little C's teeth issues...

We posted a little while back about little C's teeth. Well to recap, in December we found out that C had cavities in his top 4 front teeth. This was a surprise to us, obviously, but not a shock, as G has had teeth issues too. Now knowing our kids have teeth issues, C had a dentist appointment scheduled before he was even born, we had him into the office before he was a year old, and we started brushing his teeth as soon as he got them - so we have done all we can! It all comes down to genetics and weak enamel. Poor kid. Our dentist, Dr. Darcy, was hoping to put in some band-aid fillings as to put off having to have more extensive work done until he was a little older, but his teeth got worse rather quickly, so we had to take the more drastic route.

Tomorrow we will be taking C to Children's Hospital where he will be put under anesthesia and then he will have dental surgery that includes at least 1 root canal and 4 crowns on his top 4 teeth. We know the whole routine as G had this same procedure when she was 20 months, but C is much younger, so we are still nervous about it all. Please keep C in your prayers tomorrow - pray that the procedures would be successful, that C might recover quickly, and that this will resolve our current issues and prevent further ones from developing.

if they had their way...

...the bookshelves in our front room would look like this all the time.

"We're zookeepers, Momma!"

"The animal doctor said we should feed them (dominoes, of course) once a day."

I think until we are over this forever long cold and actually feel like putting all the books back up, we'll let them have their fun. Admission is only 2 hugs!

love...

thank you, auntie c, for these lovely photos!

the blog that is...

I have been doing a lot of thinking on what goals I might have for this blog for the new year (yes I do realize it is February!). Among the obvious were better pictures (try to compose my photos more rather than just snapshots), better and more thoughtful writing, more S posts (I love those! =), and then I started formulating in my head among the regular posting, doing a kid update post for each month. That seemed reasonable for me to handle, and would be a good record of how the kids have grown and changed this year. Well, as I was working on one for January, I read this post from Tara Whitney, a photography blog I follow. She had a similar idea, only adding a family picture for each month. I really liked that idea because Steve and I are rarely in pictures with the kids. So I am going to turn it into a family update, and here is January's post! (I back-dated it purely for organizational purposes) It is not everything I want this post ideally to be, but it gets us going for the year...because if I waited until it was ideal, there would be no posts on this blog! (kind of like me having to get over my thing with having the house spotless before company comes - with 3 littles we would never see anyone! =)

Anything you would like to see here from us? Anything you like or don't? Feel free to leave a comment!

diapers to Haiti...

Carsten and Willem in their SoftBums cloth diapers

Do you want to send diapers to Haiti?

Order any amount from SoftBums, a locally (to us!) owned cloth diaper store, by this Friday (2/5/10) and they will match your order and send it to an orphanage in Haiti, Children of the Promise (Friends of my in-laws run this orphanage). Children of the Promise is a ways from where the worst damage is (they are still very much affected though), but they have connections to other orphanages in that area that do need help and will be passing portions of their donations on to them.

I am friends with S, the owner of this company, who has created this fantastic cloth diaper and cover. She employs a number of stay at home mom's in our area, too. Her cloth diapers are made of super soft fleece so the diapers and covers dry very quickly (we love them!). They can be hand washed easily as well, so they will be wonderful to send to Haiti.

Don't need diapers for yourself? If you want your order sent to Haiti, please note that in the comments section when you order.

Great diaper company (and diapers!), great orphanage (they do so many wonderful things!), and we couldn't be happier that they have connected during this time of turmoil in Haiti.

a blessed January...

(modified family picture - didn't decide until the month was done that I wanted one! =)

Family updates for January:

• S had a very busy month and work due to cold and flu season (for employees and patients alike!), beginning of the year and people changing insurances for that fact, and semi-annual inventory

• S took a couple days off of work after inventory which was a good break for us all. Most of the time was spent finishing the new windows that we had put in last November. He mudded and taped (over their very bad sheet rock job!), sanded and painted. And with all the hours he put in, it now looks like it has always been there...sign of a good job, right? =)
• I am in love with these new windows! They let so much light into our kitchen! We now can function during the day in the kitchen and not have to turn the light. They have been a concept in our heads since we found out skylights weren't an option, and to finally have them finished is just awesome.
  
