These Are Days

2011-12-30T01:37:00.002-06:00

December slipped through my fingers even faster than usual this year, but that is no excuse to leave the merriment undocumented or deprive my firstborn of a mushy birthday post. Bear with me as I drag out the holiday cheer a little longer... Love you all!!

December

2011-12-07T11:40:00.000-06:00

We kicked off December with a very festive bang when the boys and I went to my parents house while Matt and his friends terrorized the local deer and bobcats. Tessa, Kirk, Emily, and Dan joined us for a weekend of:

:: decorating ::

:: sewing ::

:: crafting ::

:: puzzling (?) ::

:: and sledding ::

Also cooking, eating, singing, church-going, birthday-celebrating, loving.

Four

2011-11-15T18:28:00.003-06:00

My baby is four.
This baby:

Oh, have I used this picture here before? It is my most favorite photo ever in the whole entire world. This morning we sat on the couch and looked at these photos and talked about how delighted we all were when he was born. I thought telling his birth story would be nice, but then I remembered what an awful story it is. Worth it, I know. But not really what I want my boys to reference for the miracle of childbirth.

He wanted a 'birfday party wif friends' this time. He is FOUR, after all. A John Deere party, he decided, but then later changed it to 'corn party.' Little farmer boy. So we used green and yellow decorations and filled two tubs with corn for the kids to scoop, drive through, and dance in. By the end I was thinking we'd be living in a 'corn house' for the rest of our days but it actually cleaned up pretty easily. The whole thing was wild and wonderful, and I love my friends so much, and my family so much, and I can't believe it has been four years since our littlest boy was born and our little family made complete.

I love you, Evan. You are determined and stubborn and exuberant and brilliant and helpful and fearless. I still love sleeping next to your warm little body on those nights we're all just too tired to get you boys all the way upstairs. Your little self conforms against mine just the way you did all those months you were growing inside me and all those months (years) after when you could only be soothed by the warmth of your mama. Yesterday I was helping you with something and teased "Sometimes you just need your mama." "And sometimes I don't" you answered matter-of-factly. No you won't, darling boy, but I will be here when you do.

Halloween

2011-11-02T13:46:00.003-05:00

One year Halloween was so snowy then-Mayor-of-Lincoln Mike Johanns canceled trick or treating. It was an outrage. Many, many years we had to wear so many layers around our costumes that the end result was much different than the original idea. This year my children enjoyed playing in the park and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows with the warm autumn sun shining down.

I love global warming.

And we love our friends.

And we love trick or treating. The kids were so gleeful and excited as they dashed from house to house. All the high fructose corn syrup and artificial coloring they consumed was totally worth it.

Correction

2011-10-24T20:51:00.003-05:00

I should have known that Tessa would have pictures of my baby watersking. She and our cousin Dan came to the Burwell Rodeo in July so we got to have some more fun at the lake.

Ta da!

Too fun.

Different, but not really

2011-10-23T10:46:00.001-05:00

So these pictures might look just like the ones up yesterday, but they're not.

The sandy beaches and clear blue water here are at the river we tubed down with Matt's family over the 4th of July weekend.

It was great.

And if I had a thousand million pictures of that grin in the water, I would post each and every one.

Sunshine and Summertime

2011-10-22T18:38:00.001-05:00

We made it out to the lake several times this summer, although of course it never seemed like enough. This was our Best Summer Ever because the boys were big enough to really enjoy it too.

It's great to have someone else to drive while the adults ski.

Ha ha. We would never allow our young children to drive the boat.

Only the 4-wheelers.

And it wouldn't really be Fun without Tessa...
And none of it would be possible without this guy...

...with whom I have been boating for many, many summers and they just keep getting more fun.

And this, my eldest, responsible child, my worrier, went on the tube by himself and loved it. He carefully practiced all the hand signals first, of course. And even more amazing, he skied by himself. There is no photographic proof because I had to stay in the water after helping him get situated, and watch him ski away from me across the vast lake.
A more profound mother would have more to say about that...
He was so proud of himself and so strong, holding onto the rope and standing up. We really couldn't believe our eyes. Evan got up too, scowling the whole time because he didn't like the water on his face. Classic Evan.

Watching these boys accomplish new and exciting things never ceases to amaze me. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were enthralled with our newborns opening their eyes. I can't even imagine all the things they will amaze me with in these coming years.

Sioux Falls

2011-10-18T20:11:00.002-05:00

Remember that wedding we went to back in August? What's that you say, it's still the top of the blog? Oh, well, good, then you're all ready for part 2...

The whole weekend was fun, except for the grueling hours weaving around the orange construction cones and trying to avoid the flooded highways. If Tessa hadn't been with us the boys and I would still be sitting on the side of the road somewhere sobbing. Upon arrival, though, we were rewarded with the sight of our extended family and a fabulous dinner.

Favorite date(s)! (Right?)
Saturday before all the festivities we went to the zoo.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my sister? I really, really, really love my sister.

All Dressed Up

2011-08-16T07:38:00.004-05:00

My cousin JD married Bailie this past weekend in Sioux Falls, SD. The bride was beautiful, the wedding was lovely... but in my completely unbiased opinion the ring bearers stole the show.

They were good sports about all the picture-taking and walked down the aisle like they did this everyday. I was so proud of them. It was wonderful to be with family we don't see often enough. We wish many blessings on JD and Bailie and thank you for including us in this celebration!

And how CUTE are those guys?!

Law and Order

2011-07-26T22:48:00.003-05:00

Has Ethan ever told you he wants to be a cop? Probably once or twice or a thousand times. If you've been to our house I'm sure he's tried to put you in handcuffs. So one day this summer I made all his dreams come true by taking him to Taylor to meet the Loup County Sheriff, Trevor.

The boys got to climb around in the car and play with all the gadgets. Well, not all the gadgets; sirens and handcuffs- yes, giant rifles in the back- no. Ethan was so overcome he could barely speak.

Evan, as always, not so much.

Thank a law enforcement officer today! Maybe you'll get to run the sirens.

Boys and Girls of Summer

2011-06-10T09:22:00.003-05:00

Ethan started T-ball. It's serious business.

Not.
But he made it around the bases.

And got a T-shirt.

And Evan got to perform death-defying stunts on the top of the bleachers.

So it's all been good.

Friends

2011-06-05T09:25:00.001-05:00

Two weekends ago my dear, dear friend Inga and her sweet little boys came to visit. Ethan and Evan had a great time with their friends and delighted in showing them all the fun that can be had country-style.

And the work, of course. (This is the closest we came to a group shot, by the way. What's the only thing busier than 2 little boys? Four little boys.)

We feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful visit. Yay for friends!

Bowling

2011-06-04T19:08:00.000-05:00

Evan measures time two ways. Yestooday, which refers to anytime between yesterday and months ago, and "when I was two and Ethan was foh," which refers to, you guessed it, last year when he was two and Ethan was four.

This is relevant because the following adventure took place last fall, when Evan was two and Ethan was foh. After spending an inordinate amount of time (and money) at Cabela's we went to the Big Apple Fun Center in Kearney for a little family fun.

Bowling!
Matt and Evan worked together.

But Ethan got it figured out.

I can't quite remember, since it was so long ago, but I have this nagging suspicion that he scored higher than I did. I'm sure I'm remembering wrong.

And because we are such GOOD PARENTS, we were still there when they turned on the blacklights for Cosmic Bowling.

I love Family Fun.

VBS

2011-06-03T11:44:00.000-05:00

We had Vacation Bible School in Sargent last week. I love that all the churches in town work together to put on a community VBS. Evan went with Ethan's class and they both had a great time. It culminated with a program at the community center Thursday evening. I had to leave early to go to work so Matt was in charge of gathering up all the crafts and getting the boys home. Programs aren't really my thing, he protested. Do they even want to go? (Yes)

Eve and Evan were serious.

Lissy was born for this.

Yes, Ethan's lei is over his head. But look at his hands! He's doing the actions! And he didn't fall over. Success all around. Even Matt survived.

The Circus

2011-06-02T09:39:00.002-05:00

(photo blatantly lifted from my generous friend Elaine @ The Family Zuh)

On Tuesday morning I was folding laundry, vacuuming, and doing all sorts of other exciting things when the phone rang.
Laura: Elaine called, let's go to the circus this afternoon.
Me: Oh gosh, I really should stay home to finish folding laundry and vacuuming.
Psych!

So the circus was adorable. It was on a slightly smaller scale than the ones my grandpa and grandma took us too at Pershing every year, but the kids had a blast. There were lions and tigers and an elephant, oh my! Motorcyclists in the Globe of Death, which happily was a misnomer, and acrobats, clowns, and a dog-in-bandannas act. One guy balanced seven chairs on top of each other then did a handstand at the top. My poor nervous Ethan had to cover his eyes and said, "I don't want to be a circus worker when I grow up."

At the end the ring master (who I keep calling ringleader, Hardy Boys much?) tried to inspire the audience by telling us to 'live every day as though it's a circus'. Way ahead of you lady, my friends and I said to each other. Every day with these children is a circus, although I guess most days my home more closely resembles a zoo.

