4.27.2008

another first

This past Friday night, we took Hunter (and girls) to her first movie (moO-e, as she says).  I realize this isn’t the best photo, taken with my phone, but I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to catch this moment forever.  If you could have seen her slippery, buttery, dimpled little hands ... greasy little face ... the way she was absolutely mesmerized by Horton and the little village of Whoville.  She laughed on cue and said “oh-oh” at just the right times.  What does this mean?  My baby is growing up.  I’m actually tearing as I write this.

I suppose I’m emotional after reading about Audrey Caroline’s story (click here).  And realizing we only have these children, we have been given these children for as long, or short as the Lord chooses.  We need to make the most of these moments, every moment.  Every butter-filled, spaghetti-faced, milk-spilled moment!  These are gifts we have been given and we need to serve them well.

Some cute happenings this past week ... well actually, first is not so cute ... Let’s just say tick season is in FULL bloom!  Now if the trees would take note!  Okay, so the other night I’m getting Hunter undressed (Curt was at a late meeting, so no help there) and whoa ... a tick!!  In my best ‘don’t freak out mode’ I do my best to recall the lessons that Curt has taught me about pulling ticks off our children.  Yes ... there have been lessons!  The secret is to make sure you get the head of it, and unfortunately the head is where it starts to bury first.  So I grab it’s wiggly little body and pull ever so gently.  Not freaking out, not freaking baby out ... so far, so good.  Another firm tug and yep! I’ve got it.  It’s even got a little piece of Hunter’s skin in it’s grip, so I can chalk this one up to success.  I go tell the girls ... they want to see it and we all celebrate as we flush it down the toilet.

Next day, Hunter has another tick.  Fortunately, I’m not home for this one and Curt has the honors.  Next person is Wynter ... I get the honors.  Spike (dog) was next and I think Curt had a couple in there too.  Then last night, Curt and I were out ... when we got home, the babysitter told me a story of how she was playing a game with the girls and they started whispering to each other (afraid the babysitter would freak out) that she had a tick.  Theresa thought they were joking, they assured her they weren’t and that it was crawling up her arm.  Yep! there it was.  Fortunately, it hadn’t lodged itself yet and Theresa didn’t freak out.  This morning I was combing Piper’s hair for church and just by chance decided to do a side pony tail, so I parted it on the side and started brushing ... what’s hidden in there?  A tick!  I call Curt in, he gets the honors and Piper’s left with a small hole where the tick took part of her scalp!

Now how are they getting these ticks?  They are blessed to have a father that loves to take them on adventures.  He has taught them a true appreciation of the outdoors and creepy crawly things.  No ... they don’t seek out the ticks, the ticks are just a by product of the adventure.  You get the good with the bad, I guess.

This has gotten incredibly long, but I wanted to mention two other things that I’ve been meaning to jot down in a notebook and just haven’t.  The whole primary school at Prairie went on a field trip this past week.  Wynter and Piper are both part of the primary school.  They went to the Golden Rondelle in Racine to learn about sustainability.  When I picked them up from school, I asked how the field trip was and what they learned.

Wynter blurts out “we learned that with (she hasn’t learned to say ‘if’ yet) you eat a cheesebooger (yes, booger) you get big feet.”  Say what?!?  Um yeah, she was pretty confident in what she learned and was sticking to it.  I talked to the teacher the next day joking about what Wynter learned and she looked at Wynter amazed and said she was right!  She couldn’t believe that Wynter took that away.  The translation is, that eating a cheeseburger leaves a larger footprint on the earth.  Humbly I admit that I needed to ask Curt what this meant.  Second translation ... because of all the processes involved in getting a burger, you take away more of the natural parts of the earth, therefore leaving a larger footprint then say if you would have eaten fruit or fresh vegetables.  Whew ... a lesson for us all ... but a deeper lesson for me to realize my children “get it.”

Two more things I want to note ... yesterday I finished with baths late afternoon and I’m getting Wynter’s pj’s on or helping her with something and we’re sitting there and she randomly says “dude, let’s get the band back together.”  Did that make you chuckle?  It sure gave me a laugh!  She heard it on a cartoon, but still ... so random to hear a sentence like that come out of your four year olds mouth!

Lastly ... Curt and I had our school’s annual fundraiser/auction to go to last night.  I wore a full-length, green, strapless dress.  When I was all ready and came out of my bedroom ... the girls thought I was a beautiful princess.  I glowed all night!  And let me mention that my husband teases that this function is like “Racine’s prom” ... so what does he do?  He gets me a big bouquet of flowers, a corsage, and rents a lamborghini!!  It was a great night!

I am blessed!

4.23.2008

spring picnic

It was a beautiful afternoon, so we set up a tent and had dinner outside!  Dinner, of course, was McDonalds.  Curt and I just got back from Chicago and after being gone for two days, he was going into MD’s withdrawal!

Hunter missed the photo because she had already moved over to the playground.  And the girls were a little freaky in this photo because the sun was too bright.

4.20.2008

guess who?

This weekend was a busy one ... also Taylor’s birthday weekend, which is officially tomorrow.

Taylor and I started out on Friday morning with Terrie and drove up to Appleton for the Unlimited Women’s conference that was through my church.  Candace Cameron and Lisa Bevere were the speakers.  It was afabulous conference!  I was so happy to have Taylor there with me.  Sue drove up after school with Ana, Kirsten, and Christina.  They arrived in time for dinner and the evening service on Friday.  We celebrated Taylor’s birthday that night with cupcakes and balloons in their hotel room.

