Some pictures...

Okay, it has been a long time since I have posted pictures. Here are a few I took tonight before the boys went to bed. I should have some pictures tomorrow after trick or treating too so I will try to get those out this week too!

Friday night

Well, here it is Friday night and I am watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with Carter and Kinnick is upstairs in bed, he is not sleeping, but seems to be having quite a fun time jumping up and down in his crib making noise. Carter will be going up to bed soon, so they will probably be jumping in their cribs together. They really like to do that and giggle at each other. It is pretty cute! Maddie is spending the night at a friend's house up in Bancroft. She will be home late tomorrow afternoon and then it will be time to get her dressed up in her costume for the Halloween party that Whittemore puts on for kids. She is pretty excited about it. I am not sure if the boys will go to it or not. Will have to see how our day goes tomorrow. I tried taking Kinnick shopping for groceries tonight and that was an awful experience. In fact, we did not even make it to Hy-Vee. When we got done getting the few things we needed at K-Mart he was more than ready to get out of the cart. Even if I buckle him into the cart he can squeeze out! Little stinker! Oh, I almost forgot, the whole reason I was posting was to tell all of you that we got Kinnick's hearing tested at Prairie Lakes in Algona this morning and he passed! So we know that he can hear perfectly! Well, I suppose I should get Carter off to bed. Have a GREAT weekend! Stephanie and family

Rainy Thursday

Well what a yucky day it has been here. Just dreary and somewhat rainy all day long. When the weather is like this it really seems to affect the mood of my kids. It is almost 3:30 and Brennan and I are playing together and watching Dr. Phil. Carter went with Adam to pick up Maddie from school and take her to an appointment at 3:30. Then she will go to the YMCA until soccer practice starts at 5. She is such a busy girl! Tomorrow night she is staying at a friend's house for a birthday party and won't be home until late Saturday afternoon. Kinnick is upstairs napping, his second nap of the day. We are pretty excited because we got him to say da da last night. That was so AWESOME to hear. His teacher was here yesterday afternoon and worked with him here at the house for an hour. He really likes her. She brought a bunch of instruments with her for him to play with and he did a great job imitating her. So that was great! I was so proud of him. I guess that since we have started working with him I feel really good when he does what we want him to do. Every little step counts! There's not much else new with us. I cannot believe that Halloween is next week already. I am curious to see what Carter will think about trick or treating. He is terrified of the Halloween section at K-Mart, so it should be interesting when we see kids in their costumes! Well, I should get my towels folded that are in the dryer before Kinnick wakes up because he likes to unfold them as fast as I can get them folded! Love, Steph

Sunday night

Hello! Well it is Sunday night and our weekend was pretty uneventful. I took the kids grocery shopping with me on Friday night. What a mistake! They were SO crabby. By the time we got to the checkout we had 2 boxes of Lucky Charms opened and I had 2 boys that were crying. Kinnick was screaming as we were getting checked out. It took all I had to keep him in the shopping cart. He was drooling all over and making himself gag. Yeah, it was a temper tantrum! Everyone just stared at us. I felt awful, like I was this terrible mother. Carter was trying to grab every type of candy at the checkout counter that he could get his hands on. Maddie was pestering me to let her get some candy. Of course, when things like this happen you see someone you know and are just mortified that they saw you. Yep, that is what happened to me. I was in my grubby clothes, without makeup on and my hair was pulled back with a headband. I looked pretty scary. But who do you expect to see shopping for groceries on a Friday night???? FUN! Oh the joy of parenting. I called Adam on the way home and was in tears. I wonder how the kids would be if Adam took them to the store by himself? I think it would be interesting to say the least.

Saturday I spent most of the day laying on the couch. I felt like complete crud. I was supposed to help serve at a funeral dinner in the morning and then I was invited to a baby shower in the afternoon. I did not make it to eitherone of them. Maddie really did a great job helping out with her brothers. They sure do like it when she plays with them!