Carnival

2011-06-01T12:03:00.003-05:00

Tessa, Sarah, Dan, and Nick came to see us this weekend. We love to see them, and of course got lots of work out of all of them.

Tessa & Sarah took the boys to the carnival in Ord on Saturday.
How cute are they?

And who knew the rides would be such fun for all ages?

Working

2011-04-27T13:10:00.002-05:00

I took this picture last fall.
We were building a hay pen. After cutting cedar trees for the posts, placing them in the ground, and filling in the holes, Matt lopped the tops off and sent the boys around to pick them up. Ethan was enthusiastic. Evan got a few, then wanted to go play. Matt told him to keep working. He threw a fit. Matt wasn't impressed. So there went our then-2-year-old carrying logs, tears streaming down his face. Good thing no one's around to call CPS on us, we remarked.

They're getting so big, so fast. The days seem to be slipping past us. I haven't taken any pictures lately- I can never find the camera, or my hands are full with a child or a calf or a rake. What if I look back on these weeks and can't remember why? We are floating along on a rhythm of chores and playing with friends, of reading piles of books on the couch and helping Matt. We have 3 baby calves hell-bent on destroying my internal organs or breaking my bones. The boys love them, though. (The calves, not my bones & organs.) We are glad for the occasional sunshine and the more-than-occasional mud.

We are fine. My heart is full. I don't know why the words won't come. Or the photos. I want to remember these days.

Happy Birthday Nancy!

2011-04-03T01:34:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday Nancy! We all love you so much!

Spring is... what now?

2011-03-28T13:53:00.002-05:00

Cold and snowy out there.. but I guess a few more days of snowball fights, puppet shows, and hot cocoa won't hurt us. Because at least it sounds like spring in here.

D is for Day

2011-03-17T19:27:00.007-05:00

This past week we talked about the calendar, days, weeks, months, and seasons. The kind of stuff we talk about a lot, but had never sat down to find out if they actually know the days of the week in the right order, etc. Well, Ethan does. Evan uses the names randomly and interchangeably, and still refers to anything that happened in the past, ever, as "yestooday". But it's not like I'm teaching to the test here, folks.

We read books:

We were also going to read Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak, but the week before we ate chicken and rice for dinner, so we read it then (which Matt thought was a really normal thing to do at the dinner table!) and now we can't find it.

We sang to the tune of Oh My Darlin' Clementine:

There are seven days, there are seven days, there are seven days in a week

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

(And now it's stuck in my head again. You?)

We memorized This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it Psalm 118:24. Both boys can do this, and still recite the ones we've learned previously. It amazes me.

It has been so hard to get pictures of them lately. Here is what we did for Seasons:That's funny, I don't remember drawing the Spring tree upside down.

We made birthday cards for Tessa. I love how they concentrate.

After we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, they cut out pictures of things they like to eat. I had planned to do this during Community week(s) but... didn't.

If it seems like all we do is cut and glue, that's because it is. There are bits of paper everywhere, dried glue on every table, and yesterday when we had friends over we had to keep taking scissors out of the hands of the 1 and 2 year olds.

It's their favorite.

And even better in underwear.

Happy Birthday Tessa!

2011-03-11T09:12:00.002-06:00

Tessa has taken care of us when we were sick, helped with all kinds of disgusting ranch chores, and tended these boys since they were tiny fetuses (fetusi?). She is the best sister and aunt anyone could ask for. Happy birthday, Tess! We love you!

C is for Community

2011-03-08T12:42:00.000-06:00

The books: The Bible verse: Love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:39

The fun stuff:

We talked about jobs people have in a community, what makes a community, and the differences between towns and living in the country. We spread masking tape out on the floor to mark streets, then wrote 'hospital' 'police station' etc on paper and put together quite a town. The boys played with this for hours. It held up for most of the week, then we built another one upstairs in the play room. They still love it. I love when they play without me. Win-win.

Funny business

2011-03-01T14:51:00.003-06:00

Evan: Knock knock
Jenny: Who's there?
Evan: Ohnge!
Jenny: Orange who?
Evan: Banana! Hahahahaha

Ethan: Knock knock
Jenny: Who's there?
Ethan: Banana
Jenny: Banana who?
Ethan: Knock knock
Evan: ETHAN! YOU DON'T GET TWO TOOHNS!!
Jenny: Who's there?
Ethan: Banana
Jenny: Banana who?
Ethan: Knock knock
Evan: ETHAN! IT IS MY TOOHN! Wet's pay I PYE!
Ethan: Orange

B is for Bible

2011-02-09T10:12:00.000-06:00

Our second (and third, and, if I'm being completely honest, part of the fourth) week of homeschool we learned that B is for Bible. First we gathered all of their Bibles. Do you think we have enough?

And the other books about the stories we focused on.

Sidenote: There is a woman at our church who doesn't like to call them "Bible stories" because she doesn't want kids to think of them as fictional stories. She calls them "Bible truths," which seems a little redundant. I explained to the boys that history is what we learn about things that happened a long time ago, and the Bible is God's word and it teaches us about the first things that happened when God created the world. Then I continued to call them Bible stories. Thoughts?

I found the Creation book on the Junk Jaunt last summer. It is almost word for word from the Bible. We love it. We read it on Monday, along with each version of Creation from the various Bibles.

They memorized "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1" They had some trouble spitting out Genesis (Jonathan, Gennison) but they figured it out and earned a mini-marshmallow every time they said it. They've eaten a lot of mini-marshmallows these past few weeks.

For the craft, I cut out the sun, moon, and stars for them to glue. They also had some cotton balls to stretch out for clouds but Evan just glued them as they were and Ethan cut his with scissors before gluing. Whatever.

Another day (week, whatever) we read about Noah's Ark, sang about Noah's Ark, and played with their Little People Noah's Ark.

I love books illustrated by Peter Spier. They are amazing. But his Noah's Ark is a little depressing.

Beautiful, right? Not to the poor animals not chosen for the 2-by-2 line.And there are the poor animals getting wetter and wetter and..

Wahh. It seems to keep it a little too real for preschoolers but the boys didn't notice this time. Whew, death talk averted.

We tried to draw rainbows and make thumbprint animals but none of it really looked like anything. Oh well! No grades here!

For the Christmas lesson, I went down to the basement to find some things I had packed away recently. (Very recently. Embarrassingly recently.) We had a great craft, thanks to Laura and Emily providing us with mangers and Baby Jesus figures, and thanks to my slackerness (slackerocity?) for not getting the craft done at Christmastime.

The official way is to glue straw in the mangers but I thought we could stretch it out a little longer and incorporate their favorite thing to do these days by cutting paper for straw. It worked. Ethan carefully cut his into long stips, then small square pieces.

Evan didn't.

In the midst of playing, laughing, eating, and jumping around, we managed to talk about shapes, long/short, wide/narrow, count ing by 2's, animals, history; and practice fine motor skills and memorization. So far, so good.

A is for Alphabet

2011-02-07T15:02:00.001-06:00

Our first official "homeschool" week! We talked about the alphabet. I bought a new set of foam bathtub letters to look at but scrounged the rest of the materials from around the house- alphabet puzzles, cardboard cutout letters, etc. I also rounded up all the alphabet books we have and put them into a basket to read throughout the week.

Here are a few of them.

Evan really got into the Melissa and Doug word puzzle set and chose it almost every time Ethan sat down to write his name or do one of the other puzzles. They also sorted the letters into piles by color and counted them. Good times!
Sidenote: Ethan has been writing his name pretty well for awhile now. One night when Matt got home he asked Ethan what he had done today and had him write his name. Ethan wrote E h n a t, then ran off to do something else. "Wow, you're doing a great job, honey," Matt told me.

The boys talked about the capital and lowercase A and then stamped alphabet letters onto the paper. Well, it was supposed to be letters but they each got into a groove with a single letter and just kept stamping k or n. Whatevs.

Ethan also stamped the letters for Thank You onto, well, thank you cards and we got a few notes written. (Maybe we'll get them sent during a P is for Post Office unit. But don't hold your breath.)

On Tuesday we ran around doing errands so we brought magnetic letters and cookie sheets in the car. Ethan sounded out a lot of beginning letters at the grocery store and was in charge of the list. The rest of the week we did 'homeschool' activities anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour a day. I wouldn't say that Ethan really learned anything school-wise this week but it was a fun, relaxed start into a new journey for us all.

Great Literature

2011-01-30T04:07:00.006-06:00

On our most recent trip to the library, Ethan chose The Marshmallow Incident by Judi Barrett for the, I don't know, 84597th time. Gag me with a spoon. But then we made s'mores with shish kebob sticks over the stove top so it all worked out in the end. And discussed fire safety. (Dwop stop and woll.) And played tic-tac-marshmallow. And had sword fights with shish kebob sticks. And counted marshmallows. And discussed swordplay safety.

Evan made his own version, of course.

"Done any homeschooling lately?" Matt asked at dinner.
"Why, yes," I was able to reply. "We did a whole Unit Study on The Marshmallow Incident. Tomorrow you and the boys can build a catapult!"

No wonder he likes that darn book so much.

