We wish you a merry Chrismas

Merry Christmas eve!! I love Christmas, celebrating baby Jesus! I love giving gifts, despite the shopping involved. I need to wrap everything though...today! In our house, setting gifts out under the tree is too risky, bound for destruction and accidental discoveries. The kids really don't know they have anything til we place it infront of them! Is that sad? The kids will each have 3 gifts, wiseman? Wise momma, that's still tons of stuff and we have plenty. I keep asking Luke if we can just do Disney instead, I think he thinks I am joking, but I am not! So I am excited to pass out gifts and enjoy time with he kids today and for break. Going to Luke's mom's tomorrow and my dad will come and Naomi and Jesus will celebrate together on Monday. We won't see my mom til the following Monday.
Wishing all of you a blesses Christmas and that you know the true meaning of CHRISTmas.
For God so loved the world that he sent his begotten son and whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16. Now there is something to celebrate! Amen!!

Dancing Duo

Libby and Reany are on the same dance team this year. Libby spent about ten minutes in gymnastics and realized the group lesson wasn't going to be half as fun as last years lucky chance of 1:1lessons.
So here is a pic of them at their holiday show, which may likely be their last, as the Sunday conflict needs to be resolved on our own terms. This is my favorite outfit for them yet. We will continue them in dance until they either want full gymnastics (as they do have that included too), or if another sport takes over. Not like they will get dance scholarships nor that we envision a future in fine arts; however they do learn skill, teamwork, and confidence among other advantages for us to value their involvement in what can sometimes be a questionable industry. Reany excels in dance and I would never take that away from her. My little virtual twins are growing up and seeing them dance together is really fun, maybe I'll post a clip sometime.

Michigan: Mommy and Naomi Getaway

In November, Naomi and I had the privilege of visiting my sister and her family in Michigan. They live there while her smarty pants husband attends the University of Michigan Law School. Only another year left...and hopefully they return for good! We miss them. Ellie is 5 months younger than Naomi, but talks more than her! Naomi has caught up though with her phrases, "where'd ____ go?"

Naomi was such a trooper on the trip, I wish I knew that and we would have been traveling before this, and as of Monday she doesn't fly for free. My baby is turning 2!

We had a great time though, and here are some captured moments of my big sis and our little girls together. They had a blast together and I cannot wait to see them for Christmas too- they fly in on Friday. Yippee!

Six Minutes

That was all the more Noah's school could have for outdoors because of the temperature today, so they didn't go outside. He is now showing me his airplane flights. Luckily he hasn't had to take his ice skates out today yet. He does have some obsessive tendencies, the first day he got his skates (that i bought last year marked down from 49.99 to 6.24 at target!) he could not stop looking at them, touching them, and talking about them. Poor kid even got up in the middle of the night potty break and what does he murmur, "do hockey player skate fast?"

We are now waiting patiently for the rink to be filled up in town. Adam got a nice pair of skates from Grandpa Deno for helping in his garage, David scored a nice pair that my mom had, and I picked up some near new ones for the girls at a garage sale this summer for $5 a piece. Surely it will take about six minutes in the frosty air to wonder what I was thinking...but the Honda will be my warming house!

Glucose testing this Monday, gosh it seems like just yesterday I was pregnant with my first, Libby. That's just crazy. This girl doesn't have a name yet, but I am working with Luke on that now. For a while he was like, "we have plenty of time, months actually, I'm not worried about it." As if I am having anxiety over it; no, but I did tell him I don't want to just toss a name out at the last minute and not really know what her name should be. It is likely Luke's side for family names, so guessing the middle name will be either Helen or Theda for his grandmothers, or Marie as his mother's middle name. And I think it should end in a "ie" sound as our girls trend. Luke thinks we should stick with an "L" or "N" start as our younger bunch. We are taking suggestions!

This weekend we are looking forward to the girls participating with a booster club with Aubrey's dance team. Unfortunately I lost my camera charger so I will not be getting pics. I did order a replacement, thanks to ebay. I also found a charger for a dvd player I bought years ago and lost maybe with the packaging? I am the worst techy in the world, but luckily replacement parts are affordable and available for people like me. I got both for less than $20 total. Not bad.

