So-so St. Louis Part II

Wednesday morning we got up and hit the free breakfast at the hotel. It was very tasty. We got dressed and packed up and managed to get out the door a lot earlier than I thought we would. I wanted to get to the zoo as early as possible because the Children's Zoo is free the first hour that the zoo is open. (The actual zoo is free to get into and then they charge for certain exhibits and rides) We got there and had the whole place to ourselves! The reason? It was a nippy 35 degrees and windy! Luckily I had brought our winter jackets and even gloves, but it was still too cold! We went straight to the children's zoo and there was a nice indoor area for the kids to explore. We went there first to warm up.



Blaise wasn't really interested in any of the animals, he just wanted to sit in this car the whole time. They had some cute guinea pigs to pet and hold and he liked that, but the rest of the time he was "driving". Rae was also more interested in the toys and climbing area than the actual animals. Oh well. At least we were warm :) After a while we ventured back outside and walked around the rest of the children's zoo. They had some fun slides and ropes to climb on, but it was just too cold! There was ice on the slides. :(

The kids really wanted to ride the carousel, so we headed in that direction next. We stopped at the penguins. They were so cute! They were getting fed when we there, so that was fun. Rae and the kids went inside the exhibit to see more, but I stayed outside because the smell was too strong for me.



Puffins.



If you look closely on the left you can see one swimming towards Rae. Man, they were so cute!

We headed to the carousel next but it was closed! :( The train was closed too. Major bummer. And by this point my leg was starting to hurt a bunch (I think I pulled something while I was ice skating or when I was playing around in the children's zoo) and the kids were starting to get a little tired and cold and bored. We went to see the "big cats" next and the kids really liked that. Then we stopped to eat our lunch but it was too cold to sit for more than 5 minutes! By this point the kids were really really ticked. We went into the bird exhibit next to warm up again! These are the only other pictures we have at the zoo:



My leg was really really hurting!



Blaise hates to be cold - he was pretty unhappy the whole time.



Rae was probably the happiest of all of us.


We really wanted to see the elephants but decided they were too long of a walk away and the kids wouldn't care anyway. So we stopped by the sea lions and then the gift shop (luckily they had some cool stuff on clearance, so we were actually able to buy the kids a few things) and then we left! Fairly uneventful and disappointing trip to the zoo, but at least it was free! Across the street from the zoo (where we parked, to save $11!) they have all these turtles to climb on. Roy took them to do that while I sat in the car and planned our route to Costco. I think they had more fun on the turtles than they did in the zoo! And Roy took a ton of pictures of them!



"Feeding" the turtles.







I'll finish this up with Part III tomorrow.

Someday

I really will get around to posting about the rest of our St Louis trip soon. But today was full of outside fun (yay for the sun!) and tons of chores and now I'm pooped and just want to hang out on the couch with Roy and enjoy the kids' early bedtime!

So-so St. Louis

We had a great time in St Louis, but there were a few things that weren't as great as I was hoping. The kids were great on the drive there - I don't know what we'd do without our portable dvd player!! I never imagined I'd have so many electronics in the car!

Our first stop was an outlet mall on the way into town so that I could go to Motherhood and get a pair of pants. We got there and discovered that there was an ice skating rink, which was going to be our second stop! This rink was a lot cheaper than the other one we planned to go to, so we did that first. The plan was for Roy to take Rae and for Blaise and I to watch. But Roy has never been ice skating in his life, and I've been 3 times, so we thought it'd be better for me to go. Ha. I haven't skated for about 8 years, so it was like my first time. Add the pregnant belly to the situation, and it was pretty funny to watch. I think Rae thought she'd be able to get on the ice and just skate, so she was very disappointed. We scooted along the wall for about 15 minutes and had only made it halfway around the rink. Rae said she wanted to be done, so we had to cut across the rink to get to the exit. Leaving the wall was scary but we managed to do it with Rae only falling once and I was able to stay standing. My ankles were killing me, so I was glad Rae was ready to be done! At least she can say she got to try and she said maybe she'll try again when she's five :) Oh, and after a while I was actually able to let go of the wall and skate pretty decently for several yards. I was impressed with myself.


Just starting out and afraid to leave the wall.


Leaving the safety of the wall to cut across to the other side.


We can make it!



Stopping to entertain Blaise.


Whew, almost done.

After skating I went off in search of some pants and Roy and the kids explored the mall. I went the long way around the mall and ended up walking a good 20 minutes before I got to the Motherhood store. I was exhausted. Walking is not very easy these days. I get a lot of burning in my lower belly after I've been standing for too long. It's really annoying. Anyway, I got some pants, the kids had fun at the mall and it was time to go to the hotel.

I got an awesome Priceline deal on our hotel. It was a huge room with a kitchen and a sofa sleeper and a nice king-sized bed. It was right across the street from another mall and just a few miles from the zoo. We did a quick trip to Target (right down the street) and then to the mall for some Panda Express for the preggers girl. The hotel had a "manager's social" that night, so we got free food - hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. It was pretty great. We got the kids to bed early and Roy and I stayed up to watch Heroes on the laptop, since we missed it Monday night. It was a pretty decent day :) Oh, and did I mention that it was 70 degrees in St Louis?! Unfortunately the weather was not as nice the next day. Sigh.

