Mr. Bear

Growing up I spent most of my time carrying around a bear and a blanket.  The bear's name was Mr. Bear (very creative aren't I?) and the blanket was my bunny blanket (it had the story of Peter Rabbit embroidered on it).  If my memory serves me right my mom was given that bear by one of her best friends while she was pregnant with me.  I have no idea where the blanket came from.

My mom, me and Mr. Bear

I carried that bear everywhere.  I loved his tag, fur and eyes right off.  I loved to suck my thumb and rub the tag on Mr. Bear.  When the tag fell off my mom had to sew a ribbon on because I was so upset.  Over the years of carrying him around his eyes fell off and 1 was replaced by a button.  The other one was replaced by someone at my preschool.  When I was in preschool they had a day where we could bring in our favorite broken stuffed animals and someone there fixed them.  They sewed a new eye for Mr. Bear.  It didn't match at all, but I was just happy he had two eyes again.


Over time Mr. Bear's fur began to fall out from being so well loved.  So my mom had patches sewn across his belly.  I actually don't have any memory of Mr. Bear not having patches on his belly.  There are pictures, but I don't remember.  There is a picture of my when I am around 2 years old holding Mr. Bear.  When I saw it I didn't comment on myself but at how young Mr. Bear looked.


I still have Mr. Bear and my bunny blanket.  They are both tucked away and even though I always thought I would pass them on to my kids I have yet to do so.  They are rough and I would be very upset if something happened and that isn't fair to my kids.  The other day I did let Vincent borrow Mr. Bear because his blanket (polk-a-dot) and his dinosaur (Pet The Dinosaur) was left in Brad's truck and the truck was at the main farm.  Vincent loved seeing something of mine from when I was a little girl and wanted to hear stories about him.  The two of them shared a little nap together and then Mr. Bear went back on the shelf in my closet.  I am sure he will be making more appearances now that Vincent knows about him and maybe someday if one of the kids falls in love with him I will pass him down.  I don't know if he will make it through another lifetime of loving, but I guess we can add more patches.

Vincent and Mr. Bear

Trapeze Lessons

My mom had given Kennidy and I trapeze lessons for our birthday.  A couple weekends ago we were able to attend our 2 hour lesson at the New York School of Trapeze in Chicago.  It was AWESOME!  I loved it!

For starters, Kennidy and I got to go do something together without any small children or sisters around.  That never happens.  Kennidy is 15 years younger than me and it is very rare if we ever do something just the two of us.  Going on a trapeze is something we have both always wanted to do.  I never thought it would happen.  I didn't realize there were classes for this kind of thing.  I just assumed you had to join the circus or something to learn how to fly on a trapeze.

The ladder to the platform.

The instructors at the school were great.  They were helpful and encouraging and didn't waste anytime teaching us our first trick.  There are only 10 people allowed in each class and our class had 9 people.   As soon as someone was up on the platform the next person climbed up so everyone could get as many turns as possible in a 2 hour time period.  We were in harness the whole time and everything was very safe.

The platform

For our trick we put our knees up over the bar and hung upside down with our arms extended out.  I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to get my legs up and over the bar.  My stomach muscles are almost nonexistent.  Having three kids in just over 3.5 years will do that to you!  Plus I really didn't want to be shown up by Kennidy.  I have always been able to wrestle her down and put her in her place, having 15 years on her helps!  She is now older and strong.  I can still take her down in a wrestling match it just takes significantly more effort (and maybe a few dirty tricks) to do it.  Maybe I should start working out before Christmas in case we end up having a rematch from our Halloween match.

Kennidy about to jump

Anyway, it turns out it was not so hard getting your legs up and over the bar.  I wasn't super graceful but I managed to do it every time.  We were able to fly 4-5 times and do flips to get off the bar.  I can not tell you how much fun it was, it was unbelievable.  The last 2 turns we had one of the instructors went on another trapeze, hung upside down and then caught us while we were hanging upside down.  The catch was amazing, the timing had to be perfect and as soon as we locked arms with the instructor we let go of our bar.  Kennidy and I successfully did that trick twice!

Kelli getting ready to jump

The slogan the company has is "Forget the fear.  Worry about the addiction."  It is completely accurate.  I am addicted!  Someday I will go back and take lessons again. I will bring Brad next time if he doesn't want to participate he can always watch.  My mom watched Kennidy and I and I think she had just as much fun watching as we did participating.  She was nice enough to take some videos and when I got home I made Brad and the kids watch.  Vince is already asking how old he has to be to go on a trapeze.  I think I told him 6 years old.  By then Joel and Cecilia will probably be begging to go as well.

