5 Months

Evan is 5 months old today!! Time sure does fly. Some of his new things this month:
He found his voice. He started making this really deep growling sound and now he just screams! He is trying to be heard over his big sister. :)
He is starting to roll over from back to tummy and still rolling over tummy to back. Still not going far, but he's trying.
He loves playing with his feet. But it makes it very hard to change diapers and put clothes on when his toes are in his mouth!

Evan is so aware of his surroundings. He is constantly taking everything in and loves watching everyone moving around. He tries to watch Madi running around the house but he can't quite keep up with her. He is also very grabby. Grabs everything, hair, glasses, drinks, phones, nothing is safe within arms length of him. And of course, once he has it in his hands, it's in his mouth. He also thinks he is ready for food. He watches us so closely when we are eating and tries to grab at it. It won't be too much longer though.

We have to be very careful now where we set him. If he is propped up on our bed he will pull himself to sitting up but keeps going until he is on his tummy. Madi likes to sit with him on the couch or in the recliner, but I don't know if we can do that too much longer. I don't think she would be quick enough or paying close attention to grab him if he suddenly starts moving. I have set him up on the floor several times and he will sit for a little bit and start to lean to one side and then catches himself and sits back up. But it doesn't last long. That's okay though. I don't want him growing up so fast anyways :(

He is such a happy baby and so fun to spend time with. I am so lucky to be able to stay home!


Still loves the exersaucer. Of course, he spends most of the time with the toys he can move towards him, in his mouth!


2-11-10 Bath time! Starting to sit up pretty good on his own and is starting to look around and play instead of hyperventilating the whole time :)




Smell my toes, they're clean!! (As Madi would say!)

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We've had some fun outings this last month. Madi got to go bowling with Mayci, Carly and Kenley. They had such a blast. It was fun to watch them.






Then after bowling, each of the Mama's took the three older girls to Central High's play of The Beauty and the Beast. Madi was a little whinny before it started. She was concerned that she wasn't going to be able to see over the top of the people sitting in front of us. But once it started and she figured out where she was supposed to be watching, she was fine. She did sit on my lap for the first half and then sat with Kenley for the last part. Foldable seats are just not very friendly for three year olds. But all three loved the play and afterwards we went down to the stage and was able to get their pictures taken with Belle.




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I have been busy with craft projects this last month. I am planning Chris' cousin Meranda's baby shower and have been working on the invitations during any spare moments. I'm glad I started this task two months before the shower, because my free time is very short and I was starting to worry that I wasn't going to get them done. But I did and they are finally in the mail! I'll share pics of all the shower stuff later because Meranda hasn't seen everything and I want to keep some of it a surprise.

And Madi and I made her Valentines for school. They turned out so cute. I got the idea from Skip to my Lou. I love that website, so many neat craft ideas there.





Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Love, Amy

Family Updates

Evan had his 4 month well checkup on Wednesday. Everything is going well and he is growing like crazy. He is now 25.3 inches long in the 62% up from the 23% only 2 months ago. He is going to be tall. He is going to put Uncle Jason down with the rest of us!! He weighs 14 lbs. 10 oz. in the 45%. She was really pleased with his growth and is right on track. I guess all the eating is going towards all that energy at growing taller! Developmentally he is at age level. I have noticed a big change in the last week with his motor control. He isn't as jerky when trying to reach for things. And he is actually trying to reach and pick things up. He plays with everything on his exersaucer and was even getting mad today when he couldn't get to something he wanted. He recognizes his bottle and is even trying to grab it and pull it to his mouth. Very cute. This morning (Sunday 1-17) he found his toes while sitting in my lap. He was able to get to his left toes no problem but had a little trouble getting his hands to his right toes. He is such a doll and such a smiley little guy. I just can't get enough of him!





Madi is doing great at school. I think she just enjoys playing and being around all the other kids. I ask her what she did at school today and she will say, we didn't paint. What else did you do, I don't know. But she is doing a really good job at writing her name and she can tell you almost any letter in the alphabet and her numbers. Very pleased. She loves playing with all her new toys from Christmas and has even started going to her room and playing by herself for periods at a time.

