1/19/2014-1/25/2014

This week has been cold, then warm, then cold, then warm, and Georgia isn't quite sure what to make of it. One day we are having picnics in the park, the next day we are making soup and hunting down our slippers.  It was cold most of last week.  Henry had school and Georgia went to Gigi's.  Wade was able to fix our bathtub faucet that would not stop running (yay Wade!).  It was quite an adventure but he figured it out and I am super proud of him.  I'm also super glad that he works from home and is willing to take time out of his day to fix stuff.  I'm sure it resulted in a few late nights to make up for missing work but I would never know it for sure because he rarely complains about late nights.  What a good guy.
After weeks of jam packed weekends, we were happy to lounge around in our pj's on Saturday morning. We made a big breakfast, watched some cartoons, drank coffee and then decided to go for a long walk and explore the neighborhood a little bit.  We are house hunting for Wade's dad, trying to find a place for him that is close by and at the same time sort of dreaming a little bit about what the next 5 years are going to look like for us.  Our little house is very sweet and the kids love sharing a room right now, so for the time being we can stay put but I think long term we are going to need a little more space.  There is a street by the river, Walnut Street, that I would LOVE to build a house on.  We'll see, for now we just like to sit in our little living room with the sunlight pouring in and dream together.  On Saturday evening we ate an early dinner and then cleared off the table to make some Valentines Day decorations which quickly turned in to making monsters and skateboarders.  Georgia and I left to take a bath and came back to find our wall of hearts had been filled with crazy looking construction paper creatures.
On Sunday we did more lounging, more coffee drinking and we headed to the park for a picnic.  Lawrence has so many great parks. We went to one our favorites, we call it The Rubber Park because it is covered in rubber tiles.  It's set up to be handicap accessible which is great for little toddler legs that can't do big steps. After some time at the rubber park Henry headed to a friends house for a play date and we headed home for a nap.  Don came over in the evening and brought some pizza and played with the grandkids.
This week Georgia has been working on potty training.  She's doing so great.  I hate to jinx it but I think she's got it.  I'm still not brave enough to do night time without a diaper but she can pretty much go all day in big girl undies.  When she pees in the potty she has to show Papa every time.  She says, "Papa come look.  I peeped in the potty." She gets a gummy bear as a reward for using the potty and she always makes sure that she picks up an extra one for Henny. Lately she is also becoming very affectionate with Henry.  Every day after school she runs over to him, tackles him and says "Oh Henny.  I miss you so much." It is pretty special. She loves watching the Grinch and does a running commentary on his moods, "The Grinch is mad...The dog is sad...Oh now he's happy...His heart is growing Mama..." I love it.  Other things she loves right now- dresses, tutu's, shiny shoes, bike rides and walks, soup (thanks to Grandma for that one), Pepper (the cat), mama's milkies, hiding from us, reading books and taking baths.
We got Henry's grade card this week and are so proud of him.  He had a few behavioral problems last semester, namely he had a couple of incidents when he was not a good listener and did a little eye rolling, which is something we do in our house to be funny, but it isn't funny at school.  He figured it out (with the help of a week long grounding) and his grade reflected that.  He got a Kindle from Santa which has been taking up a lot of his time.  I also pulled out my old Sim City game from 6 years ago and we have been enjoying building cities (and destroying them) for the past couple of weeks.
Wade is busy with work and the band.  He got to ride his motorcycle last weekend, which is sort of incredible...riding a motorcycle in January! I'm also busy with my new job, just trying to learn as much as I can so that the bosses don't regret giving me this promotion. I need to learn how to not open up the laptop on the weekends, not think or stress about work, and I'm sure I'll get there eventually.  I just need to find a balance.
The week ahead looks cold and busy.  It's Catholic School Week so Henry has some fun activities at school, ending with a performance on Friday morning at the Lied Center and an open house at school in the evening.  It's always fun to see his creations on the hallway walls.
Have a great week friends.

