First Roll

Olue rolled over for the first time this morning.  I was busy with John...getting him breakfast, taking him to the potty, getting him dressed, washing the oatmeal off the couch that I missed wiping off his hand when I got him "Owt" of his highchair, and then getting him back in his high chair because he was still hungry.  In the mean time, Olue had rolled once (from her back to her tummy).  I put her on her back again (she rolled again).  And of course I missed seeing her both times!  Finally John was done eating breakfast, going potty, making a mess, and getting dressed for the day, when we started to try to video tape her.  I took quite a few videos before she rolled for the third time and I got to see it.  By the time I finally got this video, the memory card was full and I didn't get a shot of her on her tummy, proudly looking up at me with a big smile on her face.  (She seemed to be saying, "I did it!")

So you can see how our mornings go with two little ones!  It can be pretty crazy around here.

Olue's hair is kinda crazy.  It was in pigtails yesterday and when I took it out last night it kinda stayed that way.



We started VBS (Vacation Bible School) yesterday.  It's always interesting to see how events like this go at the church.  I had pre-registration and as of last Friday, we only had 20 kids signed up.  When it was all said and done with, we had 34 kids (Preschool-5th grade) show up last night...Wow!  I sure hadn't thought that many would come.  I think we only had 17 come last year.  Last summer was the first summer in quite a few years that our parish has had VBS.  The kids (of all parishes in our community) had been going to VBS at the Lutheran Church in town.  One of our friends (who used to be a kindergarten teacher) had put on this community wide VBS.  This year she doesn't plan on doing it, so that might be why we had the big increase in kids.

It's events like VBS that make me very happy that I didn't follow my youthful desire of being a school teacher.  I love my children, but I am not a big fan of large groups of kids the same age gathered in the same room (especially if some of them are naughty!).  John isn't either.  We've spent a lot of time in the last two weeks at the church preparing for this week.  John has been a pretty good boy.  He plays with the toys he finds in the supply closet and watches Noah's Ark (numerous times).  Anyway, when the kids started to show up for VBS yesterday and his normally quite, empty church started to fill up with noisy rowdy children, John got clingy real fast.  He just wanted his Mommy.  He would go with Ashley or Josie every once in a while, but as soon as he saw me walk past, he would want Mommy again.  (Ashley is Darcy and Karen's oldest daughter and Josie is Mike and Dana's oldest daughter.  They have both watched Johnny for us.)

Our first night of VBS went fairly well.  I guess.  Laura and I figured out the changes to make for next year to make it easier (since she might not be back next year to help).  We have 3 more nights this week, and then I'll have a little break before I start planning for next school year.

Here's another video of trying to get Olue to roll.  You can hear Johnny in the background.  He's pretty cute.  He can say so many words now!  His new ones are, "Wow!"  and "Cool!"  We still hear a lot of the classic, "Autside" (outside) and "Tactohr" (tractor).

In the mornings we always have this conversation: 

John:  "Daddy?" 

Mom:  "Daddy is at work."

John:  "Car?"

Mom:  "Yep, Daddy drove his car to work."

John:  "Daddy Car Vrrrooohm"

The conversation is a lot shorter on the weekends when Josh is home:

John:  "Daddy?"

Mom:  "Daddy is at home.  Where do you think he is?"

Johnny then giggles and runs to Mom and Dad's room and finds Daddy growling at him from bed.

It's either been rainy or windy this last week, so not a lot has happened outside in the gardens.  The lawn has grown like crazy since we got about 4 inches of rain on Friday/Saturday.  Josh and John got a load of wood chips for my flower beds on Friday, so now I have to empty the truck out before this weekend, when Josh will need to get another load of feed for the butcher chicks.  They eat a LOT of feed.  They are still looking really healthy.  We're really thankful for that, especially since about every other day, someone calls to order chickens.  I canned 13 pints of rhubarb this weekend.  It was already going to seed!  We have two more weeks til our first CSA deliver.  We're hoping that it warms up enough to have more than just rhubarb, asparagus and chives in the first basket.

Rainy Windy Days

This weekend was rainy.  We didn't get much done in the gardens, as we had wished.  Yesterday and Today are really windy and we have lots more rain in the forecast.  We got the broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kohlrabi transplants planted on Friday and Sunday.  Saturday rained all day, so we spent the time building another movable chicken pen.  We had gotten extra chicks, thinking that we would have a high loss rate like we have in the past.  Well, Murphy's Law is at work, because we've only lost 5 of the 110 chicks so far.  We decided to be ready with the space for the extra chicks.  On Monday, Josh called to tell me it was supposed to rain all week and to get the chicken pen painted before the monsoon started.  I was able to prime and then immediately paint because of the sun and crazy winds.

