The Blizzard Came!

Yep, we got a blizzard.

Josh is on the New Salem Ambulance and is "on call" almost every weekend that we are home.  With Blizzards comes car accidents on the Interstate.  Thankfully Josh didn't get called out while I was at the church this morning for First Reconciliation.  (He was at home with both kids....Nice to be at the church without John getting into trouble and Lu Lu crying because she doesn't like to take her naps there.)  But the inevitable happened early this evening when he was called out.  He's usually only gone for 3 hours.  The time goes fast and he gets compensated for his time "on call".  He'll be home soon and we'll have a late supper together.

I hope again that this is the last storm of the winter!!

Blizzard?!

We came in this afternoon after a day full of tilling and planting gardens and weeding flower beds and raspberries, to find out that we're under a Blizzard Warning tomorrow!!  Tomorrow is the last day of April.  I thought April showers were supposed to bring May flowers.  I don't think snow showers can bring flowers.  :)  This spring has just been too crazy.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Johnny is starting to get his 2 year molars on the bottom.  He has a runny nose, rosy cheeks and a little fever.  He still has a lot of fun when we go outside though!!!  He gets into everything.  One of his favorite things to do is chase the robins when he sees them.  It's pretty cute.  He also started to get eggs if the chicken coop isn't locked.  We aren't too thrilled about this since he isn't a very gentle boy.

Olue is growing so fast.  She's not a little baby anymore.  She's starting to be more alert.  She loves to talk, and she's always straining her neck to sit forward when she's in her swing or car seat.  She loves playing with Johnny and doesn't seem to mind his roughness.

Kiddos are in bed, and Josh rented a movie for tonight.  I'm so glad to have him home after his trip to Fargo!!!

Sunny Spring

The weather has been beautiful this week.  John and I were able to shed our jackets for the first time today.  We were pretty happy to be out in just t-shirts and jeans this morning.  Josh is comig home tonight from a long trip to Fargo.  It's too bad he missed the nice weather, since it looks stormy for the weekend.  I better get the rest of my house chores done (while the kids nap), since Josh will want to be outside tonight until it's dark (and maybe later...sounds like he has big plans!:)

Easter Weekend

We had a lot of fun at Mom and Dad's over Easter weekend.  When we left home we were under a Winter Storm Warning and when we got home the driveway was almost dry!  Yeah!

Grandma and Lu Lu

Josh's early birthday present.

Josh trying out his new sander. 

We did our Easter Hunt on Saturday morning.  Easter is kinda like Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Hanson's...not only candy, but toys too!

Look at the progression of the pictures and how John's mouth gets more and more full of Jelly Beans!

Chipmunk with the jelly beans!

Chocolate in my Easter Basket!

Can someone opn my candy for me?

Johnny feeding the cow.

Josh just got John a shirt last week in Fargo (Fleet Farm) that says "Play in the Mud".  Here he is, doing just that!

More Mud!

Josh and John sitting on a hay bale.

Mom and Dad got two 4-wheelers this spring.  We had a lot of fun driving them around!

Grandpa's feeding the cows. Josh and John are watching on the 4-wheeler.  Grandma is holding the gate, and Brady is keeping the cows in.

"PahlayDoh!"

I finally got Olue's dress done.  It turned out really well.  She looked pretty cute on Easter morning!

Johnny and Lu Lu ready to go to Easter Morning Mass!

Oh so Cute!  That's such a nice hug Johnny!

New Family photo.  Sometimes it's hard to get Johnny to smile.

While the kids took a nap on Saturday, we (the adults) took the 4-wheelers out to the pasture and found the hills covered with crocus flowers.  It was really beautiful.

I found Johnny in Olue's swing yesterday!  I think he might be over the weight limit.

Josh and John went out to the thick shelterbelt to look for deer sheds.  Grandpa had already found a bunch this spring along their when he was out and about freeding cattle.  Johnny found this one right as they were going into the trees.  They walked all through the trees and didn't find anymore.  Sounds like they had a good time though!

