Ben's First Karioke

Here is the first video I have ever posted on my blog. This is Ben singing at the karioke station inside of the Make-A-Mess Fun Center. Note that Matthew wanted to sing afterwards :)

Happy Christmas

Well, we had a week of visiting with relatives and I think everyone survived. There are reports of a sick grandma out there, but thankfully all we gave her was a cold :) Matthew seems to be starting a cold and Anna is either reviving hers or starting a new one, but we're okay. We may have even skirted exposure to the stomach flu....we hope. All in all, it was a good trip.

We left on Monday evening to avoid some snowstorms here and ice storms there in Illinois. We had a good trip down with the kids, stopping at a Wendy's for supper (although we ate on the road.) We pulled into Normal around 8pm and the kids played for awhile before going to bed. The next day, Rob and I were sent out on a date. We didn't protest too much :) We went to Ming's Buffet, a large Chinese restaurant (for the non-Chinese food eaters it has TONS of options.) Rob loves Chinese food and I loved the opportunity to eat my fill. I'm such a slow eater that whenever we go to buffets I'm still on round one when everyone else wants to leave. It was nice to take my time. We went to a world food store afterwards and found lots of fun little extras we hadn't seen since the San Jose days. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to see them again. Then we headed to the mall. There was an ice storm going on so we wanted to stay in one spot for awhile. We tooled around the mall, made fun of teenagers (they were EVERYWHERE!!), and Rob got some popcorn. I wanted some mint melt-a-ways from Fannie Mae but I can't justify spending $23 a pound. Yikes! We also looked at Hobby Lobby for a bit before heading back.

On Wednesday we went to visit Rob's grandparents and had a very nice time with them. Rob's mom and dad played "keep the kids occupied" so we could actually talk with his grandparents. It was a great visit and then we all went home for lunch and naps. Me included, this time :) That evening we headed to Pontiac to spend Christmas Eve with my parents. Mom made my favorite meatloaf with the fixin's. We had a great time there and then went back to get three wired kids into bed for the night.

Christmas Day was pretty low-key for us in the morning and afternoon. Rob and I delivered some repaired glasses to his other grandma and stayed to chat with her and Aunt Ruth. And have coffee...mmm....coffee.... Again, it was nice to chat without the distraction of kids around. We went back for lunch and then spent a nice afternoon together before the big Litwiller Christmas event. Rob's brothers and wives and adorable nephew were all over as well as his grandma. We had a wonderful dinner (hooray for hamloaf!!) and then Rob read the Christmas story. The boys had a little program prepared and performed beautifully. No shy ones here! Then we all trooped downstairs to open gifts. The kids had fun ripping open presents and are still enjoying them. (Andy and Melissa--we have one whole year to find the "perfect" gift for Jamie to thank you for those lovely clapping whale things you gave the boys--heh, heh) I can't tell if the boys have a favorite gift b/c they keep bouncing from one thing to the next. Ben has finally figured out his My First LeapPad, so that's good.

Friday I went out for coffee with my mommy to Krispy Kreme. Besides a wonderful time with Mom, the highlight would be watching the conveyor belt get stuck while the workers frantically tried to fix it. I was hoping for an "I Love Lucy" kind of moment, but no such luck. When I got back, Rob, his dad, and I took the boys to the Make-A-Mess fun center and let them run off a bunch of energy. We all went to Chevy's for supper that night and had a good time....with the kids. We kind of got surrounded by the children but that was alright b/c I sometimes feel like I lose touch with the kids when we travel. I want them to have time just with their grandparents but it's nice to know they love me, too :)

Saturday we left for the Fulkerson Christmas Extravaganza amid a flurry of last-minute packing. I had a toothache the night before and couldn't pack, so I had to do it all that morning. We were still the first ones there (ha, ha, Mandy! Take Howard next time!). It was so fun to finally meet my new nephews. Ezra is like a male version of Anna--so happy and bubbly! And chubby... Caleb is a little sweetie as well and sat well with me for a bit. Of course, all of my adorable nieces were there as well. Kara and Kate get prettier everytime I see them, little Callie is just a dolly, and Little Mak is loads of fun. Matthew enjoyed his cousins but Ben got very overwhelmed with all of the people. We tried to make him stay put for present opening, but had to let him go. He played with some familiar toys and popped in to open his presents. Anna was a sweetie and enjoyed finding every little bit of wrapping paper she could. We had a nice lasagna supper and enjoyed our time spent reconnecting with my siblings.

We spent the night there and then traveled back Sunday morning. We arrived home at about 2pm with only one stop to find a dropped toy (didn't want the battery to die!) and one stop for lunch at a Burger King. (Oh, and Starbucks! Thank you, Rob!) We're all pretty tired, but it was a good trip. We couldn't get into our driveway when we got home so Rob spent a fair amount of time shoveling. I found a few undone chores to occupy myself...as well as unpacking. Phew!

Thanks to our parents for letting us crash at your houses and for taking good care of us. We love you guys so much!!

Anna stats

Anna saw the doctor yesterday and she is 20 lbs. 11 oz and 28 1/4 inches long. That puts her in the 81% for weight and the 75% for height. She did real well at the doctor and then we took off for Illinois and beat the weather. We're down here visiting for the week. Rob and I get an actual date today. Woo-hoo!!

Merry Christmas to Us!

This morning we opened our presents and are having our family time together before we head down to Illinois. These brave Wisconsonites did not cancel church yesterday, although I stayed home in the evening with two kids since I was sick. I wouldn't have gone in the morning either if Matthew hadn't been singing in the Christmas program (which went well, although he was on a end all by himself...at least he's cute!)

Rob couldn't sleep last night, so he stayed up and got chores done (you know, dishes, playing Wii...) and shot upstairs at 3am when Ben fell off the bed. My bed. Didn't even know the little guy had joined me! He was so sleepy he just said, "Ow!", climbed back in, and went right back to sleep! Rob decided to try to sleep at that point (note to Rob: don't drink a cup of coffee at 5pm...) and we were awakened by TWO boys joining us at 6am. They wiggled for awhile until we finally all got up and went downstairs, grabbing our stockings on the way down. The boys got a plastic candy cane full of M&M's, a new little car, and a Wal-Mart gift card from their Great-Aunt and Uncle. Anna got her pink Hot Wheels car and a gift card. She promplty slobbered all over her car. I had put Ro-cher (can't spell it) candy in Rob's stocking and he gave me some comfy socks, a butterfly punch for card making, and a Ghiradelli milk chocolate and peanut butter candy bar.....wait...I need to wipe off some drool.... Oh, we also got a Wal-Mart gift card which is wonderful because two of our small appliances have sucumbed to the electronic Bermuda triangle that is our house and need to be replaced.

Then the kids got to open gifts. Anna received Curly and Pals, an octopus where each leg has a different texture, there's a mirror in the middle, and all kinds of fun things to explore. So far today, she has crawled over it to get to her shoes. Ben received Zip Track Rally, a car racing thingy that you have to snap together. It's pretty cool and the cars go fast, so he loves it. Matthew got Motor Works which has little vehicles that you put together with your own drill and screwdriver. I think he'll play with it when the fascination with the Zip Track wears off.... They also got a box of fruit snacks and tore into them immediately. We're cutting back on sugar in general, so those are on the black list right now but still okay for treats. Occasionally.

Anyway, the boys are having fun right now, Anna is going down for a nap, and Rob and I are going to begin the packing process. We're taking off today after Anna's nine-month check-up. Got to beat the snow!!

Merry Christmas to all of you if I don't post again before the week is out.

Finally...a break??

Rob finished his finals and passed all of his classes, including the one that was for grad credit. He did well and he's glad to have just one semester ahead of him before graduation. He will be starting a paper over Christmas break, but he's taking the first week off to recoop. The Custom Shoppe is closed as well, so he really will have a big break. We were going to leave for Illinois on Wednesday, but it looks like the weather won't cooperate so we're leaving earlier on Monday. Anna sees her pediatrician that day so we'll take off after her appointment. It will be nice to relax in a different place.

It's snowing right now. We got another foot on Friday and we may have lost the top half-inch due to wind so we need more. I've got some great pictures of the boys climbing the mounds that mark the entrance to the driveway. Matthew lost his boot in the snow today and was determined to keep on playing without it, but Rob convinced him to find it. Then he promptly came indoors and I wrapped him in a goose-down comforter. Ben stayed out longer for once and had a ball with Daddy.

We're planning to open gifts with the kids either tomorrow or Monday morning. It's highly possible church will be cancelled since the wind chill tomorrow should be around 30 below. The children's Christmas program is during Sunday school so that would be too bad if it was, but better to be safe than a popsicle. If it's cancelled, we'll do gifts tomorrow. Each child gets one present (courtesy of a Discovery Toys party I had in June) and then stocking stuffers. The boys' have candy, but I'm rather proud of Anna's. I got her a pink Hot Wheels car. She loves chewing on the boys' cars so I found her one of her own. Rob and I just get each other stocking stuffers although we used to buy each other all kinds of presents back in the DINK days (that's double-income-no-kids). The one gift I'm most proud of purchasing for Rob was a huge box full of bags of different kinds of chips. I went to oodles of grocery stores and specialty stores and bought up every funky kind of chip I could find. It's also the only gift that ever truly surprised him...he's one of THOSE people, you know, the kind that can look at a box and tell you exactly what's in it.

Here's my braindead Christmas moment that I'll close with: Since November, I have been working on making 40-plus Christmas cards to send/give to friends and family. I had a stack of them still sitting on my desk this morning and I looked at it and thought to myself, "You know, I really ought to mail these out!" So I braved the post office and bought stamps today. If your card is late, that's why!

Merry Christmas!!

Touchdown!!

Ben just went in the potty for the first time! Woo-hoo!! The practicing has paid off and he's finally figured it out. He's pretty funny because we get play-by-play updates while he's in the bathroom. Once he's fairly independent, we'll go to McDonald's.

Two down, one to go.....

