Rebecca sings Reflection

Here is a link to Rebecca singing ‘Reflection’ from Mulan.

Here is another funny video

This is another video the kids like now.

Gummy Bear song

Here is the kids new favorite song and video from Youtube.

Check it out.

Missing a tooth

Sydney lost her first front top tooth on Saturday January 12, 2008. Rebecca was pretty jealous that Sydney lost it before she did. The girls’ and I were getting ready to go and drop them off at “Bible Bowl” practice when Sydney told me that her front tooth might be ready to come out tonight. I looked at it and it was definitely loose. I told her we would wait until later after dinner and then try to get it out. Later while dinner was cooking she asked if she could try to pull it out so Tami gave her a paper towel to grab it and she tried to pull it out. She could not quite get it and so she let Tami try it. Tami took the paper towel and grabbed the tooth, gave it one good yank, and it was out. Sydney was so excited that it was out that she had to go run in the bathroom to look at it. She looked so cute with the missing tooth and she had that little whistle when she talked and said certain words.

Cory and I went to the doctors and he is on antibiotics for an ear infection, they put him back on the nebulizer, and also put him on a 5 day dose of steroids to help him knock out the congestion and wheezing in his chest.

Cory had his “Potty Party” on Jan. 10^th. Tami made him a special cake that he could have with out egg in it. We also got 3 big balloons, a couple of books, a bunch of new under-wear, and a bunch of candy for him. We decorated the kitchen table with all of it and then had him come up and see it. He loved it and wanted his cake and candy right away. He was also very excited that he got ‘big boy’ under-wear like Caleb.

You can see pictures of the cake and items for Cory’s ‘Potty Party” and Sydney’s missing tooth here.

2008_Jan

UPDATE: On Saturday, January 19^th, Sydney had Tami pull out another one of her teeth. This time it was one of the front bottom ones again. Now she has a top tooth missing and a bottom one just below it is missing.

How many 5 year olds could you take in a fight?

Go here and find out.

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A Potty Party?

All right, I am horrible at keeping blogs updated. Cory is now well into potty training. As of now, he has been dry and accident free for 4 days, since Monday, Dec. 31st. He has also been dry in the morning for the past three nights and has even woken Tami up at 0530 the past two mornings so he can go to the bathroom. He is SO excited about his progress and cannot wait to have his “Potty Party”. Every time he goes potty, he says, “I did it. I went pee-pee in the potty again. Now I get my potty party cake and underwear like Caleb”. All he has to do is continue thru Sunday with no accidents and then he will have made it 7 days and we will have his “Potty Party”.

Rebecca loses another tooth.

Last Thursday Rebecca had me pull out her tooth. It is the 4^th one that she has lost and it was on the bottom left of her mouth in the front. She asked me after dinner if I thought it was loose enough to pull out and it was. So, after all of the kids were done watching T.V. I got some dental floss, wrapped it around the tooth and pulled it. It did not come right out and she started to cry because it hurt. She went into the bathroom to look at it and I had pulled it enough that she was able to grab it and take it out herself.

New Web Site.

In case you haven’t noticed by now, I have changed my web site pretty drastically. For the past four years I have been hosting my web site on a server at my house. I have decided to host it else were for a few reasons. One of them is that the speed should be a lot better now, and I wont have to worry about back-ups and maintenance of my web server. I will still have the “Family Blog” and “Photos” available for all of you to read and look at on the new site and I feel those are the two items that are used the most any way. You can still leave comments about anything that you want on the blogs. I am going to be using WordPress for the blog hosting and Picasa for the on-line photos. You will still be able to get to the main site, the blog, using http://www.jeffandtami.com and there you will find a link to the photos page and any other links that I think you may find of interest. If any of you subscribe to the blog or photos via RSS you still can, but you will need to update your links to point to the new pages.

If you have any questions or concerns you may leave a comment to this post or send me an email and I will respond to you.

Cory is out of his crib…..almost.

Yesterday I took the side off of Cory’s crib to convert it into a toddler bed. It looks just like the crib except the side that you raise up and down is now gone so that he can get in and out of bed by himself now. He loves it and tells every one that he has a “big boy” bed. He thinks it is the coolest thing that he is able to get into bed with out any help. He has done great so far with his nap yesterday and today and bed time yesterday and tonight. He hasn’t gotten out of bed to play and when it is bed time he crawls right in and lies down to go to sleep.

100,000 miles.

My ‘99 Nissan Quest van that Tami and I bought before the girls were born finally hit 100,000 miles today. I was on my way home from picking Cory up from the baby sitters when it happened. I have never owned a vehicle this long so it was a pretty big event for me. Tami and I got the van new with only a couple hundred miles on it.

My Dad’s Christmas Party

Written by Sydney.

I got done eating candy and after that we discussed who was going with my dad to his work’s Christmas party. First Rebecca was going. Then she wanted me to go. So we went to the barber and got my hair cut. Then we went home and I had to take a shower. So I went in the bathroom, got undressed, and got in the shower. While I was in the shower Caleb, Rebecca, and Mommy went to Blockbuster so they could get a movie to watch while I was at the Christmas party. When I was out of the shower and they were back, Mommy blow dried my hair, painted my nails, put curler’s in my hair, put on my dress, shoe’s, and she even put make-up on me! Then I went down stairs and Mrs. Debbie came over. After that she and my mom took picture’s of my dad and me. Then we were on our way! I got to sit in the front seat. First we made a stop at Subway. Then we got back in the car, I ate my chocolate cookie and went. The restaurant was close to his work. When we got there we walked inside and got started eating. Then I got asked a few math questions. Then ate some more and drank more. Then I had to go to the bathroom. So I went. About a hour after that we had to go home. So I tried the restroom one more time then went home. When we drove we listened to music. It was really fun!