We got the game of Monopoly for Easter.  Josh, Dad, and I played it Saturday night.  It was my favorite game as a kid, so Josh felt a little bad when he "Kicked our butts".  He definately won hands down!  We all had fun though.

We had an awesome weekend with Mom and Dad.  It was a lot of fun to be with them.  It was kinda nice not to have any farm work to do.

Living Stations

Last Wednesday we had the Living Stations of the Cross at the church.  This year the Juniors did the reading parts and the Seniors (and a couple Jr girls) did the acting.  They pulled it off.  We (adults) never know how it'll be when they are laughing and poking eachother with the soldier spears during practice, but they always seem to act mature and remember their parts during the performance.

It was also a good lesson for Mommy.  Johnny was happy to play with some of the 8th grade girls while we were practicing.  Lu Lu on the other hand was not!  I have never seen her worked up so much...Lots and lots of crying.  Thankfully Daddy came to the rescue and took care of practice while I took care of Lu, then he brought the kids home while we had the live performance.  Lesson learned:  Lu Lu is not old enough to stay with babysitters even at the church.  She's a Momma's Girl.  I guess I'll have to find extra volunteers to work at VBS in May.

Snow?!

We had planned on planting potatoes last Friday, but.....

Friday morning we woke up to this!  Almost 8 inches on the porch railing!

Looks like a Christmas Card!  But it's April 15th!

Even Lu Lu got into the movie weekend.

Lus and Daddy playing on the floor.

Josh was pretty upset about the snow this weekend.  He had lots of spring plans that were ruined.  We watched some movies and he cleaned up his shop and got some stuff in the yard ready for taking to the dump on New Salem City Clean Up Day.  Josh started to take down the South part of the paddock fence.  We plan to have an easy route to the pasture garden for the 4-wheeler.  He plans to make a new kitchen table out of the good wood from the fence.  He started prepping the wood.  It is going to look pretty cool!

Secretly I was kind of happy we got the snow and had to have some inside time.  I got to work on sewing Olue's Easter dress.  Hopefully I'll finish tonight.  (Josh is gone in Fargo again and John is again zoned into Cars again!)  I also went through some of the kid's clothes.  It seems like their always growing out of what's in their dressers.

John's newest word that he uses all the time is "Ehvee" (Heavy).  Daddy always says, "Johnny, you're so heavy," when he picks him up.  So now every time he wants to be picked up, or he's lifting something heavy, or Olue is crying to be picked up he says, "Ehvee."  It's pretty cute.

It snowed again today and their is more snow in the forecast.  The yard was dried out before this storm.  It's kinda sad that John and I can't easily go outside anymore.  It now involves coats, hat, mittens, boots, and tears when he gets too cold.

Well...I better get back to that dress before the movie is over or Olue wakes up from her nap!

Made it through

Well, we made it through our first night without Daddy.  There is going to be a few more in the next couple weeks, so it's good to know we can do it without any major mishaps...no dead chickens, Cedar is still on her chain, the cat didn't have her kitties yet, and there are no broken bones.  It looks like John has a bug bite or maybe just a little bump on his head, but I wouldn't call that major.  John watched Cars last night.  It is definately his favorite movie.  I think we need to buy some more G movies.  I kinda getting tired of watching Cars.  I think we watch it almost every other week.

John wanted me to lay down with him in his bed last night and you no what happens if you lay down in a dark room with a snuggly little boy.  Josh woke me up with a phone call around 10pm.  Next time I'll just plan on going to bed with him instead of trying to stay awake til he falls asleep.

Tonight we have the Sedar Supper (Passover Meal) at the church for the CYO kids and I have Living Stations Practice with the Juniors and Seniors.  I always seem to spread myself a little thin on Wednesdays.  I better go peel the hard boiled eggs for the Sedar Supper.

Daddy and the Kiddos

 Playin with Lu Lu

 Lu and John

Johnny Loves geting his picture taken.

Lu Lu's Hair

After Lu's bath this afternoon, I started playing with her hair.  It is so long!  I love it.

