Easter 2016

Easter 2016

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

GOING PUBLIC:

We are expecting!!
A 12 year old boy. Shame on IA DHS for not giving him to us in the first place. Shame on the family that made his life worse and gets to keep a lone sibling. This is real people. There are THOUSANDS of kids in the US that do not have a family that wants them. I am so happy my boy is coming home, and life will be redefined as we know it. I am so glad God knows what he's doing, clearly I don't!! So don't pat my tummy, he's well and waiting for us to love and provide to him like he never knew. Thank you Jesus, once we didn't know if we'd see him again. Maybe I will write a book...in my free time!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Mommy Chronicles


Adam has been upgraded to a full bed, being taller than Luke, we decided the twin bottom bunk was not enough space for him. He has been getting ready for fishing and golfing season. His sweet 16 is just around the corner, and guess what he wants? His ear pierced?! Where did that come from and will we allow it? Hmmm


Darling David, reading to his little brother. He just might have a future in child care! He also is doing great in karate and I am really glad he started that. He has earned the most for his willingness to fill leaf bags too, loves the greenbacks:)

Libby and her daddy. She got a special invite to a writers workshop at St.Bens, and is very excited about that. She has all of mommy's touch down too in baby care and word is out because the neighbors even use her helper services! Both girls piano is coming along nicely too.


Reany is the pogo stick master and can even go backwards! She is growing her hair out, and this time after the dance recital we will actually keep it longer. She likely is Naomi's first choice in playmates too, because they have a blast together.


Noah is the winner of the sweet little big brother award, he just loves Lillie up and is always saying how precious and cute she is. He has been known to try getting her too though, so my guard is on. He is going to try BMX racing this season too, and is in the lineup for t-ball. Luke thinks he will be bored with that because he hits like a pro already, so we'll see if he gets a minor league contract this summer or not. Where God is taking him with the athleticism will be fun to watch and partner.

Naomi...if you call her sweetie, honey, cutie, or any of the like, she will correct you,"I Mo-mie!" She is keeping up with the big kids now and loves playing house. She loves puppies too. Her favorite snack is toothpaste (and the ever convenient fruit shelf may need to be relocated, at least until she finishes potty training:)

First smile caught on camera. She's either happy or irrate, even trying reflux meds to see if that doesn't help her out. She loves tummy pressure, mommy, mommy, and mommy. She is already in solid 6 months clothes and is the family favorite (okay, she is still working on Adam, but he'll come around.)

So, with the visual reminder of who all these cute kids are, in a nutshell here we are. We also lost our dear boxer, Bruno, and will have a memorial post to come. He was the best dog in the world and we are all sad to lose him, he wasn't even 7 yet! Not sure what is in store for our pet prospects, Luke is not very interested in a replacement yet. I am certain kids need a dog though, so maybe we will decide by the end of summer to get back into the swing of dog care. In the meantime, we can enjoy that we won't have to clean poop in the yard or off (Reany's) shoes.

Spring is here, we are delighted in the nice weather. Blessed from God, and we nod- in adoration for our King, who has set us free so we can be...who we are in Him and not look back or keep track of what could have been might have been, we can win and for His glory share his story (holla, holla!)...Peace out!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Blueberries in a bowl

And call it a break. Laundry going, who am I kidding it never stops! Naomi is talking herself to sleep. Noah is amazingly still on my bed, close to sleeping. The baby just realized I documented a break and I guess the. Blueberries will thaw and be good in a few minutes...ah the life!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Before and After, What is Now


All packed and ready to go have a baby! Luke painted my toes the night before and I was more than ready to meet my precious new daughter! Theresa came for the early shift and we were out to become parents...again.

All packed up and ready to go home, no more menu selections for this momma! Little Lillie was the first of my 4 babies to get a new carseat, lucky girl! The kids made a beautiful welcome home sign for her too, I will probably capture another time. And there are photos in between these ones of course, possibly a new post.

Lillie's first bath was not a big hit for her, luckily it was quick and painless!

Love this pic! Daddy and his little girls!

