Have You Tried One of These??

A co-worker of Dave's was traveling through Colorado and picked one of these cool looking melons for us to try out. Rocky Ford (the area where Dave is from) is known for making the best cantalopes and honeydew. They have road side stands all over when traveling on Highway 50. This however is a cross bred melon. A combo between Cantalope AND Honeydew (aka a Galia Melon) and it is the best thing ever! Sadly you can't buy these things around here so if we want another, we've got to drive 5.5 hrs to Dave's hometown where I guess they are mass producing them. They taste like very sweet cantalope and are super soft and juicy. The kids (after being paid $1 each to try it) loved it! lol

Not. Again.

I'm not going to complain too much but I found out that Daddy has been asked to travel again and will probably be gone for a full week in MO. Arrgh! He's saying he could probably get the company to let us all come along (they've done it a few times before) but please. 29 weeks pregnant, peeing every hour, and toting around 4 kids: one being a 3 yr old acting as a monkey every second of the day. Of course this is a tourist town and it would be a lot of fun. I haven't rode a Duck or been to Branson or Silver Dollar City since I was a kid. I however think the negatives outweigh the positives of a free vacation in this matter. lol I have asked him to make sure they know the sooner the better for him leaving because I don't want him to be gone in my last 5-6 weeks of pregnancy "just in case."

Introducing Spiritual Truths to Babies

This week Alex and Dominic are having VBS at a nearby UMC. Although this isn't our church I went ahead and enrolled them since I knew only kids from their school district living in the small town (less than 1000) would be attending. They are having a blast with all their classmates. Our church unfortunately even though it's in the same school district, only about 4-5 kids they know go there. They love church so every morning they are eager to get in the car and go! Damien was also asked to stay but with his lack of speech, plus not knowing much about the Bible, Jesus and what things mean I figured probably not.

Which leads me to this. I recently found an article in Parentlife magazine about introducing spiritual truths to babies. I try to do this myself more with Alex and Dominic when reading books or when we are in the store or at the park. I have had strange looks before as I've answered Dominic point blank in public about God. I just think the worst thing to do would be to leave their questions unanswered. Seeing this list, however and other things they came up with, made think that there is so much more I could be instilling in Damien and Mia's little noggins to help them grow spiritually. Whether cuddling, reading, singing, or playing there is always something to easily identify to them about God.

This is the example list they had listed.

GOD
*God is good!
*God made me.
*God loves me.

Jesus
*Jesus was born.
*Jesus love me.
*Jesus grew and had a family.

Bible
*The Bible is a special book.
*The Bible tells about God and Jesus.

Creation
*God made people.
*God made the plants and animals.
*God made food.

Family
*God made my family.
*My family loves me.
*God loves my family.

Self
*God made me.
*I am special.
*I can make choices.

Church
*People at church love and teach me.
*People at church talk and sing about Jesus.

Community and World
*God made people.
* I can help people.
*People tell about God and Jesus.

Cheapest Gas In The Nation!

Wow! According to national news, Wichita, KS is currently the cheapest gas in the nation at $3.58 a gallon! I'm not totally shocked as the highest it's been during this $4 a gallon fiasco was $3.80. But what a nice title to have! lol So how much per gallon are you paying?

County Fair 2008

These are some pics of the County Fair I had been really stressing over. I am soooo glad that's over. All in all, hauling my self and the kids up there by 8-9 am daily went well. We did it M-Th, it ended Th after I took the kids up there for a free BBQ for 4 H'ers and their immediate family. Yeah, doing a BBQ with a double stroller is quite the challenge. Good thing Alex and Dominic have 2 hands each to help carry plates and help out. I told Dave next year he's taking the week off to help out. I'm just glad the baby inside cooperated and allowed me to be able to do all of it, even in 100 degree heat. Alex did really well on all her projects for her first year! This whole experience has made her confidence and self esteem go through the roof. lol She's already picking out projects for next year. Poor Dominic really wants her trophy saying it's TOBY'S trophy, not hers.

