I found the rest of the pictures...

Here are the rest of the photos I couldn't find last night. They were on my old computer. They are in no particular order whatsoever.

This is looking out our front window during the ice storm. I was watching as the tree branches got lower and lower and lower. Here they were finally brushing against the road. Later you will see they snapped off into the road.


David took this picture of me coming back in after shoveling the end of the driveway.


Ice covered branches hanging down in the backyard.


Icy trees by the side of the house.


This bush is in front of our house - totally frosty!




The leafy branches hanging down in front of our house by the road.


I call this picture "Crazy Dad!"


This is looking down the right side of the road after the plow came by on the other side of the road. You can see all the branches leaning out over the road. (and the now fallen branch laying on the road)

Angelina climbed up on her chair to watch the snow falling outside.

Dad and the girls in the backyard.


Angelina climbed on her swing - even snow and ice covered, she wanted to play!


Trinity in the backyard.



That is all for now. I will try to post along the way next week with the holiday festivities.


Posted in: , on Friday, December 21, 2007 at at 6:12 PM 0 comments  

 We Survived the Ice Storm

Hi all,

Sorry for not writing sooner. I spend most of my computer time working on my Kid Daze blog. I know that many of you were wondering how we were riding out the storms blasting their way across the midwest. We did get the ice storm, but did not lose our power. We have been really enjoying the cold, snowy winter weather. Enough rambling....lets get on with some pictures!


First, here's Angelina showing off her eyelashes.

Now for the ice pictures. I actually had a bunch more on my camera and somehow I lost them. I'm still trying to figure that one out.... I had taken pictures of the tree branches hanging down onto the road across from our house. Then when I went out to shovel the end of the driveway after the plow went by, I took a fantastic shot down the road that showed the entire right side of the road blocked by the hanging, icy trees. But, alas, those pictures are nowhere to be found.






These pictures were all taken a couple days later when the sun came out. It was absolutely stunning to drive around the countryside with the sun out.

Well, this Saturday, David's brother and nephew are arriving to spend a week with us. We are looking forward to having them here for Christmas. So much to do to get ready for Christmas. I've stockpiled some great crafts for the kids and am awaiting the arrival of a wonderful surprise for my hubby.


Posted in: , on Thursday, December 20, 2007 at at 3:17 PM 0 comments  

 Long time no write.

Sorry for not updating lately. I have been devoting a lot of my time to trying and get my other blog up online with its own site rather than being on blogspot. I haven't been getting much sleep, but hopefully I can catch a nap today with David home. We are in the beginning of the winter storm that was forecast for the day, and don't expect to go anywhere today. That is kind of a bummer because tonight was the Couples Fellowship at church. We were looking forward to having some social time with our fellow church goers.

The other blog, for those who don't know yet, is at http://www.kid-daze.blogspot.com/. I have already purchased my own domain name, and am working on web design currently. I am getting close to having that part done, then I just need to figure out all the logistics of being webmaster. It's a lot to wrap your brain around and take care of house and home too.

Monday, December 3, 2007
Update on that last part. I decided that it was actually well beyond my limited scope and instead went to work redesigning the blogspot site. I think it will be easier to maintain with the easy to use blogspot site. It is still under construction, but looking a lot more like something of my own creation than the generic template originally.

My attention here has also turned to the upcoming Iowa caucus. It is kind of a bonus that the political environment here is what it is. I look forward to participating in the caucus come January 3rd. It sounds like a highly interesting process. As for now, I don't know for sure who I want to support in the Republican party. What I do know is that there are multiple decent candidates to choose from. The only one I am dead set against is McCain and that stems from having him as a Senator in Arizona. But he doesn't seem to be getting much support so I am not worried about him. I am not too crazy about Rudy just because he is such a liberal republican and he was less than impressive on the CNN Republican debate. But on the other hand, I think if he gets on the ticket, he might be more likely to win b/c he is more liberal and would have a broader appeal.
I am worried about Hillary getting the Democratic ticket. If we have to have another democrat in the white house, I would take almost anyone over Hillary. I am thankful that Oprah has lent her support officially to Obama. I think it may just be what he needs to get the edge on Hillary.

