A Trip to Scottsbluff

Well, we had an interesting and quick trip to Scottsbluff. My mother had an appointment in Scottsbluff and needed help with transportation, so we decided to help her out since it would give us an opportunity to see family as well.

The kids and I headed to Gothenburg on Monday around lunch time and enjoyed a liesurely trip up there. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and I got to enjoy a kid free walk with my sister. (Kimberly has turned out to be a great babysitter!)

Tuesday we headed for North Platte to get my mom and then on to Scottsbluff. We had made arrangements for the kids and I to have lunch with my dad out at his grader - wherever that would be! The kids had a great time running around the fields and climbing in the grader. I only got a few pictures - I don't know what I was thinking - they are all focused on the cab! Anyway, here are the few I got:

After lunch with my dad, we headed off to Mitchell to visit with my aunt and her kids. They were having piano lessons so we just sat outside and played in the yard while the kids took turns with their lessons! I got a little sun and came home pretty red (I put sunscreen on the kids but didn't think about myself - ha!)

I had also made arrangements to meet up with a friend of mine from high school. We decided to head to the park less than a block from her house and visit while the kids played. It was a good thing the kids got so much fresh air because they zonked for awhile on the way home making a six to seven hour drive round trip much more tolerable.

Wednesday morning we headed on home and stopped by Kearney and Hastings for a couple fruit trees and various other 'big city' items. We did have a few funny stories on the trip but I won't get into those on here...you'll have to call me for those!

We'll be taking another trip in June though I can't remember the date...it is later in the month though. Maybe we can get around to a few others this time as well!

Chicks 2009

The new chicks for this year are in. We went with the traditional Buff Orphington and Americauna (the colored egg layers). We got an additional twenty to add to our current 18.

For now they are on the porch in a tub. The children are absolutely in love with watching them. here are a few pictures I took this morning of them. This first one is a bit dark because I was trying to sneak out the door and caught the door instead of the kids in the flash! The two older ones begged to go see the chicks, and once in the porch, they pulled up their little chairs and got comfy!


They saw the flash and turned to say "Chicks!"


Here, all three were out watching while Daddy worked in the porch:

Jonny kept trying to reach in and grab one...Abi tried several times too, but they kept scaring her when they moved away!

Abi's New Room

After much discussion, we finally decided to put Abi in the guest bedroom on her own. I had to clean it all out and find places for all my sewing and storage. Abi chose to have a pink and purple room so we coordinated it with her bedspread that I made last year. I also found some precious moments wallies to add to the decor. Below are the pics:

This first picture is actually of her sheet set and the walls before the wallies:
















This next picture is also without the wallies, but it was the only window picture that turned out. I made a canopied reading area for her in the recessed window...you can see the heart pillow which she loves!

















Now we get to the wallies...this first one is about a foot shorter than Abi is and she calls it her butterfly friend.

I had purchased some butterflies last year for VBS and planned on using them sometime in Abi's room, so here they are on her wall!

With the accents, I made a frame above her bed. Eventually, I would like to find a scripture that I can make into a sticker and place above her bed.

This is her block wall...she also said she wanted square blocks so we incorporated the precious moments with the blocks so the room wasn't so loud (a request from daddy).

You can also see the bedspread in this picture. It has the precious moments Princess of Hearts theme on it.

The other wall is all closets and is in the tan/beige color of the room. I didn't do anything different to this wall, so I didn't take any pictures of it. We have a few pieces of furniture like a chest of drawers, a vanity, and night stand that will eventually be moved in...I haven't decided yet what color they will be. Right now they are teal and actually look pretty good in the room. We may leave them to add another dimension, or we may paint them to match the room, we will see!

It's Official...

We are homeschooling Abi in her younger years!

 

Marion and I have been discussing this for a long time.  Kindergarten Round-up is Thursday and Friday of this week!  I think it was the idea of enrolling her in Kindergarten that really got us talking it through the most.  When it was all said and done, the bottom line is that we highly value a Christian Education.  We really like the things we have been seeing coming out of Abi's preschool time - early concepts of God, acceptance of Jesus, scripture memorization.  Yes, we could supplement these things after her day at school, but how much would she retain after being spent at school all day!  At home, we can make the fundamental principles we believe in the core in which she builds everything else off of.  This is a concept we like as opposed to trying to squeeze it in or force it when she is tired and spent.

 

The other big pull is that we highly value the influence of the home in the early years over that of the school system.  We just don't like the idea that Abi would spend more waking hours under the influence of the school system and people we may not even know.  In no way do we believe that the Smith Center School system is bad or that it teaches the wrong things.  It simply boils down to the fact that we believe the main influence in the early years when a child does not have discretional experience should be the home and not an outside source. 

 

So...come the fall we will be homeschooling Abi and starting Nathan on his first year of preschool.  It should be interesting!

Crazy Boys

I know there are those moms out there who have much crazier situations than I do with my two boys, but I just thought I'd share a few of the cute and crazy things they are doing lately!

Below are the pictures I took of Jonathan as he is learning to climb! I took the pictures and then told him to get down. At least once a day I am taking him down off of the table or a chairs or something.









































The other night as we were watching a movie, Jonathan climbed onto the footstool and basically jumped/fell to the chair over a six inch gap at least! He did this over and over laughing all the time!

Below is a picture of Nathan with his helmet and goggles on! He got these for Christmas a few years back but is just now really getting into them!

Nathan is my crazy boy because he will work in the dirt for HOURS and complain if we make him stop to eat or even pee! He just got new farm boots and LOVES them...wanting to wear them out of the store! But the real crazy thing was when he tried to literally climb the wall - He stood in the doorway and put one foot on the step on one side and the other foot on the small table and then began hoisting himself up! Some days, he literally bounces from one spot to the next with SO much energy!

