The Ehrlichs

Week In Review

2012-02-20T01:13:00.000-06:00

This past week was quite busy. At times it felt like I was watching myself as I went about my week. It seemed like a huge blur. Here are the hightlights from our incredibly busy week.

Bible Study

I hosted Bible study at my house this week. We have been going through a book calle Mom and Loving It. I also decided to lead the group, and I thought that we had some great discussion about the words that we use when talking to our families and kids. We ended the night by making a name poster for our kids with words and pictures that reminded us of them.

Tom's Dad

We found out that Tom's dad was put in the hospital for pneumonia again. For those of you that may not know, his dad has been in and out of the hospital for this same thing for the last couple of years. This time it was pretty scary and all the family was called in b/c they didn't think that he would make it. His health has been deteriorating for a while now, but he is still managing to hang on. Tom feels that this has been a gradual process of losing his dad. He hasn't been the same ever since. But the family is all hanging in there.

Super Busy Work Week

I don't know about you, but this week couldn't have been any busier for me even if I tried. My class has been trying to get ready for the dreaded state assessments, but it is slow going. At this time of the year, life seems to be really busy anyways, but to top it off, my kids have been stir crazy and extremely chatty. I have had to be meaner and dealing out more consequences this week than any other so far this year. Also we are learning about money, and I am amazed at how difficult it is for my class to add and count money. It is starting to get a little better, but I am at my whits end as to how to make teaching money more fun and hands on for them.

Experiencing God

At the beginning of January, Tom and I started going to a new Bible study called Powerhouse. It is a family based Bible study of people of different ages with children. They had just started the book Experiencing God. I highly recommend it. So far, it has made my relationship with God much deeper and personal. I have learned so many things about myself and about trusting God with everything even the hard things that I always want to control and hold onto myself. We have a ritual where we both go over that day's study on our own, and then at night after Jaycee is in bed, we talk about it together and share what we have learned. There have been a lot of great conversations between Tom and me lately as a result of this. So glad that we joined this group.

Glory Babies

This is a support group that Tom and I used to go to shortly after we lost Caden. I haven't been in quite a while since having Jaycee, simply b/c I have felt as if I am handling things pretty good these days. I will admit I have my moments, but I have learned that it is ok when they come and to embrace them and learn what I need to from those moments. One of the women that started this support group called me and asked me if I would come, b/c she had a women that she really wanted me to talk to. While I have such a hard time meeting people as a result of losing a baby, I am glad to know that she felt as if I would be a good person to encourage and support someone else who is going through that too. It makes me feel that I am not wasting the loss of Caden and his memory is living on. I was able to share a lot about my experiences with some of the girls who right now are going through the same things that I went through. It was nice to know that my story can help in a small way and let them know that it is OK to be different then you were before the loss. I pray that God will direct me and my words to encourage someone else facing this terrible kind of grief.

Hutch

We headed to Hutch for a book signing of one of our KU basketball players from last year, but realized that we had the wrong date. Oh well, we got to see grandma and grandpa Walker and play on their Wii and see my dad's new shop and how it is coming together. Sometimes I wish that I was as talented as my dad on that kind of thing. He does amazing work and can take something that is outdated and ugly and make it look like brand new. Someday I want to be able to do something like that too.

Women's Fair

On Sunday I headed to the Women's Fair in Wichita with my friend Meagan. She got a couple of free tickets and we just went to hang out for a while without kids. It was a great time to catch up with her and to just see all the different items out there for women. We were able to score a couple of free massages. I love a good massage!!! We also saw lots of clothing, jewelry, and ideas for our kids. Mostly I just wanted to get out of the house and enjoy spending time with my friend.

Now I am up late because I can be (no school tomorrow). I hope that this next week will be a little slower paced. I do plan on going thrift store shopping on my day off and Tom has agreed to go with me. We aren't sure if we will take Jaycee, or have her go to the babysitter's for a couple of hours to play with them in the morning, but I am looking forward to my day off.

the Ehrlichs

Weird Birthday

2012-02-12T00:34:00.000-06:00

This year for some reason, I just wasn't into celebrating my birthday. I'm not sure what it was, but I just felt really blah and out of sorts this year for my birthday. Usually I'm pretty ready to have the day/weekend planned and bring in some treats and set aside some time to let the kids have a break for a short time during our day.

This year, I just haven't been feeling quite like celebrating. I have been feeling really busy with work, home, and just finding some quiet time to spend with God and with myself. To be honest, I am one of those people that needs time to myself or I am no good to anyone. Whether it is watching a favorite TV show or movie, or just relaxing with a good book. I need time to myself!!!! Don't get me wrong, I love my family and friends, but sometimes I just need some me time to do what I want to do. I also have a bad habit about feeling guilty when I do get time to myself.

I guess that is why this year my birthday has been pretty weird. Yesterday, I was feeling pretty good and wasn't even going to mention my birthday at all. But to my surprise, my awesome co-worker remembered and had my class make cards for me and brought in chocolate chip cookies that I definitely shared with them and with the rest of my staff. Also one of my kids from last year (I call him my KU buddy) came in after the bell rang and gave me a card. That was so totally unexpected. I also had planned to walk with my friend Janel. We usually have a walking date planned on Fridays after school, b/c neither of us really likes doing much on Fridays after a long and busy week. Well, it was WAY too cold to walk outside, so she joined me in one of my walking videos. Actually it incorporates walking and jogging and then has a little yoga to stretch. I really like it, not sure what my friend thought about it, but she got a taste of my workout skills.

When I got home I was just feeling really tired and worn out from the week. We ended up having leftovers for dinner. After that I just started feeling really bad!!!! I had absolutely no energy and my stomach felt like it was tied up in knots. I pretty much was no good to anybody all night long. I read books to Jaycee until she went to bed, and then I was mostly sick the rest of the night. What a way to start my birthday weekend. By late Friday night, I ended up throwing up everything that I had eaten that day and felt a lot better, but so very weak.

Saturday morning, I slept in really late. I had no appetite, and Tom and Jaycee ran an errand and got me some really beautiful flowers to brighten my day. Tom's mom ended up coming here to watch Jaycee while we hung out just the two of us. We went to Jason's Deli for lunch (which was not the plan, but since I was sick the night before wanted something light), we did a little shopping, where I got two new movies, then we went and saw a movie. We haven't been to a movie in quite a while. Then it was time to get back to reality and head home. Once we got home, I was ready to see my little girl and to know what her and grandma were doing all day. It was early evening by the time we got home, and Jaycee was laying down on the couch then came over to give me a hug with a little bit of a whine to her and then she was crying a little. I started to rub her stomach and then all of a sudden, blat!!! That's right, she threw up all over me. Luckily I caught most of it in my coat, and her blanket, but we headed up and I threw her in the bathtub as quickly as I could. What a way to end the evening. The weird thing was that she seemed perfectly happy right after she threw up. I think that there might be something going around, but not so sure. She was a little bit this way last weekend too.

Despite all the weirdness, plans going awry, and just not being excited about my birthday, I am so thankful to have an awesome husband who didn't want me to lift a finger most of the weekend, and left me to relax. I am also thankful that I am feeling better and that my family is getting back on the mend from the crazy flu like symptoms. I hope that we have seen the last of it, at last for quite a while.

I am reminded of these verses, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:11-13 These verses have gotten me through a lot of things in my life, and sometimes when plans don't always go the way you anticipate them to go, you have to go with what you're given at the time.

the Ehrlichs

Make Something New Monday

2012-01-30T23:27:00.000-06:00

Today I thought that I would try something new for dinner. I have been wanting to make a meal that is delicious yet still somewhat healthy that my family will love. While browsing on Pinterest one day, like I'm sure many of you are guilty of doing, I recently found a new meal that I wanted to try. It was a version of a meal that I would have had at Timberline Steakhouse before it went out of business. Since Mondays are usually pretty laid back around our house, I thought it would be a great night to try it.

Monday's Menu

Monterrey Chicken

Butter Pecan Sweet Potatoes

Seasoned Mixed Veggies

**I could have thrown in a salad, but by the time I thought of it, we were really hungry. Next time though.**

Monterrey Chicken

This was a real hit with my husband. He even cleaned up everything afterwards without any grumbling about it. I think that he was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted. You can see the full details as to how to make it here. This one has definitely got to go in my recipe book as one of our favorites.

Butter Pecan Sweet Potatoes

I love potatoes of all kinds. I think that they may be my major comfort food of choice. So, that is why I'm always looking for healthy ways to fix potatoes. When I came across this recipe for Butter Pecan Sweet Potatoes, I thought why not try it. First I will say that I don't always think to use sweet potatoes, but I think I need to do it more often. They are pretty good for you and have a lot of good vitamins and texture too. If you are interested you can find the recipe for these here.

I decided that we needed some other types of veggies with our meal, so I threw some mixed veggies in the microwave and sprinkled a little seasoned salt on them. I was surprised that they were all gone afterwards. Usually I have to cover up the veggie taste with cheese or something else like that, but tonight I guess the combination of flavors was just right.

Here was the full meal all put together. What a great way to end a Monday!!!

I wish that I could take credit for this wonderful meal, but alas I got the idea from a neat blog called All Things Simple, that I found browsing Pinterest one day. So, if you are needing a new idea to that never ending question, "What shall we have for dinner?", just check out the links you've seen here and try them for yourself.

the Ehrlichs

Highlights

2012-01-24T20:18:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been a while since my last post. I wish that I had a lot of things to update you on, but we really haven't done a whole lot lately. So I will try to sum up the highlights from the last couple of weeks.

School has been quite busy for all of these days. It is that busy time of year when testing is starting to be a major priority and pretty much is the focus until the end of March. I wish that I could say it will get better, but I just don't foresee that happening anytime soon.

We've really been trying to work on some of the goals that I shared in my last post. Some things have been going great, and others are coming along much slower than I had hoped. At least we are working on improving in different areas of our lives.

Exercising

This is something that I want to do to not only help me feel better about myself, but to also encourage these habits in Jaycee too. I have kept to my 5 days a week goal, but it has not been entirely how I envisioned it to be. I am finding that it is OK that things don't go as I planned, but what is really important is that I am working on developing healthy exercise habits. I'm always looking for some new ideas on exercising since I get bored with doing the same thing all the time. For right now, I actually like what I am doing and it is getting better for me each day. (I'll share more about it when I see how it is helping me.)

Soda

I'd like to say that I have given it up, but alas that hasn't happened. I am cutting back and have said no alot especially during the week. The weekends really get to me and I find myself splurging then. I need to find a way to reward myself and not crave pop so much. Ideas???? I wish that I could just completely give it up, but I'm not there yet.

Eating Habits

I am adding more fruits and veggies to my meals. That is great, now I just need to watch portion sizes. That may be more of a challenge for me. I have noticed that when I eat a pretty fulfilling breakfast that I don't eat as much during the rest of the day. I also am having to be mindful that I need to have a healthy snack to take along with me to work so that I don't get enticed by the food that people bring for special occasions at school. I have yet to know other than a piece of fruit what is easy and healthy to bring with me.

Quiet Time & Sunday School

This has helped since Tom and I have started a new small group. We are going through the Experiencing God Bible study series. It has helped me make a conscious effort to read it daily and dig into God's word. I like the accountability and really think that is what I have been missing. This small group is couple of all ages with families, and is pretty small, but, since we go to such a huge church it is nice to find a small corner where we can get plugged in. We have also enjoyed that Jaycee has a class that she can go to.

Marriage & Family Stuff

I am still looking for cheap things to do in Wichita with my family. If you have any ideas please share. Tom and I put our marriage book on hold so that we could talk about our Bible study book after we have done the lesson on our own. This is still a work in progress. One really neat thing that we recently did is had a sort of date time after Jaycee went to bed and watched the movie Courageous. This movie was made by the same people who made Fireproof and Facing the Giants. If you haven't seen this movie, you really need to rent it. We found it at the Redbox, so I guess you could say it was pretty cheap. Make sure that you have tissues with you though. I was on the edge of my seat most of the movie just waiting to see what would happen next. A great movie on growing your family relationships. I loved it!!!!

Other random things we've done are just hang out with my parents and play on their Wii. This was a special treat for us. We've got to get one someday, but until then we can just keep hanging out with my folks. A really fun night, and we even set Jaycee up with baby Mii. Such fun!!! I will leave you with some pictures of the randomness of our lives right now.

She started eating regular cereal with milk and everything. So glad grandma Walker gave this to her.

I was trying to catch her in the act of eating it, but she it too fast for me.

Mini princess board book set. She got this from a friend of ours. They are very well used. She reads these pretty much daily, and even sits next to the dog and reads her little books to her. I don't think that the dog is really amused by it, but she just lays there and takes it.

I got this book at a book fair my school had right before Christmas. She has read it everyday since.

So a new home improvement store moved into the neighborhood about a year ago. Menard's is one of our favorite places. It really saved us a lot of money this summer when we were trying to paint our house. They have so much there that it can be overwhelming, but Tom made a run there with Jaycee and found this bear. It sings the jingle from the store. Jaycee is in love with this bear and has named it Menard. She also has to bring her jayhawk with her most places too. So they have a place inside the entertainment center together, until she decides to take them down.

the Ehrlichs

Goals

2012-01-08T14:04:00.000-06:00

Do you ever make new year's resolutions? I have been one to do that and then I mess or miss doing my resolution and give up altogether. That is such a defeating feeling. So instead of resolutions I have decided that I will make goals for myself and my family. They are kind of like resolutions, but instead of feeling defeated, I can know that I can always start fresh the next day. So here they are...

1. Exercise Habits - At least 5 times/ week. Cardio and strength. Find a time that works for me.

2. Soda - I'd like to completely give it up, but I need to start slowly. One/ week only.

3. Healthy Eating Habits - Add more fruit and veggies into my meals. Make healthier versions of my favorite meals.

4. Pay of Debt - We have 3 things to pay off that will increase our financial freedom. We hope to get two of them paid off before school ends.

5. Quiet Time - Find a time that works for me and then read my Bible, journal, pray, and listen for God's voice among everything else.

6. Marriage Building - We are currently reading a book together and need to apply what we have learned from it.

7. Find new activities to do with Jaycee and as a family that don't cost much money.

8. Organize my Home - pick a room at a time and go through things, what to trash and what to keep

9. Find a SS class or small group.

10. Be more intentional with my time. Make it a point to use my time wisely at school, home, out, etc.

the Ehrlichs

2012 So Far...

2012-01-07T22:56:00.000-06:00

So far 2012 has had us getting used to new adjustments at our house. First, we have had to figure out how to make room in our house for all of our new toys. The adult and kid toys. I think that kid toys are starting to take over, but we are trying to organize one thing at a time. It might be time to work on the basement. It is just such a long and costly project, that we have put it off for too long and really have other goals in mind before we start that, but maybe it is time to just start.

