Halloween pictures

Halloween 2009

Up until today, we didn't really have plans for Halloween, but we came up with some costumes last minute that would work for the kids to go out for an hour tonight. Violet wore her dress up princess dress and Calvin wore the costume we got for Violet last year (she was too scared to wear it). At first glance of the Elmo costume, Calvin FREAKED out. He is scared of live puppets and things like that, so he was not a fan. Dave decided to trick him into wearing it though. We put a hat over his eyes so he couldn't see, and we stuck the cost over his head, and made him wear it. At first he cried, got a glimpse of the front of his costume and said "Elmo!" in a horrified tone. It was so funny though. He got over it quickly. We went outside and started trick or treating around the neighborhood and he eventually warmed up to the idea that people were ready and willing to hand him candy. Dave kept him entertained with skittles and milk duds the whole time. Violet walked up bravely to every door and said "trick or treating!" before even waiting for the person to open the door. She had a lot of fun, and knew that a house was available to walk up to if the porch light was on. Calvin melted down quickly after a few houses, so we traded off carrying him around. I took him back to the house so I could start handing out candy for the remaining hour and Dave and Violet went to a couple more houses. Soon they came back in. We bought too much halloween candy, so now we're stuck with a few pounds of sugar. I don't know what we're going to do with it. Each kid had quite stash of candy. Violet was only interested in the suckers, and Calvin was interested in anything he could get his hands on. I think he had a few M&Ms. Both kids were wired. They were jumping and down all night, climbing on the chair and couch like crazy. The night turned quickly sour when Violet hit a wall, she just started whining and needed to go to bed. Didn't help much that she slept about 30 min for a nap today. Anyway...got them in bed quickly. We brushed the kids' teeth extra long tonight trying to get all the sugar off their teeth. I flossed V's teeth. Then Dave and I cleaned up the house, and right now he's vacuuming. :) He apparently caught a cleaning bug in the picking up process. I feel like we pick up the house and make it look presentable every single night, its a battle that never ends. Put toys away, do dishes, clean up papers and magazines, pay a bill here or there, sweep the floor...etc. At least I have a husband who likes it just as cleaned up as I do! He is a great help.

She's feeling better today

Violet slept through the night with no problems last night, and she even woke up really happy, so I think the worst is behind us. Thanks for everyone's suggestions. Dave and I had a lazy morning. Well, I did. He got up around 7:30 am and went downstairs before everybody woke up to get in an hour of work. When Violet woke up I sent her to the basement to see daddy, she was more than happy to do that. I slept in til 9:30 when I heard Calvin screaming. So I got him up and took him to the basement to see everybody. He sat on daddy's lap and watched Violet play a Thomas the Train game on daddy's second computer. We headed upstairs for some breakfast. Dave made me two eggs and some toast, and got both kids breakfast, it was a nice change. We spent some time discussing travel plans for Ohio (to see the Butler family for Thanksgiving) and finalized our travel plans to attend Rachel's graduation from ortho school in December. We got our flights and hotel booked. The kids destroyed the house with toys (I felt like it was a toy battle field!) while we were talking. Tonight we'll head outside for as long as we can stand it and take the kids trick or treating. I don't know if Calvin will do it, but we've got an Elmo costume downstairs he can put on if he doesn't freak out wearing it. Violet is going to wear her princess dress up dress that Aunt Rachel got her. We'll head down our street and back up like we did last year and hand out candy for the rest of the night. It will be a busy street, like it was last year! I bet some of the freaky costumes will scare Violet and Calvin!!

Violet isn't feeling so good

Since they got home, I almost expected that she would be sick having traveled across so many states. Calvin and I were very happy to see the other half of our family. Calvin was SO happy to see Violet, he was shrieking and jumping up and down when he saw the truck pull in the driveway. She has croup. It is the worst at night, she struggles to breathe well. The cough started Thursday morning when she woke up and it sounded horrible. She had to skip school and miss her Harvest party. She seemed fine during the day on Thursday but then at night, she woke up around midnight coughing. It definitely sounded like a croup cough, it was a loud bark. She's also kept up a low grade fever around 100-101 for a couple days.