The kids are getting really antsy and I've been ignoring them all day, so I'll write about the rest of our trip tomorrow.

Quick catch-up

We are headed to St.Louis today for a mini-vacation. Woo hoo! I thought I'd do an update before we go because I'll have a lot to post about when we get back.

The kids got bunk beds last week. Someday I'll write all about how I put them together mostly on my own. Blaise kept falling out of his toddler bed because he didn't have enough room to move around, so we knew he needed a twin bed. We were planning to have the beds separated until Rae got older, but we decided she is such a careful, mature little girl and she'd be fine on the top bunk. And Blaise is afraid to even climb the ladder, so we don't have to worry about him getting up there. It's nice to have so much room in their bedroom. Oh, I just realized I don't even have a picture of the bunk bed yet, so I'll have to post it later.

We also bought the kids a toy kitchen. I just realized I don't have a picture of it yet. Man, I'm slacking on the pictures. Can I just say that I LOVE Walmart's site-to-store option? I've used it so many times - fantastic!

And yet another toy we got recently (umm, big tax return!) is a Tom-Tom! Woo hoo! I've wanted one forever (we get lost every time we go somewhere new) and with this trip to St.Louis I decided it was really time to get one. Luckily it was Amazon's Gold Box deal on the day I decided to get one! It was only $99! I'm in love.

Okay, I didn't mean for this to be a post all about the money we've spent recently! But there were a few things we've been wanting to get and the IRS helped us get those things. :)

Yesterday we spent the day doing spring cleaning. We went through all of the boxes in our closet and got rid of a ton of stuff. Whew, so nice to have that done! And then we finally organized our filing cabinet and got rid of a huge bag of papers. Can I just tell you that projects like that make me completely giddy? I've had to wait for Roy to help with both of those projects, so to finally have it done makes me feel so good! I like to know that everything in my closet, drawers, filing cabinet, etc, is stuff I actually need and I know exactly where everything is. Yup, I'm a little obsessed.

Anyway, we'll be back late Wednesday night and I'll post pictures of our adventures! I hope the weather cooperates!

Did you know?

Robin Williams made a Popeye movie back in the 80's. It was his first film. We were looking up some stuff about Popeye (Rae loves to watch episodes on the Boomerang channel) and came across this video:

Go check it out.

Do it. Now.

He makes my life cheerful :)

Blaise loves to be different characters throughout the day. His favorites are Barney and Goofy. For Barney he'll walk around saying "hi everybody" and giving hugs. Or he'll sing the "I love you" song. He came up with that all on his own. When he watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse he always wants to put a hat on (like Goofy) and do the Hot Dog dance. So Roy got Blaise to start saying this phrase:



He's a fun boy!

Happy Belated Birthday Evan

I remembered yesterday, I just never blogged. And I don't think anyone in the Bobby Jeppson family reads my blog everyday anyway :) Sounds like you had a great birthday Evan! I can't believe you are five - that means Rae will be five soon - yikes!

I don't feel like blogging much lately. I think I'm waiting until I can post some kind of news about where we'll be next year :) But it'll probably be the middle of March before I can do that. Maybe even the beginning of April. Sigh. It's not really stressful at all, just annoying to wait and wait. And I feel bad that I'm constantly telling people what I think is going on and then I have to change my story a week later. So I'll withhold details for now, for your sake!

The weather was really nice here at the beginning of last week and then got cold at the end of the week. I'm not sure how much longer I can take the cold weather. There better be a couple of warms days soon or I'm going to go crazy. Winter is so depressing. Especially when you live in a small town like Kirksville. But next week is Roy's spring break, so I know I'll cheer up soon! :)

Anyway, posting might be sporadic for the next few weeks.

Happy Birthday Callie -- and, "my needs"

Today is my niece's 2nd birthday - Happy Birthday Callie! I hope I get to see you soon!

And here is for your mommy:

If you are bored and have about 5 min., post yours! It is loads of fun to see what the other "yous" are doing out there!

Go to google and write your name and the word ‘needs’, in quotes — as in “Jennifer needs”. Notice the first 10 sensical sentences that come up.

1. Ashley needs you like water in her lungs.
2 Ashley needs an escape (that's for sure!)
3. Ashley needs to get something off her chest (this was in reference to boobs!)
4. Ashley needs prayer (yup!)
5. Ashley needs a nap (heck yeah)
6. Ashley needs to learn the rules
7. Ashley needs a home (well, maybe, we don't know yet)
8. Ashley needs flowers
9. Ashley needs to speak out over Newcastle (okay, I'll get right on that)
10. Ashley needs your votes.

Happy Birthday Katie!

I don't have any pictures of you to post. But I hope you have a great birthday and know that you are one awesome lady - wrinkles and all! ;)

The future

I've been watching a lot of Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby lately on TLC - trying to prep myself for May. I especially like to learn from the mother's mistakes. My belly seems to grow daily and it's becoming more of a reality that in a few short (ha) months we'll be a family of five. It is a blessing that you forget some of those horrible moments of childbirth and those first few weeks (and months). I'm actually looking forward to childbirth a lot more than I am looking forward to the first week home! I am so glad that Roy will be done with school and will be around 24/7 to help out. Oh the joys of being married to a teacher!