This year also started with a new sitter for Jaycee. It was a long and complicated process, and left me spending most of my Christmas break looking for someone new to watch Jaycee for the 4.5-5 hours that I work, in which most of that she sleeps. I could go into details about what happened, but have just been trying to put it behind me and forgive. That is not the easiest thing to do especially when it comes to your child. It cuts to the heart and leaves you questioning everything that you have ever believed or learned about parenting. One thing I have learned though through this is that I hope that I will not be so judgemental of others and that we all raise and parent our kids the best way that we can. In a nutshell, I was sent 4 pages worth of emails the last week of school telling me that Jaycee does not behave appropriately for her age, and that she would benefit more from full time care instead of going somewhere part time. There were many other things, but I choose not to mention them, but I was convinced that Jaycee needed to see a Dr. or psychologist because apparently she was not appropriate for her age which is two. I don't know much about 2 year olds, but I know that they love to test the boundaries, and we are seeing that fully, but able to give consequences and move on. So we found someone new and are pretty anxious about it, but praying and trusting that God had a plan for us moving Jaycee to a new sitter.

Work started out pretty slowly too. We had a work day the first day back, so that was a good way to get back into the swing of things again. Also, both of our students have been pretty good since coming back to school. We hope that this isn't just a fluke. But if it is we will deal with it. I am really hitting some things hard for the next couple of months b/c soon we will have state assessments coming upon us soon. Tom is adjusting to having a new schedule. He no longer has plan time first thing, but rather at the end of the day, so he is leaving a little earlier than normal.

Other adjustments: Took the side off of Jaycee's bed, which has made her going to bed process a little different. Gone are the days when we just put her in bed and left. Now we have to take her back to her bed when she gets out. We do this repeatedly, but the consistency I hope will pay off soon. We have been really trying hard to wear her out before she goes to bed so that she won't fight it much.

We are going through a process of trying to reorganize things around the house to make room for the new things. Mainly, our new laptop. I like to be prepared to have a place for things that I get that are new, but I am being flexible and saving for things and prioritizing things.

So, 2012 has been kind of just life back to some sense of normal. I like that things have slowed down, and maybe we can just keep working on these new adjustments together as a family. We hope that your year is getting off to a great start!!!!

the Ehrlichs

Froese Christmas

2012-01-01T22:45:00.000-06:00

Every year, we get together at my grandma Froese's for the holidays. My mom has 4 sisters and most of us cousins have starting having kids. So it makes for quite the entertaining times. There are several things that I remember and love about getting together at my grandma Froese's house. Most of all I love that we can just hang out, play cards, or just sit around and watch football or whatever game happens to be on at the time.

This year, we got together again, but we did the Froese Christmas on New Year's Day. One of the things that is so memorable about going there is that my grandparents (who are in their late 80s) are always cold. This makes my grandpa who loves to stoke the fire and add more and more wood all throughout the day. What is really funny about this is that the rest of us are really hot!!! We end up opening windows in the middle of winter while my grandpa adds yet another log on the fire. You would think that we would have learned to dress in layers when going, but somehow we just forget about it.

This year, Jaycee's cousins were able to make it. So my parents had all of their grandchildren to play with. I think that they may have worn my parents out. The adults were able to get some peace when a couple of the kiddos fell asleep (who knows how that happened with all the loud noises) and we played cards. All in all it was a really nice and relaxing day. Once again, instead of capturing life with pictures, I was getting involved with what was happening, so limited photos. I really need to be a little better at capturing pictures when we do these things.

This is my mom with Jaycee and Ethan. Jaycee and Ethan were eating dry cereal and Jaycee was trying to feed them to Ethan. Those two are pretty funny together.

Eating more cereal. It was so hard to get them all to look at me at the same time. This was the best that I could get.

Hope that everyone had a great 2011 and we'll see ya in 2012!!!

the Ehrlichs

This Christmas

2012-01-01T22:43:00.000-06:00

This year, I thought we were going to have a peaceful and relaxing time with our families. But sometimes my plans are not always what happens. You'd think I'd be used to this by now, but I am continually getting lessons on flexibility.

Our break started out like any other. We had a work day at school, then last minute shopping for the food I needed to make (which was really easy this year), then making sure that everything was wrapped and ready to go. We had planned on doing our Christmas with the Walker family on Christmas Eve and then spending the night with my folks and having Christmas with the Ehrlich family on Christmas night. Well, when we got to my parents house, we were told that my nephew Ethan (my brother Brandon's son) was in the hospital. It turned out that he had pnemonia (not sure about that spelling). We headed up to the hospital and brought him a couple of gifts that we had for him b/c he was not able to even walk around since he was hooked up to a bunch of tubes. So we thought that maybe a new toy would take his mind off of not being able to run around.

Going to the hospital was not the best place for Jaycee, but she did pretty good and lucky for us, Ethan was the only kid on that floor. So it was OK that Jaycee was kinda loud. The timing was not great for her either, but what can you do? We felt so bad for poor Ethan, but it looked like things were getting better for him by the morning. We all ate breakfast that my parents made for us, and then headed back to the hospital to check on Ethan. It looked like he was breathing on his own for a whole 24 hours and he was going to be released soon.

Being in a hospital was not the best place for a busy two year old, and Jaycee and I and Tom took turns walking up and down the halls while we waited for the status on Ethan. Eventually we all ended up back at my parents house and finally had a late lunch and then opened the rest of our gifts. The kids ended up liking each other toys which was quite funny to all of us. After unwrapping the new toys, we found the kids in the back room playing with all the old toys while the grown ups were investigating their new toys. Something is wrong with that picture.

Later on in the evening, we headed over to Tom's sister's house and ate another big meal there too. I think that we need to only do one meal a day from now on, but our plans were slightly changed due to the hospital. After eating, we watched the kids play with Tom's brother Danny's new puppy which is super cute and cuddly. Jaycee right now is really into animals and wants to pick them all up. We are working on her being gentle with them and just petting them. But when they are so little, I think that she thinks they are like her stuffed animals. Both her and the dog wore each other out by the end of the night. We did a lot of talking and watched football and watched the kids play with their toys. I am so glad that both families this year decided that it was ok to just get gifts for the kids.

This was an idea that I got from Pinterest and had to try. It is a Christmas tree made out of felt and then I also cut out round red ornaments and what were supposed to look like lights. Jaycee has a lot of fun "decorating" the tree over and over again, until it fell off the door and we couldn't figure out how to get it back up without falling down. She got really made when it fell down.

I found a really neat idea from a teacher that I work with about making your child's faces into elves. Then you use their name as an acrostic poem to write things that describe them. I made two of them this year and they turned out pretty cute!!!

This is our Christmas tree this year.

We were pretty low key with our decorations this year, and I actually really liked that.

One of Jaycee's Christmas presents. A new kitchen that will hold up for a while (I hope).

Jaycee decided that while Tom and I were putting together her kitchen, she would eat some animal crackers. We were wondering why she was so quiet. She has decided that she likes sitting at the table in the BIG chair instead of her booster seat, but she still has to use her booster most of the time.

Daddy was having fun putting together the kitchen.

Jaycee did not have a nap at all on Christmas day, and this is her when we went to Tom's sister's house. She instantly took to Tom's brother's new puppy, and decided to cuddle up with her new Jayhawk blanket and the puppy. I think that both her and the dog wore each other out.

Well, it wasn't quite the holiday that we had set out to be, but we made some pretty fun memories anyways. We hope that you all had a great and Merry Christmas too wish you a wonderful start to your new year.

(By the way, in all the excitement I had limited time to take pictures, so this post is not as riddled with pictures as some others)

the Ehrlich's

Family Pictures

2011-12-11T22:06:00.000-06:00

This year I decided that it would be fun to get some family pictures taken for Christmas. This is something that I have wanted to do for a few years now, but with so much happening in the last several years, it just wasn't on the top of my priority list.

I must say that Christmas has been really hard for me for several years now. Losing our first child right before Thanksgiving and Christmas was not a great way to make us want to celebrate much. Some of those hard times still creep up every so often. But since we have a little girl and it is our 2nd Christmas with her, I thought that I should get into the spirit of Christmas.

I recently became fascinated with Pinterest. This is a great website if you love to spend lots of time on the computer (which I don't). I have found so many ideas for lots of things from organizing my house (not there by any means), decorating ideas, holiday ideas, stuff to use in the classroom, exercise tips, and recipes. I still would love to be able to do so many of the things that I have pinned, but there just isn't enough time in my days for that.

Well, there was one thing that I found on Pinterest that was helpful for our Christmas pictures. I found a site that showed helpful hints to coordinate family members' outfits for such a picture as this. One of the ideas was to find an outfit or pattern for one member of the family, and coordinate around that print, pattern, or color. Since there are so very many cute little girl outfits out for Christmas this year, I decided that we needed to coordinated around what Jaycee was wearing. I found an adorable silver little skirt and black polka dot tights for her, and then decided that Tom and I should wear solid colors that went with it. You will see in the pictures I show you. It wasn't quite the traditional red and green, but I think that they turned out pretty good.

As soon as I knew that I wanted to take a family Christmas picture this year, I called Portrait Innovations and scheduled an appointment with them. I know that this time of year is pretty busy and I wanted to make sure that we were going to be able to get in without too much waiting. Patience is not one of Jaycee's better qualities. We spent one Saturday afternoon after Jaycee's nap and got our pictures taken.

Since we got their special package, I thought it would be great to send out Christmas cards and include a holiday picture with it too. Below are some of our favorite pictures that we took that day. We hope that everyone will have a wonderful Christmas celebrating Jesus' birth and spending time with family and friends.

This is one of my favorite pictures b/c we are all looking at the camera, and smiling.

A different angle of the same picture. I am always amazed how they can get Jaycee to look at them for long enough to take the picture.

Jaycee did a couple shots by the tree herself. She kept moving, but they were so good with her.

We don't have many pictures of Tom and I together, thought this was a cute one.

Jaycee with her favorite blanky. So cute!!!

This picture was kind of funny, b/c she wouldn't stay on the purple area for very long at all. She kept saying mess and made some pretty weird faces.

This is the face we see everyday.

What an awnry look she has?

This is when she gets excited. They were throwing leaves for her to catch.

One of my favorites.

Playful

We had a great time, and loved going to Portrait Innovations for these pictures. The great thing that I loved about it was that we got a CD in case we wanted more prints and we also got to take our pictures home that same night.

the Ehrlichs

Random Things We've Done . . .

2011-12-04T22:24:00.006-06:00

I am so behind on blogging these days. It seems like when December hit, the world got really busy. At least that's how I feel these days anyway. I really can't even explain what exactly it is, just a lot of things planned with the holidays upon us.

Froese Thanksgiving

So I posted last time my Thanksgiving Top Ten List for 2011. Really we did some other things, but I took minimal pictures. I guess I had more fun experiencing life as it was happening instead of snapping some much needed photos. One of the things that we did that I really enjoyed is going to grandma's house. That is my grandma Froese. My grandparents live on a farm in a small town about an hour away from us. This place has held a lot of memories for me. When my family first moved to Kansas, we lived with my grandparents for a couple of months. At that time the house seemed a pretty good size for many gatherings, but when we went back there for our Froese Thanksgiving, it seemed quite small. Maybe it's that fact that our family is really growing. There were 3 new babies since the last time we were together. All of them were born in September. These are my cousin's kids. So they would be second cousins to Jaycee. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun and food. Also we were able to just hang out, talk, and relax (my favorite).

My mom (aka grandma Walker) with Jaycee and her cousin Ethan.

My brother Brandon and his son Ethan.

More Ethan. He's so cute!!!

Jaycee. Loving the outdoors on the farm.

Jumping and rolling around in the leaves.

Pumpkin Dessert
I made this from a recipe that I got from another teacher at school.

Peanut Butter Brownies
These were a big hit and super easy to make.

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Halloween Overshadowed

Now before I talk about Halloween, I must preface it by saying that Halloween was the last day that I felt Caden moving before he was stillborn. It's kind of a bittersweet day for me now, but still I try to find ways to enjoy and make new memories with my family.

We went to a pumpkin patch this year and were able to get three cute pumpkins before Halloween. So I went on pinterest (my new favorite site) and found some pumpkin face templates

Jaycee liked lining them up on our porch.

We have noticed that since the fall sports are on TV a lot lately, that Jaycee loves them as much as we do. So Tom dug out this basketball goal from the basement and dusted it off and put it in Jaycee's playroom/ living room for a new toy for her to play with. This is orginally supposed to be hung on the back of a door or sitting on a table or something, but it works great on the floor b/c it is just her size.

She knew exactly what to do which made us both so proud. Maybe we have a ball player on our hands???

For Halloween, we wanted to keep things pretty simple. I am not a super huge fan of the holiday anyways. So when we were trying to think of things that Jaycee could be, we rummaged through some stuff and found this outfit that grandma and grandpa Walker gave. I'm not really sure when, but it still fit her, it is just a little short since she has had many growth spurts over the months. We decided that this would be a great, cheap, and fun costume for her this year. Since most of the stuff for girls is all princess and fairy stuff, I thought it might be nice to do something a little different. I guess I don't want to force the whole princess stuff on her unless that is what she wants. She can decide that for herself when she gets older.

Our little football player.

She loved this pool of shredded paper.
We almost couldn't get her to leave.

Twilight

Why I'm putting this in with the rest of the stuff, I don't know except that I don't want to write a seperate post about it.

Well, I'm sure that most of you know or have at least heard of the Twilight series. It started out with books, and then they made several movies about those books. I will have to admit that I was so not wanting to get into these books/movies at all. Maybe it is my nature to not go with the crowd, who knows.

Last year, my friend Stephanie while we were visiting her in Kansas City asked me if I had read any good books lately. I said that I really hadn't had any time these days to do much reading. She told me that she got into this series that totally blew her away. I was anticipating her to tell me about some new series by a christian author that I love, but no she told me about the Twilight books. I just rolled my eyes. As she kept talking about it, she said that she had 2 of the movies and asked me if I wanted to watch them. Since our husbands took our kids for a while, I thought oh well, I could at least see what all the craziness was about. Well, I saw the first movie Twilight, and immediately became hooked. It wasn't at all what I expected. I thought that it would be all about vampires and wolves and gory stuff that they do, but instead it was about a love story. I can never get enough of a love story. Once we were finished with the first movie, we watched the 2nd one called New Moon. After we were done watching that, we talked our husbands into staying homw with the kids and we went to the latest showing of the 3rd movie Eclipse. That was the most action packed one yet.

Well a couple of weekend ago, I went to see the 4th movie, New Dawn with my friend Meagan and some other girls that she works with. It was awesome!!!! I can't believe that I have to wait another year for the final movie to come out. But I guess it gives me time to dive into the books again and hopefully see that movie again when it comes to the Palace theaters which are a little cheaper. There was so much I missed the first time. Anyway, just a little confession of mine for you to know about me. I am officially a Twilight fan!!!

Well, there's a little snapshot of what we've been up to. It's too bad that it takes me so long to get caught up with what I want to say. I am challenging myself to do a better job of staying updated at least once a week if not more. So much happens sometimes that I can't get it all down in one sitting, but then again there are some weeks that we just don't do anything. Well, if you have suggestions for how I can get more organized about this, I would love to hear about it. Most of my time is spent hanging out with Jaycee and teaching and learning new things with her. One of the only times that I have to really blog is in the evenings, but I like to save my evenings for my husband. Well, someday I will get it all figured out at least for me that is.

