Christmas Program

It took a while, but I finally figured out I had to put the videos on YouTube to share them. Hope you enjoy, I sure did!

True Christmas Story


Rudolph, We Wish you a Merry Christmas, Where is Santa

Christmas Program

There's always one. You know, the sheep that kind of stands out. The one who draws everyone attention. The one who...has to be heard (excuse the pun). I am thinking she did not have a chance from the start to even blend in with the rest of the flock. Her class were all sheep, easy enough. They had cute little fuzzy ears that were supposed to hang down, but Millie's must have been on upside down because hers pointed up and out. She was the one in the flock that just had to be noticed. And she was noticed. She may not have known all the words but boy...the ones she did know she made sure were loud and proud.

Even before the singing started, the pastor was reading the Christmas story and as she mentioned a person or animal, they came up front and stood...quietly. When the sheep were walking up the aisle, you could hear one little sheep (with upright ears) going bah, bah, bah. Not real loud, just kind of quiet and a little spooky. I am not sure if they were all supposed to be doing it or not, but Millie made sure she performed her role to the best of her ability and if she was going to be a sheep, she was going to make sounds!

Reed is 5 Months and Other Exciting Stuff

Both of my little ones are impressing me today. Reed is 5 months old now and thinks he is tough stuff standing up all the time. He can be crying and when we stand him up, he just starts this little chuckle. You can tell he is so very proud of himself but at the same time thinking "This can really help me in the future..." He really cracks me up when he does it, especially with the constant string of drool that is hanging from his mouth like our old Basset Hound, Rosie, always had. At least Reed does not have bits of colored dog biscuit chunks hanging in it...I sure miss Rosie, drool and all. Mom really loved it when Rosie would come up behind her after work and rub the dog biscuit infused drool on the back of her dress pants, she may not admit it but I am sure she did. If none of you know what a basset looks like, here is one that looks just like Rosie, his name is Charlie.

On to my other little one. Millie has been loving to learn her letters, she has known them all for some time now. She is constantly saying a word and sounding it out telling me what letter it starts with. The other night we were spelling some words for her and she remembered how to spell them all when she sent her Grandmas and God Parents an e-mail today. She typed, all by herself, the words MOM, DAD, MILLIE, MAMMY, REED, GG, and JJ. Granted the last 2 were kind of easy but I am counting them.

Just a Quick Note

We are getting ready to head to Indiana for a few days and I had to tell a little story first. I was going to get Millie from school today but Reed was sound asleep and I had to wake him up. Well, lets just say I learned a lesson there. From now on, I will allow Reed a few minutes to wake up before I change his diaper. Not only did he pee all over everything (he has done that many times) but this is the first time he actually got it right in his mouth! Yes folks, nice solid stream into his happy little smiling open mouth. He moved his head a little then the rest shot right in his eye. I am guessing this is not good hygiene for either the mouth or the eye but I guess we will see what happens. He did manage to stop the flow (good control) and I covered...it...with a wipe. While changing his clothes, he unloaded again until his changing pad was soaked and he was swimming in it. Good thing I had...it...covered so it did not shoot all over everything again!

Millie's Stats and a Lucky Drive

Millie had her 3 year checkup last week. Somehow we fell behind and because of insurance stuff, we will never catch up if we want them to pay. So, a few months late but Millie is doing great. She is 34 1/2 pounds (80%), 40 inches tall (97%) and her body mass index is 25% (not sure if that is the actual BMI or if that is her %). Anyway, they had a handout to track your child's progress. For those of you who know Millie well, you will find this very funny...

DEVELOPMENT-YOUR 3 YEAR OLD SHOULD BE DOING THIS
Can name a picture in a book...she reads books to us from memory
Names at least one color...how about 30
Knows her own name...yep-her full name, address and phone number and can spell her name
Begins to use pronouns...come on people, are you serious?
Put on her own shirt...check
May be able to ride a tricycle...does riding her bike with no training wheels count?
Can jump in one place and stand on one foot...yes for over a year now
Can open doors...who came up with this list?