Speaking of shopping, this year doing 3 presents each kid- and some stocking stuffers. The grinch can take away santa, but not my fun of stuffing goodies and trinkets I collect year round:) So I have a couple gifts yet to get. Super excited for a few of the kids gifts, ukeleles! Isn't that going to be fun! SHH! Luke thought an educational, a toy, and a clothing. Originally he said outfit, and then what was his budget? Total $50. Like maybe in the 1950s. Obviously he is not the shopper, but I am not too far off. Black Friday paid off; however, if you get to Toys R Us at 2:30 am and they are sold out of your one item...not fair! The midnight bull was disappointing because it opened a whole new category of shoppers, the night owls who would never get up early to shop. They should make up their own day, not take mine. Oh well.

Refreshing time of year for me, the crisp air and songs of the Messiah renew my spirit to peace. CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, OH GOD, AND RENEW A RIGHT SPIRIT WITHIN ME. Psalms 51:10

We have been working on scripture memory, little Noah has Romans 6:23 and Luke 11:28 down, super cute! May your advent season be blessed with the joy and love of Jesus in your hearts. If you don't have the true meaning of Christmas, you won't find it under a tree<3
K my six minutes is up. And I did have an airplane construct and phone call interruptions:)

Did a couple months happen?

And how? How pathetic to post my September birthdays! Life has been happening, contrary to my blog posts. Catch up club, not only the afterschool program David is participating in, but my attempts for the last couple months here too. Another technical issue, the newer laptop crashed and I really didn't want to load my pics to the old one, but I did. The hard-drive needs to be replaced, of course it is under warranty since it isn't even a year old. Ah electronics. I would like an Ipad- so we'll see how good I've been this year.

What have we been up to? Well, some posts to come...Naomi and I went to Michigan to visit my sister's family. Our baby is...another girl!! Yeah for spoiling Naomi and getting to use her stuff again. Bruno is the proud father of 11 pups...wowza!! Boxers for New Years anyone? Mancala, headbanz, and connect 4 tourneys. Ready for sledding and hot cocoa.

Nosey Ocho Quatro!!

He comes to Nosey Ocho, he is delightful and sweet. If his hair got any more blonde it would disappear. A bubble beard looks real! September 28th this little fella turned 4 and continues to amaze us. He is a blessing and we love his spirit and twinkling eyes. We are excited to see what God has in store for him and we hope that his enthousiasm, imagination, and kindness never fades. Noah is a good brother and even kisses the baby tummy and says sweet things all the time. He is learning to count in spanish, loves animals (Princess is his favorite!), and loves to learn. We love you little buddy!!

Catch Up Club...Birthday Boy ;)

David David David...
Now 14
Happy Birthday September 24th
You teach us new things...all the time
We are thankful to have you in our family and
look forward to seeing what God has planned for
you. You can be charming, helpful, sensitive, and
loving. You are a hard worker and like to be independent
and creative. You make us want to work harder at being good
parents and we love you! Have a great year!! hApPy BiRtHday!!!

Big Sandy Camp

Welcome to Big Sandy Camp in McGregor, MN. That was our family camp destination for this Labor Day weekend. We had a grand time and once again were reminded of the special opportunity family camp, here are some of our favorite pics to share...

Lexi and Libby could hardly stop ziplining, this was a more playground style one that they had countless hours of fun on. I am surprised I was not bandaging blisters more.

The most unique feature of the camp was this awesome wooden water slide, they ride down in a metal cart. I will post videos eventually, it was AWESOME!! Luke took a few kids down it and it was really neat, they fly down and coast into the water.

Adam and Luke, my handsome guys:)

Noah was not into rock climbing as much as we had anticipated, hence he was pretty mush a dangler...wouldn't ya say!

Rockin' Reany has no fear and is tough though!!

This little peanut had a great time enjoying God's great outdoors all weekend.

Daddy and Omi, she had picked flowers for them (sorry gardner!) She was past a nap and still sweet as can be.

Water wars, really neat water balloon fill up devices and then some targets across from each other. Adam and I almost won the water balloon toss too- until I was bombed.

Limbo Limber Libby took 2nd place

Noah enjoyed kyaking in the shallow waters of Big Sandy Lake.

David was a rock star on the second most unique feature at camp, mountain scooters. He was standing by the end and did great, he does like skateboarding and this was a sport designed by snowboarders for the summer. quite fun

And here is the fam, minus one, but ya can't win 'em all. We had a great time!

Not sure why Luke was compelled to pick up this goat, but the kids also enjoyed the kittens, chickens, and bunnies. The bunnies and kittens were ready to go home though after the summer, not with us, but hopefully they did find homes. Nice door prizes though:)

Noah was very proud of his treasure chest he painted in crafts.

