Back to mourning. :-(

Well, this certainly wasn't the way we wanted to spend Christmas.
Wanted to update from afar to let ya'll know that we lost our baby on Christmas Eve.
We are all doing okay, considering, but would appreciate any and all prayers as we accept God's will in our lives.

Mourning and Rejoicing!

The kids and I returned yesterday evening from an unexpected trip home to South Dakota for the funeral of my mom's cousin, Ruth. She was a young woman of 59 and was just found to have cancer when she went into the ER on Thanksgiving Day in extreme pain. Luckily we have a doctor and nurse in our family who work at the Mayo clinic and they got her in immediately. It was clear that there was nothing they could do and she was sent home to die. It all happened so quickly, yet it seemed to drag. We got the call last Sunday that she had passed away.
My mom had made it very clear that she more than understood if we couldn't make it to the funeral, but not going was just not an option. When I told most people that I was going to the funeral of my mom's cousin they usually had the reaction of relief...like, "Oh, good...I'm glad it wasn't anyone close"...probably most people don't even know their mom's cousins that well. My family, however, is different. Very different. My grandmother had 11 brothers and sisters. I was raised knowing 9 of them (one died in infancy, one before I was born). Some of my mother's cousins are my age. Anyway, we are all close. Just the way an extended family should be. Ruthie was a staple to our family. She attended every concert, every game, every family function, every Sunday "dinner". She was a wonderful, lovely, loving, joyful woman who I am so blessed to have had in my family. This Christmas will be very hard without her. She leaves a wonderful husband behind who has become so much a part of our family.
On the lighter side of things....getting to announce that we are expecting another addition to our little family during this sad time seems to make things a little brighter! In August (or July if things go the way they have in the past) we will be welcoming another little Jones into this house. This Christmas season seems to have a bittersweet feeling to it this year...mourning our loss, but rejoicing the blessing of this new life! Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel!

A Joke For Ya'll!

Q:What do you get when a bunch of Texans move to Wisconsin?
A: A "Texas-sized" snowstorm!

We got 10 inches of snow over the weekend and it's been snowing all day. They expect up to a foot of snow before it's all over. Gotta love "lake-effect" snow.

Which brings me to my next topic. Driving in snow!
I've been away from this stuff for 7 1/2 years while living in Texas. This morning it was snowing. I checked the forecast and it said we were supposed to get 2-4 inches of accumulation. We have our Catholic homeschool coop every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month so it was on for today. I almost didn't go. Something inside of me said, "Stay! Stay home! Clean your home while you stay home!". But, I kinda figured that if I was never going to go out while it was snowing I may not ever get out all winter. So...we went. Bad call! I stayed through lunch and then decided to head. Pulling the little ballerina out of her class was hard, but it was worth it. The roads were horrendous. I was white knuckling it all the time, and I don't think the kids said a single word...if they did, I sure didn't hear them. At one point I remember praying that the light at the bottom of the hill would stay green because I was going through either way. Whoever planned a city in the north on a hillside was obviously delusional. The interstate looked like our alley, I could barely make out tire tracks and the bridge was worse. At one point I remember looking up and noticing that we were at the top of the bridge. I had no clue where we were, I was just following the little track in front of me in hopes that it would bring me to Wisconsin.
Although it was scary and I don't want to do that ever again, I'm sooooo glad we left when we did because shortly after that they closed the bridges and a lot of my friends got stuck in Duluth. I'm so thankful for being home tonight, and extra thankful because the concert Brett was supposed to be in tonight was cancelled. Yahoo!!!!!
This snow stuff is crazy! I just can't believe how much we're getting. The locals claim that we haven't had this much in a long time, but I remember some locals claiming that mid-80s was rare for October in Texas yet that seemed to happen every year we were there. :-)

Motivation

There's been a general lack of motivation around here lately. Maybe it's the lack of sun, the cold weather, or whatever. Who knows, but it's been spreading like wildfire.



