Today I am meeting with a landscaper. I had her come out a few weeks ago to look at what we want to do and she's coming back today with the plans for the front of our house - I'm excited to see what she's come up with! We'll be able to take those plans and do all the actual planting ourselves which I'm looking forward to - it's been awhile since I've gotten to dig around in the dirt. We'll start on the revamping next Spring. For now I'm going to plant a bunch of tulip and hyacinth bulbs - here's hoping they come up next Spring!!!

Finally...

I'm finally unpacking and organizing the last few things in the upstairs that had gotten shoved to the side for the past few months! Mostly it was stuff that I could get rid of - I figured if we didn't need it in the past few months than why keep it around? Next will be on to putting summer clothes away (they are still in their drawers!) and organizing the toys in the loft. Hopefully next week I can start working on the basement. There are still a few storage boxes down there that need to be unpacked and all the toys that landed there need to be organized so they can be put away each time instead of scattered all over the place! That won't happen though until next week at the earliest as my sister Melissa and her family may be coming up this weekend and that would just be counter-productive!

Mostly every one is settled in - the twins like school and have made friends both there and with the neighbor kids. They have made friends at church as well although we don't see those kids during the week usually. Ryan's job is keeping him incredibly busy - we're hoping he gets some help soon to do some of the busy work. Ethan keeps me busy - he likes to jump off counters, take baseball bats to the walls and furniture, play ball in the house, eat anywhere but the kitchen, get out one toy after the other (I'm working with trying to get him to put away the last toy first, ha!), and tell me continually - "I hear the bus!" He misses the twins while they are away at school:) He likes climbing and I find him at the top of the entertainment center reaching toys, in the pantry reaching the top shelf (scales the shelves!), and IN the fridge also reaching the top shelf (or any shelf that looks like it contains something he's interested in eating!) If we had a house with tall, mature trees I'm sure we'd find him at the top.

I took the kids last night to the fellowship center at church to help pack health kits for kids down in Mexico. Even Ethan helped for quite awhile filling the bags. Today I was going to meet my sister-in-law to do some shopping but Ethan woke up in a horrible mood so we stayed home instead. He's walking around the house crying and wanting to be held so I wonder if he's coming down with something. Right now he's walking around saying, "I'm busy! I'm busy!" Maybe I'd better go check and see what he's busy with...

So - that's a quick update on us. Not too exciting:)

Hmmmmm

I have been having loads of trouble trying to log onto this account. I will keep posting here for now but eventually may have to make the switch to http://beckyweiss.blogspot.com. There is a post on that site for now that says to continue checking this account but in the future if it's been awhile since I last posted check the other site to see if I've had to make the switch. I will also try to send out a mass e-mail with the new address if I need to do that. I'm really hoping that I don't have to start over!!!

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)

**********************

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