Seriously, I think the teacher of the special class came up with these "Guidelines". I have been around many 3 year olds and they are far past this list.


Now, about the odd photos. Yes, that is Millie asleep in her car seat while placed in the middle of a parking lot. Driving to Indiana over Thanksgiving, we drove for 5 hours, made 3 stops and in the driveway of Rick's parent's house, the tie rod on the front axle came apart and Rick had no stearing. Now imagine if this had happened on the interstate while driving 75 MPH with all of us in the truck...not good. We are so blessed that God was with us and we made it safely home before this happened. The photos were taken after Rick's mom took us to Jasper to get his truck and Millie fell asleep in the Explorer on the way there. We were curious if Millie would stay asleep while moving the car seats around...she did. I could not resist taking a photo of her asleep in the car seat, it was pretty cold too and she did not wake up. If you look close, she also has her spider man sunglasses on.

The Results Are In

Reed had his 4 month check up today. He is 17 pounds 3 ounces and is 25 1/2 inches long with a head circumference of 44 1/2 cm. This is 90%, 55%, and 95% respectively. So basically, he is normally long but rather heavy and large brained. The Doctor was surprised that he is sleeping 12 hours at night and said he looks great. Reed was chuckling at him the entire checkup and as soon as the Dr. left the room he fell asleep. Then...the nurse came in, mean old lady. He got 2 shots and an oral vaccine. Needless to say, he was not sleeping anymore. But, he calmed down very quickly and was asleep before we got home. We were told we could start giving him rice cereal if we wanted but it was up to us since he is now just getting the minimum amount of formula he needs a day and his growth is great.




Here are his 1 week, 1 month, 2 month and 3 month photos with Mr. Giraffe.

Time to Baby-Proof

Reed is now 4 months old, he has his checkup on Thursday so I will give his stats then. He is now rolling from his back to his stomach so he is officially mobile. Rick weighed him this morning and the unofficial number is 17 pounds. For those of you not familiar with babies, this is very large. He is wearing 6-9 month tops now and all his sleep sacks are too short. We got out the exersaucer today and Reed was a big fan...Millie too. He was pushing the buttons and chewing on the little toys. He was not able to spin himself around but I am sure it will not be too much longer.

Last night our church had their annual Hoe Down and Millie was very excited. She has been the past 2 years and when she heard them announce it in church last week, she yelled "Hoe Down? I need a hat!". Rick took her out yesterday while I was at a baby shower and got her one. He said he decided against the $800 ones in the glass case and settled on a lesser priced pink one that Millie liked. She had a blast dancing with Lindsey and Maddy and I think her new favorite dance is the Chicken Dance. She also really enjoyed the 2 little girls who did a clogging routine while we were eating. She wanted to go out in the car and get her tap shoes but I convinced her that those girls had been practicing longer than she had so they were allowed to have their 'tap' shoes on.

Chair to Crib

Rocking a baby to sleep is easy. Getting said baby from chair to crib should be an Olympic event. There are about 100 maneuvers that one must make for this seemingly easy task to be successful.

Move arms as to not drop baby
Stand up
Stop and bounce
Step
Bounce
Step
Bounce
Begin to rotate baby
Step
Bounce
Rotate
Bounce
Rotate a little more
Lift baby slightly to clear bed rail
Rotate
Bounce
Lower Baby
Stop
Lower Baby
Lay Baby down
Stop
Remove hands one finger at a time
Release arms
Stand up
Cover baby quickly so they don't feel temperature change
Baby moves!
Crap!
Place hand on Baby's back
Remove hand 1 finger at a time
Step away from crib
Walk across room
Slowly close door

All of this is done while praying the baby stays asleep long enough for you to use the bathroom and blog. However, I hear crying so I must go and repeat the above steps again and add a few more bounces I guess.