For instance...my guest bed is piled with clean clothes. I have been taking the clothes directly out of the dryer and throwing them onto the bed. Why am I doing this you ask? Well, my laundry basket is full of clean towels that need to be put away? Why aren't they put away? Well, because I need to reorganize/rethink that whole cupboard in the bathroom and I'm not sure I could stuff all the towels in there anyway. Why do I only have one laundry basket? Well, one is being used as "temporary" (read months) storage for clothes that need to be put in storage bins that are currently in the garage. The other is being used for...uhmm...I have no idea. I recently pulled a doll, Magic treehouse book, new package of wipes, and a paint shirt out of the bottom. Oh yeah, and the basket that I was so diligiently keeping all the loner socks that come out of my wash. I have about five piles of them and they never seem to find one another...poor loner socks. So, back to the pile on the bed. I have been known at times to stand down in my cold basement and fold clothes, but then I end up with piles of folded clothes on different pieces of furniture because I can't get them all upstairs without access to a basket.



I think tonight I've been motivated. Not too long ago I heard a yell from a new 6 year old boy who just hopped out of the shower, "Mom! I don't have any underwear in my drawer". I was quite proud that instead of running one pair up to him, I actually grabbed one of the many piles of Aidan-undies and took the whole pile to him.



I was just in my kitchen...unloaded the dishwasher, loaded 'er back up again and had to start it again. But, the clincher is what I saw on the white board.....

Hahahaha!!! I just saw that this post was never posted...too funny! A post entitled "motivation" (and dated back in November) and apparently the lack of motivation was so huge that I didn't have the motivation to finish and post the post! Ah well.

Happy Birthday Aidan!

Yesterday was Aidan's 6th birthday. I'm of course still in shock because I can't figure out how it is that Aidan is six yet I'm still 21! Hee, hee.

We had a fabulous day. He requested Peanut Butter Captain Crunch for breakfast, Jimmy John's for lunch, and pancakes and sausage for dinner. I am very sad to announce that in the excitement of the evening I completely forgot to get a picture of his "Chessboard" cake. They even had a king in "checkmate" .

This wasn't taken on his birthday, but I could absolutely not resist using this picture because it just shows what kind of goofy kid I have to deal with on a daily basis. He is a sweet 6 year old. He had a fabulous birthday, was all smiles except for one instance that shall not be mentioned. He read all of his cards by himself to the shock of his mother who is used to taking his cards and reading them to him. One thing about being six though is that he still knows everything of course. :-) Gotta love six-year-old boys!

The Little Blue Easter Dress

When my sister was a little girl my mom made her this adorable blue Easter dress. The cutest picture of her was taken in front of their door and has always been a favorite. I, being the younger of the two, also got my turn wearing this precious dress...and being photographed in it.

So the tradition continues. Every granddaughter has also had this dress put on her for the sake of a picture. Sadly enough the season is never right so nobody has been able to actually wear it for Easter. We hadn't taken Gigi's picture in it yet and my mom was getting nervous about it not fitting so we stuck her in it yesterday. I think my mom might be a little disappointed in a couple of things. 1) No white tights or shoes (this is November) 2) Gianna wanted nothing to do with the hat. See the hands?

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm a couple days late, but on Monday I celebrated my 27th birthday. My brother-in-law took it upon himself to inform me that I was now in my "late 20s". Ouch! No, actually I don't really get caught up in the whole getting older thing. There's too much to worry about in life to really care about getting older...we should maybe care a little bit about not getting older, now that would be something to worry about.

As is tradition in this house Brett was busy for my birthday so we had a quick "cake-eating party" in the afternoon with some friends. The birthday cake, if you ask me, could not have been better. Brett and the kids baked it the night before, we had to sample a "small" piece because Brett broke it, and the kids decorated it minutes before serving it. What more needs to be said?

