Paging the tooth fairy...

Meredith has had a loose front tooth for a LONG time. Last Thursday night she ate supper and it got really loose.

As in, hanging by a thread (gross, I know. It almost hurt me just to look at it! So why not just post a picture on the blog so you can all cringe too?!?)


Anyway, she wouldn't let me touch it, but I knew it was just a matter of time.


And finally on Friday morning she wiggled and pulled it, and it came out in her hand. She was so excited...can you tell?

Dress up

Purple hair band? Check.

Pink fluffy princess slipper? Check.


Pink princess ballet slipper? Check.



Pink, glittery visor? Check.

Ready to go!



Someone needs to get this kid his own dress-up things!

Nap Time

The other day Meredith hadn't gotten dressed for the day yet, and already she decided it was time to take a nap.

So she made herself a bed in the middle of the living room floor.


Complete with a picture of her and Jesse, her favorite stuffed animal of the day, a box of Kleenex...


and an 8x10 school picture of herself.


Too bad I forgot to get a picture of Jesse's bed that he made right beside hers.

Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere

Wednesday night Taylor was over for supper and I sent her, Meredith and Jesse out to the garden to pick lettuce for salads. Apparently while they were out there Meredith went missing.


Where was she? In my mom's garden picking flowers.

And flowers.

And more flowers.

(Yes, there are 10 little "vases" with flowers in them!)


When they came inside, Meredith got all these little glasses out of my china cabinet and separated and arranged all the flowers in the glasses. All by herself. I didn't even have to tell her which ones she could use.

Mom, I figured you wouldn't mind. Considering you won't be in your garden again until September!

What we have been up to.

Well, a lot of time has been spent outside lately.



We've taken many wagon rides to and from the garden. Which is coming along quite nicely, I think! This row of lettuce and spinach has at least doubled in size from when I took the picture.
Last year was the first year that I was in charge of the garden instead of my mom. And I learned a lot. This year I'm doing better at knowing what to plant, what is a plant and what is a weed, and knowing that it's sooo much easier to keep weeds at bay if you just deal with them when they are tiny.

Meredith found baby kittens in the garden shed and had a day or two to play with them...before the mother cat moved them to a safer place. Meredith has been searching and searching for them at my parents house, but to no avail.


She was so thrilled with the 6 baby kittens (can you tell from the picture??) They were old enough that their eyes were open and she could hold them, but they were young enough to not yet be scared of humans.

More to come on what we've been up to...

from the sickie...

I've been sick since last Friday. And apart from this past year, I don't usually get sick. And when I do, it's just a day or two until I'm back on top of things.

But not this time. I have been sick since last Friday, and I just keep thinking that I have to get better soon.

I hadn't gone to the doctor because it takes 35-40 minutes to get to the doctor's office, and I would still have to take Jesse. In short, it's just a hassle to go. Especially if it's just for me (and not for my kids) and if all they will tell me is that I have a virus and I just need to take it easy and drink lots of fluids. I mean really, why do I need to go to all the trouble just to hear that?

Well, as it turns out, there is a reason that you go to the doctor!

So I have strep throat. And sinus infection.

Oh yeah, and my 2 main support systems (Kent and my parents) are both gone now.

Lest you think this is all just a sob story about poor me, I am well aware that it could be much worse, and that even though I'm sick and solely resposible for 2 young kids, there are many things to be happy about.

Like the fact that neither Meredith nor Jesse have shown signs of strep. Yet. The doctor looked at Jesse's throat, and it looked perfectly normal. But now I know to keep on the lookout and we'll be at the doctor as soon as I see anything.

Also, thank goodness that it's just strep and sinus infection. Both of which can be cleared up relatively easy with medication.

And I can't wait until the day when I can swallow without wincing...it's been awhile since that has happened!

And Kent will becoming home on Sunday. Yippee!

And my parents are not yet on their 3 month vacation, so they will be home from Sweden on Tuesday. (If you want to see what they are up to, go to their blog.) Yippee!

And finally, one of the best things is that now I know why I have been so tired and feeling so crummy. (Had Kent been home, I think I would have gone to bed at 7 every night.)

If I didn't know better, I would have thought that I was pregnant.

