Beckys Blog

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I'm on facebook much more then I am over here. If you don't have a facebook account, you should get one. It's much easier to keep up with people on there then to go read 10 different blogs! Anyway...I figured I should take some time and post all the stuff that is already over there to my blog, for the poor few who have not yet discovered the joy of facebooking (is that a word?). We have done a wonderful job so far of transforming the dead backyard that was here into a functional garden and play space for the kids. Here is Keziah enjoying her outside swing. Raquelle and her cousin Mikayla playing in our new sand box. Titus, Raquelle, and their cousins Lily, and Mikayla playing on our new climber. I love that our backyard is now a space to play and enjoy instead of one giant hazard for the kids! We have peas, cuccumber, brocoli, beans, lettuce, pumpkin, tomato, and zuccini planted in our vegetable garden. We have a row of baby raspberry...

I'm not sure where this came from, or I would give credit. Someone e-mailed it to me though and I thought "how true!" This totally describes my day almost every day! Anyway...I think this is actually from a childrens book. "If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. She'll make herself some. Her three year old will spill the coffee; She'll wipe it up. While wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks. She'll remember she has to do laundry. When she puts the laundry in the washer, she'll trip over boots and bump into the box of Goodwill items. Bumping into the Goodwill items will remind her that she has to get these boxes out of her basement and into the car. When she puts the boxes in the car, she'll find a bag of groceries; This will remind her she has to cook dinner. She will get out the chicken defrosting in the fridge. She'll look for her cookbook, "101 Things to do with Chicken." The cookbook...

It is the beginning of strawberry season! For all of you that don't know, not all packages of strawberries are created equal! For example... I went to Winco for groceries last night and I see 4 lbs of strawberries for $5.50. What a great price. I always weigh my package before I buy it. I put the "4 lb" pk of strawberries on the scale and it weighs 4 lbs. Big surprise. I put it back and get the next one. It is 4.25 lbs. I try another and it is 3.8 lbs. At this point there is another customer checking out the strawberries and looking at me like I am crazy. I grab another package, put it on the scale....5.5 lbs! That's the one I was looking for! I smiled at her and put my 5.5 lb package in my cart and walked off. I looked back and saw here weighing the packages of strawberries too. It's not so silly when it makes you get a lb and a half of strawberries for free! So, the moral of the story, the great strawberry sales are even better if you take the ti...

Raquelle watched Cinderella yesterday (and today). It is so cute. She talks through the whole movie telling me what is happening (as if I can't see what is happening for myself). She says that the fairy godmother is Cinderella's "Granny" and she is convinced that the prince is Cinderella's daddy. "Her dancing with her daddy!" "Uh oh, her daddy can't find her!" etc. In other quotes...we are working on teaching her her first middle and last name. So far, she gets them out of order and mispronounces all 3 names. When I ask "What's your name?" She says "Lizbit Charlotte Tell!" Today, I asked her "What's Ty's name?" She answered "Lizbit Charlotte Ty!" LOL.

We are getting the backyard ready for endless hours of outside play this summer. First, here is a picture of Kezzy hanging out while Thad and I worked. I found a little Tikes 8 in 1 climber on Craigs list for less then half price! I have been calling Craigs list adds for these for 2 months and every time someone else beat me to it. This weekend, I happened to hop online and check just an hour after this one was posted...so we finally got it! The kids are pretty excited. They stayed up past their bed time watching us put it together so they could play on it for a few min. There are 3 different places you can put the slides and 3 different places for the tunnel to connect, so if it ever appears to get old, we will just change how it is set up, and it will be like new again. We are getting a sand box this next weekend from a friend and when the whether turns hot we will add a little wading pool and be all set for the summer!

