New Routines

This morning started our new routine.  We've been having lots of trouble with M and C going to bed easily for quite some time now.  We have tried everything we can think of...and then we sought wisdom elsewhere, but it's all been to no avail.  They just don't go to sleep.

Last night I decided to start waking them up every morning at the same time and not letting them take a long nap ever.  I woke them up...and they dragged themselves out of bed.  Naptime was pretty easy because they were tired.  Bedtime tonight was the easiest its been in months.  Here's hoping I'm onto something and it continues to work well.  C zonked out almost instantly...

I also realized today that I don't really have many pictures of Liam where he is interacting.  He has become so very animated lately and I needed to capture that.

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Again, it has been too long since I have posted.  So much has happened in the past few months, and I get overwhelmed just thinking about trying to play catch up in my blog posts.  My mom challenged me tonight to just start from today and not worry about playing catch up.  So, here I am.

We moved the girls into bunk beds on Saturday and bed time has been quite interesting since.  Calli enjoys the freedom to just get up and roam the house whenever her eyes open from sleep, and Mikayla likes to climb her ladder to the top and then swing down over the side.  We are working through this newness of things, and hoping we can lay down some rules that will be followed.

Liam has really settled into a routine of naps and eating and I am loving it!  Life is getting easier with 3 littles running around.  He still sleeps in the pack n play in our room, but he does a great job sleeping now!

Tonight we had a birthday party for Julia and I forgot to take pictures!  It was just a small family get together, but it was nice.  Ben has moved from living with my mom to living with my dad.  That has been hard for all of us here on the farm still, but Ben is loving his new freedom.  It was nice to see him tonight though.

We ate dinner and then sat around and played games.  It's been a long time since I have just sat around and played games.  We played TV Scene It, with questions from TV shows from the 60's to the 90's.  It was fun to see who knew what.  We knew more than we expected and had a great time!

Matt is away for a few days with work, so I am holding down the fort.  It's tough to not have him here, but it just makes me appreciate him even more!  Well, here's hoping I can stay caught up and actually add some pictures to this wordy blog soon.

Pajama Day

Today we had a low key day and stayed home.  I planned to get lots of neglected housework completed, but a fussy baby kept that from happening.  Liam has been unusually fussy today.

I decided to let the girls watch a movie and eat lunch at the same time.  We had a little indoor picnic while watching Peter Pan.  I put a table cloth on the floor and gave them several finger foods to eat.  They had strawberries, cheese, popcorn, rice crisps and raisins.  They ate everything I gave them!  They had a blast.

The weather was so nice today, but we got so much rain last night it was too muddy to play outside much.  I'm ready for a steady Springtime to come.  We have had such a mild winter, I can't complain.  I'm just ready for it to be steadily getting warmer.  I'm ready to get outside on a regular basis.

It was a nice low key day for us.  We don't have many of these anymore, so a break in the craziness was nice.

Leap Day

This morning I decided we all needed a little extra sleep so we stayed home from Bible Study.  We slept in until 8 am!  It was much needed and great!

After we were all up, we got dressed up to go visit daddy at work!  I had a coupon for my birthday to our favorite Milford restaurant.  Mikayla was so excited to go to "Georgia's House" as she calls it.

We finally got out the door around 11 and headed on the 50 minute trip.  When we arrived, it was pouring so Matt helped us run in to visit the office friends.  I sat and fed Liam in Pop Pop Krupka's office while the girls visited all of their Burris friends.

We got to the restaurant and it was empty!  Major plus for us.  The girls did a great job of sitting at the table and eating all of their food!  Usually they are so distracted, they don't end up eating much.  My coupon was for a dessert, so we all shared it.  It was a huge brownie and ice cream.  It's a good thing there were people to share with me, because it was 26 WW points!!

It was a great last day to my birthday month!

How Quickly Time Passes

Phew!  It's amazing how quickly time gets away from me.  I look back at all that has happened and get overwhelmed at where to start.  Again, the reason I need to blog more often.

Anyway, last week we took Liam to the chiropractor because he seems to favor looking to the left.  He did great, and there was a spot in his neck that was "caught" that needed to be adjusted so he could turn to the right more.  He also had "tight" hips that needed a little work.

We had a follow up visit today, and Dr. E said things look so much better!  He readjusted Liam's neck and hips, but with much more ease than last time.  We go back for one final visit next week!  Liam did great and didn't scream at all!

