Conklin Creatures

Boo!

2011-11-28T21:00:00.002-06:00

Here are our spooks this year. We went to a Halloween event at the zoo that had a DJ and dancing (among other things), which after about a half hour we had to pull her away. Can you blame her? Cinderella had to live it up at the ball!

Then, finally, it was time to Trick or Treat

San Diego

2011-11-28T20:49:00.002-06:00

In September, Brian and I had the chance to get away for a SIX days without the kiddos. While we did miss them, it was a wonderful chance for some distraction free marriage-building time. Thanks Papa and Mimi for taking such great care for the kiddos while we were gone. They had a blast!

Jonah's Big Day

2011-10-26T21:18:00.003-05:00

On August 10th, our home officially moved into a new stage- school age years. Jonah, our sweet-hearted first born was anxiously up at 6 am to start this new adventure. As his mama, I was less eager for him to begin. I was sad to lose so many hours of the day with my buddy, but also excited for my super social guy to get to learn in an environment that I knew he would thrive in.

Oddly enough, one of the hardest things for me with him going was the thought of him having lunch without me. I was afraid of him not knowing how to open his own yogurt, or eat his veggies before the dessert, or not have enough time to finish his sandwich, let alone the other items (none of these have ever been a problem by the way... Apparently Jonah is capable of eating lunch without me!). In order to ease the transition for both of us, with the help of a cutter, I cut his sandwich out in the shape of the Millennium Falcon. Jonah thought it was super special and it really did make me feel better too. :) We also still send notes in his lunches, which I don't see ever stopping. Sorry, high school Jonah.

We tried not to hype things up too much and create nervousness for him, so Jonah picked out his own outfit. In retrospect, a little guidance probably wouldn't have hurt. :) Go Big Red!

Jonah's classroom. The lady standing in the back middle is his teacher, Mrs. Sweetman. She is wonderful! I'm so thankful for Jonah to have such a great teacher in his first year!

A nervous smile sitting in his seat for the first time. This was followed by me trying not to hug him for a fourth time and holding back tears. So proud of him! The boy with his head turned sitting to Jonah's left is Maddox, his best Kindergarten buddy.

After we walked home, Abby, not sure what the big deal was, was insistent on her turn for the picture. Ta da! (Note: she also dressed herself.) :)

This is Jonah just after being picked up. He loved it! He loved his first day of Kindergarten and he's loved every day since. I still miss having him around, but so far this new stage in our home has been great. Jonah is proving that he can venture a little farther out in the world and even thrive doing it.

I'll Dance with Cinderella....

2011-10-21T20:51:00.001-05:00

A Few Months Ago....

2011-10-14T14:43:00.005-05:00

July 14th, to be exact, my baby turned 1!

Here he is enjoying his birthday slumber.We had family come over to celebrate. He may have been a little overwhelmed by cousins.Fun and messy ice cream sandwiches. They were actually fairly easy to make.Ready to devour.

Finally, we celebrated with a splash. We love you precious boy!And in honor of turning one (exactly three months ago) Levi has now decided to officially use walking as his main mode of transportation. Video coming soon.

The BIG Conklin Fam

2011-08-10T09:51:00.005-05:00

In early July the NE Conklin 5 headed out to Ohio to reunite with Mimi and Papa, the PA Conklin 5, AND the Taiwain Su 2 (Brian's sister Alison and her husband, Nick). It was great to have everyone together! Here's a pic of the entire Conklin (and Su) crew.

The boys wasted no time and picked right up where they left off with wrestling. :)

We certainly were never bored.

A big goodbye hug.

On our last full day there, we visited and ourdoor animal park/safari and got a super close up look at tons of animals.

Jonah wasn't quite so sure about it all.

We had so much fun and are very blessed to have such a great family. Love you guys!

Summer Fun

2011-07-03T22:31:00.006-05:00

The last two months in pictures....

Mother's Day! Brian surprised me with a day off in a hotel (I ordered room service and it was A-MA-ZING) and then dinner with the kids and a carriage ride. Fun was had by all (except apparently Levi). I am blessed.

We finally worked up the nerve to cut Levi's baby hair off. He has now entered the Conklin boys 6 week hair cut rotation. Would you say it was time?

Jonah offically became a preschool graduate. Here he is with his buddies from church again, Andrew and Ben, who were in his class.

and his teachers.

We drove to Scottsbluff for an FCA camp and then continued on to Copper Mountain, Colorado to vacation with my side of the family. While I have basically no pictures of our time there as my arms were almost always full of an 11 month old stud, I'm hoping a kind sister-in-law will pass some along my way. Here's Levi ready for the ride.

And Jonah and Abby were also excited to hit the road. They all did great with the 22 hours of car time there and back.

We stopped and ate at Ole's Big Game Steakhouse on our way out. Abby was not a fan of the stuffed polar bear.

Chimney Rock. Moderately impressive. :)

And on our last day in Colorado, Jonah lost his second tooth as he was brushing his teeth.

Abby just continued to be cute. In a side note, however, Abby is missing one of her lower four middle teeth and actually seems to be missing two of her permanent upper teeth. I understand it's quite common.

And finally, just last night the kids were flowergirl and ring bearer and Brian and I were host couple in a wedding of some sweet friends of ours. It was a beautiful ceremony and a super fun wedding reception. We are so happy for Greg and Bethany!

The kids may have had the most fun of their life dancing at the reception. Lets just say that on more than one occasion Jonah was breakdancing in the center of a circle and Abby worked her way down the middle of a dancing line. They had a blast.

Daddy, our non-dancer, "reluctantly" kept Levi company on the side.

Mother's Day Tea

2011-06-23T21:18:00.004-05:00

The 4-5 year old class in Jonah's preschool has a tradition that could possibly be the cutest thing ever. Each year they have the children prepare a very special tea party for all of their moms. The moms are each given an invitation to arrive (sans their other children) at a special time in the middle of their class. The door is blacked out, and once they are all prepared, each child comes to the door one at a time to escort their mom to their assigned seats. Jonah repeated the teacher's promptings to me, which were something like, "Hello, mom. I'm so glad you're here. May I please escort you to your seat?" He then led me to my seat (in a room filled with lit candles and other special decor) which looked like this:

They sang songs, we shared a snack, and they even gave us gifts.

Jonah has two buddies from church that are in his preschool class. There is Andrew, pictured here with a very special family friend "Bernie". Andrews mom (a dear friend of mine) had just begun her fight against breast cancer a few days before we had this, so was unfortunately not able to come. If you think of it, pray for her. Her name is Jenny and she is doing really great, but still has quite a road ahead.
Another friend from church is Ben, here with his mom and two! week old baby brother.
It definitely was a most special day with a most special guy.

And speaking of most special guys, this year we once again continued the Father's Day tradition of Brian having an FCA camp on Father's Day. :) We surprised him this year though by bringing a kid selected lunch- tacos and a gift to camp. The kids love to do surprises like this and Brian enjoyed getting to see us earlier than he had expected in the day. He is an amazing father and deserves much more than a few tacos and a gift. We love you daddy and as far as we're concerned there isn't a more fun or wonderful dad around. Thanks for working and playing so hard!

Kindergarten Roundup

2011-05-06T20:22:00.007-05:00

Big day today! There were many things to celebrate in the Conklin home. First, Abby is a "get out of the bed and sit at the top of the stairs until we notice" kind of gal. We have tried almost everything to get her to stay in bed at nights, but nothing has worked. A few nights ago we tried something new. If Abby stayed in bed, she would get a tea party in the morning. The first night, she just couldn't do it, but still tried to sob her way into a party. Tough cookies, Abby. :) The next night, however, she did manage to stay in bed, so this morning we celebrated! Our "tea" was hot cocoa, but really it's all about the leftover princess cups.

Doesn't this look like such an awesome party? I will buy unlimited princess cups if it keeps the girly in bed. Night two is already working!

Boys are not too cool for tea parties.

The sleeping beauty herself.

Jonah wanted to get a pose with daddy.
On to the next celebration, off to school! Jonah was a little nervous walking in for Kindergarten Roundup, but mostly he was really excited. The principal met him in the lobby and walked him to the kindergarten rooms to start the morning.

Two hours later, here was our special guy! He had a blast and said "Now I know that Kindergarten isn't scary at all!" The teachers were super nice he said and they even made alligator hats, since that's the school mascot. He is so excited for next fall now he said. :) We are so excited for him.

The final celebration of the day was at the Lauritzen Gardens, where Brian and I reminisced about our wedding nearly seven years ago. The gardens had free entry today and we haven't been back to visit in at least five years and a few kids ago. Who knew what seven years would bring for us! The kids loved taking in the scenery with us and even posed for a few pictures!

Precious!

There was the COOLEST outdoor miniature train set. Actually, there were seven different sets on seven different tracks, all built to look like part of nature. The kids went crazy over them.

They even had miniature, nature replicas of buildings around town. They were gorgeous and detailed.

This guy is also impressive. Clapping and drinking from his sippy cup, finally!

Did I mention the bridges that drove the trains over your head? So fun!

"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Resurrection Sunday

2011-05-03T16:03:00.006-05:00

While we want to be in a state of thanksgiving of the death and resurrection of Christ our Savior everyday, not just during Easter season, it is fun to celebrate the traditions of Easter. I think it's been a few years since the last time I worked up the nerve to dye Easter eggs with the kids, but this year as I was looking through our storage I came across what must have been a clearance dye kit purchase from last year. So, on Good Friday, we dyed some eggs. And they were beautiful!

Look at this crew. Even daddy made it into the picture, in a freaky sort of way.

The finished eggs. Aren't they gorgeous?

I told Jonah he could draw whatever he wanted on the eggs and without our prompting, he drew this. I asked him who it was and he said it was Jesus "see his crown of thorns?" So precious!
Not too bad for writing on an egg!
What a blessing it is to raise our children in light of the Gospel and to the glory of God!

Random April

2011-04-13T06:59:00.003-05:00

A few random pictures to post and then I think we're all caught up!

Mimi and Papa came for a quick trip around Valentine's Day this year, so we decided to have our party tradition with them. No heart shaped pizzas this year- instead we had cheese fondue and soup. The kids had fun dipping in the cheese and it was a tasty way to celebrate. Thanks for coming to visit Papa and Mimi! It was fun!

There also was a Valentine's Day party at church. Abby decided to go dressed as Rapunzel. Jonah came as the Most Eligible Bachelor. No one else dressed up. What's up with that? Here is one of the only pictures from Abby's dance class. Unfortunately they don't take very well in that room. The class is over now, but Abby loved it!! We are thinking this isn't the end of dance class for her.

And this is from a few days ago. Two of my boys in matching jammies. We have never done matching before, so this was an exciting day. Aren't they handsome?

Good Sports

2011-03-29T09:25:00.003-05:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that Jonah was on a basketball team this year and he absolutely had a blast and if you look at the pictures below, you will see why. A church close to us has an Upwards Basketball league and they treat the kids like stars with fancy uniforms, announcing their names as they run out, and half time devotional speakers. It was a great experience for all of us and we will definitely be doing it again next year. Coach Daddy, head coach of the Kangaroos, was gone for this particular game, so Coach Uncle Reed was on duty. Running out

The squad.

Playing D Not to be left out, Abby has also been busy with her own sport of dance. She is taking 8 weeks of classes at the Y and having so much fun while also being insanely cute. I will let the video speak for itself...

Five - A Good Age for Firsts

2011-03-10T19:57:00.004-06:00

Let us begin with a few months ago, January 7th actually. Jonah turned five years old and our dear, sweet, boy decided to forgo a party of any kind to have a day with the family. We started with donuts, his choice, and ended with bowling, go carts, laser tag, cake, and ice cream. It was a very special day and it was extra fun to just celebrate as a family.

Starting the day off in style, candle blowing #1.