So, 2014 and stuff

Well, that was a long, awkward silence. I can't believe we are almost a month in to 2014 and I'm already failing at my #3 resolution.  I have come to terms with the fact that I am not a good (reliable, consistent) blogger but I'm not giving up.  In fact, in typical Laurie fashion, I'm going to make it even harder on myself by committing to updating this blog weekly AND attempting to print and file all my photos each week.  Can I do it?  Sure. Will I do it? Probably not, but I like a challenge.
So far 2014 has been busy.  But I guess I need to go back farther than that.  Let's see, when was my last update? AUGUST!  Yikes.  I really am bad at this.  Well, I'm guessing that school went well for Henry in August and September. He probably had a few colds and forgot to have us sign his folder a few times.  I'm sure we ate a lot of frozen yogurt on half price Tuesdays.  I probably complained about being tired and Georgia most certainly put a lot of random items in her mouth.  Wade played some shows and designed some stuff.  The kids dressed up for Halloween and did some serious trick-or-treating. November was NUTTY.  Georgia had her second birthday.  Henry had his 8th birthday and his first friend birthday party.  We traveled to Colorado for Thanksgiving and spent a few days with our dear friends Jason and Mandy and then went to Fort Collins to visit Susie, Ted and Willem.  The drive was an adventure and we learned a little bit about how this family does on the road (not great).  Oh also, in November Georgia got Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease and a stomach bug (also, not great).  In December we spent a lot of time with family and had a wonderful Christmas which was followed directly by more sickness, ear infections, nasty viruses, strep throat and sinus infections. But we bounced back to welcome in the New Year (3 days late and at 9:00 pm) and jumped right in to 2014 with more visitors and a baby/bridal shower for my sisters.  The kids got baptized. We decided to get some chickens this spring. Nearly every appliance in our home broke, including our furnace during, what meteorologists are calling "The Polar Vortex".  I started a new job which is about 90% writing (so I better start sleeping or this may not be good). Whew, and we are only 22 days in.  I have some personal goals this year that I will update you guys on as we go.  I know this is usually a family blog and then I have my own blog for random ranting, but I can't keep up the one, let alone two, so I've decided to throw in random rants every now and then on this blog.
I have photos from the last 4 months that I will try to post in the next few days and then we'll all be caught up and I can get on with the business of becoming the super blogger I was always meant to be.      

Second Grade!

The great photo dump and other stuff

I've cut back on the number of photos that I post to facebook.  I just don't feel like I have the control of it that I used to and I'm not sure that I want all 200 "friends" looking at every aspect of my life.  It's weird to run in to mostly strangers at the store and know that they've seen the inside of my house, photos of my children painting, etc... I've transitioned to Instagram for most of my photo sharing because I'm able to make my stream private and share only with people that are interested in looking at hundreds of photos of my children. :)
So here are some photos from my instagram stream this past week (or so).

 I love that Georgia lays on her tummy to color.  I remember doing that as a kid. 

 Kelly and Cooper are two of Henry's favorite people.  Partially because they have a video game system that he loves and they let him play it whenever he comes over, but also because they get him pizza.  No seriously, he loves them, they are great. 

 I saw this painting a few weeks ago.  I just wanted to document it.  It was amazing.

 Georgia calls these "bubble slippers'.

 Pillows and "Friends"

 I don't think I posted this earlier.  A family photo, the first one we've taken in a while.

Georgia loves to read. 

 She loves to wear "hats"

 This was her first time on a carousel.  She picked the purple horse.

 Dressing up with Henry. 

 Picking flowers from our yard.

Holding hands with her brother.

Taking naps with Grandpa (mostly Grandpa napping).

 

And painting

8.19.2013

Sooooo….once again I fail at weekly updates.  I’m not ready to give up yet.  I’m stubborn.  Really stubborn.  Like, it took me 10 years to graduate from college, stubborn.  Anyhoo, this weekend was busy, well at least it felt busy although thinking back on it I feel like we were mostly homebodies.  I tell you, there is nothing like the “mirror” that is having children.  I always thought we were homebody-ish but now having this 7 year old around that grumbles with every outing and cannot stand the idea of putting on shorts in order to go outside, I realize what big’ol homebodies we really are. 

