Annika calls the Disney Princesses 'Tatas'. WHY? Every time I say it, I'm afraid someone will overhear me asking where her Tatas are.

Annika likes to fake sneeze. It cracks me up.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired!

We, mostly me, have been sick a lot since we got here! I don't know why, but we've caught every possible bug out there. A couple weeks ago, I was so sick that I had to get 2 bags of fluid!~
This week, we all have a little bug again, not as bad as before, but Bella had to miss a couple days of school because of the 24 hour policy on fever/throw-up. She seems to be allergic to shopping at Wal-Mart and Target! 3 different times, she's randomly thrown up in the store. Her face gets really red and blah! I have no idea why, but we're trying to make an effort to keep her out of the stores!

The house is a mess and we've all watched more cartoons than you can shake a stick at, but hopefully, we're on the rebound! Yesterday, I sat down and cried because I was so tired of feeling worn-out and yucky! Poor David was met at the door with a sniffling wife and he turned out to have a sore throat! So please pray for us, we'd like to feel better!

Another day, another fundraiser

Isabella's school is having a book sale this week. Annika and I went in on Monday morning to volunteer, and I told Bella that we'd come back today to pick out a book or two... Of course, it turned in to much more than one or two books, which I could have predicted, but it's a FUNDRAISER! We got a couple of books off her teacher's wish list for the classroom- "Duck at the Door" and "Big Chickens..something or other."
I kept trying to steer Isabella towards cute books like "Splat the Cat" or "Skippyjon Jones" but she was determined to get treacly easy-to-read books about fairies or horses or fairy horses, so I let her, because I want her to enjoy what she's reading. Her reading has really come a long way lately. She has half an hour reading time with a special tutor every day at school. Since she's from a different district, they wanted her to get acclimated to the New Mexico way. A side note- We're really lucky to have her in this school. We researched New Mexico schools and specifically chose to move to Rio Rancho and then to the Enchanted Hills district because they are so good...which is unusual here in New Mexico, which is 49th in the country in education and 80% of 4th graders can't read proficiently! This is a big change from Lawrence, that's for sure!

Annika found a compilation of Dora stories and we had to have that! She really loves books and will sit quietly and look at them for a long time! We've already worn it out some because of all the repeated readings! Bella's able to read to her a little out of it, so it's fun for the whole family!

I'm so glad that my children are learning to love reading!

6 months later, here we are!

A lot has changed since I posted here in April. The Vermooten family has packed up the babies and headed out west. Specifically, New Mexico! Which is a lot different from Kansas. We're adjusting...slowly. We have visited no less than 3 pumpkin patches already this year, and let me tell you, we miss Schaake's!

Yesterday, we drove a little over an hour to Moriarty, NM, which seems to have two attractions. One, the national DWI memorial, and two, McCall's Pumpkin Patch Extravaganza. http://mccallpumpkinpatch.com
Okay, Annika's trying to stick her bottle in the electrical socket. and her toes.

There was so much to do, and the girls had so much fun! It was definitely worth the $10 admission price. They had a jumpy pillow, a petting zoo, a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch, duck races, (although they weren't as cool as the ones at the Galloping Grace pumpkin patch) plus the giant slide, the pedal karts, and bunnyville!
Unfortunately, there's nothing to stop the wind out there, since there are no trees in New Mexico, so the wind got bad. They were clocked at over 70 mph, which I think is pretty strong anywhere, but made them particularly bad.
Isabella made a new best friend, Olivia, and it turns out her mom is Dutch, just like David, so that was pretty cool.

Isabella was in a relay race today and wow! I am always amazed at how fast she is. I'm pretty fast too, but I had to be to catch that toddler.

Oh wow. Annika is so big. She's repeating Dora and Diego on tv in her tiny little voice. It kinda makes me sad. She's not a baby anymore.

It's been one of those crazy days where this is just par for the course.

Bella dropped part of her waffle and Annika got down, got the fork Bell dropped,sat down under Bell's chair and ate it. With the fork. She had her own plate.

Just saw how to train your dragon in 3D and whoa! It was awesome! 3D was intense! Bella kept reaching out to touch things.

Happy 6th Birthday to Isabella!. You rock girl!

You know how people shout at the screen, 'don't go in there?'. Bella makes me talk back as them. That's what moms do.

Oh man, this place is in bad shape. Fortunately, we're all healthy here again so I'll be back to work pronto.

After a lot of blood work and chest x rays and waiting around for results, Annika has rsv, pneumonia, and bronchialitis. So, that's fun.

Annika was singing in her sleep this morning really softly. It was just precious.

My computer is being ''special'' so no updates for a few more days. In the meantime, enjoy your spring break!

We got Isabella a violin last night and it hasn't left her sight. She told me it was her first dream come true.

And we're back!

If Annika walks in and the toilet is open, she grabs whatever is closest and bolts to throw it in. Be ware innocent toilets of the world.

Annika has had the Yucky sick tummy ickies all week so we're laying low over here. Back soon- I hope!

