Snow Day!

"Where the woman sits"

Today Micah was asking Ryan where his artwork from school was and Ryan said, "It's in the passenger seat. You know, not the driver's seat, but the other front seat." Micah responded with, "Oh, you mean where the woman sits?"

My spare time

I guess I should rephrase that... The time I spend neglecting my family is what it should be called. I decided to try my hand at making purses. After a few tries, I'm feeling pretty good about the product. Here's what I've made so far...

Right now I'm listening to Amelia play with the manger scene. She asked me if she could give baby Jesus a hamburger pretend. I said that was fine. Then I heard her say, "Do you want a hamburger, baby Jesus? Okay, I make you a hamburger. I got to go potty. Tell baby Jesus I going potty. I be right back, baby Jesus."

Yesterday she was offering baby Jesus and the others in the manger scene some water. Then she asked Ryan if she could give them some water and he said no. Then we heard her say, "Sorry, baby Jesus, daddy said no water."

To both of my readers:

Please pray for our pastor. He became ill about a month ago with elevated enzyme levels and spent some time at Salem Hospital before being sent home. After 2 days at home, he became very ill and was taken to the ICU at OHSU where he was put on a ventilator as doctors tried to figure out what was wrong. They found he had a blood disorder and had to give him some very dangerous medication that could have serious side effects. His kidneys were failing and couldn't clean the blood (or whatever they do). Anyway, we had a couple of prayer meetings at church and he was improving, but still very sick. Then on Sunday he took a turn for the worse and is back on a ventilator. For more info check out: http://www.salemalliance.org/ and click the Update on John Stumbo button. Also, if any of what I wrote doesn't make sense, you can read the real stuff there. Jehovah Rophe means God who heals. I pray that he will heal John's body and let us keep him a little longer. Pastor John has a heart and a vision for this city and has already done amazing things bringing the neighborhood and the city together. Please pray!

My little philosopher

LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS
Place: In the car...
Micah: Mom, my music at night says that everyone who believes in God is like a light in the darkness.
Me: That's right.
Micah: So, I decided that I'm going to believe in God so that I can be a light in my really dark room at night.

AGE OF GOD
Place: In the living room
Micah: Dad, how old is God?
Ryan: Oh, I don't know. Well, he's older than the earth, and the earth is millions and millions of years old. I don't know if God really has an age.
Micah: So, like... 29?
Ryan: Oh, well I'm 29, so he's got to be older than that.
Micah: Maybe like... One hundred and ninety-two (very dramatic, because its the biggest number he's ever thought of)?

Night #3...

Not dry at all. I got him up about 10:00 and he had already wet the bed. Then again about 4:00 in the morning. Here is what I've learned from my scientific experiment...
1. He does pee in his sleep
2. He can get a lot out before bed.
3. He is a HEAVY sleeper. We can take him to the bathroom and he has no memory of it.
4. He's not just being lazy (glad I never told him that).
I think we will go back to pull ups for awhile. I don't mind using them if I know they're needed. But somebody, PLEASE tell me how to get rid of that horrible stale pee smell in our bathroom? (I know, emptying the garbage of the FULL pull-ups would help.)

Night #2... not so dry

Last night Micah went to bed about 7:00, then Ryan took him to the batheroom about 9:30. He came in at 3:00 and said his bed was wet. I went down and changed the sheets, he changed his pajamas and underwear and went right back to bed. It wasn't bad, but could get annoying if it keeps happening. I remembered something that my sister had used with her oldest. It was a bedwetting alarm. As soon as the sensor senses moisture it sends an alarm sound to wake the child up so he can go to the bathroom. I just ordered one online. I found some for up to $150.00, but I bought one for $20.00. I hope it works as well.

Dry Night #1

You may want to read the previous post first...

He did it! He was dry this morning. I had the sheets set out and I was mentally prepared (as much as I could be) for the long night. We only have two sets of twin sheets, so I wasn't sure what I would do if we had to change the bed more than once. I got him up at 9:30 and made him go to the bathroom. He came up to our room this morning about 5:30 and I said, "Are you dry???" He said he felt a little wet, but his pajamas were dry, so I said, "That's good enough for me!" He got 3 tokens in his token jar, too. I raved about how proud of him I was.

