The Crafts

Kate LOVES her new house. Here she is on the front porch talking about the rain puddles. Moving day... Our little hockey player tried knocking down walls. Kate dining in the dining room and a photo of the entryway. Living room and another entryway shot. Two shots of the kitchen. Messy Kate and our messy bedroom.

is my camera cord?!?! I finally found the coffee mugs yesterday morning. But I still cannot find the camera cord which means I can't download pics of the house from the camera. Our new house becomes more of a home every day. We have run into some minor hiccups along the way but so far so good. First off we have a built in dishwasher but no place to build it in. We actually have a great location for it but no counter top to connect the dishwasher to. So we have called in a local contractor to do the work and to replace the counter top under the cabinets. We also discovered that our electric dryer isn't going to work in the basement until we get an electrician in here. Luckily, Matt's handy uncle Larry has years of experience and thinks he can work something out for us until the house is rewired. There are some other small learning experiences but nothing compares to our excitement of living here. The first thing we did was take down the curtains which revealed gorgeou

Hello all. We are all moved into our house and couldn't be happier. I will post more later along with pictures but I can't find the camera cord right now. My friend's house was destroyed in the tornado that hit Parkersburg / New Hartford this weekend. Below is the story from another friend. Megan and her husband, Mike, have four kids ages four, three and twins that are almost two years old. They just built the house and moved in a year ago this past March. They have lost everything. If you have any clothes, shoes, toys or life necessities to share please mail them to me and I'll make sure Megan and her family get them. My mailing address is: 300 Walnut Street, La Porte City, IA 50651 Ian (size 5) Alli (size 4/5) Hanna (size 24mo/2T) Cooper (needs nothing, he was blessed and they have all of his stuff!) Megan (size medium or size 8) Mike (pants 38/32, shirts size XL) Below is the story... They are alive. When they built the house, they put a solid cement room under the f

Well today is our last day in this house. I'm so excited for the new place that I didn't expect to be apprehensive to leave the old. I guess it is because this move is a big change. We will probably spend the rest of our life in this house whereas the old was more of a transition. We knew we wouldn't stay here forever but we have a lot of good memories associated with these walls. I swear I have never seen our house so messy. I don't think it was this messy even when we first moved in. Boxes are everywhere. Some full, some empty, some full ones are being emptied by our busy toddler. I'm planning to take lots of pictures of the move. I'll post them as soon as we have our computer back up and running. A big thanks in advance for everyone lending a hang a moving day!!

Thanks Megan and Courtney for your words of wisdom via your 'comments'. Completely true statements from both of you. Kate, and other children, are generally sweet and melt your heart but just like adults, they too will have tantrums. I tried to be more of an enforcer yesterday afternoon. When Kate woke from her nap crabby and whined about everything, I told her I was going to leave her in bed until she got over her sadness. After a few minutes she quit crying. I went into the room and she was excited, happy and ready to play. I also didn't give into her crying fits over a toy, etc. Things went OK. Hopefully I'll be singing the same tune after today. I went to golf league last night and boy did I need a night away. My golf partner has a daughter the exact same age as Kate so we traded stories. I think we both felt relief from hearing each others struggles. I guess I just need a reminder that I'm not alone in this battle of kid v. parent. By the way TWO MOR

I guess I really shouldn't be asking for parenting advice via my blog. Sorry about that. That post was more about an opportunity to vent frustrations then anything else. Before having Kate I was naive. I thought most events with her would be fun and silly. Perhaps she is just not yet to the age or perhaps she has learned to manipulate me. If the later is the case then I am prepared to win the manipulation battle because I cannot go through life with her calling the shots at all times. I'll let you know how the projected 18 year battle is going. :)

So I'm puzzled by motherhood, or perhaps my ability to be an effective mother. I see pictures of my friends' kids with arms in the air and giant smiles on their faces. I witness sweet, young children holding their mother's hand while shopping in the store. I've even seen women with multiples of the same age all giggling and enjoying life. So why don't I feel like Kate and I fit into this wonderful world of happiness and glee?? Lately it seems that just about everything we do involves Kate's unhappiness with me. We go for a walk - total meltdown. We venture to the park - giant alligator tears. I take her for a bike ride on a beautiful 65 degree day - sweaty tantrum. 99% of the time I react calmly and move to something new but I'm drawing near the end of reason. Is it just teething? I luckily still find the humor and irony in many of our situations. Take today for example. At the height of Kate's tantrum I stop the bike to see what is the problem when the

We not only have four more days until we move, Kate is getting four new teeth... and they are vicious. Kate has to wonder what is going on with her life right now. The house is in shambles with boxes everywhere and her mouth is practically on fire. I feel so bad for her. She isn't sleeping well and all she wants to eat is grapes. Well, and the occasional monster cookie but who wouldn't want to eat monster cookies. Speaking of which, if you have a good recipe for monster cookies please send them my way. I'm on a mission. Grrrrr Below is a pic of Kate from the Ames / Sioux City trip.

