a blessed January 2011...

We were all too sick in January for a family photo.  The puppets stood in for us nicely.

January...cold...snowy...sick...sick...sick.  It has been a tough winter for being sick all over the country, but it has hit our family particularly hard.  We have seemed to go from one cold to another to a stomach thing back to another cold virus.  That combined with extended family members spending time in hospitals and it being so cold and snowy outside did not lift the spirits very much.  But still we were blessed.  We were together, we have a warm house, we had good food (even when the momma didn't want to cook it!), we have loving friends and family, we had lots of laughs and cuddles, and all the time together this past month has been a bright spot through all the ick.  We worked at getting back into the routine of school after a lovely Christmas break, and were back into the swing of things by the end of the month.  We had a wedding to look forward to in February and it was fun to shop for clothes for almost all of us (and score incredible deals!!!) and travel to Edgerton to help throw a wedding shower for J.  We went to the library quite a few times and read a lot.  And we were reminded of God's goodness and faithfulness every day.

New books from the library didn't make it past the front steps!

G notes:

• She finally admitted she can read.  We have known this for a number of months, but whenever you would ask her to read part of a book she would reply "I can't read yet!" or stop after a couple of sentences because she wanted us to read the rest.  She still tells us that she can only read 'I can read' books, but we have seen her reading other books outloud to her brothers too...=)
• Learned to ice skate
• Is learning to like different foods including baby carrots, sloppy joes, some soups, and is starting to fuss less when we ask her to try something.
• Has been a big helper.  Not that she doesn't still fuss at us way more than we would like, but you know...

W notes:

• Got the brunt of the stomach bug.  Has never been that sick for that long before!  Made it through though and was a trooper through it all.  (helped that he figured out he got to watch PBS kids pretty much all day when he wasn't feeling good)
• Loves his magazine Ladybug, and also G's magazine Click
• Won the best grandson prize of the month...we happened to be in Trader Joe's on the day that Aahma B was coming later in the afternoon, and as we walk by all the flowers, he excitedly taps my leg and asks "Can I buy some flowers for my Aahma?" 
• is getting more interested in coloring and drawing

C notes:

• He gets the brunt of all the cold viruses we have had.  That combined with molars coming in have made for some crabby days.
• Learned how to jump!  His feet actually left the floor, and he was so proud of himself.  Now we can't get the boy to stop jumping!
• Had his 2 yr well check this month.  36" tall and 32 pounds - 97th percentile for both!  Dr. Tammy was impressed with his speech and vocab, and C also showed off his new jumping skill for her. =)
• Has really turned into a toddler.  There is not much baby left at all!  (sniff, sniff!)

ice skating...

 

I did not grow up ice skating.  I think I went once on a youth group outing?  And it was not pretty.  S grew up with an ice rink (lake) in his backyard and is fairly good at ice skating.  But since it is something that I never did and didn't care to do, we never have gone together in our 13.5 years of knowing each other.  

So we were both excited when we found out that Calvin does ice skating for their PE classes in January (S was excited she would start learning how to skate, I was excited that she would learn and I wouldn't have to try to teach her!).  All kids are required to have skates and participate...even the kindergarteners!  We got G a used pair of skates and sent her off with hopes for the best on that first day!

She came home in tears.  "I fell down...like a MILLION times, momma!  And I cried so hard even Mr. S (the principal) asked me what was wrong."  Turns out that about 90% of her class could skate pretty well (having older brothers and sisters), and the gym teacher didn't have time to give individual help to the few that couldn't skate being that she had to keep the rest going.  It would be up to us to help her.  S went out and bought skates and took G out to the free rink at our park to teach her how to skate.  It didn't come on the first time, obviously, so they visited that rink quite a few times in the next month.

G was mostly concerned with staying up on her feet and not falling so she didn't want to try to move her feet, so S brought out a lawn chair and had her hold on to that, which gave her enough steadiness to learn how to move her feet.  And that really helped.  Before she knew it, she could go around the rink without holding on to the chair!  It gave her a lot more confidence with skating at school too.  She never got up to the speed where she could play games with the other kids, but she could skate around the rink or back and forth and was excited to come home and tell us how few time she fell and how far she had skated.  S and I were able to go and watch her a few times as they asked for parent volunteers to come help put on and tie 21 kindergarteners skates each time they were out...talk about semi-organized chaos!

I think it was a good learning experience for G.  Not only just learning to do something new, but sticking with something that she wasn't very good at.  Up until now, if she hasn't been good at an activity, she just wouldn't play that at all.  I think she learned a lot both physically and mentally with ice skating.  Who knows, we may end up with a girl who plays hockey or figure-skates (although with my lack of coordination, the genes aren't in her favor for figure skating!)!

a wedding shower for J...