Please tell me I'm doing the right thing...

Tonight Micah put his pull-up on to get ready for bed. Then I heard him mumble something about having to go to the bathroom while he was standing in his pull-up in the living room. I looked over and just knew... "Did you pee in your pull-up again?" I asked. "Yeah," he said with puppy-dog eyes (That DON'T work on me when he does this). "Go, take your pull-up off and wash yourself up. You're done with pull-ups." I said. I wasn't mean about it, but I'm done with his little games (peeing in his pull up to "try it out," telling me he doesn't have to go before bed and then getting up to go 5 minutes after we tuck him in). I know that for some boys it takes until they're like eight or something, but I am convinced that when he pees, he is awake. I believe that he's just lazy (I know that sounds harsh, but I really do).
So... here's the plan. He's wearing underwear tonight, and I fully expect to have to get up and clean up once or twice, BUT I'm going to have him help me take the sheets off, etc. I'm hoping it will convince him to acutally go to the bathroom before bed (He tells me nothing will come out when I know he hasn't gone since 3:00 or so), and then maybe I can find out if he really needs a pull-up for the rest of the night or not.

F.Y.I. I don't function with lack of sleep (like you didn't know this already).

Another new look?

This is what Micah was wearing when he got dressed this morning. Ryan and I had tears coming out because it was so hard to keep from laughing. What you can't tell is that he is wearing his cammo shorts backwards. He was completely serious about this uni. for today. He had no idea that we were taking picutes because he looked so funny. Ryan asked Micah if he could take a picture of him and then the kids were all ready for a photo shoot. Amelia wanted a picture of the back of her back.

Then they wanted a picture of their feet.
Wow! Never a dull moment around here.

This morning they were playing duck, duck, goose. Micah said, "Amelia, you sit down. I'll be the ducker and I'll pick you!"

Here is Amelia enjoying her pudding.

New look?

Here are my new glasses. What do you think? I asked one of my kids at school if she thought I looked smarter. She said, "Yeah! ... and pretty!" Is that a back-handed compliment, or what?

Kids say the darndest things

Amelia saw her pajamas sitting on the counter and she said, "Daddy, I like these pajamas! See, they have stars... and clouds... and bananas."

On Wednesday night, Micah went to Awana's with his friend. Earlier in the day I told him that we would be going. When Ryan pulled in the garage that night, Micah ran out and said, "Dad! I'm going to iguanas tonight!"

And for your listening enjoyment, here is Amelia singing "Jesus loves me."

Pumpkin patch take 3

Yesterday Micah and I went to another pumpkin patch with a friend from my school and her two girls. We had lots of fun. Here are some pictures from the day.

Baby Anna

The "Tractor Ride"

Micah and Katie

tooth fairy strikes again... and other amazing stories

Micah lost tooth #2 last week at a friend's house. He said, "Mom, look, its really really loose now." I said, "Oh, Micah, its time to pull it out before you swallow it." So he grabs the tooth and takes it out like he's taking a crayon out of a crayon box. "Look, Mom!" He's bleeding profusely, but it doesn't faze him. I'm thinking, who are you and what did you do with my son? He was very excited to put it in his tooth pillow to see if he would get another quarter from the tooth fairy, but then he remembered that the tooth fairy takes the tooth and he decided he wouldn't put it under his pillow because he wanted to bring his tooth to school for show and tell on his "Special Day." (I don't know if those quotes are right, but it reminds me that Ryan found a FUNNY blog called "Unnecessary Quotations.")So we convinced him that the tooth fairy might let him keep the tooth if she knew he wanted it so badly. Anyway, the tooth fairy left a really sweet note and said Micah could keep this tooth and she was sorry that she took the other one so soon.

We took a quick trip to Spokane to visit cousins Sammy and Noah and of course my brother and sister-in-law. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of them, only of us and my parents at the pumpkin patch in Spokane.


