Adventures at Kmart

Yesterday afternoon we decided to go to our nearest Kmart so the kids could spend a gift card they had received at Christmas. We don't normally shop at Kmart (I could write a whole post on our evil San Jose Kmart) so the kids were excited to see a new store. We headed into Oconomowoc and piled out for a junior-sized spending spree.

I told the kids that I wanted them to buy a clothing item that they need first. They don't have too many needs thankfully, so they didn't complain about giving up some of their money for that purpose. Matthew needed a new pair of khaki dress pants, Ben needed underwear, and Anna...well, Anna didn't really need any clothing so I thought we'd look for dresses for next year. Matthew found pants pretty quickly while I took Anna to the little girls section. Kmart apparently does not believe in dresses, because I could not find any in her size. We did discover that Kmart is the place to shop for Kai-Lan apparel! Anna found pjs, a jacket, and a shirt. We turned down a pants outfit that just looked goofy and footie pjs. I got her larger sizes so she can still wear them next year. After that, I rescued Rob, who was having a hard time sizing underwear for Ben. Mom quickly got him set and we were off to electronics and toys.

Anna found a Wow Wow Wubbzy DVD for $5 but the boys didn't see anything they wanted. So we trooped over to toys. For the next HOUR we looked over everything the toy deparment had to offer. Twice. Matthew had originally wanted a Lego set, which would have easily finished off his gift card. We found one left and then looked for Ben. Kmart had ONE Riddler car that went with their Batman sets, so of course BOTH boys wanted it! I left Rob to handle that situation and looked at girl toys with Anna. We found a pair of plastic high heels that she HAD to have and that was it. Her money was pretty much spent at that point and she really didn't want anything else anyway. I went back to the boys and we looked over EVERYTHING before going back to the Lego set. After much deliberation, Ben gave up the Riddler car to Matthew and got himself some Buzz Lightyear gear and Hamm from Toy Story. Matthew couldn't find a second toy he wanted that met with Mom and Dad's approval, so we went back to the movies. He found a DVD he's been wanting and we ended with that.

We were pretty surprised when the total came up and it was $30 less than we thought! Turned out Matthew's DVD was on sale and Anna's clothes were all half off. Rob still has to spend a Sears gift card and since the kids' cards are also good at Sears, we'll wait for that trip to spend the rest of their money. I was pretty tired afterwards, so Rob let me use my gift card to Culver's for my supper :)

And I think the funniest thing I saw yesterday was Anna trying to walk in her high heels while wearing pajama pants that are WAY too long. I think that might be another ER trip waiting to happen....

Christmas 2010

Friday morning we rolled out of bed and hit the road by 7:30am. And then stopped at Wal-Mart on the edge of town to get some Dramamine for Matthew. I think they hid it on me, because I spent a very long time tracking the stuff down, only to find it tucked away in a tiny corner of the pharmacy. I purchased it and hurried to the car, handing Matthew a pill to take. A full adult dosage. Needless to say, Matthew spent most of Friday in a stupor and was unusually quiet :) Poor kid....we remembered to give him half a dose for the return trip!

Our trip down was pretty crazy, as we had snow the entire way. Rob and I were pretty awake the entire time and only hit a few icy patches. The worst ice was on the street turning into my parent's alley...slid right past the drive! When we arrived, we were greeted by my mom and my adorable niece, Makenzie. We had a nice lunch and then kicked around for most of the day eating yummy treats and enjoying being together. We opened gifts in the afternoon: Matthew received Lego Batman for the Wii, Ben got a spiffy rescue helicopter, and Anna got two Kai-Lan playsets. We also received many other small gifts and lots of yummy candy :)

My poor daddy woke up with the stomach virus that is going around (we didn't give it to him, thankfully!). We did have a nice breakfast with Mom, then we packed up the car to head in to Normal for the Litwiller Christmas. Family members trickled in throughout the early afternoon and then we settled down in the living room to open gifts. Rob and I were in charge this year and it went a little better, but I think the age of the children will prevent smooth present opening for a few more years yet. The kids all received lots of clothes, handmade pillows and towels, and one big gift each. Ben completed our Toy Story trio by getting Woody, Matthew got a new Star Wars Lego set, and Anna now has lots of new dress-up clothes to play with! There were all kinds of other gifts as well and a good time was had by all.

After supper, Rob and I, along with Ben, went over to visit his grandfather, who wasn't feeling well that day. We had a nice visit, then returned to put the kids to bed. They fell asleep pretty quickly, giving Rob and I some time to work on a weight-loss plan for myself. It's pretty elaborate, but I think it will work.

We attended church with Rob's parents the following morning. I decided to keep Anna with us in the service. She did okay for a while, then got fairly antsy. We walked for a bit then tried to rejoin the service, but she got bit pretty hard by that wiggle worm. I was VERY thankful when the service ended and I could dump her in Rob's arms, who had been interpreting for his dad during the service.

