Go here to see the story that KSTP did of Stellan and his mom tonight.

DARE

All of you that have been reading my blog for a while know about Stellan, and how close he is to my heart. I would like to share this post and make it though the whole song with out bawling. I couldn't do it. For starters it is one of my favorite songs, then a baby boy who is close to my heart. I pray that the rest of you are as touched as I was. Enjoy.

Aubrie caught another bug this past weekend. She hasn't been feeling well since she hurt her leg on Friday. We took her to the clinic and they said that she had a fever. Since then she has started coughing and still has a fever. I am nervous about giving her tylenol to bring the fever down, but they said I could. I try to hold off until she is ready to lay down for a nap or bed. She just gets lots of snuggle time. She has been drinking lots of apple juice. She doesn't want milk and with the cough I am glad she doesn't really want it.

Last night she woke up about 2 30 or so, I got out of bed to snuggle her. She decided that she wanted to nurse and I decided that I would let her try. For those of you that don't know, I weaned her off about a month ago now because she bit me and wouldn't let go. I had been weaning her off some, but went cold turkey after that. She normally doesn't care but last night she noticed that she wasn't getting any anymore... So she started sucking and then got furious that there wasn't anything coming out. :( So now I have a sick baby who now realized that she doesn't get any more mommy milk. She started bawling. That is the only time that I have ever wished that I hadn't quit. I have felt pretty good about being done because she didn't seem to really notice. Now that she is sick though it makes we really wish that we had kept going some. I know there are nutrients in breast milk that help, but I guess I have to quit eventually.

She is still feverish today, but doesn't seem to be coughing as much so hopefully she continues to get better. She had a couple of diapers that smelled poopy, but when you looked it didn't look poopy because it was all liquid. So now I have to worry about her getting dehydrated too. Good thing she loves the pedialyte freezer pops!

Tonight we have a winter storm warning. They are saying between 7 and 11 inches here. I have to work all night so I get to see it happen. Hopefully, scratch that, prayerfully we don't get it. We are supposed to go to a planting party at Bloomers tomorrow and the kids are really looking forward to going to the "flower store" I know there are more reasons that we don't need the snow but I worried about what I am going to do with them if they find out that we aren't going. We already planted flowers for them here and I am out of seeds...

I did buy some rice and an under the bed tote, but I wanted to save that for after the Easter Bunny brings them their sand shovels and other sand toys. I guess I might have to crack the rice out earlier! Oh well. They will enjoy it either way I am sure. I guess I also have some paint and golf balls, to make a project with. We did this at our Growing Together class, put the paper in a top of a box (short sides, only about 2 or 3 inches) roll the foam golf balls in paint and put them in the box. Tip the box side to side to have the ball roll the paint all over the paper. We did it on larger paper then used it to wrap some birthday presents in! I have another project to do with foam golf balls, but need them in different colors, so if anyone has golf balls in other colors than yellow, please share!!!

I just looked and I haven't taken any new pictures of my kids since last Monday when we had our play date, so I don't have any to put up, sorry. I have been reading MckMama's blog and keeping up to date with Stellan and his heart. I haven't totally neglected my house and family to do it, but I do know that it has taken too much of my time lately. I even signed up for Twitter so that I could have MckMama's Tweets sent to my cell phone so I didn't have to sit down at the computer to see how Stellan was doing. If you haven't heard of them please go check out her blog and add them to your prayers.

Hosting our first play date...

So last Monday there was no school, and because there was no school, there was no story time at the library. So we invited a few families over to enjoy our own story time. Granted it wasn't quite as formal as the story time at the library, but I think we all enjoyed it! Christina brought her almost 2 1/2 year old daughter and her 7 month son, you might remember him from this past post and picture. Heidi brought over her 3 year old twins and her 8 month old baby girl. So add that to my three and we had 8 kids and three adults. It was the first time that we have had people other than family out here, so that was fun and nerve racking at the same time. The kids didn't care, but I was a little worried about what people think of the house, and my housekeeping! I did end up getting the house picked up, minus the entry way, but whose entry way is clean?!?!?! So the kids played for quite a while and then we started reading. Each family brought at least one book, and the mom of the kids who picked it out read it to the rest of us. We read a book that we borrowed from ECFE called The little mouse, the red ripe strawberry and the very hungry bear. In the bag that we get the book in there is also a stuffed mouse and a strawberry to help tell the story! My kids love it, and I think the others enjoyed it as well. Heidi read Dora's Big Dig. Christina read A Pocket for Corduroy. The following are all pictures from when the other mom's were reading.
Christiana and most of the kids!!! Baby Katie is in the middle in blue(or purple), here two older brothers (Sam and Seth) are in the brown shirts. Ian is in the green, and Selah is behind him, you can see her head kinda, Nevaeh is on the right of the picture, with her pony tail sticking into the pic!!!
Miss Christiana, Ian and Selah
Miss Heidi, Wyatte and Nevaeh
Ian and Aubrie! I think Nevaeh snuck in too!!!
This one was taken after we had read and eaten lunch. Nevaeh and Selah sat down on the chair, leaned up against each other and started to read another book that Christiana brought with her. I think she said it was about Lady Lovelylocks...
Aren't they super cute together!?!?!?!?

