the filling

I had my tooth filled today. It took less than 15 minutes. It was amazing, no novocaine, no drilling. It was a small enough cavity that they could sand blast it out. How cool is that? You just have a mouth full of sand instead of a drill. The filling sets immediately and you can use it as normal the moment you walk out of the building. My appointment was at 8:40 and two minutes before 9. I can definitely live with that.

the battles we pick...

Today I picked the food battle with my girls. I know they say that's a battle you're not supposed to pick, but....Hannah and Evie have decided to go on a dinner strike for the past couple of weeks. They have not wanted anything to do with the dinners I've made. Things like chili which they both used to chow down I was getting an "I don't like chili" from Hannah and Evie wouldn't even take a bit. I have no clue what happened or why. But Nathan and I finally got tired of it and decided after I made chicken pot pie last night and neither of the girls touched it that they would get it again for breakfast. At breakfast today they didn't eat. Both girls were in tears most of the morning and it was not a very fun time. Around 11 Hannah was crying and saying "I'm tired, I need to go nap" I told her she wasn't tired she was hungry and she wouldn't be allowed to nap until her regular nap time. Well, she walked away not too happy, but saw a banana and decided she really wanted the banana. I told her she could have it after she ate her chicken pot pie and she ate it all and then got her banana and was very happy. And even had Swedish meatballs for lunch an hour later. Evie, I finally allowed to have one meat ball, since it was also a dinner dish, and then she went to nap. I had tried to explain to Evie that if she ate her pot pie she could have the grapes she really wanted, but I don't think she really understand cause and effect like that yet. While talking to Sarah during nap she suggested giving her a grape after each bite, so when Evie got up from her nap still looking for food I got out the grapes and pot pie and tried it. After forcing her to have some pot pie before the grape twice she then started taking a bite of the chicken pot pie without a problem and ate it all, getting a grape after each bite. She also ate a peach, more grapes and a chimichanga in that sitting. Maybe just a bit hungry. Both girls were way more pleasant to be around this afternoon than this morning. I'm sure it's because they now had full tummies, but I think it may have also had a little to do with setting boundaries, but maybe that's my imagination....Talking to Nathan when he got home he said I may have scarred Evie for life, if that's the case she can never force her kids to eat anything and that's fine with me :-)

under water we go

Hannah went all the way under water today at swimming lessons. After telling me she wasn't even going to get her nose wet early today, it was quiet exciting! We were playing ring-around-the-rosies and I said lets see how far down we can go and she was the only one who went all the way under. :-) Just thought I'd share.

getting stuck

Evie seems to be getting stuck a lot lately. She managed to get her knee stuck in the gate at the bottom of our stairs yesterday and today she got her knee stuck in between the crib rails. She woke up from her nap crying "mommy, mommy, mommy" I being the good mother I am, ignored her because it was really early for her to be awake and often she'll fall back asleep. After she did it for a couple minutes I walked up the stairs and hear "mommy, stuck, stuck, mommy, stuck!" so I went in and found her very stuck. Have I mentioned that "baby proof" is definitely not toddler proof? Evie will close the gate to the stairs and then climb through the rails of the banister, I wanted to get a picture of this, but haven't been able to yet. She also can climb over the baby gate we have up in between our kitchen and office and can sometimes get the cabinet locks open too. Fun stuff!

puddle jumping

I took the kids out in the rain today and we were jumping in puddles. The puddles were like bath water. It was kind of gross. But they enjoyed it. Evie really liked when it was actually raining and bubbles formed on top of the puddles. She was running around like crazy trying to pop the bubbles.

The faces of Hannah

I took out Hannah's braids the other day and redid them. But I took some pictures while the hair was out because it was pretty crazy looking.

Say WHAT?!?

I went to the dentist this morning. Normally this is a non-event. I get a cleaning that's it, I'm done. Today I was told I had staining. From what I ask? I don't drink soda, coffee, red wine or tea. Could it be the blueberries? It must be, but they didn't think so. I have major tarter build up at my gum line. Really? I haven't had that before, I haven't changed anything, why did that happen? No ideas from them. And the kicker is.....I have a CAVITY! WHAT?!?!?!?! I have NEVER had a cavity, how did I get a cavity?!?!?! This is very disconcerting. As it would be one thing if I had stopped brushing, or changed my habits, but I've been trying to brush LONGER and I have been flossing MORE. And this is what I get? Not cool. I really hope it doesn't get worse. I talked to one of my friends this morning and she said she didn't have any cavities and then one day she had six and now she's had at least one at every appointment since then. I so don't want that. The only solution I see to prevent this issue is no more food and lots of water. Unfortunately, I've heard you can only last about 40 days like that....hmmmm.....that gives me a month to come up with another solution then right?

Father's day fun at the Barnes

Yesterday we left church after Sunday School and headed up to the north side of town to visit the Barnes. We had a great time hanging out with them and had a delicious lunch and dinner. Here are a few of the activities we did while there.