The Snowball Room

2011-01-26T16:55:00.002-06:00

While pushing snow with the Bobcat, Matt built a fort for the boys. Ethan calls it 'the snowball room.' Ah-dorable. It is fun for all ages, and most species.

Slide included.

A blank slate for dangerous stunts.

Who says winter isn't fun? Not these boys. (Maybe their mama.)

Happy Birthday Laura!

2011-01-14T18:35:00.002-06:00

Today is my Aunt Laura's birthday. She is a Super Aunt and we love her to pieces. My mom says that she "fills up my (Jen's) soul." Happy birthday! We love you!

Coming Out

2011-01-10T15:39:00.005-06:00

I want to homeschool my children. There, I said it. As a people-pleasing eldest child, it makes me a nervous wreck to come out and say that. How to educate your child can be one of those divisive topics right up there with breastfeeding, spanking, and cosleeping. It is not right for every family and every child, but I really believe it is the right choice for my children. Matt is not convinced but we are talking and praying and are going to 'practice' a little this season to see how it works for our family.

One of my main concerns about public school is all-day kindergarten and the intensive reading program that is thrust upon the kids. Ethan spends hours every day outside or running around inside making up elaborate games and scenarios with Evan. At times he will sit and color but it can't be scheduled for him. I can't imagine telling him to stop reading to his stuffed animals or playing Legos just because some arbitrary schedule has deemed it time to sit in a circle. Also, living out in the country means that he will spend some significant time on a bus, further cutting into the time to be an independent little boy. It would also mean a strict bedtime, which would really cut into the time he gets to spend with his dad.

Being able to choose a biblically-based curriculum greatly appeals to me. Being able to learn with my children and spend all those hours reading together, exploring together, playing together greatly appeals to me.

Am I freaked out about it? Yes. When I printed off the forms to file with the State Dept. of Education, my fingers went numb and I felt nauseous. What a tremendous responsibility! But God's grace is sufficient, in everything, and this is no exception. Every parenting milestone has been preceded by a journey filled with excitement, fear, and lots of messes. Homeschooling seems like much more fun than potty training, and much easier than teaching a child to stop biting!

This is a good essay about the benefits of homeschooling and this, from my friend Kayla, is a good essay about how you don't have to homeschool to accomplish those goals. All of us just want to do what is right for our kids, and that is what makes all of us such good parents for our incredibly unique Children of God.

New Year's Eve 2010

2011-01-01T20:38:00.004-06:00

We were cozily snowed in on Friday and looked forward to a quiet evening together. The boys and I had looked at calendars together and talked a little about days, months, and the start of a new year so I brought paper and a marker to dinner and cheerfully asked everyone what they had enjoyed about the past year and what they wanted to do during the next year.

"Scooping snow with Evan!" Ethan said. Yes Buddy, you can definitely do more of that.
"Candy canes!" yelled Evan. Uhhhh....
"Well, I really liked-" I began.
"Can I have a candy cane?" Evan asked.
"No."
"When can I have a candy cane?"
"Next Christmas. I thought it was fun when-"
Evan jumped out of his chair. "When I see a bear, I'm goin' to jump up and SHOOT IT!"

Happy New Year, everyone. May your lives be filled with the people you love, things you love to do, and free of bears.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-30T13:01:00.000-06:00

Our Christmas Eve was perfect. I love everything about this celebration with my mom's side of the family, especially the church service and seeing row after row of people I love. Here are some of the boys' favorite moments.

Big Boy Cousins!!

Nick's new hunting knife was the Gift of the Year...

but there was plenty of other cool stuff, too...

Of course there were some Wild Times...

and luckily some Quiet Times...

And finally... to all a good night.

Advent

2010-12-22T13:48:00.004-06:00

This is my favorite week of the year. There is always beautiful music playing, almost always something delicious in the oven, and the kids are almost almost always happily occupied with something crafty. I don't know who decided we should prepare for the birth of God's Son with baked goods and paint, but I love it!

"What are you doing?" I heard Evan ask Ethan.
"Making presents for Baby Jesus"
"Oh. Can I make sumpfing?"
"Sure!"

The Nativity Scene on their bookshelf is surrounded by paper cut up, colored, and taped back together in every imaginable shape.

Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father says James 1:17.

I hope you are loving everything about this Advent, too; I hope that the anticipation of the birth of our Saviour fills your heart with joy today and tomorrow and every day of the coming year. In a few short days we will celebrate His birth, and then we can begin preparing for Him to again come to us with His everlasting grace.

Five

2010-12-09T17:12:00.005-06:00

So I have a 5 year old. Pretty crazy. He is all boy, no hints of baby anymore. Well, except for when he is playing 'baby' and Evan is the dad who fixes tractors. But that's kind of annoying. He doesn't look like a baby when he's asleep, he sprawls out all long arms and legs. (Long being a relative term, of course, of which I am reminded after spending the weekend with my extremely long-limbed 'little' cousins. Relative to me, he is quite long.) He doesn't look like a baby in jammies, or in the bathtub. He rarely runs naked anymore at all, which is clearly a sign of maturity. Every precious bone in his back is defined and surrounded by sinewy little muscles instead of that squeezable, pat-able baby fat.

He can play quietly by himself with Legos, creating elaborate farm equipment and pirate ships. He consistently beats us at Wii games, and after a brief stint with a 'Good Sport' folder last spring, he is a good, well, sport. He is starting to read and I especially love to listen to him 'read' his favorite books, word for word and page by page. He takes care of the dogs and cats and chickens. He hauls wood and steers the truck and brings Matt tools before I can say 'what does that one look like again?'.

He is affectionate, compassionate, enthusiastic. Smart, smart-alecky. Kind, generous, brave, responsible.

I really like this kid.

What are you doing? he asked.

Writing about your birthday.

Do you have a 9?
Yeah.
Well press it!

9 Why?

Because! Today is December NINTH!

I think he is constantly annoyed by my denseness.

Right on schedule.

And now he is Three...

2010-11-15T18:22:00.005-06:00

My Baby is three.A three year old boy, to be more specific. He runs and climbs and insists on steering the truck when we drive to the ranch. He makes chainsaw and motor vehicle noises. He tackles people (and the dog) and head- butts to demonstrate affection. He still snuggles and kisses and would rather sleep in my bed than anywhere else. He likes to play "gohn-ups" with Ethan; they talk in deep, grown-up voices about their work and their tractors. He loves to draw and cut and glue. "What does dis say," he asks about the scribbles he has made across the page. "Does dis say Evan?" Almost, baby. He loves to be read to, and I hope he never outgrows that. His favorite book is still Big Red Barn. He loves Sunday School and reading the Bible in the evenings. He loves baking and stirring and spilling. He loves vegetables and meat more than any other foods. (?) He loves putting on his boots and helping his Dad. Ethan is his best friend, and watching them play and learn and work together brings more joy to my heart than I ever could have imagined. His other best friend is Eve.

He loves spending time with his grandparents and aunts and uncles. And why wouldn't he, as surrounded with love as he is?
The highlight of the birthday party on Sunday was a little guitar. "I'm so gad I have mine own contar!" he exclaimed jubilantly. He noticed something was missing, though, and opened up Gramma's case to point it out. "I need dis... sumpsing," he said, pointing to the strap. I pulled one off a duffel bag and Tessa MacGuyvered it into a functional guitar strap. It worked great when he slung it over his head to sing "Dis Widdle Wight of Mine" with Gramma, and it was even more useful when he moved on to play with something (or sumpsing) else.

Happy birthday, Baby. I love you with every beat of my heart. I am so proud of all that you are learning and the sweet person you are becoming.

Neither Art nor Craft

2010-11-03T05:48:00.001-05:00

We've been doing a lot of gluing lately. By 'we' of course I mean those two nimble blondes who can scramble onto the counter and into the art supply cupboard before I can say "Don't climb with scissors."

At first I couldn't stifle the inner preschool-teacher-assistant in my head. "Too much! Too much! What are you going to actually going to put on the glue?"

Then I remembered that in August glue was on sale, like 6 for a dollar, and I stocked up. And I thought, what do I care if they don't use the glue to affix something to something else. Everyone is so happy right now, no one has noticed that I am eating chocolate chips out of the jar.

Plus, look at how it teaches them to deal with adversity. "No mo' goo is comin' out!"

And the satisfaction of squeezing mo' goo out all by yourself.

And the utter joy of creating something uniquely yours, even if no one knows what it is and you have glue on your eyelashes.

Not to mention the utter joy of the mama not sharing chocolate chips.

Med School

2010-11-02T04:53:00.000-05:00

We couldn't resist this set of little scrubs when looking at Halloween costumes. The boys love their doctor set, and this was just the addition to the dress-up box that we have been needing.

Trick or Treat

2010-11-01T13:10:00.005-05:00

We were all waiting in suspense to find out what the boys were going to dress as- Ethan had considered pirate, batman, cop, and ghost. Evan was too distracted by the prospect of "knockin' on dohs an' gettin' CANDY" to think about costumes. "Is today the pahrty where we knock on people's dohs?" he asked every morning. Finally, it was... and the streets were a little safer with this policeman and firefighter on duty.