This morning when we got up I still felt yucky, but as the day has gone on I seem to feel better. When I came downstairs I found Adam on the phone in the kitchen and both of my boys in the living room without diapers on. Carter obviously decided he wanted his diaper off so that he could go pee. He did not bother to tell anyone he needed to go, instead he went in his toolbox in the toy room. Thank goodness he told me what he had done. It would have been bad if Kinnick would have found the tools and started to play with them. So that is how my day started off.

I got lots of laundry done today. YEAH! Adam just came in the house, and it is early, only 9:40. I just asked him what was going on that he was already done for the night and he says that the front end is out of the 8400. So that means he cannot drive it until John Deere fixes it. He is pretty sure they will have to come and pick it up with a semi and take it to Algona to fix. This harvest is just not going well for us! It seems to be one thing after another going wrong!

Well, I suppose I should get one more load of laundry done before I go to bed. Have a great week everyone!

Love, Steph

Kinnick

Hello! Just wanted to post about Kinnick to give an update on the meetings we have been having with the Prairie Lakes staff. For the last 3 weeks there have been 2 gals coming over to the house to work with him. They are here for an hour and teach Adam and I different things that we can do with him during the week. Today they informed us that they would like to work with him at least 6 months. They want Adam and I to spend 25 hours each week working with him one on one. They are happy that we caught this so early and called to ask them for help. The sooner we start to work with Kinnick the better. They have explained to us that they do not feel he has "medical" autism, but rather he meets alot of the markers that would indicate "educational" autism. I guess that is what we know for now. Carter is waking up from his nap so I need to go get him and bring him downstairs. Talk to you all later! Love, Steph

VIDEO CLIP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd23ZQotnSg

Here is a clip of Kinnick giggling and blowing bubbles and talking to me at the kitchen table.

Combine FIRE!

As you can probably tell by the title of my post, we have had a stressful evening. The guys were combining corn at a field north and east of Whittemore this afternoon when my Dad stopped the combine because he heard something make a "clunk" noise. He asked Adam to come and see if he could figure out what was wrong with it. As he was heading over to see what was going on he noticed smoke coming out of the combine. He jumped up into the cab and told Dad to shut off the combine because it was on fire and he grabbed the fire extinguisher to see if he could put the fire out. He told my Dad to have Mom call 9-1-1 for the fire department. The fire extinguisher could not get down into the area where the fire was so he grabbed Dad's water jug and took that to see if he could dump it out. When the fire department arrived they were able to contain the fire and get my Dad out of the combine using a skidloader. By the time the kids and I arrived the fire was out and Dad was out of the combine. As we were sitting there I remembered that I always have the digital camera in the diaper bag so I grabbed it and took some pictures. After the fire was out John Deere arrived and looked to see what had happened. The firefighters had to use more water because the fire was still smoldering. Adam drove the combine over to Algona so that John Deere can work on fixing it tomorrow morning. Both the firefighters and the John Deere guy told us that it is a good thing that Dad stopped when he did. And it is a good thing that Adam was in the field when this all happened. Things could have been really bad but it did not turn out that way. I guess God puts people in just the right places at just the right times. I am thankful that Adam and my Dad are both safe at home tonight!

Love, Stephanie

Some pics from today

Kinnick playing legos. He really likes them alot! He really had fun digging in the bus and making alot of noise. I think he was trying to wake up his big brother!

Here is Carter after I laid on the couch with him for 40 minutes trying to get him to fall asleep I got up to switch a load of laundry and he was sleeping when I came back in the room. How does that work anyway?????

Another crazy weekend

Well, our weekend was an interesting one. Friday was Adam's birthday and he ended up in the ER around 9:30 that night with severe back pain. The doctor could not believe how bad it was. He said it was like every muscle in his back was comparable to a clenched fist. I felt so bad for him. He ended up getting a shot and also a prescription for a muscle relaxor and a pain medication too. So, he was drugged up enough that he got some rest Friday night. He spent all day Saturday on the couch. Maddie went to her flag football game on Satuday morning with a friend of hers who is on the same team as she is. When they got back to Whittemore she called from his house and asked if she could hang out with him and play video games. They brought her home around 3:30 and she said that she had alot of fun. I went to Algona and got some groceries while the boys were napping for Adam. It was so nice to get groceries all by myself! On Sunday morning we got up and went to church at 10 and then came home for Kinnick to nap before we went to my nephew's birthday party at 1. When we were ready to leave the party we found that we were locked out of our suburban (thanks to Maddie). My sister ran us home and Adam went back to town with her to unlock our vehicle with our spare keys. The guys went to the fields after that and worked until about supper time when the combine broke down. John Deere was here first thing this morning and fixed the problem, so they are out now and going again. I just got the boys cleaned up from eating lunch and Brennan is napping. I just wanted to get a post for you all to read since I did not get to it this weekend. Have a SUPER week!