The happy and beautiful bride-to-be outshines the awful quality of this picture! (forgot my camera at home so this is from my cell phone)  

There were not a terrible lot of free weekends after the holidays before L & J's wedding, so s.i.l. A and I got together with J's dear friend, sister, and other bridesmaids to throw her one big shower rather than her having to go to 2 or 3 of them.  S had inventory the same weekend as the shower, so the kids and I headed off to the farm by ourselves.

Saturday was the shower and unfortunately there were some icky roads and also it was on a long weekend (Martin Luther King Jr day), so there weren't as many people that came as we had hoped.  But we had a blast nonetheless.  J's friend sent out the invites and brought all the food, L&J helped us take care of renting their church fellowship hall, and A and I came up with devotions and a shower game.  Dear A found the shower game and it went perfectly with the invites which asked everyone to bring a recipe for J.  We gave everyone sheets of paper, and then J came out and modeled the lovely apron and kitchen utensils as pictured above for just a minute or so.  Then she hid again and we gave everyone 3 minutes to write down as many of them as they could remember.  What A and I didn't think was that 5 people got 11 out of 12 right!  If we ever used it again we said we would add more things.

J got some very nice gifts (quite a few people dropped gifts off at the church ahead of time), and we had a good time getting to know the other bridesmaids, and J's friends and family.  G went along with me (thanks Dad and uncle M for watching the boys!) and had a lot of fun too.

The only thing that went wrong was after the shower and only affected me, really.  I slipped on a patch of ice and went down hard whacking my head harder than I have ever done before.  Wasn't knocked out, but definitely discombobulated.  G ran to get my brother L who helped get me on my feet and then drove us to Mom and Dad's.  I had a lump the size of a baked potato by the time we got there!  But no signs of a concussion, just really sore and a major headache for the rest of the weekend.  Felt much better by Monday when we drove home.

We had a great time over the weekend - so much fun to celebrate with the wedding shower, but also fun to get to spend time with family again.  We are so excited to have J as an official part of our family and are looking forward to the wedding!

a belated gift for my birthday boy...

 

In thinking about gifts for this past Christmas, I got the crazy idea in my head that I needed to make handmade gifts for everyone.  There are days that I just need to make something, or want to make something!  But the reality sets in and I realize that the timing is just not right with the ages of the kids right now.  It is better than it was a year ago, and will be better in another year, but I just can't do everything that I want to right now.  

But I held on to this project.  I found this idea for fabric nesting dolls on the blog, Made By Joel.  I adjusted the sized so I could make our whole family and drew the patterns on cardstock.  The pattern for the largest puppet I made 10.5 inches tall and 6.75 inches wide, and then I stepped down 1 inch in height and 3/4 inches in width for each consecutive puppet so they would nest. 

I used natural colored denim for the fronts of the puppets, and different colored fleece for the backs (so nice and soft to play with!).  I hemmed the bottom edge of the denim so it had a nice finished look, but didn't need to with the fleece.

After I had all the pieces cut out, I drew the people onto the denim with a black sharpie.  Now I don't draw free-handed very well, so I copied the people from this paper city (also Made By Joel) and sized them accordingly and printed them out.  I then taped them to one of our sunroom windows and was able to see through the denim to draw.  I wanted our family to look like us, so I used the paper city figures for their shapes only, and then added my own clothing design touches. =)

After that it was only a matter of sewing the fronts and backs together and then getting them wrapped up for my birthday boy (he didn't mind receiving the present a little late!).  I think all the kids (and maybe even the momma and dadda) are having fun with these.  And that they nest is not only neat for storage, but part of the fun for playing!

happy 2nd birthday little C!

Can my baby really be 2?  Our sweet one who entered the world so dramatically yet so peacefully on New Year's Day '09?  These past 2 years have flown by and like it or not he is growing up...and into a wonderful little boy.  Yes, he does share a birthday with a national holiday right after we see all sorts of family on Christmas...so there is not much chance for extended family birthday parties.  But on the bright side his dadda will always have the day off so we can definitely make it a special one with just our family!

happy birthday "pa-takes!!"

lego birthday cake built lovingly and presented with a flourish by his big sister and brother

fun tearing into presents

seriously, this shirt was on W like last week it seems

  (although being in the 97% for everything that isn't too much of a stretch for Little C!)

fun trip to underwater adventures to see...

"fishies!"

too much fun for one day, so his banana chocolate chip cake waited until the next day

I can blow them out myself

who needs a fork?

yum!