Sleepover

2010-10-29T13:48:00.000-05:00

Another milestone- Ethan went to his first slumber party! "Here we are, Buddy," I said as we pulled into Brayden's driveway. "YES!" he exclaimed.
I was a little nervous, but he had a great time. As I've noted time and again, that kid is so much braver than I ever was. I'm pretty sure my first successful sleepover was in 3rd grade. Maybe later.

Girl Time

2010-10-28T14:04:00.000-05:00

There are a few more girls now, and many more boys, but it was wonderful to see all of them last week. One thing about good friends is that no matter how many seasons, and babies, have changed since you were last together, the conversation and laughter flow just as easily as those nights in the dorm room or the apartment on West Maple.

The only thing I would have changed on Monday?

Taking the group photo at the beginning of the evening.

Speaking of amazing photography...

2010-10-24T14:19:00.000-05:00

My talented friend Kylie took the boys to a deserted country road for a photo shoot. It was win-win because I got some very cool pictures of my kids and I got to hold her new baby the whole time they were gone!

For Christmas I'm thinking family pictures in the snow, perhaps with coordinated red sweaters. Anyone have any Zoloft I could give to Matt?

Fall Fest 2010

2010-10-22T20:37:00.006-05:00

Several friends packed up picnic lunches, jackets, and a multitude of children for a day of fun. We started with a picnic at the park, then went to the pumpkin patch. There was laughter, chatting, and of course a few tantrums, but nothing unmanageable. When I saw this picture, I smiled. When I showed it to Matt, he shuddered. "Yeah, that looks like a lot of fun," he said unconvincingly.

Well, it WAS fun. Does that mean that my standards have lowered? Or that Matt is a consummate fun-hater? You be the judge.

My talented friend Kylie took these photographs... click here to see more of her art. Local friends, take note!

One of the highlights was a big pit of shelled corn.

This is Kylie's sweet little peanut, Judah- shown here thinking deep thoughts with Evan.

And the hay rack ride was so relaxing, Ethan almost dozed off on his BFF Brayden.

Fun? Most definitely.

Worker bees

2010-10-20T10:08:00.001-05:00

The boys and I cleaned out the woodstove last week.

Usually when I say, 'the boys and I blah blah blah,' what I mean is
- the boys spilled flour and fought over the baking powder while I baked cookies
-the boys chopped potato sprouts and pulled baby carrot feathers while I weeded the garden
-the boys put dirty clothes in the dryer and knocked over piles of clean clothes while I did the laundry.
Et cetera.

BUT. Last Thursday, the boys and I really cleaned out the woodstove. They had their little shovels and we took turns scooping ashes into the wheelbarrow. Then they took turns climbing inside (sorry, Mom) and scooping more ashes into my shovel, which I dumped into the wheelbarrow. I kept waiting for them to get tired of it and go play, but they stuck to business til the bitter end. Which actually wasn't bitter at all because we had been having such a nice time together. Then we picked up some wood in the pasture. Well, okay, I picked up the wood but they unloaded ALL of it, even working together to roll the heaviest logs off the end of the tailgate. I couldn't have been more impressed with the little helpers.

"Let's play Tack," Ethan suggested after we had finished. "Okay," I agreed. "How do you play that?" "YOU KNOW," he answered. "We chase everybody and yell TACK."

Man, those boys are cool.

Overheard

2010-10-18T11:54:00.005-05:00

"Woof"
"Evan, let's be human now."
"Woof woof!"
"Evan! Now let's be humans."
Woof?
Humans! Let's play a new game with HUMANS!
"Woof"

*******
A distant engine was heard and Evan raced to the door.
"My daddy is going tah be here in a few minutes in his aihpane!"

*********
The new Lego catalog is here.
Evan: Dad, I want you to buy me dis.
Matt: I don't have any money.
Evan: Here's my money. hands invisible money Now buy me dat!
Matt: That's not a very polite way to ask.
Evan: YOU'RE WELCOME.

Good Night, from Evan

2010-10-11T20:28:00.004-05:00

Snips and Snails

2010-10-04T15:12:00.009-05:00

When the boys were younger, I loved writing about moments like these and these and these. Things are a little different these days.

A couple weeks ago, we were driving and the boys' conversation turned, as it so often does lately, to the subject of poop. (Agh, I even hate typing it.) "I am going to suck poop through a straw!" Ethan shouted while they giggled hysterically. "Ethan, don't talk that way. It's not nice," Matt ordered from the front seat. "No, Dad." Ethan's eyes were wide with innocence. "I said suck. Suck is not a bad word. FUCK is a bad word."

Ethan informed me that "if I had a pet dragon, I would stand on his head. Because he would like it."

They were playing with Play-doh this afternoon when Ethan informed me that he was cutting up a dead cat. "Eww" I responded. "Ewww," Evan mimicked. "Evan!" Ethan exclaimed. "Boys do not say ewww about that. Just gwirls."

See? Do you see why I cannot blog these days?!

Evan's First (official) Day of Sunday School

2010-09-13T08:03:00.001-05:00

Menfolk

2010-09-09T15:49:00.002-05:00

Some goodies from the boys' 2nd trip to Wyoming that I never got around to sharing:

Boys

2010-09-08T06:31:00.003-05:00

The boys love running errands in Ord because we can usually sneak in a visit to Daddy's shop. This time was extra-fun since they got to check out Randy's new tractor.

I think they approve.

Follow it up with a picnic in the park,

and you end up with two tired, filthy, and contented boys.

Denial

2010-09-07T06:30:00.000-05:00

Evan runs up to me several times a day and throws his arms around my legs. "Mine... mommy," he announces with a big smacking kiss. I scoop him up and kiss his cheek. "My baby," I reply. He giggles. "I'm named Evan!" "Okaaaaay, my Evan." Sometimes he relents: "I'm named Baby." Usually he doesn't.

I don't care. I will call him Baby forever. And ever.

The end.

Back in the Saddle

2010-09-06T18:38:00.002-05:00

Getting back on the horse- these guys literally, and me in the metaphorical-blog-sense.And trying to figure it all out...

Road Trip

2010-06-16T17:32:00.000-05:00

Tessa and my mom took the boys to visit Dad in Wyoming over Memorial Day weekend. "Are they insane?" Matt asked when I told him what they were planning. "What are they going to do with the boys while your dad is working?" "Not my problem," I responded gleefully. It was still cold and snowy in the mountains, but that was not enough to stop my family from building a fire and having some Wyoming fun.

Luckily there was also a community center with indoor swimming pools and a playground.

The boys loved every minute of the trip, and are still full of stories about the big tower crane and the hospital Grampa is building, and the snow in the mountains, and "fwimming" with Tessa and Gwamma. I was pretty nervous while they were gone, and of course my dad thought it was hysterical to have Tessa text me to say they were still in the mountains looking for the boys but don't worry, the snow stopped and it wasn't dark yet. Har har.

I was really looking forward to a relaxing and productive weekend. Unfortunately, Matt's idea of relaxing and productive was slightly different than mine, so the things we checked off the list included fencing, standing up to my hips in a muddy hole fixing a leaky hydrant in the pasture, and driving to Crete to get a sprayer from Matt's parents' and the horse from mine. Things that were NOT checked off the list included napping, weeding the garden, painting the playroom, napping, catching up on laundry, and did I mention napping?

All in all, a good time was had by most of us, and the boys sure are looking forward to the next trip!

Hey there

2010-06-09T16:26:00.005-05:00

The last time I dropped off the face of the blogosphere, it was because life was too boring to write about. This period of time has been the opposite, well, perhaps technically not the opposite as that would be exciting- life here has just been oh-so-busy lately. We wrapped up two straight weeks of Vacation Bible School, one at our own church as well as the community VBS in Sargent. It was fun to see Ethan go off to his class like a big kid and hear about all of his adventures on the way home. I helped, and Evan alternated between staying at my side and being carried around by random teenagers. They've been singing the songs at home nonstop, but rarely moved their lips or hands during either program. Oh well.

Today was much more summer-vacation-ish. The sun is shining (!!!!!!!!!), Ethan slept late, we went to the park and ate ice cream cones with friends. We have been enjoying strawberries and lettuce from the garden every day. I am just loving these days.

Celebrations

2010-05-20T09:12:00.003-05:00

The boys and I took a break from reality last weekend and went to Iowa to celebrate my little cousin Timmy's high school graduation. (This next weekend is my little cousin Sarah's graduation. Can you believe they let little kids graduate now? Ha. Just kidding guys.) (Not really.)

Getting out of here was a little stressful.
Me: We will leave Friday night.
Matt: Well, we need to get all the cows moved to pasture so let's brand the 16 new calves first.
Me: Aaaaahhhhhh.
So some good friends came to help, and we had a fun evening working and playing. It was so much fun to watch the 5 kids goof around together while we worked. They chatted with each other, ran races, climbed trees, built rock towers, and I don't know what all. It is amazing that they are big enough to do their own thing, completely oblivious to the adults nearby. Now that they are practically grown up (ages 2-7), think of all the peaceful evenings ahead! (Right? Right?!)

