In my extra time....

So I enjoy a little craft project from time to time. However, I am by no means one of those really creative, and great at crafts kind of gals. I usually don't have a lot of extra time to spend on things of this nature, so I don't do it often. Usually I only do "crafty" things when the kids need help with some sort of project for school, and then I usually struggle with letting them do it themselves and not taking over so it is "perfect." What can I say....I am a work in progress. Any ways, I decided to do a little flower pot project for the garage sale. I thought I would make a few cute flower pots and see if people would buy them during our garage sale...since mother's day is the next day....I thought it might appeal to people like me that wait until the last minute to get things done. (In this case...a mother's day present.) And if no one wants to buy them....well then I guess I will just have some cute flower pots to find loving homes for ;-)

Addition to bike riding....

I forgot in my last post to include Aunt Lori (my sister.) She was over the other day when we were trying to teach Grace to ride her bike without her training wheels. Well, Grace was starting to protest and was becoming a little bit dramatic about the whole situation....so her wonderful Aunt Lori decided to lighten the mood a little and show Grace how much fun riding a bike is....

Thanks Lori for giving everyone a good laugh! Your nieces and nephews are so lucky to have such a fun loving aunt! You apparently need a little tutelage from TJ also ....I see you are still riding with your training wheel too!

Balance and determination required

We decided (TJ and I) that Grace and Ethan are old enough now that they should be able to ride their bikes without training wheels. So therefore....we should probably take the initiative to help them learn....So we took the training wheels off our little bike for them to learn. We...(I) decided that learning on the little bike would be less scary since it is smaller. So last weekend TJ and I were all pumped to take the kids outside and start teaching. Well....Ethan flat out refused to get on the bike and try, so that left Grace. She was not necessarily a willing participant either, but TJ and I persuaded her to try.

Grace is looking back after TJ "let go." As I remember, she was not exactly thrilled that he let go and wanted her to balance on her own..... Nothing like a little 7 year old drama to complete your day. ;>)

Grace having a little laugh when trying to keep herself balanced. (This girl just melts my heart!)

YEAH GRACE! GO GRACE GO!

Keep it up Grace! She could have this bike riding thing down very quickly if she would just try a little and stop with the "I can't" and the "it's too hard" attitude. As I recall, our bike riding tutorial ended very dramatically with her stomping her feet and refusing to try any more after TJ had let go again to encourage her to balance on her own. Oh well, I guess we'll just try again another day. I am confident that she will learn this sometime in the near future, and we will cheer her on however long it takes her. You can do it Gracie!

Gardening 101

My father-in-law was over the other night...so we decided to take advantage of his gardening knowledge. He helped us plan where we were putting the seeds that I had purchased. Ethan was very excited about planting in the garden, Owen didn't really have a clue what we were doing, and Grace was having an "off" night so she decided to stay inside and watch a movie rather than participate. We planted peas, onions, green onions, green beans, green peppers and several different kinds of tomatoes. We still plan on planting some pumpkins, but we are doing that on the area of our property that is not fenced in, as I have heard that pumpkins require a lot of space. I still want a strawberry patch also, but that means TJ removing more sod.....and he wasn't exactly excited about that idea. Here are a few pictures commemorating our first time planting a garden.


Yes, Owen is using a spatula....but he is wonderfully happy....so we just went with it!

Another pic of Owen digging in the garden with his gardening tool...(spatula)

Ethan and Mommy working at getting the peas planted.

I love this photo....look how Ethan sticks his tongue out when he is concentrating. And yes, I am aware that I am lying down on the job....

This is my favorite photo from the night. I think it is the lighting..... I just love it. Thanks Tom for all your help!

A little humor for your day

Ethan.....this boy seriously cracks me up. What a joy he is! (frustrating also...but mostly a joy) This will be a short one. Just wanted to share a few things he has said lately that have made me chuckle.

1- peen-gwon (penguin)

2- hotguys (hawkeyes)

3- ball geagle (bald eagle)

4- E-rifle (rifle...I have no idea why he calls it an E-rifle, but I have to correct him every time, that it is in fact just called a rifle)

5- hear phones (ear phones)

6-dandeflower (dandelion)

Have a great day!

Ornery boys

So I have been a mother of boy/boys for the last 4 and a half years. One of the many things I have discovered is......they are always coming up with something new to emphasize that, yes in fact, they are ALL BOY! My boys make me frustrated at times, they make me tired, they make me giggle, they melt my heart most of the time. (Don't get me wrong.....Grace does all these things to, but this post is about my boys.)

At the end of the day....no matter what they have done.... a sweet, sleeping child seems angelic don't they??!!

Owen being Mommy's big helper. I LOVE the chubby little baby tummy!

Melt my heart!

Another melt my heart moment.

Owen loves to help empty the dishwasher.

Ethan, pouting when he didn't get his way. It didn't at the time, but looking at this photo now makes me giggle!

Playing with dinosaurs.

Look at those innocent smiles. "We are being good Mommy, we promise." The picture doesn't show that there are balls from the ball pitt scattered and thrown all over the room.

This is what happens when you grab the camera to get a cute picture. Me-"smile boys" ...Owen instantly turns his back, and Ethan turns around and says "Take a picture of my butt!"

Growling at the camera and pretending that he is a ferocious lion.

He is being a "mean t-rex" this time.

Ethan riding his new scooter in the house.....what a boy!

And again, at the end of the day, when they kiss you good night, and give you their tightest little hug, and whisper "I love you." These sweet, angelic looking, sleeping boys just melt a mother's heart.