We ate lunch then packed up the car to leave. The kids all fell asleep within 30 minutes of leaving and slept until we were about 40 minutes from home. We let them get McDonald's for supper, using some gift certificates they had received for Christmas from our neighbors. They had a great time rediscovering all of the things they got for Christmas and kept themselves pretty busy until bedtime.

Today we had intended to rearrange the study and straighten it some, but Rob finally came down with a harder version of the stomach bug. I went grocery shopping instead and ran a few errands, then worked on some other things. The kids have had a grand time today playing with new toys and we even got Anna to take a nap this afternoon. Hopefully we'll be feeling better and more able to tackle the study tomorrow!

Christmas at Home

This morning, we opened up gifts with our own little family. We plan to travel to Illinois tomorrow for the Fulkerson side Christmas, followed the next day by the Litwiller side Christmas, followed the next day by a trip home with tired-but-happy children. At least that's the plan :) Maybe we'll leave the kids....

We have all spent the week recooperating from the stomach bug that ran through the whole family. Matthew and I were down and out on Monday and Rob got a milder version of it somewhere in there. The Christmas goodies have been safe from all since none of us could stomach sweets until yesterday! Rob took today off and we had a great time with our little family.

The kids woke up a little earlier than usual this morning and we did our traditional walk down the stairs, grabbing our stockings on the way. The children bought the stocking stuffers and did a great job picking out candy for each other. They stocked up Mommy with Reese's cups and Daddy with chips and Coke. :) Then we sat down to open our gifts. We had two family presents this year: a Veggie Tale CD and a Bible Trivia game. Then we started with Anna and went around opening gifts. Anna received the Barbie from Toy Story 3 and Jessie. She has NOT put Jessie down all day long! Ben received the Batcave and The Penguin. His gift was the biggest for sure and he's had loads of fun playing Batman today. Matthew received a star watching set, the Joker's Funhouse, and several other Batman bad guys. He too has had a blast all day long! Rob bought me a gift card to Culver's to curb my insatiable appetite for cheeseburgers and I made him four scrapbook pages to put on his bulletin board at work.

The kids played all day long while Rob and I finished up some chores and I finished making a few more Christmas presents. Anna and I both took naps this afternoon. She isn't taking regular naps anymore, but she has been awfully cranky recently, so I thought a nap was in order. My stomach kept me up some last night, so I needed a nap as well.

Tonight after supper, we will drive around looking at Christmas lights, then return home to pack for our trip to Illinois. It looks like we'll be driving down in some snow tomorrow, so we're going to leave early in the morning. Should be fun!

The Good, the Bad, and the Disappointing

We had a pretty full evening schedule this week and were looking forward to having some fun with friends. The week started off pretty well and ended up being disappointing. And icky.

Tuesday night we babysat for a couple of friends of ours. Maranatha was having their faculty Christmas party so we were asked to watch five extra kids. Anna was the youngest to be in our home, so it went pretty smoothly. I find older children MUCH easier to watch than the little ones! We had two third-grade boys, two first-grade girls (plus our own 1st grader), two four year-old boys (one being Ben), and Anna. Anna trailed after the older girls in a hero-worship trance for most of the evening, copying everything they did. The three older boys played with Legos and Ben and his friend just fit into the cracks. For having eight kids in the house, it was pretty quiet!

Wednesday night was our last night of Truth Trackers for the year. Ben came home with a blue candy cane (and a blue mouth) and Matthew had loads of papers and stuff from the "store." He also had an impromtu Christmas program practice since church had been cancelled on Sunday. He wasn't too happy about that, but at least they got in an extra rehearsal. Ben also came home with a stomach bug that manifested itself early Friday morning. We'll get to that in a bit.

On Thursday, one of the families we babysat for returned the favor and sent us on a date. We have actually watched their kids a few times this fall, so not only did they babysit, they bought us a gift card to a mystery restaurant. THAT was fun! We got dressed up, dropped off the kids, THEN found out our destination! We ended up at Hi-Way Harry's in Johnson Creek. Sounds like a greasy spoon, but it's actually a rather nice steakhouse. We had a secluded booth and a very nice dinner. We did some brief shopping at the outlet mall then went back to get the kids. Anna cried piteously about leaving--she's never seen so many big girl toys!

At about 2:30am Friday, we woke up to the sounds of Ben getting sick in the bathroom. I'm SO thankful he was able to make it there! We got him resettled into bed and didn't hear anything more for the rest of the night. He woke up feeling fine, but got sick again. He spent the rest of the day on the couch and conked out for the night at 6pm. We had to skip our Sunday school class party that night, but that was the one event we looked forward to the least, mainly b/c it was a family party and we'd have to corral kids AND pay attention to the adult events. Instead, Rob and I finished up dipping buckeyes and oreo balls to prepare for Saturday.

