a blessed November...

OK, feeling a little blah about the monthly posts, and also not feeling like taking a lot of time to do one for November, so I am going to change things up a little bit: 11 thoughts and 11 photos for the 11th month...in 11 minutes.

Thoughts'n'stuff:

1. C's dental surgery went very well at the beginning of the month, big thanks to Aahma B for coming up to help us out with the kids, and also big thanks to our church for providing meals that week - what a blessing!
2. G had a day off of school so the teacher's could work on quarterly report cards, and she was very put out about it. "Why do the teachers need a work day anyway!!!" She was mopy all morning and I finally took her and the kids to noodles for lunch to cheer her up! The girl still loves school.
3. We are still working on potty training with W. It is still going very slow. W still says he will go on the potty when he is 7. Sheesh.
4. We sold green car!!!! YAY! SOOOO happy to be back down to 2 cars. Thanks to S's sister M and brother-in-law C for passing along the information and our 8 billionth craigslist ad to C's co-worker, who purchased the car. Super nice lady who loves Honda's and will take good care of green car.
5. Little C still imitates his brother and sister constantly. Fun to see some of that - like wanting a kiss when he gets a bonk ("bonk.....head.....kiss?"). Not so fun to see some of it too - like fussing when turning off the tv after a video.
6. S turned 32 this month. His birthday was on Sunday (typically the busiest day for us with church and all the activities that go with it), and also right after C's dental stuff, so I wasn't sure we would have anything for his birthday! But we were able to find a gift, make a cake, come up with dinner, and even invite J&C and family last minute to come over making it a really nice day for S and all of us. (Random fact, S's birthday falls on the same day of the week as his brother J, and both G & W too!)
7. Had our first parent teacher conference for G this month. Also got G's first report card. Other than keeping focus, she is doing so well in school! We could tell that, but it was nice to hear that from her teacher Mrs. B too. Also found out that G is working in the challenge program with a few other classmates doing some creative writing - so excited about that!
8. S always asks G how her day was when he comes home in the evening, and has started asking W too. W is taking this seriously and is now thinking of things for us to do during the day to tell dadda later. =)
9. My brother M and pregnant sister-in-law A came to visit us over Thanksgiving. There was a big winter storm predicted for the day they were planning to drive up, so they decided to come the night before and just drive late into the night. We were all very glad they did, plus it felt like we got an extra bonus day to spend with them too! We had a great time with them - lots of visiting, card games, reading kids books, trip to Old Navy at midnight for the girls, and trip to IKEA for M&A to get a baby crib!
   
10. Hosted Thanksgiving for the first time (between that and the parent teacher conference, I was feeling way too grown up this month!). It really wasn't that scary being that I split the food with sister-in-law C (Thanks, C! Everything was delicious!!!). I did prepare and cook the free-range turkey, and freaked out only a little bit when trying to get it and the stuffing in the oven - why haven't I ever paid attention to mom or grandma when they were cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving????? Thanks to an oven bag, it was not hard at all and the turkey turned out great. We had such a lovely Thanksgiving. J&C and girls and Pippin joined M&A and us, as well as friend C from church. It was such a nice group and we had a very relaxing day with lots of food, fellowship, and laughter.
11. And we did take advantage of Black Friday this year. We have been using hand-me-down TV's almost since we have been married, and have talking about getting a new one for quite a while, but S said that when we did get the TV, we were going to get the TV and all accessories to go with it! We didn't do a speaker system, but we are set up now with a nice new big flat screen, blu ray, and lap top so we can stream internet to the TV as well. Felt a little crazy just buying all that stuff, but we had saved and found good deals, so we went for it!

Photos:

family photo - was hoping to take this on Thanksgiving, but didn't think about it, so this was the day after (the turkey remains are on the table ready to be thrown out, does that count as a holiday picture?).



silly faces!



squeezy happy faces!



reading books with Aahma B



I love it that the boys want to dress up with G yet



"ooooooo, look at that turkey!"



that turkey...=)



happy thanksgiving table

(and C was napping, we didn't just leave him out!)

Took some Christmas card pictures of these cute people while they were here. We got some great ones and then a few iffy ones (see preggo pic in A's post here) - the great ones were due to the cute model couple, and the iffy ones were due to the photographer. =)



the kids love doing silly faces for the camera



We got Christmas trees and decorations up on time this year! Makes the house look so festive and really puts us in the mood for December and the Christmas season.

So there you go. Something a little different. I don't know that it went any quicker (11 minutes? Are you kidding me?), but was nice for a change, at least for me! May you all have a great December and blessed Advent season!

so thankful...

