a little of this, a little of that

Here's a few shots from around here lately...

The boys enjoying a little sledding time with Dad

Jack and Dad make a snowman. His name is Peterbuilt.

The boys posing in front of the tree obviously more interested in the TV than me.

Jack in his Christmas program at church on Sunday. He's the shepard in front looking to his right.

Not a great shot with all the peeps in front of me, but good enough. He didn't sing, but stood very well and sat nicely with his class.

We will be traveling to Milwaukee this weekend for a good luck party for my step-brother and his family before heading out to California and our Christmas with Mom and Dave so I'm sure I'll have tons of picts to post when return. I'll try to get them on here before too long!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and safe and happy New Year in case I don't post until next year! Enjoy your families and don't eat too much!

morbid

Overheard at our house tonight:

Mom: "Jack, do you have a girlfriend?"

Jack: "No. She's dead"

Mom: "What do you mean, she's dead."

Jack: "She was old and wouldn't play, so she died and went to heaven. I hauled her there with the truck."


WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!?!?

my little snow man

Chad has been talking about taking the boys snowmobiling for a while now so we got a helmet for them to share. Just a few points for all the peeps going, WHAT!!!!!!

1. He will only take one at a time and they will sit in front of him and he won't be going very far/fast.

2. Since they will only go one at a time, they will always have a helmet on.

--Side note: The boys are 22 months apart-almost 2 years and they both have the same size head. 20 1/2" around. I should have taken a better look at the size of Chad's head before reproducing with him.

3. If I can get a break, even if it's only with one child, I'm going to take it. At this point I'd let Chad take them sky diving if it would give me an afternoon off!

Anyhow, Alex was the one who really wanted to go and Jack didn't. So the helmet came and Jack tried it on and loves it. Ran all around the house in it (bumping into a few things which was quite funny).

Alex wants nothing to do with it. Cried when I put it on him and hasn't worn it since. He doesn't even like to go out in the snow, unless it's warm and not snowing or windy.

Looks like Alex, the baby and I will be enjoying some nice popcorn and maybe a video while my other boys play in the snow.

a few picts

Alex enjoying his very own birthday cake.















Not quite the family portrait we had last year, but we all haven't been in the same photograph since last year.

Notice the dollar in Jack's hand that Papa Dave bribed him with to take pictures. Great idea.
















Are they brothers or what?

i've chosen the name!

I say 'I' because I haven't told Chad about it yet. I'm sitting here watching TV and came across the perfect name for our baby boy.

Ready?


You really want to know?



OK, here it is......


SAXBY


What ya think? Saxby Hoyum. Yes. Awesome.

well, it's a ............

PENIS! Yes folks, baby boy #3. Apparently when Chad finds something he does well, he sticks with it. A little disappointed, yes but totally grateful that he looks healthy. I had some really cute girl names picked out too. I'd like to be a little unique with the name this time, but for boys I seem to keep coming back to very traditional names. We will see and so will you in May 'cause we're not tellin'! Gotta keep something a surprise.

The boys really wanted a sister, but quickly came around to the idea of a brother. I told Jack he could play tractors and trucks with his brother and Chad told him they could wrestle. Jack said, "Not when he's a little baby!" Now only if Alex could grasp that concept. I've said he's like George of Of Mice and Men who loves just a little too hard.

Totally spaced on whatever else I was going to write so I'll try to take more pictures and post some of them soon.

houston, we have movement

I'm sitting here right now after a large glass of apple juice and a granola bar (OK, two granola bars) and the baby is moving! Definitely not gas this time! I have a guess that the placenta is anterior-or in the front of the uterus-like it was with Alex since I haven't felt any movement really so far. The placenta absorbs all the kicks until the baby is large enough to kick right through it!



I have been waiting weeks for this and now all I want to do is drink the whole gallon of AJ. Not a good idea since I would like to sleep in my bed tonight, not on the toilet. So cool! I know I've done this twice before, but each time is special.



This time feels slightly different that the previous two, so there might be hope for a girl? We will see. I just really hope the baby is healthy and that's the main thing. The Internet can be an evil place when you are pregnant. You innocently enough search for baby info and you end up coming across a woman who was pregnant with two sets of identical twins at the same time (4 babies) and went into pre-term labor and lost all four babies. Great. I feel so much better. Ahhhh!! Makes my petty yearning for a girl seem pretty stupid. Healthy baby, healthy baby, healthy baby.



