Random things

It has been a very busy Christmas season and I have to admit that, while it was fun while it lasted, I'm kind of glad to see it go. We are very blessed to have wonderful extended families and we get to celebrate Christmas many times over at several different places. The kids love every minute of it and enjoy all the family gatherings. However, it gets a little hectic for mom and dad with three kids and mixed-up schedules and mealtimes and sweets and an abundance of gifts. I'm trying to figure out how to cut back on the chaos next year. I'm thinking it will get a bit easier as the kids get older.
We are excited to see 2009 come and to see what all it will bring. As we look back at 2008 we praise God for His many blessings: His protection, His provision, His grace, and His forgiveness, just to name a few. We are so grateful that when things around us are uncertain He alone remains steadfast, trustworthy, & sovereign.

One of our 2008 blessings is Isaac. He is officially 3 months old and we are enjoying him more and more every day. He has his ups & downs, and loves to coo and gurgle during the happy times. He is very ticklish and giggles and squirms and kicks a ton. He still isn't a great sleeper, so our nights are very unpredictable. We get some good ones and some not-so-good ones. Overall, we are all adjusting quite well and are starting to find somewhat of a groove. Now if we can just survive Jan and Feb, we'll be just fine!

Cookie time

Great-grandma Mugs brought over cookies and all the fixins to do some decorating. The kids had a blast and enjoyed the decorating and the eating!

Can you tell?

Here are the 3 kiddos at about the same age, I think. It's the same sleeper on each of them, so they all have to be in that 3 month and under range. The bottom two look pretty similar. They go in order of birth: top is Micah, middle is Ellie, and bottom is Isaac.

Can you believe it?

Can you believe that some company would pay me $200 to bake cookies? I can't, but it is true! AJ and I are signed up with many different agencies to do taste test and market research focus groups. We get calls every now and then and most studies pay somewhere between $20-$40. However, we recently have had several calls for studies paying over $100! It's a total God-thing as we have been feeling the pinch of the rough economy and Christmas is coming. We are pretty diligent at finding deals and doing great bargain shopping (lots of coupons, etc), but this extra cash has been an answer to prayer.
Anyway, back to the cookies. There have been 3 steps to this study and total compensation will be $200. I had to do a phone interview, a homework assignment of baking cookies at home and uploading photos of the process, and an in-home visit while they watch me bake cookies. Total time is about 3hrs and about $10 out-of-pocket. And I don't even have to make cookies from scratch...it's all about refrigerated cookies! It's a great way to make a little extra cash and eat some cookies!

Three Musketeers

Just a recent pic of the three kiddos. I can hardly get any pics of Isaac alone as the other two are always jumping in. Oh the woes of being a third child! Little Isaac is doing pretty well and it is so hard to believe that he has only been with us for 9 weeks. It seems hard to remember life without him. We have LOTS of ups and downs, good and bad days, but overall we are settling in pretty well. He is starting to smile much more and be a bit more content during the day. Our nights have actually gotten worse instead of better, so that has been challenging. I am a much happier person when I'm not up 4 times during the night! We are trying to enjoy this time of him being little, but I find myself often looking forward to a year from now (even 6 mths from now) when he is out of my not-so-favorite baby stage!

Micah & Ellie

Just a couple of new pics of the older two kids. They are typical siblings, playing together great a lot of the time, but also bugging each and fighting over toys. I can't wait until Isaac can get into the mix!




Cowboy Micah and Ellie in her "Minnie House" dress, as she calls it. These were their "costumes" for Halloween. We spent the evening at the Family Fiesta at church and had a great time.

One reason I hate kool-aid...

Miss Independent wanted blue kool-aid instead of water. It was everywhere! Good excuse to clean out the fridge, I guess.

Ellie turns 2!

Ellie is now 2 years old! And what a bundle of joy she is! She is generally a pretty happy little girl, although we have our moments. I found it funny that the morning of her birthday she was upset about something and rolled around on the living room floor throwing a little fit. I thought to myself, "Welcome terrible two's!" I'm hoping she won't do that too often! She is actually a very good little helper and loves to follow her big brother around and do whatever he is doing. For all you older siblings out there, you know how annoying that can be. But most times they get along pretty well.
We had a birthday celebration last weekend with our extended family. Ellie was the star of the party and had fun entertaining the crowd. There are a couple of pictures below of the birthday girl in her birthday shirt and with her cake. Two of Ellie's favorite foods are hot dogs and pizza. So we grilled hot dogs for lunch and ate a pizza cake for dessert. Thanks to dad for decorating the cake, with some help from grandma. It was a fun party and Ellie had a great time!