I think Isabella's hair is oily after the bath than before, thanks to the entire bottle of conditioner Ben dumped in the tub.

I meant her hair. Her hair is striking.

Isabella breaks my heart who she begs for short hair. It really is so striking and I just love it.

Our waiter at IHOP's wife had a whirlpool birth and breastfed for 49 months. I did not want to know that. Did you?

Ok. Success without pictures?

Test 3?

Hmmm..

I want to:
GET A NEW MOUSE because my mini computer is awesome, but the keyboard is really small and my mouse randomly erases sentences, punctuation, or entire posts in one fell swoop.

Figure out how to make the text bigger.

Change the color scheme of the polka dots or find another page with cute girly colors befitting the subject.

Text post so I can update at will on the run. I think I'm almost there, so if strange things appear, please bear with me until I figure out how to do with lots of help from Annika and her typing feet.

Whoops!

I don't know how 2 weeks snuck by me! Well, actually I think it was the Olympics. We've watched them 24/7. Last night was the long awaited women's figure skating. My DVR was doing funny things, probably because I've recorded hours and hours of curling on it, so I missed everything but the last group, but wow! they were amazing. Mao Asada was great, and I was really impressed by her performance, until I saw Kim Yu-na! She blew everyone else out of the water. Apparently, she has no weaknesses, and even though I don't know anything about skating, even I could tell.
My heart breaks for Joannie Rochette. Her mom died on Sunday, and she skated amazingly. She just lost it the second her routine was over and so did I.

My favorite day in ballet class was when my teacher would pull out her "Rock n' Roll" albums, so I was probably drawn to her James Bond routine, plus it's James Bond!

Here are 3 some random Olympics thoughts:
- I didn't know I liked curling, but it's fun to watch.
- I only like women's curling, not men's.
- I know nothing about hockey.

Let it snow

Did you know that 67% of the U.S. is covered in snow, and there is snow in 49 states? Only Hawaii is immune to this Great Snow Attack of 2010. Apparently, that hedgehog saw his shadow with a vengeance. Isabella is still angry about that, by the way. She randomly shakes her fist and yells "Don't see your shadow again!" She has strong feelings about many things, the cold being one of them. Her school has really random rules about when they can go outside, and they don't match up with the ones they sent home, so I haven't been able to figure them out. All I know is that it seems like they haven't gone outside in weeks. When they stay in, they stay in their classrooms and play quiet games, so no one's getting any energy out. The teachers are noticing the difference.

It's really hard to keep the kids inside all the time without letting them watch tons of t.v., so I picked up this book for Isabella. It's called Scribbles and it is AWESOME. It's a coloring book, but not in the traditional sense. It has a simple image on each page with instructions, such as "this is a tiger, draw his stripes" or "this is a robot, draw his parts. " I love it.

Oh hey. Here comes Isabella now. She didn't even make it to midnight in her bed.

That's all for me!
p.s. The time is off on the post. I wish she was asleep at 9.35! It is 11.57 instead.

Annika's Favorite Foods

This picture is several months old, but I thought it was appropriate for the post because she's covered in food.. I love the look on her face and the way her little tongue sticks out.

I don't know how to tell my "cute stories" without them so long. If I was reading this blog I would get bored. I know they're not that interesting. I'm worling on it, but I run out of time when I try to go back and edit.
We \had pizza for dinner tonight. In retrospect, it was a bad idea. The school's celebrated Valentine's Day today, so it was all things chocolate and sugar. She finished off most of her candy in the car on the way home. I wasn't thinking about it, so I let Isabella have a Dr. Pepper as a treat with her pizza. I almost never let her drink pop other than Sprite, so the pizza and pop mixed in with all that candy and her little tummy was about to explode. You could hear it gurgling across the room. I felt bad for adding carbonation to her tummy ache, but what would Valentine's Day be wihout a sugar overdose?

Anytime we have Pizza Hut we have to get breadsticks because they are one of Annika's favorite foods. She loves breadsticks, french fries, and cheese. Annnnnnd that's about all she eats. Not because we order pizza and french fries that often, but because she now refuses to eat any other food. She particularly refuses to eat anything someone else feeds her. She USED to be a great eater- lots of vegetables, meat, everything on the litle pyramid, but she just quit and we don't know why. We've talked to the doctor about it. The nurse didn't want us to giver her toddler formula and told us she needs to solid foods. I explained we offered them to her at every meal, but she wouldn't touch them. I was a little confused because I would say "She won't eat food no matter what we try" and she would just say " Well, she needs to eat solid food." Okkkkay. You're really not helping.

She knows you can get breadsticks in Target and scream when we walk out without them. She's like some sort of crazed animal. She will eat an entire order by herself. She'll go to any length to get them- I have to be careful where I leave the box because she will climb everywhere. Her favorite trick is to hang around until I get her some milk and then then storm the fridge. She dips each little bite in the marinara sauce and blows on it before she eats it.

