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!!!!

Blessings

We've had a week mildly full of sneezing and snot and coughing. Ishy, but not horrid. The "not horrid" part is one of the blessings I encountered this week.  I'm not really used to feeling so blessed in the midst of an illness moving through the whole family, and, honestly, I did not feel very blessed on Tuesday night when sitting in the recliner with a garbage can, tasting blood when I coughed and sure I was going to puke. Thankfully, though, that, so far, was the worst of the effects for the lot of us. Mighty and Miss Mouse are both almost over their snottiness, and I only have a slight cough left.

The biggest blessing this week, though, started with this conversation on Monday night:
Miss Mouse: "I don't feel very well."
Sunny: "I hope I don't get it. I want to be able to take care of you."

Tuesday morning activity began around 7:21 when I saw the light go on in the girls' room. With only one eye open, I noted that they were quiet and dozed back to sleep since I'd been up most of the night with the uncomfortable Mighty Mouse. Well, around 8:05, the girls came hopping into our room, both dressed, and both ready for breakfast. If you know our household well, you know I often have to wrestle (figuratively, anyway) Miss Mouse out of bed and into clothes around 8 a.m. There she was, though, sick and all, dressed and ready for the day!  Dragging my sorry self into the kitchen, I saw Sunny grabbing an apple out of the refrigerator for Miss Mouse's breakfast. I'm not so pathetic as to make a four year old cut up an apple, so I did slice it and split it between the two girls, giving them reheated apple, raisin, vanilla, cinnamon, maple steel-cut oats, as well.  The night before's conversation concluded that morning with this:

Sunny: "I got her dressed this morning. She's kind of like a really big doll, except dolls are harder to dress."
Miss Mouse: "Yes, she got me dressed, so I didn't have to do any work at all!"
Sunny: "Yep. Then I played a game for her (Miss Mouse watched Sunny put together a shape game....apparently Sunny is a full-service caretaker!), and then I read her three books."
Miss Mouse: "Then I pointed to my mouth to do sign language that I was hungry. She understood me, so that's when we came and got you to come into the kitchen."

Yep, so Miss Mouse was even exempt from having to talk. I can't remember the last time I've dressed her or figured out that she was hungry based on the signs she was making, but I'm pretty sure she was around Mighty's age!  It just tickled me to no end how sweet Sunny was to her sickish elder sister. I've been praying that God would perhaps reward Sunny's sweetness by exempting her from our colds, since she often ends up having to do a nebulizer treatment or two, but tonight it seems that Sunny has succumbed to the yuckyness, too.  She was mainly concerned that she make it to dance this week and have the chance to take care of her big sister, so perhaps having done that will help her be content enough to just rest and fight off the bug as quickly as the rest of us have.

It's rewarding - and it's honestly a blessing - to see how kind and caring these children are toward each other. They squabble; they argue; they whine at each other. But at the end of the day, they are best friends.

Summer Fun

We had a wonderful Summer 2013. It was a dream summer, honestly. Mike had an 8-week sabbatical plus 2 weeks of vacation on the end, and the first week, I nearly cried every night because I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that he would be home for dinner that night. And the next night. And the next. And the next. And the next. Really, it brought tears to my eyes - tears of excitement and relief and just complete happiness. It was A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Now, I know of other pastors and their families who have trekked across Europe, toured the Holy Land, or done something else fairly spectacular and impressive while on sabbatical. That was not the position we are in at this point. Mike built a shed. It's a really, really nice shed, though. It's really more like a "second home" in the backyard. We even talked about perhaps housing guests in it someday (not really, please don't be scared to visit us!). We do truly want to build a loft in it for the kids to have as a playhouse, though. That, however, is a "someday project" right now. The shed was enough for one summer. It was an intense building project, but it was great, too, in that Mike's Dad was able to come help for somewhere around two weeks of the building. It was so fun having him around! Then, our neighbor over-the-fence offered to shingle the thing for us! It's extremely tall with a very steep roof grade, so that was a blessing in so many ways! Anyway, as non-spectacular as it sounds to have spent his sabbatical building a shed (after a really neat bear hunt in Manitoba that yielded not even one bear-siting....), it definitely impressed the ladies (and young man) in Mike's life!

We sort of wrapped up our summer with a trip to SD. We had spent a weekend in the Twin Cities with Mike's family in June, at a wedding and visiting the MN Zoo, which we adore, and at the end of July, my parents joined us for a couple days in the Black Hills.  Here we are at Mount Rushmore. Trust me. My lens just isn't wide enough to get the faces in if we were going to get our faces in. Notice I even color-coordinated us? Well, not Mike. That was just on accident. I know. I know. Color-coordinating for pictures is out-of-style. I couldn't help it. I think the kids had a lot better time than it looks like they are having right here. Mike and I? I think our happy looks pretty much reflect the way we felt all week just being able to play together as a family.

Doesn't Sunny look proud riding a unicorn at Storybook Island? The girls (and even Mighty Mouse) loved Storybook Island. We went twice, though the second time was cut short by a rain shower and a dirty diaper. I offered to wrap Mighty's little bottom in a plastic bag that I got when I bought him a souvenir hat at the gift shop, but Mike decided it was best to make it to a gas station where he could get an actual replacement diaper. What kind of mother leaves their rental-vacation house (it was $30/night cheaper than any hotel would have been and we had an entire HOUSE to ourselves!!!) without a clean diaper? Ugh. Oh well.  We had a blast there.

My Mom and I have a picture like this from about 30 years ago.

Sunny finally got her chance to hold a peep. This was at Old MacDonald's Farm. We went back their twice, as well. 

Mighty Mouse has a hilarious "thinking face", in my opinion. Here he had just come out from hiking into a mountain to see a waterfall called Thunderhead Falls. It was just a little out-of-the-way hike that we stumbled upon while driving around for Mighty to take a nap one afternoon (after spending the morning in Rapid at The Farm - see above). It was so fun, though, and so very family-friendly. Despite his face, even Mighty Mouse seemed to have enjoyed himself. Sunny skipped and hopped the entire way back into the mountain. Only Miss Mouse, usually our bravest child, wanted to leave the falls quickly. She said it was just really loud, which is was. 

I'm not sure what this face signifies, but it cracks me up, too.

Those I love most in this world. They're on a hike around Horsethief Lake on our way home from having pizza in Keystone one evening. I've cropped this photo so you can see their faces, but really they were high above me on a cliff outcropping. I was so proud of Sunny for being brave enough to trek up there!

It's SuperBaby!

We have so many fun pictures from this trip. I can't wait to make a book of them. Sunny says she still misses "our" house in SD. Miss Mouse has made peace with having left, but she says she really, REALLY wants to go back again. It sort of blew me away that we were able to do a trip like this with a 10-month old baby, but I really think having the house made all the difference. We also didn't do nearly everything on my list that I'd made of potential activities, and that was really just totally fine. We really got to know the places we did go, took our time, relaxed, and didn't run ourselves ragged (until the trip home which was a completely different story and nearly landed me in an asylum, I think.....). I should have gotten more pictures on the days that my parents were with us, but, hey, they TOOK the family photo of us at the top. So that's kind of like them being IN it, right? Right, Grammy and Grandpa Bob? Um. Yeah, sorry. I think I was enjoying our time too much to do much photographing. It's all in my mind, neatly tucked away to unpack sometime in January when we've been inside for 42 days straight.

What a great summer this was!