Harvest Fest

Today we went to the Harvest Fest at a church in town. It was pretty big. Lots of people there. Much more than I expected. I'll post a few pictures of the games and such for you to see all the fun we had. And we got some candy for playing the games. Then we went to Pizza Ranch for supper. The boys' favorite! :)


They got to decorate their own cookie. They had chocolate frosting, and sprinkles, and little marshmallows, gummy bears, m&m's and candy corn. They put it all on there. Yummmm.... to them. Yuck to me! :)


They had 3 chances to pick the grand prize winning duck. Neither of them picked right, but no matter what you got a piece of candy for playing.


Bowling. We will definitely have to do this for real this winter.


Ring Toss.  Monkey got 2 on there. And the prize was a 2 liter of pop. Yeah, just what a kid needs. It may have been more cost efficient and practical for them to give away a can of pop?!?!


Plinko! No way! Best game ever!!! I think I might figure out how to make this and make one for our house! That would be fun times!


And a bounce house! Great for getting out some energy.

It was pretty fun. I was amazed at the number of people there. What a great ministry and an awesome way to make people in the community aware of the church.

Pray for Dana and Lyle

Tuesday Lyle was in a car accident. The whole front of the car was sliced off, and the rest of it was pinning him in place. They got him out and sent him by ambulance to the hospital in town here. I went over with Dana for a little bit on Tuesday to see how he was. His left foot is completely broken, will need screws to put the bones back together, surgery for that should be sometime next week. After that he'll have to have a cast on it for 3 months. His right foot is not broken but severely sprained and will also need to be put in a cast to help it heal and not become a broken bone. He will probably only have that cast for a couple weeks or until it's healed enough for him to put pressure on it. For now he can't walk anyway also because of his back. They found some chips in his spine and are waiting for the specialist in Rochester to get back to them about what all needs to be done about that, or how long for healing. He will be bed ridden for quite a while, and even once he can sit up, he will still need to be in a wheel chair since both of his feet are out of commission. Good thing their bedroom is on the main floor of the house. :)

Then last night I called Dana to see if they found anything else out and she said she had just left the hospital. She stopped off to get gas on her way home and now her car won't start! Her Father-in-law was coming over to see if it was a quick fix, or to help jump it. That didn't work so she called back at 10:30pm, and asked if she could use my car. So we are without a car for today. We're praying that nothing major is wrong with her car and that it can get fixed soon. And of course for Lyle while he is bed ridden... he is going to go stir crazy! He is not a sit around kind of guy! And for the pain that he is in. It's going to be a long road to recovery.

Morning, Morning, go away....

Come again another day....wait, WHAT?!? That doesn't work.:)

Why is it that no matter what time I go to bed I don't want to get up in the morning? I rolled out of bed at 5:15am, but not with any actual desire, but out of pure necessity. I went to bed at 10pm... plenty of sleep. So what is the problem! I think I am a fairly motivated person, if I want to do something, I don't stop until it's done. So why can't I get up in the morning?

I always, and I mean ALWAYS have to hit the snooze atleast once, if not 6 times. :) I just can't get out of bed the first time, and sometimes I can think of every reason in the book to sleep in a little longer. If I'm really fast in the shower, or don't do this, or do this and this at the same time, or do that later in the day, or whatever it is, I could just enjoy the soft warm comfort of the bed for 10 more minutes. But 10 minutes turns into 15, and then 20 and every once in a while longer than that, if there's no where to be that is! Then I get up at the last minute and run around like a chicken with my head cut off!

Oh well, long gone are the days of getting up to be somewhere specifically, now I have to get up so I can be ready for the day before my children arise, and lately I've been prying myself from the bed in the morning so I can do my paperwork before the kids get up also...instead of doing it late at night.

I guess I will just have to dwell on the fact that I am making my husband happy by going to bed with him and getting up before he goes to work, instead of staying up late while he's in bed by 9:30pm. :) I wonder how long before that kicks into my brain to tell it it's a good thing to get up early. :P

New DO! all around.