Unfortunately we don't have any in-between pictures of all the festivities, but here we are again at the house sharing cake and ice cream. Reed, Dana, and kids were here to celebrate this time. Never lose this genuine, sweet smile, Jonah!
Five has already proven to be a special year for Jonah. While he has continued spending many hours in the basement practicing his moves...

He now has begun his first ever basketball season on a team. He plays in an Upwards basketball league with daddy and Uncle Reed as coaches. The team name is the Kangaroos and Jonah ends each game and practice by asking when the next time he can play basketball will be. More pictures to come of this, but here is one from my camera of a game. Jonah is #15 with his back to the camera.

Another first that has arrived with age five is family game night, which has nearly become a weekly regular. We all love playing Uno Attack, including the budding card shark, Levi.

He may play showing all of his cards, but I think it's just a ploy to make you feel confident before he slaps you with a Skip.

More often than not, Jonah is the winner.

And for the most recent of firsts that has arrived with five, today, March 10th, Jonah lost his first tooth. After a bit of hesitation, Jonah put on a brave face and decided to let daddy pull out his tooth. Brian grabbed some toilet paper to help him grip it and pulled that puppy out without a wiggle. Pulling out your child's first tooth has to be one of those moments that officially makes you feel like a dad. Here's Jonah showing off his new smile.

And keeping in tradition of when mommy was little, Jonah put his tooth in a cup of water to see what will await him in the morning. Although he knows the story of the tooth fairy, he also knows that fairies aren't real. :) So, like a smart boy, he's waiting to see what mommy and daddy have for him.

We love you so much, Jonah, and have a bittersweet feeling about you growing up. While it is sad to think of how it is getting harder to hold you on my lap, it is also so exciting to think of the man that God is growing you up to be. We are so thankful that God has entrusted us with you and pray that you will grow to glorify Him. Love you big guy!

Part of the Reason...

2011-03-08T08:27:00.001-06:00

So, if you've noticed that we've been a little more sparse posting over here, there is (more than usual) a reason. I have started a new blog. It is not family related, I will keep personal posting here, but it is something I have considered doing for a while. For those who know me, I am quite the bargain hunter. I am always looking for ways to save money and better steward our resources and over the years from time to time people have asked me to share some of the deals I have come across. A blog seems like the best outlet to share the information, so for the time being, I'm giving it a go. If you're interested in looking at it, it is www.fullpricefighter.com. I actually have a way to get awesomely cheap diapers on there right now. And if you feel compelled, let me know what you think! Thanks!

Big News

2011-03-02T16:27:00.002-06:00

Jonah has his first loose tooth!

We will have continued coverage as this story develops.

We are clearly hilarious

2011-02-01T19:58:00.000-06:00

More Christmas!

2011-01-13T07:29:00.004-06:00

This year we made our way back to Ohio to celebrate with Papa, Mimi, and Mark and Steph and the boys. Nick and Ali, we missed you! Before Mark and Steph and the boys came out we had some fun in the snow.

When it comes to bundling up our kids, Brian definitely doesn't want to be short on the clothing. I think Abby is wearing approximately 32 layers.
Again, Papa, again!

Abby, are you in there??

Christmas Eve we were able to go to Papa and Mimi's church. The kids were especially fond of the candy canes they received and I was glad to get another use out of Abby's Christmas dress.

Look at these cuties.

And then it was Chrsitmas morning!

How funny is this? Abby as Rapunzel.

After some sickness and delay, Mark, Steph, Eli, Toby, and Ish finally arrived.... and the party began. First, more gift opening. Mimi with her youngest grandchild (for the time being... I have a feeling he won't hold the title forever).

More gift opening...

and more...

And then there were Zhu Zhu pets. They were in the stockings from Papa and Mimi and all the kids got one. And then they went crazy giggling.

Cousin love.

The big boys working on their legos.

And Papa was put back to work outside on sled pulling duty.

That's pulling at least 130 pounds. :)

Isn't my sister in law beautiful? And Ishy the cutest? Time to warm up and play some games.

Ishy happens to love babies, so Levi got some special attention from him. Ishy is just checking Levi out.

Then decided to entertain. :)

And Levi enjoyed the show.

All of the grandkids.

With the proud grandparents.
And Mark and Steph's clan.
We had a blast seeing you all! Hopefully we will again this summer, but with NICK AND ALI too! Right guys??

Christmas in Omaha

2011-01-06T07:47:00.004-06:00

Not much time to write, but here are a few pictures of our Christmas celebration at home.

First, Jonah peforming in his preschool program.

And our gift opening at home. Fun times!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-13T09:12:00.004-06:00

Things I've learned about my husband this holiday season:

He thinks there's nothing quite like a hot glass of apple cider.
He deserves every penny of the support that he raises. He is a diligent, hard worker and has an amazing perspective on life in general and the ministry of FCA. (This isn't something new I learned, but something that I feel he is more impressive in all the time).
He will hunt in any weather, regardless of how miserable.
Snacking is an addiction he cannot break.
God knew what he was doing when he matched us together. I never doubted that, but I have seen new insights into the perfection of that and praise Him for it!

Things I've learned about Jonah:

He is incapable of not jumping while watching a race/competition of any kind. Dogs chasing, good guys trying to escape bad guys, playing a wii game... all of these things involve him jumping. The entire time.
When deciding his favorite activity, he will have the hesitate deciding between video games and sports. The boy LOVES playing wii.
He could eat a sandwich for every meal and be content.
He is on the brink of learning to read and it's fun to see the wheels turning in his head.
He is a mini-daddy and uses hilarious phrases in perfect timing. Examples: using the phrase "you're complicated" in casual conversation, and saying "that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" when playing games with him. He cracks us up all the time.

Things I've learned about Abby:

Even with two brothers, the girl will not waver in her girliness. As a matter of fact, Levi, get ready to play princess and dress up when you get old enough and Jonah is off to school. Sorry, buddy, but I think it's coming.
She thinks she is a little mommy and is quick to repeat what I say to others. Example: I say please don't touch the tree to a baby that's over and she immediately chimes in repeating with a no-nonsense tone and carefully directs him else ware. Nothing like imitation to cause you to think through your words and actions a bit more carefully!
Her walnut allergy (and peanut and pecan most likely) is still going strong, thanks to a reminder from some pesto a few weeks ago. Thankfully, she doesn't like nuts, even the ones she can have, and you will never hear her complain about not getting to eat something.
She is growing in her compassion and knowledge of the Lord. Example: the other day while I was sad and particularly emotional, Abby came up and said "Remember, mommy, that Jesus died on the cross for you." From the mouth of babes!
The girl is gorgeous no matter the length of her hair. :)

Things I've learned about Levi:

He is amazingly cute. The pictures aren't deceiving. It's all true. :) He is my smiliest child at this age and it is not at all difficult to get him to flash a smile. Getting him to not be distracted by the shiny camera with lights is a bit more tricky, however.
When put on his tummy, he will roll over in two seconds flat. No tummy time for him.
He absolutely loves Jonah and Abby. They can be up in his face, shaking his arm, and just all around smothering and he will smile, laugh, and just egg it on. He loves it. It makes it difficult to tell them to give the boy some room as it certainly doesn't seem to bother him most of the time.
He likes to grab his feet with his left arm only. I'm not saying he's a lefty, but lets just say that daddy isn't discouraging the idea.
He has changed from newborn to baby in the last few weeks. Eating baby food, sleeping mostly all night, able to handle almost all foods now (can I get a PRAISE GOD!?! I made it!!!), and at nearly five months he's not swimming in his 6-9 month clothing. Someone is taking after his daddy & brother.

Things I've learned about myself this holiday season:

I am in need of a Savior. I am learning that more and more every day.
I've got a lot to learn, and I mean a lot, regarding my Christian walk. Thankfully God has given us the tools, namely the Bible, to encourage and instruct us and I'm ready to work and grow until the day he takes me from this earth.
I can handle more than I think. The eating restrictions took a toll on me in the last few months and I was about 12 hours from stopping nursing. However, with some encouragement from friends I pushed through just another day... and another... and another... and now I have come out the other side victorious! So thankful for that. (I know this is making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I love to cook and eat variety and this was very difficult for me to be so restricted. I'm aware that there are MUCH worse things in life, just thankful for the perseverance in this trial for me. :)
I actually may enjoy running after all! Running a 5k was fun, especially to do with Brian, and I like satisfaction of setting a goal and meeting it. Once you get past the "if I run another step I'm going to die" stage, it's actually rather rewarding. :)
I need to document this time of life and cherish it. The innocence they have at this age is so precious and, though it is challenging and exhausting at times with how much they need me, someday they won't need me so much anymore and I'll miss it. So, for now, I will continue to make an effort to soak in the precious moments before it's too late.

Thank you, family and friends, for the love you have shown our family and continue to show our family in so many ways throughout this year and beyond. We are truly blessed. We pray that we may be a family that reflects the glory of our Lord and His great goodness in our lives.

Much love,
The Conklins

A Tea Party for the Princess

2010-12-05T20:51:00.003-06:00

Finally, little Miss Abigail turned three.
We have been talking for weeks about her requested princess birthday tea party and after an eternity the day had arrived. Abby chose two of her favorite buddies to come over, Charis (which Abby used to pronounce Carrots) is on the left and Maren is in the middle. The girls, dressed in their finest princess wear, painted princess cookies to their hearts desire. The girls absolutely loved it. The recipe is just an egg yoke and some drops of food coloring, paint the unbaked cookie, and then bake it as the recipe calls. So simple and fun and we will definitely be doing it again!
The finished product for Abby. Can you tell what all the shapes are?

Maren's brother (and Jonah's bff) Hudson was a trooper and came dressed up in his strapping knight outfit. He did have to ask his mom though, "Why do I have a princess cup and plate, too?" Sorry, buddy. You have two sisters. Get used to it. :)Next, we had "tea" of hot chocolate and enjoyed the baked cookies.

And birthday cupcakes. Amazingly, Abby still took a nap after all of this sugar.

The party was two days before her birthday, so of course on her big day we had to have yet another cake and more sugar. Look at this sweetheart! This expression is just so great to me. The look of "finally, my birthday has come. And it's all I could have dreamt it to be."

The cake is purple and she had to have pink frosting. Pink and purple are the only colors that exist in her world.

Happy birthday, Abby! Mommy and Daddy are so blessed to have you in our lives for these last three years. You are crazy, precious, and the girliest little girl we've ever met. We wouldn't have you any other way. :)

Thankful in Phoenix

2010-11-27T10:37:00.006-06:00

My parents have a vacation house in a suburb of Phoenix, so on Monday we headed out to celebrate Thanksgiving with them down there. Brian and I have both been to Phoenix a couple of times, one of the times together for an ASU basketball tournament he played in during College, but the kids had never been there before. This was also Levi's very first time on an airplane and he did wonderfully. It is a bit more of a challenge traveling with three kiddos, but Jonah is getting older and more able to sit still, so that makes plane rides MUCH more pleasant. We crammed all kinds of fun stuff into our five days in Phoenix. All that is pictured below, as well as blue-lipped swimming (the kids insisted and had a blast, but 65 degrees and cloudy isn't exactly ideal for swimming), the movie Tangled on Thanksgiving day (Abby's voice reached a new level of high pitched while watching. "The PRINCESS!!!" "The princess and the prince are together at last!!"), many delicious meals, golf cart rides, visiting Great Grandpa Rumbaugh, and Brian and I even managed to squeeze in a run as well. We had our Thanksgiving meal at the country club in my parent's resort complex that was fun and delicious as well. Now, for the pictures....

On our first full day there we made an attempt to strike it rich. There is an old gold mine in the Superstition mountains area and Jonah and Abby have seen a Backyardigans episode that made them very excited at the idea of digging for gold. It was beautiful!
This is our "before we become unimaginably wealthy" family picture.
After a quick train ride to survey the hills, Jonah had to get some training in how to effectively pan for gold.

I thought he would need quite a bit of help, but he did a really great job swirling and swishing on his own.

Next, we use tweezers and collect out our treasure.

