100!!!

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Life on Fast Forward

 After some complaints from certain grandparents people, I figured I better put some pictures up. :) I take more pictures with my phone than anything recently and it's easier to post to facebook than to blogger, so even though a lot of family gets to see them that way, the most important ones (the grandparents) don't. So, here are a bunch of phone pics. This is life these days. Busy...crazy...recovering from sickness...learning...life. We love it (except for the sickness part)!

 After watching The Pioneer Woman just before the Super Bowl, I was asked to make these brownies. They're called Knock You Naked Brownies. Maybe I should change it to Knock Your Socks Off...Anyway, they are amazing. Decadent, rich, and calorie-free! Ha. So when Uncle Windell came to visit, I made them again.

 Jacob was SO EXCITED to see Uncle Windell! He basically talked from the second Windell walked in the door until Jacob went to bed. He talked Windell into playing Mario Kart with him. Uncle Windell quickly found out that it's not as easy as it looks! Jacob "helped" him.

 Windell got a rental car this trip (a Yukon). When we went to Hutch to go shopping, we took his vehicle. Anna and Jacob were soooo impressed that there were TWO movie screens! :)

 Isaac was too tired to be impressed.

 For Sale...CHEAP! ;)

 One weekend there was a Ranch Rodeo in Lyons. Anna was ecstatic to go! Jacob was more interested in running around playing and Isaac just wanted to run (into the corrals...it didn't matter where as long as he was running. That child has no fear.).

 She made a friend...

 I told Aaron it might be time to get a shotgun! ;)

 We had one day recently that was incredible...70 degrees! I think this day wasn't quite that warm, but it was very nice!

 Isaac enjoyed the swing.

 He just looks like trouble!

 I didn't have much luck getting a picture of Anna swinging.

 Yeah, I almost got kicked...

 Got it!

 Aaaand I almost got kicked again!

 But look! I got another one :)

 The kids had been such troopers, being sick for so long. So I got them a new game...Bed Bugs!! All three of them like it. Except Isaac picks up the bugs you get out and puts them back!

 Heaven help us. She actually slept like this for a nap one day. I'm in so much trouble when she hits double digits!!!

 The kids like to play in the crib, except I guess maybe Jacob wanted out here.

 And he didn't appreciate me taking his picture instead of helping him out...

 Uncle Windell got the kids some "color your own" shirts. I told Jacob he didn't color all of his shirt. He said "Yes I did." Okay buddy. Either way, he loved it!

 Anna colored a "Pinto horse" (she means Paint) :) and of course, was so proud to wear it! The greatest thing? The colors wash off and they can re-color them!

 I don't know...

 After almost 3 weeks of sporadic/no school, it feels really good to be back at it!! The kids had a lot of fun (all 3 of them!) playing with these today.

 Jacob was very proud of the flower he made...all by himself!

So fun learning and creating!

So! There you go Papa, Binga, Grandpa, and Grandma! :)

Sleepless Nights

Somebody in our family has been sick since we got home from Christmas travels. Poor Isaac was sick the entire month of January. I forget who was next, but we've had everything from yucky colds/coughs to the croup (Jacob) to the flu. Non-stop, back-to-back since the beginning of January. I've learned a few things over the last month or so of sleepless nights taking care of sick children or being sick myself.

1. Jacob grinds his teeth in his sleep. Not much, but that's like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Ugh!

2. Anna talks in her sleep. A lot. Last night she was in bed with me and she talked/yelled/laughed out loud at least 3 times.

3. I can live on very little sleep. Notice I did NOT say function.....

4. I really hate seeing my babies sick.

5. I hate not being healthy because it means we had to cancel our trip to Papa & Binga's house!

Off to take care of a coughing boy...and girl. :(

Pintrest Success!

I found an delicious, easy, new recipe on pintrest yesterday. We all give it 2 thumbs up! The lady it is credited to doesn't even have a name for it other than "Cream Cheese Crockpot Chicken". It doesn't need a name. It's just yummy! And ridiculously easy. Only 5 ingredients: chicken (doesn't even have to be thawed), cream cheese, black or pinto beans (I only had kidney beans and it was still good), corn, and salsa or Rotel!