Happy Birthday Adam!

Today is Adam's birthday. He is a whopping 31 years old! Give him a call and wish him birthday greetings at 515-320-3564!

Yes, it has been a long time...

Yeah yeah yeah, I know that I have been awful about getting posts done lately. Just so hectic now that Adam is in the fields and I am left with the kids and housework and birthday parties to plan, and schoolwork to do, and helping Maddie with homework, and babysitting Brennan and the list goes on and on and on.........

Let's see, alot has happened since I posted last. Adam's mom and her husband arrived last Friday to stay with us for a few days. The kids were really excited about them coming and it was great to hang out and spend some time with them. On Saturday we all went to watch Maddie play flag football in the morning. They took her shopping and to the band day parade in the afternoon. She had a blast and got quite spoiled when they shopped.

On Sunday afternoon we had a birthday party for Carter. It was a John Deere party of course! He got alot of nice gifts and so he has been quite entertained this week playing with everything he got. I still cannot believe he is 3 years old already!

On Monday morning Jayne and Doug left to go visit Grandpa Adkins in Carroll. They stayed overnight with Grandpa and then headed back to Wichita on Tuesday. It was a short trip for them, but we were happy to have them here!

Tuesday was a pretty ordinary day, not much going on and that is always nice! We had a busy day yesterday though. We had a speech pathologist and a teacher from Prairie Lakes come to the house and evaluate Kinnick. I am glad that we did because it seems that he meets quite a few of the "markers" that would indicate the possibility of him being autistic. They did not officially diagnose him yet, but will come back in 2 weeks with a plan in mind for what we need to do to help Kinnick and then we will go from there. They did both tell us that Kinnick has some really positive behaviors and actions, so they were happy to see that. They told us that the sooner we start working with him the better the outcome can be. I have several websites that I need to research before they meet with us again. It is nice because they come to our house and work with him here and will teach Adam and I things to do so that we can work with him also. He warmed up to the ladies really well to, so that was good. I will keep you all posted as things come along.

Yesterday afternoon I took Carter and Kinnick to get their pictures taken (Carter 3 years old, Kinnick 18 months old). What a catastrophe! Carter would not smile without shutting his eyes when he said cheese. Kinnick did not want anything to do with getting his picture taken and he cried the whole time. Carter decided that he wanted to help change the backdrop and when he yanked on the pulley he broke it. The photographer said it was fine, but I felt awful! Then when we were almost done with the pictures Carter found the pulley and was carrying it around. He ended up dropping it in his foot. It had to have been at least 2 pounds. He cried and cried! I got him calmed down and we went to pick up Maddie at school so that we could go to K-Mart and pick up a few things that we needed. Since the kids were good at K-Mart I took them to McDonald's for some ice-cream. As we were eating our ice cream Carter took his shoes off and started screaming that his foot hurt. I carried him out to the car and we came home. He cried for 2 hours so my mom and I ended up taking him to the ER in case he had broken a bone in his foot. It was somewhat swollen and his toe was turning purple. The ER doctor we had was super with him and that made me feel better. The nurse let him play with her stethoscope and he laid on the bed telling us that he was "Doctor Carter". It was so cute! When the x-ray lady came to get him he had a fit. So they let me take him back. Well, as soon as he saw the x-ray machine he went nuts! He would not let go of me and was totally freaking out! They had a nurse come in so that I could leave the room. I felt awful listening to him scream! There were no broken bones, just a really bad bruise. He was quite cranky when we got home and it took me quite a while to get him to bed for the night. He seemed to walk on it okay today. He said it hurt a little bit, but nothing quite like yesterday afternoon!

