A New Addition to the Family

Since fall sports are over, I thought this past week wouldn't be too busy but it flew by.  We had just enough going on to keep us busy.  I did a lot of cooking this week.  Some of us did some meals for the LaBeths since Mike just had shoulder replacement surgery and poor Ty broke his elbow.  I also made a meal for the K-Life volunteers on Sunday.  And then I got to help make some stuff for Leah to use for Alex's 3rd birthday and I always enjoy getting to design and work on that stuff. 

With all of our busyness, I thankfully have Lincoln to help me out.  Every morning when I get all of them up, I try to set out their clothes for the next day so that can be marked off my to-do list.  Lincoln likes to help pick out his clothes and even folds them up and puts them on top of his dresser where I usually set them.  He has prepped his oatmeal for me-just opening the package and putting it in a bowl.  Thankfully he hasn't tried to pour the milk in.  He does little things like making sure the box of crackers is closed up and put away, the cabinet doors are closed and now rubberbanded so the babies can't get in them.  Andrew says he takes after me and it a little OCD.  And he is.  He came down probably six times last night because he had messed up the blanket on his bed and it wasn't just right and therefore he couldn't go to sleep.  I never went up to fix it so I guess he eventually just tired of fighting it.  Another funny Lincoln quirk.  Now if you ask him what color a green item is he will tell you it is John Deere.  Not John Deere green, just John Deere.  Lincoln is also good at letting me know when the twins are into something, which is pretty much all the time.  One of them knocked over the trash can in the laundry room the other day and tried to eat the lint that was in there.  And they love to chew on the end of chargers.  I have already had to order a new phone charger and I think we are down to one DS charger.  You can't leave anything on the end tables/night stands.  Last night our weather radio kept making static-like noises which I believe was caused by the boys messing with it.  I tried to ignore it, but finally had to get up in the middle of the night and just unplug it.  And I have to remember to put our home phones on their chargers while the babies are napping because I have to put them away while they are awake or they are always playing with them.  Even though they keep us pretty busy, we just adore them.  All of us.  I mentioned last time, that Lincoln likes to sing now and so he helps me out while I feed the babies their baby food.  I sing to them a lot while I feed them to help distract them and Lincoln will sing along with me.  One problem we encounter though is that Miles likes to clap when I sing and it can sometimes be hard to get the food in his mouth while he is clapping.

Loving laudry time

I guess they didn't notice the big barn full of tractors next to them :-)

Trying to work on QuickBooks for the office but they want my computer

Cheering on the Cardinals

On Wednesday I was cleaning up for small group and saw this...Ellie at first tried to deny doing it.  But then she got in trouble and got her DS taken away for a few days :-(  She has the huge desire to draw and color.  She sees some paper, she wants to color on it, even it is just with a pen.  She sees a marker, she needs to use it.  She will be cleaning it off tomorrow.

And we tried cheering for the Cards this week but I guess it didn't work.  Jackson and Ellie were getting so frustrated with the game tonight but I tried to tell them that you can't give up on them.  There is always next year.

On Friday I think Andrew and I both hit a wall.  He was still trying to catch up after focusing all of his time and energy on his jury trial last week.  It was our first Friday to not have something to do in probably 7 weeks.  We actually had Lincoln's Fall Festival, his school's big fundraiser, that night but we chose not to go.  We were both so tired, but then I started feeling guilty about not going.  And to make it better, Lincoln ended up cutting Bennett's finger with a pair of safety scissors.  I guess I didn't realize that they could actually break skin like that.  I have no idea why he did it but Bennett recovered well. I put him in the bath after a while since it was still bleeding.  He never acted like the water bothered it.  I tried to keep a bandaid on it which worked for a bit.  It was better the next day but then must have broken open again because there were little blood spots on the floor where he had crawled. 

Saturday was an exciting day because our newest niece was born.  Kaitlin thought she was maybe going in to labor that morning and called my parents to give them the heads up. They ended up heading up to Iowa early afternoon and Kaitlin had sweet Lola Grace that evening.  I so wish I could have gone up then but I had to do the K-Life meal.  But it sounds like everyone is doing well andt hey came home from the hospital today.  She is adorable and I can't wait to meet her.  Congrats Kaitlin, Zane, and Owen.

Andrew spent all day Saturday out at the ranch stacking hay to get ready for the winter while I continued preparing for the K-Life meal.  It was for around 40-45 college students so it took some preparation.  My mom offered to help several times, but I saw it as a challenge.  I could have used the Duggars' kitchen though.  I made two different pasta dishes and quadrupled each recipe.  One I made earlier in the week and froze the pans of it.  They were large pans and I didn't realize how long it would take for them to thaw and cook.  I did the desserts and figured out how I was going to pack everything up on Saturday.  I made the mistake of trying a new recipe for us Saturday too and we ended up not eating until around 7:30 that night once I finally got it done.  Lincoln had a rash over his back and belly over the weekend so we ended up not going to church.  I do love that our church has a live feed though, so I was able to listen while I was cooking.  And Sunday ended up being a beautiful day.  I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but Andrew was able to take the kids out for a while.  They played a little and worked a little.

Then it was time to finish up the meal and get it all packed up.  I had four big pans of pasta, a couple pans of green beans, a couple large salads, some bread, and chocolate frosted peanut butter bars and pumpkin bars for dessert.  I had Andrew go over earlier and start mixing up the drinks while I waited for one of the pasta dishes to bake a little longer.  Thankfully I was talking to him on my way over to let him know I was almost there because I was just a half mile from the K-Life house when he warned me that a cop was coming.  I imagine I would have been pulled over.  But once we got there and got everything set up, it all went well.  All of the kids had fun hanging out at the house and the twins got to hang out with one of their girlfriends, Charlie, Kevin and Chelsea's little girl.  I was glad we were able to do this for all of the volunteers because I really appreciate how they give of their time to make a difference in the lives of so many kids and I think K-Life is a great organization for our community. 

This afternoon Molly was kind enough to watch the kids while Andrew and I went to Jackson's Parent Teacher conference.  We were glad to here he is doing great in school, academics and behavior-wise.  After the conference I ran by Hy-Vee real quick to get some stuff to roast hot dogs and make s'mores.  I also got Molly "dirt cake in a cup" as her payment for babysitting.  It is one of her favorite desserts :-).  I got home in just enough time to throw the stuff on the counter, load up the kids, and head to Ellie's dance class for Parent Watch Night.  Andrew and the boys lasted for half of the class and then they headed home to feed the twins and start the fire.  Andrew left just a little too early though because they called the parents up in the second half to do a dance with the girls.  It was a group dance that originated in Denmark called Seven Jumps.  Ellie was so excited I got to do it with her.

After dance, we had our cook out.  I felt bad for not doing much with the kids over the weekend since I was busy with all of the cooking.  I think they watched Madagascar 3 at least 5 times.  But they love roasting hot dogs and s'mores so they were happy about it and we had a good time.  We got done just in time to watch the Cards' game which didn't end the way we were hoping.  Jackson and Ellie even switched into their Cardinal shirts and hat.