Kelly and the Boys

sorry to be flakey

2011-01-03T11:04:00.001-08:00

but i'm switching back to xanga, but starting a fresh blog.

here it is...
CLICK HERE

spaz attacks and kid stories

2010-11-23T11:49:00.000-08:00

a few weeks ago i hurt my back. i have never felt so old. how did i do it? NO idea. i got out of the car at my sister's house and suddenly could barely move. taking a breath felt like a stabbing pain in my chest. i thought i might pass out! after several days of VERY limited movement...lots of advil and chiropractor appointments, i was ok. but i learned a lot in those few days. 1)apparently your back is very important. 2) breathing as well, very important. 3)children are not going to slow down, be extra low maintenance and quiet, just because you don't feel good.

one day in the middle of that i was very carefully sweeping the kitchen that is covered in crumbs many times a day. it was taking an eternity because of my limited mobility. rex and gus got involved in a little game of "fun fighting", as little boys are wont to do. occasionally[ok, often] an innocent game of fun fighting gets out of control and someone cries...and it's no fun anymore. well i was too hurt to break it up if it were to get ugly. and i couldn't take a deep breath to yell over them to stop before it got bad. feeling very frustrated in my complete uselessness as a mother at that point, in desperation i took the broom i was using and slammed it against the fridge to try to distract them. i didn't mean to look as spastic and out of control as i'm sure i did. i had no way of getting their attention without hurting myself further! but i had to laugh after i saw i had done this....and the boys did not even hear my little outburst and were still "fun fighting", unphased, in the living room.

and i will not buy a new broom. every day i'm going to make myself use this little reminder to be a little more self controlled. i often remember a phrase another dear friend has used....an out of control parent cannot teach self-control. i'm actually really glad they didn't even see or hear that. me and God is embarrassing enough.

speaking of self-control. i spend a lot of time trying to teach the kids....specifically gus, what self-control is. "control your mouth and don't talk when i talk....control your body and sit STILL at dinner....control your arms and do not hit...". gus loooooooves to be read books. but he has a lot to say. and constantly interupts to point at things on the pages, so our self-control talks often come during our reading time. well the other day i was reading both big boys a book and gus kept interupting. rex sighed, "ugh...GUS. could you PLEASE use a little self-control??"

[i keep meaning to write the rest of these stories down, so here they are.]
one morning recently rex woke up and walked right into my room where i was getting ready. with the most serious/concerned face said, "mommy. you're not gonna believe this. yesterday, i was playing ball with daddy, and he threw the ball to me SO HARD that i really think he was trying to kill me."
say wha?! who says boys have no drama...

gus and rex have a cars book about mater and lightning telling spooky stories. it's all silly and fun and not actually scary. but gus missed the joke the other night and was seriously scared over this goofy book..he whined after we tucked them in and i went back to check on him. he asked me, "mommy, you put dat lightning and mater book up in a bag? pwease?"

i looooooove kids with manners, and that's another thing we try hard on. the other day rex said "no thank you" to me, and gus said, "WEX!!! dat is so GWEAT! i wuv dose manners!!!"

rex apparently has a girlfriend. but i asked him what that even means...and he said, "well if a girl has a boyfriend and a boy has a girlfriend that just means they are friends." ok then, that's just fine;-)

never a dull moment!

october summary. in pictures.

2010-11-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

i now have 3 mobile children. this is dipping into my blogging time;-)

this will have to do for now...

2010-10-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

i have had 426 different blog post ideas. and yet...have not had time to post them. then i get around to posting and there's so much to catch up on that i change my mind. thus the last post of just pictures.

school started and things got busy. we're not even IN school. but extra jobs picked up, lifegroups started, weddings, a humungo women's event, little things here and there filling ALL the time up.

i love each thing, but it gets to be too much! i'm still striving for THIS.

so last week i quit my mother's day out job. and we're hopefully going to be dropping a few other things soon. and i'm sooooo looking forward to the time here. everyone is happier when we have our schedule at home, and there's time to BREATHE.

unbelievably my middle baby turned 3 this week. that's no longer baby.

i have this weird thing when my kids get further along into the year they are in...they seem HUGE for a 2 year old. or huge for a 4 year old. but once they are officially the next age, they seem little to me 'for a 3 year old'. i realize neither rex nor gus could be considered small by any standard, but suddenly gus seems a little 'littler' to me, now that he's officially 3.

he's fiesty, that one, and we did NOT want to mess with a toddler bed when i was pregnant with leo...or when i had a newborn. after much thought we decided not to fix what wasn't broken and just get another crib. we bought a bunkbed over a year ago...saying we'd put it up when he was 3. well ta da! i know better than to jinx it...but so far...

pictures...real post coming...

2010-10-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

good plan

2010-09-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

well i gotta say i've stuck with that 'bible time' thing and it has been so fun. and productive. nice when something works! a few days ago we learned "do everything without complaining, phil 2:14"...gus's version is "do everything without whining" ;-) kevin was home for lunch one day and said he didn't want to go back, and rex straight called him out on it and quoted the verse. boo ya.

i've been meaning to come up with a more specific schedule for our days at home. today i finally started one and it worked great.
7-8:30 boys wake up, eat, get dressed, brush teeth [rex sleeps later...gus plays his little "twain compoota" while we wait on him]
8:30 bible time
8:45 color/worksheet/something at the table while i wash breakfast dishes
9:00 play
10:00 snack
10:15 chores
10:30 play
11:15 lunch
11:45 boys clean up room
12:00 gus nap

then rex and i hang out...do some more school work type stuff...clean up...sometimes watch a movie or let him play his leapster.

it's been a GOOD day.

a few pics to prove it.

working on 'homework'

yeah he's wearing a head band. he's awesome. i also just noticed he's using his right hand. thought he was a lefty. make up your mind gus!

boys are weird.

look at all these teeth!!

another reason things have been going well, is i've been implementing some duggar rules. i know people talk a lot of trash about them, but i love me some duggars. they do a great job with those kids! i got to go see her speak last week, and she had some FABULOUS ideas on things to do with preschoolers, discipline-wise. i keep meaning to type my notes up...and i will....but seeing some nice results! my favorite is replacing 'yes mam' with 'yes mam, i'd be happy to'. oh my word it's so cute and cheerful. love it.

waves

2010-09-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

i often notice our life moving in waves. waves of super easy, every one gets along, organized, simple and lovely. we look at our kids and think, "how did we deserve this?"
ah....
...often followed by waves of stress, general unrest, busyness, chaos and "omg. did we create these monsters? didn't we use to like them? "
agh!!!!

what generally happens at the end of one the 'bad' waves...is i pout for a bit. "things are so hard! i screwed all this up!"... then i snap out of that and decide things are bad because i let them get that way, and i shape up. i work harder at our routines. i take more time for myself and kevin. i'm more consistent with the kids. i work hard at fixing the things that had gotten out of control.

and i stick with it.

for a week or two. or sometimes a month.

then i start to slack again...something stresses me out and i let it effect me. i let the kids notice. they start taking advantage of me not being totally on the ball and start acting out. then i'm stressed that they aren't obeying. i'm working so hard to referee some days that my house gets trashed. and if you know me at all you know i hardly function if my house isn't as clean as i like it. then kevin gets home from work and i'm frazzled, no dinner, and i'm asking for help because the kids are whining and i didn't finish what i wanted to.
he must love that!!;-)

agh! how did it get out of control so fast?!
so i pout for a day. then i decide to snap out of it.
and another wave starts.
so i get a plan.
and when i get a new plan i'm always sure it will last. "this time we will not sink back into that nutty life we were living!"
maybe this time it will.

if you didn't see this coming....i started a new plan.
because your attitude determines your altitude[insert cheesy poster of killer whale leaping out of the ocean]. bahahaha. i hate that saying. but really, i can get a BAD attitude. and it's contagious. but i can also have a good attitude, and that's definitely contagious too. especially with the kids.

part of this past 'bad wave' was the boys fighting. a lot. and part of my new plan, is bible time on the couch in the mornings. i have my coffee and my 3 still pj'd boys...and we get their little bible and read. and then we work on verses, and we pray. and THAT my friends, is a good way to start the day.

so far we've done 2 verses. verses we've learned before, but i want to keep track of which ones they know so i started over. i was going to do a verse a week, but they learned it so quickly i think we'll do two.

"children, obey your parents" col 3:20
and "be kind and loving to each other" eph 4:32

i'm making them each an index card with their own verse, and putting them on the door in the kitchen. here they are practicing this morning.

i absolutely adore that gus barely speaks in sentences, but the kid can recite a verse. makes me happy.
and i'm not even making this up. they have been WAY better the past few days. sweeter to each other. sweeter to ME. ah....how i love when something i come up with WORKS!

hopefully we can ride this wave for a while.

Psalm 93:4
Mightier than the thunders of many waters,
mightier than the waves of the sea,
the LORD on high is mighty!

(in no order...some pictures from the past week or so.... )

well i can't let that post there long!

2010-08-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

because i promised a more chipper one pronto. and i can do that genuinely, because life is good.

almost 9 months old and finally sitting up for a few minutes at a time!

other boys were about 6-6.5 months when they did this. but they were both about 10-11 months before they crawled, and this little guy is days away from being FAST.

this was a few weeks ago before his top teeth cut through. i miss those gums!

i love to capture quiet, non-forced, chilled out activities that my kids find. probably because it's not super often that i think, "wow...it's been quiet too long, better check..." and it's NOT some kind of mess. so it's such a relief to find things like these...

since this big boy COULD be going to K this week, i figure we should be more organized doing some school-ish stuff. this is not my favorite. i'd rather play. but i'm trying to do at least a page or two of stuff like this a day.

i don't toot my own horn on many things parenting...but dad gummit, i can make my kids laugh. and it's fun. i had a clothes pin on my nose saying in the squeaky weird voice that makes, "put the clothes in the bucket!" apparently it sounded funny. gus STILL says it.

btw, giving kids the chores you hate, but they love? awesome.

after a lovely turn of events, turns out my boys will get to go to mother's day out this year. today was the 1st day of school:-)

they seemed to have a great day. i got this house amazingly clean. everyone wins!

so this is gross, but it's my blog, and it's funny. so i pick up rex from his room, and he immediately says he needs to go potty. i tell him we are going home right then so let's wait...but he goes on in and apparently needs to go bad. he starts at the urinal...then i hear him say, "oh wait, i think i need to go poopoo"...and with his pants around his ankles he waddles to a stall...then he says, "oh dear lordy i think i need to go diarrhea!!"
and, well sure enough he did. but that was about the funniest thing i'd heard all day.
pretty sure they drink too much juice there.

before and after

2010-08-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

i like to keep this blog pretty upbeat. post about the great stuff i love, because that's the stuff i want to look back on and remember.

so i've been waiting on some blog inspiration. and it hasn't all been bad,
but let's be real here folks, the last couple weeks have been rough!

i am soooo thrilled we went on vacation. that we had some really, truly refreshing "us" time. i really feel like God was using that to fuel us up for the weeks to follow it.

so this post is the before. the yuck. the not so awesome....but to be surely followed by a great post where things turned back up. (plus that illustration makes gus's creepy feet make more sense in here. )
before:

kevin's teaching job hunt has been exhausting. depressing. exciting. draining. we put a lot of money and time into this program...and really felt strong direction in each decision we made on it. so we kept on with it. and nothin'. until a couple weeks ago. FINALLY a potential job...that he had a shot at. and we were sure he had it. it was a pay cut to work at this particular school, but it was a foot in the door and we'd have taken it in a heartbeat. and when he didn't get it we were so. sad. i couldn't even call our friends and family who knew about it. we didn't realize how high we'd put our hopes in this, until they were dashed.
but a few days and we had snapped out of it.

