Sidewalk "paint"

It actually was not scorching hot this morning so we went outside to enjoy a little fresh air! I had found this "recipe" on a blog to make homemade sidewalk chalk (1/4 c. of corn starch, 1/4 c. water, food coloring to your liking!). It dries looking like chalk but is actually like paint as you use it. Sydney had a blast with it but spilled the purple within moments of setting up camp on the front step. :) So we just stuck with pink and green and dabbed in the puddle of purple every now and then.

Far too busy to take her eyes off of her hard work to smile at the camera!

Play day with friends!

The other day our friends Tiffany, Noah and Lily came down to spend the day with us. We bought some of Noah's old baby clothes for Gavin and we were going to go through Sydney's old baby clothes for Lily! It was such fun! Plus we totally set Lily up for the fall with shoes and she was literally thrilled to try on the shoes....it was so cute!

Playing Ring around the Rosie

Looks like a little tourist!

The other day we were running to Wal-mart to get something (who knows...you can get anything at Wal-mart!) and as we were getting ready to leave Sydney said "oh I need my hat." (This is a hat she got from Papa Rod...she was pretty proud of it! Put it on all on her own and wore it the whole time we were out and about!) She had her special camera with her too, so she looked like she was from out of town enjoying the sights. :)

Happy 4 months Gavin!

Here are some things Mr. Gavin is up to these days!

• SO close to rolling over...he gets all the way on his side while on his back and just has to get his arm out of the way when on his tummy....he's so close!
• giggling! (though he's definitely his father's son...it takes quite a bit of work to get a smile sometimes! )
  
• staying up for longer periods of time during the day to play
• sitting in the Bumbo chair
• sucking on his fingers a lot and drooling! (please no teeth yet!)

Dear Gavin,

Life is so crazy right now but we wouldn't change it for the world. You make our little family feel so complete and we can't wait to watch you grow and terrorize your big sister. (She needs it!) We love you to pieces!!
Love, Mommy, Daddy, and Sydney

(almost) 4 month doctor's appointment

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Gavin is almost 4 months old....(excuse me...I had to pick up my jaw from the floor)! He is just growing way too fast! Anyhow, his almost 4 month appointment was yesterday and the doctor said he is looking great! He weighed in at a whopping 14 lbs., 11 oz. and was 25 1/4" long. About 50th percentiles in both height and weight. We've been battling some pretty yucky cradle cap and eczema the last week or so and the doctor gave us some tips on how to treat both. Poor guy has quite the delicate skin! Hopefully it will clear up soon!

Our "Welcome to the world baby Piper!" road trip :)

The very same day as the Emporia State mini-reunion I got THE call from Bailey that had received THE text from our cousin Traci.....she was in labor! It was the real deal because that afternoon precious baby Piper was born. :) Bailey and I were itching to see her (and her mommy and daddy of course!) so we ran up there the next day. We figured since we were driving 200 miles one way we needed to stop at Great Grandma Dodo's house too!

Gavin, dressed in his best to meet his new baby cousin!
Here she is...sweet baby Piper. :)
and her loud, silly cousin Sydney. :)

Gavin with Aunt Dee

Gavin with Grandma Dodo

And this is the reason why there aren't any pictures of Grandma Dodo and Aunt Dee with Sydney....it was because she was running all around playing with her cousin Addison! It's so fun watching the girls play; I remember talking about days like these with my cousins before the girls were even here!

Mini-ESU Reunion!

Last week we met some friends in Emporia for a little get-together. The last time we were together was four years ago at our college graduation! Since then we have all had babies (6 between the four of us) and they're all under three years old. We met at the miniature train and took a ride! Our plan was to go to the zoo but by 11:00 it was already way too hot to be outside with babies. So our friend Larissa invited us to her house where we ate lunch and the kids played with all of her toys!

Taking a break from chasing Noah and Journey

Gavin is thrilled with the train ride!

Sydney! Ready to ride

The three of the big kids--ornery looking huh?

big kids!

babies!

future best buds! :)

9 months

9 months....it's the duration of a school year, the typical amount of time that a woman is pregnant (ha--unless you're me pregnant with Sydney Helget!). When I think of a school year I think of the classes I have had in the past and how much the kids change from August to May--they get taller, their faces thinner, they've outgrown a lot of their "back to school" clothes and maybe even shoes. Since we just had a baby recently "9 months" conjures up the time between finding out that we had a new addition on the way...watching my belly grow, and grow, and grow, and grow some more...to the day that Gavin entered the world. So many things can take place in 9 months, so many changes. Today is no different...today marks 9 months that we have been without our mom. I don't write about her often, but believe me, she is never ever far from my mind.