Until next time,

Thanksgiving 2011 Top 10 List

2011-11-27T20:46:00.001-06:00

The month of November always seems to be hard for me since we lost Caden. I often wonder what our lives would have looked like had he been around to share in these past 4 years with us. It often makes me sad but yet encouraged that he is in the best place possible and one day we will see each other again.

I thought that since our holidays were kind of mellow this year that I would just share a bit about the top ten things that I am thankful for this year.

#1 My Husband

Tom and I have been together for a very long time. We have been married for 10 and a half years, but we dated for 3 years before that while I finished college. He has been through a lot with me. We have had some really great and wonderful times and we have had some really terrible moments too. He has always been the best friend I could have to lean on when things get tough, and also the first person I want to tell about the awesome things that happen too. He is the kind of guy who values relationships and always strives to do what it right even if it means not being so popular sometimes.

#2 Jaycee

I honestly have a hard time remembering what our lives were like before she came into this world. She was such a huge blessing and has been a really great kid. Right now she is in the twos which I hear are pretty terrible. She does test us and pushes her boundaries and even her luck sometimes, but I would not have things any other way. She came into our lives at the perfect time when we needed some cheering up. Having her was the beginning of learning how to live with the peace that only God can give.

#3 Home

We have been living in the same place for the last 9 years. While we have had to replace a lot of things, our home has been there for us. It shelters us from this crazy Kansas weather. You know what I'm talking about. The wind that practically blows you into the next state. The extreme temper changes where you leave home in the morning without a coat only to find that you need it when you head home. The heat, it is so hot that you drip buckets of sweat just from standing outside doing nothing. Anyway, I have really liked all of the do-it-yourself projects that we have been able to do to make our home truly unique and ours. Lowes, Home Depot, and now Menards have gotten to know us well. There is still more we want to do, but for now I am learning to try to be content with what we have done to the place.

This is our house now. We just this past summer painted the outside.

This is what our house looked like before we painted it.

#4 My Parents

I am really lucky. I couldn't ask for better parents. They have been huge examples of the kind of hardworking and responsible person I want to be. I am sure that it wasn't easy for them raising 3 kids who couldn't be more different. I remember so many things about my parents as a kid, and now I am being repayed for some of the things I did as a kid (ask me about the grocery store sometime). Through the years, Tom and I have grown really close to my parents. They were so supportive to us when we lost Caden. Really they didn't do anything special, but they were there and called, and checked in on us and just made every effort to show us that Caden meant something to them too. That really means so much to me, and it has helped my relationship with them grow even more.

My dad reading a book to Jaycee.

My mom with Jaycee and her cousin at her first birthday.
(I think I need to take more pictures of them together)

#5 Friends

Tom and I are so blessed to have some great friends. We have leaned on them through some very trying times in our lives, and they have allowed us to be whoever we needed to be at the time. Most of them know who they are, but we have such a great connection with the Wells. They have been so comforting to us after losing Caden and that has stuck with us. They also were so open to being friends with older people and we have an amazing connection with them. Wish that our lives would slow down more so that we could see them more, but life doesn't always ask us what we want, so we get together with them at a moments notice sometimes. It is great to have friends like that who just accept you for who you are mess and all. We have so many other friends that I would love to talk about too, but since I am sharing Thanksgiving moments I thought that I would spotlight them (we had an amazing taco salad thanksgiving dinner with them last night).

#6 Health

I wish that I could say that I am in tip top perfect health and right where I want to be physically. I'm not, but what I can say is that I am able to jog, walk, lift weights, take a zumba class, and play with my daughter without pain (maybe a little, strained shoulder from a football injury). But I say all this to say that I am thankful that I can be active no matter what shape my physical body is in, I am able to get out and do things. I have seen some people recently in our family who have not been able to do much of anything lately, and I thank God everyday that I can get out of bed and prepare for the day. One of my goals is to do this more regularly and to have a set routine. But I'm working on it.

#7 Bible Study

I have been going to a Monday night Bible study with some girls for the last several years now. We are all from different walks of life and we know each other from each other. That is to say that we were all invited by someone in the group and that is how the Bible study was formed. These girls are truly amazing. They will not hesitate to help in any situation that I have found myself in. I have also gotten to know some of them really well despite tragedy. In a way that brought us closer. I was able to open up and share with some like I hadn't been able to before. I love those girls.

#8 Part Time Job

I am really thankful that God has allowed me to continue to job-share with a terrific teacher this year again. I love the schedule that we have and I love that I can spend some more time with Jaycee. I get the best part of her day. While I wish that I didn't have to work at all, I know that I have a great talent for sharing the joy of learning with kids. It is not something that I thought I would be so good at, but third graders are pretty great sometimes. I also feel like I am helping contribute to our families budget and that not all of the financial burden is on Tom's shoulders.

#9 Family

The last few years have been quite interesting for our family. When I say this I mean aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas, and grandpas and all of their kids. Our family has really grown and now that me and all of my cousins are having kids of our own, it is fun to reminisce about some of the things we used to do that our kids are now doing at grandmas. It has also been great to see the blessings that babies and kids bring to the family. My exteneded family has had several funerals to go to and it has been tough at times not to see those people at family functions. I miss the interactions with those people and what they bring to the group.

#10 God

While I have had my ups and downs with God and have wrestled with Him over many things. The truth of the matter is that He does not ever leave me. He holds me in pain and listens to me and cries with me and lets me know that He too carries my burdens with Him. All to often I forget that. I am thankful that I have Him in my heart and that He reveals parts of Himself to me everyday.

So there it is my list. I never thought that I would be so into lists, but maybe it's just a phase or something, but I sure would love to know what your top ten things to be thankful for are.

4 Years

2011-11-03T08:49:00.003-05:00

November 2, 2011

Caden would have been 4 years old. It hardly seems possible that it has been four years since we had to say good bye to him. It seems like we have just been able to move forward and have become so busy that we don't think about him as much as we used to. A lot of times I have a hard time thinking about that day, b/c so many painful memories come back, and I just don't want to be in a painful place anymore. I wish that I could remember Caden without remembering all the pain that I felt surrounding that time of my life.

The last couple of years we have tried to do somethings that will help us as a family remember Caden and all the positive things that have come into our lives since losing him. At times, it is hard to think about, but then there are so many things that have made us as a family stronger and able to handle the little troubles in life a little better.

The day really didn't go as we had planned, but we should be used to plans not going the way we want them to. I think that I was expecting to just meet some cousins, and spend time talking in the car as we drove to see them. Tom and I had some different ideas of how we wanted the day to go, and the place that we are in how we want to remember Caden. That is what makes losing him so hard. Everyone grieves in their own way and as a couple we aren't always in the same place. Some of the things that help Tom remember and feel better after losing him, just make it really hard for me. I also know that we both have different perspectives of the siutation. We do try to help each other when we can, but the day just wasn't much of how we had planned it to be. But that is just how it goes sometimes, and maybe there was a point to it that we don't realize.

We did plant some flowers in the garden that I made a few years ago as a remembrance. Plants are hard to keep pretty for very long, but it was nice to have some color back in the garden again.

We started doing a balloon release every year since 2007, and have tried to continue that. We have been getting balloons 1 for every year that he would have been. This year we headed to Party City to get 4 balloons. Then I had some cards and we each wrote something on them and just went to drive around looking for a place to release them and just have some time in prayer and thoughts of Caden and his short life. We drove around town here, and found a lake out west of us. As we drove we found a place to let the balloons go. We said a small prayer and let the balloons go and watched as they made it up into the air until we couldn't see them anymore.

The day was pretty sad, and I did a lot of crying. Just remembering some of the things I felt when we lost him put me to tears. And then having our plans get kind of out of sink didn't really help either. But, we sure do miss Caden, and we know that he is safe and watching over all of us here.

Quiet Time

2011-10-30T21:52:00.001-05:00

I don't know about you, but it is hard to get some quiet time in. That is with just me and God sitting down, reading His word, and soaking up any knowledge that He wants to share with me. I used to be really good about having a consistent quiet time where I would read my Bible and write in my journal the thoughts I had about what I read. Those times seems to be a little more chaotic and not as well thought out as they used to be.

One of my goals last week was to make a consious effort to fit in my quiet time when noone else is around to distract me (I get distracted easily sometimes). Since I am such a night owl, I thought that evenings would be best, but that didn't work, then I considered mornings. That seemed to be the best time when I could get up just a little earlier then everyone else and read my Bible, sit with a comfy, cozy blanket and dig into what God has in store for me today. I would say that I met my goal this week.

Right now I have been reading the book of Romans. One particular day really made an impact on me and I wanted to share my thoughts with you. I read Romans 5:1-11. This was talking about rejoicing when tough and hard times hit you. As I read this, I thought, that it is easy to sit and read that, but when I'm facing a really hard period of my life, those words are incredibly hard to hear.

As I thought about it more, I realized that maybe I had been missing the point of rejoicing. Tom and I started a new Sunday School class recently, and this topic was brought up throughout the whole hour. I got this really tight feeling in my stomache that I should say something. You know the feeling, the one where you just can't breathe or you will explode. Well, I sadly didn't say anything and I felt like maybe I did have something to say about the subject. So here goes.

As I hear more and more about rejoicing, I think that maybe I am putting that equal to being happy. Having gone through some not so happy times, I now think that maybe rejoicing isn't about being happy, but more about giving God all the credit for taking care of me during those tough times and watching over me so that I don't do anything stupid. He longs for me to have a deep relationship with Him and through my suffering, I still can trust Him to provide me exactly what I need for that moment where I don't think I can even bear it anymore. I know for a fact that suffering doesn't make you happy, but for me it made me more willing to let go. When I say "let go" I mean that I really had no choice in the matter, but I released all of the pain, bitterness, perfectionism, and constant worry and struggle into God's loving hands. That was really scary, b/c I never know what God will do or have in store for my life, but I do know that He will give me what I need at the perfect moment that I need it. I've heard many people say that God never gives you more that you can handle. I think that maybe He does give me more than I can handle without Him. My struggles, worries, pain, and sufferings have been way more than I could ever have handled on my own, but with God he provided the courage, strength, and power to get through and continue trusting Him even when it is hard and I didn't know how to live as me anymore. The me I was before is different now, and He has used that to free me into His arms. What a relief to know that He holds my life in His hands and I CAN trust Him with everything even the tough stuff.

Lately, I have been reminded about those dark days when I didn't see a way out of my suffering. It was terrible to be in that place, but I have been encouraged by some things that have reminded of that time. It has been uplifting to hear about those things in sermons in church, or in a video series in a new Sunday School class (even if I'm too shy to share). It lets me know that God does give me my "daily bread". That is to say that He gives me what I need for right now, and takes care of me in the process.

I hope that something I say will encourage you too.

Pumkin Patch

2011-10-15T15:58:00.001-05:00

Well, it's October. This month seems to hit me like a ton of bricks sometimes. The beginning of the month is filled with having a little girl's birthday party right at the beginning of the month. Then all of the fall activities start coming. One of the things that I really never thought that I would like or even do when I became a parent was to go to a Pumpkin Patch. When you don't have kids, it just isn't really too exciting. We went last year to a place in El Dorado, and had a lot of fun, but we thought we would try someplace new this year. We had a little bit of a break and spent our time resting and seeing the grandparents on both Tom's and my sides. That turned out to be fun but really spur of the moment too.

Well, we looked up several pumpkin patches online and decided that we would go the Applejack Pumpkin Patch. It is only about 15-20 minutes from our house. We chose a Saturday so that we could maybe invite some friends to hang out with us, but it seems that most people already had plans. So it was just the 3 of us today.

When we first got there, we realized that it was quite the place. The parking lot was really full, but not nearly as it was when we left. We headed out around 10:30 so that we could beat the rush. Not so sure that we did that.

Applejack Pumpkin Patch

Getting Jaycee to look at the camera was kind of tough.

But we were able to get a few shots of us with her.

Duck Races

The first thing that we saw when we got in were these duck races. You use an old-fashioned hand water pump to get the duck from one end of the tray to the other. This was really fun b/c Jaycee loves anything that has to do with water. The hard thing about a two year old is getting her to explore new things. Everytime that we tried to head off to a new area to play, she started to cry and wanted to stay. I guess we can't really blame her. She sure was having a lot of fun.

Me trying to show Jaycee how the water pump works.

She got the hang of it, but just didn't pump the water fast enough.

Playground Fun

There was also a backyard play area for all of the kids. This was for mostly kids Jaycee's age and older. There were tons of kids out there. It was a gorgeous day. Jaycee seemed to really love the teeter-totter.

Weeeee!!!

Jaycee is pretty fearless about most things, but she would not go down this rocketship slide without some help. Tom and I had to basically pull her down b/c the line behind her was getting backed up.

Loves the animals. She kept wanting to pick up these chickens.

Trampoline Thingy w/ Daddy

Bouncing trampoline thing. Daddy and Jaycee had a blast on this. It was a good thing too, b/c it wore Jaycee out for the rest of the day. She stayed pretty calm after we settled her down from leaving it. It was just too much fun!!!

Look at the little acrobat go!!!

Train

Jaycee has recently shown us her love of trains. My parents live across the street from a train and when I was growing up I never really thought that it was anything special. But Jaycee was super excited to see the train passing by their house. I think maybe a train set is in her future sometime soon. Anyway, there was a tractor train here too. We stayed here the longest. After one ride was over, she went back in line and got right on again. We were at this part for a good 15 minutes or longer.

She loved the caboose.

Lovin every minute of it!!!

Just sittin back and relaxin.

Here is the whole train. So cute.

Corn Maze

There was a little corn maze that we wanted to let Jaycee lead us through, but she wasn't too impressed by it. I think it was b/c it took her away from the train. She was kind of sad after that, but she still went through it even though she was crying.

I got out the camera and this is what she did. So sad.

Back to the train, but this time only to look at it and watch it go by.

Picking Pumpkins

Really I did all the picking. Jaycee pointed out a lot of pumpkins to me. I decided that we only needed three for our family. I think that we are going to paint or draw on them with markers. I'm not sure. If you know how to decorate a pumpkin without carving it, please do tell. By this time we were all a little tired and ready to head back home for a nap.

Jaycee did a great job of holding onto our pumpking for us.

The day was really great. We saw some people that we knew there, and it was a beautiful day. Hopefully tonight we will have little pumkin faces sitting on our front porch.

Six Layer Rainbow Cake

2011-10-06T21:40:00.000-05:00

In my last post, I told you about a Rainbow Cake that I made for Jaycee's 2nd birthday. We had a lot of fun getting ready for that day. I had a few themes in mind to do for her birthday, but when it was all said and done, I decided that the best idea for me and the least excitable for Jaycee would be to have a rainbow theme. I love all the little girl themes that there are out there, but for right now, I kind of want to keep things pretty neutral until we see what kind of girl Jaycee is going to be. A lot of the ideas that I have seen also would be so much more fun when she is older and can remember things and enjoy it more.