I've been thinking of a few things I'll miss once we have a newborn in the house:

-Taking a shower whenever I want. The kids are old enough that I don't have to try to catch a shower before Roy leaves for the day. I'll still be able to squeeze one in once in a while when the baby is napping, but it won't be as relaxed as it is now.

-Only 4, maybe 5 diaper changes a day, with only one or two being poopy. Along with that - a boy who doesn't pee when I take off his diaper! Shoot, I forgot how often newborns poop and pee in the middle of a diaper change!

-Getting 7-9 hours of sleep every night. It's not completely uninterrupted, but not nearly as interrupted as it will be with a newborn. I love my sleep.

-Normal sized, non-leaking boobs. (sorry guys)

Of course the list of joys a newborn brings to the house is a lot longer, or else I wouldn't be doing this again! I remember enough good things to make me want more, and just enough bad things to make them spaced out 2 1/2 years ;) Anything else I should be remembering?

Farewell Violette

No, she didn't die - we just got rid of her. I've been wanting to get rid of her for about a month now, but the last few days I have been feeling so anxious and annoyed and just had to get rid of her! The kids have very little interest in her and Roy is the only one that can get her out of her cage and hold her and he's not home enough. She also kept kicking over her food bowl and her igloo house and then she would squeak until we fixed it. She squeaked every time we opened the fridge or rustled a grocery bag. We kept her in the playroom and it always smelled like guinea pig. (Not super strong, but strong enough to bug a pregnant woman and make me not want to be in there playing with the kids) And she kept kicking out her litter and hay and sometimes her poop would come along with it. Can you tell I just couldn't stand her? I've discovered I'm definitely not a pet person and we will take a lot more time to decide before we get any other pets. We definitely made a bad decision! We gave her to the local pet store yesterday and I felt immediate relief and delight! The kids could care less that she is gone. Rae argued for a few minutes but I told her there'd be more room in the playroom for a toy kitchen and she was okay with it. No tears, no regrets. :) And now we have an extra 30 bucks a month that we were spending on stupid litter,hay and food! Ahhhh, I am so relieved!

Spring break

For spring break (March 9th-13th) we wanted to go to St.Louis for a couple of days, go to the temple and do some other fun stuff. Well, the St. Louis temple will be closed during that time. So I started looking at other temples in the area. Omaha is about 5 hours away and there are some fun things to do there (zoo, museum) but nope, the Winters Quarters temple will be closed during that time too. Okay, maybe we'll venture into Chicago - it's about 5-6 hours away. Oh, the Chicago temple is closed, scheduled to open on March 3rd, but subject to change. If it actually opened again on March 3rd, that'd be fine, but I don't want to wait till the last minute to make our plans.

The Nauvoo temple will be open but there's not a whole lot to do in Nauvoo or the surrounding areas. I guess we'll probably just take a day trip to Nauvoo and then a mini-vacation to St. Louis. Or maybe we'll drive the 930 miles to Charlotte and stop at the Nashville temple. Yeah, 30 hours round trip in one week - sounds like a relaxing vacation :) If only Charlotte was a little closer!

I've been looking forward to this spring break for so long and now all of my plans are being shot down! I guess that's what happens when we try to plan our vacation around going to the temple. Maybe we shouldn't be so righteous ;)

Tired, tired day

I guess I stayed up too late last night. It stinks when 9:30 is too late. I feel like I slept really well and I only got out of bed twice last night and Rae didn't wake up till 6 - so I shouldn't be so tired! But it's a cloudy, dreary, dark day. I should do some housework because that would get my blood going, but I don't wanna! What I do want is to go to Walmart and get more Valentine clearance candy and a bottle of diet dr.pepper. That would solve everything, right? :) Yesterday we hit up walmart for valentine clearance and I limited myself to one kind of candy. I chose cheesecake hershey kisses. Meh...not all that great. Now I want another chance to make a better choice! I want something chewy and sour. But I also want chocolate. But I'm also gaining too much weight so I probably shouldn't have either one!

Anyway, I guess I'm going to go do some dishes instead of dragging my kids out in the cold for some candy. Oh the sacrifices I make! To make this post a little more random but more interesting, I'll throw in a few pictures :)

Rae being silly and making a bed for herself on the shelf.


We played with cornstarch and water yesterday. Rae loved it but
Blaise didn't want anything to do with it.

Since we were already making a big mess with the cornstarch, we decided to have some s'mores too! Blaise took a ridiculously long time eating his and made a ridiculously huge mess.

Best manicotti ever!

Roy and I love manicotti - but it can be a big ol' pain to make. I was looking around at recipes and saw several that said you can just stuff the manicotti without boiling them first. I've recently discovered "oven-ready" lasagna, and I'll never go back to boiling! It's the same idea with the manicotti. You just have to add about a cup of water to your sauce and cover your pan with foil while you bake it. I put about a cup of sauce under the noodles and the rest of the sauce on top. I cooked it for about 45 minutes and then took off the foil and sprinkled it with cheese and cooked it for another ten minutes. The noodles were cooked perfectly and it was so delicious! The noodles are SO much easier to stuff when they are hard! (I used a ziplock bag like a pastry bag to pipe the filling into the noodles) I made them before church and it only took me about ten minutes to do the prep work and then I covered it with foil and put it in the fridge. When we got home I took it out and let it warm up on the counter while the oven heated up. It's perfect for me because I hate to be in the kitchen right before dinner because the kids are always going crazy and I have to pick Roy up from work everyday at 5. So I can make it during naptime and just pop it in the oven before I go to pick up Roy. I am so excited about my new meal idea I just had to share it with everyone! Try it out and let me know what you think! I can't wait to have the leftovers for lunch!

