Grocery Store

Please pick the correct ending to this sentence.....

Question:

When I go to the grocery store, I:

Answers:

1) don't get a lot of groceries at once because since the cart is full of kids, I have no where to put them,

2) have many people give me the 'Look at all those kids! You're insane, but they sure are cute!' smile,

3) race through the aisles before Caedmon and Brayan decide to throw stuff out of the cart

4) spend most of my time breaking up 'biting' fights between Caedmon and Brayan

5) tell Caedmon repeatedly to not lick the sides of the shopping cart

6) say to Tiernan about 50 million times "Please keep your hands off! Just look with your eyes!"

7) make faces at Ariella because she's so cute and smiles so easily

8) regret putting their winter coats on because they take up even more room in the carts!

9) wonder why I just didn't wait for Nathan to get home so I could go to the store by myself!

10) am constantly picking up the "dropped" smiley face sticker the walmart greeter just has to give my kids when they enter the building!

11) pray to God that they don't drop anything that is glass!

12) ask Tiernan to keep his eyes open while he walks because the tower of parmessan cheese almost tipped over when he walked into it.

13) All of the above.

If you chose answer #13, you were correct!!

Tape

Has anyone see my roll of masking tape????


Nevermind.....I think I found it!

Our "New" Home!

Here it is folks! This is what we will soon be living in! We are so excited to be "down sizing" into an RV!

This is a 2008 Dutchmen Monte Vista. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, kitchen, dining, living room, washer/dryer, ceiling fan with 4 slide outs...pretty much everything you need! It can sleep 10 comfortably, so us 6 should be just fine! It has the master bedroom with a queen bed and then the 2 bedrooms each have a bunk bed. Then the table makes a bed if needed and the couch folds out into a full size bed. Lots of sleeping space!!

So here are a few pics of the 'new' place! :)

Up the stairs beyond the sink is the master bedroom and the washer and dryer

Up the stairs, the bathroom door is on the left, the sink is straight ahead and the shower is on the right.

Notice the high ceilings... The closed door on the left is the other bedroom. The second bathroom is in between the two bedrooms.

So what'd ya think?

For Sale!

This is what I have been busy with in the past week or so!

I had a garage sale at our house last week Wed evening, Thursday, Fri afternoon and Saturday morning! Whew! I'm glad that's over! It went very very well and I was able to get rid of most everything I had out there! Even though the weather did not cooperate and it was in the low 30s, windy and raining almost everyday, people still came and my stuff still went!! I kept joking with the people that came....I'd say I didn't know who was more crazy; me for having the garage sale in this weather or you for coming to it!! :) But I am pleased to say now that we have nothing big to sell or get rid of before we move to the RV!

A family from church came over last week and they took our dressers, night stand, book shelf, lamps, tv, table, chairs and couch. Then someone from my MOPS group is buying our climber with the slides downstairs (which i'm totally going to miss!), and someone else is buying our freezer. Another family from church is even buying our bed frame! Then at the sale, I sold the changing table, a file cabinet, tons of totes and storage things, rugs, baby equipment, LOTS of clothes, and even our vacuum! It is such a blessing not to be able to have to deal with those things when it comes time to move!!

I was blessed with a few friends that came over each day to help out either with the sale or with the kids. Although since it was raining, Nathan was home each day as well, so he mostly hung out inside with the kids. He even 'manned' the sale when I went to MOPS on Friday morning! It wasn't technically 'open' since I advertised it on Friday from 1pm-6pm since I knew I'd be at MOPS, but because we had the sale in our carport and there is no door on it, people just assume they can come whenever they want. But he did a good job so I don't think it was that big of deal! :)

So anyway, the sale is over and the rest of the stuff was taken to the thrift store here in town. I actually had a lady stop by in the afternoon that was at the sale while I was packing stuff up earlier and she said for $10 she'd take the bag of the 'leftover' clothes off my hands! Perfect! So I got $10 and didn't have to load it up and she got a black garbage bag full of little boy clothes! Great deal for everyone!

So besides the sale, I've been busy filling orders for I Spy Bags and aprons. As Christmas draws near, people have been ordering more to give away as gifts! So if you want one, please let me know! The current sale I have going on for the month of October is buy 2, get 1 50% off! Well, better get going...have church to get ready for!

