a Texan version of "waah!" Haha! There are other words that she says with a Texan accent, but I can't think of what. =P

She says "Let'so!" and it means "Let's go!"

She is afraid of alligators but pretends to see them everywhere. They are on the ceiling in Walmart and other stores. =P And sometimes on the ceiling at home. I thought it was all 100% pretend and not actually scary. But then the other night I was putting her to bed and she started to cry about the alligator in the room. I asked her if she was crying about their stuffed alligator (which is fairly realistic for a stuffed animal) and she said yes. She couldn't even see it and didn't know where it was, but she was upset until I dug it out of the stuffed animal thing. I took it out of the room and she was perfectly happy and went to sleep.

This morning Lainey did a whole P90X workout with Harper and said it was more fun than playing. She turned down playing ponies with Bekah. lol

Lainey is making this little rhyming match game and she's cutting out these little pictures that she colored. She was just supposed to cut around them, to glue them onto monsters, but she is actually cutting on the lines, even though they are tiny, intricate pictures. She is doing such a good job!

Last night we put the peepee alarm on Lainey for the first time. She was so excited. This morning she told me "This thing beeped, but then it kept beeping and beeping and beeping and (::sigh::) it was unoxious!" =P

So I like my new schedule. =) My house has stayed clean all week, I've had school time with each kid individually, so during those times the other two kids get a play date together and they love it! =) And 30 minutes is the perfect amount of time before we change up whatever we're doing. It's not long enough for them to get sick of playing something and start fighting. =P Yay!

Oh so the girls are really into doing ballet in the living room. I ordered a ballet DVD and I'm going to surprise them with it. It was $7 shipped on ebay and it teaches technique and stuff, but for little kids. They will love it! Em got ballet shoes and a leotard & tutu with some of her birthday money.

Bekah Cuteness, Lainey Cuteness, and Stuff

Bekah calls her cowgirl boots her "cowboot shoes." She has some yellow crocs that have been her "duck shoes" for a long, long time. For Christmas, she got some penguin shoes that are like crocs and she calls them her "penguin duck shoes."

One day we were leaving a store and Harp asked if I would put his Bek in her car seat. I said "Are you Daddy's Bek?" She said no. I said "Are you Mommy's Bek?" She said no. I said "Whose Bek are you?!" She said "I a cutie pie!" Haha! =)

Last night I saw on the girls' chalkboard that Lainey had written HELO KEDEE and drawn a little kitty face next to it. =) Precious!

Harper has an interview today! It's with Koch in Wichita. Just a phone interview. But it's exciting to finally have one! =P

We're going to a Wild West thing at the Children's Museum in a week and I'm making Em and Lainey pioneer dresses. Bek has an old-fashioned dress already that was Em's from when she was tiny. =)

Alex & Quinn

Wow, so I really haven't blogged in such a long time... I never said here that we named our babies. I met this really sweet lady at a Mom's Night Out thing that a homeschool group here does. She lost two babies too, and she gave me a ride home that night because Harper had dropped me off. She told me it was a year later that she named her babies but that she was so glad she did. I had been thinking about it, but thought Harper would think it was too weird. But he didn't. And we named them. I already sort of named the first one, to myself, anyway, so I was glad Harper liked the name that I thought of the baby as already. So the first baby was Alex. His or her due date was yesterday and we got ice cream and mixed in candies and had a little party. I did cry, but it wasn't awful. I have had awful days, so I'm glad that wasn't one of them. =)

We named the second baby Quinn, which is cool because I like that name for a girl but Harper didn't think his brother would be thrilled if we named a girl Quinn (his name is Quin). =P lol And the other cool thing is that Quinn means #5. It was just too perfect. We didn't know if they were girls or boys, so their names work either way. =)

More Funnies

Another funny from this morning: Em's been reading this book Mr. Popper's Penguins. She started it on Saturday and she is on page 109. It is 139 pages long. So this morning I said "You've been reading that book a lot, huh?" She said "Mmyeah, it's a pretty short book, though." lol It's only funny because she really does think it's short after Anne of Green Gables. Nothing intimidates this kid. She's not done with Anne yet, but she's well over half way through and she loves it. She has just been reading like 5 books at once. We like to have "Anne dates" and go to Starbucks and share a frap and read our Anne books. I'm on Anne of Windy Poplars now. Not really getting into it yet. But still fun to have reading dates with my girl. =P

Tonight we went and hot tubbed and Bekah was SO happy! =P lol On the way home, she was singing and singing, "Mom, Mom, Mom, Momma, Momma, Mom, Mom, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mom, Mom, Momma, Mom, Momma, Mom..." over and over and over. =P Toooo cute! The other day we were in the bathroom at Walmart and she was signing "do, dooo, do do do, do doooo, do do, do, do, do...." just making up whatever she felt like... And this lady smiles at her and goes "You like singing, don't you?" Bekah stops and says "Huh-uh," like no way, of course I don't like singing! LOL! She makes me laugh!

Last week the kids got to pet reindeer at the library. Bekah called them "cows." Turns out she was right, lol. They were both girls. =) They also got their faces painted and got carnations. Bekah called her flower a "tree." Haha!! It did have a huge long stem. So cute! =) =) =)

Oh a couple of weeks ago Em picked up a coloring book that said 5/$10 on it. She said "This would have been 2 dollars for just one, then." Awesome! And today at Joann's I gave her a 50% off coupon to use on some ribbon and handed her a $5 bill. She said "So, the ribbon is $10?" =P Smart thinkin'. But I told her I just gave her extra money. =) Oh and the other day at Michael's she checked out and then Lainey checked out and I was asking Emily what the change would be and telling her to try to figure it out before the cashier got the change together. She did it! Lainey's thing was $1.06 and she paid $1.25 and Em was ready with "Laine, you get back 19 cents!!" Woo hoo!

