One Week Down...

...one week to go! I think we're kind of finally in a groove (sort of). Anna has done much better the last couple of days. The wonderful Kim took the kids for the entire afternoon which meant I got a very long, uninterrupted (mostly) nap! And then we had supper with Stacey & Christian which meant 1) I didn't have to cook and 2) the kids got to play with friends! A great way to end a long, stressful week. I was talking with Stacey tonight and we both agreed that dealing with our sons' disobedience is so much easier than dealing with our normally-very-well-behaved daughters' disobedience. It's just so draining. Especially since I was not expecting Anna's reaction. At all! And not that Jacob is just naughty, but he's a boy and he's always pushed the limits and has never been as quickly compliant as Anna has been. I think just the difference between boys and girls. And honestly, when you have a child who is usually very little trouble in the discipline/behavior area, it's really hard to suddenly deal with a lot of those issues with her. Having a little grace goes a long way with her. I've found that if I simply rock with her every morning before school for as little as 5 minutes, it makes a world of difference. These poor kids are going through a lot of change in their worlds this fall! Starting school, Daddy traveling a lot, a new baby...yikes! And for a girl who hates change as much as I do, that's a lot to throw at Anna and expect her to just handle it with no hiccups. I need to remind myself of that and to try being more positive about this whole thing. Yes, it stinks that he has all this travel and that the first trip is 2 weeks long. Yes, it's really hard being 31-37 weeks pregnant while he's gone. Yes, it's exhausting to be a "single mom" for this season. BUT at least he has a job. At least that job provides enough so that I'm able to stay home with the kids. At least my mom is able to come and help during these times. God is good, all the time...not just when life is going smoothly!
Tomorrow we're going to lay low and just hang out. Definitely take a nap :) Then one more week and Daddy will be home!! Yahoo!! And a couple days before that, Lord willing, Binga will come down for a visit!!! :)

Really?? Only Day 3?!

It's been a looooong 3 days. We all feel like Daddy has been gone for a month (Daddy included)! Anna is having the hardest time, which surprised me. Jacob has become Daddy's little man the last couple months so I figured he would have the hardest time. He's been pretty good. Anna reacts by being very naughty (disobedience, torturing her brother) & sassy :( which makes Mama very tired & grumpy! Which makes it all worse!! So we're working on it. I think she just needs lots & lots of cuddling. We've still got 9 days! As an act of desperation, I got the Moon Sand out for the kids. That stuff is so messy!!! But they really have fun with it. I figured the floor needs swept anyway, why not add some Moon Sand to the mix?! ;)
Onward we go!
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Day 1

Well, travel season has started. And it's starting out with a bang-Aaron's first trip is 2 weeks long! :( The day started okay since both kids had school this morning I got an extra nap in. Which is good because I never sleep very well when Aaron is gone and add to that the multiple bathroom visits...not much sleep!! After school both kids were just whiny & grumpy. I figured naps would take care of that, but they woke up in even worse moods! They finally agreed on a movie & after it was over they were in much better moods. Jacob loves to play at the sink so that's where he went. Soon sister joined him & they played there for over half an hour! Now for supper...hmmmmmm.
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Elmer Jr.

I LOVE it when Jacob wears his hat. Not only is he so stinkin' cute, he almost always puts it on a little crooked...just like Grandpa Elmer! :)
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Toys? What Toys?

I'm serious, we should just get rid of ALL our toys! They've been playing on the couch and with the cushions all day today! Evidently this arrangement (Mom & I rearranged the living room while she was here a couple weeks ago.) is perfect for playing "Ice Berg" as they can hop from cushions to chairs to couch. I love that they're playing so well together and staying so entertained!

A Day in the Life

Seriously, who needs toys?! They honestly played in this stroller for over 30 minutes the other day. And have played off and on with it since. I told Anna I was going to sell all their toys and just give them the stroller and a cardboard box. She kinda panicked! haha

For some odd reason, she ended up sleeping in front of the door for naps one day. I have no idea why. She usually stays in her bed even if she doesn't sleep.

He dressed himself. What can I say?! He refused any pants, was adamant that he wear his Lightening shoes and camo John Deere socks. Alrighty then!

She's getting really good with her bike! She also named it Abby. Alrighty then!

