Cousins

Benji & Carolyn were here the other day, the kids had so much fun together, here's a small peek at what they did. They also played outside quite a bit and of course the girls played babies, and the boys played dinosaurs. Jake says his collection is almost complete, he just needs a sharpback still =) He has about 20 of them. But, each type of dinosaur needs to have a dad, mom & baby =) Emily & even Meri love playing with them too.

The girls were play doh queens. they were making beds for their dolls--very cute =) (Hey, notice the .30 cent tablecloth I found at Family Dollar! Woohoo!)
The boys concentrating on a game of go fish...they each had their own technique to catch the fish. It was cute to watch.

100 things...

100 things...
Got this game from Amber . Anyone can play along, just BOLD the things you have done.
1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited Hawaii.
5. Watched a meteor shower.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
7. Been to Disneyland.(World..in Florida)
8. Climbed a mountain. (well, part of it...)
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sang a solo.
11. Bungee jumped.
12. Visited Paris.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Adopted a child.
16. Had food poisoning.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
20. Slept on an overnight train.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Hitch hiked.
23. Taken a sick day when you're not sick.
24. Built a snow fort.
25. Held a lamb.
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a marathon.
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice.
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run.
32. Been on a cruise.
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
35. Seen an Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language. (Does learning it at school count?)
37. Had enough money to truly be satisfied.
38. Seen the leaning tower of Pisa in person.
39. Gone rock climbing.
40. Seen Michelangelo's David.
41. Sung karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant.
44. Visited Africa.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud(it's what we call "spring" here)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China.
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class.
59. Visited Russia.
60. Served in a soup kitchen.
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Gotten flowers for no reason. (thanks kids:-)
64. Donated blood, platelets, or plasma.
65. Gone sky diving.
66. Visited a Nazi concentration camp.
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Times Square.
74. Toured the Everglades.
75. Been fired from a job.
76. Seen the changing of the guards in London.
77. Broken a bone.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.
80. Published a book.
81. Been to the Vatican.
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Walked in Jerusalem.
84. Had your picture in the paper
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (well, all but the killing part, we have deer hunters among us...)
88. Had Chicken pox.
89. Saved someone's life.
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous.
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person.
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake.
97. Been involved in a lawsuit.
98. Owned a cell phone.
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Way back when...

Just had to get a picture of this little girl with the cute old fashioned coat & hat. She looks like a little girl in a picture from way back when...well, oops, except for the date on the pic ;-)
This past weekend I was going through some boxes of clothes that no longer fit Emily and found this coat& hat. I remember Emily wearing it and now it fits Meri. Oh how time flies. We love this coat and hat, thanks Aunt Micki, for sharing them with us, I know you probably have many memories of your girls wearing them too =)

Okay, I admit it...

I am officially sick of winter, although we're all enjoying the "warmer" winter weather. We've been playing out side a bit, sledding down our hill and today I pulled the kids on a sled through the woods (yay, exercise for me ;-) So, I woke up this morning, and looked outside and saw this... the picture does NOT do it justice. It was SO beautiful!! The sun was shining through the trees that had a fresh snow/frost covering and there were a few snowflakes falling sparkling in the sun. So I rushed outside thinking I could get a picture of how beautiful it was and share it with everyone, but, I couldn't get a picture that did it justice. I took quite a few and this was the best I came up with. SO, I'm glad that even though I'm ready to move on through this winter and right into spring, I can still appreciate the beauty of a fresh morning, with fresh snow and a sparkling sun. I think part of it is that it was morning and mornings are always encouraging to me as everything is fresh & new...

It goes something like this...

Meri dishes up her own food nowadays--if she can get away with it. Here she wanted a whole carton of applesauce.