Well, I am thinking I should bundle up the kids and head out front to try and chop up the ice in the driveway during the "heat" of the day. (37 right now, with wind chills of 29) Last I checked we were expecting more snow over the next couple of days. It would be nice not to still have a layer of ice on the drive before more precipitation comes.

Some snow pictures: From our first snow the day before Thanksgiving. We had almost 5 inches. Trinity loved eating it. (just like her first exposure to beach sand! lol!)


Here Trinity had thrown herself face forward into the snow. I think she was wanting to make a snow angel - just a novice at it!




Posted in: , on Saturday, December 1, 2007 at at 8:50 AM 1 comments  

 First Word for Angelina

Last night at dinner Angelina said her first word - "hot." David had just put some more food on her tray, straight from the pan. She picked it up, put it down and did the sign for hot. I said the word a few times while doing the sign too, and she said the word hot, twice, clear as a bell. (while still signing hot)

Also, I picked up a second toddler bed off of craigslist yesterday. We got the bed, a mattress, and a comforter sheet set for $35...not a bad deal at all. So Miss Angelina slept in the toddler bed last night. We gave the new one to Trinity, who is very excited about having a new bed. Miss Angelina is just excited to be in a bed. She has been climbing up in Trinity's all week and is very adept at getting in and out. But we did take the mattress out of the crib and slid it under the bed so if she were to roll out at night, she will go onto the mattress instead of the wood floor. I think Trinity fell out of bed once when we switched her over, so we are just being prepared. :)

Sigh, our babies are growing up.


Posted in: , on Saturday, November 17, 2007 at at 8:27 PM 0 comments  

 Angelina Update

I keep forgetting to tell about the latest with Angelina. She can answer yes and no questions now by shaking or nodding her head. We have been watching signing times and using signs when talking with her and she is starting to use a few. She uses signs for eat, more, drink, and milk. She still hates to be told no and will start to cry - too funny!

Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on Friday, November 16, 2007 at at 11:44 AM 0 comments  

 A Major Move

Well, we moved again this weekend. No, not from our house, but within our house. I decided that it just wasn't working having the girls room be upstairs. So I switched our rooms over the weekend. Now David and I have a nice "suite" upstairs, and the girls are in the orange bedroom downstairs. It is working out so much better. The upstairs was an add-on at some point, so the steps are not standard size. I have lost my balance more than once trying to carry Angelina down the stairs and have been worried about falling with her. No more worries. Now we don't have to carry the girls up to bed if they fall asleep downstairs, and no more carrying Angelina up and down. It is also nice being able to put the girls clothes away while they happily play in their room. I was finding that being upstairs with no way to keep Angelina from the stairwell, we just did not spend much time up there at all.



We put one of our recliners and the second tv in the first smaller area upstairs. This is now David's game room for his playstation. Our bed fits nicely in the larger room and I no longer have to squeeze around furniture to try and get into bed at night. It just feels nice at the end of the day to be able to go upstairs to our adult retreat area and hang out in a kid free zone.



And with the recliner moved upstairs, our downstairs living room is so much more open. This is going to be a great plus with the impending winter weather and the kids playing more inside. Tonight the girls were chasing each other around, giggling their heads off, playing tag.



Speaking of the girls, here are the two little cuties sharing the recliner.



Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at at 10:48 PM 0 comments  

 Great news!

David got his requested raise! This is awesome news since he asked for $5/hour more! No guts, no glory comes to mind. ;) I guess his boss realizes what a great worker he has in David and doesn't want to lose him. It also means I won't have to get a second job. (mom being my first job) Hooray!

Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on Thursday, November 8, 2007 at at 9:00 PM 0 comments  

 Not Loving Daylight Saving Time

Okay, I've read up on the history of why most of our nation changes the clocks twice a year, so I understand the concept of having long summer nights to enjoy the weather and saving energy and reducing car accidents. I grew up changing the clocks, and it really never bothered me. If anything, I loved getting an extra hour to sleep in the fall guilt free.


Then I had kids.


But I lived in Arizona where, in my opinion, they have the sane practice of NOT changing the clocks. So part of the year they are on Mountain time and part of the year they are on Pacific time. I never felt like not having the longer light in the evening inhibited going out and enjoying the evening hours. In fact, being Arizona, it actually was still VERY warm when the sun went down and evening activities like a rousing game of night volleyball was much preferred to sweating in the sunlight.


Now that we have moved to Iowa, we had to change our clocks. But guess what...the kids still get up at the same time. And it's not like you can blame them. They have always been pretty consistent about what time they wake up regardless of what time they go to bed. We could put them to bed at 6pm or 11pm and they still wake up between 6 - 6:30 in the morning. So now we have the joy of getting up at 5 - 5:30 in the morning. They normally go to bed at 7 (once the sun started going down earlier again) so the first night they made it til 6:30 and last night it was 7 again. But poor Trinity was about asleep on her feet by the time we took her up to bed. I am hoping though that it will help them adjust to the time change by trying to be consistent.


That brings up the other annoying fact. It's hard enough to get the kids to go to bed at a reasonable hour with longer summer days anyway - throw in the extra hour you get with daylight saving time and it just adds to the frustration of trying to convince a toddler it really is time for bed.


All of this to say, I am decidedly against the concept now, to the point that I may look into trying to go the political route of getting our state to eliminate it.


On to other news in our life. Here are some headlines of the latest news in our home:


LUCKY THE DOG FINDS NEW HOME

You heard it right folks. Lucky now resides with a single woman who has a doberman named Jack that needed a friend. He has a yard with a 7' high fence, so no escaping, and he gets to sleep in bed with his new owner. He is a happy dog and our neighbors are happy they don't have Lucky showing up at their homes all the time.


TRINITY HAS A DRY NIGHT

Sunday night was Trinity's first night not to wet her pull-up over night. Congratulations, sweetie! May there be many more to come very soon. :)


CALVARY CHAPEL WINS IN THE LONG RUN

We have decided to make Heartland Christian Fellowship our new church home. They are in transition with the current pastor leaving next Spring for New Mexico. The incoming pastor has just started co-teaching. We really like him and the people we have met there. Trinity seems to really like it too. Coming home from church on Sunday, she was singing all the way home about Jesus "knock, knock, knocking" on her heart.


BUS DRIVING ON HOLD

We made the decision to hold off on driving the school bus for now. As much as we need the money, we couldn't figure out an easy way to secure Angelina in the school bus and also thought it would be a good idea to get one winter under our belt before being obligated to drag the kids out twice a day no matter the weather.


COLD WEATHER IS HERE

It was in the 20's overnight not including the windchill...and it was very windy. We loved hearing the wind howling through the trees as we were snuggled in our warm home. We actually broke out the comforter for our bed last night. :) David is loving the weather and is actually putting on a jacket now. I'll let you know when he gets cold enough to wear his winter coat!


PRAYER REQUESTS

David has asked for a raise from his boss. He has also applied for a job with the city of Des Moines and has a couple other potential job leads. If he doesn't get a raise, then I am going to try and get a job at the mall for the Christmas retail season, working nights and weekends. - please pray for God to provide the right opportunity for both of us


My mom is getting close to the end of her chemotherapy. - please pray that the chemo has done its job of killing off the cancer


PICTURE OF THE GIRLS

This is a picture we took for my step-sister Katy who celebrated her birthday on November 1st.