Bittersweet Matthew Moments

The sweet: Today, Matthew completed lesson 50 in his reading book. It was a calm, collected Mommy and Matthew that sat down to do the lesson and he had loads of fun reading the story at the end. We will now plan our trip to the Jelly Belly Warehouse sometime during Rob's Christmas "break". (Can't call it a real break b/c he has to start working on a paper for next semester.)

The bitter (besides me over the paper writing): Matthew finally gave me a hair-cutting story of my own. You know, I was really getting jealous of all you moms with stories about their kids getting ahold of scissors and butchering their hair or someone else's. Mr. Matthew got into the study while I was washing dishes and chopped off random parts of his hair, some so close to the scalp it's a wonder he didn't hurt himself. Wait...they WERE safety scissors, so it's okay... Rob tried to just cut it shorter but after wetting it down, we realzied how patchy it was and he has a long buzz cut: almost a buzz, but still with a bit of length. Anna now has longer hair than Matthew, and that's saying something. Poor guy wouldn't even look at himself in the mirror and when he accidently saw his reflection, he covered his eyes. He quickly got used to it and claims he wants it this way forever, but Mommy is putting her foot down. I do not like buzz cuts on little boys (or any size boys, for that matter.) Yes, I realize my husband is bald, but that's nature not razor. I almost cried today but I held it in for Matthew's sake. My one consolation is that his hair grows rapidly and it should look normal in a month or less. If Ben ever did this, it would take a year to grow back. Poor guy didn't have much hair to speak of until he was 18-months old.

Fussy Baby

I was just re-reading some old posts and saw a comment where I wondered what would make Anna fussy. I now know of two: being passed around in large groups and her walking toy. She loves the walking toy, but whenever she bangs into something, she sits down and cries. I have now taken to following her around and "helping" her turn it. We've also taken to calling her a crazy woman driver since she seems prone to going crooked. Although Ben did the same thing, if I recall....

Update

Hmm...haven't posted for awhile. I'm usually too tired to put together a coherent thought in the evenings, but since I had a nap today, I'm good to go!

When last I posted, we had a sleepover going on. It went well and the boys ended the evening by watching the first Narnia movie (which they love.) Matthew kept asking Rob if he was still awake but Ben fell asleep half-way through. I had a nice time working on my Christmas cards, especially since Anna went to sleep early. We had a great Thanksgiving and the food was wonderful. Our tree decorating didn't go so well, but that's because the two adults were rather grouchy. Matthew had a pouty face for most of the evening and I apologized for Rob and I's bad attitudes. We finished the evening with some fun stuff.

On Saturday, we went to the Parade of Lights and had some friends over for the parade and chili afterwards. Thankfully it wasn't too cold and we didn't freeze this year...or stand on the bridge :) The kids collected lots of candy, glow sticks, and Ben got two teddy bears. Anna wasn't too impressed with the parade, but she liked watching all of the people. We had a nice time afterwards fellowshipping with Matthew's future in-laws (he is determined to marry Kaitlyn unless God has someone for him that he doesn't know...his words exactly!)

For the past week, we've just been getting back into our Daddy-less schedule. (Can you tell I'm ready for the semester to end??) Matthew has gone back to his reading lessons and is now at lesson 49. He doesn't like them, but he does them anyway and is learning. One of the phrases I've been teaching him is "Sometimes we have to do things we don't like to do." It's been helpful on many occasions to get him to do something. He even used it on his poor grandma when he had to say good-bye to her this weekend.

We went down to Illinois this past weekend to celebrate our nephew's first birthday. We spent one night with my parents and one with Rob's. It was nice to see everyone, but we were very exhausted. Large family gatherings take a lot out of both of us. The boys, especially Matthew, seem to thrive in large groups. Anna didn't take too well to it after a bit but she held out for a large part of the party. All three kids were asleep in no time after we got back to Rob's parents' home, which was a blessing.

Our latest Anna update: Rob popped her in bed with me briefly this morning and she said, "Ba-ba! Ba-ba! Ma-ma, ba-ba!" She also ate lots of fries yesterday at lunch, bringing her total amount of foods she's willing to eat to three, none of which are healthy for her. I tried peas tonight...no dice. We'll keep trying until we see her doctor in two weeks and we'll see what's up. Current theories are as follows: she had no taste buds, she has few taste buds, she's not ready for solids yet, she's the weirdest baby some have ever seen, and don't worry about it. Feel free to insert your own theory into the list :)

We are getting lots of snow today and I'm kind of hoping for a snow day tomorrow. I'd love to have Rob home all day again. He has this week and finals week left and then he gets to spend Christmas break working on his first paper for Biblical Studies Seminar. I told him tonight, "Well, guess I'll see you in May!" I'd love to have a date with him more than once a semester but it sure doesn't seem to work out. I guess I'll just have to be thankful for the small bits of time I get to spend with him each day.

I think that's all. Seems like the kids have said some funny stuff lately but I can't remember it now. I should write these things down....if I could find paper and a pen.....

This and That

The past week has been a little crazy here at the Litwiller homestead and my time on the computer has been limited until today. Rob had his big paper to work on and submitted it last night at 11:30, one half-hour prior to the deadline. I don't like tiptoeing around his books and things to get to the computer, so I pretty much avoid the whole area. I took the kids to a variety of places and we did all kinds of window shopping, pricing, playing games at the library, and even took a driving trip to the McDonald's drive-thru in a neighboring town. I'm very thankful he's finished and we get Daddy for the rest of the holidays. Well, that is unless he's reading for classes....

Rob has this week off work so we have some family things planned. As I'm typing, the boys are having their first Litwiller Men Sleepover. Mommy and Anna have been banished from the living room and the guys are doing manly things like playing in the snow after dark, boxing on the Wii, eating cheese curds at Culver's, working in the woodshop, eating homemade Chex Mix, eating popcorn (catch the theme here?), and will end their evening by sleeping in sleeping bags in the living room. Rob thought about sneaking upstairs and sleeping in his bed, but I told him that was cheating :)

To avoid all of the manly events, Anna and I went out for supper at Upper Krust where I had a chicken salad sandwich and she snubbed applesauce. (We're still working on the solids. She WILL feed herself now and did eat carrots.) We then went to Wal-Mart and purchased a few Christmas decorations for our new tree. She was a good baby and even went to bed early. I'll spend the rest of my evening working on Christmas cards in the study.

Tomorrow we are spending the day together, just the five of us. I was going to make the 60-minute Thanksgiving meal featured in Rachael Ray's magazine but we're going to amend the turkey and the dessert. Her turkey calls for just breast and leg, which costs about the same as a whole turkey, so Rob will cook the bird. He loves it and always has done a great job. The dessert was a Pumpkin Mousse Trifle which looked pretty nasty to us, so we're opting for a Sara Lee pumpkin pie. The side dishes will remain the same: Apple-Date stuffing, Mashed Potatoes with Yukon golds and sweet potatoes, and a Green Bean casserole with REAL mushroom sauce and fresh beans. We're all excited around here. Oh, and I'm adding homemade rolls to the deal. Just can't have a big dinner without the rolls!

We're planning to decorate for Christmas in the evening. We have two trees to put up this year, the big one Rob's parents got us last year and our Charlie Brownish tree that will be the kids tree and will sit on our landing. I love decorating for Christmas and can't wait to use ornaments that have remained boxed up for years. I couldn't use them b/c they would make our old tree fall over.....so sad and pathetic!!

Not much too new with the kids. Anna is still cute, Ben is still practicing going potty, and Matthew still chatters like a monkey to everyone he sees. His new thing is asking people if they have a big, fat, plump turkey defrosting in their fridge. He keeps saying ours looks yummy but I can't say as I'm too excited about raw turkey :)

That's all for now! Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Kid funnies

Today I was working on my Christmas cards, coloring away, and Matthew was asking a zillion questions regarding my activity. (He stalks me when the other two are napping.) I explained that I was coloring my card, following the sample card I had already finished. He became very indignant and said, "Mommy! You shouldn't be following that card! You should follow God!"

We have stepped up our efforts to potty train Ben and have started putting him in Pull-Ups. Matthew and I explained to him that he had to keep them dry so that the cars wouldn't disappear. He repeated the instructions and seemed very intent upon that task. About five minutes later, he looked at me with a panicked expression and said, "Mommy! I need a diaper!" I told him that he didn't b/c he had a Pull-Up on. He said, "No, Mommy! I don't want to get the cars wet!" Poor guy had to go....should have explained further on how to keep the cars dry. Right now he knows when he has to go, sits on the potty for a long time, then goes in the Pull-Up a few minutes later. He's practicing going potty b/c that is what Ben has done for everything he's ever learned since rolling over. I expected this to happen so I will be patient with him and trust that he'll be potty trained soon.

Anna popped out four teeth on Monday. No joke, that baby had nothing on her upper gums on Saturday and when Rob was playing with her on Monday, he found three teeth had popped through with one more about ready to come. That brings her total teeth count up to six. She has started eating applesauce and loves sucking on extra garlic dill pickles, but that's as far as the solids have come. She's also a full-fledged cruiser now, so we keep our couches pushed together so she has lots of cruising space.

He finished!!!

Rob finished both papers and got them in on time!!! The first paper was an ex-a-jet-i-cal paper on a passage in Hebrews that he's been working on forever. He finished it at 5am today. The other one was a counseling paper where he had to come up with how he would counsel a couple that was thinking about divorce. He started that one at 5:05am and finished it at 11:15 am, with a "break" to go take a test at 7am and a short nap upon returning. He's at work right now and pretty tired but he will get to sleep tonight (and then get up and be at work by 6am tomorrow...)

His next big paper is another exie thingy and is due the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Mixed blessing: the Custom Shoppe is closing that entire week (but still giving the guys pay for Thanksgiving and the day after) so he will have Monday completely free to finish the paper.

