Recent events in the month of December

I feel like I'm really behind on blogging, and don't have enough time right now to give it the time and attention I want to, but I also know that if I don't do what I can right now, it will never get done and I'll forget even more about the events.  There's a lot coming up too! (Christmas and Calvin's 4th bday) Our family has been on the road lately, have two sick people (Violet has strep and Dave has the flu), and every time those two things happen, all the basic, necessary things that I have to do like cooking/shopping/house cleaning/child care/laundry get behind and all I can do in my free time is "catch up" with life and not get ahead of it.  Anyway....here goes.

Violet's christmas program at WCS (Thurs, Dec 8, 2011)

Violet participated in her first school-related Christmas program.  Her entire kindergarten class dressed up like lambs.  The costumes looked like zip up fleece pajamas with hoods and lamb ears attached.  The entire music program was featured.  The band played, the classes all participated, the choir sang songs, and there was a storyline that followed the entire play with two angels named "Lo" and "Behold" narrating the whole story of the birth of Christ.  Violet and her K class sang some songs, and one particularly cute part was when they all said "Baaaaaa" like a lamb at the end of a song, made everyone laugh.  Dave and I sat in the balcony with Calvin and Vanessa, and kept them corraled in different parts of it as the long evening went on.  After Violet's part was over, her class changed out of their costumes and sat and watched the rest of the program.  She sat with Mrs. Speed and seemed to enjoy all the music.  Calvin and Vanessa were super bored, but I kept them somewhat entertained with snacks/drinks.  After the program, we went to her K classroom for a few minutes while she said goodbye to all her friends.  She was super excited and was goofing around with her friends, Emily even picked her up with a big hug!  We decided that since we hadn't had supper that night, we'd go out and celebrate (there was an option to go to the school gym and have sweets and coffee, but we decided to avoid it), so we went out to eat at the Hwy 63 diner.  Violet was pretty happy to order macaroni and cheese.  V and C colored on paper with crayons.  At one point in the evening, Calvin playfully collapsed on the bench of the booth where our family was sitting and said in an exhausted voice, "Daaaaad, I'm soooo tired, I want to go to bed!"  That little boy never fights bedtime.  He is the first to fall asleep after we tuck them in.  We finished up our salads, broasted chicken (yum) and veggies and headed home...and the late night turned out to be very late.  All the kids were in bed by 10 pm.  And she still had to go to school on Friday. 

Trip to Milwaukee to see Dave's dad (December 12-13, 2011)

We found out a couple weeks ago that Dave's dad was scheduled to have surgery done to remove a benign tumor on his left shoulder/neck.  The medical team located near where he lives in the UP of Michigan who originally operated on it a few months ago cut him open only to find a situation that was too complicated for them to handle.  They sewed him up and decided to refer him to Milwaukee.  It is a blessing for them that he is officially employed somewhere, because he now has medical insurance that is helping him pay for a lot of this medical care.  Since Milwaukee is only 4 hrs away, Dave decided it would be worth it to make the trip to the hospital and visit him, and also be with his wife Cindy as he was in surgery for a few hours.  Ted was really worried that she would worry herself into a tizzy so he was glad that we planned to spend time with her.  We made the decision to leave for Milwaukee last minute, and pulled both kids from a day of school to make the trip happen.  We left Monday evening at 7 pm, and drive into the night arriving at a hotel (Hampton Inn) near the hospital around midnight.  Surpringly, the transfer of sleeping kids from the van to the hotel room went smoothly.  They had set up a portable crib already, so Vanessa went right back to sleep, I suppose it felt good to sleep on her tummy like she prefers instead of laying back in a car seat.  I could tell Violet and Calvin were relieved to lay down on a soft comfy bed, they used the bathroom and crawled into bed with out much fuss either.  They are really turning into flexible kids and great travelers - they know the drill with elevators in hotels, hotel key cards, and whispering in a hotel room at night so Vanessa doesn't wake up.  The night was quiet, Praise the Lord, everyone felt decently rested when we woke up at 7:30 am.  Ted's surgery that was originally scheduled for 1pm was bumped back an hour to 2 pm, so he and Cindy decided they had a little extra time in the morning to visit.  We all got ready, ate breakfast at the hotel, and left to go see them at the housing place where they were staying.  It was a place called "Kathy's House".  They had a huge basement with a gigantic play room with lots of toys, our kids devoured the room, scrambling for every little thing that grabbed their attention.  Cindy met us first, Ted came down later to visit.  He couldn't make physical contact with us since he had showered with this special antibacterial stuff the hospital had given him to use with strict instructions to not touch anybody. 

We then drove to the hospital so he could check in, and get the preparation process started. Then began the.longest.day.EVER....that I've spent in a waiting area of a hospital with children. Once Ted was back in prep, Cindy hung out with us and did what we did...we couldn't leave the hospital because Cindy was equipped with a pager that would notify her of updates on Ted's progress and it only worked in the hospital territory. I didn't want to leave and go somewhere else with the kids because i didn't want to have all 3 of them alone in a strange city that I didn't know and preferred to stay together as a family....so we stuck it out a the hospital. This was an ENORMOUS medical facility. Many buildings that spanned many blocks. There was nothing for kids to do. No child play area either. There was a fish tank that occupied their brains for a few minutes at a time, and a little play table with sand and cars in it that operated by magnets connected to the under side of the table. I had brought along some crayons/coloring pages for them, which kept them busy for a little while...but other than those 3 things, they were bored out of their minds. I did take a break to go sit in the van with them so V and C could watch a movie and Vanessa took a nap in her car seat. Dave stayed inside with Cindy. When Vanessa woke up we had lunch in the cafeteria. We walked down long mile-long hallways. The hours ticked by slowly. Even though it wasn't the ideal place to be, we tried to make fun of it, stay light hearted, and avoid grumpiness, because that would have only made things worse. From 11:30 am to 7:30 pm we plodded along, waited for him to be done with surgery, then waited for him to finish the hour of "after surgery recovery", then waited for him to be transported to a room for the night.