On January 2, we went bowling with my parents and Jason and Tabatha and Jaxson. We had a great time. Madi has been asking to go bowling for a long time and was a great way to spend some time together. She has never been bowling but she knew exactly what to do. She was the first bowler, picked up her ball and threw it down the lane. First roll she got a strike!!! (With the aid of bumpers of course!) But we couldn't believe it. She did great on her own until about the 5th frame and she went out too far and hit that slick lane and went straight down on her back. We were so surprised the ball didn't fall on her. She was a little afraid to go back out and she sat out for a couple of frames and was nursed back to health with the help of nachos and a vending machine game!! But Daddy got her back out and she enjoyed the rest of the game and finished with a 125!! We will be going back and hopefully taking some little friends along next time.

Madi is still totally in love with Evan. She wants to do everything for him. Feed him, help give him his bath, she can't keep her hands off of him. And she gets the biggest smiles from her when she sings to him, so very cute!

Madi also loves to perform for us. We have to introduce her and then she comes and sings for us. It is quite funny to see. I will have to check into getting her signed up for acting and singing lessons this summer at the Community Theatre. I think she would love it.


Here she is from one of her latest performances with the beautiful and unseasonable ensemble she came out in!! I think she is ready for summer. She has been pulling out the swimsuits a lot lately!

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Chris has been busy with work the last couple of weeks. It seems that he gets a little break with not much to do and then everyone wants something done all at the same time and it takes a couple of really busy weeks to get caught back up. Which is a good thing right now. He is getting ready to hit his typically slow period from February to May. So we will see how it goes. With all the layoffs and closings around Salina in the last several months, we are afraid we might finally start feeling the effects. So far we have been lucky and have not experienced any of the down turns from the economy. Hopefully our luck will continue.

After our poor turnout with the Flywheel's Fall Show and some bad attitudes from some of the member's, we were going to walk away from our involvement with the Flywheel's. But after talking with some other members and a good friend of Chris' he decided to stick with it and ran for a board member spot to try and make things better. So, in November, he was elected as a board member. Our good friend Jerry May is now the president and we are all working together to try and get things turned around for the best. The best news of all is that the Flywheel's was finally able to buy the land that they have been leasing for many, many years and are able to move forward with bigger and better plans. They started construction of the Boys Scouts of America Museum which will be built on the same grounds. I'm not real sure how that is going to tie in together but will be a great addition.

Chris also found two International Harvester tractors for sale and bought one and got the other one to be donated to the Flywheel's. The donated tractor has some fixing up to be done and they have already lined up the diesel mechanics class at the Vo-Tech to donate their time at getting it running. Brian's Paint Shop is donating the labor to repaint it. So we are really excited about this. We are hoping to have it done and ready for the Farm Show coming up in March. The Flywheel's have a booth every year and we will have the tractor there on display and will be selling chances to win the tractor at our Fall Show. This should be a great money maker and if it works out like we want to, we will try and get a new tractor every year. The goal is to get the feature tractor for the year. This year's feature tractor is Minneapolis Moline but just not enough time to find one and get it done this year.

Chris has been busy with his hobbies this winter. He joined the Kansas Chapter of the International Harvesters Club this weekend. They had their annual meeting at the Flywheel's so he went over and spent Saturday there. He also joined a group of men through his accountant that get together and talk and learn about investments. He enjoys meeting with them once a month. He also got his stove going out in the shed so he spends a lot of time out there and Madi loves going out with him and playing and riding her bike. But he is ready for spring. It's already been a rough winter and having to juggle and push outside jobs around has not been fun.

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I have just been busy with the kids at home. I don't have a lot of free time to do anything. I do get away once a month on the first Monday for Truancy Review Board. I enjoy doing it. It does get a little depressing at times but we also have some families that make good turn arounds also. And I have a wonderful group of board members to work with.

I am still battling with my back pain since the middle of November. I have been seeing the Chiropractor twice a week for the last month and it is helping some. Usually it only takes two weeks to get it back to feeling good, but not this time. Hopefully soon, I am tired of the pain.

I have started planning for Chris' cousins baby shower that I will be hosting. I'm having fun finding some really cute ideas and look forward to getting my Cricut out and getting invitations done.

Well, we are headed to the library as soon as I get everyone up from naps and then Madi has a skating party tonight with her school. Chris doesn't really want to go, but I am ready to get out of the house and go do something fun. Plus, Madi has been asking to go skating every time we drive by there since a year ago September when we were there for Wyatt's birthday party. Hopefully she will do better this time. I'll have pics to share!!

