John's Bad Day

The other night, John was going to practice his bow and bravely took Nat and the dog along with him. Here, he goes to an area of new construction near a drainage pond (for Jazzy) and some gravel/dirt backstops.

He started by throwing the dummy 2 or 3 times for Jazzy just to drain a little energy from her before he shot. Nat was out walking around in the size 5 pink and brown rubber mud boots she got from our neighbor into which she squeezes her size 7 feet..... but they're pink.

So daddy goes to get his bow and Nat is not where she had been just a moment before. He quickly scans the area and then sees her in the car. He opens the door.... and "globs of mud, everywhere." Mud all over Nat's car seat. Mud on Jules' car seat. Mud on the backs of both front seats.... mud all over the entire back of the car. Then, there's the mud clumps all over her boots-which she has taken off, mud all over her socks, legs and FACE.

Upon talking with Nat, .... at length.... we determined she had been walking along the curb, like a balance beam. Then she had an unfortunate dismount.... right into a giant mud hole. Not a mud puddle - full of muddy water, a mud hole - full of muddy mud. She obviously proceeded to the car where she apparently was dancing or rolling around or shaking her groove thing because the mud was really everywhere. I couldn't get a good pic of the inside of the car, but here are her boots. John tried to wipe her and the car up as best he could and finished shooting a couple arrows. During that time, he spilled his coffee in the trunk of the car two times.... and despite being thrown the dummy earlier, Jaz was all worked up. John said he'd never seen her so hyper and she jumped and jumped.... in mud puddles. Yeah, and they all had to come home in my car. So John gets Nat in the car seat and Jaz in too. He ran down the hill to get the mud off of HIS boots. While he did, Jaz jumped out of the open driver's side window. The end of her leash got stuck on something inside the car and when he came back up the hill he found her dangling out of the window by her leash.... (getting mud all over the outside of the car.)

Oh, what a night.

"We Have a Mystery" or "The Great Donut Caper"

We got donuts last week... I know, big surprise. We always have to get one donut for each family member, even if Daddy isn't home. After slighting him a few times that he wasn't around, having him come home and jokingly ask Nat where HIS donut was, she won't let me leave the store without one for him =) In typical fashion, the girls and I eat our donuts immediately upon entering the apartment. We leave daddy's in its box and I place it on the kitchen counter for when he gets home.

Now, later in the day, I see Natty standing on a small wooden chair she has drug into the kitchen. "What ya doin'?" I ask. Then I see the bag of yogurt covered raisins on the edge of the counter. I don't even let her answer. I just say, "Oh, okay, that's fine," and walk away. I never thought of it again ..... until later that evening when Daddy got home.

We had announced to Daddy that we got him a donut and I went to get it out for him (and to take a bite before he got a chance to). Everything seemed fine from the top ... then I flipped it over:

If anyone has any idea who could possibly have taken bites from this donut and then replaced it with such care, please contact me via phone or email. Bite-mark and fingerprints tests were inconclusive due to excessive amounts of glaze.

Growing Girls - Nat

Nat, ... Nat, ... Nat. She is growing sooo fast that it's amazing; and she loves every minute of it.

Mommy: "I don't want you to grow up."
Natty: "but I love to grow up. It's my favorite thing to do!

She is showing a lot of improvement on picking up toys and I even showed her how to make her bed tonight. She LOVES to help in the kitchen, which can be a problem at times. In fact, she just suffered her first burn from a pan while making our own "Chicken McNuggets." She is really wanting to do EVERYTHING on her own, from covering herself with blankets at night, to picking out and putting her own clothes on, to getting herself on the toilet. "I can do it, I'm growing up." She even said to nana when nana apparently tried to help her, "Nana, did you forget I'm getting big?" Let me tell you, although she surprises me everyday with some new skill, I HAVEN'T forgotten she is getting big....... its so bittersweet.

Growing Girls - Julsie

Let's start with Julsie. She just had her 15 mo. well-baby visit this week. It was a fiasco, which is a story in itself, but we found out she's 19.5 lbs. She is around the 5th percentile in weight and between the 50th and 75th in height.

But more than her physical growth, is her growth in every other way. She likes to imitate us and wants to do grown-up things... like sister. The other night she got Nat's undies (clean) and tried to put them on herself.

Here she is with her first try at using a spoon on her own.

From this shot, you won't believe it, but another one of her new skills is wiping her mouth with a napkin - so sweet... just like a big girl.

She is also starting to be a little mother too, walking around with a purse over her shoulder, feeding baby dolls a bottle, etc. You probably know, she has been washing her hair (and pretending to do so) for a while now, but she just started pretending to put lotion on her hands and rubbing it on her body. Last night she really did it. Then, she rubbed lotion all over MY face =)

Her is just an added pic of her ... doesn't really fit the growing theme, she's just a cutie. =)

I Can't Even Take It

Every day, either John or I say, "these kids are so cute, I can't even take it." Every day there is something new that they do or say to make us smile. I love these little stinkers.
Today, Nat was on a scooter for the first time ever (thanks to our good friend Kylee). Ky showed her how to use it and after about 1 push, Nat runs over to where I'm sitting on the grass and says, "Um, hey.... mom. ... You know that helmet? ... could I have it?"
On John's last midnight shift, Nat slept in my bed quite a bit. A few nights I invited her in, a few nights she snuck in... and one night, well ... she won her way in. I had tucked her into her own bed and went about doing my "mom jobs." When I finally headed to bed a few hours later I heard heavy breathing as I approached my room. "Huh? Where's she at? I shouldn't be able to hear her from either bed?" ...... I turn on my light and

there she is, between my bed and dresser, snuggled on my comforter, which she had pulled off the bed and made into a little nest on the floor. She was just too cute. I put her into my bed, wrapped my arms around her and fell asleep smiling.
I dressed the girls for church a couple weeks ago and put Julsie in her patent leathers for the first time. She loved them. She loves shoes. She tries to SAY "shoes." (It comes out more like "chews.") She tries to put them on herself and even crawls around with them on her hands.
Immediately after church, we stopped at Giant and had to get donuts. Now it's not only Nat who is obsessed with donuts, Jules grunts, points and screams as we approach the bakery case. I let her point to the donut of her choice. I have 2 little donut monsters. Here they are after church:

notice two-fisted technique. (Yeah, I'm smart enough to save the good clothes =)

More silly stories and pics to come. I know I'm still behind, but I've got to hit the hay.

