skeeter syndrome

well i am not a doctor but i did google swelling with mosquito bites. that is what web md had to say. i know it is hard to tell, but cullans whole forehead and left eye are very swollen. this picture was after two doses of benadryl. we went to movie in the park the other night and the bugs were horrible. i had bug spray and put it on the kids, but really did no good. poor kid. he looks miserable! i know he looks weird in this picture, it is because the flash went off. ;0)

it's coming..

Sara's big day. she is tying the knot!!
they are having a red and gold wedding in honor of being Iowa State Fans!!
pictures to come of the event.. the boys will be ring bearers.

yep....

the world cup is on...and it has pretty much taken over our house!!

ps. for the record, during the US vs. England game, I felt bad for Green. However, stuff happens and I will take the GOAL!!!

frugal summer fun.

that should be this summers theme. "frugal summer fun".with no job and not even any real prospects, we try to fill our days with things that cost 0 dollars.

i found this project in a book. i thought, well the kids will think it is fun. I was right. we had everything that we needed except for the paint brushes. I am sure you are thinking...what you guys don't have paint brushes, well we do, but not the kind that we want the kids to use on the cement. so i ran to dollar tree real quick and bought three. I came home, mixed up the fun and got out of the way.all this project consisted of was water and food coloring. when it rains or you use your hose, it comes right off and they have a blank slate to work with again! the kids loved it. next time I will use a little more food coloring because some of the colors did not come out as vibrant as I would have liked but you live and learn.it was so much fun garran and I even got in on the fun!!! it was the perfect day for some cement paining!!

some of the reasons i love summer

water fights and watermelon...could it get much better!

the fly guy

kael has discovered a new love. he is my one man fly catcher. he calls them bees and he will chase them all over. especially if there is one in the house. he is so funny. the other day during dinner there was one by our kitchen table. kael told me he was going to put it in time out because it was being naughty. he is fearless. he catches them with his bare hands and usually i think smooches them. i finally got a picture of his spoils!!

a wishing star

they other day, cullan and I had a conversation about shooting stars and how when you see one you can make a wish. tonight we let him stay up past his bed time so that we could spend some one on one time with him. he is usually in bed before it is dark here. so tonight as he was walking past our kitchen window he said to Garran, "Dad, I am going to wish on that traffic light out there for a moto cycle". I said well, I guess if you are going to wish on something that is as good as any. He desperately wants one of those battery operated cars or motorcycles. He asks every day about one. Maybe the traffic light fairies will be nicer or richer than his parents. ;0)

guilty pleasures

i love this face. do you know why she looks like that? it is because not only does she have her purse, but she also found her other favorite thing...a shoe!!

the one and only

cullan and kael are watching the Disney channel. there was a family on there that were talking about a family thing they did together to help others with MS. one of the sisters in the family happened to be named meghan. kael looks at the tv and then back at me .....
kael: what...what..Meghan...MOM...this girl thinks her name is meghan...you are Meghan
(mumbling under his breath "she is not meghan...my mom is meghan!")
ps. i just thought this face matched the story so well.

oh we're halfway there.....

this ultrasound is old. it was from when I was 12 weeks.

ok, i was singing the title like that bon jovi song!! i am so excited. i did not even realize but yesterday marked the halfway point in this pregnancy. its not that i don't enjoy being pregnant because on some levels i do. but the fact that this is the last also is starting to really be ok for me. I have always like the idea of four kids and so i am happy with this. i can not remember if i have posted this before or not but because we have two boys and a girl, we are not going to find out what this baby is. we have decided to just let it be a surprise. it will be fun. however it does complicate picking a name, which is never easy for us. so far the only suggestion is from cullan and he wants to name the baby giggler whistle! so we will see if garran and i can come up with anything better! i have my next appointment on the 14th with my new ob. i am a little worried just because i really loved my old doctor and am a little worried about trying someone new.

if anyone knows any great baby names or fun websites, let me know....right now...we are drawing blanks!

stranger danger

tonight we decided to talk to the kids about strangers. just to refresh their memories. so we told them that you do not tell them your name, that you do not take anything from them, that you never play with any toys they offer or any pets they might have...but in our own forgetfulness we forgot one..

and we thought we were doing so good.

here was our conversation, garran was pretending to be the stranger:

Garran: hello little boys, what is your name

Cullan: We can't tell you our name. We are leaving.

Garran: Well I have this candy (suckers)...do you want any?

Cullan and Kael: No thanks.

Garran: Well do you guys want to come and see my car. I have some cool stuff in there?

Cullan and Kael: SURE!!!!

yeah, we had to add somethings to our list of things you don't do. however, up to that point, things were going pretty well!

lack of posts

not much going on..

job hunt still going strong but not producing ANYTHING!

&

now a sick baby girl to boot! 

I will post again when we have something fun to report!

first bag

today i was at goodwill looking for a chair. anyways that is a whole other story but while i was there, i found this pink little purse for briea. it was .40 cents. i thought for .40 why not. so i got it and brought it home for her. she LOVES it. she has played and played with it. Daddy put her brush in there and her binkie! here she is on daddy's lap.

 then she decided to brush daddy's hair for him.

 she was so cute finding things to put in to it.

 .40 cents well spent. this is one happy girl!!!

Palmer Fun!!!

our friends the palmer's came to visit us over memorial day weekend. we were so glad to see them and to catch up. it had only been a month since we had moved, but it was so good to see our friends. we stayed pretty busy friday by going to IKEA and playing. then saturday we just let the kids play and went to lunch at this awesome cafe in Napperville. If you are ever there, you should stop by MiMi's Cafe. It was so yummy!!!

sunday i wanted to get some pictures of the kids, so here we go. the one above is Kael and his friend Finn.

miss B. being cute!!

these boys played the whole time. they were running around and wrestling..just what boys should be doing!

kael decided to get in on the action.

they all ended up shirtless and some in their underwear.

i just love this picture. briea has learned to say cheese when she sees the camera. this is her "cheese " face!

kael and jaren flipping. it was pretty cute.

this picture just makes me laugh. that look on his face is too funny.

stacy was looking through an IKEA catalog and cullan just decided to jump up on the chair with her and said " stac, so how should we decorate my room". That boy cracks me up.

briea really really really LOVES finn. i am not sure if the feeling is mutual but he sure got kissed up while he was here.

the sprinkler disaster

the other day it was so warm that we decided we would try and find something fun for the kids to do that was not to expensive. our job hunt here has not been very fruitful and so we are living off our savings. it is so stressful for me. i always stress about finances. especially when i don't know when we will find a job. anyways I found t his sprinkler thing really cheap and thought it would be something fun for the kids to do. it was really fun. as you can see the kids were having a blast...then things started to go down hill.

all of a sudden the thing that turns our blinds fell off and into the track part of our sliding glass door. you guessed it, we were locked out. so garran went to go get someone to let us in. when he came back i heard him yelling to me to turn off the hose. when I came in and we had standing water in the kitchen, laundry room, bathroom, and pantry. apparently the pipe that went to that spigot had frozen over the winter and we were the first ones to turn it on. when we did POW! It burst. So it ended up being kind of a long day. But I got some pictures of the kids having fun, so I thought I would share.

Briea & her pretties!

this little girl is all girl. she gets very upset when her brothers touch her jewels. we are going to have to work on sharing! ;-) But as for now, she is just to cute for words.

doing some math!

1+1=2
2+3=5
5+1=6!