Gretchen: Mommy, are you Bambi or are you an apple or are you a cup or are you a bird?
Me: I don't know, what am I?
Gretchen: You are just a mommy apple. When you get bigger, you can be an apple, mommy.
Gretchen: Frozen sings and Frozen cuts the ice and Frozen sings (*deep, growly singing voice*) the frozen heart.
Gretchen: Why did Elsa and Anna say (*singing as loudly as she can*) I can't!?
Me: Because they can't do it.
Olivia: What can't they do?
Me: Elsa can't stop winter.
Olivia: I can stop winter.
Me: You can? How can you stop winter?
Olivia: With my ice powers. When I have ice powers, I can stop winter.
Gretchen: When I stop ice powers, I will be Elsa!
Gretchen: I am the littlest mommy and you are the biggest mommy.
Olivia: I am the little biggest mommy.
Me: What's Kaitlyn?
Olivia: Kaitlyn can be... a horse!
Me: A horse?!
Olivia: And you are Prince Hans and Olivia and Gretchen are Elsa and Anna and Daddy is Kristof.
Gretchen: Hearts don't really eat because they have noses.
The following exchanges are part of playing with Barbies.
In this conversation, Olivia plays the part of Mommy Barbie and Gretchen is Daddy Barbie.
Mommy Barbie: Daddy Barbie, can you be Jesus?
Daddy Barbie: Yes!
Mommy Barbie: Okay, Jesus, tell us what to do.
Daddy Barbie/Jesus: We caaaaan... Watch a movie!
Mommy Barbie: That's not a church thing! Tell us something else.
In this conversation, Gretchen plays both sides.
Tinkerbell: Jesus, will you marry me?
Daddy Barbie/Jesus: Yes.
30 September 2015
27 September 2015
September 20-27
Kaitlyn's teeth finally came in on Monday. She is now the proud owner of two tiny pokey things and seems much happier. She still drools like crazy, though.
Gretchen's potty training continues to be an adventure. She keeps undies dry about half the time now, which is often enough for Bryan to feel they're worth it, but not for me to bother putting new ones on her once the first pair gets wet. :/ She has graduated to using the big potty all the time now, which is exciting.
Last Saturday the Kleins came over and Steph and I made lots of applesauce. I was still working from my big basket of free, albeit sadly wormy and misshapen (but free!), apples. I confess I was pretty jealous of Steph's big, beautiful orchard apples. We cut and strained and boiled and canned, and finished the day much richer in applesauce than we began it. Also, my basket is now empty. :) I got three more quarts of applesauce, plus two pints each of strawberry applesauce and blueberry applesauce. The flavored applesauce is a big hit in my house; I'll have to make that more often.
Mom came down Saturday night with a truck full of furniture and things for our basement as they prepare for their move across the country. Siblings: If you want things, you have until we decide to fully finish the basement to claim them. Don't worry, I'll give you some warning.
On Sunday we took mom back to Michigan in time for church and then stayed to visit for the day. I got some more raspberries, despite this not being the season for transplants, and put them in a newly raised bed located atop the watery grave of the old patch. Mom said I can have another batch every time a vehicle goes from her house to my house and we're hoping that at least a few from each group survive.
On Friday Bryan and I celebrated our wooden anniversary by packing all the children into the van and beginning the long drive to Boston to visit Justine and company. Driving through the night went better than last time, although Gretchen woke up multiple times to complain that she wanted to be in a bed. Kaitlyn did a fantastic job, and everyone was in a great mood after a very morale boosting gas station stop at 4:30 in the morning. We made it to Justine's house by 10:30, clocking the drive at 14 and a half hours. An amusing anecdote from the gas station: While Bryan pumped gas, I took Olivia in to go to the bathroom and then we stopped to buy a couple of snacks. Then I took Gretchen in, and then Bryan went in to buy himself a snack. Finally I took Kaitlyn in for a new diaper and bought myself an iced tea. On this fourth purchase in the same location, I got an email from Chase making sure our credit card had not been stolen. Never mind the three previous purchases (one of which was for gas), the danger was clearly the $1.89 spent on the iced tea.
Now we're in Boston for the week, planning to leave Friday sometime to begin the trek back home to people who know how to pronounce the letter "r."
Pictures and Videos:
Gretchen's potty training continues to be an adventure. She keeps undies dry about half the time now, which is often enough for Bryan to feel they're worth it, but not for me to bother putting new ones on her once the first pair gets wet. :/ She has graduated to using the big potty all the time now, which is exciting.