and a few days after that i lost my sweeeeeet babysitting job. i loved watching that little girl. and the money was a bonus. the kids adored her, she was sweet, obedient and just easy to have around. plus it was fun to shop and paint toenails now and then. i didn't realize how sweet i was being paid until i started looking for another kid to take in to take her spot. average around here is less than half what i made watching her.

so hindsight, good thing kevin didn't get the pay cut teaching job!
but this is not exactly what we were counting on for this fall. we had envisioned kevin teaching, weekends off, MDO for me, dave ramsey steps getting knocked off our to do list. so all this...plus throw in a big A/C repair bill, kevin not feeling awesome, and our list of "really need to fix this" things growing.

i like change when it's fun things like rearranging furniture. or new clothes. i do NOT like change when it rocks your whole plan. but, we will roll with the punches. on september 1st, kevin can no longer get a job teaching. if we want to try again, we will have to wait until next summer, redo the program[meaning paying again]...and hope another year of job hunting will result in his dream job. (we certainly realize something could come up in the next 2 weeks. we're just praying kevin is where/gets put where he's supposed to be.)

i'm sure we'll look back at this rough patch and see what God was up to, and be thankful it all went down like this.

it's easy to have a great marriage when things are easy. when the kids obey. when the house is clean. when there's plenty of money. when everyone is healthy.
it's hard when things get chaotic.
and we've definitely had plenty of rough spots in our life that spiraled into our relationship, making things worse than they had to be.
the last month has thrown some of the biggest curve balls we've seen. but this time we're handling it differently. better.

maybe slowly, but surely we're realizing it always does work out. and we're always better for it.

so the end of this summer can be our nasty skanky feet season.
but we'll scrub up and push through, and go to bed with squeaky clean footsies.

and sleep good.
because we'll do this.

"give your burdens to the Lord and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall." ps. 55:22

seven, seven, seven....seven.

2010-08-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

some have been more sickness than health, some have been more poor than rich....but all have been better than worse since we got to be together through them.

and i totally get how cheesy that is and wrote it anyway. because it's true.

sometimes i still feel like we're dating. then i look up and see all these little boys and freak out for a second....when in the world did that happen? but time really does fly when you're having fun. and that is what we do best. we'll always have fun with whatever we're dealt, because that's how we roll. you will always give me that "he's sassy because you are" look when one of our kids smarts off. and i'll always give you that "are you serious? is this that much trouble?" look when you don't close drawers and cabinets. and we'll look at each other like saps when our kids do sweet things for each other, because somehow they learned that from us.

we're getting so good at having fun we hardly even have to talk to do it.

i couldn't be happier with our little life just like it is.

you're my favorite.

happy anniversary, mr. kevin.

vacation detox and back to normal

2010-07-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

what? i have to do laundry, cook, clean and be responsible for other people?

24/7?

that's a lot of work.

our vacation was quite the successful break from reality. i almost forgot what my real life was like. not that i don't love my real life. and i'd certainly miss it if it weren't what it is for long...but the vacation life was a tad easier! i feel like i'm still easing back into my routine where i used to get things done. not gonna lie, the first few days back felt a little like this.

today is the first day that's felt "normal". our saturdays are like everyone else's weekdays, because kevin has friday off instead. we tend to be super lazy when he's home. and i babysat the day before that. and went to the dr. for leo the day before that[btw he's tipping the scales at 15lb even, hovering around the 1st percentile. they say he's not on the chart, but hello....below ZERO isn't on the chart;-)]. etc....but TODAY. normal.

last night we worked at one of our church childcare jobs. and one of the fun perks is when we leave everyone from the service eats donuts and we grab one for everyone on our way out. the kids get so pumped. well they didn't have them last night. and we get out of there at 9:30. so disappointed kids[and parents, if we're honest], + past their bedtime....that's gonna equal drama. so before the breakdowns we opted for some krispee kreme. so everyone got donuts, everyone went to bed happy.

and woke up extra happy since we had some left over.
so on our donut high we braved target and walmart.
i always dress my kids extra cute when we go shopping. hair combed, teeth brushed, breakfast off their faces...because i want people to think i have it all together? well, maybe a little. but mostly so if they throw fits and make me look like an idiot...then at least they looked a little cuter doing it. and if they are great, then they are just THAT much cuter and well behaved, because they didn't look like scuzballs.
makes sense to me.

after not having been to the store with me in weeks, truthfully, i was expecting the worst. watching mom shop and browse through her coupon binder isn't on their top ten lists of awesome activities. but they were great. i mean really great. i wouldn't say it if they weren't, because it's not the norm for a long grocery trip. in fact, the last time we went to the store rex said before we left, "mommy, i KNOW i'm not always good at walmart. but today, i'm going to try. i really, really am." so hilarious that he really WANTS to be good, but sometimes it's just too hard.

as a treat for their star cart behavior we did our "special lunch". which is lunch on the floor in muffin tins. whatever floats your boat little krouticles....

marshmellows were the highlight of that lunch. oh how i love toddler words. rex has called them "Smarshmellows" forever and if you dare correct him i'll smack you. gus noticed them on his tray and said, "wow!! soose monos!!! yay!!"
only gus could come up with THAT.

:-)

vacation was heavenly, but i do love my life where the highlights of my day are pleasant shopping trips and words like soose monos.

cruising bliss

2010-07-18T13:59:00.000-07:00

we are having vacation withdrawals.
i shall relive it by giving you guys the lovely details of the trip:-)

we got to new orleans around noon on saturday. we were herded through lines. it was crowded and humid and i was freaking out a little on the inside. ok the outside a little too. i was looking around at all the people i was sure we'd die with. there's a reason we've never done a cruise before, i was terrified! the line seemed to take a really long time...and when we got on and found our room we had some housekeeping issues that were taken care of with less than a great attitude. i got a major headache as we took off....and was feeling pretty stressed about the whole deal at this point!
but i took an excedrin and short nap and got ready for dinner.

and that is when things got way stinking better and stayed that way.

one of the things i was most worried about was feeling trapped in a tiny room on the bottom of the boat. well 1, our room was not bad at all. plenty roomy, and a king sized bed. we didn't bother with windows or a balcony, and we actually liked it that way. it got SO dark in there. and 2, we were 2 doors away from being out on the deck on the front of the boat. and our room was on one of the highest levels. i wanted to be high enough and close enough to the edge that i could jump ship if everyone else was going down. and we got that:-)

the food...oh the food.
each night we went to a formal dining room with options for appetizers, main course, then dessert. we branched out eating things we'd never order in restaurants.
some of our favorites: roasted duck, veal, lamb, filets, shrimp[most amazing ever], pumpkin soup, lobster bisque, chocolate melting cake, cappucino pie...oh and there were ice cream machines everywhere. we must've had at LEAST 2 ice cream cones a day.

when we'd order at diner half the time our waiter would say, "you like lobster too? ok, i bring dat too". and when he'd bring it he'd get this goofy grin on and say, "you know why it so good? i make it, ya...!"

one of our FAVORITE things about the trip...was a few times during dinner the wait staff would randomly turn some song on really loud and break it DOWN dancing. some got up on tables, some grabbed guests and danced in the aisles. it was soooo cute.

there was also a massive buffet with any kind of food you can think of. pizza 24/7. not to mention room service. to say we overate would be the understatement of the century.

there were shows each night. dancing/singing shows, comedy, magic. we wondered around the casino a lot too, making very risky bets on the penny slots;-) at one point i won $20...but over the course of the whole week i'd say i just lost about $30. ha...

one of our favorite things was sitting in the kareoke lounge. some were american idol wanna-be's, and would sign up for a new song as soon as they finished another...and that was annoying. some were so bad and drunk that it was super amusing. and every now and then there was someone AWESOME. one lady sang "midnight train to georgia" and got a standing ovation from the whole place. she was worth sitting through all the others...

the days we spent on the boat traveling to ports were soooo relaxing. we'd wake up around 8 or 8:30, go to the fancy breakfast...put on our suits and lay out until lunch. reading or half sleeping. we'd clean up for lunch, maybe play some cards then take naps. sometimes there would be a random show in the afternoon we'd watch. the highlight of the day would be dinner...then do the shows after.

we all thought it was the perfect combo of total relaxation, but plenty to do if you get bored.

the 1st port day was in progreso. we rode a bus downtown and briefly shopped at their flea market. really fun. then we went to an all-inclusive resort for a few hours, where we got to actually swim in the ocean. a nice private pool too. the pools on the boat were much smaller.

[totally sunburned that day in progreso. stupido. though i swear i wore TONS of sunscreen and reapplied...]

this map was really cool. it showed our route and had our location lit up.

2nd port day was in cozumel, and we just shopped there. we were excited to find kevin a wedding ring, as he's not been wearing one since december when it got too small. it's official, we're married. kevin and i burned out a little faster and went back to the boat early. since most people were out on the island, we got on our suits and played on the water slide like 12 year olds. it was soooo fun. but work! you had to climb about 3 flights of stairs to get to the slide. but worth it.

by the way, notice phill parked down the road in cozumel.

doesn't alto mean tall as well as stop? liked this pic a lot.

by the way, was totally proud of the semi-conversation i had with our taxi driver in spanish. apparently i was good enough that she though she could talk on and on in spanish...ah well.

we are definitely in love with cruises now. already thinking about one for next year. so fun to share this one with our dear friends!! thanks for tolerating us for a week guys!!

and MAJOR major thanks to kev's parents, my parents and phill and sandy for watching our kids so we could go!! we are so thankful for the break. we know it was a lot of work, and we appreciate it!!

2010-07-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

i'm giving myself 10 minutes to update this thang, because i have a big list of stuff i SHOULD be doing! but this is more fun. and i hate when i go over a week. this is just 6 days, so boo ya.

the 4th was stinking fun. we did a honkin' garage sale of STUFF we didn't NEED[see simplifying!] and made $400. and it's so much more spacey and clean in here. loving it. i keep telling myself my house wasn't *that* bad before, but maybe it was?

that night we went to a fireworks show the city put on. gus was pretty terrified at first, but loved it by the end. "mommy, you SEEDAT?!" um yes, yes i did...leo just sat entranced by the whole thing. knew rex would love it and he did.
so we went to another show the next night, why not? i was feeling very nostalgic with all the america-ness and patriotic music to fireworks. we really are blessed to live in such a great country. ah....

kevin had to go back to work on monday, but the boys and i continued the holiday with a little splash parkin' it. we have been working hard on "staying together" when we're out and about because i can't hang on to everyone. i'm outnumbered like that...but the big boys are SO good at this now. love it.

ok my time is up[ok, i went over by 6 minutes]. gotta pack!! next post, pictures of our VACATION!!! AGHH!!!!

simplifying...continued....

