Crazy? Quite Possibly. Blessed? Absolutely...

It's time to spill the beans.

Studer Baby #4 is due mid-May. 

More Funny.....

I am trying to be more intentional about recording the funny things our kids say & do. I am also planning to challenge myself with a 30-Day Blogfest soon.....yep, that's 30 days in a row of blog posts. I have a list in the computer desk drawer full of events and ideas to blog about, so we may be stretching as far back as May to the Huron Turkey Races...we'll see. Honestly, I'm just hoping it will kickstart our horrible blogging year and get us more in the habit of posting regularly. :) Hoping.

With that all said, here's a funny from Ellie yesterday. I will preface the story by sharing (for those of you who might not know) that Ellie is allergic to nuts/peanut butter....

This past weekend, we had a blast in Willmar, MN, renting a large cabin with several college friends. The cabin was on 20 acres of walking trails and we took advantage of those trails and tried to tire out all 6 kids with some looooong walks. We did lots of stick-hunting and leaf-gathering, and somewhere during the weekend Ellie rubbed her hands against something that gave her a rash. We were at Wal Mart yesterday, and decided to buy some medicine to help the healing process along, and I was trying to explain to Ellie how exactly she got the rash. She is only five, after all, so I just went with the simple "You touched a plant that you must have been allergic to, and it made your hands itchy and sore." She looked up at me with a face of horror and whispered, "A peanut butter plant????"

Random Funniness

I am constantly amazed at the differences in how boys & girls play....even with the exact same toys.

Overheard this conversation today while the boys were playing with Ellie's dollhouse...

Maguire: "Hi Daddy!"

Alex: "Hi kid!"

Maguire: "Daddy, let's wrestle and then I'm gonna pee in the sink!"

Alex: "Okay, kid!"

All Grown Up

Guess who lost her very first tooth today?

You Are Getting Veeeerrrryyyy Sleeeeeepy.....

After spending a long morning out in the sun & wind at the Ingalls Homestead in DeSmet, SD today (blog post coming soon), Alex was beat.

Wii Did It

Yes, the Studer family finally jumped on the bandwagon (only 2 years late!) and bought a Wii. We had lots of fun trying it out with the kids this morning. Not surprisingly, they are better than we are at a lot of stuff. Ellie in particular is some kind of Wii prodigy, and seriously schooled both of her parents at Wii bike racing and sword fighting.

The boys' favorite game is an airplane one, and it didn't take Maguire long to figure out how to make the plane do all sorts of flips and dives. Check out his tongue....

Ellie tried out the canoeing game.

Here she is tearing up the racetrack on the bicycling game.

Alex loved the airplane game, too.

Concentrating soooo hard.....

Check out Ellie's extreme sword-fighting skills. Should we be nervous that she takes this so seriously? Maybe it will help to channel some of her 5 year old rage into the game, instead of directing it at her siblings...

A Bunch of Little Animals...

...and some zoo creatures, too! We hit the Watertown Zoo on Memorial Day for some fun. It's not a very big zoo, but it's the perfect size for smaller kids to spend an afternoon.

Of course, the obligatory kid-face-on-animal-body photo ops:

The best picture we could get of all three at once:

We checked out lots of birds, lemurs, penguins, monkeys, a jaguar, and more...

We had a lot of fun feeding the birds. This picture was taken mere milliseconds before a cranky duck bit Alex's finger.


He was not amused, to say the least.





While Ellie & Alex learned the finer points of milking a water-fountain cow...


Maguire was the only one brave enough to pet some little goats. Check out the man in the white tank top & jean shorts at the edge of the picture, wandering around the petting zoo WITHOUT ANY SHOES ON.

Nasty.

And no, it was not Chris. He only has neon colored tank tops.

Miss Ellie spent a good portion of our visit to the zoo telling the boys to "hurry up....walk faster!"

But they were taking plenty of time walking footloose and fancy-free outside the stroller, smelling the roses......

But how can you be annoyed at a face like this one?

So, Ellie decided since no one else was using the stroller, she'd take advantage of the ride.

The rest of the pictures are totally random and just thrown in for cuteness factor.

We know that all the grandparents just care about the pictures, anyway.

It was a great day, up to almost the last minute, when we sorely regretted the no-nap situation and wished we'd purchased a triple stroller. Live & learn, right?