Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Pictures & Preschool

My heart has been so heavy the past 2-3 days thinking of Baby Stellan, son of the author or mycharmingkids.net. Click on the gadget that says "Praying for Stellan" on the right or go directly the site I mentioned. Things do not seem any better this morning, I am just waiting for a good report. Praying that God, who is above all of this and knows what is going on and what will happen to baby Stellan, will hear our prayers!

We just had photos done of the kids this past weekend and they turned out great! A friend of mine, Abby, has just started doing them and she did a fantastic job. Here is a link to view the photos. I always dread getting pictures taken because I get anxious about how the kids will do. As you can see we didn't get Ryan to smile, but I kind of prefer the serious look on him because that is Ryan a lot of times! Alex was a little model and seem to enjoy having the pictures done! Abby said every picture of her was perfect!

The kids and I just got back from registering Alex for preschool! She will start next fall 2 days a week at our YMCA. She is very excited and thought she might be able to just start today! :) So far I am feeling ready for it as the Mommy. I am looking forward to having time with Ryan and I think she will have a lot of fun. There aren't any girls exactly her age in our MOPS group so it will be nice for her to meet some!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun....

I love it. I love this sun beating down on my bare legs as I'm sitting here typing! I think the older I get the more I am hating the winter, and right now I am just soaking up the 70 degree weather we are having today. I vaccuumed and Armor-Alled the car this afternoon while kids slept and once they wake up we are off to wash the car and hit up the park!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

What we have been up to...

Alex: Having a blast playing at the Adventure Challenge at the YMCA! That is her favorite thing to do right now. Learning to write letters...I came into her room and she had written "Aelx" on a piece of paper. She is a sponge right now and wants to practice letters all the time! And this is a great place to go for that kind of stuff! You can print out the entire alphabet (uppercase & lowercase) and also their name as long as it's in the list! Alex is starting preschool next fall (also at the YMCA) and is very excited to do so. She can't wait for spring and is anticipating helping me plant flowers & veggies. "Mom, do you know how to plant a flower? First you make a hole in the dirt (and she is demonstrating all this with her hands), then you put the flower in, then you cover it back up!" So, she has it all figured out.

Ryan: Has recently learned how to get on to the Ottoman and rocking chair and is forever trying to get on the couch. Which means I'm sure I'll come in the living room at some point and he'll be on the couch! He is definately a handful but such a love! Always hugging and kissing (open mouthed, mind you.) Last night while the kids were in the bath Ryan was loving on Alex, it was too cute! He has started doing the cheesiest, biggest smile in the last few weeks. Just adorable! As for words he says Mama, Dada, Tickle-Tickle-Tickle (both my kids have done this, we are a tickling family!), Na-Night and Na-Na-Na (Banana!). Nik also taught him how to say Brrrr. Ryan loves the outdoors, and loves the free room to run. He just walks around our backyard saying "ahhhhhhh!"

Nik: Nik is of course, working hard at both jobs. Hasn't been driving much but once vacation season/summer hits he will probably drive all the time which will be a welcome change! Just trying to get enough hours at both places to keep our lil' family afloat! God has been providing for us in that area and we owe Him all the Thanks. Nik is back to working out and very happy about that of course. He is such a selfless provider and rock for our family, I don't know how he does it working so much! He is enjoying watching basketball now that football is over!

Myself: We are nearing the end of our MOPS year, but I will serve again next year on a different position and have been praying and thinking about in what area I would like to serve in and finally last night as I was knitting I felt a definite answer about what I would like to do. The past 2 months I've just said God I do not know what I can do, or what I want to do and felt like I wasn't going to do good enough in any other area but my leader said "Sometimes it's about challenging yourself, not doing the thing you think you'd be best at." (Paraphrased.) Along with the rest of the family, I am running now up at the Y and enjoying it! I had not worked out for more than 3 years! Before I had the kids I was running (not a ton, but I really enjoy it!) It is a send the kids to Child Watch (which WOW I am so happy with and very much recommend they are awesome with the kids!) and zone out with my PodRunner Podcast. (Again, frickin sweet man! Check it out if you run.)

The kids are all healthy right now, except Alex has a little drainage that I think is from allergies, as mine are in full swing so I think we might try something with her! Both kids went on 2 weeks of Augmentin to kill the "Moraxella catarrhalis" bug they had and things have been good since then. I am so glad spring and summer are around the corner! This week we got blasted with COLD and SNOW and it was not fun. But Nik just told me the forecast is now 74 for tomorrow, can you say PARK???? :)

Aimee

I'm back!

Back to the blogging world! I keep reading everyone else's blogs so I figured I should get back to blogging again! Off to fancy it up and then I will be back with a real post. :)

Friday, January 16, 2009

TGIF!

