And We Are Off...

Off to Iowa for RAGBRAI and to celebrate the Nosbisch Family Farm turning 100 years old! Hope my newly potty trained 3 year olds and the weather are good to me!!!

See you next week!!!

Almost Friday!!!

Don't ask me what is up with my blog design because I don't know. I was supposed to change my background and everything is all different so I am having a hard time figuring things out. I am tired so it is going to have to stay like this for a little while.

Just a few things I wanted to remember...

The other day I asked Cash if he wanted some more sausage and he looked at me with this kinda, could care less face, shrugged his shoulders and said "Nah, I always ask you for some more lemonade, but you never give me some."

Cash went #2 on the potty for the first time. He was sooooo excited! I had told him that he had to go poop on the potty if he wanted to go to school. Well, naturally he thought that as soon as he did so, he would go immediately to school. He got his backpack on and he was ready. I had to explain to him that school didn't start for a while and he was very upset. He said "awww mom, why did you do that?!" So I have been taking him to my neighbors who has her own home daycare and calling that "Liz's school" and I told him we could go to "Library school" too.

I feel bad, but I just can't take an entire month of him asking me to take him to school. That and he hasn't pooped on the potty since because he said he will do it when he goes to school.

Nice.

Riley is a girl of few words, but lately has been talking a lot. The other day she took the tv remote away from me and told me that it was "Riley's turn to watch."

She has also pooped on the potty twice, but neither time was with me. She told me today that she would not poop on the potty when I am with her. There is some good news.

Picture Pages...

Finally some photos!!! I got my new expansion hard drive so I have more room on my computer. My camera is thanking me for finally being able to unload all those pictures.

So here are some that would have went along with my previous posts.

Adam's triathlon in Des Moines...
I like the M&M's on his belt...

A little blurry...

Posing...

Happy to be done...

Adam with my mom and dad...

Adam and our sister, Sarah...

One of our attempts at a picture of all the grandkids...

Cash wanted his picture taken with Herkey while we were at Scheels in the mall... He made an angry face just like Herkey.

We had some fun in the hotel pool...

Well, most of us did anyway!

My uncle Wayne came to meet us for dinner. The kids obviously liked him a little!

And, on to my kids latest obsessions.

Riley loves My Little Ponies.

Cash likes baseball. He got this Herkey bat and ball while we were in Iowa. Kinda kills his dad a little inside each time he has to play with it.

Thomas is a close family friend of ours. I started babysitting for him when he was only a couple months old. He is now 21! Makes me feel a little old, but whatever. He was in town over July 4th with his girlfriend, Haley. We met up with them for dinner. Thomas leaves for Afghanistan on August 5th so keep him in your prayers!

I was cleaning out closets today and found Cash's tux that he wore when he was about 18 months. We put it on Tripp to see how it fit. Of course it was way too small, but it was pretty cute anyway!

Oh, and the potty training is going well. They hardly have any accidents. Well, they are good with the pee. The other is a little bit of an issue, but I have heard that is hard for all kids so hopefully they will get it down soon.

This picture makes me laugh. I have all these cute underwear for Riley, but she insists on wearing the Cars underwear. Sometimes she will spring for a pair of Thomas the Train undies, but mostly its all about Lightning McQueen. Oh well, whatever works I guess!

13 weeks!!!

13 weeks!!! I am finally done with my first trimester! Well, I am 13 weeks, going to be 14 weeks on Sunday so I guess I will be done on Sunday. Whatever, the whole morning sickness thing appears to be over which is all I care about! Ugh. That was bad and I couldn't be more happy to be done with that!

We had a good fourth. I took the kids to a parade on Saturday. Darin was flying back from Chicago so he didn't make it. They did really well though and ate a lot of candy! The parade was an hour and a half and could have had a little more "fun stuff" and a little less of the politicians riding around in their convertibles. A few is okay, but after the 16th car, my kids started to lose interest.

On Sunday we took them to Monkey Business to play since it was raining outside, along with just about every other family in KC. It was so crowded, but they had fun. We decided to keep them up to see fireworks, they took a late nap and it was looking good. Then right before 9 pm, it started raining. We were bummed. We drove home and saw a few fireworks from our front porch. It all probably worked out for the better though since Riley wouldn't even come outside once she heard all the racket. She was really scared. Cash loved it though. We ended up just turning on the tv and catching the end of the fireworks out of New York or somewhere. They liked that. We finally got them down at 10:30. I still don't know that they are caught up from that late night!!!

And today, I started potty training Cash and Riley. I know, they turned 3 in April and I am just getting around to it. I have been waiting. Waiting til they seemed ready, waiting til summer, waiting til I felt better...all out of excuses now so I started.

They did pretty well this morning. I mean if being in the bathroom with Cash every 5 minutes is doing well. He had a couple accidents, but he is trying. Riley went in the potty 3 times and had one accident which is a small miracle. She has never gone on the potty and I thought she was going to be impossible! So far, so good. They are napping now so we will see how this afternoon goes.

Tripp is funny. He knows that there are treats in the bathroom for their rewards. He just stands at the door and knocks constantly. For a brief second I thought about potty training him too. Then I gained back my sanity and decided to wait at least a year or two.

Oh, and still no progress on my photo storage issues. Hopefully soon as my camera is bursting with cute photos wanting to be shared!!!

Poor duckie...

I just had to write a little blurb about our experiences at the petting zoo today. Well, it wasn't exactly a petting zoo. More like a petting area at a park. They also had a firetruck and ambulance that the kids could go through.

The firemen were definitely not over friendly or anything. I mean, I think the only reason they uttered any words at all was because Cash stood right in front of them, stared at them and said hi. Tripp also was constantly waving and telling everyone hi. They were not very friendly. Bummer.