 V and C tried barracading Vanessa out of their way but she crawled right under the chairs, much to their dismay.  They played puppies in their little area and begged me to be the zookeeper and they pretended to be zoo animals.  I don't even know how to pretend to be a zookeeper.

Vanessa's favorite "toy" was a pair of Violet's earmuffs.

A receptionist who noticed that we'd been waiting for hours offered our kids some graham crackers and apple juice.  Violet got to go back with her and help carry out the snacks.  She told the receptionist all the kid's names and how to spell them, as the names were written on each white syrofoam cup.  We thought that was a sweet gesture.

Finally we went up to see him, and he had come through the tumor removal very well.  He also had some calcium deposit lumps on his head removed. 

Cindy was in pretty good spirits the whole time, she didn't seem nervous, and seemed to enjoy our company.  Dave prayed with her before the surgery.

We talked to him in his hospital room for about 15 minutes, then decided to leave, since we had to drive home that night too.  Ted now says he has no memory of our visit after his surgery, he must have been drugged up too much to remember.

Dave said it was great to see him, it had been 3 yrs since their last visit, and 4 yrs since my last visit with them.  Calvin was a month old last time we visited them at their place in Michigan.  He was glad to see Vanessa, and hear the news of our new baby arriving in May.

We made last stops in the bathroom before exiting the hospital.  Got the kids to the van, changed into their pajamas, and settled in for the drive.  Vanessa and Calvin fell asleep immediately.  Neither had eaten supper, so we tried getting food right away, but neither would wake up to eat.  Violet, Dave and I were awake enough to have a cheeseburger.  The drive home felt longer than the drive there.  Dave and I were both exhausted by the length of the day and how taxing it had been with the boredom and waiting.  I snoozed a little on the way home, woke up a little, Dave drove the whole way, but the last 45 minutes he kept slapping his face and shaking around to keep himself awake.  A super late night...but the transfers to bed were completely silent.  We carried 3 sleeping kids to bed at 1:00 am and none made a peep.  I am pretty sure Dave and I were both asleep in our bed by 1:05 am.

Calvin's Christmas Program at Orchard Hill Church Preschool (Wednesday, December 14th, 2011)

Calvin participated in his first Christmas program at Orchard Hill Church along with all the other preschool kids who go there.  Four preschool groups were combined and practiced the same songs to perform for the short 40 minute show.  Even though he had missed the day of preschool prior to the show (We were in Milwaukee visiting Dave's dad in the hospital), they had been rehearsing the songs since right after Thankgiving.  I then heard the entirety of the songs that Calvin had been singing at home here and there, wondering where he had picked the new songs up.  He walked in with his class holding little lights.  They sang "Silent Night", "Come On, Ring those Bells", "Away in a Manger", and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".  Calvin seemed to know most of the words and the motions (which has has referred to as "oceans" for awhile now).  He smiled, seemed confident up there, but also goofed around with his friends standing right next to him, and when he caught sight of us in the crowd, excitedly waved and smiled at us.  Socially, he is either on or off, either super chatty, or very quiet.  Tonight was a chatty smiley night.  We also had the option to stay afterwards and enjoy cookies/punch with everybody, but the crowd and the fact that Violet was on the edge of getting really sick was enough for us to make the decision to sneak out the side door right when it was over, and skip out on the treats.  The program started at 6:30, and we drove away at 7:10pm, not bad!  It helps that we live only a couple blocks away.  The kids were all in bed by 8 pm.  Calvin did great.  Violet remembered performing in the Christmas program when she was in preschool, and acted like a proud big sister, and said "Calvin looks so cute!" with giggles when he was on stage.

When he saw us he happily waved!

 Took Calvin's pic, but Violet had to sneak her face in!

Violet has strep throat

I don't know where she picked it up (Milwaukee hospital maybe!), but she had been complaining about her stomach hurting off and on last week.  Then she started coughing, and then the last straw that made me take her to the doctor was losing her voice.  The strep test came back positive with in 5 minutes, so the doc prescribed some amoxicillin and suggested ibuprofen to help her with the pain.  She was diagnosed last week Thursday.  Its Sunday, and she's still coughing a little, but has no pain and should be ready for school tomorrow.  She did not go to school last week Friday.