Last Saturday the Kleins came over and Steph and I made lots of applesauce. I was still working from my big basket of free, albeit sadly wormy and misshapen (but free!), apples. I confess I was pretty jealous of Steph's big, beautiful orchard apples. We cut and strained and boiled and canned, and finished the day much richer in applesauce than we began it. Also, my basket is now empty. :) I got three more quarts of applesauce, plus two pints each of strawberry applesauce and blueberry applesauce. The flavored applesauce is a big hit in my house; I'll have to make that more often.
Mom came down Saturday night with a truck full of furniture and things for our basement as they prepare for their move across the country. Siblings: If you want things, you have until we decide to fully finish the basement to claim them. Don't worry, I'll give you some warning.
On Sunday we took mom back to Michigan in time for church and then stayed to visit for the day. I got some more raspberries, despite this not being the season for transplants, and put them in a newly raised bed located atop the watery grave of the old patch. Mom said I can have another batch every time a vehicle goes from her house to my house and we're hoping that at least a few from each group survive.
On Friday Bryan and I celebrated our wooden anniversary by packing all the children into the van and beginning the long drive to Boston to visit Justine and company. Driving through the night went better than last time, although Gretchen woke up multiple times to complain that she wanted to be in a bed. Kaitlyn did a fantastic job, and everyone was in a great mood after a very morale boosting gas station stop at 4:30 in the morning. We made it to Justine's house by 10:30, clocking the drive at 14 and a half hours. An amusing anecdote from the gas station: While Bryan pumped gas, I took Olivia in to go to the bathroom and then we stopped to buy a couple of snacks. Then I took Gretchen in, and then Bryan went in to buy himself a snack. Finally I took Kaitlyn in for a new diaper and bought myself an iced tea. On this fourth purchase in the same location, I got an email from Chase making sure our credit card had not been stolen. Never mind the three previous purchases (one of which was for gas), the danger was clearly the $1.89 spent on the iced tea.
Now we're in Boston for the week, planning to leave Friday sometime to begin the trek back home to people who know how to pronounce the letter "r."
Pictures and Videos:
20 September 2015
September 13-20
Kaitlyn...
...loves her sisters. Anytime she hears them playing she will look around until she spots them and then smile at their game.
...is beginning to be ticklish. She has to be in the right mood, though.
...grabs things quite well now. Beware those with long hair, beards, glasses, necklaces, and/or noses. Once she was trying to grab a toy on the bed but couldn't because she'd captured the grabbing hand's thumb with her other hand.
...will eat anything, even a door. If she can pick it up, it's food. If she can reach it with her mouth, it's also food. She has sampled every toy she's been given, the hair of the unwary who stray too close, and, yes, a door. She was quite upset that the door did not fit in her mouth.
...rolls everywhere. Hence the ability to taste the door. Having mastered rolling from front to back (either direction) and back to front (either direction) in addition to turning in circles on the floor, Kaitlyn is quite mobile. She hasn't figured out how to get exactly where she wants, though, so watching her get places is kind of like watching a chess match played with nothing but knights.
Gretchen...
...can drink from a regular cup now. It took an unreasonably long amount of time for her to master this trick since she always stuck her tongue inside the cup to lap at the water like a cat, but she's got it now.
...knows her colors. This was kind of a gradual thing, but we didn't work on it much, so it surprised me when I realized that she could do it.
...stays in bed at night. We haven't put the gate up for some time now, and Gretchen does just fine. She only gets out of bed if she needs someone to refill her water cup. This is, needless to say, quite terrifying in the middle of the night when I wake up with her face right in mine as she patiently waits for me to become aware of her presence. Once I fill her cup, though, she turns around and walks right back to bed.
...can twirl spaghetti on her fork. I discovered this at dinner on Friday and was very impressed. Unfortunately, she suffers the same fate as most spaghetti twirlers: all of her spaghetti twirled up into one hugely unmanageable bite.
...opens doors. This also took longer than usual, but through no fault of Gretchen's. Our door handles are unusually high in this house, so she couldn't reach them until recently. Now that she can reach them, however, no room is safe.
Olivia...
...learned to spell her name. We've been practicing with letters on the fridge as well as spelling out loud. She seems to have a good handle on it, but I'm not sure she would be able to tell OLIVIA from OSTRICH just yet.
