It's Quads....Almost!!!

Hahaha funny to all my Facebook friends. Sorry, I couldn't pass up pulling some legs!

Well our new additions to our family are in the form of Killdeer birds. We had a mama Killdeer lay her eggs right at the entrance of our drive about a month ago. We have been trying to protect them from getting ran over, although I am pretty sure they got ran over at least 3 times. Or at least close to it. But the biggest Mama around here has been Madi. You would get a firm talking to or a yell as you were leaving if you got too close to the babies!


Last night two of the four babies hatched. They are so cute and it is really amazing that these birds can even walk. Their legs are like toothpicks on a round body. But they are also pretty neat birds because they are up and walking soon after hatching. Unlike other baby birds that can't see, no feathers and depend on their parents for awhile after hatching, these little guys are fluffy and running all over the place. They were unsteady last night, but they got around quite a bit.


We went out first thing this morning and found another baby had hatched. I just went out again to check and she is still sitting on one more. I'll be glad when they are done and hopefully she picks a better spot next time. They really have been a pain. Totally wrong spot to lay eggs. At least these should be happy that Chris was nicer this year. Last summer I don't know how many nests he ran over.



June 17th, sitting on four eggs. She was pretty relaxed
and let me get within arms length without squawking at me.



June 22nd. A lot more protective and noisy.
Two babies, just hatched, not moving out yet.



About an hour later up on the road. One baby
and Daddy.



June 23rd, up and running this morning.



This afternoon. Mom was really squawking and
babies were running.

Day #2

We are on Day 2 of no binkie. I had tried to take away the binkie several weeks ago but she went into total meltdown that night and refused to even get into her bed. Since that night she seemed to have gotten even more dependent on the darn thing. She had to have one in her mouth and one in her hand. I also tried just at bed time again and she still got worse about it and wanted them both all the time. Well, Sunday she woke up from nap with two binkies and sometime, some where between 3 and 7 she had lost both of them. I searched and searched the house, the truck, outside, every where. Chris and I both then searched the whole house again. Still no binkies. So at bedtime, I told her they were lost. She did okay, didn't fuss, laid down and went to sleep. Very, very surprised!! Again last night she did very well at bedtime. She asked for her binkies and I said they were lost and she went right to bed. The only bad thing about this is that we have had storms the last couple of nights. Thunder, lightning, and heavy rain. She does pretty well with storms and I think if she had her binkie she would have done better, but she has ended up sleeping part of the night with us the last two nights. So I am really hoping that the weather holds off tonight. I am in need of a good nights sleep. She did fuss a bit this afternoon at nap time but we made a deal, no fussing about not having binkies and she sleeps the rest of the week without them, we get to go to a movie at the movie theatre on Friday! She seemed pretty excited. I hope UP is still playing Friday, that's really the only movie out that she would be interested in. Otherwise, this plan may back fire. Although by Friday, she will probably have forgotten about the movie!

------------------------------------------------------
This weekend we got the deck and stairs built for the pool. It ended up taking all day Saturday. Much longer than we thought but it turned out really nice. I worked in the garden pulling weeds for awhile so by the time Madi got up from her nap, we were all hot and yucky and ready to try out the pool. It had also gotten above 72 degrees in the water, so it was much nicer.

Madi and I got in again yesterday. We got home at 4:00 and the water was 80 degrees!!! So wonderful. We played until after 6 when Chris finally got home. We were waiting on him so he could come in and play too. But by the time he got home, the clouds had rolled in and we could hear thunder. Shortly after we got out the lightning and rain started. But this week will be hot and we will play some more!

Here are some pictures. The first ones are Madi playing out in the rain Thursday afternoon. I can't keep that girl out of the water, she is crazy!! And then the four greats with Grandma Betty. I just realized we should have had Acea in there, that would have been all five of the greats. We had nice visits with Joye and Chantelle and Acea this last week. And then the last pictures are of the storm clouds that rolled in last night and the full rainbow we had out front of the house, very cool!!