Vanessa - 18 months

I jotted down a list of words Vanessa can jibber and wanted to blog it quick before I forgot to do it or lost the paper.  Here goes...its pretty short. :)
- mama
- dada
- hot
- cheese
- owie
- fishie
- Hannah
- Pizza (which sounds like glah)
- more
- poopoo
- hi
- baba (her blankie and baby, she uses the same word for both)
Stuff about Vanessa right now:
- We often call her "Nessa" or "Nessie", she's the only child who has developed a nickname so far
- She walks/runs everywhere, rarely crawls. 
- She is crazy about shoes right now.  I think her favorite thing is to get into the shoe closet and pull out every single pair of shoes and boots and put them on her feet and tromp around the house.  She frequently puts on boots that are too big for her, trips, falls, and cries. 
- She climbs up on the kitchen table chairs and is constantly taking stuff she knows she isn't supposed to play with (scrunching up the other kid's drawings, taking markers, pens, etc).
- She doesn't like her high chair at all.  I still put her in it at times when I have to keep her in one place and when I'm feeding her, but she would much prefer to sit on my lap and eat.
- She loves yogurt, oatmeal with raisins, noodles, crackers and seems to be my most picky eater.  She doesn't like typical snacks like cheese slices, chunks of fruit or veggies.  She knows the crinkle of a candy wrapper and goes nuts and begs for it by saying "uh uh uh uh uh" over and over.  Especially the bag of chocolate chips and m&ms.  She does drink lots of liquids.  She has a definite preference which sippy cup she wants to drink out of.  If we offer her another one she isn't wanting at the moment, she will shove it away. 
- She does not really play with toys.  She prefers to dig items out of my kitchen cabinets and drawers and spread them aroun the house.  
- She enjoys peekaboo, tickling, chasing, and being goofy.
- She enjoys getting into the older kid's business, and if they are willing to let her play, the 3 of them will get along decent for about.....15 seconds.  She enjoys bothering them and knocking down things they are working on, she kind of drives them nuts.  Often Violet and Calvin will leave to play downstairs where they can't bother her, and leave her upstairs to whine and fuss with me.  She loves Violet and Calvin so much, she often runs up to them for hugs, and they're often receptive to hugs from her too.  She cuddles up to Violet and snuggles up to her shoulder sometimes too.  Violet loves that attention.  She says "Aww, she loves me like mama!"
- Vanessa also likes cuddling her face into my fleece coat if I'm holding her and we're outside in cold weather. 
- She has to sleep with her "baba", which means her blankie and baby together.  A little stuffed baby and a pink blankie that was given to her as a baby gift that has a ladybug on one side and strips on the other.  When I get her out of bed in the morning, those two items among lots of other blankets are what she always chooses to take with her.
- She loves to give kisses.  She sometimes will grab my face, turn it towards her face, and plant one right on me.
Edited to add:  At her 18 mo dr check (late!) On Jan 10th, she was 23 lbs 4 oz, 32" tall and head is 19".
I also took her to the chiropractor I usually see and he adjusted her lower neck.  The fluid behind her ear drums is 99% gone!

Vanessa's curly hair

I am posting this pic because its something not many people actually see.  All it takes is a diaper change or a ride in her car seat to make the back of it all fuzzy and tangled.  After a bath, her hair curls up in such adorable ringlets. 

Today became a "Christmas Tree Party" and a fantastic family day

Today turned into one focus: Acquiring and decorating our Christmas tree!

Violet had been begging to go get one earlier in the week so Dave told her on Saturday morning we'd go get one.  Saturday morning came, and everybody woke up "late", which means 7:30 instead of 6:30.  The kids always enjoy pancakes on Saturday mornings because we have the time to make them.  Sometimes, just sometimes I get "fun" and put food coloring in them and make fun designs on the griddle.  In the past we've colored the batter pink and created hearts.  We've also made the batter blue and green for various other things.

I came up with the idea to try create "Christmas Tree Pancakes" with the batter.  You should have seen Violet's eyes light up and her face look shocked.  She said "Mom! You come up with the BEST ideas EVER!!"  So I had to try.  I separated some batter and colored some green, some pink and some yellow.  Mostly green though.

My first attempt was the biggest pancake I think I've ever created.  The whole time it was cooking on the first side Dave and I brainstormed how to flip the thing without breaking it.  We used two big spatulas to slide it onto a large flat cookie sheet, so I could then flip the cookie sheet over and cook the other side.

This griddle can handle about 8 circle pancakes, this "tree" took up the whole thing.  Violet and Calvin split this one:

Dave and I also gave the kids a little motivation to clean up the house.  We told them if they cleaned up ALL the toys (the basement looked like a toy box exploded) on the main floor and the basement, then we would leave to go get a tree when they finished.  They scurried and quickly picked up enthusiastically for awhile, but we had to encourage them to finish as they would get distracted and start playing.  If Calvin is engaged and focused, he can be super productive and move quickly.  But today he seemed to be a bit more distracted.  The bigger challenge for mom and dad was keeping Vanessa OUT of the toys so that the older two kids could pick them up and put them away.  After a couple hours went by, the house was spotless!   I was impressed, and the kids seemed proud of their work.  We got packed in the van and left by 12:15.  I was hoping for a quick trip picking out a tree because I knew they would all be getting tired and hungry soon.  Especially Vanessa, who didn't sit still long enough to eat a decent breakfast. 

We did make a short detour to a place called Home Interior to check out some countertops and appliances....the kitchen will be getting a little facelift in the next couple months so we are in the planning stages.  After the "quick" 45 minute stop there, we were off to go pick out a Christmas tree.  We must have been big fans of detours, because Dave and I wanted to drive by the river house to see if the new owners had made any action or started any big projects.  When we approached the house we could see a big dumpster in the driveway and a car in the yard with their lights on.  We didn't pull up, just drove by, and both felt happy that the house was finally getting some much deserved attention. :)  Neither of us were sad.  We are both more emotionally invested in our current house now.  Dave said the time from the flood to the sale of the house was enough time for him to become enough detached to where selling it wasn't painful. 