Our instructor getting ready to catch us

It was a great day morning with my mom and Kennidy.  A great ending to a fun filled weekend with my family.  I was exhausted when Vincent, Cecilia and I finally made it home.  And for those of you wondering my stomach muscles and triceps were so sore the next day that I could barely sit up in bed the next morning.  It was all worth it and I would love to do it again!

Kennidy getting ready to fly

Test Party

Last month my Dad and Vincent decided they were going to have a test party.  Apparently that is like a practice party.  They were going to have a party with just the two of them (and anyone else that wanted to join) and call it a practice party and then have another party later and invite everyone.  They were both saying "Let's get this party started!"

So the same weekend that we went dress shopping Vincent spent the night at my dad's house (so did Cecilia and I but we did not participate in the party).  Vincent was so excited to spend time with Nanno.  They started the night with a movie at the theater complete with popcorn and pop.  When they came back there was candy, snacks, and more movies.  Vincent was convinced they were staying up all night until the sun came up.

Cecilia and Nanno

Cecilia and I were spending the night at my dad's that night too because I needed to be in Chicago the next day and didn't want to drive all the way home.  Brad met me for dinner that night at my dad's house and then took Joel home with him.  Once Brad and Joel headed home, Cecilia and I went into the basement to have some nice quiet time and avoid the party because it was Nanno's night with Nanno's rules.  Plus I was exhausted and I had no intention of staying up until the sun came up.

Well, Vincent didn't stay up until the sun came up but he thinks he did.  Around 11 or so Vincent ended up in bed with me.  I was under the impression I wasn't going to be involved in the sleepover but Vincent loves cuddling with me so I am not surprised he wanted to sleep by me.  My dad told me that when it got late he took Vincent to the window and showed him all the street lights (he lives in the suburbs) and told Vincent that it was starting to get light out and it was almost morning time.  Vincent, being 4 years old, believed him and agreed to go right to bed.

Joel crashing the test party

The next morning Vincent woke up and told me "I really needed a good sleep I was partying late."  His second concern was that Nanno went to church without him.  I assured him that it was way too early to go to church (it was only 7:30am).  My dad, Vincent and my dad's friend Azra all spent the day together on Sunday while Cecilia and I were in Chicago.  I am very grateful that they were able to have some great bonding time and make a few memories too.

On a side note Joel said "Nanno" while we were at my dad's.  Joel rarely uses people's names and it is the first time he had used a name of any sort to refer to any of his grandparents! 

She said "Yes"!

This past weekend we went wedding dress shopping for my sister Jill.  My mom, Jill, Alyse, Kasi, Kennidy and I all piled in my mom's car and headed out for the store on Saturday morning.  I don't exactly enjoy shopping but I was excited to watch someone else shop.  I could have fun because I didn't have to make any of the decisions!

This in NOT the dress, I just needed a picture of a wedding dress!  I kind of wanted to try this one on for fun.

While we were shopping Annie and Bianca watch the 3 kids at my dad's house.  They did a good job and all the kids even took naps.  Annie was the the main diaper changer and both Joel and Cecilia were getting over diarrhea.  I felt a little guilty leaving them with her but she survived and I wasn't going to miss out on shopping.

Looking through the dress options

We started off our shopping at David's Bridal.  Jill had an idea of what she was looking for, but I could tell she wasn't 100% sure.  We decided that we would all pick out a dress (or 2) for her to try on.  Kennidy, Kasi and I wandered around the aisles of dresses together.  We took into account very little of what Jill wanted and thought more about what we thought she would (should) like.  Kennidy has been watching "Say Yes to the Dress" and was informing us all of how it should go.  Kasi and I were mostly listening.

Kasi, Kennidy, me and Mom waiting for Jill to try on another dress

Nice face Alyse!  Mom, very proud of her beautiful daughter Jill

Kasi and Mom making faces

Once we had all the dresses we went by the changing room.  Alyse (the maid of honor) went in the dressing room with Jill while the rest of us waited (not so patiently) in chairs waiting for the fashion show.  Jill had given Kennidy her iPad to take pictures and I was taking pictures with my camera.  While we waited for Jill we took pictures of our feet, ourselves, used strange photo programs to make creepy pictures of ourselves and make bets on when Mom would start crying.  We also watched another girl trying on dresses.  We wanted to speak up and tell her which dress she looked the best in.  Luckily the 10+ people she brought with her came to the same conclusion as us, so we didn't need to interject.

