Fall Day

We are loving this fall weather. It is so refreshing to walk outside and feel a cool crisp breeze-time to make some apple crisp. Today the girls helped me plant some mums out by our mailbox. It is always fun trying to accomplish anything with these two but we did manage. Becca was not big into helping because she couldn't find her gardening gloves-whats new at our house. They were both pretty excited to eat lunch in the backyard. It is always fun to see the kids get excited about such simple things.
Andrea is growing every day-she has become quite my little helper. Today she vacuumed right along side of me for most of the kids rooms and was all about helping clean the bathrooms. "I help you" as been her favorite phrase, emptying the dishwasher, setting the table, cooking, cleaning she thinks she can do it all. I only wish I was as energetic as she is about such mundane tasks!

Weekend update

This past weekend we went on our Church Retreat, I have a ton of pictures and my sister was wondering when I was going to post...well here are just a couple. I will make an album sometime down the road.
It was a nice weekend away, at New Life Ranch. We arrived Friday around dinner and left Sunday late afternoon. There was a lot of outdoor activities mixed with daily worship/Devotional time. It was something new for our family but it went over very well. We had our own cabin and the kids did great-mostly because they were up quite late and exhausted from the days activities. From Crazy hayrides, campfires, smores, swimming, archery, rifely, fishing, canoeing and worship we were kept very entertained.


FOR THE REST OF THE PICTURES.......
http://picasaweb.google.com/RB.Haveman/ChurchRetreat2009#

Andrea, surveying the view from our cabin. The cabin sat right on Flint Creek. There was a walking bridge to a small island with ropes course, zip line...... lot s of fun things for older kids.

The girls, all smiles after sleeping the night in bunk beds. Becca and Brayden slept in the top and Andrea managed the bottom. Brayden actually slept above us and I think I spent most of the night thinking he was going to fall on me.

There were lots of canoes to take out, I don't think anyone tipped although some of the canoes were pretty water logged by the end of the weekend.

Of Course there was a lot of fishing. It is amazing the patience the kids can have. It took till Sunday afternoon for the fish to start biting-always fun to see some results.

Brayden and his buddy Jackson after swimming in the river. Brayden jumped off the small diving board and made his way down a slide but the water was a little too cold for him.

Ron getting blobbed.

The boys after a couple hours of fun in the river.

The moment Becca had been waiting for. She was so excited to ride the horse....with the PINK blanket!

Not a lot of fear.

The girls getting ready to go out on a canoe ride-there was always something going on.

The weekend was complete for Brayden when he got in on a game of dodge ball.

Dodge ball....I think the big boys had as much fun as the little guys.

This is what Andrea liked to do...then jump off at the end.

Bite fish bite!

Brayden's first fish

Ron decided to take the kids kayaking the last day. Brayden kayaked all by himself around the entire island-he is getting so big.

Potty Time???? Maybe Not.

Lets just say I am really quite sick of potty training or just dealing with going potty in general, I would just prefer the kids figur it out themselves....would be nice. Andrea is next in line and keeps wanting to wear Becca's panties. She tells me all the time she has go to potty but when she sits on the potty there is NOTHING. Once again this morning she yelled potty at the breakfast table and started running to the bathroom holding her behind. I thought that this might be it. No such luck, just a lot of grunting. I put a diaper back on and she proceeded to finish breakfast. After about 5 minutes I hear her yell POTTY again, so we run to the potty only to discover she had pooped in her diaper. Now I have decided to just let her run bear buns which she doesn't like very much, she keeps wanting panties. We have been in the potty at least 6 times since-her choice with no results. I have decided to clean the bathrooms since we have been in them most all morning. The tub was next in line in the kids bathroom and Andrea had just gotten off the potty after sitting for two seconds and declaring she was done (she has to wipe and wash hands everytime-such a process). Becca ran in and was talking and next thing I hear is Andrea saying potty, potty, potty....I look over at her and she is standing on the bathroom rug with pee running down her leg. I GIVE UP!!

A LITTLE TIME AWAY

Ready to head out. Ron was able to catch a ride with some kids fishing so he was saved from a 2 mile uphill bike ride, since we just had one vehicle.

Andrea's job was to call out the logs and rocks....I think she missed a couple.

