The Geesamans

January pictures

2012-01-29T12:20:00.001-08:00

Yeah, what happened to January? Take a look at these pictures and let me know! I’d write something cute and fun about each one, but it’s 2:00 and the house is starting to stir again…

The highlights: The twin’s turned 2 (took a trip to the San Antonio Zoo to celebrate), baby Lance is 3 months and the sweetest thing ever, and Aaron started Kindergarten at home!

January 2012

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Here is a picture of Aaron during school time. He has been doing an awesome job. The biggest challenge has been with occupying the twins, but we’re finding our groove. I took this picture when Aaron was working on the “d” and “a” sounds and wrote the word “dad” for the first time. It made me tear up and a little bit. It’s so exciting to see your kiddo learning to read!

2011 in pictures

2012-01-01T13:23:00.001-08:00

January 2011

The twins turned 1!

February 2011

It snowed in central Texas!

March 2011

It’s HOT in central Texas!

April 2011

Beach trip to Port Aransas

and…Grandparents, and my brother’s family came to visit!

and…this really awesome cloud hung out over Kyle for a while!

May 2011

Baby #4 bump!

Grandma Terri came to visit!

June 2011

Aaron has baseball and dinosaur fever!

July 2011

It’s HOT-HOT-HOT outside here, so there was lots of indoor action.

August 2011

and when we did play outside, we very often ended it with frozen strawberry lemonades!

September 2011

What’s this wet stuff all over the ground??

October 2011

Aaron turned 5!

and baby Lance was born!

November 2011

Snug as a bug!

December 2011

Playing at the park on New Year’s Eve makes up for the insanely hot summer!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T12:30:00.001-08:00

Praise the Lord for sending his son as a precious baby to this earth to teach us how to live and love and to die on the cross for our salvation! And, to celebrate this precious gift the Lord has given us, our boys were blessed with lots of fun and gifts this morning!

Thank you to all our family that sent gifts. We miss being with you this Christmas! Here are a few photos from this morning’s mayhem. We are enjoying a quiet family day at home with all these new goodies to explore!

Baby Lance is up first and wondering what is taking his brothers so long to get down and open presents! Greg went upstairs to get the boys up and then I heard the bathtub running, which is usually a sign that someone has woken up sick. Our current little trouble-maker, Eric, came down with the stomach bug that Aaron had last week. Poor guy, the one day we let him rip-roar through the house and he’s sick.

But, let’s flashback to yesterday when Aaron helped make some Christmas cookies with his little brother, Lance, who likes to sneak up behind him.

We opened up some of the gifts from Grandma Gloria the day before Christmas. I knew there were some cute new PJs she had sewed.

Here they are the night before Christmas. I wanted them to look all cute and open presents in the morning in them. And, they would have if Eric hadn’t gotten sick all over them the next morning. I think next year I’ll save the cute PJs to put on the next morning just in case!

Grandma Gloria also sent some cute and snuggly blankets for each boy. They are great, thanks!!

We got everyone cleaned up and put together enough to come and see what Santa had brought them. Grant decided he wanted to put on a stocking cap to complete his outfit.

Santa brought Aaron a remote control moon to put in his room that shows each phase of the moon.

Play tent, thanks Santa!!

Eric came down and played about one minute in the tent before…

…ugh, “I feel sick, mommy”. Shortly after this we went back upstairs and Eric slept, and got sick a little more. Nope, never a day off around here!

Aaron made daddy a special Christmas tree.

Our little burglar, Grant, loves his new puzzle from Grandma Gloria and Grandpa Mike! And, Eric, trying his best to stay up for this.

UT FOOTBALL GUYS!!!

Thanks Grandma Terri and Papa Jerry!

Cardinal Championship Calendar!

Thanks Uncle Tyler, Aunt Susan, Jillian and Anna for all the other great Cardinals Championship gear! And, lots of wonderful Usborne books from Uncle Doug, Aunt Angie and Jaedon! Thanks to all!!!

A fun little race track for the boys from Uncle Ben and Kamren!

We saved Eric’s presents for when he got up. Here he’s feeling much better and ate a little bit. He’s already doing much better! Quick little stomach bug, I hope!

Yes indeed, this is the best picture I could get of all of them together. The twins love their new little animal chairs from Grandma Terri and Papa Jerry! And, baby Lance is ready for a nap.

Despite the unexpected sickies, we’ve had a wonderful day. Gonna go now to check on my boys and enjoy the rest of the day! Merry Christmas!

Best Bed Buddies

2011-12-13T11:13:00.001-08:00

This past weekend we went ahead and converted Eric’s crib to a toddler bed. He started climbing out of it a few weeks ago just after Lance was born and we just finally decided that he’s not going to stop climbing out of it…so big boy bed it is! Grant (who is not a climber and has not figured out how to get out of bed) has been very impressed with Eric’s new digs. We have also recently taken the gates off of the stairs and put handle locks on any rooms we don’t want them in, so they are free to go up and down the stairs. I went to take Eric up to nap today and we found Grant crashed out in Eric’s bed. Eric is usually the more tired of the two, so I’m surprised Grant fell asleep like this. I loved Eric’s reaction. He was wondering why his brother was in his bed and how were we going to get him out so he could take a nap?

Mommy’s solution ??…I took Grant’s crib mattress out and put it on the floor for Eric. I’m sure Grant will have a big boy bed soon and it will be interesting to see what shenanigans these two get into at night!

Gingerbread House Fun!

2011-12-09T13:02:00.001-08:00

This morning we had a playdate with friends to decorate gingerbread houses and had so much fun. This year I decided to bump it up a notch and graduate from graham crackers on little milk cartons to real gingerbread. I have always been fascinated with house these things are put together and thought I’d give it a try. The recipe for the dough is very simple, but the construction of the house was a little more difficult. I printed the recipe, templates and instructions from The Ultimate Gingerbread site.

Aaron with his friends Ian and Isabella. They couldn’t (and didn’t) wait to start eating pieces of their houses.

I glued the gingerbread pieces together with sugar glue, which is just a cup of sugar melted over medium low heat. I’m glad I took the advice I read and had a bowl of ice water nearby in the inevitable case that a beginner gets blazing hot melted sugar on her finger. Ouch! It dries very quickly and made the houses very sturdy.

I passed on making my own icing and just bought cans of white cake frosting from the store. It dries hard and works great!

The gingerbread creator with his creation. So glad we are starting this tradition! I hope it continues each year and we can make our houses more and more elaborate.

Halloween Fun

2011-11-01T06:00:00.001-07:00

The cutest pumpkin on the block! I took the picture at the end of a yawn, so it looks like he’s smiling. Sweet baby Lance!

A few years ago my mom (Grandma Terri) found a t-shirt that said “Fairy Grandmother”….and it just grew from there. She gets dressed up every year and has magic wand that the kids use to make presents appear. The last time Aaron got to witness Fairy Grandmother in person was when he was one. Since then it’s had to be sent through the mail. But, thanks to Lance’s timely arrival and my mom visiting now, Aaron got to have a visit from the Fairy Grandmother in person and he loved it. And, yes, my mother walked about trick-or-treating like this…

The twins enjoyed their gifts, but didn’t want to get too close to the Fairy Grandmother. They hung back with daddy.

Fairy Grandmother and Pirate Aaron ready to haul some booty!

Notice how neither of them wants to make eye contact! Eric was especially wary.

Aaron trick-or-treating with our friends and neighbors Madeline and James. They were so excited they were sprinting from house to house.

Welcome Baby Lance!

2011-10-26T10:42:00.001-07:00

Lance Arthur Geesaman

October 25, 2011 7:11 pm

9 lbs, 11 oz, 22 inches long

Meet your Big Brothers!

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This week in pictures

2011-09-18T16:36:00.001-07:00

Daddy and the boys practicing their swing on Saturday morning.

Grant out for an evening stroll in his PJs.

Aaron posing with a baby lizard, which lives with his mommy in our front bushes. I don’t think he was trying to eat it, but you never know!

School time at the Geesamans and Aaron doing his favorite subject, math.

He looks sweet and innocent, but he’s just waiting for me to turn my back so he can eat that crayon!

On Saturday it rained enough for the first time in months to make the ever popular puddle in the culdesac.

It only took the babies about five minutes before they were face down in it taking a drink. ICK!

I thought I’d better get some belly shots while I still can!

36 weeks!!!

Aaron is SO excited to take this picture…and to get the cookie I bribed him with to sit and take it.

Baby Lance’s Rooset

2011-09-17T18:29:00.001-07:00

Doesn’t a rooset sound so much better than my baby’s room is a closet? I felt a little weird about putting the new baby in the closet at first, but soon heard of many others who have done the same thing. Our other choices were to put the crib in our room, but I’m such a light sleeper and frankly I don’t want to be kept out of what little sleep I’ll be getting by every peep and squeak that newborns make. The other choice was to give up the guest room, but with all of our family visiting from Illinois at one time or another, it’s a good thing to have. So, in the closet…I mean rooset he goes. The biggest question was, “Where are we going to put our clothes?” and we finally decided to hang two closet rods (high and low) in the linen closet that is in our bathroom. The other clothes we aren’t wearing now, or don’t wear often went in the guest room closet.

So, once the room was cleared, it was time for the fun to begin! I’ve loved working on each one of my boys’ rooms. I wasn’t quite sure what direction I was going to go until my neighbor, Melissa, threw a baby shower for me last weekend. She hung the “It’s a Boy” banner you see at the shower and gave it to me afterwards and I loved the blue and brown colors. Also, my friend, Deborah gave me a gift in the blue basket you see in the picture and we already had dark brown furniture going in, so it all worked!

Most everything in the room are things we already had. The “changing table” is the Expidit shelving I’m in love with from IKEA. The boxes in the top left corner are diaper boxes that I taped 12x12 scrapbooking paper around for extra storage. But, fyi, the boxes right above the crib are empty just in case there is an earthquake in central Texas, we don’t want heavy things falling on a sleeping baby. I know, a little extreme, but it made me and my safety conscious husband feel better.

The tables are the end tables that go with our bedroom furniture and have only been holding alarm clocks for the past three years. They are much more useful in here for now, but now our alarm clocks are sitting on plastic storage tubs…

My favorite part is the homemade art that the boys and I worked on this week. The bottom right one was done completely by Aaron and says “Lance is 12”. …Okay... I’m looking forward to adding Lances’ little paw print to the picture soon! And, Aaron wanted to make sure that I included that the bear is Eric, the monkey is Grant, Aaron is the dog and the Turtle is Lance.

These boxes are actually filled with diaper graciously given to me by my wonderful mommy and church friends!! And, our other nightstand serving as a dresser for now and cute little baby clothes waiting to be filled by a chubby little boy!

4 weeks or so to go!

