I've been pretty bad on the blogging realm. Sorry :/ I've come to realize that anyone that has four or more children and has time to blog is a super mom, because I hardly have time to sit down, let alone the fifteen minutes (or an hour) that it takes to blog. Until they are in bed. And then I'm tired. Or Joel is looking at x-rays. So I'm sorry for neglecting you. Especially when you guys give me [not so] subtle hints that I'm slacking. :)
So here it goes... December through mid-Feb... our lives.
Callum continues to think he's a bigger then he is. But still likes to cuddle. Sometimes Bowen begrudgingly is that recipient, when he is grabbed by the arms from behind and pulled down on Callum's lap. :)
Christmas day guests for dinner. Joel was on call, so we opened our home to anyone who wanted to come over. Luke W, Ruth, and Joel's parents came as well.
I pray that one day my children will be armed with the real stuff.
Lots of Legos. Praise the Lord for Legos... they were designed to keep a mom sane on cold wintry days.
I was super overwhelmed around Christmas time with just life in general. Coming back from Phoenix mid-December and trying to transition back into life (and colds) made it so that I didn't want to decorate or do my normal holiday baking... I was afraid I would lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas. But Liam asked if he could decorate the tree and the mantle. So I let him. We also had our traditional Happy Birthday Jesus cake, as the boys insisted the pies grandma was bringing over would not be sufficient to celebrate Christ's birthday :)On a side note, if anyone has any suggestions for paint colors/decor for our walls and mantle, I would be a willing taker, as I don't really mind the status quo, but Joel is tired of "mustard yellow".
More Legos. In the form of their favorite Disney movie (well, between that and Big Hero 6).
Bowen went through a stage where he only ate butternut squash. For a month. Seriously. Not anything else. Not applesauce. Not pear sauce. Not bananas. Not sweet potatoes. Not peas. Not cheerios. Nothing. Except one day, when Liam fed him. I think it was because Liam was entertaining. :)
But when Liam wasn't overwhelming him with a banana-berry medley, I think he was still not the happiest. :D
This is what my children do when they are waiting for the arrival of friends they haven't seen in a long time. I didn't get a picture with the Cobb's, but the boys were super thrilled to have our NC neighbors stop by for a visit!
More friends and game nights. They were about every weekend in January.
I have someone who is willing to mow your lawn, on sunny or snow-covered days... any takers?!
I told them that was NOT a good idea. Get a plastic bat instead. They obliged.
How Aiden would walk in the door. That is seriously how he would be playing towards the end of their time outside. Just enough of his eyes showing to see. The rest covered to hide from the cold!
The boys keep disappearing with his push walker. So he oft times resorts to using my drying rack.
By the time Joel had an afternoon off of work to play with them in the snow, it was almost gone, but they still wanted to sled. Callum, of course, wanted his chance to pull. He didn't notice Joel helping it along, so he was thrilled at his progress.
But it was a lot more fun to have Daddy using up his energy!
I was talked into going up to Chicago with Joel for a quick weekend for an ortho conference. And for some reason, he thought it would be fun to take a picture in front of the Trump Tower. I do NOT support Trump however, nor can I see any reason why many "evangelical Christians" should... so if you do, I would love to hear your thoughts and have a discussion about it.
The best part of our getaway to a much too busy city, with way too much car horns and traffic, in a wintry cold, windy day... being with the Widmers. It made it worth it. :) It was also restaurant week, so we got some super yummy Italian that Joel found one night.
Just an example of how busy Chicago is. They have self-kiosks for quick ordering, as well as other high tech things. Since I'm still nursing, Bowen joined us. He didn't let me sleep in, so while I waited for Lisa to wake up, we walked town and shopped at Trader Joe's! Yay! It was only a block away, though I couldn't go all out, because I had to carry it all back. :/
Bowen liked our posh hotel the Widmers had found downtown. It had three tvs (including one in the bathroom mirror!) and other fun stuff to keep Bowen entertained, as it had a modern design, so everything was low to the ground. As a mom of a crawler, I enjoyed the hard floors, as they appeared to be less grungy then normal places.
