HOME (part 1)

TRACTORS

COUSINS (and the rest of the family)

COOL GRANDPA AND HIS MOTORCYCLE

A TASTE OF WHY WE LOVE GOING THERE

Back on Monday

We are going back to the Motherland

to see these cute girls.

My child's prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,


Thank you for me.


Thank you for mom.

Thank you for Dad.


Thank you for Andy.



Please, please, please protect us from bad guys.
Please, please, please protect us from monsters.

Please make it so their eyes can't see me.
Please take their eyes out.
And their feet.

So they can't come to my house.



Amen.


My Prayer
Please let me child sleep through the night.
Please. Please. Please.


As you can tell, we are having taxing time with sleep around here. I have not idea where Nate's fear is derived from. He has never even seen Monsters Inc. let alone anything truly scary. I don't even watch the local news when he is awake. But every night around midnight he wakes up screaming.

Help.

Please.Please. Please.


and yes, I did laugh out loud when he asked for their eyes to be taken out.

Design Dilemma

I removed a shelf on that open part of the bookshelf to break up the monotony and add a point of interest.... but I don't know what my point of interest should be. Should I put a picture there? A mirror? Vases, bowls, things of that sort? Another angled shelf like the one with Audubon's Birds of America on it? Or just put the shelf back in the middle?

Mondays

9:48 a.m. CLEAN(at last)!

11:23 a.m. Dirty (again)!

...and so it goes...

p.s. yes, I do realize that the only thing I blog about it my lack of blogging or how amazing my life is. Lame. I'm moving on.

H.A.P.P.Y.

Just so you know, I do feel guilty about not blogging. I do think about it often. I should really blog today. I should upload my photos some day. Well, dear friends, that day is today. My kids are currently in their rooms bouncing on their beds while they should be napping. But I will get my blogging done. So, to catch you up to speed in the life and times of Russell, party of 4....

We celebrated birthdays

by eating cake,
naturally.

Oh, and 500 ball pit balls (great idea by Chris- Andy loved it!)

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He learned to peddle.
Fast.

He learned to walk.
I miss the bear crawl already.


He passed the bar exam.
And wrote chapter one of his novel.



I reupholstered a chair (all by myself!) this week
Next project: paint my kitchen chairs.


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We are so happy.

I am not sure if it's the fact that we are done with school,

putting down roots
and planning to be somewhere long term,that I am done nursing,


or that we just got these amazing bookshelves.



No matter the reason, we feel truly blessed.

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1st day of preschool

My Fave

Mom, Dad, anyone else who still reads this blog. Sorry to lead you on and get your hopes up that I had become an amazing blogger. I just can't commit to that. Hopefully, tonight or one day soon I will upload pictures off of my camera and blog a few. In the mean time. I found this amazing website. Hayley C. and Mom- you will love this if you haven't already come across this!

http://www.thepartydress.net/?cat=69

Mondays

It's Monday. And I am cleaning. In a skirt. After the chaos that is Saturday and Sunday around here, my house is trashed by Monday morning. As I was scrubbing the floor this morning in a skirt (too hot for pants and no clean shorts deemed it a skirt day) I couldn't help but feel like Cinderella. Come on, I am sure you do too.

Cinderelly, Cinderelly
Night and day it's Cinderelly
Make the fire, fix the breakfast
Wash the dishes, do the mopping
And the sweeping and the dusting
They always keep her hopping
She goes around in circles
Till she's very, very dizzy
Still they holler

Keep a-busy Cinderelly!

Worth EVERY penny

Andy is sick. Still. My aid in sanity, Boogie Wipes. They are made with saline so they dissolve the mucus. No more scrubbing boogers off a screaming baby's face! It gets better. They are alcohol free and moisturize with vitamin E, aloe and chamomile. It is so heart breaking to have to take a tissue to your baby's bright red (some times cracked or bleeding) nose. Andy honestly starts to cry the minute he sees me reach for the tissue box. He still fights getting his nose wiped, but at least I know that it isn't actually causing him pain with these Boogie Wipes.

I first tried these when we went to Mall of America for the New Years' Eve bash. Andy got really sick on the drive up. Being the bad mom that I am, we went along with plans as normal since he was only 4 months old and was going to (hopefully) sleep in his infant carrier most of the night. We made a pit stop on the drive up to Minneapolis and I sent Chris in to buy every medication that was available for a baby this age (which, as you know, is not saying much). He came back to the car with these. I asked how much they were. I think he said like $4. I scoffed and said that was ridiculous. I eat my words, friends. They have saved all of us many tears each time Andy gets a bad cold. Sanity, now available, for $4 at your local Walmart.