Naomi and momma, in the dining hall. We liked that they had round tables for us to enjoy and a little elbow room, plus- having meals cooked for you is the definition of vacation to me!



It wasn't long and Libby was flipping. Luke got a shot at that too:)

Thanks Big Sandy for a nice weekend, maybe we will see you again on our Labor Day adventures!

Autumn Underway

And that's ok! We had an intersting finish of summer, as Luke's *minor* back injury turned into 4 weeks and 2 days off from work. That was fun to have him home, but even better to have him back on payroll:)

We tried a new camp up on Sandy Lake in McGregor. I will do a camp post with great pics and some videos too. I am not going to bash them, so this may be the only comparative comment, the food at Lebanon will urge me to register February 1st from now on! And Luke kept thinking there were more activities at Lebanon, but I think they were quite competitive. Big Sandy had an awesome alpine roller-coaster slide into the water, mountain scooters (snowboards on wheels down a hill!,) a climbing wall, and a garage sale- so those were kinda cool differences. Pics to come.

School is full swing, going good. Noah is usually liking to go to preschool too, so curious to see what time of academic milestones he can make there. Libby is doing a 3rd/4th grade mix this year, so that is a good change for her. She also decided to dance this year instead of just gymnastics. Last year she had the 1:1 class and with 5 kids, with a few less skilled it was a quick decision. It will be fun to have the girls together again. I really can't say much except the drain of IEPs and inept programing and services for various reasons always always always keeps me on my toes. Working with the peoples in now 3 different schools is maybe my first- as the boys have always had the same case manager. David is in football this year too, big 7th grader! So that is fun to see him enjoy that, and luckily I have a carpool friend too making it not as bad to have to drive out and get him, school is about 15 miles away. No more activity bus, we are grateful for activities these days I guess.

Birthday week- David's 14 tomorrow. WoW! We will celebrate by going to the mothers of multiples sale to shop early, wishing I would have sold. I won't in March, because I WILL HAVE A NEWBORN. WOoP...WoRd oUt! So then I am like a hoarder with bins of clothes ready to flip into my budget. Could my purchasing wait too?! Anyhow, David has always wanted to go with me. I may even deviate from the household rule and let him wander on his own, seriously, it's his birthday! Then he may be having a friend overnight. My mom will be visiting Sunday too for both boys. Noah turns 4 on Wednesday. I am going to try to take Steph's habit of taking a pic of the birthday kid with mom and dad each year. That is really a good idea. So, there in writing, a goal:)

Okay, so first public announcement, as if it gets more public than this:)
TIE BREAKER BABY...who will share a room? Noah or Naomi? To be determined October 17th, and baby due March 12- Nat, does that give you a bd buddy?!
Spring break tie breaker baby, ready or not, filling up the van!

Now I have broken the ice of my delayed posting, it has just been busy days! Plus I got strep this week, nice. Wishing all of you a great start to fall, loving the leaves! MN does have it's perks...I'd argue autumn is definitely one!

Anniversary

The SEVEN YEAR anniversary of us driving down to Iowa to pick up Adam, David, and Reany, we traveled there again, to bid farewell to Luke's dad. There was great discussion of this event, but it was a good decision and it was a good experience for our family. So many things have happened in those 7 years, it is really hard to imagine life any other way. There have not been any reactions to the farewell, and I think it was good closure for whatever level everyone is on. When we were there, Noah pipes in, "he doesn't have any teeth." Like that was the most valuable thing that he knew of his estranged grandfather. That was also the last time that Aubrey was around, her and her mother seem to have their own agenda of what a teenager should be doing, and we just pray it won't last long or have detrimental consequences. At some point, we release our vision and know that God is drawing the picture, not us, and we are here just doing our best to fill his vision for ourselves and our responsibilities of that which we are granted control of, because there is no lack for our attention.

I held his hand, kissed his forehead, cried when I told him that we'll take good care of the kids and apologized that we couldn't have had a better relationship. He seemed at peace, had accepted Christ just months ago, got Luke's 3 sisters to visit (so 7 of his 15 were able to see him,) and died within 2 weeks later on August 30th, 2011. Luke is thankful to have his Father in Heaven and knows that his earthly father taught him through inadequate examples and grief to be connected and committed to his children. His passing and those details leading up to are a reminder to live life to the fullest and to have purpose in the master plan.
Farewell Richard.