So, here is my post about Jaycee's Rainbow Party. It was actually pretty easy, just a lot of prep work before hand, but once it was done, I really didn't have to do anything the day of her party.

First we'll start with the cake.

I used 3 boxes of white cake mix. Then I used my stand mixer and mixed them thoroughly until everything was nice and smooth. I did this for about 5-10 minutes.

Then I got 6 bowls and divided the cake batter evenly into each bowl. You may just have to eyeball this part. It doesn't have to be exact. They all end up about the same anyway.

I then used gel paste food coloring and put several drops of each color into each bowl. Then I stirred vigorously until all the color was mixed in. I added more food coloring as needed.

Here is the gel paste food coloring that I got from a place called Cake Stuff. This is a great place to go if you are making any kind of cake or even decorated cookies. However, I ran out of red food coloring, and didn't want to drive clear across town, so I stopped by Hobby Lobby which is a lot closer to my house and found that they had it too for a little cheaper.

These are the bowls after I finished mixing the colors together. After mixing the colors together, I placed them in 8 inch round pans and baked them as the directions on the box said. This took a while, but I was able to get lots of other things done while they were baking. The reason this took a while is because I only had two 8 inch cake pans, and could only do 2 colors at a time.

Once the first set cooled, I took them out and wrapped them in foil and then stuck them in the freezer so that they would harder before I was ready to frost them. Then I washed out the pans and started with the next color. It was a pretty easy process, but you need to make sure that you spray the bottoms of your pans so that the cakes will come out pretty clean. (Hint: Here is something the I have found that keeps the cakes really moist. I take them out about 3-5 minutes before the directions say to and stick them in the freezer fairly quickly so that they hold their moisture.)

Once all the cakes were cooled and had been in the freezer for a few hours, I decided to take on the task of frosting them. This is where the fun begins. I first decided which color I wanted on the bottom and them layed it down on my platter or plate. The cakes were sliced in hald so that there was a little more evenness to them. After I had the first color done, then I frosted just a thin layer of frosting (you can use any store bought kind that you want or look online for some favorite recipes) I used store bought and I also mixed a large carton of cool whip with it to make it a little creamier. I repeated this until I had all the layers stacked together.

Here was what the cake looked like with all the layers stacked together. Then I started to frost the outside of the cake. This part gets pretty messy, so be sure to have a rag and paper towels close by.

Here is the cake after I was finished. I left it in the fridge overnight and until I was ready to serve it. I also added skittles to the bottom for a more rainbowish effect. I didn't do much to the top because I knew we would have candles on it. For this type of cake you would need to use the long candles.

Another view of the fabulous rainbow cake. Behind it are water bottles filled with rainbow Koolaid. That was fun to do. Just buy a 24 pack of bottled water. I had a free coupon for the store so I paid nothing for them. Then get different flavors of Koolaid that you want and mix it up and pour back into the bottles. It makes a really cool effect and added so much to the table.

Here I am cutting the cake. The peices ended up being really big, and we had a lot of leftovers for people to take home. My neighbor is helping me so that it doesn't fall over. I realized later that I could have put rods in the middle of it so that it would hold it shape more, but I am not a professional at this. Something to keep in mind for next time.

About half of the cake was eaten and then sent home with others. Here was a pretty great picture of all the rainbow of colors.

This was a really fun idea that I wish I could claim as my own, but I got it off of my new found addiction. There is this site that has just about everything that you can think of on it called Pinterest. Basically you can use it to keep track of you interests and things that you may want to use or do someday. This is helpful for me, b/c I usually spend hours writing things down in notebooks only to lose or not remember where I put it. So to have all of my ideas in one place is great. My awesome job-share partner got me started on this b/c she was finding some great ideas for classroom projects there and I looked and started my own boards too. For someone who forgets things unless they are written down, this works great for me. You can do everything from home stuff to kids to cooking ideas to recipes. The possibitities are endless. If you are a crafty or Do It Yourself kind of person, you will love this.

More of my projects are coming soon. But if you are in need of an idea for a fun party you can definitely try a rainbow party with a Six Layer Rainbow Cake!!!

Jaycee Turned Two!!!!

2011-10-05T10:44:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, we celebrated Jaycee's 2nd birthday. We had several and friends over to have cake and watch Jaycee (or me) open presents. It was a great time and just a very relaxed and fun time to celebrate her two years with us.

I can hardly believe that this tiny baby girl is now...

...this grown up two year old and has lots of personality to go with it.

Jaycee's birthday message from Tom and me.

You can file this one under projects that I have done recently. More on that later.

This is our little family on Jaycee's big day.

This year I had so many ideas that I could do for her birthday. Among the many were a jayhawk party, an alphabet party, and superwhy which is a cartoon that she pays attention to most of the time. I debated and went back and forth between so many ideas, but realized that if I did any one of those party ideas she would be absolutely crazy the whole day. She especially gets really excited when she sees a jayhawk or kockkock as she likes to call it. We decided to do just a rainbow theme and lots of colors. Once I made up my mind what to do that would cause the least amount of crazy excitement, I had a lot of fun looking for ideas online. One idea that I got was to make a layered rainbow cake. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have fun making her cakes. It is a fun hobby that I like to do especially when it turns out. That was the main part of my idea for a rainbow party and it just took off from there.

Here is the table before I put the cake on there.

We had rainbow skittles, rainbow koolaid, and rainbow straws for the kids.

First we started with opening presents.

Jaycee was very interested in opening the cards and not the presents.

It was a family event, Tom helped us by writing down what she got so we can make thank yous later.

She had a hard time opening things herself, but she anxiously waited while I helped her.

Rainbow Cake

This was a lot of fun to make.

Jaycee didn't get the concept of blowing out candles.

I helped her a little.

Birthday girl eating her HUGE piece of cake.

We had so much that I sent some home with a few people.

Jaycee and Gavin one of her friends.

Trying out her new toys.

This was a vacuum that we got her.

Yes, it is pink. I have gotten over my anti-pink phase. You kind of have to when you have a girl.

This is the cake after we cut several slices out of it.

I think each slice was enough for at least two if not more people.

Playing with more of her new toys.

This is a grocery cart and groceries that she loves to stack them on the box it came in.

Mollie tried to help her with this.

Later that day we went to the mall to just get out of the house for a while.

She rode in one of those cars that you pay a couple quarters for.

Another view of the cute pink car.

Yea, we have had to get used to pink, but it still isn't my favorite color, but we will adapt.

Overall it was a great day. We saw lots of family that we haven't seen in a while, and we had a lot of fun celebrating Jaycee. She is growing up so fast that it is hard to keep up with the new things that she is learning and doing. There were a lot of things that we did for this party that we made and I can fill you in on those things in another post about the projects that we have done lately.

Since School's Started...

2011-09-17T23:08:00.000-05:00

Well, since school has started, we have been more busy than I ever thought we would. Our weekends haven't been free for a while. I really wanted to get more organized and to be able blog a whole lot more, but it just hasn't happened. I know that eventually I will get there, but for right now we are just taking life one day at a time. So, here's what we've been up to:

Well, school started for both of us. It was a very busy time for the entire family. I get to work with the same teacher (Tarrah) that I worked with last year and job share again. We really liked how things went last year, so we are going to try it for another year too. I thought that with not having to move at all, things would go pretty quickly and that setting up the room wouldn't be so much of a hassle. However, as a 3rd grade team, we decided that since we teach a lot about pioneers and history and that kind of thing that we wanted to try to incorporate that into our classrooms this year. We decided to go with the Little House on the Prairie type style. You should see our rooms, except for the laptops and computers and well really pretty much everything, it looks like we stepped right out of the 1800s. It has been a fun theme for us to do and hopefully continue for years to come. Here is Tarrah's and my class so far this year.

Covered wagon outside our door.

Tarrah and I made this on one of our work days.

We got the wagon wheels from someone's grandparents. Pretty cool!!!

This room is next to mine and looks like a one room schoolhouse.

This is inside my classroom. I have 24 kids this year.

This is my desk that I share with Tarrah.

We are pretty fortunate that we can job share and stay home with our kids part of the time.

Tom is teaching mostly 8th graders this year. He has quite the load of kids and is very busy with a full schedule. He is continuing to work with the two teachers he worked with last year. One of them he has worked with for a long time and they know the routines so well, but this year they are adding MTSS to the mix, so it makes things a little more rigid but still good though. For those of you who aren't teachers, MTSS is just a new thing the state has us doing to make sure that we are giving extra support to those kids who are not on grade level, or need an extra boost to make it there. He is still really looking for a new challenge as far as teaching goes, but for now really feels that this is where God has placed him and is willing to be used in whatever way he can be.

Well, not only did Tom and I start a new school year, but Jaycee also started with a new daycare. We really liked the lady who watched her for the last couple of years, but her family moved too far away for us to drive and a parent of one of my student's from last year sent out an email saying that she was going to start in home daycare for this school year. It was at the perfect time that things just had a way of working out. It's a God thing. So far Jaycee is loving it, and I really feel that she is learning a lot. They have craft time, naps, lunch, outside play, and even the occasional field trip (even though Jaycee was sick for the first one). Such a great place for an active and curious girl like Jaycee. Here are some things she has done lately.

About a month before school started, Tom's brother wanted to get a group of us together to go canoeing. We hadn't done this trip since Tom and I were first married about 10 years ago. So we thought that if we could get someone to watch Jaycee, then we would love to go. Well, Tom's mom and aunts were not going to brave the waters and canoe, so they said they would watch her for us. So it was all set.

We went to a place called Sugar Island which is close to Joplin, Missouri. There were about 14 of us who rented canoes and traveled down the river. It was a great day for it, and we had a lot of fun!!! I didn't bring my camera for fear that it would fall into the water, so here are some pictures of the place that we were at near there.

Life sure has kept us pretty busy, but it has been good to experience a lot in the last several months. I promise that I will have more updates for you soon.

the ehrlichs

Utah Trip (Part 2)

2011-07-20T17:02:00.000-05:00

Downtown Salt Lake City

We took a day and spent it downtown in Salt Lake City. There were several things to do, but we had to pick and choose. Since we didn't really go anywhere last year, we weren't quite sure about how things were going to look this year with Jaycee along. This has been our first really big trip with her without other family around to help. It was quite interesting, but we decided to find some things that would entertain her and keep us entertained as well.

Our first stop was to see the Capitol building. Really it is like all the others, we have seen. But it was nice to just see another city's building.

We took several pictures of downtown from the road, but this was the best one that I could come up with. The city is surrounded by mountains on all sides and then in the low valley, is Salt Lake City. The city is really spread out and it rained almost everyday, but it was a very light, quiet rain. Nothing like what we get in KS. Many days were overcast too, and that is what kept the temperature down. It was 85 degrees pretty much the whole time we were there.

Now if you have known us for any length of time, you know that we are avid b-ball fans. So, of course we had to get a picture of where the Utah Jazz play. We really don't even keep up on NBA until the playoffs at the beginning of the summer, but we just had to get this one. It was too bad that it was closed, it would have been nice to see the inside.

Discovery Gateway Children's Museum

Since we had Jaycee along for this trip, we thought ahead of time to look for things that were kid-friendly. One of the places that we spent a lot of time at was this children's museum. At first we were kind of reluctant b/c we didn't know if it would be a place for Jaycee's age. Most of the families and kids that we saw going had kids many years older than Jaycee. So we asked someone who had a child we thought about Jaycee's age what they thought about it, and in we went.

This was the entrance to the museum.

The bright colors just scream fun!!!

Jaycee had a lot of fun playing with all sorts of things. This place was a fantastic kids play wonderland. She was in heaven and most importantly got to run around instead of staying in her stroller all the time.

This was a fun tube that you put plastic balls in and they went down a mountain like thing.

This reminded me of the Plinko board on the Price Is Right.

You just put the balls at the top and watch where they end up at the bottom.

More fun on the Plinko board.

Jaycee got to vaccuum.

She did puzzles.

We sat and read a couple of books.

She played with some cars.

Then came the water. The next several pictures are of her playing in the water. It was really cool!!! There was a thing that looked like a mountain and then waterfalls with ping pong balls that you could put in the water, and boats that could soar down the waterfall, and then there were cups, strainers, and lots of other water toys that went along with this huge waterfall. To make matters really great (at least for Jacee), this waterfall was directly in the middle of all the other fun area to play so you had to walk near or around it at some point to get anywhere else.

She absolutely loved the water. It made it very hard to leave, and when we did, she started to throw a fit. By the end of the water time, she was completely soaked despite the fact that she had her handy dandy little waterproof smock on. It was a good thing that we came prepared for the day with a couple of changes of clothes. So glad that I thought ahead.

We played on a farm truck.

I tried to show Jaycee how to steer, but she just wasn't too interested.

We posed her on this horse, but she really didn't care for it.

As you can see her clothes are different and she was not happy about that.

She found giant legos.

More legos

Tom & Jaycee decided to be TV anchors for a while.

Then Jaycee decided to ride in a helicopter.

Don't worry, it wasn't real, but a simulation of what a rescue helicopter is like.

The Great Salt Lake

This was kind of disappointing to me. I had no idea that you couldn't swim or anything in this lake. I'm a Kansas girl and every lake I know of you can swim in. So when we saw that there was not really any way of getting close to this lake except by going to the look out points, we were rather bummed. Not to mention that the day we decided to go, I was pretty much running a high temp. and was achy all over. I think I got a touch of the flu, could've been when Jaycee threw up all over me 3 times when we were in Colorado. Who knows???? Anyway, here are several pics we took of this lake. It took us 30 minutes from the city to get here. I had imagined that i was in the heart of the city or at least pretty close kind of like Lake Michigan is in Chicago.

Well that is the end of part 2 of our trip. We had a blast, but getting sick was not onthe agenda, and kind of put a halt in some other things we wanted to do.

the Ehrlichs

Utah Trip (Part 1)

2011-07-18T23:41:00.002-05:00

So as I promised, I am writing this blog about our trip to Utah. How did we come up with Utah you ask? Well, it was really not anything brilliant, I wish that it was, but we / I literally looked at our map at home of the USA and saw that we hadn't been out west. So I chose Utah. After doing some research, I saw that there were some pretty cool things to do out there, and I have always wondered about the famous Salt Lake.

When to take the trip was the next big question. With all of our refinancing our house, painting, many many many summer projects, softball, Bible study, etc. We just didn't know when a good time to go would be. We were planning on taking this trip after we/ Tom had finished painting the house, but we just realized that project was taking longer than we had originally anticipated. So we just decided on a week that we didn't have stuff going on outside of ourselves and went. Utah here we come!!!

Along the way, we stopped off in Denver, Colorado area. There my cousin, aunt, & uncle live. I just reconnected with them at my little brother's wedding, and they were so excited to have us come hang out with them for a couple of days on the way to Utah and on the way back. I wish that we could have stayed longer, but that just means we have to visit again soon.

