This Is My Life

Ignorance Was Bliss

2012-01-21T17:04:00.009-06:00

Okay. So, I have to admit that the whole healthy foods lifestyle overwhelms me. I'm not talking about eating your fruits and veggies and whole wheat bread. I mean the idea of knowing what's in and not in the foods I eat. This just wasn't an area I wanted to get into. Why? Because ignorance is bliss. Or least it was. For some reason, about a week and a half ago, I decided the time had come to look into the "whole foods" diet. It still overwhelms me, but now I'm not totally ignorant. So, if I don't change my eating, eating won't be blissful any more. I'm not sure eating will be blissful the whole foods way either, since it requires a little more work in the kitchen. I don't really enjoy cooking and usually pick a recipe based on how easy it looks. We're making some changes as a family. Some will be easier than others I'm sure. This past week we made homemade yogurt from raw milk. It was super runny, but the kids loved it. We made about 8 quarts more and I tried some today with some granola I made and it was delicious. I also tried an apple bran shake today for breakfast. It was definitely different than anything I've tried before, but I liked it and it was filling. The boys had some also and Isaiah said he wanted it again tomorrow. Randy and I just made some spelt(kind of flour) bread and I'm looking forward to trying it when it cools off. As it is often our tendency to share new things that we like with others, I'm sure I'll mention from time to time some new recipe we enjoy, but I will do my best not to "whole food" talk you to death.

When Randy brought home these farm fresh eggs, Olivia and I weren't so sure about the green eggs. Olivia jokingly said, "I don't like green eggs and ham!"

Time For New Glasses - Cast Your Vote

2012-01-17T18:25:00.006-06:00

After 12 years, I decided that it's finally time to get a new pair of glasses. Now I need help deciding which pair to get. Please help me!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

New Fad For Sheep

2012-01-15T20:24:00.003-06:00

After Sunday School today, Micah says to me, "Mom, look. I gave my sheep a mohawk."

TA-DA

2011-07-07T20:37:00.004-05:00

We have the nursery pretty much done. We still need a crib mattress and a baby. I've decided I don't like waiting, especially when you have no idea when the event you are waiting for is going to happen.

We're Adopting!

2011-04-05T20:50:00.003-05:00

Yes, you read that right. We are adopting. Randy and I decided to adopt at the end of February. We are currently working on paper work for our home study. For those of you who don't know what that is...A home study involves tons of paper work, background checks, finger prints, birth certificates, medical exams and 2 meetings in the office and one in our home. You must have a home study done in order to adopt.

We are also working with an adoption facilitator, Life Time Adoption, out of California. We will probably be sending in our contract this week or the beginning of next week. The next step will be to make a profile for birth mothers to look at. And then, we wait for a birth mother to pick us.

We are also trying to come up with some fundraising ideas. So far we are selling Papa Murphy's peel-a-deal cards($35 value) for $5. We are also considering a garage/bake/lunch sale during the Pequot City Wide Garage Sale weekend. If anyone has any other ideas, we'd love to hear them!

If anyone is interested in giving a tax deductible donation to help birth mothers with immediate, short-term, emergency support, housing, maternity clothes, food and other necessities, let us know. If we send in these donations with our contract, Life Time matches the donations by reducing our fee.

We are excited, nervous, impatient and wondering sometimes if we might be slightly crazy.

First Day of School September 9th, 2010

2011-03-13T17:52:00.005-05:00

Olivia is starting kindergarten!

Isaiah is going into 2nd grade.

Micah wanted to pose with his backpack too.

Micah wrote his name for the first time and did a great job!

Micah's 4th Birthday

2011-03-13T17:43:00.002-05:00

Micah picked out this cake from the Family Fun website and Randy made it.

I love how pleased he looks.

Camping in Duluth

2011-03-12T16:41:00.001-06:00

Micah, You Make Me Laugh

2011-03-11T16:24:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, Micah had on his coat and a baseball hat and he says to me, "You can tell my shirt is going to be cool, because my hat is AWESOME!"

Last week there was a pirate themed carnival at school. Isaiah dressed up like a pirate on Friday, so Micah wanted to too. Micah was wearing a costume for awhile and then says to me, "Oh, Mom, can I borrow some of your earrings, because pirates have ugly earrings."

At lunch, one day last week, Micah started talking about whale teeth for some reason. He was telling Olivia and I that, "A whale's tooth is probably the size of our house." Olivia of course was arguing with him. She finally asked, "Who told you that?" "Isaiah. He's way smarter than an ant!"

School Happenings

2010-10-16T21:49:00.006-05:00

In the spring, Isaiah's class put on four short plays. Isaiah was the Old Man in the Tale of the Turnip.

Olivia was in a School Readiness class on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. These are some pictues from her graduation.

Bonfire Rescue

2010-10-15T21:02:00.001-05:00

My friend had a garage sale and had this shelf sitting out with a free sign on it. No takers. I thought it could be cute, but just couldn't think of a place to use it in my house. I don't know, maybe a week or so later, my sister blogs about some of her shelf makeover(You can check them out here and here).
So I start thinking about the ugly shelf from the garage sale that nobody wanted. I've seen it in my friend's burn pile outback. I come up with a place for it late one night and have to wait until morning to call and see if it's used for a bonfire. Luckily it hadn't, so I went and picked it up and give it a makeover. It now sits on a dresser in my bedroom.

Easter at Grandma and Grandpa Bush's

2010-10-14T20:55:00.001-05:00

Time For Some Updates

2010-10-13T20:50:00.003-05:00

It's been nearly 9 months since my last post. Where to begin? How about where I left off...February 2010. Here are some pictures from when we stayed at Breezy Point Resort with our friends the Normans.

A Style All Her Own

2010-03-05T21:01:00.000-06:00

Olivia had a couple of little braids in and she wanted to keep them in for the next day, so she slept with her hat on to keep them from falling out.

Yes, I did let her go to school looking like this.

It's the Truth

2010-03-04T20:50:00.000-06:00

When we were together with my family at Christmas, my mom said something about Grandpa being an old man. Micah said something to her about having gray hair and her being old. She said, "That's what people think, isn't it?" Micah said, "That's what people think and it's the truth."

The kids have been talking lately about when they're all in school and riding the bus together. They were talking about it at supper last week and Micah was looking at his reflection in the window and said, "I'm going to look like this, but I'll have Isaiah's shirts." He's pretty familiar with the hand-me-down process.

Speeding is Fun

2010-03-03T20:44:00.000-06:00

On the way to story time, I passed a car. As I was speeding up and starting to go around the car, Olivia said, "Whoa, mom! What are you doing? Why are you going so fast?" I told her, I was just speeding up to get around the other car. She said, "It's too fast,(pause)but fun though.

Later, that same day, Micah was saying something about the "speed lemon". After I told him it was "speed limit", he said, "Well, I call it the speed lemon."

Vocabulary Lessons From Shaggy

2010-03-02T20:35:00.002-06:00

Micah and Olivia were pretending to be camping in the living room(by the register, which is the campfire). Every once in awhile, Micah would grab his sword to fight off the bad guys coming after them. As he was joining Olivia back at the fire, he said, "I hope we don't get any more company." Olivia smiled and said, "Micah, don't you know what company is? You know when you have friends over to play or people over for supper." To which Micah replied, "Well, Shaggy said to Scooby, "It looks like we have some more company", when the pirates were coming after them." Who knew, Scooby Doo is educational!

Big Mouth

2010-03-02T20:28:00.003-06:00

This is a picture of Isaiah BEFORE he lost his tooth. At the beginning of January, Isaiah started to get a space between his lose tooth and the one next to it. The space got bigger almost daily. His mouth was making room for the new adult sized tooth. Our bodies truly are amazing! The space got bigger than it is in this picture. When his tooth finally fell out, it looked like he was missing two.

Loukota Family Christmas

2010-02-24T16:02:00.002-06:00

Christmas in Rochester

2010-02-21T21:20:00.003-06:00

This Christmas ended up being kind of strange. Due to the bad weather threat, we left for Rochester a day early. My mom and dad weren't able to head out sooner then they had planned and they ended up snowed in(literally) for a couple of days. On Christmas morning we skyped them, so they still join in on some of the festivities with us. I asked if they wanted me to open their presents for them...They finally did make it, as did my brother and his family.

Isaiah enjoyed playing Life, even though it was a little beyond him. The game was sitting out on the table in the dining room and Micah was in there playing around with it. I heard him singing, "Go Tell it on the Mountain"(they had sung at in the Church program). I peaked in at him. While he was singing, "over the hills and everywhere", he was driving one of the cars up a little hill. When he got to, "that Jesus Christ is born", he added a baby boy to his car.

Reindeer Cookies

2010-02-18T18:47:00.000-06:00

These reindeer cookies are a fun, easy, cute and tasty cookie that the kids can make.

Church Christmas Program

2010-02-17T18:37:00.002-06:00

Isaiah and Olivia were both angels in the Church Christmas program. Micah was all excited to be Jesus(a little older... when the wise men came). At the last moment he wouldn't go up and his friend Tate filled the spot. During practice, one of the kids said, "I'm a shepherd. Who's in charge of me?" Then Micah said, "I'm Jesus. Who's in charge of me?" After that, whenever he saw the girl who was playing Mary, he would say, "She's in charge of me when I'm Jesus."

Gingerbread Houses

2010-02-17T18:15:00.002-06:00

I helped volunteer in Isaiah's classroom the day they made gingerbread houses. It was a lot of fun to see how kids decorated their houses. I don't know if you can tell very well from this picture, but these two girls covered every tiny spot with candy and sprinkles. When they were finished the one plate was even full to the edge with sprinkles. The houses were made of two milk cartons taped together. They stayed together really well(each kid had their own container of frosting). We didn't bring it home until after the Christmas program,a week later. The kids ate every last piece of candy, stale or not.

Isaiah's finished masterpiece! He did a great job.

A Couple of Turkeys

2009-11-28T20:04:00.001-06:00

Last week, Olivia, Micah and I made these turkey hats. Gotta love the Family Fun website.