Mom running out in the torrential downpour to get the car for us.  Jill may have left her window open!

It is no surprise that Jill looked nice in every dress she tried on.  When Jill saw the dress I picked out she didn't want to try it on, but I asked her to humor me.  She did and it turned out she love it.  Well, until she found a different dress she loved more at the next store.  It only took us a few hours and two stores to find "the dress."  I can't remember the name of the second store, I think it was Here Comes the Bride.  It was small and the staff was amazing.  They were very nice and so helpful!  Once Jill found "the dress" Alyse brought out the champagne!  Ok, I am not sure if Jill decided it was "the dress" before or after the champagne.  Then afterwards we celebrated with lunch!  Which was great because it was around 2pm and we were all starving.

Mom and Kasi

Great work Alyse

The bride, Mom and the MOH

It was fun day of shopping, something that I rarely say.  I now have a camera full of pictures of Jill in random wedding dresses looking beautiful in all of them!  If you want to see what Jill looks like in a wedding dress you will have to wait until September.

Kasi and Cecilia after dress shopping

Annie, Alyse, Kasi, Jill, Vincent and Cecilia

Joel wanted to go take a walk with Dunkin instead of taking a picture.

Apple Cake

A week or so ago the boys and I were needing an activity to do and Vincent thought it would be fun to make blueberry cupcakes.  I didn't have any blueberries so he suggested apple muffins.  I had apples but no recipe.  Our church just came out with a new cookbook and there was an apple cake recipe in there and we even had all the ingredients we needed!  That never happens.

Joel and Vince love to help bake.  The take turns pouring the ingredients in the mixer and they love to watch the mixer go.  Vincent does a great job cracking eggs and Joel loves to play with the shells.  One of these days I will have to get brave and let him crack eggs too.  The thing they love the best is trying the batter!  Joel can never get enough of it and Vincent likes a small taste and that is about it.

The boys and I had a blast making the cake.  They were so well behaved, followed directions and they didn't even complain about anything.  The best part was that it was delicious!!!  We will definitely be making apple cake again!

Car

In Joel's very short life he has had several different objects that he has loved and carried around.  Each item was usually only his favorite for a few days or maybe a week.  He doesn't want to carry a blanket and he usually chooses a little car, truck, or book.   That is until he fell in love with his Lightning McQueen car.  My friend Kelly got each of the boys a little Lightning car at least 1.5 years ago.  For awhile Vince was the only one that could tell the 2 identical cars apart or at least he claimed to be able to tell the difference.

Couldn't even pry Car out of Joel's hand to take a picture.

Somewhere along the line Joel became very attached to his "tar".  He sleeps with it, cuddles it, plays with car, carries car everywhere and freaks out if we can't find car around nap or bedtime.  If he doesn't have his car before we read a book at night he can't even focus on the book.  He just says "my tar, my tar, my tar" until someone finds his car.  Car, or "tar" as he calls it, has become his security item which means it has become extremely important for my sanity to know where car is located at all times. 

When Vince was little he always wanted to take his blankets with him.  He had several but as long as you had two of them with and one of them was polka dot he was happy.  Blankets are big and not easy to misplace.  The car on the other hand has been misplaced more than once.  At first it wasn't a big deal because we actually had 3 in the house.  If you couldn't find one there were 2 backups.  Then we lost one completely and one ended up stuck under the cabinets in the motorhome.  That left us with one car and increased my stress level a great deal.   I ordered a backup!

Then a few days before the backup was scheduled to arrived Joel lost car while playing in the lime pile with his cousins and brother.  Brad put Joel to bed that night and didn't have any issues.  Joel was probably too tired to care that his car was missing.  I was not wanting to take any chances at nap time so that Monday morning Joel, Cecilia and I went to the store while Vince was in school.  It turns out there are several different types of Lightning McQueen cars.  They had two of the kind we needed and I bought both.  Joel didn't seem to care that they were brand new!

Brad found Car in the lime pile!

I would love to tie the car to Joel so that I don't have to keep track of it so closely!  Cecilia would be mad if I did that because she loves Joel's car.  If she sees it on the ground she will bee line it over there and play with it until Joel takes it back.  She knows exactly what she is doing and enjoys aggravating Joel.

