Lessons from Papa

These are precious times. Papa gave Lexi a lesson in how a few of his tools work last week, obviously she was fresh out of the (tiny) swimming pool. The pictures speak for themselves - I must be getting old but the whole encounter brought tears to my eyes. ;)

Callie Anne! Happy Birthday!

I CANNOT believe this precious little girl is a year old already!! She has the sweetest funniest little personality - she definitely has a strong little will too (how could she not?) but she is such a laid back baby most of the time. She functions as a toy for Lexi and Mason regularly! Lexi was trying to jam some big pink socks on her at her birthday party and was seriously manhandling her - I think I would have been bawling! - but she just took it in stride.

Here's some pictures from the party.





This last one totally cracks me up - in the middle of opening presents, Mason squatted down, picked up the green bow, turned around and stuck it on his butt, and then just kept going with the flow!

Homeschool R Us

I've started homeschooling Lexi three days a week, working on kindergarten curriculum - so far she's doing great. I had to video her saying her verses - she is too stinkin' cute reciting them!

Jonah

Last night we took Lexi to see Wall-E (not so good for her age, but some funny adult lines). On the way there, she was excited and told us she went to see a move "a long time ago" at her church. Actually it was like a month ago, but I guess to a four year old that's a long time. :) It was a Veggie Tales, and our conversation went something like this:

Me: What was the movie about?
Lexi: I don't know. (Most irritating regular answer she gives me ...)
Me: Was it about Jonah?
Lexi: OH YEAH JONAH!
Me: What happened to Jonah?
Lexi: He got EATED by a BIG FISH!
Me: What happened before the fish ate him?
Lexi: He was on a boat in a storm, and he jumped off the boat and the storm went away.
Me: Right! Why was he on the boat?
Lexi: I don't know (whine)
Me: Did God want him to do something?
Lexi: OH YEAH! God wanted him to go to Vinegar and he didn't want to go!

Ha ha - I'm still laughting.

Boo boo of the summer award?

So as you know I went to camp last week, as I do every summer. I lost eight pounds, 20 hours of sleep, my blood pressure is 160/100, and I BROKE MY ELBOW!!! How, you ask? Well, on Thursday night after the carnival, I lead the kids all over the campus of Tot Lot singing "I'm in the Lord's Army" and eventually end up gathered around the pool. They we played Simon Says, and the last thing I said was, "Simon says JUMP IN THE POOL!" And I did. The kids are always so shocked and thrilled to see the "time out lady" as they call me jump into the pool fully clothed - and then they jump in too. A highlight of the week ... except this time my feet slipped out from under me (note to self ... do not jump in shallow end next year) and I caught myself with my left arm. It hurt like crazy when I did it, and the nurse took good care of me with an ace bandage and ice packs, but I had to "do camp" and just couldn't focus on it. Once I got home Saturday, it started feeling better but I wasn't using it much - yesterday I leaned on the counter and put some weight on it for the first time - YOW! Decided I should go to doctor ... expecting some anti-inflammatories and maybe a sling for a few days ... got sent to xray instead and found that I fractured my elbow. I asked the nurse, how could that happen when I didn't hit my elbow on anything? Her reply ... well the elbow is just not designed to take that much weight. Ouch. And I was so happy about the 8 lbs I lost.

Anyway, I'm now sporting a pretty pink neon cast (just for Lexi - she signed it this morning) for 4-6 weeks ... of course I'm hoping for 4. I've figured out I can do pretty much everything except shave my right arm pit - Christa will be called into action to help with that. :) Of course I haven't tried any housework or cooking yet - we'll see how that goes!

Camp!

I spent last week at Camp CUMCITO, as I do for a week every summer - a camp for homeless and poor inner city kids in the Ozarks. I direct Tot Lot (4-6 year olds) and this year I had 30 kids! (And 22 staff.) Needless to say it was a crazy week, but a great one, I wouldn't trade it. Lexi went with me as a camper and was an absolute angel, despite being the ONLY white child there - that has never happened before! But I'm convinced kids are color blind at this age.

A cool story for you. Each day after naps, the kids have a "tea party" before they swim. It consists of a paper cup of Koolaid and a couple of (store bought) cookies - not too thrilling. :) On Friday, the kids made cookies in crafts, and we had a special tea party. The boys and girls were separated, and the boys heard a story about being "warriors, super heroes for Jesus" about the kind of men God wants them to be. After the story they each got super capes (they took them home too) and FLEW to the pool! It was so neat to see their big grins and capes flying in the wind behind them.

