More river Fun

Here is Amber riding on a new tube that the family got. It was fun! Ellen and Kate had a pretty fun ride as well, but Amber had to spot so we didn't have anyone to take pictures!
Here is Alex. He loves the sand and the water. He walks right into the water and loves to eat the sand!
Here is Alex playing Badmitton. I wish you could hear this yelling noise he made with it!

Here is Addie. Isn't she cute????

It was a great river day! Swimming in the morning, tubing in the afternoon, playing outside in the grass in the evening..finished up with the adults and big kids (everyone except Conner and Alex) watched Night at the Museum. It was a wonderful day.

P.s. This is Ellen posting still!

It is ABOUT time!

Since Katie won't post on her blog, I am doing it for her (This is Ellen her sister-in-law). The Heubners are at the river with Jim, Ellen, kids and Grandma B for the weekend. This morning was a great swimming morning. See Above. I will try for some pictures of Alex and Addie later.

We have purchased a new tube and Amber and I are anxious to try it out, but the ski boat is having some electrical issues. Maybe we will have pictures of that later!

All is well with Kate and Bill. They had a lovely time in Disney. Just ask Kate..she will tell you all about it! :) Bill is has been living in the small motorhome in Indpendence. Lots of people have looked at their house in Hubbard, but no offers yet. This next week, they hope to look at some rental properties in Indee. Kate has a half time job for this fall so that will help.

Both Amber and Ashley went to camp in the last couple of weeks and have had a great time!

So there you go folks a new post on behalf of the Heubners!

Big News!

We are moving!! We have been looking for some time for a teaching/coaching job for Bill that would allow him to be a football coach again. He applied at several places, but we hadn't really heard anything until last week, when Elkader, a school that he didn't even apply at, called him for an interview. He lined that interview up and then we contacted Independence to let them know that he was interviewing somewhere else and that we needed to know their timeline. They responded, please come interview with us also. So this past week Bill made two trips east for these interviews. Last night, Thursday, Independence called (while he was on his way home from the second interview) and wanted to "make Bill a proposition". When he called back they offered him head varsity football, and 8th grade english. We took another night to pray and decide if this was where our family needed to be. This morning he called and told them YES!!!! We are going to Indee!! It is considerably larger than Hubbard. We have about 300 total students, they have about 1300 total students. It will be a little different for the girls, but I think they will adjust very well. Amber has been very excited about this whole process and so far, she hasn't really been bothered by the idea of leaving Hubbard. She is very excited about daddy coaching football again. Ashley on the other hand reacted just as I predicted. She cried. But then after a good cry we talked about everything that Independence has and what it will be like and now she is very excited. She actually went to school today and announced to her class that she will be moving and her daddy will be coaching football again. :)
So now, onward to painting and getting the house ready. We are praying and asking God to give us the right buyer willing to pay what is needed for our house. This is probably the biggest hurdle we have to face. The housing market in Hubbard during the last year was pretty bad, some houses sitting for a year. When I talked to the realtor he said that things are starting to pick up and he is seeing more action. Hopefully that means that someone will be looking at our house and buying!

Just some fun photos I've found

Alex needed another haircut so I decided to give it a try. I "introduced" him to the clippers and then started. He did really well. You can see the finished product. Not too bad for the first time cutting little boy hair!

I'm Horrible and I Know it!

I am a blogging failure. Those of you that know me, understand that I can talk forever about many things, so it should be simple for me to just talk to my computer and put it all down in type. But it isn't. Somehow, just sitting down at the computer is a big feat.
Lots has been going on since I last blogged. Alex is walking now. Not totally, all the time, but he is walking a majority of the time. He walks to people and between couches and the other day walked across the living room and kitchen in one attempt.
We had our last home visit with our social worker. No more visits!!! Yeah! It means that everything is really done. We are just waiting on the Social Security Card to come and then we really are finished. It will be nice to not have to think about any of those things.
Amber and Ashley went to the Awana Games in Ankeny. Ashley's team took first place. They play games like "bean bag race" and "train". Some parents are horrified by the "train". Bill loves it. Basically, for those of you that haven't experience this event, you line up about 7 or 8 little kids from tallest to shortest(6-8 years old). Then you have them grab hold of the person in front of them as hard as they can. At the whistle, all four different teams run as fast as they can around the circle, trying to get back to their starting point, at which time the last child will run into the center and tag the pin, scoring points for our team. What never fails to happen (to Bill's amusement) is the tiny little child on the end of the train is struggling to hold on because of the momentum pushing them outward. They hold on for as long as they can around the circle, but it never fails that they JUST CAN'T HOLD ON any longer and they hurtle into innocent bystanders (other 6-8 year olds) that weren't prepared to be landed on. There are tears, injuries, and many times blood. This year one of our boys teams launched their caboose onto an unsuspecting blue team member (we are yellow) and the victim cried and cried. At which point I think Bill said, I love this game! Oh yes, that's what he said.
Now Amber's team took 3rd. We think that they were robbed of 2nd place, but who are we to question the razor sharp eyes of the Awana Games officials???? All year our kids were told that if they dove through the air for a pin that they would be disqualified, so in the tie-breaker event, we ran to the pin and touched it, but not before the other team launched into the air and knocked the pin down. Needless to say it was an opportunity to talk about how LIFE IS NOT FAIR!!
Now, what about Addie. You would think that I would have plenty to say about Addie, but surprisingly I don't. Lately, other than just being a little whiny, she hasn't done anything too horrible. I know that sounds harsh, but really, there are days when I think to myself that it will be a good day if Addie doesn't injure someone, hurt herself or break something in the house! She is a little tornado at times.
Life for the family as a whole has been pretty normal. We didn't get a chance to go to Sanibel this year, and while that was really disappointing, we are looking forward to Disney World in Florida this summer. Although I must say, during the week of Spring Break we would often think about all you that were down there with just a touch of jealousy, especially when we were getting snow here! Now we are looking forward to being in the last quarter of school heading downhill to summer!