It's all good. No worries. I'm freaked out enough thinking about natural child birth and if Chad is going to be strong enough to get me through this. He's never yelled at me before in the almost 12 years we've been together and I have a very, very strong feeling he's going to have to get in my face and bring me back from the brink. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he'll find his calling as a doula!



I highly doubt it!



This kid loves to dance! He/she will fit right in. I should really figure out how to load video on here because you would all pee your pants if you could see Alex and his moves! He's definitely a white boy and is totally our kid.

big boy bed

We just switched Alex over into his big boy bed a couple of weeks ago and, knock-on-wood, it's been going great.

Our plan is to move Alex into Jack's room after the baby comes, but for now to get used to it, we put a mattress on the floor in Alex's room so we can still leave the crib up. We'll probably split the bunk beds for now because Alex climbs the ladder to the top bunk but can't get back down. I'm sure we'll have plenty of falls from the top bunk over time, but I really don't want the first one to be with a two-year-old splitting his head open while I'm home alone with three children ('cause you just know that's when it would happen).

Here's a couple of shots of my guy enjoying his first nap in his new bed.

I know, the outlet right next to his head isn't optimal, but he doesn't bother it, so it's ok.

This last one is blurry, I know, but it's too cute I had to post it.

it's a.........baby!

I had my first "real" appointment with my midwife on Wednesday and there's a baby in there! Only one, she thinks (but I'm kinda holding on to a tiny bit of hope for twins. Sick, I know.)

Baby sounds good (heartbeat) and I really like the midwife. We (I) decided to go with the midwives this time for a "natural" water birth. We'll see how far we get with that, but since this might be our last baby, I really want to do this. I have the option of changing my mind at any time and can get an epidural so not to worry. Chad can even deliver the baby if everything goes as planned. How cool is that?

We're scheduled for an ultrasound on Alex's Birthday, Nov. 24th. I'm pretty sure we're going to find out the sex again, so stay tuned! Since we switched hospitals, I won't be getting a 4D ultrasound this time :( As long as the baby is healthy, that's all that we need.

I'll try to get on here more and post some great Halloween picts. We have Jack the Spiderman this year and Alex the cow. We're going down town trick-or-treating with Jack's cousins so it should be fun!

oh, the things you find on the internet

Last night Chad and the boys were watching videos on youtube of tractor pulls and cranes getting stuck and other 'boy' videos like they've been doing for weeks now. All is well--I hear some "whoas" and "what was that?"coming from the boys. Once, I heard something coming from the computer and I asked Chad, "Did he just say 'Oh, crap?" And Chad's like, "Sure. That's what it was."

Cut to a few minutes later and I distinctly heard "HOLY F***ING S**T" coming from the computer over and over and over again. I told Chad that's enough, turn it off and two seconds later, our lovely son Jack says "He said holy f***ing s**t". AWESOME! Thanks Chad.


***It's actually kinda funny when you hear a three year old utter profanity (but you didn't hear me say that!)

post turtle

Ran across this little ditty and thought I'd share--don't know how many of my family will think this is funny/true...


While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President. The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle.'

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was.
The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle.'

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain. 'You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.'


(sorry, Grampa)

fair time!

It's that time of year again--Vernon County Fair time!!
It's gone from fun when I was a kid, not so fun when it's just me and the Mr., to fun again now that we have kids. There is always a display of farm equipment, and that's where we spent most of our time. See for yourself...

Here, Jack poses with his groovy shades he snagged at the fish hatchery booth.

Alex riding the Bou Matic cow. Super fun!

The first night we went out, Jack wanted to go on the big slide that you sit on a burlap sack and go down. Ok, fine. We got the tickets and Chad took him down once and he had a blast. Then the meltdown began. He threw a huge fit because we wouldn't let him go again so we went home.

Yesterday went a lot better because he knew if he was a shit, we were goin' home! It's pretty awesome when you follow through on something and it works. We ended up staying for a long time and got to see a lot of the tractor pull that night. The boys didn't get to bed until 11pm. All in all we had a very good time. We'll see if I have it in me to take them myself this weekend.

tired

Both the boys have a small cold. Mainly just runny noses, but a pain non the less. I might be getting something as well, but it's hard to tell since I feel like crap most days anyway.

The day is so overcast and blah. Not very motivating. We were going to go to Gram and Gramps, but with the colds I thought we'd better not. Maybe later on this week after we go to the fair. Chad's got one day off during the fair, so the boys will get to go one day at least. We'll see if I am crazy enough to take them by myself later.

