Jenelle's birthday Saturday

On Saturday, we picked up my parents and we went to Chuck E. Cheese's. It was a surprise to Jenelle. We had a good time. We were at Chuck E. Cheese's for about 1 1/2 hours.

Clayton loved the slide.Jenelle rode in the car with Stuart Little.

Clayton had fun rolling the balls back and forth to get them through the hole at the end.

Jenelle and my mom doing digital coloring of Chuck E. Cheese.

Clayton and my dad doing the hammerhead slamming--see which one comes up and hit it. Fun.

Jenelle riding the helicopter

Jenelle riding a virtual roller coaster

Counting the tickets

After all was done and played, Jenelle picked out her prizes--4 mini Tootsie pops, 2 mini frisbees, some stickers and a pink sparkly comb.


After Chuck E. Cheese's, we went to Red Robin for lunch. It's a nice festive atmosphere. Jenelle got a pretty dress from my parents for her birthday. She loves dresses.

The other side of the table

We asked the servers to sing to Jenelle. Shortly after this picture, she buried her head in Mike's lap. Jenelle got 2 extra balloons and a hot fudge sundae (which we helped her eat).

Here are the singers

It was a fun day--a good way to celebrate.

Piano Lessons this week

I was expecting to have to have 12 and had 11--again. With the new fall schedule, my piano teaching will be pretty balanced on Mon, Tues, and Wed. That will be nice. I am glad I get to add a little extra income to our household and stay at home to do it. I enjoy seeing my piano families each week, too.

Berry Picking

We went berry picking with my moms' group up in the local hills. I mistakenly thought it would be cooler there than at home. Oh well. It was a neat experience. The thorns made getting the berries a challenge, but all the more worth it. Denise and her two older kids were there, too. The blackberries were harder to get. I have never picked raspberries before. Yum, yum.

Denise, Anderson and Allison--today is Allison's 4th birthday. Happy Birthday, Allison.

Some of the kids before we started berry picking

Jenelle helped pick raspberries.

Jenelle took the pictures of me.

Clayton loves tractors and he got to actually sit on one and "drive."

Looking at the stream--moving water is a new experience for the kids to see.:)

Lunch with my Dad

My dad is gracious enough to have lunch with the kids and me each week. He likes to choose places that have ice cream because he knows the kids love it. We all share one cone or frozen yogurt. Jenelle and Clay are learning how to share, but Clay sure was sad to see the last piece go into Jenelle's mouth.:)

My dad got quite a kick out of Clay waiting for and leaning toward the cone.

College Friends

One of my friends, Carla, bit the bullet and, using Facebook, invited us all to her home yesterday. The kids and I met up with Tess and her kids and then followed her the rest of the way there. I didn't look forward to the drive, but I am SO glad we all got together. All together, the 6 of us have 13 kids! God has blessed us! Brenda arranged to have 2 girls there to babysit, so the moms got to hang out at Starbucks for about an hour. It was great to catch up. Of course, we did some eating, too. Thanks, Friends, for making the effort for us to all get together.
From L to R: Carla, Theresa, Tess, me, Brenda and Christine (along with a few of the kids)

Our Camping Trip

Our Sunday School class went camping this weekend. Since we are such big campers ourselves and so adventuresome, we went for 4 hours on Saturday. We went swimming, biking and eating. Just getting ready to go was rough enough for us and the fact that I had to use Jenelle's extra set of clothes (you know what that means?) made it a very full day for us, but we're glad we got to go. It was fun to hang out with our Sunday School class and their kids. Of course, I enjoyed eating, too.

Mike spent quite awhile riding the kids around like this and Jenelle also rode her trike some.

Clay wasn't shy about eating his pizza. He just grabbed it and started eating. I love his expression.:)

Jenelle's songs

Jenelle wanted to sing some songs--"Jesus Loves the Little Children" and "Seek Ye First". I'm not quite sure what words Jenelle sings to "Seek Ye First", but it sure it sweet. Enjoy.

Jenelle's recitation

Jenelle wanted to share this verse: 2 Kings 5:14 (just in case you need to look it up to follow along).

It started well...