Isn't the cake beautiful? Lol! This is not the best picture of my 27-year-old self, but it'll have to do. My hair was in a ponytail and I think this picture is downright goofy, but it's the best one of the cake. :-)

Weird device

A friend of mine and I both won a free 30 minute massage in a drawing and we cashed in on that this morning. We traded off watching the kids and enjoyed 30 minutes of pampering this morning...lovely! After we were done we fixed some lunch for the kids and then it began to snow.
I was joking around with Aidan about needing to be shoveled out if it kept up. Poor kid took me halfway seriously. I forget that he has no concept of snow...how much is a lot (I'm sure he'll understand better after this winter) and how much is just a "dusting". The accumulation had moved from a "dusting" to a "coating" rather quickly, but still nothing too bad so we loaded up into the car for the ride home. The kids could not figure out how in the world we were going to be able to see out the car windows. "Mommy, what are we going to do" "How are we going to get home if we can't see out of the windows?" Then I brought it out. By "it" I mean that handy, dandy thing we call a snow scraper!
I impressed the kids by buzzing around the car "brushing" the snow off. I could hear "oh! wow!" from inside the car and got such a kick out of their astonishment. After the car was thoroughly cleaned off I hopped back in and heard, "I've seen that thing back there for years...I've just never known what it was for...what a handy little device that is...wow, that worked great!" I couldn't break it to them that I could have just as easily used my gloved hand and had the same outcome...no, I just couldn't do that to them.

Snow!

We love snow!
This picture was taken almost a week ago and that snow has been long gone, but it is actually snowing as I type. Yay! The kids are very excited for Gianna to wake up from her nap so we can all go out and play in the snow. Hmmm....do popcorn and hot chocolate count as dinner? It just feels like one of those nights. Maybe I can get by with it if I stick in "It's a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!" Yes, yes...I think that will do.

Opening

Now, in my past life when I spoke of "opening" I was referring to a musical, play or show of some sort. We are now in "huntn'" country and tomorrow is opening. I have a couple observations about this...more will come later I'm sure.

#1 You can't call "huntn'" "hunting". If you do, it would be very clear that you've never been.

#2 I find it ironic that I just told my husband to "look out for deer". Well, duh! I of course was referring to the kind that could jump out at him while he was driving to his huntn' grounds. Baggn' (not "bagging") a deer that way is just not cool...especially on opening day of rifle huntn'.

Big Brother Duties

This morning I decided to give the girls a bath since they have been a little under the weather and I hoped to bring Gianna's temp down a little bit. Aidan no longer bathes with the girls, mainly because they don't all fit in the bath anymore. I had forgotten to set out a diaper for Gianna for when she got out and needed to run down to the laundry room to get them. I called down to Aidan to see if he'd sit in the bathroom while I ran on my errand. He came running up the stairs and before I could say a word he said, "I know, make sure no one gets out or goes under". Ya think he's had this job before? :-)
God Bless,
Meghan

Fun Weekend!

We had an extremely fun weekend. It was a mix of sickness (the not-so-fun part), visitors, and a lovely non-forecast surprise...snow!

Emma's godfather and family (which includes our sweet 2 1/2 year old godson) came late Thursday night and stayed until Sunday early afternoon. We had a fantastic time with these dear friends. Ironically enough we have only seen them "in person" a handful of times so we had a lot of visiting and "chillin'" to do. The men discussed trivial matters like canon law, theology, and Latin, and us women got to the more important subjects such as breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and homeschooling. Lol! When we met Bill for the first time (at the Denver seminary to be exact) we never imagined that he would one day be at our house with his lovely and sweet wife and precious kiddos! We feel so blessed to have this wonderful family a part of our lives and are very excited we don't live a country away anymore (us in Texas and them in Canada), but rather 3 1/2 hours!

Friday morning while Brett was getting ready to head out to work we heard him call, "Aidan, Emma, look out the window!". When they did, this is what they saw:

Aidan and Emma had a blast playing in the little bit of snow that stayed on the ground. I think Aidan would have stayed outside all day, but he was running out of dry mittens and he soon discovered that wet mittens meant cold hands. Gianna went outside for a little while, but didn't' last too long.

