My little artist

This is a picture Puckey drew of Jib crying after Jib broke her new sunglasses. It was so funny I had to share. You'll notice the sunglasses at the center of the picture, right below the belly button. HA!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Jib showed us that she knows how to cross her eyes yesterday.

One of the funniest moments EVER

happened on the last day of Ande's brother and his family's visit for Christmas. We all met at a restaurant for breakfast. It was quite a crew: Ande's parents, me, Ande, and our 5 kids, and Ben and Tracy and their 3 kids.

So the youngest kids were running around (we were in the back of the restaurant, so they weren't bothering anyone) and the waitress came back and was talking to Puckey, Jib, and their cousins. She asked them if Santa had visited them, and my oldest niece looked directly at her and said, "NO." The waitress didn't even know what to say. Then my niece explained that Santa wasn't real...SO SO funny to hear a 4 year old tell a grown up that Santa doesn't exist.

My kids never cease to crack me up

Okay, a little background - our 2 year old "Jib" is also called "Budgie" (among many, MANY other nicknames). I don't know where the name Budgie came from, but that's beside the point...

Now, I'm sure I'm not the only mom who's kids do it - all the grunting and straining and then subsequent STINKING...only to go to change the diaper and find just a little "smudge" in there. Our sweet little Jib (or Budgie) has been doing that a LOT lately. So yesterday Ande started calling her "Smudgie". (Classy, NO?)

During dinner I was talking to Jib, and I asked her if her name was "Smudgie", and she said, very proudly and with a HUGE grin on her face, "No, I FUDGIE!"

Let's just say it took SEVERAL minutes for us to stop laughing about that. Oh, the joys of dinner conversation at the Kirby home. HA!

Happy Birthday

To my two favorite little groundhogs...

Ande and Jib October 2008

May the groundhog see his shadow, thus giving you 6 more weeks of birthday!

In the World According to Jib...

Turkeys say, "Peeeth" (That would be "please" with a lisp at the end)

Just thought you'd all want to know, since most of us have been taught that turkeys say "gobble gobble". I feel so misled.

October = Fun

I have been pretty lax on my blogging lately. So now I'm going to hit you with a great big post full of lots of pictures. Because I know you can NEVER get enough of my cute family.

There's also a short history lesson at the end. I promise, it's short, and pretty interesting too!

Puckey can go from sweet and smiley

To Grouchy

To downright scary in 2.3 seconds!

(I left the red-eye in because it just makes the picture that much more "scary")

My weak attempt at outdoor fall decorating

But God ALWAYS out-does me!

Puckey, it's a Pumpkin Patch, not a PUPPY Patch!

Nans and Jib picking out a pumpkin

Jibby in love...

Daddy and Jib with her cool white pumpkin

Sometimes they're HAPPY...

Sometimes they're sad...

Bubber is always known for his keen fashion sense...

(note the knee high socks & shorts combo)

Bug, Me, and Nans after completing our Mini-Caramel Apple project

The finished product

Puckey looking longingly at the apples...

The coffee mug my sweet friend Susan gave me for my birthday

(It says "A friend loves at all times... Proverbs 17:17)

Hangin out with Daddy on the couch

This is how we found Puckey and The Jib sleeping last night before we went to bed

(What you can't see is the total havoc they wreaked in the rest of their room)

And last, but certainly not least, it's "That 70's Dinner"...

Boy do I ever L-O-V-E my 70's Pyrex.

Oh, and because I have a million and ten things to do tomorrow (of which I'm hoping to get at least two accomplished), I wanted to write quickly about this because I found it interesting and thought you might too.

This morning, while waiting on the guy from the phone company to hook up our "new and improved" phone and internet service, I was listening to R.C. Sproul (he does a radio program called "Renewing your mind") and heard this little tidbit of information about the "birth" of Halloween.

It is common knowledge (at least I think it is) that Halloween (Or "All Hallow's Eve") falls the day before "All Saints Day". What I didn't know is that All Hallow's Eve has origins in the Roman Catholic church! Apparently, from what R.C. Sproul said today, in the middle ages the members of the Roman Catholic church believed that the surest way of keeping Satan away was to make fun of him. They believed that if they hit him where it hurt the most (his pride), that he would do just as the Bible says (Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7, NIV) and leave them alone. The people would dress up in ridiculous costumes mocking the devil, not because that's how they thought he looked, but because he is described as this in 2 Corinthians 11:14 "And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light".

I thought that was rather interesting to know. Another thing that I found interesting is that on October 31 ,1517, Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on the door of a Wittenburg, Germany church. This list is said to have been the start of the Protestant Reformation, which changed Christianity forever.

See, my blog is fun AND informative, all at the same time! Aren't you glad?!?

Betcha thought I forgot, didn't cha?

(That title sounds best when done with your best "Fargo, ND" accent)

It's that time again, for the Tuesday Tip O' the Day!

"De-salt that oversalted soup by merely slicing a raw potato into it and boiling for a short time. Then remove potato, which will have absorbed most of the salt."

