some fun in June

I don't think my husband would be a happy man without a project to work on. This summer's major project is a greenhouse/shed combo! He's doing a great job on it and has a real gift for building and creating.

My Dad, Jeremy, and the boys took in the air show last weekend and had a great day together! While us girls Marla Kay, Annika, Morgan and I took in some shopping in Anchorage. We had a great time too, doing what us girls do best.

Our sweet baby in her current favorite hang out spot. Thanks, Chantel!

Me and my big little girl. But don't get caught calling her little! "Remember, I'm not little, I'm a big grill!"

Last Thursday night, Morgan took a big tumble off of our treehouse ladder. Yikes, she fell about 8 feet right onto her back. After about 45 min. of us wondering if we should take her in... I decided to run her to Urgent Care and called Marla Kay to see if she was up for a trip into town with us. (Mind you, it was 10pm by then.) Morgan was complaining of back and tummy pain and was kinda falling asleep, and was just a mess until we decided to go. She had no visible injuries, but I was a bit afraid of internal things, since she fell so far. As we were getting into the car and heading to pick my up MKay, she perked right up!!

She was back to our Morgan... "Mommy, turn that way!" And on and on and on she went. So when we got to town, of course the two Urgent Care clinics were closed. So we called our Doc and he had us do a little test for her in the parking lot we were in. And he said that it sounds like she doesn't have any major back injury and has full range of motion, didn't have the signs of internal injury and was cognitively fine... so we decided to just watch her and see how she does by morning. So after all that we took our little patient for some ice cream. (at 10:30pm) and ran to get some movies. Grandma Kay (as the kids call her) told Morgan that the ice cream would make her feel all better. This is the happy, messy face she made as we arrived home. When Jeremy came out to meet us, she said, "It worked, Daddy! I'm all better!" She's been fine ever since, a bit sore, but overall fine! I think our girl is made of rubber. If I fell from the height she did, I'd be in bed for a week! Praise the Lord for his care of our sweetheart.

our Soccer guy

Gavin is in the middle of his second year of soccer and it is so much fun to watch! He was put on
an 8 and under team, which means our not quite 6 small fry of a boy is playing with some BIG boys! It doesn't phase him a bit. But during his first game of the season a couple weeks ago, coach put him in as the goalie! He was all excited until she put the goalie jersey on him. This is the face he made when he looked over at us. He flapped his arms to show us how long the sleeves were and was very sullen until the action started.

Then after the first play and the other team failed to score on him, he was jazzed. He looked over and gave us this confident thumbs up.


Last week was picture night before his game. And we had a flat tire on our way there! Thankfully we were still close to home when we noticed the flat. (It had been completely flat at home, but I didn't notice it until we got off the dirt road!) SO... we missed soccer pictures. So while we were waiting for Daddy to fix the van, I thought we'd take our own soccer pics in the yard. We got some great shots! Who needs to pay for soccer pictures? It was funny, after Gavin finished his photo shoot, both Drewy and Morgan wanted their picture taken with the soccer ball. The two of them came up with some unique soccer poses!

yarn and apples

I can think of maybe 2 people that will think this first picture is worthwhile and many more that will love the 2nd photo of my two Apple models.

I admit it, I'm a yarn addict.

Maybe I should have listed this as one of my quirks. (as listed below) But yarn stores and seeing my drawers full of yarn makes my heart sing. I actually smell the yarn when I buy it. Yeah, I know, you don't even have to say it. And I am SO excited after a good 6 months of searching, to finally find a cotton yarn I love. I've wanted, for a while now, to convert all of my Bacon Bit Knits hats to 100% cotton. But it has taken me a while to find one brand with all of the right colors. I'm really picky about it. Because a carrot and a raspberry have to be just the right color, right? Right. After searching high and low, I found it. End of that story. And, I've started a blog (which sits empty of any posts) for my knitting business, which has kept me quite busy this year. (The knitting, not the blog.) Or as busy as I want to be. You can check out the future site of my blog here. I'm in the process of knitting up one each of all the different hats I sell and taking cute pics of them and posting them on the blog for those wanting to place an order. My special order business has grown and I'm loving knitting made to order hats. They're also available at Pitter Patter, but she's all out. All of my sample hats will go there when I'm finished with them. 2 hats knit, 7 more to go.

strawberry

carrot top *new

blueberry

cupcake cutie

neapolitan sundae

watermelon *new

raspberry

pumpkin

apple

Karla ordered mother-daughter apples. Aren't they looking so cute?

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged. Rachel W. tagged me to spell out 6 quirks that I have.

Here are the rules:

Link the person who tagged you.

Mention the rules in your blog.

Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours.

Tag a new set of six bloggers by linking them (I chose 10!)

Six quirks of mine: (The above photo is 9 year old me, where it all started...)

1. I love books. Except I love the look of them sometimes more than the content of them. I would buy books left and right if I could, just to have them sit on my shelves and be books.

2. Jeremy calls me Rain Man because I remember faces, numbers, pictures, and can throw something across the room and have it land in it's exact proper place. (like a pen into the pen cup across the kitchen) Weird, I know.

3. (don't laugh) When I'm driving, I count how many car lengths (my car) it takes for me to get to the next oncoming car, or how many car lengths it is between telephone poles. I know, it's the Rain Man in me again. And like Rachel W., I stink at conventional math.

4. When shopping, I am drawn to black, black, and black then I complain that all I have to wear to church is dreary black. I think my wardrobe perpetually stuck in winter living in this wintry state.

5. I take my kids all over town, enjoy being out with them when Jeremy is at work... but then at home, I fear things like kidnappings when they're playing outside without a soul in sight in our secluded neighborhood.

