a blessed March...

(not written until April 19!) Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stay this momma from the swift completion of her scheduled blog post...but a baby teething, preparation for and recovery from a big trip, mounds of laundry, piles of dishes, and beautiful spring weather will! =) Here's a bit about our March...

Family photo on the train. This pretty much sums up our kids' looks and reactions to taking posed pictures: W looks annoyed or has a painful smile on his face, G smiles very nice, but never looks at the camera, and little C always wants to see what the other two are doing.

March brought thaw to the frozen tundra. We started the month still very cold with a ton of snow on the ground yet, but by the middle of the month, all of the snow was gone and we have seen days with temps in the 60's and 70's - yipee! Commence spending as much time as possible outside...

G notes:

• She has decided to grow out her bangs. S has asked me if we would do this for a while now, but I didn't want to mess with it unless G wanted to. Her bangs were getting long and due for a trim, and after looking in the mirror and pushing them back, she decided she wanted to grow them out and has been good about wearing clippies and keeping them in...most of the time...
• We started G in some nature center classes at 2 centers near us. The classes are once a week for a couple hours, and focus on a different theme each week. These have been a lot of fun for her - she just loves all the activities that they do and it is great for her to be learning about and getting out into nature (in 2 beautiful settings!) as well. We will definitely keep these up!
• Big growth spurt - don't know specific numbers, but as all moms judge size by the fit of clothing, she is out of everything 4T and out of quite a few 5T things too. Had to buy her new jeans and shoes too!
  

W notes:

• It's been a month of growing dexterity! At the beginning of the month, W was just starting to be able to manipulate his hands to put up "2" or sign "i love you" with a lot of thought and determination. At the end of the month, he can do this fairly easily now and can even count "1-2-3-4-5" in a row with his fingers which has been a big deal for him
• Also a month of emotions. W has started vocalizing his emotions and understanding what they mean..."I'm sad" or "That scares me" or "I'm mad" or "That makes me happy" are phrases that he uses frequently. It breaks this momma's heart a little when this adorable boy looks up at me after a particularly frustrating afternoon and asks "Are you mad at us, momma?" But it has been helpful for him to be able to tell us what he is feeling.
• Big growth spurt just like his sister - out of everything 2T now and also needed new shoes! Blessed with a few great families at church that have passed on some 3T clothes from their boys so we should be set for a while.
  

C notes:

• Boy, can this little one move fast now. C can practically run after his siblings now and follows me sometimes faster than I want him too! He is getting surer of his footing too - still stumbles a lot, but picks himself up quicker without fussing and keeps on trucking.
  
• Around 15 months is such a fun age! His personality is shining though so brightly - not always sunshine and roses and big kisses either (especially while teething). S and I have often shook our heads and said "this one is gonna be trouble..." =) C has no fear. We have not had a child like this yet! He climbs on top of everything, will dive off things without thinking, and plows his way into most any corner or nook that he can find inside and outside the house. But he makes us all smile and laugh so much - what a joy!
  
• C is picking up on signs very quickly now. New words: bird, drink, thank you, please, washa-washa, changa-changa, and he is starting to say a form of G's name too.
• Not to be outdone, he has also gone through a growth spurt. While both G and W had both "up" and "out" spurts during the month, C mainly had an "up" one. It is crazy to us that he is fitting into clothes that it seems like we just took off of W...
  

S&C notes:

• A highlight of the month for us was being able to attend our church's Fellowship Dinner evenings without any children. When you have your first child, everyone offers to baby-sit and tries to kick you out of the house as much as possible. When you have your 2nd child, the offers are there for special occasions, but not much else. When you have your 3rd child, the offers are few and far between!!! This does not bother us, as we know the work that it takes to watch 3 small children, and we don't feel comfortable hiring baby-sitters yet because we know that W & C are not ready for that. So we are blessed that we have been able to leave them with family or friends when needed. Anyway, good friends M&A offered to watch and feed all 3 kids while we at dinner at our pastor's house with 2 other couples from church. We had such an enjoyable evening! Great food, great conversation, and we left the dinner party with our spirits refreshed. And the kids had a great time with M&A and their 2 girls - thanks so much, you guys!

And to wrap this up...here are a few more photos from the month. Hopefully next month's post is a little more timely! =)

prayer request for Sarah's parents...

