It's about time!

Today, just short of 14 weeks, we heard the baby's heartbeat. This kid is wily already. The heart rate is in the 150's so most likely a girl. I would be equally thrilled with either a girl or a boy. The kids are a bit divided. Bella wants a boy and Matilda wants a girl. Biscuit has no clue what is going on. And to be quite honest can't even say baby yet. He has started to say a few more things and they are very clear. I suppose in his own good time he will take off. Hopefully, before the baby comes. He seems close to being ready to potty train. That would be joyous if it occurs before the baby comes.

M is for

Morning sickness. Or more accurately, all day sickness. I am 11 weeks and feeling horrifically nauseated. Nothing seems to be helping. In a way it is a good reminder that most people who feel this awful have a healthy pregnancy. I am trying to cling to that! And that God has inscribed me on the palm of His hand. He sees my illness and cares. He has not forgotten and will lead me to the other side.

The girls have been going to VBS this week. They have such a great time every year. We missed Wednesday night due to Bella having two teeth extracted. She did a good job and didn't complain too much. It seems to be healing nicely. She will go back in to have a space maintainer put on in three weeks. She said, "that sounds like braces!" Both of the girls are both terrified and mesmerized by braces.

I am off to take a rest while I can!

Yup

Biscuit's big announcement is correct. Come February we will have another baby! The girls and DH are completely convinced it is a girl. To which, I say, we'll see! No, we are not finding out the sex this time. I love the surprise of holding a baby in your arms and looking to see whether it is a boy or girl. I know some people say it is a surprise even when you do the ultrasound but it isn't the same! You have all of those endorphins right after the birth and well anyway very exciting. So far my tummy has behaved for the most part. If I get too hungry or thirsty I feel queasy. I am only 6 weeks right now. Yes, we told everyone very early. My husband was a bit excited and didn't want to wait. I will try to do better to keep everyone updated on life this summer. Lots of things rolling around in my head. Now I just need to get it out on my blog, right?

Biscuit's big announcement...

Spring

Spring is finally here! The forsythias are in bloom. Some of the flowering trees are blooming. The daffodils are up. The robins are singing! We have had lovely weather. The kids are soaking up the sun and loving being outside!

Dirt! A kid's best friend.
A tiny tent we found in our shed. No idea where we got it.
The girls love it!

Mr Biscuit has mastered the slide!

33 things

Friday was my darling husband's birthday! Happy Birthday a little late! Here are 33 things I love about my husband. In no particular order.

1. He loves me!
2. He loves our babies!
3. He can fix our cars!
4. He wears 'Le Male' by Jean Paul Gaultier. Delicious
5. He supports me when I have hare brained ideas.
6. He is a good provider for our family.
7. He can quote movie lines.
8. He can recognize voices in animated movies and commercials. (i am awful at #7,8)
9. He can still make me laugh.
10. He eats Chinese with me even though he hates it.
11. He is very supportive of our home school and is even teaching science this year.
12. He loves me enough to tell me 'no' when I have too much going on and I am trying to add one more thing.
13. He likes to take the kids on errands with him.
14. He loves Jesus and is growing everyday in that relationship.
15. He sacrifices his own comfort for our family. IE his awful car! :)
16. He can lift heavy things!
17. He is involved in every part of our lives. He doesn't just sit around and let things happen around him.
18. He is a hard worker and diligent in his tasks.
19. He encouraged me to have our babies at home even when it was difficult to do.
20. He helps clean up the dishes almost every night.
21. He isn't afraid of housework.
22. He will watch girl movies with me.
23. He served our country in the military.
24. He still opens the door for me and holds my hand when we are out.
25. He does the man chores...trash taker outer, dog poop picker-upper, scraping my front door so I can paint etc
26. He takes the lead in discipline with our children.
27. He likes big dogs.
28. He bought me a Nintendo DS when I was pregnant and sick with Biscuit and ordered cable TV when I was sick with Monkey and held my hair back while I puked with Bella.
29. He once watched 'Dunston Checks In' with me. :)
30. He is quick to apologize when he has hurt my feelings.
31. He still rubs my back.
32. He loves me.
33. He loves our babies.

Confession

Ok loyal readers (all three of you) I have a confession to make. No it doesn't involve my ineptitude at keeping this blog updated. Nor my inability to make a pie crust. I love Taylor Swift. There I said it! I like her voice and most of her songs. Even though some can be a bit juvenile it is what I expect from an 18 year old. I love her song "Love Story". Ok, I feel relieved my secret is out.

Gruesome!