Happy Birthday, Olivia

2009-11-11T20:47:00.002-06:00

Olivia opened her presents, bright and early. I didn't want her to have to wait all day until Randy and Isaiah got home(that would have been torturous for me), so she opened them at 7:30. She loves "make-up", so we got her a make up bag with some bubble gum chap stick and some bubble gum in it. She almost went through 1 1/2 packs today! She also got some perler beads. She had fun making a horse and a cute square today.

She saw this guitar in the Fleet catalog a few weeks ago and put it on her list. She was pretty tickled that she got it. Her and Micah were putting on shows today.

Olivia wanted pumpkin cookies. So, I found a recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Tonight we had supper over at the Normans. Sarah made a yummy cheesecake. I forgot my camera(I'll have to get copies from Sarah).

We love you, Olivia!

Happy Birthday, Isaiah

2009-11-04T20:10:00.004-06:00

Isaiah opened up this huge Lego set this morning before school. He saw it at Walmart a couple of weeks ago and really wanted it. It's just under 1,000 pieces and there are instructions for building 3 houses.

We started building one house after school and worked on it until supper. We did a little more after supper, but we had to move on to dessert.

Isaiah wanted pumpkin pie instead of cake. It was quite tasty, if I do say so myself.

We love you, Isaiah!

Trick-or-Treat

2009-11-01T20:30:00.001-06:00

Where is Fall?

2009-10-22T13:42:00.003-05:00

I'm really missing Fall this year. It snowed before we even got to rake and play in the leaves. That's just not right. Last weekend when we were visiting my sister's family and my mom and dad, there was actually a nice day. I really like having a Fall family picture,so we went on a short walk looking for a good picture spot. The trees in Rochester haven't even changed yet, so we stood by a bush in front of some one's house. That might be the best we can do this year.

Isaiah

2009-10-22T13:34:00.003-05:00

Isaiah's first day of 1st grade.

We were having steak for supper and Isaiah said he wanted more chicken. I told him it was steak. He says, while holding up a piece of steak on his fork, "This use to be a cow." Randy said, "Yep. Now it's steak." Isaiah says, "Pretty soon it's going to be poop."

Tattoo Monsters

2009-08-27T20:50:00.003-05:00

The kids discovered a sheet of tattoos(leftover from Isaiah's birthday)a couple of days ago. They all wanted them on, so I thought, "Why not?". At lunch time they renamed all our food to fit with the monster theme.

Our Menu:
Bat Burgers (sloppy joes)
Bug Sauce (apple sauce)
Pickles (frog skin)
Cheetos (fried fingers)
Bug Juice (juice)

My Baby is Three

2009-08-27T20:25:00.004-05:00

We started out the morning by going out to breakfast. Micah is trying to hold up 3 fingers. An older couple, that Randy knows, came into the restaurant while we were there and the guy gave Micah a dollar before they left. Micah was speechless.

When we got home, we let Micah open his presents. Instead of saying, "Thank you", when people told him, "Happy Birthday", he would say, "Happy Birthday" back to them. We spent the rest of the morning at the park, playing with friends.

Randy's family came over for supper and cake and our neighbors joined us when they got home. Micah's cake is a baseball hat(in case you can't tell), with an M on the front and a 3 on the back.

Ramblings and Pictures

2009-08-20T14:30:00.010-05:00

I set the coffee shop up outside for the kids on Tuesday. It was kind of windy and the awning kept blowing off the poles. We brought out some toy dishes, fruit snacks and grapes. The kids took turns being the worker and the customers.

Last week I went to Bemidji to help my sister-in-law with a scrapbook album. My brother was in charge of all the kids. They had a lot of fun, but of course had to fall apart on me on the way home. Micah and Olivia fell asleep right away(Glory!)and Isaiah was watching a movie. As soon as the movie was over, Isaiah decided he was starving and just couldn't go on. His crying woke up Micah, who also started crying because the movie was over. Olivia woke up and was yelling at them to stop crying. I really wanted to ram the van into a tree or something, but I refrained from doing so.

We got some bunk beds for the boys' room a couple of weeks ago. No more cribs after 6 1/2 years...kind of a strange, but nice feeling.

Micah fell over a truck that he was pushing in the alley behind our house.

He has his mouth full of grapes.

Biggest Blame Fool-Isaiah style

2009-08-02T14:03:00.004-05:00

Last weekend we went to my sister's to watch her kids perform in Seussical the Musical. It was a lot of fun! Isaiah got to see it twice and also heard Kenzie and Susi practicing some of the songs on our last visit. He's been singing part of one of the songs all week. Olivia has started to join him.

A couple of funny things from a while ago. We found a bug downstairs and Micah flushed it down the toilet. As the toilet was flushing, he said, "He likes it in the toilet. If another bug comes, I'm going to put him in the toilet and give him a shower with my pee."

I hate spiders, so I have a jar downstairs that I put over spiders when I find them and Randy takes care of them later. I was downstairs on the computer and the kids were playing in the toy room. Olivia came out and grabbed the jar and said, "I need this. There's a daddy long neck in there."

Isaiah and Olivia were talking about how many kids they wanted to have when they grow up. Olivia said, "I have a feeling it's going to hurt when they cut my stomach off to get the baby."

Yesterday the kids were planning to go fishing with Randy and Grandpa. It was pretty windy out and Isaiah asked, "Do you think anything will bite?" Micah piped up and said, "Oh, I don't want to catch a bite fish!"

Crosby Park

2009-07-28T16:52:00.002-05:00

We went to the park in Crosby today, with Sarah and her kids. The kids loved it. It's kind of a ways to go, but I'm sure we'll be back.

Smoke Balls, Snakes and Monkeys, Oh My!

2009-07-11T15:21:00.003-05:00

South Sioux City

2009-07-10T21:40:00.004-05:00

The other part of our 10 day trip was spent at my mom and dad's in So. Sioux City, NE. We played at the park, visited with my Grandma Hattie, played games, visited with some of my aunts and uncles, watched fireworks, visited my Grandma and Grandpa Gill, and went to the zoo. Here are a couple more park pictures.

Susi and Olivia

Isaiah

Susi and Olivia(Olivia was very attached to Susi. Susi was very nice about it.)

Rochester

2009-07-10T21:19:00.003-05:00

Part of our 10 vacation was spent in Rochester visiting my sister and her family. We went there so I could help her work on an album for Susi,their foreign exchange student(who leaves at the end of the month...we're gonna miss you, Susi). I was sick all day Friday(the day we had planned to scrap book with some other ladies) and was no help to Kristi at all. We did end up finishing the album during the week. Her kids were all very helpful, between play performances and play practice for another play which they always are...thank you thank you thank you!) with my kids. Here's just a few shots at a cool park we found.

Isaak, Susi, Mackenzie and Olivia

Micah

Isaiah, Olivia and Micah

Tree Cutting = Fun Tepee for the Kids

2009-07-10T20:55:00.004-05:00

Way back, at the end of May, we went to my brother's for a day visit. Randy helped cut down a tree in their backyard. Next thing you know everyone was building a teepee out of the branches and pine needles. It turned out really neat. The kids all had a blast playing in it. They even made themselves a mailbox and a sink(plumbing included).

Micah reading a piece of mail

Olivia and Elle

Isaiah and Emma

Funny Feeling

2009-06-01T20:41:00.002-05:00

When I was telling Isaiah good night(a few minutes ago), he asked,"When can I ask Jesus into my heart?" I told him he could do it anytime, that he could do it right now. After we prayed together, Micah came over and said he wanted to pray that to. Isaiah said, "I have a funny feeling inside me." "Does it feel good?" I asked. "Yes. It feels kind of fuzzy(smiling). It makes me want to dance," he said. It makes me want to cry, I'm so happy!

Bowling

2009-05-19T16:11:00.002-05:00

We brought the kids bowling for the first time this last Saturday. They had a great time. It was a litte slow...it took an hour to bowl one game.

So cute...when they're sleeping

2009-05-19T16:08:00.001-05:00

We put the boys to bed in their beds, but often find them else where.

After a late night at the camp ground with Grandma and Grandpa, Olivia passed out on the way home. She was out cold. I undid her set belt and she didn't even flinch.

Boogers

2009-05-19T15:49:00.002-05:00

Micah ate a booger today. He said, "Daddy, I like to eat my boogers." "You do?" Randy asked. "Yep." "What do they taste like?" Randy asked. "Strawberries", Micah replied. "No they don't", Olivia piped in. "I've tried my own before, and they DO NOT taste like strawberries."

When I was Curious George

2009-04-27T20:31:00.002-05:00

Yep, I'm here. Just haven't felt like blogging lately, I guess. We had a busy Easter weekend. Saturday morning we colored eggs. In afternoon we went to an egg hunt at a park. After that we went to Grandma and Grandpa Loukota's for supper and another egg hunt. Sunday afternoon our neighbor's invited over for another egg hunt. I had been planning to do an egg hunt at home, but figured 3 was enough.

Micah has been saying, a lot, that when he grows up he's going to be an elephant like Horton, or some other animal. Olivia gets frustrated with him and tells him, "Micah, people don't grow up to animals. You'll always be Micah." He also said, "When I was Curious George.." Olivia burst out, "Micah, you were never a monkey!" And he said to me, "When I was little, I was Ginger(our neighbor's dog)and you use to feed me. Pretty soon I'm going to be Isaiah." I found out when his friend,Tate, was telling Micah he was going to be an animal, Micah told him, "People can't be animals."

Out of the blue, Olivia said to me one day, "I've been thinking to myself that Olivia is a weird mom name...for when I grow up."

Isaiah is still liking school. Last week he was looking at the calendar to see how many days were left of school and he said, "I'm going to miss kindergarten."

Rules?

2009-03-25T13:49:00.003-05:00

Here are a few pictures from when my family was here visiting. Almost, two weeks ago! These were taken at the St.Patrick's Day parade in Crosslake.

Mackenzie, Susi, Emma, Oliva and Elle

My daddy, my brother and my husband

Elle, Olivia, Emma and Micah

Isaak and my mom

Micah was telling me something the other day and I thought I knew what he was saying, but it didn't make any sense to me. He said, "I feel bumped." "You feel bumped?" I asked. "Yeah. I bumped my head on the orange wall and I started to cry." he said. I asked, "When did that happen?" I was expecting him to say last night, because according to him everything happened last night. Instead, he said, "Thursday." You probably would have had to of been there to see his serious little face and cute voice.