Here she is waiting to model her Buymanship outfit.
Modeling her outfit.Answering the judge's questions about one of her outfits. This was taken before we left Toby on his first day at the fair.
This is Alex doing her Showmanship back to the judges. This was one of the most difficult things for her since rabbits scratch she had a hard time flipping him and being in control of him. She got a Champion ribbon and trophy for Showmanship for ages 7-9 though! They were impressed with her eye contact and trying her best.This was Alex's food entires. She entered Peanut Butter Cookies, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies, Strawberry Walnut bread, and Lemon Spice Muffins.She won blue ribbons on all and a purple on the Strawberry Walnut bread. The Food's judge is trying her foods in this picture and asking her questions about what she made. Here she is with Toby and the ribbons she received with him.

Ribbons! She's a very happy little girl. And the trophy was for Showing Toby (the rabbit)
Modeling her outfit at the BBQ Wed night. Dave was there to help with this cookout thankfully. Don't ask why she had to stick out her tongue when I took her picture!
After the BBQ they had tons of blow ups for the kids to play in. Here's Alex and Damien going down the slide.
Damien playing some football. Couldn't keep him away from this!

Swimming Lessons 2008!

Man it's hot outside! This week everyday by noon in Kansas it's 100 degrees!! We've got one more day of lessons and we'll be done. Everyday this week we've been at the County fair from 8-10:45 and then running to lessons at 11. While Alex and Dominic have lessons I take the kids to the kiddie area to play on the playground equipment. I feel alittle bad for not putting Damien in the parent/tot class this year but I really wasn't too fond of sporting my huge belly in the water.

Shoe Conspiracy Must Have Happened In The Closet Last Night

Well this is the week of the County Fair and my stress level has been turned up a few notches. Maybe I'm expecting too much but I just wish Dave would say someday to his boss, "hey I need a day off to help out with a few things at home." I have let him know the past few days how stressed and mad I am that he hasn't helped at all with this 4H ordeal. Alex and I spent who know how many hours Sunday in the kitchen baking as you can see. We made a dozen Lemon Spice Muffins, 2 loaves of Strawberry Walnut bread, a few dozen Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies and a few dozen Peanut Butter. We found 2 like sizes and like proportions of the cookies and muffins and picked one loaf to enter. I was a bit upset that our loaves did not crown all the way. I'm not sure what we did wrong. However the muffins have huge peaks which is great.

This morning according to the paperwork I had it said everything (unless specified) needed to be exhibited by 10 am. I had planned to get up around 6 so we could do this early but we didn't get there till 9 am. I have no idea what I'm doing so I hollered at some guy outside when we arrived asking where we dropped off rabbits. He said I was at the right place so I unloaded everyone and we headed in. I had Dominic carrying a bucket with Toby's supplies, Alex carrying our small carrier with Toby in it and I was pushing the double stroller. Dropping off Toby was not much of a challenge, I was happy and Damien and Mia were actually doing pretty well. Then as we were heading for the door, I was told not to forget to go to the office and get the Project Cards. WTH?! Ok now the day is about to fall apart. I was told I needed to bring back these project cards for Toby so as we were leaving for that, my sandal broke. Yeah. Since it was a flip flop I had no choice but to head back to the car...dragging my right foot slowly. (sigh) I was told the office was a box outside so we drove around for 15 minutes looking for this place. Couldn't find it plus what are project cards??? We decided to unload and try dropping off her food entries. Dragging my foot due to the broken sandal, we went up to a lady asking about the foods who said, "Oh my. You'll have to bring those back tomorrow, that's when they are accepting food entries." OMG! I just wanted to fall over right after hearing that. Not only could I not find these project cards at this make believe office, I have to come back at 7:30 am tomorrow morning to drop off food and then stay because they'll be judging her food then and she has to listen. I must have called Dave 20 times by this time complaining and yelling at him for not taking time off.