What a crazy day that was! Today was pretty calm and ordinary so that was good. I am happy that tomorrow is Friday and am looking forward to the weekend. Love to all, Steph

The Jelly Donut

Here are a few pictures of Kinnick eating a jelly donut. He was a STICKY mess when he was done. He ate the donut all gone which is more than I can say for Carter. He just likes to play with the frosting and jelly and make a big mess all over the table.

Today is Saturday and we got back from Algona just a little bit ago. Maddie played football this morning at 10 so we all went over to her game to watch her play. She did a really good job running one of the plays for her team today and she was proud of that. Adam's mom and her husband Doug got into town last night about 8 pm and so they went to the game with us too. That was pretty exciting for Maddie to have them get to see her play. Maddie's great grandma Bev and great grandpa Gib Buscher also came to watch her play. The weather was perfect outside and it was sunny and just a nice morning to be outside.

After we got done at the game we went to Family Table and had lunch. Then it was to Hy-Vee to pick up the cake I had them decorate for Carter's birthday party tomorrow. It turned out really cute! He is so excited about his birthday party. It will be fun, I'm sure!

Adam is outside getting the combine ready to go this afternoon. He is pretty sure that the beans are fit to go after the little rain we got last night. Carter is outside helping him as we speak.

Not much else new here, just wanted to get a quick update for all of you as I know that I have not been doing this everyday as I promised. Have a great weekend!

GO HAWKEYES! BEAT OHIO STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures of Carter and Maddie in the Combine

It is a little hard to see them in the cab, but they got to sit in the combine on Sunday while Adam was doing some work outside on it. Carter would sit in it all day if we would let him! He went and rode with Adam for awhile this afternoon. He just has so much fun!

Hope that you are all having a good week! As you know, I attended a "staged" bus rollover accident at the Algona fairgrounds last night. It was quite an experience and one that I will not forget. I played the role of a student who was on the bus and was sitting in the front seat when the accident occurred. I was supposed to be a 5 year old girl with cuts on my face and legs. I was also supposed to complain about my head hurting from hitting it on the seat. There were 16 of us that acted as students. The fire departments, police, EMT's, first responders, ambulance crew, hospital staff all took part in the exercise. It seemed as though it took forever from the time the "rollover" occurred until someone arrived at the scene to evaluate what had happened. When the first sheriff stepped onto the bus I really gave it my all. I should have been an actress. I sat on the seat with my legs pulled up towards my chest and began rocking back and forth crying for my mommy. It seemed as though no one was paying attention to me. Finally I was asked what hurt and so I told the EMT. He told me that he needed to take care of other students who were hurt more severly than I was. I cried some more and some more and some more. (Yes, I really cried tears!) I started to look around and when I looked over the seat behind me I saw alot of blood coming from another girls neck. She had a puncture wound. I "FREAKED" out when I saw the blood. I then started to pound on the bus window and tried to open it so that I could crawl out. I kept calling for my mommy. There was a nice fireman on the bus who tried to calm me down. He had to sit with me until they could get me off of the bus because I had convinced him that I was going to try and crawl out on my own. When they got me off the bus I saw a sheriff who was asking me my name and the name of my mom. I recognized him and started grabbing onto him telling him I was related to him and that I wanted my mommy. He took me over the the triage area where the EMT put a neck collar on me and then strapped me to a board. (Talk about uncomfortable!) They had a fireman sit next to me after they evaluated me and I had to lay there and wait for an ambulance to be able to take me to the hospital. When I got loaded into the ambulance I was asked alot of questions and once again I was checked over on the way to the hospital. When I got to the hospital I was seen by a doctor and he determined that I needed a CT scan and x-rays. I was still strapped to the board they put me on and I just kept asking for my mommy. When the exercise was all over we were taken back to the high school where we all met before the drill started and we sat down and discussed what we thought were positives and negatives from the experience. It was a real eye opener for me and gave me some insight as to what Maddie may have experienced during the 2 bus accidents she has been involved in. She is who I kept my mind on during the course of the exercise and because I did that I was able to truly act and react to things the way I thought she would have. SCARY stuff for a little kid! I get no credit for being a good actress because my tears were real and that is because I thought about what the little kids went through that were on the bus when the real accidents occurred. It seems as though the school and other parties involved have worked really hard to put some thought into what needs to be done if there is ever another bus accident in the future. I am happy about that.

