The Knittmaster 5000

I am not what you would call a "crafty gal". I enjoy scrapbooking mostly because it means an excuse to drink coffee and socialize with my friends. I go to craft shows and spend lots of money on things that other people make. I get insanely jealous when my girlfriends find something cheap and ugly at the thrift store and makes it into something cute. I signed up to make earrings at my church at Christmastime but I mostly conned in the crafty gal sitting next to me into doing it while I talked to her (thanks Niki - love my earrings). I could go on. You get the idea. I have craft envy.
Anyway, when Holly asked me to help her figure out her new "If You Say Sew Deluxe Knitting Spool" (i.e. the knittmaster 5000) that she got from Auntie Grace for an early birthday present, you could say I was less than enthusiastic.
I would of sent her to her dad but he was working. John is much craftier than I...or at least can read instructions. If you look closely at the bottom of the knittmaster 5000 you will see that it says it's for ages 8 and up. That has to be one crafty 8 year-old. It took me literally an hour to figure out what they were talking about. Unfortunately for Holly, once I did figure it out, I wouldn't give it back to her. I was hooked. Yes, hooked on the knittmaster. I couldn't stop knitting. Check it out.
Yes, I made that long strand of something coming out of the knittmaster. All by myself. Holly asked what it was suppose to be and I had to tell her I had no idea. That not the point. The point is, I made it. Upon further reading of the instructions, I guess your suppose to knit like three of those strands and then somehow attach them to make a scarf.
Holly made me promise that I wouldn't touch the knittmaster today. She said that she wants to do it. She said that after all, it was her birthday gift. Perhaps she's right.
Lucky for me, I know there is one of those looms you can make potholders on somewhere buried in a box. I am going to try and find it. With my newly discovered crafty abilities, I just know that this time I will figure it out.

H is for Hulk

There are pros and cons to your little boy figuring out what sound each letter makes. The pro is that your little boy is finally figuring out what sound each letter makes. The con is that when he needs to bring something that starts with the letter H to preschool, he chooses this...I tried to talk him out of it. I said, "I think this may scare the little girls at your school." He replied, "Yeah, and the boys will love it."
The snow is melting...this makes me happy.
My microwave is still broken...this makes me sad.

Read at your own risk...

CAUTION....CAUTION...CAUTION....CAUTION...
Today's blog may only be appropriate for Grandma's. Specifically Katie's Grandma. Who, by the way, will be here in 48 days. YEAH!!!!!! I love my mom. My greatest fear of moving to this state where-it-hardly-ever-snows-but-when-it-does-it-doesn't-stick-around was that I would have to leave my mom. Funny how from the years of 15 to 18 I couldn't wait to get away from her and now I count the days until she comes like it's a trip to Disneyland or something. My daughter will be 15 in about three years. I wonder if
she will not want to be around me. I doubt it. I am cool.
Anyhoo, the kids are growing up way too fast. Katie is growing out of her clothes like crazy. I have started to have her wear my favorites one more time so I can take pictures before I load them up for the consignment shop. Remember this purple one mom? You bought it for her when we were still in the hospital because you said it looked so fuzzy and warm. I remember she nearly drowned in it when we first put it on her, now the pants were up to her knees.

Good thing you will be here soon because this is how I resorted to feeding her the other day. Sam and I were in the middle of an intense game of GO FISH and we didn't want to be interrupted.

Here's Katie on her new rocking eggplant. Yes, you read that correctly...rocking eggplant. Who in their right minds would come up with a thing like a rocking eggplant? I wonder if it was part of a set. Maybe a zucchini carseat and a butternut squash bouncey seat came with it. Anyway, my friend Julie gave this rocking eggplant to my friend Lea and now somehow it found it's way to my house. I told Julie I was going to give this back to her when Katie got too big for it. I firmly believe every baby needs a rocking eggplant.

Sam still loves his cowboy boots. Here he is last night after I told him to go put his jammies on. He totally gets his fashion sense from his dad.

Here's Katie again. She is becoming quite the ham for the camera. Every time I get the camera out she starts up with this cheesey grin. She's reminds me of Holly when she does it. Holly was quite the diva from the start. She would look at herself in every window, mirror, t.v. screen, etc. she could find. Actually she still does. A couple nights ago at supper I threatened to shut the blinds if she didn't quit admiring herself in the window.

Sam and Trixie this morning. John doesn't realize I bring her in to the house sometimes. I guess this is going to "out me".

One more picture of Katie in the John Deer hat...just for you mom.

Happy Friday!