WHICH I'M NOT!!!

(Let's just squash that rumor before it even gets started...)

And now I have license to sit on the couch and watch tv all weekend long. Right?!?

Pretzel-mania

Kent is currently in Cincinnati for the week. He left yesterday and will return on Sunday.

Last weekend I read about Pioneer Woman making awesome looking pretzels. (Go here to read about it!) And Meredith and I decided that when Kent left for Ohio, we would make yummy pretzels to cheer us up.

Yesterday after school we started the recipe, and although both kids were totally distracted by other things by the time the pretzels were actually done, they both totally loved them.


We got the actual recipe on Smitten Kitchen (find it here.)

Yes, I made T, J, and M pretzels. The M worked the best - by far. Both the T and the J ones kind of came apart.


I made some with coarse salt on the top as the recipe indicates. But then I made some with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top. And to kick it up a notch, I also made cream cheese frosting to dip the cinnamon/sugar ones in. You know, because a sweet pretzel isn't fattening enough by itself!


The cinnamon/sugar ones were our favorite. Meredith even had one for breakfast this morning.

Ok. Ok. So did I!

Kent, rest assured that this recipe will not be lost forever. We will make them when you are back home!

nighty-night

I thought Jesse had a good nap yesterday.

I really did.

But when Meredith got home from school, he was ready to take another nap.


On the stairs! (Of course along with his baby.)


Meredith was so sweet - she was totally mothering him! She said prayers with him, read him a book, and sang the ballgame song with him. (Yes, he requests Take Me Out To The Ballgame before every nap and before he goes to bed.)


And then it looked so fun, that Meredith decided to join him on the stairs!

Was it you?

So tell me - how does my house get to be such a wreck in just a few short days?

Our week was off because we were still in Chicago on Monday, and that has totally thrown off my cleaning and laundry schedule. (Wow, am I really that predictable and schedule-driven that one day throws off the whole week?? How sad!!)

So I'm wondering who it was that came into our house and made it such a mess.

Was it you?

Was it the mess-making fairies?


Because I know it wasn't me or my kids. And to be Supportive Wife, I probably shouldn't blame Kent.

So do I get right to work cleaning up? Do I put aside all other things until I get everything back in order?

Oh no.

I blog about it.

Gotta love creative prcrastination tactics!

(If you ever want a good dose of humility, send me your dirty house pictures to be posted for anyone to see...)

I haven't forgotten...

So it's been forever since I last posted.

Have you noticed?

If you haven't, then I'll stop feeling guilty that I haven't taken the time to do anything online. If you have noticed, why not leave a comment and let me know...

...is anyone even out there?

We were busy all weekend in Chicago celebrating my father-in-law Jim's 65th birthday (Jim, I hope you don't mind that I just gave away your age!) We had a really great time, but of course I didn't bring my camera out of it's bag one time. So I don't have pictures. But I am trying to get them. Because I know there are some really good ones of the kids with their faces painted and good ones of them playing in the waterpark in the hotel where we stayed. I'm sure there are plenty of not-so-good pictures with me in them...but I certainly won't be posting any of them here!

Now we're trying to get into the swing of spring. Mainly planting grass and my garden. Neither of which is done yet, both of which I hope to get a good start on before it rains this weekend.

Anyway. We don't have a computer at home for the time being (stupid spyware and stupid viruses) so until my parents leave on vacation next week (and I can confiscate their laptop), I'm forced to go elsewhere to blog. And check my email. And keep up on the blogs that I read. And everything else that I do online. On Wednesday I was trying to find a gluten-free coconut cream pie recipe to make for my dad for his birthday. And I was forced to look at my actual cookbooks. Oh the horror!

Until next time...

the little things

It's the little things in life.

Like wearing your sister's princess helmet.

do you have days like this?

Do you have days when you just let loose and dance with wild abandon with your kids?

(So the picture doesn't really show dancing with wild abandon...Kent made me delete those pictures, but trust me...all four of us were groovin' to the music!)

Yeah, we like days like that.

They make me smile.

P.S. I know the picture of Meredith is horribly blurry. But even so, I love how she is just so into dancing!

i had no idea

Who knew that you would have to tell someone

to put the Wii remote down when using the restroom?

