You & Me Going Fishin'

On Mother's Day we went to Brooklyn to try out Ally & Drew's new fishing poles that Grandma Rhonda got them. Everyone but Tana and I went to a friend's pond that is swarming with gullible fish just waiting to bite anything put in the water - literally!

Before they left farm, they spent some time searching for worms. Drew is grossed out by snot, but will touch and hold worms and fish. I don't get it.

Ally and Drew had so much fun and were proud of their catches. They brought home the scaled fish. I am not sure who is eating them, but pretty sure that it won't be Ally or Drew. I guess the princess and transformer fishing poles really did work.

Happy Anniversary

Happy 157 Months! Wow we have been dating for a long time!

Sleepy Girl

Why oh why will you not stay asleep! Tana is going through a fussy stage - or at least we hope it is just a stage. I guess I need to just put her down to sleep before she gets outrageous, but she is so sweet when she isn't crying - which lately is seldom! She is 7 wks old and between 12 and 13 pounds. She loves to give grins and prefers her Mommy over anyone else.

Hannah Montana & Goofy

We had a BBQ on Saturday night with a ton of friends from church. It is going to be a monthly deal so if you around - join us. I haven't set the June date yet! There were tons of kids but most were a couple years younger than them, so they were a little overwelmed. They are used to being the only kids around. By the end of the night you couldn't see either of their floors in their room. One sweetie even found Ally's make-up! Drew was very concerned that one of his Cars would sneak home with someone.

We had a blast though. Ally played dress up with her new Hannah Montana costume and made Daddy stop what he was doing to go get the camera. She asked a couple of the little kids if they liked Hannah Montana and they stared at her blankly. She really wanted to do a rock concert with them, but they didn't get it yet.

Drew is just plain funny looking. If Ally gets her picture taken, he wants some of the action.

Creative Use of Tissue Paper

After opening my Mother's Day present - I got a new garnet ring (my birthstone), the kids took the tissue paper and made some slippers. You wouldn't believe how fast scotch tape goes around this place. I have to hide it from Ally. She still finds it and then it is gone when I need it!

Let's just say that our kids are goofy!

Reading to Lil' Sis

Drew and Ally were resting on the couch reading books. Tana decided to sit on each of their laps and listen to them tell her the story. She loved it until they would make her fall over into an awkward position. Ally & Drew aren't very coordinated to get her back up sitting.

I must admit these are posed, but they were precious!

Both kids love Tana very much if she isn't crying - which is most of the evening. She also HATES her carseat which is unusual for a newborn. She typically screams no matter where we go in the van - quite fun and makes everyone want to leave the house with Tana.

Just Shy of 6 Weeks!

We are home and the camera is usually close by. I get a lot of pictures of Tana, but when the indians come home I am good if I can keep my head above water!

I am going a little crazy. We are ready to move up in some of her clothes, but for the life of me can't find my 3-6 month summer clothes box. I had to go get some sleepers today since she is getting too long for some. I don't remember loaning them out - so where could they be?

Clothes update - ah we need to reorganize the storage room (or put stuff away when we get it out). The tub was in the middle of the floor under my picture box and winter outside rug. I am so excited to have all those fun girlie clothes back! (not that they were ever really gone)

T-Ball Season!

Drew & Ally have been practicing t-ball for about a month now. Jason is one of the "coaches" (aka crowd control!). They have been anticipating their first game for quite some time. I was at a track meet so I was unable to be there, but thanks to Val I have some great pictures!

Ally & teammates giddy with excitement! (Drew is the 4th kid)

Ally up to bat.

Drew up to bat.

Poor Tana didn't get to go either. She had her first babysitter - Ms. Lori. Lori got to break in her glider and practice using it. I think she will be ready for Baby Lary in October!

Ally's Birthday Party

What was I thinking? Last year I said that I wouldn't have 13 girlies in my house all at once again, but never said that I wouldn't do a big party with her whole class again. She insisted having a couple boys and didn't want to say no to some and yes to others so we invited all of her class - all 13 plus Issi's twin brother. All but 3 were able to come.

