Tooth in a Cup

See what I found this by the fish tank.

 Yes- a shot glass. 

  We keep 3 shot glasses on top of the microwave so they are easily accessed.  

Cormac pulled out his loose tooth tonight.  I told him to get a cup and put it in there.

Goofy kid.  I guess the shot glass was the closest.

Birds, Flowers, Garden, Shirts

Finally got a picture of my sweet yellow friend.

Then we put up a bird feeder and within 18 hours...

 we were hosting a convention!

 Our apple tree is blooming.  It smells as wonderful as you can imagine.

 The garden all planted, but not fenced in yet.

 Proof that we had a bean plant.  Now I hope the animals stay away and it can actually grow.

 The beautiful flowering crab apple tree in our side yard.

 Stephen had his shirt inside out and backwards.  I tried to get a picture, but he was too quick.

Rex had his daddy help him pick me some of the crab apple tree flowers.

When the Boss is Gone

When the boss is gone the minions play.  Tonight we had a great time.

We ate popcorn in the basement.

We drank chocolate malts in the basement.

We watched an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie in the basement.

We gathered blankets, pillows, a bed, stuffed animals, and each other and are sleeping in the basement.

This is what happens when Daddy goes to South Dakota.  Blase and Stephen went with Daddy this time.  Blase is staying down at Grandpa and Grandma Bestgen's to work on the sod farm for a month.  Stephen is coming home, though he would probably stay at Grandpa and Grandma Gebes' house if given the chance.

Read the Fine Print

When ordering off of eBay - read the fine print!  

You might end up with a book this size.... 

when you wanted one this size!

I only spent a $1 on the big book.  Not a big investment, but one worthy of a laugh or two.

Garden Start

 There were many helpers when the garden was started.

Some were more useful than others. 

 Some when "hunting" and found newborn baby rabbits.

 Here is one of the adults....

 and here is the other's back side.  We think this is the mom.

Most of the helpers were really just there to play.

They did end up getting the garden planted.  I haven't gotten a picture of the finished product yet.  It looks nice.  Darren is planning to put a fence around it to keep the deer and turkeys out this year.  I hope it works and we get a good tomato crop and at least one green bean this year.

A Late Mother's Day

Darren and the four oldest spend Mother's Day weekend in South Dakota branding and moving cows.  We celebrated Mother's Day a few days later.  Here is part of what I received....

Beautiful flowers - special because they were bought in South Dakota. 

Sock Monkey socks...and another pair of wool socks. 

Two bar stools for the dining room/kitchen.

I also received chocolate, chocolate, more chocolate.  I guess they know this gal pretty well!  Blase got me some cappuccino too.  Darren promised me a Vitamix if I want one.  We are still price checking, so I haven't gotten to try one out yet.

Karen's Bird Pictures

I've been "wasting" my time bird watching lately.  My goal is to get a picture of all the birds I see in our yard. It has been tricky.  Some of them pose quite nicely and others are impossible to catch even a blurry picture of.  I think I may start a Life List of all the birds I know I have seen before.  I know what the following birds are, do you??

As the Belly Grows...Part 2

Still no weeks pregnant. 

19 weeks pregnant

I had an ultrasound this weekend.  The babies looked fine.  They were measuring within 2-3 days of where they were suppose to be.  Baby A is head down and Baby B is breech.  Their heartbeats were strong.  The next day I had an OB appointment.  I measured 26 cm. on my belly (which is about what you are suppose to measure at 26 weeks with only one baby).  I am going to meet with a Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor soon to have another ultrasound and learn a few more details about what is going on.  Hopefully I will get some cute pictures from that appointment to share on here.

 Baby A's profile

Front view of Baby B.

I decided that Baby A looked like a monkey and Baby B looked like Ghost Rider.  I'm hoping the next pictures we have will show them looking like sweet babies.

Kitty

Kitty is getting big.  He/she/it/whatever is fond of betta fish food and it shows.  I cleaned the fish tank the other day.  It is always dangerous when I clean the fish tank.  The fish tend to die soon afterwards.  Lucky for us Kitty is a hardy fellow.  It appeared Kitty wasn't going to survive, but I am happy to report our catfish is alive and swimming.  Kitty doesn't know it but there has been much talk about eating the poor fish.  We will just keep that one hush, hush for now.

Blase's Bird Pictures

 A new family moved in next door.  They are expecting a few little ones some time this spring.

 This is the nest in our porch roof.  I haven't seen any eggs yet.  I'm not sure if it is just for show or if it will be used soon.  I have to admit - it is in a cozy corner, hard to photograph.  Smart bird!

Who you lookin' at?! 

Robins here and there and EVERYWHERE!

Books, Books, Books

I had an idea.  Yes, one of those kind of ideas.  The kind where it gets worse before it gets better, but it will indeed be better and easier on me in the end.  I am typing up a list of all the books we own so that I can quick search for a keyword and find all the titles to use for that subject.  This will benefit me as I attempt to teach Brech preschool next school year with two bouncing babies.  It is a long process, but well worth the time and energy - until.....someone decides to help.

"Wow, I haven't seen this book in a long time!" "I love this book.  I'm gonna read it right now." "This is my favorite book, ever!!"  Those are the things I've been hearing lately. So my nicely stacked "already finished" books were scattered all over the school room.  Not a big deal, but a setback nonetheless. 

 This is the somewhat excited faces of the children after opening the box of their new school books.  I ordered next year's books hoping to get started on them in July.  The boys will finish school tomorrow with the exception of reading to me this summer (Rex and Cormac) and science and history (Blase and Stephen). They will do a few extra things for fun.  Rex and Cormac are dying to color a book about Lewis and Clark and so a unit study I printed off about them.  Blase and Stephen are interested in watching "How Things Are Made" on Netflix so I will probably call that school for them.  I might allow Blase to start reading some of the books I will require for history and literature next year.  He was eyeballing the stack with delight the other day.  He would rather read all day than do school work if given the chance.

I know this isn't a stack of books or anything book related, but this is what happens when Mom undertakes a project upstairs and Little Miss is downstairs.  This is only the second time she's done this so I'm not too upset.  I think you can't call yourself a proper two year old without having unrolled a toilet paper roll or two.