That's a good lookin' Nose

Jordan's nose took about 2 weeks to heal from the nasty bruise he received from Carter's book throwing. Here is a picture when it started to heal after about a week. All those colors look crazy, but the yellowish color told me it was finally healing.

These next two pictures I took this morning. He looks as normal as ever. Glad that's over with!!

And then of course, since I was taking a picture of Jordan, someone wouldn't let me put the camera down until I took a picture of them too. I wonder who that was?.?.? He was so proud to have finished his cereal...

Nice fake cheesy smile.

Game Day.

Saturday, Nik had to be at work all day for a study course for his upcoming Series 6 test. So I spent my morning at home with the kiddos. Savannah and I put 2 puzzles together, and i introduced Candyland to Carter. He did real good. I made him tell me the colors of each card he drew and how many squares were on the card. Which the option was only 1 or 2, but he knew every time. I also introduced him to Memory. That will take some time. ;)

Jordan's nose is pretty much back to normal. You wouldn't even know he had a bruise unless I told you to look closely. Nik's mom stopped by on Saturday night and had some gifts for the kids, just because. They were so excited. She left for Grand Lake on Sunday to get things all ready for the P.I.E. crew. I can't wait. We are leaving this Friday night. I hope the weather cooperates. But the thing I am worried about is the 6 hour drive. Jordan screamed and cried last year during this trip pretty much the whole way. YOu would think a whole year would make a difference, but when you strap a 1-year old in a car for 6 hours, you need a lot of patience.

The 3rd Grade...

Savannah starts 3rd grade today. It's hard to believe she is that old already. She is also going to be juggling travel soccer, ballet, and she has been practicing for the Bryan community play called School House Rock, which is in a few weeks. So her plate is very full. It amazes me that she manages to keep an "A" average.

We are taking our annual trip to Grand Lake, Michigan next weekend for Labor Day. We always go there with Nik's former company. They are so amazing and pay for everything. We don't even have to worry about breakfast, lunch, or dinner while we are up there. It's all provided. The people are all so fun and we play lots of cards and cornhole!! The kids have a blast too because we stay at a cottage on the lake and they get to go out on the boat and go tubing or whatever else. It's always a weekend I look forward too. The last couple times we have gone though has been a bit challenging because of having such small kids. It definitely is a lot of work, but the kids always have a blast, so it's all worth it.

Well, I really don't have anything else exciting to post. I hope everyone is doing well.

Creatures in the Night....

Last night Carter woke up around 11pm and wanted one of us to lay with him. So Nik decided to for the night. So around 1:30am I was having a dream and this odd sound like something hovering over me kept trying to wake me from my dream. Finally, I opened my eyes, but of course my room is pitch black. I could still hear the sound, but I was pretty sleepy that I probably layed there a couple minutes before I finally started to think about it hard.

At first I was thinking, oh my gosh, there is a bird trapped in here, but then I thought, no, it would have ran into the wall. But whatever it was kept circling the room and was flapping it's wings. Then it dawned on me.... There is a BAT FLYING AROUND IN HERE!! The moment I realized that that was the only possibility of what the flying creature could be, I paniced... I quickly covered my head in fear that it would immediatley land on my face.

As I was covered up, I thought to myself, 'I have to go turn on the light and find this thing, but what if it smacks into my face as I am walking to turn on the light. Oh my gosh, I was freaking out. So I then decided to yell, NIK. I kept yelling louder. I probably yelled his name 15 times until he finally heard me. And mind you, after I yelled his name the first time, the bat stopped flying and landed somewhere, somewhere of the unknown!! Finally I heard Nik get out of the bed and he must have been totally out of it cuz he started heading downstairs. I yelled, "where are you going, GET IN HERE." I told him to hurry and turn on the light, and then I said, "I swear to God there is a bat in here."

He immediately crouched down like a little boy, in fear that he was going to be eatin. I told him to look up and down at every inch of the of the room. *Side note. (We have had a bat in our house before, about 3 years ago and I was the capturer that time, but it was his turn, and he wasn't happy about it.) He then grabbed our a pool stick that we keep in our room (which is about a foot long cuz it is the bottom peice of one that unscrews). I said, you need to look under the bed, and he freaked. I was wanting to laugh, cry, and shrivel up at the same time. Hahahah. I know he was feeling the same way...

Finally, he looked at all he could in our room, but didn't find the creature. Then I said, "you need to go in the bathroom and look in the shower. He gave me a look of horror and I just laughed, which was very rude of me, but our bathroom is directly across from our room, and I figured it probably flew in there cuz my door had been open. So he grabbed the shower curtain and ripped it open, but no bat. Phew.... I was getting tense. Then he turned around and he stopped. He said, "there it is!!" I slowly creeped in and stuck my head through the door. Yep, it was above our vanity and stuck to the wall with one claw from its wing stuck in the ceiling. Oh my goodness, so freaky.

