spring cleaning

This is the post where I dump random pictures on you in an attempt to add to some content to this slightly neglected blog.
Listed in no particular order:


Graham's first farm sale.

Carhartt cuteness overload!

Graham has been potty-trained for about 3ish months now - shortly after he turned three. We bought him underwear last year, but he was never very reliable when it came to using the toilet. (Remember how he pooped on Batman?) 

So I didn't push it. 

But one day I did tell him that once he was out of diapers he could start going to sales with Papa. Papa doesn't change diapers. (Once while I went out for a morning of garage sales with my mom and Jared, my dad volunteered to watch the kids. It all went well except for the dirty washcloths in my bathroom sink. My dad panicked at the thought of a dirty diaper change and didn't think to use the wet wipes next to the stack of clean diapers in Graham's room. So instead Avery gave him about 4 washcloths from the linen closet to use. Please keep in mind that this man has four daughters... )

Anyway, long story long, Graham started actually giving a crap (pun intended) once future farm sales were on the line. He got to go with Papa Jeff to his first one this past month. And unfortunately for all involved, my dad still hasn't improved with the whole Graham going #2 situation, but that's a story for another day.

The Father Daughter Dance

The girls attended their first father daughter dance recently. My dad came along as as extra set of hands for Jared, although since the girls ended up only wanting to dance with their friends, neither man felt overly needed that night.

This candid photo

They're both making get-outta-here/geez-Mom/seriously?! faces to some comment. And it cracks me up that it was caught on camera.


Be still my heart.
I love these people so much. ♥

Jared is back to honey-doing lately. I've wanted a bench for a boring spot in our front landscape since we moved in (ie: 2012), so he built me this bad boy. He also built another planter bed for our backyard along with getting back into a busier Etsy schedule after two months off.

Bailey's first "informance"
(ie: an informal performance/concert)
Don't worry, I rolled my eyes just as hard as you probably just did.

She did a good job. It was slightly odd to us. The teacher sang more than the kids did. It was a lot of them going around in circles or jumping and random stuff like that. But Bailey seemed to be enjoying it, so that is what matters.
She did sing a little solo part, which was sweet to watch. 
And the two songs the kids did sing (really, they sang 2 songs in 35 minutes) were good. 


Do not kum in heer. X

Yeah, sta awt!

The kids (aka - Bailey wielding a dry erase marker) have been leaving us notes all around warning us to stay out of their areas, mainly their bedrooms or the toy room. They haven't tried to enforce their warnings so we haven't been annoyed by it yet. I still love finding little notes around the house with Bailey's writing. I particularly love the challenge of phonetically sounding out the messages and trying to figure it out. 
Kindergarten decoding 101.


The Grandpa Version of Dress-up

My dad is getting a lot of blog play here today, folks!
If you're going to just sit around at our house, there is a chance you could get decorated like a Christmas tree. Or look like the dress-up cart threw up on you.


And in case you're wondering,
we're still loving hats around here.

sanity saving

We're on our second consecutive snow day today. It was a little overkill since the roads were clear yesterday and it barely snowed last night, but it was nice to sleep in. (You know you're a parent when 7 am is "sleeping in.") 

I'm working hard to keep my sanity. I don't know what it was, but yesterday was rough. Eventually I threw all three kids out in the backyard to burn off some energy. I also didn't have to hear fighting for a whole 20 minutes: Win!

And to illustrate my point, here is a recycled picture of the Solko siblings in snowpants.

Speaking of sanity helpers, I have recently become a huge fan of menu planning. I am not sure why I resisted it in the past when Jared had suggested it, but I'm loving it now. 

It's far from fancy. 
I found this template on Google images and it fits our needs perfectly. The kids and I usually eat leftovers or sandwiches for lunches, so we only need supper ideas. I post it on the side of the fridge (with some Frozen magnets near a random photo) and we're good to go. 

I think roughly half the arguments in our house used to be over what was for dinner.

Sad but true. 

I don't mind cooking, in fact I usually like it, but I hate HATE! thinking of dinner ideas every night. Every day 5 pm would roll around and Jared and I would go through the same tired conversation.

This one sheet of paper has made life after 5 PM much more enjoyable. We are bickering about supper duty less, and we are using up foods we already have on hand that need to be eaten.

And it's been surprisingly easy to think of meal ideas ahead of time. Turns out it is hard to brainstorm when your kids are pulling on your pant legs begging for food. 

In other wow-my-life-is-boring news, I'm pumped about the new cookbook I purchased. It isn't actually a cookbook at all, but an empty recipe binder that I am in love with.

