A few pics

We had a wonderful Christmas. They were all eager for Christmas morning this year. The first pic is them waiting on the stairs for us to get everything ready for the morning to begin.

Really cool gear!

To fully understand this post you must know that the kids love to camp and that despite their repeated pleas we have not gone the bunk bed route (one broken arm this year was enough).

We got the bigger tent this year, and then they grew. They no longer can sleep on the kindergarten mats and be comfortable. Add 6 cots and suddenly our big tent hmmm...not so big. We hoped to find a deal on some off season kid sized cot gear so we can sleep well and all still fit in one tent. Little did I know I would stumble upon what my kids will likely term the "coolest cots ever." We are all camp gear junkies so I know I am in trouble. I blame it on Tim's hike, but its true. We will pay for cool quality gear when it comes to doing things outdoors. Did someone say coats? I am not up for admitting to that one on here yet. So when the rest of the crew sees this I am guessing they may have me watching for the next big Cabela's sale. Bunk beds AND camping combined...could life get any better than that?? Too cool, oh how tempted I am.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Here's a picture of us enjoying our meal today. Laurel and Matthew are growing up. I had lots of help today!

Handy People

We are not handy. God did not bless us with the skill set to be fix-it people. We try because we want to be handy, but it usually doesn't work out. The usual scenerio in our home when something breaks is that we look at one another in fear. I immediately think oh, no we are going to have to get someone to fix it. Tim saying "You are going to have to call someone" strikes fear in my heart. Yes, its money, yes its time, but its more than that. Its the "who are we going to get?" problem. Who will actually show up and fix it? This is why we decided to buy a new home when we moved...ha, ha, but that is a whole other post. So this week it was the dishwasher. A strange moaning sound has begun. I mentioned it to Tim yesterday. He heard it last night. "Oh, that sounds bad. I think you might have to call someone" - yikes. Today he did a little online research. We had dinner tonight and he says I think we should try a couple of things before we call the appliance people. We bought some cleaner at Lowes and ran it through the machine. No luck. Tim checked for leaks and found none. "Probably time to call someone" he says. Yikes again. I resorted to the internet myself, hoping that just maybe I could find something. Tim had learned that the "food chopper" in most new machines caused symptoms like ours, but could find no directions as to how to access it to clean it out. We finally found a post with some pictures and decided to give it a shot. An hour of work, a screwdriver, a pair of tweezers, and acknowledging that if this didn't fix it nothing else was within our ability to try and we have a quiet dishwasher again. It seems to be fixed! Yes, we feel proud. You see when non-handy people do something handy there is major pride involved. The childlike sense of accomplishment is tangible. I am blogging at 1 am and we have school tomorrow- you get my point.

Carter's White Cheddar Mac

Our Walmart was remodeled recently and stopped carrying a staple of Carter's diet: Kraft's White Cheddar Mac and Cheese. The child eats this at least 3 times a week plus leftovers. Tim has been buying them in bulk from another store 30 minutes away when he can to keep us supplied. I have called the store, asked employees, and done everything I know to do to get this stocked. Today I got lucky. The management team was standing in the mac and cheese aisle. So there's 20 boxes on order and a shelf tag in place. They will stock it within the week. Carter is back in business and our friends in town whom we've converted to the stuff can enjoy it, too. Now all we have to do is figure out how we are going to get it in Germany...

Dirt Work

Since moving into the house we have wanted to do some clearing and make the woods in our adjacent lot into a fun place for the kids to play. This week we were able to get that started. Here is the view from the front now.

A path now lets the kids get into the woods and play.


There is now a path into the woods from the backyard as well.

The kids are looking forward to lots of time in the woods and are already planning to do some more clearing by hand to be able to play in a creek on the back side of the property.

This dirt had to be dumped in the front yard, but....


it goes here in the corner we cleared in the backyard. That is whenever a tractor that won't sink into the soft yard is available! Yes, I am worried we will have to do it by hand!

When our yard was first put in we had an area sink, now that is filled in and seeded!


It was exciting to see all the work get started and we are looking forward to getting the grading finished, seeded (although this may have to wait until Spring), and a few new trees planted. We still miss our "park like yard" in Martin, but gradually we hope to make this property enjoyable for our family as well.

He is doing it!!

Carter is trying to stop sucking his thumb. The dentist said it had to go and so did our pediatrician so this week we planned to work on this together. However, last Friday he was packing to spend the night with Papa and Nana and decided he would leave "blankie" at home and try not to suck his thumb. He made it through the night and when he came home on Saturday I had new sheets for his bed and blankie was gone. He has only had one relapse so far and is doing really well. He wakes up at 5 am, so we are a little tired here, but hopefully once he adjusts to the change his sleeping patterns will go back to normal. We tried to make things as stress free as we could for him. His Papa gave him a bear to snuggle, Matthew and I picked him out some cool transformer sheets for his bed, and today the "Thumbuster" arrived (see above). He now has all the tools and we hope he will be "thumb free" in a few weeks.