• I had to deal with the emotional event of enrolling G for kindergarten next year. We interviewed at Calvin Christian school which is 15 minutes from us, and G was accepted pending passing kindergarten readiness later in April. She turns 5 on August 29, so she barely makes the cutoff, and will be one of if not the youngest in her class. She is completely ready academically, and we know she will mature more emotionally and socially by then, but she is so young! Our sister-in-law homeschools our nieces, and many in our church homeschool too, and they all have really opened my eyes to the wonderfulness of homeschooling, so that was definitely an option for us, but we have decided to try school with Grace for a number of reasons. It is a great Christian school and will be a good place for our children to go, but I am just having a hard time moving on to this next stage in our lives.

• G is into all things crafty. She loves her art table and is always coloring or drawing or coming up with something to make. "Can we do something crafty, momma?" is heard almost everyday. She loves her new lacing cards and has been "sewing" a lot. Don't tell her, but I just picked up stuff for a little sewing basket for her, although with the 2 little boys it might only come out at naptimes!
  
• G has also been trying to do a lot more on her own this month, picking out clothes (always dresses and the pinker the better!), dressing, zipping coats, etc. She also has been learning more about helping out around the house with chores (not always happily!).
  
• G & W play most of the day together very nicely (although they are siblings and fight like them!), and their play is mostly imaginative role-play: "You be the momma bird and I'll be the baby bird just hatched" or "You be the Uncle J and I'll be the Auntie C"

• This little man is all about Legos! W discovered them this month and loves to build creations and then crash them. He also loves puzzles and of course his trucks and balls are never far from him either.

• And then there is baby C, who is no longer a baby! He is copying a lot of what we do, and saying and signing so many more words! Ball, Book, Bye, Da, Mu-muh, Um, Oh!, Light, Fan, More, Eat...
• He is also the wiggliest child we have had. And the biggest, which makes him hard to hold on to sometimes. He definitely is getting more opinionated, and that 1 year old temper that W had shines through some days!
• On a more serious note, we discovered at C's first dentist appointment in December that he has cavities in his top 4 teeth. They were going to try to do bandaid fillings on January 24, but turns out the enamel on his teeth has worn almost completely away so more serious measures are needed. So February 24 we will be bringing him to Children's hospital to be put under anesthesia and dental surgery done. He will most likely get at least 1 root canal and then crowns put on his top 4 teeth. He is so young to have this, but it is genetic and we went through it with G at 20 months so this time it is not as big a shock for us. We have noticed he is not eating as much, which we think is because his teeth hurt him, so we will be happy to have everything taken care of.
  
• But best for last for little C, he has started taking his first steps! He stands up all the time and has been cruising along furniture for a month, but finally ventured into taking solo steps! We know he will be running after the big kids in no time! Yay, C!

your Christmas tree is still up?

S has been off for 5 days. YAY! After an extremely busy past couple of months at the pharmacy culminating with inventory last weekend where we basically didn't see him for 3-4 days, this break was much needed - for him, and the rest of us. His main project has been mudding, taping and painting the big new trapezoid windows we had installed in October (yes really, he has not had a day to do this project since then!). The installers put up the sheetrock (not very well, which made S's job harder), but didn't do finishing work. The other project we got to was getting the Christmas stuff taken down, organized, and put away. And since we are doing that in the house, I also thought I would finish posting Christmas stuff here on the blog too!

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We celebrated Christmas with the B's the second weekend in January - everyone was busy in December and couldn't get together for more than an evening, so we thought we would just celebrate in January and be able to spend a whole weekend together instead. So here are pictures of the weekend (thanks to Dad B and s.i.l. M for sharing some of their photos).

Wonderful soup and bread at J&C's Friday evening (each of us couples took a meal as to spread the food duty out - worked awesome).

Brunch at our place Saturday morning (C made Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls which we both have read the raves about on her blog - well, the raves were completely right! They were soooo good!).

Opening Christmas presents after brunch


M taking pictures of the kids.

Little C enjoying some of his new presents!

The adults exchanged names and each of us got a book as a gift - all of us love to read, and you can see we are passing that on to the kids!

Saturday afternoon was filled with a lot of playing, of course.

J & C's golden doodle puppy, Pippin, came along for the day and we all enjoyed having him around - he is such a good dog!

