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!

a blessed February...

Family photo at the "zoo" (Auntie M came to visit and took this for us!)

February was full of sick and snow. And being sick of snow too. There were a lot of gray and snowy and cold days which meant spending a lot of time inside. Which was ok, being that we all had a forever long nasty cold/virus/bug that really knocked each of us out at different points. Luckily we all kind of recovered the weekend before little C had dental surgery so he was cleared for that and made it through with flying colors. We are all ready for some sun and warmer temps...come on spring!!!

Little C watching big kids outside and wishing he could join in...

G & W playing in the snow with Dadda

Dadda with his little girl

G notes:

• Way curious...asks a million questions. We've moved mostly past the "why?" stage though, more into a "how come..." stage.
• Loves coming up with all sorts of pretend play for her and W...they play SO nicely most of the time, but G really knows how to push W's buttons and bring out the 2 yr old fury too.
• Probably her favorite thing to do is crafts/coloring/drawing...
• Has really been enjoying story-time at the library - each week she loves to tell dadda all about it when he gets home and to check out either the books Ms. Roselyn reads or other ones she suggests for G.
  
• Loves her family and friends deeply and fully and we are so much better because of it
  

"Do you want to hear a joke?"

W notes:

• SO into jokes! He has a few that he can tell spot on (I'll do a separate post on them soon!), but then some are just nonsense too. He expects his audience to respond with appropriate cues and gafaws and will tell you if you are not doing it right.
  
• "yep", "nope", "what's goin' on in here, guys", "that's wonnerful", and adding "very much" to everything has been how W has been trying to talk more "grown-up" lately.
  
• Also loves story-time, and has been breaking away from momma's lap and actually sitting up front by G, participating in the little activities and answers questions that Ms. Roselyn asks! Very nice to see him growing in that way.
• Has been having fun in Sunday School too - talks about it as "his school" with "his teacher" and "his friends"...and "I go to school WITH momma." Still won't sing all the songs with the kids, although he knows them by heart and directs us in singing them at home. Maybe he won't be the drama queen that his sister is!

"can I get that?"

C notes:

• Oh this little man! As you have read from previous posts, he had dental surgery at the end of this month. We knew what to expect since we had been through it before with Grace, but that still didn't change the stress and worry that comes along with any surgery. He is doing so well now though and you can tell he feels better too - his teeth don't hurt anymore!
• new words saying or signing: puppy, fan, no...
• climbs up and down the stairs proficiently now, and also is a walking expert! He definitely walks more than crawls now, and to show you his progress here is another video:
  

new front teeth...

Little C's surgery was very successful today. Thank you so much for all of your prayers! Dr. Darcy had to do 2 root canals on the top teeth on the left side of his mouth, but she was able to save all four teeth and put new crowns on all of them. They look great and she was really excited about these new crowns as they are stronger than previous options and still look nice. C's claim to fame now is that he is the 2nd person in MN to receive these crowns on his front teeth.

The whole process was very familiar since we have been to Children's Hospital with both W and G, but it doesn't get any easier. A waiting room attendant and a nurse recognized us ... S and I decided that was not such a good thing. But, we are very thankful for the great care that we have received for all of our kids.

We have had a very quiet afternoon at home with big naps and many cuddles, and C actually ate waffles for supper with us. He is looking a lot better and starting to get a little bit of his spunk back - chasing (although slowly) after his siblings this evening. We go back to the dentist in 2 weeks to check the healing, but other than that he can pretty much resume normal activity and eating!

Thanks again for all your prayers, we are feeling thankful and blessed tonight.
S & C

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.