I Yuv You, Barney!

Today Carole got a new Barney. She has been singing his praises since. Here is a video of her singing to him. Enjoy!

Andrew's injury

Friday Andrew had his first dental appointment. We found out that he has a cavity. Phil and I are both shocked at this news because he never drinks juice and he doesn't care for sweet things. Wierd. I am 30 yrs old, LOVE sweet things, and still have no cavities. Strange.

Anyway, after his appointment we went to Mitchell to do some shopping. We stopped at our first store and Andrew fell out of the van on his head. We have no clue how it happened and neither of us saw it. He always gets out by himself. When I first saw his head I freaked out. It LITERALLY looked like someone inserted a golf ball in the side of his head. I quickly ran into the store and received an icepack from the first aid kit at the service desk. The poor kid screamed for nearly 20 minutes. For Andrew, that is very rare. I then decided we had better get him to the doctor to check of a concussion. It looked SO BAD! I seriously thought they would admit him and do a CAT scan on him. When we arrived at the doctor's office he was starting to perk up. By the time we saw the doctor, the swelling had gone down considerably. I was so relieved. He checked out fine and the doctored instructed us to wake him up in the middle of the night to make sure he was okay. She wanted us to ask him questions to see if his brain was still working. Andrew is a hard sleeper so this was especially funny. Here is how the conversation went...
Me: Andrew, wake up. Mommy needs to talk to you.
Him: Hmmm.
Me: What is your name?
Him: Andrew
Me: How old are you?
Him: 4 (at this point he was getting annoyed)
Me: Who am I? Who is holding you?
Him: (confused look) Carole?
Me: Open your eyes Andrew. Who is holding you?
Him: Groan. Mommy?
Me: Can I look at your eyes?
Him: No (he wouldn't even crack them a centimeter)
Me: Andrew I need to see if your eyes are sick.
Him: I wanna sleep

LOL! It was easy to tell that he was fine. He was instantly back to sleep when I quit talking and the next morning he remembered nothing.

So he made it through his major head injury. As if the poor kid had not already had enough head trauma, the following day the neighbor kid hit a dirt clod with a bat and hit Andrew right in the forehead. I think he needs a helmet. ;o) Here are some pictures I took of his head Friday night. The swelling had gone down a lot. The golf ball was no longer visible.

Carole LOVES kitties!

Carole loves kitties a lot. I guess she is a little like her mommy used to be. This picture was a special one for me to be able to capture. Buster is an old kitty who does not normally tolerate Carole's cuddles. My brother gave us Buster when we got married in 2000. He was already 6 years old then. So now he is 14 yrs old. In human years, Buster is 72 years old. I don't think he has very many years left. I will always treasure this picture.

This is Carole dressed and ready to go to church this past Sunday. I found that jumper at a Goodwill in Michigan. It is a size 5. *shock* She really is a big 2 year old. ;o)

Saturday we had a Garage Sale (in our case it was a slab sale). It was very difficult to manage a sale and keep an eye on Carole. She surprised us though. For about an hour in the morning she sat on the couch and colored and watched TV and never moved. That was very rare for her. Lately she is in to coloring every single page of her kitty notebook. She scribbles, turns the page, and scribbles some more. I will buy her 100 more notebooks if that means it will keep her out of trouble! ;o) LOL

Back to Stamping

When I was in Michigan, my parents took us down to Shipshewana, IN. My Mom wanted to take me to this great stamp store that is there. I purchased some new stamps at an awesome price, and so far I have had lots of fun playing with them. Here are a few cards I made with the new stamps.

I am sure you are wondering how in the world I find time to stamp. ANDREW IS IN SCHOOL AND LITTLE SIS PLAYS SO GOOD BY HERSELF! Yep, mommy hides in the den at her craft desk. ;o) It feels so good to get back at my hobby.

I'm not so sure I like the color combo on this one, but it was sure fun watercoloring the little boy.

For this card, I folded the front flap in half so the boy could be looking back at the tree. This layout was purely experimental, but I like how it turned out.

This one is my favorite. It was hard cutting the pieces to fit just right, but it turned out okay. This was also an experimental layout.

Where's Carole?

I had to laugh at this sight when I went in to check on Carole one night. It reminded me of the ET movie when ET was hiding in a closet full of stuffed animals. Carole LOVES her stuffed friends. She has to have all of them before she'll go to sleep. Believe it or not, she actually does a little roll call before lights out. She knows when one is missing.

Sunday Morning With Carole

This morning with Carole was a huge challenge. First of all, it took me 15 minutes just to put a dress on her. She wanted to wear her pajamas all day. Secondly, she has officially entered the "I do it myself" stage (or in her case, the "Cawole do it" stage). My mom just laughs when I tell her of Carole's antics. She said I was the same way at her age and my favorite sentence was... "I do it, I do it myself." ;o) Like mother, like daughter. This morning Carole wanted to put her church shoes on all by herself. She looked at me while grabbing the shoes out of my hands and said, "Cawole do it. It's Cawole's turn, Mommy. Cawole do it." I gave in and let her do it herself. She struggled at first and I reached out to help. She looked at me with evil eyes, began to scoot away, and said, "MOMMY! It's Cawole's turn!" After ten minutes of struggling, she finally was successful! She was very proud of herself until I told her it wasn't time to leave for church yet. That is why she is crying in the last picture of her and that is why she refused to smile when I tried to get her picture with Andrew. *sigh* Life with a two year old is always interesting.