Proof

Ok, so these aren't the greatest pictures since holding her and taking her picture at the same time is kinda hard, but here is Ariella signing "Daddy!" It's so much cuter in person! :)

This time she got it a little more on the side of her head than in front...but I'll take it!

Cute AND Smart!!!

Ok...I've pretty much decided that we have, hands down, the cutest AND the smartest little 6 month old ever!

I mean...just look at that smile and those blue eyes!!

And talk about being smart....do you know what this little girl has been doing lately??? SIGNING DADDY!!! Yeah, that's right...using sign language to say Daddy...on command! For those of you who don't know what the sign for Daddy is, hold up your hand as if you counted to 5 on your hand, and then put your thumb on your forehead. Ariella will do this whenever we tell her to "say Daddy!" Most of the time she just puts her thumb on the front side of her head, not necessarily right on her forehead, but it's close enough!! It is absolutely the most adorable thing I think I've ever seen!!! A 6 MONTH OLD using sign language!! I wish I could get my video of it on my computer.....

Did I ever tell you that I think she's one smart little cookie???

Here It Is....

Ok...so I've kept everyone in suspense long enough....

I've gotten phone calls and emails asking what our family is planning to do that most families woudln't even consider....

So here it is....

We are selling all of our possessions and moving into a camper and traveling across the country!!

Yes, that's right...a camper. A 5th wheel to be exact. A 39 foot, 3 bedroom (4 bunks plus master), 2 bath, 4 slide out RV that will have plenty of room for our family of 6 to live. (It even has a washer and dryer!) It's a 2008 Dutchmen Monte Vista that an old couple had for 4 months before they traded it in for a class c camper. We got a great deal on it, saving over 50% off the new sticker price.

And since it already has a couch, table, beds, etc, we don't need anything except a few clothes and some dishes! Therefore I have been getting ready to have a huge garage sale this week! We have found a family from church who want most of our big stuff (couch, table and chairs, book shelf, dressers, lamps, fan, tv, etc) so that has been such a blessing!!

Another sweet thing about this is that we are going to the same job as our friends that we met in Seward (Matt and Meggan) and we are going to park our rvs right next to each other so it will be real nice. We've said it'll kinda be like we are on an extended vacation where Nathan just happens to go to work! We will be living in a campground, parked right next to our friends, we will be able to see the mountains out our windows and we're close enough to the coast so Matt and Nathan can try their hands at tuna fishing :)

As more loose ends get tied, I'll share more details, and as always, plans can always change last minute...but for now I have a garage sale to prepare before we become full-time RVers!!

Overalls

This is an example of why I feel like I have twins 90% of the time we these two...

Kinda blurry, but you get the idea :)

For some reason they laid still better than they stood still

You Have NO IDEA!!

Okay, so you maybe thought we're already crazy having 4 kids in 4 years, driving back and forth to my parents house to deliver our babies, drinkin' milk straight from the cow, grinding our own flour, homeschooling, living in 3 different states in 7 months and getting ready to move for the 5th time in a little over 2 years....

....but we are about to embark on an adventure that most people wouldn't even think or dream of doing and that we even thought was crazy at first....

....please stay tuned as I give more info as the time draws near....

....you have no idea!!!

Seriously....Snow?!

This is what we woke up to on Saturday morning



The kids were SOOO excited and begged and begged to go outside. Nathan worked only a half day because of the weather, so when he got home, he stayed outside for awhile with the boys.

All ready for Dad to come home!

Throwing snowballs at each other

Tiernan's first snow angel of the year!!

Matching

Clothes laid out Saturday night for Sunday morning church... :)

Tiernan Puts It Back Into Perspective

Conversation this morning on the way to MOPS.....


Me: "Oh, shoot!"

Tiernan: "What's the matter Mom?"

Me: "I forgot my camera at home and I wanted to take pictures of my friends before we move!!...UGH!"

Tiernan: "It's alright Mom. Maybe next time you can take pictures of your friends."

Me: ::sigh:: "Thanks Tiernan. You're right. Maybe next time. But I really wanted to do it this time!"

Tiernan: "Don't worry Mom. You just need more Jesus."


