My Lil' Troublemaker

Joel, Joel, Joel....what can I say? BOYS!!! Joel is already into destruction, and he's still in the crawling stage...when he walks, I am in bigger trouble. Sunday, after church, he stood without holding on to something, for five seconds. My heart started to race, and I began panicking, at the thought of this little tornado being even more mobile. LOL!

The Cheerios box was too close to the edge of the table, and he pulled the table cloth and knocked the box on the floor. I think he was in baby paradise, since he's normally only permitted two to three cheerios at a time. He couldn't get them in his mouth fast enough. (For those of you wondering...no, we did not put the cheerios back in the box, we swept them up and threw them away...I bought a new box, but this time I purchased generic cheerios. No more wasting money on the name-brand stuff. He doesn't even appreciate them). :)


As I was fixing supper last night, Joel kept himself occupied by getting everything out of my pantry cabinet that he could reach. I felt no need to stop him, since I was able to get dinner put together, un-interrupted, and that's rare.


"Popcorn, anyone???"

More of Julie's Birthday

Last Wednesday, the 25th, was Julie's birthday. I took in cupcakes to her classroom for snack time (I forgot to bring my camera with me), and she thought that was great. After school we picked her up & headed to Friendly's for a birthday supper. Before getting to Friendly's, Dave took us to his friend's taxidermy shop, so the kids could see the "showroom." You might be a redneck if, you celebrate your child's birthday by taking them to a taxidermy shop...has Jeff Foxworthy said that one yet? Anyway, Julie was fascinated by all the animals, and asked a ton of questions. After getting home from Friendly's she opened her gifts from us.

This pizza set was a great purchase. We almost didn't buy it, but we were so glad we did. She & Alayna have been fixing us pizza non-stop.


Julie is really good at using a hula-hoop, and her old one was bent, so we bought her this new one.




The girls playing in their toy box, wearing their strawberry sunglasses from Julie's birthday party.


I had to add this photo of our cat, Reggie. Oh, to have such an easy life. It's sad when I have to fight my cat, to be able to sit in my chair.

Happy Birthday Julie-Bell

Our little girl is turning 6 years old tomorrow. I can hardly believe how quickly these years have passed. God has blessed us with the gift and responsibility of raising this precious girl.

Julie-Bell has been her nickname since she was born, given to her by my dad, and it just stuck. When Julie was learning to say her name, as a toddler, you'd ask her what it was, and she'd say, "Julie-Bill."

Happy Birthday Julie-Bill!

Here are some pictures from her birthday party this past Sunday. We held most of the party in our basement, which are the Sunday School rooms for our church. It was a Strawberry Shortcake theme. She had 2 friends from her kindergarten class come, 2 friends from church, and her cousin, Lily. Along with Dave's family, and some of the parents of the kids that came.

I made strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting that were Yum-O!!! I found the recipe on AllRecipes.com, and they were a hit. Served with Strawberry ice cream, you can't go wrong. :)

The Birthday Girl!


On the left are Julie's two friends from church, Amber & Delaney, and her cousin Lily (in the front). On the right are Julie's school friends, Sasha & Brooke.




Julie opening gifts, while Brooke watched.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Today is my mom's birthday!
Happy Birthday Mom!
I love you very much!

Catching Those Pesky Leprechaun's!

Julie's Kindergarten teacher asked each of the students to build a leprechaun trap, & bring it in to class this past Monday. It could be as simple, or as extravagent, as they wanted. I admit when I read the assignment I groaned, and thought what a nuissance, and I quickly decided this was a great father/daughter bonding project. :) When Dave read the assignment he took the challenge head-on. No simple leprechaun trap would be built on his watch....you've all seen what he constructs for our church's Vacation Bible School, why would a leprechaun trap be any different???? He and Julie worked over the weekend cutting, gluing, scheming, planning, gluing some more, and the result was one state-of-the-art leprechaun trap, able to catch leprechaun's in a single bound.

Monday morning Dave took Julie to school with her trap (I was afraid she'd fall when carrying this thing off the bus). The kids set their traps Monday at the end of the school day, and when they got to class on Tuesday the kids discovered that the leprechaun left candy in their traps, but they didn't catch the leprechaun. Stupid leprechauns, anyway!