All in all I think we did ok, the moms are still talking to me so that is good! I would love to have others over, but the house is totally trashed again, so.....

Wordless Wednesday

Duluth, 3-23-09

constant change

Ok, so things changed again! I think I like it now. At least for a while. I switched it back to the three columns. I know it makes the actually post pretty long because it is so skinny, but I like being able to have two smaller rows of things on the sides.

I LOVE the picture of me that is now my signature! I took the picture shortly after I colored it a few months ago (it no longer is that dark :( ) I did the edits to it at picnik.com as well as the writing on it. It took me forever to figure out what I was doing. Even though I have changed that signature part before. IT SUCKED!!!

Anyways, enjoy...at least for a while!!!

Tuesday Tip!

Hire are gardener to help set up your vegetable garden!!!


Today at MUMS our topic was gardening. IT WAS AWESOME! One of the ladies that goes to our church co-owns Bloomers, a garden center here in town. She doesn't do much vegetable gardening, but had one of their employees come out and share with us today. Granted it wasn't very "Christ" centered, but what could be more honoring to him than taking care of our families by growing our own veggies!!!

She gave us all kinds of tips, too many almost. At one point I leaned over to the mom sitting next to me and asked her if I could hire the employee to just come out and get my garden set up for me?!?!?!?!?

I do have plans to have a garden this year. I even ordered my seeds and have them sitting on the shelf. I am just waiting for the rain to stop and the mud to dry up a little bit so that I can work the ground. We have a lot of clay around here so I am just going to hope(scratch that...) pray that it grows. I am planning on asking one of the farmers that lives just down the road--he comes in the fall and bales all the hay--if he will come down and disk the ground for me. Then we have some friends that we used to rent from that have a tiller that are not doing a garden this year, and I was hoping to see if I can borrow that for at least a while to till the ground up. The farmer that has the tractor also has cows and I am hoping that can have or buy some manure from him too.

I am really looking forward to this, and if you have any tips that you would like to share with me I will take them all!!!

Here is what I have seeds for already...

carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, squash (butter boy variety), squash (acorn variety),pumpkins (more for the kids than to eat or can or cook with), peas, sweet corn, and beans.

I also have coming from the company that I ordered from; onion sets (red[or purple], white and yellow), garlic bulbs, and shallots.

I am going to get seed potatoes (red and russet).

So as you can see I am going big or staying home!!! OR BOTH!!! That is what someone told me this morning is that I was going to end up having to be home all the time!

I am also commisioning John to build Wyatte and I a small chicken coop, because Wyatte says now that we have a barn (I will take a picture of our barn tomorrow when it is light outside and show it to you! For those of you that have seen it you might think this is funny!!!) we can have animals. He really wants to raise Bigfoots, but seeing as there is a shortage on supply there--or at least a supply that you can invest in...--we will start with chickens. I would love to have rabbits for them and maybe a goat, but hey I am not farmer Jane yet!!! So if I don't post for a while around Memorial Day, now you know why!!!

On a different note, the Easter Bunny came early in this house, but forgot that the kids were in the little bedroom and left all their stuff in our closet! So I know what they are getting for Easter. The girls are getting another set of matching dresses! I know, how stupid right, but hey what's a mom to do?!?!?!?!? They are wearing matching pink dresses on Easter Sunday (They wore matching dresses last year too...) These dresses are from Walmart and are ADORABLE! I just tried to find them on walmart.com, but they aren't there...that pic will have to wait for later too...I really wanted to show you how cute they are, but... They are also getting sand toys--John is being commissioned to make a sand box too!!!--kites, big bubble wands, and a few other small assorted items--rubber ducks and some, but not much, candy. Now I just need to remember to get it all organized and set out for the actual morning. Wyatte asked me today why God made the Easter Bunny if He is the one that day is about. I had a hard time explaining that in 4 year old talk. But I think he understands. He never asked that about Christmas, but he was a little younger.