A couple of funny things about the trip to Utah. Our stop over in Denver, was quite unique. We went to my cousin's house and were greeted by her son and many of his friends b/c it was his 12th birthday. Tom, Jaycee, and I were really worn out from driving all day and just wanted to relax. Jaycee was a trooper in the backseat and we tried to keep her busy with books and such (I think I will get a DVD player next time). We were talking and Jaycee just wanted to be up and down all night long. Then as I went to pick her up, you will never believe what happened. Barf!!! That's right, Jaycee barfed all over me. Gross!!! She has never done anything like that so far. But I guess there's a first time for everything. We cleaned ourselves up and hung around just long enough for Nathaniel to blow out his birthday candles and open presents. That was about all I could handle. We headed back to our hotel, and Jaycee threw up on me 2 more times. I could not figure out what was wrong with that girl. What a way to start our trip. We were beginning to think that maybe we should just go back home. But Jaycee was acting fine and back to her normal self after that.

The next day, we were in store for more driving. We decided to go through the mountains. It was a beautiful drive, but I got absolutely no pics, since I was driving and everyone else was sleeping. But take my word for it, the drive west through Colorado on I-70 is beautiful. There are also a lot of really cool ski towns back through there if you ever think you might want to go skiing.

We finally made it!!! The very first parts of Utah were not impressive at all. We kept seeing exit signs, but they said "No Services." Why would they make an exit if there was no service or anything there? Beats me. Well, Tom and Jaycee sure liked this rest stop we finally had to ask the lady working at the visitor's center if there was going to be a gas station anytime soon.

This was our first impression of Utah. Very dry and dessert like. But it wasn't hot.

As we started to see signs of civilization, we noticed that the mountains were getting bigger and prettier too. Finally signs of life. We were glad to see this. Salt Lake City pretty much has mountains all around it.

Driving through the city was pretty fun. We/ Tom found us a really nice hotel that had a kitchen in it. I loved that, so that we could save some money by not going out for breakfast, and eating lunch there too, or eating dinner there whichever worked out best for that days activities. It did help.

Tom is mapping out the next day's plans.

One view from our hotel room

Another view from our hotel room.

Well, the adventure has just begun. We were pretty tired by the end of the day, so we watched cable TV, since we don't have it at home and crashed. All 3 of us. We'll talk to you soon for part two of our trip.

the Ehrlichs

Tanganyika

2011-07-18T01:37:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been a while since I last posted. Things have been super busy at our house, fun, but busy!!! We have been painting maniacs (actually Tom is), then we decided that we needed a break from paint so we took our annual trip to a new state, we came home to some rather unpleasant weather, which led to our AC shutting down while we were away. When we got home the house was so hot that we camped out in the basement. More on that story later. Then we noticed and were informed by our wonderful neighbors about a little turtle that seems to like our house. More on that one later too. But despite all that we have been having a lot of fun this summer and getting a lot of things done too.

Anyway, this post is about Tanganyika Wildlife Park. We decided to go there one Friday morning when Tom wanted to take a break from painting. This also gets another thing checked off our summer list, going to the zoo. While this isn't exactly what I had in mind when I put zoo on our list, but it was actually even better. The animals were so close, and we got to be a little more interactive with them. We did not venture out to feed any of the animals (we're chickens), but we really like watching them in the morning when it wasn't quite so hot yet.

This zoo is west of Wichita a ways. You wouldn't even know it if you weren't looking for it.

I love that there are a few really nice houses that sit in the country right before the entrance to it.

This was one of the first animals we saw. They are only seperated from us by a ditch, which isn't even very deep.We could have fed him, but we were chickens.

Tom petting the mama kangaroo who just had a baby. She was still a little protective of him/her, but the worker said it was fine to pet her.

Jaycee absolutely loved the rabbits. This is one of the better pics I got of her trying to pet one.

There was a fenced off area that they were in and she was just going from rabbit to rabbit trying to pet them.

I had a hard time getting picture though, b/c she kept turning her back to me.

These penguins seemed to know that I had my camera out. It looks like they were ready for that perfect pose. They were pretty funny though. They would dive in the water & slide up and pose for a picture. I could have watched them for hours.

These ducks were funny. We could hear them from far away, & when we finally saw them, they were marching in a row just like this. It's pretty crazy to me.

This was an albino crocodile. It reminded me of a really funny story from a couple of years ago.Tom laughs at me all the time, b/c I thought that a crocodile had escaped from the zoo and made its way to our neighbor's yard, only to find out that it was a statue. There is a whole lot more to this story, but I can share it

with you another time ask us about it the next time you see us.

Pygmy goat.

Getting some shade.

By the end of our trip, it started to get hot!!!

More shade. Ahhh!!!

Lemurs

These guys were so funny and outgoing that they needed their own island to get to them.

White Tigers

These were beautiful, and were the last thing that we saw on our way out of the park.

This was a really cool place to visit. It was quiet and really interactive as much as it can be with wild animals. I think that I probably would have liked it better if it wouldn't have gotten so hot by the end.

the Ehrlichs

Sunglasses, Menards, & A Turtle

2011-07-01T23:39:00.000-05:00

This post is really what our lives have been like for the past couple of weeks. I had on my summer list to blog more often, and then of course I get ideas and projects in my head and forget to blog for a while, but here I am trying to blog more and keep updated on our summer. I know that the title is kind of random, but really that is what we have been doing. Seriously!!!

Sunglasses
I recently got my probably millionth pair of new sunglasses. I tend to lose pretty much every pair that I get by the end of the summer. It is probably a good thing that I don't spend much on them. Surely you would think by now that I would learn. Well, Jaycee has discovered my sunglasses and gets her little fingerprints all over them and when I put them on while I'm driving I wonder why everything looks so cloudy. So I decided that she could use a pair of her own. I really thought that I could find some really cheap at the dollar store, so just in case something happened to them at least it wouldn't be a big investment. Well, I found this really cute pair at Target in the dollar section by the front door. Gotta love the dollar section!!! This was a great fit for her. She doesn't keep them on long, but they sure are cute when she does.

Menards
This is a place that is getting to know us really well. We decided that this summer we would give our house a good coat of paint. When I say paint the house, I mean the outside. What were we thinking? Summer, paint, Kansas, hot!!! Mostly, Tom has been tackling this project. His goal is to be done by July 4th, so we can reward ourselves for all of his hardwork by taking a vacation. Well, I think that we were a little over confident in what it really took to paint the outside of a house. July 4th is only a couple days away, and there is still much to be done. More on that later. Well, Menards just opened up this past spring, really close to us (about 5 miles). This is good because of this project and the stuff that we keep needing, it's super easy to hop on over there and get it. But it can also be bad for us to just hop on over there all the time. We have made many trips there for paint, brushes, paint, drop cloths, sprayer, more paint, and pretty much anything else you need to paint a house. With the store being so new, we weren't quite sure what to expect, but their prices are good, and we already had success with our paito door, so why not with painting. Here you see Jaycee riding along in one of those racecar shopping carts on yet another trip to Menards.

"Wow!!! This is cool!!!"

"Let's leave this store already."

Turtle

Besides being totally up to our eyeballs in paint, we have had a visitor try to bury himself/herself (not sure) in our yard. This turtle made its way into our yard a few weeks ago and had buried itself into a hole in our yard. Our dog, was going crazy and was about to drive me crazy when I looked out the window and saw this. Tom took it to a little creek at the back of our housing addition & let it go there.

Well, a couple of weeks later. He/She's back!!! Mollie was barking so loud, that I thought she was going to wake everyone up in our culdesac. I was about to put her in her crate, when Tom shouts at me to come outside. And wouldn't you know it, this is what I saw.

Now, Jaycee has a book called Miles and Miles of Reptiles that she is totally obsessed with. Sometimes I want to hide it so I don't have to read it AGAIN, but in there it talks about turtles and how they lay eggs and remember where they laid them and come back to that place. I sure hope that this is the last we have seen of this turtle. This time I took the turtle out to this alley where there is a lot of brush and bushes in the back of our addition. I was a little scared of it, b/c I have heard that turtles bite. And while I was taking it back, it peed all over my shovel. It kinda grossed me out.

What an amazing summer we are having so far.

Sprinkler Park

2011-06-30T23:54:00.000-05:00

It seems like at least once a week this summer so far, we have visited a sprinkler park of some sort. We could just set one up in our yard, but then our feet get all covered in grass, and it just a little messy around the house. I have found a great sprinkler park by WSU that I have loved going to so far this summer. We have gone at least once every week so far this summer. I like it b/c Jaycee loves the water, and it is a way for me to get out in the sun and still have fun with her too. She loves it b/c she can run away from the water if it gets too crazy for her.

The last 2 weeks, we have tried to get to the park when they turn on the water (around 10:00 for those who are thinking about going sometime). I like it b/c it is not the hottest part of the afternoon, and there are not a lot of other kids around. This park that we have gone to is kind of tucked away in a neighborhood by WSU. If you know the main entrance of WSU, then you just go the other way and you will most likely see it (let me know if you want more directions). I have also tried to cross another thing off of my summer list which is to do a random act of kindness. I am not the greatest at this, but I want to teach Jaycee the value of being kind to people whenever possible. One of the things that I decided to do at the park before we enjoyed the water was to pick up trash in the grass as we were walking from the car up to the water. This kind of thing doesn't just come to me naturally. God must have definitely laid it on my heart that day or something. Going out of my comfort zone is pretty scary for me, but it is also really good for me too. Picking up trash may not seem like anything too drastic, but when there are lots of other people around wondering what you're doing, it can make you feel like you're really being watched. I just want to do my good deed and not have anyone know about it. So I am telling you instead.

Anyway here are lots of pictures of Jaycee enjoying her time at the sprinklers. My hope is to visit some of the other sprinkler parks in Wichita. I just like this one b/c it is still pretty close to us, and there aren't a lot of people there very often.

I love these sunglasses.

Gotta love the dollar bins at Target!!!

I'm sure we have many more days like these in store for the rest of the summer.

Summer Randomness

2011-06-14T22:19:00.000-05:00

Wedding

This summer so far has been kind of a whirlwind for us. As soon as school was out, we headed up to Lawrence, Ks for my baby brother's wedding. It was great to see them and my dad's family that we don't get to see very often at all. Tom, Jaycee, and I spent a lot of time with my cousin Bianca and her son Nathaniel. It was great to just talk about old and new times and to see how things have been going for them lately.

Here is the happy couple Brandon, Corinne, and their little guy Ethan.

My parents getting ready before the big event.

Friends

I got the chance to watch my friends little boy for a couple of hours while she took care of some appointments. Since we had some days that our babysitter could not watch Jaycee towards the end of the school year, she graciously offered to watch Jaycee (which can be a chore) for us. So I thought that I would return the favor for her. Her little boy Corbin is about 6 months younger than Jaycee so it is fun to see what they learn from each other. Jaycee decided that she didn't want to share that day. So she got a lot of timeouts. Corbin just kept watching her wondering why she kept crying. Oh the joys of having an almost 2 year old. She wants to be so independent, but just isn't there yet, at least from mom's standpoint.

We put her and Corbin in a recliner together to get a quick picture, but it was very shortlived. Jaycee just doesn't sit still for pics anymore. It will be hard to get any good ones of her from her on out. But we will keep working on it.

Jaycee and Corbin

Hairdo

I decided that Jaycee's hair was just too much in her face one day and decided to put it in a ponytail, and got the brilliant plan of putting it in one of those ponytails that I use to do when I was a kid. It looked really cute, and Jaycee was amazingly still for it. I could have been b/c she was eating breakfast while I did it. Anyway here is what I decided to try. By the end of the day it had all fallen out, but it was cute for most of the day until after she woke up from her nap. Gotta love those naps!!! I think she sleeps like me, all crazy like tossing and turning until everything feel just perfect.

Front view.
She looks so grown up here.

Back view
So cute!!!

Summer List

So I have been reading several teacher friends blogs and have noticed that they made summer lists. As I read through them, I kept thinking to myself that this would not be the greatest thing for me b/c lists overwhelm me when things don't get done. But I thought what they hey, why not!!! After coming back from Lawrence, I kept thinking about lots of projects that we had wanted to do over the summer. Being that Tom and I are both teachers, a lot of things get put aside until then. So I thought that a way to make my summer more meaningful and to feel a sense of accomplishment, I would create a list that encompassed a lot of things for Tom, Me, and Jaycee. I want to be able to look back on our summer and see that we did more than just hang out and sleep in (which I have done plenty of). Thank the Lord for a kiddo that likes to sleep as much as we do. So here is my first attempt at a summer list. I made this with while keeping in my mind that I probably will not get to everything, but that the thought of being more intentional with how I spend my time with my family. We have already checked several things off the list. It hangs on our pantry door so that we can see it everytime we aren't sure what to do.

Tom decided that he liked this and added more things to the bottom.

Discipline

We are entering a new stage in our lives. We are trying out various styles of discipline. Time out seems to be effective most of the time, spankings too. Not sure she completely understands, but she knows more than what we even think sometimes. One challenge is that she screams. These aren't little kids screams, these are blood curdling, break the glass screams, and they not only really annoy me, but it is also really embarassing when we are out in public. We are trying to teach her how to get our attention in other ways besides screaming, but it is a long hard battle that I just sometimes don't want to deal with. What happened to the sweet little girl that just did what she was supposed to do? I know she is still there, but the screaming is just one thing that I have a hard time with. If you have any solutions, I'm all ears.

You would think that since I spend my days dealing with 3rd graders, and Tom with middle schoolers, that between the two of us, we would have something a little more figured out. No, I have come to the conclusion that 3rd graders are a lot easier to discipline than and almost 2 year old. One thing that I found completely by accident is a behavior chart. I was actually looking for some type of meal tracker, or menu planner or something to help with groceries and such, but I digress. Anyway, I found this chart and put it on our pantry door low enough for Jaycee to be able to reach it. I am using it as a positive reinforcement for her. We are trying to teach her how to put her things away and to clean up after herself, and she even has the chore of feeding the dog after the afternoon walk. When she does these things, she gets to put a sticker on her chart. I am not really picky about where, or really very consistent about it, but when I see her helping and doing really positive things that are kind and helpful, I let her choose from my box of stickers. This is her second chart. When she fills up her chart (to the point where no stickers will fit), we try to get her a prize that we wouldn't normally get her. This isn't anything too big or fancy, just something to reward her good behavior. I don't think it really means anything to her now, but it is a start. Her first prize was a toy from the dollar section at Target. Gotta love that!!!

Gotta love that she stacks them all together.

Patio Door

One of our long time projects has been to replace our patio door. It has long since been overdue. The old door was the original and like almost everything else in our house, it will be brand new too. I could make a huge list of the things we've replaced in the last 8 1/2 years. Like any other home improvement project, it always takes longer than you expect it to. I am blessed with a handy husband who studies things before he does them and knows what he is doing before he puts it in without having to hire someone. We are also blessed to have friends that will come over and help us on hot days to work on it. Even though, we still had to take a couple of extra days to finish it, and then it decided to rain, so we had a hole in the back of our house, and rain coming. Tom secured a tarp to the hole and prayed that it would hold up through the storm just long enough until he could get the new door in.

