Changes

This week was kind of a sad week for all of us. Saturday was the last night that I worked at St Elizabeth as a full time employee. Lucky for me it was on my weekend, so I got to go out with a bang and celebrate with my weekend girls. We ordered out and everyone brought food so we had a feast all night long. I must admit that I was a little sad to go, but very excited as well. I will miss seeing all my friends that I work with and I will miss taking care of the babies. I did stay supplemental and plan to pick up hours when it works with our schedule.
Probably the hardest thing was letting go of our our nanny, Kendra, who has been with us for over 3 year now. The boys adore her and she is the only babysitter Abby has ever known. Kendra was always wonderful to our kids and they had so much fun with her. Monday, as a final farewell, we went to Chuck E Cheese (we had planned the zoo but it was too cold) and out to lunch. We had explained to the boys that I wasn't going to be working much anymore and Kendra wouldn't be coming either. I don't think they really understood what was going on, but I wanted to try to prepare them since this will be a big change in their lives. They did have a lot of fun making her little good bye gifts. They put sparkles on a frame and then we put a picture of all of them in it. They also strung beads and Bryce made a necklace and Caleb made a key chain. I hope it still works out to get together with her, whether its to have her babysit or just to hang out for the afternoon. I know the kids will miss her a ton.
I also started my new job this week. Stay at home mom. For whatever reason I have been very nervous about this for a while. I know that sounds stupid, that I am nervous to stay home with my kids, but it is more than that. I hope that I can be the patient, fun mom that I hope to be, when I am there all the time. I must admit that as thankful as I am to have this opportunity, I am worried that I won't be good at it.

Earth Day

Well I guess every preschool and school aged child knows that today is Earth Day but I can't say thats its a holiday that I remembered. After preschool on Tuesday, Bryce told me that it was going to be Earth Day on Thursday, and he wanted to know if Earth Day was a cake holiday? I thought this was an adorable request! I guess he takes after his mother with his sweet tooth. We didn't end up making cake but they had special cookies at preschool. When I picked them up from school today Caleb's shoes were just covered in mud. I did my usual and asked them what they had done today at school and for the first time in a while they both remembered. "We Planted A Tree!" They had planted a tree to celebrated Earth Day and they had so much fun doing it. They got to help dig the hole, and then throw the dirt back in after the teacher put the tree in. Caleb kept insisting that it was just a plant it wasn't a tree yet. It must have been a small tree. It was fun to see how excited they were over a holiday such as Earth Day.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

This weekend Robb's parents and brother came to Lincoln to celebrate his dads birthday. It was a fun weekend. Saturday the guys went to the spring game and Robb's sister Ginger, and my niece Brook, and I did a little shopping for my new nephew. I can't wait for a new baby in the family! We then went to the Husker baseball game. The boys beg to go to a baseball game every time we see the field from the highway.
We didn't have seats we just did the general admission tickets so the kids could be walking around and playing while we watched the game. All the kids were really good during the game. They watched the game for a little while but their favorite part was the concession stand food. Their uncle Andy encouraged this and ran them back and forth to get goodies. The weather was perfect to be outside. It wasn't too hot or too cold so we had wonderful spring weather. I can't say that most of us adults got to watch a lot of the game between keeping track of the kids but all in all it was a fun day of spending time together, and Happy Birthday Bob!

It's Official

It's official! Next week is my last week of work before I go supplemental. This is something that Robb and I have thought long and hard about for awhile now and it has finally become a possibility. I am very excited to be a stay at home mommy but I will also admit I am terrified for many reasons. Since we have been married, Robb and I have always worked full time and shared almost all of the household chores equally. (Except for laundry which has been a reoccurring disaster when he helps and I have only mowed the lawn maybe once the entire time we have lived at our house.)I think it will be very different adjusting to our new roles around the house.
I am also very nervous about the most important job of my life, being a good mom. Right now when I work full time, I get adult interaction and a break from the chaos at home at least 2-3 days a week. Now I will be home everyday and night and weekend with them and frankly I am a little worried that no matter how much I love them they might drive me crazy! Kendra our nanny of 3+ years has always been so good to them and the kids all look forward to the days when she comes. I think it helps break up the monotony of me and Robb always telling them what to do. She has more patience because she gets to leave at the end of the day. Even though I am very nervous for this transition in our life I am very excited. I can't wait to see Robb and the kids more instead of having to pass off the kids quick before I had to go to work. It will also be very nice to have a normal person schedule and not have to sleep during the day most days. I think this was the right decision for our family and our kids but only time will tell.
I will also miss my job a lot! I have made a lot of friends and learned a lot in the last 3 1/2 years of working here. I will miss the conversations that I have with the girls at work but I fully intend to keep in touch with the friends I have made there.
As I said, I will also miss the work. This has been one of the most challenging jobs I have ever had. I have gotten to take care of some of the tiniest and sickest babies and then months later see them go home to their families. This job came with a lot of stress but also a lot of joy. So St E's girls call me and keep in touch. I will still be picking up hours but will not get to see you nearly as much as I used to. Thanks for all the fond middle of the night memories! :)
So in saying all this I get a little sad. This is a big change in our lives and I hope I am up for the challenge of being a great stay at home mom. I hope that I am fun, patient, and the kind of mom that I always hoped I would be.