This Month in Pictures

2011-08-31T17:48:00.001-07:00

Well, it’s not surprising. My “This week in pictures” has turned into “This month in pictures”. What have I been doing all this time!? We’ve kept up with about two hours (recess included) of pre-K school three to four days a week. Aaron is learning more and more sight words, slowly easing in phonics (actually he hates it), loving math and we read together a lot. Aaron is still very into baseball. He and daddy have been practicing his swing in the backyard most evenings while I get a little rest time. He has recently discovered that there is this other sport that has lots of numbers called…football! He’s currently learning all the teams for that sport as well. Eric and Grant are 19 months old and it shows. They are everywhere, into everything and every toy that one has the other immediately wants. But, they are also starting to play with each other more and I inadvertently trained them to give the other one the milk cup first (I give Eric milk, and he gives it to Grant, vice versa, it’s so cute!). And, oh yeah, we’re going to have another baby in about 6 weeks! Lance Arthur will be joining the family soon and our little routine will be thrown asunder. But, I’m looking forward to snuggling another chunky little baby soon!

And, since it’s officially the hottest summer in Texas history and I look like I swallowed a basketball, we spend a lot of time inside during the day, but as soon as dinner is over the boys head out to tear up the backyard. We can water our lawns on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so that has become our water play evenings. We usually finish them up with me making some frozen strawberry lemonades or as Aaron calls it “the yummy drink!”. We’ve actually had a fairly relaxed and homey summer, looking forward to the next chapter with cooler weather and another member of the family!

Enjoy the pictures of our August 2011!!

The Hottest Month EVER!

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This is the day

2011-08-07T05:45:00.001-07:00

Each morning wakes anew, I walk downstairs ready to attack a new day and this is the first thing I see. A big smudged sliding glass window highlighted by the rising sun. I’ll admit that many days my initial reaction is “Blurg…why do I even bother to clean it the every two weeks I do? It just ends up smudged again in about two minutes.” But, today I was overwhelmed with thankfulness for the little boy hands that smudge it over and over. Even the almost 5 year old one that can reach the handle instead of pushing the glass to open the door.

Thank you, Lord, for little hands that make smudges! One day the smudges will be gone, but so will the little hands.

This is the the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Psalm 118:24

This couple of weeks in pictures

2011-07-31T18:17:00.001-07:00

A broken pair of glasses turns into a fun toy!

Do you think they’ll always be so excited to do laundry?

New favorite game: Chasing each other around with oven mits…???

How many Geesaman boys can fit into a Cozy Coupe? Again, they are not allowed in the car with each other until they are 28!

Aaron was sent to time out and in a show of solidarity, the twins sat there, too.

Hair vs. Vaseline

Aaron at the Round Rock Express baseball game with daddy.

I don’t know, I just think babies sipping through straws is cute!

Soon after the taking of this picture, Eric was released and went spinning like a helicopter…and loved it! Thankfully, no babies were harmed in the filming of this event.

In case you ever wondered…

2011-07-30T16:09:00.001-07:00

In case you ever wondered what Vaseline looks like in a baby’s hair, this is it…and it doesn’t come out with soap and water. I’m taking suggestions on how to remove this! His brother got into it, too, but not quite as bad.

I have to admit, he does make it look pretty cute.

Super Mom or Abiding Mom?

2011-07-27T06:01:00.001-07:00

In the course of being pregnant, raising twins, then deciding to home-school, I’ve been called a “Super Mom”. It’s a popular term that I think pretty much describes any mother who has a child or children and manages to keep them from running into traffic most of the time. This mothering thing is no joke. It’s a daily, 24-7, 365 thing for at least 18 years, but really I think it’s for the rest of our lives. They’ll never stop being our babies and we’ll never stop wanting the best for them. I’m never quite sure what to think of the Super Mom label…is it really a compliment or have I lost focus? Does it mean I’m trying too hard? Am I doing these things to impress people? These questions were rattling around in my brain and then I came across this great graphic from www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com that paints a clearer picture of my role as a mom in God’s eyes. Just read through the Super Mom list first, you’ll need a strong drink after it thinking of having to live up to all those expectations (if you aren’t pregnant, of course). Now, read through the “Abiding Mom” side and I find the comfort and peace of knowing that I am in the Lord and He in me through this journey of motherhood. I know that however much I fret about lesson plans, curriculum or whether or not to take a sick baby to the doctor, He is in control.

Here’s a printable version…

P.S. I like the last one on “Abiding Mom” side. “Her children arise and call her blessed.” Ahhh…doesn’t that sound nice? I’ll have to keep praying on that one because my children arise and beg for a diaper change and breakfast.

Homeschooling Challenge #1 of 1 billion

2011-07-24T12:55:00.001-07:00

Sensory exploration tubs for table time with toddlers.

We’ve been doing some sort of official-ish Pre-K type activities at home the past couple of weeks. Right now this feels like more of a practice for me figuring out how homeschooling is all going to work with our family and in our home. I’m really enjoying the challenge of finding engaging and educational activities, learning Aaron’s learning styles and adjusting my teaching and parenting styles so we don’t both go insane. But, despite all that, the biggest challenge to our at home learning has been…dun, dun, duuuuunnnnn…the twins! Two 18 month old boys who’s only objective in life is to touch, feel, explore, climb every inch of space they can and then eat whatever has just been found and explored. As you can imagine this poses a challenge when I try to get into learning with Aaron. I found last week that the babies can sit in their booster seats for up to 30 minutes and do a lot of their exploring at the table. So, I sat them down and started giving them whatever scrap of paper, ribbon, q-tip (clean, of course), thing I had laying (or is it lying??, we’re in trouble when it comes to grammar time) around. So, cheap crafty momma brain turned on and came up with an empty coffee can filled with said bits of things that I can change out each day to keep things new and interesting. The twins can play nicely on their own for a certain amount of time. That quiet play combined with this learning will hopefully allow Aaron to get some learning done as well. I imagine for a while that we will have to have our reading time and any other focused learning happening when the twins are napping in the afternoon. Each day is a new and different. The home-schooling journey is beginning!

And, yes, I realize that we’ll be adding a newborn into the mix in 12 or so weeks. It’s all about adjusting and finding what works for the moment!

Bubble Snake Maker

2011-07-17T16:50:00.001-07:00

Got this idea from Come Together Kids. It took about 30 seconds to make and they had at least 30 minutes having fun exploring it. This was so much better than trying to have Aaron blow bubbles from a wand. That always creates a drippy mess and someone ends up knocking over the bubbles. This is just a plastic bottle with the end cut off, put a sock or washcloth over the bottom and secure with a rubber band. Dip the cloth in a detergent/water solution and blow your bubble snake! Definitely a keeper!

Grant and Eric weren’t quite sure what to think. They were very interested in the bubble snake, but didn’t want anything to do with touching it for quite a while.

This week in pictures

2011-07-16T18:16:00.001-07:00

Another fun filled and mommy tiring week with the boys. Baby Lance Arthur (yes, that’s his name in case you haven’t heard) is growing big and strong. He’s already measuring ahead…not a big surprise there! I predict at least a 9 lb-der this time. He’s doing lots of flops and kicks, which entertains biggest brother, Aaron, when we are snuggling and reading books. Aaron is baseball crazy, just like his dad. He’s forever telling us about all the different (made-up) scores by all the different teams and looking forward to going with daddy to see the Memphis Cardinals in Round Rock in a couple of weeks.

Aaron and I have been working on swimming all summer and today he figured out how to take breaths and keep swimming. He made it halfway across the pool!

After Grant’s first couple of steps a couple of weeks ago he didn’t try to walk much again until this week. Now he’s finally walking more than crawling. We call is the T. Rex walk, but he’s getting there, just shy of 18 months! Notice how I call him Eric at first? I mix their names up the majority of the time.

Eric has the giggles and a little fighting off of big brother.

Aaron and I made dinosaur fossils this week. Yet another fun project from icanteachmychild.com

Love this one of Grant playing with play dough while Aaron and I made the fossils. Eric has been taking morning naps again this week, so he was snoozing through this.

Here’s Eric ripping apart some old magazines I had. I just filled an empty plastic container with pages from a magazine and let them go to town. Fine motor skills and a few minutes of not opening cabinets and climbing on the table.

First Hair Cuts

2011-07-13T16:53:00.001-07:00

It was hair cutting night at the Geesaman house. I’ve buzzed Greg’s hair for years, started with Aaron a couple of years ago when he finally started growing hair, and tonight we added Eric and Grant in on the fun. We’re gonna have many years of hair cutting line-ups around here! Eric watched with fascination as Daddy and big brother got their hair cut and was eager to take a turn. This kid doesn’t sit still unless he’s eating, sleeping and apparently, getting his hair cut.

I look pretty horrible here…I plead six months pregnant and 101 degrees outside! I had to include it because doesn’t Eric have the sweetest look on his face?

He doesn’t look too sure about it here, but he did a great job, didn’t fuss at all.

I had to get picture of his cute little pigtail before I snipped it off and put it in a little baggie to stick in his baby book.

My little peach fuzz boy!

Grant didn’t really need a hair cut, but he did not want to be left out of the action, so I took a little off around the ears.

The VERY Hungry Caterpillar

2011-07-11T16:14:00.001-07:00

I have no idea what exactly this thing is, but it ate an entire (large, very nice) jalapeno plant we had growing in a pot in less than a day.

When we found it that poor thing could hardly move, kinda me when I eat too much!

But, the boys enjoyed taking a poke at it. Guess we’ll have to keep buying jalapenos from the store this summer!

Water Coloring Pages

2011-07-09T11:58:00.001-07:00

Another idea from icanteachmychild.com on the books today. Just print out coloring pages from here onto white cardstock. You can either use water colors (there’s even a recipe to make your own watercolors) or watercolor pencils. I was cleaning out my office last night and came across ones I bought from Stampin’ Up years ago thinking I’d take on a new hobby (it didn’t take). I just made little colored marks on the sheets and then Aaron went to town with a wet paintbrush. If you’re using watercolors, just make dot with the colors and let the sheet dry. This will be a great quiet time activity and could even be a great on the road activity if you can figure out a way not to spill the water. This also lets me get out my occasional craving for some good ol' coloring time!

He was so into it, he could hardly wait for me to get the color on the sheet.

Of course, a Cardinals sheet for daddy who had to work on a Saturday.

This week in Pictures

2011-07-08T06:10:00.001-07:00

A random assortment of thing that happened this week. A new weekly post? That’s the idea anyway…

Got this idea from www.icanteachmychild.com. I am LOVING this blog full of great pre-school activities using things you probably already have laying around. I am making little activity kits that I am hoping will keep little brothers entertained and learning while Aaron and I are “doing school”. I made segments up to the number 40 because that’s how long the noodle was. Aaron did well with it until about number 20 and then was ready to move on, but he came back later in the evening and asked to do it more. I need to stock up on containers to keep all these activities, and of course find places to keep the containers!

