Dan's new toys

a couple of days after we moved in our house dan and i were sitting in the den watching tv. i jokingly told him that a flat screen tv would look great in the odd corner we have in our den. we talked about it for a few minutes but i never thought anything would come of it. i mean, we had a nice tv. a 27 inch. not as nice as j.d.'s tv, but nice. a few days later i went upstairs to check my email and looked at the page dan left up on the internet. it was the phillips website on a page with a bunch of flat screen tvs. i did not think a lot about it, dan is always messing around looking at new technology. but when i noticed him getting the measuring tape out a lot i knew something was up. a few days later dan told me his father's day present was on it's way - a new 37 inch lcd flat screen hd tv. it's the largest lcd you can buy. i was floored. i wish our conversation that first day would have been about how nice a front loading washer and dryer would look in our laundry nook, know what i mean? he still needs to run the cables through the wall, but it's pretty much set up. check out the tight graphics on the local weather channel.


not only did dan buy a new tv, he bought a hdtv capture card so we can use the htpc to record in hd. it also allows us to watch hd channels on our computer. that's the reason we have an antenna on our computer armoire. but dan does say eventually will move to the den, then the attic.

dan's birthday is friday. his mom is sending a computer keyboard that he'll be able to use in the den on the htpc. if i want, i'll be able to check my blog on a giant screen.

there's one interesting thing about the new tv though. we somehow are able to pick up other people's on demand selections. there are about 12 channels of movies on demand, etc. we've gotten to watch a lot of movies for free! we don't have digital cable, but we can get them anyway. we are sticking it to time warner! hd programming is interesting though. you can see every wrinkle, every flaw and the picture is ultra tight. i like it, but i liked the old tv. i just like tv. :)

Emily, the tagger *updated*

oh how emily loves to color. coloring was something i'd always banked on if i needed a few minutes to myself. emily loves to color in coloring books, on paper, on walls and on nice, new big girl furniture. yep, it was christened last night around 7:45.

dan plays with our church's praise band and he had practice last night at 7:30. i hate it when he has to practice at night, but oh well, what can i do? sorry JK. i just hate it. anyway, i was downstairs nursing elliot. emily told me she and ethan were going to color. well, the only coloring that's allowed upstairs is with the color wonder markers, so that's what i assumed she was going to do. well, i was wrong. elliot was finished so i went upstairs to check on them. i nearly lost my mind. there they were, standing in front of emily's brand new furniture coloring on it. they turned around and saw me and emily started crying. i just stood there, not saying anything. she kept telling me she "just did not want to color on paper" - she knows she's only allowed to color on paper. she knew she was in trouble. they both went to timeout, and for ethan, that really hurts his feelings. needless to say they went to bed right after timeout. i was over them for the rest of the night.

we've attempted twice to get the color off. once with just tap water and once with 409. i'll have to get a magic eraser to get the rest off. man, i hope it comes off. and if you are wondering, yes i took their crayons away. it'll be rough, but i'll make it!! i may have to take the color wonder markers away as well. today emily informed me that she could still color, but only with her markers. i think to make the point the markers have to go up too. i can't help but think she concocted this plan to tag her furniture because she knew she had a good 30 minutes or so since i was nursing elliot. she's working me.

anyway! she also colored on her little tikes dressing table. no big deal, she's colored all over that before. but i took a picture of what she colored on it; a bus. a pretty good picture of a bus actually. it sorta reminds me of scooby doo's mystery machine!

i included a picture emily drew today in sunday school. i'm not really sure, but we think her teacher asked them to draw a place that God would be with them. emily loves to go to the kemah boardwalk, so she drew kemah. she included the train tracks (the pink squiggly line), the farris wheel (it looks like a tree with dots on it), and the fountain (the green lines and circle). not real sure what the other things are... i'm going to save this one and scrap it in a two-page layout!

so anyway, sometimes it's hard to take away things they love. she'll miss her crayons!