Olivia and I were looking at her baby album. She saw a picture of the cake from her baby shower and she said, "I don't remember what it tasted like." I laughed and said, "You didn't have any!" She said, "I wish I could try some...now!"

A couple of nights ago, when I was saying good night to Isaiah, he said, "I wish there weren't any rules at school." He didn't really have a reason, he just didn't want to have rules. I gave him a couple of examples of how rules are good and then said, "So, rules help us." He rolled over and said, "I'll have to think about that."

How many pastors are there?

2009-03-08T21:01:00.002-05:00

We told the kids a couple of days ago that my family was coming to visit this next weekend. They all cheered. Isaiah said, "I bet when Mackenzie and Isaak heard that they danced." Olivia said, "I bet Ethan, Emma and Elle were like me (which was screaming)." So now they've been talking about it everyday and counting down on the calendar.

At church today, we had a group from Teen Challenge come and share. It was all guys and they all wore black pants and white shirts with ties. After the service we had a potluck. Olivia was in the nursery during the service so she hadn't seen them yet. We got in line and a bunch of the guys were ahead of us and Olivia said, "Mom, there sure are a lot of pastors!"

Micah seems to like sports. Last week he had been wanting to hit the ball outside, but it was pretty cold out so we didn't let him. We did let him bring the bat inside. He would pretend to hit a ball, run and get it, put it on the t-stand and hit it again. It was so cute to watch!

Our Pretty, Pretty Princess

2009-02-22T21:19:00.000-06:00

Olivia, Micah, Maren(friend) and I played Pretty,Pretty Princess last week. Micah won.

Breezy Resort

2009-02-22T21:03:00.002-06:00

For our "vacation" this year we stayed at Breezy Resort, which is only about 5 miles from our house. Our unit was a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, full kitchen & living room and a hot tub. Micah called it our "new house". We stayed there last Saturday and Sunday night and all day Monday. Our good friends the Normans joined us. Randy and I went out there Tuesday night for a date. We picked up some supper to go, sat in the hot tub and played a game. On Wednesday, I brought Olivia, Micah and their friend Maren out there for lunch, swimming in the hot tub and a movie. It was nice just to have a change of scenery, winter is getting long. Randy got off work a little early on Friday, so we picked Isaiah up from school and headed to the resort. That was our last night there. Here a couple pictures from that night. My friend Sarah has more pictures on her blog.

Mailboxes

2009-02-09T18:35:00.001-06:00

The kids really like their mailboxes. Yesterday, they kept putting things in each other's boxes: cars, trucks, spider man slipper, pretty much whatever they saw. When Isaiah got home from school today he went to check his mail right away.

Barbies, Pirates and Four wheelers, oh my!

2009-02-09T16:23:00.000-06:00

Olivia, Micah and I were playing Barbies in Olivia's room, but Micah wasn't really into it(he was causing problems). Micah wanted to play pirates, so he went and got both pirate ships. After we were playing a few minutes, Olivia says, "Pirates kill good people with their swords. I'm glad we've never seen real pirates, because I love playing Barbies. I bet there is something more fun than Barbies in heaven." Let's hope so!

A little later, Micah was laying in the hallway with some of the pirates on his neck/back. He was saying, "Ah! They're getting me!" Then he knocked them off, stood up and did a mean pirate face and growl.

Several months ago, Randy helped a co-worker(Mitch)out with some bats at his house. He took the kids with him. When he was done they all went for a short four wheeler ride. The kids thought it was the greatest thing ever. They talked about it for days. Micah really likes playing with four wheelers and gets excited when he sees a real one. The other day at lunch, Micah was rubbing his eye. I asked if he had something in it. "I got dust in my eye from Mitch's four wheeler," he said. Where did that come from??

A of couple times, Isaiah has called the sunset the "sundown". "Look at the pretty sundown."

Don't ask!

2009-02-09T16:12:00.000-06:00

Sledding

2009-02-09T16:08:00.001-06:00

Last Sunday, we went out sledding as a family. There's the perfect sized hill less than a block away. The kids love it. The hill was iced over, so they were sliding down it without the sled. After that we went to the Super Bowl party at church. Earlier in the day, Isaiah asked Randy, "Why do people like watching the big football game?" Randy, just basically told him, because they like football. Isaiah said, "I don't. I think it's boring." "Would you like to watch two guys having a painting contest?" Randy asked. Isaiah kind of looked at him like, is there such a thing and said, "Yeah!"

No More Fuzz

2009-01-22T13:56:00.003-06:00

A couple of nights ago, Micah wanted to play with the poker chips. He dumped them all out, of course. When it was time to pick them up, Randy said, "Pick up the chips." "These aren't chips." Micah said. "They're poker chips" Randy told him. Micah picked one up and put it on his face, then said, "It doesn't poke me."

Micah likes singing a lot. He usually only sings a couple of lines from a song. Recently he's been singing,"stir up a hunger in my heart". It's so cute to hear. I was making him chocolate milk the other day and he started singing,"chocolate milk in my tummy".

Today is day 5 of Olivia's no more thumb sucking. Grandma Loukota picked up some gross tasting stuff to paint on her nail. She hasn't been fighting it at all. She actually seemed excited to do it. She even left her purple blanket at home the other day, because she couldn't suck her thumb. She likes to pull fuzz from her blanket with one thumb, while sucking the other...so since she couldn't suck her thumb, she couldn't pull fuzz either. Maybe I won't have purple fuzz all over my house anymore!

This morning at breakfast, Isaiah said, "Micah is cute. I wish he could stay this way forever. He's so cute." They had a good day together. After school they played outside together and at Kids Stuff last night they had their arms around each other.

Are you going to fart at me?

2009-01-12T17:00:00.002-06:00

Micah was pretending his arrow was a baby(I think). He was pushing it around in Olivia's doll stroller. He said, "Oh, the arrow farted at me. Its' butt stinks. You're being naughty. You're going to have to get out of the cart." He set the arrow on the floor. Then he picks it up again and says to it, "Are you going to fart at me? No, you're not going to fart at me again."

Olivia and Micah were sitting on the counter playing with the coffee pot and tea kettle. They got out a couple of mugs and were pretending to drink hot chocolate. Micah said he was Grandpa. A couple of minutes later he picked up his mug and took a drink. He set the mug down, pretended to take off glasses and said, "The hot chocolate steamed up my glasses." He's seen Grandpa Loukota do that a few times, I guess.

Snow Ice Cream

2009-01-12T16:28:00.007-06:00

I was looking at a friend's blog last Tuesday and saw they had made snow ice cream. It looked easy enough, so we gave it a try. We made egg nog flavored ice cream. We'll all enjoyed making and eating it. It's a good way to pass a winter night.

New Year's in Brainerd

2009-01-05T19:12:00.003-06:00

We celebrated Christmas with Randy's family on New Year's day. Anna made us a yummy brunch, the kids all played really good with each other, which always makes it more relaxing for us parents, there were no major melt downs by children or adults, we had more than enough food, we got not only a picture of all the grand kids together, but one of everyone(I haven't seen it yet, but I hear it turned out) and we received a lot of nice gifts.

Micah is modeling his new mittens, hat and scarf that Aunt Megan made for him. She also made some for Isaiah and she made Olivia a skirt, hat and poncho. I'm not sure when she did all of that with a newborn and three other kids 6 and under!

Randy's brother Jake and our new nephew Jairden.

With all those boys, there's always a wrestling match. Pretty soon Randy's going to have to take them one on one, instead of four against one.

Christmas in Rochester

2009-01-05T18:37:00.003-06:00

None of my kids were overly excited about their Santa gifts. I think Isaiah like Micah's batman helicopter better than his Light Sketcher. Oh well, what can you do?

Olivia didn't have much of a reaction to her doll at all. I thought she'd be more excited. She likes it, but she doesn't love it.

Micah liked his batman helicopter and his spider man slippers a lot. My mom and dad also gave him a batman costume which he REALLY likes.

Christmas night, after my brother and his family arrived, all the grand kids opened presents from grandma and grandpa.

We had a fun visit with my family. We were going to leave on Monday, but stayed until Tuesday because we just having too much fun. I played a lot of games. Actually, I played one game(Carcassonne) a lot of times and a couple other games once. I was sick the first couple of days we were there. None of the tasty treats sounded good at all. I thought I would probably lose weight instead of gain, but once I was feeling better I made up for the lost days. My sister had baked a bunch and Susi's(their foreign exchange student) parents had sent a bunch of chocolates from Germany.

When we were on our way to Rochester, Isaiah wanted to know what a sign in the cities said. They were going to be enforcing DWI's through the new year. Randy told him, "That means you can't drive after you've been drinking beer, because it makes you crazy." Awhile later we stopped for a bathroom break. Randy asked if I could drive. Isaiah asked what we were doing. "Mommy's going to drive now." Randy told him. "Why?" Isaiah asked. "Because she's crazy(not real sure why he said that). Randy told him. "Does that mean she's been drinking beer?"

Christmas Program

2008-12-22T10:10:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, before the Christmas program at church, Olivia had put on Grandma's headband, in such a way that her hair was sticking up crazy in the front. She also had a toothpick in her mouth and said she was "smoking." She wanted to keep the headband in and bring the toothpick. A smoking angel... sounds like the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. She said to Grandma, "If you see an angel with hair sticking up, that's me!"

Christmas Baking

2008-12-22T10:03:00.000-06:00

Christmas baking, which wasn't really baking. We made all kinds of things that don't require baking. I saw these cute reindeer cookies in a magazine while Olivia was at the dentist(she has 4 more cavities). We also made, almond bark pretzels, peanut butter balls, chocolate covered peanuts and fudge. I'm thinking about attempting sugar cookies today. I don't have a lot of patience, when cooking with three children, so we'll see how it goes.

White eggs with oaks

2008-12-22T09:45:00.004-06:00

Saturday morning the kids wanted eggs for breakfast. Olivia says, "I want the white egg(over easy)." Isaiah says, "I want a hashbrown and easy over egg and toast with butter jelly(apple butter jelly)." Later when they're eating their eggs, Olivia says to Isaiah, "If the oak(yolk)tastes bad eat some of the white stuff with it."