Ok...so FINALLY we were off to go search for our Christmas tree.  I'm not really sure why I'm capitalizing Christmas.  It just seems right.  We missed the turn to Kris Kringles Tree Farm where we always get our tree, so we had to go around it the long way and get it from the highway.  Violet remembered the place, and remembered that the guy at the first stop when you pull up tells you where all the different types of trees are planted and that he provides you a saw so you can saw down your own tree.  I forgot to mention that it was RAINING.  Yeah...not the best "hunt for a Christmas tree" weather, but we had to make it work.  The kids got out of their car seat harnesses and stood up to intently look out the windows for "the perfect tree".  Violet was the most opinionated about every tree she saw.  The paths around the tree farm were MUDDY MUDDY MUDDY.  Dave was cringing driving our "new" van through the mucky-ness.  We eventually found a nice frasier fir and some tree farm worker guys pulled up right next to us and chopped down our tree for us and hauled it to the main lodge to get shaken out and "packed up" in that plastic netting.  We stopped in the lodge to pay for the tree.  There was a Santa over in the corner handing out little candy canes, and free sugar cookies, popcorn, and hot apple cider.  I think Calvin took 4 of the cookies!

Calvin ran into one of his preschool classmates, named Corbin.  They chatted in their cute little 3 and 4 yr old ways.  Calvin hid a piece of popcorn in his hand and played hide and seek with his friend with the piece of popcorn, which he treated like a jewel cupping his hands around it, hiding it, and exposing it repeatedly and giggling. 

We paid for our tree, got in the van again, and drove over to where they load it on your vehicle for you.  We laid down some big towels on the top of the van to prevent scratching.  We got home...and the rest of the day was dedicated to putting the tree up and decorating it.  I gave the kids some soup (Vanessa ate the most!).  Vanessa went down for a nap at 2:30pm.  I was craving something sweet...and our house had nothing...so Calvin and I made a run to Hy-Vee to get some ice cream while Dave and Violet worked on stringing lights on the tree.  I got peppermint candy, mint chip, and bunny tracks....and I also threw in some frozen chicken in my cart, knowing we had no chicken left in the freezer.

We got home and all enjoyed some ice cream....and then kept decorating.  The kids enjoyed every aspect of it, but THE MOST enjoyable aspect of decorating it was hanging all the candy canes all over the tree.  Every single broken candy cane got eaten.  Calvin and Violet both sampled many different kinds of candy canes, and raved and ooohed and ahhhed over every different flavor (we had gotten life saver flavored ones, peppermint ones, cherry ones, etc...). 

Towards the end of the night, we bathed all the kids, got them all snuggly in their pajamas, turned on the fireplace, and had a snacky supper of Ritz crackers, cheese slices, ham slices, and apples.  I never know what Vanessa wants to eat...sometimes she refuses cheese, sometimes she loves it.  Tonight, cheese was her friend.  She was shoveling in cheese slices like they were candy.

Calvin ate ritz crackers like they were candy, and he also drank the most water.  Dave worked on painting Violet's fingers and toes red with a layer of sparkles on top.

It was a wonderful day, full of good memories, good times, and most of all, time spent all together enjoying each other's company.  Loved every moment of it!

A few pics:

I have to mention the reason why Calvin's shirt was pulled up in the pic above.  He had slid down the banister from the second floor to the main floor, and his skin is what skidded and he said it was stinging.  There was little red mark on his tummy from the rubbing contact from sliding...and he tried all sorts of things to make it feel better.  He said "Maybe if I put my toy car on it it will feel better."  Then he tried putting a piece of ham or cheese on the owie spot so it would feel better.  I'm not sure of his reasoning to why those objects would make his skin stop hurting, but we all got a good laugh out of it.  Maybe he will be the world's next natural healer.

A tall tree

While driving tonight,, we passed a huge ~40' tree with Christmas lights.   Calvin pipes up, "Violet saw a tree that is taller than a giraffe, taller than the highest ladder and taller than grown-ups!" 
Can you imagine?  ;)  Cute..

edited to add: a pic!  I snapped a pic of the exact tree Calvin commented on, here it is.  That is a mailbox right on the little lit up post in front of the tree, and the white christmas lights on the roofline of a 1 story house behind it, to give you an idea how tall it is.

Thanksgiving 2011 in Ohio with the Butler family

Dave and I made the trip to Ohio this year to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family.  His Uncle Tim and Aunt Deb Butler hosted, as they have done many times in the past.