Once again, Jonah did great! Abby even saved a few garnets for us, too. There was quite a bit of fool's gold mixed in, so the only way to find the real gold is by it's slightly more yellowish color.

In the words of Jonah (and Pablo from Backyardigans, actually) "We're rich, dag nabit!"

Grandma entertained prospector Levi while we were mining. I venture to say that if we make it back down to Phoenix in the future, Abby and Jonah will be wanting to go on the hunt for gold once again. They had a blast.

The next day, we went to the Phoenix Children's Museum. I wish they would move it to Omaha. It was wonderful and extremely interactive and entertaining for the kids. This was probably Abby's favorite activity. You put a scarf into this tube and you could adjust it's path as it was sucked through these tubes.

Eventually it would shoot out through one of the holes and then you would try and catch it. Abby could have played this all day if we had let her.

This time Grandpa was on Levi duty. Tough job.

While Abby was doing that, Jonah was busy getting lost in this enormous climber. I may or may not have gotten lost in there as well. It was super fun and if they decide to box it up and sell it for $59.99, I'm buying one for our backyard. Jonah is three stories high (I think) in this picture.

Upstairs they had a bike car wash.

Complete with rickshaw bikes. Abby got the complete princess treatment.

And this is what Abby claims was her favorite activity of the day: painting the castle. It lasted about five minutes, but it must have made an impact.

Then we made a turkey hat...

scooped some ice cream...

made some pizza... grocery shopped... walked through a funoodle forest.... and then tried to figure out where Levi's lost sock went.

Two of my boys.

With so many activities, it's no wonder that when I asked Brian to go and wake up Abby, this is what occured.

Thanks for bringing us down to celebrate with you Grandma and Grandpa! We had a blast!

Fall Y'all

2010-11-16T16:29:00.003-06:00

We LOVE our trees, but man do the leaves make for plenty of hours of yard work. Knowing this, the kids and I got Brian a leaf blower and chopper for his birthday this year and he has loved it and how it speeds up the process. The other day I took some pictures while the kids were enjoying playing. Let this also serve as a hair update. :) It's getting longer, but we've still got a long way to go...

It is also worth mentioning that Abby is obsessed with her new pink winter coat. She is all pink and purple, all the time. The shinier the better, too. The girl would love a bedazzler if she knew what one was.

And Jonah has probably grown three inches in the last three months. He is just shooting up.

And THIS guy is now four months old! We just took him to the Dr. for a checkup yesterday and he is 14 lbs 8.5 oz and 26 inches, I believe. Tall and thin, relatively. I wonder where he gets that from? We are also fairly certain that he will be blue eyed with blond hair. And devastatingly handsome.

These two already have quite the bond. Jonah simply talks and Levi starts cracking up. I can't wait to see the two of them grow up together.

Boo!

2010-11-03T21:10:00.005-05:00

We have declared this year the Year of the Lame Costumes. Bumblebee Transformer and Fairy are just too cliche.

A look back... UPS boy and turtle were adorable. And unique.

Love this picture.

I skipped a year here because I couldn't find it, but Jonah was a sandwich two years in a row. How awesome was this costume? Wish I still had it, but the kids ruined it after too much play and I'm not sure i have it in me to remake it. It was a bit time consuming and I only had one child. Maybe next year we can stir their creative juices once again....

Spooktacular

2010-10-27T15:58:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday we headed to the zoo for an event that we hadn't been to there before: Spooktacular. Apparently the rest of the city decided to head out there too. It was insanely crazy when we initially got there. So many kids, all in costumes, and it was like a lost child waiting to happen. That being said, we didn't get too many pictures. There were stations set up all over where you could get candy and do different activities.

First up, face painting and hair spraying for Abby. As you can see, her hair has grown in quite a bit. Thankful for fast growing hair!! She is attempting to sit perfectly still here.
Can you see the sparkles and blue spray in her hair? They didn't have pink, so blue had to do. Speaking of which, Abby is on costume number three this year. She was going to be a mermaid (which we bought and now are in need of returning), then SuperGirl (I vetoed that one due to price) and her third choice then was the fairy which she's content with.

They were feeding the elephants while we were there, which was fun to see. We had never seen an elephant being fed before and it's amazing how much they use their noses like a hand. This guy had even discovered how to beg for more.

Our little cub. Have you ever seen a more adorable guy?

The fun even wore him out a bit. Jonah isn't in the pictures, but I'm sure we'll get him covered this weekend.

Prepare to Be Amazed

2010-10-26T21:15:00.000-05:00

River City Rodeo

2010-10-06T20:41:00.004-05:00

A few weekends ago Brian, the kids and I headed out to the River City Rodeo to check out the sights... and smells. It just so happens that the second largest rodeo in the world is held in Omaha every year and we have never been out to see it! There were tons of free activities for the kids and in true rodeo fashion, the kids and I even shared a turkey leg for lunch. Yep, we're that family.

We didn't really know what to expect when we arrived and this is what we walked in to. There were calves, sheep, pigs, chickens, and other livestock lined up from wall to wall. The animals were being ushered from here to there by all the 4-H kids, so we even had some close encounters with animals. And our strollers might have gotten caked with manure too. :)

In my attempt to get a picture of the kids in the Qwest Center "barn", I squatted. The kids decided they should too. :) Can you see Abby's new cowgirl boots? She loves them.

Levi's favorite part: the lights. As we were sitting back and admiring the livestock, the man on the left asked us where we were from. We told him Omaha, chatted a bit, and then he asked if the kids would like to see a calf up close. Nebraskans are the best, I tell you. So nice!! Anyway, we said sure and he brought his calf over to this holding pen and let the kids have a turn at grooming her. The kids were so grateful and loved pretending to be a cowboy/cowgirl. Although you can't tell, there were all kinds of studded leather for purchase. I always had wondered where some of these cowgirl items were found. :)
Upstairs they had a special area with all kinds of educational agricultural activities. We don't have any pictures of those (daddy was on the phone working and mommy was attempting to not lose any of the children at this time). There was also face painting and since everything else was free, we indulged the kids. They loved getting to choose what to have painted.
We couldn't leave Levi out of all the fun! What a cute little cornhusker.
After lunch they gave a free tour of where the rodeo actually was being held. It was so cool to get behind the scenes info about the rodeo and we learned a lot about this sport. We would love to get tickets to go next year! By the way, this is the Qwest Center arena, where Brian actually played Creighton at. In this picture we are standing on 8 inches of dirt. Amazing!

Ah, Memories

2010-10-02T14:47:00.004-05:00

I was listing a bunch of things on Craigslist this morning and came across these long lost pictures from when Uncle Nick and Aunt Ali were here in early July. We loved having you guys out!! Can't wait to do it again sometime. On a side note, look at Abby's long, flowing hair. Holy cow. Brian and I both commented that we hardly recognize her like this. I am never cutting her hair again. Just kidding... sort of.

Thank you, Nick and Abby, for being the only ones to listen when I said, "Say cheese!" :) Come on, Ali!

The Innocent One

2010-09-28T19:54:00.005-05:00

So cute and flashing his smile like crazy all the time lately, but at this particular moment it was while I was making dinner. See if you notice Abby at the end... "Jonah, lets go play tag!!" We are bussssssssssssy around here! But loving it (most of the time).

Brian thought this one was worth the upload too... enjoy!

The Incident (also known as The Great Hair Massacre of '10)

2010-09-27T19:09:00.003-05:00

This is Abby a little over two weeks ago. In August we had gotten her hair cut, and it actually was cut a bit shorter than I was aiming for. The stylist asked her if she wanted it a bit shorter and Abby said yes, so shorter it went. (Why was no one asking me??) Anyway, apparently Jonah thought it needed to go a bit shorter.
Two weeks ago today, Abby was napping, Jonah was in his room for quiet time, and I was downstairs attempting to calm Levi down enough to nap. Around 2:15 or so he finally fell asleep and was sleeping on my chest. Around 2:30, I heard Abby get out of bed and sneak into Jonah's room. She knows she's not supposed to do that and I sort of waited to see what would happen. Not wanting to wake up Levi from a much needed nap (his fussy tummy has made a good nap a rare occurrence), I could hear them playing in Jonah's room and decided to let it slide. Abby had slept 1 1/2 hours and if they were nicely playing in there, I figured I would let them be. They have been bickering a lot lately, so I was sitting downstairs so glad they were getting along, picturing them looking at books together and sweetly playing. After roughly an hour of them playing up there quietly (which sounds like a while, but I could hear them playing for the first half hour and really there's nothing that they could get in trouble with up there... I thought), Jonah came down. I was so proud of their getting along and excitedly said "Jonah, what were you guys playing in there?" Jonah proceeded to tell me that he cut Abby's hair. I asked him "What?" figuring he just cut a tiny bit and felt so guilty that he needed to tattle on himself. He told me that he wanted to make a nest and was using Abby's hair to make it. Next thing I know, Abby turned the corner and this is what I saw.
At this point, I think I said something along the lines of "Nobody move!" They were looking at each other cracking up. Abby then said that she went potty in her pants BOTH WAYS, which is I think the reason she woke up in the first place... she had to go to the bathroom. I immediately called Brian telling him to come home, briefly explaining him what happened, and assuring him that it was probably worse than he was imagining. I then put Abby on the toilet, called my mom, called a friend, and tried to figure out what on earth to do. Really, I was trying to figure out how to undo it, but clearly that wasn't possible. I cleaned Abby up, made an immediate haircut appointment explaining the situation on the phone, and once Brian got home cried. :) I mostly was in shock about it all, but the main thing that was hard for me was how different she looked. Where did my little girl go?? Brian and I went to check out the scene of the crime.

The nest

The barber's chair
More perspectives of the cut. This side isn't so bad.

The back, top, and right side were all pretty short. As in, some areas, including the bangs, were almost to the scalp.

Getting the hair cut. Clearly Abby has no problem with her hair as it is.

She got it buzzed down to a 2 in the back!!!

The final pixie wanna-be cut. :) The gap in the bangs is hard to work around.

Jonah, is that you?? :)

Tuesday morning, Abby woke up, looked in the mirror, and said "I look like a boy." So, we decided to go to something super girly and get her ears pierced. :) She was excited about it and knew she wanted pink diamonds. It was a nice relief to have something to have people talk about when they saw her other than her hair. She loves the earrings and felt girly once again. She may look a bit different, but she's still our sweet (but crazy) little girl.

And her partner in crime, Jonah, has been forgiven and has learned his lesson. If you ask him, he'll tell you "I will never, ever, ever cut anyone's hair again."

Morals to the story:

- Kids are crazy

- Take scissors away from Jonah unless supervised :)

- Quiet ALWAYS equals trouble, even if you don't know what they possibly could find to get in trouble with

- I clearly needed to be humbled. I didn't know how much I treasured Abby's hair. It is OK to think it's beautiful, but vanity had found it's way into my train of thought and I had put my daughter's appearance in a place of too much value.

- Hair is just hair. It has already started growing back a bit and doesn't have the "freshly massacred" look anymore. Really though, I'm just so thankful that no one got hurt and other than a couple of tiny nicks, Abby was just fine.

In the end, we will someday have quite the story and pictures for Abby's rehearsal dinner.

September Happenings

2010-09-23T20:07:00.002-05:00

I am rather behind on posting, so September is just going to have to be conbined into one post. "The Incident" however, will be it's own post on another day. If you don't know what I'm speaking of, be ready. It's a doozy.

Jonah started preschool! Here are the obligatory posed pictures. I just love his sweet closed-mouth smiles.

To Jonah's left, is Faith. Jonah talks often of his friend Faith and how much fun he has with her, and how he wants her to come over to play someday, and how she is really fun and beautiful. We need to learn more about this Faith.

We went apple picking again this year and Reed, Dana and the kids came along too. And also their neighbor friend, Kaitlyn, on the far left.

I'm a mom of three! So crazy.

These guys are buddies. They also love to wrestle and beat up on each other to the point of tears. Then they do this immediately afterwards. Oh, boys....

