Crash Pad Denim!

Well I have just started a new home based business. It is selling designer jeans under vault denim for 50% off!! Now who doesn't like a screaming deal like that?! We have over 50 different labels and the best part is the price. They range in price from $48-$88. Most of the jeans sell in high end retail stores ranging in price from $125-$300.

How in the world do you get them so inexpencive then? A man out of Salt Lake City who has been in the desinger denim business for 9 years started the company. He knows a lot of the desingers and has many contacts in the industry. He is able to buy last season and over stalk jeans at a deap discount. With out his conections this business would not be posible.

So how does it work? Well we do in home trunk events. We bring the jeans to the host's house, they have all of there frinds over to try on jeans. They find the ones that they love buy them and take them home! It is a great time with the ladies trying in jeans and hanging out.

This company is only 6 month old and is growing fast! I am excited to get in on the ground level!

You can check it out on my website, crashpaddenim.com. Check my website often to see when I am having a show or book a show of your own and earn free jeans. I will travel! With in reason that is!! You can also contact me from the website if you are interested in learning about the business oppertunity.

Please come out to my business launch party and see the jeans for yourself! Friday October 22nd, 7 p.m.

Praise the Lord!

Today, Monday June 28th, the insurance adjuster came to go over our claim. They covered all of the damages!! We were very blessed as most people are not getting covered. We are now able to replace ruined computers and replace the other ruined drywall. God was really watching out for us.

Intersting weekend

Well it has been a long fun and very interesting weekend. It all started on Thursday (I know that is not the weekend) when Sara and Brad came in from St. Louis. Sara is Andy's sister and Brad is her husband. They came in for Vicki's, Andy's mom, 60th birthday. Vicki did not know they were coming so I went and go them from the airport and took them to my house to hang out till our dinner that night. We all went to have dinner and at that point we surprised Vicki with Sara and Brad. It was a wonder full dinner and Vicki was pleasantly surprised.

Then on Friday we had lunch with all of Andy's family and then I can home and decorated Vicki's cake for Saturday. I also made the pulled pork for Saturday. Then that evening Sara and Brad came over to our house. Andy and Brad played with the boys and the wii while Sara and I had some things for the party on Saturday.

Saturday we went to the picot graph caves and lunch at Red Bobin. Then Sara made up a story to leave and we went over to Jean's, Vicki's sister, to get ready for the party. For the last two months Jean, Sara and I had been planning a big surprise birthday party. At 6 Vicki and Duncan came over for what Vicki thought was going to be a family dinner. We had some where between 30 and 40 people come to celebrate with us. She had no idea and was completely surprised. She later said that it was her best birthday ever.

Then Sunday came. It was father's day so Owen gave Andy the mug that he made him. Then we headed of to church. After church we went to my parent for lunch and to spent some time with my dad. Atfer a great time with my family we headed into Billings to see Vicki and Duncan, Andy's step dad. On our way into Billings a storm had started and we had a ston of hail, rain and really close lightning. We say lightning strik a telephone pole 100 yards from our car. Then about 1 minutes after we got the Vicki and Duncan's the tornado sirans went off. Sure enough ther was a tornado so we headed to the basement for shelter for over and hour. We came to find out that it hot in the Hights and did a lot of damage. It took the roof off of the Metra, leveled a few other buismesses in the Hights and did damage to more. Then there were flash flood warnings and masive flooding in the Hights and downtown Billings. So after the storm setteled we headed to our house to see if we had any damage. We found that our garage, Andy's office, had flooded. There was water that reached about 10 inches up the walls and we were left with a muddy mess. So we started the clean up with the help of Vicki and Jean.

It was a long weekend, but we loved all the time that we got to spend with our families. We just did not like that it had to end with the flooding.

Owen

Owen has been saying some very funny things lately. Just the other night he told Andy and me that he wants a Thomas the train tattoo when he is 24. Andy told him that he would be fine with that, but he could not get any other tattoo's or they would have words! He told my mom a few weeks ago that he was a big boy now. Then he posed for a few moments and then said "I am just short." He calls Tay and Brayden his friend cousins.

He is also doing a lot of new things. Owen is just like Andy and he thinks just like him as well. Owen is just under 3 1/2 years old right now and is starting to spell. He can spell his name, mom, dad, fox, red and robin. Those are the ones that he know of the top of his head. He is also starting to sound words out and recognizes some other words in sentences or on signs. He recognizes the words that he can spell as well as pop and pirate. He loves to play the "learn to read" games on starfall.com.

Owen loves to constantly be learning something new and loves to read some of Andy's old books. One of his favorites right now is "How things work". I do not know why a 3 year old likes to read this book because it is about a 6th grade level but he loves it. He also likes some science books that we borrowed from some friends. Even though he loves these books he does still ask for story books from time to time.

He also knows his name, and yes he can say Niemantsverdriet, and no he can not spell it. He knows his address and what city and state he lives in. He also knows left and right.

It is fun to see him growing up!

That's Hot

No, this is not a post about Paris Hilton! This really is not funny at all. Beau was burned the other day at the baby sitters. She was making lunch on the stove top while the oven was on. The kids were all playing in the other room but Beau came into the kitchen. He was trying to get Joyce so she stuck her leg out in an attempt to block him from coming to close to the stove. While she did that he reached out and grabbed the door to the oven. The oven was closed but his little fingers fit in the side of the door and he got burned.

So she called to tell me what had happened and sent me a picture of his fingers as they were blistering so that I could decide what I needed to do for him. I called my mom and sent her the picture and we decided that I needed to call the doctor. They wanted to see him, so I went and got the boys and took him in to the Doc. She took a look at it and said that I need to keep it clean and re bandage it everyday. I have to take him back in for a follow up visit tomorrow.

