Project 365 January 18th thru 25th

January 18th

 "Yellow" haired gram & grandpa arrived today and we had our last round of Christmas

January 19th

 Cooper was all smiles with Grandpa

January 2Oth

A new month means I get to review a new kit at Practical Scrappers.  This kit was designed by one of my online scrapping buddies, Jessica.  She's got a great new kit company and if what I've seen of her stuff is any indication, she'll be quite successsful.  I did five projects with it, but this was probably my favorite of all of them.  And no, poor Ashley's face is not being hidden, it's just the camera angle with my 3d flowers (:  I love running Practical Scrappers and this is one of the monthly highlights for me!  

 January 21st

Poor little Lu woke up with a 1O3 temp this morning.

January 22nd

I couldn't resist taking this picture, she's even cute when she is sick.  Timmy has now joined her with a fever and I'm getting symptoms going too.

 January 23rd

Random picture I know!  But I'm trying to keep a record of what life is like right now...and this was quick and easy (:  I'm doing cloth diapering with Cooper and it has worked out beautifully.  I made a minimal investment in some quality diapers and we've made our moneys worth easily.  I do a daily load in our wash and hang them out to dry with my handy Ikea dryer.

January 24th

 I was supposed to be having a recital with my wonderful piano and band students this week.  Unfortunately when my temperature hit 1O5, yes I just said that, last night I knew the chances of me being healthy anytime soon weren't good.  After about 12 hours of stressing out about it and feeling bad, I decided it would be best for my  health and the students if we just postponed.  Hopefully our family will be one less family spreading the flu around.  

January 25th

 Cooper now has the flu too and you can tell he's a little droopy here.  but the reason I took the picture is because I thought how he was sitting up looking around was cute.  He's getting soooo strong!

Project 365 January 12 thru 17

January 12

 I love to experiment with recipes...usually they end up okay.  On this day it ended up looking just like canned dog food.  It tasted okay to me and Ben thought it tasted good.  Timmy tasted it and gagged.  You know it's not a good sign when it sticks that badly to a spoon (:

January 13

 I had to get out all our 12 month clothes for Cooper, he's sooooo long!  I piled them up on the playroom couch and Leah decided they looked like a good place for a nap.

January 14

Timmy and Lucy had a blast filling up this new piggy bank.  It keeps track of how much money you have put in.  Timmy's got $24.72 in there!

January 15

 Not sure I'll ever get use to be able to watch a burial happening from my kitchen windows.  It's even stranger when it's happening with snow on the ground.  

January 16

 We got Timmy an NFL sticker book for Christmas.  He's been collecting the stickers and filling it in.  He absolutely loves it, I wish it weren't so late in the season...it's getting hard to find the stickers.

January 17

Lucy and I went on a shopping date today.  She found two new pairs of shoes and was anxious to wear them when we got home.  Rather than wait for us to cut them apart...she just put one of each on and dragged the other around.  Add to that her stylin' vest and hard hat and who couldn't take a picture!

It was a good year (:

A fun reflection on 2O1O

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before? 
Shared a tray of blue crabs on Chesapeake Bay with my family
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Nope
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? 
Yes!  3 of my close friends here at church and my sister in law, it was a fabulous year of healthy babies!
4. Did anyone close to you die? 
Uncle Jim and Grandma Klusmann
5. What countries did you visit? 
Many states in the USA
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? 
A trip to California
7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
June 19th, the day my brother got married & July 2Oth the day my Cooper was born 
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? 
Starting teaching again
9. What was your biggest failure? 
Organizing...it never happens
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? 
Stomach flu in April, a few colds here and there, and pregnancy! 
11. What was the best thing you bought? 
The Wii
12. Where did most of your money go? 
Taking care of our precious blessings  
13. What did you get really excited about? Christopher's wedding and Cooper 
14. What song will always remind you of 2010? 
I Got A Feeling by Black Eyed Peas
15. Compared to this time last year, are you: 

• happier or sadder? Happier.
• thinner or fatter? thinner.
• richer or poorer? About the same.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of? 
Reading
17. What do you wish you’d done less of? 
Worrying
18. How did you spend Christmas? 
With my family and taking Chris & Courtney to the airport 
19. What was your favorite TV program? 
Lost  
20. What were your favorite books of the year? 
Growing Grateful Kids
21. What was your favorite music from this year? 
The Getty's
22. What were your favorite films of the year? 
Tangled
23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 
I turned 32.  Ben and I went on an overnight getaway to Chicago suburbs.  We ate at Texas Roadhouse.
24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? 
Finding a solution to Timmy's colon problems
25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? 
Mostly maternity and recovery (:
26. What kept you sane? 
My savior, Ben, Pam, Mom, Christopher, and my friends
27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010. 
Three kids is a huge difference from two.