After "turning in" his paper (they e-mail them to the profs...saving on staples, perhaps?) we went to Schlotzsky's deli, his favorite sandwich place, to celebrate. Yipee!!!!! He'll be starting in on that next paper on Saturday. I'm trying to pick his passage for him (something in the Timothys or Titus) but he never takes my suggestions :)

My Matthew

Okay, so I've had my "maternal rush of love" for Matthew recently and I can now post a gooshy blog about him. Oh my, have he and I had our run-arounds! We have pretty much the same tempermant so you can imagine how often we butt heads around here. I never realized I was such a difficult child to raise :)

However, he is my little sweetheart and often challenges me spiritually. I love the questions he comes up with about spiritual matters that can send Rob and I diving into the Scriptures for answers. He's very insightful and it's been such a blessing to disciple him now that he has made a profession of faith. I love praying with him, especially when we've had a bad day together. Just tonight we prayed that we'd stop being angry with each other. It's sweet that he's my brother in Christ as well as my son.

Rob and I discuss many issues as they arise with him. Yesterday Matthew and I were cutting out pictures in magazines for his Junior church project and I came across a very questionable picture of a woman. I ripped it out before he could see it, but he did ask me why I ripped it out. I told him that it wasn't a very nice picture of a woman. He said, "Mommy, women are very precious and there shouldn't be pictures of them in magazines like that. That's not right." I asked Rob later about that and he said he had a conversation with Matthew awhile back about that very topic. I love how Matthew keeps that information stored away and brings it back up at the appropriate times :)

He is quite the little jokester and entertainer around here. He loves to make Anna laugh although he does think that she's too drooly. He had taken two couch cushions off, one for Anna and one for himself. When she moved to his he told her, "Anna! This is not your cushion to drool on! Go back to yours!" Mommy "helped" her move back to the drooly cushion. :)

Oh, he's just a sweet little boy. It's a joy to raise him, but of course it's not without it's share of challenges. He tries my patience often but I know that God is going to do amazing things with Matthew and I look forward to what is in store in his future.

Oh, the Irony

Today in the mail I received some coupons for McDonald's. They are only good at the Watertown location and expire in early December. As you recall, McDonald's was destroyed in a fire a couple of weeks ago. Brother.

In other news, this is a very challenging week for Rob. He has two tests tomorrow, one on Thursday, and two papers due Thursday. He has another huge paper due right before Thanksgiving, so if you could pray for him when you think about it, we'd appreciate it.

We received a nice, large financial gift last week. Someone rang our doorbell and left some money on the door. We were rather surprised but very thankful for God's gift.

Matthew is doing well with his schooling but I think the reading lessons are starting to bore him again. He is doing well with it so I hate to change things around on him. He just finished lesson 41 and has just a few to go before he earns his trip. Good Matthew funny: We were reading a simple book called "Baby Goes Shopping" where it asked what the baby wanted and then had pictures of 8-10 things the baby wanted to buy. Matthew finished it and said, "My, that baby is selfish! He wants everything!"

Benjamin has finished the first lesson in the reading book as well. I think he's craving the attention from Mommy more than the ability to read, but he actually understood it all so we'll work on it whenever he wants to. He is the proud owner of Superman footie pajamas, complete with cape, and I'm hoping to get them off his body and into the wash sometime in the near future.

Anna has her first tooth coming in and she's an angel about it. I'm kind of wondering what is going to make this baby fussy, if anything. She still won't eat solid food but she will suck on a Mum-Mum cracker. She is now using crawling as a means to get somewhere in order to pull up on furniture. She doens't quite cruise yet, but she tries a little. Rob told her to slow down yesterday and she laughed at him. She also says "Da-da" now and burped it out at him on Saturday, complete with a "blow" so he got a good whiff of formula in the mix. That's my girl!

As for me, I'm starting to feel better. I started on Vita-Lea, a vitamin from Shaklee, and I can already tell an improvement in my energy levels. I'm also using their Basic H cleaner and I love it. It's the first time I can clean my house without a gas mask or coughing to death.

That's us for now!

Miss Anna

Okay, I just need to be a proud mommy right now and talk about my little Anna. She is such an adorable baby girl!! We are having so much fun with her as a family. She's a terrific third baby because she is very low maintainence. She only cries when she's hungry or hurt, she can play by herself for long periods of time, and she sleeps very well for naps and at night. In many ways, she's like the best of the boys wrapped up in one chubby package :)

Miss Anna's accomplishments at seven and a half months old include crawling (slow but steady), pulling up on things (but not the most stable objects), clapping her hands in excitement, laughing at her brothers' antics, and being adorable.

Anna has managed to outdo her brothers in every single milestone, save two: she has no teeth yet and both boys had about four by six months old. She also will not eat solid food. She spits out almost everything we give her. She has sucked on shortbread cookies but spits out the pieces if they break off in her mouth. The only food she has eagerly opened her mouth for is Chocolate Ready Whip and since that's not exactly on the "what to feed baby" charts, she's not getting any more :) Just yesterday we tried to feed her pears and she spit them out. We tried letting her hold the spoon herself and she whacked off the pears and sucked on the spoon. We'll just keep trying with the food every now and then. I'm not too worried about it b/c she doesn't even eat at the minimum for formula at her weight and formula fed babies don't really need solids until they are eating over 40 oz a day. She's at about 33 oz a day. And that's another weird thing: you'd think that a baby as chubby as she is (19 lbs) would be eating more. She's a snacker and really spreads those meals out but eats small amounts. I think she's just proof that some people are genetically predisposed to being chubby.

That's my Anna-nana. She's just a cutie. I'll blog about the boys individually when next the maternal rush of love hits me for each of them.

Happy 5th time at 29 to me!

Today is my 29th birthday, five times over. It's been a rather interesting day overall, one frought with adventure, excitement...no, wait, that was the latest Indiana Jones movie....

I was awakened this morning with a physical problem which persisted through the entire day. It put quite the damper on our fesitivites (and it's still bugging me) but I finally decided around 11am that I was going to do my best to shelve the problem (to my CU education friends, remember that from Dr. Frank's class??) We proceeded with the plans Rob had set for my day.

First off, Rob had the day off work b/c the Custom Shoppe closed for the week. He was going to take a vacation day anyway, so he'd have been home either way. When I came downstairs after my shower, he was busy making a breakfast of biscuits (he makes the best!), bacon, eggs, and coffee. I had several presents waiting for me as well. Matthew gave me a candle that smells like apples, Ben had a Dove chocolate bar for me, and Anna got me a six-pack of Diet Coke, which she tried to hide in her pack-and-play :) My in-laws sent a cute devo book and a picture frame with a necklace that I can put a pic into. Rob had made me a card with my stamp stuff (really a pretty good job for a complete novice) and had a list of things we would do that day. He bought me a yummy cake from the bakery downtown, although it was supposed to have just a pumpkin on it. The bakery got "cute" and added lots of Halloweenish stuff to it, but that's okay.

We went out for lunch to Upper Krust, which was good as usual. This time they had chicken pot pie..they were out last time we went. Oddly enough, we met up with a family Rob knew from Normal. Their daughter and her husband were married 1/2 hour before Rob and I and our children are the same ages (although we have one more.) That was kind of funny.

We went to Hat Creek Candle afterwards so I could get my free birthday gift and use my 50% off birthday coupon. I got a Cappuccino Hazelnut candle...I just LOVE the smell of coffee!! We came home and put the two youngest down for naps and then I went to the library BY MYSELF to pick out some new reading material.

On the spur of the moment tonight, we decided to take the kids trick-or-treating to the outlet mall. We already went on Sunday (Matthew was Dash, Ben was Eeyore, and Anna was a dalmation puppy) but we wanted to get the kids out and it just isn't my birthday w/o trick-or-treating. Since their costumes were still drying from Sunday, we hurridly put some things together for them. Matthew had an old dinosaur costume, Ben had some Bob the Builder overalls and a hardhat, and we put Anna in a Chicago Bears football uniform to scare all of the Packer fans around here. We had a blast and ran into a good portion of our Sunday school class and their children. Rob surprised me and bought me a Rachael Ray cookbook at the Reader's Digest store and then we all headed home for mushroom burgers, Rob style. Yummy!

The boys are now watching a video, Anna is sleeping on Rob, and I'm still in pain, but it was a good birthday. Thanks for all of the phone calls and cards from the family.

"McDonald's is broken!"

Last night, the guys headed off to get some sandwiches from McDonald's. They left around 6:20pm after waiting for Mommy to get out of the bathroom. As they were heading down the street, they heard sirens ahead and saw lots of smoke. McDonald's was on fire! The fire call came at 6:11 pm. Apparently, wiring in the ceiling caught fire in the restaurant and before long the entire place was filled with smoke. Had my guys left earlier, they would have been in the drive-thru at the time. God is good!

On their way back from Culver's, they passed MickeyD's again and saw the ladder truck spraying down on the place, smoke filling the playland, and flames shooting out of the building. For the next two hours, we heard fire trucks heading past our place. Rob went out at 8:45 to see what was left of it and saw them putting out the remaining smaller fires.

So, our McDonald's is all gone. We had made a family pact not to eat in the restaurant again until Ben was potty-trained. Guess he got himself an extension :)

To read the entire story, go to http://www.wdtimes.com/. And the title of this blog is credited to Matthew. We drove past it today and it has a sunroof now and is very, very black. Yup, it's broken.

I wonder...

...if my family will ever be completely healthy again. We seem to keep passing a cold/cough around the house. I thought we were all over it, then Ben woke up around 4am with a cough. I gave him some meds (don't care what the experts say, cough medicine DOES work and DOES help them sleep!!!) and Rob took him downstairs to sleep. Rob can sleep through anything in any position, so that's why he took Ben. And then I laid awake upstairs listening to Ben cough off and on until he went back to sleep and then was joined by Matthew. Grrr....and then I woke up with the cough and stuff. I JUST GOT OVER MY COLD A FEW DAYS AGO!!!!