That same morning, Isaiah also said, "Instruction paper" for construction paper and "department" for apartment.

Isaiah has been wanting to destroy something the last few days. He wanted Randy to save the egg carton for him. So, later Isaiah and Olivia are both trying to cut(with children's scissors) the egg carton apart. Randy says, "I'm afraid someones going to cut their head off." Micah looked little concerned. He put his hand on Randy's arm, and said quietly, "Would that hurt?"

Olivia likes to sing a lot. Isaiah often says, "Stop! You're giving me a head ache." Olivia was singing away in the van the other night and Isaiah said jokingly, "Go do that in your room. We should have brought the house."

Picture Perfect

2008-12-22T09:43:00.001-06:00

I brought Olivia in to get a haircut on Friday. She wants to grow it out and have a long ponytail like her cousin Emma. We needed to trim it up..I think most of the super short spots she cut are grown out. While she was getting her cut, I told her I had a new Christmas dress for her. She was pretty excited. On the way home she asked, "Where did you get it?" "I bought it at the store," I told her. "When?" she asked. "Oh, a long time ago." "Was I still in your tummy?" she asked. I like to plan ahead, but not quite that far. When we got home she wanted to try on her dress. I asked if she wanted me to take her picture by the tree. Which, of course, she did. Micah was just sitting there watching. When I was done taking her picture, Micah jumped up, grabbed his dump truck and stood by the tree. "Take my picture standing in my dump truck!" he said.

In sickness and in health

2008-12-22T09:24:00.002-06:00

I think we are finally all well. We had a long two weeks of illness. It started with Micah having a fever for a couple of days. I got a cold, which wouldn't go away. Olivia woke up one night puking. Randy got the runs the next day. I finally went to the doctor last Thursday because I thought I had a sinus infection...which I did. In the last two weeks Randy worked 40 hours and took 40 hours of sick time! We are so thankful for his job at TDS(benefits,steady income). There are a lot of people just at our own church who are really struggle financially right now. Lots of builders are out of work. We feel very blessed.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

2008-12-13T17:36:00.003-06:00

Semi-sweet, unsweetened, what's the difference? I saw some things I wanted to try making in a Kraft foods magazine. On my shopping list I just wrote baker's chocolate. I actually didn't know there were different kinds of bakers chocolate. So, I saw some baker's chocolate and grabbed it. Last night, I made some fudge, with my chocolate. Then Randy and I were in the middle of making truffles, with my chocolate, and he, after trying the filling, said, "These are going to gross dipped in that chocolate." He then looks at the box of chocolate and says to me, "You bought unsweetened chocolate." I was thinking, "Yeah, that's what baker's chocolate is." Well, it's not. Randy dumped a ton of sugar and almond flavoring in the filling mixture and then we melted some milk chocolate chips to dip them in. Let's just say it wasn't working out so well for us. (We tried some today and they actually don't taste too bad. Although, I have a rotten cold and can't taste too much.) After that we made some white chocolate rapsberry bars, which thankfully turned out. I was having my Creative Memories Open House today and needed a treat for my ladies.

Isaiah was sitting on the couch looking at his feet and said, "I have a bunch...oh mom...I'm turning into a daddy!" He has some hair on his feet.

I don't like that kind

2008-12-08T16:11:00.002-06:00

Over Thanksgiving weekend we kept ourselves pretty busy. We spent Thanksgiving day with Randy's parents. We all went to the light show in Brainerd. I took a couple of pictures while we were driving through. Friday night we went to Nisswa(small town about 10 miles from here) to watch fireworks. Saturday morning we went to the bakery in Nisswa and then back to Pequot to see Santa.

Micah as been coming out of his room Several times each night. Randy gives him a spanking each time. He just doesn't seem to be getting it. So, the other night, after two or three spankings we tried something new...vinegar. I thought about grabbing the camera, but I didn't. I wish I would have. Believe it or not, he came out again. So, Randy said, "you get another drink." Last night same thing. Randy set him up on the counter to give him vinegar. When Micah saw the bottle he said, "I don't like that kind." After his second round of vinegar, he said while crying, "I want to stay in my crib now."

We were painting at the church this weekend and had the children along(stressful). Randy was bending over pouring paint and Micah said, "Daddy, you have a big butt like Mama. I have a little tiny butt."

Olivia was helping me fold some laundry. One of her shirts was stained and I was showing it to her. She said, "Well, maybe you can unstain it."

We were all getting ready to go outside yesterday and Randy had on some long johns. Olivia looked at him and said, "Are you wearing tights?!"

Isaiah decided the other night that he wanted to write a book. So I helped him staple some pages together. He got his title page done.

I swallowed it some more

2008-11-24T18:04:00.002-06:00

Would you like some coffee?

2008-11-22T14:37:00.001-06:00

My brother and sister-in-law gave this cute Espresso Cafe to Isaiah and Olivia for their birthdays. My brother dropped it off this morning on his way to the cities. They've been playing with it ever since. They just asked me(as I was typing this) if they could sleep in it tonight!

Fun Night

2008-11-22T14:34:00.002-06:00

Randy brought the kids to a Fall Fun Night at the school. They had a great time. The cotton candy was their favorite. Daddy let them have 2 cotton candies apiece! They also eat Little Debbies from the cake walk. They were rather sugared up when they got home AFTER 9:00. They are usually in bed by 8:00.

Can you bring the turkey?

2008-11-21T15:59:00.006-06:00

Micah has become attached to these sunglasses. It's hard not to laugh when he walks into the room wearing them. He leaves them on for a LONG time too. He watched a movie with them on and fell asleep on the floor still wearing them.

Isaiah has had a loose tooth for about a month. The last couple of days, I've just wanted to yank it out. Wednesday night before bed, he showed it to me. It didn't even look like it was attached. He came in our room about 4:00 am to tell us his tooth fell out. Luckily, he didn't swallow it.

Thursday, Olivia had a toy phone and she was pretending to be Aunt Kristi calling me. "Hi Nikki, this is Aunt Kristi. We were wondering if you guys wanted to come to our house for Thanksgiving? I didn't know if I'd have to leave a message or what. Do you want to come to our house? We didn't know who else to ask." "Sure, we can come. Do you want us to bring something?" I asked. "Um..you could bring some turkey." she answered. "Okay. What time should we come?" I asked. "Ten o'clock" she said. "On Thanksgiving day?" I asked. "Yeah. Actually, you could come today. Bring the kids, because Mackenzie and Isaak will be so excited to play with them." she said. You would have to of been there to see her body language and hear her talking...it was super funny and cute!

Cake, Cake and More Cake

2008-11-14T14:04:00.005-06:00

The morning of Isaiah's birthday(4th), I made cupcakes to bring into school. I should have known better...snacks have to be store bought. So, after baking and frosting the cupcakes, driving to school, and walking to the end of the school to Isaiah's classroom with Olivia and Micah, I was told they can't have any homemade snacks. So, after storytime, we went to the grocery store and bought some Little Debbies and did the whole thing all over. The kids loved them and we got to have cupcakes that night when Grandma and Grandpa came over for supper.

On Thursday(6th), we celebrated Olivia's birthday at our weekly play date. The little girls dressed up like princesses and we made a castle cake.

Friday night(7th), Isaiah had a birthday party with friends from school. We used the gym at a church here in town, which worked out great. Isaiah wanted a costume party, that's why all the kids are in costumes. He picked out a dragon cake for us to make. They played musical chairs, ate pizza, ran around, ate cake and ice cream, opened presents and hit a pinata.

Saturday(8th), we had pictures taken(again)at Sears. Then headed to a friend's birthday party, where we ate more cake.

On Olivia's birthday(11th), we were caked out. We made monster cookies instead. Grandma and Grandpa came over again for supper.

A Couple of Quick Funnies

2008-11-14T13:34:00.002-06:00

If we sing a song the kids don't know, they'll ask, "Where did you get that song?" On the way to Brainerd on day we were listening to a kids worship cd. I heard Olivia kind of singing along. After a couple of songs she asks me, "Did you hear me getting some new songs back here?"

Randy asked Micah on day, "Do you pee in the potty?" "No." Micah said. So Randy asked, "Why not?" "My penis doesn't work." was Micah's reply. "It doesn't?" R asked. "No, it doesn't!" M said.

Micah says a few words pretty funny:
computer = pacuter
popcorn = copcorn
airplane = hairplane
elephant = elephelent
pajamas = tujamas
gorilla = gogrilla

Halloween

2008-11-14T13:33:00.000-06:00

On Halloween day, Olivia, Micah and I went to a nursing home in Brainerd to visit a friend's grandma. We rushed back to Pequot just in time to watch the costume parade at Isaiah's school. The kids were super excited to out trick-or-treating that night. We had only gone to like 3 houses and Olivia said, "I want to go to one more." I think she thought we're going to head home and she didn't want to yet. She ended up saying that a few more times. Micah was a pirate, it's hard to tell, he didn't wear much of his costume. He did however walk around with that look on his saying, "Arrgh, I'm a pirate."

Linebacker

2008-10-27T18:48:00.000-05:00

Is this how picture taking goes for everyone with small children or is it just me?

An airplane flew by and the picture actually turned out cute.

I don't remember having as many problems, in the past as we did this year, trying to take a family fall picture. It kept raining, people wouldn't cooperate, it got dark to early and our camera wasn't working right. Our neighbor came over to take a picture for us one night and our camera kept shutting off. Randy changed the batteries but it still wasn't working. Our neighbor got her camera and got a half way decent picture (better than any others we had tried).

Isaiah came home from school one day rather excited. I was waiting at the door for him and before he was inside he said, "I got to be linebacker today!" "Oh. Did you play football in gym class today?" I asked. He looked at me kind of confused and said, "No, I was the last kid in line. Skylar was the line leader."

I was helping Olivia in the bathroom and she says to me, "Sometimes my poop doesn't want to come out. I have to do this (pushing). I squeeze my whole body to get my food to go down to my butt so it can go in the potty."

I tried a new recipe tonight for supper. None of the kids liked it. Isaiah said, "There's good things in it, but they don't taste good together." "It doesn't seem like a supper food does it?" Randy said. "No", Isaiah said. "It taste like pie or pudding or..." Randy was saying and Isaiah finished for him by saying, "Slop." Randy and I just started laughing.

