New Puppy

Check out the new puppy at our house. We just call him Jake.

Christmas 2009

So, I know this post is a little late, but we had the most wonderful Christmas this year, except for the weather. We had lunch on Christmas Eve with my father-in-law's family, we ate lasagna (the first time I have had lasagna for a Christmas meal), this goes back to the bad weather, we canceled our get together to start off, then it was back on because the weather wasn't so bad. Christmas day we stayed home, just the four of us because the weather once again got worse. We opened gifts with the kids and ate pancakes for lunch and meatballs for supper. We got Brenna a princess castle as you can see in the pictures as well as two princess dresses and a Tag Jr. reading system. Jacob got a Fisher-Price toy (I can't think of what it is called), a pretend toolbox (tools, including a rattle saw and hammer) and two trucks. It was a great day to spend as a family.

On the 26th we finally had Christmas with Morgan's parents, it was a great time. Brenna got a Barbie 4-wheeler and a set of Disney Princess Barbies (these were the two favorites) along with many other gifts. Jacob got the most precious rocking horse and toy box, and many other wonderful presents. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the wonderful gifts!

On Sunday the 27th we had Christmas with my mother-in-laws family. Brenna and Jacob had a wonderful time playing with their 2nd cousins (maybe 3rd or 4th, not really sure the technical term, Morgan's cousin's kids). The kids received many wonderful gifts from Great-grandma and Great-grandpa and from Great-aunt and uncle. I love spending time with family, this coming Sunday we will have Christmas with my family and then we will be done with Christmas for this year, but hopefully we will remember all year that Christmas is about the birth of Christ and a season for giving!

First Haircuts

On December 19 my mother-in-law and I took Brenna and Jacob to get their first haircuts. It was actually quite a fun experience and we had very few tears. I know that it is hard to believe, but we had never cut Brenna's hair in 2 1/2 years, I thought that it would be traumatic for me ( I did okay, we only cut a couple of inches off). And Jacob being a little boy needed his first haircut much earlier, 10 1/2 months. Hope you enjoy the pictures of our wonderful little experience.

Day 20 of 30 Day Shred

Well on the 23rd was day 20 for me. There are no real changes in weight or measurements and my before and after pictures are not showing the change that I am noticing when I put on my jeans. That all being said, I feel stronger than ever before. I have realized that this is a great program for someone that is less than 10 lbs overweight, if you only had a few pounds to lose you would see great results, unlike me who is at least 30 lbs overweight it is difficult to see the results even though I can feel the muscles that I never had before. Hopefully by the end I will at least see the change a little more. I know that the results would be better too if I would eat a little bit better, I did really good at the beginning and then the holidays crept in, Ha!

Halfway There

Today I completed day 15 of the 30 day shred. I don't have much of an update, I have not lost anymore weight, and I finally got a tape measure on day 12 so there is not much news to give you. Level 2 is getting easier, but now my knees are giving me trouble, luckily they don't hurt too bad while I am doing the workout. I am noticing my clothes fitting better, which is actually the ultimate goal, while it would be nice to lose the 20 lbs that the video says is possible, I would just like to drop a couple of jean sizes and look and feel better. Well I will update you again on day 20.

Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays

For many years I have been so irritated by hearing about different companies supposedly telling their employees not to say "Merry Christmas" or that they should say "Happy Holidays", then all of a sudden this year it hit me, while we celebrate Christmas in our home, not everyone does. This time of year there are a few other holidays celebrated by other religions. There is Hanukkah (sp?) and Kwanzaa and probably others that I don't even know about. So while I used to think that people were trying to take away the Reason for the Season by not saying "Merry Christmas", I have realized that they are just trying to include everyone because we do not know everyones' religion. While, I will still be saying Merry Christmas to everyone I see I have a new found understanding for saying "Happy Holidays"!

This leads me to another thought, as I was watching The View the other day they were discussing that when sending out "Holiday" cards what saying do you put on them? Do you put Merry Christmas if you are a Christian or do you send out cards according the the religion of the person receiving the card??? My answer is that you send out a card based off of your beliefs, what do you think???

The 30 Day Shred

If any of you are my lovely facebook friends you know that I have been doing the 30 day Shred from Jillian Michels. I am now on day 11 and started level 2, wow what a much harder workout than level one (which I did for 10 days). As of yesterday, my day 10, I have lost about 4 lbs, I had taken before pictures and took some day 10 pictures yesterday, but I could not see a difference so I won't be posting any pictures today. I will say this is the toughest workout I have ever done, but the great thing is that it is only 20 minutes a day and you are done. A nice lady named Jackie over at A Step at a Time had great results and motivated me to start it, go over and check her out here. I will be giving you an update of my results on day 15, day 20 and day 30.