So we got out the door on Saturday, and 10,000 hours later arrived at our destination. The best part of the trip was picking up my brother in Lincoln and my sister in Omaha. I highly recommend scheduling reinforcements. The worst part of of the trip was everything else. But we made it, and being with my wonderful family just started that hole in my heart healing right up.

We stayed an extra day and visited a dairy ran by the family of Ethan's new best friends Josh and Jessica. It was so interesting! We milked a cow and saw the long line of milking machines, and the pen with all the baby calves (they have 10-15 every day of the year!) and the barns where the cows live (some of them sleep on waterbeds!) and finished up with chocolate milk. It was fascinating.

Now the boys are on their way home with my dad to spend the weekend at my parents' before we meet up on Sunday. We are so excited for more time with cousins and aunts and uncles!

Fragile

2010-05-11T12:25:00.005-05:00

I went to a funeral this morning for a three-year-old boy who ran between the tires of a tractor. My heart is broken. Not mine, not mine, not mine, it thuds hollowly.

Not my child, but my grief. Every mother's grief.

Three weeks ago he was at my house, driving toy tractors across the living room floor with my boys and serving pretend birthday cake in the little kitchen. He didn't want to go home, and his mother told him they could come back to play soon. Last week, he wasn't with his mom and she said he was with his dad; "He would spend every moment in the tractor if he could." On Saturday, in the midst of getting ready for a mini-campout in the pasture, I got the phone call.

The boys were so excited about camping. "We's not seep in ours beds? We seep in ours tent?" Evan kept asking as though it were too good too be possible. As much as I wanted to curl up in a ball in my room, we pressed on with our adventure. After the boys had eaten their weight in marshmallows, they went to sleep while Matt and I sat by the fire. The stars were shining. How can it be that we have had such a lovely evening, while Jacob's family is devasted? I wondered. Matt kissed my forehead and whispered, this happens every night. Every night. Every mother's grief. Every mother's prayers.

Hello again

2010-05-03T04:26:00.006-05:00

I think Spring is my favorite time on the ranch. Actually, right now I think that Spring is my favorite time anywhere, but I know when Fall comes I will think differently. The boys are definitely enjoying more time outside (and I am enjoying their time outside even more). They provide live updates! every 10 minutes! on the status of my tulips. "One is big! Two are little." "Two are big! There is a red one!" "Five are big! Come look now!" Little lettuce leaves are coming up in my garden and my strawberries are blooming. Everything is so green and hopeful, I am just soaking it in.

We have been calving for a month now and are about two-thirds done. I love the baby calves so much. They run and play together, and their mamas take such good care of them. The cows kinda make me feel like a loser, though- I mean, they can give birth in the middle of a pasture and I couldn't even manage it in the luxury (har) of the Ainsworth Community Hospital. Oh well, I'm happy for them. We branded yesterday. The little calves were troopers- even the new steers were up and running around moments after we finished working them. I am sure I would not be as resilient. (See above, loser.)

The agency I had been working for is closing and I am unemployed. For a little while, unemployed felt a lot different than stay-at-home mom, even though I spent approximately 19835 times more hours with the boys than I did at work these past 9 months of employment(which, as Matt helpfully pointed out, is almost a record for me to stay at a job) and was constantly on the verge of quitting. I have been embracing my inner housewife in a big way lately- I even made mozzarella cheese last week and have been baking bread like a crazy, carb-obsessed woman. I have also been (forced into) embracing my inner ranch-hand, and have been spending lots of quality time with Matt and the boys clearing cedar trees, caring for the cows, and building miles of fence.

And maybe one of these days I'll re-embrace my inner blogger.

Checking in

2010-04-14T22:38:00.004-05:00

Hello! How are you? What have YOU been up to? I have been ...tending to a three-legged calf... wrangling a ginormous cow who got stuck in the mud... wrangling thousands (really, just 2?) of small boys with ginormous ideas... doing laundry... planting seeds... doing laundry... you know, the usual.

We had a great Easter with my family, and the weekend before Easter I had a great birthday celebration with my sister (who drove out here two, count'em two, weeks in a row) and friends, and the weekend before that, just kidding.

It's late, I don't really know where I'm going with this... I just wanted to get back here to this little space on the interweb where I never have to say things like "Don't poop on the deck" and "It is not okay to take someone's shovel and then knock them down with it."

Oh! And we have chicks! And ducklings! In the basement!

Good night, all.

Now I Lay Me...

2010-04-01T13:09:00.002-05:00

A couple recent prayers from our house:

Evan: Kanks, God, for Dad.
Kanks, God, for Mom.
Kanks, God, for Evan!
Kanks, God, for.... Ethan.

Ethan: Thank you God for keeping us safe from bears.

Duck, duck, goose, duck, goose, goose, duck

2010-03-25T03:44:00.006-05:00

From the first time I drove through Lexington and saw the duck pond, I couldn't wait to take Ethan to meet a real-life Mr. and Mrs. Mallard. Our schedule and the weather finally cooperated and last week we took a picnic -PB&J for us, peanuts and bread for the ducks- and had ourselves an Adventure. It was one of those (rare) amazing days when the actual event is just as great as the picture in your head. The boys were sweet, no one got bitten by a goose, complete success!

Evan loved this bridge:

But Ethan insisted it was "too dangerous" and sounded just like my Grandma Lois when Evan took off: "Oh oh Evan! Come back here! Oh no!"

Duck, duck, goose

Goose, goose, duck, goose

And of course, the playground:

Yay, Spring.

Sketti, spaghetti

2010-03-11T11:53:00.001-06:00

Yesterday the spring-weather-preview came to an abrupt and nasty halt with freezing rain and snow. My wonderful aunt Laura had given the boys a play-doh set ages ago and I have been hoarding it, waiting to present it at the moment of maximum indoor desperation. Ta-dah! They loved it, and played for hours. "We should tell Laura and Nancy thank you for this sketti-maker!" Ethan exclaimed.

Big Boy!

2010-03-09T10:44:00.002-06:00

No more diapers! I'm not sure what prompted Evan's decision to join the underwear club but he hasn't worn a diaper for a couple weeks now and the accidents are becoming fewer and farther between. Maybe it's the draw of the quality reading material- a FarmTek catalog. When Ethan was learning, he had a couple potty-related books and a Tractor House catalog. Matt was all, "Tell people that's Ethan's book or they'll think it's mine."

I have been looking forward to eliminating the 'diapers' line from the budget for quite some time now but I have to admit that I'm starting to go through diapers.com withdrawal. I just love that site. At least the UPS guy won't have to see our messy entryway and half-naked children as often.

All talk

2010-03-03T20:04:00.008-06:00

Evan, last week: "Cuck! Hoh-wee cuck!"
My mom: "What did he say?"
Me, cringing: "F#%@, holy #^$@."
Does the 'holy' make it better or worse?

Evan, this week: "Gosh! Oh my gosh!"
Phew.

****
Ethan: "I just CAN'T get to sleep. I am nocturnal!"

****
Jenny: "Don't scratch the wall with Antlers!"

Ethan: "What can we scratch the wall with?"

Coupla things here:

1) Umm, NOTHING.

2) Antlers is capitalized because these antlers are cradled, carried, and crooned to with the affection someone normally reserves for an infant. Boys are so weird.

Work/Play

2010-02-24T13:52:00.003-06:00

When we played outside yesterday, the only thing the boys wanted to do was repeatedly dig their equipment out of the snow. While normal children were building snowmen or sledding, mine were reporting "Cactuh stuck! Need foh-wheelah!" to each other. Then they would shovel for a minute, pretend to pull it out, drive two feet, and call "Foh-wheelah stuck! Need cactuh!" Lather, rinse, repeat omg.

I get that they mimic this work because they have seen this scenario played out a lot, and I am grateful that they did not include the foul language that is occasionally part of Matt and my's script. I hope that they still think it is a Family Fun Activity when they are big enough to really man the shovels.

Mundane

2010-02-23T16:19:00.003-06:00

Beans!

I'm not sure what Ethan is leaning down to get. There is no way he's reaching for a fallen bean, because apparently some property of the floor immediately turns them invisible to folks with the XY chromosome. And honestly Evan is not doped up on cough syrup or anything, perhaps just awed by my magnificence?

Writer's block

2010-02-22T15:13:00.002-06:00

Hello, dear neglected blog reader(s)! How have you been? We are all just super, not that you would know by the radio silence here. While the rest of you are creating clever lists and more clever lists, taking fabulous photographs, and regaling us with tales of your adorable children, this 'create post' tab sits haunting me.

The thing is, (and it makes me nervous to even think this, let alone write it) is that it's just really peaceful around here lately. The kids play together for hours at a time, with only the occasional cry for help. I've cleaned closets, caught up on documentation, and even organized the laundry room. I haven't had to drive a tractor across the floor in weeks! (I'll pause while you break into a chorus of glory, glory, hallelujah. Oh, just me? OK then.)

Manic highs and despairing lows lend themselves much better to entertaining writing. This emotional-even-keel stuff is just boring. So, sorry! Well, not really, because have I mentioned that I have not had to drive a tractor across the floor in weeks? And by the way, I had to read through a lot of old posts to find that link- the ratio of despair to bliss is like 195:1. Sheesh, what a whiner.

