Lots to do!

I have started the official 'countdown' until I leave for St Cloud. My "to-do" list is written out by day on our big dry erase board with each day having something written on it.

This is how my day is going so far (which is a pretty typical day):

Get up (this is always the most difficult!)
Get my MLK (many little kids) out of their rooms
Change diapers
Get my MLK dressed for the day
Make breakfast
Clean up from breakfast
Start making bread
While it's baking, clean kitchen
Get 5 loaves of bread out of oven
Write out my 'to-do' list for the next week
Make Grandma a gift (so neat! I'll post the 'how-to' on True Delights soon!)
Shew Caedmon and Brayan out of the bathroom after hearing the toilet flush and Caedmon smiling....I'll never know if or what they flushed...
Chat on the phone with my dad
Make lunch
Clean up from lunch
Change diapers
Get the 2 youngest of my MLK into bed for nap
Get lunch for myself
Help Biggie pick up all the toys
Cut up potatoes for supper
Get chicken ready for oven for supper
Play Candyland with Tiernan
Update my blog

.....And it's ONLY 11:45AM!!! :)

LOTS more to do this afternoon!!! Better get flyin'!

Biggie is FOUR!!!

That's right! Our eldest just turned the big FOUR yesterday!! We pretty much had a normal day and then had birthday brownies and ice cream for dessert! We kept telling him that the day he turns 4, he can't have a cover on his water cups, etc anymore. You might think that waiting until 4 is a little late to still be giving him a cover on his cups, but it we still did it more because it was easier with the little ones. If Tiernan had a cover on his cup then we didn't have to worry about one of the little kids knocking it over, etc, but we knew that had to come to an end and Tiernan would just have to guard his cup well. So far so good!

Notice how the brownies don't take up the whole pan? Can you guess why? Yes...Nathan got into the pan before I was able to decorate and take pictures....that Daddy, I tell ya....

He blew 'em all out in one blow!

Brayan's lovin' the ice cream and brownies!

So is Caedmon!

Tiernan with his 2 presents he got! One from G & G McKeever and one from us. (And yes, Leah, that is ours that is wrapped in newspaper! I still don't have wrapping paper and don't plan on getting any for a long time.....and ya know what?....Tiernan couldn't have cared less!!! :)

A book with a giant puzzle about your body from G & G!

....and Candyland from us!

35 weeks!!

We ate at a restaurant last night. Brayan had ketchup :)

"Cheese"

I carried Brayan in my Ergo on my hip for awhile the other day and he LOVED it!! I even got it over my almost 9 month pregnant belly and it was comfortable! He snuggled right in and loved being close to mommy!

35 weeks!!!

34 weeks...........................................................................................35 weeks

Bon Appetit!

A couple weeks ago, I decided to give the kids a little bit of the outdoors, INSIDE! I filled up a big bowl of snow and brought it in and dumped it into the sink! Tiernan played with it for a solid 45 minutes while the two youngers ones were sleeping and then Caedmon had a turn when he got up from his nap. They LOVED it and it gave me a few minutes of peace and quiet!

The night before last, Al came over and made us supper!! He cooked "something French" although I don't know what it was called and he said it originated from Normady. It was soooooo incredible delicious!! It was a simple dish made with mushrooms, onions, chicken & cream served over rice! We also had a side of French bagettes! He even brought over stuff to make dessert! We had pears diced up and heated on the stove in melted chocolate! Wow, was that good! The kids got some before they went to bed and they liked it too!...(imagine that! :)

He dished up our plates for us and he gave me a TON of it! Good thing it was super yummy b/c I ate everything on my plate! When I asked Nathan if he was going to finish all of his, Al told us that in France, it is a huge insult if you don't finish your food. Like at a restaurant, there's no such thing as a "doggy" bag or a take-home container b/c you NEED to finish what is on your plate. He reassured me that if I was too full, I could stop and he wouldn't be insulted :) But I thought that was very interesting since it's a very typical thing in America to take a doggy bag home from a restaurant, etc.

Especially when Al's parents were here visiting, we heard all the time at how much Americans eat.....well, after Al telling me what a typical supper included in France when you have company over, for example, I would have to argue that French people eat way more!! :) He said that if you were to have someone over for supper, you would start out by serving something to drink, most likely beer, wine, or pop. After that you would start with your appetizer, which could be a slice of bread with cheese and olives, made up real fancy. After you are done with that, then you would start on the main course. After the main course, then you have a salad. After the salad, then you have some cheese (which could be one of like 500 different kinds of cheese they have), then you would have some tomatoes with mozzarella cheese on it, after that you'd have dessert and after dessert, you'd have something to drink again! Whew! I told Al after he gave me the run-down of all that food, that it made me full just THINKING about it! And they say Americans are the ones that eat a lot...... :)

