If you ever wondered...

...what this looked like in real time I can show you!

bowling

Shari just sent me these videos off of her phone and b/c they're pretty funny, I thought I'd put them up since I figured out how. They're from Christmas when we went bowling with Terry's family - just like we used to when we were dating and engaged and pretty much until we had Noah. And now here he is participating! Notice I'm prego with Evie - love how I have to squat to pick stuff up.

puppy power on a leash

Terry's parents were kind enough to watch our kids while they were here so we could go see Batman (isn't it great that a town of 3600 has a theater?!!). While we were gone, they took Noah and Snap on a walk. Now, Snap doesn't like the leash. Whenever we try to get him to walk with us, he puts on all fours brakes and you have to pull him. But they figured out how to get him to walk on it - give Noah the leash and he will follow him. The dog likes his boy!

the pony/pig tail

On Sunday, the high school boys suggested I give Evie a mohawk since it's always sticking up anyway. I thought I'd try to control it in my own way. I had tried to previously with those plastic hair ties but they weren't elastic enough to fit around her little ponytail. So, today at Walmart I got some little Ouchless hair ties. Yeah, worked good. HA!

Nice bald spot, eh? Even the sides are shortening up b/c of her back sleep.

surprise video...finally

Here is the video...finally, after I figured out how to do it! The reason the camera is pointed towards an empty room, the front door, is b/c we thought he would be coming in from that way. However, he decided to come in the side door, which I forgot to lock, to the garage. We figured it out in time though and got his reaction on camera! Woo hoo!!! Happy 30th Terry! I love you!

The dog is yipping b/c he was in the garage in his kennel so he wouldn't get stepped on. I should have put him outside b/c Terry wondered what was up with that.

First foods

After we all tried out the motorbike, we went inside for home-aid pizza (thanks for teaching me mom). I had decided to try baby cereal with Evie. She's always so cranky and I thought perhaps this would help. It's been two weeks now and it has helped, though she does tend to be a little cranky...just not as bad. So anyway, this is her very first time. The faces they make are the best! And she likes it better now. =)

The Faster Pastor

Terry's dad ,Jerry, is a auction and garage sale enthusiast. He found this cool little contraption sometime this summer, unused in its 1980s(?, well at least 1990s) packaging. They spent a couple hours hooking it up before they were able to enjoy the fruit of their labors. They turned Terry's old bike into a mo-ped...motorbike...machine that enables you to avoid excessive exercise like pedeling. No special license required!

on knowing the difference b/w flavors

I'm afraid to say that lately, we've had a couple poor customer service interactions. I'm no expert on this. No wait, I am. I worked at Mt. Rushmore for 5 summers + where tourists, no matter how clueless, are always right. I was a waitress (yes, even if it was only for a week!) and know that customers deserve to get what they order. That's the whole point of eating out - being served. Otherwise we might as well stay home and do it ourselves. Terry would prefer we do this since he says my food is always better anyway (thanks hon, I do enjoy my food too).

Anyway, we've all heard that the customer is always right, even if they're not, even if they only think they are and they're really not. The point is, give them what they want to keep them happy and coming back and giving you money.

Maybe she had a grumpy day but the lady who interacted with us over our shake was just really bad at this customer service thing.


I just want to know one thing. Can you tell the difference b/w the colors of these two shakes?:

One is chocolate and one is peanut butter. Or so, that's what we said. The lady who owned the place refused to admit that.

Good customer service example? Last Sunday when Terry's parents were here and we went to Whiskey Creek for birthday lunch. I clearly asked for the loaded baked potato, but thought in my head that I wanted the loaded sweet potato. He didn't hear in my head, just what came out of my mouth. Now, I thought I'd go ahead and ask b/c I really did want to try that sweet potato that Terry always has and really raves about. So I asked the waiter. He didn't even blink. He said sure and brought it out to me RIGHT away. What great service.

Tower Motel in Canby, MN. Poor customer service. Story here. Don't ever stay there folks. They don't treat you right, just like shake lady.

I don't think we'll be getting any more of her shakes.

Evie in bed

I just wanted to prove that Evie does and can look left and even sleeps that way occasionally. I have proof - once I got the flash to work. Oh, and for the record, it doesn't look like she's suffocating in her blanket. =)

See the folded up blanket next to her? That's supposed to be under her right side to help correct the flat right side of her head from getting worse, as are the wedges. She's a little rambunctious though.

While I was at youth group Wednesday, Kenzi and her mom Brenda were keeping my sleeping kids in line. Justin Dowdy (eligible young second grade teacher and assistant football coach) brought by the sunglasses he meant to give Terry at his party which he forgot to come to. Kenzi might have a crush on him, I'm not sure... HA! Anyway, here she is modeling the sunglasses.

And here is SLEEPING Evie modeling them! Can you believe they did that? I had no idea that when they said to check our camera b/c they took some funny pictures with the sunglasses that this would be one of them. I called her and told her so and we had a good laugh. Did she wake up? A little but went back to sleep. No harm done I guess!
Stupid blogger won't upload my picture correctly though! You get the general idea.

SURPRISE!!!