Micah doesn't call things "big" instead he says "A daddy one". It's pretty cute. He says it about everything: different sized beads on my necklace, four wheelers, pumpkins, trucks...

Last night we carved pumpkins. I should say Randy carved a pumpkin while the kids and I made a potato head pumpkin. They turned out pretty good. My camera still isn't working right. I took some better pictures with my phone but can't figure out how to get them on the computer right now.

Memory Lane

2008-10-23T17:52:00.001-05:00

Future Stylist

2008-10-08T13:52:00.000-05:00

Micah is extremely entertaining. It seems like he's always doing or saying something that makes us laugh. Most of the time, it's not what he says that's funny, but how he says it. He's been using the word "probably" for quite awhile and last week he started saying "actually"(he uses them right!). After watching the Candy Land movie, he was walking around singing "we got to have fun", while clapping his hands. He often says, "Oopsy daisy, Micah's crazy." (from a Toby Mac song) He repeats a lot of things. Randy has him saying, "Hey Moochacho."

I love fall. I could take pictures everyday. My kids suddenly like getting their pictures taken. They tell me, "You should take a picture of us" and "This would be a cute picture."

This is Randy's brother and his kids. Last Saturday we decided to go hiking on a trail near our house. As we were getting out of the van, Jake pulled in. Kind of weird...you would have thought we planned to meet there.

Speaking of picture taking, I was planning to bring the kids into Sears this weekend. I would have done it last weekend, but I was waiting for a cut on Micah's face to go away. Olivia may have changed my plans now. Monday, while I was making supper, she comes in the kitchen and says, "I need some scissors to cut some paper in my room." I said, "No. The scissors stay in the kitchen." (her and Isaiah recently gave several Barbies haircuts) "Okay" she said. I thought, "That was easy." I finished up what I was doing and went to find her about 5-10 minutes later. She was in the bathroom with the door locked. Red flag! I heard water running so I thought maybe she was getting her hair a little wet. She had been getting water on her hand from the bath tub and putting it on her head earlier. I unlocked the door and found her sitting on the sink cutting her hair while looking in the mirror. She was using a pair of hair cutting scissors we keep in the bathroom.

I brought her into the salon Tuesday morning.

She's been getting into all kinds of things lately. I discovered she likes to stash things in her closet. The other day I found a little thing of lipstick, batteries for the car alarm thing, ribbon from my closet and little bottle of perfume. I feel like I have two 2 year olds! I told Randy I need surveillance cameras...I can't keep an eye on them every second.

I Was Tagged (twice)

2008-10-02T13:42:00.000-05:00

Actually, I've been tagged three times, twice for one game. So, technically I think I'm out.

I was tagged by Kristi and Sarah (for this one)

Attached or Single? Attached to Randy for 11+ years!

Cake or Pie? Cake

Day of Choice? Saturdays.

Essential Item? Sad, but the only thing that comes to mind is a 30% coupon to Kohl's

Flavor of Ice Cream? Toasted Almond Fudge

Hometown? Bemidji, MN

Indulgences? Sale racks, hot chocolate and as of late "Lost"

January or July? July.

Kids? Isaiah (nearly 6) Olivia (nearly 4) Micah (2)

Middle Name? Kathleen

Number of Siblings? I'm the youngest of three

Oranges or Apples? Apples (honey crisp)

Phobia or Fear? Being Abducted

Favorite Quote? "Surely I could hold up to a millipede bite."

Reason to Smile? The same three things that drive me crazy...my kids.

Season? Fall

Unknown Fact About Me? If I told you it wouldn't been unknown anymore

Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals? Neither

Worst Habit? Procrastinating.

Xrays or Ultrasounds? Ultrasounds, because I've only had them when I've been pregnant

Your favorite Food? Taco Pizza

What is your sign? I don't remember and don't feel like looking it up.

The Farm

2008-09-29T13:39:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, we went down to Brainerd, to a place called The Farm on St. Mathias(it's on St. Mathias road). They had a big corn maze that we wandered around in for quite awhile. In the middle of it there was a big slide with potato sacks to ride down on. Throughout the maze there were scissors that cut different patterns. The kids each had a piece of paper to cut to show how many of the scissors we found. They all got a sucker as a prize. We rode on a wagon pulled by a tractor down to the pumpkin patch. Isaiah and Olivia both picked out pumpkins. The kids had a lot of fun. I'm sure we'll have to do this again next year.

Isaiah's First Day of School

2008-09-25T13:59:00.000-05:00

Randy and I brought Isaiah into the elementary school on Tuesday to get him registered for kindergarten. We went and looked at his classroom and met his teacher. Isaiah wanted to keep looking around the school and wanted to stay there the rest of the day. Wednesday morning he got up just before 6:00 to go to the bathroom and asked me if it was almost morning. He got up just after 7:00 and came into the kitchen and asked if he had missed the bus. He was very excited to go! He went and got dressed right away, which he usually doesn't do without being asked.

When the bus came, he just got right on and I don't think he even looked back. After the bus left Olivia and Micah both kind of started to cry. Micah said, "I want to go Isaiah, Daddy." Awhile later in the house Olivia got teared up again and said, "I want to play with Isaiah." The rest of the day Micah and Olivia fought or took turns being naughty. I didn't really miss Isaiah to be honest...the other two were plenty.

Isaiah had a fun day. I had to keep asking him questions to find out what he did. They have a garden at school and yesterday they had a pumpkin sale, so I sent some money with Isaiah and he brought home two little pumpkins. He made some friends but couldn't remember too many names. About 20 minutes after he was home he said he wanted to go back to school. He was just as excited this morning as he was yesterday. I hope that doesn't wear off to soon. I feel really good about our decision. I asked God for peace about it and he answered my prayer.

Yesterday, before Isaiah was up, Micah put on Isaiah's shoes and wanted to wear his backpack. Later in the morning when we were leaving to go to a friend's house, Micah wanted to follow the bus. I tried to tell him Isaiah was at school already, but he said it a few more times.

Olivia has been waiting to jump in the leaves for a couple of weeks. Yesterday I raked up the few that had fallen from our maple tree for her.

Family Day

2008-09-21T13:58:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was a family day for us. We're usually all together on Saturdays, but often run to Brainerd for groceries and diapers. We were home all day yesterday. I did some cleaning in the morning, but the rest of the day was very relaxing. I read on my sister's blog that they were going to play games this weekend and I thought that sounded fun. We ended playing a few games ourselves. I guess Candy Land, Pretty Pretty Princess and Guess Who are our options in this stage in life. Randy, Micah and I took a nap while Isaiah and Olivia watched a movie. We cooked hot dogs over the campfire for supper and later for dessert we made apple pies over the fire.

My mom and Dad were here visiting last weekend and my mom was talking to Isaiah about school. She said to Micah, "Maybe you can go to pre-school." He looked at her a moment and said, "I probably go to baby school", then busted out laughing.

Our kids often(need to work on that consistently) get vinegar for lying. The kids and I were at the grocery store and I said, "Oh, I need to get some more vinegar." Olivia said, "But I won't lie anymore, Mom." I told her I needed it for other things too.

Micah was interested in taking a nap the other day and I wasn't real interested in fighting with him. I had put him down for a nap and was outside for a few minutes. When I came back in he was on the couch watching a movie with Isaiah. I said, "Micah, you're supposed to in bed." "No. I supposed to watch a movie!" I went in the kitchen for less than two minutes and when I looked back in the living room Micah was asleep on the couch!

The last few days Micah has been saying everything tastes like root beer. Today he said sauerkraut tasted like root beer and the other night his bubble gum toothpaste tasted like root beer. Randy was making pancakes with the kids this week and they thought the almond extract smelled like root beer...so I guess that's where Micah got it from.

Out of the blue this week, Isaiah said, "When you die there's a golden path and a black path. If you want to be in heaven you go on the golden path. If you go on the black path you go to hell and can never get out." I asked him if they had talked about that in Sunday School, but he said no.

Micah is 2!

2008-08-27T14:01:00.000-05:00

Isaiah and Olivia were pretty excited to help decorate Micah's cake. They ate so much frosting, m&m's, gummy bears, malted milk balls and licorice I thought they were going to be ill. They loved it, especially Olivia, who is going to the dentist next week to get two fillings!

Here's what Micah was doing while we were decorating his cake. He climbed out of his crib, but couldn't get the door open, so he took his nap on Isaiah's bed. Looks like he might need to see the chiropractor!

The finished product. We thought it turned out pretty cute. Micah kept wanting to look at it after he woke up.

The birthday boy enjoying his cake.

One quick funny story. This morning, Micah was upset with Olivia about something. He was pretending to scoop something off the couch as he said, "I will throw some dirt at you!"

Cheap Vacation

2008-08-19T21:11:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we went to the cities with are friends Brent and Sarah. Saturday we went to Como Zoo(which is free) and then camped over night in Brent's brother's backyard(free). Sunday morning we went to the children's museum(which is free on the third Sunday of the month). We had a good time. The kids really love going to the children's museum. We could easily spend the whole day there.

We had just been looking at the tortoise and walked away and saw a statue of a turtle that kids were sitting on and Olivia said, "One of the turtles out got."

When we were getting into the tent Saturday night the crickets were really loud. Isaiah said, "Don't the crickets know we're trying to get some sleep?" "No," I said laughing. "Would you?" he asked me. "If I were a cricket?" I clarified. "Yes." "No. I would be just as clue less as them," I said. After a short pause he said, "Then I wouldn't have a mom."

A few pictures from the weekend.

On the weekend, Randy has been outside with the kids in the morning. A couple of times he found Micah here.

Playing in the sandbox with the tarp still on!

Mama, you should look in the mirror

2008-08-19T20:43:00.000-05:00

We were using the bathroom(outhouse) at the beach recently. Isaiah had a few minutes to make some observations while going to the bathroom. "This floor looks really old. They should put in a nice shiny rock floor. They should paint these walls and doors too. Don't you think that would look nice? Why can't they think of that?!" Isaiah is really into coloring, drawing, colors, decorating etc.