We drove out to Chicago Tuesday night of last week.  We picked up Violet from school and left right after that.  The morning on Tuesday was really quite stressful, even though Dave had the day off work.  We went shopping for appliances in the morning with Calvin and Vanessa, and arrived home with just enough time to get lunch, pack up stuff for 5 people quickly, and leave to get Violet at 2:40 pm.  Calvin and Vanessa did not nap, so while I packed up my stuff and the kid's stuff, they destroyed the house.  Not literally, of course....but they pulled out every single toy and puzzle we own and spread them all over the 1st floor of the house.  Everywhere.  The mess stressed me out knowing I didn't have time to pick it all up and realizing that the mess would welcome me the day we arrived home from Ohio.  I'm talking puzzle pieces by where the shoes are stored, lego blocks spread on the kitchen floor...etc. 
Oh well.  I successfully packed up stuff, got the car packed, etc, and in all the flury of me moving so fast, I forgot the kid's toothbrushes.  We ended up buying some at Walgreens in Chicago at the end of our trip when I realized I had forgotten them.  Dave picked them out and got the kind of toothbrushes that you can press the tip and it flashes a light for 60 seconds, the amount of time a kid should brush their teeth.  60 seconds felt like an eternity while we tried out the flashing while brushing, apparently we don't brush their teeth long enough.

We drove to Dave's mom's house that night, and arrived somewhere in the 8 pm range.  We let the kids run around and play for awhile, then settled them into bed.  Calvin and Violet shared a twin bed (heads on each end) in the basement, Vanessa slept in a crib and Dave and I shared the full size bed, all in the same little basement room.  Cozy and dark, everyone slept decent except Violet and daddy.  She woke him up a couple times saying she had nightmares and snuggled in bed with us for awhile.

We planned to spend most of Wednesday with Josh and Carrie, seeing their new house, and Dave planned on helping Josh install some things (ceiling fans, window blinds).  Carrie and I kept the kids entertained, put the little ones down for naps, and left to go take care of some house-related errands.  We stopped by Home Depot, Target, a grocery store, and some other place, I can't remember.  A stop at Starbucks between all the stores was a necessary detour.  While we were gone, the older 4 kids (Austin, Violet, Renee and Calvin) got along pretty well and found stuff to do, not getting into much trouble.  We realized it is so nice when they get older and can function more independently!

We ordered pizza for dinner that night from a local place called Macianos (or something like that), and left shortly after dinner to head back to Martha's house.  There is an hour's drive from J&C's to Martha's.

The night went better, I think, I can't really remember.  We did make a point to wake up early on Thursday morning so we could get on the road at a good time to make it to Tim and Deb's house by 2 pm (they are an hour ahead of us, with a 4 hour drive we made the goal to leave by 8 am but left by 9am).  Martha rode with us there.

This drive felt like an eternity.  We had to stop a lot, kids were tired, couldn't WAIT to get there and see all their cousins, they were even discontented with movies in the van.   I found out Vanessa does not sleep all that well in the van.

We arrived and the big meal was served shortly after we got there.  Uncle Tim had grilled 2 huge turkeys on his master grill, there was also stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans with roasted red peppers, onions and almonds, cranberries in three forms (relish, sweet whipped cream stuff, and cut out of the can aka: poor man's cranberries), water, wine, there might be something else missing, pumpkin pie, peanut butter pie, and chocolate fondue with lots of different things to dip in the chocolate (pineapple, strawberries, angel food cake, pretzels, and wafer cookies).

We all pitched in to clean up and got involved with a game of pictionary.  I forgot how hard that game can be.

Tim and Deb had set up a room for our whole family.  Violet and Calvin got bunk beds, Vanessa slept in Kala and Linette's old crib, and Dave and I slept on a queen size air mattress.  Both kids were too afraid to sleep on the top bunk the first night so they shared the full size bunk on the bottom. 

Friday morning, Kala and I had planned to get up early and do some Black Friday shopping.  If you know me at all, that is THE LAST place I want to be because I don't really love shopping all that much, and I hate crowds...but I agreed to go with her.  She invited me to stay at her house in Bowling Green that night, so I did.  We got to her place at midnight and both went to sleep right away.  Friday morning we woke up at 7 am (I know, pathetic for BF shopping), got some breakfast sandwiches and coffee, and hit the stores by 8 am. 

I found some maternity clothes at Old Navy and Kohls, some new shoes and a purse, she found some boots and other accessories. 

We returned to Tim and Deb's house in time for lunch, which was "create your own pizza" and Tim grilled them.  Everybody enjoyed that!

The weather was so nice (60 degrees and sunny!) that the kids enjoyed outside play, mostly on the trampoline and swing set outside.  We also spent a few hours at one of Tim and Deb's good friend's house, they have a little pond with a kayak, some 4 wheelers, and a barn with horses.  These activities kept all the kids involved and every one enjoyed a trip around the lake in the little boat.

I can't really remember specifically what we did that evening.  We played random board games (Blokus was the most popular!) and cards, sometimes spoons.  Tim grilled up (yes, he loves his grill) some marinated pork tenderloins for dinner along with leftover sweet potatoes and more veggies, and the evening event was watching the movie Tangled.

Saturday we spent a good portion of the day at the city park.  It was still really nice outside so that was a huge blessing.  We took a family picture outside too. 

Sunday morning we tried to get up and out as early as possible....but it turned out being closer to 10 am that we left.  Knowing that we had an entire day's worth of traveling ahead of us was a bit daunting.  540 miles in one day?  With 3 kids?  Are we crazy?

We broke up the trip in pieces, however, which is why it took us from 10 am to 10 pm to get back to our house in Cedar Falls. 