He’s pinching his marker!! He held his writing utensils so weird. I bought one of those grasper things you put on the end of a pencil and he seems to have gotten it pretty quickly.

Playing dinosaurs with his friend Isabella. I’m not kidding you, these two have have played dinosaurs quietly and contently for up to four continuous hours on a couple of occasions. I need to read up on it, but I think girl/boy little friends get along better than girl/girl or boy/boy friends. Maybe less competition?

And this is what Aaron does with his boy little friends! I set up a blanket in the backyard to try to create more shade over the sand box in the morning. I worked marginally well for sun shade, but the kids had a much better idea and turned it into a stage. Here are Aaron and his friend James “fighting” out their drama.

These boys aren’t allowed in a car together by themselves again for at least another 20 years! And that “oh” look by Eric is something we see often. He has such a cute personality and tries to hide his little smiles with an “oh” face. Hard to explain, but very cute.

I have a shot like this from every fireworks show we’ve ever been to. We had a great spot for one of the only fireworks shows in Central Texas.

Here’s the one from his first 4th of July 2007. Look at his bald little baby head! I thought he would never grow hair!

This is how I spent my 4th of July before the fireworks. I totally cleaned out the junk cabinet. Thanks to my neighbor and friend, Melissa, for this idea! It’s funny how clearing out cabinets has a domino effect. I had to clear the cookbooks out of this top shelf in the cabinet, moved those to baskets above the fridges (I don’t use them that much anyway!). Above the fridge was another favorite junk spot that got cleared. And, the organizing kept moving me from one cabinet to another until most of them were done! I’m discovering the key to organizing is having lots of containers and not packing them with too much stuff…leave room to find what you put there!

Sandbox Fun in the Sun

2011-07-07T18:33:00.001-07:00

I usually try to send the boys out in the afternoon while I’m making dinner. It’s been 100 or close to it every day for the past month or so here in Texas, so we have to make sure our fair skinned boys are in the shade and keeping cool.

A couple of weeks ago we (meaning Greg) had to move the sand box one load of sand at a time from the sunniest part of the yard to a spot that is more shaded, especially in the afternoon and evening. We (really, it was me this time) put the umbrella in the center of the sandbox for some more shade. And today I put the hose on the “mist” function and set it up inside the umbrella while the boys played. Yes, it created wet and dirty sand, which created wet and dirty boys, especially the Eric boy.

He’s very into his sand box playing!

Teaching to Serve

2011-07-05T20:22:00.001-07:00

This is crazy long, congratulations to anyone who actually makes it to the end! I should give you a ticket! This is just to share what is working for us now. I’d love to hear about the kinds of things you do at your house.

The problem: Lots of whining when Aaron was told to do any chore.

The goal: Teaching our children (and giving myself a good reminder) that God teaches us to serve one another with a joyful heart. By serving one another we are serving God.

Serve one another in love. Galatians 5:13

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others. 1 Peter 4:10

So, how do we get from here to there? And, what gifts does a four year old have to serve his family?

The world is full of parenting books offering suggestions of incentive programs and the like to get your kids to do what you ask. I’m not a fan of parenting books in general because they are really someone else’s opinion and I don’t usually have the patience to read them. However, I have gleaned some perspective from some books as well as other parents and try to focus on training the heart issues and giving it to God that everything else will fall into place.

I also hesitate with incentive programs because of the issue of misplaced obedience. Are our children obeying us because they are having obedient hearts or are they obeying because they get something? It’s one I still struggle with, but we have decided that we all work for something and children will learn the intrinsic rewards later, right?? I don’t know, I’m not there yet. This is what is working now and I do think we are still able to focus on the heart issue of serving. Also, he is still expected to obey mommy and daddy the first time with a happy heart on any other things we ask him to do (or stop doing is usually the case).

So, in an attempt to get from here to there, we’ve been using a new system to help teach Aaron responsibility and serving at home. It’s a hybrid using the chore pack idea from the Duggar’s book 20 and Counting (she got the idea from Managers of Their Chores) and Accountable Kids system that I saw recently at the homeschool conference.

About a year ago I made Aaron (he was about 3 1/2) his first chore pack. It’s just a chore printed on notecards, laminated and attached with a key ring. He looks at these chores in the morning and is reminded on what he needs to do (is the idea, anyway). My main goal from this original chore pack was to get him to wake up and put his clothes on instead of coming down in PJs (or nothing at all) and staying that way until it was time to go somewhere and we were scrambling to get ready. I put other chores in there such as making his bed and picking up his room. However, I wasn’t consistent enough with encouraging the other chores. But, he did learn to come downstairs with his clothes on while I was knee-deep in taking care of 7 month old twins, so despite the failures, I declared it a success.

Fast forward to the past few weeks, Aaron is 4 1/2 and ready to take on and learn about more responsibility. So, I was very interested in the system I saw at the homeschool conference. Basically, children do their chores, they get tickets they can use for whatever works for you, and there are extra chores that they can use to earn money. The Accountable Kids has this little peg board system they sell for $30. But, I always look for the cheap way out before spending money, so the wheels started turning.

The chore pack had worked before, so I combined that system with earning tickets and money. The chores I chose this time just addressed things about the house that needed to be done and I thought he could handle (the gifts he has to serve with right now). These chores will change as he is able to handle others and the younger ones get their own chores to do. And, maybe then mommy can finish a cup of coffee before it gets cold???

Here’s how it works…

Aaron has three chores to do in the morning, three in the afternoon and three in the evening.

Morning Chores:   1. Make bed and tidy room

                                   2. Eat breakfast and brush teeth

                                   3. Water the plants

Afternoon Chores: 1. Pick up toys

                                    2. Take out recycling

                                    3. One hour of quiet time

Evening Chores:     1. Pick up toys

                                    2. Take out recycling

                                    3. Pick up back yard

1. Tickets… After each set of chores is completed, Aaron earns a ticket to add to the stash. He gets to save and spend these tickets on a TV show or computer time.

2. Sticker chart…At the end of the day if he has received all three tickets, he gets to put up a sticker to earn a date with mommy or daddy. I set this at 15 stickers, so he can get out by himself once or twice a month for an ice cream cone or a trip to the park without mommy or daddy having to chase his little brothers.

3. Extra Chores…He also has a set of extra chores outside of his packet that he can do to earn 10 cents each. The one he’s done mostly is cleaning up the sandbox, because that’s the most fun one. I’m hoping he tries and likes scrubbing the toilets and dusting soon! He puts his dime into his piggy bank and is able to save for whatever he’d like.

I got crafty and came up with this place to keep track of the chore charts, tickets, extra chores and stickers. I laminated the 12x12 paper and stitched the two together to create pockets to keep everything. If I had any sewing skills, I might have sewed something similar.

I’ve found that if I set a timer, he gets more motivated to complete his chores. Who knew? He is excited to check the time throughout his chore and try to beat the clock. Again, misplaced obedience? I don’t know, it’s working.

So, how is it working overall? We’ve been doing it about a week and here are some observations.

1. Doing his chores without grumbling: Well, most of the time. Serving with a joyful heart all of the time is one I definitely struggle with, so I keep encouraging him on this one. But, it definitely is getting better.

2. Learning about saving, spending and couponing: The first day, he spent the tickets as soon as he earned them to watch a show or play on his computer. But, he soon found out that his daily habit of watching a show before quiet time wasn’t going to work unless he had saved a ticket. So, one day he skipped TV and the computer and saved up tickets to be able to use later. We had a very quiet 4th of July at home and he spent a large chunk of his day being a couch and computer potato. But, we all need days like this sometimes!

On the first few days he kept saying he wanted to watch a show and keep his tickets. Sorry honey, I wish I could go to HEB, buy groceries and keep all the money too, but that’s not the way it works.

He was able to take two of the dimes he earned and a two $1 off one Hot Wheels coupons daddy found on-line (sorry, they’re all gone now or I’d put a link here) and take a trip to Target to get two Hot Wheels for 10 cents each. I loved his reaction when I told him that coupon was worth 10 dimes (10 extra chores!).

Above is a picture of Aaron at Target with his two dimes, two coupons and two Hot Wheels cars he had picked out. Notice the disappointed look on his face as he laments about wanting the packages with three Hot Wheels cars instead. Sorry sweetie, you haven’t earned enough money for those.

3. Learning about addition and counting by tens: Each time he is given a ticket or a dime, we count what he has and how much it would be to add one more.

4. Learning about honesty and earning vs. stealing: On about the second day of this program, he took my stash of tickets and said he was just going to take one. So, we got to have a little chat about how he is expected to earn the tickets and how just taking what you haven’t earned is stealing.

5. The house is all picked up at the end of the day! While Aaron is doing his evening chores, it motivates me to get the kitchen totally finished. It’s so much easier to start the next day on a clean slate. Of course, it doesn’t take long for the whirlwind of toys and dishes to pile up, but I like to try to stay ahead of the storm.

That’s about it. I’m not anticipating this working forever, but, again, it’s working for now. I’m sure our needs as a family will change as the other kids get older and we’ll adjust. It’s a wild ride!

Baseball Boy

2011-07-04T13:12:00.001-07:00

He’s a chip off the old block and already knows more about baseball than me (which really isn’t saying a whole lot!). At 4 1/2 Aaron has taken a keen interest in watching baseball with his daddy. I think it’s a mixture of loving the sport, loving numbers, loving hanging out with daddy and loving getting to stay up late watching the games.

He’s really been interested in all the other baseball teams and who they are all playing, so Greg ordered these pennant markers from Amazon. I used an old fleece blanket and stapled it onto a bulletin board and the little fleece pennants stick so he can move them around. He likes to arrange them by color or which teams have animals.

Aaron kept asking which team the Cardinals were playing with next, so Greg printed off this calendar for him. He usually goes to bed before the end of the game, so we always have to ask daddy first thing in the morning who won. He also needs to know what the score was, and how many hits and errors each team had. So, we get to practice our hand-writing while Aaron (with much help from me) writes down all this information on his calendar. I’m sure in the next few years he’ll be keeping all kinds of stats just like his daddy used to do when he was his age.

Go Cards!

Do the Locomotion!

2011-07-02T12:40:00.001-07:00

This morning we used our Groupon (3 for $10) for Locomotion inflatable play in South Austin. We’d never been to this one, but we loved it! It had just the right balance of play spaces for younger and older children and you can bring your own food and sit at the tables for lunch. We stayed a little over two hours, but would have stayed much longer with just older ones. I’m sure we’ll be back and take advantage of their silly sock Saturday when you get $2 off admission for your kids wearing silly socks. Or, just get another awesome Groupon deal, I love those things!

