Ankle biter

Ever wondered where the term "ankle biter" comes from? Sonja used to... until today. Thank you Abigail.

It's official...

Abigail is related to Grandma Maas too. Today after lunch Caleb left the peanut butter bowl a little too close to Abigail while he was going to get more apples and you can see the results. It seems that I have a peanut butter fan in the making. I am also including a couple of pictures from Indian Summer which was last Monday. We went out to play in the yard and of course Abigail decided that the slide is much more fun to walk up than to bother with the ladder. She already has the nickname trouble... just wait until she starts walking!!

Family close by

The kids have loved living in Waterloo. They get to play with the infamous Kyle and Ehren and get to see other relatives quite often. I know that they will miss that whenever we move. Caleb thinks that he is so cool because he is almost as tall as Grandma Hansen. I can remember when I couldn't wait to be as tall as her too. Uncle Russ and Aunt Camy have been living just across the parking lot from us for a couple of weeks before they close on their townhouse. The kids have loved playing with them. They've also gotten to go out to eat at McDonald's with them and done their nails together. Pictured below is the beautiful hair-do the girls gave Aunt Camy using all of their barretts. Isn't she cute! Lydia just looked at this picture and laughed. She said, "Camy pretty. Her silly. Her needs to come over here."

Princess Hannah is 4

Hannah turned 4 on August 26th. She wanted to be a princess and have a princess cake. Glenn likes the picture of the cake by itself because he thinks it looks like it is coming to get you. Hannah had fun at her party with her cousins (actually Sonja's cousins) Kyle and Ehren, her Aunt Amy Jo, Great Grandparents: Ed & Jean Nelson, Eileen Hansen, and Earl & Ruth Reynolds, and Grandpa Roger and Teena. We can't believe she is already 4!!

Camping with the Cronks

At the beginning of August we went camping for the weekend at Green Lakes State Park near Syracuse, NY with our friends, the Cronks, from Houghton. It was fun going to the beach, hanging out at camp, having bonfires, sharing food, catching up and having fun. We hope to do it again next year if we are around.

When it rains, it pours...

It is raining here today so we thought we would pour some pictures onto our blog that we have neglected lately. Here are some fun pictures of the kids taken recently. FYI - for those of you who heard about how cold it was in our house for a while when we lived upstairs, it was not cold when we took the pictures of Caleb, he just decided to take a nap with his hat on in 80 degree weather. ;o)

Lots of Grandparents = lots of love

Just uploaded this cute picture from church a few weeks ago. Glenn's Grandma and Grandpa Earl and Ruth Reynolds stopped by Waterloo, NY on their way to and from Nova Scotia where they took a bus tour. It was so fun to visit with them and get spoiled. We took the opportunity after church to get a picture of the kids with 5 of their 8 great grandparents. It has been fun to live in Waterloo for a little while near Sonja's grandparents, Ed and Jean Nelson and Eileen Hansen. It was a very sunny day and that is why the kids are squinting.

Caleb's 6

Caleb turned 6 on July 15th. We started the day with a waffle breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's pool with lots of fruit and whipped cream for toppings. Afterwards the kids swam with their cousins Kyle and Ehren. We didn't figure birthday cake went too well with breakfast so we had cake and ice cream Sunday afternoon and Sonja's 3 grandparents were able to join us. Caleb wanted a boat cake and it turned out pretty cute with 3 little people made of starbursts. Glenn was quite proud of his rescue ring. Caleb loved the cake and said the people were himself, Hannah and Lydia and they each got to eat themselves. Caleb's favorite gift was little Army men sized cowboys and indians that have had skirmishes all over our house. You can see them on the table in front of his cake.

Russ and Camy's Wedding

Well, it finally happened, Russell Nelson (Sonja's brother) and Camy Chipe tied the knot. We were all present at the ceremony and two of our cuties were in the ceremony. Caleb was dressed to kill in his tux and Hannah was a sweet little flower girl.
It was a fun weekend with a rehearsal dinner party the day before at the Chipe's lake house. We spent the week before the wedding in Dayton at Uncle Bob's house and were able to help with some of the pre-wedding stuff and got to hang out with them a bit. It was fun and Sonja is excited to have a new sister!!

Diapers

I know we haven't posted in a while but I just thought that I would drop a line because of our adventure yesterday. After Glenn got out of work we headed to Geneva because we needed diapers and wipes and the church needed more cups for VBS. We wandered around BJs for a while because it is a fun place to wander. I looked for diapers and found an endcap of diapers on clearance. They were Pampers - 204 diapers for $22. That is less than 11 cents a diaper - very exciting to this mother of 2 in diapers! I grabbed Glenn and dragged him over. I was planning on buying the cheap Berkley and Jensen brand but they were more expensive. The funny thing is that in the next aisle there were the same Pampers Dry Baby diapers 180 for $35. I was very excited. I guess BJs was just trying to get rid of the larger sized packages of diapers to make room for the smaller packages that Pampers had sent them. Whatever the reason it made this mom happy. After much discussion we decided to buy them out - 6 cases - 1224 diapers, what, are we crazy?? I am sure that we must have looked funny - 3 kids in the little car thing made for 2 on the cart, baby on my hip and 6 cases of diapers, I know I got a kick out of it. We finally had to kick the kids out of their little car so we had space to put the wipes and cups and other things we found there. So, we have tons of diapers, I just hope that the cute Sesame street characters don't convince Lydia to give up on potty training. :o)

