Spring is in the Air!!!

Wednesday was a gorgeous day! The other Anna & Jake came over to play and the kids had a blast playing outside!

We even had enough bikes/trikes/scooters for all four to ride!

The other Mr. Blue Eyes ;)

Jacob, lesson #1 in the female species...it starts young, that whole telling-you-what-to-do thing!! HA Anna Mae went over to Jacob, squatted down and all I heard was "Now Jacob, don't..." too funny!

The kids got so warm, they all shed their jackets and hats! Even then, Anna Rose complained about being hot!!
The neighbors across the street saw us all out front and came over to play (adding 4 more kids!). My next-door neighbor thought I'd started a day care! :) I can't wait for Spring to be here every day!!!

Harvest Time!!

Alright, alright! Here's the harvest post Binga!!! :) And Mia, I cannot believe you don't know what a combine looks like!! Tell your Daddy he should be ashamed! ;)

We went out west for a couple days to "help" with harvest. We got to ride with Aunt Cara & Uncle Terry and Grandpa Frank! They happened to be cutting close by, so it was easy to see both of them in the short time we were there. I love harvest. That was probably my favorite thing about summer growing up. I mostly rode in the wheat trucks with either Mom, my great Aunt Lois, or my cousin Becky (sometimes Beth). Once in a while I'd ride the combine with Grandpa Frank or Dad (those are the harvests I remember, anyway! I know I rode with Grandpa & Grandma Stinemetz during harvest, I just don't remember). I just feel so at home out there. It's peaceful and it feels good to see something that big accomplished!

So anyway, this time I convinced Kim to let us take Jake along!!! Anna and Jake were beyond excited! Although neither one of them had a nap Sunday afternoon, they didn't sleep on the way out there! They were much too excited! I think I might have to end every sentence in this paragraph with ! That's how excited they were! :)

We arrived around 5:30 Sunday evening. We stopped on the way and grabbed supper. I think I was asked at least 20 times "Are we there yet????" We hadn't gotten 5 miles out of town and Anna saw a combine. She got excited and said "JAKE!!! That's my combine! We're almost there!!!" hahaha She still had an hour to go! :) I think Aunt Cara was just as excited to see us!

Jacob surprised me...I figured he would be over-the-top excited about all these huge wheels and tractors. But I think it was a little too noisy for him. Once we got inside the tractor and sat down and started moving, he was fine. Then he got excited about seeing the combine pass by.


Jake and Anna rode in the combine with my cousin TJ and his girlfriend Marissa. They were so excited (I think I'm going to use that phrase a lot in this post!!!).

Hi Mommy!!!

So excited, in fact, that they didn't even make it 2 rounds before they fell sound asleep!!! HA See how Jake is still holding on to the door handle?! Isn't that funny? I honestly don't know how the drivers stay awake. There's something about a combine in motion that is very soothing and methodical...puts ya right to sleep!

Marissa was a champ and held them both in her lap, sound asleep (that's about 65+ lbs. of dead weight!) for quite a while.

Grunt! (translation: I'm so excited! I see a combine!!!)

I just love this one.

I wasn't prepared for staying out in the field for so long Sunday evening (I don't know why I thought we wouldn't!). So I didn't bring any extra drinks or snacks! Luckily Cara's got some extra cans of pop with their suppers, so Jake & Anna shared a Pepsi. They were THIRSTY!

They also shared their cookies with the kids. I told them "Look at me!" so they did...and looked right into the sun! I wasn't thinking!! Jake looked up and said "Ooohhh! Dat da sun!"

Anna got these cowboy boots a long time ago, and even now, they're too big. But she loves them. And I love her in them! :)

Riding with Uncle Terry to go dump the grain cart.

Oh boy! Look out!! Jake's driving the "brrrum brrrum"! :)

I think this might have been all the kids' favorite part of the trip...riding in the semi! Anna and Jake sat in the sleeper and just thought it was the greatest and funniest thing in the world! Jacob sat on my lap up front and had his arm up on the widow checking everything out. He LOVED the horn. He did his perfect "o" face and looked around to see where the noise came from. I'm not sure if Jacob or Uncle Terry liked it more! :)

Gus. The giant Anatolian Shepard! For as big as he is, he loved the kids. Anna & Jake were scared to death of him, but Jacob wasn't the least bit scared! Gus loved to have his belly scratched :) He also loved to lick, which sent Jacob reeling!

Look at those paws! Practically as big as Jacob's head!

All excited, waiting for Grandpa Frank to come pick them up!

Running to get on with Grandpa.

You can't see them, but Jake & Anna are in there with Grandpa :)

After a very long afternoon/evening (I'm not telling what time they got to bed!), these two were out cold in no time! Aren't they so sweet?!

Day 2, hanging out waiting for the cutting to begin for the day.

Anna collected a bouquet of leaves while she waiting. And no, they aren't weeds! Or so the princess in green cowboy boots informed us all!!

So many memories in this red truck! :)

This field was hailed out, so they had to cut close to the ground. Therefore, there was a lot of straw left behind. They bailed most of it.

We had more fun than I can describe and I really wish we could have stayed all week! Maybe next year. Thanks for letting us come out! We had such a good time!!

VBS Blast Off!

Anna's VBS program was tonight! She did such a good job with all the songs and actions! She had so much fun and is a little disappointed that there won't be another program tomorrow!!! The pics aren't very good :( The lighting wasn't great and I was at the back of the sanctuary, so my flash didn't do a lot of good. Oh well!

Anna and 2 of her classmates (I think she was the only girl??). Jake was night and day between this morning and tonight. This morning, the kids got up and sang a couple songs during church (Anna refused to go up there). Jake was HILARIOUS! He was so cute and everybody was just rolling. Tears were streaming down my face I was laughing so hard. He was 2 beats late and loud on the words and the actions, he fell down once, and he was just glowing and having so much fun. It was precious to see! Tonight...he just stood there. Didn't sing, didn't do the motions. It was funny.

