NAPS!!!

Ethan has resumed his naps....YEA!!! Four days in a row now so hopefully last week was just a bump in the road because of taking the nuk away! As my mother can attest he's a completely different kid once he's taken a nap...

SUCCESS!

I made Mary M's caramel rolls today for the first time on my own since she taught me how this summer. I have to say...they are a success! Now, they don't look anywhere near as nice as hers but they sure taste good! Biting into one is like biting into a little slice of lunch on Sunday's in KC...!!! I have always had trouble rolling the dough out so that each roll is an equal size. My middle is usually fatter than the ends - and I'm not talking about me...although I supposed there is truth to that...:) I've tried and tried to roll the dough out more evenly but have never had any luck. OH WELL! When you place them all in a 9x13 pan to bake on top of caramel it doesn't matter much unless you really want them to look nice.

My parents are headed up tonight through Saturday after lunch so I'm looking forward to that! It's been a bit of a rough week emotionally so I'm ready for a good distraction. Mom wants to look for furniture tomorrow and Anne M is joining us so it should be a fun day. Now, if I could just convince Ryan to babysit the little rug rat named E...

Speaking of E, he NEEDS me right now so I'll close.

Blessings,
Becky

Ethan-isms

"Pass the salp, please!" (salt)

"I want to hold you!"

"Scoo-Doo" (He sleeps with Scooby Doo every night. Why can't he latch onto something cuter?)

Ethan, what's 1 + 5? "Baby!" (He said this tonight while we were drilling the twins on their math facts!)

"I need a pork!" (fork)

"Mommy, can I have some cudding?" (pudding)

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I have to say that I thought taking the pacifier away from E would be much easier then it's turned out to be. The twins cried for the nuk for two nights and that was it (and only at bedtime.) For Ethan it's been 5 days and he STILL asks for it all day long AND has decided to give up naps completely. Today was day 3 of no nap! This is not going as well as planned! I seriously considered giving him one I found the other day just to get him to take a nap. I needed the time as much as he needed to take the nap:) Oh Well, guess this means that he'll be going to bed much earlier at night now. He fell asleep last night on the way home from an evening with the Weiss's but unlike the twins you can't carry him up to bed once you get home. He wakes up. I used to be able to carry the twins in at nap time (as long as they hadn't been sleeping for 30 minutes or more) and bed time without them waking. I've had one grumpy two year old for 5 days and my family has had one grumpy mom for the pasts 5 days!

Overheard...

"Make it BIG, mommy!!!" - Ethan after waiting 30 minutes to eat his ice cream.

Tonight as Ethan was falling asleep next to me I coughed. Ethan said, "Don't scare me, Mom!" He then fell asleep with the blanket pulled up over his head.

The twins were plotting in the back seat last night how they were going to tease a kid at school the next day. I could hardly believe what I was over hearing and we had a talk about being nice to everyone. I reminded Kaitlyn about how upset she was when she got off the bus that afternoon because a little neighbor kid was teasing HER. Incidentally Kenton did NOTHING to stand up for her. We had a talk about that, too! And in case you were wondering 7 year old's tease each other about having boyfriends/girlfriends...think that will change some day? =P

Family Room pics

The color didn't turn out in this picture but it shows where I'll be hanging the clock - over the table with the lamp and pictures.

Notice who's in the chair? We took the nuk away two nights ago and since then my non-snuggly baby has needed to be rocked to sleep:) I'm enjoying it since I didn't get to snuggle with him as a baby.

Painting

Sooooo - yesterday I was feeling pretty homesick for Riley Street. I was sitting in my family room feeling sad when I decided that maybe if I painted the family room the same color/s/ I had in KC it would help me feel a little more at home here. So off to Home Depot Ethan and I went. I had previously decided which shade of red I wanted so it was really just a matter of picking up the paint. The first coat didn't go on so well - in fact I ended up calling Behr paint because I've never seen paint do what mine did yesterday - and I have painted A LOT. The best way to describe what happened is to tell you to imagine what it would look like if you tried applying paint over wax. It was not good and very frustrating. I ended up making a 2nd trip to Home Depot thinking maybe it was the paint. Turns out we think it was the paint underneath that was creating that effect and not the red paint it self. A huge pain but one more coat and it will look fantastic. Thankfully that only happened on one wall since the other three walls were a different type of paint. Anyway, two walls down - two to go...AFTER I drop Ethan off with my sister-in-law. Let's just say a 2.5 year old and paint don't mix. While I'm LOVING my red walls I'm not really loving my red floor:) It did come up but I'm done with painting while he's around!

Ryan gets home tonight with the camera so I'll try to get a few pictures posted in the next day or two of the completed room. Also I will try to get pictures up of our house furnished. Just realized the other day that I never did that! Just for you Melissa!!!

Craziness

I've been debating for awhile now whether or not to keep up the blog. I wasn't sure if people were even still checking it or if they were even still interested in reading about our semi-boring lives in the US. Then I realized that I need to do it for ME. It's been a good outlet - I've always liked to write - and it's fun to go back and read about the bad days and laugh (because the tradegy of the day is finally passed) or read about the good days and smile while remembering. SOOO - for anyone who doesn't want to hear about the details of our lives...don't check the blog! And for those of you who do (thanks to my true-blue FB friends!) keep reading! I've got more pictures to post but am waiting for a computer that consistently works and a camera that stays found long enough to get the pictures off:)

Now, on to the craziness! We were on a three day camping trip last weekend up to Tunnel Trails in Wisconsin. It was a great, fun, relaxing weekend but we came home to the news that my brother-in-laws father had passed away early Sunday morning. This brought about us keeping company from West Bend, IA on Tuesday night along with the visitation that day and keeping my two nephews that afternoon. The funeral was Wednesday and Wednesday evening brought Brent Kellenberger for supper and overnight while he was in the area on business. Thursday evening I hosted a Pampered Chef shower for my sis-in-law to be Amy and Friday I spent part of the day helping my sis-in-law Jamie and packing the kids and Ryan for a camping trip that they ended up not going on. They went for supper and came home to sleep as the weekend was just turning too busy. I went to "Club" on Friday evening with a group of ladies from church and fell into bed EXHAUSTED at 11:30pm! Ryan was supposed to spend Saturday in Chicago at a trade show and then meet up with the kids and I in LaCrosse, IN but thankfully his plans changed at the last minute. That means I have some help around this morning while I pack and make cookies!! We leave this afternoon and will be home late Sunday. We are in an out of town potluck group that I think last met before we left for Singapore so we are REALLY looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up:)

Now you know the "craziness" of our lives this past week!