Yard Sale

I am a big fan of going to yard sales. We have found some neat treasures in other people’s junk. One of my favorite yard sales is the Houghton VFD yard sale on Labor Day and Memorial Day weekends every year. We have had two yard sales ourselves. One in Waterloo, before moving to Houghton, and just this last Saturday as we are preparing to leave Houghton and head back to Waterloo. I was not impressed with our yard sale in Waterloo. 5&20 is a decent location but it definitely was not fun… Saturday’s yard sale was fun. I just love living in Houghton. It is such a small town that you know, or at least recognize, everyone. Stopping at the Jubilee or the DG after church is like a reunion. I am going to miss it! Anyway, we had a yard sale on Saturday at our friends’ house down on 19. We had a few big items (like dressers and Caleb’s old power wheels that he had outgrown) that we really didn’t want to move because we had convinced ourselves that we didn’t need them anymore. (Simplify, simplify). A friend helped haul the stuff down Friday night and we went down to set up Saturday morning around 7:30. We put up a couple signs at the college entrance and one at the dump advertising a sale from 7:30-noon and sat down to relax. As we sat and visited under the tree with the Sampsons and the kids played on the big trampoline lots of people stopped by, many of them just to visit. It was a really fun morning and the best news is that we sold all our big items, yeah! I have decided that the most fun place to have a yard sale is here in Houghton, too bad we are moving. :o(

Lydia's not so short prayer

Lydia, has begun praying now beyond "Dear God, Amen!" and has reached the stage where she is thankful for everything. Her normal prayer is something like this..."Dear God thank you for my plate and my cup and juice and mommy and Caleb and mumble and mumble and peanut butter and bread and pizza and baby sheep and dooley and Bethany and Paul and Hannah and milk... Well I think thanked God for every vehicle on the property at Earl Sorenson's. All of us can learn a lesson from Lydia and be thankful for everything we have as well.

Caleb and Hannah saying Psalm 23

This was the third of fourth take which explains the giggles.

Lydia knows how to say her name...sort of :-P

Dangerous Picnics

We have been eating our lunches outside the last three days as the weather has been nice. Today, while we were eating at our picnic table, Hannah took off her shoe and told Lydia to hold still. She then proceeded to smack Lydia up the side of the head with her shoe. When Sonja asked what was going on Hannah explained that there was a bug in Lydia's hair. A bug, to Hannah, is a very good reason to use a shoe on her sister's head since she has picked up a bugaphobia from her big brother Caleb. They are improving though as they are at least willing to try and kill bugs instead of screaming and running away. Anyway, we think it should be safe for anyone to be around her even with a bug in their hair as she now knows not to use a shoe on people. :-) Hannah is listening as I read this out loud to Sonja and she just told Sonja she will try not to use a shoe on people anymore. She is a little sweetheart (just not to bugs.)

Russ and Camy's shower

This past weekend we went to a wedding shower for Sonja's brother Russ and his fiance Camy (They are the two at the far right). We had a fun time with them and many old church friends at the shower. It was also fun for Glenn to play basketball with Camy's cousin Dutsu (blue shirt in the middle) who we met on our trip to Ohio in February. We were also able to spend time with Sonja's Grandma Hansen and also her Dad, Roger Nelson, as well as hang out with her Aunt Amy and her Uncle Paul and their kids Zack, Ehren, and the infamous Kyle. Over all it was a good weekend and it was fun to get out of Houghton for a while.

New Baby Sheep

One of our kids' favorite things to do is to go and visit the sheep. About a half mile up the road is a barn that has 6 sheep and an alpaca that we take a walk to visit just about every day. Over the last few weeks 5 baby lambs have been born. Three of them have been born in the last 48 hours a set of twins and another baby whose twin died. Here the kids are pictured petting Cinnamon. She is also pictured with her mom and twin "Midnight." Lydia ran just about the whole half mile to the sheep barn today saying "See baby sheep, see baby sheep." We have to keep a more careful watch on Lydia these days when she is outside because she wants to walk and see the baby sheep by herself. Caleb caught her really close to the road running down the driveway going to "see baby sheep" yesterday.

Caleb Reading a Story

Lydia Looking cool

One more picture for you Grandparents, Siblings, and Friends. Here is a fun picture of Lydia we took earlier this month.

Caleb and Hannah Sledding in May??

As you can see Caleb and Hannah did not get to go sledding enough this winter so they found their own way to go sledding in our backyard while it is warm.

Abigail Dedicated on Mother's Day

We had Abigail dedicated this past Sunday, Mother's Day, since we wanted Pastor John to dedicate her at our church. Since they are leaving and so are we, we didn't have many Sundays left to choose from so... it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. The picture isn't that good of the dedication so including a good one of her taken yesterday 5/16/06 for your viewing pleasure.

Welcome

We decided that we would try to start a blog that we will try to update at least once a week with a little update and hopefully a picture or 2. So welcome to the beginning of the Maas Blog. The picture is of Hannah wearing a dress she may wear as a flower girl.