five for friday: outside edition

-While Mom's Away-

Last weekend, the women of our church gathered to eat together and learn together.  It was such a good time with the Lord and other women.  While I was away, the boys went to play.  They continued our tradition of Family Movie night.  These two are forming their own special friendship.

And the next day they went on a hike/scavenger hunt.  Dad thinks up all the cool things.  Here they are posing by their small tree.  And by the large tree.

Pretty sure they can all throw rocks all day long.

 After his Sunday morning bath, this one was all kinds of handsome.  The boys said he looked silly.  I think he just looks BIG.  How?

-Cheddar's with Grammy and Gramps-

My parents came over Saturday evening and treated us to dinner.  We decided to hit up Cheddars - along with the rest of Joplin.  Luckily it was beautiful evening and we were able to pass the time away outside on their lawn.  He's going to let us know when it buzzes.

Where's Silas?

-"We're all working outside"-

With more beautiful weather on Sunday, we got busy on some outside yard work.  They took a break to eat some chocolate covered strawberry's I brought home for a book party.

We are making some headway on our "landscaping!"  Mostly lack of.  We've finally removed the horrendous rock and cinder block garden that adorned the front of our house.  Here the boys are tilling up the ground.  We plan on putting something in that requires almost no work and looks better than rocks.  Shouldn't be too hard.

Yes, we didn't rake our leaves back in the fall when everyone else did, but we still got to play in them.

And when you dig up the ground, you always find some worms!

This is Ivan's new face.  He goes back and forth between concern and disdain.  Those brows.

-The Bounce House-

Parents As Teachers held their annual Bounce House event.  I was very hesitant to go, because it can be CRAZY!  But we were ready to get out of the house.

-The FLU-

So we had fun at the Bounce House, but it may have been where we picked up the Flu.  If only we had known.  We've never had the flu before, but now I know why it's such a terror.  You're contagious a day before showing any symptoms, it hits you like a ton of bricks and can last for a week.  Nightmare!!!  Thanks to early detection, Amos is on Tami-flu and his brothers are quickly following.  Praying the grown-ups don't get it.  But I think we're going to have a pretty uneventful next week.  Don't come see us!

five for friday

-Get-away-

Let's back all the way up to last Friday.  Because it didn't work to get-away for a night around my birthday, we planned ahead to take another weekend and this was it.  We combined birthday, Valentines Day, Anniversary, and Baby-moon all into one.

Nana and Papa brought Teigan and Emma with them to watch and play with our boys.  They couldn't wait for them to arrive.  I had left that morning to take my glucose test and when I got back, Amos was waiting by the window and disappointed that it was just me arriving.

With an early start, we made it up to KC with time for lots of shopping (for me) and good eating (for Jason).  Trader Joes and IKEA were at the top of my list, but we also hit up a flea market, a book store and the mall.

We like to branch out while up in those BIG cities and eat something we can't get around these parts.  Aladdin's Cafe did not disappoint for a plate full of yummy Mediterranean food.  And with it's setting, we kinda felt like we were actually in the middle east.  Poor Jason had a bout with allergies the whole time.  This is what he looked like most of the weekend.

Morning 2 was spent sampling some extra fancy coffee at Oddly Correct.  Their menu doesn't look like a normal coffee menu, so I let Jason decide.  Luckily, he knew what to do.  Here we are sampling an Ethiopian coffee (one of my favorites) and a Colombian that has been honey-processed?? Not sure what that means, but there was some definite honey taste to it.  They had a really cool set-up, but the only seating was bar stools.  I had Jason look for the pregnant lady section, but we couldn't find it.

I sure was excited to be back here. 

With my research done, I was ready to shop.  Jason didn't quite know what he was getting into.  He said that half-way through he had to remind himself that "this is for Abigail."  Ha!  Happy Birthday to me.  I did let him eat afterwards, Nyssa.  Look at that smile on his face.

That was it for us, after a late lunch, we headed home.

-Ivan, the trouble maker-

Not really, I joke.  But, we did come home to a bit of a sick guy.  Low fever and eye-gunk.  Sunday he was pretty down for he count, but by Monday he seemed remarkably better.  The eye stuff was completely gone, and no more fever.  He still was having trouble sleeping at night, but even now that has improved.  However, it did remind me how much I hate interrupted sleep.  And that's soon to be my life for a while.  ONE-MORE-TIME.  There's my motto.

-IKEA-

Yes, I know I already talked about IKEA, but there is more to say.  First off, they double charged me a sink- a SINK!  And I didn't realize it until we were half-way home.  I was definitely not happy with them, but after chatting on the phone with Customer service, it seemed like it was going to be OK.  They are now back to good standing in my book and I was very pleased with their customer service.  

