A day in the life of Bridget

7:00am Wake up and have fun playing in crib

7:15am Start calling out, in hopes that big brothers will come in to play

7:15-8am Play silly games with brothers, especially dumping out as many baskets of toys as possible

8:00am Breakfast (banana, blueberries, toast, milk)

8-9:00 Follow brothers around the house, read books with Mommy

9-10:00am Have a nice little nap (when possible) to improve mood

10:30am Load up to go somewhere fun (the pool, the zoo, the park, the library, etc...). Look for MANY opportunities to say, "Hiiiiiiiiiiii!" to anyone and everyone.

12:00 noon Have lunch (picnics are preferred)

1:30pm Nap time!

3:30pm Get up and try to wake brothers up to play

4:00-6:00pm Play in backyard, chase Elmer around and crawl on him when he stops, stare longingly at the trampoline and hope Mommy sees, play in dog's water bowl, pick some flowers and eat them, find some dirt to dig around in...

6:00pm Dinner (chicken, peas, beans, milk)

6:30pm Play cars with brothers, dump out a few more baskets of toys

7:00pm Bathtime--play for a long time in the water

7:30pm Story time then bedtime!

Amazing Stain Remover!

I recently washed (and dried) a load of laundry that included a pair of shorts with a tube of cherry chapstick left in the pocket.

Bad idea.

Greasy, bright pink stains over EVERY article of clothing.

And to top it off, I usually sort out my laundry and 'never' wash whites with anything but whites. But I had just swept through the house, picking up any laundry I could find and it did include a few of Sam's white t-shirts and his favorite white/yellow work out shirt.

I was not happy when I saw all the ruined clothes. Surely there was no way to fix those stains.

Then, along came my good friend GOOGLE! :)

Turns out liquid dish soap is the BEST stain remover on the planet. I pre-treated each and every pinky-red stain with a generous amount of dish soap, washed the load of laundry in the washing machine again....and voila! Every single stain was gone.

It still isn't a good idea to wash and dry your tubes of chapstick. But at least now I know that it can be fixed!

I almost forgot to mention....

....there's a new post here. Enjoy!

Good-Bye, Megan!

Our friend (and #1 babysitter!) Megan is moving across the country to attend her last year of college. Her last day at work was Friday, so we had a little farewell party at the lake on Saturday to send her off.

We barbecued and swam and just relaxed by the lake. It was so nice! We had one scary moment where Jonah fell in the water without his lifejacket on and had to be fished out by Grand-pop (!!!), but otherwise it was just a nice way to enjoy our last afternoon (for a while, anyway!) with Megan.

I had my camera along, but it didn't occur to me to be taking pictures until Megan said it was time for her to leave! Yikes. So I snapped a couple of her with the kids--they are going to miss her so much! Megan has been babysitting our kids for the last two years and they LOVE her.

We'll miss you Megan!

I love my kids!

Psalm 126:3 "The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy."

Henry, age 5

Jonah, age 3

Bridget, 10 1/2 months

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." Psalm 127:3-5

We are blessed, indeed!

This one cracks me up....

As Henry was perusing the newspaper this afternoon, he came upon a picture of Tiger Woods.

Holding it up to show me, he said, "How silly! That is Tiger Woods, but why is he white?"

Not looking at the picture (not wanting him to see me laughing!) I said, "Are you sure that's Tiger Woods, honey?"

Henry said, "Of course that is Tiger Woods. But he usually wears a RED shirt, not a white one!"

Sam and his brother David

These two were like a couple of kids, daring each other and coming up with new challenges for each other. But their team dive was the best!

Happy Father's Day!

We are celebrating Father's Day with Sam's dad, so we'll be out at the lake tomorrow--swimming, bbq-ing and trying to stay cool.

Today I want to celebrate the father of my children! Sam, you an amazing dad and your children adore you. You live your life as an example to the kids and they see your Godly character each and every day.

I love that you always add fun to everything you do!

I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful husband who blesses me each and every day simply by loving our children!

Happy Father's Day, Sam!

Fun at the Lake

We've been spending lots of time out at Dave and MaryBeth's house, swimming and enjoying the summer. Last weekend we purchased a new 'toy' for the lake:

It's great! The middle (where we are sitting) is a trampoline, so you can jump on it or jump off into the water. It can be a little tricky to climb up, but the kids figured out that if they just climb up the slide it is much easier than using the ladder.

Bridget enjoyed swimming in her little floaty! She laughed, smiled and giggled the entire time she was in the water--I don't think she wanted to get out! It doesn't hurt that the water is around 80 degrees, so it isn't exactly cold. :)

And here is the kid's great joy:

Jumping off the railing of the dock! Who knew that could be so much fun? The boys can spend an hour just climbing up on the railing, jumping off, swimming to the ladder and doing it all over and over and over again!