Make Way For (manipulative little) Ducklings

2010-02-17T23:04:00.003-06:00

Ethan stood in front of me this evening before heading up to bed. "Mom, I want to be like Mr. Mallard and Mrs. Mallard," he stated quietly.
"How do you want to be like Mr. & Mrs. Mallard?" I asked.
"Have another supper, better than the first," he replied.

OK, so yes, we had already had supper, a snack, and brushed our teeth, but I can't argue with classic literary references. We shared one more bagel, which we fortunately didn't have to get by following a swan boat across a muddy lake.

Valentines

2010-02-14T20:50:00.002-06:00

Around here, the preferred way to celebrate Valentine's Day -like all other holidays and random Tuesdays- is with glitter, sprinkles, and more glitter.

My parents were here to celebrate the festivities with us, as were the two little calves in the gift bags they brought. "Cows! Eat!"
I could not ask for sweeter valentines than these two guys and the rest of my wonderful family. I hope the rest of you feel as surrounded by love as we are.

Brothers

2010-02-01T14:24:00.002-06:00

The boys and I ran errands this morning. Evan wore his pajama top, jeans, one yellow boot, and one green boot. Rockin'. They were pretty well-behaved: didn't knock over any displays, no one darted into traffic, and they shared their toys in the car. Then on the way home Ethan announced "I am throwing snowballs at Evan." He flailed his arm like Buddy the Elf and laughed hysterically. "No NO NO!" Evan screeched, frantically wiping his face. "OK, Ethan," I tried to keep a straight face, "Evan doesn't think that's fun. Please stop throwing snowballs at him." "But I have a PILE," Ethan said, arm still windmilling wildly. I suggested that he throw them out his window. "I am throwing them out Evan's window, at the trees!" he said gleefully. "AAAAH! NO NO NO!" Evan yelled, batting away the invisible snowballs. "NO! TOO COLD!"

Umm, hurray for active imaginations.

Assortment

2010-01-29T10:38:00.003-06:00

This week:

~Evan threw out his first spontaneous "I yuv you" with accompanying attack-hug.

~Ethan said he thinks Tessa is his fairy godmother.

~Evan sat on the floor with the Hi-Ho Cherry-os and a flashlight for 17 minutes this morning. He held each cherry up to the light, pronounced it "sye-ney" (shiny) and put it into his tackle box.

~Ethan can write the number four, without any outside training apparently. (I also just recently discovered that he can count to 29. He skips 7 pretty consistently but I am impressed because I rarely count past 'three cups of flour' with him. Oops.)

~Evan sings everything, from sweet renditions of "Twinkle Twinkle" to information like "nose is WUUHNNning".

~Ethan is still the sweetest, most patient older sibling I have ever seen in my life.

~And yesterday I stepped on one of Matt's tools and managed to knock myself in the face with the iron handle, providing further evidence than I am too stupid to live.

Random Rant (me, not the children) (for once)

2010-01-21T10:26:00.004-06:00

Arrgh. A couple weeks ago I said I could help out a Lincoln caseworker by doing Family Support Visits in Grand Island and Kearney on January 22 & 23. On Monday I realized that it was this week, so I better get my act in gear. Priorities -ok, playdates- were arranged for Tuesday and Wednesday because I had it in my head that the visits were Thursday and Friday. Well, as you smart people realized right away, the 22nd & 23rd are Friday and Saturday. I did not.
This morning, Thursday (the 21st apparently), I got up bright and early, got dressed, got my snacks ready, got the boys psyched up about going to the sitters, put the carseats back in the Tahoe, got my lists organized to run errands, and generally ran around like a chicken with my head cut off til I sat down to double check one more time that today the visit was in Kearney. This time I happened to notice a slight discrepancy between the schedule and my wall calendar. I was so sure that the calendar was wrong instead of my own trusty brain that I called a friend to check the date on her calendar. Must be some kind of calendar conspiracy because apparently tomorrow is the 22nd, ergo the visit in Kearney. I can't believe how close I was to screwing up my whole day! And I had done such a great job at #4 on the ol' list up there that the kids were seriously pissed about not going to see their 'fyehnds' today.

So! How is your Thursday going? Mine's awesome.

Woof

2010-01-14T20:36:00.004-06:00

I spent a significant chunk of the morning playing "petch," or fetch, with the boys. Not the boys and the dogs. The boys. They are deep in puppy-mania right now: crawling everywhere, picking up stuff with their mouths, eating out of bowls on the floor.

"I'm a big horn dog" Ethan announced last night. "What?" I asked, wiping up the Diet Pepsi that had shot out of my nose. Later I heard him tell Matt he was a longhorn dog, and then I made the connection to the longhorn steers we had read about recently. That makes sense, right? Right?

Funny Business

2010-01-07T06:54:00.003-06:00

Evan thinks of himself as quite the jokester. "Eee-he mah-hee!" he announced randomly yesterday, then laughed hysterically. "Ethan is a monkey?" I asked. "Yes! Eee-he mah-hee!" ha hahahaha "Mommy mah-hee! Daddy mah-hee!" more hysterics
His favorite trick is to grab your nose, pretend to eat it with a gulp sound effect, then smirk at his victim. This is sort of an improvement over his first version, in which he would put the nose in his "kocket," or pocket, because if he wasn't wearing any pants he'd just jam his hands down his diaper before grabbing your face again.

I vaguely remember Ethan's first attempt at a joke- we were driving somewhere and he announced he had a fly in his tummy, then laughed and laughed. He then said he ate a fly, had a fly in his mouth, and a fly in his nose. He cracked himself up. Too bad it was before Evan's time, he probably would have appreciated the humor.

Bedtime

2010-01-04T19:46:00.002-06:00

"Mom. When do people die?

"Uhh... when they get very very old and their bodies get worn out. Then they go live in Heaven with God."

"And Jesus."

"Yep, and all the other people who have died."

"Gwamma said she and grampa are old."

"Well, they're just a little bit old... not very very old."

"Beauty was very very old. Now she lives with all those other people."

"Yep."

"Are Zach and Jenna going to die?"

"Everybody will die someday, but they won't for a long long time."

"Ebil has no power. That's what they said at my program."

"That's right- since God is taking care of us, evil has no power on us."

"But I watched Bineas and Ferb, and Doofenschmirtz has power."

"That's on TV; it's just pretend."

"Like boxing is just on TV, not in real life!"

"Exactly."

"Does God live in Heaven?"

"Yes, and He lives in our hearts. He is always with us."

"Do I have a heart?"

"Yep, everyone has a heart. Our hearts pump blood through our whole body. It keeps us alive."

"And breathing."

"Yes, breathing keeps us alive."

"When we are sick, we hold our arm like this." puts his face in crook of elbow

"That's right, we don't want to spread germs."

"Dat's why we wash our hands! I know a lot about germs."

Sunrise

2010-01-01T20:20:00.002-06:00

It's ironic that New Year's Day always dawns with such promise and optimism, and I stumble around bleary-eyed and hungover. This year I'm going to manage our budget, and this year I'm going to blog 4 times a week, and this year...uggh could everyone keep it down a little? I once read about a family that wakes up early on New Year's Day and hikes up a mountain to watch the sunrise together, then talk about their hopes and dreams for the upcoming year. I want to be that family. Maybe next year...

The great thing about parenting is that you have a million chances for self-improvement, or whatever the catch phrase is this year. It doesn't matter if it's sunrise on New Year's Day or 4:15 pm on any given Wednesday, you can always resolve to stick to a bedtime routine or stop yelling or cut TV time down to a reasonable 6-8 hours per day. You can always start to do better, then fall on your face, then try your best the next day.

The same is true of God's grace, times infinity.
Amazing.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Christmas Recap

2009-12-30T19:04:00.005-06:00

Normally I don't pay attention to what the weather is doing until after I've gone outside and forgotten my coat, but the BIG SNOW PANIC mania really started to get to me this time. After deciding that the weather might actually keep us from getting to our various Christmas festivities, I realized that I had nothing for the boys to open at my house. So bright and early Tuesday morning (the 23rd) my friend Laura and I loaded up our five wild ones to go to town to get flu shots (because what if we get SNOWED IN before they get the 2nd H1N1 dose and the germs are carried via BLIZZARD and... well, no one thinks clearly after spending so many days stuck inside with small children, right) and then I left them all at the library and spent 300 more dollars (which included groceries and dog food, you're welcome) and we ate lunch at McDonald's and drove home in freezing rain. On Wednesday I worked from both lists (food to take/clothes to pack and prepare for BIG SNOW) so I was thoroughly frazzled by Thursday when Matt said we couldn't go, then thoroughly disappointed, then excited and frazzled again when he came in from doing chores and said yes, we could go. So off we go...and it only took twice as long as usual to travel because of the BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. Traveling home took three times as long but I'm over it.

We were very happy to spend Christmas Day with my family and visit with Matt's family as well. (His dad only had to pull us out of one drift on the way to their house.) It was disappointing to not see beloved cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandpa but I did leave the boys with my parents so they could enjoy "Christmas Eve" and I could enjoy it vicariously through them.