Everyone seemed fine Saturday morning, so we plated up candy and drove around town to deliever 12 plates of goodies to Sunday school teachers, Truth Tracker workers, and my upline. 9 of the 12 were home, so we considered that to be pretty successful. The kids had a great time getting out at their own teacher's house to deliver goodies. All three of them delivered to one of Anna's teachers because they all love her so much. We got to go inside and see her husband's huge train collection, which the kids all enjoyed. Rob too! In the afternoon, I ran Matthew to Christmas program practice and stayed there for 2 hours. He would not go unless he knew I was in the building, so I took some stamp stuff and worked on my remaining Christmas cards. After that, we picked up the rest of the family and went to a friend's house for dinner.

We have been trying for months to get together with them and finally had a time where everyone was healthy and the weather was cooperating (they live in a town 40 mintues away.) Or so we thought. As we sat down to dinner, Anna looked a little uncomfortable, so I ushered her into the bathroom. She threw up right as we reached the door, then finished in the toilet. Rob and I cleaned up the mess and our hostess got her a change of clothes. Thankfully, they have a daughter Anna's age. She seemed fine and I attributed it to drinking juice too quickly...until she got sick again. We helped clean up that mess and quickly ushered our family out the door. Anna made use of her new bucket on the way home and collapsed on the couch when we arrived. Ben was sick again in the night, so I knew I'd be keeping two children home today.

Ugh. Both Anna and Ben were to have sung in the Christmas program today. The 2s and 3s haven't sung in a program since Matthew was 2 and I was so looking forward to seeing my cute little girl in her Christmas dress up on the stage. I had some cute red bows for her hair and was planning pig tails. Ben's group hasn't sung in a long time either so he missed out. Rob took Matthew and video taped the whole thing. He did a great job singing and behaved very well during the dramatic portions of the program. And he looked VERY handsome in his little suit, complete with a gap in his teeth where he lost a tooth yesterday! My plans had included our family celebrating after church at the Chinese buffet, but those plans are obviously out.

We have nothing going on this week prior to Thursday other than taking candy plates to our neighbors. Hopefully we're all healthy enough to do that!

Anna at the Cantata

Our services were cancelled Sunday morning, but by early afternoon the weather had cleared and the cantata was still on for Sunday night. We decided to bring Anna into the service with us, thinking she'd be quiet enough. She will be joining us on Sunday nights normally when she turns 3 in a few months anyway, so this is a good time to start her transition. I informed her that she could come with us and she looked at me with her big, blue eyes and asked, "I'm a big girl to go to the service?" I told her yes, but that she had to stay quiet.

By the time we arrived for the cantata, most of the seats toward the back were taken up by college students. They are supposed to be reserved for families with small children, but either the ushers didn't put up the signs or the students moved them (which is frequently the case.) And since MBBC would not let students travel out of town for services that day, most of them ended up at our church. Yipee. We found our way toward the front of the auditorium, about four or five pews from the front. I was a little nervous, but thought Anna could handle it.

We rose for the first song and Anna sang mightily....until she realized she didn't know the song and looked up at me for encouragment. I smiled back at her and she continued singing. What, I don't know, but she sang with all her might! She slipped her little hand into mine part way through the song. She was fairly quiet at first, but could NOT sit still. There was a whole row of college guys behind us that were fairly amused with her behavior. She turned to look at them at one point and then said to me, "It's not funny to laugh at me!" I guess they were chuckling at her! One did approach us afterwards and told us how cute she was :)

When the choir began singing, Anna stood up and urged me to do the same. I guess she figured we HAD to stand whenever there was singing. I tried to explain it to her, but no deal. She stood at each new song and sat during the readings. And wiggled. A lot. I brought a quiet board for her, but she didn't want to do it. She did, however, want lip balm and mints from my purse. I finally got tired of the wiggling and traded children with Rob. Ben was on his lap to see better and sitting MUCH more quietly. Anna did okay with Rob until he tried to get her to look at Pastor Morris, who was playing the main character. She thought Rob wanted her to GO to Pastor Morris and kept trying to clarfiy the instructions. Very loudly. It was at this point that Rob took her for a little walk and put her in the nursery. She wasn't too happy about it, but at least we enjoyed the rest of the cantata in peace and quiet.