Each child has their own egg set, pink camo for Nevaeh, some sparkly ones for Aubrie, and Wyatte has matchbox cars ones that they get to search for. I made a few notes today in random places in my house and car to make sure to buy some white eggs for coloring, because I normally buy the brown ones, but I don't think that would make for a very pretty dyeing process!

I guess that is enough rambling for tonight. Please remember to keep MckMama and Stellan in your prayers. You can check her out at her blog. She is also on twitter, if anyone knows what that is and wants to follow her there. You can search for her at Twitter, she uses the name MckMama. I am on there too, if anyone is interested, jashoard.

Good night and God Bless.

Spring...

This background is what spring looks like right now. So I thought I wouldn't put up a really pretty spring on, I would go with this messy mud like one!!! I will change it again soon, I promise. As soon as it starts to not look like mud.....

Thread of Hope, Inc.

This morning the youth group did the morning service. All of it. They were the ushers, they were the opening music team, they were the worship team, they did the announcements, one of them did the opening prayer, the youth pastor did the sermon. It was a great experience for them, and we all enjoyed it!!! One of the things they did was talk about a project called Threads of Hope, Inc.(you can click on that link to go to their website...) The bracelets are made in third world countries in which parents sell their children into slavery or prostitution just to make enough money to pay for food and necessities for their other children. I had walked by the table before the service, thinking it was just something the youth group was doing, but after the service I went and looked again. Our small group is doing the study "Believing God" by Beth Moore. One of the first things she had us do in the study was tie a blue "cord" to our wrist.

This is why...

	In Beth Moore's Believing God Bible study, what is the signifigance of the blue bracelet and tying it on your hand?
	Answer
	The reference for the cord (bracelet) being blue comes from Numbers 15:38-39. Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout their generations they are to make tassels for the corners of their garments, and put a blue cord on the tassel at each corner. These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the LORD's commands and obey them and not become unfaithful by following your own heart and your own eyes. Beth says to take the blue cord (bracelet) and tie it on your right hand and write "I am the Lord's". This verse is taken from Isaiah 44:5.

Anyways, I had lost my original "bracelet" that we had gotten and was looking for anything that would work. After the service I looked over the table and found this...
I picked it up and put it on. Paid for it and walked away. Then I got to thinking... "the girls would love these, maybe Wyatte too..." So I went back and picked these up...
Wyatte has the blue one on, Nevaeh's arm is in the front with the pink and purple one, and Aubrie is in the middle with the pink one. I put Nevaeh's on first and told her it is her special "Mommy and Daddy Love You" bracelet. Then Wyatte asked if he was going to get one, so I put his on and told him the same thing. He thought he was pretty cool! Aubrie didn't like hers at first but I don't think she really sees it. I think her little wrist is the cutest with the bracelet on.

Just had to share that with you and hope you can look at the Threads of Hope, Inc website and be touched like I was.

Potter's Clay

Tonight was our monthly Potter's clay event--our young married group at church for those of you that don't know. We had our own...


It was Grand Rapids Style!!! We were given an envelope with 15 dollars in it and some instructions. On the instructions was a list of about 11 stores, some we had to visit and some that we could chose to visit. We had to go to 7 of them. Four were prechosen, and three we could decide for ourselves. We had to spend as close to the full 15 dollars as we could with out going over. We had to get the receipts for them all to prove the amount. We decided to split into a husbands team and a wives team. It was sooo much fun. Seeing all the crazy things that we did as adults made it even more fun! We blocked the guys vehicle in, they told some of the store workers to hold the doors shut on us, one of the guys even jumped in our rig when we were stopped behind them and started pushing our gas pedal!!!

We got back to the pit stop first, pulled our receipts out and found out that our math was 27 cents off. So back in the car we went... by the time we got back to the church the guys had already made it back with exactly 15 dollars gone. So they won that leg of the race. Then we were given another clue. This clue sent us to the nursery to dig through the toys to find the second clue. From there we were sent to the gym to either jump rope or ride a scooter. We ended up falling behind here. Then one of the team members had to eat a can of tuna, 4 oreos, a glass of milk and a glass of mtn. dew. from there we got another clue that sent us to the stage with a puzzle we had to put together and then find another clue. We had to wheelbarrow walk down the center aisle then run back to the front of the church and go hand in hand up and down half a church full of pews. TALK ABOUT HARD!!! One of the wives just kept reminding us of all the calories we were burning!!!!!!