2010-06-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

wow.

simplifying is kinda hard.

and is at first, not at all simple. but man. this is going to be GREAT.

however...while going through masses of junk in closets and dressers, the regular house maintenance has been a tad....neglected. so when leo had a massive blowout after lunch i suppose i could have used a whole tub of wipes trying to hold him off for a bath. but i would have still had a dirty kid and then very few wipes. so i changed the diaper, held a dirty, naked baby in one arm, wiped down half the sink with the other...and, well. did this.

can't believe i'm posting this.

but come on. it's funny. and was quite necessary.

speaking of embarrassing. this is how many walmart sacks were above my dryer. seriously.

and this is about how it looks now. ah.....

p>

and now for the worst one. if i didn't have a rocking after picture, no way would i ever post this. but if i can clean THIS, i can clean/organize anything. so can you!

don't judge me.

now get ready.

and the angels sang...

i walk by that closet and stop and stare. i can't believe how happy it makes me. i feel like a rockstar.

gonna end this post with some videos for the grandparents.

1st up, leo.

1) loves green beans apparently.

2) has the biggest mouth ever.

rex can read!!! ok, not really. but he can memorize...not too shabby.

gus trying to be rex....man i love that baby's voice.

who would've thought....

2010-06-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

when kevin and i got married, almost 7 years ago...i was the most anti-gun, liberal, NONoutdoorsy, animal hating, 'city girl'[as much as one can be from russellville]...shocking, really, that i managed to snag a complete and total country boy.

when we were dating i nearly died every time he'd hop on a 4-wheeler at his parents' and get up on 2 wheels showing off(though i was impressed...). soooo dangerous, i'd think...my kids will NEVER do that for sure. when we got married i insisted, inSISTED that his guns stay at his parents'. people can lose their eyeballs at their house, not mine.

well, things change. get ready. this one's long...

a good friend of mine has been posting some lately about being a better steward of her home. very neat. when i first read it though i thought..."i do that. this place stays clean. but good for her." then i'd be putting laundry up and notice how. many. clothes. were in the closet...or putting up dishes and notice how much in the cabinets we never used. i don't even want to talk about my hall closets or garage...i've always given myself those as "freebies" because the rest of the house was so clean.

but now...it's bugging me. the extra. we don't NEED. we don't USE. so it's my new mission in life to become a true minimalist...where we have what we need and use and no more. SIMPLIFY.

and it's leaking into other parts of my life. i can't stand how busy things are. ridiculous that to plan a lunch with a friend sometimes you have to go weeks out until you are both free. hate that sometimes i don't feel like i have to spend 15 minutes[a TINY fraction of the day, really] reading my bible in the morning, because i have so much to do. i don't like that when i have something to plan for someone, or a meal to take someone, or whatever...that i stress and stress over forgetting something or someone, because my brain is just. too. full. and let's face it, there wasn't much room in there to start with. SIMPLIFY.

in going through my kids' toys for our garage sale, i'm annoyed at the singing/dancing/remote controlled/so complicated i, a flippin' grown up, can't transform this transformer back to a car/missing pieces because there were too many/missing batteries...UGH. sometimes i just want to go outside with a stick and a ball and let them play with those...or rides bikes all day. or stack wooden blocks. SIMPLIFY.

so.
i'm going through every tiny corner in our house and if we don't use it regularly, it's out. the pile of 'sale' in my room is growing HUGE. leo's room is the only room so far that is completely and totally done, and it feels awesome to know exactly what's in there and where it is.

leo...the simplest of us all, got tired playing on his blanket and rolled into it for a nap this morning. now that's nice and simple.

i have this sign in my living room. i like it more now.

my sister mentioned that a book she'd loaned me had a chapter on simplicity. and wow. it is GOOD. the book is the celebration of discipline. and it's just fueling my fire on this. eccles. 7:30 says "God made man simple; man's complex problems are of his own devising." [this verse isn't in all translations...not sure what's up with that?]
this part of the book REALLY got me.

"when we are tempted to think that what we own is the result of our personal efforts, it takes only a little drought or small accident to show us once again how utterly dependent we are for everything."

wow. so true.
if you're reading this blog...you probably know we spent the past 2.5 years working like crazy to get out of debt. and we do give God the glory for it. but it is easy to sink into a prideful..."well sure God helped, but Lord knows we worked our tails off, and THAT's why we're out of debt" well guess what? it hasn't been as easy peasy, super peaceful to be 'out of debt' as we'd imagined. we still have medical bills that pour in. we don't have extra cash like you'd think. we have even borrowed money...TWICE since april when we finished my student loan. now not from a bank or credit card mind you, but what difference does it make? really?

i'm pretty sure things have continued to be a challenge because we were so proud of ourselves. we're nothing. we only pulled this off because God orchestrated all those extra jobs to work together, so we could have all of them...so all that money could go to our debt. when i thought 2 years ago..."hmm...if only i had a child i could babysit, then i could be home with boys and still make money..." and then my friend called to see if i could watch the girl she'd been watching...did I do that? or when we had $300 left on a credit card...with our goal date sneaking up, and we got a $300 check in the mail the day before. did i do that? or when kevin needed a car...ANY car...and one that he looooved literally drove up right by him at work, and the guy sold it to him for less than we we'd even hoped for....did i do that? or when we had only $4200 left in total debt....and we thought we'd have to pay in taxes, but we got a $4300 return. did i do that?
ok, God, i get it. i did nothing. our motto during those 2.5 years was "work like it all depends on you, pray like it all depends on God". we were trying to be obedient. and God rewarded that with success. period.

all that said. i want things simpler. and i've caught myself lately fantasizing about moving out in the country[not too far, mind you...] and letting the boys play outside, on God forbid, four wheelers...and get ready for it...maybe even a dog. and when they're older go shooting with daddy...maybe with their own guns. oh Lord what's happening to me...and like the country song says, "point our rockin' chairs toward the west"...hang out on the porch in the evenings. no tv. maybe a garden with some veggies i grew. what in the world.

grow up super old with this guy. the tall one. the one who has subtly, slowly...without even meaning to...changed my opinion on so many things that i must've been a total flake to begin with....love him.

(7 years ago....)

mother of a post

2010-06-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

oh i love that guy. we have fun. we laugh a lot.
when we fight...it's mostly because we're tired and no matter what we think we're fighting about...it's REALLY about thinking the other one gets more sleep. quite silly:-) so i'm thinking when we consistently get more sleep we might be like a perfect couple or something. because he's cute and he seems to think the same of me.
and we have these little mini's that keep us entertained.

oh watching the brotherly love. so fun.

so i've been working a little harder lately and making sure i'm doing the best i can with what i've been given. i have my crash and burn days for sure...but i feel like i do a decent job most days of mom'n it, being a decent wife, keeping the house up....but i feel like i royally blow it most days on cooking. we watched it's complicated a few weeks ago...cute little movie. meryl streep played the main character, and she owned a bakery. her kids and ex practically worshipped her for her cooking...looked forward to coming home to their favorite meals, etc. totally NOT the point of the movie, but i got to thinking. wow. kev must be so happy to come home from working all day to mac and cheese. or frozen pizza. or worse...what if my boys grow up and marry some dumb ugly girl with no personality just because she's a great cook...man, my mom could never cook like this. score. so i decided to try to be a better cook.

but i hate it. i mean i really, really don't like doing it.
so it's going to take some practice.

one of the things that's really hard for me...and most people who are home all day with kids would agree i bet, that 4pm-5pm is pretty much the armpit of the day. that hour can't go by fast enough. the kids are getting bored, they're cranky because they're getting hungry, the house is extra hot from the sun in the back, i'm trying to pick up the mess of toys that always migrates to the living room/diapers that never got put in the trash/laundry that has been folded on the couch all day[ok, you get the point]...just not the brightest point of the day. add in the task of trying to make a lovely meal without destroying the kitchen i had perfectly cleaned...not my fave.

but i decided to do better.
so....since the kids would be major underfoot if i tried to do it on my own, i let them help. and i was a little proud of myself on this one. rex is ALWAYS wanting to help in the kitchen, and usually it's like..."honey i already added the fake orange powder to the mac and cheese so it's about wrapped up in here..." [insert dejected first born puppy dog face].....so when i jumped in last week to making meals i found ways for them to "help". carrots were the veggie of the night. so i got them each a plate and let them put the carrots in the pot. lame? totally. but they thought they were doing me a massive favor.

then it really got exciting. i gave them each a little measuring cup and would fill and refill it with water, letting them pour it in.

i wish i had caught a little more of rex's face there...but he's beaming. so fun.

anyway. a lot of friends have been sending me simple recipes and we're slowly branching out. [hint hint. keep the simple ideas coming]
and what do you know...i'm not horrible at it. just takes some effort. and since we've been married almost 7 years, about time i tried....

moving on...

a picture to brag on our genius baby.

oh those eyes. love.
we do love to teach our babies to hold their own bottles. useful and super cute.
gus about the same age...
oh his head was so big. glad he grew into that.

rawr. i just spent entirely too long looking for a picture of rex somewhere on this computer holding his own bottle. whatever. trust me...there are some, they are cute, and he was even younger since he got bottles sooner. sorry rex. gus's pictures are more recent and easier to find...

ok i love this picture. this is keepin' it real during gus's nap time. me kicking rex's rear at mario cart. here's why i love this picture.

a)missing 'bacon' on bottom left of picture. we have 3 of these. there is always one laying around somewhere.
b) me using the baby swing as a foot rest
3) look closely...leo had just spit up and missed the cloth. story of our life.
4) look closer...leo has a sticker on his rear. silly rex. ok...whatever, so i put it there. it was funny.

speaking of mr. barfer...he gets way more of these! this was the first 'not in a baby tub' bath. no worries, we went back to the baby tub. ha

this one is particularly funny right now.

a few phrases we hear a lot...
"oh mommy!! i got goo-dea!" [i have a good idea]
"uh-uh-way-uh" [underwear]
"wex not shey-wing" [rex isn't sharing]
"weo's cwying. git it. a bot-oi" [leo's crying...get him a bottle]

funny that in his language rex and leo both start with W. and his own name starts with D when he says it.

wex, dus, and weo.
what a crew....

helpful...and not so helpful. but fun.