So, yesterday I text my husband something along the lines of "I miss you" and get an immediate call back. "Ahh he must miss me too" He says, "it's funny you texted. I hurt my head and was going to call you." Ummm...what? Apparently he was working on a part and moved the wrong way and smacked his head on the part. While we were talking about whether he should go to the clinic one of his coworkers informs him that he left some tissue and hair on the part. "I think you should go that sounds bad." Since my darling husband is a little on the directionally challenged side I mentioned he should call my dad for directions to the clinic. My dad works at the same place. It gets decided that my dad will just come drive him since the location is a bit hard to find and my dear has a head wound. The children are all happy that daddy has a head wound as this means they get to eat dinner early. We usually eat around 6:30 or so. They are always starving by that time. They were very concerned that daddy wasn't home to eat dinner. "he is going to be hungry. Why is it taking so long?" When he finally got home I laughed! Of course I was concerned about his head but with the injury being on the very top of his head it made it difficult to put on a bandage. He had his head wrapped up like something out of a war movie. It was wrapped down under his chin. He did look a bit ridiculous. Adding insult to injury! Unfortunately, for you dear readers, I was unable to get a picture before it had to be removed. But I do have pics of the wound! All stapled together. So don't look if you are a bit squeamish. Personally, I find it fascinating that someone thought "why don't we just staple it? Forget stitching it just use the stapler"

Sorry his head looks orange! I didn't have the flash on and our lamp shade produces an odd color. Five staples!
Looks like a scratch in this pic!

Escapee

My tiny Biscuit has learned a new trick. Two, actually! He can now open his bedroom door and the door to a closet in our living room. He can also open the sliding glass door (has been able to do this for a while) and the screen door. Which is a huge problem. This means if someone has forgotten to lock the sliding glass door he can venture outside. Today, we returned from the store and I was getting ready to start dinner. I had to print a recipe off the internet and was gone for three minutes tops. The girls were supposed to be playing with their brother. Matilda yells, "brother is outside on the swing set!" I run into the living room and sure enough he is swinging on the glider. Mind you it has been raining all day and is muddy and cool out. He jabbers something completely unintelligible but I imagine would be along the lines of "look mom I am so cool I am swinging!" He was told to get his hiney inside immediately! He moseyed up to the house. Had to wash his feet off. Eventually got dinner made. Needless to say he is on lock down! We are going to have to be extremely careful! We do have a fenced backyard with a lock on the gate however if he has figured out all of this already he can't be trusted. Not that he isn't supervised almost constantly anyway! So different than the girls. With them you could walk into the kitchen and pour a drink and come back and find them still playing with the same toy. I love the differences between the children! Precious! God made us each so unique.

Handsome Rob

My sweet Biscuit had a hair cut today. Husband took him to the barber shop. The lady snipped away. Thankfully, his hair is still on the long side. I am not a fan of buzz cuts on little boys. Just my personal preference. He is next to impossible to photograph. I tried to get an 'after' shot. Not much luck.

After!
During

He has such handsome hair! My baby is so big!

The girls and I stayed home and worked on school. We began learning about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, found nouns in a story, worked on the letter 't' for handwriting, learned the last 3 addition facts, worked on our BSF, reviewed the letter 'k' and number 5. Busy morning.

Update

We have been busy. With what, you ask? I am not really sure! So, here goes another bullet list update!

• Bella got her ears pierced the day after her birthday.
• She also got her hair cut short about a week later.
• Our home school group started up again.
• I will be teaching an art class in March.
• We went to Chicago to visit my brother and sister-in-law. While there we visited the American Girl store. Quite fun and insane at the same time. We also met up with a dear friend of mine from high school.
• Attended more births. March is going to be a busy month.
• Mr. Biscuit is growing like a weed! He still doesn't say much. The strong, silent type. Actually he talks all the time just not in a language I understand.

All I can think of off the top of my head. Our days have been full with much more than that I just can't remember with what!

Mother Dear

Just thought I would throw this out there. My darling Matilda Monkey has taken to calling me 'mother' most of the time. It is pretty precious. She got to spend the day with my mom yesterday. They colored, had lunch, watched a movie, had a tea party, made cookies. When do I get a day out? Sounds fun. Bella will get her turn hopefully next week.

Have had some more births. Some very lovely ones with great families. Looking forward to some more mid-February. We have mainly been plugging away at school the past month. Nothing much to report. I will try to come up with some terribly clever posts soon!