My cousin Sarah's parents were in a terrible car accident Friday, March 19. Heavy snow in southern IA caused them to lose control of their car and it was struck by another car on the passenger side. Sarah has just posted an update about this all on their blog.

Her dad, who was driving, will be having reconstructive surgery for broken face bones this week. Please pray for a successful surgery and correction for his vision, as well as for peace and wisdom as he cares for his wife. Sarah's mom, who was in the passenger seat, absorbed most of the blow and is in ICU with numerous injuries. Small steps of progress keep being made, but pray that healing will continue. Marshall, Sarah and Norah live in NH, but were able to fly back to IA last week to be with her parents. They have returned back to NH now, so also keep them in your prayers as it is crushing not to be able to be there by her parents' sides all the time through this.

Our thoughts and prayers will continue to be with you all, Sarah.

Heidelberg Catechism Question and Answer 28 -
Q: What does it profit us to know that God created, and by His providence, upholds all things?
A: That we may be patient in adversity; thankful in prosperity; and that in all things, which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall separate us from His love; since all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move.

picture post 5...signs of spring

picture post 4...the train

The Northstar Commuter Rail, which was completed last November, has a station 3 blocks from our house, and runs to the new Target Field downtown, with only one other stop in-between. This will be FABULOUS to take to Twins games this summer, and also just to get downtown, where you can connect to the lightrail to go many other places in the cities. While Mom and Dad were up we took the train down to Target Field and back, just to take a look around the beautiful new stadium and have the fun of riding the train. The kids loved this so much! I think the adults had fun too...

So, all of you Twins fans out there, feel free to come stay with us and ride the train to a game!

picture post 3...guests

The week after we returned from the farm, our guestroom was very busy. We had 3 sets of guests come to stay with us in one week! Of course that meant a lot of washing sheets, but very worth it as we love to have guests come and stay with us. (hint hint to all of you out there! =)

Our first guest on Sunday night was my friend, D. I worked with her at the bank when we lived in Brookings. She had just returned from a week long cruise, and didn't want to drive the 4 hrs back to Brookings in the dark. So we had a wonderful time catching up and staying up way too late, and she left the next morning.

Our second guest on Tuesday night was S's dad, T. He had a turkey convention in town and chose to stay by us vs. a hotel so he could get some good quality Papa-time with the kids in the morning.

Our third guests on Thursday night were my folks (Mom, I didn't get any pictures of you while you were here!). My hometown highschool girls' basketball team had made it to state finals and my parents up to cheer them on. They lost the first game on Thursday, but Mom and Dad stayed with us until Saturday - once again, to play with the grandkids, of course.

And thank you to all our guests for watching the kids in the morning so I could take a shower - more morning showers in one week than I have had in a long time! I am sure you appreciated me smelling better too...

picture post 2...the farm

The kids and I went to the farm a couple weeks ago to spend some time with Mom and Dad. Despite the intense fog, gray skies and rain, we had a warm and wonderful visit!

Little C was Boppa's boy while we were there! No tractor rides this trip, but everyone sat on the tractor with Boppa, including little C.

Aahma had colors and paper and folders all ready for the big kids being that we couldn't play outside much.


The next best thing to playing outside on the farm? Riding bikes and playing soccer in Boppa's big new machine shed, of course!


Playing on Boppa's new iTouch is pretty fun too.


One of the great things about going to visit family is all the food and goodies that are prepared for you (I didn't have to cook once while we were there! =). G loved the cake Uncle L made, and we all enjoyed great Aahma meals and brownies and treats from the Edgerton bakery too!


Boppa and his boys


G helped Aahma make homemade bread while we were there...yummy!

Little C got in on the action in the kitchen too.

One of the kids' favorite parts of the visit was the plethora of people to read books to them. And I do believe the plethora of people, including "Auntie" A here, didn't mind at all.

The real reason of the visit was not for the atmosphere or food, although those are great bonuses, but see the people we love. Boppa, Aahma, Uncle L, J, and Auntie A, it was great to see you all and we love you!

The best part of the trip was coming home to dadda! And while we were away, my wonderful husband painted our bedroom a beautiful shade of tan (want the color #? sorry! this shade was a custom blend...of all the old tans and browns in the basement!). It looks beautiful, and I do have to say I think I sleep better with tan walls vs the old sea foam green...

picture post 1...new header

I have a bunch of posts running through my head from things we have been doing lately that have just not made it here. So rather than spend a week or more trying to catch up, I will just give you what you want anyway - the pictures!