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Hymn: Now Thank We All Our God
Text: Martin Rinkart; Trans. by Catherine Winkworth
Music: Johann Cruger; Harm. by Felix Mendelssohn
Tune: NUN DANKET

today...

...I am thinking a lot about my beautiful children!

So I thought I would share some random pics from the past week or so.

G dressed up as Peter Rabbit last week for National Young Reader's week. The tan pants were because Peter is brown in our book, the white shirt was for Peter's white belly, "blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new" (or as close as we could get!), and bunny ears and bunny ear pig tails completed the ensemble. She was so excited, especially since they got to parade through the school and introduce themselves to the first and second graders: "Usually I am G, but today I am Peter Rabbit!" She loves school so much and is doing very well (we got her first report card and had our first parent teacher conference - yikes, I am not old enough for those!).




W's latest trick is winking. So cute! He winks his left eye like his dadda (I wink my right), so he now claims he is on his "Dad's winking team." This is a fun game the kids have been into lately when S and I like or do different things.
G: "I am on Dadda's peanut butter cracker team!"
W: "I am on Momma's cheesy cracker team!"




This is the best photo we have gotten of the nice new dental work in C's mouth. Out of the 14 teeth in his little mouth, 8 of them are crowned now - a good friend from church told me the hymn that comes to mind whenever she sees C now is "Crown Him with Many Crowns". Ha! Besides the cute baby bling on his 4 back molars, the one bonus of having to go in for more dental work in the hospital is that the pediatric dentist was able to fix the crown in the front of his mouth that he broke earlier this year. I looked back for a good before picture and saw this one:



How cute are these boys?!! Makes me long for warm, sunny weather on this cold dreary day, too. (and should probably think about giving W a haircut...=)

We are hosting Thanksgiving this year
(M&A, J&C&nieces&pup, friend C),
so it may be a bit before you hear from us again
as we busily prepare the house and food for the holiday.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family/friends, good food, and many things to give thanks for!

11.13.2010 - Our view from home - 33 degrees

11.09.2010 - Eastman Nature Center - 69 degrees

happy birthday S...

church...chicken tortilla soup for lunch with J and C and girls and pup...good conversation while kids played...neat book for a gift (thanks J&C!)...also a new plant from us...homemade angel food cake with strawberries and real whipped cream...nap...breadsticks and VeggieTales...and ice cream and more strawberries to top it all off...

love you sweetheart...happy birthday!

a blessed October...

family photo on "parade couch" at the Anoka Halloween parade - one of our favorite fall outings! J&C live right on the parade route, so we always park in their driveway, share their comfy seating, and have fun chatting the afternoon away during the 3 hour parade full of floats, marching bands, princesses, and other various celebrities all dressed up in costumes. (oh, and did I mention the candy? yeah, we usually have enough to hand out to trick-or-treaters just from the parade! Pretty sure the kids won't let us get away with that for too many more years...)

Excuse me, do you know where October went? I really don't know why it went so fast, and I really don't remember what we did. That should make this a short post, eh? See ya next month!!!

Just kidding. The month did go by really fast, though. I think part of that was because we had some beautiful fall weather and were able to get out and do a lot of things just soaking up the last bit of warmth before the white stuff flies here on the frozen tundra. We went on a great bike ride with the kids and S's parents and sister, got to spend a great weekend on the farm, and topped off the month with a fun afternoon at the Halloween parade and a great fellowship dinner with couples from church.

October wasn't all happiness and fun though, especially toward the end of the month. We were busy getting ready for dental surgery for Carsten the first week of November, S was incredibly busy at work (of which there is no end in sight yet...blurg), and we hit a raccoon (yeah, a raccoon!) with our van resulting in $1000 worth of damage, way too much time on the phone with insurance, and monkeying around with schedules and cars to get it fixed.

G notes:

• She learned how to tie her shoes!! We had been showing her how for the past couple of months, but not really pushing it. All of a sudden something clicked one day and in 5 minutes she was a pro!
• G also overcame a bathroom issue at school thanks to a little incentive. Every toilet at school except 1 is an automatic flush toilet. G would wait for that manual toilet everyday (along with a few other girls) and it was starting to take longer than the teacher wanted. We were politely informed of this, and decided to offer G an incentive. G had been wanting the giant fairy wings in the picture above ever since we spotted them at the store. I told her that every time she used the automatic flush toilet, she would get a "brave girl point," and if she got enough points, then she could have the wings for Halloween. The next day G got 2 brave girl points and has not had a problem since. She got her wings (which can take out small armies...or cousins...or neighbor friends and dogs), was extremely happy and proud of herself, and her teacher thanked us.
  
