Laundry Day

Oh, don't we all love laundry day!!!

I say that very sarcastically because if there is one thing that I dislike the most, it is laundry. But every once in a while I get some kiddos to help...

They love to help me sort, and it is dubbed Cassi's job to push the start button on the washer.

Elsie's new favorite thing is to sit and watch the laundry roll by.

And then I found some random pictures on our little camera that I thought were funny.This one cracks me up. Elsie's face is so funny! And her hair is a winner too! Goofy kids.

One night a few days ago I left my cripple one armed husband home with our three little girls... Well, or course this is when Elsie thought she would try out our stairs. So to try to block her, the girls pushed chairs in front of the stairs thinking that would make it hard for her to get by...Well...it didn't discourage her. She snuck by anyway...little stinker!

Elsie's new tricks

So Elsie has been making great progress.

In the last few weeks she has learned to do a lot of fun stuff and I wanted to document it.

Last week she started to pull herself up standing. She does it all the time and she is perfecting it now. She also will cruise a little bit along the couch, and she laughs the whole time, both the excited and scared laugh mixed into one.

She still can't stand alone without support, but that is what we are working on now.

She has also managed to learn to climb a few steps...perfect timing now that our stairs are hardwood!!!

And she has finally learned to use a straw. This has been very hard for her to figure out. The muscles in her mouth are so weak, and her tongue tends to push everything forward, and it still does, she just learns to cope with it and get it to work for her anyway.

It started with Capri Suns..the straws are thinner, so takes less suction to get the drink up...after a little bit she caught onto that, and then we tried the big straws. She gets very excited when she gets a drink up the straw, and chokes up a little bit some of the time. But she loves it.

I love that with every little thing Elsie learns she is SO excited! She makes me appreciate all the little things we can do ourselves with no problem!

I have a video of her pulling up to the couch, but can't get it to work...so I will try to get that posted too!

Madi's Luna Moth Report

Madi did a report on Luna Moths

She was very excited to learn everything she could about them.

She is a good little student who loves to learn!!!

Grounded

So what do you get when Cassi gets all her dress-ups taken away because she DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO CLEAN UP???

Oh, she is just fine...doesn't bother her a bit...she just digs up old Halloween costumes...4 sizes too small and all! She makes do!

Crazy Cass!

Dad and his girls

They do this quite often.

Their little piggies are all over the heater and the blankets lock in all the hot air.

The girls get as kick out of it...but something tells me they wouldn't think it was as cool if it was me doing it with them!

Playing outside

Elsie loved playing outside with Dad the other day...and Dad loved getting out of the house!


And Elsie played in the sand for the first time...she loved it!

And she was sometimes not sure about it!
Anyway...can't wait for the good weather again!

Last home project...for awhile!

BEFORE So when Brent realized he would get surgery and be out for quite a long time....he started to tear down walls...literally! We have been wanting to redo our stairs to open it up...and our carpet was HORRIBLE so we decided to do wood stairs...anyway, here is how it turned out!

AFTER

Okay...so it isn't finished yet...and that is my fault. I am usually the one put in charge of the finish work...and I am pretty lousy at getting to it! But I promise to get it done! But I just couldn't wait to have it finished to post...so I just decided to post it unfinished!

We want your opinions....we have railings to put in....but both Brent and I like it open, so do you think it would be better to put railing in, or leave it open?

This is midway through....the girls decided to make a time capsule. They drew pictures and wrote something about themselves, and our family and hid it in the stairs. Pretty fun, they thought it was pretty cool!



Anyway, one last project for awhile!

Can you tell how excited he is for me to be taking his picture!!!

Well, surgery went well. They did have to make an extra incision in order to fix his tendons in the front of his shoulder which were very stretched out...so they got shortened...but other than that, surgery went as planned. Brent is home, iced up, and hopefully getting all the babying he can handle!

I just thought it was great that they wrote YES on his arm so they knew it was the right one!

Wish him luck in recovery!

Last visit....for a while

Brent goes in for surgery on Monday for his shoulder...so we thought we would visit him at the station once more before he is 'out of commission' for a few months...

Wish him luck, poor guy...

He also got braces last week...so that isn't fun either!!!

Well, now he can look forward to all his girls taking extra good care of him!

This picture is for all of you who think my kids are so photogenic all of the time...ya, not all the time...goof-balls!!!

Cassi tried the mask on...but Madi scared her...it is pretty scary to try to breathe with it...so it didn't last long on her!
Cassi had a hard time balancing with the gear on

Oh Sweet!!!

I made her kinda mad...she claims I pinched her arm in the window...Sorry Cass!

Our little friend Tripp came too...with Alesha and Stephen...he thought the rescue truck was pretty cool!

Sweet Sweet Elsie

Anyway...wish Brent luck with his surgery!!!

Funny Madi...

Last night at dinner Brent was telling us about how the Confined Space class went that he taught to some guys at Blacks Creek Dam yesterday. Madi started to ask what a Dam was...so Brent explained it to her then we started to talk about something else...a few minutes later this is how the conversation went:

Madi- "Dad what was that 'dang' thing called again?"

Brent and I looked at each other thinking it was kinda funny that she used the word 'dang' in place for 'Dam'...funny cause it is actually the slang word for the swear word, ya know...so we started to laugh.

Madi wanted to know why we were laughing, Brent contemplated telling her that the word Dam was also used as a bad word sometimes...but then we decided not to. Then:

Madi- "I know it is a bad word."

us- "How do you know that?"

Madi- "From the Ninja Turtles."

We asked how she learned it from them.

Then she quoted from the movie, very loudly, "OH DAMN"

I have never laughed so hard in my life!!!

More Fire

I wanted to put some more action shots in...

So here ya go.

This is the fire that Brent was in command...it was pretty cool hearing him over the radio.

Rescue of the headless man!

I thought this was great...they are with the 'victim'