He is more talkative lately

The last couple of days I have written a list of things that Calvin says, and I'm going to post it just for recording sake. A couple of these he just came up with today. hah-hee = horsie ah-mah = oatmeal ah-di = Aldi an-yee = candy bubbo = bubble appo = apple mo = no duu = juice eye home whaa = why pea-buh = peanut butter choo-choo = Thomas the Train video Eh-mo = Elmo He opened the cupboard today and came running over to me with the peanut butter jar. The kid loves peanut butter. He said "pea-buh!" so he got a few spoonfuls. That was a new one. His newest thing lately is to say "whyy?" after everything I say to him. It was only cute for the first few times.

my first "conversation" with Calvin

Since I've figured out that his word "an-yee" is "candy", I am starting to realize just how often he uses that term and stands at the door and points up where he knows a little bucket of treats is. This morning when he woke up and got downstairs, he walked over to that door and pointed up. He said "an-yee?" I said "No, Calvin, you can not have candy for breakfast." He said "whyyy?" and I said "because I am your mommy and I said no. How about some oatmeal?" He replies "Aht-mah!" and went for a bowl of oatmeal instead. The little gears in his head are working, just very slowly in the speaking department. :) Boys.

Dave and Violet are off to Texas!

Its 5:45 in the morning, but I couldn't go back to sleep just yet! Dave scheduled this work trip with Violet for the first time ever. It is only going to work because Dave's sister Lisa lives in Dallas where Dave is working, and they are going to stay at their place. Violet with stay with Aunt Lisa and her three cousins (Kristina, Emma and Anja) during the day while Dave is working. They left this morning, and he'll work Mon and Tues and fly back home on Wed morning. I can't tell you how much Violet was looking forward to this trip. Two weeks ago when Dave asked her if she'd like to go with him on the airplane some times, she beamed and said "yesssss!" and jumped up and down like a crazy girl. Almost every sad moment for the last two weeks has resulted in her wanting to go on the airplane with daddy. She kept saying "everything just takes too long". Dave was just in CA last week for work (Sun thru Fri), so he got home on Friday late, then had to turn around and leave again on Sun morning. He knew she wouldn't be a big fan of him turning around so quickly and leaving again and felt bad for her, so this time he made the extra effort to take her with him because she would have a place to stay during the day. And it gives her a chance to bond with her three cousins that she doesn't know real well. I know they are looking forward to seeing her, they will have all sorts of fun. So, this morning their flight takes off at 6 am. We woke up Violet at 5 am, and we had talked to her many times about having to wake her up in the middle of the night to prepare her, knowing that she could very well be a big cranky pants. When our alarms went off, we got up and walked to her room, and woke her up. Dave gave her a big hug and picked her up. She woke up immediately, and he said "Its time to wake up, get dressed and drive to the airport so we can get on the airplane and go to Texas." She said "ok! I'll wake up now!" and immediately went into cheerful mode. Dave got in the shower and I helped her get dressed in the clothes we had picked out the night before. She just kept up the cheerful mood the whole time getting ready, offering to help with things and get her shoes on right away. She had packed all her favorite shirts in daddy's suitcase the night before and packed her little back pack with all her favorite things to do: her CD player with favorite music (lots of favorites here, I'm noticing, lol), her coloring book, colored pencils, a few sticks of gum, extra batteries, three tubes of chapstick, a notebook and a pen. Daddy just couldn't get ready fast enough. She knew as soon as he got dressed that they were going to take off. She anxiously waited til he was packed up, and in the mean time, we packed all her blankies, pillow and baby into his suitcase. I decided to put her pink blankie in her back pack so she could sleep with it if she got tired on the airplane. She had a little drink of milk, brushed her teeth, and soon they were out the door. I managed to stop them for a second to snap a picture of them together. I can tell that Dave is really excited to take her with him this trip. He loves knowing this is special and she is excited, and he just loves to spend time with her, I'm so happy about that. She was really missing her daddy a lot this past week since he was gone so this is a great time for them to reconnect. I wonder if later in life she will remember this. Soon they were in the truck and heading off. She told me to be brave if I started to be sad and to give Calvin a big hug and kiss if he gets sad. I'm a little worried that Calvin isn't going to understand all this (well, of course he won't, he just 1)...I just know that he won't and I hope he gets through the next 3 1/2 days with out too much anxiety about daddy and Violet being gone. I am gonna try get some sleep before I have to wake up in an hour and a half. I'm a little sad because I will really miss having Violet around. She's a big personality that fills this house up quickly. But I have to appreciate the break as well, knowing that this could be a very good thing, too.