Dear Sweet Carole

I had to post some pictures of our blue eyed sweetheart (aka monster). You may remember me posting awhile back that Carole was out of the "terrible two's." That was wishful thinking on my part. The tantrums have returned in full force! She is definitely strong willed and Phil and I both agree she is more difficult than Andrew was at this age. But one thing can still be said... she sure is a cutie!

First Day of School

As promised, here are the pictures of Andrew getting ready for his first day of school. He was none too happy when mommy made him pose for the camera but he gave me smiles anyway.





I walked him out to his bus and noticed he was getting nervous. Last year for 3 year old preschool his teacher and assistant came and picked him up in a passenger van. For 4 year old preschool things changed. So I think when he saw the big yellow school bus and his teacher and assistant were nowhere to be see, he started to get scared. The bus driver's helper had to get out and coax him to get in the bus. I got on with him and saw him get all buckled up. He was brave and smiling big when they drove away. No tears from him, but mommy was fighting tears. ;o) He said there was a boy who cried a lot for his mommy and he had to go home. "But I didn't cry mommy. I didn't really miss you." *sniff, sniff*

Andrew Learns to Ride Bike!

Today was a big day for Andrew. First of all, he started preschool. I will write more about that later and post some pictures. But the second big thing of his day was that he learned to ride his bike without the training wheels! Our neighbor girl (7 years old) apparently told Andrew that he was ready to take the training wheels off. Well, tonight at supper he asked if his Daddy would take them off after supper. Phil explained to him that it might not be easy and he might fall a lot at first. Andrew didn't care, he wanted to try it anyway. Lo and behold, he took right off riding like he has known how for years! Enjoy this video clip!

Our Blued Eyed Doll

Carole keeps getting cuter! Check out those baby blues!

Carole has officially gotten over her TERRIBLE TWO's (knock on wood) and we are still alive! She is still 2 years old, but these last few weeks she has been much easier to live with. The tantrums are not as often and they don't last near as long.

Riding Bikes

My parents just recently came for a visit and they brought Andrew a bike that they had gotten for free. Andrew didn't even know how to pedal last week, and now look at him!!


Here are some pictures of him learning how and then finally getting it.

































And of course, Carole got a bike too. She still cannot pedal, but it won't be long!

Bug Bites

One night after bath time I notice one of Andrew's eyes was a little swollen (nothing like these pictures). I thought nothing of it knowing that he had walked into a door that day. I thought it was just another battle wound. The next morning it was swollen a bit more. As the day progressed his eye nearly swelled shut and it stayed swollen for a few days. It was then that I deduced that it must have been a bug bite. The flies and mosquitoes are HORRIBLE this year. I don't remember them being this bad. This morning I took the kids to the park and ended up leaving because the mosquitoes were eating Carole alive. The poor girl has more red bites on her legs than healthy skin.

I just had to share these pictures of Andrew. He was so proud of his eye wanting to show it off to all. Just like a boy! His eye is now completely back to normal. Now we have new bites, bruises and cuts to show off. ;o)

A wateee, Mommy!

Carole loves water! She calls it "watee." She would play with the hose all day if I would let her. I hope the water bill isn't crazy high for the church this month! ;O)

Summer Fun

Okay, here are the sprinkler pictures I promised. Oh to be a kid again thinking that a sprinkler is the greatest thing in the world! ;o)

Last Week

Here are a few pictures from last week. Andrew and Carole got to ride on some rides at the annual Fish Days in Lake Andes.

Phil's parents came out for a visit and while they were here they allowed us to have our very first over night date since the children entered our lives. We went to Sioux Falls and did some shopping, saw the "Sioux Falls," and (of course)saw the new Indiana Jones movie. That day it was extremely windy out (40-50 mph gusts) so that is why we look "interesting."

I know I am no good at keeping this blog updated (read: it is going to be a fast and crazy summer here), but hang tight. I hope to get some more pictures uploaded in the next few days. Also, we got a new laptop and new photo editing software, so it is taking me awhile to figure out the ropes.

Bad Hair Day

I just had to share this picture with you all. I went to get Carole up from her afternoon nap today and this is what I found. LOL!! We didn't know she had that much hair on top!

Rubber Stamping

For those of you who don't know, when I have free time (which is not too often anymore), I love to make cards using rubber stamps. I was recently invited to join a kid card swap on www.splitcoaststampers.com (the website I frequent for card ideas using Stampin' Up! stamps). These are the two cards I contributed to the swap...






Thanks for looking! Ha! I just realized that I didn't even use any Stampin' Up! stamps on these cards!