Andrea was the one who got a little tired toward the end, kind of hard to paddle holding on to a little one, expeccially when they are wearing a life jacket.

Can you guess what this Rock is called???? Hint.....it has a long snout.

Still smiling and dry.

After our work day yesterday we decided to take some time and enjoy the beautiful outdoors. Ron has been talking about getting the canoe out so after church we loaded up and headed out. We floated the illinois River, Ron had floated this portion a while ago and so we decided to do the same portion of river. It worked out great except it turned out a little big longer than expected....If anyone knows Ron this is not a surprise! I was thinking a couple hours and he jokingly suggested maybe three....it was pretty close to three hours. Actually the kids did great, the last 40min got a little long, I think my arms are going to be a little sore tomorrow. It was an active canoe float....not one where I get to lay out and get a little sun.

Besides for seeing one other canoe it was just us on the river along with a bunch wildlife. We saw Great blue Herons, Ospreys, Kingfishers, ducks, lots of turtles and some huge fish. The water was crystal clear and you could see the fish swim right next to the boat. Brayden had his little net which was much too small for the fish we saw and the turtles. On our way home we saw the sun set right over the distant road, a bright red fireball-What a beautiful end to our afternoon. It is always so peaceful getting away, even if it is with three little ones.

Projects

This post is dedicated to my wonderful husband, who has stuck with me and my crazy projects. Somehow I always think I can quick do something, or that it shouldn't take too much to accomplish. So the latest was tearing off the wallpaper in our kitchen and then painting. This might sound like a big deal but the way I looked at it was there was little wall surface due to the cabinets so it should go pretty smoothly. I did managed to pull off all the wallpaper, something I am getting pretty efficient at doing. I think the builders wallpapered the entire house when it was built and we have been steadily tearing it off ever since we moved in. Ron is great at patching, seeing as pulling off wallpaper that has been pasted directly on drywall can be a little messy. Well as usual the kitchen sat in disarray for at least 2wks until we finally decided this was the weekend to paint. UHHHHH.....it is so much more work than I imagine. From the doorways to the cabinets there is just way too many corners, so my wonderful husband is painting. This is the second full day and after a primer and two coats of paint I think we are going to call it good. Thanks to my very patient and meticulous husband my kitchen project will be complete....I am not so sure what it would have looked like if I had to complete this one!

Pledges

Today I ended up running some apples to Brayden's class. Yes, I was one of those mom's who totally forgot that today was applesauce day. Anyway, when I arrived I walked in on the class saying their pledges, Brayden got a huge grin on his face. I was most impressed that he can say his pledges all by himself....I think he is pretty proud as well.

Just a note on how sweet my little Becca can be. Tonight I made dinner-very rare at our house for Friday night. At the conclusion I made the comment that for a couple extra bucks I think eating out is worth it because I don't have to clean up all the mess. Becca was listening and jumped up looked right at me and said "You don't need to clean mommy, I WILL" She was so excited to help. It was a very nice meal at home with all my little helpers!

Sick....Healthy???

In one day I think we exeeded our video time for the entire week.

With all this energy it was hard to remember he really wasn't feeling well. This was the end result of our bead work. Along with not totally feeling up to par it has also been very rainy, also keeping indoors.

So for the past couple of days I can't quite tell if the kids are sick or healthy-its like we have a lurking virus in the house that pops up in the evenings. Although they look healthy the kids just have not been themselves and sad to say it was Brayden who came down with the upset stomach.....that poor week inherited haveman stomach. Anyway, last night was quiet and Brayden is off to school today. The windows are open and hopefully with a good cleaning and airing out, the house can be rid of what ever lingering germs there might be! GOOD RIDDANCE!!

Saturday Evening

What excitement-they got to go in the big tub tonight.

Bath Time, just about the only thing that is going to be accomplished tonight. The goal is a kid early bedtime and date night on the couch. Ron is beat from a 70mile ride this morning and I am beat from these three little ones! I can hardly remember our last real date night.

Zoo Fun

Okay, I just thought it was too cute to see Andrea stand there with her arm around Brayden.

Okay, Becca actually was frantically trying to pick grass as this giraffe was walking over....she was going to feed it!