We dropped Martha off in Berwyn, IL (5 hr drive), and Dave spent an hour trying to repair her sliding deck door.  Then we had to go to J&C's house (1 hr drive) because we had left the kid's winter coats there from the Wednesday before, and they also gave us their baby crib.  We stopped there for an hour.  Then left for Iowa (4 more hours).  The kids watched tons of movies.  Vanessa barely slept, and fussed for a long time.  We stopped multiple times for bathroom breaks, and food breaks.  Calvin had to stop more than anybody to pee.  I drove the last 4 hour stretch, Dave drove the rest of it.

Violet and Calvin konked out and went to sleep about an hour before getting home, so getting them out of the van into their beds was a bit of a challenge.  Once all the kids were in bed Dave and I just stared at the disaster of our house, said forget it, and went to bed too.

The drive was worth it, however, seeing family and watching the cousins enjoy their time together was priceless.

Pics:

Serving up Thanksgiving meal to the kids:

 chocolate fondue:

 trampoline outside!

 kayaking with daddy:

 4 wheelin' with Uncle Tim:

 me tickling my little boy:

 Violet, Adalynn, Lynnea, Calvin

 me and Kala:

 almost a family pic, missing Vanessa, but still a good one!

the whole gang.  (Tim and Deb Butler, Sean and April LaMarche with their 7 kids, Emily, Alyssa, Corbin, Logan, Bowen, Lynnea and Adalynn, Dave and me, Violet, Calvin, Vanessa, Martha LaMarche, and Kala Butler)

Calvin has strange abilities to hurt himself

I have thought about posting something about this but never really knew what to say.  Fact is, Calvin has some type of amazing ability to hurt himself or get injured doing almost anything.  He isn't even clumsy, he just...somehow gets hurt doing the most simple things. 
For example:
-pulled out the wood cutting board to use as a ramp for his little race cars.  Drops the heavy corner on his foot, breaks several blood vessels and screams for 3 minutes.
-walks around the corner and somehow bonks a part of his hand on the corner creating a nice bruise, screams for awhile.
-jumps off the couch, landing nicely on 2 feet, and ends up walking away and stepping on a toy and hurting the bottom of his foot.
-sitting on a chair eating a meal and catches his foot on some common thing under the table, scraping his skin.
-fell out of bed after waking up from his nap.
-ran into the living room and somehow smacked his nose on the corner of the coffee table  (how??)
-there are so many more, I have a feeling I will be updating this post later.
- jammed his body into the container that holds the lincoln logs gets himself stuck and it hurt too much to try yank himself out, needed mommy's help to get out - was coloring while on a chair in the kitchen and lodged his foot between the slats on the back of the chair, screamed til I got up to help him free his foot. Is this just a little boy thing, or Calvin?

Things are shifting around here

Dave and I both feel like some pieces of our lives are starting to come together.  In the last few months, we have off-loaded (sold) a lot of stuff.  Sold the old ski boat towards the end of summer (just not working to be a "boating family" at this stage of our lives), sold off the pick up truck (that we mainly used to tow the boat), sold the river house, and replaced our old broken van with a newer one...and sold off the older van to someone who fixes up old cheap vehicles.  Glad to have all that off our books!

Our finances have been "in limbo" with categories of our budget constantly changing over the last few years since moving out of the river house, buying a new house, and finally selling off the river house.  We both are starting to see some stability and predictableness to that side of our lives and it is really nice.  We need to have one of our power 3 hour financial sessions together after the kids go to bed and rearrange everything so it fits our lives finally.

We both feel like we can now finally focus on "moving in" to our current house, even though we've lived here for 3 years.  We want to get some furniture and finish some rooms like we've wanted to, but were unable to do.  Excited to change some things around here!

Calvin's Prayer

Calvin composes amazing prayers.  The average listener might be tempted to reprimand him for being silly when he talks to God.  But if take to time to see things from his perspective, you'll understand his prayers are as sincere and serious as his little boy mind knows how to make them.  I delight in listening to him pray each night.

Tonight, one phrase in Calvin's prayer was, "...and help Violet not to touch crabs..."  I thought for sure he was just being silly.  After the prayer I asked him in a neutral way, why he prayed for Violet not to touch crabs.  He said, very seriously, that he prayed for that so Violet wouldn't get pinched by a crab.  Later I told Maria about this and she mentioned that they had watched a Milo and Otis movie today and a little cat was poking at a crab and the crab pinched the cats paw.  So, Calvin had learned something today - he had learned that crabs pinch.  So, naturally, he prayed for Violet, who he loves so much, that she wouldn't touch crabs so she'd be safe from being pinched.  Boy, am I glad I chose to enquire, rather than reprimand.

Tonight he also asked God to help Porcupines and thanked God for lamps.  It was right in-line with other nights when he has thanked God for boxes and prayed that bugs would not get killed and so on.  Calvin talks to God in sweet sincerity about his little sphere of understanding of the world, wrapped in his kind-heartedness.  I love that little boy.

Thank you, God, for the privilege of getting glimpses of life through the eyes of my children.

Dave

I gave Violet a hair cut

She was overdue for a haircut.  The best indicator she needs one is the frequent complaining about tangles...and she runs screaming if she sees me with a hairbrush coming at her to brush it out before school.  Her last haircut was in February of this year.

Before:

After:

 I cut close to 5 inches off.

She was super excited to show daddy, and ran around the house shaking her head all over the place.  Calvin thought her hair was so soft when he touched it, and seemed excited about her haircut too.  