Bowels?

While riding in the van the other day AJ was talking with Micah about which letters were vowels. Micah came home to tell me that A, E, I, O, & U were "bowels". I don't think that's what AJ was teaching him, but sometimes things get lost in translation!

Lots of pics

Here is an overload of pics of our first two weeks. Isaac is a great baby and we have all settled in pretty well. This next week will be the real test as I (Amy) am on my own without AJ or grandma here all day. Pray for us!!
Isaac had his 2 week visit yesterday and his weight is at 8lbs 7.5oz! Yea! We are so excited that he is eating well and growing just as he is supposed to. Praise the Lord!

Isaac Jonathan has arrived!

Isaac Jonathan joined Team King on Friday, September 26th at 2:07pm. He was 7lbs 15oz and 20 inches long. That makes him our heaviest baby, and also our shortest! We brought him home on Sunday and everyone is settling in quite nicely. Micah and Ellie really are taken with him. This morning one of the first things that Micah did was go put Purell on his hands and sit next to me on the couch and ask to hold Isaac. Micah watched cartoons with Isaac in his lap. Occasionally we would catch him just watching Isaac. It's fun to see that he is such a proud big brother. Ellie doesn't pay too much attention to him unless he is crying. Then she gets a very concerned look on her face. She's pretty sympathetic and doesn't like to hear him cry. Also, if someone asks what the baby's name is, she answers "Baby Jesus". Pretty cute. All in all, we are doing well and have enjoyed our first 3 days as a family of five. It amazes us that no matter how much we love Micah and Ellie, we still have room to love little Isaac just as much. We feel so blessed to have him here!

Micah-ism

I could fill a page (or even a book) with funny things that the kids say, but here is one that Micah told Miss Elisabeth this morning on the way to preschool: "Did you know that all Targets have popcorn and that all churches have crosses on them?" The important things in life, I guess.

Micah's sleep-over

I forgot my camera! Arrgh! I realized this when I was in the car on the way to pick up Micah from a sleepover at his great-grandma's house. So I have no pictures to post, just stories to tell. Micah got to have a very special sleepover at great-grandma's (Mugs) house last night. Just for the fun of it! Mugs wanted to have him stay over and she had all sorts of fun activities for them to do. She bought Micah his very own tennis racket and new tennis balls and they got to play tennis last night and again this morning. Micah told me on the phone last night, "You know mom, I'm a pretty good tennis player." I watched him play this morning and he did a great job hitting the ball. And he had fun. They also watched a kids' football game last night and got to play at the park. As they were headed back inside they saw a snapping turtle, which Micah was very excited about. I was also told that "the water sparkled like jewels" referring to the creek that runs by the park at Mugs. This morning Micah got to have donuts, sausage, and a juice box for breakfast. They played hide-the-button (just what it sounds like, a game that AJ used to play with Mugs when he was a kid). They played tennis some more and when Ellie and I got there we played at the park for a while. Micah also got his choice of lunch and chose to pick up McDonald's and eat it back at Mugs' house. Then we headed home and he took a long nap! It was fun for AJ and I to see how much fun he had and to see that he was ready to go with no hesitation. Just a wave and a "see you later". He's growing up so fast!

Preschool

So we have done a few things since going to the state fair. Obviously I have not been very good at updating this blog. We are busy preparing for baby #3 scheduled to arrive two weeks from tomorrow. At times I am wondering about the wisdom of having 3 children, but as AJ reminds me, it's too late to turn back now. We are slowly getting things ready...it seems that with baby #1 everything is ready and waiting months in advance, and with #3 we aren't quite as worried about having things all set to go. I have washed baby clothes and bottles and have the car seat ready (not in the car yet!). Believe it or not, we are still trying to figure out a name for this baby. We have a short list for both boys and girls names, but have not settled on anything just yet. We really want to have our minds made up before the time comes, otherwise I'm the type to settle for something just to have it done with. We've got two weeks, right? We are not quite out of time, just down to the wire!
Anyway, as you can tell from the title of this post, this is supposed to be about Micah's first day of preschool. He started his second year at Crossroads Preschool today and was ready to go. He has a new teacher, Mrs. Suderman, and the same assistant teacher as last year, Miss Ortmann. One of his best friends, Amara, is in his class this year and he is VERY excited about that. Hopefully they will find a good mix of playing together and also making new friends. He has school Tues and Thurs mornings, which should work out well since I have MOPS on Thurs mornings 3 times each month. We are looking forward to the year ahead and all of the fun things he will learn! Here are some pics from the morning.