Locomotion

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Sweeter than Honey

2011-06-30T08:45:00.001-07:00

Last week Aaron was a camper at Hays Hills Baptist Church’s Heroe’s Camp. He had an awesome time each day from 9-12 pm having fun and learning about the Lord with his friends. Each age level learned a song with actions. What a cutie!

Every teacher and parent’s hope is that the things they are teaching their kids are sinking in. The teachers sent home little notes each day telling a little bit about what they discussed and the memory verse for the day. On Friday afternoon Aaron came up to me and said very casually, “Mom, did you know that God’s word is sweeter than honey?”…we haven’t talked about that at home, so I’m sure he picked it up this week at Heroe’s Camp. What a blessing it was for me to hear my son quote scripture! Thank you teachers! You’re planting seeds for God’s Kingdom! This morning I found the verse that Aaron was referring to…

How sweet are your words to my taste,

Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Psalm 119:103

It was a much needed reminder for me that even in this season of constant tasks I need to be in God’s word daily. And now I’m thinking about a homeschooling unit on bees and honey and relating it to this scripture. Hmmm.….

The Rainbow and the Storm

2011-06-29T16:57:00.001-07:00

Lately I’ve been turning my “official” teacher brain on more and more and trying to get a bit more organized in our day as we prepare to begin homeschooling sometime in the next year. My thinking is I’d rather ease him into a routine rather than wake up one day with a morning full of workbooks and learning activities. But, then again, I get on these “let’s get in a daily routine” kicks every now and then and they fade away. So, we’ll see if this one fades away like a rainbow (pun intended).

I purchase the book “Let’s Play Science” at the Homeschooling conference Greg and I attended last week and today we got to work on our first of these very simple science experiments. It was just filling a glass with water, putting it on a table in front of a sunny window (we’ve got plenty of those in Texas right now) and seeing how a rainbow is made.

At first we weren’t able to get the rainbow to appear…

But a little tweaking and moving around and we got a double rainbow!

We discussed in very simple terms how the water glass breaks the light into these colors and how that might happen in the sky after it rains. If I really had my thinking cap on I would have inserted how God sent a rainbow after the flood, but I lost my thinking cap a few weeks before the twins were born.

Right after we made our rainbow with the sun, we made a rainbow with some paint. Actually, a homemade finger paint recipe I found on a great blog I discovered today…icanteachmychild.com.

I certainly didn’t encourage the twins to eat the paint, but since it’s just made up of flour, salt, water and food coloring, I did take the time to take a picture before the “icky, don’t eat” was announced. I was surprised that Eric didn’t really try to eat the paint, since that child can smell anything edible a mile away.

It’s not a ROY G. BIV rainbow, but it’s a keeper!

And he’s a keeper, too!

In conclusion, lest anyone get too impressed with our day, let me tell you how things progressed after this activity. Usually, the rainbow happens after the storm, but today the storm came after the rainbow with babies whaling for no particular reason, acting really tired, but not wanting to take a nap and finally ending with mommies’ meltdown and sending everyone to their rooms regardless of crying because mommy just couldn’t take it anymore! I spent all my patient mothering skills in the hour it took to do this activity, because there sure wasn’t any left for the rest of the day.

But, momma said there’d be days like this, and God’s love and forgiveness is constant and never ending, so this mamma will live to spend another day full of surprises with her boys again!

A Little Adventure

2011-06-19T12:55:00.001-07:00

It was another fun-filled week of reading and movie watching and this time the star of the show was Stuart Little. The book is fifteen chapters of adventures that this mouse-like boy (or boy-like mouse) has in the big world. Aaron listened to the imaginative stories intently as Stuart figured out how to make the best of the situations in which he found himself.

This link gives a much more thoughtful analysis and includes study questions and assignments for older students. We are just enjoying reading E.B. White and will give “The Trumpet of the Swan” a turn next.

We finished the book last night and so this afternoon was time to enjoy the movie. It was cute family film full of adventure, but nothing like the book in terms of story line. I’ll never understand why Hollywood feels the need to add a couple of incidental curse words (d**m) and (what the HE double hockey sticks) that were so quick and unimportant that Aaron didn’t notice them, but an older child likely would. But, besides the potty mouth cats, it was an enjoyable story of acceptance, friendship, family and courage.

RIP Scrapbooking

2011-06-13T06:28:00.001-07:00

It’s been a long-time coming, but it’s time to say goodbye to scrapbooking forever. Really, what has kept me going this long is the 50+ scrapbooks that my Grandma Brown did during her lifetime. Before scrapbooking was a popular hobby I remember her sitting at her kitchen table sticking all the pictures in with those little corner thingies. She always did them on black paper, so she had a silver pen to write with and I always wanted to use that silver pen, but she never let me :( . We used to laugh at my grandma because she would take pictures of pictures on the wall. But, now as and adult, I understand her desire to preserve all the wonderful memories of life. She was a meticulous record keeper and probably would have loved to blog, or at least read mine :)

I did my first scrapbooking page 11 years ago during my senior year of college. I actually remember sitting up all night at my apartment in Roanoke, IL (where I student taught) because I loved this hobby so much. Since then I’ve completed 10 full albums. But, with a fourth child coming, I just don’t have the time to keep up with it. And, I don’t have the brainpower to get into digi-scrapping. But, I do love taking pictures and preserving memories, so I hope to do that with this blog. It’s easy, mess free and money free….what more could you want? In the time it takes me to scrapbook one little page I can write an entire post about our week. We’re planning on getting a nice new camera sometime soon and I’ll try to recruit one of my photography gals to teach me a little something. Also, I’ve been writing more here and really enjoying it. I’ll be the first to admit that I stink at grammar, so I’m not even going to try. In high school they kept putting me in advanced placement English classes and I never understood why because I never understood all the million grammar rules. So, I’m just going to write what comes to my mind. And, it does help to know that people are actually reading this. So, make a comment every now and then so I know I’m not just talking to myself.

Dino Daze and Family Fun Free Day!

2011-06-12T18:14:00.001-07:00

Well, it feels like book report week here! This week we also read “Finding the First T. Rex”. It was a much shorter chapter book about…well, obviously. It was filled with facts and Aaron and I had another great time reading another great book. So, on to the field trip…

This isn’t where we went, but this is a building in downtown Austin that Aaron has claimed as “his building”. We’ll have to figure out what it is and maybe do another field trip there someday. Now onto the real field trip…

We went to the Texas Natural Science Center on the campus of the University of Texas. Four floors of old stuff from Texas. Entry fee…$0! There is even free street parking right outside the museum on the weekends. Here is a Pterosaur found in Texas and Aaron claiming that he doesn’t like to get his picture taken.

And here is Mommy next to a T. Rex skull and Aaron still not wanting his picture taken, but mommy holding him against his will…you know…to preserve the wonderful memory forever. But, really, he did want to be there!

Some more Texas animals on another floor. And, daddy!

Ahhh….that’s better! Nothing like sitting on a replica dinosaur vertebrae to brighten your day!

After the museum we headed back South to the Austin Science and Nature Center for a picnic and to let the kiddos run. Entry fee…$0!

Lunchtime!

Exploring inside the museum.

My little paleontologist digging for dinosaur bones in the Dino Pit.

And my even littler paleontologists.

And here is Aaron learning a valuable lesson that algae grows in slow moving water and is slippery. This is what I love about boys. When I was little I would have come up screaming and crying, Aaron just says “Can I go swimming now?”

We had a great family fun day, and did I mention it was all *free*!! And, one of the best moments was a nice quiet ride back to Kyle. Even though Aaron is completely faking sleeping here, he was tired out from all the fun.

But this tuckered out picture is completely genuine!

Charlotte’s Web

2011-06-08T11:45:00.001-07:00

About two weeks ago I read a homeschooling mom’s e-book(yes, we are seriously considering homeschooling, but more about that later!) and she emphasized the importance of reading to your preschoolers. Of course we’ve all heard this and I’ve read to Aaron a lot, but I really hadn’t considered chapter books for a four year old. One of the books she recommended at this age was Charlotte’s Web. I didn’t think he would have the attention span for it, and I wasn’t sure how he’d handle the main character dying at the end. But, I loved that book when I was younger and was eager to give it a try.

I thought it would take several weeks to read the 22 chapters one at a time, but we got through the book in a week. I was pleasantly surprised at how interested Aaron was in the story and his willingness to sit and listen to chapter after chapter, begging me to read one more like he begs to watch shows or play on his computer. My mommy brain thinks, “It’s like him begging for more vegetables, how can I turn him down and not encourage him to be in a book more?!” Our progress was also sped up after I learned that a theatre in Austin was playing the recent re-make of Charlotte’s Web. Ah, Kismet! It was meant to be…Let’s get this book read! I was little discouraged along the way when he wasn’t able to keep straight who the pig and who the spider were, but I kept plowing through because he really seemed to enjoy it.

This might be stretching the Kismet thing a bit, but yesterday morning (the day that Charlotte was about to die for us in the book) she came to visit us on our back patio. I hate to admit it, but I smashed “Charlotte” soon after taking this picture, and dozens of tiny baby spiders starting running out of their mother I had just sent to spider heaven. In my defense, we live in Texas and I don’t know what is a cute little Charlotte-like spider and what is going to bite me and make my leg swell up or worse. But, after doing a little research I found out it was a good spider for keeping away other pests and I really regret ending its life. I just hope there isn’t a pig, goose, or sheep in a barn somewhere wondering where is their next word in her web.

That night we read the end of the book and Charlotte taught us what it means to sacrifice for others, to do whatever you can to keep those you love safe, the meaning or true friendship. Did my four year old little boy find these lessons? Well, after we read that Charlotte had died, his first question was, “Are they going to eat Charlotte?”. (Long sigh of “is he getting anything from this?”), “No honey, they didn’t eat Charlotte.” So, no I don’t think my son picked up on any of those life lessons, maybe he will when we read it again in a few years. He did learn a few more vocabulary words, learned to sit still and be quiet without being entertained by lots of action and he got to spend lots of snuggling time with Mommy. So, yes, it was still worth it!

And, the grand finale of this week-long adventure was our trip to the movie theatre. I had promised him a snack at the theatre and promised myself I would follow the rules and not sneak anything in to avoid paying the ridiculous prices.

So, at the end of it all it was $0 to borrow a book from the library, $2 for movie tickets, $4 (after $1 coupon) for a smidge of popcorn, laffy taffy and Sprite…starting a season of reading timeless books to my boys, priceless!

As promised, the pizza crust

2011-06-03T13:39:00.001-07:00

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust!

I don’t know why they don’t include baking instructions. I just roll it out to just past the sides and then pinch around the ends to make a raised crust. I bake it about 8 minutes at 425, add sauce and toppings and bake another 10 minutes or so.

This time I sprinkled in some oregano. I haven’t tasted it yet, but it smells great. Next time I think I’m going to substitute honey for the sugar. Also, I’m going to try baking it on the grill tonight.