...likes to play her new violin. My mom brought a 1/8 size violin with her last week (complements of Aunt Jan, via Donna) and Olivia has played it several times. Mercifully, the e string broke as it was being tuned, so we're only hearing the lower notes. She is impatiently waiting for the day when I teach her to put fingers down on the strings.
...wants to be the oldest, but not necessarily the most grown up. She likes being in charge, but becomes helpless when it suits her. For instance, when HER water cup is empty in the middle of the night, she sits in her bed and wails.
Our car had brake problems when Bryan was driving from Springfield back to his parents' house last week, so we had to abandon it at Steve and Murry's, shoehorn three carseats into the backseat of their Jeep, and borrow their vehicle for a few days. Everything worked out, though, and our van is once again in our possession and working as well as it ever has. An unexpected bonus: somehow when they fixed the brakes they also stopped the power steering whine.
Labor day was our fun run, and we had quite a good turn out. Friends from church came, as well as Matt and Tricia (Bryan's cousin and his wife) and Rianne and Titus (my cousin and her husband). My parents and some siblings came down as well, and Bryan's family made an appearance at the cookout afterwards. The big improvement to the fun run this year came in the form of a semi-marked course: I tied yarn on sticks. Unfortunately, the sticks and yarn were difficult to see and our front runner was color blind and therefore unable to decipher whether he should turn right or left. Next year I will use large ties of patterned cloth. :)
Alison and Jacob came down for the weekend before the fun run. We hung out, Bryan got Jacob addicted to a new video game, and Alison and I tried our hand at cheddar cheese. We're not tremendously hopeful as to the outcome, but won't know the extent of our failure or success for several months since cheddar takes 4-6 months to age. The most exciting part of the combined visit came after church on Sunday morning, when Father pointedly asked, "so, do you have any news to share with us?" while staring at Alison's hand. Keep in mind that Jake and Joe look similar, Alison and Joe were together for all their previous visits, and Alison is now Orthodox, which is always a hopeful sign. Anyway, Alison looked mildly uncomfortable and then said, "Well, I saved a lot of money on car insurance by switching to Geico."
You may remember from last week's pictures that I made feta cheese after everyone left. This batch looked much more promising than the cheddar and feta only takes 2 days to cure. The verdict on the finished product is that I left it in the saturated brine (homemade seawater) too long. It looks and feels like feta, but is incredibly salty. Bryan says store feta is sharper also, so that is something that I will have to work on. I have a couple of ideas to try next time. If I can perfect this, though, I made a pound of feta for less than $3.50, which is well worth it.
This past Monday, Kaitlyn and I drove up to Albion to visit Jacob. He had picked up some bulk food from the (kind of local to him) store for me and in exchange I was giving swing dance lessons to his residents. The turnout was only about 9 people, but I thought it went well. The one male that came (other than Jacob) said afterwards that he'd be interested in learning the steps to some other dances, too, so I may be going back.
Pictures and Videos:
...loves her sisters. Anytime she hears them playing she will look around until she spots them and then smile at their game.
...is beginning to be ticklish. She has to be in the right mood, though.
...grabs things quite well now. Beware those with long hair, beards, glasses, necklaces, and/or noses. Once she was trying to grab a toy on the bed but couldn't because she'd captured the grabbing hand's thumb with her other hand.
...will eat anything, even a door. If she can pick it up, it's food. If she can reach it with her mouth, it's also food. She has sampled every toy she's been given, the hair of the unwary who stray too close, and, yes, a door. She was quite upset that the door did not fit in her mouth.
...rolls everywhere. Hence the ability to taste the door. Having mastered rolling from front to back (either direction) and back to front (either direction) in addition to turning in circles on the floor, Kaitlyn is quite mobile. She hasn't figured out how to get exactly where she wants, though, so watching her get places is kind of like watching a chess match played with nothing but knights.
Gretchen...
...can drink from a regular cup now. It took an unreasonably long amount of time for her to master this trick since she always stuck her tongue inside the cup to lap at the water like a cat, but she's got it now.
...knows her colors. This was kind of a gradual thing, but we didn't work on it much, so it surprised me when I realized that she could do it.
...stays in bed at night. We haven't put the gate up for some time now, and Gretchen does just fine. She only gets out of bed if she needs someone to refill her water cup. This is, needless to say, quite terrifying in the middle of the night when I wake up with her face right in mine as she patiently waits for me to become aware of her presence. Once I fill her cup, though, she turns around and walks right back to bed.