I've officially reached the "shelf stage". :)

Fair Twins

Anna wanted to match today for the fair and she chose the John Deere shirts. Of course I had no trouble convincing Jacob to wear his!! And he loves his JD hat. Anna is quick to point out that she likes John Deere, too! :)

Fair

She's patiently waiting for the rides! She was okay for a while looking at all the equipment, but got tired of it. And she was hot. Then we got to the rides and she didn't want to ride anything!! Jacob wanted to ride the cars (which he LOVED last year), so he got on...the only kid...and did NOT like it. The guy was kind enough to stop the ride and give our tickets back. Crazy kids! So we all rode the Ferris wheel, looked at the animals, and made our way back to the van for supper at Bogey's! The kids were worn out (so were Mom & Dad!), but Jacob still didn't want to leave. He informed us several times that he did NOT like the Ferris wheel. We had a great time. Unfortunately the day we went was probably the hottest day of the week but oh well!

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Fair

A fire truck!! The HCC fire school had a fire truck & ambulance there. The kids loved both! They didn't want to get out of the ambulance, which was fine--I sat in the shade for a while! :)

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Fair

He found the John Deeres! I don't know how many times people commented "He's a John Deere boy huh?" (could have been the JD hat and shirt that gave it away...) :) He sat on every single piece of John Deere equipment they had. He really is a John Deere boy--he sat on a few others, but John Deere was the only place he wanted to sit on ALL of them!


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State Fair!!

I can't believe I forgot my camera!!! So I'll be posting a picture at a time from my phone. To say the kids are excited is the understatement of the century!!! He enthusiastically said "HI!!" to everybody we met coming in. It was too cute. Jacob is in heaven seeing all the tractors & combines. This one only costs $262K!


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Labor Day Weekend

Aaron was in a wedding over the holiday weekend, so Papa & Binga kept the kids for us. It was fabulous to get away without kids for the weekend...two nights without kids!! Although the constant bathroom trips didn't lend themselves to full nights' sleep. But it was still relaxing.
While we were gone, they took the kids to the farm to visit Grandpa Elmer & Grandma Mary.

Of course, Jacob found dirt to play in right away!

Don't interrupt my playing!!!

Great Grandpa and Grandma with 2 of their 16 (soon to be 18!!) great grandchildren!

Boy is a crazy sleeper!

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The wedding was at LaSada Sporting & Hunting Inn. It was a beautiful setting and the weather was perfect!

I loved the colors...vibrant yet still mixed with earthy accents.

My chariot awaits! ;) The walk to where the actual wedding was held was about 1/2 mile down the path. I made that walk for the rehearsal and was rewarded with huge blisters. So I was very relieved to hear they had a "carriage" to take elderly and pregnant guests down!

Such a beautiful setting.

There were three flower girls and one ring bearer...and this is how the adorable little guy walked all the way down the isle. It was like he was saying "I can't believe they're making me walk with all these girls!"
A beautiful wedding, a wonderful weekend away, and we're so happy for Nathan and Joy!

Hurry Before School Starts!

We hadn't been up to Papa & Binga's house for quite a while and I wasn't so sure it was going to work before school started! We were so busy and the only week we had free, Mom had a treatment and other appointments. But, we squeezed it in the week before school started! I decided to have a garage sale and try to sell some more of the baby girl clothes and other stuff. As always, Papa was great to take the kids whenever I needed him to. And as always, they all had a GREAT time!

The old trucks from Great Grandma Mary...Binga is going to paint them (although some of them look practically brand new!). Jacob had a blast playing with them. Here, he's telling me that there's Papa, Binga, Mama, and Daddy :)

Binga had a "Power Port" put in for her treatments (her veins were getting shot from getting stuck every three weeks). So she brought home some goodies for the kids. I said "Anna, are you a surgeon?" To which she replied in a whisper "Mama, I'm just a kid. I can't do surgery!" :)

One evening, Papa took the kids to the park. I think this was the evening that Mom & I went to set up her display at the antique mall for her jewelry.

They even roasted hot dogs!!!

And the first time they had a boiled egg. I'm not a big egg eater. Anna will eat scrambled eggs, but Jacob doesn't seem to like them either. So I've never made boiled eggs for them. Anna had fun peeling it and ate the white of it but not the yolk (can't blame her!). I think Jacob might have tried the white, too.