Hmm...but God it still good. All the time. He wouldn't constantly allow my family to be sick without a reason. Will it make the childrens' immune systems stronger so that in a future ministry when we have less accesst to health care they will be fine? Maybe. Could be another reason, but I'm not going to doubt Him. We'll just keep drinking our juice and we'll all be going on Shaklee vitamins in a little bit to see if that won't help us all. (If you've never heard of Shaklee, go to their website. Their success stories are amazing, especially those dealing with serious illnesses.)

So, coughing, hacking and wheezing, the Litwillers will march through this winter. Or crawl. Or possibly be carried on gurneys.

Field Trips

We've taken a few field trips in the past week, one just to give Rob time to get work done. I took pictures but I'll be posting them on Facebook. I have to wait a very long time for them to load and I'm only doing it in one place. :)

Last Saturday I took the children to Eberts Greenhouse for their Fall Festival. We saved a little money so that they could participate in the attractions that cost something. Last year they just had fun in the kids area but I knew there would be a few things Matthew would want to do and I really hate saying no. So, I bundled them up and we went. Turned out that the weather was beautiful and they didn't need to be so warm. Good thing too, because I forgot Anna's blanket at home :) The first thing they saw was a large, inflatible slide. When we went last year, it was too windy for the inflatible things. Well, as we entered, an employee informed us that due to the rain the previous evening, the inflatibles were not open until they were dried off. At least we had the promise they would open, so we went and bought some tickets. I'm always amazed at how costly things can be for two children. Ben's old enough to do most things Matthew can, so paying for two kids adds up! Anna can just take her time growing, as far as I'm concerned.

Since the inflatibles were still wet (as well as the corn maze and path for the hay ride) we went to the Kid's Village and they played in the three little houses for children. There is a cottage, a barn, and a schoolhouse. They bounced from one to the other, as well as the wet sandbox, and had a ball. They weren't too interested in the animals this year, which is fine, because they don't excite me either :) After letting them play for a long time, we did the boring Mom thing and I made them see the rest of the place. Eberts has pumpkin and straw people all over in the shapes of storybook characters and I thought the kids would like to see them . I was apparently the only parent forcing their children to do this so we had the walk to ourselves :) We did do the fishing pond (Matthew caught a squirt gun and Ben caught Spiderman sidewalk chalk) and picked up pumpkins (like picking up ducks only with mini pumpkins.) When we finished our walk we ended back up in the inflatibles part and they were open.

Okay, the inflatible slide gets its own paragraph. It's really tall and I knew Matthew could handle it and that there was no stopping Ben if Matthew was going, so I sent them up shoeless and with tickets. They had a blast, although Ben struggled to get up the ladder. The preteen running the thing barely looked at the children and only after a mom asked did he say that the kids could go three times. My boys could have stayed there all day long without him knowing! I know that because they still had their tickets when they were done (Matthew went four times and Ben two, so it balanced out) and when Matthew tried to hand the boy his tickets, he told Matthew to take his shoes off if he wanted to go. I told the boy that Matthew had already went, that he hadn't collected tickects, and that he might want to pay attention to the kids on the slide! Good grief! Glad we parents were there supervising! That's the first time we've been on a poorly-supervised inflatible thingy and we've done lots of them!

We then we back to play in the kid's village and then chose our pumpkins and cookies. We went home afterwards and the kids were pretty happy with the visit.

Yesterday, we went to Maranatha for a dramatic play workshop hosted by Ben's Sunday School teacher's early education class. Last year, the boys had fun. This year it was terrifying for them. We were among the last ones there, so it was pretty noisy when we arrived. Two college girls approached the boys, asking if they wanted to pick out costumes and be read to. The boys panicked; Matthew clinging to me and Ben crying. I tried to get them to pick a costume (Anna was an adorable lady bug) but they refused and would not leave my side, even when Ben's teacher approached them. They wouldn't do circle time and sat on my lap through most of the program. They are pretty intimidated in new situations so it wasn't too surprising. I know we'll be invited next year b/c Ben will be in the same class, but I'm not sure if we'll go. Crazy kids!

And last night was the Fall Festival and 40th anniversary celebration at Maranatha (it's a concert...the title is misleading) and Rob and I attended. The kids went to Kiddie Kampus, which is the pre-school/daycare run by MBBC. Anna and Matthew had a blast but Ben was pretty intimidated. He just doesn't like new situations. When we left, he and Matthew were together, but they took the older children out later, so Ben was by himself. I wish I would have left instructions that Ben was to stay with Matthew, but he seems to be okay this morning, so he wasn't scarred for life.

The concert, by the way, was amazing. It deserves it's own post. I did not realize how much God directed the founding of this college. I'll have to post it later because breakfast is ready and we're cleaning the house today from top to bottom :)

First Quarter Update

We have officially finished nine weeks of homeschooling and in a traditional school setting, that constitutes one quarter of the year. Wow. When I look back at this short period of time I can't believe how much learning has taken place in this household! We'll take it person-by-person.

Matthew: Well, since he is the main focus of our little school, it stands to reason that he should be first. He just loves his schooltime and begs for it every day. We usually meet in the mornings during Anna's naptime so that I only have one other child to deal with instead of two. If that doesn't work, we sometimes meet in the afternoons. I prefer those times b/c the other two are napping and Matthew is constantly begging me for something do to (in spite of the art center I made for him so he can occupy himself.) But he prefers mornings, being a creature of habit. Anyway, we have a letter, number, color and shape that we focus on each week and he knows all of them already so it's just review for him. I'm trying to step up to the next level and have him write, but his fine motor skills are not as developed as his brain, so we muddle through as best we can. I don't want to start a formal handwriting program yet and he is having fun writing as many letters as he can on his own. I have a workbook from Wal-Mart that allows him to trace all of his letters and he enjoys that. In fact, he loves all workbook pages and would do as many as I'll allow! The other skill we're working on is cutting with scissors. I'm trying to teach him how to hold them properly and cut on a line. Not an easy task for someone so eager to cut!

It became pretty obvious that the material presented was easy for him and he was playacting school more than anything. So, I decided to supplement what we are doing by teaching him to read. I chose the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" because several friends have used it and recommended it. I was skeptical at first, but 28 lessons into the book he loves it! Today he even declared that reading lesson was his favorite part of school time. Now, that didn't come without lots of frustration and tears. Matthew gives up easily when something is too hard for him, so we've had lots of lessons about persevering and lots of pep talks from Mommy and Daddy. My goal went from five lessons a week to three and we divided lessons in half when needed. Rob has even taught a lesson or two just to give him a change of teacher. We keep telling him that he is very smart and that he CAN learn to read. We've promised him a trip to the Jelly Belly warehouse outside of Milwaukee when we reach lesson 50 and have a brochure as the bookmarker to remind him. He's working hard to get to his goal and finished seven lessons this week because HE wanted to! We would have done one more, but Anna woke up :) (Thanks, Mom, for using incentives with us! I have always remembered how you rewarded our work, especially how you promised Joel his Ecto-pack for good grades.)

Benjamin: When Ben sticks around for school time, he does learn a bit. He is picking up his colors and shapes and possibly even his letters. I figure since I did very little formal things with Matthew at that age, I'm not going to push Ben. He just enjoys being read to and he will do some worksheets (which he finds very easy). He's also learning all of the manners and health stuff along with Matthew, which has been helpful. We think that he's left-handed so I'm going to need to figure out how to teach him to write. I may find a lefty that writes well to do it for me.

Anna: She loves to explore her world and is now crawling. Babies are natural scientists, so she has learned about reflections, water going down drains, what everything tastes like, and a bit of signing from her Baby Wordsworth video. At least she moves her hands when she sees the signs :)

Mommy: I have learned that I can do this. I've read scads of books on homeschooling, all from different perspectives, and plan to read Charlotte Masons' work next. I've also learned that I can teach Matthew. That's what getting over the hurdles of the reading lesson has done for me: shown me how to teach my own son. It's pretty cool and I actually got tears in my eyes the first time he read well. Oh, I should say that Matthew always prays before we start "school" and asks Jesus to help him with reading. God really deserves all of the praise and glory for that accomplishment!

Daddy: Well, I don't know about the big guy. He's trying to keep his head above water with his own studies. At least he doesn't have a high-maintainence pregnant wife to deal with this year. (He says I'm medium-maintainence at best.) He enjoys hearing about the kids' school time and they proudly tell him what they've learned. He chips in when he's home. I know he's good for science experiments when we get there!

And that's the first quarter update from Bob's Preschool, a school dedicated to the philosophy that everyone learns all of the time, regardless of age.

Ha and Blah

The ha: I got on the computer a few minutes ago to reserve a movie at the library. Matthew asked what I was doing and I said, "Well, there's this movie I want to put on reserve and if I don't do it now, I'll forget. Sometimes if Mommy doesn't do things when she thinks of them she'll forget to do them." His response, "NO WAY!!" Yes, Matthew, Mommy does occassionally forget something...

The blah: Anna has stomach flu. It started last night, she slept through the night (all of my children have the ability to sleep through illnesses, even coughs) and started up again this morning. Poor baby is taking another nap. I took her to the doctor to check for dehydration and b/c babies with stomach flu scare me. He said she's okay and just to get fluids down her as I can and watch for signs of dehydration. The most pathetic thing she did today was crawl over to Rob and fall asleep on his shoes. (Oh yeah, did I mention that she's crawling now? Started last week, but she doesn't do long distances yet.) I think the rest of the fam had a mild version of the flu. I'm really hoping and praying that we all built a good immunity to it last winter with that nasty rotavirus.

All I want for Christmas....

So Matthew and I were talking today and out of the blue I asked him what he wanted for Christmas. Without hesitation he said, "I want a real gun so I can go out and shoot a deer. Then I'm going to take it to a guy and have him skin it and roast it. Then I'm going to give it to people." After a bit more questioning he also said, "And I'm going to have my picture taken with the deer head." Gotta love living in Wisconsin!