I even impressed myself

2011-06-03T06:06:00.001-07:00

I’m not one to brag about my cooking…because I never have anything to brag about. BUT, yesterday was different. We were having grilled chicken for dinner and needed a bread to go along with it. We’ve been out of the ‘ol Pillsbury crescent rolls I usually grab, so (since the babies were taking a nice nap after a morning at the pool ) I went to the computer and looked up a homemade roll recipe. It was a total hit! I’m planning on making a bunch of these to freeze and I’m sure they will become a family favorite. I also split it in half to make a chicken sandwich and can’t wait to use these as slider rolls, or rolls for Italian beef, and the list goes on and on! Yes, I am getting this excited about bread. It’s pennies to make and healthier make with Whole Wheat flour and yummier then any roll I’ve ever had. Here’s the recipe…

Quick and Easy Yeast Rolls

I just substituted half the white flour for whole wheat flour.

I’ve also been making a great whole wheat pizza crust. We usually have pizza on Fridays, so maybe I’ll post pictures of that later.

It’s a Beach Party!

2011-04-11T18:05:00.001-07:00

Apparently sand is very yummy to a 14 month old.

After being in the car for 3 1/2 hours we went straight to the beach and the babies were amazed at the huge sand box!

Aaron and Daddy having a blast in the waves.

This sand castle lasted for a about 3.2 seconds

Greg dug a hole in the sand and Grant though it was a great place to play!

Freedom!

Eric’s new pose lately. I think he likes the different view.

A couple of lessons learned taking three little boys to the beach…

1. Don’t take three little boys to the beach until all the little boys are a little bigger. Although over all we did have a great time and we will definitely take another beach vacation, the babies didn’t last long before they needed a nap and I ended up driving them up and down the beach until they fell asleep. I guess I’ll have to wait a few more years on any relaxing vacation!

2. Sand will get everywhere! Everywhere!!! On Saturday after our beach fun Greg and I had a assembly line going with the little beach showers. We stripped a baby, ran the baby under cold water, dried the baby and dressed the baby. While I was dressing them, Greg took out the car seats and beat them as free of cracker bits I kept feeding them to keep them from screaming and, of course, sand. Now, how do you wash off your feet and get yourself back into the van without again getting sand back on your feet? Greg chose to wash his feet, dry them and put on socks and shoes. I chose to fill up the sand bucket with water and have Greg wash my feet while I was sitting in the van with my feet hanging out.

3. Block off at least 3 hours to clean the van the next day of sand, dirt, cracker bits and crayon marked on the inside of the van by your 4 year old who dropped his coloring book and just had to color on something. Thank you to Greg for taking on this task!

We did have a nice little get away and enjoyed seeing our boys laugh and play and look forward to watching our family grow, just maybe not at the beach again any time soon.

Summer Fun has begun!

2011-04-07T05:20:00.000-07:00

Yes, one of the great things about living in Texas is that summer fun activities begin in the middle of March. If I could just get all my family to move down here it would be perfect! I decided to get my fair skinned boy these uv shirts…and they match! How cute! We’re leaving for a beach trip TOMORROW in Port Aransas, Texas. I can’t wait to see their matching suits out on the beach.

Eric’s favorite backyard toy is the water hose. It’s the first thing he always goes for.

Somehow our neighbor friend Madeline got Aaron to lay still for quite a while. She and her brother James come over to play in the afternoons sometimes and they all have a great time.

Waterslide!

Cedar Creek Dino Park

2011-03-27T05:31:00.000-07:00

Wow! A blog post after almost a year. We'll see if this keeps up.

On Saturday we visited the Dino Park in Cedar Creek, close to Bastrop, TX. Like many little boys, Aaron has developed a fascination with dinosaurs. he has dinosaur wall stickers, finds dinosaurs on the computer, studies their names, watches dinosaur shows and can tell you a lot about dinosaurs.

The park had a scavenger hunt sheet that made the walk very interactive. As we walked through the marked trail we rounded corners and Aaron screamed at each new dinosaur he saw. I thought this park was very well planned and a great adventure for a little 4 year old boy.

It took us about an hour to walk through the dinosaurs and at the end they have a nice picnic area with a dino dig area. And, of course, you have to walk through the gift shop to get in and out! But, we had a great time with out little paleontologist today.

2010-04-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Since we are now Texans I'm supposed to go out and take pictures of the kiddos with the bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas. My neighbor told me about this great place just outside of Kyle. It was a beautiful morning, so I dressed the boys up and went out. We had a great time, I just wish I could have gotten a better shot of the babies! Maybe next year :)

Beautiful Pictures!

2010-02-01T19:03:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine took these beautiful photos of our new twin boys.

The boys have arrived!

2010-01-24T22:13:00.000-08:00

Eric Glen Geesaman

8 lbs. 15 oz

21 1/4 inches

Grant Leo Geesaman

8 lbs.

21 1/4 inches

More soon!!!!

School Picture Day

2009-11-07T04:52:00.000-08:00

Aaron has been participating in a pre-school co-op that some friends and I organized. We each take turns teaching the 6 kids (5 boys and 1 girl) each Monday and Wednesday at our homes. We get the curriculum on-line and the kids are loving it. One of the moms is a photographer, so she took some school pictures the other day. Aaron has such a cheesy smile!

Although this is working out great for us now, I've decided to take the next semester off. If there is a time in my life when I need to take things off my plate, it's now! I'm sure Aaron won't be happy when he discovers he's not going to school, but I'm actually looking forward to a few months of being just at home with my boys. But, knowing me, I'll soon get restless, so I hope to get him back in the co-op next Fall.

2009-11-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

Trick or Treat!

This is on our way back home from trick-or-treating, he was tired!

The fireman got camera shy.

I had to dress up my two baby boys for Halloween, too!

3rd Birthday

2009-11-02T08:57:00.000-08:00

Aaron's 3rd birthday was a couple of weeks ago. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks and I'm so happy to have a few minutes to let you know how much fun we had celebrating.

I arranged for our mom's meet-up group to meet at the local fire station for a tour.
My little 3 year old firefighter!

Walkie Talkies from mommy and daddy.

A big boy Cars blanket from Grandma Terri.

Almost 3 years old!

2009-10-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

We went to Portrait Innovations this morning and I was determined to only spend $9.95 and get only one pose. It was hard, but quick decisions helped me reach my goal! I love this little guy so much and love spending every day with him, challenges and all. I'll post more pictures and information of Aaron at 3 next week after his birthday week!

Preggo update

2009-10-03T06:04:00.001-07:00

As requested, CS!

The pregnancy is going great. I am 21 weeks and growing big! At our last appointment a couple of weeks ago, the babies were measuring a week ahead, which is great for twins. The doctor said I had a "great set of twins", uh...thanks! :) They are moving around more and more so I'm getting kicks and punches everywhere, but I love to feel and watch them move. Their names are (drum roll, please) Eric Glen and Grant Leo. We just really liked the first names and the second names are family names from both sides. Aaron likes to give them hugs and kisses. He recently got a big boy bed and decided he wanted to give his crib to Eric :). We'll have to get another one for Grant! And, we just realized yet another challenge with twins, who gets the used shoes and who gets the new ones??

This video goes by really quickly, but it's so awesome! Those are our little boys' feet moving around!

My stash!

2009-09-21T09:40:00.001-07:00

This is for you JD! Total before coupons/deals was $93.14 (look at all those diapers!). Total out of pocket was $31.16 and I got $8.50 back in Walgreens and CVS cash. It took hours of planning, preparation and execution, but it's fun. I could have done even better if I had scraped together a couple more coupons and beat some others to a couple of deals, but not too bad!

Family update: Aaron started pre-school this week. Myself and 5 other friends got together and formed a pre-school co-op. We take turns being a helper and then a teacher each week and then have the other weeks "off" to do things like rob Walgreens and CVS! Aaron loves "school" and the co-op is running very smoothly. The baby boys are doing great. At my appointment then other day I was 19 weeks, but they were measuring 20 weeks, which is great! They are growing very evenly and I'm feeling fine. Putting on shoes for myself and Aaron as well as rolling over in bed is getting to be a challenge, but we haven't seen nothin' yet! I visited the brand new Seton Hays hospital this week and the maternity ward is so nice I'm almost looking forward to giving birth to two babies.

Goggle Boy!

2009-08-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

Doesn't he look like such a big boy! I can't wait to have little babies to hold again! But, he did say this morning when he was snuggling with me drinking his milk..."Love Mommy forever". It doesn't get much better than that!

12 weeks!

2009-08-01T15:57:00.001-07:00

Officially entering the 2nd trimester! We had a sonogram yesterday and other than Aaron shouting "Daddy, where are your boobies?" in the waiting room, everything went great. I think I'll start referring to them as "mommy parts" from now on. They (the babies) are actually measuring a couple days ahead of schedule. We have another sono scheduled in 4 weeks, so we hope to find out genders then!

Many more successes on the potty lately, I guess we are officially potty trained!

Summer Fun

2009-07-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

We've had a great time the past few weeks in our Kindermusik summer class "Adventures in My Backyard". I'd love to keep Aaron in Kindermusik all the way through the final classes when he's 7. We have so much fun!

We have also enjoyed the pool in our neighborhood a lot this summer. This day we invited Aaron's friend Jack to play. Aaron took a great nap that afternoon!

The pregnancy is going well. I'm at 12 weeks now. I'm feeling much less sick and tired, so I have a bit of a reprieve for a few weeks until I start getting (as Aaron says) "bigger, and bigger, and bigger!"

Commemorative Air Force

2009-07-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to get the oil changed in my car and the lady behind the counter (seeing I had a little boy) told me about the Commemorative Air Force at the San Marcos Airport. This was very close to our house, so I was excited to take Aaron. We finally made it this morning and had a great time looking at all the planes. Their "big draw" is a plane called the "Yellow Rose" that was used in the Doolittle Rades of WWII. They have an interesting museum with all kinds of WWII memorabilia. I wish I would have known about this place when my grandfather (a WWII veteran) was visiting a few months ago!

Another Left-Handed Genius

2009-07-21T14:38:00.001-07:00

Yes, my son appears to be a left-handed creator in our family. One of his favorite activities is coloring. We have tons of coloring books and print off coloring sheets from on-line at least twice a day. As you can see, he also likes to pose for the camera. And, I apologize for his lack of clothes, but he's doing better all the time with using the potty!

Messy Playdate

2009-07-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

I hosted a "Messy Playdate" today in our backyard. We had a blast with a pudding pool, spaghetti slide and water play to wash off. The kids got messy and the moms had a great time chatting!

Moorific!