I figured it out

"An-yee" means "Candy"!! The mystery word is solved. Tonight Violet asked for a piece of candy. I told her she could have one piece after dinner, and she didn't let me forget. So after supper she went over to the storage closet where she knows some candy is and asked for the piece. Calvin ran over and stood with her, and shouted "an-yee! an-yee!" as she was saying "candy! candy!" Each kid got one starburst chewy. :) At least I know. A few days ago he was pointing at that closet saying "an-yee" and I didn't have a clue what he meant. He is learning a few more words: Bubble, apple, Aldi, oatmeal, and poon (spoon).

Calvin got braver

Calvin is my kid who would climb to the top of the slide, sit there, then freak out and turn around and not go down. He's done this ever since he could climb, but yesterday he got brave! I took both kids to a park yesterday because the weather was sooo beautiful. They seemed so happy to be outside. Calvin followed Violet right up the stairs to the slide, and I climbed after him prepared to help him back down the stairs, but he saw Violet go down, and followed right after her. He was happy at the end of the slide, so he kept going! He even went down the big long twisty tube slide a few times. They went down on their tummies head first many times, and giggled the whole way down.

Great day

Today has been a great day! Dave and I got to sleep in a little bit (a little bit meaning til 8:00 when Violet walked in the room) and we all cooked a yummy scrambled egg and sausage breakfast. Both kids gobbled up the scrambled eggs like it was cereal, I didn't expect them to like it so much. Daddy makes the best scrambled eggs, apparently, because when I make them they never seem to care much for them. I went to Elements Massage to redeem the last of the three massages that Dave got for me LAST Mother's Day. I used two of them, and I had lost the third little coupon, so I called the store and asked if they could check their records and allow me to still use the third one even though I lost it. They said I could, so I scheduled an appointment for today. I got an hour long massage and it felt sooo good, I almost fell asleep. I felt my arm twitch a little, I had to force myself to stay conscious. When I got home, Dave was outside mowing and Violet had already woken up from her nap. She was just wandering around the house when I walked in. She said "mommy, did your back scratch feel good?" The whole family (once Calvin woke up) joined Dave outside for some yard work. He was using the edger to spruce up the sidewalks and edges of the driveway. I used the yard vac to suck up all the extra grass left behind after mowing. Usually we don't have to do that since he mows weekly and the little bit that gets cut off is mulched into the ground, but this time there were big hefty chunks of grass left in the yard. Violet and Calvin walked around the yard while we worked, and we sort of traded off who was watching them. Violet is pretty much fine and trustworthy outside, but Calvin...he's much more difficult. The kid doesn't listen all that great. He sat in the stroller for most of the time so he wouldn't wander into the street. We had to cut off working on the yard and didn't quite finish because I had to be at BBC for a music rehearsal. I'm playing my flute along with some other players for tomorrow's music, and the rehearsal went great. Dave hired Dakota to babysit (he didn't even tell me until last night!) because he decided tonight would be a date night. After the music rehearsal was done, we went out to eat at CU. It was a nice time. The restaurant wasn't very busy, so our orders came pretty quick. We split a veggie risotto, each had a different cup of soup, different entrees (he had shrimp and scallops, I hate pork tenderloin), and we split a dessert. Yuuuumy! Dakota said the kids did great and went to sleep easily. This coming week is going to be a challenge for me. Dave is going to California Sun through Fri.