The Eating Disaster

Eating at home was a complete DISASTER. On our way up, I packed tuna fish sandwiches and organic animal crackers so we wouldn't be slaves to fast food. It all went downhill from there. We got candy at the parade and bought an order of fries and chicken fingers to share at the fair. We went to the local greasy spoon for breakfast the next morning. My sister came up for the day, was bored and made cookies. John said, "did your sister make cookies and then leave?" hahaha. Like, "not fair! leaving them here to tempt us!"
That night for dinner, we got some "extra lean" meat at a small grocery store. It was really 80%! John feels 80%? - you might as well shoot animal fat directly into your veins. He was disappointed, but decided to cook it anyway. I was with the kids and he was outside at the grill. After a while, I came down to see if they were finally ready and he says, "well, the burgers are inedible." Looking, I need no explanation - there is an entire plate, heaped high with hockey pucks. Matching charred buns were close by. My skeptical mind immediately thought, "you burned those on purpose!" Oh well, I know he didn't. He was so stressed he wasn't even going to eat. Keeping my own stomach and the kids in mind, I head over to Hometown Pizza and pick up the best choice at the time. At least we all ate.
The next day we did the Eddie's/Hank's run. (For those of you who don't know, Eddie's is a famous footlong hot dog place with "special sauce" and Hanks is a famous frozen custard place. Both have been around for over 60 years.) John and I both had footlongs with "the works" and 2 scoops of vanilla =) I had a "works" on one of our early dates... and he was impressed. Now, not so sure it's impressed he's feeling.

You may need a full body cleanse just reading this. (John is on low-carb now.)

The Fair

Sorry I'm behind again. We went home on Wednesday last week so we could attend the big Cochranton Fair.

The night before, I accidentally fell asleep on the couch waiting for my last load of laundry to dry around 12:30 am. I have no idea how I got there, but at 4:30 am I found myself in my bed ... with a little stinker that had wormed in at some point. I raced to finish preparing before John got home. One task was to pack Jazzy's food so I head to the outdoor closet. After wrestling Nat's trike and a twined pile of firewood, I find the partial bag of food. I pull and hear "c-shchshshsh" like a heavy rain. The entire bottom of the bag fell apart and the contents spilled all through the closet. So, in the pre-dawn light, I'm vacuuming the outside closet floor. Ugh.

John got off work at 6 am. I made him some eggs while he loaded the car and we were on our way. He tried to sleep on the ride up, but alleges I drive like a drunk blind man. Additionally, he was cramped into the Elantra. Yeah, we took all five of us home in the Elantra. Luckily, Jazzy rode at the girls' feet the entire time and was just a dream. (Now, don't get me wrong, she is NOT a dream in many other ways, but she is in the car. )
So, anyway - parade: We headed down early to get a good spot. Despite the 4 comfortable lawn chairs we brought, we all ended up sitting on the ground on a sheet ... to get the candy, of course! Almost 2 hours later, as the first unit was finally about to come to us, Nat had to go pee. She and Nana went to the Country Fair and stood in a giant line while the band (her favorite part last year), and the Zem-Zem cars went by. I couldn't believe it, "we drove 5 hours to see this parade and she's going to miss it!"

We had a good time though. Daddy was in a fog from his strange hours, but did well to keep up with us. Little Julsie waved at the men in the fire trucks and loved the animals. (We could tell by her grunting.) She looked so cute sitting on the curb, which was a perfect seat for her, and chomping on a big Tootsie Roll all on her own.

We hit the fair for a little while and they put up with my chit-chatting. It was sooo crowded. While we did get Nat a snack, and visit some animals, we didn't ride anything, thinking we'd get there another day. Oh well.

...Everyone would be in love with me.

I'm in my second home, Giant, attempting to earn my free Hershey Park ticket by spending $45 in Kraft products.* En route to completing this heroic stay-at-home-mom task, I purchase 2 packs of Oscar Mayer Weiners (they were BOGO ... and hey, the girls need to be regular kids once in a while. They can't grow up on only chicken breast and rice.)

As I put the Weiners in the cart, I cannot resist and find myself moved to song... the Oscar Mayer Weiner song, of course. As I'm making my way up and down the aisles making a fool of myself for my little stinkers, Nat grabs me around the neck and pulls me to her, cheek to cheek. I'm hunched over the handles of the cart and she says, "You're so silly mommy." And Jules quickly joins in the hug fest.

I look at little Julsie's arms and legs, beautifully browned in the summer sun and realized that for Julsie, there is no wishing - she IS a little Oscar Mayer Weiner! That plump, smooth, flawless, tan skin. No wonder I always feel like literally eating her up! .... and we all ARE in love with her =)

*I did earn that free ticket (a $45 value). I also used 25 dollars in coupons and saved 28 using my bonus card on that same trip.... one of my home economic highlights.