After realizing I could not keep doing all this with a broken shoe we drove back out to our house so I could get a new pair of sandals and Alex grabbed her swimming suit. We'd already missed playgroup and I needed to get the kids to their lessons. I was able to drop them off at the pool with my grandmother and go BACK to the County Fair looking AGAIN for these project cards. I finally found the office, INSIDE a building, not outside like I was told. I gathered Alex's project cards for her entries and put them with the rabbit and the rest will go in her food entries. By this time Mia and Damien are screaming and freaking out. I was not amused and it was 100 degrees. We loaded up again and went to go pick up Alex and Dominic from my grandmother. We unloaded, started walking and guess what? My freakin other pair of sandals I had went back to the house for earlier broke. I have no idea why. Crappy luck maybe? I also didn't get my Avon order placed before the deadline this morning, we didn't make playgroup, we made all our food a day early so hopefully it tastes as good on Tuesday, and I have no daycare help this week so I'll have to tote Mia and Damien along to judging at 8 am the next two days. I am in some serious need of chocolate. And some new sandals.

Awkward?

A gal at our church set up a playgroup at the beginning of the year and we've been going every Monday morning since February. Those of us who go have all become really good friends and have great conversations about life, the church, and kids. We're all around the same age which is cool although I'm the only one brave enough to have 4 (almost 5 kids) most of them have 1 or 2. The other day Camille said, "oh I have an invitation for you!" I thought it would be for the playgroup BBQ we're all going to have together however it was for a Slumber Party. Hmm... My response was "oooooh boy! Thanks!" followed with some giggles.

Now I am certainly not a prude, we have "things", I will go to this most likely, but what's freakin me out I suppose is we attend the same church and what would God be thinking of us on this one. Another thing is, Camille has had our Pastor and his wife over for dinner recently, they are also around the same age as us (mid 30's) so now I'm wondering if Kathy is coming along. I love Kathy but imaging her buying toys or whatever for our Pastor has me a bit weirded out. And for that matter, any of the other gals I know from church. We are members of a I'd say, rather laid back (not hard core traditional) Baptist church. All the teachings but we don't worry about wearing our Sunday best as long as we get the message. So anyways I will RSVP, go.....and hope God thinks it's OK to check out some lingerie and lotions. And I promise Lord, I will stay away from the anal eaze and Nympho Niagra.

OMG! We Made It Through!!

I have been a nervous wreck the past week up until today for this 4-H Fashion Review that Alex was doing for Buymanship. First, I have NO CLUE what the world I'm doing since this is our first year. Second, I am not competitive at all and modeling is not my thing. Third, holy cow the stress of all of this!!!!!!! One thing I love about all the activities the kids are involved in is meeting other moms. One mom who's daughter is in a different school district but our girls attend the county rabbit meetings together, told me next year will be much easier and less stressful. Looking at the other moms with older daughters combing their hair, fixing their make up, rehearsing answers they needed to know if a judge asked, and in general seeing how completely frazzled they were along with myself... I'm thinking it's not going to be any less stressful or easier. This is always going to be much more stress for the parents than for the kids. The kids competing were all happy and having a ball! I'm sure next week I will be just as exhausted with the showing of her rabbit and her 4 food entries.

A majority of the work to prepare for the show was done over the weekend. We went shopping not only for Alex but for the boys as well for back to school deals. Sunday we had another meeting with her Buymanship leader on how to model and we started doing the mountain of paperwork we had to submit to the judges. We went to Claires after the meeting and bought a bunch of cheap accessories and used some stuff she already owned like the purses. These 2 pictures are the outfits she chose and the pictures we submitted. Outfit #1

