Whoops

My parents pointed out some wording in my Thanksgiving post---at the end when I said "It will be more fun" I meant fun again...yet again, more fun to be had. NOT that it would be more fun than Colorado!!!!! Whoops. I guess I didn't catch that when I was re-reading it!

A New Baby

Congratulations to my cousin and his wife on the birth of their precious son! They live in Peru, so we're having to satisfy ourselves with pictures for now :) He is a sweetie!!!

It's only just begun...

We've already had two Thanksgiving gatherings--only two more to go! Seriously, it's CRAZY! We went to Colorado to spend time with Aaron's family last weekend, since his brother & family were in from Alaska and won't be back for Christmas. We had fun, except for the kids being and/or getting sick! Jacob got pink eye the day we left, Anna developed a double ear infection while we were there. So we got very little sleep. Oh well!

Anna & cousin John begging turkey off Grandpa before dinner.

My kids are absolutely mesmerized by Grandpa's guitar playing and singing. They love it.

The family pic. At Great-Grandma's house. Last time we had a Wallman family pic was when Anna & John were babies!

The men being goofy (they were the lighting test subjects before we took the real pictures).

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This weekend is my family's Thanksgiving out west. It will be more fun, but hopefully more sleep since the kids are on antibiotics now! Anna is excited to goo see the kitties at Great Grandma Mary's house. I better finish the laundry and re-pack!! And this is just for Thanksgiving! Christmas will be even crazier! But it's well worth it to spend time with family.

Friends

Anna & Jacob's little friends came over to play yesterday. They had so much fun. Anna and Jake get along really well--I just love watching them and seeing how excited they get to see each other. And what a blessing it is for both of us moms to be able to trade off and get some quiet time (even if that quiet time is running around doing errands!) They stayed very busy playing...

You'da thought there was a throw-down going on with all the noise in there...pots and pans were being banged around and I'm pretty sure more than one thing got thrown on the floor ;) No fighting, they were just being crazy cooks!

This was so funny. They each found their own "phone" and holy smokes they let whoever they were talking to have it!!! They were hollering and chewing out..."NO you can't. You're naughty. huff puff harumph!" Then they would slam the phone down somewhere and go play, then back at the phones. I just laughed most of the day with these two!

Okay, my Anna's face is a little bit scary! Kim, I promise she did NOT proceed to stomp on your Anna's head after this shot!!!!! Yikes! That mattress is a real pain b/c we have nowhere to really "store" it, but it's nice to have b/c 1)it really entertains the kids 2)it comes in handy when we need an extra sleeping spot for somebody. So for now it just gets leaned up against the wall in the hallway. And when the kids feel like jumping on it, they simply push it over and have at it!

All that jumping wore them out. How precious is this?! Jake was pretty upset when he realized I was serious about taking a nap. I was going to have "baby Anna" (as the kids call her) lay on the Dora couch, but that didn't work. Plus Jake just cried and cried "Baby Anna, baby Anna!". So all THREE of them slept in our bed! And surprisingly enough, it only took 5-10 min. of me singing for them to fall asleep.

Yeah, she drools big time. Just like me...I mean like I used to do when I was a kid.

All four of them were asleep at the same time....I was ready to get some work done! Not happenin'. Jacob woke up (which is rare these days). Got him back to sleep pretty quickly. Then I hear something from my room. I go check and baby Anna and Jake are awake. I'm pretty sure baby Anna woke him up b/c he was pretty glassy eyed still. I tried rubbing their backs, tickling their faces, but she wasn't having it. Then Jacob woke up again so I told them to go back to sleep and I would be back (I'm not sure Jake was ever fully awake!). As I was rocking Jacob in his room, I could hear the other bedroom door slamming. I put Jacob back in bed (must to his protest!) and go in....I wish I'd had a camera. Anna and Jake were perched at the edge of the bed on their tummies, hands under their chins--baby Anna was standing beside the bed looking up at them. They were telling her to "shhhh!!!" It was so sweet and funny! :) So they had about a 45 min. nap!

We all had fun...so much fun that when I took baby Anna's forgotten jacket over, they wanted Anna & Jacob to stay at their house and play! haha So they stayed and played for a while. And today, they're over playing again so I can get some things done around the house and get the van serviced before our trip. THANKS KIM!!!!!