The MN State Fair

It's the end of summer and that means it is time for the State Fair. That is big news around our house and we really love heading out to the fair for a day and enjoying the sights, sounds, and mostly, the tastes! It worked out this year for us to go on opening day. The weather was great, although a little on the hot side, and the crowds weren't too bad. We were quite surprised to pull up to the park and ride at about 8:45am and see a very long line of people waiting for the free bus to the fair. We waited about 20 minutes until we were able to get on a bus (at least they had several running back and forth) and made it to the fairgrounds by about 9:30am. We started off at the Little Farm Hands exhibit where Micah was able to be a farmer for a short while. He milked the cows, fed the chickens, planted & harvested carrots, rode the tractor, and sold his goods at the market. With his proceeds he was able to buy a snack-size box of Golden Grahams. It is a fun exhibit to see the farming process from start to finish.
I can't tell you our exact route from there, but we explored several of the buildings and exhibits, saw a baby pig being born at the Miracle of Birth Center, rode the giant slide twice, found the bees, watched the end of the parade, saw fish, turtles, & snakes, watched robots, and ate several times. It was Thrifty Thursday so there were some deals going on and we had a state fair coupon book. Both helped us keep our costs down for the day. Plus Micah has been saving ALL YEAR for the state fair and he covered the costs for the giant slide rides. Seriously, every time he found a penny or was given any money, he would put it into his "state fair fund". It was a good lesson in saving and we hope to expand it to other areas.
All in all, it was a great day. We were at the fair for 5 1/2 hrs, which is longer than we thought any of us would last. But the kids were great and had lots of fun. It will have to last us until next year!

Swimming!

We have loved the last couple of weeks and the warm weather that we have had. The kids and I have spent lots and lots of time at the Crystal Pool and both the kids are getting to be quite the water lovers. Micah recently finished two weeks of swimming lessons. It was his first year and he was in Level 1. I was a little worried that 10 days of lessons would get to be too much for him and that he would get bored, but he LOVED every minute of it. His teacher was fabulous and she kept the kids having so much fun. They did have a lesson and a half of bad weather, so they learned about water safety in the locker rooms. Micah did pass to Level 2 and he is convinced that he can swim in the kiddie pool (for about 3 seconds). He has become much more brave in the water and spends a lot of time with his head underneath the water. Unfortunately, he has a brave little sister who likes to do everything big brother does. At the beginning of the summer she would sit contentedly next to me at the edge of the pool and play. Now she is off and running and will keep walking until water is coming in her mouth.
Here is a video clip of Micah going off the diving board.

MICAH'S FIRST TWINS GAME

Micah was really excited to go to his first Minnesota Twins game...needless to say Dad was pretty excited too. Here is a picture of Micah outside the dome.


The first thing he asked for was a hot dog and popcorn. So we each got a hot dog and Micah got a bag of popcorn that he almost finished all by himself. Here is Micah enjoying his first ball park hot dog.


And here he is watching the game and eating some popcorn and more popcorn and more popcorn and more, well you get the idea.



Here we are on our way back to the car. He was tired and wanted me to give him a ride on my shoulders the entire walk back to the car (3/4 of a mile while it was 87 degrees and humid) but he was happy!
When a pitcher goes 6 innings in baseball they call it a quality start. I was shocked that we made it to the 6th inning but Micah made his first quality start and we left at the top of the 7th.

Free, free, free!

So we love free stuff at our house. AJ, the kids, and I ran some errands this morning and realized on the way home that we had not spent a penny on our outing (except, of course, gas money which adds up fast nowadays!). Our first stop was at the Twins Pro Shop to purchase tickets for AJ and Micah to go the Twins game on Sunday. We had coupons for 2 free tickets from a previous meal-deal at Applebee's, so our out-of-pocket cost for the tickets was a whopping $0.
Next we went to Northwestern Bookstore where the kids are a part of the Summer Reading Program. They each were able to pick out several prizes from the prize bucket for the books that we have read so far this summer. They were very excited about their new trinkets. We looked around at NW Bookstore for a while, but again our total cost was $0.
Our final stop was at the Verizon store. AJ had some phone questions and a coupon for a free car charger for his phone. Again, no cost to us! Now some would say that it was a little silly, but we really got a kick out of our FREE outing. Anyway, I'm not sure if or when that will happen again, but it was fun.
And one more free thing to throw in there for good measure...we won 4 free tickets to Charlotte's Web at the Old Log Theater for tomorrow morning. AJ and I will take Micah and his friend Amara to see the show while Ellie stays home with great-grandma (a FREE baby-sitter).
OK, enough already.