Oh and during this Carter was yelling, "daddy." So I told him to come to me and I picked him up and showed him the bat. I figured, if he just heard us talking about this scary creature and didn't know what we were talking about, that he would probably be more scared. So I told him daddy was going to catch it and take it outside.

At that point, Nik grabbed the trash can and a peice of cardboard and started to walk towards the bat, but then I immediately walked out of the room and shut the door, cuz I thought if he doesn't catch it on the first try, that thing is going to be flying around MAD. So the next minute I heard him slap the trash can against the wall and all I heard for the next 30 seconds was Eeekkkk eeeekkkkkkk ekkkkkkkk sounds coming from the bat. Then NIk yelled, OPEN THE DOOR!!!" I was scared it was going to fly at me, but he had caught it in the trash can with the cardboard covering the bottom.

I followed him downstairs and opened the back door for him. And he ran outside and just whipped the trash can in the air away from him so that the bat would fly away. It all sounds pretty hillarious, but I am just thanking God that we found it so quickly. Can you imagine my horror when it was pitch dark in my room and I realized that a bat was circling my head furiously. NOT FUN!!! Hahhah. ... What a crazy night.


This isn't our bat, but I thought it was pretty amusing anyways.

Bruises and Brokeness

I haven't felt like blogging lately because I am so saddened by the loss of a wonderful friend. Mike Elden was one amazing person and he will be missed immensely by all who knew him. Words can't express how great a man he was. You will be in our hearts forever Mike. Thank you for making us laugh here on Earth and putting a smile on our faces. We can't wait to see you again.

Saturday was a big day for me, I had a lot going on that day, and while I was getting ready in the morning, Jordan and Carter were running around being ornery as usual. While I was doing my hair, all of a sudden I heard Jordan let out a painful scream. I ran in the bedroom and saw books scattered everywhere on the floor. Then I said to Carter, what did you do to Jordan?? What did you do to him?? My voice kept getting louder and I turned to look at Jordan and he had an instant black/blue mark on his nose and a bump that just kept getting bigger. So obviously Carter was throwing books everywhere and smacked Jordan right in the face with one. Ohhhhh my poor baby. He cried for prob 5 minutes pretty hard, but he is one tough cookie. He hasn't winced about it since, and even today being 5 days later, it still looks pretty bad. But he is not phased at all by it.

Here is a picture of my poor baby. And the pictures do not do it justice, let me tell you.

My Proud Boy.

Carter's attempt at dressing himself. No that's not a skirt.

Take a good look.

Closing the Closet

I had a great weekend. I went to the Women of Faith Conference on Friday evening and all day Saturday. It was definately a spirit lifter. There were so many amazing speakers and Nichole Nordeman sang, which I just love her voice so much!! So thanks Mom for buying my ticket!! It was so worth it!

Sunday we attended a party for Cecilia Wack's baptism in Hicksville and then I had a surprise birthday party for my friend Genvieve. So Sunday was a very full day.

Random... Two years ago, we layed carpet in Carter/Jordan's bedroom and in doing that, could no longer close their closet doors. We have needed to saw off the bottom of the doors to be able to shut them. I have also wanted to paint them, but was going to wait until they were cut. So needless to say, the doors have been laying against the boys' bedroom wall for 2 years now and the closet is wide open, which drives me nuts!! So, on my lunch today, my neighbor was outside and I asked him if he had a skill saw that I could use, and he said he lent it to a friend a while back and hasn't seen it since. But then he saw another one of my neighbors outside, (one of whom i have never spoken to) and asked him if he had one, and he said he did and that he would cut the doors for me. Hallelujah!! I know it seems dumb, but it totally made my day!!

Advice Needed...

So I have a small dilemma. At least 3 nights out of the week, Carter wants to go to bed with a drink. For the last week, I have only put half a glass of juice in it, and yes, I know it should be water since the juice will not be good to sit on his teeth all night long, but trust me, it is a battle to get him to drink "just water". Anyways, I do realize also that we are trying to potty train him and if he drinks something right before bed, he will obviously fill his diaper. So last night, I gave him a little juice, basically a 1/4 full. Well, an hour later he woke up crying wanting more to drink. So I fought with him about it for 5 minutes and finally gave in and got him a little so he would go back to sleep. Then at 2am, he woke up again wanting something to drink. And he never wakes up this many times just for a drink, so I am wondering if it is because I only gave him a little at a time. Who knows, but anyways, I told him he could have water or he would have to go without a drink. Of course he cried and cried and I finally left the room and let him cry. Then 10 minutes later, after he was still screaming and crying, Nik went in to lay with him for the rest of the night. He had to tell Carter prob 5 times that he would have to wait until morning for a drink and that he would be okay. Gosh, and I thought weening him from his binky was going to be hard. That was a breeze. But this is frustrating!!! Do you think I should just quit giving him a drink before bed all together and deal with his crying for a while?? It's really hard, cuz Jordan is in the next room and usually wakes up from Carter's screaming...