Papa & Binga were selling their old washer & dryer and this was Jacob's favorite place to play during the garage sale!! :)

Such a wild man!!! Full of energy after his bath. He'll hate me for posting this picture but it's so funny.

But look at what an angel he is when he's sleeping!!! My precious boy.
We had a great time and Binga even came back with us (Jacob's party was the following week). The garage sale was a huge success even though we came back with about as many tubs of clothes. We sold a lot! But now they're all sorted and ready for the next consignment sale!
Whew...I think I'm almost caught up on the pictures!!!

Jacob's Last Speech Session

The sad day arrived...it was Jacob's last speech session with Miss Susan. The one Jacob always tried to go home with. By any means possible! Let's just say this was the saddest departure yet.

Jacob loved Miss Susan. He especially got excited to see what she had in her bags!

And she quickly learned what Jacob loved (cars and farm things) and brought those kinds of toys and books. She was such a great teacher and obviously, Jacob really connected with her!

Not happy at all to hear that it was time to pack up the toys. :( Poor boy. He cried and cried and cried. He was just inconsolable.

Even after his favorite meal of spaghetti he was still sad. But then he met Miss Amy, his new speech teacher, and he was happy. He loves her as well. She came to test him before school started. He did phenomenal considering it was 45 minutes of no toys! I knew he'd improved a LOT over the summer, but until she started the testing (which I saw Miss Susan do at the beginning), I didn't realize exactly how much! When we had his IEP meeting before school, she went over the results with us. He jumped 20+ points in his expressive language!! She said he is actually spot-on for his age, but because of the way he leaves off letters at the beginning of words it makes him really hard to understand. Which qualifies him for speech. I can probably understand about 85-90% of what he says now, but everyone else probably only understands 25-30% of what he says. So I'm excited to see how much he improves this year with preschool! He's such a mimicker. Miss Amy said the best thing we can do with him at home is to repeat correctly what he says. If he says "i hee a hemi" we repeat "You see a semi?" etc. And I've noticed that the more he talks, the funnier he gets!

Pool Time Fun!

Our neighbors have a pool. I really don't know why we don't use it more than we do. But a couple weeks this summer, the kids and I would head over almost every day after naps and play until Daddy got home and then beg him to come in and play with us! :)

Jacob loves it as long as you're holding him and he doesn't get his head wet. Even though Daddy tried to convince him otherwise!

He really liked jumping off the ladder. And he had NO concept of "if I jump and nobody catches me I'll drown" so you had to keep a close eye on him!

Anna LOVED swimming. But she didn't really entertain herself (which made it hard to be alone with both of them--Jacob wanting to be held, Anna wanting to be played with...). But we had a lot of fun. I keep telling Aaron I really would like a pool the next place we live but I don't think I've convinced him yet.

Haunting moon one evening.

Random Summertime Fun

Picture overload! :) Just some random pictures from our summer fun at home.

Miss Hollywood!

Relaxin' all tangled up on the chair together.

Have I mentioned that Netflix is the best $10 we spend?? There are hundreds of shows the kids can watch instantly online. When we were trying to figure out "to drop or not to drop" naptime, it was a lifesaver! Gave me some quiet time and saved my sanity some days! (We didn't drop naps, by the way. With school starting, they really need the extra rest time. Some days Anna sleeps, some days she just rests. I do have to set a timer for an hour, though because if either of them sleep longer than that, they're up til midnight!)

Yes, he's sitting on the toilet, but isn't he just too cute?! :) His eyes...oh he knows how to use those baby blues already!

Oh my...the boy just didn't know what to do with himself when Aunt Cara & Uncle Terry showed up with an early birthday present...John Deere bedding for his new bed!!!

SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

He is set...tractor pillow, tractor blanket. Now all he needs is a stuffed tractor to sleep with! ;)

Anna's present was a Princess sheet set. She was just as excited as Jacob and insisted that I take her picture as she pretended to sleep!

One of the many gorgeous, beautiful sunsets in Kansas!

This makes me laugh. If only he had chaps and a cowboy hat!

I really don't know why the grass quit growing on the back side of this tree, but Jacob is certainly glad it did! He spends hours upon hours playing in that spot with his tractors!

Sassafrass is what I call this look.

There is no place this boy would rather be than playing in the dirt!

Jacob refuses to sit on the "big" swing. He has fun anyway.

They love the swing set!