Take care and for those of you with Monday off, hope you have a great three day weekend!
Love, Amy

4 Months

Where have the last 4 months gone? I can't believe how fast time goes and Evan is growing so much!! His next appointment is on Wednesday and I am anxious to see how big he has gotten.

Evan is eating great. Sometimes I think he is eating too much, it seems like I am always sitting down and feeding him. I have been trying to get him into a better routine of nap, eating and bed time. But it is so hard. With Madi, it was just us and I could do whatever I wanted or needed to without interruption. But poor Evan, it never fails, I sit down to feed him or get him settled in for a nap and Madi wants something or is out of bed when she is supposed to be sleeping. And then with school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, it throws off his morning nap because I have to get him up and loaded into the car to get her picked up. He is adapting well and it doesn't seem to bother him. I just need to take his approach and go with the flow :)

He is Mr. Smiles right now. It is so cute how his face just lights up. Especially after nap time, he is all grins. He is also very ticklish and lets out the cutest little chuckle when you hit just the right spot! Evan also loves it when Madi sings or dances for him.

Just this last weekend he has really started trying to grab things. He loves playing in his exersaucer and is finally getting some controlled arm movement to play with the toys on it. I was in the kitchen the other day and heard the wheels turning on the exersaucer and thought Madi was doing it when I realized she was in her room playing. He was really working at it!

Playing on his tummy is still not his favorite thing to do, but we do little short spells of it everyday. He does very well with pushing up and looking around. He hasn't done a lot of rolling over in the last couple weeks, but he will get there.

Evan started sleeping all night on December 18 and did well for about 2 weeks. But the last week or so, he has been getting up again. Sometimes it's 3:00 am sometimes he will sleep until 5:30, really depends on what time he goes to bed. I am hoping it is just because he has a cold and isn't sleeping as soundly. His little nose is just full of snot and we have to suck it out or otherwise he just has a terrible time breathing. So hopefully after that clears up, he can get back to sleeping all night.

We started using the Bumbo seat after Christmas. He sits in it pretty good. It is nice that we can put him up on the counter and he can sit with us while we eat supper. But it doesn't take long and he wiggles one leg in and he slumps over and chews on the side.

I keep looking for teeth to be showing up anytime now. He is a drooling machine. And he loves to chew and suck on his hand. He gets so many fingers and fist in his mouth he ends up choking himself. But, no sign of the teeth yet.

And unlike his big sister, he is still NOT loving bath time. He doesn't scream and fuss but when I get him out of the tub, his little hands are blue from clinching them so tight. I don't think he feels very comfortable or stable in the tub, so I am hoping that once he can sit on his own, he will like it better. For some reason I am just not loving our little baby tub either. I don't know what it is, but it seems so awkward and unnatural even for me. I've tried several different positions and places and something just isn't right. We'll get there!

Here are some pictures from this month so far.


January 1, Christmas at Nana and Papa's house. (I have more pics and another post I want to do from that weekend, but my pics won't upload, stay tuned!)




January 8. My little cowboy playing at home!


January 11. Sitting in the Bumbo!



I just couldn't be happier with our little family. I'm looking forward to this year and all of the changes for both kids.

Love,
Amy

Our Family Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. We had the Christmas Eve party at our house this year. The weather was very bad out and a lot of people already had plans, so it was small and nice. Madi was so excited Christmas Eve day that she was non stop and we could not keep her in bed for nap time. But she did very well that evening for not having a nap and it made it easier at bedtime because she was spent. We were so afraid she would get up and come out while we were putting presents under the tree.

Santa came undetected, ate his cookies and milk and the reindeer ate their carrots that Madi left. She even drew a picture and left it under the tree for Santa. He left her a nice note in return and way too many presents! Madi was up at 6:30 and was very excited. "Mommy, Santa left presents, Santa left presents! Let's go open them!" I sent her to the bathroom while Chris and I got up and before we made out to the living room, Chris heard wrapping paper being torn. And of course, the first present to be opened was her sewing machine!!! She was so excited and I wanted to get her reaction on camera, but we were too late. Oh well, it was fun to watch her and all her excitement. Even after telling her during the day who some of the presents were from, she still thinks everything came from Santa!! We opted to let Evan sleep and not get him up for presents. He really has no idea what is going on this year. And I am glad we let him sleep. I would have had to feed him and miss watching Madi open her gifts. It was nice to give her all the attention one last Christmas.