It has been a long, colddddd, week and I am so thankful it is Friday! We don't have a super packed weekend which is great. Tonight we are going to go watch Fireproof (a movie) at church (provided our sitter still wants to come over (Grandma) who is, along with the rest of us, sick with colds.) It is supposed to be a great movie about marriage. And it's free! One of my friends from college has also been going to LifeHouse and she and her Mom are going to go too.

I guess it's supposed to be warming up today (going to 35, and 41 tomorrow!) but I am not feeling it as I sit here with my coffee! (Selfless Mother that I am I have the space heater oscillating where the kids are playing, and not near the computer.)

Ryan is becoming a toddler, it's official! He is learning where things go. I put his mittens on (why I even do this, I don't know. I feel like a better Mother if I at least try. That way when an elderly woman stops me and chastizes me for the baby not having mittens on I can tell her it was his choice.) Anyways, he takes them off with his teeth and puts them back into the designated mitten/hat draw in the coat closet. Yesterday he brought Alex her coat and her princess tiara and I just saw him take Alex's Nutrigrain bar wrapper and put it into the trash. He now has 12 teeth and is working on the cuspids (which are by far the worst ones in my experience.) I thought Alex teethed quickly (she did) but Ryan has surpassed that. The 3 babies I know that are around his age only have 2 teeth on the bottom! After these cuspids hopefully we will have a break and then only have the 2 yr molars. YEAH BABY!

Alex got Candy-Land and another game called LadyBugs for Christmas so we have been playing a lot of games, it is a ton of fun! She is very good and them and of course usually beats us. She is starting to get back into wanting to color/draw/trace letters/do art at the kitchen table instead of playing with toys. (This website has a ton of tracing activities even a section where you can print out a page with their name to trace. http://www.printactivities.com/Tracing.html)

We are in the 2nd semester of MOPS which is going great! (I am the MOPS Hospitality person.) Last week we learned Self Defense from a local teacher which was a lot of fun! I will serve on the MOPS Steering Team next year in a different position. It will be nice to switch it up and not have to worry about the kitchen/clean up so much! Another leader and I are in the midst of planning a Valentines Dinner Party and I have a luncheon I have to start planning as well!

Nik has been working his tail off. After Christmas he thankfully got a nice break from both jobs and was home for quite a while, but is back at it full force! He's driving an in town route this week, which is a nice change I think (the route he has driven since starting is rural.) It's a hard job...especially in the cold, but Nik has always been a very hard worker.

So there is an update from us! We are all ready for nice spring weather. As you all know it has been a long haul for us illness-wise. Cold after cold and antibiotics for the kids when the colds have not gone away. With this one the kids were nice enough to bring the germs home, apparently not really *get* the cold (oh my, do you think they finally have built up some resistance???) but Nik, my Mom and I all have it!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Prayer...

"And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
James 5:15-16 (NIV)


Lord, watch with us over your child Alex, and grant that she may be restored to that perfect health which it is yours alone to give. Only You know what is going on inside her body, and only through you may she be healed. Please help her body to fight this and guide us as her parents and also her doctor to know what she needs at this time. Thank you for your continued protection and that the illnesses have not gotten serious. I cast my anxieties and trust that you are in control. Amen.

Friday, January 9, 2009

What is this world coming to...

Last night driving home from my parents I was listening to Hits 106. (Local radio station here.) A lot of times they will have this thing where you can call in to say Goodnight over the radio to someone. Well last night they had something where you could call in to trash someone! People were calling in saying "I'm so and so from City, State and I want to trash..." sounded like the majority of them were teenage girls trashing other teenage girls (you know how that can be in middle and high school.) Why in the world do they need to do this. There is already enough hate in the world people! I can't imagine sitting at home listening to the radio as a teenager and then hearing someone talk about me on it. :( This is why we listen to K-LOVE or country at home!

In other news, Christmas was great and I will eventually post photos! Nik is still home this week on vacation and we have had a really nice family week going to the Children's Museum, playing Candyland and Ladybug (our first boardgames and we are finding it a great family activity!) Ryan is getting a lot of teeth right so the nights have been rough.

Yesterday at MOPS we had a lesson in self defense from a local instructor, so I now have in my arsenal a number of small things I could do if I ever found myself in a situation like that. We will hope that never happens! If it does I'll probably just break their collar bone, since I can do that now. ;) Oh oh oh! I made homemade dinner rolls for the first time this week, they were so, so, so good. I was just saying how anything with yeast in it is just a big disaster for me but these turned out so well. No more Pillsbury Refrigerated Cans for this Mama!