Tagged with love

I don't usually do these because Jon thinks they're lame and I need to appear "cool" in my husbands eyes, but my old roomie, Emily, tagged each of us from Ricks and I think it'd be fun to compare after what, almost 10 years since we were together. We were so inseperable!

A-Attached or single: Totally attached, at the knee, elbow, thumb, and heart.
B-Best Friend: Jon of course, but I love my girlfriends too!
C-Cake or Pie: cake - this is almost the sole reason for my weight gain during pregnancy.

D-Day of choice: Jon's day off, whatever that happens to be this week.
E-Essential Item: diaper bag, but that's kind of cheating because I can fit a LOT in my diaper bag.

F-Favorite Color: Blue, almost any shade of it.
G-Gummy Worms or Bears: Bears, absolutely. My favorite, Haribo. Mmm.

H-Hometown: Liberty, MO

I-Indulgences: Cheesecake Factory White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

J-January or July: That's a tough one. Especially for Missouri, but I'd have to say July...there's just more to do and my birthday!

K-Kids: So far, Sam and Lucy
L-Life is incomplete without: I know I should say Jon and the girls, but really, what would we do without chocolate?
M-Marriage Date: October 8th

N-Number of siblings: originally, 3 sisters, 2 brothers, but now...8 sisters, 7 brothers
O-Oranges or Apples: I like oranges better, but like Emily, I'm lazy and usually go with the apple
P-Phobias or Fears: Sheesh, what am I not scared of?

Q-Quotes: "They are, aren't they? No ma'am, just look-alikes"

R-Reason to Smile: When a plant I'm trying to grow doesn't die...When Lucy smiles at me with her rabbit teeth...spring rain, I know, most don't like the never-ending rain, but I love it!

S-Season: Fall, the clothes, the holidays, the weather...ahh, fall.

T-Tag Three: Wendell, Chrissy, Johanna (this will give you something else to blog about :))
V-Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals: I really like to eat meat, but Johanna opened my eyes to the cruelty of animal farming. I still eat meat, but the guilt...

W-Worst Habit-Surfing the internet when I should be productive
X-ray or Ultrasound: Ultrasound!It is so amazing to see those little babies growing inside of you. Both times I was caught off guard by how real it all-of-the-sudden seemed when I saw this black & white figure moving on it's own on the screen. Very cool.

Y-Your favorite food: Didn't we just talk about indulgences?

Z-Zimbabwee or New Zealand-New Zealand, and mainly because of Leah Schwenke & the Hunters-they were the only reason I stayed half-way sane in Taiwan

She moves

The real source of our woes

Sugar and spice...

And everything...

Lucy is genuinely as sweet as she looks here.

These next couple of shots are blurred because I couldn't get either girl to hold still long enough to snap a good shot. But in the end I'm glad. It shows what they're really like.

Sam with her friend Grace and a new friend that we'll probably never see again.

Deacon is 4 months younger than Lucy. She lets him think he's in control, but really, what girl doesn't want a guy pulling on her chin until her tongue pops out.

I don't know if you can tell in this shot or not, but her eyes are green, which means we can take her to Vegas for luck.

Amusement despite freezing weather

A while back we had a combo birthday party for cousins Cooper & Ella. It was crazy-mad fun, even though Jon couldn't come.

This is what Sammy did most of the time.

This is what Lucy & I did most of the time.

A pose I often find myself taking.

A view from above.

Jenny (the crazy one) and me right in front of Sam's new favorite teeter-totter.

PREGNANT MAN

I'm wondering if we'll get a bunch of traffic to our blog due to this post and the "guy" in the news recently that's being hailed as a pregnant man. I kindof wish the media would be a little more honest. It's not a pregnant man, it's a lady who had enough hormone therapy to grow facial hair before she quit the hormone therapy to get pregnant. I'm not going to post a picture of "him". If you're curious, it shouldn't be hard to do a search.