Look at that hair in Abby's face. Someone ought to do something about that....

Labor Day was an exciting day for us this year. The night before, we decided on a whim to get a hotel room in town on priceline and it ended up being a blast. We swam, had a picnic dinner and breakfast in the hotel, and Jonah and Abby shared a bed for the first time. They have been asking when they can do it again. :) The next morning we woke up and headed downtown to the Labor Day parade. We had never gone before and it was a lot of fun! It was also a beautiful day, which was great.

Getting a better view. Tall daddys come in handy for this.

All the floats threw candy and the kids would run and gather as much as they could. Jonah and Abby got quite the loot.

I don't know why Garfield and Odie made the parade. Does anyone really know who they are anymore? Certainly not my kids. I'm guessing these were the floats available in the parade bargain bin. :)

Jonah was very excited to see Iron Man, even though he has no clue who he is. Same with R2D2.

By the time we got home from our Labor Day adventures, Abby was ready to nap on the floor.

Another thing we did this year was go to the Hot Air Balloon festival. Once again, it did not disappoint!

This year they had a balloon on its side that the kids could play in. It was like a non-bouncy bounce house and the kids had a blast.

Bonus points for counting how many balloons there were.

Abby INSISTS on doing everything by herself... when she's with mommy and daddy. She loves, however, to let Emma do everything for her. And Emma loves to do it.

Can you see Levi? He's spent most of our outings hanging out in the baby carrier. Thankfully he likes it!

All night Brian was saying, "Should I get a funnel cake? No, I don't need one." After the third time of saying that, I suddenly saw him in line. :)

So beautiful! This is again proving to be one of our favorite family nights of the year.

Our no-napping Jonah is wiped out by the end of our nights lately. Finally a child that will sleep in the car!

And I haven't put nearly enough pictures up of Levi! I finally captured one of his adorable smiles on camera. They melt me!

He loves playing under his play mat these days. He's made a buddy in the octopus. :)

This is from today. What a strong boy!

What are you lookin' at?

Grandparents

2010-09-06T17:22:00.004-05:00

Jonah is VERY into building things lately, which may or may not be egged on by Grandpa. Where else would Jonah get all of his sweet building stuff from? This project was a book shelf for Levi's room. We still need to paint and install it, but for now here it is in the early stages...

Soon enough big guy, you'll be joining in the fun.

Abby woke up from her nap and came in to help finish off the shelf.

Papa and Mimi also stopped for a visit on their way back home from a bus trip tour of the western US. Papa and Jonah had some stick sword fighting going.

They love playing with Papa and Mimi and I think they get as worn out by Papa and Mimi as Papa and Mimi are by them. :)

In the Last Week

2010-08-26T11:00:00.003-05:00

In the last week:

Last Friday, Levi was diagnosed with reflux and I limited my diet even more now, avoiding all forms of dairy, soy, egg (other than in baked goods), peanuts, tree nuts, tomatoes, and caffeine. Yes, it hurts my brain to figure out what I can eat.
We spent two nights at my parents' lake house and hosted a party of 50 adults and children (happy 30th birthday, Brian!). One of the families got into a bad accident on the way home, totally wrecking both cars. Praise God everyone was OK! Brian spent the rest of Saturday night helping the family while a friend and I cleaned up the lake house.
On our way home from the lake on Sunday, in a half hour time I went from feeling a little funny to INTENSE pain and heading into the emergency room. One hour later I was being taken by ambulance to another hospital and being scheduled for surgery.
Tuesday, dazed and confused but feeling a bit better, I headed home from the hospital.
Thursday, today, as Brian is driving into work, the transmission goes out on our car. Why not, right?

However, in the last week...

We praised God for the little life of Levi and his blessing already in our family. I'm thankful for the opportunity to nurse him, regardless of the sacrifice.
We were able to witness Levi smiling in response to our interaction with him for the first time.
We had a wonderful time of fellowship with many dear friends from our church.
We were able to witness firsthand God's protection as our friends and their three children were able to walk away from a deadly accident with just bumps and bruises.
We were able once again to see God's protection and sovereignty that the kidney stone, which has been there for years apparently, did not become a problem during my pregnancy, the majority of my postpartum recovery, or while we were out of town.
I was safely operated on and am recovering with minor difficulties.
Brian was approached by a man in the hospital whose wife and the mother of his four children is dying of cancer about where he finds his source of hope- faith in Christ alone!
We were able to see God's provision for us in a very tangible way in regards to our home and a wonderful refinancing solution for us.
We were served immensly by friends and family with kid-sitting, meal providing, and prayers.
We were reminded that our car is just a thing, money is just money, and God is the provider of it all. We will never have no more or no less than what God has for us and what can be more financially comforting than that?

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
(Romans 5:1-11 ESV)

Hot and Cold

2010-08-09T20:34:00.004-05:00

It has been amazingly hot here, but this week we were able to cool off on Friday and Saturday at an FCA hockey camp. Jonah and Abby were even able to get in on the action this year too. A couple of FCA volunteers who help run the camp brought skates to fit both of the kids. Jonah was a little afraid of the ice, but Abby went ahead and jumped right in.

Jonah's hockey jersey was a bit big, so he opted to wear his football jersey instead and he also brought along his fisher price hockey stick. :)

Abby didn't mind the large jersey. Or the ice.

Abby in action...

On the hot side of things, while Brian was mowing the yard, Jonah decided to be like Grandpa. When we're at the lake my dad will rake the sand with a rake pulled behind a 4-wheeler. Jonah decided to help daddy by making his own rake to pull weeds in the yard. He tied a shovel to the back of his scooter and went to work. He cracks us up.

Kitchen Remodel: Complete!

2010-08-04T19:33:00.005-05:00

Finally, pictures of the kitchen! We are so happy with how things turned out. We literally finished up with the remodeling about four days before Levi was born. Although it about twice the time and twice the money we anticipated, we believe it was a worthwhile investment and we have already greatly enjoyed it. The bat and paint spill also added some much needed (haha) drama to our life along the way. All that being said, we are not planning on another major remodeling project anytime soon. :) So, the completed project:

The view from our living room. I don't like paint cutoff by the pantry, but we have no idea where else to make the line. Oh well. Would it be noticable if I didn't point it out?

The view from near our fridge. Please note my kids are in most of these pictures. They like being in front of a lens. My brother did the backspalsh of marble subway tiles. We're so happy with it!
I got the stools off of craigslist, but Brian's not sold on them. :) He's not a fan of the swivel (more like the kids swiveling into the counter and wall non-stop). I was planning on painting them, but I think I will resell them and craigslist shop for some more.
I love my ovens!!!

And cooktop.

And my girl :)

The living room (take two). We had an incident where a touch up painter spilled a half gallon of paint all over our room. It ruined our couch and splattered some other items, but for the most part we were able to salvage everything. Including our beautiful new floor! Anyway, here is our new couch. I need a table cloth for the table on the left, but other than that the room is mostly complete.

I also want an ottoman for below the picture. Hello, Jonah. :)

A giant sized doorway. Not that we expect to have tall children or anything.

Now, on to Levi's room.... Poor Levi. Other than the chinese lanterns, he just got Jonah's room exactly as he left it with baby furniture put in it. Something tells me that he doesn't really care. :)

Jonah's new Husker room with SEVEN, I repeat, SEVEN coats of red paint. No, we did not prime the walls first, but they were a orangish yellow. We thought we'd be OK. We learned our lesson.

Brian's hardwork and paint was worth it though. Jonah absolutely loves his room.

And for good measure, Abby's room. We painted all of this furniture that we got off of craigslist. I'd rather do seven coats of red paint. We won't be painting six pieces of furniture again anytime soon.... :)

So, that's the latest changes in our house. I know I left Levi out of this post, but to be honest, there aren't any new pictures of the little guy as of late. He's in the baby acne stage, so until that passes there aren't going to be too many frame-worthy pictures. :) Plenty of updates to him coming in the future. Other than that, we're surviving with three and if I wasn't amazingly tired, I'd say we were doing great. Can someone remind me what three hours of consecutive sleep feels like? I vaguely remember it feeling wonderful... :)

Introducing Levi James Conklin

2010-07-22T12:33:00.014-05:00

Born 7.14.10 at 4:16pm

7 lbs. 5 oz. 20 in.

For those who are interested (men need not apply), the birth story:

Brian and I made the difficult decision to be induced a bit early. Many of you probably know, but Jonah was 12 days overdue, my water broke, and I still didn't go into labor. He was also 9 lbs. 2 oz. and did a number on me during his delivery. Jonah himself also had some difficulties and needed physical therapy for a few months after birth due to his size. Our very conservative Dr. in Lincoln advised us to induce early with Abby in order to avoid the same delivery scenario occurring, which could possibly cause surgery for me in the future if I had the same difficulty. Abby was induced 4 days early, was 7 lbs. 7 oz., and it was a very easy labor and delivery for both Abby and I. Since this was our first baby in Omaha and we have a new Dr., the decision was really up to us and we decided to stick with our Dr. in Lincoln's advice and induce early to avoid any major complications again. Our Dr. here has no problem inducing at 39 weeks, so at 39 weeks and 1 day we scheduled our induction.

Labor itself was smooth. We got to the hospital at 7 am, I was started on pitocin, and my Dr. came around 8:30 am or so and broke my water. By 10:00 am I was in active labor with contractions 2-3 minutes apart. I was progressing well, got an epidural around noon or so (could there be a more wonderful product of modern medicine??) and at 3:50 pm I was 8 cm dialated. Two contractions later (while both nurse and husband were out of the room!) I could feel I was ready to push. The nurse checked me, and sure enough I was. About 5 minutes later my Dr. was in the room and I all set to push.

Abby was born in two pushes, so I joked that I could have this baby in one push. Not exactly. I had three pushes through the first contraction (pushing MUCH harder than I had to with Abby) and the Dr. could start to see his head. I asked what color his hair was and she said there was not much hair to speak of, but she thought dark. The next contraction I pushed three more times and the Dr. started saying "turn, turn, turn!" (I didn't know why at the time) and she was unsuccessfully trying to turn Levi over as he was face up, instead of face down as babies should be by the time of pushing. On the last contraction I did three more pushes and, with some assistance from my Dr., Levi was born. This is when my Dr. informed me that he had actually come out not only sunny side up, but also with his head tilted up instead of against his chin as babies usually do. When she said she saw no hair, what she was actually looking at was his forehead. She said he basically came out nose first. What a stinker! The nurse and Dr. said that if this was not my third baby and I didn't know how to push, there is now way he would have been born without a c-section. Thank goodness for his "big" big brother who went before him! Other than needing a little help to get the first cry out of him, Levi was born as healthy as can be, albeit with some bruising on the forehead, cheek, and a swollen nose.

On the flip side (boys, plug your ears), I did have similar difficulties to what I had giving birth to Jonah and my recovery has been slow. I lost a significant amount of blood once again and instead of a transfusion, the Dr.'s have decided to see if I can build my iron back up with pills and rest. One week later I still am unable to grocery shop or really do anything too physical for more than 20 minutes or so without being exhausted and even feeling like I need to pass out. Thankfully, we've had some help around here with Brian's parents staying here for the first week, meals from church friends, and Brian able to stay home and help us get into some kind of routine before I go solo on Monday. :)

Levi is a total joy and we are absolutely in love with him. There's nothing like cuddling with a newborn. He is nursing like a champ, sleeping better every night (praise God!!) and becoming more alert every day. Jonah and Abby absolutely love him and are eager to help and cheer him up when he cries. It is such a blessing to see them interact and love on each other. Now, for pictures....

