Photo Session

While waiting for Kreg to come home for lunch today the kids and I had a little photo session. I think we actually took some pretty good pictures today.
My Crazy Girl:

My Silly Boy...with crazy girl in the background. In this pic Makayla was actually saying "cheese." She just started saying it today. She says "eeeeeee."


Me with the crazy girl and silly boy.


And one of the 3 of us together! I can hardly believe they are both smiling, let alone that they both cooperated at the same time. (That never happens.) If you look closely it looks like Makayla has both of her top teeth but actually the one on the left is just sooooo swollen that it actually looks like a tooth. Its almost through people....almost through!

Christmas Highlights

What a wonderful Christmas we have had. Woweee it has been filled with so much fun. And we made it last as long as possible too. It all started Wednesday evening with our little family Christmas here at home. I made homemade cinnamon rolls and we had Christmas breakfast for dinner!
Then we let the kids open their gifts from Kreg and I. Aiden got a John Deere big wooden barn he can drive his tractors in and out of. Makayla got a little people doll house, a new baby doll, and a little bottle so she can feed her baby. Amazingly she knew just what to do with that doll and bottle.

We only had a few presents but we totally destroyed the place by the time we were finished opening.
The before:

The after:

Kreg got me a very cool gift that I was not expecting at all. He got a watch that has GPS in it so I can track my courses when I got running. Its so cool. It will record my distance, pace, heart rate, location, etc...then I can put all the info on a program on the computer and keep track of my different runs. I can actually race against myself and see if I'm beating myself from the last time I ran. I can also set goals for things like pace or distance and it will tell me if I'm under or exceeding my goals. Its the coolest little thing! If it wasn't so snowy and Icy outside I would have already tried it out. There will be more to come on my Garmin Forerunner in a later post I'm sure.
Then Christmas Eve we went down to Indy to spend time with my family. We had dinner at my brother's house and had a birthday cake for Jesus.
Here are Aiden and my nephew Luke blowing out their candles for Jesus:

And here's my parents with their four grandchildren!

Christmas day was spent at my parents house. It was a wonderfully relaxing day. My parents got Aiden and Makayla a kitchen. They both seem to love it. Aiden has been making me lots of pizza's.

Saturday morning then we headed back up north to spend the day with Kreg's family. They were kind enough to wait to have Christmas until we could all be together. We had a great time at the Salsbery's as well, although I have no pictures. Silly me. One of the highlights of my day Saturday was giving my sister-in-law, Jessica, the quilt I made her for Christmas. That's right folks you heard correctly. I made a quilt! I had so much fun doing it too, although next time I think I will allow myself a bit more time than 3 1/2 weeks (between Thanksgiving and Christmas just about every waking hour was spent making this quilt). But thats ok because it was all worth it and this winter I even plan to make another one.

So without further ado here's the quilt:


So for the past several days we've been having great fun playing with our new Christmas toys, as Aiden likes to say it. One of MY "Christmas toys" is an electric pressure cooker. I tried it out for the first time today. I cooked a whole chicken for lunch in 28 mins. Amazing! And tonight I'm taking it a step further. I'm going to try making beef stew in the pressure cooker. I'm really excited about my new kitchen toy. I have heard it will "revolutionize my cooking." :) Bring it on baby!

So there ya go, some of the highlights of our Christmas. Such a blessed week of fun. And there is still more fun to be had as this Saturday is Aiden's 3rd birthday party!! Don't worry I will do my best to take lots of pictures.

I know I know....

I know I know...I haven't updated in a while. Well I have an excuse and its called HARVEST. It STILL isn't finished yet! Hard to believe we started this journey back in September and its December 7th with an inch of snow on the ground and they are still in the fields. Its been the craziest year. My wonderful husband has done the best he can to help me out when he's home. I know he's tired and yet when we do get to see him he lovingly plays and wrestles with the kids without complaint. We had a long month of sicknesses/teething as well and he even did his share of holding and comforting the kids in the middle of the night. We're on the home stretch now but its STILL not over yet. I am very much ready to no longer feel like a single parent Monday-Saturday. And I am very much ready to have weekends again. During harvest there is no weekend off. Oh to have my husband home for a Friday night again or a Saturday morning for pancakes and coffee. Its coming...I know it is.

