boots and "fences"

We call them gates...but Emma calls them "fences." Whichever they are....they are already a pain in the butt to constantly climb over. I wish I was real tall, then it wouldn't be such a chore, but Emma LOVES to climb them :( Anyway, we need about 5 more of them. The layout of our house is not easy for little crawlers and climbers.
I am starting to think that Emma and Lauren look nothing alike...which is definately ok, but how different they look (and act) is funny.

I have 23 vacation days to "burn" by December 16th or I will lose them...and THAT is not an option. SO, I spent most of Wednesday and today at mom and dad's helping dad put in their new, beautiful wood flooring. I will have to post some before and afters of the kitchen because it is an UNBELIEVABLE transformation. I thoroughly enjoyed not only spending time with dad and eating as many chips and M&Ms as I wanted, and putting the floor together. My awesome husband did all of the running around with the kids and picked up Brian from work in Bellevue so we could keep working. What a guy! So, I have given him a "kitchen pass" :) to go hunting early in the morning. He deserves it since he rarely gets to go. Of course I had to take a picture of these sexy new boots he got today. Hopefully no strangers visit this blog today and think that we truly are rednecks from Nebraska.

It is not even 8 pm and both girls are out for the night hopefully. That never happens but both were so ready. Emma just can't stand the fact that Halloween is still 4 days away.

Right now Dave is "sorting" (playing with) shotgun shells. I guess his excitement for that stuff is about like my excitement with scrapbooking stuff....to each his own. We are also watching baseball....even more exciting. :)

Well, that's it for now. Dad if you are reading this...don't finish the floor without me...it's too much fun.

broken bones and pumpkin guts

Broken bones and pumpkin guts perfectly describes our weekend. It was a fabulous weekend for ALMOST all in our family.

Poor Andrew has not enjoyed this weekend too much. Thursday night he broke his humerus (not so humorous) bone in his right arm. It was so bad that the poor guy had to undergo surgery that night to get it fixed up. He stayed the night at the hospital and all of Friday too. Dave spent the night up there with him Friday night. They couldn't cast it because the break was too high, so he has to wear a sling and be very careful with it. The doctor even said no school for a week, so we will be picking up homework for him this week. He is doing better though, just a little crabby and maybe frustrated already. :(

I took Friday off of work and went to Norfolk to pick up grandma for our annual pumpkin carving party Saturday. A BIG THANK YOU to aunt Sharon for meeting me half way in Norfolk and another BIG THANK YOU to uncle Rod who helped on the trip home. It was no nice to have grandma here even if it was very short.

So, Saturday after the disappointing loss to Texas :( we went to uncle Mel and aunt Kathy's to carve pumpkins and eat lots of yummy treats. We started this party tradition about 4 or 5 years ago. The first year EVERYONE carved a pumpkin and proudly displayed their creations for a picture. Through the years and adding more children to our family...the number of carvers and pumpkins produced has drastically fallen. This year Katie, her friend Dezi and myself were the only pumpkin carvers around. OF COURSE the amount of yummy food and treats has not seen a decrease over the years. :) I carved Spongebob during the football game and Dora later that night. Emma is still freaked out about the smell and the feeling of the pumpkin guts so no help from her and Dave is definately NOT a detail person, so he kept Lauren corralled.

Mom brought cute Halloween bags for the little ones to decorate with foam Halloween stickers. That kept them busy for awhile even if it was to just chew on them. Thanks mom. AND thanks to uncle Mel and Aunt Kathy for hosting the party and for all the great treats.

Today, Lauren climbed four stairs to get into our Kitchen where the rest of us were. We literally can't keep up with her. She already has had two bruises on her head from bumping into furniture.

I made a HUGE grocery trip this morning by myself....yes, how nice is that. So I must go start my beer cheese soup for this evening. Dave is back to work tonight so it is just us girls unless he can make it home for dinner. Hope everyone had a great weekend too.

The Pledge

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Here is what she has learned in Preschool so far this year along with of course several funny songs about colors and putting toys away.