**i had no sooner posted when i went in the kitchen and found this. i thought by putting old tee-shirts on them i was taking the necessary precautions. obviously, not. i'm to blame, i know, for leaving them alone. but man!

i can NOT WAIT until MDO starts. obviously my kids need to do two crafts a day to get their creative energy out. and yes, emily painted most of him and as you can see she's very proud...

Formula debate

i'm getting to nurse elliot a lot since the thrush is gone, so of course my milk is making its comeback. that's a good thing since we want to continue to be able to nurse him and give him a bottle when he needs one. i like the freedom of bottle feeding! but soon our coupons will run out for the similac advanced we've been using. dan wants to switch him to a store brand - the sam's/wal-mart brand - when the coupons run out. i don't want to do it AT ALL!! he's read the ingredients and he says they have the same dha/rha as enfamil and similac do, but the sam's/wal-mart brand are obviously cheaper. he thinks since i still nurse him why shouldn't we be able to just choose any old brand of formula? i want him to get the best of both worlds; my milk and a good formula. i don't want to cheap out on him.

let me also say i'm not a national brand snob. we buy all kinds of store brands. i personally think kroger store cheese is way better than kraft, and HEB and target brand pull ups are WAY better than huggies or pampers, and we love luvs - they really don't leak. i don't believe store brand products are automatically inferior, so that's not exactly my reasoning for wanting a national brand formula.

so my question is, what formula have you given your children, and what do you think about store brands. stacy, i'm very interested in what your opinion is. also, feel free to let me know what you think regardless of whether or not you have children. AND my lurking friends - you know who you are - i'll turn off the "no anonymous" restriction so you can chime in. i know of at least 3 of you who have bottle fed your little ones. thanks!

What's been going on

since i'm so behind on my blogging, i'll just hit the highlights!

thankfully, the thrush has nearly left us. i'm pretty much well, but elliot's bottom is still pretty bad looking. hopefully since i'm well he'll get well soon. it's so sad to change his diaper when he hurts! i'm still breastfeeding, but my milk is WAY down. he needs to be supplemented, but that's what i wanted so i guess God worked that out for me!

we've been super busy these days. we've painted two rooms, spent a TON of time getting our flower beds in order and generally speaking, unpacking and getting things organized. we've also had a lot of family visitors, so that's kept us busy as well. emily has new "big girl" furniture and elliot's room is nearly ready. we painted it yellow, which dan hates, but i like it and that's really all that matters!

emily is waiting for the rest of her big girl furniture

we painted her room a celery green color; she calls it "celerybration"

emily and ethan have a great time outside watering the flowers. they have their own gloves, watering can and trowels. ethan loves to be outside. if you give him a bucket of water and a watering can he'll be outside all day. really, i'm not kidding. he is very methodical. he fills his can up, walks carefully over to what he's planning to water and waters it. he repeats that process, oh, about a hundred times a day. it's fun to watch him be so serious!

this is elliot's "i've got a surprise for you in my diaper" look

the baby is growing like a weed. he'll be two months old on the 13th. sometimes time feels like it's standing still, but then i look at how much elliot has changed and grown and i know it has not! i can't really remember life without him; must be from lack of sleep! not really, dan is the one suffering from sleep deprivation. he has been taking night duty so i can rest well at night. it's been great getting to sleep until around 7. i get up with the kids and dan sleeps until around 9:30 and goes in to work around 10. also, elliot has slept through the night two nights in a row! hopefully it's not a fluke. he slept from around 10 to after 6!! so anyway, dan spoils me letting me sleep these days, but i know soon i'll have to start taking the night shift again. i'm enjoying the rest!

ethan is in the beginning stages of being potty trained. he's a real pro at taking off his diaper and getting poop everywhere. i've had to clean poop up from the carpets and his mouth recently!! YUCK! he's also clogged up the toilet a couple of times with toilet paper. i hope he gets the hang of it soon!

well - that's about it! even though i've not posted, i've been a faithful reader. i love reading about your kids, your grandkids, your nieces and nephews, your houdini-like dogs, jobs and what God is doing in and through your lives. it makes me feel sorta still connected to you guys. :)