We love you "BIG" little C!  Happy Happy Birthday!!!

a blessed 2010

Christmas  Letter 2010

Dear friends and family,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year…just a little late!  We hope you enjoyed a wonderful holiday season.  We loved receiving cards, photos and letters from many of you.  Although this was the year that I was sure I could get our Christmas card out right after Thanksgiving, God put something in our path and we needed to slow down and let everything be for a long while.  But I still wanted to reflect on the blessings of this past year and send our greetings to all of you, so here we are!

 

S – He is still enjoying being pharmacy manager at Costco.  Doesn’t come without challenges though!  The pharmacy has been busy, especially the past couple months, so that means some extra hours.  We are glad Costco is only a mile away so we can visit Dadda whenever we like!  S also keeps busy with house projects, his biggest this year was redoing a retaining wall and our garden area.

 

C – My job has many demands and is pretty much a 24-7 position, but I love it.  I am very blessed that I am able to stay home with our kiddos.  I have now added “room mother” to my list of duties now that G is in school.  I love being able to go to school once a month to be able to help out with lunch and recess duty.  It has been a joy to see G happy and thriving in this new setting. 

 

G – Her whole year has been pretty much the process of getting ready for and starting school.  S and I were a little nervous about it beforehand, but G has always been excited for and confident about loving school.  And she sure does.  She is a Kindergartener at Calvin Christian school and we couldn’t be happier with the school or the great teachers there.   G’s favorite activities are school, reading, playing with her brothers and friends, singing, being outside, drawing/coloring, crafts, and of course putting on shows full of costumes, dancing and singing.

 

W – He is our sensitive little guy, reacts to every little thing, can’t stand and conflict or tension, and has a tender heart for everyone around him.  This has not always made it an easy year, especially with him growing more to the point now where he can verbalize and understand his feelings and also with having G go off to school, but the sweet hugs and snuggles and smiles have got us through it all.  W’s favorite activities are reading, storytime at the library, playing with his trains and trucks, being outside and playing ball, eating fruit, and playing with his brother and sister.

 
Little C – It never ceases to amaze us the amount of growing and changing that the kids do when they are little!  He started out the year not even walking, barely talking and relying on us to feed him and do everything else, and now he is running all over, talking very well for a just two year old, and insisting he do most everything by himself.  Little C’s favorite activities are reading, playing with trucks and trains and toys, getting into mischief, climbing on everything, and following and copying and playing with his siblings.

We also had a busy year with lots of activities and trips –

January:       Little C turned 1, enrolled G in Kindergarten for the

                         fall at Calvin Christian
February:     Little C had dental surgery, month full of sick and snow
March:          Eastman Nature Center classes for G, trip to farm for

                         Mom and kids while S painted our bedroom
April:              trip to MI to celebrate Grandpa Aukeman's 90th birthday
May:               Mother's Day in Willmar, vacation to Nebraska - Omaha

                          zoo and Marcus & Amy’s house
June:              worked on garden, W turned 3, VBS, strawberries
July:               10th anniversary, visits from all the Roskamps
August:          green beans from the garden, G turned 5, annual trip

                          to the state fair
September:   G started school!, C started teaching W's

                          Sunday School class, relocated and painted office
October:         beautiful fall weather, big bike ride with the Bruin's, rock

                          work on the farm
November:   Little C had 2nd dental surgery, hosted Thanksgiving

                          with family and friends
December:    sadness in losing a baby by miscarriage, joy in watching

                          kids' Christmas programs and celebrating holidays with

                          family

This is not the place to put all the details and sadness of what we have experienced in the past couple months, but we were definitely given a greater appreciation for this blessed season and the true meaning of Christmas.  Without Christmas, without Jesus’ birth to celebrate, the birth and death of any one of us is completely meaningless.  God gave us a great gift by sending His son to the world to save us, and through Him we have redemption and hope and a future beyond this world.  We know that our lives, no matter how long or short, have purpose.  God’s plan is way bigger than what we can comprehend.  So all we can do is trust and hope, and know that we are fully resting in His almighty hands.

We wish you God’s peace, joy, and hope for 2011!

Love,

S, C, G, W, and Little C

R family after-Christmas

After spending the Christmas weekend in Willmar, S had to go back to work.  December through January is his "busy" time at the pharmacy...so many people trying to get things in before the year end, and then re-doing insurance and prescriptions once the new year begins.  G was still on Christmas break though, so we decided that the kids and I would continue on to the farm to spend some time with my family.

We did not get together for an official Christmas with my family this year, but since some of us were there during our visit, we opened gifts together.  On Monday night we opened gifts with Uncle L and Auntie J.  Here the kids are showing off their present from Boppa and Aahma...flashlights - best. gift. ever.

