crafty kids

could potty training be on the horizon?

so i might be jumping the gun a little but i am really hoping that manning is going to take after madelyn and maddux and potty train at two years, one month. over the past few weeks he has started to go over to the toilet and stand like the boys. he does this fully dressed and just leans on the toilet with his stomach.  but last night he removed his pants and diaper on his own (a first) and tried to stand at their toilet (i took a few pictures because it was so funny but won't share them here).

he then refused to put a diaper back on and tried to return the training potty when i got it out for him - since he was so intent on being at the toilet (which he also refused to sit on - he only sees boys standing, right?). it was pretty funny to see this naked boy carrying the training potty all over the house, crying trying to figure out where he should put it so that it would be removed from him.

i am really, really hoping to be rid of diapers (and strollers) this summer! love.

everyday stuff

the kids have been sick for so long that we are just enjoying reconnecting with the everyday stuff that we haven't really been doing so much. and no one has really been picture worthy.

madelyn made a birdcage with a swing for the "lovebird" she made from hearts at school.

the best of lots and lots of attempts at a group picture. 

it is so nice to see them healthy again. i had forgotten how much energy they normally have!  come on spring!!!  love.

tuesday tip: grump-a-lumps

when the kids get grumpy, they are asked to go to their room until they are done with the grumps. but there are times when they just can't work out of their own 'funk'. so we go "grump-a-lump" hunting! grump-a-lumps love to hide in armpits, between toes, in hair and under chins and they have to be removed with some good tickling. i even let the kids help me find where the grump-a-lumps are hiding on them. it turns into laughing and every time it breaks the 'funk'.

what is your go-to mood changer?

love.

we are "the noise"

last week we were asked if we would be part of the "family map" video the church was making. they wanted our family to be "the noise". yes, i think we qualify.

the church is launching a "family map" visual for the different stages of raising kids - "the baby" (0-2), "the noise" (2-4), "the bus" (5-10), "the talk" (10-13), "the dance" (13-15), "the keys" (15-16), "the choices" (16-18) and "what's next?" (18+) - and wanted us to be part of a video for the launch today. so friday afternoon they came out to the house to get some action of the kids right as madelyn was getting off the bus. our kids have never been so quiet.

i suggested that they slide down the stairs. that loosened things right up! here is what i bootlegged from service this morning. we are in the beginning but you can watch the whole thing if interested...

this was the first service of getting all six of us to church by 8:30am so that matt and i can get our hallway set up. matt and the boys have missed the past two weeks due to illnesses. i told madelyn she looked like a snow princess in her white, silver and grey this morning. we didn't really have time for a picture and i didn't get a good one.

after church we stayed to pray for the lady who teaches the classroom next to our old one. tomorrow she is going to have a double mastectomy for breast cancer (reconstruction in a few months) and next week her husband is having a pacemaker and defibrillator put in! they have a four-year-old son. his fifth birthday is tuesday. we had a relatively large group stay after to pray for her and a lot of us brought frozen meals, gift cards and cards to try and lighten their load over the next few weeks. i was struggling to keep from bawling. my heart was just breaking for them. her name is angela if you want to pray for their family too.

when we finally got home and finished up lunch, madelyn quickly grabbed daddy to get her painting hung in her room. she couldn't be happier. love.

madelyn at sarah's birthday party

madelyn has been counting down the days until sarah's birthday. not only does madelyn love sarah and parties, but miss m. was going to be there! miss m. is madelyn's art teacher at school. like madelyn, sarah loves art and was having an "art" birthday party.

the girls were all given canvases and spent most of the party painting (and washing their hands). first, they had to paint their canvases a solid color. then they were given a tutorial in different types of tools and effects they could use for the background. they were allowed to test them all on the plastic tablecloth, but that quickly fell into finger painting.

so they played a "game" of "don't touch the walls" on their way to the utility sink in the laundry room.