We're big on food in this family, in case you haven't noticed.

We regularly find new recipes to try out and many times decide they are keepers. Most of these recipes come from favorite food websites, so they are computer print-outs. For years we had been 3-hole punching them and putting them in a regular 3-ring binder. The problem was that the sheets were too big for the binder and you couldn't see any of the tabs. And eventually none of them actually made it into the binder. Plus, while I was sorting through these printed-out recipes, I found 6 copies of the same chocolate chip cookie recipe. (They're super easy and delicious by the way. We love Mel's Kitchen!)

Now all that might sound like no big deal to other people, but I happen to love organization and orderliness. It was unacceptable. (Forget the fact that I accepted it for like 7 or 8 years.) I finally found this recipe binder on Amazon and it was was worth the money. The best part is that there are different page styles to store the recipes: full sheet or recipe cards. So you can mix-and-match to your specific needs. I think that is an awesome way to keep all your favorites in one place whether it is Aunt Ethel's handwritten cinnamon roll recipe or The Pioneer Woman's scalloped potatoes and ham. (We're having that for supper tonight if you couldn't tell!)

real, real quick

I'm sneaking in a few minutes to write a little something.

Christmas was great. 

I have non-phone, camera-quality pictures to prove it that are for now sitting on our "my book" file thingy attached to the computer (my computer knowledge is clearly vast and limitless) but have not been edited since I'm dependent on Jared to download the program I know how to use. When it comes to technology, I really hate learning new things. If my old way still works and isn't obsolete, let me keep using it! The death of our computer really threw off my photo organization mojo. 

We're currently all sick. We survived the month of December and most of January sickness free - not counting way too many lab tests and trips to Omaha - but we finally all caught something. We've all been battling sore throats for a week and I finally broke down on Wednesday and got all three kids on antibiotics. Turns out they had ear infections too. 

Jared and I are soldiering on. Mostly because I can't force myself to drag all the kids with me to the doctor's office again. My aching head can't handle that mess.

Life is continuing normally. 

We have swimming lessons every Saturday for 6 weeks. Bailey is in Level 2 without her siblings and loves it. Graham also enjoys them, in fact he is the first one out of almost 20 kids to jump in the pool. Avery... I'm so shocked (*not at all*) that she doesn't want a new person to have anything to do with her. We're halfway through and she just last week let someone assist her without screaming. I have high hopes (which will most likely die a quick death) that tomorrow will be drama-free.

School is school. I never hear any complaints, and we only hear minimal information. Already we have to pry one word answers out of them as to what they did or how their day was. 

I love seeing the progression of a kindergartner's writing. 
It is really like a brain teaser to figure out the phonetic spelling that makes up a 5 year-old's writing. 

I personally love that her snowman is having hot "koko" because I grew up in a cocoa-lovin' family. 

Cocoa and peanut butter sandwiches for the win!

Jared and I also get a huge kick out of the drawings her and her friends exchange and send home.

Bailey and Darius were friends in preschool last year, and he is in her section this year as well. We receive weekly drawings from Darius, and apparently the feelings are mutual because Darius's dad reports he gets the same things we do. Ahh, young love.  ;)

Avery loves school too, and I find it amusing how she tries to keep up with her big sis. She gets upset that she isn't learning about the solar system like Bailey, and she wants to be able to read words like yesterday. So we've been working on sounding out simple 3 letters words, and the easel my parent's bought them for Christmas is pretty handy when it comes to practicing those skills. And for drawing rainbows over and over. Obviously.

Graham seems to be stable right now. His itching comes and goes along with the rash. But as of his last labs 7 days ago, his liver enzymes have almost returned to normal. We have an appointment with an allergist to cover some more bases, and we're using some new skin products to try and cut down on what might be some eczema related itching. He doesn't have a return appointment to his GI specialist until March, so hopefully all stays well until then.

This month I've started back on the C25k program now that we have a treadmill. We bought a nice used one from a friend of my sister Felicia and I have used it in some capacity nearly every day. (If I am going to be watching a TV show alone after the kids are in bed, I might as well walk and burn some calories while doing it. Right now it's The Good Wife season 3.) I found myself way out of running shape since I hadn't run at all since early October, but it is steadily coming back to me. 

The upcoming month promises to be busy: swimming lessons continue, our Broncos play in Super Bowl 50, Jared's mom comes for a week-long visit, Bailey turns 6 (eek! How did that happen!), a yearly Omaha cleft team visit, a pedicure date with a friend, Bible study resumes... All good things. 