Well, it is 9:30 now and I need to go fold some laundry now. Love to all, Steph


VIDEO LINK OF THE BOYS AND I TONIGHT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LeKYuPBTIY

It's a new week!

Hi! Well here it is Monday morning already! The weekend went by too quick. The sun is shining today and that just makes it a great day! Later today I have to go and particpate in a "staged bus rollover". They are doing a run through as if a bus full of students rolls over to test how EMS, fire departments, hospital staff, parents, and students respond. This is due to the accidents that have happened over the past 2 years. It will be open to the public to come and watch tonight at 5:30 at the fairgrounds in Algona. I was called and asked to be a volunteer and so I think that I will be an injured student on the bus. Should be educational to say the least. I am happy that the school has been working with others in order to have a protocal to follow in the event that there is ever another bus accident. Not much else happening here. I need to go and get Carter dressed for the day so I will try and post again after I get home tonight or else tomorrow morning and let you know how the "bus accident" goes. Love, Steph

YUMMY recipe to share

Thought I would share this recipe with all of you because I made this for my kids and they loved it! So did my hubby!

Fruit Salad

1 banana, sliced
1 cup red grapes
1 medium orange peeled and sectioned (I think a can of mandarin oranges would work well too)
1 cup pineapple chunks
2 kiwi, peeled and sliced
1 medium mango, peeled and cubed (I did not add this because I do not like mango)
1/3 cup orange juice
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 TBSP sugar

Combine fruits in a medium sized bowl. In a small bowl stir together the OJ, lemon juice and sugar. Pour the mixture over the fruit before serving and toss gently to coat.

Serves 8

Watching the Hawks

Hey! It is Saturday and we are watching the Iowa / Illinois game on TV. Iowa is leading 24 to nothing with 10:27 left in the 4th quarter. YEAH IOWA! Not much happening with us today. Maddie had flag football this morning at 10 in Algona and Adam took her over to that and I stayed here at home with the boys. We had lunch and now the kids are all upstairs napping. They all needed it! Not sure what we are going to do when they wake up. It just feels like such a lazy day. Last night we had my friend Kim and her husband Kevin over to our house. It was nice to hang out and chat with them. There is a bakesale at our church tomorrow morning so I should bake something to take to that. I am just not sure what I want to make yet. Well, I suppose I should get another load of laundry in the washing machine and then start looking through my cookbook for something to make for the bakesale. Have a great weekend! Love to all! Steph

Wednesday already???