Mikayla has her good days and not so good days.  She seems to be growing out of taking a nap every day.  I let her stay up a few days a week, but she barely makes it to bedtime without a meltdown (sometimes, she doesn't make it without a meltdown).  It makes for a nice bedtime routine, because she doesn't get up for a drink or any other excuse she can think of...50 times.  But, it does make for a stressful dinner time and family time after dinner.  We are still working on it.

Calli has really started to turn into a little talking machine.  She is holding entire conversations with me now.  I understand most of what she says too.  She has recently gone through a growth spurt and is "thinning" out while growing taller.  She just got two of her 2 year molars, and I am glad that is over!

I realize how much the children are changing and how quickly they are doing it!  We are finally starting to settle into a routine, and life with 3 kiddos is getting easier!

Date Night

Matt took me on a date tonight.  It was a much needed time away.  We took Liam with us, but Matt's mom kept the girls.  Because we have been to the restaurants in Dover and there is nothing very exciting, Matt took me to a place in Wilmington.  We waited about 40 min., but I fed Liam while we waited, so that made the time go quickly.

We then were seated and ate and paid and left in 40 min.  It was great!  I wanted to take advantage of being in Wilmington, so we moved quickly.

We went to Babies R Us to buy some much needed gates to help me corral the girls during the day.  Calli can now open doors and gets into all sorts of mischief when I am busy feeding Liam.  Now I have gates to keep her out of the places I don't want her to "reek havoc".  Ha!

I am also able to keep the girls toys in the toy room with gates.  They both can play in the toy room together, and I can walk away without being concerned they will drag all the toys into the family room or the kitchen.  I'm hoping things will work out the way I envision them in my head though. 

I love staying home with my children, but some days I just need a break.  Love that my husband treats me so well and knows just what I need!

Party!

Today we got to have a big celebration as a family.  My mom won a sweepstakes and we got to have a big party.  It started at her bank with them presenting her the award.  There was popcorn and cookies to munch on and Mikayla and Calli made themselves at home eating the goodies.

My mom's parents came to town to help celebrate, so we decided to all go out for lunch.  There were 20 of us!  The restaurant was so great in taking care of all of us.  It was a great time of fellowship and celebrating!

God has been taking care of my mom over the past few years, and He is still watching over her.  I can't think of someone who needed and deserved this award more than my mom.  Praise the Lord!

The girls didn't have naps and ate lunch late, but they were amazing!  They behaved better than they do on days when they have a "normal" schedule.  Again, Praise the Lord for that!

The holidays

  My New Year's resolution this year is to do a better job at keeping up with this blog.  I really enjoy being able to go back and read what we have done throughout the year, and I am disappointed when I miss something. 

So...a quick recap of our holidays.  We celebrated on Thanksgiving day with Matt's family along with friends.  I was only a few days from my due date, and very uncomfortable, but we made the best of it.  We ate a delicious meal, and I was relieved of having to prepare any of it because of my very pregnant condition.  After dinner, we all packed into the vehicles and headed to Ronnie's Christmas Market.  It's become a tradition, and the kids love to see all the lights and decorations.  It's the official start of the Christmas season!

The next night, we went back to Ronnie's and bought our Christmas tree.  We knew we had to get this finished early this year, because we would soon have a new baby.  Mikayla found the "perfect" tree and we decided to get her tree.  We came home and Matt put it right up.  It took us several more days to get it decorated, but it was beautiful!

On November, 30th, Kristi took the girls to Bible Study and Matt decided to work from home since I was 1 day past my due date.  Around 10 am, contractions started and picked up as time passed.  Liam Edward Krupka made his appearance at 4:57 that evening!  We were so thrilled to have a boy!  I even cried a little knowing that Matt so desperately wanted a little boy and now he finally had one!  Liam has been a great addition to our little family.

We celebrated Christmas with Matt's family on Christmas Eve.  The girls got so many amazing things from Mom Mom and Pop Pop, and loved every minute spent with family.  The next day, we got up and opened our stockings, and then got all dressed up to attend church.  It was a great service filled with wonderful music and great preaching.  A great reminder of the real reason we celebrate!

We came home and finished preparing dinner, while the girls napped.  When they woke up, we started opening gifts.  It was a blessed Christmas time with my mom and siblings.  The Lord has truly blessed us this year!

We are looking forward to all the wonderful things that God will do in our family this year.  We are still adjusting to being a family of 5, but loving every minute of it. 

Kid's say the funniest things!