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

In honor of your birthday we got pink and red heart-shaped doughnuts with sprinkles - it had nothing to do with Valentine's Day! Hope you have a great day! I sent you a card but it probably won't get there for a couple more days.

Sugar cookies - bleh

Thanks for the recipes Chantel and Sara! I ended up using Chantel's recipe because I didn't have enough sour cream for Sara's. I do want to try Sara's recipe though - they look really yummy. But I'm not sure that sugar cookies are worth their effort. I mean, come on, they don't even have chocolate in them!! The ones I made turned out good. They are thick and soft and sweet. But to make them delicious I still need to frost them. And to make them interesting I have to decorate them. Any cookie that requires that much effort should at least have chocolate! I guess I'm just much of a domestic person. And I hate having the kids help - it always makes me stressed and annoyed. I'm going to have 5 preschoolers decorating them tomorrow - should be interesting! I'm gonna need some real good, chocolate cookies after we are done!

Pay it Forward

Okay, I'm sure most of you have seen this somewhere. It's almost as common as the 25 random things tag :) I don't know what I'm going to make but it'll be a fun challenge.

Pay it Forward
The Rules
1. Be one of the first Three (3) bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.
2. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first 3 bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!
3. The gift that you send to your three Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!
4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love!

I'll be getting something from my sister Katie (I'll probably receive it in 364 days, knowing her ;) j/k Katie) I'm interested to see how this all turns out! :)

Sugar cookies

Every time I try to make cut out sugar cookies I end up very disappointed. Either the dough is too sticky or something else goes wrong. Does anyone have a sugar cookie recipe that they have used several times and really really like? And any tips to rolling out the dough and cutting shapes? I want to make cookies for the preschool kids to decorate on Thursday. Please share your recipes and advice!

Blaise's new trick

I don't even know where he got this idea and when he started it, but the other night we noticed it. He was dancing around and being loud and I told him he needed to stop because it was too loud. He responded by touching his chest and saying "I turned it down". Of course we had to get the camera and get him to do it again. Also, the other day when we were at Rae's speech class he got a couple of blocks and stacked them up and said it was a tv and said he was watching Barney. He sang the closing "I love you" song and then touched the blocks and said "I turned it off". This kid is such a crack up and is always coming up with funny stuff. His favorite cartoon right now is "Three Little Pigs" from our Disney Silly Symphony dvd and he goes around all day being the big bad wolf. It's funny because he doesn't really sit and watch tv, but he sure does get a lot from the small amount he watches!

Nice, warm day :)

Friday was a lovely day! It was really windy, but it was around 55-60 degrees all day! I was able to wash and vacuum the van and me and the kids hung out outside as much as we could. Walmart even had strawberries cheaper than usual, so we sat out on the grass and ate strawberries - it almost felt like summer! (except that the grass was brown) We flew a kite and ran around and just really enjoyed the day. Yesterday was nice too but a little bit more windy, so we didn't spend quite as much time outside. But it was nice to put our winter jackets away for a couple of days, turn off the heater, go barefoot and feel some sun on our arms!

Children's books

I need some suggestions for good books to read with Rae. I feel like we wander around the library and just grab random books off the shelf, never knowing whether they will be decent or not. Any authors/series that your kids have liked? Also, we want to start reading more sophisticated books to her - like Harry Potter, The Hobbit or something like that. Any suggestions on that? And what are some good books for when they are starting to read on their own? Good beginner reader books.

Thanks in advance.


Also, I really really need someone in my family to update their blog! I check them a million times a day - update already! ;)

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

Wow, I can't believe she is 3 already! Your cousin Rae and Blaise say hi and Happy Birthday!

(BTW Christie, we got our Christmas package yesterday! Thank you! The kids cannot wait to go buy some bird seed and find a place to hang the bird feeder. And I've already started the book!)

My little Valentine

Rae is so excited for V-day and loves everything pink, so I got this dress for her from Target. She wanted to wear it on Sunday but we were sick, so I let her wear it to preschool yesterday.

She's like a walking Valentine!
Also, I love the way her jawbone looks when she smiles like this.
She has some interesting features - I wonder what she will look like as a teenager. Hopefully cute, but not gorgeous :)

What a weekend!

Saturday morning the kids and I got up early and went to Walmart for a doughnut run :) We also bought a sled and we had big plans to go sledding when Roy woke up. I woke Roy up around 8:30 and while I was in bed talking to him I moved the wrong way and hurt my neck. I could barely move it. But we had promised the kids we'd take them sledding and it was a warm day and the snow was melting fast! So I took some medicine and felt better and we got out the door as fast as we could so there would still be some snow to sled on! There were a few other people at the park sledding. It was nice and warm and sunny - perfect day to be outside. The kids had a blast sledding, even though they didn't go very fast and the hills weren't very steep or long. But it was perfect for small kids. Roy and I even had a couple of good runs. Then we went to the playground and played there for a while and tried to build a snowman. By the time we left most of the snow was gone! Then, later in the day after Blaise's nap we went outside to get the mail and there was hardly even a trace of snow. We rode bikes and played outside for a while - it was great!









