my favorte job

I haven't had many jobs in my life but I have to admit that my current job is my favorite.  It will be a job I hold for the rest of my life so I guess it's good I like it. :)  I may, someday in the far future, go back to "work" but nothing will compare to what I get to do everyday now.  I get to stay at home with my kids.

Where is this coming from, you ask...

Well, last week the kids and I had to go to the grocery store.  I can't remember what we were out of... probably milk, I never remember to get milk.  Anyway, we had to go.  I try to plan grocery trips where just the kids and I go during morning snack time.  That way they can sit in the "car cart" and eat as I run through the store as fast as I can to get what we need.  Normally O is good about helping but sometimes she can be too much of a help.  One time I came home with a $5 pack of hot dogs I didn't really want because she put them in the cart when I wasn't looking(I wondered why the bill was a bit higher...).  Anyway, when we went into the store last week I looked to the North and saw huge storm clouds coming and knew I didn't have alot of time.  We were in and out in a flash and made it to the car before the down pour happened.  That did mean that we had to run from the car to the house though.  As soon as we hit the porch, my children asked to stay outside.  It was thundering and lighting so for a moment I was like "no, we need to go in" but then something made me stop and I agreed, as long as we stayed on the porch.

So we stood there and watched the rain come down, the lighting flash, and listened to the thunder boom.  And of course there was talk of playing in the rain.  "No," I would say, "not as long as it's lighting."  They were patient though and finally the lighting stopped.

I realized later that day that this morning was a really special time.  And we wouldn't have been able to share that time if I worked outside the home.  I know that for some moms, working has to be the way it is.  But I want to say that I believe every mom should stay at home with her kids.  Your kids need you.  And you need this time with your kids.  Do whatever it takes to stay at home... disconnect your cable, get the cheapest internet, stop eating out... or move to a smaller house!!  What's more important... a nicely decorated house, a new car, or being able to share rainy mornings splashing in puddles with your children(among other numerous, special occasions)?  I'm not saying it will be easy, there's days I think going back to work would be easier!  But it's worth it... so very worth it.

So I hope that maybe I have given one person something to think about...

As always, comments are welcome. :)

Daddy time!

I love my husband.  I love him for many, many reasons.  One of which is a very important reason... he is a wonderful father!  Our kids, obviously, love him too.  They love it when he comes home and he plays(throws) them on the bed while I'm making supper.  They love it when he tickles them(well, S loves it and asks for more, O doesn't want her feet tickled- just like me!).  They just really love it when he gets down and plays with them!

As you  can see it was "tunnel time" in the basement a few weeks ago.  They thought it was really funny that Daddy was in the tunnel!

S did have a strange thing about needing to see James' feet.  I'm not sure why but every once in a while S would freak out and say "feet!  feet!" so James would stop and have to show S his feet. :)

There are many nights where they just use James as a jungle-gym

Yes, this was taken before hip surgery. :)

Thank you for being a wonderful husband and father, James!! 

I love you!!

farmers market, the mall, and my first garden

A couple weekends ago we went to a Farmer's Market near our house.  I didn't get too many pictures but we did see this interesting "bird" in a cage... not sure if it is an emu or ostrich... there's a gold star for whomever can tell me! :)

The kids got balloons and we had a good time!

After the Farmer's Market we walked around the mall, one of O's new favorite activities.

After walking the mall we went to Barnes and Noble for story time and got to see "Cookie Mouse" from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book.  O loves that book so she was excited to see him, although she didn't want to get near him. :)

We all had a good morning!

After the kids went down for a nap I decided it was a good time to plant the strawberries that have been sitting in the pots on my sidewalk for the last 3 weeks.  Someday when I have a full, big garden, I will have raised beds and follow the square foot gardening method.  Until I get to that point, this small 2x2 bed will work well for my strawberries.  It's funny that the box the bed came in said "my first garden" and this is actually my first garden as a grown-up.  I'm excited to see how they grow.

First I had to put it together and mix the dirt inside...

got a little dirty...

James was nice enough to come out and get action shots

The finished bed... let's hope they grow!

for the birds!

Last week we were home with nothing to do so I got out my preschool education books.  Those books(and my printer/copier) have saved the day several times!  When I was in high school I worked at a daycare.  A few years after I left, the daycare went out of business and I was able to buy all of her planning books!  These are great and we have done several activities from them.  We made these bird puppets last week.

Get out your pattern and crayons:

color the birds and show them off

glue the pieces together

and they are done!

So show them off

and fly around like crazy people...er... birds

"Boy!  That wore me out!"

"Just kidding!"

I wish I could tell you that the running ended after that but I can't.  Apparently the "birds" needed to fly all day.  I have about 20 more little videos of them running around!  It was a fun day!!