Outfit #2

We arrived early (we were told to) at 9:15. She was supposed to be judged on her first outfit at 10 am. It was more like 10:30!!! If I would have known we'd be there for 3 hours, I would NOT have taken Mia and Damien in the double stroller. My grandmother was able to help until 10:50 keeping them entertained until she took Dominic to swimming lessons for me. Alex obviously missed hers!! She modeled her 2nd outfit at 11 when lessons started. (sigh) By this time Damien and Mia were getting a bit cranky and I can't take them into the judging area because as a courtesy they needed it quiet. Thankfully I got a bunch of video and pictures BEFORE grandma left. They called back all the girls to look at them all again and then picked what they thought was the top 2. Alex told me she froze up on one question which was "Where did you buy your outfit?" So I knew she might not get chosen as a top 2. It was the 2nd outfit, it came from Walmart on their clearance rack and I paid $8 total ($3 shirt, $5 capris). The sandals were more than the outfit and they were $10 from Kmart. We finally left at 12:15 and went to McDonalds for a well deserved meal since Mia and Damien whined a bunch but there was really no tears. Anyways here are some pictures of today.

Alex and her 2 friends waiting to be judged.

Picture of some of the competition

Alex waiting at the doorway to model her 2nd outfit. She's holding her paperwork she hands to the judge when she first gets up there.

Answering the judges questions. Hard picture to even get because of all the red backound they had set up.

Modeling Outfit #2 for the judge

WaterPark

We have 2 free sprinkler parks in town and I took Mia for the first time to play the other day. She loved it! I was shocked. She kept running through the tunnels, under the spraying daisies, and infront of the fire hoses just laughing a way! Damien, still not enjoying it so much (how he was last summer too)

This little puddle drains to a waterfall and then into the creek in the above picture.
Walking around hoping to get sprayed by the flowers.
Playing in the water
Damien stayed completely dry as usual.
Chatting with her friend Belle from our church Playgroup.

All wet.

Mia: 18 Months

Favorite show: Dora The Explorer (go figure!)

Favorite Words: "No!" "Go" "Stop!"(holding hand out) "Aww Man!"

Favorite Animal to Act as: Monkey

Favorite Toy: Dog she's holding in this picture, she carries everywhere, kisses it in bed. Much different child than Alex and only kid I've had that loves stuffed animals.

Favorite Foods: Velvetta Mac and Cheese, applesauce, raisins, Cookie Crisp Cereal, Steak, Hamburgers, ice cream

Favorite Drink: Chocolate Milk

Favorite Activity: Bath, drawing, dancing, working on jumping (looks like a skip currently)

Favorite Way To Act Naughty: Play with Xbox shoving the tray in and out with her hand

Favorite Fast Food: McDonald's Fries. Starts screaming for them as soon as the bag comes through the drive thru window.

Favorite Grown Up Thing To Do: Sweep the floor

Favorite Gross Thing: Farting on purpose and laughing about it pointing where it came from.

Favorite Real Animal: Echo by far. Loves to hug her face and kiss her huge nose.

The Schedule Of An Avid 4H'er

Before enrolling Alex in 4H last year, I asked my fellow mommy friends on the Large Family Babycenter board if anyone could give me any advice about how 4H worked and if the kids would benefit from it. I was told it was a great program and they would learn so many different things for later in life so I was sold. We have just enough land that we can do a small amount of livestock as projects but back then I thought all it was just agricultural projects and you showed veggies and livestock at the fair. I was way wrong as there are a huge variety of things to do, without living on a farm. This year Alex chose Rabbits, Buymanship, and Cooking as her projects and now we are in high gear preparing for the County Fair so she can "show" what she has learned. This past week, every day was dedicated to 4H. Sunday she did some novice practice modeling with the girls, cooking school Monday where she baked for the market and learned about judging foods, Tuesday she met with her 4H Rabbit club and worked on the correct way to show Toby to the judges, Wednesday she worked at the Farmer's Market, and we went on a shopping trip with 2 other moms in buymanship for accessories for their modeling. It's been a bit overwhelming for me but I am SURE next year will be better and I won't be as stressed since we will have more of an idea of what is going on.

Here's a few pictures of this week.

Working their bake sale at the Farmer's Market, this is all stuff they made at cooking school.
Some cookies and muffins we made at home to help make sure there was enough for the bake sale.
Trio of Buymanship girls after having the gals at Dillards put some light make up on them.