The snow was beautiful and brought back so many memories of growing up in the north. The feeling of looking outside and seeing that white stuff falling is truly unforgettable. Now, come April and the stuff is still on the ground I might not be so "poetic" about it. I might be, but it may not be "publishable".

Unfortunately we were having so much fun this weekend that we didn't stop and take too many pictures (sorry Claudia), but here is one that I took of our visitors at the "lookout tower" in Duluth.

A little late...

A belated Happy Feast of All Saints! I meant to post this sooner, but I was too busy keeping St.Patrick and St.Gianna occupied and out of all the candy that somehow snuck its way into our house.
We participated in an All Saints Day party with the Catholic homeschool group we belong to. The kids were encouraged to dress up as their favorite saint and give a short presentation on the saint. Aidan gave an impromptu presentation on St.Patrick and explained how St.Patrick described the Trinity using a clover. Emma also gave an impromptu presentation (both of them told me they didn't want to do one so we didn't work anything up, but when they saw the other kids going up they wanted to as well) and you can tell from the picture she wasn't quite as informed on her saint as I thought she was.

American History meets Catholicism

We are currently studying the American Revolution and after reading a chapter on the Boston Tea Party I overheard Aidan shouting "No taxation without Reconciliation!" That sure puts a different spin on history any way.

Adapting.

I'm pretty sure our Texan children are adapting to this climate. The other day we were playing in the leaves (the pile has grown significantly) and Emma complained of being "too hot", ran inside, and came back out wearing shorts and a t-shirt. The temperature was somewhere between 50 and 55 degrees. These kids are going to do the same thing next spring when the temp hits anywhere above 32! Woohoo! Heat wave!!!!

Happy Halloween!

I'm obviously on a sugar-high when I have to sing that little ditty to myself in order to spell

H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N! :-)

This year the kids went trick-or-treating as snowmen and the little girl who made the snowmen. We were supposed to be a snowman, a princess, and a pink poodle (recycled from last year), but Emma wanted to be what Aidan was going to be and...well....Gianna didn't want to be...period. We had a pretty good time. The kids are really excited about our All Saint's Day celebration tomorrow and the party with the homeschool group on Friday. Aidan is going to be St.Patrick and Emma is going to be St.Maria Goretti. Maybe we'll ditch trick-or-treating next year...one costume per year is enough for me (okay, so Brett actually made these ones, but I'm making the other ones...lol!)

Being a snowman is serious business...especially when you're all bundled up and you're hot and want to get going. (We were at a friends house is case those of you who've been to our house are wondering what part of the house this is.)

Another super-cute snowman....or, ahem...snowgirl.

Now if that face doesn't say it all.

On Your Mark...

Unfortunately many of our leaves have been blown away due to many windy and rainy days, but that didn't discourage them from trying.

Field Trip

Brett has all morning and most of the afternoon off on Tuesdays so he can go out and recruit. This works out great for our homeschooling family and shared love of being with "Daddy". On Tuesday (Emma was find, by the way) we did our schoolwork right away in the morning and headed out to Two Harbors, MN with Brett.

The kids and I dropped Brett off at the high school and went in search of something cool to do. We find an old train museum/depot with a locomotive displayed out in front. It was the train that they used to lay the rails that extend from Duluth on up the North Shore. Aidan was fascinated by it and loved looking at all the mechanism and trying to figure out what connected to what, and what made what move, etc. Fun stuff!

We had quite a bit of time left, but a front was coming in, we were right by the shore, and the wind was freezing cold so we drove up to the parking lot for the lighthouse, took this picture (see below), got back in the car and went to pick up Brett.

When we were getting into the car I noticed a sign indicating that touring the lighthouse was not going to break the bank so after we picked Brett up we headed back to the lighthouse and went on a self-guided tour.

