Happy Halloween!

Don't panic--pictures of the kids to come later. In the mean time, here's one of the chiropractors I work for.


Oh--and that's not a patient. That's one of the chiropractic assistants. Hee-hee! Its a fun place to work, that's for sure!

Thursday 13 on Wednesday Night

13 Things I Inherited From My Mother:

1. I chew my gum loudly. Snapping, popping...its annoying. Just ask my dad or my brother or my husband.

2. I like Coffee. Mmmm...Coffee....mmmm....

3. I like Coke better than Pepsi (Sorry, Dad).

4. I'm sarcastic. Shocking, I know.

5. I love music.

6. I love to read.

7. I'm better at algebra than I am at geometry and I'm not very good at math in general.

8. I can't just SIT and talk on the phone. I pace. Both my kids do it when they talk on the phone, too.

9. I like having my nails painted.

10. I love shoes.

11. Mmm...Fried Okra...

12. I eat ice. Bad for my teeth but necessary to survive the day. Get a Coke on ice in the afternoon, suck down the coke and spend the rest of the day eating the ice.

13. I will be up until at least midnight the night before Halloween in an attempt to finish my kids' Halloween costumes at the last minute because I was being creative and thought, "Oh no, this won't take me long..." and then I get into it and it starts taking longer than I thought so I pop in another movie and keep going and get a little more creative and then...*heavy sigh* I have a little more work to do before Friday afternoon...

Wordless Wednesday With Some Music:

Proverbs 22:6

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." ~Proverbs 22:6


Yesterday our worship pastor and his wife taught about raising kids. They have four wonderful, respectful and highly successful children and they had so many wonderful things to say.

Two points they made really hit home for me:

1. We should constantly be warring for our children against the enemy. He will use everything in his reach to get to our kids. We should be "working The Word more than he is working the world..." We should be in constant prayer for and with our kids. We should be engaging them in the Word as often as possible.

2. We should learn to understand our children the way God made them. Proverbs 22:6 says we should raise them to follow the right path. However, something Pastor Eric pointed out to us is that we should learn to understand our children so we can raise them to follow the right path FOR THEM. "Train up a child in the way HE should go..." Each child is gifted in different ways, therefore, each child should be raised according to The Word but they should be raised to find THEIR path and THEIR gifts God has provided for them.

For some reason, this was like a slap in the face for me. I sat there going, "Well, DUH! That makes PERFECT sense! Why hasn't anyone ever pointed that out to me before???"

SO..."Train a child up in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

I will start to work harder at understanding my kids the way God made them and the way God would have me understand them. I will work harder at helping them be successful in the path God has FOR THEM.

It seems like such a small thing and, yet, it was really exciting for me!

Wordless Wednesday With Words....yeah, so its just Wednesday

I decided we needed some cookies so we "made" cookies. Yes, they are the pre-made ones--I don't like cleaning but I DO like cookies! I sliced them up and the kids decorated them. SO FUN!






Yeah, Tori is too fast for me sometimes. She managed to eat one BEFORE it was cooked. OOPS!

Ready for the oven! Notice the REALLY RED one. That one was made special for Andrew's Daddy.

Andrew's favorite person...

He loves his Auntie Stacy!

Be amazed. And then be praying.

I rarely consider "meeting people online" as really MEETING people. You can't read their body language in a conversation and you can't see their eyes--eyes are a huge thing to me. Like some people say, "eyes are the window to a man's soul..." For some people, I believe that to be true. But I also believe God can move someone's heart to view things differently.

Months ago I hooked up to a blog through my friend, Jodi. Jodi had a link to Confessions of a CF Husband (there's a link on my side panel if you're interested). I was reading this blog and saw a comment left by a blog writer called "Beaver Bunch". I wanted to check it out because Mark is a graduate of Oregon State and I was thinking, "are they OSU alumni, too???" Negative--they are not. But what has happened since then has been WAY cool. I "met" Jessica through her blog. Have we met in person? No--she lives on the East Coast. But I get to peek through a window into her life and that of her super cute kids and awesome husband.

Right now, I am daily amazed by her. Her daughter is four and then she has two year old twins, a boy and a girl, and then they are fostering a 4 month old boy and a newborn baby girl. She deals with pure chaos constantly and, yet, never really complains. She deals with idiotic birth parents (seriously stupid...really) and manages NOT to verbally claw their eyes out. And when people ask her how she does it, she says she hands it all to God and that HE does it.