Joel's latest trick is to wear his (it used to be Vince's) Lightning McQueen hat.  He takes car, puts him in the hat and then puts the hat on his head.  It is a riot.  He is very particular with how he does this and he thinks it is the best idea ever!  It is hard to lose your prized possession when it is under your hat.

Joel and Car.  Notice the car sticking out of the hat.

It amazes me that a small car can have so much control over an entire household!

***As of yesterday Brad found Car in the lime pile.  A little dirty and the back axle a little bent but in otherwise in pretty good shape!

Sunday Afternoon Wagon Rides

As we were driving to church a couple weeks ago Vincent and I had the idea to invite a few people over after church to take rides on Ray's wagon.  Ray had his new fancy shoe (a shoe with a pad) on and we could now safely use him without hurting his foot.  Craig, Diane, Bob, Sarah, Kristine, Karoline and Keith came down for some rides.  They brought along a couple horses to ride.  My grandparents came down for a ride (and to watch) also.

Grandma Pat and Cecilia

Papa, Grandma Pat and Cecilia

Karoline, Joel, Keith and Vincent on the lime pile

Ray was a little antsy at first because there were three new horses around.  He quickly settled in once we hooked him to the wagon (it is really heavy) and he needed to focus on his job.  My inlaws horses were a little nervous about the giant horse pulling a wagon.  They were fine when they were behind the wagon, but when Brad would turn the wagon toward them they would get nervous.  Yes, Brad did that on purpose several times!

Brad and Ray testing out the wagon

Ray and Brad

More fun on the lime pile

While the adults were getting the horses ready the kids decided to play on the lime pile outside of the barn.  They had a sled out there and tried sledding down it.  They also had a shovel and dug several holes.  They were having a blast!  Unfortunately sitting somewhere in the pile is Joel's prized Lightning McQueen car.  I am sure we will find it when the pile gets moved.

Vince and Keith getting ready to sled

Vincent and Keith falling off

Grandma Diane and Karoline

Ray overall did a great job pulling the wagon.  The empty wagon it is a lot more work than he is used to and he pulled a wagon full of passengers around for awhile that Sunday afternoon.  He was exhausted!  He is going to need some sort of training program this spring so he is ready to go for the summer and fall.

Vincent, Keith and Aunt Sarah

View from the drivers seat

Karoline and Grandma Diane

Mouse in the House

There are not many things in this world that I hate.  I don't use the word lightly and I really try to reserve it for just a few things.  One of those things I reserve the word for is MICE!  I HATE MICE!  It isn't a joke. I have no use for them.  Well I guess they are good for feeding things like snakes, owls, etc but I hate them!  They are quick.  They are sneaky.  They are fast.  They carry nasty diseases.  One of my big fears is that one will be in my boot and I will go to put it on and I will step on a mouse.  I know this sounds ridiculous and irrational and I am ok with that!


A few weeks back our babysitter mentioned she saw a mouse in the house by our shoes.  She said she called the cat in, the cat went to that area and by the time I got home no one had seen the mouse again.  I told Brad about it.  He said "we live in the country and we will have mice this time of year."  Ok fine, it is fall and it is cold, our house is warm and full of food.  I get it!  However, it does not mean I have to like it, or that I have to just let them live in our house and eat all our food.


A couple weeks ago I got back from grocery shopping (it falls on the very find line between dislike and hate.) and I carried all the kids and groceries in the house.  I started putting all the groceries away.  I went to the pantry to put things away and I heard a funny noise.  I didn't think much of it because I had 3 kids talking in the kitchen.  Then I heard the noise again, then a shadow of something moving, then a mouse jumped out at me.  Ok, it was less of a jump and more of a scurry out the cabinet and onto the counter.  The next few minutes were really crazy and went something like this: I screamed and screamed some more.  Joel and Vince gave me funny looks.  Joel went back to trying to get food out of the fridge.  I ran to the door and yelled for the cat ("here kitty, kitty, kitty"). The only animal that came running was Maisy (our dog).  When I returned to the pantry with Maisy, she has been known to get a mouse or two, Joel was standing in front of the fridge saying "here kitty, kitty."  I kept telling Maisy to get the mouse.  Then I hear Joel say "Mouse, Mickey Mouse?" I wish it were Mickey Mouse!