But the best thing of all, I am really starting to appreciate and enjoy my boys. I don't really know how I'll handle the bugs, snakes, frogs, and whatever else they find as they continue to grow...but for now, I am really enjoying watching their energy!

Abi's Rendition

Okay, so Abi has been really into drawing pictures lately. I have piles of papers where she drew trees, houses, rain...just all sorts of things. Yesterday she decided she wanted to draw a picture of her hair! It was harder than she wanted it to be so she just drew a hat on her head instead!

Anyway, this morning, she decided she was going to reproduce the front of this book. Below is her rendition of the Sesame Street Book cover:

Children's Museum in Hastings - with Pictures

Today was a BIG day out! Our MOPS group headed to Hastings, Ne to the Children's Museum housed in the Imperial Mall. It is a GREAT place! I told Marion we will definitely have to go there as a family. We got a group rate because we had over ten people, which made our prices $3 per person with those under 24 months free. I thought that very reasonable. I think adults are typically $5...

Anyway, the kids had a BLAST...we were there for about an hour and a half and there was not a moment of boredom! I think they could have hung out all day! Below are some pictures...I'll try to give an explanation before the picture:

They had a grocery store with TONS of food. Everything you can imagine...in real packaging...mostly empty boxes taped back together. Then there were grocery lists that the kids could pick up and go shopping for. They had two registers which really rang up stuff (not scanning it, but still added the numbers together that you entered. It was really neat. Below Abi is shopping while Noah was running the register and Kristi was returning a cart!
















Then they had a Pizza Shop...the kids could make their own pretend pizzas using wooden velcro pieces. They had a pop machine, pizza oven, aprons, plates, the whole works. Abi had heard about this and this was the first place she looked for...I got a great video of her...I'll see if I can post it or a portion of it later on! Below you see my friend Lori talking to Melissa, while Lori's son Colton sits at the table. (The baby on Lori's lap is not hers...just in case you're wondering...and Melissas little one is standing by the chair.)

















This one is too funny...Jonny just decided to start looking through his legs. He was turned looking at me, but by the time I got the picture taken, he turned and was looking at something else.




















This is Lori's other son Cauy and Jonathan in the construction zone...If you can't tell, Lori and I rode together...though we had 5 cars in our group! I think we had like 21 kids and adults altogether.




















This is Lori's son Colton dressed up as a fireman...they had a whole section with boots, coats, hats, hoses, trucks...you name it...the kids really liked it.




















Here is Abi and Nate dressed up and in one of the firetrucks...















Jonathan in the fire truck....




















Abi in the construction zone...I tried to help her but Jonathan wasn't cooperative and so we left, but then it was too hard for her alone so she stopped.















Abi in the Pizza Shop...serving her pretend family...















Nathan and Jonathan at the train table...Nathan spent probably 90% of his time at this table playing with the trains...the other 10% was in the firestation section.

Like I said, the kids really had a great time and I definitely think we need to go back as a family and make a day's outing of it!

Salt Anyone? - Oh my little boy...

I was working around the kitchen this morning and Jonathan was at my feet as usual.  I got something from the corner lazy susan, shut the door and went about my business.  A few moments later, I look down to see Jonathan with a large chunk (we're talking a square four inches by four inches here) of something white in his mouth as he was sucking on it!  As I could not image WHAT he had found, I rushed over to him...he stood there with a strained expression but kept sucking the large white substance! 

 

I quickly took it away and began examining it.  It turns out that he had found a Tupperware contain of extra canning salt that I had on the lazy susan, opened the lid and proceeded to suck on the salt!  Needless to say, he drank two glasses of water in no time flat!  I am still watching him for side effects from his salt induced overdose!

 

And did I tell you about his crayon incident!  No!  Well let me now...

 

A few days ago, I noticed he was being awfully quiet as we checked cows with Daddy in the pickup.  Watching him a bit closer, I determined he had something in his mouth.  I did a careful sweep and came out with six small, tooth indented pieces of yellow crayon.  There was no paper, and no evidence of the rest of the crayon.  When we got home, I did a search of the house and found no portion of yellow crayon anywhere!  Therefore, I had to deduce that he ate all but six small pieces of a yellow crayon, including the paper!  For TWO DAYS, he pooped pieces of yellow crayon!  TWO DAYS!  (Just yesterday, I found half a yellow crayon under the dining room table.  I am hoping that means he only ate half the crayon - paper and all.)

 

I have been extra diligent in putting away anything he could ingest like soaps in the bathtub and locking the kitchen sinks!  The boy is crazy about eating anything! (or maybe just curious)  Either way, we have GOT to be more careful around him.

The Tubes are OUT!

Thanks to all who were praying!

Yesterday Nathan boldly declared to multiple people that he was going to kick or hit the doctor! That didn't give me much hope for how the procedure would go today!

However, this morning, while we were putting his drops in his ears, I talked to him about what was going to happen. He agreed NOT to kick or hit the doctor and we practiced playing freeze to get him to hold still! I didn't know how it would all work, but I did tell him that the doctor would have some pinchers that would grab his tube and pull it out...I wanted him to have the concept that it might pull! That proved to be a HUGE help.

He wasn't so sure of sitting in the chair but when the doctor made it raise up and lay back, I told Nathan he was getting his own amusement ride and he settled down. Then I got into position as the doctor did and said, "Ready, Set, Freeze..." Then I began to count to see how long he could hold still. The first one came out quickly and without Nathan even noticing. But the second one hurt him. He flinched but before he could cry, the doctor had the chair moving to distract him for the ride down!

Then the doctor gave him a race car and a sticker! It was all done and Nathan was a champ!

This visit went 100% better than the last one! Thanks again for all who were praying!