My Husband is Home and Boy am I Glad!

On Thursday afternoon my wonderful husband and 5 of his friends took of for a short boys trip to Las Vegas. Now I have to say that I was not happy about it a few months ago when he booked this trip and even more so when it came to the day he was to leave. I know that all men need some time with their friends, in fact I think we all do, but I was so upset over the fairness of him getting to go on vacation without me, and leaving me to take care of our children that I was just plain mad. After not having him around for 3+ days I began to realize how much he really does help me around here with the kids, and just keeping me at an even keel. I can now say that I truly appreciate all he does, not just his hard work on the farm to provide for us, but the little things he does that help me out everyday. And I want to thank Morgan for leaving for a few days so that I could come to this realization. I love you and appreciate all you do for us, and am certainly happy to have you back home!

10 months old

Jacob today you are 10 months old, so what have you been up to this month???

• You can now pull up to anything and everything.



• One of you most favorite things to do is to watch the kittens play at the front door or to talk to you dog, Isabel, at the back door.



• You still take 5 bottles a day totalling about 20-24 oz. and you eat 3 solid meals a day.



• You mostly sleep through the night, but are now waking up at around 5:30 for your morning bottle.



• You love to play with your sister and you follow her everywhere she goes.



• You are happy about 95% of the day, the other 5% of the day you are tired or hungry.
• You are not properly crawling yet, but you army crawl like a champ.
• You weigh 21 lbs and are 30 1/2 inches tall, wow you are a big boy.
• You wear clothes between sizes 12 and 18 months.

Not a day goes by that we don't thank God for you and Brenna, we love you Jake!

From Mama to Mommy

In the past week my wonderful first born, Brenna who is 2 1/2 began calling me "Mommy"! It is strange to hear after being called "mama" for the past 2.5 years. I feel like she is all grown up and I don't know what to do. It is so adorable listening to her because she says "mommy" with such enthusiasm and purpose. Brenna seems to end every sentence when she is talking to me with "mommy" for instance she will say "I love chocolate, Mommy" or "I am going to color, Mommy" it is so cute. When did your kids start calling you Mommy like a big kid???

Disney on Ice: Princess Classics

On Thursday night my mom and I took Miss Brenna to see the Disney Princesses on ice. Wow was it amazing, or at least that is what Brenna thought. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more had I not been trying to get good pictures, which I failed miserably at. When we walked into the arena Brenna's face just lit up and she almost shook with joy and amazement. The look on her face for two hours was well worth everything. She was amazed, scared, happy, surprised and filled with pure joy throughout the show. I just love watching my daughter light up when she sees something that makes her so happy and at 2 and 1/2 years old it is anything Disney Princess, especially Cinderella. So please enjoy the pictures of our wonderful time together.

9 Months

Jacob you are 9 months old today. So what have you been up to lately???

• You now weigh 20lbs 5oz (55%) and you are 30 1/4 in. tall (97%)



• You eat 5 bottles a day totaling around 24 oz



• You still love your sister and everything she does you want to do



• You can pull up using Mommy for support



• You can now get into a sitting position by yourself, if you want to, but you are usually too busy to sit still



• You love taking baths



• You love eating solids, especially being able to feed yourself "puffs"



• You love to give hugs

You are just a wonderful little boy, I can't wait to see what God has planned for your life!

The Dragon and the Bumble Bee

For Halloween Jake was a handsome little dragon and Brenna was a bumble bee. We had a fun filled halloween day. We started out our day going to a cousin's house so that we could take pictures of all the great-grandchildren with great-grandma and grandpa. Then all the grandkids (except for the newest one and her mommy, she is only 12 days old) and their mommies, grandmas, and great grandparents went to eat lunch at Burger King, I know this is all too exciting for you! The kids all played in the play place, which come to find out, after one of the mommies had to go in to retrieve a kid, it was really disgusting inside. But fun was had by all. After lunch we came home for some much needed naps. Brenna needed one so badly that I eventually had to wake her up so we could attend our evening festivities, and she wasn't too happy with me when I did so. At 5 pm our church hosted a Trunk or Treat, which was great for us since our kids are still small. We had a wonderful time getting to visit with fellow church members and we got so many wonderful treats, Mommy is going to have to go on an extra strict diet after the candy is all gone, Ha! Here are some pictures of our wonderful day!