Okay I'm having to look back at Facebook for things to blog. =P This was funny:

Em: Mom! If you ever don't have a tablespoon, you can just use three teaspoons!
Me: Yep! How did you know that?
Em: It's in the dictionary. Under teaspoon.
Hahaha!! =P I love that she reads the dictionary... =P

Ha and I posted about Bekah having an inflatable minion (from Despicable Me) in her pink doll chair, feeding it a marshmallow. Hehe!! Oh today Em and I were making paper pieced minions. I had cut most of the pieces out yesterday. So Harper came in and asked what we were doing and I said "assembling the minions." Then I cracked up 'cause I realized it was funny... =P "Assemble da minions!!" Okay if you haven't seen it, watch Despicable Me. =)

Sweekets and Math

Bekah likes to say "I have a sweeket!" It means I have a secret. =P But her secret is usually a toy wrapped up in a blanket or some clothes that she unwraps and shows you. Sometimes it's "I have a baby!" lol

This morning Bek started crying in her sleep and I went and got her up. We snuggled on the couch and read books. The video camera was sitting next to us, so we played with it and videoed reading the books. Then she wanted to watch the videos of reading the books. =P She's so cute!

We officially started multiplication in Em's math book today. I got out 20 LPS animals and asked her to put them in equal groups. I said I didn't care how many groups or how many in each group, just to do it however she wanted. She immediately said "Okay, I'll do 4 groups of 5." She made each group have a captain, too. =P Haha!

So then we were figuring out how many legs there were on the chairs at our table. She said 4 legs and 6 chairs makes 24 legs. I asked her how she figured that out and she said she counted them all. LOL! That was fast. I told her that works, but that's not what we're trying to do. Then I said the first grade book doesn't teach skip counting by 3's or 4's and they wait until 2nd grade. She cut me off and said "3, 6, 9, 12..." I said "What?! How do you know THAT?" She said "I just do." I said "Can you skip count by fours?" She said "4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28" lol I said "Hey, where are you learning this stuff??" She said "I was born knowing that." Well that cracked me up and I said "Oh yeah?" She said "Yeah, I was born with a brain." Totally cracking me up more... I said "Yeah well when you were born all you said to me was 'waaaaah, waaaaah, waaaaah!' And when you were hungry you screamed your head off 'cause you couldn't even say 'I need milk!'" She cracked up at that. =P I have no idea where she learned to skip count, though. Huh.

Cute and Precious

When Bekah does something naughty, she says "I'm cute and precious!" as if it will make up for being naughty. =P

Today we were playing with the Pairs in Pears letters and Bekah had an H. She showed it to me and I told her it was H and sounded like hhh, like 'hat.' She said "Or like 'hot tub!!'" lol! She loves to get in the hot tub at Grandma's house. We have only done it a few times, but she asks to every time we go over there. =)

Bekah still loves dogs and when she pretends to be a dog, she says "eeyoof, eeyoof!" lol She knows her animal sounds and is getting closer to "cock-a-doodle-doo." It's still often "dock-a-loo-loo." =)

Today we went ice skating and Bekah wore mittens. She asked Grandma to take her "slippers" off (calling her mittens slippers). =P Too cute! The girls all had fun ice skating today. Em is the kind of girl that screams every time she falls down and she was very frustrated and upset about ice skating for the first half hour or maybe longer. Lainey would fall down and crack up and get up and try again. Lainey was skating without the trash can (they have them as supports) for the second half of the morning and she did a great job! Bekah liked skating with the trash can by herself and she also like being zoomed around on it. She liked going fast. =) Em skated a bit without the trash can by the end of the morning and her attitude did a 180.

The other day I made toffee and Em asked me one morning if she could have some for breakfast. I thought I was being funny saying "if you can tell me what 4 times 4 is" instead of just "nope." At first she said 1, which confused me but then I realized she had divided. I said "Oh, 4 divided by 4 is 1. What is 4 *times* 4?" And she said "Um, 16." She got toffee for breakfast. I asked her later how she figured it out. She said "Well, if you have 4 4's, then that's like 2 8's and 8 plus 8 is 16." Smart girl.

We're starting a schedule this week that I'm looking forward to. The biggest changes are that I'm getting myself out of bed earlier and the kids are going to have real, routine chores. It's more important to me that my kids are disciplined and have good attitudes about pitching in than it is that they are good at math or reading or whatever. So I needed to change the way our days go to accomplish that. Not that we're ditching math or reading, but there is just great value in being able to do a job and not have to have someone standing over you making sure you are doing it. Someday we'll get there. =P

When Bekah wants up, she says "uppie-uh." No idea where the "uh" part came from.

She's doing a pretty good job on the potty, especially at home. We still stick her in diapers, though. =P

Lainey is reading so well! I am so proud of her. She read a whole book with me that she got from the library and only needed help on a few words. She was so excited to finish it! =) She loves to do reading with fridge magnets with me, too. She has also been asking to do her math book pretty often and she is getting good at adding and subtracting. She did a number bond worksheet the other day, too, and paired up numbers that added up to 7.

The girls are suddenly really into ballet. =P They don't take ballet lessons - they just dress up and dance to classical music in the living room. It is very cute. Bekah will spin around and then lift her leg and call it "doing a ballet." I think the sudden interest is from the three girls in Despicable Me.

Bekah loves the minions in Despicable Me and the banana short on the BluRay. It is really cute. =P lol We have this blow-up minion that came with the movie and Bekah has slept with it before. =)