Rambling and Pictures :)

I figured I should "unload" my camera before we make our trek to Colorado to see family...I had a lot more pictures on there than I thought I did! ha We've been busy with life...nothing in particular. Anna's sleep is again wack-o. I don't know what's going on. We're trying naps again, b/c by late afternoon, she's a wreck and so tired. And you would think being that tired, she'd sleep hard but it doesn't happen. I miss the days she slept 12-14 hrs. a night. :( I'm not going to say anything about Jacob's sleeping habits--don't want to jinx it!! I did solve the leak problem--Huggies Overnight diapers. Those things hold an astronomical amount of pee! They should for how much they cost, but it's worth the extra hours of sleep!!
So Sunday afternoon, Anna was a little hyper (Daddy wasn't helping matters). They were singing a song that went a little like this:
Daddy: Anna wants a whomp-whomp (our word for a pretend 'pankin')
Anna: No no no no no no (and then she blows her little harmonica)
It was quite hilarious. I think she was getting the harmonica thing from her Veggie Tales movie where Larry sings the blues with the Lincoln Lemon. She was very serious about her song. Daddy would switch up the names and everybody got a no for the whomp-whomps except for Daddy! :)

"No-no, no, no-no-no-no!"

Uhh, can we say SASSY?!

Anna distracted the adults, so Jacob seized the opportunity to get into Mama's purse undetected! Little stinker.

Saturday night we ate at Pizza Hut with the Swiharts. They got the kids each a new book. Jacob LOVED his book. It was a race car book. I think I read it to him at least 20 times (I'm not exaggerating, I promise!). At the end of the book, the car wins the race so I said "Yea!!". So this is the face he made every time we came to the end of the book. I'm positive I did NOT look like that, so I'm not sure where he got that face. ahem...

I don't know why we spend any money on toys for this child (oh, wait...we don't!). She loves this box. Of course, what kid wouldn't when Daddy races you up and down the hallway in it?? :)

Daddy's football watching partner (for a little bit, anyway!)

We went out west for my great-grandma's funeral last week. We got to stay with Aunt Cara & Uncle Terry in their new house!! It was so much fun. Jacob had a very hard time staying away from Uncle Terry's tractor display cases...the boy loves them, what can I say? Anna was so excited to see the books. She made Aunt Cara read her these 2 Berenstain Bears books at least 3 times each! I don't know why she looks so completely angry in this picture...I guess she was just concentrating on the story! haha Jacob enjoyed looking at his own book.

I stuck Jacob in my old rocking chair the other day...he loves it. Thinks he's such a big boy sitting there. Except now he's figured out that he can climb up by himself and STAND and try to rock it. Good grief. I'm seeing more than one set of stitches in his future!

Oh man. This night, she FOUGHT it so hard. Both kids were out cold by 8pm. Aaron & I were like--whoa! We can actually watch a movie or something! By 10:30, she was awake. With every excuse in the book she tried valiantly to stay out of bed. Finally by 12:30 I just ignored her when she came into our bedroom yet again. I was trying to finish my work on the laptop. She climbed into this rocking chair and FELL ASLEEP...like that. I'm telling you, this kid just wants to be close to you when she sleeps. Nevermind that, technically, she's closer to us when she's on the couch (there's simply a wall separating us--literally. She's right up to the wall on one side and our bed is right up to the same wall on the other side). I don't know. I guess we'll just have to send her to "Papa Boot Camp" hahahaha!

Okay, so that's a lot of pictures and a lot of blah blah blah ;) thanks for reading this far.

Wedding ring

Wedding ring
Originally uploaded by andy.w2008

(Haven't tried posting from flickr before...we'll see how it goes)
Aaron & I went to a marriage retreat last weekend. It was wonderful! First of all, it was nice to just get away without the kids, and stay in a really nice hotel with KING sized bed (and super soft bedding!). And it was fun to hang out with a bunch of fun couples from church...without kids (are you noticing a theme here??). Not to mention, the mouth-watering, delicious PRIME RIB BUFFET! ha
The speaker (Jack Hughes) was awesome. He was completely down-to-earth, very funny, and at the same time, knew when to be serious. Aaron really liked him (I did too). I think the biggest thing we both learned was from the first evening...He asked "Why did you get married?" Of course, we all thought of the obvious answers--we love each other, we want to start a family, etc. He said the problem with those reasons is that they can change. When things get difficult, it's easy to "leave" those reasons behind. In his years of counseling, he's never had a couple get the answer right. Do you know what it is? (Mom and Dad, you can't answer!). He said the foundation of your marriage (after Christ, of course) should be to bring glory to God. You are married to bring glory to God. I Corinthians 10:31 tells us to do everything to the glory of God. So how do we build our marriage to glorify God?
1. We love God directly (with all our hearts, minds, and souls)
2. We love God indirectly (love your neighbor as yourself). II John 1:5-6 talks about fulfilling the law by loving others.
He also gave several reasons for glorifying God with your marriage.
1. When you do, you're not sinning against God.
2. You will have God's blessing on your marriage
3. Unmet expectations won't undermine my marriage (I don't love Aaron for what I can get out of it but for what God can get out of it.)
4. Your marriage will grow & become an awesome blessing.
5. You will be a blessing and witness for Christ to society.
6. You will be a blessing to your children.