A representative from the school district's office was at school taking pictures on Tuesday, and a picture of Julie & her trap made it to the school's website. Here is the picture. If you want the link to the website, it's:
http://rondoutmar.sharpschool.com/cms/One.aspx?portalId=1088451&pageId=1453129

The cage comes up, and inside there are lucky charms, and gold, to entice the leprechaun. When he enters, and presses the red button on the clothes pin, the cage falls down around him. I think my idea for a trap made with a shoe box and a string seems pretty ridiculous now. :)

Nice Weather...Finally!

Yesterday was a beautiful day here. Our snow is almost completely gone. There are still patches in the yard, and a big pile from the snow plow...but I can see that spring is getting closer & winter is moving farther away. After spending lots of time in the house with bronchitis, I knew we all needed some time outside. Yesterday, Joel, Alayna & I waited for Julie to get off the bus, then we played outside until supper time. It's exactly what we needed.

Here's some pictures from our time outside.

Alayna taking charge of Joel's stroller.


If I try to help her stear the stroller, she pushes my hand off and says, "I can do it mommy." Yes ma'am!





Alayna talking to Dave at the window in his basement office.


Julie's Home!!!




The playhouse isn't full of snow anymore. Yippee!!


Cutie-Pie!


Julie with her St. Paddy's Day stuff from school, that she made. She said they had a parade in school, and someone came in and played the "Bad" pipes. :) She wasn't impressed with the bag pipes. Can't say I blame her.

Feeling Better

The kids & I are beginning to feel much better. All of us had bronchitis, except Dave. Joel is not quite back to his normal happy self, but he's much better than he was. His two front top teeth are almost all the way through, and I think once they break through completely, he'll be feeling much better.

He hasn't been sleeping well for us. Last night was the first good night we've had in a while. I took this picture on Monday, when Joel was not doing well with napping in his crib. Napping with his daddy seemed like a better idea.

Update on Us

Here's our update:

The kids all have bronchitis. Julie is much better (she missed three days of school this past week), but each of them are on amoxycillin. Joel has two teeth breaking through, while he's sick. Poor little guy.

I'm now sick. Fever, achey, cranky, sleepy, dopey, sneezy, grumpy (oh, that's someone else).

So far, Dave is not sick...I need him right now. He can get sick later....and live in the guest room, so the rest of us don't get re-infected. :)

The End

Poor Julie

Julie has been home from school this week. She started with a fever Sunday afternoon. I took her to the doctor this morning, and she has bronchitis. She's been running a fever between 101 and 103 since Sunday. She looks and feels miserable. I pray she feels better quickly, now that we have an antibiotic for her.

Here's a picture of Julie & Alayna last week. Enjoying homemade ice cream that they made with Dave. Dave's nephew bought him an ice cream maker for Christmas. I have been trying not to buy ice cream, because it's such a temptation for us...but now we can make our own...it's like giving Otis (Andy Griffith Show) his own still. :)

Conversations With Julie

Saturday:
We headed to Applebee's for breakfast, this past Saturday. The playground committee, at Julie's school, was doing a pancake fundraiser, and we had purchased tickets to support their cause, to fix up the school's playground. On the way there Dave & I were talking to Julie about school. We were talking about things she is doing in class, and learning. I asked her if she ever noticed that they don't talk about Jesus, or the Bible, at her school. She said yes. I asked her if it bothered her at all, and she replied, "well, we do the pledge every day."

And I thought public school wasn't paying off??? :)

Today:
Julie is home sick, with a virus. She's running a fever, and coughing a lot. She coughs so hard, that occasionally it makes her throw up. This morning she asked me if we could play school, since she wasn't able to go today. So we did. Joel & Alayna weren't very attentive, I will continue to work with them. Joel mostly drooled, and Alayna didn't know her alphabet. Oh well...

After playing school Julie was resting on the couch. She began to cough, and ran for the bathroom. Her intention was to make it to the toilet, but instead, tossed everything right next to the toilet (at least she tried). As I was helping her, and cleaning everything up, she said to me (in a very pathetic voice), I don't want to be sick, I don't want to throw up any more. I was agreeing with her, then she immediately perked up and said, "how do you spell throw up?"

I'm encouraged to know, that even when she's ill, she has an eagerness to learn.

Sled-Riding...Still...O Spring Where Art Thou???