madelyn chose a 'scrapper' for her background technique. but then she was done and waiting around so she added a few 'stamps' as a boarder. and then she was standing around again and decided to add two circles to the middle of the canvas. this was a common theme around the room. neatly stamped hearts were converted into large blobs of solid paint. toothbrush splatter was getting on the walls (i was running wet paper towels to try and minimize the damage to their living room). miss m. started to panic a little that this was "getting away from her" so back to the sink for clean hands before enjoying some pizza and juice.

all of the tables they owned were in use so the girls had to picnic. they were a little nervous about the pizza on their light colored carpet (in addition to the acrylic paint everywhere) but the damage was very minimal.

the girls then added their initial - or initials or their whole name...

such a great idea for a party. and the girls had a blast. love.

haiti recap breakfast

this morning our church had an open breakfast for anyone who wanted to hear a more thorough explanation about what happened during their recent 10 day trip to haiti. our church has been several times now and have sent two buses filled with supplies (the kids helped pack rice meals in the fall, brought in school and sport supplies and signed the medical bus during vbs). we had looked at the pictures the church posted to their facebook page and the kids were really excited to see haitians eating their rice dinner! so we thought they would enjoy hearing stories and seeing more pictures. our only hesitation was that it was scheduled to last two hours. but the mornings are when we are at our best so we headed over.

the kids were really well behaved and we made it through the first hour just fine, but then they started to get a little noisy and antsy. so matt and i took turns with one or more children out roaming the halls before giving up and moving on to the work we needed to do for sunday. (have i mentioned that matt and i are not teaching a 2 and 3 class any more, but are now coaching the hallway first service? we organize volunteers, edit and write curriculum and gather supplies for activities.)

the haiti presentation was really remarkable and i cried (of course) while they were sharing what they had seen and experienced. this was the largest team they have ever sent - i think 30 or so - and was largely a medical team. the bus they shipped over had been converted into a mobile medical unit so they were getting supplies to the disabled, fitting glasses, showing physical therapy routines to patients, preforming physicals and distributing medications.

i think one of the most emotional stories was an essay written and read by a high schooler who had gone on the trip with her dad. she shared how high school had torn down her faith and her behavior was no longer pleasing to God and that this trip had been truly life saving. she said that she had left a part of her in haiti and planned to return for it some day. it was just beautiful.

we love that the kids have an opportunity to know about the world outside of our comfort. love.

manning being manning

manning is really coming into his own. between the not napping, getting older (and taller) and learning that the stool in portable, i can't let my guard down for even a second.  thank goodness he isn't mischievous or i would really be in trouble!

trying to help mommy with dinner.

 he hasn't met a hat he didn't like...

i don't know if it is just because he is feeling better (finally) or that we are so close to him turning 2, but he is so much like a 'big kid' these days. love.

mix-n-match

today was "mix-n-match" day at school. madelyn asked for my help selecting her outfit, but she added the unmatched socks as a surprise for me. she loves a dress-up day at school.  love.

nana's been busy

madelyn and mason were more than happy to model their new hats from nana! (madelyn's is black with rainbow sparkles, but it didn't come across in the photo.) their favorite part? that they can unfold them to cover their eyes and be "superheroes" or "ninjas" - depending on the moment.

thank you, nana! love.

manning 'selfies'

we don't really do 'selfies' around here so i was very surprised when manning turned his camera around and said, "cheese", to take his own picture. he knew what he was doing too because he kept making sure that he was pointing the front at him before he would smile and say cheese. then he would turn it around to look at his 'picture'. silly boy. love.

february mops craft and devotion

last night was our mops meeting. we had the pastor of our host church share about respecting the men in our lives in honor of valentine's day. for the craft we made a 'love note' station - complete with pen (thanks to kellie for the idea). and i was also up for the devotion (steering team takes turns); here is roughly what i shared:

Every Valentine’s Day I think that I need to look up the story of the holiday, but never do.  Until this year. The problem is that there were a lot of different versions. I know that we are past Valentine’s Day, but I think that there is still parts of his story that are a good lesson in loving. Funning enough, the verse this story brought me to was also the reading for Good Morning Girls this morning. I guess God really wanted me to share it tonight!               