Checking into the hospital. This hospital is actually new and has only been open for about 3 weeks. The nurse had some trouble finding some needed items after Levi's delivery as they are still getting settled, but the food was delicious. :)

Just born. He had a super long piece of umbilical cord as the Dr. was trying to rush to get to me after his delivery and clamped it a bit far out. She also didn't "milk" the cord, so when Brian cut it, blood squirted all over his face, shirt, shorts, and even shoes. :) It was actually pretty funny. Thankfully he had a new shirt to change into before he went out to tell the eager grandparents about the delivery... I think my mom would have passed out.
So happy to finally be able to hold him in my arms.
The grandparents' first time to hold him.
The kids being introduced to Levi for the first time.
Levi gave the kids each a gift. Abby was very excited to get her baby doll from him.
Moving up to post-partum. Shortly after this point, the tornado sirens started going off... We actually had a bit of chaos once we got up there. My epidural hadn't worn off, so we (me on my bed, Levi, Jonah, Abby, Brian, and his parents) were wheeled into the nursery area to wait out the major windstorm. About a half hour later we were finally able to settle in our room.
Jonah holding Levi for the first time. He had been so excited my whole pregnancy for this moment. :)

Abby's turn.

After the kids and everyone left, we saw this huge double rainbow out our window and it almost looked as if it was coming from our house. It was an awesome reminder of God's promises and protection of us. We also saw some great sunrises out this window.

Proud daddy.

We didn't get pictures of all of our visitors, but here's Aunt Dana holding Levi for the first time.

Cousin Emma, future babysitter in the making.

Cousins Elise and Ethan.

Molly and Dustin, minus their new baby Claire. Molly actually watched Jonah and Abby so Papa and Mimi could be at the hospital during Levi's delivery... thanks Molly!

Heading home.

The first bath at home. Jonah had a hard time watching Levi cry and spent the whole time trying to console him. It was very sweet.

Much better.

Papa and Mimi asked Jonah what he wanted on Levi's birthday cake and Jonah chose "Levi, we're glad you're here". We are!

A fifth grandson for Papa and Mimi. Thanks for all of your help while you were here!!

Another close up.

Levi is now eight days old and it is so hot we've been doing a lot of playing with water outside. Today, Levi and I sat outside to join in the fun. He wasn't so sure at first.

Jonah and Abby were very sure, however. They love the sprinklers!

Levi still unsure why we're out there.

Warming up to the idea.

Abby and I now have to really stick together, being outnumbered by boys and all.

The rule was no shooting mommy and Levi. Nice try Abby.

Get daddy instead.

Daddy attempting to run for cover.

A few more of the little guy. He eventually loved being outside.

Love those baby legs!

We are so excited to welcome this guy into our family and have him home. I keep telling Brian that I love the feeling of having three children, no matter how tiring and challenging it may be. He has already been a blessing to us and I can't wait to see him grow and have another little individual running around here! OK, I can wait for the running to begin for a while... :)

Soon and Very Soon

2010-06-24T11:50:00.005-05:00

We are on the end of a very busy Spring and quickly moving into a very busy summer. I am ready to move on, however. A few things we can check off the list:

we are SO SO close to being done with the remodel with just a bit of touch up paint to to.
The basement is back in working order, just needs a bit of reorganization.
Brian will be driving home tonight from his third trip to western Nebraska in the last 6 weeks and fourth overnight trip he's had during this time.
The kids were in a friend's wedding two weeks ago, as cute as can be.
VBS week was last week and fun and exhausting at the same time.

A few things coming up:

Preparing for the baby. I can honestly say I haven't done a thing. Washed clothes, carseat covers, even considered a hospital bag... anything. I need to get moving on this! Brian being around again will be a big help in this direction.
Painting and decorating for Jonah's room. He's moving into our guest room (which will become a Husker room) and the baby will be in Jonah's room.
Brian's sister Ali and her husband Nick will be coming to visit after the 4th of July. So excited to have them here and hang out.
Shortly thereafter, hopefully, having this baby! I'm physically feeling ready, but in now way do I feel prepared on the homefront. I can use these last 3 weeks. Thankfully my kids are not early arrivers thus far.

Another thing checked off the list a few weeks ago, Brian's golf marathon. It's a biggy for him and takes a lot of preparation, so we're glad to have it done. The kids and I always come to hang out for part of the day and they had a blast. This was Jonah's 5th golf marathon. Funny to think about.

This year Abby got to take a few swings too.

These two love each other. Even if they fight at times...

Jonah going for the long putt.
I don't think daddy minds these days either...

The kids loved looking out over the front of the cart.

But Abby had to stand on Daddy's foot (which was also pushing the gas pedal) to do this. You can guess what happened. We all got out of the cart to go golf and Abby decided to get back in by herself. Of course, the second she goes to stand and look over the edge she had a run away cart. I saw this, started screaming for Brian and attempting to run. She got about 30 yards with Brian only half way there before she got off the pedal. That's my crazy girl! We can laugh about it now, but if there had been water, a tree, or a hill nearby I don't think we'd find it so funny. The first of many scares our curious girl will give us through the years I'm sure.

And a few pictures of the wedding they were in of Brian's admin assistant and their frequent babysitter Ashley. They walked down the aisle like champs. It was a beautiful wedding. Congratulations Josh and Ashley!

I love this picture of Abby. No nap and she's still going strong at 7:3.

Pictures of the kitchen are on the way. If you are wondering why they haven't been posted yet, please see above. Can't wait for things to slow down a bit soon! And I can't believe I'm saying that knowing a newborn is on the way, but at least we will be HOME and settled as a family for a while.

Year One Down the Tubes

2010-05-31T18:55:00.004-05:00

Jonah has his first year of school under his belt. Two weeks ago Jonah had his final ice cream social and goodbye with all of his friends. He really did love preschool and is excited to do it again next year again. I cannot believe a year from now he'll be doing kindergarten roundup! We'll cross that bridge when we come to it...

I will have a little of all the toppings, please. Jonah is our sweets eater to the core. And he usually has record speed.
Ending where they began, here they are on their carpet for one last time.

I love the chaos in this picture. He made lots of new friends and hopefully will have teachers just as wonderful next year.

The next day the family joined me for one of my routine Dr. appointments. They are every two weeks now! I can't believe I'm getting that close. I certainly don't feel that prepared. :)

The Dr. had the kids help measure my tummy and find the heartbeat with the doppler. They thought it was the coolest thing ever and it was fun to have them so excited and able to interact with their new brother. In a side note, I think this picture is what Abby will look like come high school. She looks so old to me!

Only 7 more weeks to go, which I count as 6 more weekends and all of which are basically filled, so this baby will be here before we know it! One of these days I need to start getting things ready for him... I can't wait to meet and hold my newborn, all-curled-up little guy!

The First "Official" Dinner

2010-05-27T19:37:00.003-05:00

The rest of the new cabinets are in! Which means that as of this Monday we also have an oven! I am beyond excited. Today we finished up putting all of our boxed kitchen stuff away in the new cabinets and finally have a fully functioning kitchen. Tonight, to celebrate, we had a special steak dinner. We still have no backsplash, knobs and handles on our cabinets, and plenty of touch up to do. Until that gets done, I won't have the official "after" pics of the kitchen, but here's a teaser for the meantime. We love it and are so happy with how it's turning out!

Nothing celebrates a new, nearly complete kitchen like steak and zucchini.

And I have been won over on convection ovens. Each and every one of these cookies cooked evenly on top and bottom. Brian says they're the best I've ever made, but I haven't made cookies in a long while and it's a new recipe. :) Not sure he's the best judge.
Enjoying our meal. You can see the new cabinet additions and our double oven in the background. No promises on better pictures until the backsplash is in and it's cleaned up, but that should be about a week away. Which probably actually means two or three at the pace remodeling seems to go. But I don't care, because I can bake again!!

Farming in the City

2010-05-16T23:06:00.006-05:00

A few weeks ago Jonah had a field trip with his preschool to the Boys Town farm. I grew up so close to Boys Town and yet had never been to the farm and had no idea you could go for free whenever you want! I've put that in my mommy file of things to do on lazy summer days as we had so much fun petting and feeding all the animals and their babies.

Here's Jonah ready to go farming.

Farmer Mike gave us the tour and here he is holding a kid for the preschoolers to pet. Jonah was a little timid to pet at first, but once he warmed up he was petting everything in sight. Abby, however, was all talk and no game and was interested in the idea of petting, but when it came time she wouldn't pull the trigger. So funny to have a girly girl.
She looks cute as a farmer though, doesn't she?

They had a little pen where the kids would chase down and toddler (?) chickens. This is Jonah working up the nerve for about 10 seconds to hold the chick long enough for a picture. :)

And, we learned a little piece of trivia from Farmer Mike. Chickens with white ears lay white eggs and chickens with red ears lay brown eggs.

Watching the pigs run around.

Curious Abs.

Jonah got a little slimy feeding the cows...

And they're favorite part of the tour by far, feeding the goats. Abby actually had the nerve to join in on this one and they even discovered their own way of calling the goats over.

It was a fun day and nice break from the house chaos. So glad that Spring has finally arrived!

Planting Day!

2010-05-14T19:28:00.004-05:00

What a beautiful day to garden! It also happened to be the right timing to plant the rest of our garden. First though, we got to harvest our broccoli. Can't wait to eat it! Not a ton, but enough for a dinner side dish and hopefully we'll get some more out of the plants.

We planted 4 romas, 2 zucchini, 1 oregano, 1 basil, and 1, hopefully soon to be 2, bell peppers. I'm hoping to make and freeze a lot of pasta sauce this summer as we very much enjoyed it last summer and fall. Hopefully it will last a little longer this year. Our spinach, carrots, onions and strawberries are all thriving.
This year we let the kids plant their own little flower garden under two of our trees with their choice of impatients. They enjoy having their own space and it's quite the improvement from the plain dirt that we had there last summer. Really wish it got enough sun to grow pumpkins, but oh well. We'll keep the trees.

I have a cousin who farms corn (if you read our blog, you might remember the corn picking post from last summer) and he also sells critter corn at local stores. Through another cousin of ours, who happens to be one of the workers on our renovation (following me?), he passed along this DELUXE squirrel feeder and a bucket of corn. We have endless squirrels that climb along the top of our fence and now they have a place to snack. The kids are too excited to see them eat.

Nothing to speak of going on inside the kitchen, but we have word that we will get the rest of the cabinets at the end of next week, so hopefully next weekend we will be baking and just putting in finishing touches and backsplash!

Quick Update

2010-05-12T21:11:00.004-05:00

We have a kitchen table to eat at!!! And a gas cooktop, microwave, sink, dishwasher, and refrigerator all hooked up. All we are missing at the moment is the double ovens, but there is an end in sight. We have confirmed that the rest of our cabinets should be coming in towards the end of next week, so that will be amazing. For the time being, we have a functioning kitchen and that makes for a happy mom.

Our first meal at the kitchen table in our new kitchen. Daddy couldn't be here, but it was still monumental either way.

It's messy and there's still construction stuff all over, but we'll still take it!

Our double oven, patiently waiting to be installed, sits in our living room.

And we have a ceiling fan in our living room now. It is amazing how much of a difference it makes to the look of the room and we actually have some light in there now.

And in case you hadn't noticed, our floor is in! It's a bit busy, but we really love it. It sort of ties all of our wood finishes together and we love the feel of it.

And if you are in the market for a sink, we love ours. And the faucet too for that matter.

So that's where we're at! Getting closer, but still not there yet. We have a lot of trim work to do, cabinets to install still, and backsplash to put in. Not to mention window coverings... still looking for a good deal on roman shades. Any suggestions? Can't wait to get this done, but glad to finally have some progress.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

2010-05-05T19:43:00.006-05:00

The eggs have hatched! As we were having our usual dinner picnic outside we noticed a few extra mouths at the table. The mama bird was feeding the babies worms when we first noticed, but we spooked her and she left some hungry birds. Sorry guys! How precious are they though! The kids are so excited to see them.

Our hungry babes. As I mentioned, this is our usual place of dining these days. Either outside or on a picnic blanket inside. I think the kids will be sad when we once again have a
"real" dinner table.

