Fall Break

4

12

4

20

3

43

11

Any guesses on what these numbers are?!?!?!?!

They are how our Fall Break was broken down.

4 hours to drive to Geneseo, IL

12 hours spent with our college friends, the Baums. They were great hosts and the girls loved playing with their boys for the few nonsleeping hours we were there!!!!!

4 hours to drive to Boone, IA

20 hours spent with Justin's family. We had lunch with the Chesnut crew--minus Uncle Michael.

Hannah, Kaylee, Avery, Sam, Macy and Morgan

The girls enjoyed an afternoon of playing with their cousins and running around the farm. At night we got together with Justin's extended family and a few of them met Whitney for the first time.

3 hours to drive to Omaha, NE

43 hours spent in Omaha. While we were there my family from North Platte met up with us. When we lived in Omaha we were able to get together often, but since moving the visits are not as frequent.

11 hours to drive back to Indy

Ryan and Hannah at Coco Keys

The guys went to the NE game and the women took 7 kids to the mall. We spent a lot of time at the GAP...they kids got matching sweatshirts. My cousin and I got a few similar outfits too.........just like when we were little!!!!

Whitney and Chloe

Go Big Red!!!!

Life is Good when you Roadtrip!!!!

2 Months

1 Month

9 pounds, 11 ounces

21.5 inches

Stories with Kaylee

Whitney is still a snacker with her bottles, but now we start with 3 ounces instead of just 2!!!!

She is having more happy and awake time. When she is mad she still really likes to scream.....maybe it is because she is the youngest of 4 and wants to be heard!!!!

2 Months

11 pounds

23 inches

Life is Good when you are Growing and Healthy!!!!

Homework Tub

One of our favorite things to do each day is to walk to the corner and get Hannah from the bus stop. Every afternoon "the Middles" ask about 100 times if it is time to get her. Once we get home we have a snack and Hannah has some down time with either TV or playing with the neighbors. Then, it is time for homework. Since starting first grade Hannah has a tic-tac-toe homework sheet(different quick activities are in each square) to complete each week and a spelling test on Fridays.

The first few times of trying to do homework was mass chaos...........took forever to find a pencil, scissors, markers, etc., sisters were in the way and trying to take everything and Hannah wasn't too into taking time to do it.

That's when our new friend "Homework Tub" came to visit! It has all the supplies in it that she may need to complete an assignment. It also has a few fun extras because one of the spaces in the tic-tac-toe is "Parent's Choice."

We keep the tub in the office on the lowest shelf so she can get it herself. We also keep her school library books in it so we don't mix them up with our own books. Now when it is homework time we don't need to search for supplies. The younger girls also get their "homework" so they are busy too. Kaylee has a preschool work book and Macy likes to color. I just hope we can keep the excitement of doing homework going for the next few years!!!!

Pumpkin+Buttons=Fun Project

A few weeks ago I saw a cute pumpkin on a magazine cover with the word "BOO" on it with buttons. It seemed easy enough, so I decided I would try the button/pumpkin combo. At first, I thought about getting pumpkins in different sizes and putting our initials on them. However, I figured having 6 pumpkins with J, A, H, K, M and W on them would just confuse people who drove by!!!! On a trip to JoAnn's with just a sleeping Whitney (which means I actually had a chance to wander the aisles) I found a large fake pumpkin and buttons.

The last time I bought buttons, Macy was throwing the bag in the air and trying to catch it..........After a few missed catches we ended up with a buttons all over the ground. The fabric cutter actually walked me to the front registers that day to help me push the stroller while I carried a crying Whitney and a handful of buttons!!!!!!..........I was so glad to get out of there that day and haven't gone back with more than just Whitney since!!!!

That afternoon during another Whitney nap, and with "the Middles" watching we got to work with the glue gun. Kaylee had a fun time guessing what letter I was spelling with the buttons..........we may need to find another button project soon!!!!After I got the pumpkin done I was not in love with it. My "BOO" seemed too big, and I didn't really like the multicolored buttons. I didn't dislike it enough to pull all the buttons off and start over, and Whit was up by this point, so I put it on the front porch anyway! The winds must have known I didn't love it because for about 4 days in a row I would find the lightweight pumpkin in the front yard with a few less buttons each time. I took this as a sign to REDO the pumpkin and move it INSIDE!!!!