2010-06-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

helpful first. not all the time of course. but sometimes i find something quite useful for them to do, and they are pretty good at.
this is one of my favorites. i save it for days we really need something different to do...b/c i certainly don't want to overuse it and have this one get old. it's a sweet system. rex stands on the chair with tongs and unloads the laundry piece by piece, and hands it to gus, who tosses it in the dryer. sure, this takes about 10x longer than me doing it myself but...
1) they think this is super fun?
2) i'm not having to do it.
3) it takes them about 10 minutes...usually plenty long enough to distract them from whatever i was trying to distract them from with this ploy. [i.e. throwing balls to unreachable places and begging for them back, wrestling matches that had gone too far, 5th episode in a row of clifford...whatever]

leo's been getting more bottles lately and they looooove to help with this. which is pretty cute. i wish i could accurately type how gus pronounces bottle, b/c it's awesome. something like "boytahl", but cuter than that.

entertaining leo definitely fits in the helpful. not that he's not content to just sit there...because he is mr. happiness. but the boys love to talk in their hilarious little baby voices to him/take him toys/etc. it's awesome. i was letting gus play a game on my phone[i know, i know...supervised! come on..] and he was so sweet to share and show leo;-)

after this he tried to make leo's little fingers push the buttons...

now for the not so helpful, but still amusing. gus is the main star of this topic. shocked? i mentioned the throwing balls out of reach on purpose...it really works for anything. anything odd in this picture?

yeah. that's leo's paci. i didn't even notice it, and later he said all innocently, "mommy wook! ah weo's paci?" as if to say, "wow! check it, mom. who do you think did THAT?"

like any keypoint family, we have a multitide of pens lying around. i try to keep track, but i'm always working on a list of some kind...and they just get left out. this is what 10 minutes of unsupervised gus with a pen[and marker] looks like.
not sure you can tell from that picture exactly how awesome it is.

now for the just fun. rex is always asking to play a game...and mentioned "hide and sink" the other day. he's hilarious playing this game. mostly because he's really bad at it. so i get an awesome hiding spot, wait until he's almost given up...then jump out. i could not get enough of this face when i did it.

he would pretty much hide where i had just hidden every. single. round. and it was just as funny every time.

i'll be so sad when the days of amusing my kids this easily is gone...

well that was lucky

2010-06-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

gus slept til 8 this morning. any morning he does that is almost a promise for a good day.

rather than lounging around all morning and trashing our clean house, or being bummed that kevin finally went back to work...we loaded up. ran to the bank then some disappointing garage sales. riding on the gas light we opted to go to kev's store and get gas...and why not, some donuts too. then on to the farmer's market, where we got a good deal on a ton of strawberries. kevin could pretty much live on berries alone, so he was stoked.

then we were just going to go to the park by the market...

when i noticed some kind of festival going on. so we walked around a bit, and there were all kinds of free things to do.

sometimes i look like a total fool in public. trying to rein gus in (often with him screaming 2 year old nonsense that clearly equal major cursing in his language), telling rex to stop touching things and stay closer...while trying to not drop or bump leo into things. but sometimes they hold hands, and stay close to me, and stay quiet and leo just grins at people(well, he usually does that). and we look like we really have it together. and we pulled off the latter today. i love that.

so the festival. apparently the 10th annual inernational something rather...
included this train ride. major hit.

there were several booths set up with free samples of food, candy, little dinky toys...little boy heaven.
also a little station with cool bubble blowers and a bucket of soap. they sat here forEVER blowing bubbles.

add to the easyness[is that a word?] of this lovely saturday...the wee one slept this whole morning away in the carrier. and it was just cool enough this morning for that not to be miserable for both of us. days i go out with him in here, i'm stinking happy he's not on the weight chart. i can't imagine lugging around a chubby baby in this thing.

happy weekend.

great weekend

2010-06-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

kevin has had some extra time off this week. we loooooooooooooove having him around. he's just been using vacation before it expires...

started out last saturday eating dinner with my parents then roaming around the "nod". i got a stranger to take this, and it might be my favorite family pic yet...

the next day he and the boys worked in the yard.

then later it was time for the birthday party. 5. wow...i've been a little more sentimental about this one! i keep remembering stuff...."5 years ago today we were in line at the shakira concert!"..."my water broke right NOW 5 years ago!" etc.
that teeny lil 6 pound squirt changed everything!

we love this kid.

we had a bad guy party for the 2nd year in a row. he knows what he likes!

somehow there always ends up being a ridiculously cute picture of rex and his cousin, lucas. i've got big plans of getting pictures of them together on his birthday forever.

good lord. i feel like i'll be snapping their picture at graduation next week or something. stop. growing. so. fast.

memorial day we teamed up with brian and michelle for some hiking. they were brave to invite us. not sure they would have had brian realized he'd be helping me carry gus the bus half the way! it was really fun though. i'm not usually so "outdoorsy", but it was great. we may pick a shorter trail next time though. we went over FOUR MILES with all these guys...

while brian was holding gus he commented that he felt like gus was swaying a lot...and sure enough the goob had FALLEN ASLEEP on his shoulders. amazing!

kev had leo on the way down to the lake, and had worn his camel pack. we stopped for a break and he let rex have a sipped. i told him this was as close as he'd get to know what it's like to nurse a baby. bahaha..you see he liked my joke.

we were so. happy. to reach the lake. i didn't think it'd happen. and it was perfect.

[btw. off topic...my leg looks weird long here. i was sitting next to kevin yesterday...my kevin...my practically 7ft tall kevin. and our legs from hip to knee are the SAME length. that must make me some kind of weird mutation]

with all these boys i guess i can forget shopping as my favorite hobby, and get used to stuff more like this. i think i can.

peace out.

boy

2010-05-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

boy(n): a noise with dirt on it.

today mine fit that definition. but they clean up nice.

we pulled out the sprinkler today. those are always a mess in my opinion, but when your yard is mostly dirt it's a REAL mess. we were already sweaty and gross from playing outside...so it was kind of like, "what's wrong with getting a little more gross while we're at it?" plus i love pictures. this new blogging routine makes me want to take more pictures. which may seem silly...but if wanting more pictures, for better blog posts...makes me do more fun stuff with my kids, so i can remember more of it. then i don't figure that's a bad thing.

rex looooooooooooved it. gus not so much. he just stood to the side staring at it mostly...aiming his gun.

it turned the yard into quite the mud pit...and while running AWAY from the sprinkler, gus slipped. luckily the camera was out and on, so i didn't have to make him sit here throwing this fit for long. love how you can tell he was flailing his arms in true 2-year-old-spaz-session fashion.

took some major scrubbing to get them clean. major.

and this one needed a bath too. i'll spare you details on why he needed one. but let's say he's not diggin' the dumb cereal, and i'm not diggin' what it does to his diapers.
there were cute little bubbles on his 'sideburns' and i'm stoked my little camera could see them...

he looks chubby enough to me!

hello blue eyes.

what morning is complete without a few time outs for gus...

luckily his sweet moments outweigh his not-so-sweet...his MDO made him this cute book with pictures of him throughout the year. seriously sweet! he loves to look at it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAJO!:-)

that's the 1st pic of us i found in my photobucket. going to see twilight! geeks:-)
love you sandy!

shrimpy pants

2010-05-26T18:53:00.000-07:00

everyone always talks about how big leo looks. he's around babies younger than him a lot, so he looks big enough to me. lord knows he's looooong.
today was his 6 month check up[wha!??!]. i know, he was born 5 minutes ago. but whatever.
so before i left i pulled out the boys' baby books so i'd have a comparison. rex was 14 lbs 5oz, gus 15lbs 1oz. 10th and 15th percentiles. since leo's been middle of the 2 usually(or loose-ually as rex would say. and don't you correct him), i was expecting high 14's. 13lbs 4oz! huh? that means he went from 10th percentile to falling off the chart. i was so surprised!!
not worried though. we haven't done too many solid foods, because he hasn't been interested. but we'll do some more now to pack on some weight. we know he won't stay little long! that's not how we roll around here.
when he's 14 and towering over me we'll laugh at how once upon a time he wasn't on the weight charts.

*funny, all 3 boys were different weights at 6 mo, but all 26 inches long...*

fun to see our nurse friend today:-)

this baby loooooves his brothers.

and this baby isn't looking much like a baby anymore!:-(

just for kicks this is gus at the age leo is now. you can see that extra 2 pounds he had!!

it was in his head. i'm just remembering all those comments i got about his massive cabesa. leo has a slightly better head to body ratio. bahaha

2010-05-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

busy weekend.
started it off by "running" a 5K. we actually did run a pretty good chunk of it! and i'm stiiilllll feeling it 2 days later. and it was t.o.a.s.t.y. out there. here's our team anderson! holler.

did a little more running by taking the kids to the track that afternoon. all the space they can handle. energy outlets galore. good idea.

[get it? 2 and 4?....]

i know he's my kid and all...and i think he's awesome. but i really think he's got a great stride. which he obviously gets from his mama, and i get practically scouted by college track coaches when i'm out jogging around. bahahaha

look here

we've been having some "sleeping in" issues over here. i get that little kids aren't going to sleep until 10am, but 7 would be greeeeeeeeeeeat. gus had been waking up when the SUN did, which fyi is about 5:45. no. bueno. so we made an investment in my sanity by spending $25 on these shades. i really like how they make the room look too. more finished or something.

we had a few "when it rains it pours" situations this weekend...one being our vacuum going up in smoke. but my dear handy man decided to try to replace the belt first. i really don't know how he knows how to do so many random things. but my vacuum works better than ever. he gave me smack about taking this picture. but i love a man that fixes nasty stuff for me with toddlers hanging all over to "help".

nice to know the floor is cleanish for wrestling matches.

and baby chillin'.
"hiiiiiiiiiii weoooooo, hiiiiiiii!"

*pinch*

this was a fun game of pretend mommy is asleep then wake her up.

we have a loooooooooot of books. and a lot of toddler bibles. you still gotta love when they are the books of choice. love gus's blue marker hands.

and rex can flip through and actually tell the stories, correctly, from the pictures...

i just love this. he put his pants on "by sup"[by myself]

i can admit when i'm wrong. really. and while i'm trying more lately to capture the greatness of our life on film...we get some horrible pictures. not just bad quality, ha....but just bad. or maybe they are still good. like this one. because i was ticked here. i asked kev to come take a picture "real quick" and by the time he got there everyone was mad. moment--long gone. he laughed SO hard after snapping this, realizing he had caught this face, and i couldn't help but laugh too. i should be laughing that i thought we would get a good picture in the first place with 3 hungry kids, 1 of which had lost his "flops".

all the single ladies

2010-05-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

if you were wondering what might've inspired my new blogging attitude, it is this lady. www.kellehampton.com
warning--you might cry if you read this blog. at first. but she is completely inspiring. and she's writing down a lot more of what her kids do...and taking a lot more pictures than i am. well, and a lot BETTER pictures, but that's not the point.

so i'm going to do better.

plus, i was reading over my oooooold blog last night. from when rex and gus, were gus and leo's ages now. and the similarities between what rex was doing and what gus is doing NOW, and the same for gus and leo were NUTS. it's like i'm living the same life over again except this time with a nearly 5[what??] year old too. and it was fun to read. so i want to have something to read later.

so.

i've been single mommin' it the past 2 days. kevin never travels for work. except this week apparently. and we miss him big. but we have had fun too. and i have taken advantage of the situation by doing 1) very little cleaning 2) pretty much no cooking 3)spending way more time on the computer after bedtime.

i find that most of the time my kids aren't wearing clothes. i'm not sure why this is. surely i dress them.

that is as close as i've gotten to all 3 smiling. about 0.2 seconds after that leo poked gus the eye, gus screamed, leo cried from the noise...worth the not-so-great-picture? well sure.
i feel like leo's saying, "yeah! look at me hangin' with the big guys!"

so here's what we've been doing. i'm always making lists. to-do's. shopping. stuff we need. stuff we want....and so gus copies.

he's been saying, "uuuuup, down...and ah-cwoss. yeah....wight....good job!" working on "letters". so big.

and when the big ones play or nap, this one gets some attention. my little pantsies. those blue eyes. he fits right in my little german boy camp.

and they wake up and we play some more.

and usually we spaz pick up about 4:30, pull something together for dinner, then it's wrestle mania with daddy.

but tonight after dinner, with the boys feeling the space where daddy should be...we decided to make brownies. and i decided to try not to be a neat freak. and i wasn't.

because it's impossible.

then we chubbed out, took baths, brushed brownie out of teeth and went to bed. with minimal bacon and bear throwing tonight. [bedtime when it's still light out is tough over here.]

and i'm left with this.

and i'm gunna call that success. because clearly i didn't waste my time cleaning all day(but we know it'll get done). because, hello. there's a fort in that picture. cool moms build forts. and play bad guys in them. and then put cars on top and punch them from underneath to see how far they will fly. (even though sometimes i'd just like to play a nice quiet game of push the car quietly and drive to the store or something. but exploding and throwing and shooting and wild it is.)

and because now i have this.

so i suppose i should go do something about those "before" house pictures now.

finally.

