Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Pictures for Daddy

When daddy is at work, this is what the kids do to help pass the time! :) When daddy gets home he gets to fix Aiden's bed...Aiden climbed out of his bed last night! Such a silly boy. He loves to play Emily's guitar.
Building a mess.
My chance to get a pic of them together!
Say "WIGGLES"!
Emily was very excited to wear her sweater today because it was her cousin Alyssa's and she wants to be just like her cousin.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

All Things New

Justin started school on the 20th, so we pretty much see him on the weekends. He just had his first English Comp class of the semester yesterday. He had missed getting into the English Comp 1 class by 1 stinking point, and was enrolled in a Fundamentals class. Thankfully, after showing his teacher his writing, she passed him to English Comp 1. He is so excited. He is taking Physical Science on Tuesday/Thursday, Intro to Admin. of Justice on Wednesday, and New Testament on Friday. This semester his Bible class is more like a history class, which he hates, but he will complete his humanities requirements. He has to take Intro to Admin. of Justice, despite the fact that he is already a police officer because he was in the academy over 5 years ago. His teacher has already told him that he will be teaching the section over the police field. The other sections talk about things like corrections and stuff that he isn't in. Since Jus is back at school, he took the last weekend available to work on the kitchen. Last weekend, Papa came over and helped Justin put up the beadboard, chair rail and baseboards in our kitchen/dining room. Our rooms are FINALLY done! Well, for the most part. :) We had our family over on Sunday to hang out and show off the somewhat remodeled kitchen. We have plans on replacing the back slider(by this summer, before Westar hikes up our electric bill!), our countertops, backsplash, sink and faucet. Appliances will come sometime after that(the stove FIRST!!) and then we will have a new kitchen! Here is Emily helping "push" the board onto the wall...Aiden just stands around and smiles for the camera! Everytime Papa would come in after cutting the boards, Aiden would have to chase after him and say "hi" a billion times.
On the 24th, we went to my parents for Jack and Carrie's birthday dinner. Today is Jack's 77th b-day(even though I keep saying he's 78...oh, well. The point is he's old. :) ). Happy Birthday, POP!
Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Coulter! Carrie and Lyle got married at the courthouse on January 16th. She called us that evening with the news. Since his family lives so far away and were going to miss it, they didn't tell us either until after it was done. Fine with me! Means I didn't have to threaten two kids to sit and be quiet through a wedding. Best wedding ever! :)
I was trying to take a pic of Grace(that's Carrie's middle name..we call her that a lot, so if you read that, you know who I'm talking about) and Lyle. The kids see the camera and start saying "cheese".
Waiting for Papa to come back in the house, so he can say "HI"!
This is my fave of Aiden's recent pics. He LOVES the camera and anytime he SEES a camera he calls it "cheese". Oh, and I can't forget the other great news....Mary Anne(my older sis) and Perry found a house, put in a contract and got it!!! I have only gotten to see the pics online and on their camera, but it looks absolutely gorgeous! The best part is that they will live minutes away from us. They didn't get the last house I had mentioned. This house is down the same main street we are off of, and through about 3 main intersections. That's it! I am so excited. They close on February 17th, so they will be staying at her dad's house in Valley Center for about a week before they can move in. I will be sure to take pics of the house when they get their keys! I know that Emily is ready to see her cousins!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Mommy I Get Better!