2009-07-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Chick-Fil-A in Austin to enjoy some free food for our little herd of cows. I went with a couple of other momma cows and we had a great time. I didn't get too many pictures because Aaron was so busy running back and forth to the play area. We stayed for a good two hours and enjoyed a little mommy talk while the kids played. And still, the child won't take a nap. I'm afraid the nap days are coming to an end!

Ultrasound video of our two little peanuts!

2009-07-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

In my life as a musician, I've heard many sounds that have touched my heart and moved me to tears. But, there is no more precious sound on earth than the "thump thump" of the two wonderful heartbeats of my twins that God is weaving and already has plans for! Here is video we took of our the ultrasound...Enjoy!

Two Strong Heartbeats!

2009-07-05T06:44:00.000-07:00

We had an ultrasound this week with the IVF doctor and my OB and heard two strong heartbeats! The doctor said they were measuring exactly the same (which they should be) and are right on track. I'm going to see her regularly and will also go to the perinatal clinic in Austin for extra checkups. It's just standard to consider any multiple pregnancy high risk. But, we're praying for an uneventful pregancy!

We had a fun 4th of July. Earlier in the week we did a craft playdate with my mom's group. Scott, Lana and Heather Presuhn came down for dinner and fireworks. It was great to catch up with our friends! Aaron loved the fireworks and was naming each color as they went off. His new favorite thing is pretending to be an animal. Lately it's been either a tiger or a penguin. And, I was pleased to discover that I can get him to do pretty much anything is we pretend we're an animal. Examples-Hop up to your room for nap times like a rabbit, jump into bed like a kangaroom, brush you teeth like a tiger. And one that actually worked yesterday, "brush your hair like a penguin." I know penguin don't have hair and wouldn't brush it if they did, but it worked!

Double Trouble

2009-06-18T09:52:00.001-07:00

Yes, both embryos we transferred took and we are pregnant with twins! Greg and I are still processing this information, but know that it's in God's hands. The doctor was a little unsure at first if one of them would make it (the smaller one in the ultrasound) because he couldn't see the yolk sack, but then we saw it and he sounded more confident at the end. There are so many more things to think about with this, and more risks to the entire pregancy. We go back in two weeks for another ultrasound to hear the heartbeats.

Since these appointments are in San Antonio, Greg took the entire day off and we took Aaron to the zoo. His favorite animal is the tiger, "roar"! It is a very large zoo...we spent over 5 hours there and didn't see everything, but we had a great family fun day!

Thank you God!

2009-06-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

We got the call this morning that the IVF was a success and we are expecting again at the end of February! I'll definately keep you updated, but the levels look great right now. Thank you all for your prayers. Thank you Lord!

Hippity Hop

2009-06-02T05:42:00.001-07:00

We had a little visitor in our baby pool yesterday. A frog decided to get a little refreshment in the pool. We had a great time exploring and playing with the frog until he decided he had had enough and hopped away.

IVF update

2009-05-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

The transfer yesterday went really well. They had 2 beautiful embryos that they transferred and 2 more today that they froze. The pregnancy test is June 5th!

I Will See it and Remember

2009-05-24T04:23:00.000-07:00

"Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth."

This was the view from behind our house yesterday evening. With a million "what ifs" running through my head right now, I am so thankful God has reminded me of his promise and grace for all who trust in Jesus.

IVF Update

2009-05-23T07:06:00.001-07:00

Our implantation is scheduled for Monday at 10:00 am. At this point we have 6 embryos and they would like to wait until day 5 until they reach blastocyst stage. Apparently this makes them stronger, but you have less embryos to deal with as some will arrest each day. This has always been out of our hands and in the hands of the doctors and especially God. We just have to trust in where we are at and pray for the best outcome. The doctor said we should have 2 good ones to implant and a 50/50 chance of having any to freeze. I was hoping for a little more success at this point, but we have to be thankful for what we have.

On the other end of things (no pun intended), Aaron has been going pee pee on the potty all by himself. Well, as long as he's naked. He even just went to the bathroom on his own and went poo poo on the potty by himself! In the words of our dear son, "Icky poo poo stinks!". So, maybe by next week we'll have him in underwear, but one little step at a time.

Successful retrieval

2009-05-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

I'm just back home from the retrieval of the eggs. There were able to get 17 eggs. Implantation will be in 3-5 days. Thanks for your prayers!

IVF Update

2009-05-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hi dear friends!

Our retrieval is scheduled for this Wednesday at 9 am. I’m doing well and looking forward to getting through this next week and praying for a successful pregnancy. Implantation of the embryos will be either Saturday, Sunday or Monday. Greg is taking all of next week off and my mom is coming the following week so I can take it easy. Praise the Lord for the good friends I’ve already met here in Texas who are bringing meals and watching Aaron during the procedures. I’ll trust in the Lord’s plan for our lives! This verse held me through the first procedure that gave us Aaron. I actually typed it out on a card then and have saved it and plan on taking it with me this week. I would appreciate all of your prayers for us!

“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

The Heat is On!

2009-05-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

It's been in the upper 80's and 90's in central Texas this week. Today it reached 97! After lunch I filled the little plastic pools and let Aaron play around before naptime. He loved sliding down into the water and racing back around to do it again. The pool in our neighborhood opened last weekend and I'm hoping we can make it there tomorrow.

How does your garden grow?

2009-05-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

We are trying our hand at a vegetable garden this year. It's been a work in progress and we've already learned a lot about what to do and not to do. Greg has been mostly in charge of it. We snagged these rocks from the building site across the street (and yes, we asked first, they were extras). We've also started a compost bin with all our veggie scraps that seems to be great for the garden and the yard. The tomato plants have lots of green tomatoes on them and we'll have ripe ones soon if Aaron stops picking the green ones off! We also have some herbs, jalapenos, green peppers, zuchinni, pumpkins, cucumbers and carrots. I've already enjoyed using the herbs from the garden and hope we have lots of fresh veggies soon! You can pretty much garden year round here, so we're looking forward to planting brussel sprouts (we love them Christy!), broccoli, lettuce and strawberries in the cooler months.

These boots were made for walking

2009-05-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

We've recently cut out TV for Aaron around here. He was getting to the point of crying for it and throwing a huge fit when a show was over and I turned it off. It's actually been a very nice week of seeing him find more creative ways to play. For example, here is a shot of him using some DVD boxes as boots. I'm not sure how his feet fit in there, but they did. We've also been working on shapes, which he points out on his coloring sheet. You might need a translation in the video below. He says "Circle...what is that shape?" My boy in full sentences. Enjoy! Also, leave a comment every once in a while if you're reading this! It helps me keep up with it.

Great A, Little a, this is Pancake Day!

2009-05-01T05:41:00.000-07:00

Wednesday mornings have (for whatever reason) turned into pancake day at our house. Aaron helps me make pancakes and I make enough to freeze for the rest of the week (or more). As you can see, he loves it!

Weiner Dog Races

2009-04-27T10:37:00.001-07:00

This is an annual event in nearby Buda, TX which draws more than 30,000 people from six states. And, yes...it's weiner dogs racing. They put I think six dogs in at once and they run about 100 yards. The winner of each round moves up and eventually they have a weiner winner. The races where fun to see but they also had lots of vendors, food and live music. Aaron loved the shuttle ride on the school bus and getting to tour the firetruck. It was a fun day out in the community!

I was only slightly tempted to adopt a weiner dog from the rescue place that was there.

IVF, here we go again!

2009-04-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

As you saw from the title, we are on the road again with in-vetro fertilization. So many of you prayed for us the first go around and we are so blessed with Aaron. But, our hearts still desire more children, so the Lord has led us to this point once more. The doctor’s office told us not to tell too many people in case the news was disappointing, but we believe in the power of prayer. So, we are asking you to keep our family and the doctors and nurses overseeing all this in your prayers over the next 6 weeks. Hopefully we will send out happy news sometime in June. If not, we trust God’s plan for our lives. But, until then, it’s one step at a time and one prayer at a time.

Zoo fun

2009-04-14T04:56:00.001-07:00

We had a fun time yesterday at the Austin zoo.

Awesome garage sale find. Lot's of fun and play for $20!

Easter Fun

2009-04-14T04:39:00.000-07:00

Aaron is enjoying the cookies Grandma Gloria sent
alont with all the other goodies. Thank you!

Being silly with the Easter Grass.

Aaron and a couple of friends at an Easter craft playdate with my moms group.

We enjoyed our Easter weekend. After church on Easter Sunday the sun came out and we had a very relaxing day at home. I even let Aaron skip his nap because I just wanted to enjoy the day with him and Greg.

In other news, we are gearing up to begin our IVF cycle. Please keep us in your prayers throughout this process! We should be done and have news by mid-June.

Last week was full of changes as I decided to focus my professional efforts on my studio lessons and am throwing in the towel with teaching Kindermusik. Although I love it and want Aaron to continue taking classes, it was taking my mornings and other time away that I just don't want to give up anymore!

Also, we had had to take Sarah back to PAWS. She is a wonderful dog, but Aaron was constantly grabbing her and chasing her. The last two straws were when she showed her teeth when a little friend accidentaly fell on her and the next day I came home and she had eaten through the bottom of the fence to get out. I took her back then and there. I'm sorry that it didn't work out, but it has been more peaceful around here not having to constantly correct Aaron.

Playing with friends

2009-04-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Aaron had over his new little friends Chase and Ryan for a playdate the other day. He loved dressing up with them, playing chase and tackling.

Picture time

2009-04-02T04:31:00.000-07:00

Grandma Terri, Grandpa Jerry and Grandpa Brown came to visit for a week in March and we had a wonderful time. We had a couple days to go down to Corpus Cristi and see the "beach...water!" as Aaron said over and over.

Aaron is talking more and more. I'll probably post lots of new pictures, so check for more posts!

Catching Up

2009-02-04T04:27:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, so I thought I would spend a few minutes to catch you up on all things Geesamn. I have been very busy balancing being a mommy and getting started with Kindermusik, voice and piano lessons. When nap time hits, I run down to the computer to answer e-mails and whatever else I spend so much time on the computer doing! Kindermusik is off to a great first semester start. I have four classes starting this week with 25 families enrolled. My original goal was 20, that I am pleased with that. I've set up my voice and piano studio in my home and am offereing lessons on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and am already reaching capacity, word travels fast! It's working out great to have lessons in the evenings at home. I thank the Lord for this blessing and his constant provision.

Aaron is talking more and more and has apparently heard the at 2 he's supposed to show some terrible side. We've been working on patience and to accept a "no" when it's not time to watch his show. :) He loves to play outside and ride his bike and pick up rocks. His favorite outdoor activity lately has been watching the tractors and workers build the houses around us. Right now we are the only house on the street, so we have about 10 house that are going to go up around in the coming many months.

Greg is out running right now in preparation for the Austin marathon (his first race ever). He constantly amazes me on his dedication and ability endurance. He loves his job in Austin and sees himself there through retirement, God willing.