Hannah listened to quiet a few Curious George stories

Evie really enjoyed playing with the glass beads and dumping them from one container to another. It was amazing how long this entertained her for and how many times she went back to it after doing something else.

Finger painting!!

Even Daddy got in on the fun.

Nathan attempted to take a nap, it didn't work so well :-)

Spinning on the computer chair! Trying to get Daddy's nose.

Dancing with Daddy

And rockin' out!
I hope all you Dads out there had a great father's day!

swimming lessons - Day 1

Don't worry, I'm not going to give you a day by day report on how the swimming lessons are going. But I did want to write about day one. It went really well. All the kids did pretty good. I was very surprised how well Hannah did. I've heard story about how she's a very polite and well mannered child, but I don't often see that side of her. Today I got to see it and that was exciting. She was listening and following instructions and being very attentive to what I was saying and what was being asked of her. It was actually kind of strange, as in who is this child, she's not mine is she? At the end of her lesson all the younger siblings and mothers came in the pool and Hannah even ventured to swim with a noddle on her own. I heard "I can do it myself" from her, which is not a phrase I hear often. That was exciting too, as I would love for her to try more things on her own. All in all a good start to the lessons. I think it will work out well.

Blueberry Picking

As part of our Father's day adventures we went blueberry picking at Moorhead's farm. The girls LOVED the blueberries, but they take a little longer to pick and aren't as satisfying as blackberries or peaches because you have to pick a lot more to get the same amount as say one peach. Evie soon gave up on the picking and thought it was very convenient to have a bucket full of already picked ones to eat by the handful. We did manage to get 5 lbs of blueberries, but the girls definitely ate more than their fair share and probably were not positive contributors to the bounty. We picked until the farm closed at 9 pm. We didn't get out the camera until we had been there awhile, so it was getting pretty dark.

This is Hannah, she's running. We were leaving and she ran almost the entire way back to the entrance. It was a long run for a little girl late at night. And then she and Evie didn't fall asleep in the car until after 9:30! I had to wake Evie up at 9:30 this morning to go to swimming lessons. She wasn't very happy about that.

Eating blueberries by the handful, don't let the fact that she's standing in front of a blueberry bush deceive you! Actually, she did pick the ones she's eating in this picture.

Look, I was there :-) And if you zoom in, do you see the color of Hannah's legs? Yes, they almost white. They really enjoyed playing in the sand towards the end and both girls were a mess!

Our blueberries!

Another fun birthday party

Saturday we went to a Fun Max Jump-In with the girls for a birthday party. Hannah was a little hesitant at first, but then started having a grand time. I tried to take Evie into a couple of the bounce houses but she would scream. She liked watching and kept saying "bouncy, bouncy." Evie enjoyed running in circles in the large open area they had when you first walked in the room. She's been into running in circles a lot lately, she'll do it around our kitchen almost daily, but there was a lot more room there so she could do big circles. By the end she finally was doing a little bouncing her self, but she was also doing a lot of running to the door and saying "CAKE!" as she had seen the cake on the way in and knew it was out there.

The best part of any party for Evie is the balloons! She was holding them going in circles and singing ring around the rosies, I tried to video tape it, but the singing didn't come through :-(

paper boats

Have you read Curious George rides a bike? We borrowed it from the library the other day. In the book they teach you how to make a paper boat and show George with a fleet of boats in a river. Well I decided to try my hand at making a boat, it was pretty simple. So I took all our adds that were in the recycle bin and made a bunch of boats. We took them outside and put them in the pool, the girls wants to play with and push them. That didn't work so well, so I made a few more and made them get out of the water to see if they would float better. They still didn't work very well, and made a huge mess of wet paper. But the girls liked it. Apparently paper now isn't what it was when George did it :-)

Hannah reading the book

The girls playing with what's left of the boats

Evie examining one

My "fleet" that didn't quiet work

random Evie pictures

hours of entertainment

Evie could watch lawn mowers, backhoes or tractors for hours. She loves when we drive past construction sites and doesn't want to have to keep going. Apparently a barn being put up has the same effect as I found out Monday when our neighbors got a new barn in their backyard. Evie stood there watching for a very long time.

a chance to breath

It's been crazy here the past two weeks. We've been keeping busy with activities in the morning and afternoon most days. All the friends I've said "we should get together sometime" I've actually called and gotten together with. It's been fun, but lots more activity than we're used to. This week has been much slower, only two play dates yesterday, Monday we got to go to the library, today we tried a new library and tomorrow we're doing the park. Friday we're having dinner with friends, but nothing is planned for the morning. Next week will pick up again a little, as we'll be doing swimming lessons three days a week in the morning, but it should be good. I get to teach the lessons and it will be Hannah and three other kids. But for now we'll enjoy a little less activity and look forward to some more time in our backyard.