Baby Bump

I figured it was about time to get a picture of the baby's progress. Sorry the lighting is so terrible, but you get the idea. This baby continues to be our most active one yet.  The kids love it when they can feel and see the baby moving through my tummy.  3 more months until we meet him or her!

How do you like your eggs?

Now that we have a fresh supply of eggs coming in every day from our chickens, we have been eating them more frequently so I've gotten to know everyone's egg preferences pretty well. Apparently, there was a study done recently which claims that the way people eat their eggs reveals their personality.  Here were some of the findings:

• People who like poached eggs are more likely to be outgoing and happy. They are also more likely to by female, have 2 children and no more than 1 sibling. 
• Those who like fried eggs are more often young and male. They are also more likely to be members of the skilled working class.
• Scrambled egg eaters are often guarded, have managerial positions, own their own homes and have no children.
• Boiled egg eaters are usually disorganized and impulsive.
• Omelet eaters are often self-disciplined and tend to have tidy homes.

My first impression was that this is a bunch of baloney, but just for fun, I checked for accuracy in my own family. Here were my findings:

• Elena - Bingo. Boiled egg eater.  Impulsive.  Has a strong aversion to organization.
• Sam - Loves fried eggs ("Yolk eggs" as he calls them). They got the young and male part right.
• Seth- Usually eats fried eggs.  Pretty accurate overall.
• Me - Apparently I'm a man.

Well, 3 out of 4 isn't bad. I also checked this with Seth's boss last night, who prefers scrambled eggs.  While he is in a managerial position, he laughed pretty hard at the 'no kids' part: he has 8 children.

Reader participation time! Leave us a comment letting us know how accurate this is for you.

 As promised, here is Elena in her new glasses.  This picture was taken on farmer day at Kindergarten in case you're wondering about the outfit. Elena's at a great age for glasses - she's big enough to take care of them and young enough to be excited about them.  The day she got them, she put them on, looked at Seth and me with a big smile and said, "I'm so happy!!!!"

 

Seth and Craig had a successful hunting trip in Wyoming - both of them got a large buck.  Here's a picture of Seth and his "envelope" as Sam calls it.

 

And here's a great picture that Craig took with our camera.  Looks like our camera's not the reason we don't get a lot of great pictures - it's the person behind it...

 

If you call our house....

Sammy has been taking on the role of receptionist here, racing to answer the phone anytime it rings. And that suits me fine because he can usually get there before the answering machine picks up, unlike me. He's very good at small talk, which the callers sometime appreciate and sometimes do not.  And he will generally continue until I prompt him to hand me the phone. Here's a sample of a conversation he had when answering the phone yesterday:

Sam: Hi.

Other person: Is your mom or dad there?

Sam: My mom is the only one here, and she is reading us books.  My dad's not here because he shot a buck today and he will be coming home tomorrow.

Me: Sam, give me the phone.

Sam: My mom will be coming right up, okay? (He usually says that to the caller before passing the phone off)

Did I mention that he was wearing vampire teeth throughout this entire conversation?  I'm pretty sure the caller didn't understand half of what he said.

In other news, Seth went antelope hunting with his brother in Wyoming this weekend and they both got bucks.  I sure hope the kids like antelope jerky.

Coming up next - Elena's new glasses. I would have posted something sooner, but Seth has the camera and I want to include a picture.

Elena's latest project

This is the wall next to Elena's bed.

 It started when Elena brought home a few school pictures of her classmates. Then she found the box full of past xmas card photos. And she's still not done.

 

 At this rate, we won't need to bother repainting her room.

Our Latest Addition

After having such a great experience with Natalie last year, we decided that we would at least remain on the "emergency list" for the foreign exchange student program as there seem to be a lot of students who need a new family throughout the year.  We didn't have to wait for our new student long.  We got a call the first week of August asking if we would take another German girl for the year.

 

We decided to go for it, so we are happy to introduce to you, Charlotte. So far we have really enjoyed having her stay with us. There are 5 German students in our school so our house has been full of Germans lately, which is a lot of fun...especially when they cook for us :)

 

Here is a picture of Charlotte with 2 of the other exchange students.  Charlotte is the one of the right:

 

 

(Oh, I should probably add that this was taken on "Nerd Day" for Homecoming week at school.)

Cooking With Sammy

Sam was "cooking" outside today with the neighbor boy.  Here's the recipe for what they made.  Sam calls it "Bad Guy Soup."

Bad Guy Soup

• Fill a bowl with dirt.
• Catch as many grasshoppers as you can - in this case, one - and smash them. (If your mom discovers what you are doing at this point, you may have to smash them further to make sure they have been "put out of their misery.") Add to the dirt.
• Add rocks to taste.
• Stir it all together while laughing maliciously: "Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!" until thoroughly mixed.

Though it may seem like it, I'm not exaggerating on these directions one bit.  I thought they were being pretty imaginative, but when they started the sinister laugh, I knew I would have to put this on the blog.

My Turn

As you know, Seth had appendicitis this summer.  Then Elena went delirious with a high fever.  Now I have whooping cough.  Ironically, I had planned to get the vaccine for whooping cough right after the baby was born.  At least it's me and not the kids - I'd hate to watch them go through this. The only disadvantage to it being me is...well, I'm the mom.  And we all know how much gets done around the house when Mom is sick.  Seth has done a great job of stepping up and taking care of things as much as he can, though. I'm on antibiotics so I'm not contagious, but they don't do a lot to help improve the symptoms.  Chances are I'll just have to ride this cough out for the next few weeks.

I figured as long as I'm too sick to get much done, I would update the blog.

The month of July was spent mostly at the pool.  Elena mastered going off the diving board in the deep end by herself without a life jacket.  She was pretty proud of herself.  Sam was also very good at going off with his life jacket.  Unfortunately, every time I brought my camera they wouldn't go off the board so I didn't get any footage.

At the end of the month, we went camping at Storybook Land in Aberdeen, SD with several of our friends.  The kids had a blast.  While we were there, we went to a show with Lakota Hoop Dancers.  At the end, any kids who wanted to come up and learn how to dance could do so.  I was able to get footage of that.  Here are Sam (green tank top) and Elena (white tank top, green shorts) doing a "traditional" hoop dance:

First Day of Kindergarten!

 

Evil Knievel

Not only can Sam ride his bike without training wheels at 3 years old, but he can also pop-a-wheelie (a tiny one) and slam on his breaks to leave a patch on the cement - which is great for his tires.

Yesterday, however, he started to show more of his daring side than I would like to see.  I was talking with my sister and my sister-in-law at the park while the kids were playing when one of them said, "What is Sam doing with his bike?"

I looked over and he was trying to carry his bike up the steps leading to the highest slide on the playground.  I ran over and asked him what he was doing, and he replied, "I'm going to ride my bike down the slide." When I told him that that was absolutely not allowed, he came back with, "Well, can I ride it down the steps, then?"

It's going to be a long time before I'm comfortable letting this boy out of my sight for more than a few seconds.....