Hello! Can't believe it is already Wednesday night! Where did the day go? This morning I got up with Maddie and got her off to school. Then I got showered and ready for the day. I actually put makeup on and did my hair today! I got the boys dressed for the day and we went to get groceries in Algona. We went to K-Mart first so I could pick up a few things. When I was checking out Carter was looking at all of that junk they have by the check outs just so that little kids can bug their moms to buy something for them and I kept my eye on him. He really wanted a pencil and I told him that he could not have it. As I proceeded to write out my check I saw him sticking something into the K-Mart sack he was holding for me. I could have died. Great, my 2 year old is a klepto! I know that he is not old enough to understand and so I just told him that we cannot take stuff out of the store unless we let the lady behind the register ring it up. After we were done at K-Mart we went to Hy-Vee. Carter decided that he did not want to ride in the cart so I agreed to let him walk. He did better than I thought he would. Kinnick was a little bit ticked off that I did not use one of those kiddie carts to shop with. There is just no room for groceries in those things. By the time I got the groceries loaded Kinnick was sound asleep. When we got home I started unloading the groceries and Carter got his his gator and was driving it around the lawn. All of a sudden I hear this loud crash and then Carter crying. Adam was helping me haul the groceries into the house so he went running to see what happened. Carter had taken my watering can and filled it up with water. It was too heavy for him to get into the tailgate of the gator so he was holding onto it and trying to drive at the same time. That did not work very well because he drove through my hostas and right into the side of the garage and wacked his forehead on the garage. I got him calmed down and we snuggled up on the couch together to watch TV and we both fell asleep. When we got up from our nap he wanted to ride with Adam in the combine. My mom came and got wagons to take to where Adam was combining so Maddie and Carter went with her so that Carter could ride in the combine. Maddie rode with my mom to take a load of beans to town and she was quite bored. I took Kinnick to the field where Adam was with Carter so that he could have a turn riding with his dad in the combine too. I also met my mom so I could get Maddie and she could come home with me. Kinnick was not sure what to think about the ride. He really checked everything out though. We only rode for one round. Maddie did not want to ride in the combine. We came home and had some supper and then Maddie did her homework. As we were cleaning up the supper mess Maddie noticed that I had bought a step stool at K-Mart today for the kids to use when they brush their teeth. She was reading the sticker on it that says "Up to 800 pounds" and she said to me, "Mom you can even step on this stool". I said, thanks Maddie you are right, I can! She cracks me up sometimes. You just never know what she is going to say! Well, it is almost 10 p.m. and I should get my homemade applesauce out of the crockpot and put into the fridge. Yes, you heard right, I made applesauce in my crockpot. It required peeling apples and I am proud to say that I did not even cut myself. It took me quite a while to peel them, but I did it! Maybe I will eat some before I go to bed. It is still warm! YUMMY! Love, Steph

New week

Good morning! It is 7:15 a.m. and I am sitting here waiting for the bus to come and pick up Maddie for school. She is mad at me because I will not let her take her yo-yo to school. The teachers told the kids "no more yo-yo's". The bus driver gets mad at them if they have them on the bus she said. So I am not sure why she wants to take it with her???? I am puzzled.

Carter and Kinnick are sitting at the table eating breakfast and watching Little Einstein's on TV. I cannot believe that Carter is awake so early because he decided not to go to bed until 11 last night. I am sure that it will be a long day with him! He is really getting bad about getting to bed at night. I am not sure why that is?

Our weekend was pretty uneventful. We did not do much of anything. Which was okay with me. Have a good week everyone! I better get finished with my breakfast now before Brennan gets here.

Love,
Steph

First Flag Football Game

Here are a few clips of Maddie playing flag football this morning.

She is wearing blue and gold shorts and has a red jersey on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw7hzOF8kE0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7UtIvJHITE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO_UK68o-Y4

Tomorrow is FRIDAY!

I cannot believe that tomorrow is Friday already. This week has gone by quickly. Sorry for not posting yesterday...it was crazy here. I got a perm over in Algona yesterday morning and by the time I got home Kinnick was really crabby and running a temp. It got up to 103.8 degrees before it finally broke. I held him all afternoon because he would not sleep unless I did. I took him upstairs and started running him a bath to cool him off and he puked all over the bathroom floor. I got him in the bath and he seemed to like that. The combo of those 2 things brought his temp down a little bit. After I got him all settled Carter started running a temp. He told me he was dizzy. Next thing I know he puked all over himself, me and the rocking chair. LOVELY! So it was upstairs to give him a bath also! We got both of them off to bed and they both slept all night. When they got up today Kinnick was still cranky and was running a low grade temp most of the day. He did play and watch movies and stuff, so he felt somewhat better. Carter felt fine and was good all day. He napped for 4 hours this afternoon and was in bed by 8:30 tonight. HECTIC!

Maddie had flag football practice after school today and will play her first game on Saturday morning. She is pretty excited about that! Tomorrow afternoon she is participating in the homecoming parade. She wants us to come over and watch the parade so I told her I would see what I could get arranged. If Adam goes along with me we should be able to swing it with the 3 little ones. We have a double stroller and also a single stroller so they would all be contained. I would just need one extra person to push one of the strollers.

Adam is outside working on machinery again tonight. He did stay inside and help me with the boys last night and I really appreciated him doing that to help me out!

I should get some bills written out before I go to bed so I will letcha all go for now. Love, Steph