47 people yelled, "SURPRISE!!!" All of my hard work finally paid off.

For 3 weeks I've been planning this surprise 30th birthday party for Terry. He said he had "zero idea" that it was coming. YES!

I really wanted to do something special for this big day but usually my creativity is lacking. I blame my genes. My sister the artist got all of my mom's creative genes (sewing, basket weaving, etc.) and left me with left brain tendencies like my dad. Yeah. But, I had a stroke of genius for this. My original idea was to do something during the first youth group, which is tonight and his actual birthday, September 3rd. But I thought it would be a lot more fun if just friends were there. I had been wanting to blog about how Terry always loses his glasses and I just thought I could combine the blog with a birthday theme - include the blog in his invitation and ask everyone to give him sunglasses. It worked!

There were a few times I wondered if he'd figured it out. For example, one unexplained phone call: I had called a friend to ask her if she knew if a lot of people were going to be out of town for labor day weekend so I could figure out if I could do it then. I originally wanted to do it on last weekend b/c Terry's parents and sister were here. So I left her a message explaining it all (mistake #1) and asking her to call me back (mistake #2). She called back during dinner and Terry answered the phone (!). He handed it to me and after some small talk she asked me what I called about b/c she didn't understand my message. I got up from my chair and walked to the hallway and whispered "I can't talk about it now," hung up and sat down again. Terry just looked at me funny and I didn't say anything. That call haunted me but he forgot all about it.

Then there was the question of where the zip drive was so I could download the invitation I had made on Word for the printer. He didn't figure that out either.

Another? The excuse to go to the store (which I really did need to do) but I also had to go to the post office, printers, and post office again to mail the invites. No idea. ... All the excessive cleaning I was doing - vacuuming, washing windows, dusting walls and ceilings, washing/staining/wet sealing the dirty picnic table, cleaning out porch, etc.

So, yesterday. Terry's parents leave. More vacuuming, sweeping, bathrooms, make cake and puppy chow, get pop and supplies, dinner, oh yeah and take care of kids (!), hang Christmas lights on porch, wash down picnic table, get decorations ready, wash dishes. Gasp.

During dinner Terry told Noah over and over that he would take him on a walk and to the slide after he helped Bruce move a freezer into the house they're renovating (Bruce Clark took the place of Terry's uncle Herb as the diversion). I just said, "Sure, a walk sounds nice" and thought HA, it's working! Bruce picked him up at 645 and was to be back at 730. Noah missed daddy terribly while he was gone (while I was nursing he came over and said "Goodbye," walked to the garage door, opened it and would have left if I hadn't stopped him!). I had Noah help me with the decorations while Evie cried so hard I was surprised she didn't throw up. It was 710 and nobody was here. I just wanted some help w/Evie and I had these scary thoughts that no one would show up. But they started filing in after that. I closed the garage door and put the pup out there to keep him from being stepped on w/30+ people in there.

Terry's lifting friend Kevin was scouting and announced he was coming. Unfortunately Snap was barking and yipping like crazy which I thought this was bound to be suspectful for Terry. It was though he didn't think of a party, just that it was weird. He also wondered why the garage door was shut. I shut it so I could guarantee which door to expect him from. He ended up coming in the side door to the garage b/c he wanted to show Bruce his new motorbike (another blog on that topic later). Terry was just going to stick his head in the house to see if we were still here (thought we went on that walk) when we yelled "SURPRISE." And what did he do? Shut the door. Silly guy.

Terry's favorite cake with a little inspiration - angel food, cream cheese frosting, mini chocolate chips and sprinkles. And yes, those are his most recent pair of broken sunglasses.

This is what the porch looked like this morning - the lights are above the banner. It looked very nice at night.

The "new" picnic table. I used the same stain as what I put on our dining room table and chairs.

The dark haired girl is McKenzi - the one that watches Noah and Evie while I'm at youth group. Noah LOVES her!

The senior pastor Rick is on the right in the dark polo with his arms folded.

The haul: 24 pairs. 4 pairs of girl ones, 2 for Noah, reading glasses, cataract glasses, big glasses, cool glasses, every kind!

Evie sits...sort of

So Evie is just about 5 months old now - officially on the 31st. She really wants to sit but does the falling into her thighs thing. Babies are so flexible. Anyway, here are some photos of her doing her thing.

This is what she wore to church on Sunday - a nice silk GAP garage sale find =)

She's definitely NOT ready for the swing yet but Terry put her in real quick so he could help Noah with something. She looks so small!

My mom is helping Evie to learn about the puppy. I need to start calling him Snap.

Secondly, Tuesday the 26nd we went to Lincoln to see a specialist in heads. Yes, I had our family doctor refer us to a pediatric neurosurgeon b/c they're the ones that prescribe those head molding helmets.