I cut everyone's hair last night and I want to get my hair cut today.



Monkey wanted his head almost bald... so I cut it really short this time. He loves it!


I love Bears's pose here. :)

This one goes out to JOY!

I'd like to take this moment to Honor Joy Wright, top blog commenter.

It is because of your comments that I strive to find the time to blog something.
Thank you for your dedication to the blog. ;) If it weren't for your comments I would think I was writing these for no reason!

So Bravo-Bravo and Thank You-Thank You to Joy. Please insert applause here, and accept your trophy.



hee hee ha ha ho ho hum

Nap time

The other day, I went down to get Monkey up from nap time. I opened the door and turned on the light to find Monkey laying on the other bed in his room like this.


I thought he was just faking it, but I said something about getting up and he didn't move. So I thought, huh, He's really sleeping like that. And then I thought it was funny, so I ran upstairs quick to see if I could get the camera before he woke up. I made it in time.


I took a couple pictures and he didn't even wake up from the flash. That was a good nap, I guess.

Weekend with Daddy

Tonight I was scrapbooking with Nicole in Mankato. We are going back and doing it again tomorrow until 5-6pmish....
Before I left for the evening, I said to Monkey.... "I'm going to go scrapbook with Auntie Nicole. I'm coming home to sleep, but I'm going to be scrapbooking all day tomorrow too, so you guys are going to have a special day with just daddy. First he said, Dad doesn't have to work tomorrow?! Sweet. Then he said, "Mom, you better tell Dad the rules, because he's not here alot and he doesn't know them all."

Ha ha ha ha....too funny. TJ says that himself. I'm sure that's why he said it. Usually TJ will come home and I might forget to tell him a new rule, or a change to a rule because of something that happened during the day, and he'll say.. *Sigh*, I never know what's going on around here! :)

Well....careful of your actions and words. They rub off on the kids... :)

Atleast this wasn't really a bad action, but I don't want Monkey to take this as Dad is second rate because he's not home all day like Mom. We will have to talk that one through.

Pumpkins

We went to a pumpkin party last week. We all had a good time. Well, minus TJ because he was home sick. Here are some pics to enjoy.


Bear's pumpkin, but I drew it and carved it. :)


Monkey's pumpkin. After he saw the one I did, I told him he could draw the face however he wanted it and I would carve it out for him. I thought it was totally cute.


Monkey posing, getting ready to clean out the pumpkin.


Bear posing getting ready to clean out the pumpkin.


Tricia was nice enough to grab the camera and take a picture of all three of us cleaning out the pumpkins at the same time. Much fun! ;)

Fun times today.... make that all week.

Monday we had our weekly meeting with Jennifer and baby Ariana. The boys love seeing her. So that was fun. Plus it was nice out so later that afternoon we got to play outside in the privacy of our fenced in backyard! That was great!

Tuesday we had MOPS in the morning and that was a good time. The boys learned about Baby Moses. I'm so glad that MOPS is a Christian organization and they teach the boys just like a Sunday school class and the ladies there talk about how God is working in their lives. Great stuff! Then last night I went to the Church Ladies meeting while daddy stayed home with the boys. It was a great encouraging time! There are lots of new young couples in our church so that is totally encouraging and fun to hang out with them.

Today we met some new friends!! Monkey and Bear had never met them before. An acquaintance of mine that I decided to spend more time with. Today was play date #1 of hopefully many! :) The kids played well together and us adults had good conversation as well. :) Her kids are a little bit smaller so that is nice for Monkey because he likes to feel like he's in charge so be the oldest among the kids he plays well. I think he feels like he has the power being the oldest child there. Tonight a friend is going to come over and learn how to scrapbook!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!! I really hope she likes it, because it would be great to have another friend who wants to scrapbook with me! Love it~

Tomorrow we are having another impromptu play date. 3 of us are singing in a Trio for Special music on Sunday, so the 3 of us and our children are going to storm the wonderful piano players house! And mix in the play date along with really just getting together to practice before Sunday! ;) Then we are having company over Thursday night, Lord willing no one gets sick! So we'll see, but I sure hope we can because we've been trying to get together with this couple forever and they are always not able to do it. :)