When we were driving home and the sun was setting, Isaiah says, "When the sun goes down it looks like it goes behind the grass. What really happens to it? Does God take it up to heaven?"

I have thought about trying to sale my wedding dress a hand full of times over the last 11 years. Just before our garage sale I was thinking about it again. So, I got it out and decided to try it on. I got into it, but couldn't zip it up all the way in the back. (Olivia offered to help and when I told her no she said she could stand on her bed and do it. I had to tell her the problem wasn't that I couldn't reach, but that it just didn't fit.) When the kids saw me they were excited and wanted to know where I got the dress and what I was doing in it. Micah said, "Mama, you should look in the mirror." Isaiah didn't want me to sell it. He said, "I think you should save this stuff so Maren can wear it when we get married."

The kids were talking about what they wanted to be on the way to the beach. My neighbor was with and said she wanted to be a race car driver, so everyone wanted to be that too, except Isaiah. I said maybe he could work on the cars. He wasn't interested in that and said, "I don't know what I want to be." "You could be a pizza eater," Olivia suggested. Isaiah didn't like that idea either, "Olivia! That's not a job."

Olivia and I were out shopping at Kohl's and I decided to try on some bras. Not something I really wanted to do with a child along, but I really wanted a new one. She seemed to be in her own world in the fitting room until she said to me, "What are those things on your..stomach." "Breasts," I said hoping that would be the end of it, but knowing I wouldn't get off that easy. "But...well..how come they don't stay up?"

On this same shopping trip, Olivia said out of the blue, "I'm Curious George. No, I'm Curious George's sister." When I asked what her name was I was surprised when she said, "Georgia."

We got a picture of another babe while we were picnicing in Crosslake. This is Babe the Bluegill.

Yes, I'm alive!

2008-08-13T15:12:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure where to begin. Randy has been back from Alaska for 2 1/2 weeks already. The ten days he was gone went surprisingly well and quite quickly. The worst time was 7pm-8pm each night. I hate getting the kids ready for bed even when Randy is here. I really HATE getting them to bed by myself. Everyone is tired and I get impatient because I can sense the freedom that's coming as soon as they are in bed. Randy had a good time and his team got a lot done.

The kids have said some pretty funny things over the last few weeks. I tried to scribble them done so when I got a chance I could blog them. We had a garage sale last Thursday and Friday, so I've been busy getting ready for that. We had a great sale..just over $460 for us and about $1020 for everyone together.

When Olivia was going potty I was waiting for her to be done so I could wipe her. She says to me, "Mommy, when you hear a splash that's my poop."

My brother's little girl Elle said that Micah was cute. I asked Micah, "Are you cute?" "No. You're cute Momma."

Isaiah was asking what our clothes were made of and said a lot of them were made of cotton. He mentioned wool and Olivia said, "Well, my blanket is made out of fuzz." This is probably funnier if you know a couple of things about Olivia and her blanket. She sits and picks fuzz from her knitted blanket all the time. She hurt her thumb one day and Randy asked if it was the thumb she sucked on and she said, "No, it's my fuzz thumb." There are little purple fuzz balls all over my house ALL the time. She also says fuzz more like puzz.

Isaiah was sitting on my lap and Micah came over and tired to push him off and said, "Get off of my mommy!"

Micah is constantly telling us which way to go when we're driving. He'll say, "I want to go that way! Go that way momma!"

I typed this up a few days ago. I was going to add more but didn't get a chance yet. Maybe later today.

The Last Supper

2008-07-17T13:57:00.000-05:00

Last night we wanted to do something fun as a family since Randy is going to be gone 10 days. I decided early in the day that we would be going out to eat. We ended up picking up some pizzas and having a picnic by our own Babe here in Pequot. We saw our neighbor riding bike and yelled to her. She stopped to say hi and said, "What's this...the last supper?" I thinking about that later and thought I'm not going to be crucified but I am going to be tortured. (I think anyway. I figure if I expect the worse I may be pleasantly surprised.)

"A View of Blue"

"Fanny Paul Bunyan's Caddy"

Couple of quick funny things the kids said.

It was raining pretty hard and Micah was looking out the window and said, "Road take a bath."

Micah hasn't been really liking the idea of Randy leaving. The other day they saw an airplane and Randy told Micah, "Daddy's going to go bye bye on an airplane." Micah says, "Micah too." "No, just Daddy." After a pause, Micah says, "Why Daddy?" Randy was telling him again last night that he was leaving. Micah says, "Micah go bye bye too." After Randy told him, "Just Daddy," he said, "Just Micah." Randy usually gets him out of his crib in the morning. When I went to get him this morning he started fussing and kicking around and said, "No, Daddy!" I think 10 days is going to be really tough on him...all of us.

Olivia picked some berries(she was calling them crab apples) of some kind off a tree. She said, "This are my crab apples. I'm going to feed them to the crabs at the beach."

Olivia burped pretty much in my face last night. After I said, "Gross! That smells like cantaloupe," she said, "What, my burp? The cantaloupe must have given me that burp!"

Isaiah asked what I was doing the other day. I told him I was marinating some chicken for supper. "Oh, will it turn into steak then?"

More Babes

2008-07-12T21:47:00.000-05:00

We decided to make a couple Babe stops on our way to Grandma's this afternoon. Unfortunately it was crazy windy!

"Babe's Banks is Best"

"Scuba Ox"

"Ox in Sox"

"King of the Lakes"

"Oxygen"

"Jackson PollOx"

"Jaycee the Ox"

"Another Day & Night in Paradise"

Holy Pop Cans!

2008-07-12T21:33:00.000-05:00

Randy has been collecting pop cans for almost two years. All the guys at work put their cans in a box by Randy's desk and some of them have brought him bags from home. I don't think any of the cans were ours. One corner of our garage was covered with bags of cans. We missed the last time they were giving $.90 a pound. Randy was ready to get rid of them even if the price was low. He called this morning and the guy said today was the last day for $.90 a pound...if you have over 100 pounds (which we knew we did) and if they were crushed. Well almost half were crushed. It was already 9:30 and the place was closing at 12:00 so we had to get busy. We started dumping bags of cans out in the driveway and crushing them. Pretty soon our neighbor Terri came over and started to help and a little later her daughter Brittany came to help also. We got them all crushed and bagged and loaded to go by 11:00. We never would have been able to do it without Terri and Brittany's help. We ended up having 270 pounds! Randy got $240! Randy is going to Alaska in a few days on a missions trip so this money is a huge blessing to help pay for that.

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Block Party

2008-07-10T13:32:00.000-05:00

The kids had a great time at the block party last night. I think their favorite thing was the cotton candy(I didn't mind it either).

Here's Isaiah trying to throw the toilet paper in the hole. All three of the kids tried this and got to pick out a pair of sunglasses for a prize. The sunglasses Micah and Isaiah picked out cover most of their faces.

Olivia caught a little doll at the fishing pond. They played some other games, but I was having a hard time taking pictures and helping them all. Randy was helping run the dunk tank for the first hour...so he wasn't any help.

Busy, Busy!

2008-07-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

We had a busy 4th of July weekend. It started Thursday night. Grandma and Grandpa Loukota came over and we walked up to the school for a little carnival. After the carnival we went home and had a campfire and smores while we waited for the fireworks to start. Grandma and Grandpa stayed over night in our yard(in their camper). We said they could stay in the house, but Grandma hasn't been camping for a couple of weeks and needed her fix.

Isaiah wanted to try this game. After watching quite a few kids try I didn't think it was worth it. They had to try to catapult a plastic bug or spider into the frog's mouth. No one did it. It looked impossible. He got a piece of candy for trying.

We stood in line forever for Olivia to get her hair beaded. She looked dead serious...I couldn't get her to smile.

Friday morning before the parade(11:00am)Randy made us pancakes for breakfast. I ran to the store to get a few things for lunch. We invited a couple of friends to sit with us at the parade and then over for lunch afterward. It seemed like we had to wait forever for the parade to start. That's probably because our kids were falling apart. I'm not sure letting them stay up to watch fireworks was the best idea. They were in bed close to 11:00pm and Micah was up at 6:15! The other two weren't far behind.

The kids were getting kind of antsy waiting. I wanted it to start so they could get some candy. I knew everything would be fine once the candy started coming and it was.

When we saw the parade headed up the street, Olivia said, "Here comes the candy!"

Micah and Hunter were covering one ear (they had candy in the other) and yelling, "Too loud!" as the firetrucks went by.

We were invited over to some friends house at 4:00 for a birthday party for their little boy. So, after our lunch get together we picked up and headed to another party. Randy had a blast playing ultimate Frisbee, the kids liked hiking on a path around the property and Sarah and I played a rousing game of Badminton. Erin even had some sparklers for the kids, which was a hit.

Saturday morning the kids slept in. Hallelujah! We took it pretty easy in the morning, but still made it Grandma and Grandpa's at about 11:00 for a visit and lunch. Randy's brother and his family were there also. Isaiah had decided to let Sunset (the turtle) go. I think because he wanted a fish. Grandma and Grandpa have a pond behind their house so we brought Sunset with. After Isaiah let him go we watched him swim around until we couldn't see him anymore. As Isaiah and I head up to the house I said, "He's going to be so happy there." Isaiah said, "I'm not so happy anymore." I thought he was going to start crying but he didn't. Olivia on the other hand ended up bawling.

After we left Grandma and Grandpa's we went to Walmart and bought a fish and a bunch of junk to go with it (tank, food, plant, rocks, cleaner). Two days later Nemo died. They took it pretty well. Isaiah wanted to bury him. So Randy buried him in the garden and they marked his grave with a flag from the parade. Now we'll have to get another fish because we bought all that junk!

Sunday after church we packed a picnic lunch and headed to the beach for a few hours. It was definitely a busy weekend, but we had a great time! The kids were disappointed Sunday night when I told them we were just staying the next day.

Pirate at Burger King

2008-07-02T21:22:00.000-05:00

We got the boys' room painted over a month ago and last night we finally hung up some decorations. I found some things when we were in Rochester this last weekend. Isaiah was pretty excited to decorate his room.

