Feliz Cumpleanos Clara!

Our little friend, Clara, turned ONE on March 9th! And we just got lucky enough to help her celebrate! At the party was Clara, Matias (big brother), and momma (Olga). Friends there were us, Karen Tenniswood & Della Williams, Shelby Coleman and her mom, Bonnie. It was sweet celebration for a sweet, big brown-eyed little princess!

Mother, Do You Wine Much?

haha...I mean "Whine Much?"

I should be cutting veggies right now, or posting super cute pics of the boys...but something on Facebook has really got me thinking.

A girl, who's sweet little baby girl is just 3 months old, said she was sick of moms "complaining about their jobs. then why did they have kids?"

Whether or not she was pointing at me, haha....most of my status updates are about my kids and motherhood. The naughty things they do, the cute things they do, how tired i get...etc. I AM NOT COMPLAINING!

I LOVE MY PLACE AS A MOMMY!

But seriously, being a stay-at-home mom to two toddlers, just 13 months apart and another one in the oven, is stressful! And tiring! And not always peaches & ice cream!...Just as any job goes.

So how do we deal with it? Some moms are just super moms, and are care3-free and just go with the flow. Some indulge in wine (pun completely intended), some relax with retail therapy.

For me? It helps to make light of the situation. Laugh (after the fact, of course) about it. Like my latests posts, where Bentley relocated the cream of wheat from the pantry to the laundry room floor, and is now self scoop....or rejoicing that I got a babysitter so I could go grocery shopping alone. Sharing laughs with other moms about our kids is a way of connecting with eachother, and encouraging eachother. Being a mom is joyous, but tough, so finding the humor is motherhood helps the day just go by a little easier.

A dear friend wisely told me, "The first child makes you a parent. The second child makes you a mother. The third makes you carefree." We shall see...but until I don't care that my kids have torn the pages out of my bible, an entire box of cream of wheat has been emptied into the laundry floor, or a PB&J sammy is upside down on a freshly washed floor.....I will somehow find the humor in it!

Ok, except for the Bible one maybe.
So, call it complaining....I'll call it funny!


Oh, and soon to come, is posts about
                                    * Baby Clara's 1st birthday party
                                    *Weekend trip to Gramma & Grampas pig farm
                                    *Feeding baby "sheepies", which Coy "wuvs a lot" ;)

Coy-isms

My camera is got a layer of dust on it, and caught in a spider web somehere I'm sure...and all I've got to post is things my kids say.

Bentley says : "waaaaaaaaaaaaa". and "NO!" sigh. Im blaming this behavior on his eye teeth, all 4 of them, just barely poking through. I hope I'm right! :S

Coy says (As we're walking down the driveway and it's windier then all get out...) "Mama, make a wind shut off up inna (s)ky!"

"Don't be sad at me, mama!" when he's getting in trouble. Does he mean "mad"?  Im thinking so.

In the van, instead of the radio, he wants to hear "meeting songs". Right now he's asking for the "Jesus song". This warms my heart!

He dropped his vitamin one morning and couldn't find it, which was pretty traumatic. Logan lifted him up, and turns out he was sitting on it. With the BIGGEST pouty lip and BIGGEST tears, he says "Sooooo saaaaad" and started bawling again.

**Oh, Bentley also says "BUUUURP" cause he just ate THREE (3!) pieces of toast for breakfast!

2+pink+lines

We want to introduce you to the 5th member of our family!
Rather - EVIDENCE of another member!

Here...Coy will show you

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And here's how it began.

Well, you know how it really began, but here's now we found out ;)

On our trip to WI in January, I started feeling nauseas, but assumed it was a stomach bug since we were around a lot of people and you can always bet that someone is carrying something. I took it easy, I layed down, I tried to aviod heavy foods that would make me feel worse, I took my temp...but it never changed.

Dad said "I bet youre pregnant"

I said "No...I just had my, ya know, period not long ago"

Dad still said "I think you're pregnant"

So a week after we'd been there, and I was still feeling sick,  Lindsay brought over a $1 pregnancy test. I took it. Negative. Ok, I was bummed a little. So I really wasn't pregnant...I was just fighting a bug. All the way home (then it was blamed on motion sickness) and all that week I was STILL sick!

One Saturday after we were home, we drove up to Missoula to go to a Griz basketball game. Now more and more I was beginning to think that I *could* be pregnant...and when I spotted a Walgreens, I make Logan whip in so I could pick up a test. So all the way from the Walgreens to the Adams Center, we had butterflies, wondering.  Once at the game, I stopped at the rest room while the boys found their seats..................

And I came back out with a HUGE smile....I couldn't have stopped smiling even if I wanted to!

I walked into the stadium, everyone else around me seemed nearly non-existant. I scanned the crowd for the boys - and when I spotted them, Logan knew right away by my beaming face that I had seen TWO PINK LINES!!

Of course, I saved that basketball game ticket for the new baby book :)

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We saw our midwife this week, and got to see our tiny babe!

And even after two children already, this sure is NOT old hat, it's just as exciting as the two before.

Hearing that fast, tiny, yet so strong heartbeat is so reassuring and beautiful!. Another blessing. Another miracle!

We are 10 weeks, putting this new baby due September 30. I have been really sick, really tired, and really really hormonal. Even though that's "just pregnancy" and normal, I'm getting pretty impatient for the day when Im feeling better!