We originally had it planned for Saturday, but this Mommy forgot to look at the calender to see that the Spring Amana Maifest was that day and NO ONE could come. So instead of a nice relaxing Sunday we had a party at the Iowa Children's Museum.

She had a blast! The highlight of ICM parties are the handprint that you get to put on the wall. I wish I would have gotten a picture of it after she wrote her name by it. She wrote her name in cursive - that we learned a week ago. My Mom and Jason stood there with jaws dropped open when they saw it. She is one smart cookie.


We are pretty sure that Tana is going to be a lot like Ally which means that there will not be silence in our house or a car ride for some time. Oh boy.

We all need to thank every kindergarten teacher there is! They must have so much patience!

Can It Get Any Better?

Time for bed for Tana Banana!

Huhot!

We love HuHot - yes we do!

We love HuHot - How 'bout you?

Chili's had too long of wait and HuHot had a 15 minutes wait that turned into 3 minutes! Yippeee. The kids were thrilled to see that we pulled up to their favorite restaurant (behind McD's) and ran in. It is the only place (including home) where I know that Drew WILL eat at least 2 plates of food. They love to carry their own bowls and put the food in. Ally tried to imitate the guys cooking the food with 2 forks.

At the end of supper Drew said...

I feel like we are in heaven.

Who else like Huhot?

5 Weeks and Counting

I'm A Big Girl look what I can do!

Not 100% on head control yet, but doing really good. She loves her tummy. She is really following us around with our eyes and listening intently on our voices. I can't wait until she really smiles at our goofiness - there will be plenty of laughs!

Star Student

Jason ate lunch with Ally yesterday for her Star Student week. I think that he was really excited about the mozzerella sticks they had - not what he was expecting. I got there a little later with Tana just in time to meet Grandpa Charlie and a baby calf.

Ally's class is doing starting a unit on farm animals. I wish that we would have had a baby pig or sheep but the pigs hadn't been delivered and I don't think there are any sheep right now on the Latcham farm.

The kids loved it, petted it and helped feed the bottle which it wasn't really taking. They were concerned that it would run away. Grandpa was too so he had a halter on it. I think it might have been fairly humorous watching him and Jason running after it to tackle it!

I guess tomorrow Issi (Ally's BFF) is bringing baby goats.

Her star of the week is awesome. I hope she feels so special and loved! We sent her a letter today for Mrs. Glanz's to read about the silly stuff she has done and a book called "All the Places We've Been". In the end we wrote...

Oh the places we have been, so many you see.

But none of them would have been fun, if you hadn’t been there with me!

Project #2

The tile is "finished" except for the poor grass that we are destroying. That is project #6 on the list - after all the other ones are done!

Jason took Friday off to work in the nice weather since we were expecting some nasty storms on Saturday and Sunday. But the weather man was slightly wrong. We did get storms but not enough to stop us.

We ended up working late on Friday night getting the skid loader work done. Actually I was unable to help with the digging so I sat on the deck steps with the monitor in hand listening for Tana. I did walk over to the neighbors who had the same idea as us. They were trying to get their lawn sodded before the rain.

Here is is digging out the patio under the deck in front of the basement sliding door. I am excited to use this door this summer. Since it is under the deck, grass doesn't grow and is a muddy mess most of the summer.

Gravel is down and Jason has used the "wacker packer" on it! PROGRESS!!!

The unexpected Saturday surprise was the lack of rain that we got! We (yes I got to help!) got a good chunk of pavers laid before the rain came and Jason needed to return the skid loader to my dad. We also had babysitters coming to relieve us for a much needed date (with Tana). Thanks Heimers!

Sunday proved to be just as nice until late afternoon so we got about 2/3 of the pavers laid. The hard and long part will be finishing it up. I would take a picture of it now, but it is covered with sand to "lock" it into place.

Funny part #1 - Jason might be an engineer, but his ability to estimate the number of bricks needed for this project = WAY TOO MANY! We have used about 75% of one palet and still have a full other one sitting there. How will we get those back to Menards?

