Busy, busy busy!

It just occurred to me that my house will not be clean anytime soon!

Rob is fishing this weekend, so I have the kids by myself. No work will get done.

The following weekend is the Super Bowl. Rob wants to have a "small party". He thinks that spending Friday cleaning his tool room in the basement means he can have guests over. Let me know if you understand that one.

The kids have no school on February 18th.

The weekend of February 22-24, I'm going to MN for a scrap booking retreat. My first nights away from Benjamin. :-(

Then the following week we're going to my uncle's wedding in Iowa. The kids don't have school on the 29th, so we're headed down that day for the wedding that evening and can come back on Saturday.

March 15th is Sam's school carnival, the next weekend is Easter, and the following weekend is Emily's dance competition. Whew! And well, then comes April. Yikes!

Playing in the snow

Sam and the neighbor kids made a snow fort in their front yard.

They also made a neat snow man!

Bad colds

Poor Benjamin STILL has his first bad cold. And it's settling in his eyes, of all places. So we visited the doctor on Saturday to verify it wasn't bacterial, and ended up getting eye drops for the conjuctivitis. I'm not sure day care will even let him go tomorrow, but he'll have been on medication for over 24 hours. We'll have to see. Even though he's not feeling well, he's still such a good baby! He's sitting on my lap helping me type this right now!

I was hoping to get some new pictures posted, but have spent pretty much all my free time the last week holding Benjamin and doing laundry! (Don't ask about the rest of my house!) Maybe in the next couple of days!

Oh, and Ben is 15.8 pounds clothed! :-)

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.

I just got this e-mail today and I just had to share it.


A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and anassortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups.

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.

Happy New Year

I can't believe it's already January 6, 2008! I knew having a third child would take more time and energy, but I had NO IDEA how much! I'm not sure if it's my age or the fact that I have 2 others at home who are very busy, but boy, I have NO free time. I'm not sure my house will ever be clean again. And I'm not even thinking about all the extra stuff I'd like to do like organize some closets and go through some drawers. I do have a coule of scrapbooking weekends scheduled for the upcoming months to hopefully get some pages done, but I don't see how I'll ever be caught up! :-) However, I wouldn't trade Benjamin for a clean house or organized closets. He's brought so much joy to our lives.

Unfortunately, he has his first bad cold and is so uncomfortable. Even when he's not feeling good, though, he still smiles and laughs and is happy. We don't visit the doctor for a well-baby check for a few weeks, but by weighing him on the scale, he's 15.5 pounds already! We haven't started solids yet, as he hasn't seemed interested in what we're eating yet.

Here's a picture of Grandma Jo with the boys.

Christmas pictures!

Merry Christmas!!

We had a wonderful day and made lots of memories! Benjamin rolled over from his stomach to his back tonight! He did it twice before he got tired of me flipping him back over and told me so!! I'll be posting pictures after I get them off of my camera.

The Not So Nutcracker

Emily had her winter dance recitals this weekend so I had a chance to try out my new Sony Cyber-shot. We could only take pictures without a flash, I so was a little concerned, but I think it passed the test!

Interesting story

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21843652/

Yeah Fargo/Moorhead!

I just read this news story and had to share it! Check out the Best and worst environment and the Happy or not? sections! (Best #3 for each!)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22013776/?pg=9#HealthiestCities_SELF

My little elves!

My kids are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute!

Click on this link to see how cute they are!

Finally - Benjamin's 3 month pictures

Our holiday pictures

I'm sending prints of these to the family, so you don't have to print them out. The first one is so cute that the photography place is going to use it in their book of examples! It's also the one we chose for our Christmas cards.

My last few days on maternity leave

Well, I go back to work on Monday, November 19th. I'll have had 14 weeks off, although it doesn't seem that long. My in-laws are coming to watch Benjamin Monday through Wednesday, then there's the 4 day Thanksgiving holiday/weekend. On the following Monday, Rob starts his leave and will be home until the end of the year. Benjamin will be 20 weeks to the day when he starts day care! I seriously thought about staying home full-time, but just know I would not be a good stay at home mom. I love my baby very much. but need the outside, adult stimulation that I get from my career. I'm anxious to return to work, although I know it will be difficult with lots of tears. Thank goodness I've been able to get Ben to take a bottle. He did when he was younger, but then we didn't have a need for him to use one, so we didn't. It took a few weeks, but he's doing well with the bottles now. I'm hoping that I'll get to see him roll over before I go back - I suppose that means I should let him have some time on the floor - I spend most of the day holding him because I know I won't get to soon.

We're headed to Minneapolis this weekend for Owen's baptism - he's Rob's cousin's son and is 4 weeks younger than Ben. It will be a quick trip, though - Rob's got band practice tonight, so we won't be leaving until Saturday morning and need to be back by 6 on Sunday so I can attend It's a Wonderful Night at the mall. It's a tradition for me and Emily to go to it!

And on a more serious note - I have a request for prayers. My step-mom's sister has been diagnosed with breast cancer. So far the prognosis is good - it doesn't seem to have spread to the lymph nodes or the bone, but her mom and her aunt both died of breast cancer, so it's scary for the family to have to go through this again. Plus, she's my age with 4 children at home! So please say prayers for Lisa and her family to get through this - she's having surgery on Tuesday.

My little fisherman

I had Benjamin's 3 month pictures taken on Wednesday. He was so good and it was so fun to look at all the options! It was hard to choose, but this was one of my favorites. I'm not going to post the others yet - want them to be a surprise for the grandparents!

When God smiles

I received this in an e-mail and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy!

Benjamin update

Ben had his 3-month check-up and shots on Tuesday. He did very well and is growing like a weed! He's gone from around the 10th percentile in height and weight to the 40th percentile! He weighs exactly 13 pounds. Here's a picture of him today.

Pheasant hunting pictures

Halloween pictures

Sam at the office!

Emily and her friend, Dayton as 50's kids.
Sam as Darth Vader with the neighbors, Holly as Queen (someone) and Colin as a storm trooper.

Benjamin as a cute little (sleeping) pumpkin.

My kids...