My Adventurous Children

I have been reading several blogs and love hearing the stories about their kids. So I finally decided I needed to write a couple of ours. We have had lots of birthdays, well, two but that's plenty in a row. Sam had a "not so good" birthday. He didn't get to ride the bumper cars and hurt himself playing on the playground. But he will tell you all about it so it must have been somewhat fun, right?

On of the toys he got was a helicopter. He took it outside to play with the other day and of course it ended up on the roof. He came and told me and I said we would have to get later, when Dad came home, unless I suddenly felt like hauling the ladder out back to get it (not likely). When Justin came home I told him about it and he didn't seem inclined to get it. As it got a little bit later in the evening I thought it might rain and didn't want to ruin his new toy already. So Justin asked Hannah if she wanted to be thrown on the roof to go get the helicopter (he asked her because she was standing right there). She said she wasn't sure she could get it. He told her "I'll throw you up and you get the helicopter and then you jump back down." She looked a little unsure about the jumping down part and then a minute later said "Come on Daddy, let's go." And do what he asked her. She promptly said "Let's go throw me on the roof and get Sam's helicopter." She was all set on being thrown on the roof. We both just laughed because she was convinced Dad was really going to throw her up on the roof and she was perfectly fine with that. Fortunately they did find a stick/pole long enough to get it down without having to throw her up on the roof. That's my adventurous child.

Sam's latest adventure is just to build obstacle courses to challenge himself and his sisters on. Usually the obstacle course involves the kitchen stools and dining room chairs, while I am trying to cook dinner. Justin wonders sometimes why they are all over the place and tries to put them back only to promptly have them put back in their "place" and see kids racing around them and down the hallway. I just work around them. He also likes to build forts with all the couch cushions. He makes forts for Hannah to play in while he is at school.

That's pretty good for now. I am being summoned to be "tested" on the Wii. We'll see if I pass the test and am deemed worthy to play on a higher level with Sam. :)

Just an update from our life - we had Hannah's birthday party over the weekend as you might be able to tell she had a ball - AnnaJune took this shot of her just about to blow out her candles. She had some other 4 year old girls over and it was little girl power all the way!

Earlier on Sam and Hannah took over my camer and took pictures of each other. It was really funny to see what came out. They took pictures of things important to them - I was suprised at some of the toys that they loved and the pictures that they had put on the walls.

Sam's missing tooth -will it ever come in?

Finally Michelle looking a little lost during the party. She's really grown lately, not wanting to go to sleep at all, and using her 1 word (BINK!) to apply to just about everything. She also says Mommy and Daddy, but mainly it's BINK! (drink), BINK! (cereal), BINK! (toy), and of course, her favorite BINK! (Binky). If you don't do exactly which BINK! she's saying she will repeat it until she gives up on you and tries to do it herself, with amazing success. She also has gotten her older brother wrapped around her finger already, since he will help her get whatever she wants when she goes up to him.

Anyway, those are our thoughts from this last weekend. We saw the post from the Camisas and really want to go view the Ice Castle up in Midway now as well - I think the kids would have a ball!

Ditto, and the reason why we're not pushing the Road Trip anymore

I just read on the K & M blog how they're going to be having a baby this August. That's awesome!

Ditto for us :) (We're due 2 weeks after them)

At the end of last year we were really pushing the idea of a group road trip heading somewhere cool for a week or more. However, since we're going to be otherwise engaged this summer, we have officially passed the baton on to the Shirts. They'll be heading up the idea for us. If there's a smaller campout before August we may be up for it.

That's it for now!

Merry Christmas!

My Day

Guess what I did today? I completed one of goals for the year. That's right, I put a nice check mark (very happily I might add) next to run a 5K. The only reason this was a goal of mine this year was because Justin suggested it and I was wanting to lose pregnancy weight also so I thought why not, it should help right. I have sisters who run, I have a sister who runs marathons regularly (seriously, 4 marathons this year plus a couple other races, coaching running, etc), Justin likes to run, I should run. That pretty much sums up the reasoning Justin gave me. That and he thought that by competing I would maybe catch the runners desire. I don't know if I caught the running desire quite yet. But looking back on this morning it was kind of cool to compete. The best part to me was even with my very little training (yeah so part of the point was that I would train with running) once we got settled in at a pace there were only two people who passed me.

Here's the picture from afterward. I did get a t-shirt and they did a raffle drawing and Justin and I both won something there. We didn't stick around for awards, the wind had picked up and it was cold, and I am pretty sure we didn't place. Still I beat my previous (Monday night practice run) 3 mile time. We finished at 36:02. I ran (and walked) at a about a 12 minute mile. I am pretty impressed with myself. (Hence the long bragging paragraph.)

So this afternoon and this evening I put together a fall tablecloth. I cut it out last night so today I just sewed it all together. It's basically an easy quilt top with no borders, backing, or the like. It does need a small border to cover the edge of my table but it is on the table right now (under plastic--you don't really think I would use it as a tablecloth by itself). Kind of fun.

Now, do we think I can actually finish a quilt? Really finish a quilt, not just a top? We'll see but I am not so sure (only because I really like hand quilting currently).

Oh, here are a couple of good books about quilting:
The Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donohue (good mystery book)
The Drunkard's Path by the same author
The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini (good fiction book)

Fun with photos!

AJ helped me clean out my basement office and we started to have fun with some backdrops and stuff. It's awesome when your wife has yards of fabric around that make fun backdrops :)

Halloween!

Here are the much requested pictures from our halloween costumes.

To start with we have Sam the Volcano Blaster! This was a much discussed and negotiated costume. I think it turned out fairly well. He seemed to enjoy it. He liked that he could duck down inside it and explode out.

Hannah the Flower Princess. She loved the tutu and the hat, she calls it her crown. It's an awfully big tutu, note to self, not quite so many yards of tulle next time.

Michelle didn't get an original costume. This was worn by Hannah in past years but I only had so much time for costumes. She liked that she had a tutu. The first time she wore it she stood there and danced a little bit.

There you have it! Enjoy!