So with that being said most of my days have been spent running around like a chicken with my head cutoff. I pick up the house...and Aiden and Makayla destroy it. I feed them and clean the kitchen up and do it again and again(2 bites for each of them and 1 bite for me...its a good diet plan I tell ya.). I play tractors and choo choo's while holding a squirmy girl on my lap. And then I play tractors and choo choo's more while Makayla destroys/eats the tractors and choo choo's. I tell Aiden to be gentle with his sister about 50 times a day and try to be consistent disciplining my almost 3 year old. And we run errands, go to church activities, and hang out with friends and family. I'm not complaining, I'm just tired. I'm really really tired and ready to enjoy the Christmas season with Kreg at home with me in the evening again. Don't get me wrong, I love my life and I love my kids. They are literally my world right now. I thank the Lord for them every day. I know I am tremendously blessed. Its just been a long few months with some emotional ups and downs and I am just ready to have my husband home to help me once again. I cherish the thought of being able to tell Aiden "It's almost 5pm daddy will be home soon" instead of having to tell him "No daddy won't be home for dinner again tonight because he's working." Oh its coming! The day is coming! I can almost taste it.

Last week was a nice change of pace because I had my best friend since Kindergarten up to visit on Tuesday with her very adorable son Rigg. And then my mom came up and took my kids down to Indy Wednesday and Thursday. That was lovely! I had two whole days of blissful silence, shopping, and uninterrupted projects here at home. Thanks again mom!
And it is at this point that I also most give a shout out to my wonderful mother-in-law who joyfully takes my children every Monday for at least a few hours while I get a jump start on my week. Without her I'm not sure I would have made it through the last 3 months. Being able to at least grocery shop by myself and get some cleaning done around the house does wonders for the rest of my week.

So I leave you now with a few pics from Cari and Rigg's visit to Kokomo:
(I'm so glad you brought your camera Cari)
I just love this picture of Cari with Makayla...both so beautiful!

Aiden's attempt at giving Makayla a kiss and Cari's attempt at trying to catch it on camera.

My cute boy...

My pretty little girl...

And last but certaily not least Makayla trying to make Rigg eat a bus (Sorry Rigg...)

Thanks for coming up Cari! And thanks for helping me keep my sanity mom!

The Remedy

This past Friday Makayla came down with croup. Its not been fun to say the least but we're making it and I think we are now through the worst. It was a long weekend with a bit of a scary day on Sunday. She was completely listless, just wanting to sleep on us and laying around on her blankey and by evening she was running a 102 fever. Every time she would cough she would try to cry because it would hurt but she had no voice so she wasn't able to cry either. The tears would come but no noise. It was a very strange thing to have a baby with no voice. That's how she communicates to me...in her crib, if she gets hurt, if she's hungry, if Aiden takes her toy, etc...she gives a little cry. But the past couple days I have just physically had to watch her to make sure she was ok and not just sitting with tears streaming down her face, which did happen on Sunday. This morning however I am happy to report we are starting to hear cute little squeaks again out of my princess, even though the nasty cough is still there. The cute little squeaks are a welcome sound once again.

So with that being said little did I know Aiden has known the cure all along. I should have just asked him sooner. Last night at dinner this is the conversation I had with him.

Me: Aiden we have to be extra gentle with baby because she doesn't feel good. Her throat hurts, especially when she coughs.

Aiden: Baby needs a band aid?

Me: Yeah baby could probably use a band aid? But I don't think we can put one on her throat.

Aiden: (He ponders this for a moment) Baby need a doctor?

Me: Yes baby needed the doctor. But we already took her to the doctor so I don't think we should take her again.

Aiden: Oh ok. (He pauses once again to think and then his eyes light up and he proudly states) Baby need 3 minutes with daddy?

Me: (smile) Oh yes Aiden. That's definitely what she needs. 3 minutes with daddy would make anyone feel better.

So there it is. The remedy. Little did I know my almost 3 year old would have the answer. 3 minutes with daddy....of course! :)

Miss Lady Bug

This past weekend was family fun filled! We had absolutely beautiful weather (as most of you know) so everyone decided it would be a great weekend for a combine ride. And I do concur...it truly was a fantastic weekend for combining.

Side note: We are still smack dab in the middle of harvest. Last year we were done at this time but this year we still have a ways to go. Thankfully all the beans are in but there is still A LOT of corn out there. So I am doing the best I can to hold the fort down here at home with my two silly munchkins. But I have to be honest with ya...I CAN HARDLY WAIT to have Kreg home again every evening. I'm starting to wear out just a bit. We'll get there I know we will.

Anyway, so Saturday my brother and sister-in-law came up for the day with my niece and nephew. I left for a few minutes Saturday evening to go grab us a pizza and when I came home I heard a story that I shall not soon forget. First of all I must tell you that if you do not know my sister-in-law then you are truly missing out. She's hilarious and fun and well let's face it, absolutely terrified of bugs. (keep this in mind for the rest of the story)

So while I was gone Mindy noticed Makayla was chewing on something (gumming it to death is probably a better description). So she did the mom/aunt thing and stuck her finger in Makayla's mouth and pulled out a macaroni noodle. Now you may think that strange but its really not. When Makayla is napping I allow Aiden to combine macaroni noodles. The kid spends every waking hour of his day pretending to drive trucks and tractors so I like to give him a little something to pretend with. I thought I had all of them picked up but i guess not. Well a few minutes later Mindy noticed that Makayla was still chewing on something. So once again she did the mom/aunt thing and swept her finger through Makayla's mouth only this time she PULLED OUT

(wait for it....yes its true......)