I certainly wouldn't have guessed that I would have to tell someone

to not put a hair that he picked off his shirt into his mouth.

Or that he needs to take the sweatshirt off from on top of his head

before he walks around the house.

Seriously.

The things I have to teach my kids!

Buh-Bye

Lately Jesse pretends that he is leaving for work or school or something, and he will tell you bye, give you a kiss, and leave the room. Last night, however, he totally added to the cuteness factor of this new pretend play. He was carrying this baby (much to the disappointment of Kent...) and he made the baby wave bye-bye to everyone. Just like you see in the pictures. Except that every so often he would wave the baby's foot bye-bye instead of the baby's hand.

Totally cracked us up!


I guess maybe you just had to be there...

Snack?

Jesse, do you want a snack?

"Snack." (Or rather, "nack")

What do you want for a snack?

"Nack."

What would you like to eat?

"Nack."

Should we go get a snack?

"Nack."

OK, how 'bout pretzels?

"Nooooooo."

What about some popcorn?

"Noooooooo."

Ummmmmmmm. Dry frosted mini-wheats?

"Uh-huh!" (His way of saying yes!)
You'll notice that Meredith is wearing a Hannah Montana shirt. Some mornings it is a real struggle to get Meredith out of bed, dressed and fed by 7:15 in time for the school bus. (I don't know where she gets that because of course I was always up in plenty of time to catch the school bus!) At times, Meredith can be in quite a bad mood when we get her up. Last week one morning she was in a really bad mood and was refusing to get out of bed or get dressed. After trying all that I could think of to coax her out of bed, I had finally had it. So I punished her. What sort of punishment, you ask? I took away all 3 of her Hannah Montana shirts for a whole week. And let me tell you, this truly was a hardship for Mer. She tries to wear one of the shirts every day - and would wear the same shirt the whole week if I let her. So on Wednesday she was finally able to wear her beloved Hannah Montana shirt again.

And all was right with the world!

What's to come

My kids are young enough that they're not really involved in too much outside of home and school.

But I think this afternoon I'll get a taste of what is to come in a few years. And I think I'll get to know the inside of my van while I'm at it!

Here's how it will go:

4:00: I get home from work, and Meredith, her friend Suzanna, and my niece Lauren will all ride the bus together and get home from school

4:30: I go to IMS to meet up with Kent to get Jesse and take him home (after he's been at the sitters all day)

4:50: Take Lauren to violin lessons (just a few miles from our house)

5:20: Pick up Lauren from violin lessons

5:45: Take Meredith, Jesse, Suzanna, and Lauren to Kalona to drop Lauren off at her house and drop Suzanna off at the middle school where her brother has a basketball game

Then it's time to go home and eat supper. Maybe I can convince everyone to keep their coats, hats, and mittens on from 4 until 6. (We know it won't be a problem for Jesse!) That way we only have to deal with boots and buckling the booster and car seat every time we go out. Hmmmm, it's something to think about!

It makes me realize that I really need to savor this time with my kids when life isn't hectic like this every day.

What's with the coat and hat?

Jesse loves his winter coat.

And his hat.

Sometimes I seriously can't get him to take them off. at. all.

The record is him wearing his coat and hat for 2 hours after returning home one afternoon.

2 hours!

So thank you Jace, for sharing your hand-me-down coat and hat with Jesse.

He's in love with them!

Speaking of Jace, here's the cutie with his great outfit from this past Saturday: sweatshirt on top of tank top, on top of long sleeved shirt with shorts on top of pants. And to top everything off, a sideways Superman hat!

Since him and Kent were playing Mario Kart together, Kent felt the need to copy part of the outfit.**


Speaking of Mario Kart, I think maybe the game should be banned from our house. Because we love it waaaaay too much (and consequently play it waaaay too much!)

The makers of the Wii knew what they were doing when they locked different things in Mario Kart. Because it just makes you want to keep playing and keep winning so you can unlock yet another kart. Or another bike. Or another player.

**Update: Kent is not very happy with me for posting these pictures of him. So if you like the pictures and think they need to stay, then leave a comment and let us know!