Rainy Day Fun

 Crazy Daddy and Johnny

Sunday, we had brunch over the campfire pit in our backyard.  Josh made pancakes and coffee over the fire.  It's always a lot of fun to cook over the fire on Sundays.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon Outside

Olue is so close to rolling over.  She likes to roll up on her side so she can see us better.  She especially likes to move so that she can watch John play with his toys.  His favorites this week are his cars.

Johnny always needs to get into Lu Lu's photo shoots, but he never wants to sit nice beside her so I can get a good picture of both of them.  He either wants to be infront or nothing.

"Johnny, Your bed doesn't have a diaper rash!"

On Monday morning, I saw John take the Vaseline that we use for is bottom into his bedroom.  He came right out and I was nursing Olue, so I just took mental note of it to take it out before his nap.  I picked up all the toys and clothes that were scattered in John and Olue's rooms before nap time, but had forgotten about Vaseline....Well, you can see what I found in John's bed when he woke up.  I just had to laugh.  He was just covered!

We mowed last night.  It went really fast, but we still got in late and John got to bed late.  We'll have to start putting John to bed before we're done working outside.  He gets pretty whiny when he's tired.

This week is VBS prep week.  Laura came with me to shop in Bismarck for Bible School.  We also spent the afternoon at the church working preparing the crafts.  I'm hoping we can finish all the prep work tomorrow, so I can get some stuff done at home on Thursday before the weekend.  It is so nice to have help with big projects like this at the church!

Josh went to Wahpeton for work today.  He dropped off Jake and Ruth's strawberry plants on his way.  He didn't want to spend the night, so he'll be home late tonight...Sounds like a long day to me, 8 hours of driving with a few hours of working.  I'm glad he'll be home tonight though!

Videos from Mothers Day!

Johnny practicing riding "bulls?".

Best Buddies

Dreary Week

It's been really dreary this week and kinda cold.  John has still been able to go outside, but his fingers are always cold when we come in.  We were outside weeding this morning in my flowerbeds by the house.  When we moved to the one near Olue's window, I heard crying.  John was not happy to have to come inside early because the baby woke up early, but he got over it.

7 of the 10 graduates that I invited showed up last night for the Sr. Supper and all went well.:)  Now my next big thing at the church is Vacation Bible School.  We're doing May 23-26.  Laura, one of the girls that graduated from New Salem a couple years ago, is coming home to help me out.  I'm really happy about that.  She helped me last summer, and it was so nice!  Our theme is "Learning to Live like the Saints".  I bought a saint book this spring with REALLY good/easy to read stories about the saints.  That was kind of my inspiration.  I hope the kids learn something.  I've been reading St. Therese's autobiography "The Story of a Soul".  She was my Confirmation saint and her book is very inspiring to me.  I get a chance to read for a few minutes everyday while I'm nursing Lu Lu right before she goes to bed for the night.  She's the least distracted at that time of day and Josh and John have just gone outside for the evening.

As always, the weekends start here tonight.  We have another busy weekend of gardening planned.  We are going to transplant the cool season plants...cabbage, cauliflower, etc.

Here is Johnny with a bandaid on his nose.  He got a scratch on it last weekend, and it opened up the other night while Josh and John were playing.  Josh put the bandaid on and Johnny left it alone while we were outside, but as soon as we got in, he noticed it again.:)  His nose is all healed up now.

Johnny was nice enough to share is "Tactoh" for a little while yesterday.  Olue just loves watching Johnny play by her.  It's really cute to watch them interact.  He came over to her today, while she laid on her back on the floor and patted her tummy.  She just smiled at him the whole time he was sitting by her.

I think Olue might start to roll over pretty soon.  She rolled up onto her side a couple times yesterday, but I couldn't coach her through the rest of the roll.  Daddy might be able to this weekend, though.

It's time for Lu Lu to get a bath now.   



Sweet Dreams

After "Clifford" today (we always watch Clifford on PBS before the kid's afternoon naps...It gives me a chance to sit down and sometimes even get a little catnap), I put both kids down.  They both cried (well Johnny whined and pounded on is door saying "Mommy").  After all was silent, I checked on Lu Lu to make sure her blanket wasn't over her face.  She loves sleeping with a blankie (she's not attached to any One yet...nice so I can wash them regularly), but also loves to suck on it, so sometimes I find it over her mouth which makes me a little nervous.  Anyway, she was good.  When I checked on Johnny, I found that I couldn't even open his door far enough to go inside, because he had fallen asleep right there with his blankie and "tactohr" (tractor).  I squeezed in and laid him on his bed.  Too Cute!

I'm browning burger for our Sr. Supper and Baccalaureate practice at the church tonight.  I only had one RSVP from the 10 grads.  I hope more show up!

Next, I'm out to weed our little strawberry bed by the house.  I have a feeling it'll seem even smaller after we start to weed the big one we just planted!

It's "Snowee"!

It's rainy here today.  Johnny calls all weather "snowee".  Yesterday we had a little hail/thunderstorm and we watched out the window at the "snowee!"  Today he heard the wind blowing through our old windows and he shouted, "Snowee!"