A LADY BUG!
Yuck! Makayla had been gumming a full fledged lady bug! Whether it was alive or dead we shall never know because it was definitely dead when it CAME OUT OF HER MOUTH! Now for those of you who know Mindy please feel free to envision her FREAKING OUT just a little bit at that moment.

(Makayla, mommy says no chewing on lady bugs ok!)

A few minutes later Mindy noticed Makayla was still chewing, very bravely she stuck her finger in one more time and pulled out, yes you guessed it, the other half of the lady bug shell. Yuck!

Makayla no more eating lady bugs! If you're hungry just tell mommy. Ok darling.

My mother-in-law nicknamed Makayla "lady bug" a few weeks ago so I guess that makes the old saying true....You are what you eat!

No more lady bugs Miss Lady Bug!
In the words of Aiden, "Baby that's a No No" :)

Fall Fabulous!

So I don't like Halloween. I don't like what it celebrates at all but I do enjoy dressing my children up in fun costumes. aka...the farmer and the penguin

And I do enjoy the fall weather and the colorful trees and the smell of harvest. I love fresh apples from the orchard and a pumpkin on my front porch. So with that being said, this year we found a very happy medium to all this. Friday the 30th we had a pizza party with Kreg's extended family and had a blast dressing the kids up in there costumes. (I like to think of it as a mid-harvest/fall party.) Thus I present to you the rooster, the farmer, the fairy, the ninja, a ladybug, and a penguin.

And I just have to share this next picture because well I think its hilarious. The ladybug and the punguin are looking at each other like "Can you believe our parents would dress us up like this and have the nerve to take our picture."

Oh what cute little butter balls!! :)
So, then on halloween the kids and I attended our "trunk or treat" at church. I had fun showing my little munchkins off and Aiden had fun getting lots of candy. (no pictures of this however because it was FREEZING outside so we made our rounds and headed home.)
However, the greatest part of the whole weekend was when we got home from "trunk or treat" it was still early so we still had lots of tricker treaters arriving at our door. At first I thought "Oh man Aiden's going to be scared of the rediculous costumes. And do we really want to start this with our kids?" But then we realized we could choose to put a different spin on things and maybe make this a very positive experience. And indeed we did. Aiden loved handing out candy to all the kids that rang our doorbell. He pretty much gave away all of his own candy. (lesson #1 for Aiden: giving is better than receiving) And along with the candy we had Aiden give out tracks to all the kids that came to the door. The tracks were million dollar bills that look fairly real and fully explain the gospel on both the front and the back. I have to tell you it was so so so cool to watch my almost 3 year old boldy stand at the door and put a gospel track in every single bucket or bag that came to our door. What a great way to take a terribly pagan holiday and teach our children that yes we can still have fun, yes we can still get dressed up, yes we can eat candy, no we don't have to be scared of the costumes because the costumes aren't real, and yes we will face halloween straight in the face and share the gospel. And how cool will it be if our kids grow up handing out tracks on halloween. Our hope too is if Aiden can boldly share the gospel when he's 3 then hopefully he will be able to boldly share the gospel when he's 18 or 25! (lesson #2 for Aiden: Sharing the gospel does not have to be a scary thing.)
So there it is my thoughts on this years October 31st. Now please don't get me wrong, I most definitely respect differing convictions for this holiday. To be honest I wasn't sure what my convictions were until recently. I have gone back and forth with what we should do. But for right now I am happy with how we spent our evening on October 31st. I got to take cute pictures of my kiddos and share the gospel with those that stepped onto our front porch.

The Last Nice Day of the Season

I do believe Wednesday just may have been the last really nice day of the year. We hit the 70 mark and it was beautiful outside. All the trees right now are so full of color. So the kids and I tried to take advantage of it and after their naps we spent a good portion of the afternoon outside. And Makayla being the big girl that she is now got to play in the grass, sit in the sandbox for the first time, and sit in the swing! She really really loved the swing. The sandbox was interesting. She kept trying to eat the sand even though every time she would put sand in her mouth she would make a terrible face and try to spit it back out. I have no pictures of the sandbox but I do have a great one of her in the swing.

I also tried to get a few pics of Aiden and Makayla in front of this beautiful red bush in our front yard. But to actually get them to both smile in the same picture or even just to both look at the camera at the same time would be too much to ask for. I would even settle for the two of them just sitting nice and STILL next to each other. That would have been fine with me too. But no, I don't think any of the above happened.