I had never heard that before. But when he said it and explained it, I was like "well DUH". The Bible commands us to glorify God in everything we do.

The next day he "picked" on the guys and then the girls. All of that was what we re-learned. He told the guys that they need to be students of the wives. They need to learn and learn again, what their wives love, what makes their wives happy...whether that's a big bouquet of flowers or a walk and a talk (or both!), etc. Husbands need to honor their wives and by doing so, honor God. He told the gals they need to submit to their husbands...as to the Lord. This kind of submission isn't a "cower in the corner, answer his beck and call, downtrodden wife" submission. Did you read how the husbands are supposed to treat their wives? It's a circle--basically I'm nice to him, he's nice to me. ha! That's a really simplified take. But the base of all this is that you're not "being nice" to him so he'll be nice to you. You're doing it because 1) God commanded you to do it; 2) You love him don't you?! :)

Anyway, I better get finished here before my house is torn apart by the tonornado known as Jacob! I hope this makes sense (and it sure better work posting from flickr!!). We learned a lot and had a good time just relaxing and getting refreshed. And THANK YOU, Papa & Binga for coming down in the middle of your stuff to take care of our kids!

this didn't work and i don't know how to delete a post! haha

Mosaic of Me :)

A blogger I read did this on her blog. I thought it was kinda cool.





What is your first name? Jennifer
What is your favorite food? Fettuccine Alfredo
What high school did you go to? Pawnee Heights (named after the Pawnee Indians)
What is your favorite color? Lavender
Who is your celebrity crush (I'm married, folks, so I just put the heart/hand pic:)).
What is your favorite drink? Coca Cola
What is your dream vacation? French countryside
What is your favorite dessert? Strawberries and Angel food cake
What do you want to do when you grow up? Something with horses and kids
Who/what do you love most in this life? God
Choose one word that describes you: Country
What is your Flickr name? JennW02 (what pic am I supposed to do for that?? so I just put up a rose:)).

Here's the concept:
-Go to Flickr.
-Open the Big Huge Labs’ mosaic-maker (possibly in a second tab or window for easy back-and-forth between the 2 sites)
-Answer each question and then search Flickr for each word or phrase.
-Choose one photo from the FIRST PAGE ONLY of your results that fits you best.
-Enter the photo url into the mosaic-maker.
-Once you’ve selected a photo for each question/answer, create the mosaic and upload it to Flickr.


Picture credits:
1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brizmo/101225078/">Jennifer feet,
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/aymee/2286508035/">Fettucini Alfredo with Garlic Bread, 3. http://www.flickr.com/photos/marvinok/503871230/">Pawnee Indian Dancer,
4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougchinnery/2326216819/">Fragrant Rows,
5. Untitled,
6. I'm" a Mexican Coke,
7. http://www.flickr.com/photos/manufoissotte/2915991628/">France / Moselle - Countryside in the morning (2008),
8. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kcline/104885772/">Bragging Rights: All Recipes,
9. Gentleness,
10. It's" raining light, Hallelujah!,
11. http://www.flickr.com/photos/macpherr/2830512042/">I could feel it - on a country road!,
12. http://www.flickr.com/photos/popotito/1234222342/">As beautiful as a rose can be...

FINALLY!!!!!!!

I guess we should have left him with Papa and Binga overnight sooner! Jacob finally started walking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Can you tell I'm excited about that?) Aaron & I went to a marriage conference Friday and Saturday (it was awesome!), so my parents came down to keep the kids (THANK YOU!). I called on our way home and Dad said "I've got a couple things to show you." I asked if it was good or bad and he said I'd have to wait. I kinda thought maybe this is what it was, but I long ago gave up on that stubborn boy walking before he turned two! So they showed us the video of it--they used Papa's laptop as a motivator! The boy loves computers and cannot keep his hands off our desktop (which is why it's usually just shut off!). It's so cute b/c he'll stand up then look around at everybody and clap his hands, as if to say "Come on, clap for me!" Then he takes shaky steps. Tonight he's taken over 7 steps at once. Sometimes he tries to take off running before he gets his balance. He still prefers to crawl to get there, but he thinks it's pretty fun to walk and get all the clapping and praises! :)

Every picture, he's clapping. What a ham.