No, I do not receive a commission for any purchases generated by this blog post. Yes, I am aware that this post did sound like a advertisement. What can I say? They really work:)

My randomness

We are sick around here. Andy first on Monday, then me on Tuesday. I was better by Friday just in time- Nate woke up sick (and Andy is STILL sick!) Currently he is lying in my bed while I am birthday gift shopping for Andy (this Thursday, yay!) I am pretty sure Nate is delusional from the fever as he just asked what that basket was on my head and if it was Brynn's..... anyway, point of this post was that I came across these little gems while looking for a play tunnel on Ikea's website.

Flatware made of stainless steel for $6!!

10 pc set made of stoneware for $10!!

So... if you are like me and start thinking about Christmas shopping when everyone else is thinking back to school shopping (no, I don't finish by September, yes I do like to start brainstorming and start looking- really, I just can't resist) here is the link to check out all of their digs:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/childrens_ikea/10401/

My Boys

(4th of July Fireworks at Klode Park)

(new beach we just found down the street on Saturday)

I love this guy because he never complains when I put my cold feet on his warm ones in bed at night. And on Saturday when I ran a stop sign and then stopped when there wasn't a stop sign he just smiled. Didn't say a word. That's love.






(Youngblut Farm on Thursday)(Bay something park aka the new park on Saturday)
I love this guy because he says things like, "Momma, that lady must drink a whole lotta milk. She's HUGE! Lookather. See that lady, Momma? Yep. She drinks a laaaah-da milk. Haha HUGE!" (we were outside grilling as the woman walked by, in our apartment complex which means she is probably a neighbor which means I will probably see her again which means when we do Nate will say, "hey, there's the lady that drinks a laaaah-da milk")








I love this guy because he is weaned and sleeping through the night!! And he is fearless! Chris was in the kitchen with him Sunday morning and was pulling bacon out of the oven (yes, we bake it. Thanks to Brooke O. teaching me that nifty trick I have not been burned by bacon grease splatter in years). He has his back turn for literally 30 seconds. When he turned back around Andy was on the table, with the kitten... probably both licking the syrup bottle, I don't know I wasn't there but it's a good guess around my house. And every time we are at the beach he crawls full speed ahead into the water. I swear if I didn't jump up and catch him right before he hit the water he would probably just start to doggy paddle and keep going... but I don't want to test it.






I have a good life.

Next weekend we will be celebrating anniversary #6 in Nauvoo.

Sweet Corn

It's ready!

Every summer for the last 8 years my parents have grown their own sweet corn. The first crop (stalks have multiple ears of corn that ripen at different times) is usually ready at the end of July and then we harvest for 2 or so weeks after that. When I lived at home,I pretty much hated it, but we got to keep 1/2 of whatever we sold each day. Typical morning: get up around 6, eat breakfast, put on jeans, long sleeves and "corn picking shoes" (aka old sneekers that can get nice and muddy), and get out in the field. First we would pick for the truck. Fill the entire back of a pick-up. One brother would push the wheel barrow and one person would pick on each side. The way I remember it, the corn was so wet with dew that I would be soaked by the time we were done. The field so muddy my shoe would come off because it was stuck in the mud. I could wring out my dew-filled shirt if I wanted to take it off and risk getting cut by the corn leave (like paper cuts all over your arms) and it's Iowa so it's insanely hot and humid. I hated it. Then after we picked for the truck we had to pick anything that my mom wanted to freeze that day. If I was selling I would have to come in the house and shower quickly and get out the door to drive 20 minutes into town where I would park the truck, set up signs and sit until I sold out.

I have been out of the corn picking rotation for a few years for pregnancies and living out of state but I made the trek back to do my familial duty once again. Honestly, I can't figure out what the big deal was. It is such a quiet, simple work. I would walk and talk with my dad and brothers as we picked. Then, by myself, I shucked and cleaned all the corn my mom needed for 2 days and then helped her cut it off the cob while she cut, cooked and bagged it (oh and watched my kids so I could help out). I could almost say it was relaxing, peaceful. Maybe that is what motherhood has done to me. Anything where I can sit down for an hour, even if I am shucking corn the entire time, seems pretty nice to me! It's also pretty gratifiying to learn another self sufficiency tool. Thanks for letting me help and teaching me how to freeze corn, Mom. My children too will never be able to eat corn out of a can or from a store because they have tasted the candy that is your freezer corn.

Mom's Freezer Corn

20 cups corn (cut it off the cob uncooked)
1/2 cup butter
"a bit" of water

Bring to a boil for 5 minutes
** Add sugar if desired.... and it's always desired around our house :)

Mom, you will have to chime in and say how much sugar because my recipe card doesn't say.