Now, for a tour of our current kitchen. Dinner prep.
Microwaving in the garage.

Dish washing.

This guy has been sitting on our porch the past few days and Brian and I had no idea where it had come from. My dad stopped by today and enlightened us to the fact that this is the trimmers' (the guys installing our cabinets the past couple of days) lucky monkey. Apparently it makes its way to all the job sites for good luck. The workers that have been coming in and out of our home as they please the last few weeks have been.... interesting. :)

Now for our future kitchen! The left is the pantry and on the right is where the fridge will be.

So excited! More upper cabinets are still to be hung. And you can't get a great look at the paint color, but it looks great. I am really happy with it, which is good since Brian spend about 20 hours the last week painting. :)

The appliances, some of which will make their debut hopefully this Friday.

Our current fridge, which I usually have to climb over a few things to access.

I have to admit that I am running out of steam on this project, but I know that it will pay off and be beautiful. We really don't have that much longer! My dad has promised me a working kitchen sink, dishwasher, and stove by Friday, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And countertops tomorrow! Can't wait to be able to put stuff away again and start to get our lives back in order!!

Princess in the Making

2010-05-02T19:36:00.004-05:00

Little Miss Abigail has become completely enamoured with all things princess. Out of the blue, she really became in love with the Disney princess characters and, realizing she had never seen any of the princess movies, I saw Snow White was on the Disney Channel one Saturday and DVRed it. We had a movie night (well, actually we split the movie into two different nights) and a bit to my surprise, Abby and Jonah loved the movie, poison apple and all. Abby could watch it everyday if I let her, and I will say she's gotten many extra chances these pass few weeks with the remodeling mess containing us and rainy days leaving us with not much to do indoors. Anyway, her favorite song is the Wishing Well song and I am asked almost every night to sing it to her. Today on the way home from the store with me she started singing it in the car and I had to get it on video for others to enjoy. Can you deny that the girl is her own mini princess? Since many of you probably aren't familiar with the song or movie, I put the youtube version of the sing she loves on here first so you might actually know what she's singing. :) I think I'm getting a sneak peak of what having my starry eyed girl will be like when her true "Prince Charming" comes along.

The Good and the Bad

2010-04-28T19:02:00.008-05:00

First, a few non-disaster zone updates. We have eggs once again this year! This will be our third summer in this house and every summer we've had a nest with eggs. How fun! The kids keep getting lifted up each day to see if they've hatched.

Second, the garden has begun. These pictures were actually taken about a week ago and we have tall green onions, carrots sprouting, and spinach leaves appearing. And, something new this year, we have two broccoli plants with the broccoli starting to come in. Abby, our broccoli girl, is very excited. Jonah, not so much.

And the strawberries are already promising to be much more plentiful this year, which is great considering how fast the kids devour them.

Now for the good and the bad.

The good: Our drywall is almost complete and should be finished tomorrow.

The bad: Our house is dusty. Everywhere.

The good: We can paint the kitchen tomorrow and I have actually picked out a color I love. Sherwin Williams Silver Gray, which actually looks a bit green for whatever reason. This swatch doesn't look anything like it looks to me on the wall, but whatever. I like it.

The bad: The cabinets that were to get installed tomorrow (and the entire reason why we started the remodel in the first place) aren't going to work. Back to square one on the cabinets. Not good.

The good: In a frantic search to find new cabinets, we stumbled upon 3 cancelled orders for kitchens of the exact same wood, stain, and style that are at about a third of the normal price. Complete score! Here is a stock photo of the exact cabinets.

The bad: They don't have exactly the right pieces we need, so some would maybe need to be ordered. They will take 4 weeks to come in. BIG OUCH!!

The good: We have almost enough base cabinets from them to make what we have work and keep forging ahead.

The bad: There is essentially no way the kitchen will be completely finished for at least another month. Usable perhaps, but the project done, no.

The good: I am selling the cabinets we can't use on Craigslist (among other items from our former kitchen that are no longer needed) and we are making very good money on it. Enough to buy hopefully a new kitchen table that is bigger and better suits our needs and a few pieces of furniture for our living room.

So, that's where we're at. Hopefully the next pictures I put up are of painted walls. Can't wait to get this dust out!

Blank Canvas

2010-04-26T10:55:00.005-05:00

We have walls!! The two rooms have officially become one. We still have a few more days of the drywallers mudding and sanding, but the majority of the drywalling is done. This window at the end is where the sink will be and was the dining room window.

This window is where our old sink was. To the right of it will be our fridge and to the left of it will be our pantry.

Our new ENORMOUS doorway. Brian will no longer need to duck. :)

This is looking in the kitchen from our living room. The opening on the right is now closed and things are taking shape!

And... probably what those of you who are actually interested have been waiting for... our finishes! Having a dad as a builder can be a bonus in remodeling I've found for many reasons, one of which being excellent deals! On the left is the flooring we will be putting in the kitchen and dining room. It's hickory and we love it! The slats will actually be an inch wider than these. In the middle is our granite-looking laminate countertop. And on the right is what our cabinets will be tentatively antiqued and painted to. We have gotten a set of cabinets for free which perfectly match ours, just the wrong stain. So, we're rearranging everything, mixing the two sets of cabinets here and there, and then painting and antiquing everything to match. I have a paint color picked out, but it's not set for sure and we're waiting on the backsplash for now until these other elements get put into place and we can see what we like.

The same stuff in natural light, in case you care. :)

So that's it! I think I will be blogging the layout soon as we're currently working on laying all the cabinets out in the garage making sure they work as we planned. The kids are enjoying all of our picnics outside and on the family room floor! I am working on a better game plan for meals this week, as cereal and bagels are going to get old quick.

In other news, Brian and I went to Ohio for a quick trip without the kids as he was inducted into his high school hall of fame on Saturday. We're proud of him! It was fun to get away and I was certainly thankful to get a break from the mess! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for keeping the kids. They had a blast!

Batty

2010-04-21T09:42:00.004-05:00

Just when I thought things couldn't get more interesting... So Brian and I are sitting in the family room at 10:30 last night finishing up watching our DVRed Biggest Loser when we hear something in the kitchen. At first I thought it was Jonah, which hasn't happened in a looooong time (him getting out of bed), but you never know. Well, the noise is gone, we don't hear anything new, and so we assume that something must have fallen from the ceiling. About ten minutes later Brian goes into the kitchen to get me some water. While walking in there, he kicks a sleeping bag that Jonah had left on the kitchen floor and sees something, a bat, fly out from the bag. I am unaware of what's going on and the next thing I see is Brian jumping around our familiy room making a Tigger-like "hooo hooo hooo hooooooo" noise. At first I assumed he was trying to play a trick on me, so not buying it, I calmly asked him "What?". He said, "I think we've got a bat". After him eventually convincing me that he's not trying to trick me, we realize we need to get a course of action. We had no idea where the bat had gone. Brian thought he saw it fly towards the kitchen counter, but he's not sure. I have seen nothing. So, Brian grabs a blanket and two tennis rackets out of the garage. In the meantime, I called animal control and told them we have a bat, but they said unless we know the location of it they will not come over. The don't hunt for bats they said. Just what I wanted to hear. So, Brian and his rackets went on a bat hunt around our house. He's hitting everything in sight trying to scare the bat up, and if he starles it, he plans on drilling it with the tennis racket. Not my top choice, but at this point I just want the bat gone. After about 15 minutes of hunting, I told him I just figured that bat had flown out and we should give up and go to bed. Ignorance is bliss and I was tired. Brian makes one more look at the kitchen counter and thinks he might have spotted it. Since we have no lighting in our kitchen right now except a little light over the sink, I had to take the camera and use it to light the corner to confirm. Sure enough, the little bat is laying between our breadmaker and electric can opener, directly on our kitchen counter. (Please note, if these kitchen counters weren't going to be replaced already, they certainly would be now.) I immediately get on the phone with animal control, confirm that they'll be there in "5 to 45 minutes" and for the next half hour, this is the scene in our kitchen:

I was afraid to take a picture too close and startle it with a flash, so this is the only picture we have. While he’s waiting, ready to strike, Brian keeps telling me that he’s going to swing at it. I keep telling him to just let it be and after what seemed like an eternity, the doorbell rings. A young woman in her early 20s from animal control came to our rescue. She saw our construction and said “whoa” and then once she saw where the bat was, she put a flashlight on it, moved stuff around to expose it on the counter, and all the while it just laid there. I couldn’t believe it. At this point she tells me that she doesn’t like bats either, then looks at Brian with his rackets still raised and laughs. She got out her Folger’s coffee can with holes poked in the top, put it over the bat, and put the lid on. And that was it! I couldn’t believe how easy it was. We could have taken care of it ourselves, but either way I was thankful that we had a pro doing the dirty work. After another half our of winding down, we finally got to bed and then I laid there replying the scene over and over in my mind. I had asked the woman if they would put up netting or anything over our roof vents and she said they don’t do that. I then asked what are the odds of it happening again and she said it was slim. But then I got to thinking… if our ceiling had just come down today, and the bat had come in tonight, our odds were actually a one in one chance. Not the odds I like to hear. The other option is that the bat had already been in our attic and now was freed with the ceiling coming down. Something else I also didn’t want to think about. Either way, the contractor of our remodel (my dad) got a 7:30 phone call this morning from me and I have been assured that in the near future we will have someone on our roof, which they had to do anyway, to net the vents. In the meantime, I am going to pretend like this never happened and could never possibly happen again. :)

More Demolition

2010-04-20T19:44:00.003-05:00

This is the current state of our kitchen. Half of the cabinets, more walls, and the ceiling have come down. It's starting to take shape! We have done almost all of the tearing down now and the last bit to go is the framing between the current kitchen and the old dining room. This week my brother Greg will be coming to take it down and frame in the new kitchen!

Here you can see the wall, all the way up to the ceiling, that will be coming down. Our new ceiling will keep the angle on the left slanted up and then go straight across on the right.

It will be so exciting to have twice the room!

This is the view from our living room. The doorway to the kitchen will be bigger and that hole on the right will be closed in.

Can't wait to see it closed in and get a better vision of what it's going to look like. (The fact that we have no lighting in our kitchen at the current moment doesn't help with the lack of vision either). :) And to be one step closer to have a functioning kitchen. So far we are only down a microwave and the stove is the next to go. As long as we have a fridge and the sink, I'm OK. Sandwich or cereal anyone?

Progress?

2010-04-15T20:54:00.006-05:00

This is a before picture of our kitchen and also it's current state. The cupboards are all empty along the wall with the fridge because soon (possibly tomorrow even) the wall is coming down. The fridge and stove will be moved, but still accessible until they absolutely need to go. And our pantry is in boxes in our family room. Should be interesting for a while. :) Lots of grilling.

Now for our current dining room.... it is gutted. The walls are down, the ceiling is down, and the plumbing for the sink is in.
They also had to get into our basement ceiling (which is our current playroom) to do the plumbing and duct work, so while we are at it we are raising this part of the ceiling to accommodate a certain 6'11" person who lives with us and has to duck in this part of the house. I'm guessing he will have a least a son or two who would have had to duck some day as well. :)
So, that's where we are! No turning back now!!

The Before

2010-04-11T21:34:00.004-05:00

Well, this is sort of a before. Our kitchen is not clean enough for me to take a decent before picture of, but these pictures give enough of an idea of what is going on.

This is our current dining room, although it's almost totally cleaned out in the picture. For a nicer looking picture, please see our Valentine's party post. :)

As you can see, we have a wall that divides our kitchen from our dining room. You actually have to walk through our living room to get into our dining room from our kitchen. This wall is coming down.
Our new kitchen will actually be a combination of these two rooms. Without getting into too much detail (that will come I'm sure...) to give you an idea, our new kitchen sink will be below the current dining room window on the right. The opening on the right into the dining room will be closed off and the doorway on the left into the kitchen will be widened.

