Please don't leave

I know I'm slacking lately, or shall I say I've never really gotten into the rhythm of blogging. Maybe that's it. I'm kind of a slacker though, never completing things until the very last minute. Unless of course it's something fun that doesn't need to be done for weeks when there is stuff that needs to be done tomarrow.

So here is my post to catch up. Of course it's not all the catching up, considering there are over 100 pictures on my camera and I haven't taken a picture in a week. Just know things are staying busy here. With house showings, first communions, confirmations, birthday parties, open houses, baseball, and yard work of course we're keeping busy. We don't have a free weekend until who knows when..and I know it's well into the summer!

I'll warm you up with the Easter Egg Pictures.

Come along as we turn these


Into these


Dahrran did a great job coloring the eggs with the white crayon.


The girls had a great time just dropping the eggs in the cups.


Kaitlynn had this fascination with licking/eating the eggs. She LOVES boiled eggs.


This picture is just to prove that I finally gave in and just gave her an egg. Look closely in her hand...the one that's NOT in the cup!


All the colors the kids had to choose from....and this was one of the cheaper kits!


This is the best picture I have of the whole thing...just don't look at Kaitlynn's nose.

Can't say I didn't tell you!

While we colored eggs (yes ON the stove) this baked (yes IN the stove).


The day before Easter was our town Easter egg hunt. This of course is the best picture I have of them with the Easter Bunny. MacKenzie WOULD NOT go near the bunny.


The kids after the hunt was over, BEGGING to go through their baskets!


All the loot. There were over 300 eggs hid, and only 13 kids showed up. Which meant TONS of eggs for each child. They had plenty!


I just had to add these. As I was taking pictures of their candy she sat there and cried and cried. It was just precious. I did not then take pictures of her instead of the baskets. What kind of mom does that...not this kind.


She cried because she wanted a Reese's PB Egg. Just like her mommy.


So now that I've overloaded you on pictures, go rest. Or have a good day. It will be a few days before I get back. I'm trying to read up on all the blogs, but not doing too well with that either. Please don't leave me! I'll try to be back!

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On an unrelated note. We had lookers at our house a week ago, and they've decided to come back on Wednesday!!! We're really excited. . . although things aren't looking too well on the place we put an offer on ourselves. God has a plan, and it's what gets me through.

Easter Pictures...just a few

I'm just now getting around to posting our Easter pictures. And the sad thing is, they're not all here. We had a great Easter morning even though Joel wasn't able to be with us. Our plans were minimal for Easter dinner. Joel put a ham roast in the crock pot Sat. night, and all I had to do was make the side dishes. Two guys Joel works with don't have family that live close, and he invited them over for lunch. It was a nice dinner, and the kids and I took a nap. All in all it was a nice day.

Except. Look closely in these pictures at MacKenzie, do you see what I see?

Do you notice in the first picture the lack of color in her face. She was so pale when we got home from church. I could tell during church she wasn't feeling well, but figured it was because the little stinker was up at 7am. Poor little thing ended up running a fever for 3 days. It went through our house Easter weekend. I'm not quite sure what it was, but it included temps and body aches.

Kaitlynn wouldn't look at me, though it's not surprising. Her latest thing is she will not for the life of me look at me when I hold the camera up. So frustrating! But you get to see her dress. Did I mention that I bought them at Wally-mart for $6.00 EACH! No expensive dresses this year, I went inexpensive, can wear again dresses!

Here is what the Easter Bunny brought the kids. They included a gardening tote, and rake. Dahrran and MacKenzie got gardening gloves. Dahrran and Kaitlynn got a ball, and MacKenzie got a dress. They also got gardening shovels and hand rakes that I purchased last year on clearance.

Morning of traditions. Must take pictures at the top of the stairs before anyone is allowed to go down.

Kaitlynn was upset because I wouldn't carry her down the stairs! She eventually got over it when she saw the eggs all over the living room.

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The house is clean, and I'll be sore as all get out tomarrow. I don't think I've cleaned this much in a LONG time!!! I have to admit that towards the end I was just throwing things in boxes. And there was a TON of laundry in my expedition on the way out to dad's house. I washed and washed, but didn't take the time to fold it all. The majority of it is folded now just waiting for me to put it away.

