The Car

Here is a picture of the SUV that landed in my sisters front yard last Friday.

Thankfully the crash took place one minute before my neices got off the school bus. 

My sister witnessed everything... thank God for his timing! 

Summer!

I love the smell of summer arriving every year!  The air is fresh, the flowers are blooming, and we spend lots of time soaking up the sun together as a family.  :-)  

Here are some pictures that I took of my landscaping last night:

Here is a picture with Ethan wearing his new swim jacket and holding his kick board.  It took about a half hour before he'd let us take the jacket off of him! 

 

Here is a picture of  Mariah taking a break from swimming and getting ready to bite in to the GIANT peanut butter cookie that she made.

Happy Summer! 

Addition to Ethan's PTing Post...

I almost forgot about the start of our weekend! On Friday afternoon Ethan and I went to Wal-Mart... one of my least favorite stores, but ya can't beat the deals. Well, Ethan was in pull-ups because I wasn't ready for braving it in undies yet. We got to the store and went inside and my phone started ringing. It was Deana and she was saying something about my sister's house and is anyone home... and she sounded worried. My phone was breaking up so I was pretty much running through the store looking for phone service. Finally I went outside (luckily nothing was in my cart yet). Deana was telling me that a black SUV was flipped on it's side in my sisters front yard and wanted to make sure that someone was home because it was around the same time the girls were getting home from school. Well that set a bit of a panic so I wasn't listening to Ethan. Turns out the entire time I was talking to Deana, Ethan was yelling "mommy I have to peeeeeeee". I hung up with Deana and ran to the bathroom with Ethan. Ethan did a great job holding it! Phew!

So the story about my sisters front yard and the SUV:
My sister was getting ready to walk down the driveway to get the girls off the school bus. She suddenly heard a loud screeching noise and then saw a large black SUV flip a couple times and land sideways in her front yard! She ran inside and called 911. As she was on the phone with 911 other people stopped and ran to the man in the SUV. When my sister got off the phone with 911 she saw the school bus turn the corner with her girls so she went out and started directing traffic and helped her girls off the bus. Shortly after police and rescue squads arrived and took the man to the hospital. They think it may have been a drunk driver that lost control. Fortunately no one else was hurt. My sister was a bit shaken and is very thankful that the accident didn't happen 1 minute later when her girls were getting off the bus! Many prayers were said thanking God for the timing!!!
Later on Friday night I went to my sisters to view the scene of the accident. Big chunks of grass are missing where the SUV rolled. As soon as I turned in to her driveway I saw a deer run from the ditch into a wooded area. Made me wonder if that deer had anything to do with the accident?

Big Boy Ethan!

Ethan is well on his way to being potty trained! He wore his big boy undies to the sitters for the first time this morning. He is still having accidents from time to time, but overall he is doing great!  His accidents usually go something like this...

Ethan: mommy I have to pee (as he grabs himself)
Mommy: Ethan, you are already peeing!
Ethan: OH NO I'M WET!
Mommy: Ethan I need a little more notice (as we are flying to the bathroom)


I had been introducing potty training and talking about this for many months. I kept planning to start but life got busy and made it too difficult. Finally, this past Wednesday I decided that it was time. I kept him in undies at home in the afternoons/evenings and then diapers while sleeping and while at the sitters. I did this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoon. Then all day Saturday and Sunday he wore undies and only wore a diaper to bed. He is doing awesome!!! He even fell asleep during a concert at church last night and slept for an hour (on my lap... I was nervous) then he woke up (still dry) and sat in church for about 20 minutes before I took him out to use the bathroom.

I am so proud of my little man!!! :-)

Side Note: Summer weather is also helping with potty training.  Ethan loves running around our deck naked and even peeing off of it from time to time... oops... ;-) Good thing we live in the country!

Lots and Lots and Lots of new pictures

I finally updated flickr!  I hadn't done so since February...

Click on the months to view the slideshows 

 MARCH  

APRIL 

MAY

Family Filled Weekend

This was definitely a weekend filled with family gatherings.  It started with a very nice visit to see my Grandma and Grandpa Kolbow on Friday.  Unfortunately, the visit up to see them was brought on by the passing of my (step) aunts husband, Palmer Draeger. Palmer passed on Thursday morning after a very short battle with cancer.  Palmer and Judy live in the other half of my grandma and grandpa's house.  Judy is my grandma's daughter (step-grandma).  They took care of my grandma and grandpa for many years.  A big reception was held on Sunday to celebrate Palmer's life.  What a beautiful way to celebrate a wonderful life. 