Here are the happy soon to be newlyweds in their new Roskamp Farms Etc. coats.  L's coat had worn out, and for J, this is the official "welcome to the family" coat...although S and I didn't receive ours until we had been married about 4 years! =) =)

This is the sweet gift that G made in school for us.  She was so proud that she helped make this and kept it a secret!

And yes, the boxes are still the best part of opening gifts...

On Tuesday, after I spent a wonderful afternoon visiting my good friend M, we picked up Grandma Kole and brought her to the farm for a visit.  So we opened more presents with Nana!

And the kids put on another Christmas program for her too.

It was a lot of fun to watch the kids play and have so much fun on the same snow piles that I played on as a kid (new snow though, obviously).  

Although there may not be anything growing in the middle of winter, the farm is definitely beautiful at this time too.

A great reminder of God's faithfulness through the seasons!

At first I was dragging my feet about traveling so much over Christmas, but it turns out the change of scenery and the special time with family was exactly what we needed after a rough couple of months.  We are so very blessed!

B family Christmas...

We traveled for Christmas this year and were blessed with good weather and roads (for the most part) and a wonderful time with both sides of our family. For the Christmas weekend, we went to Willmar to celebrate with S's family.

Friday evening we went to Christmas eve service, then since our good friends M & A from Brookings were in Willmar for the weekend, they met us at S's parents' house. It was so nice to visit with them again!


G & W (and sometimes C) had a fun time putting on their own Christmas program for everyone that night.


Christmas morning in Christmas pajamas! (don't ask how obsessed I was with finding matching Christmas pajamas this year...=)


the silly Christmas sunglasses in their stockings were a hit


Then of course there were presents (and aunties and papas and mommas taking pictures of kids and presesnts =). S's sister and brother-in-law could only be there Christmas morning, and S's brother and sister-in-law could only be there Christmas afternoon, so we spread present openings out over the whole day!


In the hour overlap that everyone was there, we made sure that we got a family picture...


...and enjoyed a lovely dinner together (with Papa's yummy homemade french bread).


After dinner came more presents...more kids and a sweet dog made for quite the happy chaos!


Then we settled in to enjoy a relaxing afternoon of playing, reading (yep, G is reading to S here!), and Ticket to Ride Europe, with lots of hot cider, tea and snacks.


We had such a good weekend spending time with family and celebrating Christmas together.

G's December memory verse

G came home with her memory verse at the beginning of December and both S and I were a little shocked at the length of it. She had to memorize Luke 2: 8-14

• ⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. ” ¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

But do you know that she picked it up so quickly and was so proud to be able to recite this passage? And she recited it to every grandma, grandpa, nana, auntie, uncle, church friend, and random stranger in the store that would hear her out. What a beautiful passage to have hidden in her heart!

(momma note: of course I didn't record the first time she said this nice and slowly, or even the second time she said it just for fun...this was the third time requested by me to record it, so she was a little antsy and wanted to get it over with!)

2010 Advent calendar

I love the idea of doing something for Advent with the kids, but day-to-day life never seems to afford the time to make or plan something out. We have done a few different things the past few years, but with the kids' ages and attention spans it was kind of hit or miss. So I finally resigned myself to give it a few years. Then I found this Advent calendar, and knew we could do it - or at least try! I printed everything out, modified some of the activities, and G helped me put it all together. I figured if it didn't work out I wouldn't be out much time or materials - only paper, envelopes and paperclips! But it turned out that the kids loved it, and S and I really enjoyed it too.

We hung the calendar on the dining room wall.


Each day had a small Bible passage from the Christmas story. To help the kids listen and remember the story, we had them act out the passage using our incredible nativity set (made by S's Uncle D).


They really liked this part!


Following the Bible passage, there was an easy question or two and then a fun activity for the day. Here they were dressing up like Mary after reading about the angel telling Mary she would have a son, Jesus.


Here they were getting piggy back rides after reading about reading about Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem.


Here they were at the Holidazzle parade (thanks for the pics Auntie C!) after reading about the angels apprearing to the shepherds and the glory of the Lord shining all around them. I modified the activities suggested to fit our schedule and what I wanted to do with the kids. Our yearly family trip to this fun Christmas light parade happened to fall on a perfect day! (as did caroling with our church - that happened on the day we read about the angels singing to the shepherds!)


Here they were with their star cookies they made with Aahma B after reading about the wisemen following the star.


We enjoyed this little calendar and how it helped us keep our focus during this blessed season. With all the chaos of our lives at the time and the busyness of the season, we were able to take time each day to read the Bible, think and talk about the birth of Jesus, and do something fun together.