Funny part #2 - The rain did come in the evening about 8ish on Sunday - knocking our power out right at bath time. Drew scared. Ally chit chatting away wondering/trying to figure out all the things that we could still use. Tana - whatever. We have an electric water heater and obviously a limited amount of water and 5 people that desperately needed showers. I got in and took a luke/cold shower and turned the heat up and gave each kid the fastest shower ever. Tana when thrown in sprawled her arms and legs out like a cat getting wet, but finally calmed down with the warm water. Kids went to bed in our bed surrounded by candle light. Lights came back on after about 2 hours. Oh we take electricty for granted!

1 Month

She is one month. I stepped on our scale today and then picked her up and she is somewhere in the 11.5 pound range pending how much her clothes weighed. She has had a couple rough nights and our eyes are fairly droopy, but really how can you get upset at this little face!

My Outfit

My mom kept three outfits of mine. I have pictures of Ally in all three. It will be fun to put these pictures of the girls and me together!

Ally wore this red outfit to her first Cardinals game in early May.


Tana decided that 80 degree weather meant that she could wear short sleeves today, but tomorrow when the cold comes back she has to wear long sleeves!

I hope that my mom can find a picture of me in this outfit!

Tana Update - Drew Sick

Took Drew to the dr. this morning for his cold/fever. Same ol' same ol' - breathing treatments and start the steriods in a couple days if not better. At first they thought maybe pneumonia - but it was negative. I had just promised no shots and then the dr. asked chest x-ray or finger prick. We chose the finger pick and oh the drama. We are back home and he fell asleep on the couch - he must feel bad.

Tana - we did a weight check since we were at the dr. office. Any guesses? She was fully clothes, but her ity bity clothes don't weigh much. My little chunker is 10 pounds 14 ounces. Yes she is growing!

Ally's Silliness

Ally ran down to get Jason an orange juice from the basement fridge this morning. She got him a Sunkist instead of the healthy drink.

When Jason went down to get the real thing, he found her camera in the fridge. When asked where her camera was - she couldn't remember where she put it. She giggled when she found out where we found it.

Side Note: Yes I know several posts in one day - I got time and we got to get caught up!

Big Help

Ally has been begging to feed Tana. Jason had given her a bottle the last couple days, but we needed to get groceries into the house and supper made so our next likely candidate was Ally. She was very willing!

Now if we could get either one to change her diaper. While Ally was SLOWLY helping me put a diaper under Tana yesterday, she peed EVERYWHERE. You can guess that the kids scattered at this grossness.

Drew gags if he sees her poop. He will make a great Dad won't he!

Torture

Torture by older siblings is going to begin early. As we cleaned Jason put Tana down so he could vacuum. She likes the sound of the vacuum!

The kids decided that she needed a house and toys to play with. She she got a wall built around her and all kids of toys placed inches from her face. She didn't complain. Mommy made sure that they didn't put a roof on the house and that she could still breathe!

Spring Mud Mess

The inside of our house is nearly complete - cough cough as I see some nail holes that need to be filled and a piece of trim missing! So this spring our focus is the outside.

Our yard drains terrible with the lovely clay dirt. Jason decided to rip it up while the grass hadn't started growing yet. Now the problem is getting it finished since it keeps raining every weekend!

Our friend Andy is going to help try and get our lawn looking nice. He takes care of the Kinnick field and grounds. He took some soil samples to see what we should add to get seed to grow or we will go with some more sod.

As I type this the lovely Menards man just dropped off TONS of brick pavers and retaining wall bricks.

So if you feel like breaking a sweat and feeling like you worked hard - join Jason in a few of our projects. More pictures to come!

Side note: The big circle in the back is where the pool goes.

Jaoggins Construction

There has always been a joke (maybe not in everyone's mind) about a company with Chuck and Jason. The problem with the company is the debate about location of it - Georgia, Iowa, or Missouri.