PS. Someday I will have time to sit down and make the blog template and header look like what I want them too...but until that point in time about 3 years down the road, I'll just give ya new pics to look at now and then!

letting go a little...

For the past 4 1/2 years, my life has been dedicated to taking care of our small children. I am extremely blessed to be able to stay home with them and I love it. Not that it is easy or that our children are perfect, but I enjoy being with them and taking care of them. We have also been blessed with great family and friends and good church programs, so that when our kids aren't with us, they are with people we love or know very well. We decided not to enroll G in preschool this year because she really didn't need it, and we valued the time that she has to play at home with us and her brothers. BUT, as the time gets closer to her going to school, we realized that it was going to be a big deal for her to be at school all day with people she doesn't know well yet. And that we don't know well yet, for that matter. So I started looking around for a few things that she might be able to do on her own, and found some great preschool programs by our local nature centers. They are once a week for 2 hours, and focus on a nature theme. This sounded like a great option, so we signed her up. We love the nature center and G seemed excited to go.

Last Tuesday was her first class, so I planned on getting there 20+ minutes early so that we could meet the teachers, see the place where they had class and just be ready for when it started. But due to a last minute dirty diaper from W, turning around because G forgot her mittens and hat that I had asked her to grab (only 5 blocks from home, but still), and a stalled car that blocked a major intersection for 10 minutes, we barely made it there on time. She had enough time to hang up her coat, and say hi to her teachers before they whisked her off to start the first project. They had me fill out a form with emergency and health stuff on it, but then I was ushered out of the room before I knew it. There is a great kids area in the center that the boys and I were able to sit and play at a while, but I knew that the whole point of this was not to be hovering, so after 20-30 minutes, we left the building.

At which point W had a meltdown - "We tan't LEAVE, momma! WHERE's G??? We tan't leave wit-out her!!!! STOP the tar, MOMMA! Turn around!!!!!" Boy, I wasn't expecting that at all. And it is hard to explain to a 2 yr old that we would be right back to pick her up. We left though, and soon got to Target where he was distracted enough.

But I wasn't. I know it sounds dumb, but I was really having a hard time just leaving G there with people I did not know. She is one of our most precious possessions, and I just threw her in a room with a bunch of strange kids and teachers???? And then I LEFT too??? I thought, this is dumb. We are not doing this again. G will be fine and we will cross the whole school thing next fall when we get there and we will meet and get to know her teacher before-hand and it will be much better. We finished our errands and headed back to the center probably 30 minutes before the class was finished. Partly so that the boys could play some more, partly because I wanted to check up on her and see how she was doing. Well, they had just gone outside before we got there so all I could do was wait and play with the boys (who had just a blast with all the great toys and animals there). And then the kids came back. I was secretly hoping that G would have had a horrible time so that I could be justified in not doing this again...but instead I got this:

She was beaming from ear to ear, excited to show me her projects, bubbling about all that they had done in the class. And my heart melted a little...maybe this wasn't so bad.

About the class on foxes in G's words:
"It was pretty fun. I was kinda nervous a little bit at first, but then I just walked in and it was fun. First we did the stamps of fox tracks on a big piece of paper, and made fox masks. Then a dog and a vegetarian (veterinarian) came to visit. They came because dogs are kinda like foxes - they have claws, good ears to listen for sounds, good sense of smell, and one difference is that foxes don't do tricks. Then we talked about foxes and listened to their sounds on the radio. My teachers knew a lot about foxes. There are red foxes that are orangish-yellowish and gray foxes that are brownish-grayish. Then we got a snack. It was peanuts, dog bones, marshmallows and m&m's AND apple juice. You could have cranberry juice, but I never tried that before. I only ate some of the snack - one girl thought the dog bones were REAL dog treats, so I didn't eat them. Then we went on a hike outside. We found 5 or 6 fox trackses and fox POOP! But we didn't see any foxes. I had fun and I really liked it."

The boys said bye to the turtles and we headed out to go on with the rest of our day.

"Can we do this again, momma?"
"Sure, honey."

can we do something crafty, momma? PUH-LEASE???

while we are at the farm having fun with aahma and boppa, enjoy these photos from the craftiness last week...

water color over contact paper "G"

can't leave out "W and "C"

C enjoyed "painting" with water on his high chair

new art for all of our bedrooms!