I used 4 frozen chicken breasts (the recipe calls for an entire bag)-just put them in whole on the bottom and when it's done, you can either leave them whole or shred them. Leftovers are supposedly great on tortillas. The recipe calls for a can of corn, drained, but I only had frozen. Works just as well. And the recipe calls for Rotel, but I only had salsa (lime & garlic to be exact) and it was still delicious. It is pretty soupy so I served it over rice. Supposedly it gets thicker once it sits without cooking for a while. I cooked mine on high for about 4.5 hours, but you can cook it on low for 6-8 hours so it's a great recipe to put in the crockpot after breakfast and you don't have to worry about supper the rest of the day!

Not a good picture at all, but trust me...it is tasty!

Random Words

It's been a long time since I've posted. Probably because my camera isn't working very well (good? I always forget which one to use). Well, that and the fact that I'm insanely busy. Such is life with little ones, right?

We are loving the new house. So much room!! We've had several football parties and the layout is perfect for having little ones around! They can play in the front room or Jacob's bedroom and be as loud as they want. It doesn't disturb the adults watching the game in the living room! We had a small Super Bowl party last night. My kitchen looked like a war zone, but it was fun to have a few friends over and hang out. I made Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond's hot wings and brownies. They were both excellent. While I was making them, I thought I'm either really confident or really stupid for making never-before-tried recipes for a crowd! Her recipes are excellent. Her cinnamon rolls are A.Mazing!

Isaac is walking...almost running...all over the place. His favorite is chasing Anna and Jacob around with a toy broom. His temperament is a mix of Anna's temper and Jacob's sensitivity. He gets pretty fired up if he doesn't get what he wants, but he also melts into a puddle of tears if you hurt his feelings. He will not say "mama" or "dada". Instead he says "Mahm" and "Dad". When he says my name, he sounds like he's from the Bronx! It's humorous. He says about 7 or 8 words, along with a lot of one syllable grunts when he's trying to get you to do something for him. He's started pulling on you if he wants you to go somewhere with him. He'll even kind of "pick up" now. And if I tell him to take a toy or something to someone else, he grins really big and takes off to find them!

Anna is playing catch-up with math since we ordered a new curriculum after Christmas. I went with Saxon and I decided to just start from the beginning and do several lessons a day. I think we'll probably pace school out through the summer, too. That gives us more leeway during the school year for breaks and also will help her not forget things over summer! She still loves homeschooling and has said she wants to keep doing it. We'll see where the Lord guides us on that.

Jacob's speech is improving so quickly. Actually, at his IEP meeting in October, he was way ahead of his goals! She wanted him at 40% accuracy and he was already at 60%!  She is mostly working with him on segmenting (syllables) and rhyming to get him ready for reading. He has taken off with it! He still loves all things John Deere. The other day he drew Uncle Terry's name out of the prayer pot and he prayed, "Fank You for Uncle Terry and fank you dat he has lots of John Deere stuff!" :)

The Biggest Loser competition between Aaron & I is a month underway. We set it up so that we're basically competing against ourselves-trying to meet the monthly goal we set for ourselves. So it's not seeing who lost the most, it's who meets their goal. So Aaron won January. Pffft. That man can think about losing weight and he does! Slow and steady wins the race, right?? I'm focusing on changing my lifetime of bad health habits! And I've noticed a big difference. When I eat something not-so-healthy (like at all these football parties we've been having!) I feel so icky! That's good...next step is for my mind to reject them! :) I love the Wii Active Fit workouts that I've been doing. Let me rephrase that...I don't love them, but I love how much they've helped me and how easy it to do them-I don't have to go anywhere, the kids can "do" them with me, I can do them any time!

We've been going to a different church. We really like it, but it's going to be a challenge to get involved since it's in Hutch. Satan loves making Sundays stressful and taking the focus off God! It's easy to do in our house on Sunday mornings!!

Okay, that's more than I have time to write. No proof reading...sorry! Kids are done eating their apples to find how many seeds they have. Back to school! (Sorry there are no pictures!)

Christmas 2011

 Christmas was really nice this year. We had 5 days in both places, so we got to settle in a bit.

First we headed to Colorado. There was snow!! The kids were so excited.