French fries invoke the same frenzied reaction. I order a meal from McDonald's everytime now. I get the sandwich, she gets the fries. Bella's job is to hold the box in the car and keep them coming, so I don't have to listen to her scream "FI! FI! FI!" all the way home. Since we don't have McDonald's all that frequently, I let her have them. She sounds like a little tyrant, but other than fries, I try not to let her run the show.

If I let her, the little maniac would eat 5 or 6 string cheese sticks a day. Like the other two, she demands them loudly.

I'm beginning to sense a theme here. She likes, bread, marinara, and cheese. Maybe there's more Italian blood in us than I thought.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

I don't know what I was thinking. I told Isabella I liked her beaver puppet. It's Feb 2. It's a GROUNDHOG! Duh.

It wouldn't be Groundhog's Day without it.

I Got You Babe"

[HER:] They say we're young and we don't know
We won't find out until we grow
[HIM:] Well I don't know if all that's true
'Cause you got me, and baby I got you

[HIM:] Babe
[BOTH:] I got you babe I got you babe

[HER:] They say our love won't pay the rent
Before it's earned, our money's all been spent
[HIM:] I guess that's so, we don't have a pot
But at least I'm sure of all the things we got

[HIM:] Babe
[BOTH:] I got you babe I got you babe

[HIM:] I got flowers in the spring I got you to wear my ring
[HER:] And when I'm sad, you're a clown
And if I get scared, you're always around
[HER:] So let them say your hair's too long
'Cause I don't care, with you I can't go wrong
[HIM:] Then put your little hand in mine
There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb

[HIM:] Babe
[BOTH:] I got you babe I got you babe

[HIM:] I got you to hold my hand
[HER:] I got you to understand
[HIM:] I got you to walk with me
[HER:] I got you to talk with me
[HIM:] Igot you to kiss goodnight
[HER:] I got you to hold me tight
[HIM:] I got you, I won't let go
[HER:] I got you to love me so

[BOTH:] I got you babe
I got you babe
I got you babe
I got you babe
I got you babe



I miss you, Daddy.

Too much fun!

Whew! Today was chalk full of activities. Today was "Baby Day" at church. They had a slide show of pictures parents submitted and quotes about the nursery. Then there was a little "baby parade" to the "Name Game" song and all the kids came up front to be introduced to the congregation. Isabella walked in with us and Laura held hands with her and Ben. I forgot to take pictures! but the girls wore matching maroon silk dresses with their petticoats poofing out! An aside, if you're going to make little girl dresses DRY CLEAN ONLY, I think there should be a giant sign clearly stating that fact. The dresses were supposed to be Christmas dresses, but then we had a blizzard, so I saved them for a day that wasn't -15 degrees. These are two pictures of Annika from the slide show. The toys behind her were from a giant ebay lot I won. The kids just threw them over their shoulders as they emptied the box. (I bought them to sell at a consignment sale, but wasn't happy with the quality so I let the girls play with them). Isabella is showing off her mouse whiskers last Halloween.

We literally sprinted home and threw clothes on and ran back to church. We went ice skating in Olathe with the Young Adult/Family group. Isabella saw a little segment on ice skating on tv a couple of months ago, so she's been begging to go just about every day. We had a couple of false starts, some due to weather, some because of behavior, so I figured today was the perfect opportunity. We took Annika which wasn't too smart. I brought toys for her to play with, but she wanted to ice skate desperately. I put the tiniest pair of skates they had on her and took her out on the ice a couple times and she LOVED it. I got tired FAST trying to hold her up, but she really had fun. We saw a little boy her age wearing strap-on skates with double blades. The mom said he did really well because there wasn't a balancing issue.
David pretty worn out too- Isabella needed a lot of help to stay upright. At the end, Holly came up to hold Annika while I skated with them for about 20 minutes. That was just about the right amount of time for me. I brought in a box of french fries to keep Annika happy and every time I skated by, she'd yell "MAMAMAAAAA" and wave a slobbery fry at me.

Afterwards, we jumped in the car, and barreled home to drop Isabella off at children's choir and afterward she went to my mom's house to play with her "American Girl" doll "Gia." Good thing she doesn't have school tomorrow. She's going to need some recovery time! I went home to rest. My back is just killing me, which is to be expected. Family fun was worth it!

Um. The KC Wolf is wearing a superman suit at the Pro Bowl and doing a disturbing dance. Just so you know.

Oh hi. Yeah, we've got a blog too.

So, I'm not trying to copy everyone else in the world and start a blog! about my kids! but I am!

I'm not very good about keeping in touch with people or sending photos to family or friends that live out of town, so we're going to try this.

This is Annika and Isabella sitting in Annika's favorite little spot. It's the pie shelf where we keep the microwave. She clears off all the cereal boxes (read: throws them on the floor) and sits in the little seat just about every day. She just cracks up every time. The shelf above her is clear, so she pokes at it a lot. I don't know why.

Oh yeah, Happy Kansas Day everyone! Isabella celebrated it at school today. They colored sunflowers and made little books, but the highlight of the day was making her own snack. As far as I can tell, they coverd sunflower seeds with honey. Yummy!