But my sneaky few minutes are up. Kids are demanding lunch and my own stomach is growling. Happy weekend, friends!

I almost forgot: fall photos

FALL{ing into leaves}

I know, I know. Write it down. 
After practically months of radio silence, I am writing three posts in one week. 

Part of the motivation is that I've taken more photos. Something about the changing of seasons, I seem to get the camera out more. You're doing exciting new things, whether it's toddlers donning bathing suits or snowsuits or listening to squeals as kids jump in piles of leaves. Which is precisely what we did yesterday.

We had a nice pile of leaves thanks to a huge wind storm earlier this week. Our leaves hold on until there is snow on the ground - no lie - and I will be out there raking them up in about, say, 6 weeks. Until then we used all the neighbors' that had conveniently blown in our yard.

And real quick, can we talk about this missing-tooth smile? 

Our big girl lost her first tooth this past weekend while biting into her favorite snack - an apple. 

And some mad props to the Tooth Fairy (Fairies?) who remembered to show up Saturday night despite being at a bachelor/bachelorette until 2 in the morning. Only one slight hiccup: she just forgot to take the tooth with her when she left, so she had to make a repeat trip the next night so the tooth could be added to her collection. Hey, no harm, no foul.

12 days left

Here we are quickly closing in on single digits until Bailey goes back to school - kindergarten! - and this last month of summer feels like it has gotten away from me. My brain can't quite believe it's August, let alone mid-August, and the back-to-school vibes still feel so far away. There are still pencils to buy, a new backpack to select, and a tote of last year's clothes to pull out to see what's going to fit Lil' Sis. 

August has gone by so quickly, in part, because it's been filled with things. 

The kids rode in the annual Sweet Corn Daze parade again this year. My grandpa Ronnie always drives Justy as she advertises her massage therapy business. This year Grandpa was under the weather, so cousin Matt stepped in as the driver - official Ford hat and all.

Our job as supportive sisters this year was to hand out popsicles as we walked the route - definitely more of a sweaty workout than you would think.

The kids took in the festivities - free face painting, unlimited bounce house jumping, watermelon, food and more food.

Batman wears a crown and necklace as part of his disguise, right? 
*insert crying laughing emoji here*

And the yearly street dance.

Thanks to Uncle John for some drinks he didn't know he was buying.  ;)

We've spent many days just doing typical everyday things: walks to the park, the library, the pool. Visits to see great-grandparents and to friends' houses.

And braids. Oh, the braiding. 

Bailey loves 'em. The more the merrier.

(She's stuffing herself with sweets - typical - at Great-Grandma Connie's house.)

Meanwhile Jared's Etsy shop has been exploding. He's been researching a bit, changing his pricing, updating listings and it seems to have made a difference. Which is great except, for someone who works full-time and makes things as a hobby, getting 14 orders in 10 days is a bit overwhelming. Summer has typically been his time to stock-up on items that sell at a crazy pace during Christmas season, and he hasn't been able to do that at all this year. 

He did create this beauty for my parents' lake house in Okoboji, adding it to Etsy afterward, and it's been selling well.

The last few weeks have included doctor visits for Avery. I won't go into great detail, but she's experiencing symptoms that are worrying for us and for her doctor(s). So much so that our pediatric urologist recommended we take her to a large ER so she could get an MRI sooner than could be scheduled. So last weekend we hung out in the Omaha Children's Hospital ER for a good 9+ hours. 

Aunt Fe and Aunt Beaner came to keep us company. Thankfully it was a children's hospital so there was a list of movies a mile long and crayons to color with. 

And even better than crayons was the Cadillac Escalade Avery discovered charging in the corner of a blocked hallway. Within no time we were cruising in style. Believe me when I say they don't skimp on even the kid's version of a Cadillac. This thing had a working radio! The ER was basically deserted, so nurses stood at posts scanning open doors for us as we made our circle around over and over.

I can't say enough good things about our experience at Omaha Children's (oh wait, one exception - the lead anesthesiologist). The doctors and nurses were phenomenal. Just phenomenal.

Avery had an MRI done of her spine and it ruled out the one thing they were looking for, but didn't answer why she is still experiencing other symptoms. So off we go to a pediatric neurologist on Monday afternoon. I'm a worrier by nature and my brain always goes first to worst case scenario, so my mental space has been occupied for the last couple of weeks. However, I'm doing my best to Let Go, Let God. That means on some bad days my Christian playlist is working nonstop for a few hours, but it helps. We're doing all we can to get her the best care possible so we can figure out what is going on.