Much to Matt's chagrin Kate's second word was not dunk. Rather her second word was bird. We were playing in the yard Sunday afternoon when Kate pointed and said 'bird'! I could not have been more proud. And she knew it too because every other bird within a quarter mile radius received Kate's full attention. So cute!! By the way...FIVE MORE DAYS UNTIL WE MOVE!!!!!!!!

Many kids have said mama or dada at some point in time by this age. Kate doesn't say either on command so we didn't expect her first real word to happen any time soon. And yet it did. Kate ran over to the basketballs, pointed and said 'ball'!! We are so proud, especially Matt. His first thoughts were as follows... "This will make a great story to tell Bill Fennelly (ISU women's basketball coach) when Kate is starting her freshman year on the basketball team!" Now, when Matt said 'starting' he didn't mean when Kate is beginning her freshman year of college, nor did he mean when she begins playing basketball. What he meant was that Kate will be a starter on the ISU women's basketball team her freshman year. His expectations are a bit high at this point. Especially considering the fact Kate has just learned what a ball is. Nevertheless we are very excited parents. And since this first word first, Kate has been all about basketballs.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yiipppeee!!!!

Matt had court in Sioux City on Monday so we decided to make a weekend of it. We first stopped in Ames Saturday night for dinner with extended family to celebrate my Grandma's birthday. This is when the first incident occurred. Shortly after finishing my meal at one of my favorite restaurants, The Spice, my mom picks up Kate from the high chair only to discover disaster. Kate had dirtied her diaper up to her armpits. With no back-ups clothes and only one wipe in the entire bag we had to improvise. Kate sat naked on the bathroom counter top as there was NO changing table while my mom and I gave Kate her first ever restaurant sink bath. She promptly left with us wearing nothing but a clean diaper and my coat. I'm just happy no restaurant patrons worked at DHS. Sunday morning we awake and head to Sioux City to visit my other grandparents. The whole crew decides to go out for dinner. I think, third times a charm we can't have yet another restaurant debacle. Wrong!!

I cannot wait!!!!!!!!!!

WooooHoooo!!!!!

Kate is well on the way to recovery, although she is still pretty lethargic. This morning she spent some time relaxing on the couch with her best buddies; Puppy, Baby and Baxter the Cat.

I can barely contain my excitement any longer!!!!!!

Yiipppeee!!!!

Kate and I went to lunch with some friends today. The experience started pleasant and ended in well, you'll see. We arrive and I order something for Kate from the kid's menu in addition to my own lunch. The food is brought to the table and Kate refuses to look at her lunch much less eat it. So I let her blow bubbles in her milk while I try to throw down my lunch and make conversation. We had all (THANKFULLY) finished our meals when Kate exploded from the top end. Vomit was everywhere and it didn't seem to stop. I watched in horror while my two veteran mom friends sprung into action. I literally had no idea what to do, so I grabbed Kate's $4.00 basket of untouched lunch and let her get sick into that. So much for the doggie bag. One friend runs to get rags while the other kindly suggests I take Kate to the bathroom. I return to life from my state of shock and grab Kate. We run to the bathroom only to discover the women's room is full. I run into the men's bathroo

Yippeee!!!

There is this one woman in town that seems to be out to get me. I'm actually exaggerating but my two encounters have not been pleasant. The first encounter was back in November. I was painting for someone and she knocks on the door to tell me that the outside porch light is on and that I should turn it off. I left it on out of spite. So she starts telling me random stories interspersed with porch light comments. I finally told her I had to get back to painting and she again reminded me of the light. FINE! I turned it off and gently pressed her out the door. Now to today. Kate and I were out for a walk in the beautiful afternoon air when I crossed paths with 'porch light lady'. She sees Kate squinting in the sun and says to me "you should get the sun out of it's eyes". First of all, my child is clearly a girl. What about her pink polk-a-dot shirt and flower sandals screamed asexual baby? Secondly, I painstakingly tried to keep Kate's hat on her head and los

Well she may not quite understand sharing toys yet but Kate isn't afraid to share water. The flowers, sidewalk and her pants got a healthy dose this morning. My first mistake was to tell her the flowers were really thirsty. My second was to let her take over the watering can. By the time we went inside for lunch no one was dry including Baxter the cat. Uh-oh. That reminds me... the cat is still outside. Enjoy the pics. I must go find a lost kitty.

We visited our new house again on Saturday. It is fabulous. Matt just received confirmation that the house is 100% out of the floodplain. That would have been just about the only thing to keep us from moving forward with the sale. And oh, the current owners would have been spitting mad. But flood insurance is one of the biggest scams in America and I refuse to play the game. On a much happier note, I am excitedly filling boxes with a smile on my face and pep in my step. We may have 19 more days to physically live in the old house but my head is already in the new one.