All in all it was a lot of fun. I didn't get many pictures besides a couple that didn't turn out because it was such a fast paced night. We all thought that we should do it again for sure, so maybe next time we will have a photographer/videographer!

Spring messes...

It is way easier to post on facebook!!! I will try to not get in the habit because I know if you wanted to see my pics on facebook you would have your own account, but here is one more album from there. Our yard was flooding today, I know the story of lots of lives right now but because of the fact that I already have a pool in the basement because of water I really didn't want this to end up there too...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=233345&id=814675018&l=20b9b18288

Aubrie's birthday

I just uploaded all these pictures and it didn't like me for some reason and won't do it on here, so here is a link to some of the pictures that I took at Aubrie's birthday parties. I made this album on facebook, but you don't have to have an account to look at them. Just click the link and it will take you there. Hope you enjoy!!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=233333&id=814675018&l=d87dbd348c

Not Me! Monday...

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


This week I did NOT take Aubrie in to get her 12 months shots on her BIRTHDAY. What kind of mean mom would do that? Surely not this one.

I also did NOT finally go to the doctor to finally get something to help me sleep--yes I tried all the things that he said I should before starting on a med for it. After NOT doing that I did NOT forget to pick them up for 3 days and am still NOT sleeping horribly.

I did NOT have to work this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday mornings and instead of cleaning when I was home I did NOT leave a list of stuff for my husband to do so that the house was clean for one of Aubrie's birthday parties.

I did NOT plan another birthday party for Aubrie--to make sure that both sides of my split up family could celebrate with us--only to tell John (my husband) this morning that if no one came over it would be too many...

And right now I am NOT sitting writing this NOT ME! MONDAY post while the sink is full of dirty dishes and the living room is kinda trashed and the washing machine is silently waiting for the mountain of dirty clothes sitting next to it. I know better than to neglect my house like that!!!

What have you NOT done lately???

Reason's I love and hate my house

This is a Plinky answer. For more info check out Plinky.com!

I love our house, I love the fact that it was made by John's grandpa. I love the fact that John's great-grandpa lived here, John's grandpa lived here, John's dad lived here, now John lives here, and now John's son lives here. I also hate the house for that same reason. This house is old. When the house was built they didn't have a bathroom in it, so that was added about 30 years after it was built. The entry way and the basement were also added about that long after the house was built. I am very grateful for the fact that my in-laws were willing to move out of here so that we would have a place to live. I love the area. The fact that we are in the woods and have nature all around us.

I would love it if the house were bigger. We only have two bedrooms, and with five of us, it gets small at times. But to put that in perspective, John's grandma, grandpa, seven kids, and his grandma's dad all lived in this house--with no running water and no bathroom. No basement either. So in reality this house is huge!!!

Aubrie walking

My baby turns one...

Enjoying a caramel roll that Mommy made!

Out enjoying the sun!!!

Aubrie is officially over a year now. Scary how fast this last year went. We didn't really do anything on her actual birthday. Her first party is tonight, with my dad and Karen coming over. Along with at least one of my brothers, maybe two. Monday is going to be her actual party. Grandma Kris, Grandma Margaret, Grandma Linda, Grandpa Tuffy, and a bunch of Aunts, and Uncles, and Great Aunts and Great Uncles, and Cousins are all coming over to help us celebrate!!! Wyatte said she needed a pink cake, with white frosting and sprinkles. Since John turns 31 on the 21st, I let him pick the meal. So fried fish, scalloped potatoes, salad and cake and ice cream are on the menu.

Just a side note, as I sit here writing this, I have the windows and the door open. The sun is pouring in the window along with the 50 degree weather!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!! I took the doors off of the Wrangler today after work and drove home with warm air pouring in around me!!! It was great

Change

Thought it was time for a change. If there is something that you can't see, or don't like, or a color that you think needs change let me know!

My form of productive...

We didn't have curtains over the windows, just some broken brown mini-blinds. I have been planning on buying or making curtains, but I couldn't find any material or curtains that I liked. I even checked out the shower curtains!!! Then one day a while ago I was walking around Target and saw this TABLECLOTH that was marked down 75%!!! The green isn't quite the same green as in the couch, but they are far enough away and there isn't enough in the couch to make it noticable (Yet) I cut the table cloth in half and then made the pocket on top for the curtain rod and was done!!!