• Other kindergarten highlights: being very special person, making applesauce, playing with friends at recess, being line leader, playing a doctor in the "doctor's office" corner and looking at real x-rays, and pretty much every day that she gets to go to school is still exciting and special for her. Makes her momma and dadda so happy!
• At home I think we have finally gotten into a school routine and things have settled in here for days "with G" and days "without G." There is a lot of "school" play at home, and W is more than happy to join in and play the part of boy classmates of hers. They pretend to ride the bus, go on field trips, different things in the classroom, and of course eating lunch out of lunch boxes.

W notes:

• W finally settling into the school routine has been a relief this month. This poor boy felt like he was left in the dust, things changed all over the place, and didn't know how to act or what to feel for the month of September.
  
• He is continuing to grow out of naps...now when he does get a good nap it affects bedtime for him, and it is getting easier for him to make it to bedtime without meltdowns when he doesn't nap.
• W has started picking up S's old Calvin and Hobbes comic books and can spend 15-20 minutes quietly looking through them. Something his sister and his cousin K have done before him...can't believe he is old enough to start that!
• Still 3, still dealing with meltdowns and power struggles, but S and I have both commented that he has gotten much better this month. Hopefully it will continue to get better.
• Trying to get him interested in potty training. Read the books all the time with him, talk about it, he knows everything and how it works...but he first would say that he wasn't going to sit on the potty until he was 4. Apparently he figured that was too soon because he has now bumped it to 7. Oh help us all.

C notes:

• C had a hard month with his teeth. They were obviously hurting him and he spent a lot of time with his fingers or hands in his mouth. He also was waking up at night more, and his eating was affected too.
• Really picked up on imitating his brother and sister. Not only in actions, but in words too. He watches them constantly and always has to have, be doing, or sing/say what they are. Makes us realize what a huge influence his siblings are going to have on him...
• He has started putting 2-3 words together for phrases quite a bit this month and tries to have conversations with us. The phrases do have clear pauses between the words, which as so cute. This new jump in communication has been great. He also can ask for help clearly, will direct us to what he wants us to do, and will also come and tattle on his brother and sister - running up to us crying "bonk...ME!"
• Still is crazy for books...which is great since he developed this interested much later than G and W did. He just didn't have the patience for a long time. But now we spend a good amount of time during the day reading him (and the others) books. C also loves story-time and going to the library now too!

cutie patooties...

on the farm(2): combining corn...

Dad and L were in the middle of harvest when we were at the farm. The soybeans had all been harvested, but they were still working on combining corn. I have not been out to the farm during harvest in a long time, and so I was super excited to get the kids in the combine with Boppa (and get myself in there too!)

Dad was unloading corn from the combine into the wagons when we got to the field (this is L's field, less than 2 miles east of my parent's farm)



W was up first - he was ecstatic about combining with Boppa!



heading out on W's round



next up was G!



Here is the combine out in the field on G's round.

(on a quick aside, long time ago our friend T asked us what environment makes our souls happy. Hers was mountains, if I remember right, S decided on being by a lake, and this right here is mine - cornfields. Yep, without a doubt, cornfields.)

I went along on C's round and got to drive the combine! (yes, I do admit, I am a farmgirl through and through, but I stink at driving machinery.)



And yes, this is a common site during harvest - luckily, this was a small fix and didn't require any major downtime or parts!

Thanks, Dad, for instilling the love of the farm and the land in me, and helping me show that to our kids, too.

on the farm(1): playing with rocks...

Dad needed help with a project while we were there last weekend. The problem?

The water running off the roof of the new shed was creating a cavernous canyon and washing away all the dirt. Especially after their gulley washer last month where they got 6 inches in one storm!

Dad's solution? Enlist man power of son and son-in-law and use lots of rocks.

step 1: fill in with dirt, lay down landscape fabric, and instruct your crew to try to look productive when your crazy daughter with the camera comes out...or at least like they are coming up with a brilliant plan.



step 2: take tractor out to rock pile in pasture, fill loader with hand-picked (home-grown!!) rocks and have son and son-in-law place each one in the trench for the outside border.



step 3: take 3 yr old grandson to Pronk's to get trailer full of rocks, have him talk your ear off the whole way, see him get super excited about the cement trucks, and then make him and his 1 1/2 year old brother throw the rocks in place.



step 4: realize the small stuff crew isn't going to cut it so enlist visiting Uncle K to help shovel rocks.



step 5: toil at this project all day while crazy daughter with the camera plays with the kids inside the shed.



step 6: fill in and grade extra dirt by the house so wife won't have to catch water running down the basement walls during the next gulley washer.





step 7: stand back and admire a good days work finished.



step 8: enjoy pizza with the whole family!!!