Already?

Mr. Lester is 30 already. WHAT? REALLY? How'd that happen?

I figured that he was old and senile enough to not catch on to my secret scheming, so I successfully pulled off a little surprise party at his parents.

In actuality, he does not miss any small detail, and was wondering why the printer was on (I had used it to scan in his childhood pictures for a poster and didn't turn it off). He also wondered why there was an email from Walgreens that had Marilyn's name on it (I ordered the poster through Walgreens and had Marilyn pick it up)

He wondered why I brought so many outside clothes to Mom and Dad's on Fri (I had a bunch of groceries hidden in the bottom of the bags and plopped some outside clothes on top to hide the groceries).

He wondered why I didn't clean up the house a little more on Sunday morning since Mike and Kristina were going to hang out there in between their morning Hastings meeting and afternoon gospel meeting (when M and K were actually going to come to the lunch party so I didn't have to worry about a presentable kitchen). 

He noticed a few interesting Amazon purchases but didn't look into them (I bought him some bike shorts).

Despite all of the ponderings, he was still surprised to see a different looking car in the driveway as we pulled up, and was even more surprised to see the dining room table set up fancy with a bunch of plates.

We had a yummy lunch of Italian meat pie, tacos, chips 'n cheese, veggies, and THREE desserts: cookies, cake, and scotcheroos.

 Eyesight must go downhill at the thirty mark because he received a head lamp from both Gary and Amber as well as Travis. :-) He also received a tent light from his parents.

Thanks to everyone for your efforts to make his day a special one!! He loved every minute. :-)

*disclamer* I did not make that awesome cake. That would be my mother's creation :-)

The big one

Happy birthday Travis! You've been 21 for a whole week now. That's kind of a big deal of a birthday. We don't get to see you as much any more since you moved closer to work! We still miss you though, but are glad you can save 70 miles of driving per day by moving.

Speaking of birthdays, this little monkey is now a big monkey! As of Sunday, he'll be a 30 year old!!!

Expressions

Our 21 month old is a girl of many expressions:

HAPPY

SAD

TIRED

SHY

SURPRISED

MAD (she's growling)

Sleep is an art

Rhya is usually a great sleeper. She loves to read 'Goodnight Moon', and then says 'night night' to the horse wall hanging, wolf cross stitch, her beloved dog, and any human who is around.

She's been on this kick of crying when we lay her down at night. We've started going back into her room and telling her to lay her head on her blankie and shut her eyes. She is then satisfied to fall asleep...just wants one last human interaction.

Last night was slightly different. She screamed and wailed, so I took her out and rocked her for a bit. Then I put her back in her crib and went downstairs. I heard a bang and loud yelling and then it got quiet...good..Nate was dealing with her. He later told me that she hopped out of her crib and was banging and yelling at the door. He calmed her down and put her back. She was still piping mad, so I held her for a bit and she was finally satisfied.

....until 2am. The yelling and screaming resumed. We decided that she was getting TOO used to us harkening to her demands, so we let her scream for 45 minutes. I told Nate that I couldn't stand it anymore when I heard her banging at the door again. He asked me what I was going to do about it...sleep in the garage? :-) I had actually thought about it, but then I'd have to start the car and that would be dangerous. Besides, it needed gas and I didn't want to drive to the station in the middle of the night. Guess I could've taken her with me and called it an outing! I was worried that she wanted to get back into her crib but couldn't. I broke down and entered her room and informed her that mommy was tired and that she needed to lay back down and hug her pig. That worked.

....until 3:15, when I was still trying to fall asleep from the previous episode. We let her cry for a LONG time. I even heard her get back into her crib. Then she continued to wail for Mommy and Daddy. I started to wonder if she was hungry or thirsty from all of the late night activity. Maybe her diaper was poopy. Maybe her brand new eye teeth were hurting again. Maybe she just needed extra love that I couldn't give her during the day when all the other kids were around.
I was not tired anyway, so got back up and fumbled around in the kitchen, returning to her room with some pumpkin bread, milk, and tylenol.

I told her to crawl into her crib and I'd give her a snack (I wanted to see if she could actually do it). Sure enough, she grunted and heaved herself over the railing that was 5 inches over her head, and did a nose dive unto her mattress. I left her be. That worked.

...until 5:15 when Nate's alarm went off, shortly after I had finally dozed off. Sure enough, even though Nate is NOT loud, Rhya heard him and started wailing. After 15 min everything got quiet, so curiosity got the best of me. I found Nate and asked him where Rhya was. He didn't know!! I finally found her wandering around the guest bedroom. She gave me this 'trying not to smile', 'I got what I wanted' look, and I told her to come to bed with me. We slept soundly for the next hour until I had to get up for the day...in which Rhya heard me and hopped out of bed.

Guess what I've been doing today? Rearranging!! The husband will be a little surprised when he sees the queen bed frame on its side, waiting for him to haul it to the basement.

A toddler bed will take the place of her crib. She WILL learn to get back to bed. Now I don't have to worry about crib accidents. The only other thing that would be quite cool is an automatic water and snack dispenser that can hook to the side of her bed. Maybe that falls in the category of 'spoiling'.
Now. Where are the earplugs?