An Unselfish moment

It has been and will continue to be a very busy week for Ben!  Tonight he had two meetings and it seems like on nights like that things always go berzerk at home!  I tucked Lucy in first and she was hopping mad about it but stayed in her room for at least a half hour.  I then proceeded to work on tucking in Cooper.  He was having none of it either.

Timmy was content playing but I had promised him a game of Backyard Football on the Wii when the other two went down.  I knew at this point his bed time was rapidly approaching.

I am tough about bed times, because my kids do not function well the next day if they don't get enough sleep! Once I finally got Cooper settled down, I went out to get Timmy and tell him we could go play.  But then Lucy came out and she needed me.

I looked at Timmy and told him "I'm sorry buddy, the Wii is not going to happen tonight" and then went on to get Lucy back in bed.  I expected my return to be met with annoyance from Timmy.  Instead he looked at me and said "it's okay mom, I get it."  

We've been working hard on helping Timmy understand that in a family you have to make sacrifices and not always get your way.  Tonight it sank in and it did my heart good!

Project 365 January 7 thru 11

January 7

We're loving our new Wii and on this day we had our first "family game night" where we all gathered in the basement and played together.

January 8

Lucy and I made some homemade donut holes on this morning.  They turned out pretty tasty!  They especially came in handy when we had four extra kids come over, except that Benj didn't get as many as he would've liked (:

 January 9

 Lucy was carrying around her dolly in this box all day long.  She insisted on taking the whole thing with us to Walmart and was especially insistent that she needed to take the wipes for her baby.  The silly face is pure coincidence!

January 1O

This is our cross wall.  We had several friends in Texas who had a similar collection and decided we wanted to start one too.  So in every house we've lived in...we're at 5 now...we've had a cross wall.  Many of the crosses have a special memory or were given to us by a special friend.  Some were just bought because I liked them.  They are regular topics of discussion over dinner within our family and with guests.  Although this is not every cross in the house, it does include most of them!

January 11

Last night Timmy couldn't sleep because he was sad to be missing the BCS National Championship game.  We promised to record it for him.  Most of his free time today was consumed with watching it.  Cooper is attracted to the lights of the television and in love with Timmy.  So I caught a few cute tender moments of the two of them "watching" together.

The beginning of Project 365

I've always wanted to try the Project 365, where you take a picture every day for a year.  I thought it would be fun to try...although I'm still a little nervous about actually being able to accomplish it.  Some friends have encouraged me to try it nonetheless...I have no intention of actually getting to blog them daily, but I'll put them up as time permits (:

January 1

Cooper took his first bath out of the baby bath.  He's too long for it!  So until I can get things set up better for him in the real bathtub, he gets the kitchen sink.

January 2

Favorite dress and favorite boots of mine on my little fashionista

January 3

 Timmy with one of his new football books.  This one is especially exciting because it has Brett Favre in a Vikings uniform.

January 4

 Celebrating my birthday...I picked Cream Puffs instead of a cake, yum!

January 5

 Big man Cooper...96% percentile for his height, only 37% for his weight (:  Helping gram out with laundry

January 6

One last picture of the girls before Gram heads home.

Christmas Break Top 1O

We've had an awesome break and hate to see school start again!  Here's some of the highlights for us!

1.  Watching Cooper become extremely mobile, the kid is a rolling machine.

2.  Ben & Christine getting two stretches of time sans any kids thanks to Grandma.

3.  Three grown men, relaxing and enjoying playing Sonic racing on the Wii.

4.  Watching Ben demolish all of my records on Wii Fit.

5.  Learning to play Backyard Football on the Wii so I could keep up with Timmy.  What I learned is that he is unbeatable if he gets Adrian Peterson on his team.  

6.  Timmy telling Uncle Chris that "learning about Jesus" is better than playing the Wii

7.  Ben took Lucy's hamburger off her plate one night to heat it up more.  She didn't notice but when she did she completely lost it and started yelling "Oh no, my hamburger is gone!"

8.  Cooper yelling "mama" on several occasions when he was upset.  Coincidence, I'm sure, but I'll take it!

9.  Timmy giggling at me doing different games on Wii Fit.