This morning:

Sold the river house

The journey has ended!  We put the house on the market last month with the thought that we would give it a few weeks to sell before winter.  We got a full price offer with in a week!  Our realtor Gary sailed us right through it with no issues at all.  The buyers were solid, had an interest from the moment they saw it, and created no problems for us (unlike the person who previously had an interest 2 yrs ago).   But the Lord's hand was even in that previous person's interest because we had to jump through a lot of hoops and get things cleared (get an OK from the city that that property had a perfectly functioning septic system, which was an ordeal that stretched on for months), get a variance from the city council for permission to rebuild the property (took a long time for that too)....and all sorts of things.  But all of it set up the closing for these new buyers to be smooth as butter.  It was seamless, quick, almost felt TOO easy.  We are praising God for his provision.
Sooo happy to have that headache gone!

Bring back the chicken

Now that I am past the first trimester (YAY!) of this pregnancy, I am getting past some of my food aversions.  Cooking chicken and eating it felt like something I could handle last night, so we had some marinated chicken for super last night.  You would have thought it was some kind of prized dinner based on the kid's reactions.  They gobbled it up so fast.  That is rare for Calvin to eat chicken so quickly.  He said over and over "this is SO good mom! I love it!"  I guess its going back on the menu. :)

Calvin writing his name and the word "stop"

Calvin wrote his name on the dry erase board today.  I asked him if he could write his name, and he needed help knowing which letters to write in what order, but he didn't need help writing the actual letters.  He kept erasing his first efforts saying they weren't nice enough, and made each letter as best as he could. 

That is improvement!  He did NOT want his picture taken with his name...can you tell?

He wrote it right through Violet's drawing of the rain on some flowers.

Sometime last week he also wrote the word "stop" all by himself on the little magnadoodle.  Maybe he was subliminally telling me to stop taking pictures.  He hid behind the magnadoodle for the pic on purpose.

Halloween 2011

Last year we somehow totally skipped Halloween.  We didn't tell the kids it was coming, we weren't around the night of trick or treating, and were pretty happy to just not deal with it.  This year was a bit different.  Since "The Western Town" indoor trick or treating event (the cardboard constructed town) was happening at the chapel this year (Sunday evening), we figured out some costumes for each kid (Vanessa did not get one) and took them there.  Violet wore a sparkly princess dress with wings and Calvin was a bumble bee.  My mom was able to come, and we trick or treated indoors.  The "Western Town" was really amazing, I didn't take any pictures myself, but maybe I'll snag a few from others.  We waited in a long line to get a cool balloon made for each kid by Mr. Nick the balloon guy, too.  Calvin asked for an orange bunny and Violet wanted a pink flower with a green stem.

Monday evening turned into the real trick or treating event.  Kim and Randy Costello and Katie asked if the kids could get together and trick or treat in our neighborhood.  They were excited to get together so we made plans.  They came over at 5:45, kids were dressed and ready to go again.  Katie was Piglet from Winnie the Pooh (and had a super cute creative costume, wearing a pink dress with bright pink duct tape across it in stripes).  I realized this was Calvin's first "real" outside trick or treating event he would remember, and didn't really know what to do.  He followed the girls to each house, and quickly caught on.  As soon as he found out people were handing out candy, he was in an all out sprint from house to house, keep catching up with the girls easily.  I forget the kid is just 3 yrs old.  He is very fast!  I guess he'll be 4 pretty soon, but still.  They went down the block on Briarwood to Orchard Hill hitting every house that had lights on, and came back up the other side til we got back to our house.  Their bags were heavy, and Calvin was sweating in his bee costume.  Kim, Randy and I walked along the sidewalk, enjoying their excitement.  I marveled at the fact that I didn't have to hold anyone's hand so they wouldn't trip down stairs walking up and down people's driveways and porches.  Some people handed out puzzles and pencils, which was fun.  Dave ran to get pizza then stayed at the house with Vanessa and handed out candy to those trick or treating at our house.

We all got back to our house and we all had pizza, and the girls and Calvin happily hopped out of their chairs excitedly to hand out candy to other trick or treaters.  We found out quickly how the bowl of candy by our front door disappeared so quickly.  Violet, Calvin and Katie EACH took a turn giving a HANDFUL of candy out to each kid.  Wow!  With in 30 minutes of arriving home, our stash of candy was gone, so we turned off our house lights.  The kids barely finished a slice of pizza and ate some candy, then bounced around the house and went crazy.  We put a video on so they would settle down a bit, but it only worked for 20 minutes or so.  The craziness continued, but we put an end to all of it since we had to get the kids down to bed at a decent time.  I think they crashed by 9pm.

Vanessa is sick

What got me to take Vanessa to the doctor was a persistent weird diaper rash I could not get rid of.  Antifungal cream didn't help it (thought it was yeasty), desitin didn't help it.....so I made an appointment for Monday morning.  The doc said she needed an antibacterial so prescribed a stronger cream.  It zapped the rash gone in 2 days.  She also looked in her ears and discovered infected fluid in both ears.  No wonder.  She was crabby and clingly for days...I feel bad I didn't discover it earlier.  I figured it was teething or something (she has 2 top molars coming in) because she has had a runny nose for a long time.  She was also prescribed an oral antibiotic to take once a day for 10 days, which seems to already be helping a lot by day 3.  However, it causes her to poop what seems like every 60 minutes.  I could do with out that, but other than that, she seems to be much happier.  She was running around and laughing with the other kids today, something she hadn't done in a few days.  Calvin is getting quite good at making her laugh.  He crawls up to her fast and stops right at her belly and bonks her with his head, she laughs hard!  Then she runs away, watches to see if he will follow her, and when he does, she squeals again.  I'm glad she is on the mend.