On our way home from a dr. appt a month ago we came upon this truck that made me pull out my camera. (I don't typically have my camera with me, but I never knew when I would go into labor and I needed my camera - who cared about the rest of the stuff!) Click on the picture to blow it up and notice the stickers on each side.

While at the Scoggins house last fall, we drooled over there nice Pottery Barn toy shelves. Jason took pictures of them with intentions to build them for Drew since we didn't want to pay Pottery Barn's sticker price!

As Tana's arrival was fast approaching and the baby furniture heading over to her room, it because necessary to get on this project. We started with only half of the shelves and made some minor changes. They are beautiful with a nice box joint as an added touch.

If you would like one of these great shelves and don't want to pay the hefty sticker price - contact Jaoggins Construction for your needs!

Almost 4 Wks

About 4 weeks ago our lives were turned upside down with Tana's arrival. Oh don't get me wrong - I am so glad that she is out of my belly! No more heartburn, sleeping on my tummy, seeing my toes, bending over without having to gasp for air first, those are some of the added benefits of Tana - BESIDES the joy and the her overall cuteness!

At her 2 wk appt she weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long. According to our scale she is currently somewhere around the 10+ pound mark. She has some cheeks and a belly, but legs are skinny mini! She is very content and sleeps pretty good. She is awake for 1-1.5 hours between each feeding and wakes at about 3:30 at night and goes back to sleep. I am able to lay her down (sometimes) half to fully awake and she will konk out for me - let me say again - SOMETIMES!

Her eyes are HUGE and loves to stare around especially at Ally's penguin. She definitely recognizes voices and loves to snuggle. She has a very strong head and likes to be on her tummy.

Cute Quotes

Everyone has those moments in the car, at the supper table or in the store where you are rushing for a pad of paper to write what your kid says down! Many of you know that Jason has quote book - of which Amy Scoggins has most of the quotes, but Ally and Drew are slowly catching up.

Ally (We were sitting at the table discussing going to heaven.) When we said that we didn't know God's phone number - she said "I bet Mary and Joseph do!"

Ally (same night, same discussion) - You can't go to heaven until me and Drew are growed up because we don't know how to bake food.

Drew (Coming home from school with Jason) I bet heaven is like 161 stay at home days. (Drew loves stay at home days and 161 is a big number to him and his favorite right now - heaven is good in his mind!)

As you can tell I found the little piece of paper that we wrote these down on - now to add them to the quote book. You all need to get yourself one of these books!

Side note: My favorite quote in the book is by Daren Aldag - You can't swing a dead cat in there (Calvary) without hitting an old person. (8/11/03)

Some other good ones - Chris Klaassen on the disadvantages homeschooling - Yeah - but you don't get school lunch. (Dec 2005)

Another from Chris while discussing goals in life in STL - My next goal is just to get a deep freeze or something. (3/29/03)

Go Fish

Who said that you needed water to fish?

Ally got her present from Grandma Rhonda - a new fishing pole. I think it has Barbies on it. (Drew got one on Easter with Transformers.) Jason and I "love" to fish, but Grandma Rhonda has promised a trip out to the pond on the next sleepover. Ally is catching worms already for the adventure!

But for now - they fish off the deck EVERY night!

Great Grandpa Melvin

Great Grandpa Melvin got to meet the newest member of the family on Sunday.

It was also a sad day as we learned that Grandpa's brother -Uncle Leroy (also Grandma Arlene's twin sister's husband) had gone to be with Jesus. Tana and I got to meet some extended family as we headed to the funeral later that week.

It is really sad to see them go, but at the same time how can I not be happy that they are worshipping and singing in heaven with Jesus - a much better place!

Happy Easter

Getting three kids to hold still for a picture is going to be quite the challenge - and hoping that Tana is not crying! Happy Late Eaaster!

We headed to my mom's and we put together an egg hunt for the kids. It was slightly chilly outside! Grandpa Charlie took the kids down to the pond to check out the goose egg down there. On their way down, Drew put a hole in the third pair of new jeans this month! ARGHHHHH.