...can twirl spaghetti on her fork. I discovered this at dinner on Friday and was very impressed. Unfortunately, she suffers the same fate as most spaghetti twirlers: all of her spaghetti twirled up into one hugely unmanageable bite.
...opens doors. This also took longer than usual, but through no fault of Gretchen's. Our door handles are unusually high in this house, so she couldn't reach them until recently. Now that she can reach them, however, no room is safe.
Olivia...
...learned to spell her name. We've been practicing with letters on the fridge as well as spelling out loud. She seems to have a good handle on it, but I'm not sure she would be able to tell OLIVIA from OSTRICH just yet.
...likes to play her new violin. My mom brought a 1/8 size violin with her last week (complements of Aunt Jan, via Donna) and Olivia has played it several times. Mercifully, the e string broke as it was being tuned, so we're only hearing the lower notes. She is impatiently waiting for the day when I teach her to put fingers down on the strings.
...wants to be the oldest, but not necessarily the most grown up. She likes being in charge, but becomes helpless when it suits her. For instance, when HER water cup is empty in the middle of the night, she sits in her bed and wails.
Our car had brake problems when Bryan was driving from Springfield back to his parents' house last week, so we had to abandon it at Steve and Murry's, shoehorn three carseats into the backseat of their Jeep, and borrow their vehicle for a few days. Everything worked out, though, and our van is once again in our possession and working as well as it ever has. An unexpected bonus: somehow when they fixed the brakes they also stopped the power steering whine.
Labor day was our fun run, and we had quite a good turn out. Friends from church came, as well as Matt and Tricia (Bryan's cousin and his wife) and Rianne and Titus (my cousin and her husband). My parents and some siblings came down as well, and Bryan's family made an appearance at the cookout afterwards. The big improvement to the fun run this year came in the form of a semi-marked course: I tied yarn on sticks. Unfortunately, the sticks and yarn were difficult to see and our front runner was color blind and therefore unable to decipher whether he should turn right or left. Next year I will use large ties of patterned cloth. :)
Alison and Jacob came down for the weekend before the fun run. We hung out, Bryan got Jacob addicted to a new video game, and Alison and I tried our hand at cheddar cheese. We're not tremendously hopeful as to the outcome, but won't know the extent of our failure or success for several months since cheddar takes 4-6 months to age. The most exciting part of the combined visit came after church on Sunday morning, when Father pointedly asked, "so, do you have any news to share with us?" while staring at Alison's hand. Keep in mind that Jake and Joe look similar, Alison and Joe were together for all their previous visits, and Alison is now Orthodox, which is always a hopeful sign. Anyway, Alison looked mildly uncomfortable and then said, "Well, I saved a lot of money on car insurance by switching to Geico."
You may remember from last week's pictures that I made feta cheese after everyone left. This batch looked much more promising than the cheddar and feta only takes 2 days to cure. The verdict on the finished product is that I left it in the saturated brine (homemade seawater) too long. It looks and feels like feta, but is incredibly salty. Bryan says store feta is sharper also, so that is something that I will have to work on. I have a couple of ideas to try next time. If I can perfect this, though, I made a pound of feta for less than $3.50, which is well worth it.
This past Monday, Kaitlyn and I drove up to Albion to visit Jacob. He had picked up some bulk food from the (kind of local to him) store for me and in exchange I was giving swing dance lessons to his residents. The turnout was only about 9 people, but I thought it went well. The one male that came (other than Jacob) said afterwards that he'd be interested in learning the steps to some other dances, too, so I may be going back.
Pictures and Videos:
13 September 2015
September 6-13
Just pictures and a video this week.
Video (password BarhorstBrewed)
Gretchen's Milestones
Alison took pictures of her visit:
Kaitlyn and Rudy:
Gretchen on the table. I think she was marching:
Pictures of Kaitlyn from Kara's wedding (Kaitlyn is almost two months old in these):
Gretchen at Kara's wedding:
Princess Olivia takes pictures with Princess Kara:
Video (password BarhorstBrewed)
Gretchen's Milestones
Alison took pictures of her visit:
Olivia sleeps in the car:
Kaitlyn and Rudy:
Playing Pretty, Pretty Princess:
Olivia pins the tail on the fox:
Making feta cheese:
A small frog was on our sliding door one night:
Pictures of Kaitlyn from Kara's wedding (Kaitlyn is almost two months old in these):
Gretchen at Kara's wedding:
Princess Olivia takes pictures with Princess Kara:
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