Alex doesn't like to ride in the stroller very much anymore so I totally see where that would go. He runs away from me at the store and I told Chad I'm seriously thinking about getting one of those harnesses for kids. I've always looked at those and thought, "No WAY!!" Now, I look at them and think, "Which one do I want? The puppy or the monkey?"

white boys take 2

I can't remember the exact photos I tried to post earlier, but these show the iridescence of the boys just the same.

ok, lets give this a try...

I've noticed other blogspot bloggers can post more than 4 picts per post, so I'm going to try something...

Yea!!!! I think it worked!

These were from our 'vacation'. We went to a petting zoo of sorts and the boys got to see a bunch of animals. I was hoping it was more than what they see around here and it was (kinda). They saw sheep, goats, some sort of zebra donkey, a white turkey that kept following us around, a rooster with no feet, alpacas, and a few more.

Chad asked me when we left what I thought. I, thought it was kinda lame. The kids, thought it was great. All that matters. There was a fainting goat that was kinda cool. Never saw one in person before. The highlight from the whole experience? Getting a toy from the toy rack like you see in Farm and Fleet or Tractor Supply with all the little tractors and such. Go figure.

Oh, the first photo is of Alex riding his 6 volt 4-wheeler across the living room on his feet instead of his butt. He thinks it's hilarious, therefore he does it all the time. He's just itching to break in our new insurance.

what project 365?

Yeah, so, ok. Anyone keeping track of the "project" knows I haven't posted any photos since, what, March? Yeah I knew that would happen. I noticed my cousin kept going well past the time I pooped out. I love looking at her photos, but was getting tied down to taking my own. Like she said, it became a chore and no fun. If I see something that inspires me or is unusual I will take a photo, but not to fill a quota.

So, it is what it is and it ain't much!

summer fun

Here are a few photos from earlier this summer:
It don't get any whiter than this!

I guess I'm starting a pattern of blogging once a month. Not so good. In my defense, there's been a lot going on in the past few weeks. I'm sure all of you who read this have heard Chad's dad passed away recently. He was in the hospital for a short while before, so blogging hasn't been a priority.

Chad is doing good. Hard at first, but getting better. It's going to be different and we have some decisions to make as a family what to do with the farm (what our plans are) so we will see what the future brings.

It's been warm around here lately and the boys have enjoyed playing outside and swimming in their pool (we got a bigger one than what's in the above pict). We've been going out to the farm with Chad some and visiting with Great Gram and Gramp. I'm not used to being outside so much--I'm the darkest I've been in 10 years! I'm sure to everyone else, I'm still almost transparent but to me it's a tan!

Chad finished the play set this weekend! Yay! Now I just need to post a pict of it! It's not 100% done--I still have to stain the swing beam and we might put up a climbing rope later, but we're calling it complete!

Chad's job is doing well. It's a different schedule, but he can adjust to just about anything. It's becoming increasingly difficult to keep the children quiet past noon, but I try. He has his first day shift next week, so that should be interesting. He's not much of a morning person, so we will see. It will be nice having him home those evenings.

Not much new for me. Being a stay-at-home mom in a small town kinda limits new and exciting adventures! Maybe I'll find some and get to blog about them!

stuff

I see that it's been almost a month since my last post. Oops! Again, I plead busy.

The play set still isn't 100% done, but is fully usable. Just needs the roof and the rock wall. One of these days, I'll post some picts. Chad is working nights this week, so it's kind of like old times--back to blogging at 10 o'clock at nite!

Chad's dad isn't doing so great right now. He's in ICU and has some unknown infection and is on a vent. We've been focused on that for the last couple of weeks. There's more to it, but I'll just say he's really sick.

On a more positive note, my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Mike are adopting the cutest little boy from Vietnam! Congrats, you two! Get your sleep now, 'cause you won't be getting any after that baby comes home!

Our boys are doing good. Alex is saying more words now. More just repeating than saying them on his own, but I'm still very excited. He's been a little delayed in his speech (which is a little amazing, since he's my kid) but looks like he coming along fine. Jack baled hay with daddy today. He loves helping out at the farm. He even napped in there!

That's all for now; not sure when I'll be back, but hang in there. When Chad works nites I'll have time to blog!

lots of stuff...

Ok, so only posted about the zoo trip on the last blog because if I sit and write too long with pictures to post, something goes wrong and it gets lost so whatever. Here's another post.

Play set update:

Not completed yet. Lots of stuff going on here that it's getting done a little at a time. We were supposed to finish it up on Sat. but the rain came and came and came. I will post picts later.