The girls had a special tea party inside, with pretty pink sheets spread out on the floor, "girly" napkins, and a china tea cup at each girl's place. Sherris Bury (some of you might know her from Westbrooke) read them a story about how valuable and precious they are. Then she made a show of taking the paper cups, pretending to drink out of them and then crumpling them up and throwing them away. She then asked them, "Are we throwaway girls?" The girls all yelled, "NOOOOOOOOOO! Sherris asked, "What are we like?" Lexi shot up to her knees and pointed to her tea cup and said, "We're like THESE cups!" Sherris told her she was right and asked how we were like these cups, and Lexi said, "We're PRECIOUS, and we're BREAKABLE, and we're SHINY, and we have a silver ring around the top!" I wasn't there but I cry every time I tell the story ... that one will stick with me forever.

Unfortunately I did not have time to take one single picture! Hopefully my new camp friends will send me some, and I'll be able to put some on here. It was an amazing week, one which I could not have survived in my own strength, and I am so humbled and grateful to my Heavenly Father upon Whom I depended entirely. Praise His name!

Callie the sucker!

Check out Callie in this video - first, mugging for the camera, then watch for the "sucking" noises she makes especially after she gets a bite - she's will now do it on command, too, which is really funny. She's a little fussy here - sporting a nasty cough so probably wasn't feeling great - but still worth the upload. :)


This is "pure Callie" ...


She always braces her feet on the bottom of her high chair tray like this - to the point that she gets "owies" between her big toe and her foot from trying to grab the tray with her toes.

Lexi in real life

Lexi doing two of her favorite things when she's at our house ... art, art and more art ...


... and watering all the plants, whether they need it or not.




I love these sweet one on one times with her so much ... when she tells me ten times in an hour that she loves me and that I'm the "best Nini ever" ... knowing full well that I need to store it all up somewhere safe because the day will come all too soon when she won't be "in love" with me anymore! Where have the days gone? Seems like a minute ago that she was sleeping on my chest, jumping circles in the johnny jump up in my kitchen, army crawling (forEVER!), unsteady first steps taken in Wisconsin, hours and hours of reading the same books over and over, baths and baby lotion and precious minutes snuggling before sleep, thumb in her mouth and blankie firmly in hand ... love doesn't get any deeper than this. Has anyone heard the song "Cinderella"? Every time I hear it I think of her and the tears flow ... not in a melancholy way, really, just in the knowing how time marches on and wishing that, just for a minute, I could freeze her in time.

More Callie ...

We had Callie for a couple of hours on Sunday night - I got what I thought was a great video of her army-crawling at warp speed, pulling herself up on a basket of books, tipping it over, and slipping on the books every time she tried to stand up ... meanwhile the cat climbed on top of the basket and was popping her on the head (no claws, don't worry) every time she got close to vertical. Very amusing ... unfortunately the video was too dark to see anything. :(

She also was totally infatuated with Papa's beard, kept petting it and grabbing at it like she was trying to scrape it off. Of course I couldn't quite get the picture at the right time. Oh well, I'll get this new camera figured soon enough I suppose.

Here's a few pictures that are cute enough to post anyway. :)

New Camera!

I finally got my camera replaced, so I'm back in business! Hopefully you'll be seeing more from me now.

A Day at the Petting Zoo

A few weeks ago my sister-in-law Julie and I took our grandsons, Fletcher and Mason, to the Deanna Rose Farm petting zoo. It was a blast, just long enough (short enough?) that by the time we, Julie and I, had had enough we were done. :) Then we took them to lunch and watched them eat like teenage boys! Shades of years to come ...


Mason was a little freaked out by feeding the goats at first - "Why do they keep wickin' my hand" - giggle giggle. Fletcher seemed pretty nonchalant about the whole thing.



Both boys went on a pony ride - once again, Fletcher went around the ring without a hitch ... Mason's "leader" had to stop half-way to explain to him that he couldn't get off yet. :)



The event of the day happened while we were feeding the ducks from the bridge - Fletcher leaned over too far and his Scooby Doo hat fell in the water - I squatted down and tried to reach it, dangerous thing for someone like me - and couldn't reach it. I noticed a man and his children with fishing poles down the way, and scooted over to ask him if we could borrow the pole for a minute - he came over himself and fished the hat out of the (green nasty) pond. Behind me I heard someone (his wife?) say, " I guess a fireman's work is never done!"