We are still doing a church search, finding where God can use us and grow us. There are certainly a lot of great options around here.

I've been as active as I can in my mom's meet-up group here in Kyle, have met many wonderful ladies and made a few friends. It's taken me most of the day to find the time to finish this and it's nap time now, so I've got to go run and get some things done.

There is no doubt that Jillian is an "Island Princess"

2008-12-31T12:26:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, my niece, Jillian and my son, Aaron. She is an Island Princess, he is not.

Check out the other two new posts below...

Christmas 2008

2008-12-31T10:27:00.000-08:00

3:15 am, December 18th...Left Kyle, TX
7:00 pm, December 18th...welcomed back to IL with an ice storm making the last 30 minutes take over an hour
9:30 am, December 19th...after spending the night at my brother's house we drove to my mom's house and slid right back down the hill of her driveway almost into a ditch. Canceled the visit to mom's and drove back to my brother's.
9:31 am, December 19th...Greg and I start asking ourselves "Why doesn't everyone just move to Texas?!"

Yes, it's no secret...we don't like the cold, ice and snow. But, we love seeing our family and we were glad we were able to see most of them on our visit. We had "jammy" Christmas fun at my mom's house in our pajams and got to hang around a lot with Tyler, Susan and the girls due to canceled plans. We were very disappointed we weren't able to go to Iowa on Sunday due to a blizzard and we had to leave Greg's mom's early due to another ice storm coming through the midwest. Seriously, Christmas in Texas next year!

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas 2008.

Jaedon's first drum set, ear plugs not included.
This picture gets harder every time!

Puzzled with Grandma Gloria.

Santa brought Aaron a big firetruack. Aaron calls it a "woo woo".

Happy New Year!

2008-12-30T10:34:00.001-08:00

Thank you to my faithful 3 or 4 blog readers for hanging in there until I got back to the computer. I know you've been anxiously awaiting a new post :) 2008 has been another amazing year with blessing beyond our wildest dreams. We started the year not knowing what our next step was going to be and finished it moving into our new home. Thank you Lord!

This is how Aaron comes down the stairs most mornings, with an armful of his "chars" aka, cars.

He loves his "chars". He just saw the Disney Movie Cars. It was a lifesaver on the 16+ hour drive to Illinois and back. So, we decided to do his bedroom in a cars them. I painted the wall with the window seat and put up a sticker border and car picture. We were also finally able to put up the toy antique cars that Greg's grandfather collected.

This is the outside view of the house. Right now we are the only house on the street, so we have a nice little country view for a little while.

This is the view when you walk in the front door. This is the dining room which we will be using as a playroom for the forseeable future. I just painted the walls last weekend and haven't had time to do much decorating, but you get the idea!

The study where I will hopefully be giving voice lessons. It's mostly a "catchall" room right now as I await some bookshelves and a desk to put it together a little more.

The kitchen...

And the living room are one big room.

Moved in

2008-12-11T16:46:00.001-08:00

We are finally moved in to our new house! It's been whirlwind week and a half. We love having much more space and seeing things of ours we haven't seen in a year. The community of Kyle seems very friendly and family-oriented. There are so many things to do here, we just haven't had time to do many of them! I love our backyard and being able to open it and let Aaron run around as he pleases. I love the front yard and our quiet road (we're the only house for now). Today it was about 70 degrees. After nap time I sat outside while Aaron road around on his tricycle.

We visited a church right down the road and enjoyed it. It's a smaller country type of church, but seems to have a good vision and purpose. We'll definately be visiting some others, but it was a good start.

We are still waiting for the cable company to get here to connect our phone, internet and cable. After finally using some "force" on the phone today, I finally was able to get them to schedule an appointment...for next week. Long story, don't want to get into it. But, I only have internet in the evening with Greg's broadband card borrowed from work.

Aaron is begging for my attention. I'll upload pictures when I have more time!

Moving Day!

2008-11-28T06:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy week and I haven't posted for a while. We are officially closing on the house this afternoon and moving first thing tomorrow!!! I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures and update once we have internet at the house. So, I'll be out of touch for a while. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. I've had enough of this apartment and am so ready for a brand new house! The Lord has been so good to us this year, praise Him!

We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving with Scott and Lana Presuhn. Again, thank the Lord for the Presuhns who are so kind and generous. At a very busy time of year for Scott, he is sacrificing his day off to help us move. Thank you is not enough!

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and I'll catch up soon!

Thank You!

2008-11-16T18:15:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to my wonderful husband for retrieving all my files and making sure I can't accidently delete my blog again.

Oh MAN!

2008-11-13T04:46:00.001-08:00

I was setting up a blog last night to use for my new Kindermusik families and I think I accidently erased my blog! I thought that I deleted the name for a kindermusik blog that I didn't want and I must have deleted the Geesaman Family blog! So, I guess I've lost all my past posts, but I guess and I move forward from here. Bare with me while I reconstruct. I guess it was time for a new look anyway. Well, here are some cute pictures of Aaron in the bathtub last night. He's getting into smiling for the camera...CHEESE!

Nearing the beginning...

2008-11-09T14:48:00.000-08:00

We are almost at the end of the house build and the beginning of our life in Kyle, Tx! They were painting upstairs the day I took these, so I only have pics of the downstairs. All that's left is the finishes (flooring, appliances, fixtures). We're still hoping for the first week in December, although they haven't given us an exact date yet.Kitchen (duh!)
Right inside the front door looking at the dining room. I'm planning on sectioning off the open area with those cubby-type bookcases and using the area as a playroom.

I'd love to put a palm tree/bush in the front of the house. I've seen them around quite a bit.

Science and Nature Museum

2008-11-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

We love Austin because there is so much to do. Today we went to the Austin Science and Nature Museum. They have some rescue animals, a pond and a huge sand pit with dinosaur bones to "uncover". We enjoyed going to this today with our friends Addy and Cooper. And, 81 degrees in November is great, too!

Halloween

2008-11-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

Aaron caught on quick to the concept and loved that everyone gave him candy.
Aaron and Daddy getting ready to visit our first house.

My little monkey.

Thank You Mortgage Crisis!

2008-10-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

We received some great news from our salesman this morning. In response to the mortgage news as of late, KB homes has drastically lowered the prices of their new home builds. This will end up saving us quite a bit on our monthly payment and over the life of our loan. This makes us very happy as we are planning on doing IVF next summer, and extra money will come in very handy (when does it not?!).

We had our pre-drywall orientation yesterday and everything looks great. They are trying to get the house done before Thanksgiving, but we'll see about that.

Birthday Bash!

2008-10-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday Aaron! Yesterday, my little boy turned 2! We miss everyone very much and wish we could have had you all here to celebrate with us.

We had a fun-filled day starting with a visit to the Dinoland exhibit at Zilker Park Botanical Gardens. They have a maze of trails through beautiful gardens and right now have an exhibit of life-size dinosaurs. We heard lots of "roars" from Aaron this day! Actually, right now he's pointing to the pictures saying, "roar!".

After the dinosaurs we went and had lunch at the park, fed the pigeons and played on the playground. Right now he's pointing the elephant on his shirt and making his trumpeting sound.

Lana Preshun came over to help celebrate and open gifts everyone sent. Sorry I didn't get a picture of you, Lana! But, she was kind enough to take this one :) And, kind enough to give us a very noisy toy that we'll be sure to bring to her house next time we visit!

I made him a "roar" cake and he couldn't wait to dive into it.

More progress

2008-10-18T16:25:00.000-07:00

They are speeding along. The windows and exterior doors are in and most of siding is up. I can finally start imagining what it will look like. Looks like we could be in the week after Thanksgiving!

Dinosaur teeth

2008-10-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

We must be doing something right when Aaron cares about the oral hygeine of his dinosaurs! We've been talking a lot about dinosaurs in preparation for our birthday trip to the Dinoland Exhibit that is here in Austin.

These dinosaurs came in handy today to calm Aaron down after he took quite a tumble getting out of the van. Even though I was holding his hand he still managed to twist around and wack the back of his head on the door. It didn't break the skin, but did leave quite a bump. After finally settling down from that incident, I (stupidly) said "Please, Aaron, no more big falls today!". And, of course, not two seconds later (we were in the mall) he trips on a chair and takes a header to a big planter cutting his lip with his tooth. Thankfully my little hard head recovered and was able to take a nice long nap.

Framing!!!

2008-10-08T23:31:00.000-07:00

They started the framing on our house Tuesday, and this picture was taken on Wednesday! It should be ready for drywall in about 3 weeks. We'll go and take a tour before that happens to check out the placement of everything before it's set in...well, drywall.

Big Boy Bed

2008-09-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

I knew it would happen eventually, I was just hoping to hold it off a few more months. But, Aaron had other plans when he climbed right out of his crib when I put him down for a nap Sunday afternoon. I think it was that Curious George episode he watched right before...gave him bad ideas. He knew enough to not come out of his room, but I heard him playing (very quietly) with his train table. When I put him back in the crib, of course, he climbed right back out. I did make him stay in his room for about an hour before he could come out. He seemed to be having a lot of fun playing in his dark quiet room. I, however, was not ready to engage in a power struggle of staying in bed, and definately was not ready to give up my...I mean his...afternoon nap time.

So, after giving up on the nap, Greg and I foraged through the storage unit looking for the toddler bed conversion stuff. I was dreading bed time that evening, which is probably why I put it off until an our past his usual time. Side note: how do kids have more energy when they've skipped a nap? But, bed time actually went okay. I think he was a little confused on what he was supposed to do. He got out of bed a couple of times and tried to play in his room, but scurried right back into bed when I told him to. He did finally fall asleep, but woke up screaming on the floor about 12:00 am. As you can see from the picture, the side rails are fairly useless when the child sleeps in the middle of the bed. I decided to give it another try, but I might have to invest in some more side rails. I really felt like a bad mom when nothing in the world could console him except his favorite TV show. What happened to my little baby who just needed some cuddles and soft singing? After a little Spider Patch, he did go back to sleep, but woke up early at 6:40. Fortunately, nap time went really well this afternoon, no falling out at all. So, I guess my little boy is making yet another transition into a big boy. 3 more weeks until his 2nd birthday!

Capitol Tour

2008-09-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

After living in Austin for 3 months, we finally took a day to visit the capitol building and grounds. It's a very interesting place and a great way to spend the day with the family. The capitol grounds are in the heart of downtown, so it was a fun walk up the historic streets of Austin, as well. This is a picture of the rotunda. We saw portraits of important Texas battles and important Texas people, like Davy Crockett :)

Aaron and Greg in front of the capitol building. Aaron was more interested in the cars and trucks driving by.

After our tour of the capitol, we sat down for a relaxing picnic in the connected park.