After supper we started talking politics and Al left our place at a little after 11pm :) Since he is from France, and they are a socalist country, we got to learn first hand how that works/doesn't work. The most interesting thing to me that he told was about how salaries work and how much of the money the gov't takes before you actually receive your wage. Here was his example: You make $5000 a month (they get paid once a month instead of every 2 weeks or something like here)....Ok, so $5000 a month is your salary. The company you work for takes $2500 (half!) of it out right away to give to the government. That leaves you with $2500. Then out of that $2500, you are taxed another $500, leaving you with $2000. Then off that $2000 you are taxed again another $600, leaving you with $1400 to get deposited into you account!!!!! So you go from $5000 to $1400. That's $60,000 down to $16,800...sounds like a good deal huh??? NOT! He thinks there are good things and bad things about it, pretty much just like anything else. But it was a very interesting conversation and a great learning time for all of us!!

Caedmon's turn at the sink!

With a few trucks, a bucket and shovel, you can play for hours!!

Fun with snow!

Meling the chocolate for dessert

Caedmon lovin' the chocolate pears

It's almost ready!

He's a pro alraedy! Cooking with one hand, holding a toddler in the other! Go Al!

Brayan couldn't get enough of Al

Political lesson/discussion from Al on the white board

Lesson continued

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

This one made me laugh out loud.....But then it made me shake my head in disgust at the very sad reality of the direction that our free socialist turning country is going.....

Less than 3 weeks!!

I will be leaving (I think) for St. Cloud on March 9th to await the arrival of our little bundle!! That makes it less than 3 weeks away! My mind has been going about a gazillion miles a minute lately trying to think of everything that I need to do or get done and things I need to pack, etc etc.

Call me crazy (am I crazy??..ok, don't answer that..) but I have already started packing a suitcase with misc. stuff in it that I want to bring with. Stuff like baby boy clothes (no, I don't know it's a boy but the kids gotta have some clothes to wear if it is a boy!), the padding for the infant car seat, some non-maternity clothes (yes, I hope to wear them!), etc etc. I can't just sit here and think about all that needs to be done and not do anything, so that is what I have started.

The other thing I want to do is make some meals ahead of time to get ready for 1) after the baby's born so we can come home and have some meals in the freezer all ready to go and 2) for Nathan when we are gone. He won't have anyone to make him supper while we are in St Cloud so I plan to have some meals in the freezer for him as well. I also plan to whip up some (ok, lots!) of granola to bring with and bread as well.

Then I need to order my birth supplies (including the pool) so it's all ready and waiting for us at my parents. I'd like to make a menu for meals while we are visiting so my mom doesn't go completely crazy when we are there invading their space for a time span of at the least a week (if baby comes right away) to like 6 weeks (if the baby comes 2 weeks late like Tiernan...I really hope it's NOT the latter...). I would also like to go through all our cupboards and closets and get things really organized before we leave. That way when we get back, everything will be in it's place and we don't have any 'extra' stuff laying around that we don't need....because ya never know when we'll be moving next!! Whew!

Actually, speaking of moving, that's one reason why I want things in order before I leave for St Cloud. By the time I get back, we might be getting ready to leave for the next job. This job is supposed to end sometime in April and then it'll be another move for us. Where, you ask?? That's a good question! If you hear before we do, let me know!! :) As of now, there is some talk about Nebraska thru the rest of 2009 but Nathan has an interview for the apprenticeship program tomorrow so after that we should know more...maybe. I'll keep ya posted :)

Oh yeah, then I need to actually pack for me and all my stuff I want to bring (computer, camera, etc) and then for all my little kiddies. I always end up packing way too much so this time I'm really going to try to limit it, especially since we can wash the clothes that we bring!

Well, that's about all for now! Just wanted to update on the time schedule for us...time is a tickin'! (Which also means that if you haven't voted yet on what you think the sex of our baby will be, you don't have much time!!)

FYI: I added a delicious recipe to True Delights!

This, That & the Other

Ok, these pictures will be in complete random order since Blogger is not letting me change the order of them etc......so this post will be all over the place! :)
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First up, my aunt and uncle, Carroll and Carol, came to visit last week. They drove ALL the way from Warroad (right on the Canadian border) down to Sioux Falls for the week. They were nice enough to swing in and say hi for a bit! While they were here, they showered our kids with gifts and the boys thought it was Christmas again!! :) Tiernan calls them "Marj and Marj"---don't ask me why!, but it's cute :)

Carroll, Carol, Caedmon and Tiernan

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We had Al over for supper the other night. He's our French friend. You might remember him from this post. I made him a typical American 'meat and potato' supper :)...more specific; chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, and asparagus. Then we had lemon schaum torte for dessert! It all turned out well and I think we were all full at the end of the night! He will be coming here next week and making supper for us! He'll make it over here so he can teach me and so the kids don't tear up his place :) He will be returning to France at the end of March, so we are enjoying his company while we can.

Here Al is giving Nathan a little history and geography lesson on the computer :)

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This is a picture of the fruit I bought last time I was at the grocery store. We would be lucky if this lasted us all week, we usually end up going on a 'fruit run' before the weeks end.