On the way to Rochester we stopped to eat supper at Burger King. We saw a couple ride up on a motorcycle and they came in and were ordering. A minute later three guys came in all dressed in camo. Randy told the kids they were soldiers. Isaiah said, "Three soldiers! There's a pirate here too!" The guy from the motorcycle had a on bandanna(apparently that made him a pirate).

At church during fellowship time Isaiah said to me, "I saw a guy who works for Santa! He has a big white beard!"

Micah was pretending to be a baby last week when he was playing with Isaiah. It was so funny to watch. He wasn't talking at all for about 5 minutes, which is strange. He was just making babyish sounds. After a few minutes he even said "Goo goo ga ga."

Olivia raided my necklaces recently. She came downstairs wearing my medical alert necklace(I'm allergic to penicillin). I had to laugh...out of all the cute necklaces she could have picked she picked that one. I'm guessing because it's shiny.

When I woke up the other day Randy told Isaiah to tell me about his dream. He dreamt that his friend Jack was going out of town for 10 days. When Randy told him to tell me how that made him feel he said, "Sad." Randy told me when Isaiah was telling him about the dream he was getting all teary eyed.

Babe Hunt

2008-06-22T18:43:00.000-05:00

The other day, Randy and I decided to look for the 23 "Babes" that are located in Brainerd, Pequot Lakes and surrounding other little towns. We saw a couple of the Babes on display at the Governor's Fishing Opener...there are some pretty cool ones out there. If you write down the codes that are on the base of each ox you can mail them in and be entered into a drawing for an "exciting Brainerd Lakes vacation package." Today after church we planned to have a picnic at the dam in Pine River. Before our picnic we checked out one of the two ox in Pine River and after our picnic we looked at the other one. I had the camera along to get pictures of the kids by the river, so we thought it would be fun to take a picture of each ox we find. So here are the first two of the 23. Each ox has a different artist and sponsor.

"Windy"

"Babe the Green Ox"

"Sunset"

2008-06-21T20:33:00.000-05:00

Wow! I knew I hadn't blogged in a while but I didn't think it had been this long. These couple of weeks have been kind of busy. We got the boys' room painted(finally),scraped windows and gable ends, and painted the house. Randy's parents helped us scrape some and my parents came for an extended weekend and helped and my brother and his family came and helped for a couple of days too. I should say we helped, it felt like they did most of the work. It's hard to paint and take care of three little kids. Randy and I really appreciated all the help. Thank you again! Here are a couple pictures of the finished project.

After all our company left I did a ton of laundry. As I was pulling more clothes out of the dryer Isaiah saw my overflowing basket and said, "I think you need a couple of your friends to help you!"

The kids and I have been to lots of garage sales, although these last two weeks we've taken a break. The last time we were out Olivia bought a big box of Barbie stuff(furniture, pool, jet ski, campfire...) for $5. In the box there was a little hair drier, not for the Barbies but little girls. It didn't work and so I told Olivia we could try putting in some new batteries. We didn't have any new ones, so I took some out of another toy. The hair drier still didn't work, so I told Olivia it was broken. "No it's not. Can you find the right batteries for it?" I explained those were the right ones but the thing was just broke. She wouldn't except it. She told me a few more times it wasn't broke and she wanted me to buy new batteries. That night before bed she said, "While I'm sleeping can you look for some batteries?" When I told her again it was broken, she said "I told you ten times it's not broken!" Later when we checked on her before we went to bed, she was sleeping on her floor with the hair drier tucked under her arm! When I went to get the camera she turned on her side, but you can still it.

We've spent most of this past week outside. We were at the park three mornings and most afternoons were spent playing in our yard with the neighbors. Our next door neighbor is watching two of her cousins this summer. An 8 year old and a 3 year old(both boys). Our neighbors across the street have two boys also, a almost 5 year old and a 2 year old. The kids really enjoy having someone to play with(I don't mind it myself). Micah likes playing in the little pool. I think we might need a bigger pool though. He had a couple of big trucks in there, his lawn mower and some small sandbox toys.

Some park pictures

The kids found a baby turtle at the park last week and Isaiah really wanted to take it home. I let him. I'm feeling sorry for it now. It's been living in an ice cream bucket and I'm not sure if it's really eating anything(we've given it carrot, lettuce,grape halves). Today Randy and I told them we thought it was time to let "Sunset"(Isaiah named him Louie at first then changed his name the next day to sunset)go. They both fell apart. We'll have to talk about it again. Isaiah wants to get a little aquarium and keep him in his room. Early this week we saw a bigger turtle outside our fence digging holes looking for a place to lay eggs. Olivia said, "We should show it Sunset. It could be his mom because he doesn't have one. It wouldn't have to lay eggs."

Yesterday at the park on of the kids' friends was saying he wished it was winter. His mom told the kids he liked winter because that's when Christmas was. So, in the van today Isaiah and Olivia were saying, "I like snow. I like presents." Micah of course started copying them, but after a few rounds he decided to be his own person and said, "I like Toby Mac."

Do You Need A Hug?

2008-06-02T21:32:00.000-05:00

On the way to the park recently,Isaiah says,"I just had an idea. We should have a clean up the world party. We could ask everyone we know. We could drive all over and pick up garbage. I got that idea because I just saw some garbage back there. Do you think that's a good idea?"

Last week when I was mowing I was perspiring quite a bit. When I stopped for a water break Isaiah said, "You have water on your face." "That's not water, it's sweat," I said kind of laughing. "It is? I didn't know you could sweat that much!"

Olivia loves playing with her Barbies and dollies. She'll often ask me if I'll be her baby's Grandma. She'll then come to my house to visit. Sometimes she'll ask me to watch the baby while she goes somewhere that's just for mommies. The other day she asked me, "Can you watch my baby?" "Sure." "If she cries can you feed her? "Do you have a bottle for her?" I asked. "Do you have milk in your body?" she asked. "No." "Okay I'll get her a bottle."

She wanted me to play Barbies with her tonight. She named the Barbies Sarah and Faith after two of my friends. It was cute to hear her pretending to be them.

I brought Olivia in to get her haircut last week. Her hair is always a wreck. Sometimes she'll ask me to fix it, but then she takes it out a little while later. After the lady cut it she straightened it. On the way home I told Olivia that when we washed it it would curl up again. She said, "I don't want to take a bath." "You don't have to take one tonight, but you have to take baths." "I don't want to wash it."

Micah hit his head the other day when he was getting down from a chair in the kitchen. He was kind of fussing and rubbing his head. I was sitting right there and rubbed his head asked if he hit it on the chair. "Yeah, bonk head chair." I asked, "Do you need a hug?" "Yeah." Then he turned and gave the chair a hug!

Micah is in the independent stage. We often hear him say, "I WILL!" with a lot of attitude. I think (hope) that he is getting in his molars. He's usually pretty easy going, but the last couple of weeks he's been pretty crabby and naughty. Thankfully he still makes us laugh.

Mommy, motorcycle!

2008-05-21T13:39:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago (already) we were headed somewhere and Randy pointed out a green truck with green flames on it to Isaiah. Isaiah said, "That made my eyes light up."

Micah is infatuated with motorcycles. He's been saying motorcycle whenever he sees one, but this past weekend we went to Rochester he was really excited about them. He'd say, "Mommy, look motorcycle! Mommy, motorcycle!" He even copied Randy and made a vroom vroom sound. When we came out of church there was a motorcycle in the parking lot. "Daddy, motorcycle! Daddy, ride motorcycle!" He was pretty upset when I was trying to buckle him up in his car seat. He started shaking his head back and forth and was yelling, "Ride motorcycle." Randy and I were wondering if we let him have a ride on one if he'd get it out of his system or if he'd love them even more. I remembered this morning I had bought a motorcycle t-shirt for him last summer. I dug it out and showed it to him. He was excited to put it on. I'll have to try to get a picture of him in it when he wakes up.

Thank goodness Mackenzie and Isaak told Isaiah a couple of knock knock jokes this past weekend. At least now he can tell two funny ones mixed in with the ones he makes up. Q.Who's there? A.Who Q.Who who A.what are you an owl or something Q.Who's there A. Boo Q. Boo who A. Why are you crying.

No More Jokes Please!

2008-05-08T21:04:00.000-05:00

I found a knock knock joke book today at a garage sale. This afternoon I read some of the ones I thought Isaiah might get. I'm not sure that he got very many and the ones he did get I kind of explained. After I read some he wanted to tell some. Here are some of his. Knock Knock. Who's there? Jenna. Jenna who? Jenna monkey. Knock Knock. Who's there? Freddy. Freddy who? Freddy frog. Knock Knock. Who's there? Freddy bonked me on the nose. We have a long way to go!!

Olivia said to me this afternoon, "Mommy, I want to show you my new trick. First I need to give you some of my money to watch me." She kicks her leg out to the side and then says, "Can I have my money back now?"

Tonight I was reading Olivia a Dora the Explorer book. Dora asks, "Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go?" Olivia said, "God(I thought good she's getting it) or a nice eagle could pick us up with it's feet (then again, maybe she isn't)."

We met some friends at the park this morning. Kind of chilly for a park play date but the kids were determined to go. I think Micah was making the other mom's nervous. He thinks he can do anything. He was able to do most of it(fell once)but it was scary to watch sometimes. Olivia gave him a little push down one slide. When he got to the bottom he yelled,"Hey!" up at her and then spit at her.

Signs of Spring

2008-05-05T15:38:00.000-05:00

This morning Isaiah was excited to show me something he found in the yard. A dandelion. The first flower in our yard. Later I pointed out the buds on a tree in our yard to him. He then wanted to look around for other changes (signs of spring). We walked around the whole yard and looked at every tree, bush, and some birds. Isaiah spotted another dandelion and said, "Oh, thank heavens!"

A few different times now Isaiah and Olivia have wanted to tell jokes. The only problem is, they don't know any. Tonight at supper Isaiah says, "I want to tell a joke. When do mommy people eat crocodiles?" "I don't know. When?" Randy asked. "That's the joke," was all Isaiah said. I think tomorrow when we go to the library I should look for a kids joke book.

This morning Olivia was playing with a couple of her barbies in the kitchen. I heard her say, "Who's the boss?" "You are momma." Randy has been saying that to the kids quite a bit lately. He heard it on some program on the radio. "Who's the boss?" followed by, "When do you obey?" The correct answers are, "You are" and "Right away". Olivia can be kind of stubborn. One day she got spanked three times before she would tell Randy he was the boss!

