05.31.09

Mom VS. the Great Houdini
Mom:1 Houdini:2

This is my attempt at keeping Peter from taking his diaper off. First - his diaper is on backwards (worked before), Second I put his onesie on the outside of his pajamas and put a duct tape across the snaps on the bottom. Well, that worked, except for the fact that he now has figured out how to get out of his bed. He was still crying and I went to push on the door and well, he was behind the door. My heart sank. I prayed he wasn't hurt.

(About the shoes and socks, after the falling out of bed trick, he came out with his socks and wanted them on. Then he came back wih his shoes and wanted them on too.)

I don't know what I am going to do with this boy. He also got in trouble for trying to climb over the baby gate in nursery. And it doesn't stop there. During Sacrament meeting he proceeded to yell (not say quietly), "Waber, Waber, waber." Not only during the sacrament but off and on through the meeting.

At this point I am just glad he is asleep and not blabbering on and on about everything he can see. He can be so cute. But today he has been a handful. PHEW!!

05.30.09

A DATE?

Went to Bass Pro Shop (for a tent) and saw the fish.

Almost lost Peter (he ran back to see the "waber" fall while Dave thought he was with me and I thought he was with Dave.)

Had yummy Chinese food.

I guess it was a date, or as close as we get.

05.29.09

Today was the first sunny day we have had in a long time. We are going camping next week and I wanted to get the tents out to check and make sure we have all the parts and that nothing is wrong with them. Plus since it was sunny I wanted to wash and dry my sleeping bags because I don't want to pay $12 per bag to get them cleaned. So the sun played a little peekabo just as I got the second sleeping bag out of the washer but alas it was just teasing me. It is still a beautiful blue sky at 8 pm.

Only one mishap/problem. The largest tent has a broken piece(of course on the top). It happened while I was struggling to get it up. Plus it has mildew in it from a couple weeks ago putting it away slightly damp and having one rainstorm after another. We may be replacing the tent. It has served us well for many, many years. (The other two are a "two" man tent- if you really like each other and a 3 or 4 man tent. We think we want a little bigger size since the kids aren't going to always be small.)

05.28.09

The Bedtime Routine. A book, family prayer then bed. I love these people!! They are my whole life.

05.27.09

It's back!!! My computer has come home. I have a new friend - the FedEx guy. He didn't know what a gift he was bringing to my house. I can't believe it has been that long. Over 3 weeks without my beloved computer. The laptop is fine but the reason we bought this computer was to have - SPEED and SPACE! Glad it is back and hope it keeps doing it's job.

05.26.09

They were kind of looking for dad and also listening and watching the thunder and lightening. Don't you love how Peter is angled with his toes and arms holding him between the couch and the window. He is a little monkey. He likes to hang on things and climb on things. One of these days he is going to get really hurt.

05.25.09

Wow! What a busy day. First we rode our bikes to the church for the annual memorial day breakfast. Then we rode over to the city center and watched the Woodridge Parade. Then to top the day off we had the Matos, Giles, Walker, Nygard and Chandler families over for a BBQ. Which despite the rain turned out okay.

What a wonderful day and what yummy food. I always think of the reason for our celebrations is because men and women died for our freedom and others are still fighting for it. I am grateful for their sacrifices and the sacrifices of their families so that we can be free. I'm proud to be an American!!

05.24.09

Today is one of those days you hate to see come. Two of our good friends are moving away. They came to Illinois to go to medical school and now they are officially doctors and on thier way to internships in other states. We have grown to love the Van Dusens and the Allens and have been had many memories with them. Both of them helped us with watching Kirsten when Peter was born. Kirsten even had her first sleep over with the Van Dusen family when Peter came a few weeks early. We have watched their kids grow up and become intelligent amazing children. We have spent many playgroups together and have talked about our troubles with our kids together. With great sadness I said goodbye to them tonight at a wonderful surprise party put on by our mutual friend Mirinda.

Thanks Jenny, Eric, Leanna and Mike for the wonderful influence you have been in my life and my family's life. We are better because we know you. Please enjoy your new adventures and think of us once in awhile!! We love you!

05.23.09

YAY! We got sand for our sand box under the swingset. Kirsten and Peter played in it all afternoon and all the way up until bath time. (Peter is missing from the picture because I forgot to take one when he was outside with Kirsten.

BOY did they have fun!!

05.22.09

How do you combine the hobbies of Amy and Dave? Create a cornhole game.

With the upcoming holiday weekend I suggested to Dave that maybe we could make a cornhole game. He didn't seem to be that interested I thought, and then he came home from work with the supplies to make one. So I "had" to go to the fabric store to buy duck cloth to make the official bags. It has been kind of fun putting our hobbies together and making a game to play.

05.21.09

My sewing class tonight is cancelled. (Most people can't come and I realize now that it is the day before holiday weekend.)

Here are some of my projects I am thinking we could work on.

1. Lap quilt

2. Various bags and totes

3. Scripture tote

4. Reusable grocery bag

5. Reusable shopping tote

6. Larger tote

7. Diaper holder

8. Flannel rag quilt

9. Upclose of the rag quilt

10. Easy square quilt top I made

11. Pajama bottoms (Kirsten's) and easy costumes

12. Hooded Towel

05.20.09

It hasn't rained for a couple of days and so we decided to recreate Lake Anderson in the backyard.

IT WAS HOT today! Okay it will be worse as the summer goes on but we have been really spoiled by the 65 to 75 degree days and so today's 82 was a little hotter then I like it. SO, the kids got wet.

