Time For A Change!!!!

BEFORE............ AFTER!!!!!

No, your eyes aren't fooling you....I got over 9 inches cut off my hair this morning! It was time for a change!! What'd ya think?

I told Tiernan to eat his green beans. He stuck one in his mouth and this is what happened to his face! While he looked at me like this, I made him say "Mmm, I like green beans!" :-) I think his face says something different. But he did eat all of them!!

I guess this is what you do as kids when you drop speghetti on the floor and mom doesn't clean it up right away! How fun!! :-)

This is what was on the counter when I got up on Valentine's Day!! Awww....I know, my husband is so sweet!! (He tells me now that he got the biggest heart of chocolate he could find so he can eat it too!!) I love him anyway!!

Caedmon's a Talkin' Machine!

Two days ago, Caedmon said his first word (other than Da Da and tons of babble). No, it's wasn't "mom" or "no" or "mine" or anything like that...it was none other than "cookie!" It was so cute! I made cookies in the morning and then all day he was saying cookie! He also knows how to sign it so he would go back and forth between the two! Then today he said his second word! I thought I heard him say this last night but I didn't think he knew what he was saying and then today he's been saying it over and over...."Gampa!" (Grandpa). Oh, but he only whispers it!! He'll be babbling along and then I'll say "Caedmon, say Grandpa" and he'll whisper "Gampa". Now the fun begins!!

For those of you who haven't seen where we live, which is probably most of you b/c we don't get visitors very often, I'm posting a pic of our apt building. (Thanks to both sets of Grandparents, Darren Sara & William, Naomi, and our friends Wade & Michelle that have come to visit!!....and Amanda & Blaise but I didn't get to see them b/c they came when I was gone, but they came with Mary to clean my apt as a surprise after Brayan was born so I am glad they came!!) Once I take updated pic of the inside, I'll post them as well.

(If you find the big front doors of the building, we are on the second floor, to the right of the door...those three windows are our place!)

Well, it's freezing here in Luverne with wind chills at -30. Nathan only worked 4 hours yesterday b/c of the cold and then tomorrow it's supposed to snow, so we will see if he'll be home tomorrow too.... It leaves us no choice but to rent movies and hang out inside! Good thing there's a gym downstairs and movie rentals in Luverne are 53 cents including tax!!! Did I ever mention that I LOVE Luverne?? :-)

Anybody Else Sick of Winter??

We are! Nathan has been off of work a lot because of the cold weather and snow! Last week we were looking at the calendar and I told Nathan that out of the last 13 days, he's work 4 of them! Then since we were out of the 'cold snap' we thought he'd be done missing days but then Monday came and it snowed! So he was home again on Monday. The week's been good since then so hopefully it'll stay that way b/c no work means no $$!

(Ok, so I couldn't get this pic to rotate, sorry! ;-)

The kids decided to make their own slip and slide yesterday while I was on the phone! I usually don't answer the phone during the day, but since this was a call from my midwifes insurance people, I decided to take it. The connection was really quiet so I had to go in the other room to hear her. In the meantime, we have this big box that we moved some stuff to our place with and the kids have been playing with it and making it a slide. They climb on the back of the box while it is laying down and then they slide towards the front. Since it collapes in the front, they have a neat little slide! Well, I also had a bowl of water that I was thawing some hamburger in on the counter which Tiernan found. He knocked it over so water was falling like rain off the counter onto their slide. That did not stop them from sliding down the box, actually, it made it more fun! They then got the rest of the water all over the kitchen floor. So when I came out of the room, both the kids were soaked and there was water everywhere!! I made Tiernan take a dish towel and wipe it all up. Next time I think I'll just let the phone ring....or figure out a way to tie them down while I'm on it :-)

(Yes, Tiernan still steals the baby's nuk!)

Date Night at the Palace

That's right.....a date night! Last night Nathan and I enjoyed a wonderful couple hours together...no kids, no babies, just us! Thanks to my live-saver Jen (she's the manager of the apartments here and lives next door) we were able to go see a movie that was playing at the Palace Theater right here in Luverne! That is one of the reasons why we were okay with leaving the kids here (even the baby) was because we were 2 blocks away (no kidding!) And, of course, I had my phone with me in case mommy was needed, but there was no call from Jen and she said the boys did great! She put them all to bed around 8ish (even Tiernan!) and that was it! THANKS JEN!!!

So the movie was supposed to start at 7pm....well, we got there a few minutes early to get some goodies and settle in before it started. Well, the palace theater is an actual old-time stage theater that was opened in 1915. It has both plays and shows plus a screen they have to play movies. It does not always have a movie playing, actually, this is the first movie we've seen advertised playing here since we moved to Luverne. So anyway, we got in the door and I only saw a handful of people at the consession stand, but no place to buy tickets. Thankfully one of those people there was our egg lady that brings us eggs every week so I asked her where you buy your tickets and she said right at the concession stand! Ok, so I'm thinking 'We're not in St. Cloud anymore, Todo' :-) We have to keep reminding ourselves we are now in a small town atmosphere... So we got to the front of the line and ordered two adult tickets and a popcorn and pop. Well, another thing that was different is that you don't actually get a ticket, you just pay and if you ever would have to leave and come back, you just say 'oh, I've already paid'....which again is different from what we are used to. I love this town!

