Rare Books ,Crawling Babies, and Dumb Dogs

As some of you know, Matt and I do a lot of buying and selling of kids books. We get them different places for cheap ( like .10). Well a favorite seller is Dr. Suess. We buy and sell A LOT of Dr.Suess. The other day I found a Dr.Suess book which I had never seen before. Before stashing it away with our collection I looked it up online. Turns out the book we bought for .25 is worth around $200! I love when that happens ( which is rare)!

I really love buying and selling kids books. I love kids books...and I like selling people something that is good and wholesome. We don't really make a lot doing this, but I enjoy it so much it is worth the minimal profit. And once in a while you come across something really awesome!

In other news, Felicity has learned to scale the step from the family room to the kitchen and she is very excited about that! It took Ben several days of trying to get up that step, but Felicity pretty much figured it out on the first try. Now she loves to go into the kitchen and "play". I will be happy when our new clean floor is down for her to crawl on.

Very happy about her new accomplishment

 

 

Currently our dog, Bernadette, is in the pool...I don't know how or why she does this..She has been running around in our yard for over two years and never fallen in the pool. Now she ends up in the pool EVERY DAY. It is so frustrating to have to go and pull her out. Bernadette is a "special" dog. She is just a bit weird and who knows why she ( I assume ) jumps into the pool. There is a squirrel that has been taunting her for the past two years. It walks across the electrical lline in our backyard everyday several times a day and laughs at the dogs as they bark away at it. It is one smart squirrel I think. So...I am starting to wonder if the squirrel doesn't lure Bernadette into the pool ...and "special" Bernadette falls for it EVERY time.  It is either that or are smart smaller dog, Kateri, is getting revenge on Bernadette by luring her into the pool and then taunting her. Seriously, she is out there run back and forth in front of Bernadette and looks exactly like she is teasing her.

 

 See, Bernadette is not only "special" but she is a bit of a tyrant. Poor little Kateri has to watch her back every moment. One second Bernadette is happily sitting and the next she is attacking Kateri. She attacks Kateri several times each day , I think to make Kateri stay close to the house, or at least it started that way. I think Bernadette feels she needs to protect Kateri from the big bad backyard which is threatened by people walking two blocks away and the terrible tight roping ( also tomato stealing) squirrel. No matter what her reason, poor Kateri is literally forced to stay on the back patio or hiding in a bush or along the fence.

 

That said, I don't think Bernadette gets it. She is a weird dog. When she is in the house she will climb into your lap..over and over again. She doesn't realize that she is WAY to big for that. She wants to be cuddled like a baby...its ridiculous. Moral of the story..don't baby dogs as puppies..it just makes them weird.

 

Well I have to go pull the mutt out of the pool (again) and then get ready to pick up Matt from work. It is a snowy day but hopefully the roads are cleared since I was out this morning.

 

It is COLD outside!

Brrr! It is cold outside and the temperature is still dropping! I feel like I am back in a Wyoming winter!  They say it is supposed to drop to 10 below today and it will feel like -40 degrees! I think we will be staying home today!That is COLD! I am very glad we replaced our furnace last year!

Speaking of replacing...over the weekend we replaced the bathroom floor downstairs. It was a project and took much longer than expected. We got the new wood down and this week we hope to lay down the new flooring in the bathroom, kitchen, and entry hall. We are planning to possibly paint the kitchen again since I have never really liked the color that we painted it originally. It  is a nice color but at night it looks rather dingy to me. It will  be nice to have fresh paint and a new floor! I will put up some pictures when we are done. I just hope it turns out nicely! I have so little patience for projects.

This bathroom project kicked us into gear to start really working on our house. We want to fix it up for sale ( God willing in the spring) as we first planned when we bought it. The market is really unstable right now and there is a good chance it will crash further. The house in our area do seem to sell reasonably well compared to other areas so it seems like the time is right.  We always planned to fix it up a bit and sell it, but having the two babies right in row made that a bit difficult. Now that they are getting older and less needy, it seems like a good chance to get to work! We found this house on the 9th day of our novena to St.Joseph  and bought it on his feast day, so we feel pretty confident he will take care of all the details when it comes to fixing and selling it!