Bleeding Ears

My children's new favorite thing to do is to make my ears bleed! One of them starts out "AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH" and the other joins in, so we get "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH" in stereo. We are going to have a lovely choir someday!

God's Plans vs. My Plans

I have been thinking a lot today about where I wanted to be at this point in my life 7 or 8 years ago when I was graduating from high school. At that time in my life I knew Jesus Christ and had accepted him as my savior during my early childhood years, but I didn't know what a true relationship with him was. The day I graduated from high school my plans for my life were very much different from where I am today. I had planned to attend college far from home, in reality I went to college only 30 minutes from home. I planned to major in pre-med, then pre-physical therapy once I realized that it was going to be very difficult for a party girl to get good enough grades to get into medical school. After two years being in the pre-physical therapy program, I realized that that too was going to be a difficult road ahead if I wanted to keep up the partying. I was lost, I had no direction of what I wanted to do so I took a year off from school. During my year off I met my husband. Who would have thought, the girl that never thought about getting married, just serial dating, would meet such a great guy at the age of 20. I had not been to church or worshiped God corporately since I was 12, long story as to why,(it has something to do with my mom getting remarried). We dated for about 4 months and decided this was it, we were meant for each other and we got engaged. After our engagement we began attending church together (this is when I recommitted myself to Christ). I never thought I would get married, we were married about 16 months after we started dating. Wow! I started back to school the summer before we got married and decided on accounting as my major, I always liked in high school and thought everyone needs an accountant, right?
I never thought I would have kids, after a year of marriage my husband and I decided to try the "not trying, but trying to conceive" method. We thought that if it took awhile for us to get pregnant we wouldn't be putting too much pressure on ourselves to get pregnant fast, considering I was not done with school at the time. Low and behold it only took us one time of this method to conceive and 2 months after our 2nd anniversary our beautiful daughter was born. Around our daughters first birthday we started talking about more kids, once again just talking about another one and voila we were pregnant again. Our son was born 1 month after our 4th anniversary. And here we are today, me a stay at home mother of 2, who would have thunk it. I guess God did! God has far greater plans for my life than I ever knew were possible!

Brenna Says Vol. 2

Once again our precious princess has learned a whole new arsenal of funny sayings, so here they are for your enjoyment!

• Brenna says this when she is wearing a dress and twirling in circles, "Mama, I'm a princess, its a dream come true!"


• This is what she says when she does not want to listen to her Mommy, "Shhhhhhhhhh, be quiet, no talking!"


• Brenna says this when Mommy tries to send her to time out, "I no go to my room, I am happy in my eyes!"
• When you ask Brenna to put something down, this is said in a high pitched very annoying voice, "I gonna put it right here, Okaaaaaaay?"
• My favorite is when she has not seen her brother in a few minutes, "Where is my Jake, Mama?"

And there you have Brenna's newest sayings! What do your kids say that crack you up, even when they are being naughty?

Mr. Funny Face

RAINBOW CAKE!!!

Today I attempted to make the Rainbow Cake that Mckmama's friend made for her. It looks terrible at least from the outside, I am no cake decorator that is for sure. It tastes wonderful, except that I am now on a complete sugar overdose from eating cake batter and tasting the frosting. It was a ton of work, not sure if I will attempt this again or not. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Funny Saturday

For the past thirty minutes or so I have been trying to finish up the farm books to take to our accountant this week, since our office is in the basement my hubby was supposed to be upstairs with the kids while I finished up. My hubby came down to answer a few questions I had regarding the income, not a big deal, well he stayed downstairs a little too long. When he went back up to check on Jake, he hollered at me to hurry upstairs and what do I find when I get up there??? Jake had taken off or crawled out of his diaper (not exactly sure how it happened, we received some "White Cloud" diapers as a shower gift and I decided to put them on him today to get them used. He usually wears "Pampers" and has never gotten them off, even when his is only in a diaper) and he had pooped on the living room floor. I just started laughing so hard, I didn't even know what to do other than to get the mess cleaned up. Jake had gotten a handful of his poop and decided to see what it tasted like. I am still laughing right now thinking about this, just too funny and disgusting all at the same time. Needless to say Jake got a much needed bath and we will not be using this brand of diapers again.

8 months

Jacob is 8 months old today, wow has this flown by. I will have to update this later with a picture of him, I can't seem to find my camera. He now weighs about 20lbs and is 28 3/4 in tall. He is army crawling pretty well and is really enjoying the new scenery he gets to explore. He is completely on a bottle now and eats 3 solid meals a day. He is once again sleeping most nights from 8:30 to 6 or 6:30 Praise the Lord! Not much else is new with him this month. We are just so thankful that God has blessed us with his little life.