I'm hoping the showing went well, but we won't know anything until our agent calls us tomorrow! Keep us in your thoughts!!!! While we're thinking/praying, please keep little Stellan in your prayers tomorrow as well!!

Bits of Randomness

Well I've finally caught up reading blogs, email, and such. You see something happened to our computer the other day, and I haven't been able to get on the internet ever since. I was able to receive email but, that was about it!

There are a lot of things on my mind, so I'm just going to blog them and get it out instead of making a few posts. This is faster!

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Yesterday was MacKenzie's birthday. My baby turned 4! Can't believe it still! We started off the day by heading out to preschool. She asked if I could stay, and so I did. It was a great time, there even was a play put on by York College. Very cute!!

We then headed to big grand Wal-Mart to do our shopping for the week. I wish we had better places to shop, but unless I wanted to drive over an hour one way, it's just not happening. The girls did good for the most part. MacKenzie was even able to spend some of her birthday money. (thanks grandma schoen) I let her decide what she wanted for lunch, and easily enough she picked lunchables! (worked for me)

The evening was spent with Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Aunts and even an Uncle. We had cake, ice cream and hot dogs for supper. I've got pictures to post and it will be another post, but for today by my baby is 4.

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I got a call on my cell phone from our real estate agent. To be honest I wasn't worried too much about her call, considering I'd called her two days before and she was just now getting back to me. We were supposed to have an open house this Sunday, but I still hadn't heard anything from her. When she did finally call me yesterday,(and left me a voice mail) she informed me that our open house was set for May 3rd instead. UGH!

Deciding I knew what day it was now, I would call her back in a few days. Lo and behold, she called me back later in the afternoon. She wanted to know if she could show the house on Monday.....UM YES!!!!

Needless to say we are super excited, because this will be the FIRST showing we've had since we put our house on the market October 11, 2008!!!!! I was starting to loose faith in her. A cleaning I will do!

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It's finally getting nice outside, which means I'm in the mood to plant a garden. With having the house on the market it's made it hard to decide. We've got a good start on the garden in our dining room. The corn plants are about 4 inches tall already and are needing to be planted outdoors. Maybe we'll go ahead and transplant them to the garden!

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We're on day 4 of NO BINKIES, with Kaitlynn. It's going really well. I don't know what prompted me to do it, but I just kind of went cold turkey one day. She still has her chewies, which look like pacifiers but don't have a nub to suck on, instead you chew. And of course she'll find one stashed here or there. But she is not taking them at nap or bed. We fight her a little more now than we did before, including a few times of crawling out of the play pen at nap time. She's doing good!

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Busy busy weekend ahead, so if I'm not back on I'm sorry! I have an account full of pictures waiting to be blogged!!!! Hopefully I can get back in the grove! Happy Weekending!

Baseball season is underway!

State FFA

See here in Nebraska, we're an agricultural State! Our schools are into more than just football and volleyball. They're into FFA. What is FFA you ask? Future Farmers of America. FFA is a way of life here, just as farming is.

I was not involved in FFA in high school, but both my sisters have been. Three years ago I went to a ceremony and watched my middle sister get her State Degree. This year I was fortunate enough to see my youngest sister receive her State Degree. It is quite the honor.

My little sister, me, my dad, and my my middle sister

Lindsey receiving her State Degree

Here she is with the other Seniors that received their degree's!

Happy Easter

From our home to yours, enjoy your family, and rejoice in the day!

Next week will be a picture overload...and Easter picture overload that is. You see it's 7:18 am here, and I already have two EAGER children laying in bed next to me. One of which has been since before 6:30! We're waiting on their sister to wake up. I do not believe in waking one child up just so the others can go downstairs. It's not fair, they should get to sleep in! Since my camera and cord are in the living room there will be no pictures!

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2 high temps + 2 cranky kids + 1 achy mommy + 1 low grade temp = 3 of us not feeling well, and 2 doing just fine

This mom's just hoping it all goes away before this weekend....or it means no Easter egg hunt, no birthday party tomorrow! :( Looks like we'll be having a quiet Easter at home....or not so quiet considering Kaitlynn cries most of the time!

Want to cheer me up? Tell me how you spend your Easter! What are your family traditions? When I start feeling better I'll come back and tell you how we "normally" spend our Easter!

Why am I so upset?!?