 We took the kids across the street to build snowmen. Grandma W and I ended up making them while Anna played in the snow and Jacob ate it! ha!! Anna decided mine was a snowlady and drew a skirt and necklace on her, as well as hair.

 The weather was gorgeous. If Anna and Jacob hadn't been rolling around in the snow, they wouldn't have needed their coats on. Isaac sat at the front door, looking out like a sad little puppy so Grandpa took pity on him and brought him out to watch for a while.

 That nose wrinkle! He thought he was hot stuff sitting on the little rocking chair.

We had a couple of family gatherings while we were there. It was good to see everyone...always wish we had more time to visit with those we only see once a year!

Then it was on to Kansas...

 Jacob made himself right at home at Cara & Terry's house. (was all the John Deere stuff a giveaway to where he is??)

 The boy is serious about his John Deere movies!

 Anna and Jacob farming. I think they were cutting wheat :)

Happy as a clam, playing with the farm toys.

Hauling off the wheat.

Then it was out to the real farm to see Great Grandpa & Great Grandma S.

 Hmm...I don't really think I need this hat. Mama is being silly. 

 That's better!

 

 The big kids couldn't wait to build a snowman with Papa!

 These dogs spent most of the morning in the yard. Grandma couldn't get ahold of the neighbors. Anna and Jacob do NOT like big dogs. Jacob, especially. But he's getting better. They were really nice dogs, but they kept getting in the way and the kids just didn't really like them. We tried chasing them off but the farthest they would go was the other side of the house. After about 30 minutes, a big ol' Husky showed up. He started chasing the other 2 dogs around, nipping at them and barking (not agressively). I hollered at him but it seriously looked like he was trying to herd the other 2 dogs. Sure enough, he kept chasing them across the yard, across the road and into the field. Off they went back home! It was so weird! That Husky came over just to bring them home! (and we know that the neighbors weren't home, so he did it all on his own!)

There was a bit of a drift in the ditch, so Anna tried digging a tunnel. It didn't work, but she had fun! 

 Not a good quality picture, but nothing beats the sunsets at the farm.

 Back to Cara's for Mom's side. Traci and I had Danny & Aaron's names and of course, every time we asked them what they wanted, they would say "I don't know" and we just got tired of not getting an actual answer. SO we decided to give them COAL! Hahaha. Traci put a few pieces of charcoal in gift bags and they opened those first. It was priceless. Maybe next year they won't say "I don't know"!!!

 Then it was out to Alan & Donna's for Dad's side. Anna conned (I don't think she had to try very hard!) Aunt Janet into reading. She must have read Anna 20 books! (Thanks Aunt Janet!!)

 Isaac stealing Papa's program schedule!

 Binga did a little show (demonstration??) for the little kids. She decorated a cake and related it to Jesus' birth, etc. It was pretty neat.

 Not sure what she said, but it doesn't look like the kids are buying it!

Then they sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and blew out the candles!

 Somehow Papa & Binga convinced the kids to dress up as Jamie read the Christmas story. This is Jacob as the sheep. See the toy gun? He crawled over and grabbed it...I've never seen a sheep with a gun! It was funny.

 Like father, like son (Jamie & Tate)

 

 

 Opening gifts.

The funnest part for the kids was the puppet show! A couple years ago, Papa and Uncle Randall put on a puppet show. The kids loved it!! So it has become tradition! Truth be told, the adults get a kick out of it, too. Mostly just hearing them flub up their lines ;)

The funnest part for the adults was the game Dad came up with for our gift exchange. We brought a grab bag gift and then wrote down a little-known fact about ourselves. The factoids went into separate envelopes and then were passed out randomly (as were the gifts). Then we took turns reading the factoid we were passed and trying to guess who wrote it. If we guessed correctly, we got to open our gift (or steal one already opened). If we guessed incorrectly, we had to wait until it came around to us again. And the person whose clue was guessed last, received a prize! It was really fun. Another game we played before that was fun, too. Dad had a bunch of random questions and went around the circle and asked each person one. It was funny, serious, and interesting. Mom & Dad did a great job putting it on!

So, we had a really good Christmas. So glad we were able to see the family that we did!