And along with all this other stuff, we're a foster home for the German Shepard Dog Rescue of Iowa and are now fostering a five year-old named Ben. His elderly owner passed away, and he needed a home while an adoptive family is found. 

Some of you might remember when Jared brought home a German Shepard puppy almost 3 years ago and I made him take it back. (Still sorry-not-sorry about that one.) This is a great way to embrace Jared's love of animals without the commitment of an extra dog full-time. Although, please don't think I am naive. I'm sure one of these times we will all fall hard in love and there will be no need to search for an adoptive home.


Ben is a chill dog. Honestly, he still seems a bit depressed and it is taking a bit for him to adjust to all the activity around our house. But he is sweet and well-behaved. And great with our kids. And our dog. And our cat. 
Graham has tripped and fallen on him multiple times and Ben just looked over, licked him, and went back to napping.

Ben will probably be with us for a couple more weeks. That gives us more time to discover his true personality behind some of the sadness and help in the selection of his forever family.

So that's our crazy life update. I'm hoping and praying that this next week goes as planned so we can fit in some school shopping between doctor appointments and a little two-day getaway for Jared and me before school starts. 

Here's to enjoying the last of what summer has to offer!

Summer Daze

Summer days are flying by at this point. And while we've done some little trips and quick getaways, we've had some nice quiet moments at home too. I doubt we're ever going to be that family who takes a week-long annual summer vacation to far-away locales. (And contrary to my dad's beliefs from my own childhood summers, no, Minnesota does not count. Like at all.)

So we've been enjoying small things around here.

T-Ball

From these photos you *might* be able to tell which child was the more willing participant. Picture #2 adequately displays her sister's level of interest while on the field.

As is typical with Avery, after being forced to participate she decided halfway through the last practice that she LOVED playing t-ball. So much so that she was running the bases and informed me that she didn't need me around anymore: "Mom, it's okay. I'm good at t-ball!"

Small Children Selfies

Somehow our kids (aka Avery) discovered how to access and successfully use Snapchat on my phone. So most of my contacts have received a photo that resembles something you might take while slightly drunk. With gibberish and drawn on purple eyebrows.

Since then they've been requesting a photo opp any time any one of us looks nice. (Putting on a headband qualifies as dressing up around here.)

The baby pool.
We went every single day for a week straight. It was so hot that there was nothing else to do that didn't make me curse my existence. 

And while on the topic of the pool... swimming lessons.

Both girls took swimming lessons for the first time ever this year. Both started at the same ability level. Bailey jumped in the pool and loved every minute of it. If they had let her stay and jump off the diving board for as long as she wanted, I would have come back to pick her up at midnight. Girl loves the water.

Avery also loves the water. But Avery also really loves her mom when anyone else might be around. (She's basically alert to stranger danger at any possible moment, even if that "stranger" is a relative she's seen 427 times.) She spent the first 10 minutes of every lesson whining for me until the lifeguards basically threw her in the pool and she became so excited with swimming that she forgot I existed.

But when it came to the "test" where the kids simply had to listen to the rules and answer one question - "What color do the lifeguards wear?" - Avery would not answer. They were basically begging her to mutter the word "red." 

Instead she refused and moaned "Mommy" like 97,000 times.

So as they were handing out all the you-passed-swimming-lessons cards to the kids, Avery came up and they were basically like, "uh yeah, better luck next year" as they tore up and burned her passing card. 

Swimming lessons flunkie right here.

Stop, Drop, and Nap
You gotta get those naps where you can get 'em because apparently sun, swimming, and scotcharoos tire a person out.

Getting moving
We participated in a fun run/walk this summer. 
Side note: low on the fun scale for me since I was at one point pushing two kids in a stroller while another rode on Aunt Beaner's shoulders.
I think Justy actually had it easier just running the damn thing!

And also in big news at the Solko house: a certain 5 year-old is riding her bike (well!) without training wheels! Not well enough that I can safely take a decent picture of her riding without fear of being run over, but pretty good.


And then there are small moments like this...
Nothing like coffee filters for hats at G-Con and Papa Lyle's house to make your day fun.

As far as the rest of summer goes, we still have a trip to Omaha on the books for next week, as well as hoping to squeeze in a quick trip to Adventureland in Des Moines for the kids' first theme park experience. 
I really hope my kids grow up to like roller coasters and water parks because their mama happens to lovvvve them!