Lazy morning conversations in bed and other Monday Ramblings

It's Monday and Martin Luther King Day which means it's a no-school day which means we all slept in today (all except Holly who stayed overnight at a friend's house since she is my torture-is-staying-home-with-my-family child). Sam crawled in bed with me with morning and said, "Mom, what do you want to talk about?" His newest favorite subject is President Obama but once he told me that the president lives in the white house which has a swimming pool and a place to bowl, that conversation was over. We then started talking about his room. I asked him if he could paint his room any color what would he choose. He immediately said, "Hulk". I said, "You want a Hulk room." He said, "Wait a minute and let me tink about it." After a few moments of silence he says, "Yeah, I want Hulk on top and princess on the bottom. For Katie". That boy loves his sister. We then moved on to food. I asked him what his favorite fruit was. He said, "I love all the fruits...except for broccoli and celery".
This little honey is getting really close to crawling. I thought she may just skip the whole crawling thing all together since she can really get around quite well by rolling but this morning she started the "getting on her hands and knees rocking thing". I'm thinking it may be because yesterday in nursery she saw her good friend Etta who is a couple weeks younger crawling. At any rate, Sam and I had to have a serious conversation about leaving Lego pieces out where his little sister can find them. Seems like just yesterday I was having the same serious conversation with Holly about leaving Holly Pockets pieces out where her little brother could find them. They grow way too fast.

Sam has his friend Hendrick over to play today. Here they are setting up the Thomas tracks. Yeah! Katie's taking a nap, Holly is at a friend's house, Sam is occupied with Hendrick, and I get to...

IRON! I HATE to iron, absolutely loath it. Honestly my first thought when John told me he wanted to be a doctor was, "Okay, this will be cool. He'll wear scrubs so I won't need to iron". That didn't exactly work out as planned.

Finally, my microwave quit working yesterday. I miss it. I told John last night that I was ordering a new one today and since it's above the stove that I need to order a new stove to match and since then my fridge won't match, I'll have to order a new one of those too. One of those with ice makers in the door. He hates those kind. Serves him right for wearing shirts that need to be ironed.

Randomness

John is a doctor. I know this for sure because he has a very cool (very expensive) piece of paper framed and hanging in his office to prove it. He takes care of people and he takes care of people's children. Which is why I didn't think I had to tell him that this...

was not an appropriate way to clean off your baby after she has been eating and has zwieback toast crumbs all over her.

By the way, you can't see it in the above picture but for those of you who haven't seen us in awhile - John has grown a beard.

Here he is giving Katie a whisker rub which is one of the reasons that I do not like the beard. John has a really cute tradition of never taking a razor along on vacation. I don't mind. It's one less thing I have to haul along and it's kind of fun seeing my clean-cut guy all "roughed up" for awhile. As an added bonus this time...it drove my mother-in-law crazy, she kept telling him to shave it off and for perhaps the first time in John's life, he didn't listen to her. Oops..did I just write that out loud? Anyhoo, I want him to shave it now and he won't. Not so funny anymore. He's been "taking a poll" with his patients and has found that most of them like it. I'm pretty sure he's not giving them whisker rubs though. He's promised me he'll shave when he moves offices. I guess he figures the conservative Lynden folks aren't going to like it.

Moving on...
Holly had her friend Lauren sleep over last night. Here they are in the middle of a facial.

Just so you know...I did ask their permission to post this on my blog. Holly has no school today or Monday. I think after play practice today we are heading to the mall. Holly got a gift certificate for Christmas and it is burning a hole in her purse. This should be interesting. There's like thirty-five zillion things she can buy and somewhat limited funds. I think over the weeks she has somewhat narrowed it down to:

*some of those suede boots that have the pom poms on them

*an Aropostale (I'm sure I didn't spell that right but that's okay because I never pronounce it right either) vest

*a pair of slipper shoes just like her friend Laurens

*a Taylor Swift CD and lots of smelly stuff from Bath and Body

*a really nice cheese slicer for her mom...okay, maybe this didn't make the running but I would really like one

Sam and Katie took a bath together the other night. All was well until I said, "Look, Katie is peeing in the tub." Before I knew what was happening, Sam did this.

That boy can really move when he needs to. And what's even more impressive is that he stayed perched up there like that while I finished cleaning up Katie, drained the water, washed out the tub and toys, and put pee-free water back in. Life is so fun.

The Clock

Some say a good friend is one who listens more than they talk. Others say a good friend is someone who shares common interests and goals. For some, a good friend is anyone that will share their chocolate. Some say that a dog is men's best friend (they are weird and need to get out more). The Bible says that a good friend lays down his life for you. I say a good friend is one who finds a nice clock at the thrift store and even though they want it for their own family room they let you have it because they know that you have been looking for a nice clock for your recently painted kitchen but don't like to pay a lot of money for things. Julie, you are a good friend.