Glorious News

Our daughter is potty-trained. Becky praised her for being a "big girl" twice for things like helping Lucy. I guess that's all she needed to make her big girl status official. One day, she was soiling diapers like any old bum on the street, and the next day she's taking off her pants, climbing onto the toilet, wiping herself, flushing, and pulling her pants back up. Maybe she was exposed to some radiation or somethings.

As a reward for her new-found independence, Sam received her very first nightgown, which also affords her only one layer of disrobing when she is called by nature.

Easter Sunday. Word to your mother.
Lucy is not potty-trained, but we do find ourselves forgetting to change her now that our diaper needs are halved.


Courtesy of Jeremiah Fernelius Shakespear.

Flat Emma

My niece, Emma is in the 1st grade and one of her assignments is to send a small, laminated version of herself to someone far away to see what kinds of adventures "Flat Emma" can have. We were the proud recipients of Flat Emma. Samantha was in one of her frenzied carnivore moods, and Flat Emma was devoured almost as soon as she came out of her envelope.


Flat Emma starts her adventure through the digestive process in Samantha's mouth, where food is chewed up and mixed with saliva. This makes food easy to swallow and starts to break down the simple starches into sugars.

Flat Emma is then pushed to the back of Sam's mouth by the tongue and then she goes through the ESOPHAGUS. This is the tube that takes food down into the stomach. It has SPHINCTERS at both ends to keep food from coming back up.

Here she is in the STOMACH. It's a bag that can stretch as more food goes into it. Those ridges are called RUGAE (roo'-gay) that help mix up the food. The stomach also makes acid that kills bacteria and breaks down the food.

After the stomach, Flat Emma goes into the SMALL INTESTINE, which could also be called the "long intestine." In a grown up, the small intestine is about 20 feet long! This is where most of the good stuff is taken out of the food so it can be used by the body.

After the small intestine, Flat Emma and all the digested food go into the LARGE INTESTINE or COLON. In the colon, most of the water is pulled out so the soupy, used up food turns into poop.

The large intestine empties into the rectum, where the poop piles up before it's pushed out. It's a good thing Samantha hasn't learned how to use the toilet. Otherwise, Flat Emma would be on her way to the Kansas City Water Treatment Plant.

Flat Emma sure had an interesting trip through the DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. Maybe next time, she'll go to Cincinnati.

Bugs and Drugs

We've been struggling to get the right diagnosis and treatment from our pediatric group. Samantha's been spiking fevers for about 2 weeks. She also told us a couple times that her back hurt and we had one high blood sugar reading. They first tried to tell us that she had a virus. Then, with some insistence, they tested her for diabetes. Finally, with even more insistence, they did an additional traumatic urine collection and tested her for a urinary tract infection. The doctor seemed very surprised that we may have had a clue as to what was wrong with our daughter when the urine tested extremely positive for bacteria. She's already doing better on the antibiotics.
Don't be afraid to speak up for your children's health, folks. Those doctors are not omniscient.

If you look at our family collectively, this is what we look like. You might say that this picture is a representation of our family's soul.

Our youngest is not afraid to go after the most attractive person in the room.

Horse Poo

Farmers in England are required by law to provide their pigs with toys!

"After finding no qualified candidates for the position of principal, the school board is extremely pleased to announce the appointment of David Steele to the post."Philip Streifer, Superintendent of Schools, Barrington, Rhode Island




Birthdays for February the 21st:
1794 - Antonio L¢pez de Santa Anna, president of Mexico (1833-36)

Two girls, one wardrobe.

Gangster Lovin'

Never underestimate the stealthy skills of a 2-year old.

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Sweet, perfect, and sometime pukey.

Dang, it's still mommy.

In hopes of fulfilling NYC's slogan on Valentine condoms, "Get Some."

The "high" of Valentine's day mixed with toddler crayons.

"I want my yellow dress!"

Name that movie and Jon will write you a song.