How to Help

I am sure most of you know about the second earthquake that hit Haiti this morning. To say that this news is devastating is just not strong enough. I don't know if there are even words to describe how harrowing the whole thing is.

Elisabeth has been asking to help. She has such a big heart. I told her that the only way we'd be able to help is to give money to the people who are already down there doing as much as they can for the country. Thankfully, we have a direct source that we can help support.

I have a lovely friend here in Colorado whose family is helping out down there. They have a greenhouse/clinic down there that her grandfather started in 1981. He started a greenhouse to educate the Haitians on proper farming techniques. It is still fully operational and now has a clinic as well. After the first earthquake, Double Harvest was able to help the surrounding areas that were affected.

If you have a chance, please visit their website. They are doing amazing things down there, are receiving lots of donations of money, time and expertise for their clinic. If you would like to donate money or anything else, they have links on their website where you can help.

http://www.doubleharvest.org/

The Crime.

A crime was committed in our kitchen yesterday. A most horrific crime...at least in Evan standards.



Someone wrote on the floor.

Don't worry, we captured the perpetrator immediately. Mainly because she was still sitting at the scene of the crime, completely devastated that her marker had been taken from her.

She also gets super sad when we tell her "No!". It breaks her little criminal heart.

While Evan cleaned up the mess, I documented the evidence. Besides the floor, she managed to write on the cabinets, her baby broom and her right foot...

her left foot...


her left hand...

and her right hand. Tsk, tsk, baby.

But, her Daddy cleaned her up as best he could. And she was forgiven.

It's so hard being a baby. Especially a baby bent on destruction.


Oh, and this guy?

He's made a guest appearance on my other blog. You'll love what's he's cooked for us. (I love it because he cooks it every Sunday morning while I am sleeping soundly in my bed. And for that, I super love him!)

Elisa-skate

For Christmas, we bought Elisabeth rollerblades.

She'd been begging for them for a long time and we found some for an excellent deal.

So, Evan took her out the other day so she could try them out. She was a little tentative at first, but she didn't give up.

Check her out. She's a total sk8ter now!

Today he is 3.

My Mr. Eefers is three today.
He no longer fits into the Kitchen Aid mixer, but he sure loves to help in the kitchen.

I don't know if sea creatures still make him angry. I'll have to ask him.

He still makes this face. I still love it.

And, don't worry, he still loves him some ball. But, he has branched out to other forms (especially golf).

And he's still my absolute, without a doubt, favoritest Ethan in the entire world!


Happy Birthday, Ethan!!!

Breaking the Gingerbread House

It is tradition that the gingerbread houses be broken on New Year's Day. Not ones to argue with tradition, we did just that.

Evan tried to shoot it down with his nerf gun, which Ethan thought hilarious. It did not break the house.

So, equipping the three children with metal weapons, we told them to start breaking the house. Julia tried first. (Please note Elisabeth's faces throughout these pictures. They are priceless.)

Then it was Ethan's turn. Holy cow, that kid has an arm. He knocked the roof off right away.

While my girls gingerly hit the house with their weapons, Ethan proceeded to beat the crap out of it.

And completely obliterated it.


Look at that face. Don't you just want to smother it with kisses?!

Now is when we let the children eat as much of the house as they want. Of course, Julia chose a ginormous piece to feast on.

Ethan felt there were still more things to destroy.

Not Julia, though. She felt that things just needed eaten. Cause she's starving, people. Starving!

I have no idea what Elisabeth is doing here, but I crack up every time I see her making this face!

Look, the house is now crumbs.

Needless to say, this year's gingerbread house breaking was well received by the children.

When Katt and Myle came to visit

When Kyle, Matt and Ethan came to visit us, we didn't have a lot planned (besides making the children play together and wear each other out).

Of course, Elisabeth wanted to take them to Lil' Biggs. The girl stinking loves that place and makes everyone who visits go with her.
This is where I tell you that, for the first time in her life, I let Julia touch sand.

I know, I know. Sand is a normal attraction to children. Lots of parents even have sandboxes in their back yards. Well, I hate sand. Hate it. I hate how it gets everywhere (hair, clothes, toes, shoes, cars) and is almost impossible to get rid of. So, when we visit Lil' Biggs, I just tell Julia it's closed. But, Ethan loves sand (since Kyle doesn't have near the sand issues I do), so when Julia saw him playing in it, she was most excited.