Yes, I decided to give you a tip that was actually practical and not terribly funny...

For the funny part, I decided to do a short "not me" post (if any of you read McMama's blog, you'll know what that is...)

I did NOT let Puckey and the Jib eat chocolate cake for breakfast this morning. This is NOT a picture of Jib after she DIDN'T eat said chocolate cake.

And while I was NOT serving up the cake, I was NOT singing, "Mom is GREAT! She gives us chocolate cake!" because I surely DON'T think that Bill Cosby "Himself" is one of the funniest comedy routines of all time.

via videosift.com

We're Number One....

Puckey, with a giant foam finger...

We didn't actually end up as "Number One", but it sounds better than, "We got our pants beaten off by the other team at our own homecoming".

Ande's cousin, Leah-beth was in town and came to the game with us. Jib cozied right up to her.

Did you know that singing can be DANGEROUS?

At least according to Puckey. I was just being silly and singing, "Jib fought the sauce and the sauce won" to the tune of "I fought the law..." and Puckey told me, "Don't sing that, it's DANGEROUS."

Dangerous for whom??? My guess is for the people who have to listen to me sing (which is mainly Puckey and The Jib...)

Ah, the brutal honesty of children.

Jib fought the sauce....

...and the sauce won!

Yes, The Jib had some ravioli for lunch, and I think she ended up wearing more of it than she actually ate. This is the reason why she is shirtless - I knew what I was coming up against. She refuses to wear a bib, so any time we have anything remotely messy, I just take her shirt off. Well, unless we're in a restaurant. Obviously then I just order something "not so messy".

So many posts, so little time...

Since you've all missed me SOOOO much over the last few weeks, I've decided to just overload you with posts! ha ha ha

The girls seem like they are growing by leaps and bounds! I can't believe all of the new words The Jib says now. She's SO funny - especially since all of her words that end in an "s" sound she uses a "t" sound, and when she says "yes", she bobs her head up and down and just says "S-s-s-s-s-s-" (I guess it would be better if I had it on film, but my mother in law has the video camera. I should get that back from her)

Puckey is doing well with the potty training. Last night she actually pooped on the potty, and then told me, "I pooped big just like Daddy!" Ande got a laugh out of that one.

Bubber has his second football game on Thursday. I'm still trying to figure out if I'm going to go. I may have to ask my mother in law if she can babysit the girls, so I don't have to wrangle them on the bleachers (not to mention the fact that I'd probably get charged to bring them in...)

Bug is looking forward to starting band. She will be playing clarinet this year. I hope she enjoys it - music is such a fun thing to learn. I actually had a dream that she was in marching band, and I was helping teach the kids how to march. (I was in marching band in high school) It was a little weird.

Nans started at her new school yesterday, and she said she liked it pretty well. I think she'll do fine once she makes a couple of new friends. We still haven't worked out how we are going to make the pick-up on our weekends. I used to pick her up from school on our weekends, but that's not really going to work out anymore.

I'm finally getting baptized on Saturday. I don't know what's taken me so long (I gave my life to Christ over 6 years ago), but I'm excited about it, and am thrilled that Bubber and Bug will get to be there too. It's going to be fun, too, since it's at our Pastor's house, and we're having a picnic/pool party afterwards. Hopefully the weather will hold out for us.

My brother in law interviewed for a job here in MI yesterday, but he's not sure if he's going to take it. It would be a pretty big pay cut for him, so I think he's thinking it over. As much as I'd love for them to move here, I'd hate for him to take the job and then have a hard time financially. (It's not that the pay is really that bad, but they're used to living on a lot more)

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'll probably post at least once or twice more today (aren't you lucky?).

For now, it's back to the grind...LOL

Just a bunch of stuff

In order to get my mind off of needlessly worrying about finances, I have been trying to pay more attention to the good stuff going on in our house....

Who's been sleeping in my bed?

Yes, that's a sock monkey (made by my mom) that Puckey tucked into our bed the other day.

Daddy is The Jib's new cupholder

This means that The Jib is finally "bottle free"! No more baba's. Whoo-HOO!!

Videos we've been watching:

Yeah, the big kids are LOVING this one (read with MUCH sarcasm). So far, Puckey has watched it 5 times, but doesn't have any interest in going potty. Apparently she's just watching it for the entertainment value?

School House Rock is pretty much the best I know of...and this set includes ALL of them, including your favorites like "Conjunction Junction" and "I'm Just a Bill." (You can thank me later for getting those songs stuck in your head) We told Ande's mom we'd like her to buy this one for Puckey for her birthday.

Ande and I have spent more time talking to each other lately. I mean, we have always talked, but it's usually about the kids or whatever. Recently, our conversations have held more depth (and sometimes laughter) than usual. It's pretty awesome.

The Jib is learning more and more new words every day. We've added:

• "Becko" (You're welcome) It's so cute, because she knows how to use it properly.
• Book
• Down
• Home
• Potty
• Puckey
• Ride
• Bike
• Outside
• Cold
• Pool
• "Muck" (Milk) - she can also do the sign language sign for it

Just yesterday, The Jib walked into our room, and she looked out our french doors into the backyard. You can see our pool from there, and she pointed and said, "Cold pool!" I love it!