Then the petting zoo. It was more like a little playpen that they shoved a bunch of animals into and let a huge group of kids go in and terrorize them. They had a pig, duck, rabbit, baby goat and some chickens. They kids loved it though and kept trying to feed all the animals grass.

I went in with them to make sure they weren't manhandling the animals. I made Tripp stay in the stroller and watch from the fence specifically for that reason. I don't trust that little tank in there with all those tiny, fragile animals.

All the while, the one I shouldn't have been so trusting of was Riley. We were having fun and I was trying to keep an eye out on my two and my friends kids as well. All of a sudden I saw Riley with the duck by the neck. She was trying to get the duck to follow her and the poor thing was just swinging his head back and forth like get this girl off of me!!! I grabbed her quick and got her out of there. Hopefully no one saw the mayhem.

I wouldn't have thought this little situation was very funny, but I know she was just trying to get the duck to come with her and she didn't know she was probably hurting him. All I have to say is that just proves to me that its a good thing that we have a big dog who is very patient with children and a cat that runs when she hears the kids a comin!

Thank God for Ponyville and Zofran!

Happy Father's Day!!! Darin golfed yesterday so that was his present. He had fun and doesn't get to golf that often so he enjoyed it.

Instead of small group, our Pastor, which I guess he is technically a Father now, preached at the 5 o'clock service so we went to that. It was awesome to hear him speak and be in that environment. He does such a great job of making you really listening to what he is saying. He can make you cry and laugh all within one sentence. The church even had a nursery that we were able to put the kids into which was great! They had fun too.

The big news is Riley wore a dress! Yep, I got her out of her Cars pajamas and into a cute little sundress...with a Cars tattoo on her arm of course. The one thing that made her okay with having the dress on was that Darin told her she looked like an ice cream cone. She liked that. God job Dadda!

We have a new obsession in the Johnson house too. I bought Riley some My Little Pony items off of Craig's List and she LOVES them. She really likes the Ponyville toys the best. She insists on sleeping with most of the toys every time she goes to bed which is a little annoying, but not worth the drama to tell her no.

She plays with them nonstop. She looks at her little Ponyville ferris wheel and, in her little dreamy tone, says "mom, look at all my ponies." It quite possibly might be one of the best purchases I have ever made.

Oh, and if anyone cares...the Zofran works pretty well. I still have some moments, but they are much better. Hopefully only a couple more weeks and this will all be just a bad memory.

Come on 2nd trimester!!!

Whew...

My brother finishing the Hy-Vee Triathlon. The only picture I could get on this post and only at the very top. I guess...where it should be, right?! I mean, you'd think the kid could squeeze in a work out or two here and there. Nothing like surrounding yourself with a bunch of really muscular triathletes to make your pregnant body feel really out of shape. But, more on this later. But, good job Adam.

It feels like I haven't posted in a while, but I have my reasons!

First, I can't get my pictures uploaded onto my computer. I guess I have no more space to store them, but I don't want to remove any. I will have to make a trip to Best Buy and see what my options are for photo storage.

I just like pictures to go with my posts. I think it makes it more fun to read. Plus, the grandparents like it!

Secondly, I have been feeling awful most of the day, everyday! I mean, I was pretty nauseous when I was pregnant with Cash and Riley, but that was a twin pregnancy. That is to be expected.

Ugh. This time its just one and still my gag reflex gets going when I even think about making my kids favorite meal of little smokies wrapped in crescent rolls. Yuck. Makes me a little ill just to type that.

Good news is that my doctor gave me a script for some Zofran so we will see if that helps. This baby has to be a girl then right?! I wasn't sick at all with Tripp. And I have heard that you do get more morning sickness (or the all day hungover feeling as I like to call it) when you are pregnant with a girl because you have more hormones in your body. Who knows, just can't wait until this first trimester is over and this goes away...hopefully.

We have been very busy. We had a baby shower for friends of ours. They are expecting their first baby in July and have been trying to conceive for a very long time so that is exciting. We had couples over and kids. It was really hot out so the kids played in the pool, sprinkler and water table out back. Tripp had his first bout with complete exhaustion and just got overheated. He was a mess. Poor little buddy. He was having so much fun and then, wham, he just lost it, was bright red and freaking out! We got him cleaned up, something to drink and laid him in bed for a little while. He was much better after about a half hour. That was rough.

Darin and I went and saw Pink Martini at the Midland. http://www.pinkmartini.com/

They were awesome and it was fun to get out and do something "grown-up". We went with Pastor Dave, his wife and his son. Darin and I had went to see PM about 5 years ago when they were in town, but this time I enjoyed the show much more. Last time we went, Darin told me to get dressed up because he had a surprise for me. Well, Darin never does stuff like that so I naturally assumed that that was going to be the night that he proposed to me. He got me all dressed up, drove me downtown, walked me around the corner and I saw Pink Martini on the marquee. Well, I was surprised and tried to be a good sport even though I was expecting something a little different.

So obviously, this time I was more focused on the music and the show itself instead of stewing in the fact that I did not have a ring on my finger. It was much better this time! =)

Last weekend, the kids and I drove to Des Moines to watch my brother in the Hy-Vee triathlon. Well, watch isn't the right word since the thing started at 6 am and I was not about to wake up 3 little ones and take them out in the rain. We cheered him on from the hotel and were just getting down to breakfast when he got back. My mom and dad, my sister and my brother, his wife and their two girls were all there so we had a fun weekend. We spent a lot of time swimming in the pool at the hotel and just hanging out. With half our family living in Virginia, we don't get to do that a lot! It was great.

So now we are home and soon I will buckle down and do the potty training thing. I have procrastinated long enough and I think they are ready.

To be continued...