Lisa wanted to shop at some famous candy shop. I was amazed at all the candy. But thankfully found some inexpensive little fun suckers to take home to the boys. They have so much energy, I didn't want them to have any more sugar then those little ones give!
Super Bowl weekend. We got to hang out at Paul and Miranda's so we could watch the game. Joel's Detroit shirt got to serve two teams! Go Broncos! :)
Bowen's guardian angel has sometimes had to work just as hard as Callum's. I pulled those little plastic people off of the roof of his mouth after Callum had given him them to play with in bed, not realizing the choking hazard. Liam came to tell me he had thrown up all over. I went to get him to see what was the matter, and saw he had almost blown out of the diaper, and went to change it before I nursed him. He was upset that I didn't want to hold him, started screaming again and I saw those folded and stuck to the roof of his mouth. They might have been swallowed had I started nursing him first.
Another time he swallowed a Lego, and threw it up at least 20min later, after gagging when he started nursing. Hopefully, he will survive until adulthood.
Small things aren't the only things that I have to worry about. One of Liam's favorite things is a hypothetical game of "would you rather" with Bowen. For example, would Bowen rather eat a cheerio, a dead fly, or a baby toy? (By the way, none of those would probably be preferred by Bowen, who only enjoys rice crackers, if its not purees or softened squash and sweet potatoes). Sometimes the hypothetical turns into actual, though Mommy sometimes ruins the fun and nixes one of the options. In other words, Bowen did not get to receive the Scotch tape.
Cold days in the teens make some kids in our house go a little bit crazy.
Every now and again on Wednesdays, Joel takes the boys to Remington on his way to Rennsalaer. It's always a toss up whether I should just try to get a ton done at home or go grocery shopping minus 3 children. I usually opt for the latter. And sometimes on blistery cold days, I treat myself. I heart Caribou... and the only one within an hour drive happens to be in a grocery store on the Purdue campus. ... So I guess I have to like Purdue a bit too.
We were going to go to the Lollipop Symphony Orchestra performance as a family. But then we found out about a Ratio Christi symposium about the Reliability of Scripture. So we hit up Five Guys, took the boys to the instrument petting zoo, and then headed over to the symposium. It was really good. :)
They had a few scrolls out for observation, and unveiled a new one that night. The oldest Torah was from the 16th century, hidden underneath floorboards by some monks so it would escape burning from the Nazis during WWII. This is a picture of one only 5 complete Isaiah scrolls known to exist in the world.
Early one morning I came out to find Callum had pulled out a large mixing bowl, cracked 8 eggs into it (only getting a tiny sliver of a piece of shell in with them- can you believe it looking at these eggs??), had beaten them really well with a fork, and was squeezing oranges to make fresh oj while waiting for me to come out and scramble the eggs. Either that or he hadn't made it to the stove yet, praise the Lord.
How many of you are blessed enough to have a 2-yr old sweet enough to want to make me breakfast in bed? ;)
Joel and I started couples counseling in January. (No, we weren't having huge marital problems. We just thought it would be a good form of discipling. And it has. It's been amazing! I'm so grateful for it.) It has had us focus on becoming more like Christ, as, the way our counselor put it "There are only two options on the shelf: pleasing God or pleasing self". We were blessed to be given a counselor who is a retired OB, so he knows what Joel is going through, but also the need for balance. We are supposed to focus on our marriage, and at least for now, date once a week. (It's our homework assignment!) :) That's been nice too... since this girl feels loved when she spends time with her man! For Valentine's Day he took me to a local Japanese restaurant, and I got to have my tempura udon and unagi. He of course shared, and had sushi as well. :)
Yay! You did it! You survived to the end of all these pictures... Congratulations! :)
(and this is Bowen when he sees the wrapper for rice crackers and knows he will get them in the near future. I wish I were kidding. I'm not).