That's all the news for now.
Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at at 9:33 AM 0 comments  

 Beggar's Night

Thanks for all the great jokes. We ended up just going with the roar as the trick. I think next year Trinity will be ready for telling a joke.

Here's all the jokes sent in: (that I can repeat on this site!)

Where do horses live? In Neigh-borhoods.
My mom wouldn't let me go to the pirate movie because it was rated Arrrrrrr!
What did the left eye say to the right eye? Between you and me something smells!
What has ears but never says a thing? A cornfield.

The girls had a great time getting candy. One thing though, you could get quite a backlog on a house if a bunch of kids end up there at the same time, because they have to tell their jokes to get the candy. But it was fun and Trinity just loved it, although there were a few spooky houses that she didn't like.

Here's a couple snaps of the kids as the lion and leopard.
Trinity is in mid roar in this next one.


This was the full moon rising in the back yard last week.
This is a sunrise last week.


Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at at 9:44 PM 0 comments  

 Finally, uploads again!

After waiting all day, I can now upload photos again. Here are an assortment:

This is Angelina sporting a cute dress that our friend Amelia gave us in Phoenix before we moved. I had to take a picture so she could see how cute she looks in it. :)
Here Trinity is holding her bug catcher filled with ladybugs. We had a "swarm" of them around our house for a couple of days. I was reading up that they do that in search of a place to bed down for the winter. They will seek out a house or barn. I guess they either found their way into our walls or moved on because they are gone now. Trinity was in hog heaven catching them. She had over 20 in the jar at one counting.

Trinity and Angelina enjoyed playing in the big pile of leaves in the front yard. Here's a couple of pics plus there's a video at the end of this post.





I didn't think this picture was this dark - maybe it is my screen. If you can see this one, it's Angelina being very excited over finding an acorn.

This was actually a lot prettier than it came out in the picture. I guess I need to learn something about adjusting the camera manually so I get a truer photo to what I see. The sky had been gray all day and the sun broke out as it was setting. From my vantage point, there were really dark gray clouds in the sky behind the leaves, and the sun was shining on the leaves just lighting them up beautifully. It's still a nice picture, but not quite as dramatic as in person.


After taking the picture of the trees, I headed over to the other side of the house and caught these two in action.


Then we were off to the burn barrel to make a fire and roast marshmallows. I posted the close up of Miss Angelina with marshmallow mess all over her earlier. This was the roast that was responsible for that! Trinity loves roasting marshmallows. She and David went down and had some Daddy-daughter time roasting marshmallows this evening while I put Angelina to bed. What a special treat. She got to use a flashlight and roast marshmallows all in one event - it doesn't get much better than that for a two year old!

And finally, here is the video of the kids playing in the leaves.


Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on Friday, October 26, 2007 at at 7:24 PM 0 comments  

 I need a good joke!

First, here's the only picture I got uploaded before the blogger picture uploader went on a temporary outage. This is Angelina enjoying making a sticky mess of herself eating a roasted marshmallow.


We are getting ready for Beggar's Night here in Carlisle. Beggar's Night got started in the Des Moines area back in the 1930's. They found that there was so much vandalism associated with Halloween that they wanted to try an alternative holiday. So they instituted Beggar's Night which is celebrated on October 30'th. Kids get to dress up in costume and go house to house, but they say "Tricks for eats." Then they are supposed to do a "trick" to get the candy, such as sing a song, tell a joke, do a dance, etc. Mostly it has become standard practice to tell a joke to earn the candy. I can hardly wait to hear the jokes! Meanwhile I am trying to figure out if I can find a simple enough joke that Trinity can learn. I am open to suggestions! She is going as a lion, thanks to a hand me down costume from cousin Jiah, so a lion joke would be great. Her trick may just be to roar like a lion - that I know she can do! :)

Oh, by the way, they did find they had a huge reduction in vandalism on the traditional Halloween night...interesting solution, huh?

Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on at at 12:18 PM 0 comments  

 Fall beauty

all is officially here now. We had a beautiful drive through town today. The trees are getting quite lovely. It's not the most spectacular fall I've ever seen, but even a not so good fall is still beautiful to see. :) What I am enjoying the most is how the scenic views are changing along our drive home and from our house. There is a lake along the east side of our road on the way home that we couldn't even see until the leaves started falling. Below is a picture of another sight we had on our drive home today - a bald eagle perched atop one of our neighbors trees. Amazing to see. It was sooo big. Trinity asked to hold it...I laughed and told her it looked like it would probably be almost as big as her!



The big news around our house is that Trinity has been using the potty since last Friday. She has had a couple accidents, but for the most part, has taken right to the new routine. We even ventured out on a shopping trip today and she was able to let me know when she needed to go to the bathroom at the store. Hooray!

Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on Saturday, October 20, 2007 at at 6:52 PM 0 comments  

 We have video!

Here are some random life photos and then a video! I wasn't sure how long it would take, so I just started the upload then went to bed. :) That way it didn't matter if it took forever on dial up. If I get positive feedback on the video, then I'll try to do more of them in the future.

Here is Trinity on the swingset. I finally got the side yard fenced in so I moved the swingset up where it will be in the shade for playing in the summer. Also I can now look out my kitchen window while at the sink and see both the trampoline and the swingset - perfect!
Here are the kids playing on the trampoline with daddy the other day. I caught Trinity in mid bounce!

Yesterday I broke out all the winter stuff to have it by the back door for bundling up the kiddos. Trinity enjoyed putting on the hat and mittens that Grandma Mary knitted for her.


Here is Angelina Trampolina having a good time. :)



And here's the video. Just a little bit of trampoline play. I hope you enjoy it. :)


Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at at 9:53 PM 0 comments  

 Photo of the day

I can't get enough of this little angel's smile! (and for those who are wondering, no, David is not going gray - he was just home from work and hadn't showered off the paint yet!)
Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on Monday, October 8, 2007 at at 9:23 PM 0 comments  

 Car buddies

Just a quick note. I was out working on the yard this morning while the girls were playing. Trinity called to me, "Look, Mom, we're in the car together!" Of course I had to get a picture. :)

Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on Saturday, October 6, 2007 at at 10:07 PM 0 comments  

 Go Cubbies!

Time for another update. Last week I took Angelina in to see our new family doctor. Her official stats for her one year check up are 20 pounds 9 ounces and 31 inches tall. The doctor said that puts her in the 90th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight. To compare, Trinity was 19 pounds at 28 1/2 inches tall. We keep telling Trinity she needs to be nice to Angelina because she's growing bigger all the time!

I also found out that they have a shot clinic the last Wednesday of the month for Warren county, so the girls are all caught up on their vaccinations. We were a little behind so poor Angelina had to get 4 shots - yikes! But after vaccines, and doctors visits, and a 30k mile check up on the minivan, we were off to Chicago for the weekend. Actually, just outside of Chicago in Naperville. We visited one of my girlfriends, Chris, from the singles group at Calvary who has also gotten married and moved away from Phoenix. It was so good to see an old friend again and we had a really nice time visiting with her and her husband Kyle. Trinity still talks about the cat Lucy and wants to go back and visit the cat house. (her words!)

Saturday, David and I took the kids into Chicago and visited the Navy Pier. We rode the carousel and visited the Chicago Children's museum. Wow - was that a great children's museum - made me want to be a kid again! On our way out of town we happened upon a pizza place (imagine that!) and had some of the famous Chicago stuffed pizza for dinner from Giardano's. Sunday we went to church with Chris and Kyle. Before the service, one of the church staff came up to us while we were waiting and introduced himself and talked with us a little. I remember thinking, hey, he has the same name as that famous Christian guy. Turns out, he was that famous Christian guy - Josh McDowell - who was the guest speaker that day. What a great weekend to be there. He gave a fantastic talk. Very eye opening and I would think, almost burdensome to men. He was talking about how all the studies are showing how critical the father is in his children's life.