After we opened our gifts and played and picked up a bit. Dan, Jane and Jon came out with their gifts and we opened again. Again, all those gifts were also from Santa! We did more playing and cleaning up and started making lunch. My parents came out and joined us for Christmas. It was a wonderful day. And my wonderful husband did all the cooking this year. It was very amazing and he did a great job!


After opening her sewing machine.


My Happy Christmas Baby!!


Loving the exersaucer!


Madi's team shirt! She told Grandma she wanted a team shirt with her name and the number 3 on it. She opened that gift and immediately tore off her other shirt and put her team shirt on. She was so excited. That night she took it off and folded it and layed it on her table in her room. I asked her why she didn't put it in her hamper and she said she didn't want to get it dirty. First thing the next morning she woke up and put that shirt back on. I thought oh no, she is going to want to wear this shirt everyday!! Later in the afternoon of the second day, we ended up turning the shirt around and wearing it backwards because she wanted to see her name and 3!! She is just too much fun sometimes!


Sleepy baby.

New Year's Eve we are having a get together with the Gengler family and New Year's Day we are spending the day with my parents and Jason, Tabatha and Jaxson to have our family Christmas. Fun and busy weekend coming up!!

Happy New Year!!!
Love, Amy

Merry Christmas!

We are ready for Christmas. I have a couple of things to pick up from the grocery store tonight. We are having the Christmas Eve get together at our house this year. And then Christmas Day we are doing the lunch for Chris' family and my parents. It will be a nice day and I am looking forward to it. Chris is taking Thursday off and has a very long list of baking things he wants to do. So, it will be a very messy day at our house and hopefully he can get what he wants done and I can get the mess cleaned up before the party! And I have all the wrapping left to do. I am not very motivated to get wrapping done this year and I don't know why. I need to hire someone to do my wrapping!!



Here are some pictures from this last week. We had a fairly busy week last week. Madi had her Christmas Program and party at school on Thursday. We also got to go see Santa at Kennedy and Coe on Thursday.

Here's my smiley man!! I can't get enough of those smiles. He is a pretty happy and content little guy. We also had a huge milestone Friday night. He slept all night long!!!! And has slept every night since! Merry Christmas to me!! Very exciting!

Madi at her Christmas Program. I didn't realize that the settings on my camera for my flash were wrong until later that night after the program and seeing Santa were all over. Very disappointing, all my pictures were blurry from the day. :(




Meeting Santa.

She sat on his lap this year, no problems. She asked for her sewing machine again. And after opening her gift, she had a sad face. We asked her what was wrong and she said Santa didn't give me a sewing machine. We had to assure her that the gift that we ask Santa for will come Christmas morning under the tree. This was just an extra gift.

My special present!!

Playing!



Madi's snowman. First his name was Frosty. Then once we added the hat, he became Daddy!

Last Saturday night we went and looked at lights around town. Evan wasn't interested very much!!

But Madi loved the lights and was excited to see the Georgetown Santa's!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Love, The Helm's

3 Months Old

Evan turned 3 months old on Friday. Time is going fast, I can't believe it's already been 3 months! Not a lot of changes going on right now. He is holding his head up very well and has graduated to playing in the exersaucer. He loves it. He doesn't really play with anything on it but he likes to look at all the bright colors and loves being able to sit up. He isn't much of a floor player. But that could be because he gets a little crowded in on with big sister when he is on the floor. He probably feels a little more safe in the exersaucer.

The last two weeks he is sleeping for longer stretches at night. YEAH!! Last night I was so surprised because he ate at 9:00, went to bed at 10:30 and slept until 3:30, ate and slept until 8:45!!! What was even better was that Madi also slept until 8:45, Momma got some good rest!! He is still eating about every 3-4 hours during the day and I would love to get that stretched out a little too. One step at a time!

He is a very happy boy and loves to be talked to and also has big grins when Madi sings to him. It is very cute. Of course I have no pictures of it because as soon as I get the camera out he stares at it and clams up. I'm going to try to get more pictures taken. But like everything else around here, I just don't seem to have the time to get it done. But here are some pictures from this last month.


Visiting deer camp


Playing patty cake with Madi.