Best friends! :)



The big kids (and Pastor!) did a hilarious skit at the end. It was quite entertaining! :)

And here's a montage of Anna singing. Sorry it's a little shaky! I had to zoom all the way in, so the tiniest movement seemed like I was shaking the camera! Isn't she just too cute?! ;)

My Montage 6/7/09

Beautiful Day

Today was gorgeous!!! This morning, Jake came over to play! They had so much fun. For lunch, they made their own mini pizzas. (they were Lunchables). FYI--they taste weird! Jake downed them in about 3 minutes! He'll eat just about anything!! :) Anna & Jacob did not like them. I tried a bite...they taste funny. Anyway, they had fun!

The chefs with their masterpieces!

They had fun playing in the sandbox. The only way I got them inside was a snack!! :)

This afternoon, Anna & Jacob had fun outside, again. It was warmer. I think it got up in the 70s today! Anna was explaining to me why she couldn't go play. Something about having a stomach ache.

Jacob is walking a lot more every day (yipee!!). He'll even walk in the yard!

Yeah, he ate dirt. GROSS! And he seemed to like it for some reason.

He was playing peek-a-boo under the grill cover! He is so ornery.

He was playing "catch me if you can" after his bath last night. He found a sticker on the floor and wore it around the house in his birthday suit! haha

Yeah this was at 12:30AM! The other night, he would NOT go back to sleep. He woke up around 11:30 and it was 2am before he was back in bed. Ugh! He was happy, but I wanted to go to bed!!!

And to end with a video that will hopefully make you smile... :)

Jacob LOVES being thrown in the air!

A lazy Sunday :)

My sleeping angel :) She is so precious to me!

He bites his tongue on a regular basis these days. It's too cute!! I asked him if he was biting his tongue and he shook his head and said "huh-uh" ha!

He still gets SO excited when Veggie Tales comes on!!! He squeals, kicks his feet and about hyperventilates! It's very funny.

She thinks it's pretty funny, too. Especially when Larry falls over at the end of the opening song :)

SO CUTE!!! We went with Kim's family to a nursing home this morning to do the service with them (I got recruited to play the piano). It was a blessing and the residents enjoyed seeing the kids :) I tried to get them to look at the camera, but if Anna was looking at me, Jake was looking at her and (as the picture shows!) vice versa! Do they not both look incredibly ornery?! Kim's husband did a great job with the message (on Psalm 1:1-3) and Aaron did a wonderful job keeping Jacob occupied in the lobby!! He gets so curious, that when he's in a new place it's impossible to keep him contained!! He wants to check it ALL out.

It's cold.

I guess when Aaron asks why I haven't posted recently, it's time for a new post! It's bitterly cold here this week. The 1-3" of snow we were supposed to get was more like 6". So we've pretty much stayed home. It's a big pain to bundle the kids up and go somewhere. We did run to Lyons yesterday though. It wasn't quite as cold. The kids have pretty much stayed in their jammies all day, every day this week! They just look so warm and cozy, I hate to change them.

A huge change from last year is that Anna actually likes the snow! She wants to go play in it. So the other day after Jacob was down for his nap, we went outside. I had the intention of shoveling the front walk while she played. After we got all bundled up and outside, I remembered we don't have a snow shovel. There was NO WAY I was using the stupid spade shovel we have to clear the walk!!! I spotted a broom and thought I'd give that a try. It actually worked--the snow was very light and dry, so it was easy to sweep the sidewalk. ha. But on our trip to Lyons, I made sure to buy a snow shovel! It was a little quicker shoveling the back sidewalk with a snow shovel instead of a broom! So while I swept, Anna played and played. We tried to make a snowman, but the snow was too dry to even make snowballs. She even made a couple of snow angels! Of course, I forgot the camera, so I have no pictures of that.

This is Jacob's favorite spot in the house. He shoves everything off except the lamp and sometimes the phone base and climbs on. He either plays with the dangly things on the lamp or pushes buttons on the phone (and gets in trouble for it, but he doesn't care) or just sits there. He's a strange child sometimes! Anna likes to join him sometimes. Hey, we're stuck in this tiny house day in and day out, I let them do what they want! ;-)

When Jacob woke up from his nap today, he didn't want to get out of the crib! So I brought the computer in there and worked while he dove around and played. He probably stayed in there for 15 min. (with a dirty diaper, no less!)


I rearranged things a little. Since Anna has claimed the couch as her bed, I took the toddler bed down just before Thanksgiving, that way I could put the twin mattress that had no home in its place. Well, it was just in the way, so I moved it out, took the toy box from the living room to the kids' room and moved a rocking chair that never got used from our bedroom to the living room. It's much nicer. And maybe this way the toys will stay a little more contained to their bedroom instead of all over the living room. I put the kitchen set against the wall where Anna's bed was and put the toy box against the window where the kitchen set used to be (that's mostly for the family that knows how the room looks...). It's better. There's more room to play and the living room feels more like a living room instead of a play room!

Jake & baby Anna came over to play the other day (I don't even remember what day it was...how bad is that?!). They are very close and it is so sweet to see. I smelled a dirty diaper, so I asked baby Anna if she was poopy. She started crying (for some reason, she does NOT like having someone other than Mom or Dad change her diaper) and ran straight for Jake, who held her in his lap without hesitation! It was so precious. She sat like this for a long time, sucking her fingers. And Jake didn't mind one bit. He would just alternate between hugging her and playing around her!

Time to finish baths. Aaron is working late tonight doing inventory :( Anyone else watching Million $ Password? I like that game.