  Recently, Mikayla have been saying and doing the funniest things.  I've told a few stories to people, and they have all encouraged me to write them down.  Well, I have severely neglected this blog, but it's still here so I figured this is as good a place as any to store these memories.

  About a week ago, the girls and I were driving in to Dover to meet Kristi and Peyton at Chick Fil A.  On the trip, Calli was sitting quietly (like usual) and Mikayla was chattering away (also like usual).  Mikayla was pointing out things to Calli and telling her what they were.  She pointed out houses, horses, buggies, other cars, cows and anything she saw.  As we neared Dover, we passed a large Pentecostal church.  She pointed to the huge building and said, "And Calli, that is jail."  What?!  I quickly told her it was a church, not jail.  She agreed and we moved on.  As we continued driving, I started to get a really big laugh out of that.  We don't really talk about jail, so my first question was where in the world did she get that idea.  Then, while relaying the story to Matt, he reminded me that when Mikayla gives us a hard time about buckling her seat belt (which is VERY seldom), we tell her she has to be buckled or the police man will put Mommy and/or Daddy in jail.  It's not a regular conversation though.  Too funny!

  Later that morning, as we were heading home from Chick Fil A, we were singing her song for the church Christmas program.  She is learning "Away in a Manger".  As we got to the end of the first verse where the song says "...asleep on the hay", she promptly said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute."  "Why in the world was Jesus sleeping on the hay?  Didn't He have a bed?"  I explained why Jesus was not in a bed and why his Mommy and Daddy had to sleep in a barn.  I also told her there were no beds in the barn so Jesus' Mommy had to lay him down where the animals ate the hay.  She replied, "Jesus had to sleep in a bucket?!"  I explained it was called a manger, but she sees animals eating out of a bucket here on our farm, so that's what she automatically thought.

  It was great to explain why Jesus had to sleep in a barn to my 4 year old who started asking questions all on her own!  Songs really do teach!  I am looking forward to many more questions as time goes on.

Life These Days

Wow, again I can't believe how much time has passed since I last posted!  Life has been crazy around here and I have just lost track of time.

Shortly after my last post, we found out we are expecting our 3rd child at the end of November.  I have been extremely sick with this pregnancy and I am just beginning to feel "back to normal". 

The girls have had good days and bad days together.  Some days they are the best of friends and other days they are each other's biggest enemies.  It's those days that I pray for wisdom and grace...and I feel completely overwhelmed that in just a few short months, I will have 3! 

Mikayla is anxious to do "school" just like her aunts and uncles.  We have pulled out an activity book a few times to do "school".  She loves to sit and work, so I am looking forward to starting school with her.  She still has 2 more years before she will begin Kindergarten, but my mom is going to do Pre School with her a couple days a week this fall!  We talked about sending her to Pre School for 2 days a week so I can have time to adjust to having a baby again.  My mom volunteered to take her 2 mornings a week and do some school with her.  We are so thankful and she is really excited!

Calli has started walking and running everywhere!  She is into everything!  Her favorite place to "hang out" is Mommy and Daddy's bathroom.  Most of the time I don't even realize she has been in there until Matt gets home and finds toys, cups and all kinds of "goodies" that she has left behind.  We both get a good laugh because she usually opens the drawers in our vanity and leaves toys and cups hanging out.  It's pretty comical.  She has also begun to "hold her own" with her sister.  She has gotten a lot tougher in the last month or so.

Finally, Matt has been doing a lot of traveling in the last month and I have been "holding down the fort" at home.  We are looking forward to some family vacation time in June. 

Crossing the Bridge

Today we got to visit with a great friend and her twins!  Mrs. C was a great friend of mine before I was married, but she moved to Texas for several years.  Gotta love the military :).  Now, the C's are back East! 

We got up early, but it still took us quite a while to get out the door.  We drove for an hour, and over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge before we got to our friends' house.  It was an easy trip, other than the bridge, because I really hate driving on bridges.  It wasn't too bad with Mikayla to sing with though.

Mikayla, Ian and Jillian are the same age and love to play together.  Mikayla and Jillian are both very dominant personalities though, and sometimes had some power struggles.  Even though we felt like we were constantly correcting them, they cried when we had to leave this afternoon.

It was great for me to catch up with Mrs. C some more too!  I'm so grateful to have a good friend close to visit with.  I have been praying for someone like her to talk to and encourage one another.  The Lord really answers prayers!