It has actually warmed up slightly in the past two days. We've almost reached 60 degrees today, which feels like a heat wave. I opened the back door to let some fresh air into the house. We still have lots of snow in our yard, though. The snow has melted in areas closer to town, but since we're hidden in the woods, we still have a yard full of snow, and a plowed up pile that will be here until July, I think.

Dave took the girls out sled-riding in our side yard, a couple times last week, and they loved it. Here's some pictures from their adventures.

This is Alayna, going down the little hill, on her belly. She saw Dave slide on his belly, on the sled, and she wanted to do it, too.


Julie, the snow princess. I was taking pictures out of the girls bedroom window. I opened it long enough to take the pictures, and closed it quickly.


Dave, pulling Alayna back up the hill. It's not a big hill, but it's perfect for the kids.


Alayna


Julie going down on her belly.

Crazy Eights

Here are my crazy eights... (I hope I'm doing this right, I got this from "The Parker Family" blog and I copied and pasted the text)

{8 favorite tv shows}...

1. Paula's Home Cooking
2. Clean House
3. Little People Big World
4. 18 Kids & Counting
5. The Cosby Show re-runs
6. Jon and Kate Plus 8
7. House Hunters
8. Entertainment Tonight

{8 things I did yesterday}

1. Showered & got dressed
2. Put on Make-up and fixed my hair
3. 4 loads of laundry
4. bathed Joel
5. Fixed Chicken & Biscuits for supper
6. Planned Julie's upcoming birthday party
7. Dishes, dishes & more dishes
8. watched a movie with dave

{8 things I look forward to}

1. Going to see my family in April
2. Warmer Weather
3. My new niece or nephew being born in August
4. Yard work...because this means the weather is nice
5. Being a size 6
6. Julie being a flower girl in July at my cousins wedding
7. Dave & I getting out sometime on a date alone
8. watching my kids grow up, and praying they'll serve the Lord

{8 favorite restaurants}

1. Longhorn Steakhouse in Erie
2. Marketplace Grill in Erie
3. Friendly's...not really a favorite of mine, but it's a place we can go and the kids are happy about their meal)
4. Guido's
5. Texas Roadhouse
6. Max & Erma's...in Erie (yummy Chocolate chip cookies)
7. Arby's (I like their chicken salad)
8. Olive Garden

{8 things on my wish list}

1. My kids would grow up to love the Lord
2. My family would come see me more often...hint, hint. :)
3. My kids would say "yes mom, whatever you say mom, you always know what's best, mom"
4. Dave would say "yes Kristen, whatever you say, Kristen, you always know what's best, Kristen"
5. Snow would melt, and warm weather would be here quick.
6. I could have magical powers to be able to "poof" my house clean
7. I could have invisible powers so I can listen in on all those conversations that I'm just dying to hear. :)
8. That no one would read this and say, "this woman has too much time on her hands." Really, I don't...I'm taking a break, after having run errands all morning with Joel & Alayna, and took Joel for his well-visit at the doctor.

Julie For President

Julie came home from school this week with a paper they did in class, that had been on display in the hallway at school. The picture said "If I were President...", and then next to the picture was a list of things she would do if she were President. This made Dave & I laugh, and I had to share this with you.







I know I'm going to vote for her!

A Snow Day

Sorry, I don't have any pictures for this post, for all you blog-stalkers that demand pictures of your grandkids in each posting. Ahem...

It snowed most of the day today, pretty steady. We didn't have a huge amount of accumulation, but enough to make the roads bad, and cause the schools to close today. Dave, Joel & I have been fighting colds for the past week, so having an extra day to relax, was nice. I made meatballs, and cheesy garlic rolls for supper. Yum Yum! My sister-in-law, Andrea, swears she's never met a family that likes to talk so much about what they've eaten, what new recipes they've fixed, what someone else fixed them, when they were invited somewhere for supper, etc. She is referring to my mom's side of the family, and I will admit this is a true characeristic of the Andrews side. So, for my mom & Aunt Barbie, I will tell you, we had spaghetti & meatballs for supper, tossed salad, and homemade rolls.

Dave took the girls outside this afternoon to play in the snow. Alayna hasn't been real crazy about playing in the snow, but today she seemed to enjoy it, and actually was happy to be pulled around on the sled. I think her hang-up with snow is because she falls over a lot, and she gets cold. I can't say I blame her.

Tonight Dave is at his once-a-month fire department meeting, the kids are in bed, and I'm enjoying the quiet.