2010-05-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

i have always just wanted to be a mom. to have lots of babies. and just play. and when i got that, i just wanted to be home with them. i think this is why i could NOT pick a major and stick with it in college, because i just. didn't. care. it's not what i wanted. this is.

when we started our nutty, gazelle intense, payoffthisdebtthat'ssuckingthelifeoutofus focus, i was "with" the boys, but not like i wanted. i didn't feel like i could say i'm a stay-at-home-mom, without saying, "well, i stay home sometimes, but they come with me to work mondays and thursdays and we go to another place on tuesday morning, then i work at night and kevin is with them..." etc. now i really, finally FEEL like a stay-at-home mom. and THIS is what i wanted.

and some days i think i'm really, really horrible at it. i can spaz when things don't get put away and then can't be found...don't get me started on "The bad guys GO in the bad guy BUCKET...then we will KNOW where the bad guys are...". and i'm a pretty horrible cook. i suppose we all eat, as we make it from day to day...but i can't even really tell you what we eat. we have days where we watch too much tv. but we usually make up for it the next day by trying to watch none. it's all about balance, i figure. and every day i mean to iron kev's pants for the next day. like a good wife. and most every day he irons his own pants at 10:30pm. i love him. and love that he doesn't expect me to iron his pants anyway. i pretty much look like a slug everyday. because why get dressed if i'm going to get spit up on, and why fix my hair when i'm going to play on the floor? besides...that just means i'll look really good in comparison when i occassionally DO get dressed and ready. right?

but some days are pretty smooth. there's minimal fighting and fussing and whining...and the house stays clean-ish and kids get played with. those are my favorite. i'm pretty excited that we've had more of those recently than the "what in the world did we do today, b/c we sure didn't clean or accomplish anything?" days.

but at the end of both of those days i still love this a lot.

(i don't have a picture yet of all 3 smiling. but i'm getting more and more of at least 2 smiling, and i call that success)

the big boys love their brother. the other day i had leo propped in the corner of the couch while i washed dishes[though i do NOT do this now that he plops on his face, and pushes his feet against the back and propels himself onto the floor. not that that's happened]...and his feet just stayed up b/c he's froggy like like that. and rex got him an ottoman.

when you have more than 1 kid, i assume particularly if they are the same sex, you get asked a LOT who they look more like. and i've always thought leo looked more like rex. some baby pictures are uncanny. gus has always been my chub and had a more round face. but this picture i see some leo-ness. i see gus's eyes, but their smile is very similar.

definitely brothers.

how did i get 3 dimpled boys. love.

going to try to write more in my posts. i used to back in the xanga days and it's fun and i love reading back over those...recently all i do is pictures and it's hard to remember what was going on. so stay tuned.

or skim through for pictures, whichever.

geek alert

2010-05-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

oh bad guys. i am outnumbered, you win.
you wreak havoc on my home every day, like an actual band of little messy bad guys.

(btw--leo is like a baby now. not a newborn. what in the world is that about?

)

i am a self proclaimed neat freak. but everyone knows your house can't stay perfect ALL the time. although, i think that EVERY time i get it super clean "THIS time it will stay!"...it stays perfect a few hours, then a little clutter builds up. i stupidly ignore it. then a few more hours it's straight up disastrous. but here's why my nerdiness comes in. sometimes i let it go a little further than that on purpose...to like state of emergency messy, because in my weird head the messier it is before, the cleaner it seems after. [same principle applies to dirty kids.]

the day after mother's day this is what had happened to my kitchen. believe it or not kev had the house completely spotless that morning. but this is what a day of living in your house + grocery shopping(with 3 kids) does.

i am SUCH A geek that i took before and after pictures. this is to remind me the next time my house seems overwhelming that i always end up with a clean house again.

ah....

how's THAT for a nerdy post??

2010-05-06T06:18:00.000-07:00

this makes me laugh. he looks like he's in a marching band or something.

just in case you didn't see this on facebook

2010-05-03T13:21:00.000-07:00

gus gets the "getcha coup on" song in his head, and will say it all day long. except it's more like "chicka PON!"

and yes, you see that right...he's in UNDERWEAR!!!

big boy city over here.

changing things up

2010-04-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

blarg. i sneezed the other day while holding my coffee and checking email. i spilt said coffee on the keyboard...and now my clicky things by the mouse pad thing don't work. so i can't move those pictures where i want them. oops.

so things are about to change up here at the krout hole.

leo--about done swaddling this kid. moving from newbie-dom into baby-dom. sadness...but they do have to grow i guess. i am looking foward to fewer, but longer naps....he's started some food recently, so we'll start working on more of a breakfast,snack,lunch,snack,dinner,bedtime snack routine instead of every 3 hours all day. i get that it's pretty much the same. whatever. it's different to me.

[picture of swaddled leo]

gus--scared about this one. going to start potty training him tomorrow. he keeps taking his diapers off[wet? dirty? whatever!] and "going potty". he's never actually done anything there...but he's definitely making some connections. so going unders tomorrow. n.e.r..v..o.u.s...and a little tired just thinking about it. 2 in diapers has not been nearly the big deal people make it out to be, but 2 in underwear will be nice! i'm only slightly concerned that all the 2T/3T underwear i kept for potty training purposes might be to small on GUS the BUS. hoping i don't have to buy any!! i seriously have about 18 pairs...

{this is where that diaper picture at the top should be. whatev}

rex--going to be FIVE soon. FIVE!!! good lord. how did that happen? he's not going to K this year, so it's still preschool age to me, but that's totally old enough for school and i'm bummed! every day he asks if it's his birthday. every. day. he wants a DS. HA!! keep dreamin' son....

so before all these big boy things happen, i've been trying desperately to capture our current stages. i love them all right where they are! some things will be easier when they move into the next phase, but i always miss the previous one when it's gone.

love his serious little face and forehead, and his intense determination to eat his entire arm.

2010-04-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

no particular order on this stuff.
gus loooooves leo. he's always saying this stuff.
"i checka weo" -i'll check on leo
"i talka weo"
"weo, a paci?"
"weo, what wong?"
and my favorite...is when he talks in a baby voice to him...just a tad higher than his regular voice. he sat here forever this morning helping weo keep his paci it. leo just loves watching him. rex doesn't spend nearly as much time stopping to hang out with the baby. i think leo and gus will be tight:-)

leo can almost fit both hands in his mouth. when he's happy/excited he always does this.

ok i love this stage about little boys. they all at some point love to line cars up!

we've started a big project in the front...digging up the old flower bed. it's a work in progress, but we have some good help.

notice who has what shovel here...

gorgeous

2010-04-15T10:35:00.000-07:00

i feel like i only post about the weather lately. but seriously. it's ridiculously gorgeous. we've spent most of our time in the front yard or park hopping. leo seems to enjoy it too.

kev already showing off his favorite baby trick.

nothing like getting nasty dirty at the park then getting super clean in the tub. they seem cleaner the nastier they were pre-bath. this is a so-fresh-an-so-clean pic ready to make cookies.

some updates.

rex--favorite mispronunciation

without= "about"

ex. "i'm going to be a bad guy, but about a mask this time"

gus--been a bit of a handful lately middle child? ;-) i feel like he's right on the brink of moving into a little bit more reasoning/logic. his receptive language is ok, but communicates horribly. lol....he's not been sleeping so hot either. but getting better. i have a picture to prove it. ha

leo--rolled over the other day! though so did some of his lil friends that are younger than him. haha....he's the happiest thing. loves staring at his brothers and grinning with his whole face, and sucking on his fingers. a new talent.

pictures...

2010-04-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

freedom

2010-04-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

we're debt free. holler for the dollar.

easter was very nice:-)
leo already likes daddy's fun trick of sitting on his hand up in the air. he was cracking up here.

rex started lil kicksters soccer. he had a big time. ran. ran. ran. took a great nap:)

life is good.

it is GOOD FRIDAY!

2010-04-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

and it is extra good for us. b/c this morning, we paid off the last of my student loan. $3260.88

HOORAY!! still just a bit to go in medical debt, but we should finish this month, then hopefully stay on top of it, not letting medical roll over anymore.

so. excited. it's been a long time comin'.

couponing is pretty much my obsession. all those pilsbury things cost me under $5 after my coupons. can you say a lot of breakfast for dinner in our near future??

4 months old today.

2010-03-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

are you kidding me?

wasn't this like 10 minutes ago?

busy, busy

2010-03-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

ok pictures first. i can't seem to keep gus well. as soon as i think he's fine again, he gets a random fever for a few days. he is warm and snuggly though. his chubby little face. love it.

leo is so fun. kevin should have prayed for a rotten kid so i wouldn't want any more.

the big boys looked sooooo cute sunday, if i say so myself.

ok this was going to be a REALLY cute picture, but i actually think this is hilarious. gus was showing leo the pictures in this book, "wook weo, wook!" amazingly precious. as soon as i grabbed the camera though, he dropped the book on leo's face and leo was crushed. gus just stared like, "huh. well that went downhill fast." so. funny.

so.

i told kev the other day, i think i can be a good mom, keep a super clean house OR save us crazy money with obsessive coupons. but not all. maybe 2.

so for the moment my super clean house has become moderately livable[in my OCD opinion].

b/c the mom thing, i figure is my job.

the coupon thing is FUN and gives us more money.

the house...well it always gets dirty again. so whatever. though i do have a goal today of finding out what the bottom of our laundry buckets look like.

2010-03-12T19:24:00.000-08:00

we have been distracted from blogging by 1) great weather and 2) coupon kraziness

quite picture update!:-)

2010-03-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

first and most importantly HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear kev:-)
i'm sorry i didn't blog about you on your bday, b/c you are the best thing ever and completely blog-worthy. ;-)
we saw book of eli on his bday and it was AWESOME. didn't think i'd like it at first, but it is completely worth sticking out.

kev. you are the best. period. going on that blind date 9 years ago[!!!] was one of the better decisions i've made so far. love you.

now for some babies and deals. here's rex ready for pj day today. he was very concerned that he'd be the only one in pjs. "Are you SURE it's pj day mom?"

leo pants. leo mcDeo. leopold.
you sweet little baby.
happy 3 months.

ah, free stuff, via coupons. yes this stuff was COMPLETELY free.

sajo and i have had an overwhelming amount of requests for a coupon class, and so this saturday we are doing one...and a russellville version is in the works. we are calling the class "getcha coup on". if you haven't seen the video promo, check it out:-p

rex thinks he is hot stuff if we ever let him "hold leo standing up". he can't just pick him up whenever...but often i'll have him take leo to kevin or vice versa if we are all in here. you should see his face--the pride is adorable.

leo looks MASSIVE there.

my quiver looks pretty full there.

gus got a big balloon for valentine's with a big clip on it. leo loved looking at it, so kev hooked it to his bib and he stared at it forEVER. hilarious.

DEALS

2010-02-19T12:33:00.000-08:00

man. so my new year's resolution to get back into hardcore couponing is still in action. and with sajo jumping on board, it's even more fun. she's gotten to be a pro in record time and keeps me motivated! [and finds half my deals for me:-)]

check out this sweetness. today shopping i saved a little over $65 in coupons. here's a bunch of stuff that was completely free or made me money.

travel section! shop it! some coupons don't exclude travel size, and makes them frizzy free. that box of wipes was a random coupon from a friend[thanks becca!]. boy do we go through those! what is fun, is like i had a coupon for $2.50 off 2 dove hair care products. the dove things i bought were $.97, so that means i got $.56 toward my normal purchase.[i had 3 of those, score] they were paying me to take them. bahahahah. my fave.

my mom gives me her coupons[thanks!] from the paper, i get my own, and sometimes there are extras laying around at work. then printables...so i can end up with 4 or 5 of the same coupon, so when i get a deal i get it several times. like this ALL was on sale for $3.97, i had 3 $2 coupons, then a good one for the snuggle sheets too. 32 loads for like $.06 a load. HOLLEr.