YUM!

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Typical positions for the boys........................

Goofy boys!

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BELLY PICS!

End of 31 weeks/start of 32..............(2 wks later)......................End of 33 weeks/start of 34

As you can see, not much has changed with my belly in the last couple weeks. To me, it actually looks bigger in the previous picture! But if you compare month pictures instead of weeks, you get this......

Taken 1/13/09.......................................................................Taken 2/14/09

Yikes! I think baby (and me!) packed on some pounds this month!! They say that the baby is gaining about a 1/2 pound per week between now and the time of it's birth, so we'll see if that affects the way I'm carrying it or not! Some days are better than others, but for the most part, my belly isn't really bothering me at all. The only time it gets 'in the way' is when I'm bending over repeadly picking up toys, etc.

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Bray Bray had a fever a couple days ago....teething. He pretty much did this all day.......

.............the next day he was back to his normal self!

Not-So Wordless Wednesday

Couldn't have said it better Clyde! Thanks! :)

Our little helpers at the grocery store

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Can we make up our minds already?!?!?!

About a week and a half ago, we decided it was time to trade our TV for a LIGHTER updated TV. We checked the sales and headed to Best Buy to make our purchase. Well, when we got to the store, Best Buy had their TVs arranged on the wall in a very smart way, starting with the biggest TVs first. Well, we never even made it past the first little rows of TVs and ended up buying a 50 inch plasma b/c "it was such a good deal". Yeah.

So we came around to the front of the store to pick it up and as you can imagine, the box was HUGE! The TV itself was 3 feet high and 4 feet long, not including the stand and then of course the box had to be way bigger than the TV so needless to say, we couldn't fit it in the back of the van. Oh, and yes, we had all 3 kids with us, so with the 3 car seats it was ALMOST impossible to figure out a way to bring it home. We should have just ended it there and returned it, but no, we sat in the parking lot for another 15 minutes trying to figure out how to move the bulky, heavy, annoying carseats so we could remove a seat or something to get the darn TV in the van. Well, after MUCH monkeying and me crammed in the back completely running out of patience b/c I was starving & had a contraction straight for like 20 mins b/c I was in weird positions trying to stay calm, we figured it out! We put all 3 carseats in the bench seat in the back and removed the two bucket seats, folded them down and pushed them up against the bench seat, thus creating enough room for the TV (& it's HUGE box!) to slide right in! Whew!

So we got it home, set it up and liked it for a whole DAY before we decided it was a little over-kill in our apartment and probably would be just as big of hassle to move as our tube TV, so we returned it to the store to get a smaller 32 inch LCD. (I went by myself this time, without the kids, and without the husband....THAT was a relaxing trip!) Since we returned the bigger TV, we decided to purchase a video camera as well, so with our smaller 32 inch and video camera, I made my way back home....

Just to have Nathan tell me last night that we are now returning this TV as well since he doesn't like it and still can't justify in his head to be spending that kind of money on a TV! (especially since we don't even watch TV....we have no cable or satelite...just 2 channels that come in slightly so every once in awhile I can see wheel of fortune if I'm lucky :) Otherwise we just use it for movies. Soooo, long story short, we are now going to be back to our old heavy TV but at least it'll make us that much closer to our house goal!! :)

The OTHER big fiasco around here the other day (don't worry, I'll make this story shorter :) was about a truck that we were going to buy. Why do we need a truck you ask? Well, we wanted to use it mostly to help us move so we don't have to depend on other people helping us and being a burden to them. It was a nice truck (we both loved it!) and even after we got it checked out at a mechanic and they said it was definitely worth what we were going to pay for it, we decided NOT to buy it. We had such a hard day Monday trying to decide whether to get it or not, but having 3 vehicles was just not ideal right now given our situation, so again, we are making sacrifices that are going to bring us closer to reaching our goal to build our house and lead not such a crazy, moving-filled, living out of boxes, kids sleeping on the mattress on the floor, using our bedroom as a storage room a normal life :)

FYI: I added my recipe for HOMEMADE LAUNDRY SOAP to True Delights. It is SOOOO easy to make and SOOOOO incredibly cheap that ANYONE who does laundry should at least give it a try! Just click here to go to True Delights. Happy laundry soap making!

Wordless Wednesday

(courtesy of Clyde :)

No Peeking!!

One of the kids' favorite thing to do with Daddy is play hide 'n seek. Here is a picture of them counting....notice how Brayan is more like kissing the freezer instead of just closing his eyes. I think he's still wondering why in the world the other boys are 'kissing' the freezer too, but like a good sport, he just goes along with it! Tiernan will count to 20 but the two little ones only usually last until 10 or so and then they go looking for Dad!

No peeking!!

Brayan before his hair cut...maybe I should have just left it like this...it's a nice style, isn't it? :)

FYI: Addition made at True Delights! :)