Chad's new job:

In case you don't know, Chad took a new job with Best Energy Bio Diesel in Cashton. It's the first of it's kind in the state if not the US. The make bio diesel (I guess). It's a little top-secret (proprietary rights) so he can say what they do but not what they use. His last day at Cummins is tomorrow-Friday the 13th. Perfection. This will be a change for all of us, but I think it's a great change.

The flood:

In case you don't own a TV, radio, read a newspaper, or live in a hole in the ground you've heard about the flooding in our area. Crazy. We got a little water in our basement but was nothing compared to what my Grandparents had happen to their house. The hillside behind their house let go and all the mud and rock came down the hill and slid their car into their house and moved that 2-3 feet. My mom and Dave came over and "rescued" them and all stayed with us for the night before heading back to Milwaukee with G&G. Such a mess. There is literally disaster everywhere. Roads are gone, houses are destroyed, crops ruined. 100 year flood, my ass. Twice in 2 years! The water was shooting out of the storm sewer 2-3 feet in the air because there was no place for it to do but up!

I guess we should all be thankful that everyone is OK and it's only things that were damaged. Roads can be re-built, crops can be re-planted. I think our crops are OK. We haven't gone to inspect them yet, but what can you do? Chad's going down with the skid steer and diging G&G out this weekend, so hopefully everyone can get back to life as usual.

put me in the zoo

With Chad taking a different job (YES!!!! FINALLY OUT OF MUFFLER!!!!) he had a lot of time to use so we decided to take the boys on a mini-vaca to the zoo in Mad Town. Jack had a great time and Alex too, but he didn't like riding around in the stroller. Jack loved everything except the birds. They started squawking and he started to cry. Mad dash out of the bird house.

Alex's' fav. was the giraffes and the ice cream sandwich we had. Here's a few picts from the day...

It was a good time. Jack said several times, "I had fun with the animals at the zoo." He's so cute like that. He'll usually say at bedtime that he had a fun time doing whatever fun thing we did that day. It's nice to know the little thing you did to make his day a little more fun was a hit with him as well.

backyard project--part 4

See Dave, I told you I had a bunch of posts worth!

The first two pictures are of the back wall being put up on Sunday. We had to dig a trench in order to put drain tile down to ensure proper drainage so my Dad offered to come and help. That was a huge help, too because I don't dig dirt very well. This dirt was packed hard and clay. It went so much faster with his help.

We filled behind the blocks and on top of the drain tile with gravel. Initially, we were going to put dirt ontop of that and sod on that, but we ended up with way more gravel than what we needed. So Chad came up with the idea of putting gravel all the way up to the top of the blocks and back to the fence. I still say that was the best idea of the whole weekend. Now we don't have to dick around with a tiny strip of grass and we used the rock. The rest Chad scattered around because next weekend we're going to wheel 11 yards of limestone chips (like pea gravel, but cheaper) for a base for the swingset. More fun in store. Stay tuned!

This is what it looked like on Monday when Chad finished up... Not bad if I do say so myself!

backyard project--part 3

Saturday was a busy day of working. Chad brought the skid steer over from the farm and did a lot of the dirt work with it and moved some of the retaining blocks into the backyard. Less to wheel back in the wheelbarrow. I'm all for that.

Chad rented a sod cutter and rolled up all the sod from the "site" to re-use it on the lower side where we had to build up the yard. Dave helped us roll all that out while Mom took G&G back home. That was a huge help. Those rolls were way too heavy for me to help with so that was a great help. The last picture is what it looked like Saturday night when we called it quits for the day.

backyard project--part 2

More progress. Saturday night, Mom, Dave, Grandma, and Grandpa came up to the house and grilled chicken for all of us. That was great to have the visit and the dinner. Of course Grandpa can't just sit and relax, so he grabbed a shovel and helped Chad with the screenings. I swear, the man doesn't act a day over 85! :)

And of course we had our little helpers...

backyard project--part 1

Ok, so we've started our backyard project this last weekend and actually made quite a bit of progress. Because I can't figure out how to post more than four pictures in one post, I'll have multiple posts a day of progress. Here it is:

We were outside ALL weekend. The TV was only on to check the weather and a little at night before Chad and I almost fell asleep on the couch before 10:30! It's so nice to be outdoors and to be doing something other than cleaning the house and watching television. By Monday night, the house was a disaster and it was obvious that I was not inside doing any sort of cleaning! That's OK, I got it all done today. Thats the beauty of being a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom). I'm not limited to the weekends to get my stuff done, I can do them any day of the week.