Friday we are getting our pictures taken! The boys are anyway! I can't wait. It is called antiquities. The MOPS group is putting it on. It's only $10 and you get a free 10x13 picture. Then if you want any others you have to buy them. I saw some examples and they are adorable. They have old time clothes the kids get to put on and the picture is sepia toned with a splash of color. I'm totally excited to see what the pics look like. I've needed to get the boys pictures done a little more professionally anyway, so this is perfect. Then in the evening Nicole and I are scrapbooking until the night is young!

TJ's haveing a weekend with the boys.... as Nicole and I will be scrapbooking all Saturday too! I'm getting further and further behind in my scrapbooking every day, as I take more and more pictures every day! Huh. The boys are dying to have their own scrapbooks to look at anyway. I did make them an ABC scrapbook with pictures of themselves... but I need to start their own books from when they came and everything that's happened since then!

YeeHA

helpful brother

I have kicked my toes on the bathroom stool way too many times. So I told Bear that if he doesn't put it back after washing his hands, I'm going to put it in my room for the day and he has to figure out another way to reach the sink. Well, I was hoping this would affect Monkey too because he forgets as well. Yesterday it worked because Monkey felt bad for Bear that he couldn't reach to sink so he would lift him up while he washed his hands or brushed his teeth.  Monkey said he was sick of lifting him up. So I said that he should also remember to put the stool back, and help his brother remember.

Well right away this morning they forgot to put the stool back so it's in my room again for the day. I guess we'll try again tomorrow.

Bear was going to the bathroom and I said, Bear how are you going to wash your hands.  Bear said, I'm going to put the stool back next time. I said, well that is a great idea, but how are you going to wash your hands right now? He reached and reached... and pouted. I can't reach the soap. Me: Oh isn't that sad. I sure hope you figure something out.

Monkey had such pity on his brother even though he really did not want to have to partake in this lifting up Bear every time he needs to wash his hands, he reluctantly went in there and said, *sigh, Bear I'll lift you up this time.

I guess we'll see how many more days before they start remembering to put the stool back after they use it. :)

Pressure washing

The fence is up, and since we bought it from someone where it had already been out in the weather without any treatment it looks a little rough. It really doesn't look bad when it's dry, it's when it's rains that it really darkens more than normal and you can see the wear and tear.

So, we borrowed a pressure washer from our good friends, the Kellar's. :) I started washing it today, and oh Boy! It is going to take a long time. First of all, I ran out of gas 2 times already and I've only done about 1/4 of it. Plus it's so dirty that I think I may have to do two sessions, once I get the whole thing done, do it again. However I am thinking about doing the first run now and seeing how that looks, and then maybe doing it again in the Spring.

Well, like I said I'm only 1/4 of the way done and my fingers hurt from having to hold the trigger down the whole time. :P Hopefully it's nice again tomorrow so I can do more. I'll have to do it during nap time though because it makes a muddy mess and I don't want the boys out there with me getting all muddy.

$1

The boys earn tokens to be able to watch TV... well they can also turn 4 tokens in for a dollar. So Monkey decided to do that. They had TV taken away for a week, so He's just been dying to watch TV so we reminded him of the alternative, that he could still turn them in for $1, instead of using them to watch a movie.... so he decided to do that today. Then right away he says, "Let's go to Target". Apparently he's going to need a big lesson on how to handle money! He wants to spend it before he can even think about putting it in his piggy bank. So we went to the dollar store instead of target because there would be more choices there for what they can get for $1. We looked at everything before deciding what we wanted to get.  Bear got to come with to spend a dollar as well.  Monkey picked his prize but after seeing some of the other things he said, "Mom can we go home and get my other dollar and come back to the store."
Oh Boy! This could turn bad.

Lesson Learned (for today)

I had to put (for today) just incase, because tomorrow could be a different story.