Lots of birthday's this week!! Tammy, Peyton, Raelynne, Tommy and Peter. And Happy Anniversary to Walter and Laura!!
Love, Amy

Week #24

Yesterday was my monthly checkup. Short and sweet, just like I like it!!

Gained 7 pounds this month. Blood pressure is still good. Heartbeat was 150. When he went to check my uterus placement and where the baby was laying, he lifted my shirt and says "WOW, you are really getting up there (my uterus has grown quite high for where I am at). This is going to be a big baby." Of course I immediately flash to delivery and say "Oh no!!" He then tries to unsuccessfully ease my mind by back pedaling his comment. "Well, maybe the growth will slow down. You're just growing up instead of out." Yeah, that really helped. But it was funny how he said it and that he even commented on my size. I don't remember him ever estimating or commenting on how big Madi was.

Then this afternoon was the gender check sonogram. It is definitely a boy!! That was probably the only clear picture we got. He wasn't cooperating very well to get very many good pictures. He is head down and tucked into my pelvis. He also has his back facing out with his bottom in the air. So she had trouble getting good pics. I am hoping he starts to move a little north soon. He has been sitting on my bladder and using it as a toy for some time now. Gets very exhausting. Madi went with us to this sonogram. She was not interested at all. She played the whole time and read a book. Didn't really pay attention, but it's hard to tell what your looking at on the screen. So it probably looked like nothing to her. She perked up when she turned the heartbeat on but only because it was way too loud. I looked over and she is staring at the screen with her hands over her ears.

Here are the sono pics. Enjoy!
Love, Amy

Our Weekend

We decided this would be a good weekend to get the pool put up. It was going to be hot and would be nice to use it on this hot, hot weekend. Turned out though that it took us all day Saturday to put it up. In the hot, hot sun. What a day.

We started at 9:00 Saturday morning when we were still in the shade of the back yard. But we quickly learned that three people trying to put up an 18' pool was not going to work. Plus the wind decided to pick up and made it even more difficult.

Got started again working on it at about 1:00 and the sun was intense. We ended up having 9 people helping us and we were still battling the wind and keeping the thing up and where it was supposed to be. I of course didn't have any sunblock on because I wanted to get rid of this stupid farmer tan I had gotten a couple weeks ago. I did manage to get rid of the tan lines but in the process I now look like a lobster and am very sore. Chris keeps making fun of me because I was actually excited to get out into the sun.

Madi got up from her nap to find the pool up and about an inch of water in the bottom. She was so excited, we sprayed her down with sunscreen and let her play. Of course this is the girl that is happy enough with a mud puddle but she was having a blast. It was like pulling teeth to get her out of the sun and to take a break! Madi ended up being the first official swimmer for the season and was the only one that got to swim Saturday. Didn't figure the filling up time. I turned the water on at 2:00pm and we had two hoses running. At 10:00 pm, we turned the hoses off and still had about a foot to go.

Sunday it had another couple of hours with the hoses on before it was full. We had a couple of leaking hoses for the pumps that had to be repaired and we lost a bunch of water from that. Sunday started out just like Saturday, sunny and hot, but by the time Madi got up from her nap, the clouds were out, the temperature had dropped 10 degrees and the wind was out of the north. But we had promised Madi that she could go swimming after her nap. That water was sooo cold. 72 degrees, no sun, and a cool wind. She jumped in the first time and popped back up and was so cold and shocked it took her a bit to catch her breath and start breathing again. Poor thing, but of course she wasn't complaining, she thought it was great. Finally had to drag her out after about an hour because she couldn't talk and was turning purple! And was she ever mad. The rest of the night went like this:
Madi: "I want to get into the pool now!!"
Mom and Dad: "No more pool today, it is too cold."
Madi: cry, whine, cry, throw herself down and cry some more.

It will be an interesting week. The temps are only supposed to be in the 70s maybe low 80s. That water is going to be cold for awhile. We are going to have to keep busy doing other things to get her mind off the pool! A zoo trip would work, trips to the park, and I am thinking about trying to take her to an actual movie theatre to see UP! That maybe a whole blog post itself! But the rest of the summer, the pool will be a nice break from the heat. If anyone would like to join us, please feel free. Madi would love to have friends over to swim with!!