A Whistling Woman and a Crowing Hen Come to No Good End

Bella has learned to whistle. She has been working on it for some time now. It has finally come together. For the past week or so she whistled almost constantly. She has just started to taper off. Thank heavens! I do love how kids practice their new found skills with such gusto!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Sorry I have been absent from the interwebs for so long. A couple babies were born, Christmas activities, family things and fatigue have kept me off of here. We had a very nice Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house. We had a yummy Mexican dinner and opened gifts. I got a cast iron Dutch oven. It is sooo beautiful. I haven't used it yet. Planning a few dinners in it soon though. The kids had so many nice gifts from everyone. The highlights: an Easy Bake oven, remote controlled car, jewelry kit, books, tool bench, Pairs-in-Pears (really fun). Christmas Day we opened gifts as a family and had a yummy breakfast. My parents and tiny sister came over around lunchtime. We played games, watched Annie and snacked on finger foods all day. Very peaceful and low key! Which speaking of Annie...I never realized how much language is in it and how lewd certain scenes were. I remember watching as an older child (10-12). I don't recall the language bit but do remember Miss Hanigan was quite racy. I thought this was supposed to be a kid's movie! We had borrowed a movie from the library my husband watched as a child and within the first 10 minutes there were several 4 letter words. We had to turn it off. Crazy!
We start school back on Monday. I think we are all looking forward to getting back to a schedule. I have my lesson plans all done and ready to go. We are heading to the library to pick up our supplemental reading so I better get moving! We have friends coming to play in a bit also.

Oh the horror!

I still can't believe I did it. It has probably scarred me for life. I may never recover from the trauma. I....I...served.....a frozen lasagna for dinner last night. It was truly awful. It had no flavor aside from sodium and something that may or may not have resembled tomato sauce. It was truly horrible. Kind of sweet with some kind of chunks of "meat". The noodles were disgustingly thick. Gross about sums it up. I love to cook and never serve these boxed convenience foods. I even make my own mac n cheese. No blue box. No fake cheese sauce. I still don't know what possessed me to serve this monstrosity. Oh wait yes I do. Since I have been attending births on a regular basis Adam convinced me to buy a frozen lasagna to keep in the freezer in case he needed to cook. For whatever reason I agreed. From now on I will keep at least one meal in the freezer that I have made. No more boxed disgustingness! Dear family, I promise to not make you eat it again. I will make a luscious lasagna for you. (I was going to take a picture to commemorate the horribleness of it but couldn't bring myself to do it.)

Julie

No this post isn't really about Julie. I do know a few but it is about something else entirely. Do you ever get stuck on a word? You just keep repeating it over and over. Each time it sounds more strange than the last. That word this week has been Julie. I know some perfectly lovely Julies out there and I do like the name. For some reason it has been stuck in my head though! Thought I would share. Now I am off to bed. Night night.

Are you trying to get yourself killed?

What is it with random people on bicycles? Riding on the wrong side of the road! Bicycles move WITH traffic, folks! NOT against. If you are on a bike you are considered a vehicle. You must obey all posted signs and rules.

The Plague

Ok so it isn't really that bad! We have ALL had a cough and congestion this week. Seriously, all of us at the same time? The happy part is that no one is completely miserable. I am headed to the Dr this afternoon though because I think mine has turned into a sinus infection. We should be back to normal soon. I had a birth yesterday morning. Lovely birth! Congratulations happy family! A few more due later this month. It seems like this next year could be busy. I am really enjoying these births and the privilege of attending them.

It's a cookie turkey

Tiny Sister came over and made oreo turkeys with the girls.
Here is their silly face picture.

The Good Ol' Days

Once upon a time back when I was way younger I shared bunk beds with my middle sister. Middle sister and I only shared them a few years and then middle sister and tiny sister shared them. Now it is time to pass down the tradition. Bella and Monkey are now the proud owners of bunk beds. They have been wanting them for a very long time. I had major hesitations and was able to put this off for about 18 months. My hesitations you ask? Broken arms, stitches, dislocated elbows/shoulders (from one sibling dangling the other off the top bunk). Yes I have issues thanks for asking! Why the change of heart? My dear husband was helping out my dad this past week and somehow the topic came round to bunk beds. Darling husband says, "yeah Mimi won't let the girls have them." My dad, "That's crazy SHE had bunk beds." Umm thanks Dad I will direct the hospital bills to your house. So, we now have bunk beds. Nightly prayers might include pleas for safety. The girls are beside themselves with joy. It has been hard to get them down. They now have some extra floor space so I think I will make them some floor pillows. I have a great Amy Butler design I have been wanting to try out. Here are some pics of their beds.

Happy as clams.
Lots of space for Barbies and dollhouse stuff.

Maybe some padding on the floor would help my nervousness!