Pure Fun!

 We headed outside today to enjoy the fabulous sunshine.  I forgot the camera so I had to settle with the phone.  The baby had her first real "exploring" experience.  She got to walk around and pick things up.  She loved collecting sticks.

 My kids do love toys, but for Luke nothing beats a big stick and a big rock.  He carried around a really long stick the whole time we trekked through Jones Park.  I can't believe I didn't take a picture. The thing was bigger than him!

 After Brooke picked up leaves and crushed them, she became obsessed with sticks too.  If anyone needs someone to come pick up sticks from your yard she's your girl!  The problem is she does not want to let go of them.

 For Addy it was fascinating to look at the water.  There's all kinds of stuff in there!

Brooke pulled a little weed.  She was thrilled to give it to me, but she still would not part with the stick!

A very special phone call and an update on the lamp.

Addison woke up from her nap today in a very sad mood.  I asked her why she was so sad but she wouldn't tell me.  Finally she said, "I just miss Emery" and she started to cry. Scott said, "We can give her a call after dinner."  She liked that idea so she dried her tears and kept reminding us to give Emery a call.  They had a very cute conversation. They talked about the weather, their school work, summer plans to maybe get together, seeing each other on the family blogs and skype.  Addy didn't know what skype was, so when Emery suggested it Addy said, "Oh, maybe we could do that when we come visit you!"  Ha!
When Addy got of the phone with Emery she was very happy.  She hopped up to bed and was in a very snuggly and cuddly mood.  She kept hugging and kissing me and saying, "I love you mommy."  Although Addy misses her dear friend, she has not forgotten her, and thinks about her every day.

The Lamp! It's fixed! How did we do it? We took it back to Walmart and got a replacement. After trying to take it apart and fix it with no succes, we decided to call the store and tell them what happened. It's got a 90 day warranty that we didn't even think about, so we just took it back and got another one! Woo hoo! Now we will be careful not to let stuffed animals get stuck (and melted) on top of it!

Rainbow

Tonight we were refreshed with a thunderstorm.  As we were eating dinner Luke looked out the window and said, "Hey look!  A rainbow!"  It was super bright.  Brighter than what the picture shows.  And the sun was setting so the tops of houses and trees were glowing.  

Puppet Show

I found some old videos on my computer and thought this was funny.  It might only be funny for the parents though. It is from November 2010.  Luke is 2 and Addy is 4.  This video is kinda long, but I think it gets funnier as it goes.  It started out as Winnie the Pooh and turned into King Saul and David.  Luke didn't quite know how to do a puppet show. Addy made puppets out of the coloring sheets from Sunday School and was then acting out the stories.  I love her little voice.

SNOW!

 The kids were thrilled to look out the window yesterday morning and see snow on the ground.  They couldn't wait to get outside.

 We headed to the park to stomp around, make tracks, and play in the trees.  It was fun to play in the trees because we were out of the wind and the trees are so beautiful when they are topped with snow.

 I found some older pictures on my phone.  This picture is from one of our past adventures to the park.

 We visit my grandma and grandpa almost every Friday.  Grandpa loved having a baby and a cat on his lap at the same time.  That cat thinks he's a dog.  He's one of the friendliest cats I've ever seen. 

 When I need to go to the post office I like to go to Americus.  It's not that much farther than going across town to Emporia's post office.  They have a neat park that we like to stop at in Americus.  I remember going down this slide as a kid.  I remember how high and scary it seemed. I was always afraid I was going to fall off the top.  Luke loved standing up on the top.  He could see so far! Addy was very afraid, and once was enough.  Her hair is in the way, but the look on her face is not one of delight.

 Luke couldn't get enough of the tall, fast slide.  He almost fell on his face every time he got to the bottom. 

He went up and down, up and down, until it was time to go.  

Weekend fun!

 We did some painting.  I don't know why Addy decided to paint her face too. 

Brooke has perfected her smile.

The kids had a lot of daddy time this weekend.  They played and played and played.  There's a lot going on in this video.  I just recorded a bit of their regular playing. Brooke has finally learned to sign "more".  She didn't catch on as fast as the others with the signs, but she was quicker in waving goodbye.  The big kids were playing a game they learned when Jeff and Wendy came to babysit one time.  Now they always want to play "birdies".  I still don't understand how to play, the rules are very complicated and they are always changing. I don't know why Luke is not wearing a shirt.  It is the middle of winter...
Brooke gets knocked down at the end of the video.  When they play with daddy they learn to be tough.  I hear it's good for their development to fall down a few times.  She got right back up and started laughing again.

 Scott also took them out for pancakes for breakfast and then they went to a play at EHS while Brooke took a nap.  They LOVED it and would not stop talking about it.  And I got some "time off".  To top off the day the kids got to spend the evening at Grandpa and Grandmas while Scott and I got together with some friends and had a date.  

This is a cool kindergarten.

I wonder what it would take to get a kindergarten like this in the US?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp4Nny_rIiw

The Dancing Baby

I think it is funny how all three kids had their own silly way to dance when they were 1.  Addy went up and down very fast.  Luke went up and down very slow.  Brooke goes side to side.  Sorry it's a little dark. I think when the stuffed animal got burnt in the lamp (see post below) it zapped the lamp.  Although the lamp worked for another couple days before it suddenly wouldn't turn on.  If you're an electrical expert and know a trick to get a lamp working let me know!