Blaise was acting a little funny all day. Just being unusually grumpy and moody. I kept commenting that maybe he was getting sick or something. Well, that night he hardly ate any dinner and then threw up in the bath. Ugh. We put Rae to bed and got Blaise settled on the couch with some towels and a bowl. Roy went to return a video and while he was gone Blaise threw up again and then Rae threw up in her bed. So we got both kids settled on the couch with towels and bowls.


We let them watch some cartoons for a while and then put them back to bed. I called someone to sub primary for us and I went to bed too because my neck was killing me. Roy always stays up till 1 or 2 in the morning, so he took the night shift. He was so nice to let me sleep all night. The kids both woke up and threw up several times in the night but I slept through it all! I finally woke up around 2 to go to the bathroom and Roy went to bed. Blaise was asleep on the couch and Rae was in her bed. I sat with Blaise on the couch for a while until I was pretty sure he didn't have anything left to throw up. I put him in his bed and I went back to bed and we all slept peacefully till 6. In the morning both kids were so thirsty and hungry, but everything they ate and drank came right up. So we spent a weak, grumpy morning on the couch. My neck was bothering me all day. Both kids took a nap in the afternoon and I slept on the couch for a while. Roy took a nap later in the afternoon but then I started feeling really weak and sick. I never threw up or anything but I felt yucky all night. Rae threw up one more time in the late afternoon but there hasn't been any puke since then - yay! Both kids slept really well last night and are in good moods this morning. They haven't really had anything to eat this morning, just a little bit of juice. They are in the bath right now getting all the puke smell off of them. I'm anxious to get my house cleaned up and get things back to normal, but I want to make sure I don't hurt my neck again. I'm so glad this all happened on the weekend when Roy was here to help out. And I hope he doesn't get what the kids had! We haven't been sick like this in a long, long, long time! I hope it's a long time before we get it again!

Saturday night - you can see the clock in the background. It's 11:15 and there are some crazy cartoons on at that time of night.

Sunday afternoon. Rae had just fallen asleep and I was starting to feel yucky.

Hmm, can't think of a title

Yesterday the kids and I went to Ottumwa,IA to go to Target. I needed to return the stuff I ordered that didn't fit and get a few other things. It really stinks that our nearest Target is 60 miles away. Bleh. And it's a super boring, slow drive to Ottumwa. We saw several signs that said "Share the Road" and had this picture:




I only saw one on the road though. We did pass a house that had Amish type clothing on the clothes line and a carriage parked in the driveway. Sometime I'd like to learn more about the Amish and Mennonite people that live around here. I see a lot of people shopping at Walmart with their dresses and special caps on, and I don't exactly know who or what they are. They drive regular cars and buy regular food. I feel pretty ignorant about the subjects, maybe I should read some wiki articles or something.

Anyway, it was a pretty good trip to Target. The kids had fun looking at toys and Valentine's Day stuff. I got a lot of things we needed and was able to put it all on gift cards from Christmas. I hope we don't need to make another trip out of town for a while. The kids are getting a little sick of it. We are going to attempt sledding today. The snow is melting pretty fast but hopefully there's still enough to get a few good slides down the hill at the park. We'll see.

Roy's mom is in Hawaii right now. How jealous am I? Pretty flippin' jealous. I don't necessarily care about Hawaii, I just want to be on vacation and be somewhere warm! Maybe I'll join my brother and his family in Florida for Disneyworld :) Or maybe I'll take the kids swimming in the indoor pool here and we can pretend it is summer - yeah, that sounds a bit easier and cheaper.

Why oh why

I've had a bad day. I'm really really tired for some reason and I have very little patience. Blaise didn't take a nap and is now driving me crazy! The snow is no longer pretty or fun and is a huge nuisance. I ordered a bunch of maternity stuff from Target a few days ago and got the package in the mail today. Yay, something to brighten my day. But no, none of the stuff fits right. Bummer. And then, to make the day worse, I just checked to see what The Office was about tonight, and it's not even new! (Why, BTW, is it not new?!) Man, what a tough life I have! :) I know, things could definitely be worse, but it's just been a blah day and I feel like complaining.
(Oh, and most of my frustration and grumpiness stem from issues like: Roy getting a job and money issues, but I won't get into those)

I'm off to the store to get some ice cream and then to pick Roy up from work. I think he'll be in charge of dinner and bedtime tonight!

I love my Wednesdays

This is what the kids did this morning while I cleaned. One of their favorite thing to do is trade clothes. I love Blaise's rosy cheeks and the added headband. He's so pretty!

Since we changed Rae's speech with the school district to two days a week, Wednesdays are the only "no speech" day. We have no where to be on Wednesdays, so I have Roy take the van to work and I don't have to go anywhere! But I babysit at 11 every Wednesday, so it keeps our day a little structured. I do my vacuuming and mopping Wednesday morning while the kids enjoy being in their pjs and not being rushed to get ready for the day. They pretty much leave me alone because they are so happy to have a morning that is calm. Then I shower and get dressed for the day. I love it because I get to wear sweats and a t-shirt and extra comfy socks all day and no one will see me! (Except for my friend that I babysit for - but that's fine) Then we get to babysit from 11-12:30 and the kids get other kids to play with. Today I told the kids that we could go play in the snow after our friends left. It is sunny and fairly warm today, so the snow is melting fast and I knew this might be our last chance to play in it until the next snowfall.