6. It is way too easy for me to walk right by folded laundry and never put it away. Seriously, it will sit there folded for weeks before I break down and finally put it away. And did I mention that my dear husband is the one who washes and folds it?? My kids are too used to finding their clothes for the day in the folded ones. Ugh.

I choose the following to list their quirks:

Chantel

Jen

Rachel K.

Sarah B.

Shannon

Tasha

Carly

Anita E.

Sarah C.

Elizabeth

ahhh.. the Public Library

I think my favorite place to stop with my kiddos or especially without is the public library. I especially am fond of the Palmer library. Today, we made an unexpected trip to that blessed place. To make a long story short... we were headed to Palmer for Annika's 4 month checkup that has been planned on this date for 2 months, only to arrive after a 40 min. drive and find out that his office is closed today! (They called this evening to confirm my appt. for TOMORROW!)

Anyways, so we decided to head to the DMV to get my license renewed. I was excited because I've been waiting and waiting to get one of those cool new (or not so new) versions of the driver's license. So all went really well in the DMV with my 4 kiddos. I even got a compliment from a fellow family on how well I handled a "domestic dispute" as he called it. (Morgan was sad that Gavin "stole the seat she was sitting in") And our favorite DMV friend, and my best friend's husband, Ryan helped us! BUT... when we trudged across the parking lot, to get loaded back into the van, I gasped when I saw my driver's door WIDE OPEN! We were in there a good 25 minutes! Not a thing was out of place, even the mini DVD player that we had just borrowed from a friend! Phew! Disaster averted. I got in the car and exhuberantly said, "Thank you, Lord!" Drew said, "Mom, I was just about to say that!" Okay, so that wasn't really the "long story short" that I promised. It was the long story, long. I was imagining the place crawling with ex-cons (hee hee) because that building also houses the probabtion and parole office! I know, I'm a big, giant nerd. But I was SO thankful that nothing was taken! My entire diaper bag was in there too, with all of my super important Annika gear.

Okay, now on to the library. Every time we're in Palmer, we make a trip to my favorite library. Today was no exception. So after our Dr. and DMV excitement, I decided it was time to load up on some books! Thankfully, no major drama took place, and we were actually in there for like an hour and a half. Little Annika fell fast asleep in her stroller sitting straight up without so much as a wimper. What a little champ.

(Shannon, you'd like to know that I stumbled upon Ox-Cart Man! I stood there and tried to recall the title, remembered it, wondered if I'd ever find it without the help of the computer, took two steps and there it was.... the first book that caught my eye out of the gazillions in the children's section!!!! Amazing, thanks Lord for smiling on me in that way!)

Some fun kid's titles we found:
The Declaration of Independence (illustrated and beautifully penned, this one was for me but in the kid's section! I had never actually read the Declaration... me with a History Minor!)
Knuffle Bunny Too (We LOVE Knuffle Bunny! Thanks Sarah B.)
Mouse Cookies & More (The complete treasury of the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" series)
a load of books on Knights (for Drew)
2 books on soccer (for Gavin)
and dozens of other titles!



We checked out tons of kids books, Drew got his first library card (we were able to get double the books that way!), and most importantly, got this Mama a couple books! So the entire purpose of this post is to share the books I came across that I'm so excited about! They're both up for much criticism, I'm sure, by those tried and true author/series-loving folks... But I'm not picky about that kind of thing. The first is a prequel to Anne of Green Gables, called Before Green Gables written by a Canadian author. It starts with good ol' Bertha and Walter Shirley shortly before Anne arrives on the scene. And the second book I'm excited about is The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. There are tons of "Jane Austen-y wanna be" books out there, none of which I've read... but this one looks interesting! Maybe I'll post a review when (or if) I finish them. Well, I'm off to gather myself after this long and interesting day!

How many of you also find a public library or bookstore to be a fabulous way to spend your time?


Update: I'm now 12 chapters into Before Green Gables and boy is it affecting me! I can remember maybe two other times that I teared up reading a book. (real life affects me much more that fiction) Reading this story is like knowing that my longtime friend is an orphan, but hearing the story of her parent's death for the first time. Heart-wrenching! I have to say that the author is (so far) doing a great job of capturing and imagining Anne's story! Okay, goodnight!

my sweet helper and a rousing breakfast

Here's how this morning started...

"Mom?" says Drew in a hushed tone, "I love you, Mom."

His fuzzy Mom says, "I love you too."

"Do you want me to give you a little backrub?" he says.

"Sure!"

As he's rubbing my back, "What's your favorite movie?"

"Um..." I'm trying to make my brain work to recall my favorite movie at 8:30am.

"Why don't you just rest, I'll take care of Annika!" says my morning helper. Then I hear him out in the living room, "You guys, we have to be quiet so Mom can rest."

(Yes, he's being very darling... but I'm onto him. He is angel boy/helper whenever he has a golden ticket on the brain! But, hey! Whatever works!!!)

He kept coming into my room to tell me to "just rest!" It was adorable until Annika got really cranky and was ready to be picked up.

THEN.... 10 min. or so later at breakfast. I was on the couch feeding Annika while the kids were making their own breakfast. Toast and all. So Drew is talking all about have a "rousing breakfast" that he heard about from Sally in a Charlie Brown episode that we own. Then Gavin asked Morgan if she wanted to have a "rousing breakfast" and she said, "What????" Gavin said, "Morgan, it means to have a BIG breakfast!" (hand motions included)

"Sure!", pipes Morgan! So my 3 silly big kids (as they are now called) enjoyed toast and cereal all made by their own hands..... Then Drew waddles over to the couch after he was finished and said, "Ohhhhh.... that was too much of a rousing breakfast! I'm full!"

some May highlights!

The month of May brought many fun days! Garden & flower planting, Curtis Menard Memorial Kid's Run, birthday parties, Mother's Day, an engaged brother-in-law, and many other reasons to smile at our house!