Nanna

My little Nanna (as we call her) had a doctor's appointment about two weeks ago and I realized that I never posted her stats! She was 18 lbs 9oz (90th percentile) and 26 1/4 inches long (75th percentile). Her head was in the 65th percentile but I can't remember the measurement. She's as roly-poly as ever. My sister commented that all of Anna's weight is in her belly and I believe she's right, although she has very chunky legs and wrists. She's predominately in 12mo. clothing, although a few 18mo. outfits fit her.

She's getting ready to crawl right now and has all the parts and pieces learned. Once she figures out how to put everything together, she'll take off! The boys both crawled at 7mos so I'm not too surprised with her. After that milestone comes the pulling up and walking. I'm curious to see if she's like Matthew (walking at about 9mos) or Ben (walking at 11mos) Maybe she'll be nice to me and put off the walking until later, but I doubt I'll get that lucky. She's a smiley little thing that charms the socks off everybody. She especially loves to see Daddy come home and saves all of her special grins for him. Rob's in big trouble when she gets older....better make room for a pony somewhere....

Goofy Boy

Tonight I was giving the boys a preview of what we will be focusing on next week. I told them we will cover the letter H, the number 7, the color black, circles, and Health and Exercise. Matthew replied, "Hell and exercise??" Rob and I lost it because, you know, they do kind of go together.....

On the Farm

This weekend we went down to Illinois for the Hartzler Hog Roast, a family/friend get-together hosted by a second cousin of Rob's. We spent two nights with my parents and on Saturday went to the farm and had a wonderful time! This pic is of Anna enjoying herself on top of a hay bale. I'll be posting more pics on Facebook whenever I get around to it :)

We did not start the trip until around 5pm on Friday b/c Rob had to work a 10 hour day. I had another bought of exhaustion (which means I felt like I had lead weights all over my body) that day, so I wasn't able to start packing until right before Rob came home. The kids and I had a great time loading up the bags, especially since each of the boys packed their own (with Mommy's supervision, or Matthew would have ended up with 3 pairs of pj's and nothing else!) We didn't take off until close to 6pm, but since we weren't on any time schedule, it didn't matter. We stopped for supper at Burger King (which was one town later than we remembered) and ate in the car. If you've tried sitting in any restaurant with 3 kids under age 5, you understand why :) We made one more stop after that, which I consider to be pretty good for our little group. Anna wasn't too happy, but she slept alot, so that helped :) Matthew's also pretty good about feeding her when necessary.

We made it to my parents' home by 10pm, so we made good time. The boys played for a bit and then Rob attempted to put them to bed. In the same bed. Yeah, that worked. They settled down by midnight when we finally turned off every light in the house. Anna played around in her crib until 11:30 when she gave up! Amazingly, Rob and I were both awake by 6am and ready to go on our breakfast date. We walked over to a restaurant downtown, but since they didn't take debit card (what is up with that anyway??) we walked back to Mom and Dad's, got the car, and drove to a different place. We had a yummy breakfast and then walked around Wal-Mart's toy department to get ideas for the kids for Christmas. We already have their presents (go ahead and be impressed) but we needed ideas for those who ask. And it's alot easier to look at toys w/o a chorus of "Can I have that? Can I see that? I want it!" to deal with.

After the date, we went back and found Mom trying to get the kids dressed. It would have helped if Matthew had put on HIS clothing instead of Ben's. :) We then went for a walk so Mom could show off the grandkids and then went over the park and played for a bit. Later, she and the boys went and picked apples off her tree while Anna napped. And napped. And napped some more, so we finally woke her up and fed her so we could get to the farm!

We had a wonderful time out at the farm. We ate ourselves silly and had a great time seeing family, both immediate and distant. Anna stayed on the blanket with her adorable cousin Jamie most of the afternoon. My boys (all three of them) were not as easy to keep track of. Once Matthew and Ben figured the place out, they were constantly on the go. There wasn't much trouble they could get into so we just let them run. There was a hay maze, a bunch of kiddie bikes and tractors to ride, a tire swing, tractor rides, a combine ride, and oodles of cousins to play with. I was surprised that Ben took off so much since he is the shy one, but he had a blast running around. We tried to wipe him off whenever he flew past, but dirt seems to find him so he went home pretty filthy. Matthew and Rob were harder to keep track of than Ben. Rob just gets caught talking to everybody. I prefer to stay in one spot and talk to people I know well, which was just a well since I was pretty tired that whole day.

We left just after the fireworks that evening and dumped the kids into a bath tub upon arriving back at my folks. Mom scrubbed down the boys (and probably the tub afterwards) and they went to bed. I was so exhausted that I couldn't see straight so Rob sent me to bed. Then I spent most of the night in agony from toothpain (no meds or Orajel worked for long) so I'm trying to find a dentist that will take our health plan (no luck yet..grrr....)

The next day found me too tired to go to church, but the rest of the fam went. Then my sister and her family came over and I got to bond with my niece, who napped on me for over an hour. I tried to steal her, but there wasn't enough room in the car. We left around 4 and got back around 8 with a pretty pleasant trip. We're tired today, but in good spirits.

I'm Okay

I saw the doctor today and found out I have a hormonal imbalance and will probably start medication if the problem recurrs. And I'm on iron tablets. Not nearly as scary as I thought.

In other way more important news, Matthew accepted Jesus as his Saviour on Sunday night. He has been talking about it for months and asking loads of questions ranging from simple to so complicated we need a doctorate to answer them! He made his decision at bedtime, but then was so excited that he kept Rob up for another hour asking more questions. At first I didn't know whether or not to believe it was real, but Rob said that if it wasn't, it was the best acting job he's ever seen. There is also a different light in Matthew's eyes and when he misbehaves, he acts guilty afterwards. It's so neat to see him already growing in his new faith. He's been telling everyone what he did.

Matthew's new mission field is Benjamin. He keeps telling Ben that he has two choices, heaven or hell. Ben repeats it by saying, "I have two choices, heaven or school." Since we're homeschooling, I'm thinking I'm just going to leave that one be for the time being :)

Me Update

I've been kind of quiet lately on Facebook and the blog, so here's why: I sprained my wrist. I hurt it a few weeks ago, but did some more serious damage on Monday. I'm probably going to get into trouble for even typing (as I hear Rob coming downstairs) but I thought I'd throw something up to let you all know what's going on.

I have also been extremely exhausted and had other symptoms so I went to the doctor on Monday (so convienient that I hurt my wrist that day!) I don't have thyroid problems, diabetes, liver trouble, kidney trouble, and I'm not pregnant. (As for the last one, I certainly wouldn't mind another child, I just couldn't handle another pregnancy. Maybe Rob could carry one....) So, I'm off to see another doctor on Wednesday for the other symptoms (if you really must know, contact me by e-mail....it's not going on a public blog.)

And that's me in a nutshell. I'll probably pay for all of this typing later...it kind of hurts right now.....

Squirrel Attack!!

The kids and I were outside this morning playing around. Matthew ran back inside to go potty and Ben joined Anna and I on the porch. Suddenly, two squirrels ran across our neighbors porch and tried to run across ours, but ran into Benjamin instead. (So glad the two-year-old protected me!) Anyway, we both yelled and the squirrels changed directions and headed for their tree. Matthew came back outside and I said, "Matthew! Two squirrels tried to attack Ben!"

Matthew said, "Well, I guess that's because they think Ben is nuts!"

Found Her!!

We have found a wife for Matthew. She turns four at the end of the month, is blonde, and very cute. They have played together in the nursery but miss each other since Matthew moved up to the 4's class. She and her mommy were here last night for my Stampin UP! party and she was too excited to nap b/c she got to play with Matthew. Her name: Kaitlyn.

How do we know he found her? Well, he kissed her. Before she had to leave, Matthew gave her a kiss on the lips. Then they looked at each other and wiped their mouths with the back of their arms. It was too funny! Her mom and I agreed that this little incident goes into the baby books!

I'll have to remind him of this when he goes through his "girls are gross" phase in a few years....

Wanted

Wanted: One wife for a four-year-old.

Last night during devotions, Matthew informed Rob that he needed a wife. He then asked, "Daddy, when am I going to get a wife?" You know, because that's just something we can pick up for him at Wal-Mart. Rob told him to wait just a few more years before worrying about this problem.

During our reading lesson yesterday, Matthew could not keep still. I've had to move from the couch to the table in order to corral him more, but he still could not sit still. In exasperation, I said, "Matthew, would you please just sit still?" His reply? "Mommy, I'm just a wiggly little boy!" Point taken, I'll get out the five-point harness....

Settling into a New School Year

We have just finished our first week with Rob going back to school. It really hasn't been as bad as I expected it to be. Last year, the kids went nuts and had to be retrained discipline-wise with Daddy out of the picture. Whatever we did with them this summer seems to have worked because I have not seen such good behavior out of them ever! Here are a few examples:

Mom's group was on Thursday of this week and afterwards we had the mad scramble to get our children out the door without having them run all over the church. The boys saw me and ran out of the nursery. I asked them each, individually, to go and sit on the bench by the nursery and wait while I picked up Anna. When I came out of Anna's nursery, the boys were actually sitting on the bench and waiting for me. I almost expected to hear Twilight Zone music playing! We all walked out (not quite together, they ran on ahead as I spoke to another mom) and they got into the car with a minimum of fuss.

Yesterday, we made our weekly trek to the library. We walk, seeing as it's just around the corner. I take my double stroller for safety reasons because I have been teaching Ben how to walk with me this summer. He has a leming-like tendency to run out in front of traffic...a habit that is most disturbing. We reviewed the rules and consequences before we left and then he stayed right with me, held onto the stroller as we crossed the street, and was a good boy. We reviewed the library rules right before entering the building. The boys even looked at books in the children's room while I quickly found one I was looking for in the education section. We reviewed check out rules in the elevator and they stayed with me while we checked out our books. Matthew even amused the libarian by signing "Curious George" for her and chatting about her desk being messy (that was b/c our books were on it!)