This past week was the last week of summer.  Henry and Georgia spent their days with Gigi and Grandpa, like usual.  The week before, the one that is missing from my attempts to update weekly, well that week Gigi and Grandpa were in Colorado.  Which, I feel, explains why it was that I was not able to update the blog, I mean I was chasing these kids around all day long.  I had no energy for cute photos and long explanations of our daily activities.  My blog post would have looked something like “HELP ME”, which isn’t very interesting.  So see, I skipped the post for your sake. So anyway, last week, while my parents were out of town, Henry and I decided that we were going to paint the living room.  It’s slightly hilarious that we thought we could do this.  We figured we’d tackle one room at a time while G napped.  In a week we were able to paint one wall.  I learned some things.  1. 100+ year old walls are not flat.  2. 7 year olds aren’t great painters.  They are prone to distraction and mostly just want to use the roller on their hands.  3.  I hate washing out brushes and rollers and my husband will only do it for me some of the time. 4. My job is way easier than keeping up with my children 5. Henry can talk some serious trash when playing Mario Cart. 6. It’s impossible to keep my house clean, I will stop trying.  7. Georgia and Henry love Chai Tea Lattes. 

A question: do we have to buy the Crayola brand markers or is the Target brand okay?  Because I was digging through those bins looking for Crayola, original, wide tip, not washable, markers and hanging right by my head was a perfect little line of Target brand.  All the while Georgia was yelling “Buy it” “Get it Mama” “Jaja want it” as she unloaded an entire shelf of lunch boxes in to the cart. 

Once again I’m off track.  But that’s fine, the trip to Target for school supplies was pretty much all I can remember from two weeks ago anyway.  I may have blocked it.  This past week was nice.  The weather is amazing.  Unfortunately, we are not the only creatures that are enjoying it.  The mosquitoes are out with a vengeance and our children are mosquito candy, it seems.  So we locked ourselves in and enjoyed the breeze through screened windows.  Blah.  On Thursday the family got together to celebrate my birthday.  The people are Free State were smart and put us alone in the back room.  Kelly surprised us with cupcakes.  Georgia surprised us by throwing her rice (which was actually only surprising to the waiter, sorry man, we left you a good tip though).  On Friday Henry and I made another attempt to paint the living room.  We completed wall #2.  Slow and steady.  On Saturday G and I got up early and went to breakfast with Kelly and Cooper at Roost.  We overate and then went to the farmers market and overspent.  It was fun.  All the while, Henry and Wade went to Dunkin Donuts and then sat around watching cartoons.  In the afternoon Wade and I got on some coffee induced cleaning kick and we cleared out a ton of baby stuff (you’re welcome, Mom).  I thought I’d be sad letting those things go but I wasn’t really.  The week before knocked out any desires I had for a third child.  J  On Sunday we did more cleaning, shopping, drinking of coffee and whatnot.  We played some and we cooked some.  It was a nice relaxing day and Henry only had to put on his shorts once. 

That's all I've got.  I'll add some photos and pretty it up for you this evening (sure I will....). 

8.7.2013

Our friends, Jason and Mandy, came to visit a couple of weeks ago.  It's hard to put in to words what they mean to us.  Being with them is just so good.  Anyway, one day at dinner they mentioned that they enjoyed the blog.  I felt a little bad since I have been terrible at keeping up with this blog since Georgia arrived (and decided not to sleep for, well, for 20 months and counting). It's mostly a time management thing but there is also the thing about effectively communicating while only getting 4 hours of sleep, see I don't...effectively communicate on 4 hours of sleep.  My coworkers will tell you: I space off mid sentence, start stories in the middle, forget that I have already told them something minutes after I tell them.  It's pretty nuts.  I plan to revive the blog, I want to, but I think I'll focus on shorter stories and photos for a while.  Just until she starts sleeping.  She has to sleep someday...right?
So today is my birthday.  I'm not thrilled about turning 36, it's bothering me more than it should, so I made my list and am determined to change my attitude.  Here it is.  36 things to do in my 36th year-