Well the kids are getting fussy so I better go for now! Keep warm to all those who are in this artic vortex ( or whatever they call it)!











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Christmas ( again)

So my post yesterday morning with the pictures of the kids should have said Christmas Eve. I was just in a hurry to show my family pictures of the kids all dressed up. Felicity looked so cute in her little dress and Ben in his tie. It was impossible to keep Ben still long enough to take a good picture.

Anyway our Christmas Day ( after all Christmas has now just begun) was great. We went to midnight Mass and it was really beautiful. They said the Mass with the lights dim the whole time and the alter was lit by all sorts of Christmas lights. It really made you feel the birth of Christ once again.

Needless to say, we didn't get to bed until around 2 am on Christmas Eve, but the babies slept in so we all got enough sleep to get us through the day. Felicity didn't wake up until 10am and I had to go and wake up Benedict at 11am. He probably would have slept a few more hours! He has been so tired out by all the happenings. This morning they are both still asleep.

Ben enjoyed opening his gifts, though he wasn't much into the ripping things apart. He was more concerned with throwing away the trash ( wrapping paper). His favorite gifts this year were a Thomas the Train set and Mr. Potato Head.

I am glad that Christmas is celebrated for an octave and more! Christmas day passes so quickly and we get so caught up in running from one place to another that there isn't enough time to really enjoy it, let alone time to consider what it is we are celebrating. The Church is very smart in her celebrations!

Felicity (again)

Lol. The tape measure....

Felicity kept screaming and making her little cousin cry.

 

I know Ben is blurry but it was to cute not to post. He loves to rub her head.

He was very excited about this vacuum.

 

Well there will be more Christmas pictures to come I hope, as we move through the octave!

Christmas

Christmas Eve

I don't really have pictures to share today but I still wanted to post a Christmas Eve post. I promise a flood of Christmas pictures later!

Everything has been pretty normal here in the Menkhaus household. Felicity is at that age where she is learning to interact with others and to entertain herself. It is weird to imagine not being pregnant and having two little ones that are not super needy newborns anymore! In fact, not being pregnant after almost 2 years straight of pregnancy, has been really weird at times. I still even get phantom movements that I feel. So strange.

Yesterday I started making our Christmas cookies, and today I have to do all our wrapping. Poor Benedict and Felicity are on a terrible sleep schedule! We have been keeping them out late ( I have to go out in the evenings now since we only have one car) these past few weeks since going to Alabama and now they don't want to go to bed until at least 10pm and they sleep until past 9am in the morning. On days like today where I am not babysitting, it is nice to get to sleep in but I know getting them back into a normal schedule is going to be hard.

Ben used to be my easy sleeper. You would tell him it was time for bed and he would go run and find his binky and blanket and then run around giving kisses before heading upstairs. Once upstairs we said prayers , turned on his glowing seahorse, and he was off to sleep. Now...he still gets his blanket and binky but he doesn't go to sleep. He screams and cries in his crib and it sounds so pitiful. I try to rock him but his little body is just on a different schedule and he isn't tired.

Last night, I announced it was bedtime at 10pm and Ben went through his routine, but instead of going upstairs, he climbed up onto the couch with his cup, blanket, and binky and snuggled into the pillows pointing at the couch while looking at us and nodding his head. That was a first! He wanted to just snuggle on the couch. It was so cute and we didn't have to get up early so I gave in. We all sat down and watched a movie together.Half way through I took him upstairs and he went to sleep without a fuss.

Hopefully this staying up late schedule will actually be a blessing since we hope to make it to midnight mass tonight. We shall see!

Speaking of Midnight Mass, I can't believe it is Christmas Eve. I feel like Advent just flew by this year! his whole year seems like a blur! So many great things happened this year, the most important being the birth of Felicity. I guess  I will have to ponder a year in review post for later.