First, she delicately touched it. Then she smiled a huge smile at me and started grabbing handfuls of sand and kind of throwing it around. Then she tried to walk on it and found it wasn't sturdy. So, she crawled across to Ethan. Then she took a big handful, put it in her mouth, and ate it. Then she cried and Evan had to go take her to get a drink.

I promise to work on my sand issues and expose them to her more.

But, Ethan loved it. :)


Kyle and Matt stayed two nights at a hotel and then two nights with us. So, of course, we took the kids swimming.

All three of the kids are fish, so they had oodles of fun.





We visited Evan's workplace.


For New Year's Eve, we stayed home. The cats made sure to make Kyle feel warm and snuggly while she napped.

I made appetizers for dinner. They were yummers.

The boys bought some beer and were excited to use Evan's steins he got while he was in Germany the summer that I was pregnant with Elisabeth.

Here's something that was absolutely awesome. At midnight, they shot off fireworks from the top of Pikes Peak and we could see them from our back deck.

My pictures kind of stink, but it was absolutely awesome!!!


On their final day, we all just hung out.

Julia warmed up to Matt and found him hilarious.



And we let Ethan open up his birthday presents early since we won't be there when he actually turns three. :(



We missed them all as soon as they walked out the door. Next time, we're going to visit them at their house and play there. :)

Rock-A-Bye

This is Julia when she was around a month old. She was still quite yellowed with jaundice. I love her face here. She still makes that face when she's sleeping even now.

Evan is out watching football with the guys from work, which meant I was in charge of the night time routine. I always get pouty when I have to do the bedtime routine because 1.Julia goes to sleep so much faster for Evan and 2.I enjoy saying my goodnights from the living room and finally getting to take my deep breath because my parenting is done for the day.

But, tonight was pretty easy-peasy. Julia's been going to bed around 7:30 lately, and I'm not about to disrupt that. We shared a fudge-cicle, put on her jammies, brushed her teeth (her absolute favorite part), found her pacifier (which we've been leaving in her room after she wakes up) and then we head to the rocking chair.

Yep. I still rock her. You would not believe how many people are shocked to hear that. Even the lady who I bought my rocking chair from (well, I guess it's a glider) was surprised. She asked if I was having another baby (after seeing my girls in the car) (or maybe judging from my figure) (ugh) and I said, no, that I needed it for my youngest.

"Oh. Well, how old is she?"
"Fourteen months."
"Oh. And you still rock her?"
"Yep."

She needs it. Just like she still needs to hold my hand walking down stairs. Just like she still needs a bib.

With Elisabeth, I know that I was still rocking her at 18 months. I believe I had cut down the whole shake-bounce-beat-her-butt-dance-for-45-minutes that was required to make her sleep and that we'd evolved into a less jarring, more normal rocking-in-a-chair routine. She was around two before she didn't require rocking anymore. Of course, then it was a whole different song and dance to make her sleep (involving an incredible amount of stuffed animals and books in her bed, lots of kisses and hugs, a prayer and a scripted good-bye-at-the-door-speech that I had to say perfectly or we started all over again).

I guess what bothers me when other people (mainly moms, which always kind of baffles me) wonder why we still have to rock Julia to sleep is this--who cares? I mean, really, if rocking is what makes my child feel safe enough to fall asleep without screaming and crying, then who cares?

Now, I'm not saying that she falls asleep perfectly every night and always has. No, siree bob. First off, that girl has only been sleeping through the night consistently for about 4 or 5 months. She would wake up at least once in the night for comfort until she was over a year. And, there are times when she wakes up as soon as we lay her down and then she requires human contact until she falls back asleep. And I've had to walk away for a while because I'm too frustrated to deal with her. But, 99% of the time, just laying in our arms while we rock her to sleep is all she needs. So, we'll keep doing it until she doesn't need it anymore. Then I'll be more than happy to report what sort of weird-o routine she'll need to go to sleep.

Cause you all know that, if they're our kids, it's bound to be special.