In case you've forgotten what my children look like...here are some new pictures I snapped this morning. SO they are as up-to-date as they possibly can be!

The kids have been as busy as they can be!!

 "Busy" is defined as playing, reading, running around like crazies, and of course whining, crying and fighting!

 There is no denying in this house that we are going a bit crazy, so we cannot wait until it warms up enough to run some of this energy off outside!!

My goal this spring is to get out and spend more time with my three local mommy friends who also have kids the boys can play with. I am such a home-body, but hope to make a bigger effort to change our scenery at least once a week!

Bentley is working on some eye teeth, so it's been a challenge keeping him comfortable while they come in. One's poking through today, bleeding a little :(

 He's also done nursing. For the last 2 months he's only been nursing morning and night, and the past week or so he's been more interested in touching my face and giggling rather then actual nursing. So I tried not nursing one night, worried that he'd eventually get lonesome for me, but he did just fine! It's emotional for me, him not needing me for breastfeeding anymore, but I know that I gave him my best for 15 months! And I loved all 15 months of it! He's a "big boy" now, I guess.

"Big boy" is saying a few new words!!

shawa (auntie sarah)

peeesss (please)

door

haa (hot)

As for the "even bigger boy" - he's showing us how creative, kind, yet bull-headed he can be! He loves to play with cowboy hats, my boots and his rocking horse. Just this morning he was giving his horse a "wash down" (thomas the tank engine term for a bath) with a wipe. His horse also has a band-aid on his ear...cause he got hurt. Somehow. On his ear. Poor horse.

He was playing meeting the other day and wanted FOOD to play meeting with...for the emblems, ya know.

His imagination is going wild. So is his little human nature too! I am beginning to just roll my eyes when i hear screams from the next room, or when he throws a tantrum when we say "no". But I must say, he still makes me smile and very happy, dispite his naughtiness. Don't think that he's the only naughty one in this house either...it takes two to tango...!

By the way, WHERE IS SPRING? I know it's not even March yet, but still....!

Makeover!

While Duana & Janette were on their 35th Anniversary vacation to AZ, we broke into their house, and gave their bedroom a MAKEOVER! Not that it was terribly out-of-date, but there had been mention of an "update", and we wanted to give it a fresher look!

Most of the credit goes to Ellen & Carmen for doing most of the planning, and us and  Kenny & Lichen nodded and agreed excitedly, envisioning what the outcome would be!! Then in one weekend, us and Hugh & Carmen got to work with paint and our decorating skills and......viola!

Take a look.....

                                                                          BEFORE:

AFTER:



When they got home, they WERE surprised! However, first very confused for a while. We thought the first place they would go after a week long vacation was their bedroom...but the bathroom and facebook came first! I left one of the extra new towels on the bathroom counter...which they thought was odd...but maybe someone from meeting there on Sunday left it?? Next was Facbook, where they found a comment of "today is the day", which really confused them too....

Until FINALLY they opened the door to their bedroom, and found it completely different!

First thing Dad noticed? The new nightstand and new alarm clock...LOL.

Grandma Erna

On January 30th, my Grandma Krisher passed away, quietly on that Sunday morning. On Monday, we packed up the van and started out journey to Wisconsin, to say goodbye and be with family when we needed family the most. Her funeral was Wednesday and burial Thursday, and even though the road there was so long, we were sooo thankful we could say goodbye to my Grandma, who meant the world to us. During the service, it was mentioned several times of her humbleness, modesty, and commitment to Grandpa, and the truth. She was SUCH a wonderful example that I aspire to be like. Of course it was hard to see her not alive and smiling, but it was so comforting and peaceful to be surrounded by family and friends who's lives she had touched in so many ways!!

We are also so thankful that we got to see her just a few weeks ago when we took our first trip out to Wisconsin. It's going to be hard to forget the look on Coy's face when he saw Grandma, sleeping in her chair, with her teeth hanging out! I bet he never knew that teeth could even come out like that :) Here is a picture of our little family with her, just 2 1/2 weeks before she passed. :)

Since Grandpa & Grandma moved up to a trailer on our place from Medford when I was 7years old, we saw them a lot, and have so many special memories...since they played such a big part in our childhood.

*She alwas, always, always grew tomato plants on the front porch, and an aloe plant on the kitchen counter, which I liked to snap open and squeeze the aloe out of.

 *Through the years, they cut out Marmeduke comics and made their own comic book, which got a lot of use from the grandkids!

*They LOVED our dog Chelsea. Grandpa was not where, Chelsea was not. When the dog got in trouble at our house, she'd make a bee-line across the yard and over the barn hill to their place, where she was always welcomed with pats and treats.

* Grandma and Grandpa sat by eachother at every meal. And I don't mean just next to eachother, or across from eachother..I mean their CHAIRS touched. I loved that :)

* I'd like to go visit them up at the trailer, and when I'd been there long enough, I'd know it was time to go home, but not exactly wanting to say "good bye". But thats ok, because I liked sitting in the quiet of their house with them, munching on stale popcorn.

*We usually got a deer count from Grandpa. He'd sit at the kitchen table and count the deer out in the field...and report it. These things you just HAVE to know, I guess ;)

Sigh...and many many more memories!