A couple nights ago, we were putting the kids to bed (as we do every night). I went in to tuck Titus in, and found he had removed all of his clothes and diaper. I stopped, surprised, and said "Titus! You're butt naked!" He smiled really big and repeated, "Ty Butt Nay Nay!" Thad walked in just in time to hear Titus and we both broke out laughing. That was the mistake. As soon as Titus realized he had said something funny, it was all a game. He took off running down the hall yelling "Ty Butt Nay Nay!" and laughing. We did get him back into his jammies and into bed shortly after. Since then, every time I try to put him in bed, he removes his clothes and stands on his bed calling to me "Ty butt nay nay!" Lessons learned... 1. Watch what you say in front of or to your children! 2. If they do say something that is funny, but you don't want them to repeat it EVER again, go to the other room to laugh where they don't see you! Yes...

Raquelle: "Jonah naughty! Jonah not obey God, have to go in time out in the whale! Jonah in the whale 3 days and then Jonah obey! I need to obey, I not want to go in the whale!" "Ty not obeying! Ty need go in the whale!" "Where the moon go?" "Moon hiding" "Look dada, cloud chase airplane!" "No Ty, No talk with food in mouth!" "I need a meal shake be healthy!" "XS yummy! I need xs be healthy!" "I need vitamin be healthy, not get sick" "No eat too much candy! Eat too much candy get sick! I no want to get sick, I need be healthy. Eat too much candy need medicine." Me - "What did you learn in your class?" Raquelle - "I color, have snack and story time!" Me - "What was your story about?" Raquelle - "Jesus on the donkey!" (me) "Why is Jesus on the donkey?" "Jesus go to party! eat cake!" (palm sunday ss lesson?) "No, d...

Keziah is learning to sit up! I sat her on our bed after her bath and left to go find her jammies. When I got back, she was still sitting up! She can sit for a few minutes at a time, not just a few seconds....And she is pretty excited about this new view of the world. Leaning, Leaning.... And there she goes. I just had to include this one. Raquelle is a born leader, and Titus will do anything she tells him to...even be Cinderella. He was so excited that she was sharing her outfit! I decided to refrain from telling him that boys don't wear high heals and carry purses...but I do think we need some boy dress up stuff for him. Maybe he'll get some for his birthday. If anyone sees a good cow costume, let me know!

Keziah and Raquelle had their well child check ups yesterday. Here are their stats. Kezzy: Height - 25 1/3" - 72% Weight - 16 lbs 3.5 oz - 85% Raquelle: Height - 36" - 24% Weight - 29.5 lbs - 36% Keziah is almost exactly half way in between Raquelle's size and Titus's size at that age.

Thad informed me that my blog was lacking in recent posts. I guess he gets online every so often to read about what the kids have been up to. So I thought I should get around to posting something. Then I noticed I hadn't done pictures for a while...so this post is mostly for the sake of photo updates. Here is Keziah (right) playing with her buddy Charlotte (left), one of the little girls I babysit. It's kind of like having twins, only I only have to get up with one of them in the night, not both. Keziah and Charlotte holding hands. Kezzy is interested in the camera, Charlotte is interested in Raquelle off to the side, who is copying me trying to get the babies to smile. This is how Raquelle spent the Friday after a rough Thursday night. Keziah was awake until almost midnight. Titus woke up at midnight screaming and would not calm down. We finally got him calmed down and back in bed at 3 Am. Kezzy woke up hungry at 3:30 AM. Got her back to bed at 4 AM. My alarm went o...

Titus has been in underwear since Monday now with only one real accident! (That's 3 days). I think we have reached the point of no return now. I basically have a potty trained little boy! Yeah for only 1 in diapers now! Oh, and on that same note, we are now trying to start on nap time with Raquelle. She has started insisting that she wants to wear panties at nap, so I told her she can wear them if she gets up to pee on the toilet and not in her bed. Of course, we put a waterproof pad on her mattress. She woke up half way through nap today crying. I went in assuming she would be soaked. She was slightly damp and crying that she needs to go potty on the toilet. So I told her to go potty, changed her underwear and put her back in bed. She was pretty excited.