Puckey and The Jib got a "new" ride a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of a local yard sale.

We went for a family bike ride yesterday. I got to try out my "new" bike. My mother in law gave me her bike, which is sorta like riding a lazy boy chair! (Pretty comfy).

However, even with all the comfort of the bike, I was left wondering just when I got so old and out of shape. My backside and thighs were feeling pretty rough by the time we got back home! I guess I'm going to have to start riding a little more often.

Bubber is now participating in "two-a-days" for football, which is just wearing him right out. He seems to like it, though, so I'm happy!! (Although he's eating us out of house and home!!)

Bug is excited about starting Middle School in a few weeks...although I think I'm going to have to start making her get up early pretty soon to get used to it. Right now it's after 10:00am and she's still asleep. (Meanwhile I've been up since about 6:45am)

Nans should be coming for a week at the end of this week or the beginning of next - it seems like FOREVER since we've seen her! We'll get to go school shopping with Grammy (my mother in law) while Nans is home, too. Always have fun doing that!

The bible study I've been doing is going well - it's still just the two of us, but I feel like I've learned some new stuff (and some stuff about myself) that I wouldn't have learned otherwise.

Thanks for all of the prayers you guys have sent my way - it's been effective! I feel more at ease than I did before, and things are looking better all the time. (Maybe part of my problem was hormones - you all know how that goes!)

Puckey Loves Her Lips!

Well, I'm not quite sure what kind of look she was going for....maybe

Lisa Simpson?

Amos Lee?

Angelina Jolie??

Ande said she looked like a Muppet.

Janice

Whoever she was trying to look like, it just wasn't working for her.

Okay, no more papparazzi!!

At Bubber's baseball game last Wednesday, poor little Puckey got stung by a bee. On her LIP. She was playing with some of the other little brothers & sisters who were at the game, and all of the sudden she started SCREAMING her head off. I ran over to see what happened, and one of the kids said she thought maybe Puckey fell down. When I asked Puckey if she fell, she wailed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo!" I asked her what happened, and she said, "A bee stung me!" Now, other than me warning her about staying away from bees, Puckey has had no real education about bees, so I wasn't sure if that's what happened. Until I saw her lip. It had already started swelling.

She cried for a few minutes, and refused to let me put ice on her lip. I started packing up, and Puckey "recovered" enough for her to want to stay to watch her Bubber play. We stayed a few more minutes, but the longer we sat, the worse her lip looked. I called Ande and asked him to meet me at his parents' house with some benadryl & ibuprofen. Once she got the medicine in her system, her lip slowly started to shrink down. But it was still pretty fat.

Not really a big deal, since she was otherwise fine, right? Well, not exactly. You see, I had scheduled an appointment for Puckey, The Jib, and their out of town cousins to get some pictures taken together for Thursday. (The next day)

I wondered whether or not her lip would be better for the pictures...

On Thursday her lip was only a little bit swollen (much to my relief), so we decided to go ahead with the pictures. Later that afternoon, I met my mother in law, sister in law, and two nieces at the studio for the pictures.

I should have known when our appointment was schedule for 3:00pm and the photographer didn't get there until 5 minutes later that it wasn't going to go well. The photographer was not particularly professional, but our girls are all generally pretty happy, so I thought it would be okay.

NOT SO MUCH.

We struggled for over an hour to get some decent shots. We got some "okay" ones of each of the girls, and some with each set of sisters together, and were working on a shot with all four of them. Things were not going well at this point. All of the girls were very squirmy and not wanting to cooperate.

That's when I noticed the computer screen displaying an error message. I pointed it out to the photographer, and she said, "That's weird." She changed out the memory card in the camera, and the same message still showed. Then she took the original memory card and left the room. About a minute later, she came back and told us that all of the pictures were gone.

WHAT?!?!?!?

Needless to say, we weren't particularly thrilled about that news, but what can you do? The photographer asked if we could come back in the morning. Fortunately, my brother & sister in law weren't leaving until Saturday, so we said we could. She set up the appointment, and told me she'd call later to confirm.

When we got home late Thursday night, there was a message on our machine that the camera at that studio was broken, so the photographer scheduled an appointment for us at a different studio for Friday.

Let me tell you - in the future, if I use the same company for pictures, I will go to this other studio! The photographer was much more friendly, and she worked hard at getting all the girls' names right so she could call them by name! She also was a little more creative with the backgrounds and a lot more fun to work with. This time, the girls were all CHAMPS at getting their pictures taken!!

Here's some of the results....

Puckey

The Jib

Monkey

Nomers!

How often do you get 2 two year olds AND 2 one year olds to pose so sweetly?

I love this picture! Look at Monkey's face (top left) - PRICELESS!!

So thanks, Ben & Tracy, for the memories! We LITERALLY couldn't have done it without you! I hope we get to create many more like this in the (VERY NEAR) future!!! (And on OUR dime next time!!)