Eleven Months

~ 11 Months ~

Walking with his big sisters help.... And, chewing on his fingers.  He has four teeth on the bottom and two on the top, with another one ready to break through on the top right side.  When he gets sleepy or when he is laid in his bed for "night-night", he sucks on his two middle fingers, usually on the left hand.  He continues to drool like no little kid I have ever seen before.  (It just doesn't stop.  Like a facet with no off lever.  The fronts of his shirts and onesies are normally soaked, and when we put a bib on him he soaks them too.)

Such a cute and happy boy.  He smiles easily, and loves to play with his sisters.  Sarah can get him to laugh by sneaking up on him and pretending like she is going to get him, over and over.  He tries to hide from her by crawling to me or Eric, and then tries to climb up us and into our arms as fast as he can... laughing the whole time.

He still likes to eat all baby foods except the meats, which all make him gag.  Eric even tried them and told me that they were not good.  He has been trying some table foods... bits of bread, and small pieces of mac and cheese, shredded cheese, beans, and peas.

He is growing and changing quickly.  When I hold him, a beautiful healthy little boy, created in love, a gift to Eric and I from God, I often feel overwhelmed with gratitude.  What a precious gift that we have been entrusted with... I am so thankful that I get to be his Mommy.

Fishing With Popee

The kids and I spent a few days in Emporia last week with my parents.  

Here are the girls pretending that they caught a whopper with Popee!  Fishing hats and all...

Now for the real thing... Popee baited their hooks with some worms and they started catching little Perch.

I think that this was the first time that Phoebe reeled in a fish by herself.  She was smiling and laughing the whole time while Popee cheered her on... "Keep reeling Phoebe, keep reeling!"

Thanks Popee for ALWAYS having patience with your littlest fisher people (and your oldest daughter), baiting our hooks, and taking the fish off the hook for us!

Ornate Box Turtle

We found this Ornate Box Turtle crossing our driveway on Tuesday.  It wasn't in too big of a hurry, so I got out and scooped it up in a box so that the kids could all take a closer look at it and watch it crawl around for awhile before we let it go again.  After scooping it into the box I took a closer look and discovered it had a pretty severely cracked shell.  It appeared to be an old wound and the turtle moved around normally with the crack in its shell, but I am not a turtle expert, so who really knows...?

The girls kept running out into our backyard all afternoon to check on the turtle.  They wanted to catch it crawling around, but if it saw them coming it would quickly tuck back inside its shell.  When Eric got home that evening they each took a turn picking it up and taking an even closer look at it.

Even Jessee was curious about this creature crawling around our backyard.

Just A Swing'in

Phoebe taught herself how to pump the swing last week.  One day while we were in the backyard she said, "look at me".  I watched her carefully get onto the green slippy swing, (I call it this because it is made of very smooth plastic, causing little butts to slip off of it very easily and unexpectantly.)  Next she used her feet to push gently off the ground and the swing went back then forward.  Then she started moving her little long legs back and forth, out and in, as she used her arms to pull on the chain.  She was pumping and the swing was going higher and higher!

Muck Fest 2013

Last Saturday was the Muck Fest, Kansas City, a giant fundraiser for the National MS Society.  In their own words here is what Muck Fest is...

  "MuckFest MS is the nation's best mud and obstacle fun-run.  But it's so much more.  Made with mud, sweat and cheers, the five-mile course features a gauntlet of muck-filled mazes, pits and craters with over twenty gigantic steel obstacles.  The fun doesn't stop when you slide over the finish line.  There's beer, great food and music in the MuckFestival area.  We operate on "the more, the muckier" principle, so bring your friends and family to join in the hilarious spills ans thrills.  We even have a specially-designed mucky playlot for the kids called Lil' Muckers."

"And here's the best part: 100% of our fundraising dollars go to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society - helping to prove that you can have loads of dirty fun and feel good about it in the morning."

Sound fun?  We thought so too, so we formed Gloria's "Goop Troop", and got mucky.  We all were participating for my Mom, Gloria, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis about three and a half years ago.  We left Emporia about 7:30 am and drove to Merwin, Missouri to get our muck on.

On the way there and back we needed some snacks and drinks to help promote team unity and power!

I gave all the guys matching orange headbands.  They were a little dorky when worn on their heads, so they decided they worked better as armbands.  (They also worked great as scrubbers after the race when trying to scrub the muck off of our bodies.)

Here we are in the parking lot before walking to the muck festival fun area....

Our team, making our best mucky duck faces: me, Matt, Eric, JD, and Ronnie

                     Ronnie made us mucky duck headbands.

Here we come... The Goop Troop has arrived!

GGrrrrr!  Let's see those muscles!

My Mom is one in that 400,000.  I was running, climbing, sloshing, crawling, and getting mucky for her.

The registration and check-in area...

There I am all checked in.  We each got a bib to pin on and a timing chip that is hooked onto one of the shoes we were wearing.  The bib had 4 tags to tear off... one was a key/bag check tag, a food/lunch ticket, a drink ticket, and a t-shirt ticket.

 (**Note to any and all others who may participate in a future Muck Fest... -Tear off all the tags on the bib and put them in your car or check them in the bag check area before your race starts.  Each participant can check a small bag of personal items.  You would not want to lose the tags during your race.  -Use your t-shirt tag to get your free Muck Fest t-shirt before the race and take it to your car or put it into the small bag that you check.  This will ensure that you get the size shirt that you want.  -Do NOT wear jewelry that you love...like your wedding rings.  They WILL get covered in muck, and there is a chance of losing them in the muck.  -Pick up any free stuff from sponsors before your race.  This will ensure that you get some.) 

We had to take some pictures with Chuck, the muck duck.

In the picture below, the wave of runners before our wave, just took off from the starting line.

Look at those nice new water shoes... not for long, they will be covered with muck, dust, and straw soon.

The pictures below were taken during the race by a Muck Fest worker...

After the race... look at that MUCK!  MUCK was everywhere.... EVERYWHERE.  But it was worth it... It was mucking fun!

We waited in line for a very long time to scrub our muck.  Then we ate lunch, listened to some music, and got clean muck-free clothes on.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
I was eyeing this mucktastic hoodie and really wanted to get it... My brother, Matt, bought it for me for my birthday.  Thanks Matt!

We all did it.  Great job Goop Troop!  We MUCKED it!

"Bring it. Run it. MUCK it."

18 cities across the United States getting mucky for the National MS Society.

For more information on how you can donate to the MS Society, get mucky with them and us again next year, see pictures of the course and some of the obstacles that we all made it through, and if the MuckFest is coming to a city near you click on the following link.  You will be redirected to the MuckFest website... MUCKFEST MS Website