Icicles on our neighbors house. Melting fast. The kids each ate one :)

Near our house is a church and they had plowed all of the snow from their parking lot into a huge pile. Actually, there was an old, hard pile from the last snow, and a new soft layer from this snowfall. So we walked over there and climb the "hill" and I realized it'd make a pretty good slide. The kids loved it! We did that until they were too cold. Rae says it was almost like sledding, but I think she still wants to do the real thing!

I took this from our porch. Off in the distance is the church and the hill we played on.

Now we are back inside, warmed up, and Blaise is down for a nap. I'm seriously giddy about the fact that we don't have to go out at 5 tonight to pick Roy up from work. I don't mind too much, but it's nice to have a day where I don't have to do it. And I'm so happy that Wednesdays are the day that I have "off" because it gives me a break right in middle of the week and makes the rest of the week easier. It's so nice to not have access to a car (for one day), so you aren't thinking about errands you need to run and you have time for little projects around the house.

Anyway, that's why I love my Wednesdays. :) Now I better go pay attention to that other kid of mine that isn't napping!

My overworked dishwasher

Why do I own so many dishes? Why do my two children need 10 plastic bowls and 8 plastic plates and a gazillion utensils? Why do we have 5 Olive Garden cups, 2 Ponderosa cups, 5 Christmas cups, 2 Disney cups and 4 other plastic cups? Why do I load the dishwasher every single day with all of these dishes?? Why don't they use one or two a day and I just wash them when I need them? It's not like I have a newborn and I'm totally busy and can't take the time to wash a plate before lunch. I could probably get away with loading the dishwasher every two days if I was more careful. But I've never had a dishwasher before this apartment and it's still such a novelty to me and I don't want to wash anything by hand! :) But I just can't believe how many plates, bowls and cups we've accumulated! I like having a few extra on hand for when we have friends over, but we definitely don't need that many! It's time for a cupboard clean out and time for me to start rinsing the kids' cups and using them more than once in a day!

Anyone else have this problem? My friend Dawn just blogged about this and said they bought each kid a bowl that they painted and if they want to use a bowl they have to use theirs and only theirs. I think I might use this idea when Rae is just a little bit older. And my mom always used to have our names on a cup that we had to use the whole day - that's a good idea too. Any other ideas?

I looked out my window and what did I see.....

It's finally snowing again! I really hate the snow, but if it's going to be 9 degrees outside there might as well be snow too! And I LOVE the first day of snow. The snow is beautiful and soft and easy to get off of your car and porch. I hate it when it gets packed down and icy! But the reason I was hoping it'd snow again is because Rae so desperately wanted it to. I hope we get enough so that we can go sledding. I would have been fine with absolutely no snow ever again, but since it's snowing I hope we get enough for sledding. Weather.com says it's supposed to snow for a few days. Then we can go sledding and then it can all melt and spring can come!! Right?? I can dream! Roy has a week off of school in March and I told him that if there is snow on the ground and temps aren't at least 40 then we are going to visit somewhere warm! Everyday I dream of flip flops and t-shirts. Seriously. Do realize how much faster it is to get kids out the door when they are wearing summer clothes? They are so tired of wearing their winter coats - and I'm tired of it too! If we end up somewhere cold I'm going to invest in several cute and trendy coats for myself, because my brown one does the job just fine but I'm tired of wearing it!

Anyway, sorry about the post all about weather again! It is all I can think about these days!

The joys of learning

Can I just tell you how much fun my kids are lately? They drive me crazy too, but they are both at ages where they are learning and discovering so many things! Blaise is speaking in full sentences all the time now and it's so fun to hear what phrases he picks up. Some of his favorites are: "I don't know" and "I can't, I'm busy", "what does this say?", and "what are you doing" or "where are we going". He is just so darn cute. And Rae is full of questions all the time and is never satisfied with an "I don't know" from me or Roy. She is really into rhyming and is constantly asking us if words rhyme (most of the time they don't!) She is really good at seeing familiar words and being able to identify them. Today she saw the Dominoes Pizza sign while we were driving around and she said "look mom, they sell pizza there". I usually ask her how she knew what the word was and the says "I just knew what sounds the letters made and I figured it out". I really need to start some kind of "learning to read" type program with her since she is showing so much interest. Any recommendations? I'm going to get "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" from the library and if I like it I'll probably buy a copy. (I know it worked well for my sister and her son)

Anyway, they keep me on my toes and I realize I need to be doing more interacting with them and that my job as a mom is not just about cleaning, cooking, changing and being a referee! I've been a slacker in the craft, game and imagination department! Actually, just writing this post made me realize how much their minds are developing right now and how much I need to help them along! My sister wrote this great post a while back called "Motherhood" It helps me remember that I can answer all of their questions with a yes,no,I don't know or a simple answer (which sometimes you have to do when you are busy) but most of the time I should be really helping them either discover the answer on their own or giving them my full attention and actually answering their question. Hmmm, maybe I better get off the computer and hang out with my kids! :)

Oh, and I'm declaring tomorrow to be NO COMPUTER DAY, so I won't be around and I'm sure everyone will miss me dearly. I'm finding myself a bit too addicted lately, so it's time to turn it off and take a break! :)

Here are a couple of random pics of the kids:

I picked this tent up at Target for about 6 bucks way back in Sept
and saved it for a cold winter day. It's a pain to set up, but the kids love it!