Meri settling in for a little bug-watching. we get these weird bugs in our house usually in fall, I don't know what they're called, we call them stink-bugs. They just buzz around real loudly and land on us (ick). Well, there's still a few stragglers left in our house. So, this one landed on the floor, & she watched it for a while. She's not what you'd call afraid of bugs. Quite the opposite in fact!
ah hah--caught it. Now to figure out what to do with it? It was funny, she laid the fly swatter down on the bug, then just left it there for a bit. Then she came back and picked the bug up laid it on top of the fly swatter and carried it over to the garbage where she threw it away =)
It's been so cold lately, we brought out the train and the kids have enjoyed playing with it again. They added a tunnel (high chair), & some ramps (legos) and away it went. Of course they had to keep a sharp eye out for robbers & train derailers--Meri, in other words =)And for me, well,

• I've been trying out some of the new recipes on What's for supper mom? blog. We've got some new favorites!
• I got some new books from the library on homeschooling and different activities to try. The thing with homeschooling that I'm still trying to get used to is it's so flexible. You can pretty much work at your kids' pace and you can teach from whatever sources you like, (curriculum, workbooks, piece together, etc). So, I feel like I do need some guidelines that will at least show me what a kindergartener should technically know by the time they're done. If we get through it, great! If not, we know what we need to catch up on. So, this year we've pretty much just pieced together from workbooks, library, etc. I feel like Jake's learned a lot so far. But now I'm thinking ahead to next year and wanting to get something with a few more guidelines for me to follow. It all comes down to RESEARCH, and trying and tweaking things if you're not comfortable with them!
• I've been getting all our tax info together, can't believe it's time for that again. Since Joe's a self-employed logger, it's always a little extra bookwork.

You know she's 2 when...

All it takes is 1 minute, 1 speedy little mischievous girl & a mom who forgot to get everything off the table...
She hit the jackpot with a jar of marshmallow cream!! yum yum
It was all over her clothes and in her hair too--so then she got her next favorite--a bath =)

Changes

We had a pretty laid back weekend here. The kids were down at their grandpa & grandma Ben & Linda's Friday for the night and all day Saturday. It is so nice for the kids and for mom =) And I think Grandpa & Grandma enjoy it a bit too =) I got quite a bit done without the littlefoots around. I did some cleaning, bathroom, bedrooms, kitchen, floors, laundry, organizing, things that just needed caught up on.



Here's some changes going on around here:

• I finally took apart Meri's crib and now she's in a big girl toddler bed!! She had been climbing out of her crib for a while, but it's hard to finally admit she's getting bigger and we're moving on. So, no more crib, and she's actually doing better in her little bed, she still gets out of it a bit, but not so much as she escaped the crib.


• I have decided to make our blog private. Anyone who reads it now is welcome to continue, just send me a comment or an email to schwenneker5atyahoodotcom I will need to add your email address so you can log in to read it.


• Oh, and Meri did awesome with her potty training this weekend! She stayed dry ALL day on Sunday!! woohoo!! I'll probably jinx it now that I've blogged about it.

Today, Larissa & Wyatt are coming over for a while, and then this afternoon we hope to do some firewood to get ready to bunker in for the nasty cold weather headed our way. Ugh...I am so sick of winter and we're only maybe halfway through. Well, I'm sure we'll manage somehow, we always have...

All for now, we hope to hear from you...

Dentist

The kids had dentist appts today at a new kid-friendly dentist, for which I am thankful. Jacob had been to another dentist, who pretty much just gave me the feeling that he was tolerating him, and seemed short on patience with him. Not amused. He's only 6, it was all new & scary to him. So this new dentist is totally opposite, very friendly, they know how to work with kids and they actually got an xray of his teeth which the old dentist had been trying unsuccessfully to do for 2 years! Well, turns out he has about 7 cavities that need filled BETWEEN his teeth =( poor guy, that is just too many! We do brush every day too! It was Emily's 1st visit to a dentist and she did Wonderful! It looked like her teeth were fine, but the xray found 4 cavities in between her teeth also. I don't remember this from when I was little. Maybe they didn't do those kinds of xrays then??? Or I just don't remember. Anyhow, I'm glad that they both did good, but feel so bad for them with all the cavities.

New Year's weekend

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We had a lot of fun up north, Emily wanted to stay for 18 days I told her sorry honey, not this time ;-)

We also played lots of games from ping pong, to wahoo! to Dutch Blitz! Fun times!