I found out his name

His name is Mr. Wood Spider.  And he does come inside my house looking for other tasty insects to eat.  Ewww.  Since the energy company (that will remain nameless, but you know their name if you live in Plainfield) came and cut down the trees that obviously was home to all the gross bugs, they came into my home to find comfort.  We had an exterminator come and take a look at the ugly spider.  The guy himself is afraid of spiders (I think he's in the wrong line of work) but was super nice and even picked up my jar that contained Mr. Wood Spider to identify him.  I am half tempted to call the energy company and demand they pay for exterminator service for a year, but then I have to go through the trouble of trying to remember what I did with the guys number.  If anyone out there has the phone number for the guy over this mess in my backyard, if you could share it with me, so I don't have to try to locate his card, that might possibly be in the trash, that'd be SUPER! 

Are any of you an entomologist?

I have now found 2 of these BIG creepy guys, ALIVE in my house.

The first one I found was sitting next to my rocking chair on the main floor.

The second scared the crap out of me when I found him in my laundry basket. 

I. HATE. SPIDERS.

Matt is suppose to be calling an exterminator today. 

Don't worry, I will delete this post in a day or 2 just in case you get the hebbie jebbies just looking at the thing, like I do.  Matt captured him and put him in a jar.  I had a dream last night that he ate through the jar and was waiting for me in the garage.  Do you think I'm going in the garage today?  FAT CHANCE. 

I get that I am like a million times the size of bugs/spiders, but the fact that I don't ever know what they are capable of freaks me out.  Ants I can do, I know that the black ones can't harm me.  The rest of them.....uuuggghhh.  I will be wearing shoes all over my house today, just in the chance I meet another giant spider. 

So in response to my question: Is this spider dangerous?  What kind is it?  What does he do?

Growing

Lucy- walking 75% of the time and crawling the other 25%.  Waves bye.  Screams at you when you have something she wants.  Is super awesome at sitting in the stroller for almost 3 hours at the zoo.  As long as she has her blanket, she's good to go.  Knows how to bug her sister and brother.  Loves to push buttons on the laptop when you're trying to use it.  Loves to have an extra 30 minutes or so in the evening with mommy and daddy by herself.  Has 1 tooth all the way through and 3 teeth already popping through the gums, luckily she's been her happy self and we've not dealt with slobber.  If you ask her for a kiss, she opens up and leans in (LOVE IT). 

Ben- talking more and more each day.  Loves rocks and any activity involving rocks.  Wants to be mommy's helper, but not quite there yet.  Loves bikes and balls.  Will go pee on the potty when you sit him on there, but don't trust him in underwear because he won't tell you when he has to go.  Likes to make deals; if you take a bite, you can have this.  Likes to have his picture taken and then wants to see it immediately.  Great at loving on Lucy.  Has realized that if you call daddy "Matt" he starts to get annoyed after a while, so he keeps doing it.  While daddy is at work, he tries to refer to him as Matt.  Getting braver at the park and what he's willing to try.  He's still working on 2 canines that are ever so slowly working their way through.

Ally- excited about school, but worried about leaving mommy for so long.  She's not so sure about all day K and said she'd rather be there a little bit.  GREAT helper.  Getting better at listening.  Tries really hard at everything she does.  Needs to work on her sleep habits, but I guess when mom and dad were early risers at the same age it's hard not to follow!  Loves to do homework and asks to do it all the time.  Enjoys playing games, even if she doesn't win.  Going to the dentist on Monday with Daddy.  She's a fabulous big sister and really shines when Ben and Lucy let her help them.  We've been working on pronunciation of certain words and she's started to correct herself when she's realized she's said a word incorrectly.  Likes to put her outfits together (even if she's dressed in pink head-to-toe, because if it's pink it matches, right?).  Has a 2nd tooth that is wiggly and quite excited. 

May 15- Cute spring dresses

I love that Ally has been able to wear a lot of her dresses for at least 2 seasons (I bought them all a bit big to start with).  This is one of her dresses that I got from someone in China.  I love it.

 Aunt Tiffney bought Ally 2 cute headbands when they went to see the movie "Rio". 

 I like that they both of their mouths open.  This is a normal "Lucy face". 

 When Miss Lucy is tired she likes to have 1 of 2 blankets.  If neither blanket are in her crib, she WILL not sleep.  Thank goodness we have 2.  But when she has her blanket, fingers are in the mouth and blanket is being held next to the face with the other hand.

 I sure do love "Lucy kisses".  Can you see her tongue?  I have to make sure my lips are shut tight, otherwise she tries to push that tongue in my mouth!