I thought I would catch on video Jenelle reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?" to Clay. I made 2 sets of cards so they can follow along while the story is being read. The cards can also be used to play matching. Well, here's what happened.

While watching this, Clay said, "Punny", which means "funny." I don't think he has learned his lesson yet.

Piano lessons this week

I made progress. I had planned on 12 piano lessons and I had 11. That's 92% success. I even got in naps all three days. That's 100% success.:) We got to tell all my students about "the new baby in Mommy's tummy." It was cute to watch my students' faces when Jenelle told them the news.

News

We are expecting Baby Hekman #3 in March. We are very excited. We told Jenelle yesterday and she's excited, too. I've been feeling pretty well--mostly just moody (my poor kids), and a little nauseas at times.

Water cup

I got a new water cup like Jessica's (my sister-in-law). It's great, except that when it's pretty full and Clayton threw it at my inner ankle, it really hurt. Why do we hurt the ones we love?

Clay

Denise was so gracious to cut Clay's hair and he sat perfectly still. She spiked it a bit and put on these sunglasses. It doesn't get much cooler than this!

Denise took a video of the kids played "Ring Around the Rosy" and they loved watching themselves!

I love this pose! He looks so grown up.

Jenelle and Allison

We visited Denise and her three yesterday. Last Friday the kids played together the best they ever had, but yesterday was a new personal best! The girls had fun laughing and playing and then they played dress up together for the first time and had a great time. I was late getting the kids home for naps/rest time because they were having so much fun together. Anderson and Clay played well together, too. It was so nice. They're starting to have being silly in pictures. We got a kick out of it!

Piano Lessons this week

I did have lessons (plural) this week. I was planning on 9. I had 3--due to illness and other activities. I guess it is picking up. Last week, I had one. Next week, I plan to have 12. I'll report what happens in reality.

Clayton's new shirt

For his birthday, Clayton got some Thomas the Train shirts that make noise. Then his babysitter, Aubree, surprised us with this "Cars" shirt for him that makes noise. He loves it. I love it, too. Sometimes it's the perfect distraction from crying. Thank you, Aubree.

Lunch with my dad

I thought this was a cute picture of my dad with the kids. My parents were out visiting my sister and her family for a little while and it was very nice to be with him again.

My Tricycle Duo

This is the first time that the kids have done this. It worked pretty well. Clay has no shorts because they had gotten wet earlier. He went through 2 sets of clothes yesterday. I guess it could be worse. Jenelle pedaled and manuevered well and Clay hung on well. I love when they have fun together.

Our new system

My sister-in-law, Jessica, and I have started a new system. One day in a week, I will watch my nephew in the morning and the next week, I get to take my kids to her house and have a free morning. Working together. Thanks for getting us started with this, Jessica. It was fun to have Ethan here yesterday. I look forward to the kids getting to know each other well.

Clay's bed head

Before I sprayed and brushed his hair, I decided to take his picture. Here he is in all his glory. I hope no one does this to me. No one would want to look at it.:)

Registration

Almost two months ago, we got our request for payment and renewal for both of our vehicles in the mail. I like to see how quickly we can get the stickers on the cars. Both of our vehicles have August registrations, so I love to get them on in June or July. Well, this year, I was very disappointed. I took our payment to the post office the same day they came in the mail. And waited and waited and waited. Finally, we got our canceled checks in the mail. And we waited and waited. I thought I would have to call DMV, but I checked online first--no help there. So I called and waited on hold for about 40 minutes, until I had to leave one day without talking to any real person. Still no registration in the mail. Bummer. So this morning, while my kids were at the babysitter's, I took my valuable time and went to DMV. Just walking in, the line was a little scary, but I got the necessary forms, filled them out and then received my number for the real wait. It actually only took about 5 minutes after that and I had my coveted blue stickers in my hand. Yeah. I did ask the last lady to help me if there was another way to handle my problem, but she said coming in was probably the best. Oh well. Maybe I won't have to go to DMV for a long time. It's done. It had been hanging over me for more than a month. Relief.