Here is the hole in our house.

Old door.

New door.

More of the new door.
Now we don't have to worry if it rains.

Tom still has a little of the inside trim work to do, but it is pretty secure. Soon we will be ready to tackle the next project "paint". More on that in another post.

10 Years

2011-06-03T20:51:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it, but yesterday we celebrated our 10th anniversary. It was filled with a new "gift" every couple of hours. The point as Tom put it was that our anniversary was ALL day and not just for specific times of the day.

It started with me not having to get up early at all. Even though the summer has started, I have still been getting up at my normal time so that I can have a little more quiet time for myself before Jaycee gets up. Tom and I talked about what the summer would somewhat look like a few weeks back, so that we each had some time to ourselves, but also together as a family and then too so that Tom could get some projects done around here.

I received my first "gift", breakfast in bed. Pancakes are my favorite!!! What a nice surprise. A couple hours later, I received my 2nd "gift", an hour deep tissue massage. I needed one after the weekend we had and after getting through another school year. What a treat for me. We ate a light lunch, and then another surprise came to the door. Flowers, they are beautiful!!! I felt really spoiled.

These are the flowers that I got.

We kind of took the rest of the afternoon easy while Jaycee got in her nap. After she woke up we went to Texas Roadhouse, which is one of my favorite places to eat. When we got into the car, there was another "gift" for me. An anniversary band. I have been wanting one for a while now, but just have had other things come up instead, so Tom decided to get one for me.

This is the anniversary band that I found on my seat in the car.

After going to eat for an early dinner, Tom got a babysitter to watch Jaycee, and we went to a movie. It is so rare that we go to the movies, but it was fun to have a night just for ourselves. It hardly seems possible that we have been married for 10 years. The time has flown by and so much has happened in our lives, but the memories that we have made are priceless.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Tom got his anniversary present early in May. He has been wanting a new softball bat since last summer, and I decided that before the season started that I would get him one. He had to pick it out though, b/c I am not really familiar with that kind of thing.

I know the next 10 years will be just as great!!!

Egg Hunt

2011-04-25T17:56:00.000-05:00

This year we went on our first egg hunt as a family. Last weekend, our neighbor called us the day before and invited us to an Easter Egg hunt. I had been looking and keeping my eyes and ears open for one in the city, but didn't see or hear anything yet. So her call came at just the right moment for us to take Jaycee on her first Egg Hunt.

Sunday after church, we came home for lunch and then headed out the our neighborhood park with basket and all to see what this Egg hunt was all about.

So here she is walking to the park with her basket and all.

She decided to swing for a while until the rest of the kids got there.

We do this a lot!!!

These were all the kids in the neighborhood that joined in the fun.

Jaycee still doesn't know how to stay put for a picture.

We're working on that. Ha ha!!!

We didn't really think she would be fast enough to get any eggs really, but with her daddy's help, she found a few.

This was her basket when she got home.

We know that egg hunts are not the real reason for Easter and we hope that everyone will know just how much Christ really does love us so much that he gave his life, but that he also lives and will return for us again one day.

Enjoying April

2011-04-23T14:38:00.000-05:00

April has been an interesting month for us. I love how the weather starts to get nice enough to spend outside, however, I hate how it really bother my family's allergies. Tom gets the worst of it in our family.

This April has been kind of different, b/c one day it will be 70 or more degrees and we are outside taking walks, running through the grass, and pulling weeds out of our yard. The very next day, it will be below 60 degrees and we are cooped up inside, with overcast skies and wind that will blow your hair right off it you let it. It has been a challenge for me, b/c I want to be doing stuff outside, but then it turns cold again. So here are some ways that Jaycee decided to enjoy April.

I love this outfit on her.

Orange is a good color for her.

She loves to play on my keyboard. So I say why not.

That is our music time for the morning.

The other day she even found a feature on the keyboard that I didn't know we had.

Loving that keyboard.

Mommy & Jaycee Day

This past Monday, Jaycee and I got to spend the whole day together. I took the day off since we had some sitter conflicts, and I traded a day with my job-share partner. This year has been so much fun working with her, b/c we are both in the same situation and we both get along really well. Anyway, I had to run some errands that I usually put off until the weekend, and then I decided that since Jaycee was being really good, we would stop by the mall and see how the play area looked there. At Towne East, there is an indoor play area, that I usually don't go to because there are always so many kids there, but today, there were only 3 other kids there beside Jaycee. So we parked our stroller and I just let her go. Here is the fun she had.

She had a ton of fun, and then it was on to have lunch and a nap. She took a really good nap that day. I guess all that playing just plum tired her out.

March Madness

2011-04-19T16:41:00.000-05:00

Well, March was MAD!!! I mean that in a good way. Most people who know my family know that we are huge basketball fans. I really wish that we made it to more games than we do, but you better believe that when those NCAA tournament brackets come out, we are all about filling those things out and see how well we do as each game goes along.

This year I had the added bonus of having a class that loves basketball just about as much as I do and a couple of kids were very interested in my bracket. We decided as a whole class to fill one out that we found in the paper when they were working on a project. Needless to say, this years tournament was kind of a mess, but that is what makes it so exciting.

I also got to spend some time with a friend at the zoo. I only got one picture there, but it was a good time none the less.

Heading to the Zoo!!!

Flamingos!!! Jaycee loved these.

Bring on the Madness!!!

My two jayhawks watching the game.

This was when we discovered that Jaycee knows what basketball is.

She calls it baball. Cute

Some time with mommy, since I usually take the pictures I thought I'd get in one this time.

Loving the shirt!!!

Not quite sure what she's doing.

Our little jayhawk with her favorite blanky.

What a great time we had over the week. I am so glad for basketball. It has helped our family have some wonderful memories.

Our Random Lives

2011-04-18T16:08:00.000-05:00

I have been so behind on blogging that it's almost embarrassing. You may be wondering what happened to us. Well, we are still plugging along and doing life the best way we know how. Many things came and went over the last couple of months that I thought I would just share some hilights.

The month of March was pretty busy for us. Mira had state assessments that my third graders had to take. I felt like my class was pretty well-prepared, but that time of year just gets to be really stressful and the atmosphere at school is pretty intense. But I made it through that and headed into spring break on a positive note b/c my class did really well while testing. I was so proud of them.

Once spring break hit, we really just took things as they came. We decided that we needed to finally get a new patio door. So we found one and Tom is going to recruit some help to put it in once the weather is nice for more than just a day.

Here Jaycee has found a new favorite in the house.

She loves pushing buttons, and has found ways to make all kinds of wonderful music in the house.

Here is grandpa Walker reading Jaycee a Halloween book. It is one of her favorites.

She loves books.

These next several pics are of things that Jaycee has found hours and hours of entertainment playing with. Who knew there were so many toys just laying around the house. She can have fun with just about anything these days.

Jaycee and me. Wish she wasn't crying for this pic. She hasn't quite gotten the concept of posing for a picture down yet.

Jaycee and some friends.

Jaycee loves reading anything.

Today she got to read the junk mail that we got.

This last part is about what happens when you fall really hard and there is a fireplace in your way. Below you will see what our fireplace used to look like and what it looks like now after the fall. It was a normal ordinary night and Jaycee was playing with her toys. She is usually pretty good about staying away from the fireplace, but she is just like me and loves to carry her blanket around with her. Well, she was walking and tripped and fell and hit her head on the fireplace. I yanked her up and saw that a lot of blood was spilling out from her head. Mind you I wasn't thinking as clearly as I could have and didn't remember that whenever you get hit in the head, it bleeds A LOT!!!! I took her to the kitchen and just patted away the blood, but it just wouldn't stop. I was getting ready to go to the emergency room. It is a good thing that I have a pretty calm husband who can handle those types of pressures. He called the on-call dr. and she told us exactly what to do for Jaycee. I was so afraid that Jaycee had a concussion or worse, but once the bleeding stopped, the cut wasn't as bad as I first thought. We doused it with Neosporin and covered her head with a butterfly bandaid. Since then, she still has a small scar, and hopefully with time it will gradually get less noticable, but it sure gave us a big scare. Shortly after that I called my dad who can pretty much make anything. (At least that's what I think.) I asked him if I could borrow some foam and material and come over sometime to make an edging so that doesn't happen again. Well, he asked me for the measurements and a picture of our fireplace, and voila a cushion to put over the fireplace is born. Now I don't have to hover and worry about Jaycee quite so much.

Our fireplace pre-fall.

Our fireplace now.

Thanks for sticking with us even when I don't update for a while. Look for more things to come soon.

33

2011-02-13T22:20:00.000-06:00

Yes, that is how old I am now. Not starting my thirties, or just entering my thirties. No, I am full blown in my thirties now. Oh the joys of getting old. I thought it would be fun to make a list of 33 things that I have done over my lifetime, but that might get to be too long of a list. Then I thought that I might just tell you 33 things that I have done this year, but since I am getting older (ha ha) I might forget some things before I'm done writing them, I also thought I might share 33 things that you may not know about me, but I don't think there are that many. So I think that I will start by telling you that this birthday was quite a surprise.

The day started off like any other. I got up somewhat early, at least before Jaycee was up and read my Bible. I have been reading Hebrews for the last month. I got dressed and Jaycee and I began our regular routine. I decided that I wanted to leave a little early today, because I was told that I might have something waiting for me at school. Well, I didn't get to school any earlier, that is just how it goes sometimes. Once I got to school, Tarrah, the teacher that I share my part time job with warned me that my class was so excited and wanted to surprise me. I went into my classroom and it was totally decorated with balloons, streamers, and lots of things that the kids got for me. Tarrah told me that I had to act surprised when she went to pick them up from PE. I made myself scarce, and when I walked into the room, the lights were out, and I opened the door to lots of shouting of "Surprise!!!" I was more surprised then ever. I am a hard person to keep a surprise from. I knew that they were going to do something, but not quite to that extreme. They all each brought some kind of chocolate because they must have heard that I like it, and then we ate pizza.

This is the card that my class of 3rd grader made for me.

They all signed it and put some stuff on it that they know I like. KU for example.

Here is a basket of chocolate that they all brought for me.

This was full of all kinds of chocolate and other candy that I love, but as the weekend went along, I decided to share some of my new treats with others. It is not so full as it once was.

Here is the card that Tom put on it to let me know he was thinking about me.

After trying to get them settled down for the day, we did a little Math and then watched a movie. I always tell my class that the work comes first and if they didn't get it finished then we wouldn't get to watch very much of the movie. That was a great motivator for them. While my class was working, I got another surprise. Tom had a gift basket of assorted treats that I like sent over to my school from Dillons. He knows me so well. I am not a huge flower person. Don't get me wrong, I love flowers, but I just am not good about keeping them alive and looking beautiful for very long. So he sent my favorite sweets over. I was more than happy to share with my class since I had more than I think I can ever eat in a lifetime. But I saved the best ones for myself.

Afterschool, I picked up Jaycee and met Tom at home. When Tom got home, he told me to get myself ready and be thinking of where I wanted to go for my birthday. Of course I was thinking of a place that would be kid-friendly so that Jaycee wouldn't be too much of a distraction. He told me not to worry about that. He got a babysitter (our good friend Angela and her daughter Calla) to come over and stay with Jaycee while we went out. He also asked me what movie I wanted to see. It has been so long since I actually went out to see a movie, that I had to call the movie line to see what was even out.

So onto our date. It has been a while since it was just the two of us. We went to eat at this new place down the street from our house Fizz. They have the best burger that I have had in quite a while. I also loved their sweet potato fries. After being full from that, we went to see The Dilemma. This was a really funny movie that had lots of twists and laughs. It was a really fun and relaxing night. That is mostly what I wanted for my birthday. Just to enjoy being with my best friend, Tom and taking it easy.

This is the restaurant that we went to Friday night.

It's pretty quiet and quaint. It will be wonderful when the weather is nicer to sit outside.

No, I didn't take a picture of my food. But this is one I found from their website and this is what I ordered.

By the way, if you like sweet potatoes, you'll love their new sweet potato fries.

It was a great 33rd birthday.

Meal Swap

2011-02-08T14:44:00.000-06:00

Well, this is a post that I wanted to originally do in December. Well 2 months later I am finally getting to post some things that I have done that were fun and were things for me. A lot of times I get so caught up in being a mom and wife, that I forget to do things for myself sometimes.

One thing that has really been a challenge for me this year is getting meals together so that we can eat together as a family at a reasonable time. Since I started working afternoons, I have found that my time gets away from me and I have to go way sooner than I would like. But I have found that there are a lot of things I really enjoy about my schedule. For example, I really love that I don't have to get up so early if I don't want to. That part can get me into trouble sometimes, because I know that I have to be up and ready to go before Tom leaves for work or else I won't be able to get ready if Jaycee is up. It is a little overwhelming, but I have been able to manage when I have to do it. I also love that I don't have to get dressed right away either. If I want to stay in my pjs until I leave for work I can especially on these cold, chilly, and snowy days we have had lately. I can also take some time for myself and read my Bible, which I just don't do as often as I would like to. I have found that the best times for me to read my Bible and get a lot out of it are when Jaycee and Tom and still asleep. I can have a concentrated time and really dig in and explore what God is trying to teach me with the verses that I read. Please don't think that I do this regularly. I strive for this, but sometimes the busyness of life gets in the way and I don't have quite the concentration that I would like. Another thing that I love is that I get to have breakfast with Jaycee. When I worked in the mornings, Tom usually gave her breakfast while I finished getting ready. Now I get to have some real quality time and help show her how to feed herself (She is wanting to do that more and more these days).

While there are so many great things about my schedule, there are also some disadvantages of my schedule. I am looking at the time regularly to make sure that I am staying on track with what I need to do before I have to drop Jaycee off at the babysitter's. I also find that since the morning is when Jaycee is the most alert, I don't get quite as much housework done.(More on that in another post) I also have a hard time getting dinner ready for that evening. That is the hardest thing for me to get used to.

Usually I can just make up something ahead of time and then heat it up when I get home, but if it isn't something that I can just heat up, I have to do a lot of extra planning and preparations for meals in the evenings. So I was really glad when a girl from work invited me to join in a meal swap with her. There were 4 of us who decided to the swap. We chose our favorite meal that could be frozen later if necessary and made 4 of that particular main dish. Then we brought them to school and we handed out our main dishes to each other. When I left that day I had 4 main dish meals that I could freeze until I was ready to use them.

Here is the entree that I made, it is what I call my signature dish that I always take to people, Chicken Enchiladas. I received 4 other meals that were absolutely delicious, Ham Potato Casserole, Beef & Noodles, and BBQ Meatballs. Maybe some time I will get the chance to do a meal swap again. I sure helped right around Christmas not having to think too hard about what to have for dinner.

Here are the chicken enchilidas that I made.

They are one of my favorite recipes, that I got right after we got married.