Summer Picks

You have never seen a parade pic from me. The last parade I went to was years ago. My kids have gone, with sitters or friends. I just don't really like parades. But...guess what?! Our hometown, after 4 years of living here, actually puts on a decent one. And I really do love the Coborns grocery cart:



Waiting patiently, but no flowers. Wondering if the seeds were duds. The vines really sprouted, but I was hoping for some excellent flowers, when will they bloom planting friends? Morning glories undecided.


This little fellow never made it. We found him on the side of the house, and despite us letting him be, by morning he had dried up and just didn't make it. What is it? No clue, I think he turns into a moth or something prettier than this stage. We found a hollow shell, so we know that some of these little creatures are surviving.




We took a girls trip to the cities; Lexi, Libby, Reany, Naomi, and I went to the science museum. I didn't go back to the van for my camera though and only got this shot of Naomi trying to indulge in some ice cream. Went to OCB, and was delightfully surprised that 2 kids ate for free with an adult, so it was a good price too!


scrunchy face cutie pie honey bunch my peanut butter little crunch!

Mommy Chronicles

Adam: Is getting broader now too and it's just crazy to see him growing up. Will be in the high school this year...scary! We are hoping that goes well and have some back up plans if it doesn't. His favorite thing to do is ride bike, and he would love me to buy him a trick bike. I refuse though, as the only bike I will get him will be one that is for longer rides- but gears and brakes are a toughie.

David: Is starting football this fall! WoW! I hope that is a good fit for him and that he enjoys being apart of the team. Luckily there may be another family or 2 to carpool with, whatever happened to an activity bus?! He continues to love on Naomi and is a good help with many things. He also is a checkers shark.

Lexi: She is spending the week with us, so that is awesome. We never really thought she might be in our regular head count, but that seems possible after all. She is growing into quite a thinker and likes to play on the piano (although leery of my private lessons, we'll see about that!) We also just learned she has corn, popcorn, gluten, and wheat intolerance. Nice, nothing like trying to rule out your primary diet!

Aubrey: Busy with friends, babysitting her little sister at her moms, and trying to get her permit...sums it up pretty good.

Libby: Lost her first top tooth! I need to upload pics, she is pretty cute with that space there. Her second front tooth is slightly loose now, so that will be next in a few weeks likely. She is very helpful with little ones and could probably start babysitting even! She has Spanish camp next week, so that will be nice to see her get back into her second language. I need a month in South America to learn any more Spanish I think...so maybe in a few years? Yea right.

Reany: Said she wanted to lose one of her front teeth too, pulling on one, and I said, "No! You don't! That is a permanent tooth, you will have that forever." HeHe. She continues to marvel us with her one handed cartwheels. The girls have been putting on performances lately, and she has a ballet combo routine to "A Whole New World." She puts on her blue dance costume and floats around.

Noah: Has officially learned to bike without training wheels! Considering Libby was pushing 7 we are delighted at his ability:) He is also diving into the water and holding his breath to swim- cutest thing, he folds his arms out in front of him, like crossed over- that is his starting position so then he opens them up and does a natural breast stroke. Super cute from my tiny luke with platinum invisible blonde hair. That, btw, continues to be very difficult to cut because of his cowlicks creating a reverse mohawk and patches of horns. Unfortunately, Luke is not impressed or sympathetic to the situation and thinks he could give a better cut. And his always turn into a buzz cut. We might need counseling:)

Naomi: Is saying most words on cue, deciphering them may be the listeners duty. She loves playing with her babies and kitchen. We wonder if her little ringlets in back will stay with her. She has decided she doesn't like bananas. This is like taking away gluten. She used to live off them! At least she will usually eat oatmeal still, if she is not interested in the meal. I don't remember anyone being more picky than her, so hopefully she will get over it, but I won't quit buying our oats!

Luke: Threw his back out by throwing kids in the pool. Adam is 5'11" and 135#...one might wonder why he was throwing him anyhow. I did at least. But he is home for the week. He always wanted more time home during the summer, but he isn't taking his boat out anytime soon, thankfully he can walk again though. It was a rough first couple days. He was pushing the high chair around for a walker!

Me: Was hoping to be granted 34 wishes, one to grow on... but I never made the list, so I guess I can't expect anything. Isn't that some type of strategy- that you cannot be disappointed without expectations. Summer is flying by and I am super duper excited for camp this year, a few days without cooking makes me through the next year until it happens again.