Jason was a little mean to Bear. His rope was about 3 inches short of getting the prize.

All the kiddos getting their instructions of where to find the eggs.

Drew is not the greatest "finder." It can be DIRECTLY in front of him and staring at it and he still can't find it.

Counting and trading all the goods!

Easter Buddies

We enjoyed Easter at my Mom's this year. Considering that most of my family lives out of state - not many are able to come, but Renae's family came down from Cambridge. Ally gets a thrill out of them coming since it means 4 little girls to play with. Poor Drew - he is a pretty good sport with playing with girls. There aren't too many boys to play with - just Grandpa!

I was cleaning out Ally's backpack this morning and found this journal entry picture. They are encouraged to write or draw whatever. Since Mrs. Glanz can't spell everything they are suppose to do their best. In the picture are Lydia, Cassidy, Mallory and Holly. It is titled - My Cousins. Can you figure which name is which?

Also - can you figure out who is the oldest and the youngest?

Dyeing Eggs

I have been putting off dyeing eggs since I wasn't quite sure what kind of eggs to use. I decided on hard boiled since they are slightly more sturdy than blowing the junk out.

We had a big mess going on! They colored the eggs with white/light colored and then dipped them in the coloring. Sometimes they got really creative and double dipped.

Tana got bored watching us - so Jason and I created eggs for her.


The next day the kids continued decorating them with stickers.

Side note: I highly recommend using vinegar in the dye - it really makes vibrant colors!

Good Friday

We enjoyed heading to Good Friday services at church. I enjoyed being home during the day so that I could help set up communion for the evening services. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Parkview?!?!

Drew "loves" going to church since it means he has to wear a "button" shirt. I love dressing Tana in "new" clothes or old ones from Ally. I love my kids!

After service, we took Tana out for her first restaurant experience (drive through doesn't count). She sat so contently in her carseat at Chili's until the food came - typical kid. Then she wanted out in Mommy's arms. I guess I need to get good at eating with one hand again.

(oh I just realized this is an outfit from Maddie Gaskill)

Waking Up the Kids

On Friday Tana snuck into bed with Ally & Drew to wake them up for school.

Ally loved to cuddle with her and give hugs.

Drew loves to play swordfish with noses.

Visiting Daddy

Tana got to take her first trip to Daddy's hospital last week when she was one week old. She was so excited before we left, but ended up sleeping the whole time we were there.

Tana and I are going to make it a weekly trip to have lunch with Daddy. We enjoy Daddy's company, but not necessarily the hospital food - even though it is better than the hospital that she was born in!

This week after getting our lunch, Jason said that we were going to sit with the big dogs. The guys he works with are great and he has tons of stories from them. Today Tana met Carl - well she slept through meeting him.

We were talking about how good of baby she was while Jason left the table for a second. For example - I knew she must have been half awake, but when I went to her crib, she was laying there looking around. Wouldn't have happened with Ally or Drew! Carl continues to tell me that Jason is very similar. He sleeps so well at work and sometimes when they walk into his office he is just staring around. He also never raises his hands much over his head (while saying this Carl is immitating a baby's arms). Let's just say I was rolling with laughter as Jason came back admitting that he didn't want to leave me at the table with them.

After lunch, Tana went back to Daddy's office to work just like Daddy.

We are so thankful for Mercy - a great place to work!

First Bath

Oh we have third child syndrome...We haven't taken very many pictures of Tana! We have snuggled with her a lot! Today is her first slightly fussy day - before today I wondered if I brought the right girl home, but after this afternoon - I am sure that this sleeply kiddo is mine.

Tana is not a fan of bathtime. But really the chilly air on your naked body does not sound pleasant to me! We gave her a bath a really long time ago and have since taken a couple more - only one of those she didn't scream her little head off for! Ahhh for the day when the belly button falls off and she can get submerged and stay warm.

This was only of the only decent pictures that Jason took. Ally & Drew were getting ready to take their bath and in all of the other pictures Drew is being inappropriate.