Winter Brings Out Creativity

First off, the town board has nothing better to discuss so they decided to change the chicken ordinance! We can now have SIX!! Awesome!
Rhya is still in love with the chickens. The other day she put her boots on (notice in the picture below- they were two different boots), put her hat on, and asked to go outside. I threw her coat on, gave her a bowl of chicken scraps, and OUT she went. She poked every single morsel through the fence, much to the chickens' delight.

Stickers and frosty doors were today's highlight. Every single kid was laughing over these fun face stickers. It was totally their idea:

Our laid back, follow the leader type boy wasn't about to be left out this time! He kept asking for eyeballs.

Mom/babysitter/crazy pregnant woman even became adorned, much to the kids' glory

 

The girls left early today, and Rhya and Jordan noticed the frosty door as the girls were leaving. We caused a little 'cold air exchange' in the house as the following took place:

Their tongues did not stick. They'll have to learn the hard way some day. :-)

AMAZING!

Prescott, WI (54021) Weather

Updated: Jan 10, 2012, 3:05pm CST

Right Now	Next 36 Hours

Sunny
55°F
Feels Like: 55° Get FREE weather on your desktop
Past 24-hr Snow: 0 in Past 24-hr Precip: 0 in
Wind: From SW at 12mph
Through 9pm: Clear with temperatures falling into the mid 30s. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.

Humidity: 44%	88%	75%	55%
Dew Point:33°
Pressure: 29.72 in
Visibility: 10.0 mi
UV Index: 0 - Low	--

Happy New Year!!

Rhya can say Daddy's first name very well. In fact, it seems to be her preference over 'Daddy'. She doesn't think that she's being naughty when she says it, it's just a fact of life! Some examples:

She pees in her potty chair and then picks it up and says "NATE!" and proceeds to go find him and show him the accomplishment. Meanwhile, I am following very closely, trying to keep the contents from sloshing on the floor. ;-)

Various times throughout that day she'll say, "Naaate???" Then I say, "Where is Daddy?" Rhya says, "Wok"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking of names, she loves to list the names of people in our meeting. Bob and Lois (Losis) are particularly fun to say. We ask her who is going to be there, and she usually thinks of everyone. She just gets a little confused with Great Gpa and Gma Boyd since Bumpa and Nama meet with us too. There are a lot of Grandpa and Grandmas in her world!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our life this week: Kid sitting and dog sitting

I started a dog walking job last week. It's an Old English Sheepdog (Waylon) that lives 2 blocks away! I walk him 3 days out of the week and he plays in our backyard 2 days out of the week. He is a very energetic one year old, but very fun to have around! Thanks to his gentle leader, he is also very well mannered on the walks.
We dog sat Waylon Sat- Mon, as well as another dog, Annie. We've watched her before. She's some sort of water spaniel. Annie came Friday and left today, so we've had almost as many dogs around as kids!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday was not the funnest day ever. I didn't pass the one hour glucose test earlier last week. I learned my lesson to NOT take it in the afternoon. It is SO worth it to take the test in the morning so you have NO sugar in your system!!

Anyway, I was barely over the cutoff (146- should've been less than 140), which meant that I had to take the three hour test. I had to fast for 12 hours before taking the test, so thank goodness the test was 7:30 Mon. morning. They drew my blood, then had me drink 10 oz of orange flavored junk that had 100 grams of sugar in it! Then I had to sit for one hour, in which they drew my blood again, sit for another hour and get my blood drawn AGAIN, and sit for the final hour and have my blood drawn for the fourth time. I didn't really care about getting my blood drawn, but it was horrible to sit there with nothing but 100 grams of sugar in my system. I had to tell myself to swallow, not faint, and not throw up. Somehow I made it and passed no problem....gag. It didn't help that I happened to read a section in a health book that talked about the negative qualities of sugar! Why didn't they just let me eat a DQ Blizzard?? Guess I'm a wimp but it was not fun. Poor Nate was stuck at home with the daycare kids and dogs. Glad it's over!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The picture above is my cooool uncle Dave. Mom and Dad put on a little New Years party (that didn't go til midnight- ha), so we got to hang out with the Magsams! Anyway, Dave handed out fruit snacks to everyone. As you can see, Rhya was very enthralled. Everywhere I looked ppl were munching. You can tell he's a dad. :-)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since this post is already insanely long and random, I might as well add more, right?
We got a new furnace installed on Saturday, thanks to James Krueger and his sidekick James Riley. It is way more efficient than our old one, so we're hoping for a cheaper heating bill. Rhya sat at the bottom of the stairway for as long as I let her (1 whole hour) and watched the installation. She was a little shy and wouldn't talk to them, but they got a kick out of her curiosity! Of course, when they were out of earshot she was full of questions: "Who's thaaaat?" "James?" "Whasaaaat???"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Happy 2012. Somehow my due date all of a sudden seems way closer. :-) 11 weeks left!! Name ideas, anyone? I've got a list but I'm always open to more!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cooking