$100 Dollar Crayon

Well Bryceman has now passed Caleb in amount of Emergency room visits. Which is ridiculous! If you know Caleb you know that he is pretty accident prone and frequents the ER often. Tonight however it was Bryce that had to go to the ER. I guess he was picking up his crayons and decided that it might be fun to stick a crayon in his nose. Little did he know the problems that would cause. He had told Robb that he put a crayon up his nose but we didn't realize that it had broke off. We put the boys to bed as usual and a little while later Bryce was crying saying his nose hurt. When Robb looked in his nose there was the crayon. Stuck! We both tried to retrieve the crayon with a tweezers but we weren't able to get it out and we were worried about pushing it up farther. So at 10 at night Bryce and I headed to the hospital. We got a second opinion on what to do from the girls I work with and it was decided that we would have to go the ER and get it removed. Bryce was very brave and after an exam they decided to use a special extracter to get the crayon out. I guess this problem isn't that unusual and they even make a special tool for it. Who would have known? The pink crayon was removed and after getting some stickers we were ready to head home. The hospital secretary came in the room to do the dismissal and take my visa so I could pay the $100 for the pink crayon piece that was covered in boogers. I think Bryce learned his lesson the hard way, so hopefully we won't have to visit the ER again for any nose extractions.

Abby's New Tricks

I know I say this all the time, but Abby is growing up soooo fast! With Bryce and Caleb I was always ready for them to grow up a little more, do something different and meet a new milestone. Abby on the other hand seems to grow up way to fast and I can't keep up. She has a couple of new tricks lately. She can say some of her animal sounds and it is the cutest thing ever. (I know I am her mom and I think everything is cute but this really is adorable.) She knows cow (Moooo or Boooo) depending on the day, Pig (she sounds like she is blowing her nose), Sheep (Ba Ba) she is the best at this one since she walks around saying Ba Ba all the time anyway. My favorite is rooster, this one she taught her self after seeing it one the boy's cartoon. She says (Arrrr er Arrrr er Arrrrrr). Any other animal that you ask her about growls a ferocious, throaty growl that doesn't sound like it should come from a little girl. She also points to our dog Penny and says pup pup. She suddenly has quite the fascination with Penny, that Penny really could live without. Penny is 8 and isn't in the mood to have a little girl pull at her dog tag all day long because she thinks it is pretty.
Abby's other new trick is climbing. She has turned into a monkey overnight. She likes to crawl up on the kitchen chair and from there crawl up on the table and sit in the middle of it. She also likes to crawl up on the picnic table outside and would crawl up the big jungle gym if the boys would give her time to. Oh, they grow up so fast!

Happy Easter

We all had a fun but busy Easter weekend. We kicked off the weekend with a scavenger hunt Saturday morning when I got home from work. I had made up clues that the boys had to use to find their Easter baskets. Bryce tried to understand how it worked but Caleb got bored and just searched the house for his. So maybe they weren't quite old enough for that yet. We will try next year. We headed back to Norfolk later that afternoon. We had Easter at my moms house that night. The boys had so much fun playing with their cousin Draven. Luckily it was a nice evening so we were able to have the planned egg hunt. The boys had a lot of fun trying to get to the eggs before my moms dog got them. Abby even participated a little by picking up eggs that we set in front of her.
The next morning we got the kids dressed up cute and headed to church. Grandma Susie made Abby's little Easter dress, which turned out adorable. Despite what her daddy said, grandma bought her an Easter hat and her auntie Ginger bought her little gloves. She looked very cute and also seemed to enjoy being dolled up. The boys looked very handsome also. Bryce and Caleb did great in church. They sat nice most of the time other than the few times they had to peak around the piano to see Megan or the organ to wave at grandma. Abby on the other hand was a church disaster. It was partly our fault. I had forgot to bring her cup of milk so we had to scramble to find her a drink and then she was still antsy and crabby. Abby and I sat in the church library for most of the service. We then had a nice lunch with the Lutz's. It was fun for the boys to get a chance to play with Brook. When those three get together we hardly see them, they stay soooooo busy. It also helps to have uncle Andy who is great at entertaining them. He hid a ton of eggs so they could do an egg hunt. (Sorry about your collector quarters Bob).
We packed up and left the Lutz's at about 3:30 and headed to Plainview to see my dad and Cindy. It was a beautiful day so we played outside for quite awhile letting the boys play with all grandpa's toys such as the motorcycle, golf cart, elevator and multiple cats. Yes, I did say elevator, you have to know my dad. By this time the boys were experts at egg hunts especially when the eggs have money in them. It was fun to catch up with everyone and the boys got to play with cousin Lucas. We had supper there and a ton of candy. From there we headed home. We managed to have 3 Easters in 1 1/2 days. So, like I said in the beginning it was a busy weekend but it was fun. It is wonderful to share a holiday like Easter with the ones you love and remember what we are truly celebrating.