I have officially found my toes!!!

Always smiling!
He has officially found his toes!!

Trying some new foods!

We'll give a bit of an update on Nickolas... He is now 7 mos (where does the time go??) I cannot believe that it's already been that long. He's a whopping (ha ha ha) 14 pounds, but starting to get some chub on his body finally. He has found his toes, which is one of my MOST favorite baby discoveries of all time) He spends much of his time trying to fit his entire foot in his mouth, unfortunately it almost fits... He is VERY ticklish and laughs out loud. He just started stringing his D sounds together, so at 6 AM we'll here him shouting DAH, DAH, DAH at the top of his lungs. I just wish "DAH" was home to get him at that hour :) He is rolling all over the place and trying to sit up, but we're still working on that one. He loves the kids!! It's so fun to see him light up when they play with him, talk to him, or just when they are getting home from school. What a joy to have a baby in the house... He really is such a blessing to all of us :)

Today, I love being a Mom....

Who loves to read?!

Almost every morning before school I have Jack read to Lukas and they both thoroughly enjoy it. Jack is really coming along with his reading and at this point is reading at 1st grade level and beyond. How fun it's been to see him excel and be excited about reading. From time to time we'll catch him sitting on the toilet "reading" Daddy's motorcycle magazines.

What do you do with pipe cleaners if you don't have a pipe?!

Lukas and his pipe-cleaner man
Mackenzie and Jacksen's creations

The whole clan

The typical crafting aftermath

So, what do we do on rainy days??? Well sometimes we make pipe cleaner things. We found some different sites on line with instructions for different people and animals. We had a blast for almost 2 hours (which is an eternity for 3 kids under 7) YAY for pipe cleaners!!

Flowers for everyone!

Mac and her goodies
Yum, C-A-N-D-YWow... check out that lolipop, Thanks Auntie

Mackenzie opening her surpise from Daddy

I love Tulips!!

Where do we begin?? It's been so long so I'm going to post some "oldies" but want them recorded on my blog. Valentines Day this year was great. Randy sent flowers to Mackenzie which brought back memories (which are still being created at 34) of my Dad sending me flowers. He still does it, in fact, he brought some over this year. I can remember when I was a missionary in Germany, he sent me a Valentines package and low and behold there was a silk rose in a plastic vase in there. What an act to follow. Luckily Randy is following nicely :) Aunt Emily also had some fun treats/toys for all the kids, which they enjoyed. Since I am a Coldstone lover I did invest wisely in some Coldstone cupcakes for everyone... YUMMO as Rachel Ray would say. We love this day!

The sweeter side

So I suppose when I get sick of looking at our blog without photos, I'll dig around for the charger for my camera?? Anyhow, in the meantime I'll share a funny thing that Lukas said to me yesterday. I was standing in the kitchen, he at the table eating lunch:
Me: asking out loud "Is Jack's library day Monday or Tuesday?" (I knew he'd left his book at home)
Luke: "Mom, are you talking to me, or are you talking to yourself?"
Me: "Well, I am talking to myself, why do you ask?"
Luke"Because it's really annoying"

This wouldn't be as funny if it were my 5 or 7 year old being aware and making comments but it just seemed so funny that my barely 3 year old is having this conversation with me. And he can't even really say the word annoying so he said something like "banoying" Anyhow, there's my laugh for the day. Oh, how fun it is when your mouthy older ones are the ones who are teaching the younger ones... I'll be so happy that most of them will be in School when our cute littlest one is really learning to talk.

Now on the sweeter side. Today I FINALLY had a scrap of time to sit with Luke and do some puzzles. I had finally gotten Jack to School and the baby was down for a nap.
Luke: You are a really good Mommy, Mommy
Me: Really, because sometimes I don't think I'm doing a good job at being a Mommy
Luke: "Well, when you do puzzles with me, I think you are doing a good job
Oh, that surely got me thinking to myself, if only I could sit and do puzzles all day long... But, I can't... So you do what you can, when you can. Today I am grateful for puzzles and that in that moment a 3 year old gave me the reassurance I needed...