Out with the old, in with the "new" van, and we sold the truck

The transmission in our old Honda van went out a couple weeks ago, so we moved the family into the truck.  The search for a newer van continued for a couple weeks, and we found one we liked in Waterloo.  Its a 2008 Honda Odyssey, blue, with more features than our old van.  We love it!

We also sold the truck this morning to a guy from Des Moines.  Glad to have that off-loaded!

Calvin's first field trip to Hartman Reserve

Calvin's preschool class went on their first field trip on Tues the 18th of Oct.  He was so excited to go, knowing he got to ride on a bus to get there.  I had the morning available to go with him, since I had to report to jury duty later in the afternoon at 1:15.  Dave stayed home with Vanessa while I went with Calvin.  (Dave had taken the day off so I could do jury duty)

I arrived at the preschool a few minutes before they got the kids loaded on the bus.  First Miss Jesse explained the kids needed to stay sitting on their bottoms with their backs against the seats the whole time. 

We got on the bus, and he was smiling so big.  He enthusiastically noted everything he saw outside the window.  He wondered why the bus was so loud, and enjoyed every bump.  He was also impressed that the bus obeyed the stoplights just like our van.

When we got there, we lined up outside the bus and walked down a windy trail to the main building.  The kids lined up on a big step for a photo-op and then had 30 minutes to wander around.  It was like a little mini museum with turtles, toads, snakes, and other things to look at.  Calvin was fascinated with the large snapper turtle, and the smaller turtles who were "waving" at him.  The toads in the tub didn't even move.  A man got the snake out of the cage and let the kids touch him. 

 Calvin's turn cranking the wheel to smash his apples:

 The apple juice was really delicious!

 Mom, like the primary colors? :)

Vanessa loves brushing her teeth

Tonight as I was getting Vanessa ready for bed, she got SOO excited to brush her teeth.  I always get her brush ready, sit on the floor, and wait for her to come over, she knows exactly what to do by laying down and opening her mouth.  Well, tonight, I did that same thing, got her toothbrush ready, and showed her so she'd run over.  She RAN over to me squealing and screaming, paused by my feet, spun a quick 180, and threw her body straight back against me.  Like falling straight back, stiff body, from standing to laying down immediately.  She did it so fast I couldn't even stop her.  If the top of my leg hadn't broken her fall she could have easily knocked the wind out of her.  Dave watched the whole thing and we laughed and laughed....such a goofy girl.

River house for sale with one offer

Regarding the river house, Dave and I recently got the SBA out of the picture, so we decided to list the house for sale (as is) for the next 6-8 weeks before winter hits to see if it will sell for an acceptable price.  If it doesn't, we will proceed to start slowly fixing it up. 
Gary, our realtor, said an offer on it may be presented tonight!

eta:  An offer did come through last night.  The potential buyers are a couple in their 40s, wanting to fix it up and live in it.  Thank the Lord that the previous person who had interest that we haggled with for a year did not take any more interest in it.  Gary is bringing over the offer for me to sign tomorrow (Dave is in TX so will have to fax with him)!!!   It is a full-price offer, they offered exactly what we listed it for.  Please pray this offer goes through to closing so we can close that chapter of our lives.  Closing is set for Nov 18th.

Violet's dreams

She has been having nightmares lately and scared to go to bed at night because she says she is scared and doesn't know how to wake up when there is a bad one.  Stuff like people shooting her with guns and her being lost and scared.  Its something a parent really can't do much to help other than praying.  We have been praying at night that she wouldn't have such scary dreams but she keeps having them.  She was hysterical a few days ago and said she was mad that even though she asked God to help her not have bad dreams she kept having them.  Not really sure how to respond to that one.  Tonight when she and Calvin went to bed, she immediately got out of bed and told me she was having a hard time finding something nice to think about to try help her have nice dreams, that she could only think of bad things.  I told her to think about cinnamon rolls and donuts, and it made her giggle.  She said, "I think that will work!" And went off to bed.  I wonder what she will dream about tonight?

Calvin and the leaves

Calvin was in utter fascination with how many leaves had fallen in our back yard today.  Violet and Calvin are excited to see the seasons change, and they are anticipating the first snow fall already.   On the way home after I pick Violet up from school, we pass the same trees on the road and she notices the changes daily.  One tree went from dark green, to bright yellow, to losing all its leaves with in one week. 
Calvin came home from preschool today and got a chance to run around the back yard, and was screaming and excitedly throwing leaves into the air.  He laid down in the grass, spread his arms out, looked up at the yellow-leaved tree, and sighed in contentment.  It was fun to see him captivated by something we easily take for granted. 

Cravings

I have to list all the things I've wanted to eat in the last week....

- peanut m&m's
- processed american cheese slices (I never buy this stuff and a package ended up in my cart this morning!)
- dill pickles
- sausage and eggs together
- lasagna
- ICE cold water
- iceburg lettuce with italian dressing

Yep, definitely pregnant.  And coffee is still a no-go, and neither is chicken.  I'm planning burgers and beef/noodle soup for the next two dinners.