Anyway, we saw in the Sunday paper that the Cubs are in the playoffs, thus the title for this post. A good weekend for everybody. :) Sunday afternoon we walked along the river walk into Naperville and to a park to let the kids play. Trinity of course met and pet every dog that was walking the other way.

Back home on Monday, I received the reward every mom loves to receive from her child. We were playing on the trampoline when Trinity spontaneously gave me a hug and said, "I love you mom. You're my best friend."
It's all worth it right there folks. :)

In other news, I pick up my training materials tomorrow for my new job - school bus driver.
The opening is for a 1/2 hour route. So I will work from 7:15 - 8:15 in the morning and 2:00 - 3:00 in the afternoon. I can take the girls with me on the bus and Trinity is already excited about getting to ride a real school bus. For my 2 hours a day I'll get paid $616 a month. (it may be a little less since I didn't start at the beginning of the school year) It's a set amount that you can get prorated out over 12 months if you want, so you always have the income coming in. That means that I will get paid even when there are holidays. There is also the opportunity to volunteer for field trips and eventually a longer route if I was interested. I'm thinking that's a nice little supplemental income for a couple hours a day when school is in session. Step one is to get my class B, CDL license. I pick up the study book for that tomorrow.

David is still enjoying his job. There is the potential that the guy running the painting operations may be leaving and David might have the opportunity to take over. We are waiting and praying to see if that is what God has for David or if he should seek a job with the John Deere plant.

We had a date night at home the other night. We put the kids in bed then sat in the back yard out by burn barrel. David got a nice fire going and we roasted marshmallows and star gazed together. We have a beautiful view of the milky way at our house. We could hear cows mooing from a pasture somewhere over the hill behind the fields. I told David, "Gee, I was wrong. Here I've been telling everyone how quiet it is out here!" Yes, that was rife with sarcasm. Then I called out, "Hey, neighbors, can you turn down your cows? We've got kids trying to sleep over here!" ha-ha! We do not for one second regret moving here. We always feel so good coming home. As much fun as it is to visit places, when we cross back into Iowa, we're happy.

And now for the pictures:
Here I am on the carousel with the girls. You can hardly see Trinity because some lady got in the way- oh, wait - that lady is me! (ha) Anyway, all three of us were waving to daddy as we went by. Angelina has just started doing the wave. (and I call it that b/c it's that royalty wave as though her throngs of admirers were out there amongst the peasants)

The Chicago Children's Museum had a special Curious George exhibit - much to the delight of Trinity. She just loves watching Curious George. Here is Angelina playing doorman at Curious George's apartment building while Trinity checks out the mail boxes.

Girl meets monkey. BFF.


Angelina the firefighter. We almost had her trusted dog Trinity, but alas, getting two kids in place at the same time was not to be that day!


Here Trinity was being a cross between a bee and a butterfly. Made me think of a couple I know - Madam Jeanette Butterfly and Mr. Mark Bee :) She even had purple wings! (and you would have to be a part of my family to understand that, so if you don't get it, it's not b/c you are missing something!)



Big George came out to greet the kidlings in the afternoon, and after initially crying when seeing him and refusing to go near, Trinity not only got a handshake and a hug, but wanted to go back for more. :)







Here's mommy showing Trinity how to use the tools of the trade to uncover dinosaur bones at an archaeological dig.


Trinity and Angelina fishing.



Trinity still fishing. I didn't think we were going to get her out of that place. The only way I could get her to stop fishing with the nets was to show her the fishing with the poles. She wasn't interested in anything else in that exhibit and she worked determinedly at catching fish. Mind boggling. Maybe she will enjoy the real thing just as much - if so, she will make her daddy very happy!
That's all folks!

Grace and peace be with you!

Posted in: on Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at at 10:17 PM 0 comments  

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