All in all, it was a VERY fun day!

Better late than never ...

Mason had a birthday May 18th - Big Boy is now three years old! He had a blast with all the new trucks, bulldozers, etc. that he got - and with the snacks Mommy provided. He was so busy filling the bulldozer with Gardetto's snack mix and eating it that he didn't want to blow out his candles ... Christa finally had to pick him up and bodily move him to blow out the candles ... he did ... with a mouthful of Gardetto's ... and then went straight back to the bulldozer!

Happy Endings

Wow. Wow! Blessings abounded in San Diego a couple of weekends ago when we went to see B.J. graduate from Point Loma Nazarene College with a degree in Christian Ministry. And in case you're wondering, yes of course I got quite emotional.




We had a delightful weekend - besides graduation we visited Balboa park (a whole blog entry in and of itself, another time), and went to LaJolla beach most of the day on Sunday. Poor Greg burnt his feet SO BAD he could hardly walk for days.

B.J. will work through the summer, then come home for a couple of weeks, then join the World Race through an organization called Adventures in Missions to go on an 11-month, 11-country, 11-different-mission-objectives trip. He goes to training in Atlanta in July and will find out more about his destinations and the group he'll be traveling with. If you're interested in learning more, go to his World Race blog at:

http://brandonclayton.theworldrace.org

Can I brag here? YES I can it's MY blog! We are just so proud of him on so many levels, and are thrilled to see him stepping out in faith to start the next phase of his journey, wherever that may lead.

Huge transition here ...



Lexi's last day of preschool - another happy ending. Although she definitely wasn't happy that school was over, it certainly appears that she had a fun last day.



And no, none of the other kids ate their cake with their face, just Lexi. I adore that child!

A few parting "shots" ...

Well, my camera started acting goofy so I didn't get any pictures of Mason Tuesday night. :( I will say that I think I've figured out that the big guy makes on average one serious mess or has a major disaster in his life at least once every 10 minutes or so! I ran out of kitchen towels cleaning up the cat's bowl of water that he knocked over ... and knocked over ... you get the picture. Of course, you're also wondering why I didn't just pick it up the first time so that wouldn't happen again ...

Anyway, I thought I'd post some random pictures from the last few months - Easter and Lexi's birthday I think - that are my favorites.


Mason showing his love of shoes - and four legged creatures?


Fun picture of Christa ... happy girls.


And finally, the epitome of Lexi - I'm pretty sure she's holding one of those party horn things that uncurls and makes noise when you blow into the plastic mouthpiece ... very creative use of it, I thought!

We're headed out to see B.J. graduate - if my camera cooperates I'll bring pictures back for you.

Check out Christa and J's Blog!!

Two new videos on there, both funny ... but the one of Lexi is one of the funniest things I've ever seen! Apparently she didn't know J was videotaping her, or I'm sure she wouldn't have given this stellar performance.

Workout time!

Not for me. Nope. Of course not. Lexi spent the night last night and showed me all the exercises she can do ... so here you go.



Later, when Papa got home, I was telling him about it and he asked Lexi what she could do ... situps? Yep. Pushups? Yep. Pullups? ... belly laughter from Lexi ... "NO Papa - Pullups aren't exercises, you WEAR them!!"

And in the "oops" department, she recently gave herself a mini haircut:



At least it wasn't on my watch! It happened during an evening Christa was working, so the next morning when she sternly asked Lexi why she had cut her hair, Lexi said, "So everyone can see my beautiful blue eyes!" Christa claims that by the time the conversation was over she's pretty sure it won't happen again. :) Oh and by the way, Lexi definitely asked me after I took the picture "was that funny?" because she was making a face for me, no clue that I was photographing her haircut!

Speaking of funny, she watched "America's Funniest Home Videos" with us last night, and every time a clip would come on, she would laugh and laugh, and then say, "Why was THAT funny?" Cracked us up.

We'll be having at least one of the kids each Tuesday night, so hopefully I'll have my camera at the ready and give you something to entertain you. Mason comes next week - beware!!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk GO KU!!

The whole (KC) Kuchta fam gathered to watch KU stomp North Carolina on Saturday ...