Of course I couldn't forget the cheese. The top of the entree is loaded with cheese!!! Yum!!!

Here is my packed freezer after I got the other entrees from work.

And here is my kitchen sink after I was done making all those entrees.

I guess it was a good thing there were only four of us this time.

Well, if you are ever in need for some new entrees or you are just bored with what you make all the time, you might think about doing a meal swap with some people you know. I am hoping I can do this again after this wintery season is over.

Snow

2011-01-23T21:04:00.000-06:00

This winter has been really strange. It started out being not so chilly, and then has lately become really cold. We have not had much time to get out and do much, but we did have the chance to experience snow for the first time last week. Even though Tom and I didn't get a snow day, we were glad that those days were not so stressful and full. We did try to get out a little bit to see what Jaycee thought about the snow. This snow was not the greatest for building a snowman. It was quite powdery and fluffy, but it sure did make things looks all nice and white around here.

We bundled Jaycee up and decided that we would head out in the snow one day afterschool. I was getting tired of not being able to do much outside, so we just headed out to explore.

Here is Jaycee all bundled up right before heading outside.

She doesn't walk very well with her heavy coat on, but she looks so cute and funny.

Jaycee had just gotten done putting her hand in the snow. Not sure she liked it too much.

Here are several pictures of our afternoon adventures with snow. We didn't stay out too long. Tom and I are both wimps when it comes to the cold. But it was fun none the less.

We attempted to use a rubbermaid tub as a sled. It's too bad that this was not sledding snow.

I think it would have been a lot of fun.

Well, I actually hope that it snows again. I know I'm not big on cold, but it would be fun to go sledding with my little family. I also would love to see Jaycee's reaction to making snowballs. She loves playing with balls. We have more pictures to come soon.

Grandma's

2011-01-23T18:18:00.000-06:00

My grandma on my mom's side lives on a farm. It is a place where I have many memories of hard work. When my family first moved to Kansas, we went to my grandma's to do a lot of the gardening and outside work, especially in the summer. The thing I remember most about my grandma's house is that she had a watermelon patch. To me as a kid I thought it was huge!!! But in reality, I think that it was just normal for a watermelon patch that is.

Anyway, we didn't get to have those delicious watermelons this year, and that part of my grandma's has fallen to my youngest cousins. We do have great times there though, and this January had Christmas with my grandma. We thought it would be a little less hectic after December so that everyone's lives would settle down a little after the holidays.

One of the best things about my grandma's is that everyone makes such awesome food. We had a lot to choose from. The meal consisted of chili, soup, hot wings (boy were they spicy), jello salad, lots of yummy desserts such as custard pie, cake, peanut logs, candy, and much more. We were absolutely stuffed when we left.

There are several little cousins under the age of 5 and they all got gifts. Since most of them are boys, my mom decided that they needed some balls. That made for a lot of fun entertainment for us all. Jaycee and her boy cousins were throwing all of the balls all over the house. It was lots of fun. I was kind of wary of it, since it wasn't our own house, but no one else seemed to mind.

Another fun thing that we do at grandma's is play games. We learned a game called SET, at least I think that is what it was called. It was kind of hard until you got the hang of it. There were also some games on TV and everyone enjoyed talking and catching up.

Overall we had a great time at grandma's. I look forward to Easter.

So have I told you Jaycee likes to help with chores? Well, she found the broom and decided that she needed to start cleaning up. Hopefully she'll be that cooperative in the future.

This is her second cousin. They are only a month apart.

As you can tell, neither one of them wants to share.

More Sweeping!!!

December (Part 2)

2011-01-08T15:11:00.000-06:00

The 2nd half of our December started with a trip to Kansas City. We went there to visit my brother who just had a baby in the beginning of November. We thought that since my parents live close to us that we would all head up there and spend our Christmas that way. My other brother who lives in Chicago wasn't able to make it because they had a new baby of their own just a couple of weeks earlier. My parents were headed up to see them on Christmas Day. We decided that spending the weekend before Christmas together would be good. For the last couple of years, my parents have wanted us to get together and do things or go on outings instead of doing the buying gifts for everybody. This year they got us a hotel room and we got to go swimming, watch my nephew be baptized, and do some shopping. We did get presents for the kids/babies, because it is just fun to do with them. Here are some things we did on our trip.

This was Jaycee before we headed out on our trip.

Brandon, Corrinne, and Ethan right before his baptism.

Mira's parents with the two grandchildren.
I am surprised that Jaycee stayed sitting.

Brandon had a huge oversized tennis ball that Jaycee had a blast playing with. As you can tell.

She loved opening presents. What she really liked was the paper.

After we came back from the trip, Jaycee got a really neat KU outfit from her grandma and grandpa Walker. Since both Tom and I love KU (even though neither of us went there), we thought that she should have a lounging day in her new KU gear.

On Christmas Eve, we headed over to Tom's sister's house to celebrate Christmas with the Ehrlich's. Jaycee was kind of not so happy on the ride there, so I was prepared for a pretty rough evening, but uncle John had a laptop and found her favorite PBS show Super Why! She sat there so still for almost 30 minutes straight. This gave me time to eat dessert without her wanting to be held and then put down. (Later on in the week, I found out that she was cutting some new teeth. I guess I should have known by her different demeanor)

Christmas Day

On Christmas day, we actually got to sleep in. The night before I think wore Jaycee out, so she allowed us to sleep in a little, and that was great for me. We didn't do that whole Santa thing because she doesn't know about all that yet, and so we just got up ate some yummy cinnamon rolls, and then headed over to the tree to open presents. We didn't do much for presents this year. Mostly, Tom and I went out together and bought a few things that we each said we would like to have and then came home and wrapped them. So we weren't real suprised, but it was still fun to have Jaycee open up the gifts. Most of the gifts were bags this year. But the tissue paper was fun for her.

Can't you see how thrilled she is to have breakfast.

One of the things that we really wanted to do this year was to make Jaycee a little kitchen. She has been really curious about the kitchen in general, so I thought that we would make her one. I found the idea from Family Fun magazine, and asked Tom if he thought he could make one for her. Here is what he came up with. I thought it was really cute, and we spent a few days before Christmas getting some play kitchen stuff for it. I think at first Jaycee didn't really know what to do with it, but she has soon gotten to like it and to pretend to wash the dishes. Here are some pics of her new homemade kitchen.

It was nice just to have the day to ourselves and not to have to be anywhere. We all stayed in our PJs all day and just kind of vegged out. It was one of the most relaxing Christmas's that I have had in a while.

December (Part 1)

2011-01-06T17:37:00.000-06:00

December started very quickly for us. Right after Thanksgiving was over, I felt like we were in a sea of Christmas songs, trees, cold, green and red. I used to not like this time of year so much, but as I have a little girl that I want to share special holiday memories with, I am finding that some things about Christmas time are really worth celebrating.

We ended up getting our tree up that first weekend of December. In years past we have spent the day after Thanksgiving setting it all up, but this year we just really didn't get to it. We had a little helper this year who is very curious about every little thing that we pulled out of the tubs of Christmas stuff.

This is one to the cutest pictures of Jaycee we took this month.

Jaycee was a little bit of a help putting up the ornaments this year. Tom and I decided that every year we would pick out a family ornament and write the year on it. Last year we started an ornament collection for Jaycee too. She actually got her first Christmas ornament from her grandma Ehrlich last year. I don't quite know what she thought of the ornaments and the tree, but she was pretty good about not going near it. We worked really hard on that. It also helps that our house is multi-level and the tree is on the level where she is not left to total freedom.

Jaycee seemed like she grew right before our eyes over the month of December. One of the newest things that she has been wanting to do is to feed and walk our dog Mollie. Mollie has not gotten as much attention in recent days, and I thought that this was a great way for Mollie to see that Jaycee love her. It is sometimes funny to see them play together. I feel like I have 2 kids some days, but Mollie listens a lot better than Jaycee, but we're working on that. Mollie sometimes gets tired of wanting to do the same things over and over again and will go and lay down in a chair, but she humors Jaycee from time to time.

A Night With Santa

Towards the beginning of December, I found out about a free event happening downtown. It was called A Night With Santa. I thought that it might be something fun that we could do as a family and who can beat free. All we were encouraged to do was bring some canned food for the Kansas Food Bank. It happened to be a week that there wasn't much going on, and so we went. As we were pulling up in the parking lot, I started to think, "What have I gotten us into?" We had to park really far away and when we walked in there were tons of people everywhere. It was like lines as the fair or an amusement or something like that. But we braved it anyway to see what it was all about and also since we were there we might as well see Santa too.

It was like a carnival. There were games, face painting, tatoos, pictures with Santa, and those moonwalk blow up games. Jaycee wasn't much for really any of it except for a blow up toy that was powered by a fan and could be seen from anywhere in the building. She hated the face painting and cried the whole time, and did the same for those rub on tatoos too. So we decided to see Santa. After standing in line for almost 20-30 minutes, we found out that we were in the line for something else. Tom and I decided that this probably wasn't for us anymore and we headed home. I was able to snap a few pictures before we left.

As we were leaving we saw some neat Christmas lights and Jaycee and I got out to pose in front of them.

Jaycee found some things that were toys last month. One of them was the gate. She shakes it and looks through it at us or at the dog. She also really loved the lights and a Little People nativity set that was given to us by a dear friend.

This became one of Jaycee's favorite toys to play with this year. She would take turns stacking different figures up on the top of the stable. I really thought that she knew which one the angel was, but not quite. She put every animal and person on top of the manger and then it played a cute little song.

She has come to love this little dalmation chair.
It is really soft and she looks for books & "reads."

Well, this was the first part of our December. I will share more of our December later.

Christmas Cards

2010-12-23T02:28:00.000-06:00

A while back I shared with you that this whole Christmas card thing just snuck up on me pretty quickly and I am so in procrastination mode right now. Things seem to be happening so fast these days. It really needs to slow down. I am SO grateful to have a break to just relax with family and hopefully visit some old friends I haven't seen in a while.

One of my last posts talked about how I used Shutterfly to order my Christmas cards. I loved using them because I was able to get a really simple card that said Merry Christmas. While my procrastination will not get those cards out by Christmas, it is simply the thought that counts.

One other really cool thing about getting my cards from Shutterfly is that they ran a promotion at that time and I was able to get all of my photo Christmas cards FREE!!!! That's right you heard me. FREE!!! The only thing I had to pay for was shipping, which really wasn't bad at all. I got 50 FREE Christmas cards and am able to hand out some to the people that I will see in a few days and send out all the rest to people that I don't get to see very much at all.

So be on the look out for some simple, but way late Christmas cards from us coming soon.

Christmas Letter 2010

2010-12-16T00:21:00.000-06:00

This is my very meager attempt to save paper and stamps and post our Christmas Letter for this year. Or as I think I may start calling it, our Year In Review letter for 2010.

Shutterfly

2010-12-14T08:16:00.007-06:00

This year the Christmas card thing has snuck up on me. While I wanted to have an absolutely cute card to send out to all of our family and friends, I just have had a lot of other stuff occupying my time these days. I did happen to find a really cute card that was short, sweet, and to the point from Shutterfly. I have really liked using Shutterfly for alot of our cards, gifts, and special memories. It is a great way to send things to people far away and close by. I have made different cards, birthday invitations, and announcements using Shutterfly. I also really like that they give you lots of promotional discounts once you use them. I get lots of email promo codes and coupons from them consistently letting me know of the latest styles and projects that I can send as gifts.

Here is the card that I picked for this year. You can choose from several styles here. I chose this card because it was short sweet and to the point. Also, it made our pictures look really good and they fit well in this design. We took these pictures right before Jaycee's first birthday and this is the perfect opportunity to show them off.

I also created a card for Jaycee's 1st birthday party. Click here to learn how you can make one like this too.

Here are a couple of Father's Day cards that I made for Tom and Jaycee's grandpas. It was fun to do this.

I also made this really neat Mother's Day card for Jaycee's grandmas.

Last year I decided for Christmas to get mine and Tom's parents a calendar of Jaycee so far. While she was only 2 months old at the time, I dressed her up as best as I could and made a year long calendar. I also made on for myself too. I still have it, but I need to get started making a new one for 2011. What grandparent wouldn't love a calendar filled with their grandchildren's memories?

Well, there is more to come. The month of December has been busy already and I am sure that I will use Shutterfly for my photo gift needs. If you hurry, you can make some of the things I have shown you today too.

November

2010-12-04T23:43:00.000-06:00

It never ceases to amaze me, but once again, November flew by like a brisk Kansas wind. It came, I had many cries, laughs, memories were made, and now it is gone. I hate to say it, but I am so glad.

November is a time to be thankful, and I am completely thankful for so many things, but it is also a time for me when I think about and miss Caden so much. I wish that he would be able to join us in the festivities and fun times of cooking, meeting those relatives, hanging out with all the aunts and uncles, meeting new cousins, trying to stay cool in a hot grandma's house, and most of all celebrating all of the wonderful things that God has done for us over the year.

Last night, I went to a Remembrance Service that Agape Care Cradle held for the families that they served this year. This was the first time that we were able to go since the year we lost Caden. This was their 4th annual service. It is hard for me to believe that they have been around that long and that we were part of the beginning, when this ministry was started. I hate that there has to be a ministry like this, but I am so thankful that there is. I honestly don't know how I could have healed without them.

Anyway, Tom and I went to this service with the intentions of seeing and talking with Shannon, the lady who walked with us through setting up Caden's memorial. We also just wanted to show our support for what she and her ministry are able to do. We can't show our support in the greatest of financial ways, but we can show up and let her know that she does touches people in a very real way during an extremely difficult time.

During the service, the pastor who spoke shared several things that touched me. He talked about how God has used our babies to give us courage & strength to endure life here on earth without them. I was completely overwhelmed and touched by that, because I see it in my own life. I know that it is by no accident that God used Caden to strengthen me and lean on Him in ways that I never would have before. I also know that the fear that I used to have about the smallest of things are not so huge for me anymore. I also have felt that God has changed my priorities. The things that once seemed so important are small in the grand scheme of things. I guess that is what God has wanted me to see this year. That no matter how much I miss Caden or how sad I start to feel, Caden is always a part of me and God is allowing his spirit to give me strength when I don't think I can go on anymore. As I was listening to the radio this past week, I heard something that really puts my life these past 3 years into perspective. You know that there is a saying or quote that God never gives you more than what you can handle. Well, the person on the radio was saying that God gives us so much that we can't handle it without HIM. That is so true!!!

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November started and ended for us with a couple of new additions to our family. On the first of November, Jaycee got a new cousin, Ethan James Walker. Over Thanksgiving break, we got to meet him. He's a cutie, but then again, all babies are. I think that I am just biased a little, because he is my nephew. He has a great mixture of both my brother and Corinne, my soon to be sister in law.