Last weekend we went down to Wichita to celebrate my niece's 2nd birthday.  Her party's theme was The Very Hungry Caterpillar book by Eric Carle. My sister-in-law did an AMAZING job with the decorations!  She had all the food from the book(plus some) and everything looked so great!  She did this all with a 2 year old and being about 5 1/2 months pregnant!  I wish I got a picture before we started eating all the food but I forgot.

The birthday girl with Uncle Josh

Cake time!

Unfortunately, cousin E wasn't feeling very well so by the time present opening time came she was a little tired(she ended up having a really bad case of strep throat!).  But I got a few pictures!

I love this picture because of my brother's face.  He may not like me for posting it. :)



Happy Birthday E!  We love you!!

Water fun!

I think I have mentioned that's it's hot here(oh, about every other post!).  It is.  I've lived in Kansas almost all of my life and I know it gets hot here but this year has been bad.  I think it is on track to be one of the hottest.  I think it's worse when you have little kids too(although not nearly as bad as when you are pregnant- not that I am).  It's almost like winter, it's just not doable to go outside and play some days.  On the days that it isn't as hot, we do try to go outside and play... mostly with some water.  This year we finally got around to planting something in our front flower beds.  I'm sure my neighbors were appreciative of this.  We, of course need to water the plants and this has turned into play time.  :)  I took pictures the first time it happened.  For two reasons, it was the first time it happened and we were in our PJ's.  Yes, you read that right, we were in our pj's.  Here's the background... kids needed a bath, it was hot and I needed to water the flowers, I wasn't going to get them dressed to go outside and water the flowers and then bring them in and give them a bath and it seemed silly to me to give them a bath and then go outside to water the flowers and just get hot and sweaty again so we went out for a quick water with PJ's on.  This is what happened....

Yes, that is a little bit redneckish but they had fun!  And I think only one neighbor saw us(although I called and confessed to another... and invited her children to join us- only if they were in their pj's too!).

After several times of hose water play I thought we might need to get out our "frog pool" that my friend Jill got for O last year.  We were very disappointed to find that something had eaten a whole in it over the winter.  How sad! Well, a couple weekends ago, James' mom and sister came over for a visit.  Somehow I managed to get no pictures from the weekend.  I think the main reason for that is because Saturday morning we all went shopping!  Shopping pictures are not all that exciting.  Anyway, a Sears Grand store by us is turning back into a K-Mart so they are having a super-duper sale. We found a little pool for the kids half off!

Yes, water comes out of the elephant's nose and the zebra's mouth.  Fun times!  I guess all the swimming in such a big pool makes you tired...

With his love of water, I was very surprised that S did not get in right away.  He was pretty content to stay on the outside and play with the elephant.  He did get in when our neighbors came over for a swim a week or so later.

And O, with her not love of water, jumped right in!  Kids are funny! :)

Where was I during all this?  Well, taking pictures until James took the camera from me and I got in. 

I guess they were about done by the time I got in because both of them didn't want to "swim" anymore.  So we had fun splashing :)

Silly O!

On days like today I'm glad my 3 year old can say something that makes me laugh.  Here's what happened today:

O(as I'm getting S ready for nap): "It's sleepy time Mommy?"
Me: "Yes."
O: "I'm not sleepy!"
Me: "You can go after S goes to bed."
O: "But I'm not sleepy! The music is still on. I go to bed with the music stops?"
Me(at this point I'm about ready to agree to anything- it's been that kind of day): "Sure."
O(she's holding a bag): "When the music is over I will get the changer out bag and turn it on again."
Me: laughing and laughing
O: "Yes I will Jenny"  Yes she called me Jenny!! 

Sidenote:  She didn't go to sleep during naptime today.

I  was going to fudge on this entry and date the post when we actually did these things but I decided to be honest with my-failure-to-blog in a timely manner. We went down to Wichita for the weekend on July 15th.  It was a spur of the moment trip.  Friday evening we just hung out at Gaga's house writing...

and reading...

and knocking over blocks(a common theme of the weekend).

On Saturday we went to an indoor place called Exploration Place with Grandpa.  It was too hot to do anything outside!

We spent most of our time in one area.  Here's some water play...

There was a nice boat filled with stuffed animals to play in.

 Hey, where did all the animals go??

 Oh, there they are!  O decided they all needed to get out of the boat. :)

There was building of blocks...

and knocking down of blocks...

and more building of blocks...

and more knocking down of blocks.

Also at the same place there's a closet like room you can go into and when you shut the door, the "wind" inside the room will start to blow and will get up to the speed of an F2 tornado.  We hadn't been in there before but O wanted to try it this time.  She lasted longer in there than I thought she would!

 And of course if O did something, S needed to do it too.  He had several funny faces. :)

We had lots of fun!

We also were privileged enough to get a little dance from O!  She loved the outfit Gaga gave her! I had a longer video of her that was better but it was really dark and you couldn't see alot.  Uncle Josh was there too but for some reason I didn't get a picture of him and the kids this time.