And....there is our little daredevil/climber. Dave has started to call her "bulldog" cause she manages to get herself almost wherever she wants to.

two weeks gone

Sorry, I have been really lazy with this blog thing lately. We are all here and still doing fine. Last week was consumed with fevers, vomit and diarrhea, but both girls are back 100% now so I have no real good excuse for not updating this thing.

Emma was supposed to have her last soccer game last Wednesday but it was cancelled cause it was too cold. We did go to Valentino's with the team and her "soccer mates" where they all got medals and their team pictures back...how funny they are.

No swimming this week....YIPPEE! I think the teachers need a break as much as the parents do. Emma is jumping in the "deeper end" (3'6") :) and is swimming to the side. They even went down to the 8' end and started to learn how to tread water. That will take some practice.

Saturday we went to Emma's first little kid birthday party. It was a pirate party and they had a magician come who was fabulous. Then we went to mom and dad's for the Husker game.

Sunday we woke up and decided to take our yearly road trip to Nebraska City to play in the leaves and get some apples. Of course it started to rain on us on the way down there, then poured on us when we got there. Oh well, I didn't want any cute pictures anyway of the girls wearing matching outfits in the leaves. :( Dave was less disappointed because rain or shine, the orchard still has caramel apples for sale. :) Although I reminded him we could have gotten one at the Chocolate Factory at the mall. So we brought back lots of apples and he has already made to UNBELIEVABLE batches of apple crisp.


Today was Preschool day at Vala's pumpkin patch. It was CHILLY, but we all had a great time. It was nice to see all the kids that Emma is always talking about. It was funny to hear all the kids call her "Emma S". I guess that's what we get for naming our kid one of the most popular names in 2002.

Sorry to go on and on about my kids but what else do I have to talk about :) The other day, Emma told me that she had gotten married to a guy named Tom Spring. Throughout all of my questioning, she gave the following details of their fabulous wedding day and short life together.
They got marred when she was 2 and Tom was 45. Whoops, mom will put a guy in jail for that! Sorry Tom....no can do in Nebraska.
She wore a beautiful pink and purple skirt AND dress.
They had cake and presents and danced.
I then asked her how come I haven't gotten to meet Tom and she said..........
"Well, he just turned 100 and he died."

The made up stories are really starting to be the thing around here. They are mostly quite amusing though.

Oh yes....Lauren is a crazy baby. She is crawling everywhere and pulling herself up to kneel and stand. Today I turned around and she was up on the second step between the kitchen and our family room. OOPS, I guess I should pay a little more attention. Emma is already trying to get her to crawl into closets and small spaces with her. I can't imagine what it will be like when she learns to walk. Hopefully not for another couple of months atleast.

I didn't take my camera to the pumpkin patch today, so those are of course former trips.

Take care everyone. Hopefully it won't be two weeks again till the next post.

Emma's room

Well, here they are! Emma's bedroom is almost done except for a couple bare walls. The walls actually turned out quite cute. The color in these pictures looks a little crazier than it actually is, I think because of the lighting and flash. She is so proud of the animals that she helped stamp on the walls and her name that she painted on the wooden letters. The room is colorful as you can see which definately suits her personality. :)
Oh, and the curtains are retro and fabulous. Thanks again mom for making them. They are perfect for the room.

I must go find my actual work uniform for a "photo thing" tomorrow. I am too nice to say no, so myself and four other cops got ourselves wrangled into getting our pictures taken around Omaha for recruitment I guess. I even have to find a tie. :(
Good night.

Cleaning and sorting....yuck

This is how pathetic I am.....I am posting about something that happened last weekend. Oh well, atleast it's something.
Last weekend was the big move for Lauren and also a huge cleaning and sorting through all of the girls clothes. We also got rid of a lot of clothes to the goodwill since our basement is just about at maximum capacity.
Emma helped by having to try on this snowsuit that was way too small for her and Lauren helped by crawling around and tipping over piles. :) But, the task did get finished and thank goodness for that.
Lauren is doing awesome in her room alone and it is nice to have our room back.

Not much else is new here. If I can get this house in order again tonight I will probably drag out the Halloween decorations. If it wasn't for Emma, I would probably leave them packed up where they are.