Guatemalan Food Night!

Amber and Dad cooked supper tonight. We had an appetizer of dobladas- these are the doubled over tortillas. Think crab rangoon, only Guatemalan. There is farmer cheese and red peppers inside. For the main dish they made Lomo mechado, or poked beef. It is called this because you poke a paste of peppers, onion, bacon, mustard and garlic into it and bake it for several hours. This was delicious! Everyone ate seconds. For dessert Amber and Dad made Trifle, or Coconut Milk Cake. They said that you could put it in a cake pan or in muffin tins, so Amber decided to do muffin tins. We added powdered sugar to the tops and they were excellent. Very moist and sweet.
Amber helped to do all of this, so when the roast came out of the oven, she wanted her picture taken next to it all. :)

Let me introduce myself...

I feel as if it has been forever since I posted. There really isn't that much interesting to discuss, life is just busy. With two kids in school and another two at home, things just pile up and there seems to never be a dull moment. I actually look forward to evenings when the whole family is home together. Just wait till all four are in school! That will make life interesting. We figured it out a while ago and when all the kids are in school...Amber will be a freshman in high school, Ashley will be in 7th grade, Addie will be in 2nd grade and Alex will be in Kindergarten. Bill will be 36 and I will be 35! Now that is something! In five years life will get drastically different.
Well, hope this is fascinating to you all. I will try to do better. :)

Taking applications for Disney World...

We are advertising a vacant spot in the motorhome for the the trip to Disney World this summer. It seems that Sara will be unable to make it do to some phone call that she has to take. All interested applicants apply.
Ha! Ha!

So remember when your parents told you not to do it?

But you did it anyway? Well that is what happened to Addie last night. Addie and Ashley have had the humidifier in their bedroom for the past week because of the dry air and they both have coughs. Mommy said, this is not a toy, don't play with it, it is hot. And so far, everyone has listened. Until last night around 2:00 AM when Addie starts screaming in pain. She had gotten up and tried to move the humidifier and burned her left hand with the steam. She was up all night crying in pain and we did what we could to help with the pain. We ran the hand under cold water, sprayed on an numbing antiseptic, put an icepack on, tylenol, etc. But it was rough. This morning she has blisters all over that part of her hand, as you can see in the photos. I think it will be a long time before we touch anything that Mommy says is hot!

More Snow!!

I love snow! And so do the girls. We got about 5 or 6 inches at least and after Bill blew out the driveway they were out playing in it. It was such a nice day for playing in the snow.

Amber Haircut

Amber decided to go a little shorter this time and cut up to her chin. I think it makes her look even more grown up.

Ashley Haircut

Here is Ashley. She started the haircut marathon by trimming her own hair AGAIN! Don't worry, she will not be doing that again. :)

Addie's First Haircut

Other than cutting her bangs, Addie has never had her hair cut, and she is 3. I just kept waiting for it to do something, but nothing ever happened. So we decided to cut it and see if that helped. Well, not really. She still looks very disheveled, no matter what I do to it. Oh well, eventually it will settle down and look normal.

First Haircut for Alex

Yes, we finally cut his hair. He was looking kinda goofy, so we all went in and lost some hair. He did really well, never cried. He didn't love it, but it wasn't too bad.

Snow

So we got a little snow- maybe a couple inches about a week ago. The girls were thrilled and had to go outside and roll around in it and play in it. It melted the next day, but they had a lot of fun. Amber gave Addie a few rides on the shovel when they weren't moving snow off the slippery driveway.

Now the other side

I posted Christmas photos from the Heubner side, so now I have to do justice to the Trunnell side.
If you didn't know, Amber is a horse nut. She has clothing with horses on it, likes to paint horses, make horse, anything horses. So she was very excited to get this horse barn with a couple of horses from Grandma Muffie and Grandpa Mark. I think that Grandma B gave her some horses. (She also got a couple of horses from her parents).