These are the first curtains that I made. They are in the kids' bedroom. Wyatte picked the fabric out, and still loves them, although I only had enough fabric to make them for one window, and they have two, so... Now he wants to look for different fabric so they match.

I plan on getting some with the same colors on it. Notice the paneling to the right? We got a tip from some friends to fill the groves with wood filler and then paint, so I am going to get started on that this week (while we are snowed in) and then paint the bedroom green. Their bed is blue, but I think with the fabric it will be ok!

So if anyone needs something to do on a weekend they can come help me pick out a fabric, fill and paint walls, and I would love to make a shelf in the old window hole, so you could help me with that too!!!

Aubrie's first ponytail!

Aubrie's hair is getting long enough that I can put some of it in a ponytail! Well, parts of it are long enough! If I wanted I could put about 6 or 7 small ones in, but for right now I like the one little one at the top!

Birthday month

Aubrie practicing her standing! She loves these shoes, they are Pedipeds. Too bad this pair is too small for her now. We have another pair of purple ones with flowers, but she doesn't like them so much yet!
Combing her hair. She loves to do whatever Nevaeh is doing! She pics up stuff so fast.

Wyatte and Nevaeh are inside a igloo made out of milk jugs. The children's librarian started it and it has grown quite a bit! Sorry I missed out a pic of the whole thing, I will try to get one when we go to story time this week.

This is Aubrie's new cry. She scrunches her face up and opens her mouth as big as she can get it and TOTALLY fake cries!!! It is so cute I can't help but laugh at her each time she does it. She does have a real cry too, but this is her "I don't want to hear the word no come out of your mouth again so I am going to act like this" cry!!!

Aubrie is growing up so fast I can hardly believe it. She loves to share. If she picks something up off the floor that she shouldn't have she will hand it to you with out being asked--most of the time anyways! She has been sick the last couple of days and has been enjoying crackers mostly. I had started to wean her some, she was done to once in the morning and once before bed, but with her being sick, I have started nursing her more because she seems to be able to keep that down better. Here she is enjoying one of her crackers. She is starting to want to talk some, and if you repeat a word to her enough times she can get a word out of her mouth that somewhat resembles what you are saying.

She can walk now pretty well, it is still easier for her to crawl and so she resorts to that still, but loves walking around! She can't get up by herself unless she has something to hold on to. She is getting closer and closer to walking all the time, but for now she is evading bumps and bruises by crawling still!

She loves to put things in and take things out of boxes, or baskets, or in this case a train that Nevaeh got for her birthday. She will pick up toys on the floor and put them in whatever is close by. She loves it when Wyatte takes all his cars and trucks out, or the animals, she can pick up to her hearts content!

March is a busy month for us. On the 2nd I turned 27. Aubrie has her birthday on the 13th (this year it is Friday, the 13th :() Then on the 21st, John turns 31.

Turning 27 was hard for me because I realized I am in my late 20's. I don't know why it hit me that way, but it was hard to realize that I am in my late 20's. I did enjoy the birthday though. We got together on Monday with my dad and Karen and Kirk, along with Karen's mom and sister-in-law. We went out for pizza and then had a Dairy Queen cake. Then we got together with my mom and grandma on Wednesday and had supper at Dairy Queen and enjoyed another cake!!! I love those cakes!

Grosgrain: Cinnamon Sticks GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Grosgrain: Cinnamon Sticks GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I love the necklace with the three letter charms!

Born 2 Impress GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Born 2 Impress GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

This is totally cute just had to share it!!!

Good News!!!

John and I bought each other birthday presents at Best Buy the other day. I got another computer!!! And John got an xbox 360. We also got internet hooked up today, so I am back in the game!!! I have really enjoyed being online again. I feel like I am connected again. So look for more posts again. Sorry it has been sooooo long.

2008 Amy Peterson Sweater Babies

This is a picture taken by one of my friends from church, Heidi Barton, of 8 of the 12 babies born at our church last year. Aubrie, Ian, Ben, Mason, Katie, Hannah, Jazlyn and Kyrie. Kyrie is the oldest at 13 months, and Ben is the youngest at 5 or 6 (sorry I can't remember for sure.) They are all wearing sweaters that they received as baby gifts made by Amy Peterson. They are all different and have their names knitted in along the belly. They are soooo cute!!! There is a zipper up the back to make them easier to get on and off. I love them!