Lately when the boys fight about something, which the fight is usually about toys... we tell them that the fighting is really hurting our ears and the have to take it to their bedroom and come out when they're done, and have it figured out. They don't get to have any toys, and they don't like sitting in there first because they're mad at each other over whatever toy it is, plus they are extra mad at each other because they have to sit in the room for a couple minutes. So after a few times of doing this I noticed some changes in Monkey... if Bear started crying over something that happened, Monkey was a little more "sympathetic" like.... Sorry Bear, Sorry, Sorry, Bear, I said Sorry! He's trying to get him to stop crying before we come over there and make them both sit in the room for a couple minutes. Then yesterday, they were digging through the toys, and "unexpectedly" wanted the same toy. That would be sarcastic because they always want the same toy!!! Anyway, Bear was starting to fuss about it and Monkey at first didn't want to give up the toy, but after Bear started getting louder he knew we would make them both sit in the room until they were able to deal with it the right way, so Monkey gave it to him and said, Here Bear just have it because I don't want to have to sit in the room.

Always nice to see a plan come together in the end. :)
We'll see how long that works.

"Uncle" Monkey

My cousin Jennifer and baby Ariana came over again today. The boys love holding her and seeing her. Monkey was holding Ariana and he was talking to her. "Hi, Ariana. Are you tired? Are you going to take a nap? After lunch time Uncle Monkey is going to take a nap. You can call me Uncle Monkey if you want."

I thought that was too cute. He thought of that all on his own. :)

What would he technically be? Jennifer's my cousin... so what relationship is my son to my cousins daughter?




*Obviously he used his real name not our code name of Monkey, in case that confused you in this scenario. :)

Merry Christmas!

TJ is putting the Christmas lights up on the house. We're not going to turn them on outside until November probably, but it's smart to get them up while it's still semi-warm out instead of waiting until right before Christmas when it's freezing outside!
We got pretty green lights for the house, a red ribbon lighted strand to put down the front porch post, and really, really big light bulbs to put down the sidewalk. Those one's we'll probably wait until a little later to put them out so they don't get ruined.

The boys are so excited to put the Christmas tree up and so am I!!!! We were thinking about putting the tree up next week. We'll see how the week goes though! :)
-Stephanie

Amazing

This was Four His Glory's vocal coach. He's amazing. We really learned a lot from him.

TJ

!!RETRACTION, RETRACTION!!

OK- so I think that I need to eat my words... After I was willing to share the wonderful comments about my boys, terror has struck this afternoon! I will never boast again! :)

I just sat on the floor with a screaming, crying, whinning, attitude ridden little boy....who wouldn't give in to the choice he made! We sat there for 50 minutes! Yes I said 50 minutes and boy does my butt hurt from him sitting on my lap the whole time, on the hard wood kitchen floor. He made the choice and I said he couldn't go back to nap time, or eat or drink or anything else until he followed through with the pre-stated consequence to his actions. (Actually he kept saying he wanted to go back to nap and I said, you sure can as soon as you finish.) So I said I was willing to hold him and sit on the floor until Daddy came home, or supper, or bed time or whenever he decided was the right time.... apparently 50 minutes later was the right time. He followed through with his chosen consequence and went back to nap. Oh Boy! I really thought I was going to have to sit there longer. Didn't know what I was going to do, or how I was going to get the other one up from nap if I had to sit there until Daddy came home.

Here's a snip-it of our conversation...
Monkey-I don't want to! (Cry Cry)
Mom- Isn't that Sad.
Monkey-I just don't want to and I'm not going to! (Cry, Whine, Cry, Sob)
Mom- Isn't that Sad.
Monkey-I want to go back to nap. (sniffle, cry, sob, sniffle)
Mom- You sure may, as soon as you are done.
Monkey-I'm not going to, never ever. (whine, cry)
Mom- Isn't that sad.
Monkey-I know what you're going to say, stop saying it. (whine) I just want to go back to nap. (cry, whine, cry, sniffle)
Mom- You sure may, as soon as you are done.
Monkey- I'm not going to. I don't like it, I don't want to.(cry, whine, cry, sniffle)
Mom- Isn't that sad.

and so on and so on.... it kinda gets funny after you say the same thing over and over.... but don't laugh... doesn't mix well with the bad attitude! :)

Anyway.... if you read this say a little prayer for me.