I LOVE this picture!!! :) He'll hate me for it some day (well, not me...I didn't take it!).

With his cheerleader, standing up like a big boy at Great Grandpa Elmer & Grandma Mary's house (Papa & Binga took them out there Friday to visit).

Clap for him, already!! He also chews on his tongue while he's walking. It's super cute! :)

Grandma Mary's cat had more kittens! Anna just adores kitties. But she so sweet--somehow she completely understands that Mama is allergic and she's okay with not bringing one home! She's such a sweet girl.

Weeeeeeee!

Jacob hasn't been sleeping good--because by 6am he is SOAKED--through every single thing in his crib! He does drink a lot during the day and usually 1/2 a cup or more before bed, but I can't not let him drink--he's always so thirsty! Has anybody else had this problem? Was there a particular diaper that absorbed really really good? I use Luvs b/c with the Parent's Choice he would leak through even during the day. I KNOW that he would sleep longer if he didn't get so wet. This morning, I had to change him (he was wet from toes to chest!), 2 blankets in his crib were very wet, of course his sheet, and even the mattress pad was soaked! He's still really tired and most of the time will go back to sleep for at least an hour.
Yesterday Anna had her little friend over :) They had so much fun!! He was sick earlier this week, so we were patiently waiting for him to get better so he could come and play! They were so cute. I missed the cutest picture--them walking down the hall, Jake with the grocery cart and Anna with her doll & stroller! haha


A couple nights ago Daddy took the kids for a ride...on the computer chair! They thought it was the best! Anna did a really good job of holding on tight to Jacob. They had fun and at 11pm last night after Papa & Binga were here, she was begging for Papa to give her a ride!

Sleep

So I had a whole post typed last night and I hit the wrong button and it was gone! But I reminded myself that it was just a silly post and was nothing to get frustrated about (see, I'm learning!!)

So anyway, sleep has been weird here lately. With the time change, Jacob has been waking up at 5:30/6:00am (that is so NOT cool in my book!). He's usually soaked through everything, including the sheet, so I have to change everything. Some mornings he's gone back to sleep after all that, but a couple mornings he's decided it's just time to be awake. Yikes. This morning, he was up at 5:30am. Grrr! I changed his diaper, he drank a bit of juice and went right back to sleep. Whew! Anna has decided she wants to have the couch be her bed. Every night this week, she's slept out here. And every night, she's slept all night (except the first night I think she woke up at 4am, but Aaron was already gone, so she climbed in with me and slept til like 9). She says she doesn't like sharing a room with Jacob anymore (she's THREE...how does she know?!). Aaron says it's a conspiracy to get a bigger house :) We only have 2 bedrooms, for those who don't know, so Anna's options are either the bedroom with Jacob or (evidently) the couch! I say if she sleeps all night, she can have it!! haha Maybe she was just waiting for curtains before she made her move out here.

We also started a "chore" chart for her. It's actually a dry erase board with a chore chart on it and little star magnets. She LOVES it. She gets a little "allowance" for doing all her chores every day. Guess what one of the chores is?? SLEEPING ALL NIGHT! ha!!! Hey, it's working. She also gets a "new" movie if she sleeps all night a few nights in a row. (We're trying out netflix, which I think will be pretty cool). We made the mistake of renting a movie from CMart for her, so now she realizes that there are "new" movies out there and no longer likes to watch the same Dora or Boz repeatedly!

Alright, I've procrastinated long enough. Anna fell asleep this afternoon, so she's thrashing around trying to fight sleep. It's so strange to me that she can't take a nap when she's so young still. She is NOT my daughter! ;)

Oh, here's a pic of a HUGE leaf Anna found--well, she found several of them. She was amazed (so was I!) at how big it was...

Is it ever going to END?

Maybe I just didn't notice it Saturday night, but good grief the evenings are LOOOOONG now that the time changed. I keep thinking...is bedtime EVER going to come?!? I made the mistake of letting Jacob go to bed early last night b/c he was so tired. He was up before 7am...that's NOT okay in my house!! Anna fell asleep really late yesterday afternoon, so she was up well after 10pm. She was also up around 7:30. I know, I know...that's 8:30 "their time" but it's 7:30!!! So tonight, Anna is falling asleep at the supper table...at 6:30pm. The bath woke her up. Jacob's been crawling around with his head on the floor for 2 hours, but dad-burn-it he's going to bed a little later tonight so hopefully he sleeps later! I really don't like that it gets dark by 6pm. I think that's why the evenings feel so long. So we're a little tired around here!