Ashley got a doll, similiar to the American girl. She had a bed and wardrobe with clothes in it. I don't think she has let go of her yet. :)

Addie got a Little People A to Z zoo. It has 26 animals that make their sounds as well as say what letter they start with.

Alex got the engine to his train. He had the zebra, so grandma gave him the giraffe engine with the elephant and monkey. If you push the right button it will move around the room. He was very excited by that.

Just a few presents..

Oh yeah, just a few! Ha! Ha! Well, every year Bill and I discuss that our kids have so much and that our family is so blessed, and yet every year they all get so much for Christmas presents. Now let me say, this year I think we did better than ever at not ending up with just silly stuff and each one received something that they really, really wanted and would actually use. But we still always look at everything and ask ourselves, do we really need all of this? So if any of you have some cool things that you do each year to help your kids with this idea, I would love to hear them. We do have the kids go through their stuff every year and we do give a lot of the nicely used things to goodwill or garage sale them.
Anyhow, these are a couple of things that the munchkins got.
Alex got a walker/rider from Grandma Kris and Grandpa Frank. We really didn't think that he would be able to do this very well since he has just started walking around the coffee table and walking up and down the side of the couch. But surprisingly he did very well, only one fall. And he loved it. Bill couldn't get a picture of his face because he kept turning, but he was grinning from ear to ear.

Addie waited all Christmas for this present: a watch. At our family Christmas, and the Trunnell Christmas she didn't get it, and when she was asked if she got everything she wanted, she would say, well, I really want a watch. Aunt Sara came through and gave her a cool watch that opens up, although today she hasn't worn it because she doesn't like it on her arm. :) Kinda funny!

Amber and Ashley received several neat things, but they also had a shared present for the two of them. Aunt Sara bought them Design World. This is a game that you hook up to your TV and you design your own world (imagine that!). They were both thrilled and Aunt Sara even thought about the batteries, so we were able to have it up and running that night. So far we haven't heard any disagreements about whose turn it is, or who got to do this last time.

Our Christmas

This was Alex's first Christmas. He really enjoyed opening up presents, especially tearing the wrapping paper. I don't think that he really cared about the present underneath the paper, he just liked the sound the paper made when he tore it.

Alex had his big surgery today (circumcision). He was at the hospital at 6:30 AM and we left about 10:00 AM. He was in surgery about 45 minutes and everything went well. He did not like coming out of the anestethia at all. He cried for about 25 minutes straight. The nurse said that most children are disoriented and confused and don't know why they feel weird. They gave him some morphine to help him calm down and he finally slept about 10 minutes until the doctor came to check on the stitches. We got him home and he ate another bottle and then I rocked him to sleep and he slept for about 3 1/2 hours. This afternoon and evening he has been crawling around and playing, pretty normal appetite and attitude. Just as long as nobody touches his bottom.

Healthy

We are all healthy at our house now, and that is something to be thankful for. Alex had a bout with the stomach flu and spent 4-5 days with horribly bad diapers. Up the back, out the sides, out the front - it was all bad! Other than the bottle, he wouldn't take anything. Which was really frustrating because we have been working really hard to have him gain weight and I know he has gained about 4-5 pounds since coming home. I was worried that in 5 days he would lose what took us months to put on. Bill says that I have issues with food, because when we were dating and he would come to my parents house my mother and grandmother would always want to know if he needed something to eat?...to drink?...anything? :) He says that I am a food pusher like my mother and grandmother. I don't think that is true at all. I mean, just because I give Alex food when he fusses, whimpers, moans, blinks, sniffs, and breathes, doesn't mean I am a food pusher!! :) Ha! Ha!
So now we are back to normal, or whatever it is that we are everyday. We are looking forward to a nice Christmas break. We get out of school next Thursday at 2:30 and we go back Jan. 3rd. We have a couple of projects that we want to get done, but I think we will have several days to just relax and hang out at home. This will probably drive Bill crazy, since he would rather be going and doing instead of sitting and relaxing.
Sunday we will be having our church Christmas program. Everyone is involved, Bill and I have to say part of the Christmas Story. Amber and Ashley have some parts in the little kid program and Addie has to say one line with Ty, her good buddy and partner in crime (he went to the old babysitter with us). I am sure that will be very interesting. If anyone would like to come it is at 6:30 pm. No obligations however. I am glad though that we are doing this before Christmas week. I don't know, but the older I get the more I am irritated when things interfere with family time during the holidays. I don't like the scheduled programs that require the family to choose, do we go to the program or stay home as a family and create a special tradition that way. I much prefer Christmas time with the family at home, enjoying each other's company. Sara, you would approve of this I am sure.
Well, we are off to a basketball game tonight. Alex has done very well at the last two games. He has lasted through both varsity girls and boys games. He rather enjoys the noise and activity and just sits and watches everything on mom and dad's lap.
Have a safe weekend!

I have updated my blog to the beta-blogger. I hope that this works, since I cannot see the changes I made today yet, I am a little worried. I guess that I will have to wait until tomorrow and then see if it worked.
Oh well!