So read about their journey and be amazed and then be praying for their family and the birth parents they come into contact with by welcoming these foster children into their home. Check them out here.

*Deep Breaths* He's 3. He's not REALLY a brat. He's 3. Right?

This is Andrew:

He's three. He's busy and curious and 100% boy. But he's also a brat right now and I am trying everything I can to keep my sanity.

"Please go put your cars away before we eat dinner."

"NO! I don't want to!"

We have tried time-outs.
We have tried loss of privileges.
We have tried spanking.

We have tried EVERYTHING (it feels like!) and he STILL does it. Ideas? Advice?

We are consistent--very. We try really hard not to let him get away with it but there are days where I feel like he spends the ENTIRE day in his time out corner or in his room. Its been going on for weeks and I AM SICK OF IT.

What happened to my sweet little boy who used to always respond with, "O-tay, momma"...





And this was Tori today as we were leaving the park. She LOVES the park.

Five for Friday!

I know, I missed Thursday 13, but that was because I was working an insane 13 hour day yesterday! How's THAT for Thursday 13?!

Here's my Five For Friday:

Five things I am excited about this weekend:

1. I get to see Traci today! We have been friends since we were 6 (yeah--that's 22 years ago...we are getting OLD!) and I haven't seen her in over a year! The last time I saw her was when Tori was 6 weeks old and Hunter was...just born...like, two weeks old? Yeah, here's a picture:


2. We are going down to Corvallis tonight for the annual Faith Christian Fellowship Barn Party. My mom plans this and puts it together and its way super fun! I'm entering chili in the chili cook-off! And there will be pie for dessert, awesome music and line dancing lessons. Here's pictures from last year!




3. My hair is long enough now to put up without using a million bobby pins or an entire can of hair spray. Not a big deal to some people, but for this little girl, it's exciting news!

4. I have THREE--count them: Friday, Saturday, Sunday--days off work. Don't get me wrong, I still love my job but yesterday was long, tiring and chaotic and I need a wee little break. THREE DAYS OFF! AND...SO DOES MARK! He's had two days of teaching followed by conferences until 8 PM. We have THREE days off TOGETHER.

5. Aside from seeing Traci (wahoo!) and going to the barn party (yeee-haw!) we have no set plans for the weekend. Sometimes, those make for the best weekends of all.

Wordless Wednesday

Isn't he the CUTEST little pumpkin head you've ever seen???

Pumpkins! Pumpkins Everywhere!

We skipped church this morning (yep--we're HEATHENS for sure!) and headed to the pumpkin patch! The weather was *perfect* and the place we went to (first time for us!) was great. The kids had so much fun and we had a great time watching them and taking pictures!

Here's Mark and Tori starting out, coffee in hand (we parents do what we need to do to survive!).

PUMPKINS! Andrew couldn't wait to get his hand on a "GREAT BIG PUMPKIN!"

After hefting a few of the bigger ones, he opted for a smaller one.

Tori, not wanting to be outdone, tried and tried to pick this one up.

But she quickly decided THIS one was more her size.

After much debate over which pumpkin she should take home, she took one to Daddy and they headed out: A daddy, his daughter and her pumpkin...


To my Gimpa:

I was a little scared at first, but decided to be brave and ride a pony anyway. Sister was REALLY scared (she cried) so she didn't ride the pony. Look at me go!

Andrew's Turn

This morning Andrew informed it was HIS turn to "put pictures on Momma's computer story". That would be what he calls my blog. Yeah--I don't know, either, but it works.

So I told him, "Okay, count 13 things you want me to take pictures of and tell me about them and we'll post a 'Thursday 13' for you today."

He had way too much fun...here it is! I'm typing as he's talking...

Andrew's Thursday 13:

1.
This is Tori's Car Mess. She was playing cars and then stopped and walked away.

2.
This is Momma's Sad Phone. That's all.

3.
These are my toes! I like it when Daddy tickles my toes after bath!

4.
This is my dump truck! Sister likes to sit in it and sometimes I push her around the carpet.

5.
This is George. He's not a train. He's a tractor. That's all.

6.
This is Momma Grover (he calls the big Elmo & Grover "Momma Elmo and Momma Grover" because they're big. The little ones are "Baby Elmo & Baby Grover"). He is good for hugging.

7.
This is my hand. That's all.

8.

This is my sister. She likes to chase and tickle!