All the Christmas specials we've watched lately share the theme of "Christmas is ruined because Santa can't come oh look! the kids saved the day by helping Santa." Ethan and I have talked about how silly that is because no matter what happens at Christmas now, Baby Jesus came to earth on that long-ago Christmas and that Happening changed the world forever. It was good for me to remember that this year as plans changed and changed again. We are safe and we are loved, and I wish all of you those blessings this Christmas season and all of 2010.

12 Days of Crafts: Snowman Shapes

2009-12-23T06:44:00.006-06:00

These cute snowmen are super easy to make- I cut out all the shapes ahead of time so the boys could stick to their specialty of gluing. You can sit with the kids and talk about all the different shapes & big-bigger-biggest, etc. OR you could let them loose with a glue stick and get one more batch of toffee made. And if you haven't lost as many brain cells as me, you might think to add a hat.

12 Days of Crafts: Crunch Time

2009-12-20T05:32:00.000-06:00

After slacking during our min-vacation last week, we kicked the crafting into high gear this weekend to have some gifts ready for Christmas. I don't want to spoil too many surprises, so here are just a few hints of what my little elves have been up to.

12 Days of Crafts: Oh, Christmas Tree

2009-12-19T11:06:00.002-06:00

Once upon a time, two perfect little baby boys were born. Unfortunately, they must have sustained serious head injuries at some point, because what other explanation do you have for THIS?Chainsawing the Christmas tree.

Well, when life hands you pine needles... make something.
I drew a tree(ish) shape and let the glue flow. Ta...dah?

12 Days of Crafts: The Slacker's Version

2009-12-17T19:09:00.002-06:00

We took a break from hard-core (!) crafting on Thursday and Friday to play with friends and shop, shop, shop. Life is all about balance, right? Tessa and Ethan did a puzzle on Thursday, which I will count as a craft for the purpose of the 4th day. Ethan chose this for her when we were assembling a care package back when she had her shoulder surgery. "Do you think Tessa would like dis?" he asked excitedly, clutching the 100-piece puzzle with a penguin family on the front. "I think dis would help her shoulder feel better." I'm not sure how much it helped at the time, but it was awfully sweet to see them do it together at her apartment.

12 Days of Crafts: Little Baby in a Manger

2009-12-16T21:41:00.007-06:00

Laura & Nancy raised the crafting bar with a cute Baby Jesus project. Laura brought little mangers that Emily had made out of popsicle sticks, then hot glued a wooden bead to some blue felt to make a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. Ethan and Evan enthusiastically glued straw to the mangers and carefully put Baby Jesus to sleep.

Ethan, Evan, Laura, Sarah hard at work

Look closely and you can see how cute the finished product is.

Nancy also has a manger and baby doll upstairs. After talking about the Christmas story a little, the boys just carried the doll around. They both rocked it quite a bit- Evan sings "rocky rocky rocky baby." I asked Ethan what he sang to the baby and he began to sing "I love you... a bushel and a peck." It was so sweet. I am always so relieved when they mimic the nice things I do with them, not just the screechy-sounding "Can you hear my voice?!" that Ethan has been asking Evan lately.

Thank you so much, Laura, Nancy, Sarah, Emily, and Tessa! We had a great time.

Laura & Nancy

12 Days of Crafts: Cookie Decorating

2009-12-15T16:16:00.004-06:00

I'm not sure if today's activity technically counts as a craft, but children were definitely expressing themselves artistically and fine motor skills were honed through careful sprinkling. So, without further ado:

12 Days of Crafts: Christmas Tree

2009-12-14T11:01:00.008-06:00

As if we hadn't had enough fun decorating our tree this weekend, the boys made their own Christmas trees today. This is a fun variation on plain ol' painting that I found on the blog No Time For Flashcards, which is a great resource for easy preschool crafts. All you'll need are Christmas tree shapes cut from paper bags, green paint, plastic forks, and whatever you have on hand to use for decorations. During breakfast, I read the two books we have about pine trees:FYI, The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown is fantastic.

Use the fork to print a pine needle-esque effect on the tree:

Concentrate

While you wait for the paint to dry, take a bath:

make some cookies:

and read a book to your little brother:

Then, decorate! Glue, glue, glue!Remark many times about how soft and cozy the pompoms are, while spreading them out on the table and laying your head on them. Wonder why they are called 'pompoms' instead of "soft little balls."
And deck your halls with the finished product!
* For maximum enjoyment, change clothes at least 3 times throughout the project.

12 Days of Crafts: Gingerbread Houses

2009-12-13T20:55:00.001-06:00

Every December of my childhood, my mother and her sisters bravely gathered all 10 of us cousins together to celebrate the December birthdays (Hi Chris & Kyle!) and make candy houses. They would cut cardboard milk cartons into house shapes and stick them on a paper plate, then coat them with frosting and we would create elaborate masterpieces of beauty and tastefulness (haha, get it?). Well, Kirk would. But now my mom is a grandmother, and as Tessa politely pointed out, grandchildren, as opposed to sad neglected children, score real, store-bought gingerbread houses. (OK, they were left over from a kindergarten project. Still.)

1986: Kirk, Jenny, Nancy, Emily

1987: Kirk1993: Jenny (with the rad blue glasses & crimped hair), Emily, Kirk, Daniel

2009:

Step One: Cram as much candy into your mouth as possible, because this must be a dream from which you will soon be rudely awakened:

Step Two: Oh, okay, I guess this is kinda fun too.

Step Three: WOW. An architect is born.

Ethan

2009-12-09T20:46:00.004-06:00

Today my firstborn sweet baby is four. FOUR sounds so much bigger than three, although I remember thinking three sounded pretty darn grown up. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Coming down the stairs this morning, Ethan overheard Evan & I talking about his birthday. "I'm FOUR?" he asked incredulously as he walked into the kitchen. "I'm FOUR," he has announced to every single person he has spoken with today. My four-year-old can sing more country songs than I can and help his little brother find boots to go outside. My four-year-old says he has 12 best friends, and includes his parents and younger brother on that list. My four-year-old changed our lives and has filled our home with joy. Happy birthday, darling boy. We love you so much.

Two

2009-11-21T08:45:00.001-06:00

Evan has been TWO for a week now, and I must say that he is really embracing it. He's delightful, he's soul-killing, he's sweet, he's vicious, he's persistent, he's ... persistent. Honestly, I don't think his behavior has changed from the past couple months but now I am able to keep it in perspective: well, Evan bit Ethan while he was hugging him... but he's two. Ha ha ha AAAHH. When he is being adorable, though, he is seriously adorable. His favorite book right now is Big Red Barn. Sometimes he brings it over and snuggles next to me, listening raptly to each word. Many times a day, he just wants to talk about his favorite page: The geese and the donkey/ the sheep and the goats/ were making funny noises/ down in their throats. "Goke?" he asks, pointing to the goat. "Cah-coh (scarecrow), gaw-kee (donkey)." He loves animals; he bounces up and down in his carseat shouting "Cow! Eat!" when he sees cattle grazing (which as you can imagine is not a rare occurence around here). He feeds the dogs and cats 135235 times a day and carries them around as much as they will allow. He often sets his little animals around food (or something representing food such as an ice cube or lid) so they can eat, then tucks them in under a wipe or dish towel, pats them, and says "Nite-nite."

Cow! Eat!

Evan's favorite game right now is Ring Around the Rosie. He communicates that he wants to play by waving his arms in a circle and saying ohsie, asses. It took me a while to figure THAT out, but did I mention that he is persistent? He doesn't seem to have a favorite food; he eats everything, even "picy" stuff that Ethan won't go near. His favorite number appears to be eight; one day I counted something up to seven, then he said eight and I nearly had a heart attack. Then I realized he counts like this: ah, ah, ah, eight, ah, eight, eight, ah.

He loves to sing. He sings along with everything, and often he actually comes pretty darn close to the real tune. It is so sweet I can't even write about it without getting all teary-eyed. I have yet to capture it on video though because as soon as he catches sight of anything in my hands he shouts Mon! Mon! (mine!) and tries to wrestle it away from me. And not just me, of course. Anything, anyone is in possession of suddenly becomes vital to his health, happiness, and national security. So sweet.

So, we will keep him. Happy birthday, my darling boy. May God bless this coming year and all the years of your amazing, magnificent life. I am so glad to be a part of it. I love you so much.

Update

2009-11-14T19:53:00.003-06:00

Well, we survived our time without Matt. We cheated a little; we spent Tuesday night at a hotel for a little mini-adventure, complete with pool time and Chinese food food delivered right to our door. On Wednesday, Matt's sister watched the kids while I worked and we invited ourselves to crash there Wednesday night. It was very nice to get out of our big, dark house for awhile. Matt came home at 4:45 AM on Friday morning and insisted that the boys stay with him while I went to work. We all slept really good on Friday.

As a reward for keeping us safe and warm all by myself, Kirk and Kasey came for the weekend. Oh, they also came so Kasey could finish her rural hospital experience in Broken Bow, but mostly they came to distract the boys long enough for me to take a shower.