[on that note. i do like 3 loads a day to stay on top of it. my waterbill has actually gone up over $15 a month since leo was born. the boy barfs on everything!!]

so how are sandy and i pulling off this madness? i will show you my new obsession. am i embarassed to pull this bad boy out at walmart? uh, no, b/c i'm saving massive amounts of money by being able to see all my coupons so fast:-)

don't give me that crap that "off brand is cheaper than using coupons anyway" b/c you are WRONG! you just have to find sales and use your coupons then.

it's like a drug, really.

enough of that. you probably read this b/c you care more about seeing my cute little offspring.

so there ya go:-)

happy valentine's day

2010-02-14T11:41:00.000-08:00

nothin' but pictures

don't forget hearts for hannah day tomorrow!! come back and post if you do anything.

ways to help

2010-02-11T08:57:00.000-08:00

this is a heavier post than usual, but sometimes life is just heavy.

in december, a sweet girl that used to attend MDO with rex lost the battle to cancer. i had her in class this past summer. obivously, a very sad story. one that hit very close to home, having a child the same age. the family has been so inspiring along the journey. i have followed since she got sick. they have been so graceful. if you want to check out her site, it is HERE

this coming monday would have been hannah's 5th birthday. her mom has found a way to help cope with the pain that's going to accompany that day, by declaring it
"hearts for hannah" day. here's how it works. on monday[or sometime around], do something special for someone else. big or small.

pay for their food in line at the drive thru
give blood[hannah had to have many transfusions in those months, and made me more aware of the need. i plan to give on friday]
send an anonymous gift...
anything you want. get creative.

then post it here, or on her caringbridge site. her mom wants to print all these out and put them on hearts to make a scrapbook type thing for her other child, caleb, 2. she wants him to know how much hannah impacted the world:-)

see? amazing family.

so DO IT!!! i will post what we decide to do as well.

ALSO,
some dear friends in our church sadly lost their baby to SIDS this week. unspeakably sad. and also very close to home. kara and i were pregnant together, and had leo and noble only 2 weeks apart. i just get sick sometimes looking at my sweet leo, knowing that's what kara should be getting to do.

all i want to do is help somehow. i know some sweet and generous people post and read this, so i wanted to note that an account has been set up for the Coles at Liberty bank accepting donations. i'm sure to cover funeral costs and whatever they need.
if you feel led whatsoever to do so, i just wanted to provide the info.

hey, if you want to participate in "hearts for hannah" day, you could simply donate some money to adam and kara.

look for ways to bless others.
count your own blessings.
life is short.

"fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand"

isaiah 41:10

sleeping cuteness, deals, grins and twinkies

2010-02-08T07:03:00.000-08:00

these are out of order but i'm too lazy to move them anyone else dislike how you have to move pictures in blogger, or am i missing some easier way???

sunday at walgreens: i'll spare you the confusing details, but i got 2 packs of diapers[worth $9 each], 6 2 liters[on sale 3/$4], a peanut butter and a jelly, all for $9.98 plus tax. don't even ask me how. it was confusing.
i heart being stocked on diapers. it really stinks to realize you just used the last one. that won't happen for a LONG time over here. i bet in this house right now i've got well over 1000 diapers between gus and leo. [*i just counted out of curiousity, and we have about 850. ha]

some sleep pictures. gus's sleep has been so craptastic lately, that i wouldn't risk taking pictures if he was asleep.

this kid could not be more into super heroes, bad guys, powers, and fighting.

getting some more frequent smiles from tiniest boy! i honestly think the zantac is helping a little already. he just seems happier and is sleeping better. though he doesn't love the medicine. why flavor baby medicine PEPPERMINT? and why put on the warnings "do not drive or operate heavy machinery"? really?

my "babies". HA. gus almost looks superimposed on this picture, he's so big.

twinkies.

people always ask who i think leo looks more like. and this is why i say REX all the way.

life with 3, 2 months stats, 1 playdate

2010-02-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

i admit i had a few days earlier this week that i wondered if i could cut it with 3 kids. long lines with 3 kids are hard. shopping with 3 kids allows no room for food. no sleep with 3 kids just sucks!!

just when i was giving up hope of ever sleeping again, gus and leo cut me some slack last night and i feel so great. not getting my hopes up too high, but hopefully we'll see more nights like that in our near future...

[we're big swaddlers, and i just ordered some of these blankets off ebay and i can't wait! he can bust out of most of ours, and if he doesn't do that he barfs on them]

we had leo's 2 month check up yesterday. he's finally gaining weight at an acceptable rate to his dr. almost an ounce a day! he's weighing in at 9lb 10oz

good boy! though i'm always a little sad when they hit double digits, never to return. newbornness is so short. sadness.

i talked the dr. into giving him some zantac, so we'll see if that makes him a little less fussy.

i always get a kick out of comparing milestones. the 2 month stats for all were

rex 8lbs 10 oz

gus 9 lbs 15oz

leo 9lbs 10oz

will be fun to see who is the biggest when they are all done growing:-) my current vote is gus. look at that hoss!

breakfast was particulary cute/funny this morning. this is just so "boy" and i love it.

see the cheerio on his booty?

we had a playdate this morning with a buddy of gus's, ben. they are some cute little boys!! nice to get some chat time with another mom of 3 little ones about the same age as ours. thanks for having us becca!

just a goofy picture waiting on the dr at leo's appt....what a cheese

thanks for reading!

SNOW

2010-02-01T12:25:00.000-08:00

so we've had a ridiculous amount of snow! we are going on like our 7th snow day or something.

we went to sandy's today to play in their sweet snow fort/slide. this thing was amazing!

this is what leo was doing inside:-)

i was burping leo this morning and he feel asleep...i sorta slid him off my shoulder so i could get up and he stayed asleep in this cute ball:-)

he's cuddly like that:-) i think he's the cudliest so far.

some kid quotes

rex, "i feel sick." me, "how sick?" rex, "like, 20 miles or something..."

??? goob

gus, 30 times a day, "mamam i brusha TEEEEE?" [can i brush my teeth?]

some more goofing around

1st muffin tin day

2010-01-28T15:51:00.000-08:00

[ignore my ghetto tins! i'd love some of these or these! and the bottom left is yogurt...i know it looks creepy.]

it was a hit. i think they ate better than usual!

a tad boring, but it's my blog

2010-01-27T09:43:00.000-08:00

so i saw these things online that are supposed to help kids with bad reflux. since they are ridiculously priced, i tried to make one out of an expired carseat. ha--i was actually pretty proud of it, but it just sits too high so he's going to trip over. but since he's still teeny we've used it once or twice. he konked out in there this morning while i got the boys ready.

the other night kev was home late and i was trying to get the boys ready for bed. leo was fighting a nap, and the big kids were playing some "too rough for the tub" game and someone got bonked on the head...someone hit back...one of them did it first...you get the idea. they both knew they were in trouble, and for the 1st time since leo got here, all 3 kids were crying at the same time. it was so chaotic i just had to laugh. then i grabbed my camera b/c they looked SO ridiculous. they were really happy with me for this:-)

wouldn't you know when i got them out 2 seconds later they were upset that they couldn't play in the tub together anymore. ah....

now for some random thoughts.

sometimes i feel like i/we are constantly just waiting for the next thing to happen. i wake up and i'm antsy to get laundry done. waiting to clean the kitchen after breakfast. getting ready for school drop off. waiting on nap time. getting rex then waiting for kevin to get home. then ready to dinner. then even though i look foward to kevin getting home, he gets here and we're just waiting to get the kids in bed and chill. then we're just waiting for leo to konk out so we can go to bed to start all over. sometimes like we are never content with what is going on RIGHT THEN. not that i don't enjoy my time with all the boys, but it just sometimes seems we're always ready/wanting the next thing to happen.

before i was pregnant i was just waiting for that. then waiting to have him. now waiting until he sleeps a little better...you get the point. silly!

so i'm trying to be much more deliberate about how we spend our time. planning to spend it and have fun with it.

starting with what i do with the kids all day. i'm going to start doing 1 fun thing each day[well hopefully more than that, but each day of the week having its own "thing"].
i'm copying this and going to make lunches in muffin tins on mondays. and i think we'll have a craft day, game day, cooking day...and i need one more. like picnic in the living room day or something. then assign each to a day of the week and it can be something the kids look foward to. i'm also going to make a little schedule of what cleaning stuff i do on what days, so i'm not always trying to catch up, and thus wasting time cleaning when i should be playing with the kids.

i found this old poem in a book i'm reading and i love it. going to frame it in my kitchen.
"cleaning and scrubbing can wait til tomorrow,
because children grow up for we've learned to our sorrow.
so quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep.
i'm rocking my babies, and babies don't keep"

on another note, we're contemplating holding rex back a year. still much thought to go into this, but welcoming opinions on the matter. that has also made me think more about what we do all day, b/c since leo we've been in "survival" mode a bit. running on little sleep, we've been watching LOTS of movies. i want more order and schedule to our day. i'm OCD like that.

life at the krouts

2010-01-25T09:42:00.000-08:00

it has been so nice to NOT be sick, to be getting more sleep, and to not be 0 degrees outside.

things have been pretty uneventful around here the last week, and that's how i like it.

wish i could think of something more blogworthy...but alas...i cannot...

omg. can't believe i did this.

2010-01-20T09:11:00.001-08:00

i do like it, but i already miss it. he is VERY picky now about his hair getting touched, and it not being done just like ms. monica did it. he wants me to teach him how to put the "jelly" in it by himself;-)

when it was gus's turn to get his cut, rex was so sweet..."gus, don't be scared! it won't hurt, i PROMISE. see, i wasn't scared! you can do it buddy!"

wow

2010-01-17T11:17:00.000-08:00

we had a very eventful day friday.

i wake up at 4:00am throwing up. then again at 6. leo has a dr. appt at 8am, so kev agrees to take him. the dr. was nervous he might have pyloric stenosis(no need to learn what this is), and we knew she'd probably send us to the hospital right after for an ultrasound. kevin starts to feel sick right before he leaves, but decides he's ok. sandy watches rex for us, and gus and i watch veggies tales. he's never fully recovered from his bug, so he's pretty still for me.

kev texts me from the dr saying he thinks HE might throw up in there. ACK. he manages to hold off until he leaves and barfs in their landscaping. oops. sure enough she does want us to take him to the hospital though. i am feeling better[than kevin at least] so decided to leave kev home with gus and i'd go. since pyloric stenosis has the potential to be pretty serious/needing surgery quickly, we didn't want to put it off, just in case...

so i get there and feel the whole time like i'm about to get sick. i could barely hold leo's carseat. luckily my dad joined me and helped out! the ultrasound lady is super pessimistic about being able to see the pyloric valve at aLL and says she needs him to drink a bottle. uh, hello?? i end up having to nurse him right there on the table so she could see him swallow. well. she STILL can't. so we wait some more and end up doing an xray and barium swallow. i can't believe he drank that barium bottle! that was just answered prayer. along with the fact he's FINE. but wow. what an ordeal.

i was sick i didn't have my camera, but i did get this with my phone of him in the xray machine. hehe

i can only imagine what the bill for that morning is going to be!

i get home about 1 and kev is half dead. ok, not really, but that brother gets SICK when he gets sick. gus is screaming his head off in his crib, leo is fussy from the chalky bottle. i am feeling really bad at this point b/c i'd been practically holding it in this whole time.

my mom, my HERO, came and got the big boys and we were able to rest. by dinner time we were all feeling better. rex spent the night with mom and dad, and kev, gus and i all had saltines and sprite for dinner, then watched CARS til bedtime.

it is no fun to all be sick at the same time! it's nice to be taken care of. no one can take care of you if they are barfing too!

but hopefully that bug is OVER at our house. our apologies to all we infected!!![mom!!:-(]

a few pictures..

sorry, i think crying babies are really cute...

leo was fussy the other morning, so i put him in the carrier and got some housework done. then managed to slowly detatch him and put him in bed. he slept like this over an hour! ha

our dr's office has blankets made for the babies they deliver. love gus's. now leo has a matching one. i wish rex had been delivered by the same dr!

and finally. my deals of the week. all this below cost me $7.50, but i applied some register rewards i had and only paid $1.88 out of pocket. WOOT!!!

our kids are obsessed with veggie tales at the moment so i was stoked about the toothbrushes. they sing the theme song too. haha--i needed a filler item or two to make my total more than zero. HA!