Micah makes us laugh every day. Something he says or the way he says it is just so cute. Hard to put into writing though.

Saturday my friend Faith and I had a good laugh. We ordered some coffee and were looking around the coffee shop waiting for our orders. Faith's was done first and the lady called out, "Triple mocha something (I can't remember what she ordered). A minute later she called out my order, "Single white cow". I just looked at Faith and said, "I'm not sure I want to go get that!"

Miracle

2008-04-28T14:10:00.000-05:00

In case you didn't hear, we had a snow storm this last Saturday. I think we got about 8 inches of snow. The kids are starting to get confused about which season we're in (me too). We were out running around on Saturday and didn't get home until about 7:00pm. We had to go stand in the driveway to get a better look at the snow hanging in mid air(picture above). Isaiah thought it was pretty cool. Later, after we had been home awhile Isaiah and I were looking out the window and he said, "How does it do that, anyway?" "I don't know," I said. "It's probably a miracle. Jesus must have done that," he said. I think he is right.

I was pretty irritated that it snowed. Not only because it should be spring and raining, but also because I had just washed and put away the kid's coats, snow pants and boots. I had to dig those all out again Saturday morning. Last night Randy and our friend Brent built the kids a snowman. At least some ones enjoying the snow.

Isaiah and Olivia have been pretending a lot lately that they are having babies. They stuff dolls or stuffed animals up their shirts and then go to the hospital to have their babies. Today Isaiah said, "Oh, my baby has the hiccups. Put your hand right here." So I got to feel the babies hiccups. Later he said the same thing and then, "Put our head down here(touching his belly), listen. Burp. The baby just burped."

Olivia really seems to enjoy having her own room. I thought she might get lonely or scared being by herself, but she's not at all. I was going to wait until we had the curtain up to post pictures but I don't know when that will be. I need to paint the rod white and for some reason we can't seem to get anything done around here!

"Fishy, Daddy"

2008-04-21T21:39:00.000-05:00

I came downstairs an hour ago to add a post to my blog and instead have been reading everyone else's blogs, even someone I don't know! It has been fun reading, though. Definitely not a waste of time.

I haven't felt like I've had anything to blog this last week. My kids just haven't seemed that funny I guess, maybe having PMS has something to do with that. Who knows? Last Monday morning, everyone (yes, me too) seemed rather crabby. I had a feeling it was going to be a long day when I wished the day was over and it wasn't even 8:00am. I told Isaiah, "You seem kind of crabby today. Maybe you got up on the wrong side of the bed." His reply, "Mooom, I can only get out of my bed on one side!

Do you think this could be hereditary? I have a picture of Isaiah, sitting in the same chair, eating supper, with fingers rammed up both nostrils.

Does everyone else have normal pictures of their children? Please tell me your kids look like this on most days too!

When we got in the van after church Sunday, Isaiah said he wanted a pet. What kind? He didn't know. Olivia also decided a pet was a good idea. Micah doesn't like to be left out, so pretty soon he's whining, "Daddy, pet. Pet, Daddy." After talking a few minutes about different options, a fish seemed like a good idea to Isaiah, Olivia and yes, Micah. "Fishy, Daddy. Daddy, fishy." Randy asked where we would keep the fish. "In the grass," Olivia said. "But fish need water." "Well, we can bring it to the lake with us sometimes," she said. Then Olivia decides she wants a cat. We told them again that cats and dogs make Daddy sick (thank goodness). So, they are going to get a cat and it can live in their playhouse. "With the fish," Olivia says. "No. The cat will eat the fish," Isaiah tells her. When talking about what the fish would eat, Olivia said something about rocks(she has seen some fish tanks with pretty colored rocks). Isaiah is getting frustrated with her and says, "Olivia doesn't know anything about fish!" I'm hoping they just forget about the whole pet thing!

Nursing

2008-04-11T07:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I yelled for the kids to come get their shoes on. They yelled back, "We can't." All three of them were stuck in Micah's crib, which they've been doing this week for some reason. Isaiah said, "We nursing." Then he pulled his stuffed puppy out of his shirt and said, "I'm nursing my puppy."

Last night Randy took Isaiah's blankets away because he lied. Randy told him he could have them after supper. Isaiah was pretty distraught about it (loves his blankets and was very tired). He asked Randy (while crying) at one point, "How come I can't have them until after supper?" "To help you remember not to lie again," Randy said. Kind of yelling Isaiah said, "I remember already!"

No Way!

2008-04-06T20:22:00.000-05:00

This has been a crazy weekend. Randy and I dropped the kids off at Grandpa and Grandma Loukota's early Saturday morning, so that we could come home and paint Olivia's new room (Micah's old room). Things we going okay until Randy got called out. He's been on call this week, but I didn't really expect him to have to go out. H was only gone about an hour, but he had to run up to the office awhile later to check on something. Then he got another call right about 4:00(the customer called in at 10:00 but Randy didn't get the call until 4:00). He had to go about as far out in the Pequot exchange as possible. Which really stunk since we were planning to go out for supper with Brent and Sarah. To make it worse, Randy got all the way out to this house and said to the guy, "I heard you were having phone troubles." The guy said, "Yeah, I was but it's working now." Randy said, "I tried calling you." "Oh, I was sleeping." Very annoying. On the bright side Brent and Sarah went to Target and killed time, so we were still able to meet them at Applebee's for supper. Unfortunately, I think I had the worse meal ever at Applebee's. I wanted my steak medium well, but it looked more medium rare and it was chewy. My garlic mashed potatoes weren't overly warm and seemed quite lumpy for mashed potatoes. I did get a little strawberry cheesecake dessert that was good. I'm most disappointed that I didn't say anything to the waitress and paid for food I didn't eat. Randy got called out again after we got home with the kids. He left at about 8:15 and didn't home until 11:15. He had to go out again this morning around 7:00 to 9:00, then again from 1:00 to 4:00ish and then again about 5:30 and he's not home yet and it's 8:30. It's 8:40 now and Randy just called and said he got stuck in the snow (which we shouldn't have) and he still has to go check on another generator, so he won't be home until some where between 11-12. At least he gets paid time and a half for being called out. So, we haven't finished Olivia's room yet. This snow, that's still coming down, is also making this a not so pleasant weekend. Earlier this week we were outside playing wearing only sweatshirts. The kids aren't real happy about it either. This morning when Isaiah looked out the window he said, "I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to church." Tonight he said, "Why did God do that? I think he's being naughty."

Micah has a new saying, "No way!" When I was changing him, he said something about a baby. Olivia was in the room and said, "Are you a baby Micah?" "No way, O!" (that's what he calls Olivia). He said no way to me a couple of times but I can't remember what I had asked him.

When I was reading the kids their Bible stories tonight we talked about when Jesus will come back and we will get to go to heaven with him. Olivia said, "We can bring our toys and stuff." "No, we can't bring toys or any of our stuff with us. Everything we need will be in heaven," I said. "But I want my blanket," Isaiah said full of concern. "You won't need your blanket in heaven. It's getting really old and falling apart anyway." "Yes, I want to have my blanket." Trying to avoid a melt down, I said, "Maybe when you go heaven you'll be a grown up like Mommy and Daddy and you won't need a blanket anymore." "But Grandpa has a blanket," came his reply. (which he does for taking naps in his recliner) Olivia got me off the hook by saying, "Isaiah, maybe Jesus will give you a new blanket in heaven."

Double Pretending

2008-04-04T14:12:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week Isaiah wanted to do something with the plastic animals. So we made a museum. We put animals in Tupperware (glass displays). We even put water in one for the water animals. The next day he wanted to do something else with the animals. We made a pet store again using Tupperware. Then of course he wanted someone to buy the pets. Olivia had her Barbies out, so I used the them as customers for Isaiah's pet shop. They both thought it was a blast. I pooped out on them after an hour, but said they could keep playing. They played for probably another hour. They took turns being the pet store owner and the customers. Yesterday Isaiah was setting up the pet store again and said to me, "I'm pretending that the pig likes to eat snakes. I'm also pretending, I'm double pretending..."

Yesterday Olivia wanted to hold baby Callie. I was helping her and had the burp cloth laying there. Olivia picked up the burp cloth and said "She wants her blanket." As I was saying, "That's not her blanket," Olivia was taking it off and had a grossed out look on her face. She said, "I got burp on me."

Today, when we were over at Sarah's, Olivia was in the living room with baby Callie and I couldn't see them very well. Callie was fussing (just a tiny bit). Callie stopped fussing and Olivia said, "I think she needed a kiss." I asked if she kissed her and she nodded yes.

Last night when we were getting the kids ready for bed Randy said something about Kidstuff (Wednesday night church for the kids) and Micah started singing na, na, na, na goodbye. Every week the closing song at Kidstuff is that song, na, na, na, na, na, na,na, na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye. I was surprised that he knew what Kidstuff was and that he put the song with it.

Isaiah's Occupation

2008-03-29T21:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday,Isaiah, was pretending to be a teacher and wanted Olivia and I sit down in the living room. He started out by saying, "Today we are going to learn about space. Not just any kind of space. Magic School Bus space." (If you're not familiar with the Magic School Bus, there are books and movies about this fun teacher, Mrs. Frizzle, and her class. She is always wearing something that has to do with whatever they are going to be learning about. Like she might have on nest earrings and a skirt with birds all over it. The class always goes on a field trip in the Magic School Bus, which changes into whatever they are learning about.) He then went on to show us some things they (whoever that is) gave him from space. He also said something about changing clothes. He went to change for a new day of school. When he came back he asked us, "Do you know why I'm wearing this color (blue) and wearing this feathery thing?" I asked, "Are we going to talk about birds?" "Yes, we are." He then went on to talk about some different birds. It was hard not to laugh! Randy got some video today of Isaiah being a teacher.

Randy got some video today of Isaiah being a teacher.

What Is Normal?

2008-03-20T14:57:00.001-05:00

Last night I picked up the camera to see what pictures were on it, if any. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw these.

Out of the 8 pictures on the camera only one was "normal", then again maybe these are normal and that one is strange.