HAPPY 2009

Happy 2009!! I am so grateful that we are in a New Year. It's so funny how we are hooked to time. Although time marches on everyday, there is something about starting a New Year that feels refreshing, like the lemons on my meyer lemon tree ( I LOVE meyer lemons) Like drinking a cold glass of ice-water (with lemon) on a hot day.
2008 was full of many challenges that I am glad have been transformed into opportunities and I feel so grateful that I am where I am. What a blessing to feel like I am exactly where I am supposed to be (and want to be) they are not always the same you know. Sometimes what's best isn't always what you want, but right now they are in sync, and it feels blissful. I feel so grateful for Randy, for my children and that we are all healthy (well except for being sick currently) But generally healthy. I am grateful for a new baby in the house, which gives me moments to kiss baby toes and ponder the wonder in his eyes. I am grateful for AMAZING friends, who have been so instrumental to me in so many ways. I am grateful to be LDS, what a gift. I am grateful for an active mind which sometimes gets me into trouble, but mostly launches me forward.
I am grateful for perspective and the gift it is to know that EVERYTHING ALWAYS WORKS OUT, if we follow our inner self (our true self) that the Lord has blessed us all with. Not only does it always "work out" but when we trust God, things can be amazing, IF we just LET GO!! Not easy for someone like me to do... Trust me, I'm tough, but he never gives up on me. Sometimes when my mind is clear of all the clutter, I can see that the Lord is waiting to bless me, if I let him. Ironic eh?? We pray for different blessings and then block them with our own doubts, fears, bad attitudes, and so on. So for 2009, I am resolving to stop blocking what I really want... Peace, Prosperity, and Love

Would you like a nurse-maids elbow for Christmas?!

Well, as soon as I find the charger to my camera, I'll be able to post some pictures we took at Christmas... In the meantime, I'll post a bit. We had a really nice Christmas despite moving just a few weeks ago. We always spend the Sunday before Christmas at my Dad's house with family, which was a great time for all the cousins to play together tearing his house up :) We ate delicious foods and talked about our experiences with gift giving. We decided a few years ago to stop exchanging gifts as adults, and to donate the money we would have spent on each other, to various charitable causes. Seriously, what could we possibly need?! Then, when we get together at my Dad's house, we talk about what we did, and how we felt. The best part about it, is that now that my Kids are getting older, they can participate with us and feel what it feels like to give to those that are in need. Anyhow, it's my favorite part of the Holidays.

Christmas Eve, my sister April and her husband Peter stopped by, which was perfect timing. Lukas (our 3 yr old) was throwing a tantrum and when I went to take him upstairs for bed I pulled his arm one way, he pulled another and I gave him a nurse-maids elbow... Seriously. I didn't realize it at first until he wouldn't lift his arm to put his jammies on. So, we went downstairs where Doctor Hull (Uncle Pete) twisted and turned it, until it was all better. Certainly was good timing don't you think, and saved us a trip to Pete's E.R. YAHOO, after a bit of ice on the elbow, the incident was forgotten (not by me, of course) It's always a party when you have little ones.

Christmas morning our kids actually slept in a bit, which was nice!! So at 8 AM we had a feast of a breakfast, then opened up gifts. Plenty of toys for everyone thanks to SANTA.

For Christmas, my Mom and Cal came to spend a couple days, and my brother Mark and his friend came for dinner. We had a good time playing games and eating (of course). I am sad to see Christmas go, but will be happy to get back into our normal (but crazy) routine of life. The season gave us much time to reflect on what's truly most important to us as a family; good health, a warm bed, family, friends, memories, the Savior and each other. What a blessing. Wishing you all a wonderful, prosperous and growth-filled new year.

Christmas thoughts

I am so glad that Christmas is in the air and I'll be sad when it's over. The other day I was chatting with a gal at the store (yes, you know me, I always talk to people I don't know) and she was talking about the Holidays. She said "you know, there is so much to do this time of year, presents to buy, food to bake, etc, etc, so much build-up, so much hype and then you get to the big day and it's such a let-down" I was so sad to hear her comments. I think I just sat there stunned at first, but after I left her, it gave me something to really ponder.
How do we get to that place where we completely forget the entire purpose of celebrating the birth of the Savior? when she said it was a let-down I thought "really, the fact that the Christ came to earth was a let-down?" Who cares about presents, although they are fun to give and receive, and who cares about baking, although it's tasty, and who cares about the lights and the shopping and, and, and... if we forget the very purpose for which we do all these "things" then what's the point? So I just hope that if anything, listening to her comments made me really think about the gift this time of year gives us, the gift of time to think about what we have, because of what he gave us. The gift to look on others who are less fortunate with compassion as he would, the gift to help and serve those all around us, the gift to express our love more freely, the gift to slow down and listen to beautiful music that fills our hearts with joy and memories of our own childhood, the gift of thinking about what our lives would be like without Christ and being grateful for what they are and can be because of him.
I am so grateful for the gal in the grocery store, because she really got me thinking about how I can better enjoy this time of year for what it really is, and pass that on to my children.

We are here!!

Okay, we finally made it! Well we've been moved for 3 weeks now but just FINALLY got Internet today... Wow, it was interesting not being connected for so long. The good news is that our new service is much faster, and wireless. So we are still unpacking (who knew it could take this long...) between starting the kids in a new school right in the middle of Christmas programs and parties, meeting new friends daily etc, it's been an adventure. We are loving our new place, the neighborhood, the school is AMAZING and we love our new ward. There are things we miss of course, but we feel so blessed with our new surroundings :)

We do have new numbers etc so if you need them, email me at our new email ramber2@att.net
and we can catch up. Hope everyone has a wonderful time these last days before Christmas. What a wonderful time it is.