Chillin' with Dora (again). He loves her. Anna has a little Dora movie projector thing (it's awesome)...he'll seriously sit and watch that for at least an hour. He spins it around and watches it on the wall, lays down next to it and looks at it real closely...it's pretty funny.

Anna's probably frowning b/c she's so stinkin' tired. She better get more sleep tonight or I'm shipping her off to Papa's house! haha (I'm kidding)

Anna was serving tea and while she got distracted with looking for a snack (seriously...these kids have been eating like there's no tomorrow), Jacob snuck over and started playing with her tea pot. Of course, he was just fascinated by taking the lid on and off.

She really is sound asleep. We had to get her new jammies...her 3Ts were getting a weeee bit short. Can you say wedgie?!? And Gerber no longer makes footie jammies in the 4T size. So I had to shell out a little extra cash for the Disney footies (the only ones they had in her size). They had Sleeping Beauty and Tinkerbell (which is now her favorite after seeing that new movie). They are so soft and warm.

So here's to hoping the evenings get shorter and the kids start sleeping later! It doesn't help that it's light outside by 7:30. Although the new curtains do awesome at keeping the light out. It hasn't been really cold again since I got them, so I don't know about keeping that out yet. I need to get something on my huge kitchen window b/c that kinda defeats the purpose of blocking the light out! And the black-out curtains I made for the kids' room do really good at keeping it dark in there.

Time for bed! (I hope...) :)

The End

Our Bible study has ended :( It was so hard, but it was so good. I can't recommend enough this study. I really encourage you to get it and go through it.
In his last chapter, "Where do we go from here?", he suggests asking your spouse/brother/sister/close friend to evaluate you in the presence of the subtle sins he discussed throughout the book. Today was not a very good day for my anger/frustration, I don't have to ask Aaron about that!! He says to ask for honest feedback and to NOT SAY ANYTHING in response. Even if you don't agree with what they say...God may be trying to use that person to open up areas you have been in denial about!
You could use a scale like this:
1-not a problem
2-occasionally a problem
3-frequently a problem
4-characteristic of your life
Do you want the list of subtle sins??? (I know you just said no!!) Here they are anyway. It's going to hurt.

1. Ungodliness
2. Anxiety and Frustration
3. Discontentment
4. Unthankfulness
5. Pride (moral self-righteousness, pride of correct doctrine, achievement, & independent spirit)
6. Selfishness (our interests, time, money and inconsiderateness)
7. Lack of Self-control (eating & drinking, temper, money, tv, hobbies, impulse buying)
8. Impatience & Irritability
9. Anger
10. Sins of the tongue (gossip, slander, lying, harsh words, sarcasm, insults, ridicule)
11. Worldliness (money, vicarious immorality, idolatry)

WOW! What a list. I want to share more about a couple of the chapters, but not tonight. I must sleep! Sleep has not been Anna's friend recently :( It's craziness.

My little worker

Anna went shopping with me today. We were in desperate need of groceries and I needed to get something I'd been pricing and hunting for....curtains for my living room!! Anyone who has stayed with us will appreciate this as much as we do:) We had 3 fairly large windows in the living room and since we repainted months ago, we haven't had curtains up. Before there were vertical blinds (came with the house). They were no fashion statement, but they kept the sun/heat and cold out pretty good. But when I repainted, the trim got painted white and the cream blinds did not match and they were just ick! Anyway, I finally got some curtains. And not just any curtains...thermal curtains!! haha They "block out 99.8% of light" (we'll see) and are supposed to help conserve energy with their "triple weave technology". Again, we'll see! I got them at Walmart. They're kind of a suede like fabric. They don't seem very thick, but I think they'll work pretty good. It will be better than nothing. Our windows are probably as old as our house (90yrs.), but since we don't have thousands of dollars to spend on new windows right now, this is our fix for now. I like them. They aren't the color I really wanted, but they look good. So while Aaron and I were working on putting up the rods and pullbacks (is that what they're called?), Anna helped, and then she went off on her own and created a surprise for me:)

Using a screwdriver just her size! (Yes, it's pink. I have pink tools--Aaron is much less likely to use pink tools and he's notorious for not putting tools back where they belong!)

"Now measure it..." :) She made me a skateboard!

And here's my curtains! That's about half of that window (it's two together).

You can't really see it, but I had to get a picture of my manly husband using a pink screwdriver :D Love ya honey!!!!!

My leafy curtain rods :)

I think I'll like having the pullback thingies. I like all the light that comes in during the day, so it will be nice to be able to quickly pull the curtains back.

We'll see what Jacob does with them in the morning. I just really hope he doesn't pull them down!!! I'm not looking forward to putting up the Christmas tree this year...I think the bottom half will be BARE! ha