MacKenzie got an MP3 player for Christmas. Not an expensive one, but an awesome one. It was perfect for her, had an external speaker so we didn't need headphones.

On Monday night, she lost it. I'm pretty sure where we lost it, in fact I can almost show you the exact spot. But can we find it. NOPE.

And for some reason this morning I sat straight up in my bed, freaking out because we couldn't find it. Please tell me I'm not crazy. I just know how much this is for her. Since she got it for Christmas, I don't think she's went a week and not used it. Most times it's used on a DAILY basis.

She seems to be okay with the fact that it's missing. Why am I so upset?

A Day at the Farm

As many of you know, we have cattle. Which means on a daily basis we have chores to do, and animals to feed. And on a daily basis we have a trip to the Farm, my dad's house where I grew up. I love watching the children run, play, laugh, and grow up on the same farm I did. It brings back memories, lots of memories.

Often I don't bring my camera out to dad's house, I'm not quite sure why. Probably because I'm too much in Chore Mode to think about pictures. When I do remember to take my camera, it's not uncommon to come home with at least 100 pictures, on this day though I ended up with almost 200! What fun!

I love how they stick together for the most part.


This is how most of our pictures go these days! Kaitlynn never wants to smile, and if/when I get her smiling, the other two aren't looking. Photoshoping her head into a few good pictures is in the back of my mind...but for now!

This one isn't bad!

Dahrran has been a great big brother! He was walking with her through a rough patch of weeds, if you look closely, you can see a nice prickly weed that was about to get Kaitlynn.

So what does a big brother to? He turns his back so the weed hits him instead, and keeps holding Kaitlynn's hand the whole time so she doesn't fall over.

Then we headed out into the pasture to play around. Dahrran was running from me, to go play hide-n-go-seek in the stock bales.

When he couldn't find me, he looked up, then MacKenzie wanted up as well!

I love how he's not afraid to hold his sisters hands. I hope it never changes, but I know it's just a matter of time before he won't want to help them at all because of cooties!

And just another lucky catch! Kaitlynn is getting so big, before I know it she'll catch up to Daddy.

While we were out at the Farm, we decided we'd take Stellan to see the cows!

Review it Thursday - Safety Caps

If you have small children at home you've probably child-proofed everything in little hands reach. You more than likely went all out to make sure your newly crawling toddler was safe from everything, including electrical outlets.

I, like you, thought my home was safe for little hands. Until the day that Dahrran came walking up to me holding an outlet cover in his hands. I searched and searched to find where I'd left them laying out, maybe he'd gotten into one of my drawers and pulled one out. Later that evening as I was tucking him into bed I noticed one in his room was missing. It was then that I knew the outlets weren't safe.

Safety Caps are an awesome product that eliminate the need for traditional outlet covers. They're larger than traditional covers making them safe for little hands, shall they make it there. There is always the choking factor when it comes to traditional covers, because they are round small and will fit into the choking tube when tried. Safety Caps will NOT.

Just take a look at the difference! I previously was using the Parents brand and thought they were the best, until I was sent Safety Caps. We've replaced all other covers with Safety Caps, and the kids have yet to get them off!

***WIN***
One lucky reader will win a package of Safety Caps. Go on over, take a look around and then come tell me why you need Safety Caps. That's it! This contest will end April 15th.

Extra entries available: (post a comment for each)
*Email Oprah or Ellen and tell them you love Safety Caps (worth 5 entries)
*Follow my Blog
*Blog about this contest

Review it Thursday..

....to come tomorrow! Sorry but I got some new yarn today while I was in town, and started crocheting away. So tomorrow I will post about a great product!!!!

From the Children's Museum

I promised pictures of the Children's Museum.

Picture overload. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Aunt Bridget went along with us, and had a great time!

You see this right here? Kaitlynn LOVED LOVE LOVED it. She couldn't get enough of it, and I'm seriously considering putting one in our house. Although I can't figure out how to make one!

Had to post this one bigger, just to show her excitement!


It was hard to talk MacKenzie into letting me paint her face...or it wasn't. But it was hard to talk her into leaving it on! She got scared when she looked in the mirror afterwards!



There are these Beaver Tunnels. . . I loose my children in them EVERY TIME! They could forget the rest of the museum and just head straight for the basement with the tunnels!

Then there is the water. They LOVE the water!







Future Doctor MacKenzie!