2010-01-13T21:21:00.000-08:00

way to break in the new year boys! both the big boys had a rough stomach bug this past week. when rex was sick, gus would pretend to barf in the bucket just like rex. completely hysterical. though possibly contributed to him getting the bug a few days later. surprisingly[not] he was not able to apply that practice when he was the was barfing. ah well.

they were both very sweet and would pat the other's face, saying sweet things.

"ok wex? you ok?"

when gus would throw up, he'd help us wipe him up and say, "tank tu, mama, tank tu" in the sweetest most pathetic voice ever.

good times.

i do secretly like my kids being wimpy and sick, just a little, (i know i'm not the only one!;-)) b/c they are so sweet and snuggly. and they just need their mommy. at one point rex said, "mommy...i just need to hold you."

shucks.

a few kid quotes.

"daddy, that fountain is almost sizes as you."

[i have no idea why "sizes as you" = "is almost the same size as you". but it's CUTE"

"mommy, at school, i saw a 4 whee-wer that looked like a moanercycle!"

[2 of the only few words left he says wrong...in one sentence! love it]

gus is harder to quote...but in his bedtime prayer he's now clearly including leo, rex and daddy. not sure what exactly i have to do to make that list...but i'm hopeful i'll be added soon.

gus does talk to me about leo a lot. "mama, get 'em. cwyin'." "mama, baby. paci?"

speaking of leo. we've seen some good smiles lately.

for papa

2010-01-12T14:05:00.001-08:00

"assume the position"

worth the extra time

2010-01-11T12:22:00.000-08:00

one of my new year's resolutions is to get back into my crazy couponing. i quit about nov b/c it was too time consuming. i had forgotten what a rush it is! here's what i got yesterday.

ALL laundry dtg. $4 -$2 coupon = $2

colgate toothpaste $2.99- $.75 coupon, $2RR = $.25

halls coughdrops $.99 with walgreens coupon, -$1 coupon = $.49 each

thermacare wrap $2.49, $2.49 RR = free

triaminic thin strips sale $5, -$3 coupons for each, $3RR = $1 for both

kids' motrin and tylenol sale $5, -$3 coupon, $5 RR = $1 for both

snuggle sheets sale $1.87- $2 coupon, =free + $.03

lysol wipes buy 1 get 1 free - $1 coupon - $2.49 for both

total out of pocket $17ish(used a $3 off walgreens purchase coupon from paper), and recieved $12.50 in register rewards[RR= walgreens money]

so total for all that pictured counting RRs was $4.50!!!!

i actually did this in 2 transactions, so got to used some of the RRs earned toward the other stuff.

worth well over $40. woot woot.

2009

2010-01-07T10:26:00.000-08:00

copying my friend des and doing a year in pictures, 1 per month. amazing how much they've grown! i love watching rex's hair grow out, haha

january
gus got tubes the end of the month, and in almost every picture before he looked sick as a dog! he was wimpy here, i remember...

february
it got warm enough to go back outside...

march

april
this is an easter picture we had taken for jan...we annouced we were pregnant this month, on easter!

may

june
rex turned 4 this month. we spent most of the summer going to parks in the morning, doing picnics, then baths and NAPS!:-) this day we cleaned i suppose...

july
a hot day at the park

august
about to head to a park:-)

september
a garage sale score. we went garage sailing ALL the time that month...

october

november

december

many more pics to come with all THREE BOYS.

a good year.

2010-01-03T15:25:00.000-08:00

snow!
rex was PUMPED to play in the snow. gus liked it for a bit, but did not appreciate kev and rex's snowball fights. gus lasted about 10 minutes, while i think kev and rex played for over an hour! then they went down the road in kevin's truck doing donuts. i did not watch that part...

sweet teeny leo

and some friends of ours at a new year's party

happy new year!

christmas time!

2009-12-26T10:44:00.000-08:00

our 1st christmas as a family of 5:-)

3 boys

2009-12-17T16:41:00.000-08:00

picture fix for grandparents:-)
these are out of order...

this is the other night. we went to see santa and played in the cars/carosel[sp?] for a while.

he is such a beautiful boy!

our little chubbers.

1st non hospital family picture:-) at church. leo, one week old.

the boys were quite disturbed by leo's belly button

a few hospital pictures

almost baby time!

2009-11-25T12:10:00.000-08:00

37 week appt today.

i was 4cm and about 70% effaced, with the head super low he said. my dr. is SERIOUSLY laid back. almost to a fault...and even he said not to go anywhere this weekend, and that if i have any consistent contractions[braxton hicks or not], or added pressure, anything...to go on to the hospital to get checked. he's hardly ever an "on the safe side" kind of guy! so i'm excited. he is on call on this weekend, so that is nice.

he knows i tend to have these boys quickly, and he almost missed it with gus, haha. he said that if i don't have this weekend[which wouldn't suprise him. he said it wasn't going to take much to have a baby from this point]....that next wed morning(12-2) at my 38 week appt he'd just go ahead and strip my membranes and send me straight over. which is exactly what we did with gus at 38 weeks exactly. so 7 days max!! i am trying to clean up, pack the boys, but take it as easy as possible today, b/c i really don't want to mess up everyone's thanksgiving plans...nor do i want MY meal to be from the hospital, lol. but after i eat thursday it's on like donkey kong. but babies do what they want, so we shall see. this is the exciting part!!

2009-11-20T10:07:00.000-08:00

26 days until my due date.
20 days til my birthday.
16 days until the time rex would have been born.
12 days until gus would have been born.
6 days til thanksgiving.

wonder if leo will hit any of those random dates.
i feel alright, but all the sudden i'm looking at myself thinking i've never looked so pregnant. and walking around thinking i've never felt so pregnant.

the other day rex had a thanksgiving lunch at school. i thought he looked cute in his pilgrim hat. he's getting so big.

gus had some animal crackers for snack the other day, and i noticed him saying "huss" [horse] and making him walk around. seriously cute.

i'm really enjoying getting some one on one time with him. we read books and play blocks a lot. he gets funnier every day.

our friend melissa bought us this harness from our registry. the boys have had SO much fun taking turns pretending to be the dog. it's hysterical to watch.

i've been wanting to get some more one on one time with rex before leo is born. the other day sandy watched gus, and i took rex home early from school. we went to chick-fila for some ice cream. he was so sweet. he tells me, "when leo cries i will just say, 'oooo little baby leo, it will be ok!' and i will get him pacis to help you." he is such a great brother!

i can't wait to see how he and gus react to leo. not too much longer!

2009-11-14T20:15:00.000-08:00

a choppy update. i'm not even going to put those pictures where they go. blogspot is more work.

35 weeks...just a few more to go. hoping for a tad early like the other boys. still debating on our thanksgiving plans...i will see the dr the day before and we probably won't decide until then! i just don't want to be in labor in the van. and if that means we eat at dixie cafe here on our own, i'm cool with that.

rex is getting excited and every few days asks if "leo has come out yet?" i tell him he will KNOW for sure when that happens. he tells me a lot that he will "babysit all the babies" when he gets here...

my dearest sister, sister-in-law and friends threw me a "sprinkling" today...though it was very generous to get a wimpy name like that! we are set.

kev took a trip to russellville today and i put all the new diapers, clothes, etc away. love it.

halloween costumes

2009-10-31T11:36:00.001-07:00

alrighty jan and leo...consider yourselves caught up if you see this and the 2 previous posts!:-)

lil super krouts.

fally pics

2009-10-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

i add this first picture so you appreciate the effort of getting them to look in the same general direction...in the same picture;-)

can't forget one with leo....

Leo's room

2009-10-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

i have a few finishing touches like finishing a canvas, and hanging the letters...but this is basically done. i'm in love with it. i love each nursery more than the previous one!!

i prayed and prayed about me wanting another baby...and asked kev if he would pray to. and what do you know you we got one. one night kev was flipping through the bible and ran across the verse

"for this child i have prayed, and the Lord has given me what i asked of Him..."

1 Samuel 1:27

he said we should put it up in the baby's room---so i'm painting a canvas now with that verse. it only occured to us later, after naming him, that the verse was in reference to SAMUEL...conveniently leo's middle name:-) making me love the idea that much more.

catch up

2009-10-27T04:42:00.000-07:00

i have been horrible at updating this!
gus is TWO. sob! my sweet baby. he says/does the most hysterical things.

everything he does is prefaced by, "daddy, WATCH". he does not consistently call me 'mama'. it's usually daddy...and lately kelly...??? but occasionally i get mama. i should stop answering to every random name he uses...but i can't resist that fat face.

a few cuteness words he says before i forget...

moses[sandy's dog]="motion"

sajo= "jojo"
granny and grandaddy both = "grannin"

all done = "ah nun"

blanket is still "Bacon" and will be forever as far as i'm concerned...

everything you ask him that he wants to do is followed with major excitement and repeating the word. "gus, you want to read a book?" "YESH!!! ah BOOOOOK!" "you want some milk?" "YESH!!! AH MUK!!!" you get the idea...

the room sharing is still going well. they goof and talk for a while before bed, and while kev finds that kind of annoying...i find it very adorable that they love each other that much. and if they stay in their room and there's no crying a whining...i know better than to complain about that!

the other day in walmart kev was pushing gus in the cart and i was holding rex's hand. we were moving on to another section while kev looked at something and gus just yelled, "REEEEEEX!!! REEEEEEEEEEX!!!" like, how could you leave me?? and rex looked back reassuringly and said, "gus, gus it's okaaaaaaaaay....i'm just going with mommy b/c i love her!"

33 weeks this week. only a handful more...

we will finish leo's room for real in the next few days and i'll post pictures.