Here goes

2009-11-08T17:55:00.004-06:00

Matt is on his way to Racine, Wisconsin for tractor school, or something, and the boys and I are are staring down the barrel of a week of single parenting. In the spirit of positive thinking, I decided the pros of this arrangement are 1) a menu plan consisting of pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches and 2) okay, that's all I've got. The cons are EVERYTHING ELSE. We passed the time today by going to a birthday party and doing an art project that turned out, surprisingly, nothing like the picture in the magazine. Twelve hours down, INFINITY to go.

Still catching up

2009-11-04T17:10:00.003-06:00

When we were at my parents' last month, Mom brought home an Animal Sounds Bingo game to play with Ethan. She humored Evan by giving him a card as well, but to our surprise he played like an old pro and really got into it. The look of concentration on his little face was priceless, and Ethan sweetly shared his expertise as needed.

Ahoy

2009-10-31T21:22:00.005-05:00

We had a fantastic Halloween and the boys looked fiercely adorable in their pirate costumes. Mom made the vests, pants, and sashes with creative direction from Tessa. The challenging part was getting all the pieces on all the boys at the same time, so you'll have to use your imagination to put the ensemble together from the various pictures here. They did wear the completed outfits for the actual trick-or-treating, but of course I left my camera in the car. I hope I never forget how much fun that was. They tromped up to each house excitedly and chimed 'Trick or treat' so sweetly. Evan was saying it by the end of the night like such a big boy. Then tay day, he would say as each handful of sugar went into the bucket. It was better than I had ever imagined.
Don't worry, that is a clean diaper on the floor behind him.

Kirk models the earring and sword .

Ethan is not actually posing as a pirate, he is trying to whack Evan. Looks good, though.

Evan gets stitches (unrelated to above).

The hat.

A happy, sugared-up boy.

The only picture I managed to get of them both in their Halloween shirts, even though Ethan proclaimed that he was going to wear his forevah. (He only made it 3 solid days and nights.)

So there you have it!

2009-10-22T20:17:00.003-05:00

Autumn? What autumn?!

The perfect snow day begins with Belgian waffles. Extra powdered sugar, of course.
Followed by desert:A Lightbulb Moment: Relatively clean faces, picturesque scenery...let's take a photo for the Christmas cards! I'll get them ordered early and just sit back and relax in December... wow I am supermom!OK, maybe not. We can still sit back and relax, though.

The Tooth Hurts

2009-10-18T20:07:00.001-05:00

So, recently, because I am a big naive idiot, I mentioned to a friend that Evan hadn't bitten anyone in quite a while and maybe he had outgrown that lovely stage.

You can see where this is going, right?

No permanent damage, though.

Put Me in the Zoo

2009-10-10T13:39:00.003-05:00

Chores

2009-10-07T18:06:00.002-05:00

The boys and I spent a few days at my parents' home last week on a working vacation:

Gathering eggs
Feeding the horses

Helping Grandpa Eggert fix the combine

Another Day at the Park

2009-09-26T21:04:00.000-05:00

These are from, you guessed it, another day at the park. Do those kids look too big to be mine, or what?

Dates

2009-09-22T11:33:00.005-05:00

The boys and I went to the free matinee at the movie theater on Sunday. Ethan sat enthralled, carefully balancing his popcorn on his lap and trying not to get closed up in the seat. Evan played around in the aisle with the other too-little-but-their-mothers-and-siblings dragged-them-along-anyway kids. It was a lot of fun and I was glad to learn that Ethan is old enough for a real movie before springing for a $7 ticket sometime.

Last week we ate lunch at an adorable little restaurant in Broken Bow. Ethan and I used to eat there after my doctor appointments the summer I was pregnant with Evan. It doesn't look child-friendly and the first time we went I was concerned about what kind of damage my 22-month-old would do, but Ethan sat there like a little gentlemen and we talked and I was amazed at what a cool little person he was becoming. That summer, I worried so much about what life would be like with two boys and I was sure that the baby was going to ruin this awesome thing I had going with Ethan.

Sometimes it is just as insane as I had imagined.

Mostly it is a hundred, million, kajillion times better.

To Tessa

2009-09-08T22:03:00.003-05:00

Ethan's latest obsession is pirates. We read a book about Pirate Pete 15 or 20 times per day and any flat surface can become a ship merely by jumping around on it and screaming "arrgh", then knocking each other down. So when http://www.diapers.com/, the awesomest website EVER, included a pirate accessories kit in the Halloween costumes (already?!) section, I couldn't resist ordering 3 sets. (One for each of them to destroy now, and one to save for Ethan to wear on Halloween. Unless he is so totally over pirates by then, and on to... I don't know, woolly mammoths.) The package arrived today and Ethan was ecstatic. "Thank you so much, Mom. This is just what I always wanted!" he enthused. Evan was ecstatic, too, but he didn't know why until they were both decked out in "standard pirate issue wear" according to Ethan. (According to the Pirate Pete book, the line is 'standard issue pirate wear.' For a complete listing, ask Ethan. Do not under any circumstances subject yourself or your family to the book.) Ethan wanted to call Tessa and tell her "to come to my house and see my pirate standard wear" and after a long, detailed conversation (he told her he had an eye patch, and she worried that he had an actual eye injury...probably thinking immediately of Evan) she texted me a request for a pirate blog with pictures. Even though I just told her that I can't figure out anything on the new camera. So here's all I got:

Aargghh!

The Little Garden That Could

2009-08-30T21:57:00.005-05:00

We've been wearing more hoodies than tank tops lately, and the house always smells like zuchinni bread (or zuchinni cake, or zuchinni brownies- we have a lot of zuchinni) so it must be time for my annual "I love autumn" post. We are in full-on canning and freezing mode around here. The kitchen is perpetually sticky and canning jars are balanced precariously across every available surface, but I just love this whole process. I especially love the connected-ness to women all over the world who have spent/are spending time lovingly preparing food for their families. Well, mostly lovingly... occasionally the phrase "What the *&%$ am I doing up at #%*&ing 2am?" runs through my mind, but overall it is a very peaceful process. And the results are much more satisfying than the ol' laundry, dishes, vacumn routine.

My garden has surprised and delighted me with a colorful bounty of veggies. I was pretty sure that I had neglected it right into oblivion this summer but apparently some plants are able to thrive in dry, weedy environments. Works for me!

I have been searching for recipes to mix up our zuchinni consumption and last night I made this fantastic side dish but I can't remember what site it came from. You could probably use whatever vegetables you have on hand, and if you want some zuchinni or butternut squash, COME AND GET IT.

* Random thought: If you were playing a drinking game with this post ('cause what else are blogs for) and you took a drink every time I said zuchinni, you would be freakin' wasted right now.

Garden Squash Skillet

2 medium zucchini
2 medium yellow summer squash
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add vegetables and cook, stirring, for about 8 minutes, or until tender but still a little crisp. Add butter and toss with the cheese. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. * I added more cheese and quite a bit of salt. Enjoy!

Bubbly

2009-08-30T16:40:00.002-05:00

Mom brought another gallon jug of bubbles when they were here last weekend. Or BUH BUHS, as Evan demands insistently 23875543 times per day. But check it out: such close proximity to exposed flesh and no one ended up with teeth marks. Miracle Bubbles, indeed.

Thanks

2009-08-24T12:34:00.002-05:00

Tessa and my parents came this weekend, saving us from turning on each other like a pack of rabid wolves. In addition to making salsa, fixing fence, and lots of cowgirl-ing (rounding up the cattle, treating 20+ for pinkeye, and moving them all to a different pasture), Tess even had time to take pictures!

When did my baby start looking like a little boy? Does this mean I have to stop calling him Baby?

The Impatient Patient

2009-08-20T13:41:00.002-05:00

Ethan and Evan are taking advantage of the extra snuggle time with Daddy. We are all surviving Matt's recuperation but can't wait til he is back on his feet.

Catch up

2009-08-12T08:12:00.003-05:00

I got a new camera (thanks again, Grandpa!!) last week but haven't had time to, you know, take any pictures. So here is one more unillustrated post, then I am pretty sure I will be on top of my game enough to take the camera with me, snap some shots of the boys, and upload them to the computer before they go off to college. Really. Sure.

Evan knows colors! The only one he says is "ello" but if you ask him to hand you the blue or green or anything one, he can do it 100% accurately. He is also saying more animal names and can do most of the basic noises. My Dad taught him to say chicken and er-er-er-er-oo when he was at their house, and it is pretty gosh darn adorable. So is his attempt at snorting like a pig. I'll have to videotape it because it's impossible to spell.

Ethan is going through some kind of odd phase: when Matt and Evan go out in the evenings to bale hay or whatever, Ethan has been choosing to stay inside with me. We have had some very pleasant chats and I can't get over how helpful he is. His newest chore is folding washclothes and dish towels, freeing up even more time for me to lie on the sofa and eat bonbons.

In between our rousing games of 'Who's Got The Kids?,' Matt is trying to get all the hay put up before his hernia repair on Tuesday (boo). I have been even less help than usual, what with working and all, but hopefully we'll get everything caught up (ha ha ha ha ha ha). The other thing I promise to stay caught up on is this poor lil blog. Really. Sure.