This year I will -

1. Learn to use my fancy camera
2. Visit my sisters
3. Swim in the ocean
4. Read 50 books
5. Save money
6. Catch fireflies
7. Start a new tradition
8. Make a Christmas Stocking for Wade
9. Send each of my sisters a “just because” gift
10. Focus on the good
11. Art journal/photo every day
12. Exercise daily
13. Play more, clean less
14. Be kind
15. Stop worrying about things I cannot control
16. Have a big birthday party for Henry
17. Make Christmas gifts
18. Go vegetarian
19. Take Henry to see the mountains
20. Lay in a hammock
21. Have a family photo session
22. Have weekly movie nights
23. Remember birthday’s and anniversaries
24. Paint the living room
25. Send thank you notes
26. Take walks with my husband
27. Wear a skirted bathing suit with pride
28. Plant and pick berries
29. Paint until I make something that I’m proud of
30. Talk less, listen more
31. Fill my house with fresh flowers
32. Play with my children every day
33. Sleep in a tent
34. Keep up with the blog
35. Nurture friendships
36. Kiss the hubs

6.4.2013

6.2.2013

6.3.2013

Update 4-21-13

What a week. Poor Henry was under the weather and I didn't know why. I thought maybe it was all the cloudy days in a row or maybe he was growing and just extra sleepy. Well now I know because now the rest of us have it too-- runny noses, tired, sore, grumpy. And, of course, he is now fully recovered and can't understand why the rest of us are walking around like blobs.
Soccer is in full swing now. This year is a little different than the past years. This year they keep score and have goalies. Henry was terrified about his turn at goalie. But he did it twice last weekend and he did a really good job. Man I have to say it is hard to watch your kid do something that you know scares him and to know that it may not go his way. He let a few goals thru and then one of the kids said so nasty stuff to him. Then he messed up a drop kick and I could see that he was on the verge of losing it. He did lose and it ran over to Papa crying. But he pulled it back together and did a pretty good job. He cried the whole tide home though and Wade and I dealt with a parenting challenge that we hadn't before. I'm not sure how we did but I do know that he is going to be a goalie again next week because his coach told me after the game that he was great at it, so I think I need to find a way to toughen up before next Saturday.
Aside from her cold, Georgia is good. Growing, talking, successfully letting us know what she wants and yelling if we don't make it happen fast enough. What can I say, the girl is bossy. But she is also very sweet. She had her first debris appointment last week and it went well. Henry has had two filings in the past few months and it's all because we waiting to long to get him to the dentist so with G we are starting early. She needs to go to the doctor too but I'm really struggling with what to do about her vaccinations right now so I've been putting it off. She is up to date on everything except the MMR and chickenpox. I just feel like I want to delay those shots but I'm not 100% sure.
Well I'm posting from my phone so I'm not going to do anything special with the photos from this week. Here they are, in a chunk. Enjoy.

Weekly Update 2/3/2013

It's Sunday night and I feel pretty comfortable typing up this weekly review, I'm confident that we will not be up to anything exciting tonight.  I hear there's a big game about to start but we rarely get to watch big games these days.  Last week we attempted to watch a KU game and Georgia hurt herself 2 or 4 times in the few seconds that both sets of eyes were on the screen and Henry did his classic "Mama look. Mama look.  Hey Mama, look" thing that he's done since he was a baby, only he used to say "Mama yook. Mama yook."  Anyway it becomes insane to try to watch so we normally just turn it off.  I'm sure we'll try again tonight but I don't have much hope that it will pan out.

