school project 6 & 7

Science projects are one of Noah's favorite (could be b/c there's a DVD involved) but lately they've just been "meh."

I'm behind but we did do a lesson about yeast and I had Noah help me make bread.

On November 20 the lesson was to see what different kinds of things were like when you froze them. We didn't get into why some things freeze well and others didn't (like ketchup), but I still remember learning that in high school chemistry (which I loved).

Water, milk, ketchup, pop and juice with bananas.

Apparently Sid the Science kid already beat me to this lesson b/c Noah said that we should make frozen ice pop things like the show did. And he wanted to add bananas. So I did my best with toothpicks.

Evie didn't like it. Noah did, until he got to the banana. Then he insisted on throwing it away. Go figure.

This was December 20. We made our own bubble mix and wire bubble blowers.

Christmas 2011

Last Christmas, I was hugely pregnant and therefore, we didn't travel anywhere. This year Samuel was a nice 10.5 months but we still didn't travel home to SD. We stayed here and even though in the days leading up to the big day, I (we) felt a little bummed about it, we still had a good time alone together.

<----- Look closely at the snowflake shapes. My sister made them for us!

The first thing the kids did was open their stockings and only their stockings. We had to do church so we didn't want to spoil the fun with a rush. Then we had delicious coffee cake. Noah said, "This isn't so bad mommy." Why thank you son. He'll come around to appreciate my food later I guess. Afterwards we had church. Then our replacement grandparents, Larry and Cheryl, had us, another couple and friend over for lunch. Prime Rib baby! So kind of them.

Finally at 2:30, we caved into the kids asking to go open presents. They had done SO well to not complain and whine and waited very patiently. So we headed home, Samuel went down for a nap and we dug in.

Terry got lots of fun stuff, but the most stylish perhaps (not judging by this photo) was this corduroy sport coat, blazer thing.

Evie got many fun things as well, the most favorite probably being a Polly Pocket slide thing. But here is her treasuring her giant yellow angry bird courtesy of my sister Steph.

Noah's favorite gift is the Hot Wheels wall track he got from my parents. Samuel got a cool singing, interactive Bear and a new car seat. And I guess we forgot to take more photos during the unwrapping. But here's the mess afterwards.

Coming from around the couch you can see a more detailed mess.

I always loved playing in the wrapping paper afterwards and so do my kids.

Here is my favorite gift. From Shari. Love it.

moldy paint?

We moved into this, our first house, about a year and a half ago - June 2010. Thankfully, before we moved in, we were able to do all the updating so we didn't have to live in the mess.

I did a whole ton of painting (it's a large house) and by the time I came to my final project, the upstairs family bathroom, I was so done. Lets just say I did a terrible job. The walls were gray but the details were bad. I taped poorly and I cut in wretchedly and I didn't even clean up the mess where I painted over the tape onto the tile.

Today I remedied it. Check out those edges! (this looking in from the door)

However, I did have quite a trying time getting this project done.

The first thing that needed to be done was tidy up the white edges of the ceiling - they didn't match the rest. So I grabbed the ceiling paint that I used for the dungeon make-over, just 5 months ago, and pried the can open. Instead of the nice white color I was looking for, the top of the paint was kind of a grayish black color. And it looked furry. My first thought was that it was just a little dried out on the top so I tried to scoop it off. But when the stir stick hit the stuff, it just kinda dissolved and was lost. So I stirred it up. It was at this point, when a most wretched smell reached my nose, that I realized that the gray/black top was not dried paint. It was mold. And I had just stirred it up. How does paint get moldy? I have no idea. But it was.

However, I was not to be deterred by the moldy white paint, even though the smell lingered in my bathroom. I had other options. I grabbed another can of white primer from who knows when. But when I cracked it open the paint was definitely dry. No mold so that was good, but still not usable.

Luckily I had a brand new can of ceiling paint that I was able to use after I rolled it around on the floor a while. Perfect.

So after my ceiling was cleaned up, the next step was cleaning up the gray edging. After I cracked open that can (which was only 1.5 years old), I saw that it was on it's way to being dried up. It was all solidified and sticky. Not really stir-able at all! But it had just enough moisture to kinda poke my edging brush into it and get my project done. I did add a little white ceiling paint and it seemed to mix in a little.

Lesson learned - Close paint cans more securely. I don't know what causes paint to mold though...

I also got out a trusty razor blade and cleaned up the mess of dried paint on the tile from my first botched job. Finally, our bathroom is really, actually, completely complete.

And Evie is cute.

"be good"

A week before Christmas the kids had a special visitor come by our house that delivered candy canes.

I love that my kids know him as Saint Nicholas. Thanks Veggie Tales for that. And thanks to the high school principal in red...

Or not. Terry told me it's not the principal, it's another man from church. In my defense, he's not really recognizable in that get-up.

Christmas program 2011

Aren't children's Christmas programs so much fun? The kids are all doing something funny the whole time that it makes me wish I had like 20 eyes. As it is, I only have eyes for my own kids. Last year Evie stole the show b/c the microphone was directly in front of her. You can still watch the video here as well as see all the other programs the kids have been in if you scroll down.

My kids didn't do anything to stand out this year, but they were still cute. Noah's in the middle in the maroon and gray stripes and Evie is third from the left with the pig tails.

I guess we have to work with him about chewing his nails. Also, Evie is standing next to her BFF Kaylee. They are so cute together. So girly.

Samuel did pretty good in the pew with Terry and I, though we didn't get a good photo of the little stinker.

Pointing up in Away in a Manger.

