O-ey

Our sweet baby girl has now started saying Joey's name.

She says "O-ey". It could be one of the cutest things in the world to hear. Especially since it is the first thing she says in the morning when I get her out of her crib: Oey? She adores him (and the feeling is mutual!) I realized how sweet Joey often is to Kylah when I heard them playing before bedtime. He kept calling her sweetie: Here's your book, sweetie. Here's your blankie sweetie. I love watching them together. The other night I walked downstairs to get them for supper, and they were both sitting on the couch watching Curious George, and Joey had his arm around Kylah's shoulders. It's the little things in life that makes being a mommy so great!

A permanent vacation

This was sent to me in an e-mail from a friend of mine (we'll refer to her as C). I thought it was too funny not to share!

The other day, someone referred to being a stay-at-home as a permanent vacation. I laughed and told her to call me after she had three kids. :)


So, on this day of my permanent vacation, I...


Woke up early to work out before the kids were awake.
Had a card and gifts ready for my sweet hubby on his birthday when he walked out the door at 6:30.
Cleaned up puke that soaked through the bedding all the way down to the mattress when J woke up sick.
Gave the kids a bath.
Let M hop out while I scrubbed down J, at which point she started to pee, trailing it through three rooms of the house before I caught her.
Did 4 (and counting!) loads of laundry.
Chatted with our realtor, who just happened to tell me she was showing our house this evening.


And all of that was before 9:30.


In my mind, vacation looks a little different than this. Maybe involving a beach. And no puke. :)


I agree C! And I'm not even home everyday. (A lot of times I think my days at work are much less work than being home, even though I love being home!)

Girls' night

Why is it that kids love to play with toys that aren't really made for them?!
Joey saw the exersaucer in the storeroom the other day, and both kids have been playing in it nonstop since then!

Joey's at Cubbies right now, but trust me, he has also spent a ton of time in this toy lately too!

Mommy asked me where my belly button was...
there it is!

She loves to pretend to talk to daddy on the phone.

Kylah and I have been enjoying a little girls' night while Joe is at choir and Joey at Cubbies. It's so much quieter...hmmm... :)

Currently, she found a bag of balloons to play with.



And is trying to blow up a balloon. :)


Oh how I love her thick hair with those cute little curls in the back. Isn't it gorgeous?


And now the little princess is in bed, and I'm watching Husker volleyball. Good times.

We woke up this morning

Why, you say, is waking up this morning such a big deal?

Well, I say, because we sure are glad to be awake (and alive) this morning. Last night around 2:00 am, Joe and I were awakened by an alarm going off. We went out of our room to investigate. It wasn't the smoke alarm. It was our carbon monoxide detector! We have actually never heard this before, so we were a little surprised by it. You see, we had made a fire earlier in the evening, and before bed, Joe shut the flue thinking that it was fine since the fire had been out for a few hours. Boy were we wrong...and boy are we glad we have a carbon monoxide detector.

All we had to do was open up all the windows in the living room and kitchen and turn on all the fans. The alarm didn't go off again, and we went back to bed (hoping we had gotten all the fumes out of the house.)

Good to know that our detector works. And, good to know that we can hear that detector with our door closed and our sound machine on!!! (Funnily enough, the kids slept through the whole thing even with both of their doors open. And I just did spell-check, and apparently funnily is a word!!)

Thank you, God, for keeping our family safe last night.

money, money, money

I have to admit that I totally stole this idea from Meredith, so don't go thinking I'm super creative...
We had fun making a wallet for Joey and a purse for Kylah...all of it made from duct tape! Joey thought it was really cool to have a wallet like daddy, complete with dollar bills, a driver's license and credit cards!

Here is Kylah's purse next to Joey's wallet.

Kylah is all girl...she knows exactly what to do with any kind of purse.

After playing outside for almost three hours straight this morning, this was the face that came inside for lunch. (Click the picture to see all that dirt up close!)

Kylah's face wasn't quite as dirty, but dirty enough! We had a good wash-down before naptime!

Sticker Man

This is what happens when you tell Joey to go play by himself.

Happy (50th) Birthday Grandpa!

Joe's mom bought Joey a suit. The dedication of the new Elm Grove church building (the church Joe grew up in) seemed like a good occasion to wear it. Can you tell that the little man was excited to be wearing it?!

Look at that smile!

My two handsome men.

Do you think he will always give his momma kisses? I sure hope so!

And this was our attempt at a family picture...maybe we should have tried it before the church service...

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The main reason we went to Kansas this weekend was to celebrate Joe's dad's 50th birthday. How many times did Joey sing "Happy birthday to my grandpa"???? If anyone knows Jody they know he doesn't like all the attention on himself. Well Joey was not about to let anyone forget that it was his grandpa's birthday! :) Along with singing happy birthday a million times, as people came in the door he would (loudly) ask if they were there for his grandpa's birthday party. I thought it was hilarious!

Joey and Bella got to help blow out the candles.

Kylah didn't care about the candles; she just wanted the cake.

A tea party organized by Joey (since Mackenzie wasn't there.)

Joey and Bella are quite the pair.

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We got a nice little treat tonight and got to see my dad! He was in town to sign a baseball player (and to do some hunting) :) Joey was so excited to see his Papa, and Kylah warmed right up to him too! Here they are cuddled up reading a book.