Puppies

This afternoon (Sunday), we went to Mr. Lee's house to see the new litter of puppies he has. Mr. Lee (as the kids call him) is a family friend who takes Andy hunting and breeds lab puppies. He always invites us over when he has a new litter and it finally worked for us to go. There were 11 puppies- 6 boys and 5 girls and they were all black. Kaelynn had no fear of them and picked them up immediately. In fact she carried this one from the kennel into the house. She was great with them. She had a puppy in her arms almost the entire hour we were there. Connor did pretty well until the puppies started biting his pants. They also tried to make a home in his pocket. He didn't like that so much, but got over it pretty quickly and warmed up to them again. We really wanted Carson to have a positive experience with them since he has such a fear of cats and dogs right now. There was quite a process for him to feel comfortable. You can see the anxiety on his face and the grip on Andy's coat in this picture. This was his station for a majority of the hour. After about 45 minutes and once the puppies had settled down, he sat down in Andy's lap and started to pet them.

After about 5 minutes of that he asked if Andy could hold one and he got a little closer still.

After 2 minutes of that he was ready to start picking them up.

The end result: A smiling little boy with a very cute puppy in his lap.

We are very proud of all the kids, but especially Carson. It was a great experience for him, not that his fear of dogs is gone, but I think we put a little dent in that wall of fear.

I included a little video of Kaelynn with the puppies. She was so cute with them!

Out of the mouths of babes

I was tagged on Facebook on this note: Out of the mouths of babes. I decided to put it on the blog instead because I think grandparents will enjoy this and they don't do Facebook :) I asked my children the following questions and got these answers (I did not coerce any of these answers!!): 1. What is something mom always says to you? No having sweets (Kaelynn) Clean up (Connor and Carson) 2. What makes mom happy? When we say we love you (Carson) Giving you a hug (Connor) 3. What makes mom sad? When we don't listen to you (Connor ) When we are being mean to each other (Carson) 4. How does your mom make you laugh? Being silly (Connor) Being funny (Carson) 5. What was your mom like as a child? Happy (Kaelynn) Didn't make messes (Carson) Liked playing with your sisters (Connor) 6. How old is your mom? 59 (Kaelynn) 31 (Connor and Carson) 7. How tall is your mom? 150 inches (Carson) 50 inches (Connor) 59 inches (Kaelynn) 8. What is her favorite thing to do? Shopping with Kaelynn (Connor) Playing with us (Carson) Shopping with me (Kaelynn) 9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Paint (Carson) Go to the grocery store and Target (Connor and Kaelynn) 10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Buying clothes (Connor) Singing (Carson) 11. What is your mom really good at? Putting pictures in the picture frames (Carson) Painting (Kaelynn) Kidstuf (Connor) 12. What is your mom not very good at? Fishing (Carson) 13. What does your mom do for a job? Clean up (Carson) Kidstuf (Connor) Anything you want to do (Kaelynn) 14. What is your mom's favorite food? Pizza (Carson and Kaelynn) Cheeseburgers (Connor) 15. What makes you proud of your mom? The way you wash dishes (Carson) You're a good mom (Connor) 16. If your mom we're on TV, who would she be? Miss Sally (Connor) (I have no idea where this came from) A weather girl (Carson) 17. What do you and your mom do together? Go for bike rides (Carson) 18. How do you know your mom loves you? You clean up (Connor) You say I love you (Carson) 19. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? Target (Connor) Grocery store (Carson)

Happy Birthday Kaelynn

Three years ago our little girl was welcomed into the world at 2:00am, 3/23/06. It's really hard to believe it has been that long already. She is a precious little girl with so much personality. She is very much a girly-girl and loves to get dressed up, put on make-up and finger nail polish (she's not allowed to wear it out of the house :) and be a mommy to her babies. She loves to sing and dance and perform. She tries hard to keep up with her brothers and they are so good to her. She is so beautiful on the inside and the outside and we are sooooo blessed to have her in our family. Take a look at how she's changed: 3/23/06- hours old 3/23/07- 1-year old 3/23/08- 2-years old 3/09- 3-years-old We have already had two parties. We celebrated at a hotel in Minneapolis with Andy's parents on Friday night. On Saturday we went to my parents house to celebrate with my family.

Today we will celebrate as a family at lunch time because of committments in the evening.

(I posted this on Sunday night, but am talking about Monday. I just didn't think I would have much time to post tomorrow).

Happy Birthday sweetheart! We love you so much!

The finished product!!!

It's done!!!! We almost finished last night, but discovered that the bolts they had for the drawer handles were not long enough for the drawers, so I had to make a trip to Lowes this morning. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. I love the way it brightens the whole room up. I also love the way it makes the blue stand out. Andy even said he liked the hydrangeas again. For those of you who are wondering why that is a big deal, I went a little over board on them when we were first married and he got pretty sick of them. I have now confined them to the kitchen and I really like them there :) I included a video at the bottom of the post. I do move some in it, so if that sort of thing makes you sick I suggest not watching it. The natural light in it was a little much, so the lights in the kitchen make everything look more yellow than it is. Believe me, everything is very white!!! I am really pleased with it!!!! The before: The after:

A huge thank you to Andy's parents for having the kids this week. I would have never gotten this done so quickly with them around!!!!

Bonbons... yeah right!!!!

If you think that I am sitting on the couch eating bonbons during this break from the kids, you would be living in my dream world. I am starting on my 3rd straight day of painting, but I finally see an end. All I have left is a top coat on the cupboard doors and to get the patio door done. They should be all done for Andy to put the hardware on tonight and to get the doors back on the frame of the cupboards. I can't wait to get back to normal. I don't do well with messes so I am having a hard time with my kitchen table being full of stuff. Check back tomorrow for pics :)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TCHLTB

This weekend our family had an opportunity to serve others in a very special way. Our church decided not to have Sunday services, but instead to do service projects that would impact our community and the world. The service project we chose to participate in was making meals for kids in Tanzania, Africa. The goal was to make 100,000 meals for the organization Kids Against Hunger. By the end of the weekend, our church had put together over 136,000 meals. It was an incredible thing to be a part of. Each of the kids had a job to do. You can see what they did in the video below. They did very well. I hope this will not be the last opportunity we take to serve others like this. I pray that as a mom I will be able to find many other ways that I can teach my children to serve others and not just themselves. This was a good start! The best part were the hair nets!!!

Carson and Kaelynn worked together as a team with the rice and viatmins and did fabulous!

As if that wasn't enough work for one day, the boys helped me sand the cupboards on Sunday afternoon. It started out very helpful, but quickly turned into more work for me. Oh well, it gave them a little ownership in the project and something different to do.

Phase 1 complete

Phase 1 of the kitchen remodeling is done. Andy worked really hard the last two days to get the wainscoat up and help me get it and the trim painted. The kids did very well and played independently quite a bit so we could get this done. Here is the before: And here is the after:

I am really pleased with how it looks. It is already so much brighter in there. The blue with the white is very calming and fresh. I love it! Now for the grunt work. We have started taking the cabinet doors off so I can slowly work on them this week. I say slowly, because the boys are off of school this week, so I will have to work on them during video time and after they go to bed. I hope to get a good start on them though. It's going to be more work than I thought, but I am quite excited about what it will look like when it is done. Stay tuned! P.S.- Kaelynn still is not walking on her own, however she did make some progress this week. We were outside the last two days with 70+ degree weather and she was not allowed to crawl on the ground because it is pretty muddy. She was able to maneuver herself just right so she could get places. She will stand on both legs on her own now and she will limp along holding onto one of my hands. Slowly but surely!!!