He really is being a trooper considering his hand has to be so bandaged up. He tries to pick the blisters so I have to be creative in my bandaging. I am hoping that his blisters do not pop and get infected.

The Blisters and bandaging
click on the picture to enlarge it

Boy's

I need to write down what the boys are doing so that I do not forget. So for those of you that read this you might not care about this but I know that one day I will regret it if I do not write these things down. And since I am not good and putting it in their baby books, you get to hear about it.

Beau:

Started to walk at 13 months. He took his first steps at 12 months. He is still a bit unbalanced and his face is a testament to that! I guess that a beat up face comes with the falls of learning to walk. But why is it that they always land on the hardest thing around. Just the other day his face found the bed frame of Owen's bed instead of the mattress.
He tries to say hi, bye, thank you and I love you but none of them are very clear. He has the rhythm of them down. He is learning to do baby sign and will say more, eat and all done.
He has great fine motor skills. He uses his fingers to pick things up. He loves to help pick up toys and of course get all of them out. He also loves to help throw his diapers away.
He really wants to be one of the big boys. He is always tagging along. If they go down stairs he does. Of they come up stairs, he does.
He loves to play peek-a-poo and patty cake. He also loves to be tickled!

Owen:

He loves to wrestle with his little brother, who he ofter refers to as his bog brother!
He loves to play his ABC game (aka. starfall.com).
He knows his address and what city and state he lives in.
He knows his full name and yes he can say Niemantsverdriet.
He can spell Owen and no we have not started with Niemantsverdriet!
He knows all of the alphabet and can tell you every letter (not in order) and what sound it makes.
He loves to read.
He loves to pray. Tonight he thanked God for his eyes, covers, brother, mom, dad, food and fingers. He often thanks God for Jesus and taking away our sins!

I can not believe how fast my boys are growing!

He's 1!!

This is late by almost a month but late is better then never, right? Beau turned 1 on February 11th. We have a small family dinner with cake and ice cream to celebrate. It is hard to believe that a year has already passed and my baby is 1. He is such a joy and blessing to our family. Beau is our little monkey, he loves to crawl and climb on everything. He has a hard time sitting still and love to follow his bog brother around. Even though he is always on the go he loves to give hugs and kisses and he listens really well!! He loves to follow all of us around the house but if anyone goes down stairs he crawls right up to the edge and stops. For some reason he is a afraid to venture down the stairs even though we have been showing him how to go down crawling backwards. Since his birthday he has been standing up on hos own a lot more and has been taking a few steps. It wont be long and he will be walking.

Sunny Florida!

January 20-25 we went to Florida to visit our friends Steve and Judy Maehl. We flew down with Jason, Steve's brother. Andy, Steve and Jason are all best friends and have been for years now. Two years ago Steve and Judy moved to Orlando and this January was our second time going to visit.

The first day that we arrived we had a nice day dinner, gave the kids baths and played games.

The next day we went to Epcot for the morning and then Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day. Steve and Judy have a friend that is a chef at one of the restaurants in Epcot and he was kind enough to give us free passes! We all love Disney World and all that it has to offer. I think that Andy and I have just as much, if not more, fun then the kids do! Neither of us are a fan of fair rides so we always thought that we would not like Disney but that is Not the case. If you ever have the chance to go you should.

The secomd day we all slept in and then Judy and I went out to Ikea and the mall to shop for awhile. Then we meet up with the boys and the kids to go to another mall. The boys went to see Avatar in 3d while Judey and I took the kids to a play area that is all inflatable. After the boys got out of the movie we all went out to dinner. It was a fun and slightly relaxing day.

The next day we got up and got all the kids packed up to head to the beach! We all stayed in a 4 bedroom condo and a very nice exclusive resort in Palm Coats Beach. Steve is a travel agent and gets amazing deals on places so we were able to stay at a place that we would not other wise be able to. The resort was amazing. Every thing was private including the beach. You acually can not even get into the front desk or on the property with out a reservation. On our way to the resort we stoped at a strawberry pach and pick fresh berries for breakfast! They were amazing. After we got to the resort we went to the beach for a few minutes, to was very windy and cold, and then went swimming. We ended the day with making dinner in the room and playing games.

The fourth day we check out of the resort and headed to St. Augustine. This is the oldest town in the U.S. It was amazing to see and learn all the history of the town. We took a trolly tour of the historic distric that lasted most of the day with the time that we got off the take some more tours. This town really is amazing. You should to some ready about it. We ended the day with a very late lunch on the beach and then drove back to Orlando.

The next day we had to pack up and head to the air port for our long trip home. Owen had gotten sick just before we headed to Florida and Beau got his cold while we were on vacation. The poor little guy had a fever of 102.4 with an ear infection on the way home. He did really well flying even with his ears hurting.

We miss our dear friend so much but really do enjoy our trips to Florida to spend our much missed tiem with them.

A new 1st!

Beau has had a lot of new 1st things lately. He has said his first word, stood up by himself, got his first tooth, clapped his hands, waved good bye and got his first hair cut. I was holding on to that baby hair for as long as I could, but I finally broke down and gave him a hair cut. I am sure that if some one would have walked into my moms house and saw us they would have thought that we were torching him! I took me, Andy, my mom and Mitch to keep his hands out of the way and to distract him in order for me to get it all cut. He now looks like such a big boy. I have to admit it was much harder for me to say good bye to the baby locks on Beau then it was Owen. They always look so much older after that first hair cut. beforeafter