At home, they have been as active as usual, but still obeying. Rare is the time that I have to issue corporal punishment with either one of them. I have found that what works best with the boys is reviewing rules one step at a time, having them repeat the rule, and having them tell me the consequence of not following the rule. By repeatedly reminding them of the rules, they have learned what to do and are very good. A friend of mine from Cali gave me that advice and it works beautifully. Here's a sample conversation:

Mommy: Ben, what do we do when we're on a walk?
Ben: We stay with Mommy.
Mommy: Do we run across the street?
Ben: No.
Mommy: What happens if you run away from Mommy?
Ben: I have to ride in the stroller.
Mommy: Do you want to ride in the stroller?
Ben: No, I want to walk.
Mommy: So, what are you going to do?
Ben: Stay with Mommy.

I use this pattern for a lot of things we do and it works. They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and that sure applies to behavior!

Rob is enjoying his classes and does have less work overall, but still alot to accomplish. He's determined not to let things slide like last year, but last year he had a high-maintainence pregnant wife to deal with and lots more housework. He can focus more on schooling this year for sure. He has a total of 17 credits left, 8 this semester and 9 next, then he should graduate in May. After that he'll be hanging around here for another 3-4 years for seminary work because Maranatha now has a seminary! You can all now start praying for a larger home for us since we will outgrow this one very quickly. Three children in one bedroom works when they're small, but it won't much longer, especially since one is a girl!

Matthew is enjoying his schoolwork as well. He especially enjoys the reading book we are working on (that 100 lesson thing). I checked it out from the library to test it on him and he's doing well so far. His motivation to read is so he can read to Benjamin :) He's so cute!

That's is from our house right now. I need to go put a little boy down to nap so I can go grocery shopping and finish my string of errands. Saturday is the only full day I have access to the car, so I have to get as much done as possible!

Anna and Diet Coke

My five-month-old daughter is a Diet Coke addict. No, she has not actually consumed any of the beverage...she just really, really likes the cans. Any time that somebody has a can of Diet Coke, she lunges for it. We tried a few experiments to see if she was, indeed, in love with Diet Coke cans. First, we put her bottle of formula and a Diet Coke can in front of her. Every time, she reached for the soda. Thinking that perhaps it was the shiny can she wanted, we tried a can of Diet Dr. Pepper and one of Diet Coke. She still went for the Coke (and dumped it onto my plate, thus spoiling my dinner.) My mom was playing with a Pooh bear and Anna was grabbing at it. Then, my dad held up a Diet Coke can. She immediately ditched the bear and lunged for the can. Maybe it's b/c I couldn't get enough Diet Coke was I was pregnant with her or she's just her grandpa's girl, but she loves Diet Coke. She will not taste any for quite some time (although she tried to put a bottle of it in her mouth today) but she's free to enjoy looking at the can!!

Conversations

One thing I love about my children's early verbal skills is all of the conversations they have. It's been fun to watch the development between Matthew and Ben and how they have become best friends. When they were in the same nursery together, they pretty much only played with each other (well, unless Matthew was organizing the entire nursery into a Peter Pan pretend or playing train.) Matthew loves to explain the world to Ben, with periodic corrections from Mommy and Daddy, of course. Matthew has even taken to asking Ben what he's learning in Sunday school, which is always the topic of conversation on the ride home each Sunday. It's so cute to hear the responses!

Just today, the boys were looking outside, waiting for us to leave and Ben saw a woman jogging. He said, "She's running!" Matthew said, "Well, I guess that's because she's in a hurry." (I'm guessing that's why you jog, Beverly??)

Ben also likes to inform us of his every move. After grocery shopping today, he said, "I had gas in the car." SO glad he informed us of that one....

Rob has a four day weekend and then it's back to school on Tuesday. He has four classes this semester, eight credits, so it shouldn't be too bad. He does not have a Greek class, so we're hoping his load will be a little lighter. The boys are always crazier for the first two weeks after school starts, so pray for my patience!!!

And all four of the Fulkerson babies due this year have arrived. Caleb Allen was born last night, a little early, but good sized. We're excited to have so many new little ones!

Story from the Bat Cave

Batman now lives in our home. Today, he was fighting crime with Robin. Their weapons of defense were a stuffed lizard and a teddy bear. They searched the house for crime to fight and both had to whack the Batsaucer and make Batgirl cry. Alfred rescued her and fed her a bottle of Batjuice. All was then calm in Gotham City....

In other news, I won 3rd place in the library reading program (didn't realize it was a competition!) and I will get a $40 gift certificate to a local bookstore, Tribeca. Rob didn't win anything so maybe I'll let him hold my certificate for awhile :)

And Anna is now mobile. Well, in reverse, anyway. She managed to scoot herself into the corner between the entertainment center and the wall. Once she hit the hardwood, it was smooth sailing! Maybe she'll go forward one of these days. Rob and I have a bet going on when she'll be crawling. Loser cooks the dinner of the winner's choice. I can just taste those mushroom and swiss burgers now....did I mention that my guess was end of September and Rob's is beginning of November? I think I've got this one in the bag! Rob guessed later b/c he doesn't want to babyproof yet :)

Oh, Brother.....

Last night, Rob and I were discussing the children, as we often do, and I was remarking on how good Matthew's memory is. He just seems to remember everything! He also has a great sense of direction (so much that if I decide to go somewhere different from a place we frequent, he throws a fit b/c we're going the wrong way!) I said that with my sense of direction and Rob's memory, Matthew will never get lost anywhere! Rob's comment back was this, "Hmm...well, if Ben gets my sense of direction and you're memory, he'll forget that he was lost!"

Week One in Review

We just finished our first week of school. I'm tired, but I think it's more from the humidity than the schooling. (Can I get an "amen" from the heat-haters out there??) We had a great time and Matthew just loves it! I can't believe how much a little structure to the day has changed everything around here. The boys seem to be doing very well with it all, although they have been playing pretend alot more. One of the books I'm reading says that children play more when they have a new experience, giving them time to process everything. That's certainly true around here. I don't think Matthew lasted more than ten minutes with anything he was pretending two days ago. Everytime I turned around, he was something else. Pretending to be a turtle lasted the longest and he and Ben had to hang up their shells before bedtime. :)

Anyway, here are some of the things we did this week: Matthew has been working on his writing. He has Rob's amazing memory, so he had already learned to identify letters earlier in the summer. Now we're taking that up a level and trying to write them. He does pretty good at free-handing the letters, but I'm trying to get him to write them in a line. I have some tracing pages for him and he likes to work on them. It's getting better, I must say, quicker than I expected. He just loves doing it!

The kids both dictated an experience story this week about a family member. Rob took Ben into the living room and I took Matthew. Here are the stories:

Matthew: When Anna was a little, itty bitty baby, she spit up on me when I fed her. And then we washed my hands off. And then we put my pajamas on. Then, um, we went back downstairs with Benjamin, too.

Ben: Anna, well, Jesus Christ is holding her. Well, keys, Anna's keys, well (are you writing) she likes playing with her keys but she doesn't even lick them.

We've been reading the books off the list in my cirriculum guide and I have found the need to preview them. For example, we were reading "Little Red Riding Hood" and I didn't realize it was the original version, where she gets eaten by the wolf and the story ends. Matthew's expression at the end was priceless! My favorite book was "My Mother is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World."

In the afternoons, Matthew and I have been reviewing his three-year-old Brain Quest. He's ready for the next level for sure, especially since he memorizes things so quickly. Anyway, there was a picture of a telephone and the question was: What do you say when the phone rings? Matthew said, "Litwillers!" I'm still chuckling.....

We've played some Zingo as well, a great Discovery Toys game that I heartily recommend. Both boys can play it and they have a blast. Well, at least they usually do. Matthew got beat in three straight games, two by Mommy and one by Ben and then he said, "I don't like this because I keep not winning!"

All in all, we're having a great time. Matthew is disappointed that we aren't having school tomorrow, but he does have a great art project: painting his desk. Today Rob took the boys to Ace Hardware and had orange paint made (counts as a field trip, right?) and they are going to paint a desk that was given to us. It was blue and kind of yicky looking and Rob was trying to strip it and refinish it, but there are so many layers of paint on it that he thought he'd add one more instead. The boys are eager to begin painting. I may need to charge the camera batteries and get this experience on film...tee-hee....

And let's not forgot Miss Anna! She has found her feet and likes to eat them. She has learned that she likes to suck on animal crackers (blame Daddy for that one). And, she has outgrown both her bouncy seat and the swing. What a chunk!

I asked Matthew what he likes about school and he started to name the various things we've done this week, then he said, "Oh, I don't know. I just like it all!" Me, too!

First Day of School

Today we started our preschool adventure. Rob and I wanted to give it a snazzy name, but decided on a pretty generic one instead: Bob's Preschool. I like it, he likes it, and there's no real significance to it....

I have to admit that I did not spend hours in preparation for amazing lessons nor did I try to dazzle my small class with crazy art projects. Instead, we started simply. I am using a book called "Early Education at Home." It is geared towards 3-5 year olds and can also be used for kindergarten (although I was given a whole kindergarten cirriculum by a friend, so I'm set for the next two years.) The reason why I like this book is because I can really taylor it to meet the needs of my two little students. Matthew is in the middle-range, so some activities are too basic and some too challenging. Ben's at the beginning, so I can use the easiest things for him, but he won't be overwhelmed. Matthew enjoys the easy stuff, but is doing things more age-appropriate when Ben naps. At least that's the goal right now.

We began our day with chore time, which we instituted a few weeks ago to get the into the idea of a schedule. Then I introduced our school stuff to them. I have a folder for each of them with coloring and workbook pages that go along with the theme for the week (this week is "A", red, and creativity.) They will complete these pages during the course of the week. Matthew's folder also includes lined paper so he can learn to print his name. He does it already, but it's that early printing where the letters are all over the paper, not in a row. They each have a pencil box with age-appropriate supplies (i.e. Ben does not have scissors and a pencil sharpener.) We had our Bible lesson this morning, given by Daddy, and for the rest of the week will read books about families, which is the social studies focus.