Goodbye Clear Water Ct.

Holy Cow, I can't believe we are almost done moving... Well you know, except for all that little stuff that seems to collect at the end of the move, the stuff you randomly just start putting into any box just to get it "moved" That's it. WE ARE TIRED! I forgot how much work it is to move. We'll be off-line for a bit while we decide which Internet provider we'll be using at our new place.

Okay, I have to share a funny story from yesterday. Our wonderful Bishop came over with some guys from the Ward to help Randy move the heavy stuff onto the truck. He brought a couple of his sons to help including his little one Daniel. So we were wrapping things up, everyone left, and suddenly we heard a noise coming from our boys bedroom. It was Daniel, playing quietly by himself with some toy trucks we hadn't put on the truck yet. The bishop had been gone for about 10 minutes and we wondered how long it would take him to realize that he forgot one :) So, our nice neighbor Earl, drove him home... I guess that's what happens when you have a pack of kids. I know, because not too long ago I was halfway to the kids School in the morning and didn't hear the baby and suddenly thought "oh, no what if I left him at home?" Lucky for me he was in the car but most days I live on auto pilot due to new baby sleep deprivation.

Anyhow, that's it, we'll update when we are settled in the next week so Goodbye to our house on Clear Water Ct. We'll miss you, our friends, neighbors and especially our ward, which we have grown to love. We've had so many wonderful times here and a part of us is sad to leave. As I've been surveying the empty house I am noticing some things which I'll say goodbye to now (and happy to do so:

*Goodbye to my striped dining room with that one last stripe I never painted because the wall wasn't straight and I couldn't figure out how to end it
*Goodbye to that one strip of sod we forgot to lay
*Goodbye to that little bit of sealant we ran out of when sealing the concrete in the back which gave us some shiny and some dull stamped/colored concrete
*Goodbye to the truck border that Jack peeled off the wall when he was 3 (right after I put it up)
*Goodbye to the white walls in our bedroom that we never painted
*Goodbye to all the unfinished projects that we never quite got to...

Be well good house, and we pray that the next family that graces your presence will find as much joy and happiness as we have :) Time to move on and keep making memories!

Grateful

Happy Thanksgiving! It's been an interesting one for us this year, a bit nontraditional but a grateful one for sure. We spent most of the day moving... Been waiting for keys and they came sooner than we thought so what the heck, we packed the truck last night (almost all night long) and took a load over at 8 AM this morning (we were on a schedule because my FABULOUS Mother was meeting up with us to take our kids until Tuesday :) Well everyone except the baby of course. YAHOOOO. So we unloaded, met up with Mom and Cal at Home Town Buffet. (Yes, we ate our Thanksgiving feast at Home Town Buffet) I must say that I haven't been to a buffet in at least 5 yrs or so, and the food was so good I was remembering why... CALORIES. Yummy and no mess to clean up. So, my Mom took the kids home with her and Randy and I went home with Nickolas to veg for the evening. So not the most ideal day to start moving but it worked out. We found out we'll have more great neighbors ( we LOVE our current neighbors which have become great friends) We are 8 houses away from a FANTASTIC park which backs up to the kids new school!! Yes, they can now walk to school. I am so grateful that we found such a great house in a great neighborhood next to a great School for the kids. Grateful.

I have been keeping a gratitude journal for a long time now, so I won't post my entry here but I am truly blessed and I know it, and am grateful for the awareness of it. I am grateful to have a wise, loving Heavenly Father. I am grateful for happy, healthy kids, grateful that Randy really is my dearest friend, grateful to be loved by so many, grateful for wonderful friends, grateful for devoted parents, grateful to be close to my siblings, grateful for growth, grateful for the kindness of others, grateful to have the strength to weather life's storms, grateful for the peace I feel amid the chaos that surrounds me. Just GRATEFUL... Far too many items to list.

Dry days up ahead!!

YAHOO, so it's been 4 days of potty-training and so far so GREAT! No accidents for 2 days now... Shoot if I had known it was going to go this well, I would have started sooner (or not) But happy day, I am so happy that I will only have one in diapers. I didn't think this day could come soon enough :)

Chocolate Privacy??