As we walked back to our car, there was some sort of street fair going on on 6th Street. This is the party street of Austin and is often blocked off for fairs, etc. There were also lots of people in town for the UT game and still many people left from the hurricane.

After our visit downtown we couldn't resist making the drive down to Kyle to see the start on our home. It's somewhat encouraging to see houses in the area that were not there 2 weeks ago. We talked with our sales guy and we were "told" the end of November was still what they were shooting for. They would like to have a closing before the end of their fiscal year, which is the end of November. I would love to get in as soon as possible also, but I also want a house that's going to stay together! After checking this out, we found an awesome Mexcian place in town, which I'm sure we'll visit much more in the future.

Haircut

2008-09-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

The curly mohawk was cute for a while, but we decided to go ahead and give Aaron his first (at-home) hair-cut today! He did really well with the buzzer, but didn't let me use the scissors. And yes...I did save some to scrapbook!
Before...

Before...

After...

Another visit to Zilker

2008-09-16T06:33:00.000-07:00

My friend, Janessa, and I took 5 kids to Zilker park today (Aaron, her two and two children she is watching for a neighbor). It has cooked down quite a bit here (for a while anyway). Today is in the upper 70s and it was a perfect day to enjoy the park, walk along the creek watching all the dogs who jump in and swim, and have a picnic. Aaron is sleeping away right now as I steal a few minutes for a quick update. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so no cute pics of this one.

It's been interesting to see and hear about all the evacuees from Ike that are making their temporary home in Austin. Most of the power is out in Houston and Galveston sounds like it may never be the same again. We read about 5,000 people are staying in Austin until power is restored in the area. So, at the parks we see lots of families hanging out with their dogs and know they are evacuees. As far as Austin and the hurricane, it passed right by us, we didn't even get a drop of rain! It sounds like that happens quite a bit as hurricanes come by, but it was an exciting couple of days wondering what it might be like to be in a hurricane. But, hopefully we won't ever have to find out!

In house news...the building has officially (finally) started! We are the proud almost owners of some plumbing and foundation form boards. We will be going down for a pre-construction orientation next week. We are excited to see some progress and look forward to moving in soon!

They arrest people for this!

2008-09-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Walgreens and they paid me $6.80 for unloading all this from them!

Chex Mix on sale for .99 with $1.00 off coupon http://www.chex.com/Snacks/fantasyfootball/, free after coupon.

Colgate on sale for 2.99 with B1G1 coupon from Walgreens add (you can find this in the store) combined with 2 $1.50 here http://www.colgate.com/app/ColgateTotal/US/EN/Total-Advanced/Home.cvsp, free after coupons.

Visine on sale for 3.99 with $2 Walgreens Super Saver coupon (from booklet you can find in store) and $2 coupon you can find on http://www.couponcravings.com/. You'll need to scroll down and find the post about Visine. free after coupons.

And the best...Robitussin on sale for $3.99 with $3 coupon https://j.ovm1.net/wch1/Robitussinstandalone/default.aspx?c=1373&p=ROB06019&s=01Get 3 Robitussin (the regular, not the Max), use 3 of these coupons and you'll receive $10 in Register Rewards to use on you next purchase. This should be $3.20 or so with tax out of pocket.

The Robitussin coupon is great because you can print as many as you want. It takes you to a you computer's print screen. You can make the number of copies as many as you'd like. So, go and make money at Walgreens! This deal is good for the entire month! If we get a bad cold this winter, we'll be set. But, I'll plan on giving some of these away to friends or a shelter.

I'm having a good time getting these deals and so far have saved about 25% on our grocery budget. I'm hoping to save another %25 next month.

Labor Day Cookout

2008-09-02T12:03:00.000-07:00

We've been enjoying going to local parks and cooking on the grills for outings lately. So, that' s what we did on Labor Day. Here are Greg and Aaron waiting for their hot dogs and hamburgers. Aaron ate only watermelon. I think he could probably eat an entire watermelon himself!

House update...We had a slight set-back when we had to switch lots (again). For some reason they couldn't do the covered patio. So, we were moved to a different lot, which is actually an even better lot. It's a little bigger and on a smaller culdesac (only 6 other housed in the street). The back lots around the circle part of the culdesac are not going to be developed, so there will be a large green area and paved place for us to hang out and play. I was told they are starting the plumbing at the end of this week and will hopefully have the foundation poured by the end of next week. That will put us a week behind our original time-line. Hopefully I can get a completion date soon, so we can look forward to an end to this apartment! I would love to be in by Thanksgiving, but early December seems more realistic.

I've found a couple of possibilities on places to hold Kindermusik classes in Kyle starting in January. I'm working with a woman with an established program in Austin and her experience has been very helpful in this process. I'm meeting with a church in Kyle, which is very close to our house, tomorrow evening. Hopefully that will work out, but we'll see!

For right now we are enjoying a lot of free time and looking forward to our new home and finally getting settled!

Playing in the Rain

2008-08-28T05:19:00.000-07:00

We went to the park and had a cookout in beautiful weather, then it dumped on us on the way home. We waited in the car for a while, then made a dash for it. But, I couldn't resist letting Aaron play in the rain.
And, my CVS raid for this week...spent $3.75 out of pocket and earned $5.00 in Extra Care Bucks. It would have been just over a dollar oop, but we needed ice! In an effort to save as much money as possible for IVF, I've gotten into couponing and checking the adds for sales. My goal is to cut our grocery budget in half...we'll see!

A long, but wonderful visit to IL

2008-08-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

On August 6th, Aaron and I flew from Austin to St. Louis, where my mom picked us up to visit our family and friends in central Illinois. We enjoyed our visit very much. The weather was absolutely perfect. Everyday was in the low 80s and sunshine (a great break from 100+ in Austin). But, it was a very long time to be away from daddy. Here are a few highlights from our trip. Many more pictures will be on our website soon.

This is Aaron waiting at the airport. He loved to watch the plans and trucks moving around. He did really great on the plane. I, however, still hate flying and will avoid it whenever possible!

We made ourselves right at home at Grandma Terri's (my mom) and Grandpa Jerry's place in the country.

My son, the tree hugger.

My mom cut this path through the trees and we love to take nature walks through it.

The next day we spent that night with Uncle Tyler, Aunt Susan and cousins Jillian and Anna. Here they are getting ready for bed.

After a good tumble. This is Aaron's favorite "game" right now.

The next day we are off to Clinton to visit Greg's family. Aaron loves Grandma Gloria's cookies.

...and riding on the tractor.

After the weekend in Clinton we drove to Peoria to visit RCC's new building (awesome!) and stayed the night with the Dobra family. Luke and Aaron had a great time together and what a cutie Emily is! Here we are at a "messy playdate" with the moms group I was in in Peoria. Jessica and I had fun going through all the baby things I had stored at her house and cramming it into the car to store at my mom's until Christmas. If I had just gotten the bigger truck to move I wouldn't have all this hassle! Right after this playdate we stopped by for lunch with the Rotramels before heading back to my mom's.

The four grandkids have a great time playing on the playground my mom built this Spring. Here are Aaron, Jaedon, Jillian and Anna.

My mom had spray bottles for all the kids to play with. Aaron took great joy in chasing down everyone.

I couldn't resist playing in the corn like I did when I was little. Here is a cute picture of Aaron with my mom in the background taking a picture from behind.

The next weekend we traveled to Turkey Run State Park in Indiana for a family reunion with our cousins from Ohio. Here is a picture of all the great-grandchildren (except little Jonathan whoe had already left). Notice how Aaron is being held hostage for this picture.

And, notice him running out of the shot as we tried to take another one! He is reaching the end of his rope.

Speaking of ropes...a couple of days later we visited my Aunt Gail's place to see my cousin, Ben, who is a champion calf roper. We had so much fun riding the horses. I was surprised how willing Aaron was to get up there.

Our last day of our whirlwind tour. Aaron looks a little tired in this picture. I wonder why?

They tried everything to get him to smile. But...stick a fork in me, I'm done! Nothing was going to get this kid to smile. We miss daddy! Let's go back to Austin!We'll see you again soon!

Big Band in the Big City

2008-08-03T15:38:00.000-07:00

We went to downtown Austin to enjoy a free concert of big band music by an ensemble of the Austin Symphony. Aaron loved dancing around with the other kids and was good enough to clap at the end of each piece. I'm glad he's learning showing concert etiquette!

Lovey Mommy Things

2008-07-31T13:29:00.000-07:00

Some fun things our little guy is doing lately...

...Talking in bed for up to 45 minutes before he goes to sleep. It's mostly just jabbers, but it's mixed with his favorites of "Mommeeee, Daddeeee, "No, No" and the ever popular "uh-ohhhh". Just makes us wonder what is going through his brain.

...He has pajamas with a dinosaur on them, so we taught him how to roar and it's just the most gentle and cute roar ever. We can't get him to make it the scary kind.

...Lots of animal sounds, today he learned an elephant sound in Kindermusik.

...He squeals and giggles when we let him flop around on the bed.

The Geesamans

January pictures

2011 in pictures

Merry Christmas!

Best Bed Buddies

Gingerbread House Fun!

Halloween Fun

Welcome Baby Lance!

This week in pictures

Baby Lance’s Rooset

This Month in Pictures

This is the day

This couple of weeks in pictures

In case you ever wondered…

Super Mom or Abiding Mom?

Homeschooling Challenge #1 of 1 billion

Bubble Snake Maker

This week in pictures

First Hair Cuts

The VERY Hungry Caterpillar

Water Coloring Pages

This week in Pictures

Sandbox Fun in the Sun

Teaching to Serve

Baseball Boy

Do the Locomotion!

Sweeter than Honey

The Rainbow and the Storm

A Little Adventure

RIP Scrapbooking

Dino Daze and Family Fun *Free* Day!

Charlotte’s Web

As promised, the pizza crust

I even impressed myself

It’s a Beach Party!

Summer Fun has begun!

Cedar Creek Dino Park

Beautiful Pictures!

The boys have arrived!

School Picture Day

3rd Birthday

Almost 3 years old!

Preggo update

My stash!

Goggle Boy!

12 weeks!

Summer Fun

Commemorative Air Force

Another Left-Handed Genius

Messy Playdate

Moorific!

Ultrasound video of our two little peanuts!

Two Strong Heartbeats!

Double Trouble

Thank you God!

Hippity Hop

IVF update

I Will See it and Remember

IVF Update

Successful retrieval

IVF Update

The Heat is On!

How does your garden grow?

These boots were made for walking

Great A, Little a, this is Pancake Day!

Weiner Dog Races

IVF, here we go again!

Zoo fun

Easter Fun

Playing with friends

Picture time

Catching Up

There is no doubt that Jillian is an "Island Princess"

Christmas 2008

Happy New Year!

Moved in

Moving Day!

Thank You!

Oh MAN!

Nearing the beginning...

Dino Daze and Family Fun Free Day!