Our first stop was the Pilot House from the ship the Frontenac. The ship was shipwrecked in 1979 due to snow and hazardous conditions. The kids had a great time taking turns being the "captain" (well, two liked taking turns...Miss Gigi mainly liked yelling at the other two for infringing upon her space) and checking out all the equipment they used for operating the ship.

This is Aidan pretending to be the captain as he's discovering the ship is about to hit the reef that ended her career.

"Full steam ahead me hearties!"

Exploring the kitchen in the "Assistant Keeper's House"

Trying to prove to Brett that although I don't have much to show for it I do know the general motion one needs to make in order to make a sewing machine work.

The Two Harbors Lighthouse is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The first lighting was in 1892.

Are we doing a good job pretending we aren't freezing? Do you spy the ship coming in behind us (it actually didn't stop at Two Harbors, but continued on to Duluth and was leaving port this morning as we were crossing the bridge coming back from running errands...cool, huh?)

You be the Judge

Emma woke up this morning, sneezed, gagged, and threw up. Now, most kids who throw up are actually sick. Some of the times that is the case with Emma, but she has a gag reflex like none other and has in the past puked because she gagged.

We were supposed to go recruiting with Brett (well, we wouldn't actually go to the recruiting part), but now I'm not so sure. Is this a case of the stomach bug, or a case of a little girl who has been begging to watch a movie this week (we try to not do tv during the week, just the weekend) and knows that when one is sick in this household one gets to lay on the couch and watch pretty much however many movies one desires. Hmmmmm.....what to do, what to do.

Hiking again!

We took the kids out hiking again this past Saturday. We're trying to soak up all the heat and sunshine before winter gets here. I think this little guy was doing the same thing:

And because you know you all want to see more......

Who gave this one permission to grow up so fast?

Finally

The insurance adjuster finally came this afternoon. From the very beginning of this ordeal that's all we asked for. We were told to hire our own "professionals" to assess the damage, but when our professionals came back with big numbers the insurance company decided to send their own guy.
So, he came this afternoon, spent about 15-20 minutes and here's the deal:

-washer and dryer are being replaced
-freezer is being replaced
-water heater is being replaced
-tile floor and footings/trim is being replaced
-4' up of drywall is being replaced
-$ to pay people to move our stuff out of the way while floor/walls are being done

Whew! A blessing in disguise perhaps. We've had our washer and dryer for 7 years (which is ancient in this day and age where things are made to be broken and thrown away) and our water heater is 12 years old. I'm very excited to get to go appliance shopping, but it was SOOOOOOOOOO not worth it.

Now, onto taking steps to make sure that this doesn't happen again next spring.

"You Are Not in Charge"

Wow. I can't count the number of times I say that to Aidan in any given day. Being the oldest, being almost six, and being Aidan he tends to think that he's the boss and that we're all subject to his commands.
Imagine my shock and horror when I discovered, in light of recent events (oh yes, there's more...), that perhaps God is trying to tell me the same thing: YOU ARE NOT IN CHARGE! I AM!
So, after several days of wallowing in my self-pity and trying to figure out "why?" I have resolved to letting go and letting HIM be in charge.

When it rains...

....it floods

....in our basement

....with sewage!

We knew that basement flooding can be a problem. We knew that it had been a problem in this house before we got here. We spent many hours and a lot of sweat "grading" the slope around our house so that this would be less of a problem. We have had some good rains since we've moved, and were feeling quite smug about the fact that our basement had yet to flood.

Let's go back to last Sunday night/early Monday morning. Brett had just gone to bed, I hadn't gone to bed much earlier when we were awoken by a huge "thud-thud-thud". We got out of bed, did the usual "bedroom scan" of the kids' rooms, were satisfied that it was a mystery sound that may never be found and went back to bed. Never mind the fact that it was thundering and lightening and pouring rain. "Thud-thud-thud" went the mystery noise again. Brett went for a solo exploration this time and somewhere in the back of his mind he was told "go check out the basement". He did, yelled for me, and this is what we saw:

That bathroom mat floated out of the toilet "stall".