I like Round 2 of the "BOO" pumpkin much more!!!!

Life is Good in the corner of a warm, wind-free house!!!!!

Fishing season is over!!!!

On September 5th, I posted about trying a new behavior plan. The girls would put their names on fish for doing good things and each night we would pull out a fish and that person's fish got to swim in the pond. That was 6 weeks ago, so we should have had about 42 fish in the pond with 6 weekly winners who got to go to the dollar bin at Target. Below is how our pond looked last night........a total of 7 fish. It's not that the girls have not been showing good behavior. It was my fault.........I would forget to tell them to get a fish, Macy couldn't write her name, we would run out of time at night to pull from the envelope of daily fish, etc. Yesterday while at JoAnn's I decided Fishing season was over and bought glass jars and marbles to try a new reward system.

Our pond last night

The pond September 5th---not much has changed!!!!

The FISH plan seems to be working at Hannah's school----she was Fisher of the Week a few weeks ago!!!!

My friend Kimberlee, took the Fish idea and decided to use marbles to make a program for her girls. So now I am taking her idea of marbles and making some changes to suit our family. Each girl has a jar they need to fill. They can earn marbles for good behavior....last night they each got 5 for being good at Costco. I am going to start with them being able to loose them for poor choices, but may change to the idea that once you earn it you can't loose it. We talked about what they would like for a reward and they decided they would like to go to Snapperz---it is an inside bounce house and game place in town. This time we are going to try to get rewarded once all 3 have reached the top. Hannah commented that it was kind of like teamwork since they would need to work together to get their prize. Not sure how that will work!!!! Hopefully, they will all be great and get their jars filled about the same time. We may have to go to individual, smaller rewards in the future.

I think this idea will work better because they can easily put their own marbles in---we did talk about if I see them put extra marbles in, they have to start back at zero!!! They can also see how the other girls are doing and try to stay with them. So far we had a successful trip to Costco, Kaylee was awesome about cleaning up the kitchen before bed, and Hannah got ready for school in record time with almost no reminders to stay focused!!!!!

However, I did just need to threaten taking away a marble from Kaylee and Macy because they were arguing...............they stopped right away!!!!!

Life is Good when you haven't lost your marbles!!!!

Jar-O'-Lantern

Kaylee loves to do "projects" so while Daddy was out of town this weekend we decided to do one. I got this idea for Jar-O'-Lanterns from the Family Fun magazine....I love all the great ideas it has each month....I have been ripping out pages and filing them away for rainy days or for next summer!

For this project you will need clean, dry glass jars, orange acrylic paint, paintbrushes, masking tape, newspaper and bowl or plates for your paint.

We also needed content little sisters, so we went to the zoo in the morning to make sure they were tired.

The first thing we did was cut out the shapes for eyes, nose and mouth out of the tape. The girls told me what shape to make and I did the cutting!!!

Whitney didn't stay happy in her swing for too long so we needed to take a short break to get her happy/sleeping.....notice she is now in the bouncy seat!!!!

Next, the girls started painting the jars with the orange paint. You paint over the tape too.

After the girls did two coats of paint...letting the first one dry before doing a second......I did a third coat on each and we let them dry overnight.

The next morning we took the tape off to see our funny faces!!!!

Since we don't really need a whole pumpkin patch at our house we are going to stuff the jars with goodies and give them as Halloween teacher gifts. Kaylee decided which one we should keep and we tested it out in the dark bathroom with a candle this morning....they loved it!!!

Life is Good when you have projects to keep you busy while Daddy is out of town!!!

Not Quite Etsy!!!

Well, I haven't posted anything on Etsy yet, so I thought I would put everything up here. This fall I have been a bit busy with other things....Whitney......so I haven't had a ton of extra time to sew. I hope to have more time this winter on cold days while the girls play downstairs and I can hole up in our guest/sewing room!!!! If you are interested in anything you see here just let me know and I can get it sent off to you!!!!

Purses

$35

Happy Birthday Dress

2T $25

Purses $35

18-24 Months

$25

18-24 Months

$25

2T

$25

2T

$25

18-24 Months

$25

3T Peasant Dress

$30

3T

$30

3T

$30

3T

$30

4T Scrappy Skirt

$30

4T

$30

5T

$30

5T

$20

6T

$30