Brenna Says

Brenna is now 2 1/2, she can say and do almost anything you ask her to, and many things you don't ask, she repeats everything. Today we were taking supper out to Daddy in the field (or a country road they had blocked with tractors, dump wagons and semis) as we were leaving to cross back over the railroad tracks we met another vehicle, I said "You're gonna have a hard time getting through bucko" and in the back seat I hear a little voice say "have hard time bucko!" I just about died laughing and then realized that something a whole lot worse could have slipped out of my mouth, but thankfully didn't.
Brenna's favorite thing to say is "I Love ______!" You fill in the blank, she might look at something blue and say "I Love Blue", or " I Love chocolate milk" is another favorite. My absolute favorite is when she says "I Love my Daddy," it melts my heart every time. This little girl can be a handful, but she always comes through with and "I Love You" or a hug and kiss when you need it most. I LOVE YOU BRENNA!

Jake is MOBILE and Brenna Still Thinks He Needs Her Help!

Jake has become officially mobile, although he doesn't technically crawl, he can army crawl and scoot like a champ. The other day I went to take a shower,Brenna and Jake usually will watch cartoons or play in the living room until I am done, as I was getting out Brenna came in and asked me where Jake was. I immediately went to the living room to look for him, thinking that Brenna was being silly, and I had to search for a minute before finding him behind the recliner, almost to the dining room. Today he made it from the living room all the way to the patio doors and then to the edge of the kitchen, this requires a some doing, he has to get clear around a sectional couch and a recliner in order to get to where he was. I am sooooooo stinking proud of this little boy, but now I have to keep an eye out for him. It was so much easier when you could set him down and he would stay where you put him, but I am so happy when he hits a new milestone.
On another note, Brenna now thinks that Jake needs help moving from place to place, even though it is quite obvious that he can do it on his own. I know this sounds terrible, but if you saw it you would bust out laughing. Brenna will grab Jake by his arms, usually while he is laying down and then she will try to pick him up, when I ask her to stop she looks at me, tries again and then says "Mama he's too heavy", it is the funniest thing. I love how Brenna wants to help her little brother, but sometimes it scares me that she might actually hurt him. Her other favorite thing to do is to make Jake laugh. She will dance for him and sing, but the funniest thing is when she puts her face on his stomach and shakes her head, it is the most hilarious thing I think I have seen in a long time and Jake laughs soooo hard at her. I pray that they are close and have this much fun with each other as they grow up.

Turn UP the Volume

Just wanted to let you know that I added a play list of my favorite songs here, so turn your volume up and check it out. Thank you to Monica for posting your fave songs on your play list, this gave me the idea. So thanks again Monica and I love, Love, LOVE your blog!

Being Prideful in the Choices We Make

I have been thinking about this for awhile now and finally decided to put my thoughts here. Have you ever noticed that mothers become very prideful about their decisions they have made for their children, for example only eating organic food, breastfeeding, to vaccinate or not, or staying home with their children. As I read blogs and discussion forums I have noticed that whatever a mother's choice is she is usually quite prideful in her decision and either seems to put others down that do not share in her views, or makes, at least me feel as though I am not making the right choices for my children. Why do we do this to each other? Why aren't we more supportive of each other as mothers? We all know its is the hardest job there is!
Thus far I am happy with the choices I have made for my two children, yet I never want to come off as the choices I have made are the only right choices out there, so here is what we have done with our children so far. Mind you, most of the choices I have made for my children are from flying by the seat of my pants, not always a lot of thought, usually what sounds good at the time or what will work for our family right now.

• I nursed both my children until about 7 months of age, and then straight to formula.
• We do not purposely eat organic, sometimes I just happen to buy organic food and we eat it.
• Vaccinations are a must have, in my humble opinion.
• I do stay at home with my children now and I love it, but you have to do what works for you and what you are able to do.
• Homeschooling, private or public??? - right now my kids aren't ready for school, but all are up for debate, except maybe homeschooling because I am sure my kids would learn nothing since I am completely unorganized.

I just want us, all as mothers, to be supportive of others decisions. What is right for you and your family may not be right for another family and we can not and should not judge others decisions for themselves and their family.

"I'm a Princess, Mama!"

This morning as we were getting ready for our day Brenna comes out of her room exclaiming, "I'n a priness, Mama, I need a dress!", how sweet is that? We found Brenna a cute little dress to wear and then she began asking for a crown. We found her crown from Burger King and she wore this get up for most of the morning along with some purple Fancy Nancy shoes. I however forgot to take a picture of her in all of her sweetness today.