Party time

first snow

I wish it looked like this right now.

But alas, it's all but gone. This was back at the beginning of December. The 3rd to be exact. We had lovely snow. And Terry's such a good daddy that he played out there with Noah and Evie for over an hour. He was running, pulling them on that sled and launching them off the little mound of dirt we have (there are no hills around here you know. sigh. such is life in Nebraska). The kids had a fantastic time. I was inside reading (see previous post).

After Terry was done pulling the kids he made a tunnel, kind of. He just scooped a bunch of snow and piled it at the base of the slide. It was pretty funny watching the kids try to break through it. Noah's back half is still in the slide here.

nose in a book

This is me lately. See that pile of books next to her? And how you can't even see her face? Exactly. This is why I haven't been blogging much, if you wondered, though you probably haven't. But no matter at my lack of readers, I've missed blogging.

I love to read. But it's difficult to stop. I get way too into a story, too involved. I was depressed for two weeks after I finished Lord of the Rings (my favorite).

My friend Amber warned me. I'd been borrowing a lot of her books - pretty much going through her entire library. I asked her to just bring me whatever book she thought I should read next. She brought me the first in the Karen Kingbury's Redemption series and told me it was just in the first in a long line of books (2 more series, possibly 3) and I'd want to read them all. She was right.

I'm addicted. But not in the happy sense. I just have to know what happens in the end so I can rest. I've been very irritated with all the drama in these books. What these books are is Christian soap operas. HIV? Yes. Affairs? Yes. Murder? Yes. Enough miscommunication to drive me up a wall? YES. I am not a fan of drama. But of course, I've become too emotionally involved in the characters so I can't just stop reading. My frustration reached an all time high yesterday that I called my sister-in-law Shari and asked her to spoil the upcoming plot for me. I just cannot deal with the drama. And I'm glad I know what's coming in the last two books. Then I can relax and enjoy it a little more and be content to allow the characters be absolute idiots.

There. I'm done complaining.

Here's the first 5

The next 4

And the last 4. I am two from being done. I can't wait.

I could continue on with another series about a side-lining character, but I don't think I can handle it. Karen Kingsbury is a good writer, but I just can't deal. Perhaps I'll feel differently when I'm done...

the tree

In my last post about tree hunting, I neglected to put up a photo of the actual tree we got. Here it is. I like it, though it sheds a lot. And you can see the huge glass hurricane on the dresser to the right that Terry got at an auction. I filled it with lights. Festive, though it does look a little weird with all the wires...

Purdy. Noah has been counting and organizing the presents. Snap has been missing being able to look out the window.

2011 tree hunting

I think this is the third or fourth year we've got our tree from Heins Pines, a local tree farm. They're generally more expensive than say, Menards, but it's so much more fun to walk around and choose a tree since we can't hike in the Black Hills (sad face). In years past we've been poorly outfitted for the cold weather so we took the necessary precautions this time and had a good time.

There they go, walking down the aisles of trees. Evie found a stick.

Samuel was the warmest in his body suit, blanket, car seat get-up. And he was the cutest.

We seriously considered this one...

And I liked the palm tree-ish feel to this one...

Noah is trying to grab Evie's stick as she stabs it through the tree.

We posed in the nativity outfitted with real live llama and baby donkey ("llama face! Yay! I'm a llama again!" Sorry, I just can't help but bust out The Emperor's New Groove when I see llamas).

Noah was afraid of the animals. Evie was brave. To give him credit though, I was afraid of the llama. Don't they spit? It was eyeing me funny...

I love going out there. They have this stream going through their land and some trees and it's so pretty. Reminds me of home. And the kids had fun on their old playground equipment.

Hide and seek in the imported Michigan trees - apparently they had a drought affect the trees in the field. We ended up buying one of these. Nicest tree we've ever had.

thanksgiving 2011

Every year Terry's family does their big together time Thanksgiving. This year we landed at Sturgis in a big gym.

Samuel enjoyed Tawnya's kids toy. It was funny until he set it off while we were praying. Well, maybe that was still funny.

Noah had fun with balls and running. Mostly running though. That kid likes to run.

Daddy overcame his post eating (over-eating) dizziness by playing some basketball with Jesse, our brother in law. Cousins Samuel and Grace were so helpful too.

Evie got in on some Red Rover - thankfully none of the kids were strong enough to bust any arms. The girl with the glasses already had that broken foot...

The following day was my family's turn for a feast. My mom is the best cook. I may have had 4 or more pieces of lefse.

After eating, we all watched Terry and Noah play Super Mario Brothers until we couldn't stand it anymore.

raking leaves

We finally got our back lawn raked today (our neighbors say hooray). And by that I mean, Terry raked our lawn. It was only fair. After all, we only have one rake. Plus, I did it last year when I was 6-7 months pregnant. Anyway, we got it done. I am posting lots of pictures of this boring event b/c I like pictures of my kids.

The leaves don't really look so bad here. It's just the one maple tree. But they sure add up.

Samuel was chillin with Noah and Evie's representatives.

Happy boy face

Happy kid faces

Evie gets the first of many dumped leaves on her head

This is what she thinks of it

More leaves

And more leaves. And no, I didn't tell him to stop.

We would have taken a complete family photo but there's no one else but me to point the camera. Perhaps we should train Snap dog...

3 amigos

Samuel was not digging it at this point. He had a nap after this.

Evie came to a stop at Terry's feet and was like, Excuse me daddy, I'm mowing.

4 of 13 piles

4 more

The fruit of our (Terry's) labors. The city will bring tractors by and haul away our mess. It's so nice.