9.
This is my Blue Car! Wait a minute. This is Sister's Blue Car. Yes. Sister's Blue Car. That's all.

10.
This is Sister's Fishy Blanket. She LOVES Fishies. But she calls it Football. But Football is mine. Momma, why does she call her Fishy Blankey Football?

11.
FOOTBALL! This is Football!

12.
This is my banana tower from breakfast. I eat banana slices and build towers with them.

13.
Bluuuuue Truck! And Football again! Blue Truck is a police car. See the lights?

Wordless Wednesday

I DON'T WANT TO WEAR IT!

She's doing better with it, but still manages to get herself out of it rather quickly...

Updates...

Update #1: I had kittens the other day over a medical record at my office. The good news is that the company who originally requested the 677 page file and then said they didn't want it, called back saying, "Wait a second--we really do want that."

The bad news: I had already shredded it and had to spend another three hours copying it again.

Okay--just kidding. It wasn't shredded so we're sending it off to them along with their happy little bill. WAHOO!

Update #2: I spent an afternoon making Tori's Halloween costume and was mucho excited about it. Then she woke up from her nap and I showed it to her and she freaked out.

*FREAKED OUT*

Ran down the hall, arms in the air, screaming mee-mee type freak-out. Seriously. I did manage to finally get it on her, but the result was NOT what I was hoping for. She pulled at it, turned beet-red in the face and screamed until I took it off.

The funny part is that its not what you're probably thinking. You're probably thinking, "Lani must've made her an animal costume of some kind. And it's a sleeper-type thing with a hood that has a spot for the face of the animal. So, of course Tori might freak out over a faceless animal when Lani shows it to her."

Nope. Its a tu-tu. A poofy, pretty, blue & white netting tu-tu. This child LOVES dresses. LOVES them. So I thought making her a ballerina for Halloween was a GREAT idea! No such luck.

I tried showing her pictures of babies (which she loves) in ballerina costumes on the internet. She sat with me, squealed over the babies (BEEE-BEEEES!!!) and clapped her hands. Then I said, "Look! Babies in tu-tus! Pretty babies in pretty tu-tus! Like your tu-tu!" and held up her pretty blue and white tu-tu. She screamed and pushed it away.

*HEAVY SIGH*

Maybe I'll make her a faceless animal type sleeper of some kind...

Totally Random...

But I *HAD* to share. I just made Tori's Halloween costume and it is CUTE! Hee-hee-hee! I love it!

Thursday 13

13 Things Andrew is Trying to Teach Tori:

1. Counting. He counts to four and then points to her and she says, "FIIIIIIIVE!!!"

2. Potty training. Today he has asked her, several times, "Sister, do you need to use the potty?"

3. Using scissors. During a crafty type project (pictures later) he said, "Sister, you put your hands like this and cut like this. But be careful. You might cut yourself. So I will cut for you."

4. Which toys she is NOT allowed to play with. "Sister, that's Momma's camera. No touch."

5. Colors. "Sister, this is green. This is a blue block. This one is red. Say RED."

6. Temper Tantrums. He teaches by example.

7. How to use the DVD player. Today he said, "You push this button and it pops out. You put the movie in the tray and push the button again. Then the tray goes back inside and runs up to the TV!" He put on their favorite DVD "Elmo's Potty Time" today in demonstration.

8. Manners. "Sister, you need to say please before you get this toy."

9. Shoes. "These are my shoes. These are your shoes. Your shoes are little. Mine are big. Daddy's shoes are...Daddy size."

10. Sesame Street. "This is Elbow (Elmo). This is Grover. This is Cookie Monster. This is Zoe. Pay attention, Sister! I'm speaking to you!"

11. Ketchup. Again with the teaching by example. He dips EVERYTHING in ketchup. Apples. Cucumber. Carrotts. Fries. Chicken. WHATEVER.

12. Locations. Whenever we pull in front of a house, he announces to Tori where we are at. "This is Nana's house! This is Landon's house!"

13. Love. Today he went into her room and gently hugged her when she was waking up. Then took her by the hand and led her out here and said, "Momma, Sister is waking up and needs a Momma hug."

Why do we like swimming lessons so much?

We get to make new friends:

We get to learn new skills:

We get to jump off the edge:

We get to use the rope swing over and over again:

And we like it most of all because it makes our little man tired:


He "graduated" from session one tonight and moved up to session two! Next time, he gets to learn how to go off the diving board! WAHOO!