She got tired of me playing with her hair.  Before I got her dressed, I blew some raspberries on her tummy and she laughed for the first time!

My First Night Alone

Josh is going to Fargo for work today and spending the night.  This will be my first night alone with both kids...We'll see how it goes.

I just vaccumed the floors.  It's amazing what you find when you look close as you clean.  I even found a dried up cauliflower under John's highchair from last night.  We had cauliflower and brocoli mixed.  He gaged down one bite of brocoli that he fed himself.  Then Josh gave him a bite of cauliflower, telling him that it tastes much better.  John definately didn't agree, so Josh let him spit it out.  Hopefully he'll learn to like veggies if we make him try them every night.  Maybe we should only do one kind a day though...Not make him suffer too much.

Lu Lu slept til 5 am when I finally woke her because I needed her to eat.  Maybe she's going to start sleeping through the night now?

Monday Monday

Sometimes Josh complains about his "Monday Headaches" when he gets home from work.  I guess you don't have to go to work to get them.  My house looks like a tornado went through a toy store, the kids have dirtied enough laundry today for a whole load, and that headache is coming on strong.
Johnny had fun this morning when we went outside.  I wanted to get the rest of my flower beds cleaned out from last year's dead plants.  He wandered off and I found him in the chicken pen.  He spent about 45 minutes in there chasing the chickens around.  It was pretty cute!:)
Well, I guess I better get to that laundry now.:)

Spring Has Sprung

Spring is finally here!  I know because on the weekends Josh is up, outside, and done with chores before I am even out of bed.  (Josh is a winter hibernater and likes to stay in bed til John gets him out of bed because breakfast is ready.)  Josh did a bunch of tilling this weekend...the potato garden, house garden, both pasture gardens, rows in the new strawberry bed, and an addition to the paddock garden.  He cut down the pea shrubs in the backyard and we brought the brush down to the pasture...a new brush pile started.  (He just informed me that he also....changed oil in the tiller and the car and got the lawn mower running.)  I trimmed the geraniums and moved them into the shop.  It's so nice to have them out of the house (they were invading John's room, Olue's room, and the dining room.)  We also started to clean up the rest of the brush pile that Jared and Thomas helped him burn.  Josh even started our first campfire for me...It was very short since it was way to cold and reminded us of our honeymoon camping trip in October of 2008.

John likes to help.  When we were moving the pea shrub brush, he got really upset.  We finally realized that he just wanted to help, so we had him pick up the little sticks and bring them to the truck.  John's biggest frustration right now is communicating.  He keeps telling us stuff, but we don't understand a lot of it...then the tears come.  We're understanding more and more everyday though.  His newest word is "Ogerlr" (Yogurt).

Olue got to come outside for the first time yesterday.  It seemed like she liked it.  The fresh air really wore her out though.  Went to bed early and slept really well last night.  John was pretty upset that she was in his stroller.  He even laid down and pretended to be hurt so that I would come pick him up (his trick didn't work:).  We told him that he's a big boy now and can walk on his own.

Celery

Peppers

Cabbage

Kohlrabi and Onions

Our seedlings are doing really well in the house.  I can't believe how much better they look this year compared to the last two years.  Josh says that it's because he has been the one taking care of them.  I think it's because we've been keeping the house warmer for Olue (her room is freezing!).

New Pictures

John:  "Can we PLEASE go outside now?"

Olue:  "I am sooo exausted!"

Daddy's taking Johnny to work for lunch.

I love chickens!

I'm gonna catch one of you, "Mow"

Double fisting the yogurt.

John is getting pretty good with forks and spoons.  He now insists on using a "spoon" at every meal.  He even used a fork to eat toast yesterday.

More changes to the yard.  Josh cut down the pea shrubs by the fire pit today.  Next step:  pull out the roots.

Josh was busy today.  He got the house garden and potato garden tilled and tilled up some sod to expand the paddock garden.

Lu-Lu is wearing Johnny's old camo "coat".  (John still thinks it's his.)

What a cute Smiley Girl!