Playing our new card game, the Great Dalmuti (crowns for the Great and Lesser Dalmuti and Jester hats for the Peons were a must) before we enjoyed C & M's homemade pizza Saturday evening.

Sunday, after church and Mom B's chicken enchiladas for lunch, we celebrated birthdays for little C, G & K, who all have birthdays in January and February. We ate cake and relaxed a bit before returning home or to evening church. Mom and Dad B watched our kids so we could attend our evening service and partake in the Lord's Supper - very strange but very nice to be at church and not have to hold 1-3 kids and/or leave the service 1-3 times (thanks Mom and Dad B!).

We had a lot of fun over the weekend with gifts and games and food, but most of all we enjoyed spending time together as a family.

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One of the reasons we left the Christmas decorations up so long was that Christmas gift opening has been spread out quite a bit this month due to not everyone making it to Nebraska for Christmas. It gave me a good excuse to keep the tree up! Last weekend my parents brought up gifts from my brother L & his girlfriend J. G was particularly delighted with her gift of all things pink! Thanks L & J for the fun gifts!

Then this week we received a package in the mail with gifts from Nana (my gma K). We always love getting packages from Nana and she definitely went all out on this one. The kids got hand-knit sweaters, Steve got a knit hat, and I got a clutch bag and a beautifully soft and ingenious knitted neck scarf. Thanks so much Gma! We love all the gifts!

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As for the Fa-La-Lattes CD's, they rock on in our house all year round...

a moment...

It really was just a moment. But after a week of long hours at work for dadda, overly crazy fussy kids, a one-year old who will not be set down, a crabby momma, housework unable to be finished, projects left undone, naps fought against and not taken, and too much yelling and crying from everyone...

...I enjoyed the peace and perspective of the moment this afternoon:

(now, before you criticize how I dress my son, G got a big box of dress-up clothes for Christmas and he was playing dress-up with her before his nap and asked so sweetly to keep it on - and I was up for ANYTHING as long as he would sleep! =)

"happy birthday...happy birthday boy!"

Our baby C is 1 year old! How did that year fly by so fast? We had a very peaceful start to C's birthday (see previous post), and then things got a little more hectic from there.

Now when you are one, you really don't understand birthdays yet (the hoopla is really all for your siblings and your parents, and also so you have some pictures in your baby book). So you really don't care, being that you have a New Year's Day birthday, that your extended family will not come to help celebrate being that they just saw you at Christmas. You will not care if your momma doesn't get you a big balloon (because it was -18 degrees F and no one wanted to leave the house) like she got your siblings on their first birthdays. And you will not care if your birthday party doesn't actually happen on your birthday because your dadda and momma were busy with a project and you and your siblings were too crabby to celebrate it on your actual day (sister and brother cared, a lot, but they were in too much trouble to get dadda and momma to change their minds)! All you care is that your momma and dadda and your brother and sister are by you (and we always will be since it is a holiday!), and that you are fed and entertained.

And that we certainly did, just on Saturday!

who needs a birthday balloon when you have a 4 yr old sister who will decorate your high chair with leftover and clearanced Christmas ribbon!

presents!

C had no problem figuring out how to open them.

felted car and plane from Auntie C - he really liked these, and it is so funny because whenever he plays with them, he makes the same "car" noise with his mouth (as pictured!)

chewy giraffe from us, and look, C is standing! (he has been doing this for a while, but we realized this is the only picture we have of it so far!)

loved hearing us sing Happy Birthday to him (so much we did it 3 times for the giggles!)

Birthday brownies for everyone!

Ok, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to put fire in front of a 1 yr old - we quickly "helped" him blow it out.

obligatory face full of frosting on first birthday picture!

Happy Birthday little C! We all love you so much!

more peaceful...

S and I rung in the New Year watching the first Harry Potter movie (I finally have gotten S to start reading the books!). We hadn't talked too much about C's birthday during the evening, but as we were getting ready for bed around 12:30 am, I made the comment..."Last year, I was in a lot more pain right at this time!" We smiled at each other and reminisced about the crazy New Year's Eve that we had last year ending in the unplanned, wonderful, beautiful, natural birth of our son C on the couch in our front room about an hour into 2009.

We were thankful again for his Auntie C who was there.

And we were also very thankful for a more peaceful start to 2010.