Don't you just love it when a 4 year old gives advice and acts more mature in a given situation than you do?!

(Several days ago I told Tiernan that when we are mad/upset/sad etc, it is a time when we need more Jesus in us and we need to ask the Lord help us to get us through. I told him to keep me accountable. Well, he did!! Thank God for little boys!)

Wait!...That's an Oncoming Train!!

Here are the pictures from last year October when they got into the sprinkles....maybe they were celebrating the one year anniversary by getting into them again??

Our day started with us waking up to Tiernan and Caedmon out in the living room with both bottles of sprinkles.....sprinkles both in their mouth and all over the floor.

I can't remember if I wrote about it last summer when they got into the sprinkles when we lived in Iowa, but that seems to be a reoccuring thing...ugh...

Then the kids took huge cups of water downstairs, dumped it down the slides...making a homemade slip and slide...inside and on the carpet. And they did this twice.

Then we noticed it was awfully quiet downstairs and we immediately thought that they had more water. Nathan goes flyin' down there and found that they stole a whole loaf of my bread, brought it downstairs and tore it to pieces and tried to eat as much of it as they could...again, all over the carpet. To top it off, Tiernan stole the camera while he was at it and took pictures of it!!

Then it was time to eat supper. Caedmon wanted bread (go figure) but we told him he would have to finish his lasanga before getting any bread. He didn't like that answer and started crying. We told him he needed to go to his room and he got so upset and cried so hard in his room that he make himself puke. Ugh....

So while Nathan was in his room cleaning up the floor, I brought Caedmon into the kitchen and sat him up on the counter so I could clean off his pants, etc. In the meantime I stepped into the living room to help Tiernan, only to hear Nathan walk into the kitchen and say "You have got to be kidding!" I ran in there to find that Caedmon found a glass of milk sitting on the counter that he thought he would throw, flick and splatter milk all over the kitchen! There was milk on the windows, counter, cupboards, oven, all over my clean dishes and not to mention all over the floor!

The boys went to bed early that night....

Then the next night, we were wondering why they weren't eating supper, just picking at it and I hadn't given them an afternoon snack, just so they'd eat supper well. I went downstairs and this is what I found....a whole bag (24 pack) of string cheese....with only 3 left in it!...and all the empty wrappers. Yep, that would explain why they weren't hungry!

And we even have a lock on the fridge...so much good that does!

Can someone tell me that my kids won't always be toddlers???? Because right now it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel!! ...And if it is a light I see, it's usually an oncoming train!!

Tiernan's pic he took of the start of the bread mess.....

The empty bag of string cheese with all the wrappers....

Family Picture: Take #42

We tried to take a family picture Sunday before church. We did end up getting one that we might use as our Christmas picture, unless we get another good one before then, but taking pictures with 4 little kids is not exactly an easy task!

Here are a few examples of why it's so tough. This is just Caedmon....keep in mind that there are 3 other children doing the same thing. To get them all just looking in the same direction at the same time is almost impossible, much less trying to get them to not have the following looks on their faces :)

If you remember from last year, Caedmon was the one who had his finger up his nose in this picture, making it not our Christmas card, even though every one else looked really nice.

Actually, Tiernan was great, he just smiled the whole time, and Ariella pretty much just sat there and looked straight ahead...so Brayan and Caedmon were the guilty ones this time.

If I dont end up using it as our Christmas picture, I'll post it on here, otherwise you'll just have to wait and see it in our letters!! :)

Oh, Caedmon.......

Nebraska's Rule: Red on Saturday

So what's new in our world?

Nothing, really.

Just getting ready for the end of the job and a possible move across the country.

Nathan thinks that there's a good chance that this job will be done by the end of the month, yes this month. The rumors have been flyin' around like the always do about where the next jobs are located, how long they are, etc but as of now, it's sounding like the guys will get a transfer to the next job. What's so special about a transfer?? Well, that means that he'll have a job and there'd be no waiting to get called to go out to a job. Example: Last year between the job in Iowa and going back to Luverne, we were unemployed for 3 weeks between jobs. He got laid off from one, signed the union books, and waited to get called. No call means no work. When you get a transfer, once the job you're on is done, they give you this nice little slip that says show up at this location on this date and voila! you have a job. So a transfer is always desired over a non-transfer. Get it? Good!