Due date moved

My first appointment with the midwife's nurse was yesterday, it took an hour! The same nurse (Kathy) remembered me, and said "oh yay! you're back! You sure look skinny." when she saw me in the waiting room. I just gave her a big smile and said "here we go again!". I was a little thrown by her "skinny" comment, and I just chalked it up to her seeing me last 40 pounds heavier extremely pregnant and overdue with Calvin. I guess her last memory of me I must have looked very different, lol. I got the paperwork, stuff to do, things to remember, stuff to avoid, and I signed a bunch of papers declining some DNA testing. She took a pregnancy test in the office and set me up with my next appointment. She also moved my due date to May 14th. Not really sure why, but I changed my ticker anyway. I'll take an extra week just like that in a moment's notice. I suppose it could change with an ultrasound, it doesn't matter much to me. I'm just thrilled to have a baby in the spring time...NO winter baby for me...YAY!!!

Back home from Jeff's wedding

We're back from MN. The kids are napping now and that is exactly what I should be doing, but I would have felt bad taking a nap. There are piles and piles of laundry to do, and I just spent the last half hour sorting the colors into piles...whites, darks, brights, and towels. One load is in, and I can't really snooze off now since I know in the next 45 min the kids will wake up. Sooo, its OK. I might as well be thankful that my kids take good naps in the afternoons which give me a little break. We spent the last half of last week in Minnesota. Seems like we've been on the road an awful lot this summer! Dave was Jeff's best man, so he planned the bachelor party for Thursday night. We left for Minneapolis Thursday right after Violet got done with preschool. We picked up a cake Dave ordered for Jeff at Target on our way out, which added what seemed like an hour to the trip. The drive took about 4 hours...and I don't remember how it went. We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Maple Grove. We had a quick supper at the hotel's restaurant, then I took the kids to the pool while Dave went out for the bach party. They went to Dave and Buster's, then came back to the hotel and had cake together. I think they spent some time in prayer for Jeff. Friday morning we visited Dave's grandma Florence and his aunt Joyce. We joined them for lunch in their apartment's cafeteria. The kids didn't like the food served, but they ate the side items (bread and diced peaches). We made the two hour drive to Willmar, MN that afternoon and arrived at the tux shop (we got lost, imagine that!), grabbed his tux and made it to the rehearsal at the church in time. There was really nothing for the kids to do. The church wouldn't open up their nursery (they said they'd have to re-disinfect everything and apologized for the inconvenience). So I was stuck...they had been in the car all day and just wanted to run around and be loud. Martha volunteered to come with me back to the hotel so the kids could swim a little so I went for it. We figured Dave could find a ride with someone to the rehearsal dinner location. The rehearsal dinner was at a senior citizen's center - and Jeff's cooking crew made a yummy batch of jambalaya. More and more people started showing up at this rehearsal dinner as the night went on - the room was packed. More people we knew kept filling the room, and we ended up staying and talking to people til 9 pm. There was a big room off to the side where a bunch of toys were so the kids got to run around for awhile. We finally left and got them to bed in the hotel, and spent the last hours of Friday in the hotel lobby talking to people. It even started snowing that night. It came down all night, and by the time morning came, there were 2 inches of packed snow on my van windshield. No snow brush, either. I used a friend's credit card to scrap it off. Dave had to leave early on Sat morning to be in some wedding pictures, so it was up to me to entertain the kids and get them all ready. Martha was a big help. We swam for a an hour or so, then bathed them and got them all dressed in time to leave. The wedding was beautiful. Everybody on both sides of Jeff and Denise's family were so happy to see him them get married. The reception downstairs was beautiful. Jeff created the menu (yummy chicken topped spinach, bacon and mozzarella, a yummy salad, and creamy pasta) so everybody enjoyed the food. Denise had made all the cakes. That day my voice slowly declined. I could barely speak by the time the reception started. It was dark, and I had a hard time conversing with people since my voice was shot. Both kids were seriously starting to melt down. They didn't eat anything (they got into their whiny upset moods and refused to eat) so by the time we left they were hungry. We all changed into comfy clothes after the reception was over...we had a 6 hr drive ahead of us. I was exhausted, but couldn't rest in the car. Dave drove the whole way home, and I think the kids slept the last 2 hours of the journey. When we got home, the transfers to bed went much smoother than we had anticipated. Calvin fell asleep right away when we put him in his crib and Violet fussed for a little bit while we got on her PJs, but she curled right into bed and said goodbye with no bedtime ritual requirements. It took a couple days to adjust to being home. Calvin slept in til 9:40 the next morning. Dave and Violet headed off to BBC in time for the first meeting, I stayed home and waited for Calvin to wake up. I wasn't about to wake him up - he would be a horrible crab if I did that. He had a little bowl of cereal, and we arrived at 10 am. My voice was still completely shot so I couldn't say much. I was super encouraged though, by the 2nd meeting. We're going through a book on Landmines in the christian life, and today's focus was how to deal with disappointment. Just what I needed to hear, so I was glad I didn't miss that.