The moment Becca was waiting for-her Zebra's, she has been waiting all month to come an see them...I don't know why?

Trying to get a peak at all the penquins.

Last night the we made it to the zoo for a very fun evening. The Zoo had the zoo keepers out at a couple of the exhibits and allowed us to go much closer than on a normal visit. The kids were able to get very close to the elephants and the giraffes. It is amazing how big a giraffe is once you get within 10 feet-they are so awkward but graceful at the same time. The sheer size of them both becomes very real at that distance! Becca was excited to see the baby lion cubs, the back of their exhibit was open so once again we could get in and see them up close. Becca was a little disappointed as they have grown and really don't look so small anymore. Brayden's favorite event was the sea lion show, he thought it was pretty cool to see them jump and splash the crowd. It was a very fun night, although very busy we did manage to wade through the crowds of people. Thankfully the kids are small enough they can wriggle in little spaces to see the action-which worked well when trying to see the penguin feeding. We wish they had more days like this through-out the year! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for our Family Zoo Pass!

WHAT???? NO MONEY???

ROBBERS CAVE STATE PARK

A beautiful sight to wake up to in the morning.

After fishing for two days...no fish caught, after turtle hunting for two days....no turtles caught.

All ready for the hay ride-what a ride it was!

This was out nightly visitor, I thought he was pretty quite, I think Ron had other opinions.

I had a very interesting outing to the local Alco store when I discovered I had forgotten all our swimsuits. Lets just say everyone had a suit....might not have been too pretty but for the most part everyone was covered.

We all enjoyed swimming in the lake after we managed to find some swimming gear. Brayden loved jumping off the raft.

Brayden found this lizard on our hike and amazingly he held it the entire time. This was a very rocky climb-I was quite shocked he didn't lose it while trying to climb the rocks.

My great kids plus one little baby lizard.

We made it all the way to the top with all three kids. A little different from the days when we used to come climbing at this area just the two of us.

Climbing down into one of the crevasses at the robber's cave area.

The was patches, just just saddled up the horse and handed him over-it was a lot of fun-although I could have used a pair of boots walking in that field.

This is Silver, Becca is convinced Ron can build a stable in our backyard and she and Brayden are going to take care of her pony...."You won't have to do anything mommy" was her comment to me. You should have seen her face when she got the pony to walk on her own.

Andrea was all grins and no fear.

The was our spot, wonderful/quiet and right on the water-great for the canoe and fishing.

These are the rest of the pics....too many-I know!

http://picasaweb.google.com/RB.Haveman/ROBBERSCAVESTATEPARKLaborDayVacation##

We decided to finally head out of town this holiday weekend. With all the rain we have been having we were a little tentative about planning a camping trip but we decided last minute to head out. Turned out to be a wonderful weekend and even with little planning and a few forgotten items the trip was still a lot of fun. We camped at Robber's State park, a park that holds some memories as this is the area were Ron worked on his Thesis while at TU. The payphone was still there but the little cafe with pancakes as big or bigger than your plate was no longer open. We arrived Sat afternoon and after setting up camp enjoyed a canoe ride. Brayden was very much into taking the canoe out and looking for turtles and fishing, he is getting so big that he actually helps paddle-he does paddle backward at times, but.... There was a nature center, mini-golf and even a pool. Sat night we enjoyed an evening hay ride-complete with hay and a double trailer for all the people. It was a long ride but fun/fast-at one point I think a branch about cleared out one whole side of the trailer. The kids did well in the tent-Andrea was a little crazy but the other two were so tired they didn't really want to deal with her silliness. We had a little visitor at night-a raccoon, who made out pretty well under our picnic table. Sunday Ron enjoyed a 60 mile bike ride around the area while the kids and I hung out. We swam , Brayden loved jumping off the raft-I even made it in, too hot and sticky to sit and watch. There were some stables that were open and the kids loved riding, we ended up taking them twice, getting the same horse and pony each time. Becca has a whole plan on getting a pony at our house. We also explored the cave area-Brayden was on the hunt for money seeing as we said this was were the robber's hid out with their money. All in all in was a wonderful time, lots of work but I actually was able to read an entire book. It was a great place to stay for a couple days, we might have to go back in the fall to enjoy the fall colors and some more pony rides.