The carb lover

I've known for awhile that Clayton loves carbs. He likes hot dog buns by themselves, various kinds of crackers and pretzels and rolls. Yesterday was a first. He finished his dinner, so he earned an ice cream cone. Since he likes to bite holes in the bottom of the cone, I usually just put a little ice cream in the cone and then put the rest of the ice cream in a bowl. I told him he would have to eat his ice cream at the table. He didn't want to, so he just ate the mini-cones. That seems very dry to me, but he enjoyed it.

Friday

We had our friends, Denise, Allison, Anderson and Miranda over this morning. The moms sat in the shade while the kids played in the pools and with other toys. Jenelle and Allison took turns riding the tricycle. They shared nicely and played pretty well together all morning. When they were leaving, Denise and I agreed that it was a success. We got to visit and the kids didn't hurt each other--too much. While they were here, Clayton did something new in the pool. I enjoyed watching him. He was pleased with himself, too.

This Week

After the pace we've kept for the last two weeks, I was thankful to have much less going on this week--especially since I started teaching piano lessons again this week. (After many cancellations, I ended up with one student out of 13. Nothing like starting slow. I didn't know how Clayton would do, if he'd even remember. I thought he'd be clingy, but he ran first one way, then the other and got out his truck and ran it around, too. Crazy little boy!)

This picture was when we went to Terecita's to visit at lunch time. The kids thought it was neat to eat at the bar. Excuse Clay's weird expression.

While I am on the phone, the kids see what they can get away with. This is where I found Jenelle. Notice she smiled so proudly for the picture.

She wanted to wear a bucket helmet.

While I was on the phone yet again, I forgot that I had said Jenelle could take a picture. She took about 20 and this was one of them.

Here she is today--not napping. Since she's not required to take naps anymore, she has decided she likes them.:)

My injuries

Monday was rough on me. Yesterday morning, Clayton rammed his truck into my foot. It doesn't hurt all the time, but today, I couldn't wear my flip flops because the strap landed right where my owie is. In the afternoon, I had been washing the kitchen sinks and the dishes and Clayton wanted water in his cup. I said to wait. He didn't. I thought I had locked the water dispenser after getting water for Jenelle, but I hadn't. There was Clay with water coming out of the dispenser on the lid of his water. (I had also just wiped the kitchen floor). So, in trying to get over to him as fast as possible, I forgot that the under the sink cabinet door with a screw sticking out was open. As hard as humanly possible, I hit the screw with my leg. I lost a little skin and have a nice bruise that hasn't stopped growing yet.:) That one hurts as I walk--not a lot, but it is sensitive. That was enough for me...I though. But no, last night, when putting Jenelle to bed, I was turning back her covers and said, "Hurry and get in so I can sing you your songs." I didn't SAY, wait until my head is out of the way, but I'm sure I meant it. Anyway, with my glasses on, her forehead hit my ear. I don't know why it hurt so much, but Mike didn't know what to do with Jenelle and me crying. Ouchie wa wa! Man. I am feeling old. I am recovering today, but still thankful for the children God has given me. Things could be worse--no broken or sprained bones and no permanent damage.:)

Happiness is...

Clayton received this gift from Mike's parents at Christmas. This is how it has looked since about January. It's hard to look at an incomplete toy like this. We just figured that Clayton put the orange ball in the trash and we hadn't noticed it. Then...yesterday, while I was cleaning up some ants, I moved the kitchen gate (from where it waits to be used) and in the corner, under the cabinet was the ORANGE ball. Jenelle and I were so excited. It's wonderful to see the toy like this! Aren't you happy for us?!

Side note: When I put the balls in a different hole than the one that matches their color, Clayton has to stop hammering and put them in their right holes. What does this say for the future?

Jenelle's workbook

This morning, we started Jenelle's first workbook. It will have her differentiating between largest and smallest and different shapes. It is fun. We are looking forward to doing more of it. I ordered it from brightervision.com. They have it for different ages and it comes with a hard back book, a craft, stickers and a workbook. It arrives about once a month. I found out about it because my sister did it with her kids. The book for this shipment is "I Love You, Stinky Face." Cute book. Fun times. My girl is growing up.

Cute poses