We had quiet play time before "class" started and they enjoyed it because it included toys they had not seen all summer long. We had outside play afterwards and I gave them sidewalk chalk, which was a new thing for them. I'm really trying to keep a balance between sitting time and active time since they are boys!

Matthew ate up everything we did. He is so ready for schooling! I don't want to overwhelm him and burn him out, so we're just starting with small things and working our way up. I have loads of art supplies and learning tools, so we have a wide variety of things to do this year. Benjamin, on the other hand, threw a world-class fit the entire time. He woke up too early this morning and on those days, nothing makes him happy. I'm only including him b/c I know he'd just get into everything anyway...I have very few ambitions for him this year outside of learning his colors and shapes. I figure it doesn't hurt to have stuff for him to do while Matthew learns, but he's free to come and go. Matthew and I can work on other things while he naps.

What did Anna do all this time? Well, she was napping at first, then she ate during the Bible story, and then Daddy took her to get her pictures taken at Wal-Mart (sorry, Shelly!) She did take a very good picture, but managed to break down during the six obligatory required pictures. We have the print-out and it's pretty funny to see the digression of her tolerance to pictures!

I have a horrible cold right now and thought about putting this off until later in the week, but I figured that if I could teach a whole day like this when I was a paid educator, I can handle an hour or two with the little guys. It was fun, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow!

A Night Away

Rob and I have just returned from our first night away from the children since before Anna was born. It was very hard to leave my babies, but nice to be away. Rob's wonderful parents came up to watch the children, who had a wonderful time with their grandparents.

Originally, Rob's parents were going to send us to a bed and breakfast on our block, but we decided we wanted to at least get out of town, so we went to Johnson Creek, about 8-10 miles away. Not exotic, but fun for sure. After having lunch with everyone at Upper Krust, we headed out. We were a little early, so we shopped for a few minutes at the outlet mall and then checked in. My first order of business was a shower in a real shower. Our place has a claw foot tub, so there is no real shower, just a shower head. It's doesn't really bother us, but it's always nice to get a real shower in when we can.

We had supper at Fiesta Garibaldi, a local Mexican place. My favorite food is Mexican, so that was fun. We weren't sure if we would eat there or not so we decided we were going to do the read the menu thing and check out the place. When we entered, there was a live mariachi band, so I just asked to be seated. Rob was a little surprised at my boldness, but had a big grin on his face by the time we sat down. It was pretty loud, but a lot of fun and we knew we had a quiet hotel room to talk in anyway :) Oh, and the food was delicious!

We went back to the outlets to Harry and Davids, one of our favorite places. We usually buy some Moose Munch, but opted for some delicious coffee instead. Then it was back to the hotel to watch Micheal Phelps win his seventh gold by a very slim margin. We don't have channels on our TV, so it was a treat to watch some Olympic events, especially men's volleyball, which is Rob's favorite sport.

We kind of tooled around Johnson Creek for a bit this morning (which doesn't take long in a town only 2,000 strong) and then headed back home. We did some Wal-Mart shopping (always nicer w/o the little ones), went into GameStop, and then went home. Our little ones were happy to see us, especially Anna (who had a dirty diaper within five minutes of us being home--she only goes for me!!)

I did manage to catch Anna's head cold, so I'm pretty miserable right now. At least it held off until we were on our way home. We had a very nice time just being us again. Rob is my very bestest friend and time spent with him is always wonderful. We get pretty sarcastic when we're together and then just crack each other up, so much of our time together is spent laughing. I just love him to pieces! Next year is our 10th anniversary, so we'll have to come up with something big to do....like go to Jefferson, 20 miles away :) Maybe we should go crazy and make it to Milwaukee....

To the Zoo and Beyond!

Last Friday, we took a family trip to the zoo in Madison. The Custom Shoppe where Rob works has been shutting down on Fridays this month to recoop some losses (no worries on Rob's job--he was ranked second in the factory during evaluations--so proud of my man!) so Rob has had several three-day weekends. We all needed to get away, so we decided on the zoo. I don't think you can ever really outgrow going to the zoo, so we were all looking forward to it.

Now, let's stop and think about the Litwiller family for a moment, shall we? There are five of us. Two are in diapers, one drinks formula, one is transitioning out of strollers, and one is still fine-tuning staying with Mommy and Daddy. As you can well-imagine, we had our work cut out for us. Back to the story.

We arrived early only to find that the main parking lot was already full. Not too surprising, as it is a free zoo with free parking. We did manage to park close enough and then started unloading the passengers. Rob and I had a brief discussion on whether or not to let Ben walk. We opted for walking. We really should have known better, being former professional educators. Every teacher knows to start off strict and loosen up, not the other way around. We should have confined him first and let him run later, but it was too late...he was loose. He did stay with us pretty well up until later in the zoo....but I'll get back to that.

We wanted to get a picture of the kids in front of the zoo sign, but we got caught in a daycare herd, so we decided to try the pic on the way out instead. Our first stop was the lions, everyone's favorite. Last year, the male was roaring up a storm. This year, he was fast asleep. The boys roared for him (he did not even stir.) Then we decided to see the penguins, one of Ben's favorites. That's where the trouble started. Ben got to run in public! They watched the penguins for about five seconds and then wanted to take off. This started a trend of catching up with the boys, standing for a minute (maybe?) and then they were off to the next animal. Had we been at Brookfield, this might not have been a problem. But at a zoo as tiny as the Henry Villa, they would be done in half an hour at that rate! We finally "convinced" Ben to walk next to us while we made our way to the goats. (That was after he ran behind an employees-only gate.)

Feeding the goats was quite the fun event. Matthew laughed hysterically when the goats took the food from him, but Ben was rather scared and dropped his food right away. Rob showed him how to feed them and they had fun after that. I don't think I'll ever forget Ben's face when the goats were eating. Priceless!

We ran over to the children's area to play on the new playground and ride the carousel. The boys ran around while I fed Anna (who was far more interested in the carousel than her bottle!) The boys and I took a ride on it after Anna finished eating and they had a blast. Then it was off to more exhibits. We did put Ben in the stroller for the remainder of the trip and HE WAS NOT HAPPY!! Rob took his usual 100 or so pictures of bears in various poses (I might be exaggerating....maybe...) We decided we'd all had enough and headed off to lunch. We still had some gift certificates to the Cracker Barrel, so we treated the family. That was kind of crazy, but we were in a corner away from everyone, so that made it more tolerable...for the other patrons...

Sunday night, Matthew and I went to the library's pool party for those that finished the reading program. The rest of the fam went to an afterglow for our Sunday school class. Matthew had a great time. He was a little timid at first, but after he found some friends from church, he was good to go. He even said to me, "I'm okay now, Mommy. You can go back and sit on the bench." We found out there that we were one of the winners from the family program and we get a free pizza and a gift certificate to Mullen's, the local ice cream place. Matthew won a prize for his drawing as well, which was of Michael and Jane from Mary Poppins.

Rob and I are looking forward to Friday, we we go away overnight for our anniversary. Rob's parents are coming to watch the kids as we go to beautiful, exotic Johnson Creek (8 miles from here.) Can't wait!

Matthew's Bible Story

Every Sunday, we ask Matthew questions about what he learned in Sunday school and Junior Church. Here are excerpts from today's answers:

So there was this boy named Lazaras. He got very sick and died and then he had to go live in a deep, dark tomb. But not the same tomb that Jesus was in...it was a different one. And Jesus told them to roll a stone away and so they obeyed him and rolled it away and...Hey, Daddy, can we go home that way?

And in Sunday school, we are learning about David. We learn the same story EVERY week.

And the two girls that don't like me brought their Barbies today. They keep messing with me, but they didn't today. (Note to readers: I have no clue who he's talking about, but we've had discussions about being kind to others.)

And today I saw a large, plump goose on the way to church and I told my teachers about it and they laughed.

Pictures of Anna for Renee

Everywhere a Sign...

So, Rob and I are planning to teach the children sign language as part of their homeschool experience. Like most things we do around here, we started it on the spur of the moment. We really want them to regain the signs they lost as they began talking and be able to converse with their grandpa.

Well, the way we've been teaching them is the same way some friends of my parents taught their children when they had a daughter who was born deaf. If you want something, you have to sign for it. The boys are recovering some signs and now know coffee (mommy is an addict), pop gun, lemonade, bicycle, stroller, ice cream, and several others. We already own a sign language dictionary and checked out a more extensive one from the library. They run up to us and ask us to find signs for them. It's so neat to see them eager to learn.

Our method has already started to backfire, b/c Matthew is just a little too smart for his own good. He ran up to me tonight and asked what the sign for "bicycle" was. I looked it up, showed him, and he showed it back to me. Then he said, "Okay, I did it! Can I go ride mine now?" Next he'll be asking what the signs are for candy, new toy, and no bedtime are....

In other news, Miss Anna is a VERY LOUD little girl. She loves to play in her exersaucer and yell at us. Rob taught her how to yell and she does it all of the time. I think she's competing with the boys, because she yells the most when they are loud. They have taken to playing with her and making her laugh while she's in the thing. Ben has not been hostile toward her for a long time, and I think it's because he no longer sees her as a threat, but as a toy. It's a good thing the Lord made her a big, sturdy girl! He likes to spin her around in her exersaucer and she loves it! I almost stopped him, but when I saw how much fun the two of them were having, I didn't intervene. They are bonding and I want them to be great friends. She's just such a happy girl!

Our Hometown Vacation Continues

Well, last week was pretty hot. Not "fry an egg on your sidewalk" hot, but more like humid mixed with a little heat. Today I think I could wring out the air and get a glassful of water. In spite of (or because of, in some cases) the heat, we managed a little family fun. I got the boys out to the park on Thursday and Friday. The poor little guys were too warm on Thursday to play on the equipment, so they had fun under the shade trees instead. We went to a different park on Friday, and they had too much fun exploring a new playset to notice the heat much. I had a caterpillar-type-bug loving on my ankle repeatedly (I must be tasty to caterpillar-type-bugs) so I had to move the bench at least once to get away from the guy! Though I do not dress in girlie clothes, I am a girlie girl when it comes to dirt and bugs! Icky! After the park, I let the boys buy water guns to chase each other in the front yard b/c our backyard is home to several swarms of mosquitoes and we can't put up their pool.