Emily has been sick and is begging to be better already! She has missed church and school and is aching to go play with her friends! Uncle Jason was sick during his visit and left all of his sick germs here. Granny and Papa are sick at their house. I am sick, as is Aiden. He has teeth issues mixed in with his, so he's a big ball of fun. There have been a lot of emotional breakdowns over the past week. The only time I can have two calm children is when I turn on their Wiggles DVD...THANKS AUNT NATALIE!! Aunt Mary Anne and Uncle Perry put in a contract on a house very, very close to us(we're talking traveling through two intersections, around two corners and we're there!) so, we are praying that this is the ONE!! The husband had to relocate for his job and is already out of state. It's priced higher than it should be, mainly cause they've only been there 3 yrs, so they are going to end up paying money out of their pockets. I know that we will be at their house ALL OF THE TIME if they move there. The kids will LOVE it!
Emily's imagination has been in overdrive lately. I don't know if it's all of the medications or what. :) Anytime she dresses up, the rest of the family is also in character. If she's a princess, then I am dubbed "Mommy Princess", Aiden-"Dood Prince", "Mimi Princess" and "Daddy King". I've been Mommy Superhero, Mommy Cheerleader, Mommy Rockstar and Mommy Snow White. Anytime Emily can't find Aiden or he gets hurt, he is her "buddy". We hear a lot of "Mommy, I can't find my buddy", "my buddy's lost" or "oh, my buddy got hurt". It's so funny to hear her call him that. I wish that I had taken a picture of it, but Emily has a new pet...a dog...that is a shoe box. She's named it something like "Vincent". I can't tell what she's saying when she says his name. It's stinking hilarious. The kids at school had shoe boxes that they put shapes on and had a string looped through a hole. I was clearing things out of her closet and came across it. She was so thrilled to have it. The string is the leash for her dog and she drags this thing all around the house saying it's a good dog, to kennel up, all while she takes it for walks. You would think we needed to get her a dog, but we already have 2! I will have to take a pic of her with her "dog" sometime.
Aiden's vocabulary and speech have really started to pick up. As my mom says, Emily came out talking. Aiden has been overpowered by her, so he is just now finding his own words. Instead he just communicates in actions or noises and there are lots of hugs and kisses, as well. Those are my favorite. He was talking to my mom on the phone the other day and she actually asked me which one she was talking to. Usually his conversations on the phone consist of the words "Gra", "Papa" "Dad" "Mom". Now he is saying "Mimi" clearly, "hi", "Abby", "Callie", "bye bye"and "nigh-night". His favorite word is "bath". He loves the bathtub and if you say bath then he will go running to the bathroom and try to get in the tub. We've gotten to the point where we have to tell Emily to stop saying that word around Aiden!
Justin had a hard time sleeping one night...I have been one with the Nyquil at night, so I was completely conked out, snoring loudly. He apparently slept wrong and his neck and shoulder have been paying the price for about a week now. He finally decided to go see Dr. Hoppock today and see what the problem is. Hoppock said that his muscle was inflamed and gave him meds for that and then a sample muscle relaxer, which he can't take til Thursday after work. It works for 24 hours and makes the body sluggish, so Hoppock told him not to use it til his days off. To make matters worse, we can't take any hot baths around here, cause the pilot light to the hot water tank won't light. The tank is not quite 2 years old, so we don't need a new one. We have a home warranty, so whatever is wrong, is only going to cost $55 to fix! We have an idea of what is wrong with it...the plumber even said the part that sounds like it's broken has been recalled on the heaters. Wonderful. Hopefully they will be here by Friday. Til then, we will be spending a lot of time at Granny and Papa's in their bath tub(good thing they have 3 bathrooms!) I just spent an hour boiling enough water to wash and rinse the dishes(it took a while cause we really only have one working burner on the stove) and then I had to hand wash all of them. If my mom read this she would laugh. We always have to hand wash dishes at her house and she knows how much I hate it!!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Soon-to-be de la Torre

Sitting on the couch with the kids are Amber Dungey(engaged) and Ashley Fisher(ENGAGED!!!) Ashley has been working in Cancun as an English teacher at a University. She met a wonderful guy there named Sequius de la Torre. We were lucky enough to run into them while they were still in town..at Wal-mart, no less...and meet the hubby-to-be. They had just gotten engaged and are planning a wedding in Wichita in July. I know Ashley is very excited(partly because she secretly wants to be a wedding planner) so we cannot wait til this summer!! Soon she will be Ashley Fisher de la Torre!! Congrats!