It's Monday

I love my job. I really do. I thank God every day that I am able to stay home and be "just a mom". But this morning, I want to go to work. I have the overwhelming urge to put on a pair of nylons and dress (of course first I'd have to go to Kohls and get nylons and a dress), go through the Cruisin' Coffee drive through for my mocha, and head to the office. After I catch up on my what my co-workers did this weekend, I'd fill up my stainless steel water bottle (not plastic because according to my Washington friends, those are bad) and sit at my ergonomically correct desk chair to check my e-mails. At noon I'd go out to Olive Garden for lunch.
It's starting to occur to me that I really don't want to go to work. I just want to get dressed up, drink coffee, talk with my friends, and eat Italian.
On second thought, I don't even want to do that.
My baby is laying on the ground, smiling like crazy, and rocking back and forth trying desperately to crawl toward her brother's dinosaur collection. Sam is very meticulously setting up fences to keep his dinosaurs corralled. He is wearing his farm jammie bottoms and his cowboy boots.
I really don't want to miss out on this.
I think I'll go change into a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, make a pot of coffee, and help set up dinosaur fences.
Happy Monday!
Sam calls her "Joker Baby" when she smiles like this. It's actually a compliment. He's been watching Batman movies lately and he no longer wants to be Goliath...he now wants to be Joker.

Trapped

Good thing for me I got these bad boy boots for Christmas because they have been getting a workout these last few days.
Snow left over from our Christmas storms combined with this week's warm temperatures and non-stop rain led to overwhelmed storm sewers and a big mess here in northwest Washington.
Here are the Hiemstra house, we were trapped for a couple of days. The two streets we can use to get out of our neighborhood were closed due to the flooding. Our transformer box was also under water which meant no power for about 16 hours on Wednesday. School was let out early on Wednesday, was cancelled yesterday, and is an hour late today. Craziness.
Today I am very grateful for a dry basement, that school is back in session, a gas stove in our basement, and very cool rain boots.
Here are some pictures I took on my walk yesterday.

Oh yeah, and this adorable little gal is having a birthday today.

Christmas 2008

Welcome back blog readers! It's been awhile. We got home Monday morning around 1:30 a.m. and since then I've been avoiding the computer. The thought of tons of e-mails to sort through and a blog to catch up on was just too much...that and the fact that yesterday we were without power all day (that's a whole nother blog).
Anyhoo, in the interest of catching everybody up on our Christmas, here are the answers to our 11 most FAQ's (frequently asked questions):

1. How is John's dad doing?
John's dad is doing great! It was wonderful to see him - a little less weight and a little less hair - but he's still the same dad. We are so thankful that he tolerated his chemo treatments so well and we are are looking forward to news that we have a cancer-free dad. He still has surgery to get through but the doctors are optimistic that it will go well too. God is so good!

2. Did your plane rides go smoothly?

Despite all of this...

we did get out of Seattle and landed in Chicago without too many glitches. Katie did awesome! She is quite the traveler. Did you know that if you put a baby on the floor in front of your seat and drape a blanket over her that she can sleep peacefully there the entire flight, including the landing?

3. Did the kids get spoiled rotten?

Yes.

4. Did the kids re-connect with their cousins well?

Yes.

Sam and Jessica are both five and, as my sister-in-law said, "It's a good thing they don't live close by each other. They could get in a lot of trouble together." I can't believe I didn't get a picture of their legs and feet after they painted them with markers.
Here is Holly and her cousin Rachel. They both got their hair done by Aunt Elaine. Holly, Rachel, and another cousin Rebekah all got along wonderfully. Just like we never left. Ask Holly about sleeping in the cave and getting paged in Kohls.

5. Did you play dirty BINGO?

Of course. It's a family tradition...after the kids are in bed. I got some real quality gifts this year, including the toilet of the world calendar and a candom. John, for some strange reason, was obsessed with getting this magic shine shoeshine kit. He even had his mom stealing it for him.

6. Was there snow in Wisconsin?

Yes, but not as much as there was here in the it-never-snows-but-when-it-does-it-goes-away-right-away-state.

Here is John taking Sam and cousin Dominick for a sled ride.

7. Did John get a chance to cut down trees?

Yeah...stupid question.

8. How did you ring in the New Year?

Our wonderful friends came all the way from South Dakota and Iowa to spend it with us. We love you guys!

9. Did you make it to Culvers?

Yep two times. Love those butter burgers.

10. What's your favorite picture of the trip?

My father-in-law loves to play organ and piano for the kids. Here he is playing for Katie while Aunt Margie feeds her.

And the last most frequently asked question about Christmas 2008...

11. Did Sam do anything theologically intriguing over the holidays?

Funny you ask that. As a matter of fact, check out this...

Revelation 12:4b "The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born."