Mmmmmm. Cauliflower.

Here is a nice little story about why we may have some of the hard times or bad things in our life.

When I was a boy I was convinced that my parents lived for only
one purpose: to stomp out all joy in my life. They made me go to bed when
I wasn’t sleepy, wake up when I wanted to sleep, eat things that tasted
horrible, kept me from eating the best tasting stuff, strictly limited my
TV… you get the point. While not technically child abuse, I was certain
that I was being mistreated. Had Oprah been on the air, I would have
given her a call.
Now an older man with grown kids, I have a chance to rethink the
lessons I learned as a child, a parent, and now a parent-emeritus.
And I wonder about cauliflower.
Some of you might like cauliflower but let me assure you that your
condition is now treatable with modern medical help. If you are a cauliflower
lover, feel free to substitute another vegetable or fruit in its place
for the purposes of this blog. Here is the Big Cosmic Question Deep With
Meaning:
Why doesn’t cauliflower taste like chocolate? Or, further, why do so
many foods that are good for us taste so yucky? Could God have a purpose
in all of this? Could it be that we are supposed to learn a lesson from the
fact that things that taste good are often harmful and those that taste…
well, not so fantastic… are loaded with nutrients we need?
I’ll cut to the chase: sometimes love doesn’t feel like love. Sometimes
what is good for us feels bad. Our parents’ love was often burdensome,
frustrating, and aggravating but, without it, we wouldn’t grow up
and become productive, capable citizens.
There’s a reason our parents don’t carry us all our lives. Walking
(and learning to walk) can be very difficult and, at times, dangerous and
uncomfortable but can you imagine the kind of people we would be if we
were still carried at the age of 20? 40? When our parents made us eat
right, sleep enough, do our homework, do our chores, go to church, sit up
straight, etc. they were showing us love.
But it didn’t feel that way at the time.
There might be something to the taste of cauliflower. Maybe God is
trying to tell us something about the hard bits of our day.
Patrick Meade, Rochester, Mich.

First Snow of the Season

We had our first snow of the season today. When all was said and done we only received about three inches. It was very pretty to see everything covered in a white blanket again, but at the same time it was pretty cold and nasty also. The kids loved it and of course we all had to go out and get our donuts.

Caleb Fights Darth Vader

While we were at Disney World, Caleb had a chance to fight Darth Vader. We were watching the show and they picked a few kids from the audience to come on stage and be young “Padawans” (Jedi’s in training) and then fight Darth Vader. Here is a movie I made from some of the pictures I took during this.

Rebecca’s fractured ankle

Rebecca was dancing in her room with Sydney, last Thursday night (Oct. 10, 2007) and twisted her ankle before bed (1930). I heard it ‘pop’ and she started complaining that it hurt. We went to the ER a little while later (2000) and they said that it had a small fracture and we needed to go see an Orthopedic in the morning. They wrapped it in a soft cast/splint and told me that she couldn’t walk on it until the Ortho looked at it and made further decisions.

I took her to the Orthopedist on Friday and they said that she has a small fracture and would need it put in a cast. She is doing great now and is able to walk carefully without pain. If all goes well we have another appointment on Friday the 9th to have it x-rayed again and see if she needs to keep the cast on or not. We hope that she will be able to get it off since the next day we will be going to Disney World.

You can see the full pictures here.

Rebecca looses her third tooth

On Friday October 19th, Rebecca and I pulled out her third tooth. It had been loose for a while and finally it was time for it to come out. We wiggled and wiggled and twisted and twisted, but finally we had to get the dental floss out and wrap it around the tooth and pull it. She was so glad that it finally was out. Sydney has the same one loose and it wont be to much longer before we are looking at getting it pulled also.

Daycare building closes with baby inside – Peculiar Postings – MSNBC.com

This is another reason why I am glad we don’t have to put our children in day care.

Daycare building closes with baby inside

Daycare building closes with baby inside – Peculiar Postings – MSNBC.com

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21259509/?gt1=10450

A day at Hershey Park

We all went to Hershey Park for the day this past Saturday. We got up at about 6:30 and left for our 2 hour drive around 7:15. When we arrived we went in and took a little ride that explained how they made the chocolate and some of the candy. After that we went into the park and started our day with the rides. The girls grew enough to be a “Hershey Bar” and Caleb was a “Peanut Butter Cup“. This allowed them to go on more of the bigger rides than they could last year. They were all excited because they wanted to ride the roller coasters. It is going to be so much fun when they all get older, because then we can ALL go on the roller coasters together. Tami and I love them the most too. Cory was even big enough to go on a full sized roller coaster that they had. It was a slow ride, but was a big one, not a small kiddie coaster. He loved it and wanted to go again.

After we left there we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner. We try to stop there when we are out that way since it is so far to drive normally, and they have such great food.

Every one had a good time and the kids love it of course.

NUMA NUMA Video

This is one of Cory’s new favorite songs. He runs around the house singing it and waving his hands around in the air. Check it out.

Happy 4th Birthday Caleb

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted any thing new, but things around ere have been pretty busy. I have some general pictures of the kids as well as Caleb’s 4 year birthday party and Caleb’s preschool picture.
Here is a link to the pictures from March.