Blaise's favorite activity: making items into a hat!

Another lovely day

The weather is beautiful here today -mid 50's! A little windy, but not too bad. I picked Rae up from preschool and we went to the park for a picnic. It felt SO good to feel the sun on my skin again. We got good and dirty and got lots of energy out. Then we went and washed our van!!! Woo hoo! The snow, salt and melting snow makes for a very dirty car. I didn't have very many quarters with me so I wasn't able to do a very thorough job, but at least I got the top layer of grim off :) There were so many people at the car wash. I went to a different one first and there was a line out to the street. Today is the first day it's been warm enough to wash your car, and everyone's car looks horrible. Now my car looks really nice parked next to all the other filthy ones! :) Who knew I'd be so excited for a day warm enough to wash my car! I'm sure it will snow again soon and mess it all up, but at least I can enjoy it for now.

Rae had her first speech therapy session at Truman State today. She now has speech at the school district on Mondays and Fridays and at Truman on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Makes for a busy week! But she really enjoyed speech today and there are a lot of toys for Blaise to play with, so I think we'll be able to manage the 4 days a week.

Anyway, I wish I had some pictures to post along with this but I haven't taken many pictures since Christmas.

Ugh

The Student Loans finally have to be repaid. These are from undergraduate school - long long ago and long forgotten about. Monthly payments for what feels like the rest of our lives. I wish I had the payoff amount in my hand and could be done with it. So glad to be done with school and done with needing loans! (You know, except for that big ol' mortgage loan someday!) And I'm so glad that we were able to get through graduate school without a single loan! I guess it could be worse!

Very good class, the answer was BOY :)

Yup, here comes Isaac Maxwell Wright. Rae was a little sad that it isn't a girl, but I think she'll be fine with it. I already went through all of the baby clothes and got rid of most of the girl stuff. (I just kept one box of all of my favorite outfits that Rae wore) One good thing about having a small apartment and moving often is that you are forced to go through your stuff often. Well, that's how it is for me at least - I could see some of my sisters just moving everything and having overflowing closets. :) But I can't stand the idea of moving a bunch of junk that we don't need. And I'm always trying to make more space in our closets and storage spaces, so every few months I go through all the boxes and see what I can get rid of. I did that this week and we have 3 boxes to take to the thrift store and box of junk to throw away! My house may not be clean but my closets are organized! :)

Anyway, I wanted to write more but I'm babysitting this afternoon and my house got neglected yesterday so I need to clean it up. I babysit every Wednesday and it's fantastic because I have to get my house super cleaned and vacuumed so that the baby doesn't find anything to put in his mouth. It's great to have your house clean mid-week - makes it a lot easier to clean at the end of the week too!

Happy Birthday Chad!

I'm sure Katie planned something great for you - hope you have a fantastic day!

It's a....

I had to have a full bladder when I had my ultrasound with Rae and it was torture! I didn't have to have a full bladder with Blaise and I forgot how hard it is! I had to have one this time around and I've never had to pee so bad in my life! And of course they were 15 minutes behind schedule! Ahhh! Anyway, we found out the gender of the baby. Are we going to go celebrate with hot dogs or tacos? :) Will that dress get used this time around? Will we get to use the blessing outfit my mom made for Blaise that didn't fit him? (Do you still have that mom?) All of your questions can be answered with a simple photo: (the tech gave me a cd with pics on it - nice that I don't have to scan them this time!)



Do you know what it is?

And here's just a cute picture:

Today is the day

Today I have my ultrasound and I've decided to find out the gender of the baby. I still it'd be fun to have it be a surprise, but I'm a very "have to know, have to plan" type person and I think it would literally drive me crazy. But maybe we'll keep it a secret from everyone else and drive you crazy!

After Christmas I went to Walmart and found this adorable little dress on clearance for 3 bucks! It's size 12 months, so if we have a girl it'd probably fit her at Christmas, and if not it will be her Valentine or Easter dress! (I love that it's not specifically Christmas) And if it's a boy and my sister has a girl then she'll be getting the dress - except it wouldn't fit one of her girls till they are actually 12 months! :)



I don't care if it is a boy or girl. For some reason we keep referring to "it" as a girl but we referred to Rae as Blaise for a long time, so that doesn't mean anything.
Anyway, we'll know this afternoon and I can start going through all the baby clothes I have - woo hoo,I love organizing! Anyway, what do you think - will it be a Claire or Isaac?

