Ignore the scam posts...

So, yeah. Just ignore the two most recent posts aside from this one. I have tried everything to remove them, and it's just not happening...
I am keeping the blog here for reference... I have moved on to other blogs ;)

good evening Northwoods



https://bit.ly/2Mvchth





Kldemarr

good evening Northwoods


http://www.windowtintingkits.com/privacidad.php?therefore=2r6vbb88v4sgh



kldemarr

So, yeah... 7 years later...

We are living in Iowa again.

ALL of my kids are in school!!!

I had another baby boy after my last post here, and he is now 5 years old. He is the sweetest little stinker ever!

We have gone though so many transitions as a family. We moved to North Dakota. While there, we discovered our oldest child has Aspergers. Likely our daughter does as well...and same with the youngest... genetic. We have moved about three times since we've been in Iowa. We went the first year and a half unable to find jobs and unemployed. We lost our house in Wisconsin. Ruined our credit. We spent a few weeks somewhat transient... Now, we are finally getting ourselves back together. Mostly due to the VA HUD/VASH program and their housing assistance. We would not be where we are were it not for my husband's VA worker specifically. She was a real miracle worker, and we are sad to see her leave the VA for another job.

We are currently living in a 3BR house (just moved from a small 2BR apartment in complex). We are both working part time. We are getting things back in order. We are begining the healing process.

We have kept the children in the same school in Eldridge that they have been going to almost since we moved back here (they spent half a year at Niel Armstrong, and then transferred to Ed White due to IEP situations). They are open enrolled, so they thankfully can stay in that district until they graduate. I'm beyond thankful for the open enrollment program.

We have also gone through some dogs... though we have had Sally, our sassy little weiner dog since 2004. A little half beagle, half fox terrier has joined us. She tolerates him. Most of the time.

This little dog here has been my savior. He has done wonders for me. I am in the process of training him to be a service dog. While we were living in the apartment complex, he was kind of a therapy dog for several of the tennents. I take him back for visits :)

I am hoping to get back into writing. Blogging. Telling stories. Come along for the ride. It may be a touch fun ;)

HaHa!

In my last post I said I would try to do updates more often... and here it's been an entire month yet again! Well, I have a new addiction - this used to be my addiction ;) Anyone who talks to me knows that now my obsession is all about cloth diapering... sewing, fabrics, and all that goes with it. My mom and sisters have probably gotten earfuls about wicking and absorbing fabrics... Anyway, what I've been up to lately is trying to turn that obsession into some kind of profit that may feed or offset my addiction to fabric ;) So I started an online store here: Beat's Boutique. Of course named after Beatrice. I actually set up the online store when I was pregnant with her :) and loved the nickname Beat. I never got around to listing anything to sell, but always had it in the back of my mind. I was just trying to find the perfect things to sell. My focus is going to be modern cloth diapers and diaper covers with some crocheted and knitted items as well, and hopefully some of the patterns I have designed for knit and crochet.

So that's what I've been up to lately ;)

Now on to the more important updates on the kids :)

Dylan started walking a few weeks ago! My earliest walker. I swear, days after he started walking he started dancing while walking! He's a climber too!! Beatrice Jr. ;)

Not much has changed with Duncan and Beatrice, except they just keep growing and talking more ;) They've really been enjoying being able to play outside - when it hasn't been raining of course!

Maria is glad to be out of school, but anxiously awaiting summer camp! She went with Mike last week on a canoe trip on the Brule River, they had tons of fun :) and only tipped the canoe once :)

I was going to upload some pics, but it was bogging down the internet connection... and really, haven't taken so many pics in the last month... I will upload some to facebook soon - doesn't seem to take as long or bog down our connection as much to upload pics there...

Is it Summer Yet?

Last week it was below freezing and snowing! And it rained most of last week... horrible weather. But this week kicked off with 80-90 degree weather!! Thank goodness because the little ones have been chomping at the bit to get outside and play!!!

Various cute pics snapped over the last month or two:

Dylan takes his eating very seriously, and isn't afraid to get down and dirty! :)

What a ham :)

Dylan LOVES the swing!!

Beatrice with a few of her babies

More messy eating!

Playing with some Mr. Potato Head pieces :)

Series of funny Duncan faces...