What's been going on...

My camera was just recovered yesterday! I'll tell ya where it was later. In the meantime I have been watching my morning glories grow from seeds up the fishing line, the would climb forever! Wondering when the flowers will come. Bruno, our awesome boxer. Check out that head conformation! I need to find a big German boxer to breed him one more time. We want his lifeline! He has a silky soft coat and is the best dog in the world. If anyone knows big boxers, please let me know!

We have completed our extra curricular activities for the summer. Here was the one day in Lexi's life she has gotten to go to a class and she enjoyed it so much. Here with her focus on the instructions of what she was doing. If I had a better camera half my pictures wouldn't be junk. I just can't afford to, even with my attention though because I try not to read instructions and do not understand most of my electronics to their fullest potential. I could go on for days with the corners I cut:) So back to the activities...Noah, Libby, and Reany did tennis. I need to see if my mil can lend us the rackets she always lured us with but never delivered on. And we got busy enough that they only played tennis during their class for the hour a week. And the girls missed their first 2 lessons. One because I forgot I put them the next class same day to reduce travel until after coming home that night. duh! and then the second when we were on that trip. Reany did a dance camp and Libby did gymnastics. Now we are on break and will not do anything but school related things. Speaking of school, ecstatic to decide with ease for Noah to attend school 8-11 m-f. Wow! I can't imagine. And that is their academics program, but I am only registering the preschool 3 day, I guess it matters sometimes to be honest. I told her I was debating to save $100 a month to go to cherub (our church's daycare in the big city 15 minutes away.)
Wow this caption has turned into a novel. Guess I missed blab blogging! Without my camera though, it just isn't the same. By the time I have a novel kodak will have some killer deals to print this collection of my ramblings:)
So, Lexi is just great and I wish that we could snag her long enough to get some lessons or something. We are starting piano with her, but need to get a little assignment log where she records her practice and then go through another lesson of the basics. She has some natural talent because she is interested in music. I hope she changes her mind about band, she changed hers after begging and begging mom to do clarinet. When I caught wind of that, and heard the story of her crying to her mom and that, now to be convinced in effort to please, that she didn't want to do it anymore, point of no return. So I told mom she should never discourage the investment of music or skill to the girls without talking to us, because we want them to be involved with positive and smart things. Music is smart. So is Lexi. Every other weekend is not enough! Boo Hoo to broken families and may those dealing with that and those unknown to that- let's teach this generation healthier ways then our own examples even sometimes. God created us for relationship and trust me, the evil one is lurking in every corner you give him. Power, love, self - control.

And, on the market we have a beautiful metal twin girls frame with a shorter lofted style cabin underneath. Cute pink with red ties tent under it. Please note: the slide is not attached in this picture, but it has a slide on it! This bed is super cool and perfect for preschool through about 250 pounds. Plenty room to grow:) We took the one down and are using it as a bunk with Libby underneath the bottom, her twin mattress fits perfect, but then has no boxspring and is right on the floor. Their room was crowded for too long now. When we bought them 4 years ago I did anticipate they would be done at about 8. Next on the agenda for their room is real size bunks, as the metal are shorter. Libby really wanted a desk in her room too, and so that has been added. My girls are growing up! The boys went to camp last night and the girls asked to have a sleep out in the living room and get to watch tv at night. Neither of them have done a sleepover yet, and wee intend to keep it that way for a while, so I was happy at their excitement to be with one another. With a family this big who needs friends? Just kidding, we love friends, contrary to not having any!

And this bubbly day, wow! Let's just say if a whole bottle of yummy bath and body works soap dumps in your beach bag, you do need to rinse the towels that absorbed it. Again, trust me. I know what works and doesn't work. If it doesn't work I can tell you why! Bubble maina! And this was after noticing the problem and then ending the cycles to only rinse. Then I am thankful to have a side door right outside that mainfloor laundry and bathroom duo, complete with a hose. I actually forgot that the soap was in those towels and did not think twice to include the tents from both of the beds. That is a nylon poly blend and must have just been perfect for bubble making. I am again thankful- as every moment of my life- but the machine is still running. That is an essential around here!

We have had some wicked weather this summer. So when the sirens go off we take shelter, women and children. Luke tries to get some good pics. wth? Very seldom does Luke take pictures, but have no fear when danger is near- Luke will photograph:) And here is the winning prize...the camera was safe and sound in our storm shelter that whole time! Yea!