...where I was busy feeding the baby. Raquelle: "Ty, you need to go potty on the toilet" Titus: "Yah" Raquelle: "Mommy, you need to help Ty go potty!" Me: "I'm feeding the baby" Raquelle: "I do it" *pitter patter of little feet running toward the bathroom* *sound of stools being moved against the floor* Raquelle: "Take your pants off" Titus: "Help!" Raquelle: "Here, I do it" Titus: "Thank you" Raquelle: "Oh! You have a diaper on! You need to take it off!" Titus: "Ok" Raquelle: "Climb up there" *More shuffling sound* Raquelle: "Aim down" ... "Point it down Ty!" ...*pause* "AAAHHH! NO NO TY! NO PEE ON MY SHOE!" TItus: "Sorry " Raquelle comes running out to show me the damage to her shoe. Titus comes running out (naked), points to the cupboard and says "Candy!" Titus wore the same pair of underwear fr...

I've been asked this a lot in person too, not just on here. So I thought I would actually write about it. Maybe some of my experience can help someone else. If you don't need to lose weight, feel free to skip this post. First, I don't want to be accused of plagiarism, so I need to mention that much of what I have learned about weight loss I learned from the book "Optimal Health Revolution" by Dr Duke Johnson. If you are interested in life long health and reducing your risk for heart disease, cancer and diabetes, andnot just weight loss, I highly recommend that book. Ok...on with the topic at hand. Losing weight is simple really, if you understand how it all works. A calorie is a unit of energy. If you eat more "energy" then your body uses, your body stores the extra as fat and you gain weight. If you eat less "energy" then your body uses, then your body uses it's stored energy (fat) and you lose weight. So the only real trick to l...

Delayed Gratification is a concept that I think has been mostly lost in our industrialized society. We have everything at our finger tips at a moments notice, why wait for anything? You can order a pizza online and have it delivered to your door within 30 min, drive through coffee and fast food, etc. A couple years ago, Thad and I set some very specific goals for our lives over the next few years. We set a very strict budget and have been nazi's with it ever since. As part of this, we do not spend ANY money without consulting with each other first. Thad will call me from work to ask about getting a burger off the dollar menu if he didn't pack enough lunch to keep him full. If there is a sale on a favorite type of cereal, I will call and check with Thad before buying an extra box of it. As a result of being very goal oriented, we have been able to pay off a significant amount of debt in the last couple years (4 maxed out credit cards, the car, and about $6000 in medical b...

I had planned on waiting until after our trip to San Diego this summer to potty train Titus because I did not want to have a 2 year old in underwear needing stops every hour on the drive. It has now become apparent that he is not willing to wait that long to be done with his diapers. Titus looks up to Raquelle. He copies everything she does. At a church potluck a couple weeks ago, the kids were all running laps around the big room. Raquelle tripped and fell. She said "OWE!" and got up and kept running. When Titus got to the spot she fell, he sat down, said "OWE" got up and kept running. About 2 weeks ago, Titus noticed something. He noticed that Raquelle wears panties and he doesn't. He noticed that she goes potty on the toilet and he doesn't. And he started having fits about having to wear a diaper because he wanted "panties" like Raquelle. He started telling me over and over "Ty big boy! Ty Pannies!" So we went to the store...

Keziah is 3 months old now! Where has the time gone? She has slept through the night 2 times so far, and not in a row. She is starting to be very interested in her play mats and has enough core muscle to go in her exersaucer now! We are finally past the thrush. I changed her dr, and her new dr was willing to give us the medicine that the internet said was most likely to work. I had to stop nursing for 2 weeks while she was on it so she wouldn't get it back off of me. Luckly, she went right back to nursing when we were done and has had no problems and the thrush has stayed away! She is now 13 lbs and is gaining weight a bit slower then she did before, but thats fine, she is chunky enough as is. She is generally a very happy baby, with the occasional rough night if I accidently eat anything with onion in it. That gives her a BAD tummy ache! Anyway...that's the update on her. Here are some long overdue pictures. Here is Titus when everyone was sick. This was not taken...