Now, where to?? Well, I hate to even say because the rumors of the locations of the jobs fly around and change as often as we change our underwear (which for most of us is hopefully everyday...) but as of now, we are thinking.....Virginia!

For awhile it was Las Vegas and then Texas was flyin' around, but now it's Virginia. If that stays true, then I'll be excited to live by the east coast since we haven't ever traveled over there before but also Nathan has a sister and her family living in Virginia so maybe we'll be able to see them! But the one thing that's not-so-good about having to move there is, well, the move! And by that I mean, the driving!!!! Ugh....I HATE driving/riding in the car for long distances!!! It would be a long haul cross-country and that would also mean that we woudln't be able to go back home to MN much, if at all. So I'll just keep ya posted as things get even more crazy around here with the move!! Exciting times!!!

(If anyone that reads this is within driving distance to St Cloud and you have a job for Nathan, let us know and we'll move back to our "home turf" ASAP!)

In the meantime, we'll continue to enjoy our community that we are living in now. And to be honest, I love it here! Nathan and I always end every question or statement we have about weird stuff with 'well, it is Nebraska'....for example, everytime we see crazy looking bugs (which there are a lot of down here) we say 'well, it is Nebraska!'...just stuff like that. But besides it being Nebraska, we've connected with so many people and made so many good friends that it feels like we've been living here a lot longer than we have!!

It all started with getting connected with our church. We all have our Sunday school classes before church and then church service on Sunday, then I have a ladies Wednesday morning bible study & the kids get to play with other kids & have their own class, then every other Friday I have MOPS (mother of preschoolers) group which is also at our church. During the summer when MOPS wasn't meeting, we had a playdate and picnic at the park every Friday. Then once a month I go to "sassy scrappers" at church and relax and scrapbook or last time I brought my sewing machine! Then we are involved with a "4 square" group at church (no, not the game...it's where 4 families get together 4 times in 4 months 4 fellowship!) Then there are always 'one time' things that we go to like a church bonfire at a families home last Saturday night and Nathan went golfing with some guys from church yesterday. So obviously we have things going on and activites that we are involved in....that will be the hard part leaving.

Another thing that is really imporant to us when we move to a new place is getting plugged in to a buying club where I can by my wheat berries to grind flour and stuff like that, a farmer or source to get farm fresh eggs, and a dairy farmer where we can get our milk. Moving here, we were able to find those things fairly quickly and we love all our sources so I don't want to leave them either!! Our friends from church is where we get our eggs, only $1/dozen!! The buying club drops off our stuff only a couple miles down the road, and our dairy farmers are so nice, stopping what they are doing to get us milk and chat with us a good 15-30 mins every time we come!!! Oh, you guys will be missed!!! (I will try to get better at bringing my camera with me where ever we go and taking pictures of all this stuff so I can post it...I've been so bad lately!)

We know when we move to a place it will only be temporary, but in the meantime we meet people who will become lifelong friends and just a few short months later, we need to move and become 'long distance' friends. I would say that's one of the hardest parts doing what we are doing....getting planted and then having to uproot and leave. We try to keep our goal in mind though...eventually getting back to our 'stompin' ground' so we can settle down.

But, for now, we are still in Nebraska so I can still say "Go Huskers!!"......(Just kidding, I have never even seen the Huskers play nor do I really care....)

Oh! But it WAS funny last Saturday at that bonfire.....When we go somewhere that has a big space for our children to run and flee ie) someone's home/backyard that is acres and acres....I dress the boys in the same color, preferably bright, so I can spot them easily. Well, getting them dressed for the bondfire, I decided that orange would be the color. When we got to the bonfire, I was so glad I did not choose red as my color of choice, which I usually do since they have a lot of red clothes, because every one was wearing red!!! (There was about 150 people at the party)Why???? Because it was Husker homecoming and I was told that everyone in Nebraska wears red on Saturday during Husker season!! Well, excuse me!!! And since we were unaware of that unwritten rule, we did not wear red...but it was a very good thing b/c my kids were easy to spot!!

Speaking of my kids.....