Remember, Evie has always preferred to sleep on her right side and thus her head flattened out on that side pushing her right ear and forehead out. Babies heads are sorta flexible b/c the plates inside slide over each other so they can pass out the birth canal. TMI? Well, I'm a nurse. http://terryandevabiers.blogspot.com/2008/06/ambi-turner.html

Anyway, we drove the 3 hours (and 3 hours back) after debating if it was really necessary and decided that it was for our own peace of mind. It was her ears that concerned us. If you look down her head from above her ears are not evenly in line - they're like an inch different so the right one is further up than the left. And if you look at her in the mirror, you can see her forehead isn't symmetrical either. The doc said that this kind of malformation has become much more prevalent since the Back to Sleep campaign to reduce SIDS. Evie's is a moderate case and therefore he didn't think it was mandatory for her to get a helmet - said it was up to us. He said as long as we keep her off of that right side as much as possible, her brain growth should push out the flat spot and correct the ear and forehead thing. We could get a helmet, but why if I can correct it at home...and insurance won't cover it? He did say that she might keep a little flatness but that most people have a little of that.

So, we're to keep doing what we were already doing - putting wedges and a rolled up blanket under her to prevent her from rolling to her right side while she sleeps. She also needs to spend her waking time off of it and as you can see from the photos, she likes to be up.

We feel satisfied and no longer concerned. =)

Noah at fun

My parents arrived yesterday (Sunday) afternoon for a visit that will last thru Friday or Saturday. I was busy after church making a chicken chili in the crock pot for that night and Noah was playing in his old toy that Evie now occupies when I'm busy...except this time she was napping. I turned around to see Noah doing this (first photo) and obviously I had to take a break and grab the camera:

These last shots are from Saturday evening and our play time outside. Terry decided to water this area of our lawn that we planted grass on in the spring. Noah's never really like sprinklers before so I was surprised to see him make a bee line for the water and play in it. Usually he's all about putting on his swimming trunks b/c he's just like that. You know, can't get dirty, etc. But no, he just went for it in his clothes!

Is Terry great with the camera or what?! I love this photo!

4 month checkup

Last week Evie had her four month checkup - it had to be rescheduled due to the funeral. She's so big, a lot bigger than I thought she would be. 14 pounds and 8 ounzes which is the 75th percentile. 25 and 3/4 inches long which is the 95th percentile! I couldn't believe it. Thought I'd take some naked baby pictures to show her progress.

The duck is the same one we used to show monthly growth with Noah. Forgot to do it with Evie.

These next few show Noah sliding out from under Evie, which I thought was funny.

it's official

The dog's name is Snap. We like it. And it has a story behind it. That's all!

how Snap got his name

Today was Terry's day off. This morning he was being so helpful and holding Evie (so I didn't have to listen to the screaming) while I helped Noah go potty. Success! When I came out Terry said that the puppy got hurt! He had been swinging Evie on the porch swing and the puppy was up there with him. The swing has spaces between the wood pieces so they're like little bars. Puppy went to jump off and got his little paw stuck, his left hind paw. So he was left swinging in the air until Terry could put Evie down on the ground to unstick his poor paw. He explained it to me like, "Jump, snap, crack, yelp, yelp, yelp, yelp, put Evie down, get dog." Yeah, poor puppy. He heard a snap and puppy wouldn't put weight on his hind leg so we thought we better take him to the vet.
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Terry went with Noah to the vet who said he didn't think it was broken - could feel it wasn't and thought it was a severe sprained ligament. He gave him a shot that he needed, some flea and tick stuff, and a pain pill and the dog was walking on it when he got home. This evening he was back to chasing Noah around the back yard. Here are some of those shots!

Noah really enjoys having the puppy chase him. He yells "Run" and off they go!

Noah was kind of snuggling with him.
So, Terry's idea for a name is Snap since one of the first experiences with him was hearing his leg snap. What do you think? We're not sure yet. Noah pronounces it "Nap." Yeah, any other ideas?

new face on the block

I guess we felt like we needed another baby around here. So we got one today...

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A girl from youth group named Lynsy has been hustling us ever since we've been here to buy one of her puppies. She breeds purebred minature schnauzers for FFA. It seems like just about everyone we know owns one of them.

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So, Lynsy graduated in May and is heading to college tomorrow. She talked to Terry about her last two puppies last night at the high school movie night (Groundhog Day. Yes!) and he agreed to see them today...

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This is Lynsy way back in last September 07 showing us the latest litter.

She brought more over in June...

Today she left with one less:

We even took it on a walk. Yeah, it didn't want to walk on the leash. We'll have to work on that.

I know you never thought it would happen. But now it has. We're dog people and Noah is enjoying it. It might take me some time to get used to it (still need a name) since I grew up with cats inside and smelly hunting dogs outside. That way they couldn't whip me with their tail...or jump on me...or slobber on me... Anyway, I'm sure this will make for some fun blogworthy posts!

mcqueen shoes in action

Notice the shoes? Thanks Gramma Biers and Shari. Sorry it took me a week to get them up but I wanted to get an action shot, show you how well he uses them. Here he is climbing. He's a good climber, but wanted a lot of help so these shots were difficult to get. Good thing I'm talented. =)

I like the stuck out tongue - total concentration.

I had to throw Evie in there, of course. She can hold her head up better but her cheeks are really holding her down.

Noah kisses upon command, but mostly just b/c he wants to. Most of the time he does multiple noisy kisses, just like his mommy does.