Sleepy time in the swing.

I also updated our family picture slide show on the right side of the page. Check out the awesome pictures that Andrea did. I got very large pictures of the two of them together and then the individual pictures to put on the wall in the living room. They are gorgeous and can't wait to get the old pics down and holes repaired in the wall and get them up. My Christmas present to me this year!!

Have a great week!
Love, Amy

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here

Madi is so in to Christmas this year, it has been really fun. She has been talking about Santa and visiting Santa since July! And once Halloween was over, to her, it was Christmas time. So, last weekend when we told her we were putting up the tree, she was so excited!! I put the tree up and it only takes five minutes, it's pre-lit and all the branches are attached, super easy to put up and plug in. Unfortunately, our poor tree had some major electrical issues this year. But it was so funny and so precious. Madi was standing in front of the tree when I plugged it in. Only two little sections of lights came on but Madi's reaction could only come from the innocence of a child! "WOWWW, it's like magic!" She didn't care that not all the lights came on, she was in total awe. Priceless!!

We tried to get the lights working but it just didn't work. We would replace one bulb and it would flicker on and then pop another bulb. Totally not safe to even try and fix. Luckily I had bought an extra tree last year on Black Friday and had a back up. I took my $20 tree out of the box and Chris' reaction was "Nice Charlie Brown tree Amy!" It looked very sad and thin. But with a lot of fluffing of the branches, it looks really nice now. Madi decorated our Charlie Brown tree all by herself this year. She was so proud of herself and it looks amazing!! I especially love that all the decorations are on the bottom two rows of branches! I could just eat her up, she is so darn cute! I did end up adding some balls to the top part of the tree just to finish it off. But every day she asks for more decorations to put on the tree.





Now the tree is up and every day this week when she would get up in the morning and at nap time, she comes out to the tree and says "No presents yet? When is Santa going to leave the presents?" After telling her several times in terms that she doesn't understand yet, I finally got the advent calendar made. I've seen a lot of neat ideas and different ways to do advent calendars. But I just don't have any time to do any crafty things this year. I remember making a Santa and filling in his beard with cotton balls to countdown to Christmas when I was younger. So that's what I made and she loves it! Except now she keeps asking every night if she can put all of the cotton balls on. I don't know if she wants to fill it all in because she likes to put the cotton balls on or if she has caught on yet that once it is all filled in, it is Christmas day. That's what I remind her every evening that when it is filled in then it will be Christmas day and Santa will come that night with gifts. Then we count the open spots.



We went shopping last weekend and saw Santa at Wal-Mart while we were there. Madi will see a toy or something she wants and she'll say "I wish I had that." And I'll tell her she needs to tell Santa what she wants for Christmas, we are not buying toys this close to Christmas. So she went and sat with Santa and told him what she wanted and got her picture taken and got a candy cane. She was very excited. I asked her what she told Santa she wanted for Christmas. "I told him I want a sewing machine and he wants to give me a doll! But he didn't give me what I wanted." I had to laugh, she thought he was going to give her her gifts right then! I told her Santa is making his list of things to bring all the kids. He will bring your gift and leave it under the tree. So cute! The only thing she is consistent with that she wants is the sewing machine so that is the only thing she told Santa she wanted. He said that's a new one, do you want a doll too? So she asked for the sewing machine and thinks that Santa also wants to give her a doll!! Maybe I better pick up a doll too, just in case she remembers that!!



This evening we are going to go to the mall and maybe visit Santa there and pick a name off the Angel Tree. I have done the Angel tree the past couple of years but this year Madi will be able to understand what we are doing and help pick something out. I think it is important to not focus only on the receiving part of Christmas but also the giving. That is the fun part of Christmas and also the most memorable. Being able to help others. And I want her to have those kinds of good values.

Love, Amy

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!! We had a great Thanksgiving day. We hung out at my mom and dad's house with Jason, Tabatha, and Jaxson. We spent the whole day watching the kids play, it was a lot of fun. Jaxson is really getting around and he is so full of smiles. Madi had fun playing with Daisy and when Evan was awake, he was taking it all in. It will be fun to see all three kids together this summer when they are all mobile!!