05.19.09

We really go places!! Today was another out and about playgroup. We took a short trip to Wheaton and visited the Cosley Zoo. It is a fun place to go. I had to laugh when Kirsten asked if we could see the elephants before we left. Of course the zoo isn't a real zoo, it is mostly farm animals and a couple of native Illinois animals. I'm not sure if she was joking. It was the most beautiful day to go. Just perfect temperature with a nice cool breeze. LOVED IT!!

05.18.09

$5 Garage Sale Bike
$8 New Training Wheels from Target
Hours and hours (did I say Hours) of fun for Kirsten.

I found this bike at a garage sale and the lady was giving it away cheap. It needed a new set of training wheels and so after a trip to Target on Saturday Kirsten rode her "new" bike as long as we would let her. This morning we went on a bike ride all the way to the park by the lake and she rode back to the park this afternoon to go to dance class. Wow! Didn't know how much she would love it.

05.17.09

The caped crusader and his beautiful sidekick THE Princess.

05.16.09

Kirsten had her dance recital today. She is such a pretty girl and does such a great job. I love to watch her. It makes me kind of laugh that she loves to get up on stage but she can be shy in social situations.

Don't you love the pictures of her that Dave took. I absolutely love them and had a hard time picking one to post.

I love that she wanted me to "twirl" her hair today. It takes a little bit of time but she sure looks cute.

05.15.09

Friends of ours from church bought a home one street over from us. We are so excited to have someone so close. I think they closed on the house today. If I stand at my mailbox I can see their back yard, that is how close we are. (Of course there are 4 or 5 house between ours and their back yard, but it's real close.)

Their daughter Ella is the same age as Peter. Of course right now they are arch rivals. They are both going through the "mine" stage together. Hopefully we will develop a friendship there, at least a cival one so they can have playdates.

05.14.09

How do you like your pancakes? Is a little bit of sand okay?

Kirsten, Peter, Isaac and Kiera were "making pancakes" this morning at playgroup. Didn't get a chance to taste them but I am sure they were great.

Kirsten was supposed to be at the TOTSCHOOL Picnic but because of the storm last night the lady at the park district said it was cancelled because the park was "underground" (her words not mine.) I believe that a "soggy mess" would be another suggestion.

What a storm we had, we were under tornado watch until 11 pm and between the rain and the wind (and the thunder) we just got to wait it out. I think I am a bit more tense when we have a tornado watch or the siren goes off. I am from Utah, we were always threatened with earthquakes but tornado's were not to be. So I feel a bit unprepared and have a bit of anxiety when they loom near. I guess I don't know what to expect and with the big gusty winds last night and the rain pounding on the windows it seemed like it was coming. Then around 10:30 or so it all eased up and we were all able to go to sleep. Except me, I was still a bit anxious. Finally nodded off around midnight.

05.13.09

The view from my kitchen sink. I love this little window in my kitchen. It gives me an opportunity to watch my kids while I am doing dishes or when I am cooking I can look keep an eye on what is going on.

05.12.09

Here is Dave this morning completing the transfer of all my pictures and stuff from the new computer's hard drive on to the old computer and then again on to the external hard drive we have. If you look real close you can see the blue circle, yep the new computer's data took up every bit of the external hard drive. We had to put it on there because the old computer did not have the space for the all the data. I guess that is why we got the new computer. :) Glad he was so smart and thought to do that before we send off the computer to be fixed.

Love ya Sweetie, you're the best!!

05.11.09

This picture would be better as a video but let's just pretend. In the background you hear The Beatles singing one of their famous songs (can't remember which one.) Then you see Peter thumbing through the Children's Hymnbook and all of the sudden you hear Peter singing "LA, LA, LA." Then he flips a couple more pages and sings some more. We all laughed pretty hard. I truly believe he will be my singer/musician.

05.10.09

Happy Mother's Day! What a wonderful day! I took the kids outside to get some pictures of them with our beautiful lilac bush. As I look at these pictures I realize how lucky I am to have such wonderful children. We are not perfect here and have our problems but I love these kids so much and I am grateful to Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be their mother. I love to watch the kids explore the flowers and thought it was a perfect day for pictures.

Do you see the dragonfly? It landed on the lilac bush as I was coming in. I put it on my family blog if you want to see more.

05.09.09

Ugh! The computer (the new one) is on the fritz. Just stopped working. Dave spent a good hour and a half with the HP tech. Now we get to send it away to get it fixed. We hope it isn't something that requires they replace the hard drive. Otherwise we will lose all the stuff since February. (Doesn't sound good does it?)

It makes me kind of sick to think about losing all the pictures and papers.

05.08.09

We went to a park that had a zip line. We all had a great time going down it. Peter and Kirsten loved it. When I first tried it I thought, WOW that was fun let's do it again. Same thing more or less that Kirsten said everytime she got off. "I want to go again!"

05.07.09

We have been going on bike rides everywhere lately. I take Kirsten to school and then Peter and I head back home. Today playgroup was at a park on our biking route and so after dropping Kirsten off at school we rode over to the park. Peter decided that he needed a drink after running around the park for a little bit and so he got back in. It was a perfect opportunity to take a picture. He hates his helmet but we have to be safe. I make him wear it or we don't go.

05.06.09

I had my sewing class today. Only one person showed up, but that is okay. Now my house is clean top to bottom and I got some time to sew on a quilt top I am making. Here is the quilt I finished a couple of weeks ago. I almost don't want to donate it because I love how it looks. Hopefully someone will love it as much as Kirsten and I do.