This was a nice quiet week.  We had some cloudy days, a little snow and then yesterday and today it was sunny, jacket weather.  Henry had a dentist appointment on Thursday.  We are in a serious battle with plaque in Henry's mouth.  The pH in his mouth is such that plaque hardens really fast so after a couple of cavities and a lot of hard plaque that I can't brush off, we've starting doing dental cleanings every 3 months.  After his appointment he and I ran to get some cupcakes at our favorite cupcake shop.  It was the last day for 3 of our favorite flavors, so we had to stock up.  That evening we had the science fair at Henry's school.  He didn't participate, I think because he didn't really understand what it was all about.  After discovering what it's all about I imagine that he'll do it next year.  I can't wait to see what he comes up with.
We got to Skype with Annie and Alex this week.  I love Skyping.  It's like having my sister here in the room with me.  We try to do it once a week but, honestly, I would do it once a day if I could.
On Friday I had to work a long day so Wade and Georgia spent the day together.  It's so nice that he works at home now.  The flexibilty is really changing our family dynamic.  Wade and I just need to get better at communicating with each other about what needs to be done.  Once we figure that out I think we'll be really happy with our new situation.

Georgia is really changing these days.  Her personality is changing and developing every day.  She's learning new words and also learning to communicate without words.  She points a lot.  Shakes her head yes and no.  Grunts for no and giggles for yes.  She LOVES books.  She grabs them and then backs right up on the nearest lap. Today she did it with a blanket and I think it might have been the cutest thing I've ever seen.  She doesn't need to grunt for one thing, cookies.  That's one word that she says clear as day.  She also loves playing the piano, taking baths, eating at restaurants, swinging at the park, going for walks, dancing and getting in to Henry's toys.  She is discovering how fun it is to make people laugh and has so many facial expressions and can get a chuckle with a silly walk and a goofy noise almost every time.  Yesterday she fell on the rug and bonked her face.  She was doing that crying so hard that she makes no sound cry.  Yeah, it was sad.  Once she calmed down I was searching her face to find where she bonked.  Looking for blood or a red spot but I couldn't find anything.  I said, "where did you get your ouchy baby?" and she wiggled down and pointed directly at the spot on the rub where she took a spill.  She did the same thing to Wade.  It was pretty funny.
On Saturday we decided to run a few errands, including going to the Toy Store to find a Valentines Day gift for Willem and shop around for the kids.  Georgia fell in love with the blue Rody.  Henry fell in love with the next series of Lego Hero Factory guys.  I swear they make a new one of those every year just to suck all the money out of the parents.
In the evening I made some turkey burgers and we watched some KU basketball (kind of).
This morning Henry was up early and he was ready to roll.  We ate a big breakfast and got busy working around the house.  The boys cleaned out the shed, picked up the lawn and took down the top floor of his tree house, while Georgia and I sorted laundry, baked cookies, made a grocery list, took a bath (for fun), took a nap and ate cookies.  This afternoon we went to the store and bought a mop.  I mopped my floor for the first time in 5 years.  It was nice to actually get the floor clean instead of pushing things around with a swiffer.  We had a late lunch at Yello Sub and then threw the frisbee until the sun went down enough that we needed coats.  Now I think I'll make some pita and hummus for dinner, roast some veggies and maybe defrost one of those cupcakes.  Have a great week friends.

Weekly Update 1/27/2013

Hi.  We're back.  The funk finally caught up with us and poor little G got it this time. Two weeks ago we took her to the doctor and discovered that she had a double ear infection and gunk in her chest.  We were concerned about the flu because it's so bad this year but it turns out she had the same cold that Wade and I had been struggling with for almost a month.  She was given antibiotics and ear drops but we had no luck getting either one of them down.  She seems much better now though.  Then poor Henry picked up a stomach bug on Friday.  He was supposed to go to KC with his Grandpa Benda to visit his cousin Campbell, but instead he was home, staying close to the bathroom.  He also seems to be feeling much better now.  It wasn't easy to find activities to keep Georgia busy while she wasn't feeling well, but the girl LOVES taking baths.  So we did a lot of that.

And we watched a lot of Yo-Gabba-Gabba, which seems to be the only show Georgia likes to watch besides KU basketball.

The sun was out yesterday and it was super warm, so while the boys relaxed, Georgia and I played with her lady bug and I snapped a few photos.  I trying to work on taking just every day photos. 