Productive, fun trip

Yesterday we headed to Columbia to get some items unavailable in Kirksville. The kids were great during the 75 minute drive - entertained most of the time by videos (investing in a portable dvd player was one of our best decisions ever!) and Roy and I enjoyed some good conversation. We always pass by a Bass Pro shop on the way into town and I thought it'd be fun to stop in and see what it's like (since they are so huge and they are everywhere around here and usually have their own freeway exit).
I figured the kids would at least enjoy looking at the boats. They did enjoy looking at the boats, and fish, and everything else! We spent a good 20 minutes walking around looking at stuff. Then we headed to Petco to get some stuff for the stinky guinea pig (I am so ready to get rid of her - but that's another post) and then we went to the mall. Roy and the kids ate lunch, rode the carousel, played on the playground and walked around while I went to Target and got some maternity clothes. It was a successful Target trip. I got two pair of pants and two shirts. I still need some actual jeans though, Target maternity jeans are not made for plus sized women. I happened to walk past the shoe aisle and saw that they had a ton of shoes 75% off. Woo hoo! I got two pair of shoes for Blaise when he gets a little bigger for 4 bucks each, and a pair of slippers for Rae for $1.50 (she's been really wanting some slippers!) I love it when I can get their shoes ahead of time and get a good deal on them. Rae's shoes broke on the way to Blythe and we had to buy some full price ones at Kmart and I couldn't believe how expensive they were! I hardly ever have to buy shoes full priced!

Anyway, the kids had fun at the mall, we got everything we needed and we got home by 5 last night. Oh, and we have this little store in town that we kept wanting to go to, but it's only open Thurs-Sat from 12-5, so we never get a chance to go. But we stopped by when we got into town last night. They sell all kinds of random knick-knacks and toys and a ton of lighters. Everything is less than $5. Roy wanted to get this fish for my dad - what do you think dad? He said it really suits you :)

It's about that time.....

...Time to put the real jeans away for a while and only wear pants with elastic waistbands! My favorite, favorite pair of jeans stopped fitting me last week and now my other pair are a little too tight for comfort. I think I get to go to Columbia alone on Saturday (right, Roy?) and do some major maternity shopping. I've gotta find something decent to wear or I'll be in gray sweats for the next 4 months! I hate trying to find pants to wear when I'm pregnant - it's always really hard. Luckily I've been able to put it off this long! :) And if the weather stays as cold as it has been this week then I might just stay in gray sweats till spring!

The real you

Today my sister posted a picture of herself sans makeup/hair product/pose to show what she looks like on a regular basis. I don't have many pictures like that, because when I am in my natural state the camera makes it look even worse! I don't mind the way I look if I look in the mirror, but for some reason the camera just highlights the blotchy skin and greasy hair!


I guess this is what I typically look like and I think I'm okay with it. I'd like to have less blotchy skin, but I'm trying to work on that with proper care of my face before I resort to wearing makeup everyday. And my teeth have become ridiculously yellow in the past few years - anyone have advice for that? I cringe every time I see a close up of my teeth.

Anyway, I don't know what my point is :) The other day I saw someone from church at the store and she didn't have on her usual make up on and hair all done up (this person always looks amazingly perfect at church) and she looked so nice and natural and I thought she looked great! I guess I'd rather look natural on a daily basis and people get used to my imperfections and then when I actually get all dressed up and put on makeup everyone is shocked and thinks I look amazing :) And I wouldn't want the hubby to cringe when I wash off my makeup at night ;) (Not that he would - he hates makeup!) So that's my current strategy - what's yours?

Happy Birthday Bobby!

I don't know if you read my blog - maybe Sabina does, but probably not on a daily basis. Anyway, hope you had a great day!

I need chocolate

It's one of those days. I hosted preschool today. It was pretty easy, pretty fun, but still tiring. Rae and Blaise have been fighting like crazy the past week. They just argue and bicker nonstop!! Ugh! And Blaise had a doctor appointment this morning which ended up taking an hour! The kids were incredibly good the first 40 minutes but totally lost it the last 20. We were waiting in the room forever after the nurse left and then they had a medical student check him first and then actual doctor came and did the whole exam again. Blaise was scared of both of them. And the appointment was at 8:30, which is really early for us! I got home just in time to clean up the house for preschool. Oh, and it's super cold today. Bleh. Just a bleh day. I'm trying to make up for it by at least having the house clean and the laundry done. There's nothing worse than having a bad day and then realizing you totally slacked off and just made it worse. And it'll all be okay because when Roy comes home tonight I'm leaving him to do dinner, bath and bed and I'm going shopping alone, and I'll get chocolate. :) How's your day going?

Our visit to Las Vegas - Part Two: Christmas Day and beyond

Christmas Day Dale's sister Sharon and her son Derrick came over for dinner. Also a couple Mariah and Rob - Roy's sister used to babysit Mariah long long ago. We had a turkey and ham dinner and then birthday cake for all of the December birthdays. Then we opened some more presents!

Lighting the candles for Blaise, Brianni, Ashley, Roy and Derrick

Happy Birthday to us!

Even though I love chocolate cake I chose to have tasty cheesecake instead :)

The whole gang at Olive Garden to celebrate Brianni's birthday.

Rae took this picture - it's pretty typical of what we do in Vegas :)

All of the cousins: Kassandra, Brianni, Catrina, Rae and Blaise
Funny, they are posed in order of age but not purposefully.

We left on New Years Eve and had a great flight home. Blaise fell asleep before takeoff. We decided to get a hotel in Kansas City so we wouldn't have to drive home in the dark (and I thought it would be snowy, but there was absolutely no snow) and so we could do a stop at Target to spend some Christmas gift cards! We didn't do anything special New Years Eve, we were all asleep by 10! The next day we did some shopping and got home around 2 in the afternoon. Anyway, there you have it - our Christmas 2008 Vacation :)