Merry Christmas!

Things I've learned about my husband this holiday season:

1. He thinks there's nothing quite like a hot glass of apple cider.
2. He deserves every penny of the support that he raises. He is a diligent, hard worker and has an amazing perspective on life in general and the ministry of FCA. (This isn't something new I learned, but something that I feel he is more impressive in all the time).
3. He will hunt in any weather, regardless of how miserable.
4. Snacking is an addiction he cannot break.
5. God knew what he was doing when he matched us together. I never doubted that, but I have seen new insights into the perfection of that and praise Him for it!

Things I've learned about Jonah:

1. He is incapable of not jumping while watching a race/competition of any kind. Dogs chasing, good guys trying to escape bad guys, playing a wii game... all of these things involve him jumping. The entire time.
2. When deciding his favorite activity, he will have the hesitate deciding between video games and sports. The boy LOVES playing wii.
3. He could eat a sandwich for every meal and be content.
4. He is on the brink of learning to read and it's fun to see the wheels turning in his head.
5. He is a mini-daddy and uses hilarious phrases in perfect timing. Examples: using the phrase "you're complicated" in casual conversation, and saying "that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" when playing games with him. He cracks us up all the time.

Things I've learned about Abby:

1. Even with two brothers, the girl will not waver in her girliness. As a matter of fact, Levi, get ready to play princess and dress up when you get old enough and Jonah is off to school. Sorry, buddy, but I think it's coming.
2. She thinks she is a little mommy and is quick to repeat what I say to others. Example: I say please don't touch the tree to a baby that's over and she immediately chimes in repeating with a no-nonsense tone and carefully directs him else ware. Nothing like imitation to cause you to think through your words and actions a bit more carefully!
3. Her walnut allergy (and peanut and pecan most likely) is still going strong, thanks to a reminder from some pesto a few weeks ago. Thankfully, she doesn't like nuts, even the ones she can have, and you will never hear her complain about not getting to eat something.
4. She is growing in her compassion and knowledge of the Lord. Example: the other day while I was sad and particularly emotional, Abby came up and said "Remember, mommy, that Jesus died on the cross for you." From the mouth of babes!
5. The girl is gorgeous no matter the length of her hair. :)

Things I've learned about Levi:

1. He is amazingly cute. The pictures aren't deceiving. It's all true. :) He is my smiliest child at this age and it is not at all difficult to get him to flash a smile. Getting him to not be distracted by the shiny camera with lights is a bit more tricky, however.
2. When put on his tummy, he will roll over in two seconds flat. No tummy time for him.
3. He absolutely loves Jonah and Abby. They can be up in his face, shaking his arm, and just all around smothering and he will smile, laugh, and just egg it on. He loves it. It makes it difficult to tell them to give the boy some room as it certainly doesn't seem to bother him most of the time.
4. He likes to grab his feet with his left arm only. I'm not saying he's a lefty, but lets just say that daddy isn't discouraging the idea.
5. He has changed from newborn to baby in the last few weeks. Eating baby food, sleeping mostly all night, able to handle almost all foods now (can I get a PRAISE GOD!?! I made it!!!), and at nearly five months he's not swimming in his 6-9 month clothing. Someone is taking after his daddy & brother.

Things I've learned about myself this holiday season:

1. I am in need of a Savior. I am learning that more and more every day.
2. I've got a lot to learn, and I mean a lot, regarding my Christian walk. Thankfully God has given us the tools, namely the Bible, to encourage and instruct us and I'm ready to work and grow until the day he takes me from this earth.
3. I can handle more than I think. The eating restrictions took a toll on me in the last few months and I was about 12 hours from stopping nursing. However, with some encouragement from friends I pushed through just another day... and another... and another... and now I have come out the other side victorious! So thankful for that. (I know this is making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I love to cook and eat variety and this was very difficult for me to be so restricted. I'm aware that there are MUCH worse things in life, just thankful for the perseverance in this trial for me. :)
4. I actually may enjoy running after all! Running a 5k was fun, especially to do with Brian, and I like satisfaction of setting a goal and meeting it. Once you get past the "if I run another step I'm going to die" stage, it's actually rather rewarding. :)
5. I need to document this time of life and cherish it. The innocence they have at this age is so precious and, though it is challenging and exhausting at times with how much they need me, someday they won't need me so much anymore and I'll miss it. So, for now, I will continue to make an effort to soak in the precious moments before it's too late.

Thank you, family and friends, for the love you have shown our family and continue to show our family in so many ways throughout this year and beyond. We are truly blessed. We pray that we may be a family that reflects the glory of our Lord and His great goodness in our lives.