A first for Grace

A couple months ago we had our first bout with PINK EYE. It started with Grace, and spread like wild fire to EVERYONE else in the family. Grace looked the worst. The morning we discovered she had it (and believe me there was no detective work needed), she woke up with eyes swollen and crusted shut. Poor baby! So I made the call to the doctor.....and to my great delight they just called in a prescription for eye drops when I told the nurse about her symptoms! As quickly as it spread through our family I can understand why they don't want to bring these kids and their eye germs into the office. I took several pictures of Grace, but the newness wore off when everyone else came down with it.....so I don't have a picture of anyone else with their pink puffy eyes, but here are a few of our pink, puffy eyed beauty.

I cleaned up the drainage, but you can tell how swollen her eyes are.

On a positive note.....aren't her freckles cute!

Another view of our squinty eyed beauty.


Oh, Grace.....even with pink eye, you make me giggle!

A green thumb?

Grace is showing off Daddy and Uncle Gerry's hard work. This is how our garden looks preplanting. I am hoping to love this little hobby. I am also hoping that the bunnies don't think it is an easy lunch......




Another view from the deck......of our beautiful dirt!

Well I decided that this will be the year that I finally start my garden. I have been talking about having a garden for the last few years, but just never got around to actually doing it. I had a huge list of fruits and veggies that I wanted to plant, but decided that maybe I should make a list of what I want to do with all these fruits and veggies once they have grown. I have never canned anything in my life, although I grew up watching my Mom can lots of things from her garden. So I know it can be labor intensive and time consuming, plus pressure cookers kind-of scare me. I don't exactly have a lot of free time either. So I decided that canning was out...at least for this year. Other than having yummy fresh veggies....what could I do with these veggies that I would lovingly tend to? Well, I decided that I am going to make and freeze my own homemade spaghetti sauce! I have never made spaghetti sauce from scratch....I usually buy pre-made sauce and then add to it. So this might be quite an undertaking for me. Hopefully it is fun and tastes great....(at least that's the plan in my head.)

I decided to go small this year, instead of going all out. Just a 10 x 10 little garden. (That way in case I decide I hate gardening.....it's not a huge undertaking to replant the grass) My lovely brother-in-law was nice enough to come over with a garden tiller and ready our spot for the garden. (Thanks Gerry!) Now we just need to get the seeds and plant! Wish me luck, and say a little prayer that the bunnies don't eat up all my hard work!

An addition?

I am assuming that everyone that has kids, at some point has that internal debate about when your family feels complete. I think for some people that decision comes more easily than for others. When I was pregnant with Owen I was sure that this was my last baby. Then after he was born, I felt sad thinking that I would never experience pregnancy, child birth (yes, I might be crazy), snuggling your sweet newborn baby, first steps, first teeth...etc. I decided that I definately would add another child to our family. I just couldn't stand the thought of being done......... But then the craziness of having 3 small children soon took over, and then I had a definate feeling that I was done having kids. TJ agreed with me, and that was that......we were done having kids.

About a month or 2 ago, I was reading a friend's blog post entitled "Excuses and Reasons." (Click on excuses and reasons if you would like to read it. By the way, thanks Laura) It was a list of excuses that people, who have at some point talked about adoption, but due to reasons on this list, never end up adopting. TJ and I, like many people (I am guessing) have said many times...."We should adopt some day." And that would be the end of it, no more thought put into it. Well, after reading this blog post, I couldn't stop thinking about adoption. I was sure that this was a sign from God. That God was trying to tell me somthing. I obsessed about it for several days before I decided to tell TJ about it. I figured he would tell me I was crazy for thinking about it....I mean come on....we already have 3 kids right??!!! Also he has been the most vocal of the 2 of us about being done having kids. So I decided just to blurt it out one night.....I was surprised when he was very receptive to the idea. I had him read the blog post about "excuses," and to my surprise.....he was on board with the idea! We both feel like we could provide a loving home to a child in need of one. WOO HOO! There was no convincing necessary....maybe that is another sign from God????

Since then, he and I have both been reading alot about adoption on the internet. (Gotta love Google searches!) Educating ourselves about international adoption vs adopting from foster care, and which one would be the right path for our family. We both feel like since we have young children, that we want to adopt an infant. We have also talked about adopting a child of another race. TJ and I both feel like race doesn't matter, we would welcome a child of any race into our home. We, however, aren't naive in thinking that there would never be any issues with having a child of a different race.

So that is where we are at now. We are researching different adoption agencies. We are asking questions from a few people that we know who have adopted. We are praying alot about it. We want to make sure that this is definately God's plan for us. That being said, we also pray that if this is God's plan for us, that he will help us come up with some miracle idea for raising the $ to pay for this adoption. We both feel like before we go to an adoption agency and get really excited about bringing a child into our home, that we need to have some sort of idea where this $ will come from. Neither TJ or I feel like we should go into significant debt in order to proceed with this plan....so we are planning a garage sale, and are googling fundraising ideas on the internet. Maybe we should start playing the lottery..... I just know that if this is God's plan for our family that he will help us by providing a way for us to fund this adoption. If this is not God's plan for us, I pray that he will take away our desire to open our home to a child in need.

I want to ask a favor of those of you that have actually read this far. (I tend to ramble sometimes.) Please add our family to your prayer list that God would make clear to us his plan,
and that we would be faithful in following that plan. Thanks! Also would love any advice, encouragment or other thoughts you might have for us....please leave a comment.

Love,
Katie...oh and TJ