So, it's "that" time again... Time for potty-training. Lets get out all the bribery candy and the charts, the potty seat (this time is a Disney cars one) the cute little (boy) underwear and a VERY positive, optimistic attitude (and a few prayers won't hurt) I've had great luck in the past potty-training both Mackenzie and Jacksen in a day however, Lukas is my fun one. He's had this potty issue for some time now so I've been hesitant to start (and a newborn doesn't make it any more appealing) So, finally I got up the nerve to spend a day with him, pumping him full of fluids and "practicing" running back and forth to the potty to go. Well to my utter JOY he's excited and ready. We are on day 3 and so far so good. He's gone through plenty of candy (I'll do whatever it takes) and is having a blast marching his pirate around the map. I found this cute little download on supernanny.com. Every time he goes, he gets to move the pirate one space until the pirate finally reaches the ship. Once there, I give Luke a special treat and we start the pirate at the bottom again. Okay, now something funny. Yesterday I asked Luke if he'd like some privacy (thinking he knew what the word meant) he said: "yes, I'd like some privacy, some chocolate privacy" I think all the candy is getting to his head... Wish us luck!!

Happy Birthday Mark!!

Happy Birthday to my brother Mark!! Look at these cute baby pictures you :) We love you.

Spittles

Lauryn and her friend went as a hot dog and fries

Nickolas the bunny and Logan the monster

Emily and Logan

Luke the fireman

Jacksen the power ranger

Mackenzie the fairy

Had a great Halloween again! We all went to April's old neighborhood to spend the evening with her former neighbors (they have the best block parties all year long) We started off with a pot luck with about 15 families or so complete with "brain jello" mummy dogs, plenty of fabulicious chili and more. After dinner we all went out trick-or-treating as a big group. What fun! The kids loved spening time with their cousins and friends while collecting a ridiculous amount of sugary treats. Someone gave Lukas a full size bag of skittles and he came running down the sidewalk and said "look Daddy, I got spittles" He's never called them spittles before so it was great for a laugh. We got a bit of rain towards the end of the evening so it gave us a great excuse to head for home ( I was praying for it, since my feet were in pain after all the walking and I had to nurse the baby) Happy Halloween!

Back to the farm

I spent last Thursday back at Bishop's pumpkin farm for a field trip with Mac and Jack. I have really enjoyed being able to go on School field trips with them. They picked out some great pumpkins (which we never did carve...) The day after Halloween Mackenzie said " hey, we still need to carve our pumpkins Mom" Someday we'll get them carved BEFORE Halloween.

Happy 3rd Birthday Lukas!!

Wowee!! A new Trike

Uncle Chris visiting and of course Puzzling with Lukas

Making a wish

More Cars!!! Yahoo

Can you believe it?? I am 3!!

I am a bit behind on posting recent happenings at the Onstine house. We celebrated Lukas' 3rd Birthday last week and boy did we have fun! He wanted to share the day with a few of his good buddies: Jimmy, Gavin, R.J. and Noah. We had a "Cars" party since he is still not sick of Disney Cars (it's been over a year now that he's been married to all his cars) He got a new trike thanks to the Birthday Money from the Grandparents (Thanks everyone)

At 3 Lukas is:

Smart ( I think it's all those puzzles)

Funny ( we have Randy to thank for this one)

Witty (of course he is, he's 1/2 Witt)

Helpful ( he doesn't have a choice :)

Imaginative (he loves to play and make up funny dialogue)

Strong-willed (we have Amber to thank for this one)

Loves to sing (we sing songs all day and sometimes late in the night)

We love you Lukas Christopher, Happy Birthday Bugga!!

bikes+falling+asphalt=stitches

Checking out his new stitches in the mirror
SEE?!

Nice one Lukas!! Now you and Mommy will have matching scars

Seriously, no really, no seriously, what is the deal with little boys and accidents?! In the last 7 days Lukas has been hit in the head by a rock (lots of bleeding and a butterfly band aid), he then fell on the corner of Nonnie's coffee table and the glass cut and bruised under neath his eye, then today he comes in screaming again with blood dripping from his chin. He had the EXACT same accident I had as a child. He was riding his little bike down the driveway ( you know what's coming next...) he hit the junction where the driveway meets the street and BLAMMO, face first (or shall I say chin first) onto the asphalt. Shoot, I thought while trying to nurse the baby ( I really am an unsympathetic parent some times) While the baby lay screaming on the couch to be fed more, I got up to assess the damage. "It's not that bad" I kept telling myself out loud, but as I cleaned away the blood, dirt and gravel I realized "OHHHH, it IS that bad" No butterfly band aid is going to repair this amount of damage. Lucky for me Randy was almost home. I called our Doctor (who is absolutely wonderful) he said he'd wait at his office for Lukas since the office was closing. They had him in and out in no time and Lukas came home with 4 stitches and 4 lollipops. Randy is amazing and is getting used to taking the kids in for damage repair. Remember, he was the one that had to take Mackenzie in to the ER when she broke her arm (very badly, almost needed surgery) because I was in Atlanta... Thanks Daddy!! WHAT A DAY!!