Saturday morning we had some workshops and then the morning service with Candace.  Unfortunately, Terrie, Sue, Christina, and Kirsten needed to head back to Racine for soccer games.  Taylor, Ana and I went to lunch and the afternoon service before heading to the Dells for a night at the waterpark.

My mom, and my aunt were also at the conference and we were able to have dinner with them on Friday and lunch on Saturday ... it was fun to spend time with them too.

4.12.2008

hunter's party

We had Hunter’s family party today.  She sure caught on to this birthday thing quickly!  So excited for the balloons, the cake ... in fact, I caught her on top of the table getting into her cake before the party started.

Our family came over for a nice celebration.  She loved her bikes ... one from Granny and one from Trishie (and respective family members), and books from Grandgene.

She was the cutest thing ever trying to blow the candles out on her cake.

The party ended perfectly with the birthday girl in her birthday suit!

Click here for more photos from her birthday(s).  And clickhere to read how she spent her actual birthday day.

when did these girls grow up?!?

Taylor went to a dance last night.  A girl from school was having her birthday party, and celebrated with a dance at the country club.  Taylor and Ana got ready at our house, and then we went to pick up Kirsten & Christina, who were getting ready at Christina’s house.

They all looked beautiful and grown up.  In the car discussing who they would be dancing with, who would be there and all the excited talk I remember when going to dances ... what?  just a few years ago, wasn’t it?

They finished the night with a sleepover at Christina’s house.  Staying up way too late and now we moms get to pay the price today!

I strongly suggest you click here to see photos of these ladies when they were much easier to handle!

4.10.2008

our baby turned two!!

Hunter’s actually trying to smile in this picture ...

I took off work and kept her home from school today.  I also kept Wynter home from school, which left Taylor and Piper claiming how unfair life is ... Get used to it ladies!!

The reason I kept Wynter home?  Before she started school, I had Tuesday and Thursday’s off of work.  Tuesday we had kindermusik classes, but Thursday’s we always took a “field trip” (and then with Hunter once she was born).  We often visited the museums in Milwaukee ... the children’s museum, public museum, and discovery world.  So when I told Hunter we were going to the museum for her birthday (which has been a birthday tradition with the girls), Wynter innocently asked “can I go to the museum?”  It tugged on my heart strings, so I gave in and brought her along.

Piper had a field trip today at school (and saddled daddy into going along), so she had a nice day planned anyway.  And Taylor ... she gets off plenty for stuff (i.e., upcoming Rolex event in Kentucky!).  So no feeling sorry for them, ya hear?

We took everyone to Stonefire Pizza this evening and had a fun time.  Her family party is on Saturday, so she’ll get another celebration.

Click here for photos ....

Happy Birthday my littlest blessing!

4.09.2008

do-gooder

In lieu of gifts at her birthday party this year, Piper asked for a book that she would donate to her school library.

It took a tad bit of convincing to get her to do this, but actually not as much as I would have thought.  Piper loves presents, getting presents and had already started counting down how many “sleeps” until her birthday back in January!  I didn’t think it would be as easy as it was.  And I’m very proud of her for it.

Today she presented her books to the school’s librarian (also her good friend Anabelle’s dad!) as shown in the above photo.  She also presented them to the school’s headmaster (but this photo was a cuter one of Piper!).

The book she’s handing to Mr. Yan is the one she’s decided to check out on the next library day.

She is getting to be a very grown up little girl!

4.06.2008

it's jasper time

Taylor could NOT wait to get home to see her buddy!  And with spring finally here, it was the perfect day for a trail ride ... well, minus the muddy trails ... she stayed on our property so it’s all good.

I’ve said it before, but it’s just so cool to have her give a call that she’s coming down the driveway.

She had a great ride and it was a perfect day for both of them to get out.

4.04.2008

what a day!

Hunter is finally a beach baby!!  She loved it and we couldn’t get her out.  The tide was low and she walked from one beach to the other.

We all walked over to the other beach and when we got there, Kirsten & Terrie found something suspect in the water.  They touched it with a shell and it “inked.”  Then we couldn’t find it again.  Just as we were leaving, they found it.  Curt was playing around with it trying to figure out what it was and it inked again ... purple everywhere!  I wish I could get more than one photo on the blog ... Turns out it was a sea cucumber.  The kids had a great time with that one!

After lunch, the ladies went over to the Four Seasons for some spa treatments .... ahhhhhh ...

While I was “relaxing” in the relaxation room, I get a weird call from Taylor.  I asked if they were staying out of trouble.  Kind of was the reply, but she would tell me later.  We drove home and were met with pretty much everyone at the front step waiting to tell us what happened.

Turns out Curt was taking some of the kids down to the beach to fly a GIANT nemo kite (pix to come later).  He had Piper, Taylor, Hunter, Ana, Kirsten, Christina & Emily in the trunk of the van, still parked in the garage.  The kids left the trunk open and as Curt was backing out of the garage, the trunk hit the top of the garage door and shattered the glass everywhere on top of the kids.  Most were basically okay.  Piper was freaking out, but she really got the worse of it.  She has one gouge that is pretty deep and then a bunch of little cuts all over her legs.  Ana protected the baby, so she barely has any.  The other girls have scrapes and cuts over their legs.

I think the baby may be a bit traumatized ... every time we walk past the area, she takes my hand, says “c’mon mama” and whispers “glass.”

Yikes!  Any stress that was massaged away, came back in an instant ....

Click here for vacation photos.