Notice the "splint" on poor Mason's arm - he fell Friday and was still favoring it and complaining enough that Mom and Dad made a splint out of wooden spoons ... ultimately they took him to the ER on Sunday and found out he had dislocated his elbow. The doctor "popped" it back, Mason yelled "OW!" and then immediately started using his arm again. Whew ... all is well for now.

Callie was clearly more interested in trying to cut more teeth by chewing on Papa's foot than watching the game though.



AND ... psycho kitty predicts that KU is going to win over Memphis tonight! Or is that supposed to be psychic kitty? Seeing as how her nickname is Al Queda for the way she terrorizes us and the house, unfortunately she's WAY closer to psycho than psychic ... but hey, I'm still predicting a win for KU!

Surprise!!

I know, I know ... it's been WAY too long since I posted. Let's just say it's been a mean winter. And that I'm glad spring is poking its head out of the ground! Here are catch-up pictures of the kids - Callie Anne is 7 months old now ... and still lazy. Yep that's right. She rolls over when she feels like it, which isn't often, and that's about it. But she is happy happy happy and oh so cute!! Reminds me so much of Lexi as a baby.



And good 'ole Mason, cheezin' for the camera as usual ... he went from virtually no understandable speech to talking a clear blue streak virtually overnight and the boy can say some really funny stuff! He's just funny in general ... makes us laugh a lot.



And Lexi, definitely posing, but pretty cutely (is that a word?). Her wings are spreading so much - it's amazing to see her growing up right before our very eyes. She's fascinated with reading and writing - wanting to learn what things say and how to spell words - it's so fun to watch her mind expand.

Greg and I are doing well - he just had knee surgery last week (4th time - yikes). But he has been nearly pain free almost the whole time, and is actually back to work already, which is really a miracle.

Enjoy your spring beginnings - whatever that looks like in your neck of the woods!

Mason and gender

New friends

Lexi started kids day out at a Christian preschool yesterday - she goes every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. She had a blast her first day! (Nice break for mama too.) One VERY cool thing is that my great friend Brenda is her teacher! Brenda took some pictures and I just love this one ... nothing like a gaggle of little girls!

I haven't forgotten my promise of a Mason video ... he just has NOT cooperated with me recently in that regard!

Birthday girl pics

Lexi's party was Sunday - she was definitely in her element! Christa hung all these pictures from the fireplace ... start to finish Lexi. Made me cry so hard, silly I know, but it seems like we just met her and here she is four years old! This was BEFORE all the presents and sugar - yikes she was wound up! Funny girl! And here she is with her big big piece of cake - we proceeded to polish off most of it in about 15 minutes!!

And this is supposed to be a video of blowing out her candles (and of course the singing) but it's not showing up here - I'll let it ride overnight to see if it finishes "processing."


Fun day, all the way around.

Four years old???

Yesterday was Lexi's birthday - I can hardly believe she's four. It seems like we just met. What incredible joy she has brought into my life, and I know the fun is just beginning! Thanks, my sweet boo-boo, for all the light and laughter you bring my way.

The girls ...

Callie's found her thumb ...


And Papa's teaching Lexi gang signs! :)



Video of Mason's amazing speech improvement coming soon, I promise!

This 'n That

This poor rabbit got the bad end of the deal I think - Mason in his "bull in a china closet" mode definitely stuffed him in there upside down.



Our beloved son, in all his glory, as he appeared coming off the plane Christmas day. At least he got a haircut, right? He said no one even looked twice at him in San Diego ... although I bet some of the folks on the plane kept their distance from his goofy self! The sweater even had shoulder pads ... priceless!



Recently Lexi was in the shower with me and remarked that I had "lots of ankles." I wasn't particularly bloated so I couldn't figure out what she meant. I asked her, and she started pointing at my legs ... "there's one, and there's one, and there's one" - she meant "freckles" not ankles!! So later that day in the car she yelled, "Nini, Papa, look at my freckle!"



Hee hee ... of course it had to be on her middle finger.

Back in the saddle ...

Wow it's been way too long since I've updated! I totally missed Christmas ... but don't worry, my pictures weren't all that good anyway. :(

Here's Callie eating her first meal - she did great! She chowed down from the first spoonful. (Love Christa's stuck-out tongue.)



Mason being ... well, Mason. Love this child! He makes me laugh so much.



And Lexi Lou - she yelled at me "Nini I made an O" - when I went around the corner this is what I found. She definitely did fill in a few blanks for us.