Everyone is doing very well here these days. Of course the last couple of days all 3 little ones have been sick :( But were feeling good enough to get outside again today :)

Dylan will probably be walking very soon! He has been pretty brave and standing on his own a lot lately. He's already quite the climber! He will climb up and stand on the rails of his walker, or he'll push it from the outside walking around with it. He's pretty fast! He's great at crawl-chasing down Beatrice. He's going to give her some troubles once he starts walking! He has a great appetite and usually screams for what everyone else is eating!

Beatrice is just little miss attitude - quite the drama queen! She is talking so much these days! She's pretty silly :) If you tell her she's silly she'll say "No, I not silly, I just Beasris" then if you say "Oh, you're Beatrice?" she'll say "No, I just baby sisser." She's still in love with Dora - she's even counting to ten in Spanish! :)

Duncan is about the same as always ;) continually finding his "new" ways to do things ;) He has been surprising us by expanding his diet! The other night he actually ate an entire regular taco as well as the 3 or 4 taquitos I had made him since he won't usually eat tacos :)

Maria is (as usual) doing great in school! Her class had a trip to Copper Falls State Park today, she was really looking forward to it! She is doing great with the saxophone. She went and tried out for the state honors band last month. She didn't make it, but it was a great experience for her, and she enjoyed the trip to Eau Claire.

Mike is busy making plans for summer activities at work. He received his second MS this year from the U of I, as he couldn't continue with that PhD program. He was accepted to Colorado State University's online Community College Leadership PhD program! We are pretty excited about that :) Luckily most of his graduate credits are transferring. And the nice thing is that the college is about an hour away from Josh & Anne, so we are going to go along for Mike's residency requirement this fall to visit with them! :)

I've just been busy doing tons of crazy stuff as usual ;) Mostly trying to find time to sew diapers and covers :) I switched to cloth diapering a few months ago and have been using mostly prefolds and wool or fleece covers that I've made. I've made some diapers too, but need to get some more made :) I won't bore you with the pics here ;) but I do have a lot of pics on facebook here. I've been having fun going to garage sales for the past few weeks hunting wool sweaters to make recycled wool bum sweaters ;)

Well, I think that's most of what we've been up to lately! I'll try to post more often! :)

Major Festive Weekend!!

Maria's 13th birthday was Saturday and Easter today! :) So we've been doing much celebrating and much sugar consuming! ;)

Maria is now a teenager!! She's been counting the days since about Christmas! ;) She's very excited to finally be a teenager!

The Easter egg hunt this morning was fun! Little Beatrice turned out to be a pro egg finder! She actually found one first thing with all the lights out.

Now all the kids are on a complete and total sugar high. Including Dylan. I don't know why I continue with the cinnamon roll Easter breakfast ritual - it's too much!! :) Dylan had some of my cinnamon roll and then demolished a peep ;) He just gets so happy when he gets to eat stuff that everyone eats.

I know, I haven't updated this blog in forever!!! I had been busy on Facebook. But I've even slacked off on facebook lately. Incidentally, I'm going to try to upload some new photos there within the next day or two. It's too much work to upload them here and re-arrange them and all that... ;) and y'all know I'm pretty lazy ;)

Anyway, the kids are all doing great - it never ceases to amaze me how quickly they grow!! Dylan is already crawling and pulling himself up and cruising around the furniture! And he's moving up to cut up solid foods like bananas, mac & cheese and spaghetti o's ;)

Beatrice is talking like nobody's business! She's so funny too :) Last weekend Uncle Pat stopped over and when she saw him she said "what's up?" She knows she's funny too :)

Duncan, well he's about the same :) Learning and piecing things together every day. The other day at the dinner table he asked me if I was going to grow another person out of my tummy! Haha!!!

Maria - she's about the same too - but a year older ;) She's doing great in band, had a blast with basketball, and doing well in school (as always!). She's going to try-outs for state honors band the weekend of May 1st!

Mike is busy making plans and gathering wood for the tree house! :)

And I am busy being obsessed with things cloth diaper related - especially wool diaper covers ;) I won't go into much detail, so as not to bore you all to tears ;) I am also teaching a 3 week workshop for the next 3 Fridays on business writing :) Should be fun!

So there you have it :) Hopefully I will get pics posted on facebook within the next couple of days.