So we are seated and it's about 5 to 7pm. Finally at about 5 after 7, the lights go down and the previews start. WAIT!....NO sound!! Uh oh.... So after about 30 seconds of a movie playing but no sound, it shut off and the lights came back on again. We waited and waited...then the lights went down again and the movie played..this time with sound! yay! After about 30 seconds of this...it shut off again!! Again, the lights came back on.....oh man! So now it's about 10 after 7. We waited and waited and waited and at about 7:15, I decided to call Jen to tell her that the movie hasn't started yet so we would be home a few minutes late. So we waited some more and then at about 7:30 the movie came back on but the picture was cut in half and the bottom half of the screen showed the top part of the movie and the top half showed the bottom part (so for an example, if there was someones faces on the screen, the bottom of the screen would showed from about their eyes up and the top half would be from their eyes to their chin) so then the movie shut off AGAIN!!! Ugh... then briefly after that it came back on, again cut in half and then they fixed the frame and it worked!! Boy, did we clap and cheer when that happened!! (Didn't I just say I liked the small town atmosphere?...well, I like it but it makes you work on your patience :-) So, we were able to enjoy the rest of the movie without any glitches! (By the way, the movie was The National Treasure: Book of Secrets....it was good, Nathan said he prefers the first one better, but this one was still very suspenseful!)

Other than our date night....Caedmon got his first hair cut the day before yesterday. Yes, his hair was actually long enough to cut! If you saw his hair in the light just right, you could see that the back of this hair was actually a few inches long, it was just so fine and light that it was hard to see! But we did cut it so he doesn't have any 'wings' anymore :-)

Nathan is working today (Sunday) because of all the time they missed last week with the weather so the company is giving the guys today to work to make up for some. He was off from the previous Thursday to this past Thursday (Friday was his first day back) because they shut everything down with the freezing cold temps! Tiernan's favorite day of the week is Sunday b/c he can go to church, he LOVES church and asks to go about 5 or more times a day. Therefore, since Nathan is working, I think I'm going to try to take all the kids by myself with me to church! I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to have the hands that I need to carry Brayan and Caedmon and still have a hand for Tiernan so he doesn't run from me! I haven't exactly figured it out yet, but I'm willing to try!

Eliana & Family

Here are some more pics of Eliana and her family!



Eliana being held by
both of her moms!




Matt, the Biological Dad





The complete McKeever family
Darren, Sara, William, & Eliana




Dani, the Biological Mom





What a giggly 2 week old!




Smiling at Grandma Barb

Awake!

Musical Children & Anniversary

No, I'm not talking about my kids actually being musical...I'm talking about the game that you play with the chairs where you go from one to the next! That's what it felt like last night!! Of course it happens right after I post about how Caedmon always sleeps though the night! Well, last night he was up about 5 times! We think it might of had to do with the fact that his little heater in his room never shut off automatically like it usually does so when Nathan went in there to check on him it was about 100 degrees in his room! Poor guy...so we shut that thing off but he was still up after that. Then when we started getting comfy again, Brayan was up! He just wanted to be fed though and he went to sleep shortly after, but it was definitely up and down and up and down last night!

Last weekend Nathan and I got a night out to a get-together at a couples' house from church. My parents came to visit and to bring us the rest of our stuff from our house that sold so they were able to watch the older boys while we went to Sioux Falls. It was so nice to visit and not have to worry about entertaining the kids at the same time! I did bring the baby with me but like usual, he was very content and everyone loved him. I'm not sure "Gamma & Gampa" (as Tiernan would say) had as much fun....Tiernan got sick after he went to bed! He gave Grandma lots of sheets and clothes to change and I had some 'not so fun' laundry to do when I got home! Sorry Grandma!

Well, Brayan is offically in 6-9 month clothes! He is growing just too fast!! He will be 5 months next week. I went though the 6-9 mo. bin last night thinking just a couple things might fit him and nope!...almost all of them will!! Pretty soon he will be sitting up and scooting himself across the floor. Seems like just yesterday Caedmon was doing that (this time last year!) and now look at him! Tackling Tiernan, running around, climbin' on stuff...

Well, speaking of Caedmon, I think he is finally awake so I better get going.

Oh yeah, it's our anniversary today too!! FOUR YEARS!! Whew! Can you believe it?? Where has the time gone?? We got married in 2004, had Tiernan in 2005, Caedmon in 2006 and Brayan in 2007...what does 2008 hold? We will just have to wait and see! How exciting! In our previous 3 years of marriage, we have also moved 3 times, so does year 4 mean another move? Probably :-)

A Few More Pics of Eliana