We finally got the yard mowed last night.  It was dark when we finished, but it looks a lot nicer.  I'm sure in less than a week it'll need it again with this nice rain.

I'm trying to upload some videos from Sunday, but their not working.  I'll have to try again later.

We're trying hard again on the potty training with John.  It's a little easier now that Olue is more independent.  There's my potty timer again!....

Here's how every 20 minutes goes...  The timer starts to beep and Johnny runs to the kitchen, "Brehwehd, Brehwehd!"  (I use the same timer to bake "Brehwehd," which is anything baked...bread, buns, muffins, cake, etc.)  "Johnny do you have to go potty?"  Johnny always says, "Noah!"  "Johnny, do you want an M & M?"  "Soor!" (Sure) Then he runs to the bathroom saying, "Pahee, Pahee.  Mmhnmmh!" (Potty Potty M & M).  It's pretty cute and he usually goes right away.

Olue's up from her morning nap now, and doesn't like to be left in her bed.  Better go!

Happy Mother's Day!

Johnny spent one evening earlier this week "cahlr, cahlr" (coloring) Mother's Day cards for his Grandma's.  He had a lot of fun!  He even got to put some pooh bear stickers on them.  (If you haven't gotten yours yet, it's in the mail.  I'm still not used to the delay in MN mail.  It is only overnight delivery within ND.)

We had a wonderful, relaxing day here at home.  Josh made pancakes for brunch (and even washed the dishes!:) and he roasted hot dogs over a campfire for us for supper.  Then we took a 4-wheeler ride in the West side of our pasture.  We decided not to rent it out this year.  It's going to be a lot of fun going out there for rides!

The weather was beautiful today!  After the kids got up from their naps, we all spent the afternoon outside together.  Johnny LOVES playing outside and Lu Lu even likes it out there.

We needed just a day to relax after the crazy busy, hardworking weekend!  We got a huge box of bare-root strawberry plants on Thursday...So Thursday night we started planting 700 strawberries in a 100ft x 50ft bed that Josh tilled up in the pasture last fall.  Friday morning I had a dentist appointment.  (All good-no cavities and my wisdom teeth don't need to come out as of now...Yeah!)  So Josh started in planting again, while me and Lu Lu were in Bismarck at the dentist and picking up our 110 butcher chicks.  That afternoon while the kids napped, Josh and I finished planting and mulching the strawberry rows.  Wow!  I haven't felt that soar and worn out in a LONG time!

On Saturday we planted a bunch of seeds and the rest of our potatoes in the gardens.  We will have 5 vegetable gardens this year plus some "rows" of dry beans.  (The dry bean rows will be converted to raspberry rows next spring.)

What a cute picture from earlier this week!

Lu Lu sees an angel!

"Johnny!  No headlocks on girls!"

Cedar playing ball in our "West" pasture while the kids napped today.

We planted peas in this pasture garden and the strawberries are in the back (mulched in straw).

The chicken pen (planted in oats for the hens to eat in about a month) in the foreground, then a row of asparagus, a small strawberry bed, and some rows of raspberries-freshly mulched with straw.  You can see the movable laying-hen pen in the background in our orchard.  It's amazing how nice the grass is out there after a year of moving chickens through it.  The grass looks nicer than our lawn by the house.  The trees are growing out there like crazy.  We just moved the laying hen chicks out there this week.  They seem to really like eating down the new grass everyday.  I spent the mornings this week weeding these rows of raspberries, strawberries, and asparagus while Johnny played near me and Lu Lu slept inside.

Johnny loves the swing he got for his birthday last year.

Daddy and Johnny going for a ride.  "Vroom Vroom!"

Olue really liked it outside today!

Johnny in the barrel.  Watch the video to see how he got in there.

Cedar thinks Lu Lu can throw the ball for her.

Johnny in the lawn "chteer".

Mommy and Lu Lu enjoying the backyard.

This spring the weather has been pretty crazy!  Last weekend we were under a Blizzard Warning and Tonight we are in a Tornado Watch.

Videos to come later....

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

First Communion at St. Pius

Best Friends!

Olue holding her head up high!

Johnny's wearing Mommy's "Shoeys!"

Well, Josh had another ambulance call due to the ice on the Interstate at 4:30 this morning.  A Semi was tipped on it's driver's side and he had to climb up the underside of the tractor and jump down inside from the top, which was the passenger door.  He cared for the patient while firemen broke the windshield open to get them out...Crazy!

Josh met us at church just in time for Mass to start.  We had First Communion this Sunday.  My job was done except for taking a group picture to put up on our Confirmation and First Communion picture wall at church.

We all took a long nap this afternoon.  Josh especially needed that one!  The snow is almost gone and it looks gorgeous outside--the sun is shining bright, but it's really windy...Good drying weather to get back into the gardens again!:)