Lessons Luke Learned today

1. You are not supposed to cut holes in mama's reusable grocery sacks to make overalls.

2. You are not supposed to wear your sisters hair things.  Sister does not appreciate when they break.

3. You are not supposed to throw stuffed animals up on top of the new lamp, they melt and almost burn the house down.

4. When you are told to eat all of your food, you are not supposed to stuff your mouth full, pretend you have to go to the bathroom, and flush it down the toilet. 

5. You are not supposed to leave your best shoes outside by the trampoline to get soaked when it rains.

6. You are not supposed to use markers as chapstick.

Ok, so he didn't learn all of them today, just number 1,2,3and 5. The other two were last week.

Bathroom Decorations

I went into the bathroom today and this is what I found.  Addison got creative with washcloths and hair stuff and created these little guys.  The one of the far left is really good.  You can see the eyes, nose, and mouth.  She even arranged them on the sink all by herself.  Pretty cute!

Oh no!

Yesterday was a crazy day.  I found myself saying, "Oh no!" what seemed like many times.  Isn't it amazing how God changes the "Oh no!" moments into, "Oh, I see now" moments? 

The day started off great.  It was beautiful outside, we got our homeschooling done, but Scott was sick.  "Oh no!" So we packed up a lunch and spent a few hours at the park and enjoyed the beautiful day.  While we were eating lunch, I got a call from Scott's dad.  He had some bad news.  Grandma Patty's cancer has spread to her liver and lungs.  "Oh No!"  I told the kids and we stopped and prayed for her immediately.  We know that she serves an awesome God that can heal her and help her through the difficult days ahead.  Grandma Patty has a strong faith and we are so thankful for that.  She has already been such an example to us and to all those who know her of what it means to trust in the Lord.  I guess He's not done using her to show us how to trust Him through hard times. 

The truck was in the shop yesterday.  We dropped it off for a regular oil change and Scott had a few other things he wanted checked out.  We found out that something major was wrong and it wouldn't be finished in time for Scott to take it to his class in Manhattan.  "Oh no!"  It was also a very expensive thing to fix. "Oh no!" But thank the Lord we had money to pay for the whole repair and it was more of an inconvenience and not a big emergency.  And our mechanic, Meenen Transmission, is awesome and they brought the truck to our house when it was finished.  Scott took the van to Manhattan and the kids were so excited to get to take the truck to AWANA...or so we thought.

We were getting all packed up for AWANA, running a little behind as is the norm, and I forgot that since they dropped off the truck the keys were in the house.  So I ran back in to get the keys, but the door from the garage that goes into the house would not open.  The little thing you turn on the doorknob to lock the door got turned and when the door shut it locked.  This has happened before, but I usually have my car keys that has a house key with it.  I was  going to get the car keys, so I did not have a house key, so I was locked out.  All the other doors were locked. We usually have a key hidden in case we get locked out, but I searched all over and couldn't find it.  I couldn't go anywhere, I was supposed to teach the Cubbies in 30 minutes, and I started to PANIC!  "Oh no!"  I tried to break into my house with a credit card but it didn't work.  I guess I'm not a very good criminal.  At least I had my three precious babies safely buckled in with me, they were not in the house.  Althought it would have been nice if Addy or Luke would have been locked in because they could have just unlocked the door!  But anyway, I did have my phone so I called Shanelle, our Cubbies director, to let her know what was going on. But...

No answer.  "Oh no!"  Who else could I call.  I went through my phone and started calling anyone in my phone that would be at church.  Trisha Ott was the first name I saw after Shanelle.  I called her but she couldn't understand what I was saying because I was breaking up. "Oh no!"  Then I saw that Shanelle was calling me back!  She came and picked us up and we made it to AWANA with a few minutes to spare before I started leading the songs and teaching the lesson.  THANK YOU LORD!! I didn't have time to get the flannels so I had the kids act out the story and I think they had a good time doing that. 

On our way to the church Shanelle was telling me that her phone had been on silent.  She wouldn't have checked it except the batteries in the clock in the room had died and since the time was wrong she had to look on her phone to see what time it was.  That's when she noticed the missed call from me and said, "Oh no!" something's wrong!  But God knows what He is doing, He even works out the crazy details of our failed plans. 

Later that night Scott was telling me about his class. Then he told me that he got pulled over on the way to Manhattan! "Oh no!" He said it was kinda neat how he could tie that incident in with their talk in class.  He didn't get a ticket, just a warning. "whew" Thank the Lord for slowing him down!  For some reason he thought he needed to go a little faster because he didn't know if he was going to make it on time.  God thought he needed to s.l.o.w.d.o.w.n.  I thought it was strange because he really doesn't speed.  At least not when I am riding with him.  I think he goes too slow sometimes and I want to remind him of the speed limit! 

When I looked back at all our "oh nos!" of the day, all I could think about was how God worked everything out.  We were so much more dependent on Him today and saw His hand in everything.  Several times I had to pause and say, "Ok God, what are you doing in this?"  I am so glad He made me pause to pray and think on His goodness, His mercy, His grace.  I still don't understand completely the Grandma Patty "Oh no", but I know that nothing happens that is out of His sovereign plan.