Awsome boys

My awsome boys built me Pantry shelves and shoe shelves in the garage this week. They turned out awsome. I can finally buy at Costco without wondering where to put things. Now it will be my job to rearange the kitchen cupboards so all the kids cups and bottles don't fall on me everytime I open the door.

Sunday Morning Buiscuits

A couple of weeks ago Zach and Samuel made breakfast. Ok so Zach made breakfast and Samuel made mess, but he sure was trying to help.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Today Samuel and I baked Cookies. It was his first time making cookies. He thought it was great fun. I tried to get him to roll them into balls. He rolled them watching me closely and as soon as I set my cookie down he would plop his down with a triumphant splat. It was adorable. I went to get my camera to get a picture of him baking his first cookies. I came back to him taking the balls I had finished and flattening them into "Pannecakes". He always wants to be up where I am working. I hope he doesn't stop wanting to be where I am, doing what I am doing.

I have a new dryer

Ok not really. Some of you have heard my laments about doing laundry. My dryer was obviously giving out. It would sometimes take me 8 hours to dry a load of laundry. By then the load waiting in the washer to get moved to the dryer already stunk and had to be run again. I would start laundry on Monday morning and would rarely be done before Wednesday evening. This is with loads running constantly even at night.

We finally decided we would probably need to get a new dryer. Zach decided to try one last thing. He pulled out the dryer and checked the vent that goes from the dryer to the outside. Long story short, he spent all weekend trying to get that path unplugged. By the end he had pulled out at least 9 gallons of dust and lint. It was plugged solid.

So it has been taking me 60 hours of my dryer running every week to get my laundry done. This morning I did all of our laundry in 4 hours. That is sorted, washed, dried and put away. Amazing. Laundry doesn't have to be a dreaded ordeal.

2 year old thought process

We have spent the last 3 days at my parents house except for sleeping. My siblings are all here to celebrate Christmas. My parents have a really full house right now. So my two neices are sleeping in the bunkbeds in my old room along with Samuel in a playpen and Amy, my soon to be sister-in-law on a mattress on the floor. The other night Amy was really tired and went to bed around 8 PM. Samuel wasn't quite sleeping yet so he was talking away as usual. Amy lay there and listened to the following.

Dad sneezes down stares.
Samuel: "Buesss you papa, buess you papa" , pause, "buess you papa, buess you papa" .... (repeated for about 5 minutes) then Samuel realizes Amy is in the room. He looks at her for a while and then
Samuel: " Why aunty Mimmy no sweep with Uncle Michael." How do you explain this to a two year old.
Amy: "Because I am sleeping here with you tonight"
Samuel: "I sleep here tonight, mommy and daddy go home, I sleep here allll night. There are lights on outside, lotsa lights outside." And the monologue continues.

It is amazing to me the thoughts that are put together in the mind of a two year old.

Will post more about Christmas next week. Right now I need to go feed the baby.

BPA?????

I can't believe this whole Bisphenol A thing. I just bought a bunch of new bottles that I thought were BPA free and now find out that they are not BPA free. None of my Sippy cups are and neither is the tupperware. It seems like such a small thing. But is it really a risk worth taking. What is everyone else thinking about this issue?

Fun times

I was just looking through my most recent pictures and found some fun moments.

I was watching my friend Carolynn's to youngest for part of the day a couple of weeks ago. We spent some time outside weeding the garden and then playing in the backyard. Ian found the worms swimming in our kiddy pool. Unfortunately there is a small crack in the lid so the rainwater has gathered. Ian figured the worms needed to be in water since that is how he found them. He wanted to take them home to go fishing. I gave him a throwaway Tupperware to gather his little friends. He kindly offered to get the Tupperware back to me. I assured him he could keep it. He kept asking me to help him pick up the worms. I told him that if he wanted them he needed to pick them up himself. Gross!!! Samuel had so much fun having Ruby and Ian to play with.

Zach and I are forever having the disagreement about how to park the car. I like to drive into the driveway. Zach insists it is much easier to back in anywhere than to drive in. He says it is much easier to drive out than to back out. I think it is by far easier to back out into open space that to try and back into driveways or parking spots between other obstacles. But hey he is the professional driver not me, so I am sure he has a good point. So I had to laugh when I asked Samuel to go park his trucks in his room. The one on the left is the one I parked the others he meticulously drove, turned around and backed into their spots. We started Potty training last Thursday. The following is a picture of Samuel with his Potties? Hehe! So far so good. He is night and day trained with about one accident a day. Pretty good for one week.

In the 5 years since we have been married we have never completely organized our garage. Things were always haphazardly shoved on shelves. Since being back from Germany our stuff has been piled in boxes and literal piles of junk, garbage, and good items. This summer my mother and I tackled my side of the garage. (Camping gear, Strollers, household items...) I couldn't tackle the rest because I couldn't tell one wire or tool from another. For the last two weeks Zach has spent at least an hour every night out in the Garage with Samuel. They have made an amazing progress. I will peek in periodically and find things like Zach sawing a piece off of one of the shelves and Samuel below with his fisher price saw sawing away like mad. Or Zach is pounding in a nail and Samuel is running around pounding everything with his toy hammer. I would often find Zach and Samuel dancing or rather jumping around to the music.

Samuel and his nerd safety glasses.
Or to him walking around saying "Who turned the lights out.

These memories are so precious. They truly are little blessings from God.

Brea Bateman Photography

Well I have a small window in which Samuel is playing where I can see him and Ellie is napping. I thought I would take two minutes and add these pictures.

Day 2 of Potty Training

Yay, he is wearing the same pair of underware I put on him last night before bed. Gross?? I don't think so they are dry and I changed him about 10 times yesterday. We are dow for a nap now.

"3 Day Potty Training"?????

Ok so we got this E-book on 3 day potty training and we have started today. I am half way through the first day. aaaaaaah!!!!! 5 accidents later and 2 successful potty trips we are now attempting his first nap. Please pray