I remember the day so vividly and clearly that I cannot help but think of what we were doing after looking at the time or to, unfortunately, relive every moment of the rest of the day and the few days following. It is still incredibly surreal and only recently did I realize, or rather tell myself...that for the remainder of my life I will not physically, see my mother. That was a pretty tough realization to come to! Some days it just feels like she's on vacation or I just haven't spoken with her but more and more recently the finality and reality is settling in. It is a good thing because I can't deny the truth of our situation and by facing the truth maybe I can continue on this journey of grief in a healthy way, but at the same time it's a very sad and upsetting truth.

I am finding that things that once brought back sad memories, make me happy now. Using one of her bags, wearing some of the jewelry she bought for me, writing about everything in a journal, or most recently, passing along outfits that she bought Sydney to our dear friends' little girl Lily. (I can see Tiffany now as she reads this...just hang on friend! :) ) As I was sorting through Sydney's clothes trying to find the appropriate fall/winter clothes in the right size to pass to Tiffany for Lily to use, I was continually coming across outfits that my mom had given. (You would think I never shopped for her myself! Most of the clothes were from Aunt Bailey or Mom (and Dad of course, but I'd be a fool if I didn't think that Mom did the bulk of the clothes shopping for Sydney)). Several times while sorting through the 12M clothes, I would set "those" clothes aside....for no apparent reason other than my own selfish-ness and wanting to keep them all to myself. (Trust me, my friend Tiffany is a self-proclaimed perfectionist and these clothes would have been returned in fabulous condition.) It was just my own hang-up on the idea of passing them along to someone else. However, mid-way through the stack, I thought to myself "what would Mom want me to do?" and of course she would want Lily to wear these! It would only make sense...it was if Mom were talking to me herself saying "Randi, stop being silly!" What a comfort. :) So, as I said, there are some things that are gradually, very very gradually becoming a little "easier" if that is even the word.

Having gone through something like this--well, while going through something like this, I have learned all too well that each and every person grieves their own way, at their own pace. And certain things that comfort one, may not comfort another. Luckily my sister and I are very much at the same place, BUT there are things she can do that bring her comfort that I just can't bring myself to do just yet (i.e. watching family videos--they make her laugh, I think they'd make me cry). Guess what? It's okay. We just cannot try to impose our ways of comfort on someone because...guess what? It may not work for them, plain and simple. We can only respect each other's way of grieving, love one another, and be patient with one another. As for me, I can only hope that the "comforts" I find are what's best for me and my family as we journey together.

So here's my memory of Mom...or rather, one of Mom's gadgets. Curious yet? This is just the first thing that came to my mind. (and honestly, how do you pick just one memory of someone you have spent your entire life with? They are in almost everything you do.) We have high ceilings in our living room, much like the living room in our childhood home. At the very top of those ceilings is a ceiling fan. I happened to notice the other day just how utterly filthy the fan blades are (oh great, now everyone who comes to our house who have read this will notice too!) and I remember this little gadget my mom had. It was a broomstick and at the end was this yarn doll. The skirt was a bundle of strands of yarn that she would reach all the way up to the ceiling fan to dust off the blades. Pretty nifty!

Anyway, when I sat down to type this I didn't think I had words...ha! Thanks for reading if you got this far and thanks for remembering my mom with me.

mmm....Frozen Bananas!

For some reason our bananas always go bad before we get around to eating them so today I wanted to beat them to it! I had two half packages of chocolate chips and 3 bananas that only had a couple of days left. So I told Sydney we'd make frozen bananas (her response: "oh thank you Mom! that makes me so happy!") I tried to document the creating of our frozen bananas like my crafty friend Tiffany does in her blog....but we had a hungry baby next to us so several steps will not be documented!

First we needed 2 bananas, 1 cup of chocolate chips, 1/2 T. milk, wax paper, and pan to place the bananas in when finished. (Oh and the cookbook mentions using peanuts to sprinkle but we didn't have any so..we used sprinkles!)
And this is where your imagination comes in! (i.e. no pictures were taken during this time... :/ ) We placed the chocolate chips with the milk in the microwave for 40 seconds to melt them, stirred until smooth.