The story goes that St. Valentine was a Roman Priest in Ireland when an emperor persecuted the church and prohibited the marriage of young people. The emperor believed that married soldiers might be afraid to die because of responsibilities of wife and family. This was also a time when polygamy would have been very popular.

The church thought that marriage was very sacred between one man and one woman for their whole life, and that it should be encouraged. That is where Valentine comes in - he was secretly marrying young couples because he felt it was an act that honored God. He was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against the emperor’s command. He was beat, stoned and decapitated for uniting couples in Christian marriage. It goes that he signed his last words “from your Valentine.”

Another story goes that he was so beloved by the children of the village that they wrote him notes of love - inspiring the exchange of valentines.

And I found two stories of him having a role in the healing of a blind child and sending them a note about Jesus’ love with a treat.

These stories made me feel a lot better about the almost 100 valentines I just suffered through having my three oldest children sign! Valentine’s Day is the recognition of someone who loved God and others enough to risk - and lose - his life.

John 15:12-13 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

I hope that this is the kind of love we bring to our children, our marriages and our friendships. The love of Jesus. This is not a love earned or out of fair treatment - far from it.  It is the love we are freely given by God and commanded to show to others. 

I think it is fair to say that we would lay down our lives for our children without much of a second thought, but can we lay down our pride or our ego to respect the men in our lives? Or then in-laws? Or any of the other people who have a role in our children’s life?

Let’s pray.

Father, thank you for our time here tonight. I am so thankful for the women in this room and their desire to know you and support each other. Please bless our conversation tonight with Pastor Kip and Lora as we learn more about how to support the men in our lives. Open our hearts to hear what you have for us. In Jesus name, Amen.

star student - mason

there is just something with our kids being "star student" on snow days. here is mason hard at work on his "star student" poster this weekend. 

he was going to bring nachos for the snack since it is "n" week, but it was not meant to be. he will just have to bring on thursday. 

at least he wasn't terribly upset.  love.

snow day - again

when the call came from the superintendent this morning at 5:30am, i thought it sounded like he was going to cry. another snow day. the kids were relatively healthy (not quite 100% but we had been fever-free for a few days) and it was going to be 'warm' - for snow anyway - so i thought we would try sledding.

yeah. not my best call.

i got everyone bundled up. i had underestimated how tired everyone was from the lack of sleep over the past few weeks. there was some crying, but we were already most of the way dressed and i couldn't turn back now...

the snow was great and the few times they got down the hill were really fun, but the snow was so deep that they couldn't walk in it. we had to walk in the street (where it was clear) to get to the better 'hill' because they couldn't walk through the yard. and then then i had to lift each kid up over the plowed snow pile to get them into our yard again - maybe 2-3 feet above the street level.

they could get down the hill, but not back up and manning couldn't even stand in the snow. most of the yard was deep enough to come up to my knee so the kids were really struggling. let's just say that we were not outside very long before i gave up. and carried the boys in one at a time. crying. at least madelyn was able to fight her way in on her own.

i am still figuring out this 'playing in the snow' thing.

love.

presidents' day

our mops group put together a get together for today since the kids would be off from school. they were able to get us a tour at a local pizza hut (even though they normally only do them on weekends). the kids all were able to make their own pizza for lunch on their tour.

after lunch we loaded up to head over to the mckinley museum for their presidents' day festivities. we managed to get there in time for an electricity show which even the littlest kids enjoyed. i think the static electricity demonstration was very popular with the kids. especially the wig where the hair stood on end.

manning was starting to fade around 1:30pm so we decided to get the craft in before heading out. it was super cute (for a presidents' day craft anyway); it was george washington on one side and abraham lincoln on the other. the group picture isn't the best of the bunch but it was the only one where you can see both sides.