Can't deal with it

The other night a couple hours after we put Violet to bed, we heard her door open. Dave went upstairs to find out what was going on. She informed him that she was having trouble - she said: "Dad, my baby keeps falling out of bed, my blankie keeps falling, and I just can't deal with it!" She's also having patience issues (what 3 yr old doesn't?) with the new gym being constructed over at BBC. The steel structure is up, but the roof and sides are not done yet. It won't be until near Christmas time that it is completed. She cries every night about going to the gym, and wants to see it finished every time we pull up to the church building. She told Curt Smith (the guy who is working with the construction company on building it) tonight that he better hurry up and build it so she can go in and play and run around. We saw him at the church building tonight because Dave was helping replace light bulbs and things and I was cleaning the nursery room.

Told Violet last night

Sat, Oct 3rd. We spilled the beans today. I am definitely sporting a little belly so I decided I’d end the confusion and tell people. I’m 7 weeks along so far…I didn’t start showing with Violet til I was close to four months. I guess that’s what the third pregnancy will do to you. Dave called his mom while I called my parents. Mom and dad were congratulatory and happy. I called Rachel and she was very excited. Then I called Jay and he and Molly are both very happy. I could hear Molly in the background saying that we were going to have a baby party next time we got together! Lol. Today I feel tired and slightly nauseous. I even took a long nap but I still feel tired. I read online that this week, baby doubled in size from 2 mm to the size of a pinto or black bean, about ½ inch long and that as every minute passes by, more than a hundred more nerve endings form on the brain. Amazing. Dave told Violet about the new baby while we were putting her to bed. He talked about mommy having a new baby and her first question was “Is Calvin going to die?” Poor girl, she thought we were replacing Calvin. Then we told her no, that there would be three kids in the family, and Calvin will still be here.

Baby #3 on the way

The journal entry is taking place on Sunday, Sept 13th. I just found out yesterday morning that I am pregnant with #3! I would normally be journaling in my blog but I don’t want to tell anybody yet until I’m further along. Dave and I had been “trying”, sort of. Well, purposely choosing days as opposed to things being more random the last few months. I don’t like the idea of “trying to conceive” because that stresses me out, so it was more making careful choices in my mind. He and I both want another baby, so we are both very happy. In fact, he told me he wants 4 children. I’m not so sure yet. But anyway. I was on day 35 of my cycle, and I knew I could either start that day, or not. I took a pregnancy test the first thing in the morning yesterday and it came up positive showing two lines (as opposed to one if you’re not pregnant) before I could even put the white cap on the test strip. I grabbed Dave’s hand and made him look at it right when he woke up. He was still groggy and plunking around the bathroom half asleep. Those test results woke him up! I think he said “oh no!” which made me laugh. Finding this out is always a little stressful … as if he never really thought it would happen again so he was really surprised. He didn’t mean to react that way, he was very happy. Its still a lot of news to absorb and a lot of information at once. Now we’re going to be officially outnumbered by our kids. I am pretty sure I didn’t forget about it the rest of the day. We went to Cedar Rapids to have a picnic with some relatives. My grandparents stayed the night on Friday night as they were passing through from Mason City back home. We haven’t told anybody yet, not even Violet. I don’t want her blurting the news out to anyone, because I knew she would. Time will tell! So far I’m feeling great. My mind is messing with me. I’m convinced I’m really tired today with a big appetite.