Playing Catch Up

I have been gone for a few days due to the election but I am back now and ready to get blogging again. Rick had fun with the kids for 5 days by himself and I got a nice break while I was in Indiana. I have decided Rick is super dad or else he is just trying to make me feel really bad. When I came back, he had the house spotless, a bunch of errands done and the fridge stocked with groceries and leftovers, he even cooked. And, the kids were happy and seemed to be well cared for. I never clean, cook or go to the grocery when I am here with the kids but now he has made me realize it is possible so maybe I should try a little harder. So today I had a major goal...I made the bed. Baby steps!

On to other things, I got Millie a Christmas present while I was in Indiana, but after I was back for about an hour, I had to give it to her, I was just too excited. I found the perfect gift. Perfect in every way: it was cheap (only $10), it was not a toy, it would help her sleep all night, and she would think it was the most wonderful thing she has ever seen. She is now asking to take naps in her bed and even went to bed at 7pm the other night (she usually does not go to bed until 9pm).


A tent for her bed, not just any tent, but a Lighting McQueen tent. She loves Lighting McQueen right now and was very happy with this gift. I always wanted one of these when I was a kid. My cousin Danny had one and I was very jealous of him and his tent, what a punk. But now I had the chance to give Millie the gift I had always wanted and I was so happy she liked it because I don't think Rick would have appreciated me putting it on our bed.

Kickboxing

Reed has been working on his kickboxing skills lately. His loves to lay on his back and just kick, he does it probably 5 hours a day.

Happy Halloween

I thought I should do this a little early since I am leaving in the morning for Indiana and still have not packed/unpacked or done laundry since my trip last week. So this is a picture from last weekend when our Church had a little Halloween party. My neighbor gave us the little pumpkin outfit for Reed and Millie loves her Ladybug costume we got from a friend (I really lucked out this year!). What could be better for Millie than a Ladybug, if you remember her birthday, it was perfect. This Halloween should be fun because Millie is figuring out what it is all about. She was running around the house this morning yelling "Happy Halloween". She was even practicing on Wednesday with some of her friends dressing up and Trick-Or-Treating and saying "Thank You" when she got pretend treats.

Kelly Marsh Photography - How am I supposed to pick?

While we were home, my friend Kelly came to the farm and took pictures of my family. She did a great job. If you are in the Floyd Knobs area and would like photos, give Kelly a call, she is just starting her photography business and wants to build her portfolio.









Click Here to view all the photos.

We're Back

2 weeks is a long time when you travel with a baby and your 3 year old takes over your bedroom because you don't want the baby waking up the 3 year old, or maybe the other way around. Anyway, I always love going home but these 2 weeks were crazy with the election coming up. Mom is super busy so she was not home a lot and dad had tree buyers working for about 7 days straight buying trees that blew over in the hurricane/wind storm.

This was one of the trees dad could not sell because it was split too bad. It was kind of neat sitting in the house listening to the saws and then hearing the trees fall. Dad sold a few ash trees while the buyers were there because of the Ash Bore. One of these 'interesting' creatures was found in Floyd County so all the Ash trees in Floyd County are being quarantined at the end of the month and can no longer be sold and transported out of the county to prevent the transport of the bore. So, dad sold the trees while he could and before they died from the bore. (There, now you learned something new today...)

There are our 2 future farmers, how cute.

I like how dad tries to pretend I am not there taking a picture. This is after I told him to stop driving so I could get out and take pictures and I said "Dad, look at me and smile..." He is funny, he gripes and complains about having his picture taken but he loves seeing pictures of himself:-)

Millie loves to ride on the tractors when we go to mom and dad's. We used the tractors as potty training tools with her and Jacob and told them they could not ride on the tractors until they were potty trained, it works like a charm.

One night mom and dad's good friends had a party where the kids got t0 paint pumpkins. They had a blast even though their pumpkins did not win.