You have to taste the chocolate too...you know, to make sure it's smooth and melted just right!

I peeled the bananas and cut them in half cross-wise, then we dipped, and rolled and spread them in the chocolate until they were covered. I also stuck a couple of kabob skewers in the bottom so they would be more like a frozen banana "pop" than a big chocolatey frozen banana mess!

And here's my helper sprinkling none other than pink sprinkles!

I can't wait until nap time is over (never thought I'd say that!) so we can try them out!

Visiting Papa and Grandma Helget!

We hadn't been to Manhattan to visit Papa and Grandma Helget in awhile so we headed up there last Friday. Sydney always knows exactly where to find all of their toys and just helps herself to them! Her cousin Alex was there too, whom she just loves, (and thank goodness Alex loves her too! she puts up with a lot :) ), so they played for quite awhile.

Gavin talking with Papa Helget

Happy with Grandma Helget :)

Sydney Helget was not featured in this blog post because she rarely slowed down long enough for a photo. :)

Wonderful Wonderscope!

Last Thursday the kids and I were invited to tag along with our friend Tiffany, her kids (Noah and Lily), her friend Quinci and her kids (Dylan and Saylor) on their day trip to Wonderscope. I We met at Chik-Fil-A for lunch. The moms got to chit chat (and feed babies) while the big kids (aaah! "big" kids?!) played in the play area. When we first sat down Quinci said to me "we're pretty brave bringing 3 toddlers/preschoolers and 3 infants..." I added to that: "brave or insane!" :) After lunch we headed to the Children's Museum called Wonderscope. This is where we had gone the day of Sydney's 2nd birthday (and the day baby Lily was born!)

Our first room was the market/farm room. Sydney was quite the busy little farm girl! (Traci, you'd be proud!) She rounded up all 5 or 6 of the baby calf bottles and was still requesting more. She moved on from the bottles to the roosters....she gathered all of the roosters and tried taking Noah's. (It's as if she's a collector!) She gathered some strawberries from the garden (I think she had all of those too) and when it was time to switch rooms she threw a fit. Oh yes, it was a wonderful moment--I was "that" parent with "that" child. :) As I tried the "okay Syd see you later"--walking out the door technique, she proceeded to just walk right back in to the little barn and continue playing. Mind you, I had Gavin strapped to my front in his little carrier, asleep, while trying to remove a kicking, screaming toddler from the farm room. (insert SIGH here) At that point I was so frustrated I just wanted to leave (and in my frustration told her we were going to :/ oops...). Instead, she ended up taking a time out of a few minutes in the front of the building. We had a little chat and after that she did much better whenever we switched rooms.

with her buddy Noah!

collecting food from the "barn"

From the farm room we went to the art room (well to time out then the art room) where she got her face painted with green hearts that matched her shirt. From there we briskly walked past the water table room :) to the Legos room! We also hit the ball room before leaving.

Busy but still has time to "smile" for Mommy!

It was a fun day, exhausting but fun! It really was a true test for me, since it was my first day trip with the two kids by myself. Oh there were moments when I was about to lose my cool (I think I may have even mentioned needing a stiff drink or two--right Tiffany?) but we survived! It can only get easier....right?

Happy 4th of July!

Sunday, the 4th of July we just spent at home! It was a wonderful, lazy day that we spent together as family. We grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, and jalapeno poppers. I made a fruit salad and an Oreo cheesecake for dessert. After supper we headed outside to enjoy the evening but very shortly after getting out there, it started to rain! And it continued to rain all evening long, so we weren't able to go to the fireworks show. Instead though, we enjoyed family movie night! I realized as we were getting ready, that it was our first family movie night! We watched "Ice Age." It was so wonderful...I loved looking down at Gavin who was asleep on me, and over at Joe and Sydney snuggling on the chair. It was a great family moment!

Gavin's first 4th!

Enjoying movie night!

Gavin is just thrilled...can't you tell :)
Blowing bubbles!
Our family of four
Good one of Gavin...
good one of Sydney...
just sweet. :)
Sydney and her boo-boo

4th of July celebration with friends

Our friends, the Dunns, invited us over to their house Saturday, July 3rd for some yummy food and fun! Here are some pictures from our evening. It was a great night!!






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