Signs of summer...

Here are some signs of summer...

Corn on the cob...or corn on the cobcakes, as the case may be. I saw this idea in a Family Fun mag and thought it was so cute, so I gave it a shot. It's cupcakes with white frosting and jelly beans. You can actually melt and shape a yellow starburst to look like a pat of butter on top, but I didn't have any starbursts. Micah liked this way better than the real corn on the cob!

A summer garden update-we have red, edible raspberries! Micah got one yesterday and we picked 3 more today. The bushes have lots of berries on them, so if nothing else eats them first we should get a handful a day or so. Yea!
Micah, Ellie and the neighbor girls waiting for AJ to put on the big fireworks show. We bought just a few "legal in MN" fireworks and lit them off before bedtime tonight. Good thing the kids know nothing of what real fireworks are like or this just wouldn't cut it. However, they loved what we had and thought the sparkles and popping were great.

The B-I-B-L-E

The most requested bedtime song is The B-i-b-l-e. Usually we sing one time through just the regular version, then the 2nd time through we sing the song as quiet as possible and yell Bible! at the end as loud as possible. Here are the kiddos singing for us:

Ready for the pool...

Here's Ellie, all ready for a swim. She loves to get all her accessories together and show them off. Earlier today she insisted on bringing her purse with her to the corner grocery store. She slings it up onto her shoulder and away she goes. Several people at the store commented on her pretty purse and she gave them big smiles. She is developing quite the personality (with a bit of the terrible two's coming on!).

PTL Moments

So we have had a few remarkable "Praise the Lord" moments in the past couple of days. First, after much searching, I found my cell phone....in a jacket pocket that had just gone through the wash. AJ was very optimistic about it and sure enough, after letting it dry out overnight it still works! Praise the Lord that we didn't have to get a new one.
Secondly, Ellie took a tumble out of her crib yesterday at nap time. She was standing at the side of her crib crying and flipped right over the side. Praise the Lord she walked away with just a small bruise on her head. We moved the crib mattress down to the bottom, so it shouldn't happen again.
And finally, Micah also fell out of his bed last night. We took his safety railing off last week and he has done great, but last night at about 10:30 we heard a crash. He had rolled off, yet hardly woke up and didn't even remember it this morning. He has a captain's bed, so it is a little higher than the standard kid's bed. Praise the Lord for a soft landing and a sound sleeper! God is good!

3rd Annual Cousins Week

The 3rd annual cousins week has officially come and gone. The kids and I spent last week in Bismarck, ND with grandma, grandpa, aunts and cousins. On Father's Day, my sister from WI and her two kids swung through Mpls and we all rode together to Bismarck. We had a great week with fabulous weather and only one trip to the ER. Not bad for having 8 kids ages 16mths to 9yrs together (including 3 4-yr-old boys!). We went to a few different parks, played in the pool and sprinklers, made pine cone bird feeders, painted t-shirts, ate lots of snacks (thanks grandma!), made lots of messes, stayed up late watching movies and eating popcorn, made new friends, spent time on the farm, bottle-fed the calf, rode the 4-wheeler, sat in the tractor, and had lots and lots of fun. The kids really had a great week and enjoyed the change of routine. We were all pretty beat by the time we got home and it's been good to settle back into our home, beds, and routines. And of course it's been great to be back with dad again. The kids spent the first few hours we were at home wrestling with him and chasing him around the house. It was fun to watch. Here are some pics of the week.

What our kids do for fun...

Over the long holiday weekend the kids have been having fun playing outside with friends and in their new sandbox. But here are a couple of pictures of what happens when they have to much time on their hands or it is raining outside.

Here is a picture of a Boy and his dog



and here is a picture of a Cute little girl who just turned 19 months old




and here is the aftermath when they come together.









Each morning the kids have room time. Some times we let them go in the same room and play because they have so much fun together. This morning they were having their room time and it was very quiet. All of the sudden Amy says "Oh no, I can smell it out here!" When she opened the door to Ellie's room it was all hazy from the baby powder that had been dumped out. This is one of those moments where you want to teach your kids a lesson about how we don't make messes... but it is rather hard to do effectively when you cannot stop laughing.

Lazarus

This week during our family devotional time we read the story about Lazarus and then we acted it out. The kids loved it and I think really understood the story by making it interactive. Here are pics of AJ and Micah playing the role of Lazarus.