Anyway, we had been hemming and hawing about whether or not to go to Riverfest this year. We finally decided not to and went to a little subdivision having garage sales instead. This supposedly huge neighborhood sale had only four and all of them had clothing that was the wrong sizes for my kids. Matthew did use a bathroom there and left his dollar on their sink, so I guess we used a pay toilet unexpectedly. On the spur of the moment, we decided to go to the craft fair at Riverfest. Yup, three children under five, and we did something on the spur of the moment. We're so cool.

We hit McDonald's first for those great $1 large drinks so we had something to sip and then made our way to the park. We actually found parking in the surrounding neighboorhood without too much trouble (even in the shade!) and hiked down to the park. Of course, we had to walk right past all of the carnival rides and I thought I was going to have to put Matthew's eyes back into his head. He still had a lot of birthday money leftover and he knew it, so he wanted to do some rides. Since they weren't open yet, we "convinced" him to go to the craft fair first. The island where the booths were had been underwater in the June flood, but was fine now, so that was nice for them. There were a lot of booths, but nothing much that interested us. There was a homemade soapmaker, but not the kind I use, and no card-making people to steal ideas from. Rob found a few ideas at wood making booths, but Matthew hit the jackpot. He bought himself one of those wooden gun things that makes a loud popping sound when you play with it. He and Ben have had great fun with it (and yes, it is orange, his favorite color.)

We met up with some people from church and talked for a bit. Then we hit the food stands. Many of the local eateries and restaurants have booths, so you can get a good taste of a lot of places you might not normally visit. We had gyros (pronounced yee-ros) and baklava and the boys had corn dogs. Yummy! Rob even found six extra food coupons on the ground which helped with the meal. He's convinced that had he looked hard enough, he could have paid for the whole meal for free. What a scavenger!

After lunch, we hit the rides. Matthew had $14 left, so I was able to get the 15 ticket deal for $13 (just to show how crazy carnival ride prices are) and that got us a total of five rides. Hmm...two boys, five rides.....how to divide evenly? Have Mommy take them on the Ferris Wheel! Matthew loved it, but Ben was a little scared. He sat very still the entire time and informed me at one point that he didn't like it when we go down. He was okay afterwards, but I'm not sure we could have gotten him to go again. The boys then went on a bumble bee ride and Ben hung on for dear life. I think he'd hit his ride limit, but Matthew wanted to go on everything, even the stuff he's way too little for! I have my ride buddy.....when he hits four feet!!

So, we had a great time. Totally impromptu, but great. In the aftermath, however, we discovered the need to keep hats in the car. Rob's poor bald head is still rather red. I tried to get him to wear his Bob the Tomato tie on Sunday, but he wouldn't b/c he was interpreting. Get it, Rob the tomato, Bob the tomato....I'm so silly.

Next vacation destination....the Madison Zoo!

Silly Children

My kids are pretty funny. Even though they can drive me crazy sometimes (at least once a day) they are pretty humorous. See below examples:

Benjamin came downstairs with his pajamas on the other day and had his pants both inside out and backwards. (But for a child not quite two-and-a-half, that's pretty good!) I told him that his pants were backwards, so he proceeded to try to correct the problem. Now, had he been wearing a skirt, his method would have worked. But you can't expect to turn pants around while they are still on your body. He did manage to get the tag behind him, but then he couldn't walk.

Anna is a very happy baby and laughs at everything. If she sees a family member, she'll squeal in delight. Matthew got her laughing pretty hard today when he was making shooting noises with a toy. He then entertained her for a long time. He is the only one that can really get her going! She is also enjoying an exersaucer we borrowed from a friend. Our nephew is still using the one we used for Ben, so we asked some friends if we could use their's. Anna seems to want that kind of stuff earlier than the boys did. Oh, we also gave her some rice cereal today, but she didn't seem to care for the idea of eating that way, so we'll wait awhile and try again.

Matthew loves to play pretend, but can't stay with one pretend for very long. First he's a pirate, then he's Merlin (he just got Sword in the Stone), then he's a superhero, then he's the villian, then he's a pizza maker, then he's some other thing from his imagination. It's fun to watch him bounce from person to person. Ben plays right along and switches with him!

Let's not forgot the silly mother of these kids. We went to church tonight and I forgot to pack diapers for Anna in the diaper bag. Good thing she didn't really need a change!

Rob may be the only normal one around here, which makes sense, because he was born in Normal....

Oh, the Horror!!

Today we took Matthew and Anna for their well-child/baby exams. I thought it would be a great idea to schedule them together to save on time. I now think it was a terrible idea. Rob likes it, but I think I'd rather have time to focus on each child individually. The doctor seemed to have fun with the whole family in the room, so he and the kids had a great time!! (He has three children within a four year span as well, so at least he understands!)

Anyway, Anna was first, so we went back to have her weighed and measured. She is 25 1/2 inches long and 15lbs 15oz, putting her solidly in the 90th percentile for both. Her head measured in the 65th percentile. She is just one big baby girl!! She eats 30 oz a day, so she's not overeating. It just proves that some of us were born with the genes to be more loveable and squishy than others (so there.) She smiled and cooed and showed off. Before the doctor came in, the boys joined us so he could examine the kids together. Yikes.

Matthew had already been weighed and measured, 37lbs and 43 inches. We finally have an explanation for why he seems to be so skinny. He weight is at the 50th percentile, but his height is at the 95th. We were told not to worry about him, so we won't. :) He got through his exam just fine, although he and Ben decided that the exam table was a jungle gym. Ben also discovered the lights...repeatedly....and had to be put into the stroller. We brought Matthew's Leapster, so that calmed him down a bit.

Our concern with Anna was formula brand and her cradle cap. I switched her to the Parent's Choice brand, which is half the cost of Similac. I brought him the labels to have him check the vitamins and minerals and stuff, and he said the switch was fine. $12 a can as opposed to $25 a can....hmmm.....really, a no-brainer unless you have to use the expensive stuff. (I spoke with a mom recently who has a baby with severe allergies and his formula is $60 a can!!) To paraphrase a formula company "Breast is best, but if you have to use formula, go with Parent's Choice!!!"

Then, it was shot time. Matthew went first. He had four of them to get and he did not fair well. One was supposed to go into the fat on his arm.....yeah, right! The kid doesn't have any fat on his body, let alone his arm, so that didn't go over well. My little drama king let everyone in Watertown know that he DID NOT LIKE SHOTS!!! That upset Anna, who cried before she even got her shots!! She screamed and screamed with her three pokes, then I fed her a bottle and she conked right out.

And then the Litwillers went to McDonald's and made it all better. And now the two poked ones are sleeping....the short-term benefit to immunizations.

Can't wait until we get flu shots! (Which we ARE getting this year b/c I want to prevent the madness that was our sick season last year!!!)

Kid Funnies

Matthew: Here is his Bible story for today (he told this to Benjamin.) So, Jesus and the disciples were on a boat and the storm came. Jesus made it all calm and they all got off the boat. Then they found some scurvy pirates and made them walk the plank.

Ben: After retrieving his milk from the fridge, he said, "It's very cold. But that's okay, because it'll cool off soon."

Anna: She just giggles and laughs and coos. We were asking her if she likes any boys in the nursery, and she kept getting exctied about one boy in particular. He is the pastor's grandson, so that's okay. Hmmm...but he's only two months old and she's four month's old...is that still considered robbing the cradle??

Summer Fun

Well, the Litwiller's are going on vacation all summer long. That's right, folks, we're vacationing in Watertown! All the fun (and headaches) of vacation without leaving the comforts of home (although air conditioning would be nice.)

Two weeks ago we took the kids to Lights and Sirens at the park. We left just as a thunderstorm hit, so we sat in the car for about 20 minutes. The boys got restless and started complaining, so Rob threw them out into the elements...just kidding! We waited until the storm died down and then Rob took the boys out to see the myriad of firetrucks and police cars, all flashing their lights and activating their sirens (hence the name of the activity). We got lots of safety info, the most fun being the Mr. Yuck stickers. They got to sit in a fire truck, which was great fun for them, but Matthew refused to honk the horn. Anna actually did okay with all that noise, but kept looking at me for affirmation.

Another fun Litwiller family adventure was going to the 1 year anniversary of the opening of the Piggly Wiggly. The boys jumped around in a bounce house, got their faces painted, got balloons, and ate cheap hot dogs. And that's about it for that one.

We finished up the family reading program at the library by answering all of the questions on our scavenger hunt. I wrote a poem about the boys killing an ant for part of it, so we'll see how that goes over. We're now entered in a drawing and we'll see in August if our efforts were in vain or if we get some cool family prize.

We celebrated Matthew's 4th birthday this past Saturday. He received lots of cards, a Leapster, money, a Wooly Willy game thingy, and a bike from Mom and Dad. (He got the bike back in May so he could ride it all summer.) Grandma and Grandpa Litwiller were here for the festivities. We had a big cookie in lieu of a cake (he wanted orange and Wal-Mart was all out of them). There was a fundraiser at Ace Hardware which included a bounce house, so we took the boys to that. We all went to McDonaldn's afterwards, so I'd say Matthew was thoroughly indulged.

Now we're trying to get the house straightened up. Since housekeeping is not one of my spiritual gifts, that job may take forever. And ever. And then some.

The next great Watertown adventure is in a week, when Riverfest occurs. The boys will get to ride some terrific carnival rides...well, Matthew, anyway. Ben's afraid of heights, so we'll see how that one goes.

I really hope this post made sense. I'm tired. I blame the media, because they are easy targets.