Ally's prayers

Ally has this incredible connection to Heavenly Father.  It's like she knows her faith is so strong and lets her know how much He loves her everytime she asks for something simple in prayer.  Lately with all of the rain we've received, she's said MANY heartfelt prayers asking that the rain hold off so she can have fun first.  Guess what...only once has it rained after she's said a prayer (and she's prayed at least half a dozen times for the rain to hold off).  We then talked about how not all of our prayers are answered in the way we'd like.  Well...she's been wanting to go to a baseball game with daddy since he mentioned it to her back at the beginning of April.  Tonight is the night they get to go have their daddy/daughter date and I don't think she could have been more excited.  I think daddy was just as excited as Ally.  We all ate McDonalds first and then they headed off to the baseball game, where I think they are planning on getting dessert.  There's suppose to be fireworks tonight, so it'll be a late night for both of them.  Matt took a 5 minute nap after work and Ally refused to take one, so we'll see if they get to stay for fireworks. 

Thoughts

First I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to the person that found Matt's wallet (that he didn't know he'd lost) and turned it in to our friends on the corner who called to tell us that someone had found it and turned it in (he's a police officer) to them.  Everything was still in tact in the wallet, minus the pictures he had in there (but those are easier to replace than credit cards and everything else). 

I love tropical punch kool aid.

It is soo hot outside...we're trying to make it until the end of June before turning the air on...we'll see if I make it that long.

Lucy is taking 7 steps...she'll climb up 2 stairs, then slide down.

Ally is beyond excited about starting school in the fall.

Ben knows when he needs to sleep and will tell you it's "nigh night". 

The kids are literally waking up with the birds.  We've had their windows open and they are waking up when the birds really start chirping...super annoying.

Since it's so hot (I know it's only May) I haven't really wanted to use the oven/stove to make dinner.  Let's just say I've gotten a bit creative with meals and PB&J might be a summer staple in our home. 

Do I REALLY need my sciatic nerve? 

9 more weeks...Yippee!

May 11- Hot day

Today was our hottest day thus far...so we played with the water table.

 They loved it, especially Lucy and Ben.

 Tonight after it started to cool off a bit, I let the kids play outside. 

May 10

Ben loves wearing Ally's stuff (shoes and shirts).

 Miss Sassy

May 8- Mothers Day

I guess we should have done a picture with me and the kids, since it was Mothers Day and we were all matching in blue.  Oh well. 

Aunt Kate made this super cute dress for Ally, with matching hair ties. 

 Ben showing off his new hair cut.

 Lucy can now officially stand up without holding on to something to help her up.  She's loving this new found freedom.  I almost want to trap her in a baby contraption so she can't progress anymore, but I know that it's for her benefit to grow. 

May 7- Ready for bed

May 7- Eagle Project

May 6

May 4-5

Miss Lucy is standing by herself now.  She can even look at a book and turn a few pages before falling down.  She will take 1 step and then fall down.  So she is on her way to causing more havoc around our house, BUT she's also on her way to giving mommy's back a break.  I switched her over to whole milk in hopes of helping her trim down a bit.  So far that's not been the case, I actually think she's gaining weight.  Her skirt is a 3T and is too big on Ben.  Eventually that will change, maybe.

 I made french toast bites yesterday for the kids and they loved them.  Lucy likes to sleep in, so I saved some for her.  When she woke up and I gave her, her breakfast, Ben promptly came over and started helping himself to her breakfast.  He took a bite out of one and then gave it back to her. 



A job

Everytime I am driving without the kids, the thought "I should have been a race car driver" runs through my mind.  I love to go fast, but have really changed my driving ways since having kids.  I love driving fast on curvy roads, but don't really get the chance since we don't live somewhere with lots of curvy roads.  So I should have been a race car driver, but instead I chose a safer job that requires sometimes little sleep, lots of hugs, sticky kisses, slobbery kisses, raspberry kisses, big smiles, belly laughs and lots and lots of love and cuddling.  I think I chose correctly!

April 30

Saturday Matt and I spent naptime working in the yard.  The backyard is just awful looking and with all the rain we've been getting it just looks bad.  The ignorant men that have been working in our yard, combined a few of our "piles".  We had it sorted out- wood, bark/mulch, small rocks, big rocks, branches, landscaping stones.  Well they combined the bark/mulch pile, with the branch pile and then proceeded to dump it on top of a wood pile, all the while when they were scooping up these piles, getting mud mixed in.  So we were shoveling these mess on Saturday.  Lots of big worms were found.  This project is a big one, so we kind of gave up after working on it for a while and moved on to splitting wood from the wood pile in the middle of our yard and moving it to the wood pile along the fence.  One of my brothers was nice enough to come over and help, since I'm not really in the position to be moving heavy things (although I tend to do it anyways).

 Once the kids woke up, they played really well and stayed out of the way of flying wood.  Lucy ended up in her swing for quite a while and never complained. 

 Ally played with the neighbor kids and exhausted herself. 

April 28

April 26

Sink baths are great! 

 Ally is my big helper.  Most days, she's my right hand or my left, whichever may be busy.  She's super awesome as a big sister and mommy's helper.  She does tend to get a bit frustrated when she tries to change diapers and the kids are super wiggly for her, but she does great.

 Ben tries REALLY hard to be a helper and it usually backfires on him.  Either something gets broken in the process of him trying to help or he just gets himself into trouble.