so thankful for the sweet ladies who managed to put this together for us. love.

happy valentine's day

our table looked so festive after breakfast that i took a picture. matt was able to work from home today so i left everyone but mason with him and headed to the gym. i wasn't going to go because madelyn was off school and said she wanted to spend valentine's day with me (awww), but matt gave me ridiculously large boxes of chocolate for valentine's (see them stacked in the picture above). ironically, maddux was much better than yesterday, but because he had a fever last night he could not go to school today. so off to school mason went.

when i picked mason up, his teacher voiced her concern about his cough. she said that it was non-stop. i told her what the doctor had said about the cough being okay as long as there wasn't a fever. he was also very tired from staying up all night. it was like he was ready for a party last night. he kept waking us up to talk to us - quite happily! at least he was happy about it. matt and i were exhausted. and then mason got a 103 fever tonight.

both big boys were given a dose of medicine before bed (we were hoping for some relief for them and us). madelyn said that she didn't feel well and needed some medicine too. we just wrote it off as feeling left out and wanting some attention. the boys had both started with coughs for a few days before getting the fever and madelyn had not coughed at all. and then she threw up. [hanging head as worst mom.] maybe it wasn't a food related illness mason had last weekend after all. just like mason, madelyn only got sick twice and then woke up in the night ready to go because she felt so well.

good thing that we didn't have any romantic plans for the weekend!  love.

book boy

when manning turned one, his book loving switch flipped! he was just sitting and 'reading' books today. i thought it was too cute how he had surrounded himself with books to 'read'. he is very selective when he decides what to read - more so than the others. love.

before and after

even though maddux is pretty sick, he insisted that i cut his hair "short like daddy" last night. it pains me but i try to let the kids wear their hair how they want - within reason. so short it is.

the before

the after

i think he looks pretty cute both ways. love.

valentine's day parties

we had a clean bill of health from the doctor on tuesday afternoon. and then maddux woke up this morning. he still wasn't running a fever, but he really didn't look very good. he had no symptoms that are frowned on by the school, but i prepared him for the possibility that he might have to miss the party today if his teacher thought he was too sick. 

both boys were 'snack friend' for the parties today. we made chocolate dipped marshmallows with sprinkles and heart shaped watermelon slices. 

shockingly, maddux' teacher said that he was fine to stay. i was pretty hesitant but if they would let him then i wouldn't make him miss his party. i didn't get a call during school and when i picked him up they just said he was more quiet than normal but no one called him "sick" and he was not feverish at all. he fell asleep before we even got onto the main road - less than a mile. i was really glad that he had fallen asleep because it was a "warm" (36 degrees) and "sunny" day and i thought some fresh air and lunch at the zoo would be good for everyone.

when we got to the zoo, maddux was very warm, but that could be from sleeping in the warm car with his coat on still. the other two were beyond excited for their surprise lunch at the zoo and maddux said he felt fine so we pressed on.

the boys were pretty excited about all the snow and ice all over the zoo. they were very concerned about what happened to all of the ducks when we saw their pond mostly frozen over with ice.

but then we found them all together on the other side. the big boys thought it was very funny that they were walking on the ice.

manning gets more and more into the zoo every time we go. it has been a long time so he was practically seeing everything for the 'first time'. he was walking all over pointing and 'talking' excitedly.

and then we sat down for lunch. maddux just about collapsed. he was burning up and looked awful. he even started to cry and asked to go home. so we just started packing everything back up to leave.

once we got back to moving, maddux was fairly normal again and enjoying the zoo but we still headed for the door. mason didn't want to leave, but he could understand how sick maddux was and that we needed to take him home.  manning? not so much. at least there was still a lot to look at during our exit so he didn't fight me until we got to the parking lot and he realized that we were leaving.

at home i discovered that maddux did now have a low fever - 102. no school fro him tomorrow.  love.