We are adjusting quite well to the new sheriff's orders. We will be enjoying these last 6 weeks of school, and Lillie turns 6 weeks on Monday, so very do-able. The homeschooling is working out well, but have not etched anything in stone for next school year. They are doing part-time at the local school district, which has FAAARRRR better programming than the school we previously open enrolled at to seek the social advantages of a more rural and lower class size desires. I have been nothing but impressed with the distict and staff, so that is good. They are picked up at 9:50 and brought home at 1:30. For next year I am going to shoot for a better schedule, not smack dab middle of my day. If that isn't possible, we may reconsider all together. There are some potential distractions in store for next year, so not counting any ducklings yet.
The boys wanted to do karate. Let's just say that our autism didn't mix well with karate and Adam's response to what he thought was, "I hate it!" Plus he was so worked up he was close to tears by the end of the hour. Experiencing that was good for him, but he'll stick with golf!
Noah has had a change of schedule too, I knew the last thing I would want to do was bring him to the Montessori M-F by 8am with a toddler and infant, plus he griped half the time about going. So, we pulled him from the program and decided to try the traditional preschool setting and he is going to the elementary school for their program only 2 days a week. What a nice swap that was! Plus he LOVES it! The activities and structured fine motor and academic activities are just what we were ready for. He has enough independence! That being said, he had a rough day this week. Wednesday, started out great, he was helping me peel carrots, dancing, singing, playing drums, great kid. Blame it on the parent, I should have made him take a rest or laid down with him til he fell asleep (boy wouldn't that be relaxing, but wait we need clean clothes and meals prepared among a million other things!) He found some scissors after peircing a whole in Libby and Reany's bedroom door with a stool. Then he got caught cutting Uno cards, and I noticed he snipped the blinds strings in his new room. Bummer, they are expensive! Then he came upstairs and with no explanation took a full container of baby wipes and put them in the toilet...just to be naughty! He didn't know enough that clogging the toilet means caught in a flush, which he didn't do. He was one step away from a beating! Seriously, I was doing a little meditative parental coaching there, like what the heck! And when he was caught with the Uno cards he bit David. Later in the evening he bit Libby when she was trying to help escort him off the playground for pushing a kid well over a foot taller than him. Terrible day for my sweet boy! Wouldn't you agree? He needs a ball and chain to mommy.
I am so glad it is Friday and I survived this week though! It was my second week of Luke back at work and I am finally getting my groove back. I even organized a closet, or cleared a chair off in the spare room's closet that had been there for a few months! We will need to be transitioning Noah into that room (actually Aubrey and Lexi's originally.) Lillie is a little piggy and I am guessing we will go to her 8 week and see she is 15# and that is the weight cap on the bassinet for the pack and play. They grow way to fast!
Today Lillie was up before 5 and fussed for a solid 45 minutes before I caught a wink of sleep and had to make lunches and get the girls off to school. Noah needed a bath because he peed big time in the big bed, luckily there is plastic there. I am so ready for him to outgrow that! I had to load up the girls and bring him to school by 750am. Then we did school with the boys, working on some geography together and English. They got their ride and us girls went to pick up Noah and go to Sams Club. Solid 250 in damages there and pushed the train cart (the big blue double seater in front) into the family bathroom and had to nurse the baby after we used the bathroom. Then we got pizza and the two an ice cream to share. Noah was glad that Naomi got sassy and tried smacking me in the face, as he didn't have to share ice cream after all. Then Naomi and Lillie were both discontent on our way out the store, pleasing all that we were leaving at that point. I buckled up Naomi and then set the baby in the van while loading all our goods up. Then I had to feed the baby the other side before making it home. Naomi crashed on the way home and Lillie is still in her carseat sleeping too. Noah is fighting me to not have a nap, but I am not caving. In fact, I am going to go put my feet up and make him rest, likely he will be out in 10 minutes. I just had to blog though!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Lillie Marie Neuman d.o.b. 3-5-12


And here she comes! Great c-section pic?! Thanks staff lady!

Welcome to the world little Lillie! She was born at 9:55am March 5th, 2012 weighing 8# 12oz. and was 20.5" long.
Such a creamy big baby, thinking she was 40 and not 39 weeks!

All cleaned up and ready for the real world!

Mommy and Daddy love you Lillie!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Since I was 7 months preggo,

my blogging time budget has been cut. I know it's been a while, but as you can see, our lives have been happening, just blogging hasn't! Here is an update for the last couple months, which might explain some of the occupied time...

7 Months Pregnant and looking HUGE! (Pic from 1-22-12) So happy that Eva gave me a couple belly bands, hard to keep a house under a shirt, I really carry BOoM! right out, so about 7 months and the last two are just waiting to meet the baby and be done with the bump! Pretty uneventful pregnancy, minus the psoriasis and rash issues, and 1st trimester previa that resolved, so healthy and just growing the baby (and then some:)











Our current bedtime routine, which will be changed once baby comes home, is that Noah goes to bed in our bed. With a diaper on, and then Luke will take him to the bathroom and then he goes into his own bed for (usually) the remainder of the night. He sleeps like a rock and we hope that he will soon outgrow the whole sleeping through a potty break thing. But if he is into something, he sleeps with it, this particular night it was his spider man mask. I laughed so hard when I saw Daddy put it on for his nightly bathroom escort that I had to grab the camera!