Much love,
The Conklins

A Tea Party for the Princess

Finally, little Miss Abigail turned three.
We have been talking for weeks about her requested princess birthday tea party and after an eternity the day had arrived. Abby chose two of her favorite buddies to come over, Charis (which Abby used to pronounce Carrots) is on the left and Maren is in the middle. The girls, dressed in their finest princess wear, painted princess cookies to their hearts desire. The girls absolutely loved it. The recipe is just an egg yoke and some drops of food coloring, paint the unbaked cookie, and then bake it as the recipe calls. So simple and fun and we will definitely be doing it again!
The finished product for Abby. Can you tell what all the shapes are?

Maren's brother (and Jonah's bff) Hudson was a trooper and came dressed up in his strapping knight outfit. He did have to ask his mom though, "Why do I have a princess cup and plate, too?" Sorry, buddy. You have two sisters. Get used to it. :)Next, we had "tea" of hot chocolate and enjoyed the baked cookies.

And birthday cupcakes. Amazingly, Abby still took a nap after all of this sugar.

The party was two days before her birthday, so of course on her big day we had to have yet another cake and more sugar. Look at this sweetheart! This expression is just so great to me. The look of "finally, my birthday has come. And it's all I could have dreamt it to be."

The cake is purple and she had to have pink frosting. Pink and purple are the only colors that exist in her world.

Happy birthday, Abby! Mommy and Daddy are so blessed to have you in our lives for these last three years. You are crazy, precious, and the girliest little girl we've ever met. We wouldn't have you any other way. :)

Thankful in Phoenix

My parents have a vacation house in a suburb of Phoenix, so on Monday we headed out to celebrate Thanksgiving with them down there. Brian and I have both been to Phoenix a couple of times, one of the times together for an ASU basketball tournament he played in during College, but the kids had never been there before. This was also Levi's very first time on an airplane and he did wonderfully. It is a bit more of a challenge traveling with three kiddos, but Jonah is getting older and more able to sit still, so that makes plane rides MUCH more pleasant. We crammed all kinds of fun stuff into our five days in Phoenix. All that is pictured below, as well as blue-lipped swimming (the kids insisted and had a blast, but 65 degrees and cloudy isn't exactly ideal for swimming), the movie Tangled on Thanksgiving day (Abby's voice reached a new level of high pitched while watching. "The PRINCESS!!!" "The princess and the prince are together at last!!"), many delicious meals, golf cart rides, visiting Great Grandpa Rumbaugh, and Brian and I even managed to squeeze in a run as well. We had our Thanksgiving meal at the country club in my parent's resort complex that was fun and delicious as well. Now, for the pictures....

On our first full day there we made an attempt to strike it rich. There is an old gold mine in the Superstition mountains area and Jonah and Abby have seen a Backyardigans episode that made them very excited at the idea of digging for gold. It was beautiful!
This is our "before we become unimaginably wealthy" family picture.
After a quick train ride to survey the hills, Jonah had to get some training in how to effectively pan for gold.

I thought he would need quite a bit of help, but he did a really great job swirling and swishing on his own.

Next, we use tweezers and collect out our treasure.

Once again, Jonah did great! Abby even saved a few garnets for us, too. There was quite a bit of fool's gold mixed in, so the only way to find the real gold is by it's slightly more yellowish color.

In the words of Jonah (and Pablo from Backyardigans, actually) "We're rich, dag nabit!"

Grandma entertained prospector Levi while we were mining. I venture to say that if we make it back down to Phoenix in the future, Abby and Jonah will be wanting to go on the hunt for gold once again. They had a blast.

The next day, we went to the Phoenix Children's Museum. I wish they would move it to Omaha. It was wonderful and extremely interactive and entertaining for the kids. This was probably Abby's favorite activity. You put a scarf into this tube and you could adjust it's path as it was sucked through these tubes.

Eventually it would shoot out through one of the holes and then you would try and catch it. Abby could have played this all day if we had let her.

This time Grandpa was on Levi duty. Tough job.

While Abby was doing that, Jonah was busy getting lost in this enormous climber. I may or may not have gotten lost in there as well. It was super fun and if they decide to box it up and sell it for $59.99, I'm buying one for our backyard. Jonah is three stories high (I think) in this picture.

Upstairs they had a bike car wash.

Complete with rickshaw bikes. Abby got the complete princess treatment.

And this is what Abby claims was her favorite activity of the day: painting the castle. It lasted about five minutes, but it must have made an impact.

Then we made a turkey hat...

scooped some ice cream...

made some pizza... grocery shopped... walked through a funoodle forest.... and then tried to figure out where Levi's lost sock went.

Two of my boys.

With so many activities, it's no wonder that when I asked Brian to go and wake up Abby, this is what occured.