Chris spent all day Thursday planning our Black Friday shopping trip. We have really enjoyed doing this every year and last year was fun because just the two of us went out together. But it seems it is becoming a hassle with two little kids. It is too early and too crazy to bring them with us. So, Thursday night I was debating on whether I wanted to go at all and we ended up talking ourselves out of going. At least the 4 and 5 am time. There really wasn't anything that we had to have or that we would be bummed if we got there at 8 and they were sold out. So, I decided to stay home this year and Chris went out at 9:00. He didn't get much so we really haven't started our Christmas shopping yet.

The rest of our weekend has been spent getting everything together and loaded for Deer Camp this week. Chris had my van loaded, the back seat of his truck loaded and the bed of the truck full. We had talked earlier in the week and decided to let Madi stay Sunday night out there. All the guys aren't out yet, no hunting until Wednesday. She could hang out and do fun stuff with Daddy. But Thursday night she came down with a cold. She was running a temp Friday night. We went ahead and packed everything for her. But once she was out there, all she wanted to do was run around in the cold air and it made her cold even worse. She was really coughing bad and her nose was running like crazy. We decided she needed to come home instead of chancing it becoming worse. She wasn't very happy at first but she got over it pretty quickly. She has been pestering me all day though to go out and see daddy. We are going to go back out Thursday night and take supper and then we will go back out on Sunday to help tear down and load everything up. Chris got four tags so next Monday we will be busy butchering meat. Which is good, we are almost out of burger in the freezer. Evan didn't make it out to deer camp Sunday. It was supposed to be so cold. And there is a big difference between Madi's first year out there at 6 months and Evan at 2 1/2 months. We will see about the weather Thursday and Sunday if he will make it out then or not.

Here's some pics of Madi at Deer Camp. With her supposed to be staying out there, I went out to find some warm outer wear clothes. Found some camo for her at Ace and snow boots at Kmart. She looked so cute in her hunting clothes.





And a couple of pictures of Evan.



Big grins!! He is such a happy guy after he wakes up. He is really starting to make a lot of noise and "talking" to us. It is very cute. Especially when he throws in a squeal. He also loves looking in a mirror. He played for the longest time on the floor this morning just looking at himself in the mirror.


My cutie bug!!

Have a great week!

Love, Amy

8 Weeks

Evan is 8 weeks old today and we had his 2 month checkup this morning. He is growing like a weed!! I was so surprised when they weighed him. He is now at 10 lbs 14 oz. (39%) and 22 inches long (23%). He is on track developmentally. We need to do more tummy time and get those neck muscles strengthened. He does really well when he is sitting and on our shoulders holding his head up, but once on his tummy, his legs and rear end get all the lift. It's quite funny to watch. Tuesday when he was on his tummy, he was actually pushing himself around the blanket with his feet.

The doctor wants us to try Zantac for a week and see if that doesn't help his fussiness. She said we should see a difference within the first week if that truly is the problem. A lot of what she was describing in reflux babies, sounds a lot like Evan. I didn't really think of acid reflux before because he doesn't spit up but she said it is not uncommon for acid reflux to occur without the spitting up. And hopefully this will help with him wanting to sleep on his tummy and getting him switched back to his back.

Otherwise, everything is going well with Evan. He has been giving us a bunch of smiles lately and is becoming more aware of his surroundings. He is staying up for longer periods during the day. His favorite thing right now is the fan. Unfortunately, the fan is getting more smiles than anyone else :( He likes to watch it sitting still but also loves to see it spinning and he tracks it very well when it is moving. I just wish my electrician husband could rig the fan up to turn slower when it is on. We are constantly reaching up and just spinning it ourselves, but it doesn't stay spinning long enough to get much done in between. He also loves his mobile on his bed and he likes looking at the bumpers on his bed. He isn't very interested in his floor gym or the toys on the bouncy seat.

I don't know if his wanting to be held and close to someone is any indication of his personality at this point. But it seems like he is going to be my cuddly one. He prefers to be held and close so he can study our faces. And Madi was more of my independent baby. She would be content to play on the floor or in her bouncy seat while I did stuff around the house. She is still very independent, not the cuddly type unless she is sad or not feeling well. We will see!

Madi's favorite toy right now is Evan!! She can't keep her hands off of him, and kisses, kisses. She amazes me more and more everyday. I am so thrilled with what she is doing and learning at school. Last night we were playing in the shed and she says "Mom, you have to put your right hand over your heart like this and say Pledge of Allegiance" and then she said the whole thing by herself!!! Totally blown away, I didn't even know they were doing that in school. And she is constantly singing new songs that she is learning. And she is writing her name so well. I am very, very happy. She is really thriving.