It was so fun for me, because it is hard for me to believe that just about a year ago, Jaycee was that small. My how the time flies. My brother and Corinne live in Lawrence, and I hope that we will get to see a lot of them as Ethan grows up. Jaycee really didn't pay much attention to him unless he was crying. She had a concerned look on her face when she heard him cry. Maybe that means that she is going to have a caring heart. I pray!!! Anyways, it was good to meet him and shower him with gifts. We got him some little board books, a giftcard (mostly for diapers), and some old clothes that were given to us right before we lost Caden. It is nice to know that they will be put to good use.

My baby brother Brandon & my new nephew

Ethan James Walker

November also ended with Jaycee getting a new cousin. My other brother Caleb and his wife Casey had a little girl, Eloise Anne Walker. They live in the Chicago area, so we haven't had a chance to meet her yet, but I am definitely going to be sending up some of Jaycee's clothes for her to wear. My brother has a little boy Everett, who is just 2 months older than Jaycee, so he doesn't have much in the way of girly things. It is fun to shop for another girl. Hopefully she will like some of Jaycee's hand-me-downs. I can't wait to see pictures of her to come soon.

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We got to do so many things in November that I couldn't capture them all, but here are some of my favorites. Like a dingleberry, I didn't capture all the moments on camera, b/c I was trying to participate, but here is what I did get.

I got the bright idea of trying to make a Thanksgiving card with Jaycee. You know the one with the handprint and feathers. Yeah it was great fun!!!

Tom's aunt gave us this super fun table, and I decided to try to do some crafts with Jaycee.

Super fun!!!

Tearing paper.

One of Jaycee's favorite things to do.

Here is the finished product.

We gave these to Jaycee's grandma Walker & great grandma Froese.

Thanksgiving dinner at great grandma Froese's house.

These are my cousins kids, Martin and Thomas.

Jaycee thought that she was big enough to feed herself too. Oh boy!!!

Fun Times with Mollie!!!

Our dog Mollie doesn't get as much attention as she used to, but we are trying to adjust and balance her and Jaycee's need together. It is sometimes like having 2 kids, but Mollie is a little better at listening than Jaycee.

They are getting used to each other.

They both give each other kisses.

How sweet!!!

Mollie still just tolerates Jaycee, but loves it when Jaycee drops food for her.

I think Mollie gets the better end of the deal.

Jaycee loves her and chases her all over the place.

Well, we look forward to celebrating what December and the Christmas season is really all about Christ's birth. I can't wait to see what is in store for us this year. There is never a dull moment around here. See ya soon!!!

Tough

2010-11-22T09:53:00.000-06:00

It's been a tough couple of weeks for me emotionally. What I had planned for myself to be doing these days just isn't happening. I have found myself crying a lot these days and I keep wondering why? I thought that I would be in a different place than where I am at right now. This grief thing is tough!!!

I have been dealing with a lot of guilt lately. Some of it is completely random and I have no idea where it came from and then some of it is reminders back to when I delivered Caden. My guilt that stems from that moment has been on my mind a lot lately!!! I remember how much of a failure I felt at that time, and still feel that way. As I was telling a friend today, I remember back then feeling like my body failed me, I failed to have a successful pregancy, and I was just a failure at handling grief the "right" way. Today, I find myself still feeling some of that. My failure stems from other things today though. I feel like I have failed at knowing how to openly and honestly bring my grief with me without bumming out those around me. I don't want to be sad anymore, but I just can't help it sometimes. I want to be happier, I don't want to cry all the time, I want to laugh, and not sit around and think about sad stuff, but this is what I do. I am so concerned with wanting people to see that I am ok, that sometimes I just put on a brave face that isn't real. If there is anything that I have learned in the last couple of weeks is that I want to be real. I have a hard time with it. I don't always know how to do it. I can't see myself from any other perspective but my own. I can't see how much I have grown through this experience. I am so afraid that if I am really real and let people see me crying that they won't want me around. In my head I keep thinking that I should be better at this by now. I have had 3 years to work on these things. I wish I knew how to let myself be me, whoever that is and that it will be good enough. I never feel like I am good enough for anything.

I know in my head that these things are not true and that Satan is really working on my last nerve these days!!! It still doesn't make those feelings of failure go away. I am so hard on myself and think that I have to react in such a way that pleases everyone, even if it is not my place to do so. That is just how I am built I guess. It is annoying sometimes. I know that there will never be any way that I can do that, but I feel like a failure when I have a hard time with things people say, or how I think about a person be it nice or not. I alway end up feeling bad about it, when I know that it really is OK to feel that way. I am my own worst critic and it is hard to live with myself sometimes. I wish that I could give myself a break and just be.

That is what I am working on. God and I need to spend a lot more time together so He can show me the truth. Until then I guess I will give myself permission to cry, think, and grieve in whatever way I need to, and that will have to be good enough.

Despite all of this, I have been keeping myself pretty busy. This weekend I got the chance to make over 100 cupcakes for a friends bridal shower on Sunday. If you don't know already, I really love being creative with things like that and it gives me something to do for somebody else. I had a lot of fun, and cupcakes are a lot easier to decorate than cakes. You may want to visit here to see what I am talking about. Here are two cupcakes that I managed to save from the party. It was a lot of fun and I really hope that my friend had a great time. It was a good distraction from everything else in my life, and gave me something to feel proud of.

Tears, Saddness, Forgotten, & Alone

2010-11-07T20:02:00.000-06:00

This past week was really hard for us. I found myself swept up in waves and waves of saddness at various times throughout the week. I couldn't even catch up with it. My saddness overtook me many times this week and I found myself crying at what seemed to me to be really odd times, but the tears just would not stop. I kept asking myself why?

This morning I had some time to just sit in a quiet house and think. I started to realize that this time of the year is still so fresh in my mind what Tom and I went through 3 years ago. I still see and hear all the sights and sounds of what happened to us back then. Today was Sunday and it was 3 years ago today that we had to leave the hospital without our son. I haven't had a really good cry in a while until this morning and every part of me wanted to skip church and forget about life today. But I didn't. Last week our pastor had such a good sermon that really spoke to me and I wanted to hear more. I really think that God is talking to me about a lot of things lately and I wait patiently for specific answers to my prayers and questions.

"Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure and lovely, whatever is admirable and excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things." Phillipians 4:8 This verse is what I clung to when I had the worst times of saddness, feeling worthless as a person, and plain not knowing how to react to harsh but well-intentioned words. It was a time in my life when I felt like I was all alone. Lately, I have earnestly been trying to cling to it again to know that my pain is not going to last forever and that God has things in store for me beyond what I can even think of right now. But, I find myself thinking about how badly hurt, alone, and forgotten I feel.

This last week brought back so much pain and memories that are so vivid and real to me. I was thinking back to 3 years ago when we lost Caden, we had to step out of our comfort zones so much and ask people for help even when we didn't want to. I guess I was kind of hoping that the closest people to us who were right therewith us back then during our pain would also try to reach out, at least in a small way to comfort us and encourage us this week. I am greatly saddened that we were pretty much left alone this week. I know that not many people can ever understand what we are going through and I wish that no one ever has to, but it hurts me that we weren't remembered much this week. We both really needed a shoulder to lean on this week and just felt blah. It really hurts and I wonder sometimes if people are afraid to get to close to us because our pain might rub off. I am sure that is not it, but that thought crosses my mind more than I am ever willing to admit.

As I am trying to sort out exactly how I feel I know that I need to keep thinking about what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praisworthy. I know that the God of peace will be with me. I wish I knew exactly what to do right now. My instincts are to hide out until I don't feel like this anymore because I don't feel like being around people when I am disappointed, alone, hurt and sad so much. I know that not everybody needs someone who is dealing with this in their lives at happy moments. I also don't want to burden anyone with my load, people have enough of their own things on their plates to deal with without us. I just wish I felt like I had someone to turn to right now.

I know that God will get us through this and that we will learn and grow through this. I sometimes wish that I didn't have to go through such pain and saddness to grow. But if that is what it takes to allow God to work in my life, then I will surrender to it and will do the best that we can to grow and learn and help others so that they don't have to be alone too.

Thanks for listening to what's been on my heart lately.

Three Years

2010-11-02T22:16:00.000-05:00

Today it has been 3 years since we last saw and touched Caden. We missed him a lot today. We decided that we were going to do some things together as a family to remember him and to celebrate what he has meant and done for our lives since last having him. This time of year always is kind of hard for us, because Halloween was the last time that Caden was alive. It is in a way bittersweet now because we have a beautiful little girl who we so very much want to celebrate, but we also don't want to forget what Caden brought to our lives too. It is something that we never imagined that our little family would have to be thinking about.

We decided today to just get away for the day and remember and talk about the things that have happened since losing Caden and also the things that never would have happened without going through the grief of losing him. I have had a hard time lately with that, because I don't want to be sad anymore and I am wanting to look at the beautiful things that have come about as a result of Caden. There are many that I don't even realize.

We decided to get 3 green balloons and head out of town. First we went to my parents house. They have been so very gracious about showing us that they care and remember Caden too. It has amazed me how much that they think about him too. My relationship with them has been a lot closer and easier to talk to them about the hardships of life than what it used to be. I believe that Caden was the cause of bringing us together like that. I thank him for that.

We then decided to go to Coronado Heights in the center part of Kansas. I don't really know if it is exactly the center, but Tom said it is so I believe him. He is usually pretty good about navigating and maps and stuff like that. We thought it would be a good place to reflect on the last 3 years of our lives and to release our balloons. I will say that the weather was absolutely beautiful. I couldn't have asked for a better day.

While we were reflecting about the last 3 years, I was thinking about how much has changed in me and in our relationship too. Tom and I have gone through a lot!!! We sometimes just don't know how to comfort each other, but we have had to have many really tough conversations and have had to step out of our comfort zones frequently these last 3 years. He knows me better than anyone and I know that God put him in my life for a special reason.

We were thinking back to the new friendships we have made since losing Caden. That is one of the things that I am choosing to look at as a result of losing him. There are so many painful memories that I don't want to remember and that I remember all too much that when I can think about the good things that have come from losing him, it makes all of the heartache and grief seem to mean something to me.

At first when we lost Caden, many people asked us if there was anything that they could do for us. We had no ideas how to even answer that question, but when we did, we were so unsure and scared how to approach those people again. We would wonder, Did they really mean it? Should I call them? What if they don't want to talk to me? What will I do then? Those questions ran through our minds constantly. I remember actually saying to myself that I need help and these people said I could call them, so here goes. I got up every ounce of courage that I had and I made a phone call. There were several times that I knew that person was not the person for me to talk to at that moment, but there were a couple of acquaintances (at least back then) that I called and they dropped whatever they were doing to just sit with me, or bring me a cherry coke, or take a walk with me, or just let me cry or pray with me. I will never forget that for as long as I live. That meant the most to me. I felt like I was OK to be the weepy, out of control, crying, wreck of a person that I was back then and they were completely OK with me the way I was. I don't think that those people would be such good friends as they are today had it not been for Caden bringing us together. While I wish that I wouldn't have had to lose him to gain a new friend, I forever am grateful that he brought me out of my shell and allowed me to be vulnerable and real with people in a way that I never could before. Through that I learned a great peace that is still with me now that we have continued to grow our family. I believe that God put Caden in our lives to leave that type of legacy for us.

As the day went on, Jaycee was not quite sure what to think about what we were doing. I think she was just glad to have both of her parents all to herself. She loved playing with the balloons in the car, and she had such a great attitude all day. She smiled more today than I have seen. I'm really glad that she has a big brother to look out for her.

Right before we released the balloons, well, there was only one by the time we got up to the top of the building because it was kind of windy and they flew away on their own and one popped while we were writing a note on it. Tom took a moment to say a little prayer for Caden and our family and prayed that God would help us continue learning how to remember Caden in a special way each year and to bring to lessons we have learned from him with us. I spoke a short word as if I were talking right to Caden himself. I so wish that I could do that more, but it is hard. I want Caden to know that I really miss him and that he has changed my life so much!!!! I hope that he is keeping a place for us in heaven and that he will continue to watch over Jaycee when we can't. I feel like when I look at Jaycee I see bits and pieces of Caden in her and it makes me cry and smile all at the same time. After that we both held Jaycee's hand and let her release the balloon to the sky.

Later on in the day, we decided to just hang out and see what we could find to do. We stopped at a place where they had a small toy truck that Jaycee could ride and she had some fun with that. It was a wonderful day. We did a lot of talking in the car about what we were doing 3 years ago, and it makes me sad to think about it. I don't want to remember all the hospital stuff, but that is where I was then. I told Tom that I want to go from this point on remembering the positive things that have come about as a result of Caden. I know that those sad days will come especially when those milestone days hit, but I also know that Caden is rejoicing in heaven and preparing a place for us when it is our time to join him.

Throughout our grieving period, I searched and searched through my Bible for things that would comfort me and help me continue finding some sense of myself again. There were many that went right along with what I was going through. Here are a couple of my favorites.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:6-7

"...I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through HIM who gives me strength."
Philippians 4:12-13

Thanks for listening to me share some of my most recent reflections about Caden and our journey through life without him.

October

2010-11-01T10:49:00.000-05:00

I am way behind on my blogging. The month of October has been really busy for all of us. You would think with having some extra days off, I would have some time to blog, but no!!!

The beginning of the month was spent getting ready for Jaycee's big 1 year birthday party. I had a lot of fun making her cake and organizing what we would plan for that day. I like to do things like that when I have the time. She got a lot of fun big girl toys and gets them out everyday and spreads them all over the floor. Our floor pretty much is like a tornado went through our house everyday. But I would rather it be that way then have to clean it up 5 times a day.

After her birthday, Jaycee became quite familiar with the camera. I think that she got so used to people and us taking her picture so much that she learned how to cheese it up. Now (most of the time anyway), she will make a cheese face when the light of the camera goes off. What a little ham we have on our hands.

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We had a week where we had a long weekend and had a short fall break from school. We decided to go to the pumpkin patch. I thought this would be something different that we don't normally do, and I have been seeing ads for pumpkin patches all the time so I thought we would try one. Tom the resourceful guy that he is even found coupons for us. So we went to Walter's Pumpkin Patch. There was a lot of stuff to do, but mostly Jaycee just wanted to push her stroller. I kept thinking that we could have done that at home. Oh well, that is the mind of a one year old for ya.

They had a bouncy trampoline like pillow that Jaycee loved.

Tom decided to try the slides. He said they were quite bumpy.

Jaycee sort of picked out her pumpkin.

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Jaycee became quite acquainted with some of her new toys. The legos are a special treat for us all. She loves to watch me build something and put it together only to knock it down right when I finish. I love it though, because she looks as if she is wondering what in the world I am building and then laughs when it falls over. She will be across the room and see me build something and then here she comes running to knock it over. I love it!!!

The day before Halloween, she got a cute little spooky shirt. That day was absolutely beautiful. We as a family decided to take a really long walk and go to the park close to our house. There is a swing that she loves there. I captured a few of her favorite times on Saturday!!!

We had a lot of fun in October and this only captures a short moment of it, but we enjoyed being able to have some time off and to hang out together. I have more Halloween memories to come. I have yet to sort through all of the pictures yet.