"that's big boy stuff right there"

2009-10-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

that's one of my more country parenting lines, and i use it a lot...when rex does something particularly "big boy". now he'll say it about himself when he does something cool. this whole post is "big boy stuff"

this past weekend kevin and rex, along with his dad, brother, and nephew went camping. rex had never been. i thought they made really cute campers. they had a lot of fun, despite it being VERY chilly!

when they got back, the little boys headed to granny's house to spend the night so kev and i could switch the rooms up. so gus is now in the big boy room...and leo's room is almost finished. i will post pics when we're done with it. this is about as done as the boys' room will get...though i want to paint some monster canvases and redo their letters. so far the transition has gone VERY smoothly. rex couldn't be more excited to have gus in there. we made a big deal about how cool we thought it was that he didn't mind to share his room, and he looked at us like we were nuts...almost like he never knew it was "his" in the first place...and sharing was better anyway. he can be a major goob sometimes, but we could not ask for him to be a better big brother. i can't wait to see him with leo since he'll "get it" much more this time.

it's not even that cramped in there with both the beds. i'm pretty happy with it.

the other night kev was going to get home late and i was trying to keep the boys busy while i was cooking. i really needed some help with the laundry anyway. sometimes i give rex some tongs to get the laundry out and have him put it in the dryer. this time we added gus to the assembly line and they were quite productive! everytime gus would throw it in and make it he'd yell, "i dih it!!"

just a cute one of a tired daddy doing bedtime stories...

that's all for now!

2009-10-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

so i'm not so hot at updating this. i really like xanga better. hmmm....

the other day we went to visit kev at work and eat donuts. too bad that place is so crazy and he didn't actually get to eat them with us. but we're thankful he has a job...so i'm not going to complain about that one. not on here anyway;-)

gus looks weird there.

here's the 4 grandbabies on my side. gus and lydia are a year apart and gus is rapidly catching her in size. i give it 2 more months before he's bigger for sure. whatta hoss.

these are some random old school hand-me-down pj's that i completely adore for some reason. makes him seem babyish to put him in a sleeper again! i love chilly nights. ah....

i am now THIRTY WEEKS!!! i need a fresh belly picture.
if leo is as cool as gus and comes 2 weeks early then we're looking at 8 weeks left! but even 10 doesn't seem long....honestly going to the due date would be easier for me as far as school goes for rex, b/c i'm not sure how fun it will be to take and pick him up with a wild 2 year old and carrying a bucket seat. it is frowned upon to leave kids in the car;-)

but i'm scared to have a baby "on time" for fear he'd be so much bigger than the others...b/c they just gain chub that last bit. hoping for another teeny one under 7 pounds! pretty please Jesus. he will be huge the rest of his life...just let him be tiny in december....

gus is eating play-dough. better go.

big time boo boo and garage sale jackpots

2009-09-26T11:40:00.001-07:00

SO wednesday, while kev is driving home for lunch the preK center calls him and says that rex had taken a major spill and cut up his face pretty badly. they said he didn't need stitches, but they were worried about a concussion and thought we should go get him. ACK! we get him home looking like this.

he was seriously out of it for an hour or two. he was apparently running on the sidewalk and tripped, landing face first obviously, then another boy fell on TOP of him. double whammy.

the next morning his left eye was seriously swollen. he looked horrible!

but by the time i got him from school he looked[and felt] a ton better.

this football jersey cheer up gift from granny didn't hurt;-)

really bizare that this was the 2nd face injury, nearly mirroring this one from last summer.

he looks so babyish here!

now his scars will even up;-)

so onto garage sailing. our favorite. today was the mother of all nice neighborhood garage sales.

one of the boys' favorite books as babies was goodnight moon. i read it as a kid. just a classic, but we've destroyed our copy. got a nearly brand new one for $0.25. it's at least $6 at target. now leo can enjoy it too.

i got the boys this mcqueen tv/dvd player for FREE. granted, it's broken. but we have an electrician friend who i'm hoping can fix it up for us, and will make a great christmas gift for the kids. i've been wanting a little tv for the back of the house to throw a movie on for the boys if we have friends over or something.

i got kevin this cell phone clip for $.50. they are about $10. he uses them to hold his pump in, and they are constently breaking. so it's nice to have a backup on hand.

rex had his own money this morning, and picked out this mask for some change;-)

he wore it to the rest of the sales;-)

and now. for the mother of all deals.

i'm putting gus in rex's room in his crib soon...but in about a year i wanted to get some bunk beds for the boys. well yesterday we ran across this bed at a friend's sale. it looks more like the brown one, but is the blue color. it has BIG storage drawers underneath.

it's a pottery barn bed---brand new about $1400. nice stuff. she had it marked $225, but said she'd give it to me for $125. but we walked away...so not what we needed that day! but it drove me nuts all day. so we decided to offer her $100 IF it didn't sell the next day. well she took it:-) we're going to set up the twin for rex, but leave the double part in the attic....then about this time next year buy a mattress and bunk it up. it's like my dream bunk bed!! they will love it.

and don't tell kevin, but i think we could easily fit rex, gus and leo in that bed making room for more babies around here. haha

speaking of babies. this tummy is getting big. we are in the 3rd trimester now!!

i wanted a pic with all 3 of my boys in it:-)

gus hanging out in his spot.

and giving "ollo" a kiss:-)

this post has taken me an eternity--off to do something useful!! good bye!

2009-09-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

alrighty, let me try again. blogger, this is your last chance.

today is the 16th, making us officially THREE months from the due date. if this little brother follows suit and shows up a tad early, even less! my birthday is the 10th. so maybe a baby boy for my bday would be nice. :-)

update on the boys: rex ADORES preK. the other day when i asked him how his day was, he said, "mommy, it was just great. i really love it!" he's apparently the only kid that naps. but his teachers still seem to like him, so i'm happy. i know from experience it's EASY not to like the non-napper sometimes...

gus is hitting the 2's a month early, but is still pretty stinking funny anyway. the other night he had a hard time going to sleep[short nap at MDO=rough bedtime sometimes] and i went in his room to calm him down. in the past when i've done this, if i LEAVE before he's asleep he'll spaz...so i was bending over the crib rubbing his fat lil face. it was sweet. seemed to last forever, but this only happens once in a blue moon. just as i thought my back might break, he looks up at me and sweetly, but clear as day says, "go away". HA!!! like, "i just needed a little help chilling out, but if you'd get out of here i could go to sleep. didn't you WANT me to go sleep on my own?"

a very successful photo shoot with the boys at picture people. see previous paragraph on gus hitting the 2's....

2009-09-14T13:08:00.001-07:00

sam told me he couldn't see his comment on my last post...i never saw any comments at all. if you see this could you comment? i changed some settings...i don't really get 'blogger' apparently....

goofy kid

2009-09-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

i love this kid. he is hilarious.

i think i appreciate him even more now that he's gone at preK a lot of the time.

yesterday it worked out easier for him to come to the dr. with me for my checkup. it was the glucose test day, so i had to get blood drawn. i was telling him on the way what would happen, so he wouldn't get freaked out or something[he's protective of his mommy:-)]. he said, "mommy, i will hold your hand when they get your blood so you won't be scared":-)

i have to do a lab each visit...and of course i took him to the bathroom with me, hoping he wouldn't notice. no luck...."mommy, did you just PEE in that CUP!? ohmygosh, you are NOT gonna drink that!!! oh mommy! do not knock that over!! grooooosssssss....i gotta go potty too but i will NOT pee in a cup!" i was cracking up in there.

we get to the exam room and he entertains me with songs and stories from school. [this is usually the most boring part. no people to watch. at least in the lobby i can be on duggar watch.]

the dr gets there and he holds my hand while he checks leo's heartbeat[just in case that's the "blood part"]....i don't even remember what he said to the dr, but he was a total ham in there too. he does a great impression of the baby's heartbeat.

then we go to the lab. he can't actually go in, so he stands at the door and asks why they put me in a "high chair", b/c there is a rail in front of it for them to lay out the vials and stuff. then when he sees the needle gets this cute nervousy face and says, "oh mommy, just don't get nervous!"

i really should take him along more often. he's a fun guy.

what a day

2009-09-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

we have sort of started a tradition of "garage sailing" most saturdays. we both love it, and the kids get a kick out of it. well today was no different, and we left the house with ten buckaroos. ;-)

dave style.

at our 2nd stop a lady was selling a power wheels 4 wheeler for $5. FIVE DOLLARS. these things are $220 toys. i gave her $4.75...i felt bad to haggle too much at that price!

now we've yet to get it charged up quite enough, but we figure even if it doesn't work, we can buy a new battery pack online for about $15.

we took the rest of our ten spot to krispee kreme. could a 4 year old ask for much more in a day? fun to do great stuff for them now and then!

i'm a little disappointed that clearly i already have quite the preggo fat face. but that's ok. babies are worth it. in my defense, i had on no make up...though i'm not sure it's really slimming.

1st day of preK

2009-08-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

the much awaited day! rex has been so excited.
we went to an open house last night, and i got a picture of him and his teacher.

he was really excited this morning.

they eat breakfast in the room as soon as they get there, and rex was VERY stoked to see pop tarts on the table:-) i'm betting that was a 1st day treat.

no drama at all when i left, he was too excited. all smiles and waves. made it easier on me!;-)

when i went to pick him up, i looked in the window on the side of the class. he was talking on a pretend phone. when he saw me, he was so excited he dropped the phone and started to run over...then clearly said, "oh!" went back, picked the phone back up and said something like, "i'll call you back later, my mommy is here"

HA!!!

he said he liked it. the teacher and asst. apparently did a skit about sharing a book. they also have bikes outside, but apparently he "didn't keep his hands to himself" so he didn't get to ride at the 2nd recess. ha.

we'll talk about that;-)

he also said there are "magic water faucets" in the bathroom that come on all by themselves.

i asked if he wanted to go back tomorrow and he said, "oh yeah yeah, that will be great!!"

catching up

2009-08-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

in effort to maintain a blog better i'm posting 2 days in a row!

i am 24 weeks tomorrow. if i'm as lucky as i was with the other 2, and get leo 2 weeks early, then that makes us 14 weeks out from being a family of 5! that doesn't sound long to me. kev and i were flipping through the boys' baby books last night and all those newbie pictures got me excited. i. adore. newborns.

ugh! can't wait. they are delicious. poor kev. i will probably want 5 more.

i should stop eating like a cow so leo has a chance at not being a total chub.

i was explaining to rex the other day that when leo is big and strong enough he will come out and we'll have another baby at our house. he said, "yeah, and i bet his hand is going to come out of your belly button!" <--probably. then i told him again about gus moving in his room...and he said, "and we can move leo's crib in there too and i will be in the middle and we will all be togedder."
:-)

just a catch up on some favorite pictures of the boys from the last couple weeks.

sandy bought rex those awesome jeans he wore in the fashion show as a back-to-school gift:-) love you sajo!

those are gran's glasses...he borrowed them and was doing EVERYthing that kevin did. it was really cute to watch.

my sister brought that jersey over for gus, and rex wanted to wear it. funny thing is, it's about that tight on gus too.

new blog

2009-08-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

well all of our friends are just now creating blogs...and being burnt out on my old one[www.xanga.com/stillchubhottie], i thought i'd try to renew the passion with a fresh new blog.

kelly and the krout boys makes more sense than stillchubhottie anyway:-)

it will take me a bit to figure this one out i'm sure...but i'll try to be a better updater.

the other night at the gap we had a new denim "launch party" rex and the other krout kids got to be models in the fashion show. they looked SO cute if i say so myself.

i ordered Leo's bedding today, thanks to his gran and granny...i can't wait to get started on his room[once i kick gus out of it that is].

rex starts preK this wednesday. he is super excited. i will update later with some first day of school pictures!!! i am a little sad about it, but also excited about getting some one on one time with gus before leo gets here...and rex is really pumped. i know he will have a blast.