Grandma and Grandpa seem to be doing very well.  Grandpa is 98 years old now and still VERY smart.  He loves to tell stories from his childhood and share his knowledge with us.  He also loved seeing how much Ethan has grown.  When we left, Cory was holding Ethan and asked Ethan to give grandma and grandpa kisses.  Ethan leaned in and gave them both a kiss on the cheak.  Truly a heart warming moment! :-) 

Here are some pictures from our time spent at grandma and grandpa's. 

On Saturday we hung out around the house and spent lots of time playing outside.  The kids found a frog and named it Little Foot (every frog they find is now named Little Foot).  Ethan was scared of the frog at first so big sister Mariah had to pick it up and show him that there is nothing to be scared of. 

(sorry the pic is sideways...)

On Sunday we went to Scotty and Shannon's for fresh salmon on the grill.  Scotty and Cory went on a charter boat on Saturday with a couple other friends.  The boat was chartered by Cory's good friend Anthony and Anthony's dad.  The weather was nice, the water was calm and the guys had a great time. 

Sunday night Shannon made a honey mustard recipe and Cory made a mango salsa recipe and they grilled up the fish.  I actually tried the mango salsa fish and I liked it, but that doesn't mean I'll be eating seafood again any time soon...

We also went to Pug Fest on Sunday!  Pug Fest is a big vendor/fair/show that helps raise money for rescuing pugs.  We took Oscar with us and were surprised with how well he got along with the other dogs!  It was so fun to see all of those smooshy faced dogs in the same place!

Birthday, Mother's Day and other fun times

So much has been going on that I haven't had time to sit down and blog! 
We had a beautiful April as far as weather... but as for May... yuck!  We must have jinxed it by opening our pool on May 1st because ever since it's been cold and windy and rainy. 

April 22nd was Bring Your Child to Work Day!  Mariah came to work with me and we had a lot of fun!  We started on the Racine Campus and got to do fun activities like crafting, nail painting, and t-shirt making.  Then we went to lunch at Panera Bread and then out to the Burlington Center where I work.  I showed Mariah what I do during the day.  At first she thought it was fun, but quickly became bored.  I kept her entertained with my electronic dinosaur (typewriter) which I still use quite frequently!  It was a wonderful mother-daughter day and I am looking forward to doing it again next year!

April 29th: Ethan is turning it to our little adventurist!  He loves to run and climb on everything.  Sitting still just isn't in his vocabulary unless he has strawberry milk in hand.  Here is a picture of him cruising around the yard on his ATV.  He is already wanting a bigger one because this one just doesn't go fast enough for him. 

Girls Night Out:  Jeni and I met up for a much needed girls night out.  I think we both planned on just getting together for a little while and having a drink, maybe two, and some dinner... Well, our evening turned in to a four hour night out with quit a few drinks and some amazing nachos!  I think we left the restaurant around 10pm!  Yes, our husbands started calling us around 9pm, but we were having so much fun! :-)   It was so nice to get out and catch up with each other!  Definitely need to do that again soon! 

May 5th: I turned another year older... yes, I am 32 now.  I had a really nice birthday.  Cory, Mariah, Ethan, and I went to dinner at Jose's Blue Sombrero.  It was Cinco De Mayo so the Mexican restaurant was packed!  It took us an hour to get seated, but as always is was well worth the wait.  While we were waiting to be seated we talked (text) to Jeni, and Jeni and Giana decided to come join us!  That was an awesome birthday surprise!  The food was delicious, the atmosphere was very entertaining - live Mariachi Guys, and the birthday songs.... FUN!  They put a huge sombrero on my head and sang for me and then took my picture, printed it out and gave it to me!  Oh and they also brought me flan... which I don't care to try ever again...

May 9th: Mother's Day!  I had a great Mother's Day this year.  I woke up and relaxed pretty much all day!  Cory made french toast for breakfast, we went to church, we came home and hung out around the house, and then went to mom's for dinner.  Harry made an excellent dinner for all of us so even mom got to relax!