Sitting Still

Ok so 4 compliments in a row....I hope this does not go to their heads! :)

Yesterday we went to Culver's and met with my friend Katie. Well if you know Katie and you know me... we like to talk. So the boys did pretty well sitting there. I know their little quarks so I may not think they are being as good as the passer-by does. But anyway. We ate lunch and then sat there for quite a while talking. Well apparently the manager at Culver's thought that they were perfect angels or something. She comes out and says, "you boys are sitting so nicely and patiently, I've been watching you" Then she asks me if she can give them some custard. She let them choose from vanilla or chocolate and even let them choose something to put on the top.  Monkey chose sprinkles and Bear chose M&M's. Wow was that ever nice! Plus when we were leaving Culver's another employee walks out behind us and says, "I just want to say that you have the nicest boys! They sat so nicely and quietly."

Well today, we went to an appointment. We were waiting in some chairs until it was our turn and the chairs we were sitting in were right by this ladies office and she could see us. We were sitting there for a few minutes and the lady looks out, and says "I can't believe how good you boys are sitting there for mom!"
Then when it was our turn we went in to the meeting and the boys played with toys while the adults talked. There was a kitchen set in there and they were actually playing together nicely. When it was time to leave the lady told them how nicely they played with each other.

I must say I'm feeling a little proud of these boys the more I write! :)
One more recent event.... we were on vacation and went out to eat at Perkins. There were 2 older couples sitting across the way from us and when it was time to go they came over to our table to tell us how they thought our children were the best behaved and quiet kids they've seen at a restaurant for a long time. :)

Well, thank you one and all. We definitely work hard on the manners and controlling your actions and words. It is a huge praise to receive these compliments. I am proud of them. Let's pray they keep it up!

Anyway, it is kinda funny how these random people feel the need to come up and tell us this, It's nice of them, But every time, Monkey says.... "Mom do you know that person?" Makes the whole stranger thing confusing! Oh well! :)

Early to Bed, Early to Rise on a Trial Basis

This week I've been doing an early to bed, early to rise trial.... Instead of staying up til 12 or 1.... I've been going to bed the same time as TJ between 9:30-10pm and getting up with him at 5am... Getting out of bed in the morning is not really my favorite thing, but I must say it's kinda nice seeing TJ before he goes to work. And completely being done getting ready before the boys even get up and all that jazz. So as of Wednesday (day 3), not the worst thing in the world. I guess I have 2 more days to go and then we'll see what I really think of it! :)


Funny randomness.... Last night at the dinner table we were talking about how there might be snow flurries.  Bear says, "Does God dump the snow into the clouds and then it comes down to us?" Pretty profound for a 3 year old. TJ says, who told you that Bear, he said "God".

Caramel Apples

Have you ever made your own caramel apple with the quote-un-quote kit? We were at the store last night and TJ saw premade caramel apples and thought it would be a fun treat for the boys. I said if we're going to get caramel apples we should get the "kits" and we can make them. I did that as a kid and thought it was fun/cool. TJ had no idea what I was talking about! I couldn't believe it. So I showed him and we bought it. The boys and I are going to have caramel apples for snack! healthy, apple, treat, caramel..... put them together and you have a pretty good snack!! :)
Good memories....good times
-Stephanie

Random Thoughts by Stephanie V2

Besides the obvious answer of our "sin nature" why do people want what others have? Like my kids for example... Why is it that they only want the toy if someone else is playing with it?! I mean, I can kinda understand when there is something new and you want to get your hands on it and see how it works... ok, but when there are 40 toys laying on the floor... all of which you have played with a hundred times, why do you only at that moment want to play with the one that is in your brother's hand? What makes that better than the others? You've played with them all, there is nothing new to explore or figure out. All I can say is this leads to a very frustrating day and lots of brotherly fighting! :)