We've all doubled, perhaps even tripled a recipe before, but let me ask you this: Have you ever sevened a recipe, or what would you call that? Whatever it's called, I had 21 bananas racked up in my freezer and I needed space! But since I only have 3 pans, I wound up zip-locking two batches of batter and that was awesome to have later in the week (of course we can easily put down a loaf!) That batter that was refrigerated for a few days was super good too, like seasoned even better. So definitely do not be overwhelmed by mass brown bananas, just do your math and make it work! Thanks huge tupperware!


The girls just finished up winter basketball, it was their first year and they had a great time. It met Saturday mornings, and as usual with activities, it is nice to be done! Both girls seem to have some skill and as their coach said they are coordinated and fast. The only drawback I foresee is that b-ball and gymnastics are same season sports, so for our next sport I have to pay attention to that. Not like I am planning their athletic careers or anything, who knows, maybe by the time they can do after-school sports we will be fetching water from a well 3 miles away.




We did just get a snow day, but this was from one of our earlier 2(?) snowfalls. It's been a really mild winter. The kids made Naomi her own snowman though, isn't that cute! The funny thing too was that I gave them some mini carrots to use and then had to give them more because Noah wouldn't share. He was insisting he had to give them to the bunnies of our yard:)








Valentines Day<3
Luke did pick me up this cute little bouquet and hand wrote a sweet card. We really don't celebrate some of the minor American holidays. Our hearts are overflowing with love and bliss the other 363 days of the year too, so our anniversary and v-day go pretty low key around us. Libby asked why some people get big gifts for Valentines day, of course we just said that some parents use that day to get their kids something special or what they need, but we don't need a holiday for that and everyone has all they need. The a little soap box of not conforming to the patterns of the world and getting the latest toy is irrelevant to happiness or success. I just don't like standards or pressure. Sorry Hallmark!




With our Science Museum membership quickly expiring, we made a trip down to see some of our favorites. The tow boat is cool, but I do think they should have some type of counter, because only 4 or 5 people can go up at a time and the stairs are so narrow it makes it hard to move around. Of course, with the watermelon belly I did not tour the tow boat. We had a good time though and were glad to have the membership since it was opening day of the pirate exhibit and the wait was a good hour, we skipped ahead and got to go right into the museum. We will likely renew when the baby and I are up for a cities trip during Lukes 4 weeks off. Looking forward to the homeschool discount now too, as it's even cheaper for a membership now- even less than one day there with everyone...awesome!



The robber is an imaginative little boy named Noah, that was unfortunately informed that his new face mask was what a robber would wear (thanks David, boo.) So luckily I said during his bedtime bathroom break that I couldn't find my toothbrush. In his grogginess he ratted himself out and said that it was under his pillow. Why is it under your pillow? Because I am a robber. Nice, so this was the collection to be found under his pillow, how funny is that! The face mask, which is so great for playing outside, is hard to find though. Probably because of other robbers? No place sells them, finally I broke down and paid the $10 that Scheels was selling theirs for. But the robber thing, not too crazy about that, but is still slightly entertaining.



The little honeys! Naomi has progressed from the highchair to her booster, to the stool. We did take the stools away two nights ago though, and the counter can be unavailable, as with stool side seating at the table. Naomi had come upstairs before us and slipped while climbing up to get a vitamin c tab she loves so much. Hit the granite floor, not pretty but no chipped teeth. It was still pretty scary and we just need a break from the stool dangers right now. Noah and Naomi are best friends though, it will be so fun to see them welcome another baby into their lives. Three more days and that will be a measurable statement. Actually 6, after my 3 day vacation at the hospital. Is it bad that I am looking forward to the menu selection each morning and some silence?



So here is some updates on what we have been doing, and hopefully the start to me getting back on track archiving our lives and documenting the ins and outs of our herd.

12-26-09 Naomi Gladys





Wow! Two years came and went, but not without us celebrating my dear lovely Naomi. She is such a wonderful girl and already her character shines and we are amazed be her each day. Could have easily earned the title "Princess" by now, as she is quite a determined and persistent little lady.
She loves puppies and dogs, Elmo, reading, coloring, singing and dancing. She has been dabbling with independent potty training. She is a climber and has reaped wounds to prove it. Her mommy translator is quite effective; she tries saying everything and talks like the rest of us. She likes sleeping in Noah's bed for naps, is really excited to be a big sister, will raise both her hands when asked who is excited for the baby.
She loves playing house and babies. She loves wearing hats, eating ice cream, and having Daddy paint her fingernails. She adores her brothers and sisters and has a favorite blanket from Rhonda, still loves her nuk- now reserved for bedtime, and points herself out in books when she sees a cute little girl!
We love you Naomi SO much! You are a delightful and caring girl with a big heart for your little body! Thank you God for giving us Naomi, please guide us to guide her and keep her by your side!