Our whole basement was being flooded with city sewer water right before our eyes and there wasn't a thing we could do about it. Well, there was one thing we could do. I jumped from furniture to furniture trying to salvage anything I could. Brett took a tour of the basement with the aid of our computer chair and wheeled himself from room to room saving all that he could and taking pictures for documentation purposes.

We discovered that the mystery sound was the toilet lid going up and slamming shut while the "water" (I use that term lightly) gushed (as in geyser) out of it. Lovely!

The basement is technically "clean". We are in the midst of dealing with our insurance company ('nough said) and getting quotes from different "experts".

More pics

Just adding some pics from our outdoor adventures:

Gigi's "look"

Scouting!

On Saturday, while the paint was drying on our apple-stamped sweatshirts we went out into the forest and "scouted" for deer. We saw a lot of "sign" and also learned a little something along the way. For instance, we learned that when a size 13 footprint is seen at just the right angle it looks nearly like a bear pawprint. We also learned that public hunting land may be "public", but it isn't exactly "public" if ya get my gist. We ran into a nice man (he really was) who was going bird-hunting with his dog in the exact area where we were going to scout for deer. He informed us that this was a fantastic place to go deer-hunting...in fact that is exactly where he and his family have gone since 1985! Oops!

We went back out today to check out a different area and we did indeed see some "sign", but this time it was of a different nature. Aidan was the one who spotted this in fact. It was big, fresh, and had a lot of berry seeds in it! Yes, that's right...not too long before we came trekking into the woods this morning, a black bear relieved himself right in the middle of our path. We have yet to see a bear (and I'm completely okay with that), but we know they are there and the kids were very excited about their "find".

(photo credit: Aidan)

Applefest 2007

Every year during the first weekend of October the town of Bayfield, WI has a huge Apple Festival! We were planning on attending, but as the time drew nearer we decided that instead of making the trek up there and spending a bazillion dollars on "everything apple" that we would buy a bunch of apples (some from the orchards in Bayfield) and have our own apple festival which we have named "Applefest 2007"

The festivities included:

-a breakfast of apple bread, apple crisp, and apple cider

-apple stamping on sweatshirts

-an apple tasting with 6 different types (Honey Crisp was our favorite)

-apples in "dipping" caramel for a snack

-caramel apple making/eating

Fun was had by all! We also had applesauce, apple butter, and an apple pie on our menu, but that might have to wait until later in the week because we are all completely sick of apples. Next year we may have to incorporate more crafts/games and less eating! :-)

Slip, slidin' away!

After several tries and many frustrations Gianna has discovered the perfect method for making sure she "sticks" every bite!

Sioux City

Things have been a little crazy, but I'm finally getting around to posting about the trip the kids and I took to Sioux City to see my sister and her family.

Jocie turned 30 on the 25th of September so I thought what a perfect excuse to go and see her. And her sweet husband was planning a surprise birthday party.

I was planning on leaving right when we got up on Friday morning, but the weather had a different idea. We woke up to a huge storm with large hail and lots of lightening. Our electricity even went out. Once everything looked clear I packed the kids up and we headed out (did I mention that I was doing this 7 hour drive by myself?). Everything was pretty uneventful which is all we can ask for when making a long trek with three small children. We had one episode in an Arby's that involved a long potty break, a spilled cup of Dr.Pepper on potty-break floor, and a baby who loves playing with ice....oy!

We had a great time visiting and the kids loved seeing their cousins and were extremely please that Lauren could talk....lol! Also, while we were there we got to visit our friends who just moved to Vermillion and see their newest (#7!) little guy. Fun stuff!

The kids loved seeing Aunt Jocie's room at school.

We took the kids to make their own bears. They all had a blast.

Super Weirdo!

Aidan seems to be getting the spotlight in my blog today.