In the afternoon we headed out to lunch at First Watch with the Benda's.  Henry and Grandpa Benda played tic tac toe and giggled and acted silly while I tried to keep Georgia busy.  Georgia ate turkey burger, cheese sandwich, watermelon and strawberries.  This is a ton of food for her.While we were eating it occurred to me that it's not that Georgia doesn't like solid food, it's just that she prefers milk and she will not eat when she's not hungry.  So, if I catch her with solid food before we nurse, she'll actually eat quite well. Yesterday afternoon the boys played Wii and organized the study while I cleaned the car, went to the store and then made dinner for our friends that just had their 4th child.  I made cookies which are already gone this morning, but in my defense, we gave over half of them away.  I'm being told now that I need to make another batch.  :)
This was Wade's first week working from home.  He had a meeting in Wamego on Thursday but the rest of the week he was home designing, cleaning up the study, and staying in his pajamas.  He is much happier with this job change.  Things at my work are not so great.  They laid off 5 people this week, employees that had been there for over a decade.  We have been considering our options and planning for what we would do if something like that happens to me. A scary thought.  To be safe I've been registering to win the HGTV dream home everyday and I'm pretty sure we're going to win.  Charleston here we come! But in all seriousness, now that Wade is on a better path with his career I think it's time for me to really focus on what I want to do.  I thought finishing my degree would provide options for me or at the very least some security at my current job.  Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. What to do now????
We don't have much planned for the next few weeks.  The weather right now is in the 60's so it's time for us to get outside and clean out our garden beds and start planning what I'm going to plant in March.  I'm thinking broccoli, salad greens, cauliflower, strawberries, raspberries, potatoes and tomatoes. 
Well I'm off to bake some cookies before Georgia wakes up from her nap.

12/8-12/15

We had a quiet week and weekend.  Henry stayed home from school on Friday with a sore throat.  He was down all day and pretty slow on Saturday but by Sunday he seemed to be feeling better.  He spent a hour with Aunt Kelly playing video games and then went with this Uncle John for a late birthday gift.  John has a friend that runs the video projector at the KU Union movie theater so he took Henry to watch one of his favorite movies with the theater all to themselves.  I think he had a pretty good time.  They played tag and explored the projector room.  Henry loves being with John.  He came home in a great mood, despite his lingering cold. 
Georgia also seems to be a bit under the weather.  But it takes a pretty serious cold to slow her down.  She was busy exploring and hiding behind the Christmas tree and just generally getting in to things in her usual style. 
This week and weekend we finished up our Christmas shopping and finished decorating the house.  I have a few projects to finish; gifts for my sisters and Georgia and Willem, but I feel pretty good about where we are at with being prepared for the big day.  I really hope to make it as magical and special for Henry and G as it was for me when I was a kid.  I loved Christmas. 

I have to say one more thing.  We had a difficult week in our country and there are a lot of parents that do not get to spend the holiday with their children.  It's heartbreaking.  I'm holding my babies a little closer, giving extra kisses, playing a little longer and slowing down to enjoy my family every day.  Keep your loved ones close. 

11/25-12/7

 We started decking the halls this past weekend.  Wade put up some lights and Henry proceeded to break one with a ball within a few days, but that's okay we're going to put up more this coming weekend (and fix the broken one).  Georgia LOVES the lights.  She says OH, AH, WOW and points every time she sees them.  It's wonderful.

 December 1 is the annual Christmas parade in Lawrence.  It's a horse parade with Santa as the closer.  We ran in to Henry's friend Jude while we were there, which made it even more fun.  Horse poop and a buddy is just about as good as it gets for a 7 year old.  Georgia slept through most of it but seemed to enjoy the little bit she stayed awake for.  After the parade we went to Pizza Hut to cash in Henry's Book-it certificate.  Oh the memories it brought back....

When we got home from the parade we turned on our local tv station and discovered that the camera was on Henry and Jude the entire parade.  Henry was so excited to see himself on TV.

St. Nicholas visited us on Saturday and he brought with him an Elf on the Shelf.  Henry was ecstatic.  He watches the elf and talks to the elf.  He named him Eddie and keeps saying, "I can't believe that now there are 10 people in our family (the cats are people to Henry)".  We are enjoying finding places for to him to hide.  I feel like he might find himself in a few hairy situations in the future.