Surprise!

So, here's our announcement!

As I wrote on facebook, the girls are incredibly excited about having another new baby sibling. They include "the baby who lives in Mom's tummy" in their thankfulness prayers every night. They are very, very good for a nervous and somewhat-terrified Mommy. That said, here is Sunny happily peeling the "baby egg" that she could not wait to eat!

I perused pinterest for quite awhile trying to find an announcement we could copy for this newest family member. Not many of them really "fit" us, though. Most of them involved counting children, and, unfortunately, we can't do that. We can't have Miss Mouse hold a #1 sign because she isn't; same with Sunny for the #2 and Mighty Mouse for the #3. Those are their functional numbers but not their actual ones. Many nights when they pray and thank God for Mommy, Daddy, each other, themselves, and Mighty Mouse, they also include Hope and "Something Baby", which is what they've "named" the baby we lost in October 2005, long before knowing its gender; they're very aware of their "older" siblings.  That's why I came up with the announcement idea I did. Hopefully it makes some sense! We had a lot of fun decorating the boiled eggs; the girls decorated their own and were somewhat upset that I claimed the right to decorate everyone else's! 

"Poochie" vs. "Pucci"

Miss Mouse and I were doing geography the other morning - Thursday, I think. Sunny was working on patterns on the floor; I draw a couple of starts of patterns, and she fills in what comes next.  Miss Mouse's lesson was about North and South America; we've been studying about continents the past two weeks. The book talked about Amerigo Vespucci. The girls were both pretty excited about it, but Sunny was still focused on her patterns. I was pleased with a fun lesson and made a mental note to myself to order some library books about Mr. Vespucci. End of lesson....I thought.

Before Mighty Mouse went to bed later that evening, Sunny was helping me entertain him and clean up his room. She was playing with the stuffed bear she had given him as a birthday present, and she suddenly said, "I think his name should not be 'Fluffy Bear' (the name she first chose). I think it should be 'Poochie'". I responded that that was a nice name, too, thinking how cute it sounded. Well, a few minutes later, Miss Mouse came in the room, and Sunny updated her sister on the bear's new name. "Oh!", Miss Mouse responds, "You named him after that explorer man!". What? My poor fuzzy brain had no idea what they were talking about. I was especially confused when Sunny looked extraordinarily proud and nodded her head with a big grin (the one with raised eyebrows - that's her "I am so funny and someone finally got it" look). I had to ask them for an explanation, so they humored me and explained how this "Poochie" guy had sailed around and everyone thought he had found the other side of Asia ("you know, Mom, that continent named after the rising sun?"), but he figured out he was on the other side of the world, and now our continents are named after him. The lights finally came on. Oh!!! Amerigo Vespucci! Yes, yes, yes!!!! The girls were so pleased when their poor, slow-to-remember-Mommy had finally remember what she'd taught nine hours earlier.

So, apparently the bear's name is now "Pucci". The girls giggle everytime they remind their brother of the bear's name and remind him where the name came from. Such fun!!!

Matthias on the Farm

We had an almost perfect day to have combine rides at the farm a couple weeks ago. My Dad was finishing up a few acres of oats, which gave us all the chance to ride the combine. I'd never been on one with two seats before, so I think I was just as excited as the kids were!  While Sunny had a combine ride, Matthias decided he'd have his picture taken. Here they are (sorry to those who have already seen these on facebook; I happen to love looking at my nephew and just assume everyone else does, too.....I think it's an auntie's right of some sort....).

 As much as Matthias looks just like his Daddy, when he smiles like this, I totally see our Grandpa Don and his family!

These pictures were so fun to take - Laura had her senior pictures taken on these railroad tracks, and it is fun to see how happy she is here. High school was not the "time of our lives" for either of us; it's so neat to see how THIS really IS.

One Incredible Year

So, this post is almost a month behind, but I'm hoping there's some redeeming value in posting it period!

Mighty Mouse had a beautiful day for his birthday. His party was small; neither set of grandparents were able to make it. My parents were still harvesting, which is no surprise; it's just a sad fact that Mighty Mouse will have to get used to not having them celebrate with him on his actual day, given that his actual day falls right in the middle of the typical harvest season. Mike's parents were vacationing in Greece. Not so typical, but so fun! We missed them, but we were happy for the fun they were having for sure.  Our official "substitute grandparents" were able to attend (I think it's funny to call them "substitutes" since they are both retired from school careers), so that was fun. Most of Mighty's other little friends were under the weather, but one of our goddaughters and her daddy were able to be there. So, it was a small gathering, but it was fun and not overwhelming for our four-year-old (this was a bonus - Sunny has a hard time with really big parties; she'd have been fine, but it was nice to see her just relaxed and enjoying the time, too).

Because Mighty had recently started "voofing" at any and every animal he saw, we chose a puppy-themed party.  Here are some pictures:

 I made dog bone shaped breadsticks.

 The girls tried so hard for a picture of Mighty with his cake. He was so totally not interested in cooperating!

 The girls also helped with the cake. In fact they got so helpful that at one point Neighbor Carroll (doesn't that sound very Quaker-like?) took them over to their yard for some fun outdoor play so that I could frost the puppy face. Neighbor Carroll had been called over because of a diaper-disaster we had in the living room, a naked one year old roaming the house, a still-unfrosted-cake, and approximately twenty minutes to party time. All I wanted help with was for her to dress the birthday boy while I cleaned up the living room mess, but, as usual, she was so much more helpful than I would have expected or hoped.

 Sampling his cake. He was pretty timid, much like Miss Mouse on her first birthday.

 He's looking at Mike with that "really, Daddy?" look.

" Well, okay, I guess I'll dig in then!"

" Let's see if I can really smoosh it."

 Look at what a gentleman he decided to be, though, taking small little fingerfulls.

 "This is getting pretty fun!"

 "The best part, though? That Mommy is letting me dump it all.over.myself.and.my.tray!!!!!!"

"What? What are you looking at?"

We are so thankful for this past wonderful year with Mighty Mouse. He has brought so many smiles and so much sweetness to our lives. Seeing the love he has for his sisters and the love they have for him melts my heart over and over and over. He is learning so much these days, just like a sponge. He gives hugs, sometimes admits that a sheep says "baa", is pretty adamant everything else should say "voof", copies his sisters constantly, learned how to call the sheep to the fence at the farm (Eeep! Eeep!!), loves to hammer on everything WITH anything, loves to play with his sisters, especially running around following them as they run around squealing, loves to snuggle Mommy, loves his blue blankies, loves to read, especially sitting and looking at the pictures on his own, and, new to my childrearing experiences, loves to eat food. It seems we could not love this little boy any more, yet everyday we do!!!!