7 months

Today Jacob is 7 months old, I can hardly believe it. What are you up to now Jake?

• You now weigh just over 18 lbs and are about 28 1/2 inches tall.



• You love to jump in your jumperoo and to babble and talk to yourself or anyone that will listen.



• You have started to sleep better through the night again, PTL!



• You only nurse at bedtime now and if you wake in the night, otherwise you take formula during the day. Mama is a little sad, but we had to get you to take a bottle for everyones sanity, and because sometimes Mama needs to be away for more than 2 hours. You are doing pretty good with formula since we found the right bottle for you, but you rarely drink a whole 6 oz bottle, you usually drink about 4 oz at each feeding. (I think Grandma and Grandpa are secretly happy about this since you will now be able to spend more time with them.)



• You eat 2-3 solid meals a day, you love anything that comes on a spoon!



• You had your first two teeth come in and think that it hurts when you bite yourself.



• You still love your sister and everything she does is hilarious to you.



• You are wearing 9-12 months clothes, depending on the brand and style.



• You love your Mommy.

Jacob Alan you have brought so much joy to this house, we can't thank God enough for you! We pray that one day you will accept Christ as your Savior and live a long joy filled life walking with the Lord!

Drama Princess

Since Drama Queen is reserved for me in our house, we will refer to our first born as the Drama Princess. I rarely let you all know what little Miss Brenna is up to these days and Drama Princess kind of sums it up. Brenna will be 2 1/2 in September and is beginning to be completely over dramatic over everything, I think these are the terrible 2 and a halves. Other than being overly dramatic we have one smart cookie on our hands. Brenna knows the names and locations of almost all of her body parts, she can tell you what almost any color is (as long as it isn't one of those weird colors like aquamarine) and she knows her basic shapes (triangle, square and circle). She can also repeat anything you say, so you better keep the conversation clean when she's around.

Brenna's favorites right now:

Food: ice cream w/ Daddy

Person: Daddy or her brother Jacob (he loves her soooo much)

Thing to do: Watch "toons" while Daddy takes a shower, go swimming, or play at the park (aka our swing set in the back yard)

Question: "Where Daddy go?" or "Daddy where are you?"

Hairstyle: side ponytail

Animal: Futterfly (butterfly)

Color: Pink

Toy: Nemo ( a enormous trout shaped pillow that guess who bought her at Cabela's on our recent vacation) he sleeps in bed with her.

For the most part Brenna is truly a joy, but she does have her "princess" moments. We love her so much, we can't wait to see what kind of little lady she grows up to be. Well that should get you up to date with the happenings of the Drama Princess.

Coco Key

We left on Wednesday for a short little family vacation to Omaha. We stayed at the Embassy Suites in La Vista (they have some enormous 2 room suites great for the little ones to play in). On Thursday afternoon we headed to Coco Key Water Resort, what a fun time. I am not sure who enjoyed it more Jake or Brenna. Brenna loved being in the water, her favorite was the lazy river, she enjoyed floating around with her life jacket on. Morgan and I both thought she would like the slide in the little kids area, but she didn't even want to try it (lately she has had an aversion to any type of slide, not sure what this is about). Jacob loved sitting in the little kids pool and jumping a splashing around. He did get quite tired out though. We had a great time spending quality time with Daddy.

Break on Through

Guess whose first teeth broke through his gums this week????? I give you one guess.... okay so of course it was Jacob. We noticed in the last couple of weeks he was getting big bumps on his lower gums, but figured it would probably be awhile before anything actually erupted. Then on Monday at his 6 month (he was actually 6 1/2 months) his doctor suspected that they would be coming in soon, and needless to say they broke through in the last few days.

Speaking of Jacob's doctors appointment he now weighs 17 1/2 lbs and is 28 1/4 inches long. 55% for his weight and 96% for his height.

6 Months

Jake is 6 months old today! Do you notice anything different about this picture??? He no longer needs his Bumbo seat to help him sit up, he can do it all by himself. What else is this handsome 6 month old up to lately you ask, well:


He rolls all over the place still, no crawling yet.


He loves to eat solid foods; cereal, fruits and veggies and Gerber puffs. He also kind of likes cheerios.


His new favorite toy is his Jumperoo.


He loves to laugh at his big sister.


Jake still hates to take naps, especially in his crib, but continues to sleep through the night most nights.

We are truly blessed by our children!

Two of a Kind

Just look at these two beautiful faces, if you can't tell the top one is Brenna when she was a baby and the bottom one is Jacob. Would you believe that two kids could look so much alike.