Yesterday we met some friends at the park to enjoy what will probably be the last warm day here until....uh, next July! :-) While we were there an "older" (like 10) girl came with her grandma and all of the kids started playing freeze tag. Every one was having a great time and then one of Aidan's friends came over to where we were sitting and told us, "That girl called us weirdos...and she called Aidan a super-weirdo!". Since Aidan was obviously not bothered by this at all I just laughed. He wore the title quite proudly and even reported to Brett later in the evening that he was called a "super weirdo!".

Thank you dear God for giving my son the ability to not be bothered by rude comments and to somehow be able to find pride in being a "super weirdo!"

(the super weirdo himself and the bear he made while visiting in Sioux City)

Chess anybody?

Aidan has been into chess lately. He's actually quite good and really enjoys the game.

He had his first "Blue Knights" meeting this past Monday and seemed to really enjoy himself. I asked him if he met a lot of nice boys.

"Oh, yes. All of the boys were really nice. But, one time the teacher had to leave the room to ask somebody a question and he said that we could all talk for a little while until he came back to the room. Well, I was really excited to see if anybody else was interested in Chess, but all the other boys just started yelling and screaming and making a bunch of noise...nobody was even intrested in having a conversation with me." Lol! I can just see him, "Uhmmm...yes, excuse me gentlemen...is any one else here fascinated with the game of Chess?"

Five year olds!

Go Green and Be Safe!

Just a couple of PSAs for ya'll!

#1 Crunch, crunch:
I was ecstatic last night when I had to run back to the baby area of Target to grab a different size of long underwear for Gigi, and discovered the best surprise ever! Wanna guess? Babycare diapers! I have yet to discuss my diaper obsession here so you may not yet be able to fully understand why this made me so happy. Over time you will get it, but for now I'll just have to say...I love 'em...not all of them, though...I love cloth and the kind that don't take 500 years to decompose and when they finally do decompose let out a toxic gas..lovely, huh. These diapers (did I mention they were at Target...yay!) are 100% biodegradable, and are the perfect solution for this mommy who has yet to find a good cloth diaper that works overnight. They are also a great solution for those disposable users who want a great diaper (it works really well...and overnight is a huge test), but want to be a little more earth savvy!

#2 Car seat safety:
Since moving up to the north I have been doing some research on winter and car seat safety. Did you know that you are not supposed to put your bundle in his/her car seat while bundled up in his/her winter finest? That's right. It's too bulky, creates too much slack and is extremely dangerous! Nothing thicker than a polar fleece jacket/pullover (which they make for 0 degree weather) is to go between the car seat straps and your kiddo! So...be safe and buy fleece!

Say what?

Aidan and I were playing chess (yes, chess) right before lunch today. I had to call Brett to clarify a rule we were unsure about since Aidan and my chess-playing skills are fairly equal to one another. He clarified while laughing at the fact that I had to ask and then walked through the door about 1 1/2 minutes later for lunch.

We were nearing the end of the game and apparently Aidan felt that he was stuck (although he was beating me) and exclaimed, "CRAP!"

(gasp!)

Knowing that I must have heard that wrong since we are a household that does not use the words "butt", "hate", "stupid", "shut-up", and other such words that are unsuitable for little mouths to utter, I asked Aidan to clarify, "CRAP!" he said as clear as day. "CRAP!" Emma repeated giggling because she could tell that Brett and I were absolutely floored and finding it difficult to remain composed.

"Uh...Aidan...we do not use that word in our house, okay?"

"Oh, okay!"

I have no idea where he learned such a word, and I have only one thing to say about this little incident....CRAP!

Happy 4th!

Happy Birthday!
And as you hear every night from your daddy....
May the Lord bless you and keep you,
May He make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you,
May He lift his countenance to you, Emma, and fill you with peace!

Afternoon with Gigi

Gigi on her biiiiiiiike!

This is Gianna's "I'm ignoring you" face!

That's all for now!