Raquelle is all better! Yeah! Titus is mostly better. Thad and I still feel like we have head colds. Kezzy is getting worse. I called her dr again yesterday and they had me take her in to urgent care. At the Urgent care clinic, the dr basically said the same thing as her dr had earlier this week. As long as her color is good and she is eating and having wet diapers, just wait it out. This morning, she woke up with a fever of 102.8. No one else in the family has had a fever with this. She is also now refusing to eat. It is 2 in the afternoon and she hasn't had a wet diaper yet today and she has only eaten about 3 oz since midnight! Around lunch time, I used a medicine dropper to try to force some fluids into her. She has basically slept the enitre day, waking up only to cough and attempt to cry. So she is still very sick and could still use lots of prayers. I'm praying that tomorrow we will wake up to her being finally on the uphill side of this, but so far each da...

If you are reading this, please stop and say a prayer for my family. Everyone is sick. To recap... Titus had a clear runny nose last Friday all day. He was acting like he felt fine, played like normal...just a runny nose. Saturday afternoon, Titus started coughing (literally on the way to Mikayla's birthday party.) We left the birthday party early because I was concerned that he might spread his cold to other people there. If anyone reading this got sick from his cough, I'm really sorry! Sunday - Titus and Keziah stayed home from church with Thad. Raquelle and I went. Titus is now coughing Chronically and really hard. Monday - Called the dr and made an appointment. Raquelle starts coughing too. Titus is coughing multiple times per minute, even while on cough syrup. I sent Raquelle with Titus to the dr since she was starting to get it too. They did a nebulizer treatment at the office because he couldn't breath. He was prescribed an inhalor. We found out his ear ...

Our business just launched several new products! It is also January, New Years resolution time! So, to celebrate, I am putting all of our weight loss supplements and the new meal replacement and snack bars on sale! If you have some weight to lose, or if you are just trying to be or stay healthy, check it out! I just got my first box of the new bars today and they are the best tasting bar I have ever had (The caramel Creme). Most items will be 25% off from now through February to help you get started right this year. You can browse items (and place full priced orders) at charlick.mychoices.biz . Contact me for ordering with the discounted prices!

Titus finally had his 18 month checkup. He was due for it about the same time his dr retired. I finally got all three kids in as patients with a new dr and he got his check up and shots last week. (Yes, I know he is 21 months. It's a little late) I meant to blog last week, but I misplaced the paper that said how big he is. I found it though, so...here it is. Height - 34.5" - 84% Weight - 26 lbs 5 oz - 43% Head - 91% At his last check up, his weight was 88% (I think) and before that he was off the charts...so he is shrinking! Not really, he just did all his growing in the first year of life and has slowed down to let all the other kids catch up now. In other news...I now have a FULL exempt daycare! I took on a new child last week, and will have another one starting in February. Now I can't take anymore kids unless I register, and they would have to be over 6 years old! I don't plan on registering though. I have no toys of interest for school age kids and don...

What do you do with 3 small children when the high for the day is 36? You dress them really warm before you leave for the zoo! Monkeys Elephant! I didn't get it in this pictures, but the elephant had a baby not long ago. So we got to see the little baby elephant with its mommy! Polar bear. This is the smaller one. The other one was huge! The sign said he was over 1000 lbs! And the highlight of our trip to the zoo! "Bird land on mommy! Bird drink mommys juice all gone!" Apparently, the birds thought Thad had some juice too! "What a pretty baby!" (says the bird!) The first bird invited his friends to share! And that is what you do with small children with cabin fever on a cold day. Due to the cold, there was hardly anyone there! We had no trouble getting right up to the windows and fences to see the animals. Aside from the birds, Raquelle has been talking on and on about the lion, bear, and "big gecko" (crocodile) .