Vince found the whole thing very exciting and was ready to fight the mouse.  His plan was that he would start it on fire and our cat, Juanita, would poke a hole in it.  Then and I quote "we can eat him, because all animals have meat inside of them Mommy, even us!"  I may have started going on a little rant about how mice are dirty and nasty and carry viruses.  Vincent continued to talk about how we could eat the mouse.  Two very different conversations and I don't think either one of us was really paying any attention to what the other was saying.  Vincent then went on to say he was going to fight the mouse and kill him, and then the mouse would go to heaven.  I said "Vincent there aren't mice in heaven."  To which he replied "Mommy, all living things going to heaven when they die.  God loves everyone."  I told him "Ok, fine.  But they won't be anywhere by me when I go to heaven."  Leave it to Vince to point out I was setting a bad example.


I informed Brad that we were raging war on the mice in our house.  He was nice enough to agree with me and set up every trap we own to catch the mice.  There were 27 mouse traps.  Brad washed them all before he set them.  I thought it was hilarious and he didn't find the humor in it.  Our kitchen looked like a war zone.  There were mouse traps in the pantry (good luck getting food out humans or mice), on the floor, on the counters, and it was a little out of control.  I had to keep the gates to the kitchen locked so the kids and dogs didn't get hurt.  One day I let my guard down and I looked and Joel was laying on the floor reading a book within 6 inches from two different mouse traps.   He seemed blissfully unaware.

All our hard work has helped us catch 5 mice!  5 less mice reproducing in my house all winter!  Since we have yet to catch any in the main kitchen area I have removed those mouse traps so the kids and dogs can safely be in the kitchen once again. 

Cecilia and her antics!

Over the course of the last 2-3 weeks Cecilia has developed several new tricks.  She can now crawl instead of army crawling.  She can pull herself up and stand holding onto anything.  I have even found her standing in her crib!

Cecilia standing in her crib

Cecilia crawling over to attack me!

Other tricks include stealing her brothers toys, wrecking the train track on the train table and going down the slide (with help from daddy).

Destroying the train table.  She loves the trains and train table!

 She also climbed up on our little trampoline and then pulled herself up to a standing position holding onto the handle.  Then on Wednesday she was playing in the tent and tunnel that I built for the boys.

Look mom I climbed on top of the trampoline

This is so much fun!

Look Daddy I can stand up all by myself too!

All fun and games until she crawled through the tunnel and crawled to the stairs and crawled up two stairs.  She would have done more but I stopped her.

She got up two stairs before I decided to stop her

On her butt after falling when she tried to stand up without holding onto anything

She is also letting go once she is standing and feels stable.  She usually ends up on her butt with a big smile on her face.  She is a determined girl!  I have come to the conclusion that I only know how to grow busy, determined children.   Brad and I wouldn't want it any other way!   I have decided it is God's way of keeping me in shape since I never have time to do an actual workout!

Playing in the truck

T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

Fun indoors

Joel's new thing is to take the cushions off the couch.  Vince did the same thing when he was Joel's age.  Vince knows he is not supposed to take the cushions off but once Joel starts Vince will help him.  Cecilia loves to join in on the fun!

Making tunnels out of the cushions

Vince was calling it a beaver dam

Vince and Joel seem to like Cecilia's toys more than she does some days.

Sometimes all the kids want to be held at once.  I usually limit it to two at a time, but Vince wanted to ride in the pouch (because Joel was in it earlier), and then Cecilia wanted to be held too.  Joel realized he was the only one not being held and he ran over too.  I am not going to make a habit out of holding all three of them.  Together they weigh 79 lbs!  I held them for approximately 2 minutes.  Long enough for Brad to find the camera and take a picture.  Then I handed Cecilia off to Daddy and made Vince get out of the pouch.

Crazy Mommy holding her crabby babies!

When we are around home and can't go outside the kids and I play downstairs and upstairs depending on how the mood strikes and where the toys are that they like.  Sometimes that means Cecilia's crib or standing in a red toy buckets.  I don't understand why they do what they do!

Vincent, Cecilia, Joel in Cecilia's crib

Joel, Vincent and Cecilia in the crib

Baby in a bucket

Joel and Vincent joined Cecilia in the bucket

Why are you guys in this bucket with me?

The other day Cecilia was crying in her carseat on the kitchen floor and I was in the bathroom.  Suddenly the crying stopped and I thought maybe her brothers had comforted her or something.  Wrong!  Bristol got her to stop crying by sitting on her.  Good effort, not the best technique!  These two are best friends.

Bristol sitting on Cecilia

Bristol helping Vincent do a puzzle

Bristol was really watching a squirrel!