I remember how exciting Christmas Eve was as a child. You waited expectantly for Christmas morning. Now, I understand that there is the danger of spoiling your kids on Christmas morning...but when I remember being a kid...I never felt spoiled. Obviously, I didn't think about it, but looking back...I always loved Christmas morning and I appreciated all the gifts I was given. It was just a special holiday. I loved setting up the tree and going to  look at the lights in the neighborhood. I remember driving to Grandma Bakers house in the snow a couple of years while listening to Christmas music. I knew it was the birthday of the baby Jesus, and I love it all. I hope my kids feel the same.

Well, it is Christmas Eve and that means I have cookie to bake, present to wrap, and babies to dress. I hope everyone has a  wonderful and blessed Christmas. Remember to celebrate the entire season and not just Christmas day!

Oh! And they say we won't have a White Christmas...but it is snowing right now!

Happenings, Snow, and Christmas Trees

So I finally have time to sit down and write a decent post today!

Life has been non stop for whatever reason since we came home from Thanksgiving. I guess it is because as soon as we got home both kids and Matt were sick with a cold. The babies only had a mild version but Matt had to take some time off work to get over it. Thankfully we are almost over it all now.

Last Friday Ben went in to have tubes put in his ears. We had a super early appointment and were able to get home right before the snow started. He did a great job! He handled everything without one complaint or cry. The doctors and nurses were very impressed. He was a little wobbly and sore at home after the surgery but otherwise he has been doing great. Hopefully we will see good results for him in the future. He already seems to be picking up on more words, but maybe I am just looking for changes.

After we got home on Friday the snow started and it didn't let up the entire day. We got at least 5 or 6 inches. It was beautiful and Ben loved seeing it. It is the first real snowfall he has ever seen and could enjoy.  Since Matt had taken off work for Ben's surgery we were all at home and could enjoy just watching it fall and staying warm inside.

While we are on our trip to Alabama the heat in our car stopped working. It was a major problem due to the fact that it is cold and the windshield kept freezing over while we were driving. It made it almost impossible to drive. We worried about it and checked into how much it would be if we needed to replace the radiator fan as someone suggested might be the problem. The mechanic said it would be around $500.00. That would really have been a major set back for us due to Christmas and everything else we are working on paying. So we thought about getting a portable defroster but couldn't find any in our area on short notice. Finally we started googling the problem and came across a few suggestions to check the blower resistor and the radiator fluid. It turns out that the blower resistor is a super easy fix. We called the mechanic and they wanted to charge $179. We decided to do it ourselves. You basically pull down the glove box and it is right there in front.It took less then 10 minutes to change it out and cost only $20.00 for the part. We were skeptical it would work, but low and behold the heat is now running better than ever!! Thank you Lord!! We were so happy we decided to do it ourselves!

After we fixed the heat and could drive safely we headed up to the Christmas tree farm to get our tree. It was fun to go in the snow! We pulled Ben around in the sled and he loved it! The babies got their picture with Santa too. Ben was completely freaked out but Felicity couldn't have looked more comfortable sitting on his lap. We are not going to be telling our kids the whole " Santa is real" thing but we still think it is fun to get the yearly picture. To them it will be a make believe story very loosely based on the real St.Nicholas.

Ben eating his cookie while waiting in line for Santa.

Ben was horrified and Felicity had no fear.

Looking for a tree.

Cutting down the tree.

Pulling the tree to  the drop-off

He had fun in the sled.

 

Thanksgiving and more

So our internet is finally fixed and I can get back on here to add pictures!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Alabama this past weekend. I have more pictures but here are a few for now!

My sister started the tradition of decorating Ginger Bread houses after dinner. Ben was tired but he enjoyed it I think.

Ben's first Ginger bread house

 

Menkhaus Family ( with Maggie) enjoying an after dinner bonfire.

It was cold but the fire got really hot.

 

                                     



Felicity and PePaw

 

 

Right before we went to Alabama Ben got his first heircut. I was a little worried he wouldn't sit still but he did great!

 

Playing on the slide after his haircut.

Lol, Felicity loves food and I had to share this random pic of her eating squash.