Looking a little redneck there!!


Who cares about the boards, I can play around them!







---------------------------------------------------
Sunday was also our 6th wedding anniversary! We sent Madi home with Dan and Jane for the night Saturday. The original plan was to go to the races but we both agreed that sitting out in the sun and heat to watch the races sounded like torture! So instead we went out to eat at Hong Kong buffet. Actually got to eat out where we didn't have to inhale our food and get out before Madi decides to run around the restaurant like a mad woman. She doesn't really do that, but she doesn't have very good patience either. We then went and bought some new movies and went home to our nice air conditioned home and vegged in front of the TV, watching a movie that was not animated or G rated!! It was great!

Our plan for Sunday was to build steps and a platform for the pool. We went to Lowe's and started looking around. We really didn't have a plan for what we wanted and since we were both still exhausted from Saturday and didn't want to work out in the what was supposed to be another 95+ day, we scratched the idea and decided we would rig something up and build steps this week when it's much nicer.

So that is our chore for the week. Get steps built. I also want to get the pile of lumber out from below the deck. It's only been sitting there for almost a year, since we finished the basement. That will give us a nice sitting area and somewhat shaded. We are also looking forward to seeing Aunt Joye, Chantelle and Acea this week. Hopefully we can all get together one night and have supper. Oh, and if you wanted warmer weather this week, blame Joye for the cold front, it always gets cold when she comes to visit :), lol, just kidding Joye!! Nice weather for the River Festival this weekend will be awesome!!

Love, Amy

Fun, Spontaneous, and Relaxing

I should write more often about how dull and boring we are. I just might surprise myself at all the fun stuff we could end up doing!

Last night we were some what spontaneous (Chris knew we were going earlier in the day) and went fishing south east of Salina at a private pond. We had so much fun!! A friend of Chris' invited us out to go fishing and cook hot dogs. They had a really neat setup. The pond was actually really large and at one time was two smaller ponds with a dam in the middle. Years ago they drained the ponds and cut the dam in half. Which left a really nice point in the middle of the pond that you can drive onto. We had our fire going and didn't have to worry about setting the field on fire. They also have an old school house that used to sit at the old Schilling base that they moved out there. They have scouts come out and you can stay in the house. It has heat but no running water, just an out house.

The May's brought their dog and Madi spent most of the evening chasing after him. That dog never sits or rests, just constantly running and following his nose. So of course, Madi was doing much of the same. But it was very relaxing. We could see her and the road was wide enough and had a lot of rocks and concrete slabs along the bank that she kept out of the water and we didn't really have to worry about her falling in. She played with her fishing pole off and on and tried to ride her bike but didn't have any interest in that. And we have somewhat of our girlie, girl. She did not want anything to do with the fish. She didn't want to touch it or have her picture taken with it. She wanted to look at the worms but didn't want to touch them either.

Chris fished most of the time and caught 12 bluegill/perch. I can't tell the difference, I think they look the same. But very small fish. He claims that is the first time he has caught fish. I thought for sure we had caught fish before, but maybe not. He was having fun. He no more than got his hook in the water and those little fish were tugging at his line. Jerry was fishing for bass or catfish, so he had his line on the bottom and only caught one. I think he had fun helping or teasing Chris. Jerry's brother and sister-in-law came out and Jodi cast her line and she must have thrown it right into a really nice, large bass. Chris was watching her and was amazed, he wanted to catch a big fish. He ended up switching his line but never did catch anything. He was having too much fun catching the smaller fish, so he switched back to his bobber and worms. I baited once and caught a fish and I that was enough for me at the time. I like to fish, but enjoyed just sitting and watching.

I guess we found another hobby for Chris. I teased last night that now I can get him some more tackle for Father's Day. Especially since he broke one bobber and broke his line and lost another!

Love, Amy