Last weekend we went to Fir Point Farms in Aurora for their fall festival. We had lots of fun there.



We borrowed a friend's portable DVD player for the trip to Spokane. Here are Micah and Amelia trying it out.

About a month ago we went to the zoo. We thought it opened at 9AM, but it opened at 10 instead, so we walked around Washington park and the Vietnam war memorial for a little bit.


Here is Amelia with her food. She loves bringing us all kinds of stuff to eat. She says, "Mommy, you have to go 'fffff' so it not so hot."
As I started typing this blog, Amelia rearranges the little chairs and brings her stroller and babies over and tells me that they are waiting for the bus.

blog-worthy

Ryan picked up the kids from school today and when they came home, Amelia promptly peed on the carpet in the living room. (She never has accidents at school.) So he took her to the bathroom and she went a little more in the toilet, then she bent over so he could wipe her. He heard a noise and looked down at her... she was doing raspberries on the TOILET RIM!!! No, not the seat, the rim, the yucky part that gets peed on by the boys! Lets face it, people, I don't clean the toilets! Ryan said he wiped off her mouth with toilet paper. I'm thinking... is it time to introduce her to the soap bar? Needless to say, there will be no kissing on the lips for a few days. UGH!!!

poison control

Yes, I called it. I haven't had to for over a year, but tonight Amelia bit into one of those glow bracelets. We were sitting in the car while Ryan ran into the grocery store and I looked back and saw the crease of her mouth glowing along with her fingers. It didn't bother her right away, but then it must have gotten into her mouth. She cried pretty hard. The lady at poison control said that it probably burns like hot pepper or something but its not toxic or anything like that. phew! At the end of the call they always ask for your zip code, your name and the child's name. I wonder if they've logged all of the times I've called and are like, hmm, she's the one who sprayed ant spray on the baby bottles and her kid ate desitin. I can't remember the other reasons I've called, but they always make me feel better.

New Fence

My amazing husband suprised me and took the day off to install a fence piece on the side of our house. We've been wanting to put one there ever since we moved in, but haven't gotten around to it. What a suprise! It looks so nice and now we have privacy on the side of our house and I feel better about letting the kids play outside.

Chuck E. Cheese and Micah's Wish

Here are some pictures from Chuck E. Cheese's:

Micah and Garrett

Amelia and the infamous Bailey

Micah's cupcake "cake"

Here is proof that Micah wants to marry Bailey:

Time flies...

...when you're busy.

My lack of blogging was certainly not for lack of things to blog about. I think I wrote one in my head almost every day since my last blog. We've been incredibly busy with the start of school and the current birthday "season" as I'm calling it.


Micah lost his tooth. boo hoo. He must have swallowed it in the night because I searched high and low for it. In the morning I noticed it was gone. We looked all around for it and then I said, "I guess the tooth fairy must have gotten it before we even got to see it." Then Micah said, "Where's my tooth pillow? Maybe she left me something." I made eyes with Ryan and he quickly found the pillow while Micah was looking for it and grabbed a quarter off of Micah's dresser and put it in the pocket of the tooth pillow. Then Micah found it and was really excited. Its a good thing he doesn't know the going rate for teeth these days.
We had to take a picture of Amelia's teeth too.

Micah had his family birthday party at my parents' house. It was supposed to be at the park, but just as we were driving over there it started pouring. We had lots of fun with the cousins.

We got Micah a bike for his birthday.

Micah and Amelia started daycare at Riviera. Amelia loves going to "school." She is in the two-year old class and our neighbor is in her same class. Micah goes to the daycare most of the time, but has already had two days of pre-kindergarten. He likes it a lot. Since today was his birthday, he got to bring treats (he picked oreos), a special toy (his build-a-bear monkey), and got to put the number on the calendar and identify the weather.
Micah had his friend party at Chuck E. Cheese's on Sunday. We had a blast with about 20 friends and lots of pizza.
I started school (teaching) and I am loving my new schedule. I now have Wednesdays off and I think it's going to be a good balance. I love it, yet I still struggle with how to manage 30 first graders at a time.