Millie enjoyed playing on the trailer with the big pumpkins.

They both enjoyed jumping off the trailer, I am surprised they did not end up getting hurt.

There was also a wedding while we were home and of course, Harvest Homecoming. That is the largest festival in Indiana after Indy 500 celebrations. I got to meet up with some of my high school friends and we had a great time hanging out again. I had not seen some of them since graduation 12 years ago!

I think that sums up my last 2 weeks. I will be heading that way in 2 more weeks to be home for the election. 11 more days until election day, make sure you vote for Bette!

Camping Trip

Rick really wants to take Millie camping in the Smokies. They have had several dry runs sleeping in the tent but so far, it has only been set up on the bonus room. This weekend, they took their camping adventures outside for the first time. I was a little worried because it got down to 47 degrees and I figured Millie would get cold for sure. And, with the trains that go by every 15 minutes, sirens, and all the neighborhood dogs, I figured she would never sleep. Well, she proved me wrong and now that she has spent all night, outside, in the tent, we think she will probably be ok going on a real camping trip with Rick.


As they enjoyed their adventure sleeping outside, I enjoyed a nice night of sleep with the bed all to myself. Until Mr. Reed decided to wake me up at 3 am. Oh well, I still had the bed all to myself so I can't complain.

Hot Air Balloons

This is a little late but we all went to the Hot Air Balloon Festival last weekend. We loved it last year, it was great weather and I got some beautiful pictures, but we went during the day. This year, I wanted to go at night to see the "Glow".

Millie was tall enough this year to ride in one so we were prepared for that. We were very disappointed when we got there. It was too windy so they were not doing the rides. Millie was not happy at all but she finally got over it.

Then, they told us they were not sure they were going to do the Glow because there was a small shower coming our way and I guess it is not good for the balloons to get wet and then be rolled up and put away because mildew and mold can grow. My thought was they are all getting them out again tomorrow for the race so I don't think they will mold over night. But, it is not my $20,000 balloon so I guess I have a different point of view. Even though rain was on they way, several of them went ahead and got out the balloons and did a little glow for us anyway.

The Pellissippi State Balloon even raised off the ground a little and hung an American Flag from the basket during the National Anthem, it was pretty neat. I would have liked to get a picture of that for you but I was feeding Reed at the time. I asked him kindly if he would please stop eating for a little so I could put him down and take a picture but he just started crying, what a baby...

Rick and Reed look a little confused in that picture, it may because it was pitch dark when I took it and I blinded them both.

7 Things

Nicole sent me this, thanks...It was a lot of work! So, here are 7 random things about me:

1)I am a licensed Civil Engineer in the state of Indiana but I neither work as an Engineer or live in Indiana.

2)Public bathrooms freak me out and I have a major fear of taking showers any place other than my shower or my mom's house. That is why it is so expensive for me to travel, I have to stay in a 5 star hotel for fear of the shower. I would rather be dirty and not shower then get in a less than perfectly clean shower, however, my own dirty shower does not bother me.

3)I usually don't eat the last bite of a sandwich. I don't know why and I don't know if there is a cure for this problem.

4)I usually set nice goals of cleaning the house, doing something creative with a new card or album but use the computer as an excuse for seeming busy and doing none of this. Hmmm...like right now.

5) I would rather be in Floyd Knobs on the farm over anywhere else. Especially in the Fall.

6)I cherish, crave, need alone time more than anything else.

7)I can not spell to save my life, I am horrible, really, I am. I will ask Rick how to spell something and he will say "Sound it out". Honey, if I could sound it out, I wouldn't be asking. I am 30, if I have not learned to spell by now, I never will and don't try to teach me, just tell me how to spell it. He is finally figuring this out.

I hope that is random enough for everyone. If I had more time, maybe I would think of more clever things but I am busy, I have to clean and do something creative with a new card or album...