Secondly, we have a new school table.  Thanks to IKEA we will be switching stuff around a bit in the school/playroom.  The little kids table wasn't cutting it anymore for bigger projects.  And before too long, we'll have three guys up there and then four. The boys helped me put this together Monday morning because we couldn't wait for Dad.  Luckily, their stuff is pretty straight forward.  Amos was thrilled to see that the directions were "just like Legos."

And we're all pretty thrilled with room to grow.  More changed to come to this area.  I'm getting excited!!!

And then we spent some more time building with Dad.  Pictures coming soon.

-School Stuff-

The Runaway Son is our story this week.  This one has been pretty easy to connect to and a good reminder for both me and them.  It's all about grace!

Ivan's been visiting us more and more for school as he toys with dropping his morning nap.  I guess this is what it looks like to homeschool with three.  He's content along as he's got his part of the action. 

Just please don't choke on anything, son!

-Beautiful Weather-
It's kinda amazing that for the last several weeks, beautiful weather has been included in my top 5.  We've had a pretty mild winter and keep enjoying really nice days.  It's been so nice to break out and spend some time in the beautiful fresh air.

This guy apparently doesn't need my help anymore.

They buried something and now can't find it.  Hahahaha!

Just a little sunbathing.

He definitely thinks he's big stuff.

it's been a little while...time to play catch-up

We really haven't been up to too much these past two weeks, but time still has been flying.  I'm use to January and February dragging on, but not this year.  I think it's partially because I'm pregnant and mostly due to the beautiful weather we've been having.

This is all this guy has been up to, ALL the time.  He's surprised me with how able he is to follow the directions or just look at a picture a build something.  He's also surprised me with how quickly he gets upset when it doesn't turn out quite right.

More beautiful weather meant more time at the park.  This guy has no fear.  Up the slide I go.  Down the slide I go.  If I can climb it, I will.

Silas is becoming braver too!  He really liked this ladder and kept getting faster at it.  He also is no longer scared of the slides.

And he was an old pro.  I can do it all.  Look at me, Mom!

I was a little scared while this was happening.  Don't let go of him!

Gramps made it back from India, so we all piled on top of him.  He didn't seem to mind, though.

We had a little pre-Valentine's day fun at Grammy and Gramps.

It involved sugar.

This guy's favorite thing!

We'll soon fill up that hammock.

One of my favorite things...waking Dad up in the morning with little boy alarm clocks.  I've been doing since Amos was little and it never ceases to bring a smile to my face.  Ivan loves it about as much as I do.

This guy is into all the things. Nothing is safe.  We mostly refer to him as the Ivan Monster.

We had a very eventful weekend, which involved a get-a-way for Mom and Dad and a visit from Nana and Papa and the cousins.  More on that at the end of the week.

Friday Favorites

- Playdates -

We've had a pretty full week of hanging out with buddies.  I happened to catch one exciting lunch where we were making sure no one fell off the bench.  This day also happened to contain lots of outdoor fun and dirt.  Lots of dirt.

-PAT Book -It-

 PAT stands for Parents as Teachers and if your school has one, I highly suggest it.  Joplin has had some really great events for kids and parents.  This months involved this Book Event.  The Joplin Library was even there giving out free hard back books to ALL the kids.  We came home with three new exciting books.  Lots of entertainment followed.

-Beautiful Weather-

 68 degrees.  That saved us this last week.  The boys were outside large amounts of the day and then we were all able to get out as a family on Friday.

 These guys were riding, running and rolling down this little hill, respectively.  It was rather hilarious.

 After being trapped in the stroller for most of the ride, he loved breaking free and taking the bridge all on his own.

 -Baby Bump-

 Conrad keeps cooking away in there.  This is my first actual bump picture.  So, he's documented at 25 1/2 weeks here.  We are both just trekking along.  Still not big enough to be too bothered and his little movements are just sweet.  The fun is yet to come.

-School-

I snapped a quick picture of these two during our "school time" this week.  Not pictured are all the other kiddos running around behind us having a blast.  We look forward to it every week.

After the big wind on Tuesday, a tree fell down across the street from us.  We were all pretty entertained while they quickly chopped it up and sent it through a shredder and then blew it back into the ditch.  Who knew?

We've been talking about treasures this week and also money.  Yesterday, we broke out our foreign coins and bills.  After looking at American coins all week, they had fun picking up on all the differences.  Also, we are still working on proper use of the magnifying glass.  It's just more fun this way.