We've had a couple things done around the house the last couple of weeks. We finally got the door on the safe room on and done. Now it is truly a safe room/storm shelter. We also had the roof put on over the back deck. Chris is totally in love with it!! He keeps saying my wife is so excited to have this. But he is the one that can't get enough of it. It is nice and will be great this summer to lessen the amount of sun beating down and coming in the back windows. Plus the big bonus is keeping the rain off the back door, which has been our big leaking spot for some reason. Chris also installed a wood burning stove (the kind made out of two metal barrels) out in the shed. He is been out every night this week to start a fire. I asked him the other night why he keeps going out and starting fires, he can only be out for about an hour before supper is done and bath time, etc., he says he just likes to start a fire. Of course he gets it installed on the nicest week of fall so far. It's almost too warm to even start a fire!

We are headed to Beloit this weekend to get family pictures. I'm so excited!! Have a great weekend, it's supposed to be a nice one!

Love, Amy

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween with the kids this year. Madi was a witch. Decked out in purple and black. I didn't do a costume for Evan. He was too little to wear the pumpkin outfit I made for Madi for her first Halloween and knowing he was going to be in his car seat and fast in and outs at friends and family, I didn't want to mess with a bulky outfit so he just wore a festive onesie. He was still a cutie!!


This is the first year we carved pumpkins. I was planning on skipping it even this year but when we got our pumpkins she started talking about making them into jack-o-lanterns. They must have talked about jack-o-lanterns at school because we have never talked about pumpkins like that before. So, since she knew about carving pumpkins, we kind of had to do it. We ended up doing all the work anyways. She doesn't like to touch things that she isn't sure about. And she wasn't having anything to do with that yucky slimy stuff in the pumpkin. She would touch the seeds but she would not touch the inside of that pumpkin or the stuff pulled out of it. But she had fun drawing faces on the pumpkins and then we cut them out. They turned out cute and fun and she loved lighting them and looking at them glow.




Madi's pumpkin




Love the smiles!!

Mr. Serious. He was working on a good poop at the time!!

My pretty witch!

We trick or treated mostly at our families homes. We hit about 6 different places and then we usually end our evening at my parents where Madi loves to help hand out candy. In past years they didn't have too many kids once we got there, but this year, they were busy. Madi had a blast and the door bell was non stop. She was trying to play with Nana but they didn't get much playing done, she spent most of the time running back and forth to the door. At least it wore her out some! We were going to go door to door on their block (we haven't done that yet) but she was content enough to just hand out. Maybe next year.

Thursday, she got to wear her costume to school. They did a parade and then put on a little program. It was so cute. They sang songs with actions and it was so much fun watching a bunch of 3 year olds all trying to keep up. But everyone was on their own part of the song, very cute!! After their program, all the parents and grandparents left and the kids had their party.

Evan is 7 weeks old. He is doing well. He is very fussy right now. I guess some babies go through this between 6 and 12 weeks. I didn't experience this with Madi (at least I don't remember her going through this). So it feels like I am learning everything again. At times I feel like I have no clue what I am doing (again). And I am so afraid that I am doing everything wrong that I know Chris thinks I am a total nut case right now. I probably am, but I am blaming it on sleep deprivation. He is sleeping better at night. He drinks his bottle and goes right back to sleep. But the little stinker won't sleep on his back, only his tummy. Which these days is an absolute no no. All babies should be on their back, no matter what. Sleeping on their tummies increases the risk of SIDS, etc, etc. So, I am breaking all the rules and letting him sleep on his tummy. Makes me very nervous to leave him like this. I am constantly in checking to make sure he is still breathing. I have even tried going in a half hour later and rolling him to his back. But as soon as he is on his back, even after being asleep for awhile, his little arms get to waving and he wakes himself up. I'm doing the best I can right now. And for both of our sakes and for Madi, at least I am getting some good rest at night. It is only two to three hours at a time but I haven't been as exhausted as I was before when I was sleeping in the chair holding him all night.

Another 4 day blog post!! Will be back tomorrow with updates from Evan's doctor appointment.

Love, Amy