After we left church that night, I asked Anna why she went to the nursery. She told me that she was too loud. At least she understands and we're hoping to have her fully transitioned into the service before she turns three. It's such a blessing that both boys behave perfectly in the service now (even if they are not always the most cheerful about it!) She was so happy to be included with us and I think that desire will help her train a little quicker. Or at least I HOPE it does. :)

Glitter and Sprinkles

The kids and I had a great time on Tuesday at a homeschool craft day. The library in Johnson Creek hosted their second annual Christmas craft day and had oodles of craft ideas and supplies for the kids. I was a little hesitant to take Anna because I knew I would have my hands full with Ben and Matthew. She did take a bit of watching at first, especially since all she wanted to do was add glitter to her projects! After making sure Matthew was okay and Ben was settled, I did let her do some glitter. And then she had to have glitter on EVERYTHING! I think next time (around Valentine's Day) I'll take my Stampin Up trays with me to help contain the mess. We did find her an easy project toward the end: a stocking with foam stickers. She made four of them and had a grand time picking out her own stickers. She was the tiniest one there, but pushed right in with the big kids to get her supplies!

The boys had a great time as well. Ben enjoyed himself, but Matthew was really in his element. He just loved making as many crafts as he could, and some of them turned out quite nice. He decorated his bed with them when we got home. I had to laugh because there was a ten-year-old at the table that kept copying Matthew's work. He's hosting a "Mommy and Me" stamp party in January and I know he'll be in his element.

We all made it to church on Wednesday night (yay!) and since the cantata was going on and I wasn't in it b/c my voice isn't quite back yet, I floated around and helped in a couple of different ministries. It was so nice to have all of us attend together! The second cantata performance is supposed to happen tomorrow night, but since we're in the middle of a blizzard that won't end until late tomorrow I'm sure it will be canceled. And that's okay...we'll just sing to ourselves :)

This morning I had a demo Christmas party to attend. We did a shoebox swap, where each demonstrator designed a card, cut the pieces for it, and then we all went around and made each other's cards. It was a fun time and we enjoyed a potluck lunch in the middle of all that stamping.

This afternoon, the kids and I went to a cookie decorating party. Last year, only Ben and I went b/c it was limited to just the children in his SS class, but the mom hosting the event opened it to siblings. Matthew and Anna were very excited to be included. Anna was ready to go about two hours prior to the event! Since we couldn't bring cookies due to the broken oven, I made a double batch of frosting and brought sprinkles. We had a great time with the decorating, although Anna was about as liberal with the sprinkles as she was with glitter! The weather was just starting to turn ugly as we were leaving, so it was good timing. We were supposed to have supper at the home of a friend 35 minutes away, but we cancelled. Hopefully we can reschedule soon!

We're going to have a kid-filled week coming up. We will have 8 children running around here Tuesday night as we babysit for some faculty kids during the MBBC Christmas party. Then on Thursday, one of those families is returning the favor as Rob and I go out on a date. Fun!! Friday is our Sunday School Christmas party, which included the kids. So lots of stuff going on, but it's all fun stuff :)

In the Christmas Spirit

Snow is falling outside and I just feel like I'm getting into the Christmas mood! We have the tree up and decorated and the rest of my decorations are up as well. We don't have a lot of surface area for many of my knick knacks, so I just put up the few I wanted to enjoy this year. We also are doing a sort-of advent calendar. It's a countdown calendar from Stampin Up. We sat down as a family last night and put the kit together, then hung it up on our wall. The kids are excited about opening up each box to find the goodies inside. Some days it's candy, other days fun family activities. Rob and I even wrapped presents last night!

Anna had her stitches out yesterday. Rob took her back to Urgent Care to have them removed. We didn't want her to associate her regular pediatrican with the pain of suture removal, hence the reason we took her back to the hospital. They had a bit of a wait, then the torture began. Rob said she sat a little better this time, but by the second stitch she was crying pretty hard. Her great-grandmother had sent her a card and a dollar, so when they were done Rob and Anna hit the vending machine for some M & M's.

We are continuing to work on the rearrangement of some furniture around here. The boys and I have switched dressers. They are finally to the point where they need more drawer space. I cleaned out some clothes I no longer need and found I don't need much space at all! So they have the bigger dresser and Anna and I are sharing the smaller one. Anna previously just had a soft box to store her clothing, so she's pretty excited to have a real dresser. Rob moved our bed so that the offending part of the frame faces the wall. Our room looks much bigger with the switch! The last thing we will do is move a bookshelf from our living room to the upstairs. We took it from some friends who needed to get rid of it, but we haven't had a real purpose for it until now.

The boys continue to do well in school. Ben is on lesson 73 of his reading book and we've decided to stop at lesson 90. There isn't much new information to learn after lesson 90 and I remember Matthew being so bored with the rest of the lesson book. I checked out some level 1 readers for Ben and he's excited to read "real" books. We have even filled out an application for his own library card. Matthew took a unit test on Friday over his first 10 math lessons and was a little intimidated at first, but he received a perfect score, so it wasn't quite so bad after all.

Time to finish my last little bit of decorating, then I'm planning to stamp away the rest of this beautiful snowy day!