So, tag kiddos, you are it! I hope I got all my links right... Rachel, Chris and Randy, Jessica B., Kelly, Nicole H. Karen B., and Ashley.

Happy Anniversary

6 years ago today Rick and I were married. We choose that day because it was my Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary as well. It was a beautiful fall day in Southern Indiana and everything went well other than a little near fainting spell I had during pictures before hand. I was revived and the rest of the day was great. We honeymooned in Jamaica during hurricane Lilly and really thought our plane was going to crash. Oh well, Rick got a taste of scuba diving while we were there and now he is hooked, he goes every chance he gets.

It is hard to believe it has only been 6 years, it seems like much longer. But he has been a part of my life since 1996 when I started college so really, he has been around for 12 years. And when you think about it, that is almost half my life since I am 30. 3 houses, 2 states and 2 kids later, we are still going and I could not imagine my life without him in it. Blah, blah I know, but I just thought I would say it for the record so in case his girlfriend is reading this, she will know I am not going anywhere. Just kidding.

Here is a picture of us at mom and dad's the day after we got engaged.

Dentist and Baby George

Millie had her first Dentist appointment this morning. And, to no surprise to me, our little hypochondriac did great. She wanted to bring the spit vacuum thing home with us. She had 19 teeth because one of her molars still have not come in yet.

And, our playgroup met at the zoo today. They had some special events because they were celebrating the birth of the new monkey (correction...chimp), Baby George. Momma monkey (correction...Chimp) was trying to kind of hide him but we still got a picture.



Speaking of monkeys, here are 3 of them checking out the zebras. How cute.


Millie and Miles were walking around holding hands. I think now that Miles' old girlfriend, Ava, is out of the picture, Millie made her move on him. We miss you Ava!

Millie and Lindsey posing by the scarecrow.

This was the butterfly exhibit, I thought Millie may be scared since she is terrified of bugs but she did fine. Although she wanted one to land on her hand, I think she would have freaked if it actually happened.

Arm Control

I sound strange in this video because Millie was taking a nap and I was trying to be quiet. Reed could see the rattle next to him but was reaching straight up. He slowly started reaching more and more to the side and when he finally got it, he kept reaching to the side to get it. Such a smart guy.

Reed's 2 Month Check Up

"You talking to me?"

What can I say, we have a little grower on our hands. I thought he might have moved more toward the 50% range on weight since he is eating less than he was a month ago because he is sleeping through the night. That turned out to not be the case, he actually moved up the scale from 90% in weight to 95% from his one month check up. So now he is 14 pounds (95%), 23 1/2 inches (75%), and his head is 16 1/4 inches (75%). I think we are growing what will turn out to be a strong little football player.

My last day...

This may be my last post because tonight my fingers may shrivel up with arthritis, my sight will go (oh wait, that has already happened), and my teeth will probably all fall out. Yep, tomorrow I turn 30, yikes. I know, most of you reading this already have but you are old so you understand...Just kidding. Please send gifts, money is always appreciated!

On to serious stuff. Reed decided to be a terror yesterday and today was no different. He is still cute and I love him but for the love of everything, he needs to just get over and stop crying for goodness sakes. Of course, when Rick got home at 7:30, he turns into all smiles, what a brat. My mom is coming tomorrow, maybe she will take the kids with her for a while, maybe until Reed is potty trained.


Reed went for his first bike ride the other day, he was strapped in the bike cart with bungee straps (please don't take my children, he had fun).



And, although I don't live there anymore, Indiana had a hurricane this past weekend. Go figure. Mom and dad lost a lot of trees on the farm but just one in the yard and no damage to any buildings. I wish I had pictures, I really want to see what it looks like. Here are some photos my friend Kelly took at her house who lives just a few miles from them. Note the Bette Buechler for Treasurer sign in her yard that weathered the storm! VOTE FOR BETTE!



Reed did not have his V8 today.