Thanks for bringing us down to celebrate with you Grandma and Grandpa! We had a blast!

Fall Y'all

We LOVE our trees, but man do the leaves make for plenty of hours of yard work. Knowing this, the kids and I got Brian a leaf blower and chopper for his birthday this year and he has loved it and how it speeds up the process. The other day I took some pictures while the kids were enjoying playing. Let this also serve as a hair update. :) It's getting longer, but we've still got a long way to go...

It is also worth mentioning that Abby is obsessed with her new pink winter coat. She is all pink and purple, all the time. The shinier the better, too. The girl would love a bedazzler if she knew what one was.

And Jonah has probably grown three inches in the last three months. He is just shooting up.

And THIS guy is now four months old! We just took him to the Dr. for a checkup yesterday and he is 14 lbs 8.5 oz and 26 inches, I believe. Tall and thin, relatively. I wonder where he gets that from? We are also fairly certain that he will be blue eyed with blond hair. And devastatingly handsome.

These two already have quite the bond. Jonah simply talks and Levi starts cracking up. I can't wait to see the two of them grow up together.

Boo!

We have declared this year the Year of the Lame Costumes. Bumblebee Transformer and Fairy are just too cliche.

A look back... UPS boy and turtle were adorable. And unique.

Love this picture.

I skipped a year here because I couldn't find it, but Jonah was a sandwich two years in a row. How awesome was this costume? Wish I still had it, but the kids ruined it after too much play and I'm not sure i have it in me to remake it. It was a bit time consuming and I only had one child. Maybe next year we can stir their creative juices once again....

Spooktacular

Last Sunday we headed to the zoo for an event that we hadn't been to there before: Spooktacular. Apparently the rest of the city decided to head out there too. It was insanely crazy when we initially got there. So many kids, all in costumes, and it was like a lost child waiting to happen. That being said, we didn't get too many pictures. There were stations set up all over where you could get candy and do different activities.

First up, face painting and hair spraying for Abby. As you can see, her hair has grown in quite a bit. Thankful for fast growing hair!! She is attempting to sit perfectly still here.
Can you see the sparkles and blue spray in her hair? They didn't have pink, so blue had to do. Speaking of which, Abby is on costume number three this year. She was going to be a mermaid (which we bought and now are in need of returning), then SuperGirl (I vetoed that one due to price) and her third choice then was the fairy which she's content with.

They were feeding the elephants while we were there, which was fun to see. We had never seen an elephant being fed before and it's amazing how much they use their noses like a hand. This guy had even discovered how to beg for more.

Our little cub. Have you ever seen a more adorable guy?

The fun even wore him out a bit. Jonah isn't in the pictures, but I'm sure we'll get him covered this weekend.

Prepare to Be Amazed

River City Rodeo

A few weekends ago Brian, the kids and I headed out to the River City Rodeo to check out the sights... and smells. It just so happens that the second largest rodeo in the world is held in Omaha every year and we have never been out to see it! There were tons of free activities for the kids and in true rodeo fashion, the kids and I even shared a turkey leg for lunch. Yep, we're that family.

We didn't really know what to expect when we arrived and this is what we walked in to. There were calves, sheep, pigs, chickens, and other livestock lined up from wall to wall. The animals were being ushered from here to there by all the 4-H kids, so we even had some close encounters with animals. And our strollers might have gotten caked with manure too. :)

In my attempt to get a picture of the kids in the Qwest Center "barn", I squatted. The kids decided they should too. :) Can you see Abby's new cowgirl boots? She loves them.

Levi's favorite part: the lights. As we were sitting back and admiring the livestock, the man on the left asked us where we were from. We told him Omaha, chatted a bit, and then he asked if the kids would like to see a calf up close. Nebraskans are the best, I tell you. So nice!! Anyway, we said sure and he brought his calf over to this holding pen and let the kids have a turn at grooming her. The kids were so grateful and loved pretending to be a cowboy/cowgirl. Although you can't tell, there were all kinds of studded leather for purchase. I always had wondered where some of these cowgirl items were found. :)
Upstairs they had a special area with all kinds of educational agricultural activities. We don't have any pictures of those (daddy was on the phone working and mommy was attempting to not lose any of the children at this time). There was also face painting and since everything else was free, we indulged the kids. They loved getting to choose what to have painted.
We couldn't leave Levi out of all the fun! What a cute little cornhusker.
After lunch they gave a free tour of where the rodeo actually was being held. It was so cool to get behind the scenes info about the rodeo and we learned a lot about this sport. We would love to get tickets to go next year! By the way, this is the Qwest Center arena, where Brian actually played Creighton at. In this picture we are standing on 8 inches of dirt. Amazing!