Monday Fun

I love Mondays.  They are our Saturdays.  They always go too fast for me though!  This past Monday we spent some time outside.

The eternal cheezer

Action shots

Aaron learning correct throwing form

Someone was very clingy to mommy.  Taken by Claudia.

Disgusting

Yesterday I got in our van with a friend go to breakfast.  We both agreed that something in my van reeked.  I said it smelled like a perm, she said it smelled like an egg.  We were too busy chatting to think about it again.  At noon, Steve and I took the kids away and he agreed that the van reeked.  He suggested that I investigate.  I am pretty "on top of" the kids and their things in the car and was pretty confident that it couldn't be anything too bad.  I forgot to look when we got home.  That evening we had to go away again.  I hopped in the van and was immediately confronted yet again with the terrible perm/egg smell.  I started to look around and too my horror, found the smell.  I had gotten groceries on Saturday and apparently one of my bags with a big 'ol fat juicy raw roaster chicken had slid forward between the 2 front seats.  I never saw it.  I had a raw, rotting chicken in my van.  I am still laughing over this one...

Wiped

It's been a long week around here.  I have been sick for a week and a half and today I finally feel like I am getting better.  It was a rough...  I had some sort of throat infection (not strep) and a double ear infection.  The pain was crazy and I hardly slept.  A number of my kids are sick now too, so unless there is some overnight miracle, it looks like I will be missing church for the second week in a row.  I hate to miss church.  It truly is the highlight of my week.

I didn't do much around the house this week except the basics of cooking and keeping things from completely falling apart.  It felt so good to have energy today to get some much needed cleaning done.  My floors had been neglected long before I was sick so it was satisfying to have the energy to scrub them.  A few days ago my new washer gave me an issue and is now in need of repair.  Again.  This is the second repair in the first year that we have had it.  What's up with appliances these days?  Is it just me or are they constantly falling apart? Seems like we are annually having to replace a major appliance around here.  So anyway, I think I've done 1 load in the last 2 weeks... today I was desperate.  I hauled all of my dirty piles to my parents house this morning to get caught up.  Let's just say the back of the van was PACKED!  Poor Aaron, he's been wearing clothes from his laundry basket all week!  Greta has stayed clean thanks to a huge bag of hand-me-downs that got sent in from her cousins and my generous sis-in-law in Ohio.

Being sick sure stinks, but it sure makes me grateful for our overall health.  This week when I was in so much pain I said to Steve, "Am I just a wimp?"  His loving, gracious reply was, "No, you're just whiny."  Thanks, babe.

Yesterday was a GORGEOUS day, in the 70's.  I am itching for warm weather to stay.

Every so often I like to look back on my pics at what we were doing a year ago at this time.  It's crazy how fast the kids grow and all the little things you forget.  This was Easter "10.

37 reasons I love my dad on his 37th birthday.

1.   He loves God

2.     He loves me

3.     He does fun stuff with us

4.     He teaches me about God

5.     He loves my mom

6.     He knows how to cook yummy stuff

7.     He makes up funny songs

8.     He teaches us to be tough

9.     He is a hard worker

10. He teaches us to play soccer, football, and basketball

11. He laughs like a flamingo with a cold

12. He loves the church

13. He has a sense of humor

14. He is patient

15. He disciplines us in love

16. He has a dinky car but he deals with it in thankfulness that he has a puddle jumper

17. He is very smart

18. He helps me with my math

19. He is technology minded

20. He is generous

21. He teaches us about football

22. He is humble

23. He is kind

24. He survived the American girl doll store (that is like a trophy winner for dads)

25. He makes really good sermons

26. He is hospitable (in a man kind of way)

27. He sets a good example to us

28. He teaches us how to work hard

29. He helps us laugh at ourselves

30. He worked REALLY hard on the addition!

31.  He takes us out to breakfast and talks to us about God

32. He makes things be about others, not himself

33. He does stuff to make things fun for us

34. He helps mommy

35. He is wise with money

36. He helps me when I am having a hard time with something

37. Because God gave him to me!

                     Happy Birthday daddy, I love you so much!  I am so glad God gave me such a wonderful dad!!
                                 ~Claudia 

Personality

Bops

If you have hung out with our family for any length of time, I'm sure you have heard us refer to Morgan as "Bops".  She's had that nickname ever since she was just months old.  She has always known how she got the nickname, but it was just recently that I unveiled the "whole" story.

She was born in '02 and back then the boy band "Hanson" was still popular.  We were in Iowa, spending the weekend at my mother-in-law's house.  While hanging out with the kids, Ashley (Steve's sister who was about 10 at the time) and I began to sing Hanson's hit song, Mmmbop, to little baby Morgan.  We had her dancing all around boppin her around and for whatever reason, "Boppers" stuck that day.  Since then the name has taken on many different forms; Boppers, Bops, Boppies, Bopparoni, Flops, Flop-alop-agus, the list goes on.  Most often she just gets Bops.

Just a couple months ago I looked for the song on YouTube and showed it to the kids.  We often have little dance parties around the kitchen youtubing (is that a verb??) different songs and breakin down.  Little Miss Greta is now in love with Mmmbop and it's always her first request.  I don't usually let them watch the songs that we YouTube, we just listen.  But I had to show them the band.  The older girls were a little weirded out by them.  Boys, that looked and sounded like girls?  But Greta loves to watch her Hanson.  Have I created a monster??

Christmas gifts