Lots of changes coming our way and hopefully they all start tomorrow! I will post pictures of the progress along the way, mostly because I enjoy reading other people's blogs about this sort of thing. :) Can't wait to see and enjoy the end result!!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-06T21:07:00.002-05:00

Coming soon.... we are remodeling our kitchen! I will be putting pictures up on the blog of the progress and in the next week or so will blog our before pictures and plans. Can't wait to get started!

Spring Fling 2010

2010-03-26T20:31:00.003-05:00

To give you a little insight into my (Jenny's) twisted mind, I came across a really adorable and fun dessert the other day and decided I wanted to make it. Of course, if I was going to put in the effort and bit of money to make it, I wanted to make it count. So I made up a family party. Called Spring Fling. The kids so loved our Valentine's Party that they got super excited at the idea of another family party. We made up a sign and had Emma, Elise, Ethan, and Aunt Dana over for grilled chicken shish kabobs, fruit skewers, watermelon, garlic bread, and this:

an ice cream flower pot dessert.

It was a surprise to the kids and they loved it. A little confused at first, but it didn't take long for them to dig in.
And it was messy.

Very messy. And Abby tried to eat her flower. :)

The evening ended with all the kids wrestling, the boys with their shirts off, and Abby sitting and reading books smack dab in the middle of the chaos. Spring Fling 2010 was a success.

Little Abs

2010-03-16T18:39:00.005-05:00

Today, Abby had her yearly visit to the Allergist. Last year we knew she was allergic to peanuts, but since then she has had skin reactions to walnuts. Today was time for retesting.

Here's the sweet innocent girl, unsure of what's to come.

She saw the camera and felt the need to pose. Here's her pose. :)
Here's the skin test. They were also concerned about some environmental allergies for her, since she has had frequent sinus infections, so they did quite a few. Each number represents a different allergen, if you've never seen this testing before. This is a picture after the first few minutes. A little bit of redness is appearing...

She's not quite as happy at this point.

This is towards the end of the test. You can notice a reaction in five spots, one of which is the control.

The verdict: Abby is still very allergic to peanuts and also allergic to pecans, walnuts, and..... dogs!? We had no idea about that last one and it isn't a huge deal, but something to consider. The good news is that there's no allergy to a lot of other common allergens, including mold, dust, grass, and she's also not allergic to almonds, which is great. And, must to daddy's dismay, she's not allergic to cats. :) (No offense to the cat lovers, but daddy's not a fan).

Either way, we are very thankful for our daughter's overall health and the fact that these "special needs" are relatively minor and easily overcome. The Dr. was still optimistic that she would grow out of them, so that was an encouragement too. And, grumpy or not, she's still stinking cute.

Day of Love

2010-02-17T20:33:00.006-06:00

Last Saturday was declared "Family Valentine's Party Day" and it actually lived up to the hype. To start the day, Abby and I got haircuts. My first in a year (yikes!) and Abby's second of her life. We are just a couple of low maintenance gals. :) Anyway, here are Abby's before pictures. I had to do two front ones because her poses were just too funny.

We said "Abby, stand still so I can get a picture of your hair."

"No, Abby, keep your head up."
I know, I know. How could I cut this beautiful hair? It was constantly getting caked with food and anything else she felt like being messy with. This was done for the sake of hygiene. The after.
Pretty cute, huh?
My after and also showing off the bump for those who are interested. And I haven't officially announced on our blog, but we're having another baby! A boy in fact, due July 20th. He's already starting to invade my space. :)

To continue to the party, we decorated our dining room and made some heart shaped pizzas for dinner. We also spoiled our kids with a rare treat of punch and also some angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Here is a fellow party-goer.

The kids pizza, cheese and black olives. They wouldn't have it any other way.

The decorated room. The kids did a great job coloring the sign and it looks so beautiful in there, I don't want to take it down!

Two out of the three Conklin boys.

And what better way to end the special day than a trip to the pool? Even though it was in the teens outside, the kids always have a blast swimming, particularly when the pool has a hoop as our gym has. This was such a fun day for us and hopefully something we make a point to do every year. We love our family! :)

Jonah is 4!

2010-02-13T20:42:00.003-06:00

A few fun facts about Jonah now that he's 4.
- He absolutely loves his preschool and is doing very well there.
- He has suddenly gotten picky and will no longer eat anything that even hints at onions
- His favorite color is red
- He says something that makes me laugh out loud every day. Example, when Abby was repeatedly disobeying at lunch yesterday and I was dealing with it, Jonah said "Mommy, you're just having a rough day, aren't you?"
- He wears the Husker basketball uniform in the pictures below probably 5/7 days every week. Even in the winter.
- He loves his little sister and plays sweetly with her (most of the time). He is also very protective of her.
- He does not share Abby's dare devil fearlessness.
- He knew the baby would be a boy and was very excited to find out he was right.
- He is always talking about what he will help with when the baby arrives.
- He has an immensly tender heart and is the first to comfort someone he feels is hurting.
- He is very loved!! Love you buddy and so thankful to be able to see you grow these last four years.
A few photo highlights of Jonah's celebration below.

He chose the pink frosting with sprinkles. Daddy was OK with that. After gently being encouraged that he was OK with that. :)

Jonah's party was at a local rec center and involved a few of his favorite things.... basketball, swimming, presents, and cake.

December

2010-02-13T20:37:00.003-06:00

We are so far beyond December, here is a slideshow of it. Just for good measure. Since my neighbors have their Christmas decorations still on the fronts of their houses, I don't feel as behind. :) To give a little info behind the pictures, we went to Elmo Live while Papa and Mimi were in town, made and decorated some Christmas cookies as we do every year, and went to a Christmas event at the police horse barn where the kids got some pretty awesome balloon animals. There is also TWO pictures from Christmas Day of the kids sitting anxiously at the top of the stairs. Enjoy!

Abby is 2!

2009-12-21T20:20:00.004-06:00

Little Miss Abigail has turned 2! We had two celebrations for her, first a family celebration on the big day. She and Jonah wasted no time devouring a cake (with Daddy's help... Mommy was actually gone for the cake eating).

I'm not sure what was said to cause the arm raising, but I'm going to guess that it involved something along the lines of "Mommy is gone, so who wants to eat the entire cake in one night??"

A few days later we had Abby's extended family party at our house with all the cousins. This is what present opening looks like when you have 10 cousins and a brother to "help".

Ryan also turned 9 a few days before Abby, so he shared in the party too.

Happy birthday you two!

Giving Thanks

2009-12-18T15:33:00.009-06:00

We spent Thanksgiving in Ohio this year and there are loads of pictures, so we'll make this quick.

Because of a Southwest sale saving us a couple of hundred dollars, we ended up flying out pretty early this year on my birthday. No better way to spend your birthday than 10 hours of traveling with two sleep deprived kiddos, right? Regardless, Mimi had a cake all prepared for me when we

arrived and just needed Jonah to help with the finishing touches.

A few days into our trip, Mark and his family came to visit for a night too! It was so fun to see Mark, Steph, Eli, Toby, and Ish, that we were having too much fun to take pictures... whoops!

Helping Mimi cook for the big Thanksgiving feast!
What a helper.

This picture cracks me up. Playing a lot of piano can make a kid thirsty!

Jonah remembered last year how he rode on a big train in the mall, so this year we had to make the same visit.

In the middle of the trip, mommy and daddy got a much needed 3 day getaway to Niagara Falls, which was about 3 hours away from Brian's parents house and my actual birthday celebration. :) We stayed on the Canadian side and since we were there in the off-season, we got a great rate on some amazing rooms!

This is the hallway walking into our room... it was huge! And had a hot tub and a shower with 4 shower heads!!! We were spoiled. :)
The first night we were there we went down to take a look at the falls lit up.

The tourist trap right next to the falls.

Beautiful!

Did I mention breakfast in bed was included in our room rate? So fun! And yummy!

We also got to eat at many delicious restaurants in a small town nearby called Niagara on the Lake. It was very beautiful and full of vineyards. This one here that we ate at is the best meal I think I've ever had in my life. Brian loved his food too.

This was our view while we ate.

Another delicious restaurant.

We also went horseback riding around the vineyards and in the woods. It was very fun and something we certainly don't do in our normal day to day life.

The falls by day.

And, for all the Office fans out there, we had to visit a site from the big wedding episode. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the church is actually in LA, so the hotel they stayed at will have to do. Here it is.

Brian and I decided that next to our honeymoon, this is the best trip that we have ever taken together alone. So much fun! Thank you Mimi and Papa for letting us get away! We might take you up on it again sometime... :)

This and That

2009-11-14T20:34:00.007-06:00

This is our month of October in pictures. :) Well the parts we actually took pictures of...

Brian played against a Harlem Globetrotters spinoff team, which happened to be his first time playing basketball in a while. Thankfully, he did not get de-pantsed.

Then it snowed out of no where and not only did it snow, it snowed enough for Jonah and daddy to make a snowman mound! Pretty cute actually.
We also went to Vala's pumpkin patch, where Jonah rode a pony and loved it.

What a big guy.

We also rode a train...

And rode a bike race car...

jumped on a blob...

and watched pig races.

These two are fun.

We also went trick or treating three times, two of which were at shopping areas, as seen below. Jonah was a UPS guy and Abby was a turtle. Jonah actually won "best costume" for a costume contest at one shopping center. He was very proud. :)

Then, we carved pumpkins! Here is Jonah's drawing for inspiration.

Next up, Ohio! We will be in Ohio over Thanksgiving visiting family and Brian and I will even get to have a little getaway to Niagara Falls for a few days in there. So excited!!

"Real" Family Pictures

2009-10-17T20:23:00.006-05:00

After five years of marriage and two kids, we finally got around to having professional pictures taken. We are very happy with them! What cuties. Sorry for the overload... these are for Grandparents picking.

New Traditions

2009-10-08T21:55:00.011-05:00

On a beautiful, early September Saturday morning Brian, the kids, and I went to Ditmar's Orchard to pick some apples. We had never gone before, but I had an itch to go apple picking, looked this place up, and off we went (without the camera... whoops!). The kids absolutely loved it. We rode a tractor, picked a couple bags of apples, ate some apple pie, and decided then that we must come back the next weekend for the Hot Air Balloon Festival.

The next Saturday night we came back for the festival (with camera!) and two new family traditions were born. One, picking apples at the orchard each September, and two, this festival! Jonah has always loved hot air balloons (I think I blogged about a year ago about Brian and him making a paper mache one to hang in his room) and of course Abby is intrigued by them as well.

We got there just in time for liftoff.

Reed, Dana, and the kids came too. I think this picture is just hilarious. Look at Elise smiling sweetly while attempting to force her brother's head. :)
We waited in line for a while to take a tethered hot air balloon ride, only to discover that Jonah was too young. Elise and Aunt Dana got to enjoy one, however.

Eating some leftover pizza. These two are fun. Seriously.
Just taking it all in.
And then they couldn't take it any longer. They had to get up... and dance. And with this bluegrass music, who could blame them. You can't resist a steel guitar.

While the balloons were off and on their way back (via truck), a chili pepper balloon was filled up to show off.

To the non-balloon fanatics, each balloon operator has their card to give out showing a picture of their balloon with stats. Jonah has two so far.

Waiting for the balloons to fill back up for the big glow.

It was definitely worth waiting for. Beautiful!

We had one of our most fun family nights together of all time and are excited to be establishing traditions that will keep adding to our young family memories. We are blessed!

Happy Birthday, Brian!

2009-09-21T21:39:00.004-05:00

Last month, Brian had his 29th birthday (one year away from the big 3-0!) and the kids and I surprised him with a special treat. The zoo had a once a year evening called Critter Ride and since we bought our bikes and bike trailer earlier this summer, Brian has frequently told me that family bike rides are his favorite family activity. So why not at the zoo!

It was fun to see the animals in the evening when the zoo is usually closed. This grizzly, who is usually hard to find, was particularly interested in what we were doing there so late. The most fun though, was watching the lions run along the fence at us as we rode by on our bikes. They definitely thought we were prey and were hoping for a hunt.