While we were playing today, Calli took her first steps!  She has been walking along holding the wall, the couch, chairs and anything that will help support her.  Today she was standing while leaning against a bottom step...and she stepped out to walk to me! 

When we got home tonight, I got the video camera out to tape her taking some more steps since Matt is missing this.  I tried to keep her from walking too much so he doesn't miss too much, but once she got a little confidence, she started taking off.  I think she will probably we walking on her own within a week or so now. 

Today was such a great day of catching up with friends and passing time quickly while waiting for Daddy to return home.  Thanks to the Lord for good friends!

Sisters!

Mikayla and Calli can be the best of friends or the worst of enemies.  And Calli is only going to be 1!  Some days they fight over every little thing, and other days they play so well together.  Today was a playing so well together kind of day. 

Matt left for a work trip yesterday morning, so I have been alone for 2 days.  Mikayla's behavior gets very difficult when Matt is gone.  I'm not completely sure why, but she is a Daddy's girl.  Anyway, yesterday was awful.  Mikayla kept trying to pick Calli up and then would drop her.  Let's just say bedtime couldn't come soon enough.

Today though, I looked into the toy room many a time and saw 2 happy sisters playing together.  One time they were cooking and feeding each other, another time they were reading books.  I love these times!  Matt reminded me to take a picture of them playing so well together, so I dug the camera out and did just that.  I love having girls on a day like today....we will see what tomorrow holds.

Beautiful Weather

Holy Cow!  It has been ions since I have last posted!  I am going to try to fill in the "blanks" as time goes on, but I figured I needed to get back on this bandwagon.

This morning Mikayla and I made another craft.  I have been trying to be purposeful in spending time with her alone.  She has been misbehaving and we think it is her way of getting attention away from her sister.  During Calli's morning nap, I have been making a craft with Mikayla and then reading to her.  I have also let her watch a movie that she loves, without Calli.  After a week of this, I think we are on to something.  Her behavior has already improved!  This morning we made a macaroni letter "A".  She has made a butterfly and a catterpillar as well this week.  She loves showing Daddy her artwork when he gets home.  

Today the weather is beautiful!  It is a balmy 68 degrees and just a slight breeze.  We finally got to go outside to play!  Mikayla went down her slide and Calli was in her jumperoo as I cleared the winter "storage" out of the porch.  After I finished, I put the girls in the wagon and took them to Mom Mom Krupka's.  They had a blast.
When we got back, Mikayla wanted to try her quad that she got last Spring.  She has been afraid of it since she got it because it went so "fast".  She decided to try again today, and she loved it!  I think she has finally hit the age where she can enjoy it.

After spending over an hour outside, the girls crashed at naptime. I love being able to get so much work done while they are napping.  I also love beautiful weather!

MomTime has begun!

Today I had the first MomTime meeting.  I wanted to start a Mom's group in my home a couple of times a month.  We started today and only had 2 of the 8 of us, but the kids had a blast and we got to visit together.  I only hope this can be a great lifeline and support for those of us moms who make the effort to meet together.

Hide and Seek

Today the girls were playing in their bedroom.  This has become a new favorite thing to do.  I purposely don't have very many toys in their room so that they don't play in there.  I have a few for when Mikayla wakes up in the morning before she is allowed to get up, but other than that....not much to play with.

Nevertheless, they still find fun in playing on Mikayla's bed.  She is sleeping on a blow up mattress on the floor while Matt refinishes her canopy bed.  Anyway, today I called the girls to come out and they didn't come.  I went into the room and as soon as they heard me, Mikayla hid under the covers.  Calli was across the room and as soon as she saw me, she crawled as fast as she could to Mikayla's bed and tried to climb up and "hide" with Mikayla.  So cute and so funny!  I love these girls!

A funny story

This morning I was doing Mikayla's hair.  After I was finished, she wanted to look at it in the mirror.  She went to the bathroom and saw her hair and called in "lovely".  Such a funny girl.

Christmas Day

This morning Mikayla finally woke up and came out to the family room.  I guess she still doesn't get the excitement of opening presents at an ungodly hour.  I hope we can keep it that way, but I won't hold my breath.

I was nursing Calli when she came out and she went straight over to the milk and cookies (and carrot for the reindeer) we left for Santa.  She was overly excited that they were almost all gone! 

Once we were all settled in to start opening presents, Mikayla started getting moody.  She whined and cried at every little thing.  We finally sent her to her room until she had a happy heart.  Calli, on the other hand, had a blast!  She crawled around laughing and smiling at every little thing.