Last weekend the boys had an especially good time because Ashley, Jay and Cole were there to swim with them--cousins are SO fun!

Hope you're enjoying some fun summer activites wherever YOU are! :)

Wordless Wednesday

Picking Blueberries!

The kids and I went blueberry picking this morning--what fun! They are so yummy and we all enjoy going out and filling up our buckets.

There is a blueberry farm just up the road from our house and it's only a little over a dollar a pound to pick your own, which is MUCH better than 5-6 dollars for a tiny little container at the local grocery store!

We try to head out a few times during the (short) blueberry season and pick as many as we can and then freeze them so we have blueberries year round! Last year we only had them through maybe Thanksgiving, so I'm going to try and get more this year.

This morning we had Grammy and some cousins (Ashley, Jay and Cole) along, as well as Henry's buddies Isabella and Ian and my friend Kim. Here's the kid-crew with their berries:

Jonah always has trouble getting them into his basket--they seem to find their way into his mouth first! After an hour of picking berries, this is all that Jonah had left in his basket:

Henry and Bella didn't have that problem though! Look at those full baskets (and those cute faces, too!):

There is a brand new McDonald's near us with an indoor playland that the boys have been anxious to try out. We headed there and had a mostly unpleasant experience (for example: our order was completely messed up and the lady ROLLED HER EYES AT ME when I asked her to fix one little part of it, there was NO SOAP in the bathroom--they didn't even have a soap dispenser, someone SET OFF THE DOOR ALARM in the play area and the employees did not know how to turn it off, and so on and so on!), but despite all that Bridget had a grand time. While I was letting her explore the bench beside me, she made her way over to my leftover french fries that were on the table. She wasted no time in putting the first fry she could grab into her mouth! When she realized how good they are ("Mmmm....salt!") she quickly went for more. It's a little earlier than I would have had Bridget discover french fries, but I suppose a little treat won't hurt her! :)

For some fun blueberry recipes, head over to my cooking blog!

swimsuit season

Don't you just LOVE those pudgy little thighs? SO CUTE!

It's weird how my legs look just like hers and it just doesn't seem as cute on me. :)

Getting teeth is not fun!

Bridget has been having a rough time lately....she is working on her upper two front teeth and is not enjoying the process!

This normally happy baby has been fighting tears on and off for almost two weeks now! The awful thing is that both teeth will start to show (I can see white poking through) and then they fade back into her gums. So it is a loooooooong process. Bridget will be fine, happy, content, laughing one minute and then a sobbing, crying, head-hanging mess the next minute. Poor girl.....and her poor family!

Here is part two...

of my husband's "amazing" poetry...



As before, watch at your own risk! :)

A poem by Samuel Hasz

This is Sam. Sharing an original poem for you all. Watch at your own risk! ;)



I have more if anyone wants to see them....but be warned--this is the best of the bunch!

Henry turns 5!

We celebrated Henry's 5th birthday this weekend with a party at the lake.

We swam, took the boat out for tube rides, swam some more, ate lunch and a bunch of snacks, swam a little more and had cake. Then we talked about swimming a little more aft, but the boys were pretty wiped out after all that swimming!

Wow. My little guy isn't so little anymore--he is starting kindergarten in the fall and that's all he talks about. Well, that and all things Isabella. ;)

Anyway, Henry is a wonderful kid. As the first born, he introduced Sam and I to parenting, and we've been loving every minute of it since. Henry is creative, a natural leader, an incredible big brother and a budding negotiater. He must have gotten all that from Sam!

Right now, Henry is really interested in semi trucks. He will often count how many we see as we drive down the road and then he wonders aloud, "Will we ever own a semi, so I can drive one for real?" He spends as much time as he can driving cars and trucks on his floor mat "roads" and also loves anything spiderman.

As a baby Henry was NOT a snuggler. As a toddler, Henry would gently remove our hands if we rested them on his shoulder or leg. Now, as a big five year old, Henry loves to sit in our laps to read books and he often crawls into our bed in the early morning hours (he enjoys getting up at 6 am!) to snuggle up for a few minutes before hitting the floor running.

This has always been one of my favorite pictures of Henry. He was not quite two here.

Henry graciously broke in Elmer for us when he was two--bareback was his specialty.

This last picture is just one from the pool when Henry was three. He LOVES the water and plans to spend the entire summer swimming as much as possible!

Happy Birthday, my Henry. I love you and am so glad that I get to be your mom!