The kids love to ride in the trailer. Jonah was in charge of the map.
They had food scattered around the zoo and you would ride to each station to eat another treat for dinner. Here, Abby is enjoying an apple.

Hanging out on the rhino.

And at the fountain. The kids had a blast seeing the zoo from a different perspective.

And since it was for daddy's birthday, we had to stop at Zesto on the way home.

The kids enjoying their treats....

and then getting a little crazy.

We love you daddy! Thanks for being such a Godly husband and father.

Jonah's First Homework

2009-09-10T09:01:00.001-05:00

I am Special!

My Name is Jonah

All About Me:
I am 3 years old.
My favorite color is red.
My favorite thing to play is basketball.
My favorite food is vegetables (like carrots).
My favorite song is Holy is the Lord.
My favorite movie is Finding Nemo.
My favorite activity is to play basketball.

My Family:
I have 4 people in my Family. Their names are Daddy, Mommy, Jonah, and Abby.
What my dad does at work: He works on his laptop computer.
What my mom does at work: She doesn’t go to work.
The thing I enjoy doing with my family is to play sports, paint, go shopping, pick apples, go to church, giggling and tickling, and movie nights.

My Pets:
I have an (imaginary) pet dog named Flash.

What I like about preschool:
When I’m at preschool, I like to play with my friends, play outside, cooking stuff, playing with puzzles, and play-doh.

School Days

2009-09-03T21:10:00.005-05:00

Jonah is officially a big kid. Today he started a year of preschool for 2 hours 15 min a day for two days a week and as you can tell, he was excited! So excited, in fact, that he managed to stay awake most of the night in anticipation. But, this morning finally came, he picked out the perfect shirt, put on his backpack, and off he went.

Abby refused to be out of his first day of school pictures at first, but who can blame her. Look how gorgeous she is!

The solo pose.
It was a very rainy day, so we didn't manage to get a picture of Jonah in his backpack on the front porch as planned. A garage pose will have to do.

Jonah showing off his very own backpack/coat hook. And as you can see, his teachers this year are the very lovely Miss Kelli and Miss Stacy.

Cousins Ethan and Lexi are in the same preschool, but different class. So cute.

Jonah walking into the room and finding his name on the carpet...

Jonah was very excited to be sitting on the dog. Everyone said "bow wow" when it got to him he said, which was awesome.

And here he is at the end of class, so excited to tell us all about his morning.

I suppose this is the beginning of the fast track of his growing up! And I only managed to drive by once peeking on him. :) We are so proud of Jonah and the big guy that he is becoming. It is our prayer that we would be the parents that God desires for him and that he would grow "in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52). Love you, Jonah!

Nyffeler Sweet Corn

2009-08-27T20:58:00.005-05:00

Nyffeler Sweet Corn is the best veggie known to man. If you don't believe me, come over sometime in late July/early August and see for yourself. We look forward to eating it every summer and this summer was no exception. Mommy even took the time to blanch and freeze some so we can enjoy it into the fall.

Usually we just pick it up at the farmer's market in Columbus, as seen below. Hudson and Jonah are stocking us up.

But this year we were able to make the special trip out to the farm (which happens to be just down the road from the farm my dad grew up on) and pick some ourselves. Oh my goodness was it delicious. And fun! Jonah still talks about his farming experience.
Jonah the farmer.

Abby is making good headway on her raw ear of corn. After my cousin Mark insisted we all take a bite of it raw, she wouldn't stop munching it.

Abby finished it off by the time we got home. Wow, she's cute.

And Jonah also got to catch butterflies with a net, which he thought was the coolest thing ever. I'm investing the $2 into two of these for next summer. Hours of entertainment!

Nash-Vegas

2009-08-24T20:31:00.007-05:00

**Please note this post contains no pictures of kids. Please feel free to skip over if needed**

The first weekend in August my college friend Molly and I (Jenny) were blessed enough to be able to take a trip down to Nashville and visit longtime friends Traci and Judd. It was 4 days, 3 nights, and 16 hours of sleep. We had a good time. Brian was sweet enough to watch the kids for the time I was gone and had fun (he claimed), but was equally as exhausted as I was by the time I came home. Our whole house slept from 7:30 pm to 7:30 am that night. That may never happen again, but oh wow was it awesome. :)

Nothing like starting off the trip seeing if Traci can still beat Super Mario Bros. with one life. She didn't this time, but I don't doubt her ability.

The first night we headed out to the Honky Tonk strip downtown. It is exactly what you would expect. A lot of bars with live music and intoxicated karoke.
We figured if we were going to be seen on the strip, we better look the part.

I ALMOST couldn't leave without this shirt. It makes a statement I think. I think it says "I know this shirt doesn't make sense, but I just really like cats."

This is more honky tonk. Better.

Saturday we headed on the "Nash Trash" tour bus. It was quite the experience and pretty funny, but for the record, I don't recommend it. They did have cheese and crackers though.

This poor bride to be in front of us got a hard time, but she was a good sport about it.

Funny! And they could sing too!

Then that night we stumbled on this amazingly adorable big band dance. It was so much fun! Wish we had something like this around here, but we enjoyed it while it lasted.

Warming up a bit.

Sure wish we knew how to swing dance.

... But then they did line dancing! Finally, we joined in. It was extremely fun and we didn't even knock people down with our mess-ups, which was a bonus.

What a fun weekend! Thanks for having us Traci! Brian is impressed with how much taller I am than you two.

Oh, What a Duck Race

2009-08-22T14:10:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago we actually had the first Saturday of the summer ALL at home together. It's pathetic that it happened at the end of July, but what can you do. Anyway, we decided to make the most of it and head downtown to the farmer's market. Little did we know, it was also the day of the "O, What a Duck Race" for the Omaha Food Bank. This included tons of free food and activities, which are highlighted with photos below.

Free lunch! Hot dogs, lemonade, panera bagels, Old Chicago chips and artichoke dip, Ted & Wally's ice cream.... all free!!

"Can we get a puppy, mommy? I want this one!" Nope. Sorry, Jonah. Face painting! Husker baseball for Jonah and flowers on the hands for Abby.

Winning a stroller full of prizes.

Standing in the super big awesome fire truck!

And finally feeding the ducks.

(Which were actually geese)

Daddy's Catch

2009-08-12T21:21:00.003-05:00

Check out what daddy caught a few weeks ago at the lake. (Please note, this is NOT the lake we swim in... it's a lake across the road). It's a gar and if you don't know what that is, google it. They're sick. He was delicious though. Just kidding! Brian and his friend cut the line and let this guy go. We thought he deserved his own blog though.

So nasty!!

First Haircut

2009-08-06T20:47:00.007-05:00

A few weeks ago we felt it was about time for Abby's semi-mullet to get a trim. Abby disagreed.

But surprisingly (note sarcasm) a sucker cheered her up. I think you can see a bit of her sassy side in this picture. Once it was over though, she was feeling better.
The finished product. A picture of Jonah for good measure. Mommy cuts his hair. And from the front. What a beauty!

Chatty Abby

2009-07-27T16:01:00.007-05:00

My good friend Sarah (along with her husband) requested a video of Abby talking. Ask enough times and I'll cave. Even if it takes an hour to load the silly video. Here you go Mark and the Sarah formerly known as Loyd.

Celebrating the 4th on the 5th

2009-07-25T22:31:00.004-05:00

Since we flew home from Ohio on the 4th of July, we decided to celebrate Independence Day on the 5th. We started off with a trip to a spray park.

Abby sporting her best 4th of July look.

Spraying and splashing!
Once we came home, Abby went straight to bed and Jonah stayed up a little longer to light off a few fireworks. Not before we heard the ding ding man drive by though. Jonah had no clue about the wonders of the ding ding truck, so what better day to be introduced to it than while celebrating 4th of July?

We gave him his pick and he chose Tweety Bird. No idea why. He loved it though!

God Bless America!

Ohio!

2009-07-09T21:12:00.003-05:00

Last week was an extra special trip to Ohio. Aunt Ali was in town from Taiwan. We were disappointed that we missed Uncle Nick, but we caught up with stories from Aunt Ali as much as possible. :) We were also very excited, as always, to see the rest of the family too.

Jonah and Toby didn't arrange their maching pjs, but they sure looked cute!

Aunt Ali cuddling with baby Ish.
Playing in Papa and Mimis basement is always a highlight of the trip.

And the game of choice? Car bowling.

What studs.

Toby lounging in the red chair.

Abby thought she'd join in.

Aunt Steph takes great care of her house full of boys!

We love you Aunt Ali!!

You too Papa and Mimi! Thanks for another great trip!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-07-08T21:16:00.002-05:00

Obviously I'm attempting to catch up on blogs, so bare with me. Brian was gone for the majority of Father's Day at a camp, but the kids got dressed up and looked snazzy to make their daddy proud. Happy Father's Day, daddy. We love you!!

Poor Nemo

2009-07-07T22:02:00.004-05:00

A few months ago Abby caught the front end of a movie night with Jonah and fell in love with Finding Nemo. Since then, she only ever wants to watch Nemo when the tv is on, thinks every tortilla chip is shaped like Nemo, and is all around obsessed with orange fish. As expected, the previous post regarding fishing and our catfish dinner ended up being a little difficult for her to take. While we tried to block her view from the fish cleaning, her little eyes managed to catch a bit too much for her to handle. After seeing the fish getting a rather significant blow to the head, Abby cried "Neeeeemoooooooo" and then had this reaction:

Don't worry, she's recovered. :) Don't you just want to give her a hug though?

June Days

2009-07-05T19:50:00.006-05:00

Even though we had an immensely busy June, we managed to sneak away for a weekend at the lake. We invited out our friends the Jarecke's and Brandon and his kids were out there with us for a chilly, but still very fun few days. Despite the clouds, the kids were still anxious to play in the water.

Jonah with cousins Kaitlyn and Ryan and friend Maren hanging out in the back.Abby and I getting ready to head out for a ride.
Jonah's friend Hudson is like a new man this year. He was loving the water (and Spiderman life jacket)!

Abby and Daddy

Abby just sat and played in the sand for a while.

And Jonah had his first time tubing.

Needless to say, he loved it.

Not yet, Abs.

Chilly, cloudy lake weather=perfect fishing opportunity. And we scored. Mommy, daddy, uncle Brandon, Nick, Hudson and Jonah all managed to catch some lunkers.

Hudson wasn't so sure what to think about this guy.

Nick wasn't so bashful.

And Brittany loves a man who can catch her a catfish dinner. (We did actually eat the guy Nick is kissing above, and Brittany did actually take a bite.)

Jonah's First Bike Ride

2009-06-14T21:01:00.002-05:00

Fruits of Our Labor

2009-06-14T20:35:00.004-05:00

It has been an immensely busy time for the Conklin home, but we are beginning to see the fruit of our labor. Last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we had a garage sale and Jonah had a table selling rice krispy treats and bottles of pop for $1 each. He was disappointed that we were selling the guitar hero guitars (so long PS2... we enjoyed you while it lasted) and told him that he could use the money he made to buy a new guitar. After selling like the best of them (sorry, no pictures of the stand... I was busy selling myself!) he earned $40 towards a new guitar. When we got the the store, he changed his mind and decided on a bike.

Here he is putting together his new purchase with daddy.

Way to go buddy! Video of him riding the bike to come...
We also are seeing the reward of the hard work in our garden. This thing has exploded!

A little cucumber in the early stages.

Jonah's carrots, which we're hoping look as beautiful underground.

Our exploding zucchini, close to harvest. Mmmmm. Bread anyone?

Cherry tomatoes just waiting to turn red.

Yellow squash about ready to eat too!

And our strawberries, which we are already enjoying.

We pick about 3-5 a day and Brian claims they're the best he's ever had. The kids gobble them up too.

One of our spinach harvests, which are almost over until fall.

And our favorite use of the spinach, Tortellini Soup. So delicious!