Finally Mikayla was happy enough to open her gift from "santa".  When she opened her very large box she saw a handle on the top and thought it was a very large purse or a big hat.  In reality...it is a bean bag chair. Ha!  We all had a great laugh!  She put the handle on her arm and carried it around the house like a purse most of the day though.  Crazy kid.

Finally, I got a pair of pearl earrings from Matt.  A year and a half ago, we went to Orlando, FL with Matt for a business trip.  While we were there, we went to Sea World and got 2 pearls.  One for me and one for Mikayla (Calli was not in existence ha)  and we figured we would have 2 necklaces made.  When we opened the oysters, the pearls were almost exactly the same size and color.  We then decided they would make nice earrings.  I have been waiting for Matt to have them made into earrings and the waiting paid off!  I was expecting studs, but they are even better! 

We had such a great family day, celebrating with my mom and siblings, Matt's parents again, and our little family. 

Christmas Eve- 2010

Today we packed up and went next door to Matt's parent's house to celebrate Christmas.  We have celebrated on Christmas Eve, 4 of the 5 Christmas' we have been together.  It is really becoming a tradition.  We arrived and had some snacks while we got things together for dinner. 

Once dinner was in the oven, we all sat around and Pop Pop read the Christmas story.  After he finished, opening presents commenced.  It was a crazy, but fun time as family.

Mikayla was especially excited when she got to hold her new baby cousin, even if only for a few seconds.  Declan Anthony was born 12/11/10.  Mikayla loves having a cousin, and can't wait until he is big enough for her to play with.

After we finished presents, we all ate dinner together.  It was so nice to all be together as family.  Once dinner was over, we were able to relax and a few of us dozed off for a little while.

Later on that evening, Matt, Mikayla, Calli and I went to our church Christmas Eve service.  This is the first year we have had a candle light service.  Usually they just have silent communion, but this year they started something new.  It was such a great encouragement the night before Christmas.  I can't wait to make the service an annual tradition.

What a great start to our Savior's birthday celebration!

Hibachi

Tonight we decided to go out as a family for dinner.  We haven't done that in a really long time, so we decided to make it a fun dinner.  I had a coupon for Hibachi, so we went there. 

When we arrived it was packed, but they quickly sat us at a table with a couple and we had to order quickly because they had already ordered.  We ordered edamame for Mikayla and a couple of combo meals for the adults (Matt, Kristi and myself).  We were given chopsticks and a fork, so we could use whichever we wanted.  Matt and I used our chopsticks to eat our salad, and Mikayla wanted to try to use some for her "beans", or edamame.  We asked for a pair of "cheater" ones for her, and she did awesome!  I have a picture of her using them, but it is "stuck" in my phone.  Once I can get it...I will add it to the post.

Mikayla and Calli enjoyed the "show" while the chef cooked right in front of us!  He kept talking to Mikayla and she loved the attention.  Calli was asleep when we got there, but quickly woke up when she heard the cooking start.  They were both mesmerized by the "show". 

After the chef was finished cooking, he tossed a shrimp for each person to catch in our mouths.  Matt and Mikayla are the only ones who actually caught them!  Matt caught one for real, and Mikayla had a little help.  The chef had her close her eyes and counted to 3 and Matt tossed one in her mouth.  She thought she had caught one for real and was so very excited!!

When the chef said goodbye, and we all continued eating our dinner, Mikayla turned to Daddy and said, "Wow, that was really fun Daddy!"  That made the trip so much more fun for us.

Lazy Daze

The last two days have been lazy, pajama days for us.  I have done some tidying up around the house and tried to keep up with the laundry, but didn't even shower until right before Matt came home.  It has been nice to reserve the energy I will need beginning tomorrow. 

We have been so busy every week and weekend since August, and the end is finally in sight!  Dana gets married in 3 days, and then I can just sit back and begin making Christmas presents.  I have all of the supplies, but I have been waiting to begin the projects until after the wedding.  I want to focus on one thing at a time, and the wedding has been it.

We have been helping make the favors, and plan last minute details.  We will be helping decorate and set things up.  We have to practice with the little ones in the wedding to make sure they have a clue what they are supposed to do.  And we have to spend TONS (and I mean TONS) of last minute money to have all of our attire just perfect. 

Needless to say, I am ready for this to be over.  I love my sister and I am excited for Friday...but I am tired and ready for it to be over.  Tomorrow begins the crunch time....happy crunching.