our place

Last weekend we got the chance to visit Erik’s sister and husband and kids.  We got to see their new home and meet our newest nephew!  Of course I realize later that I took only pictures at the park, while Simon was covered and snoozing away in his stroller – which means no photos of the new house or newest member of the family!  Well, at least we got these cute shots of the kids having a blast together…

We are the proud new owners of a new swing set!!  The girls (and Sam too, of course) had no idea that we were surprising them with it.  So when the doorbell rang at 2pm on Thursday, Lucy came to the door with me and with one look at the pickup truck loaded with boxes and a big green slide sitting on top she new what it was!  She said, “My new swing set! My new swing set!  I’m so excited!  I’m so excited!”

We watched the beginnings of the assembly, but when not much exciting was happening, just the opening and unloading of LOTS of pieces of wood, we decided to go inside for a while.  But with each sound of a hammer pounding or drill screwing we ran to the window to see the set start to take form.

When Abgiail came home from school she joined in on the excitement!

An added bonus, the set is big enough for Erik and I to play on everything too! (My favorite is the disc swing!)

March was off to a rough start at our home.  The kids were all sick with multiple illnesses, worst off was Lucy who ended up slipping into a scary case of pnuemonia at some point during a high fever/coughing virus.  Thankfully the other two got off with much milder versions, but it was a 5 day thing that seemed to take forever for everyone to get and get better.  Add on pink eye and a stomach bug thing in the midst of it all and I’m not exaggerating when I say that, as parents we were pushed to our limits, and then some more.  It was a marathon of sorts which I think we are just recovering from!

Well, all that to say I realize we took a long hiatus from posting and thought we should get up some pics before someone is graduating from high school!

So, let’s see…

We celebrated Valentines Day by making “rings” for our friends.

“Look Mom, I’m going to marry ten people!”

Lucy wrote her “Y” first by mistake so she thought she’d just write the rest of her name backwards, even the letters are a mirror image!

Sam got his first pair of shoes!

And his first real haircut, by a professional.

I remembered the camera, but just forgot to take it out of the bag at the salon!

Then spring came early!

And with that came fun things like playing outside with shorts and barefeet, lots of gardening, planting seeds (indoors), new chicks and eggs from our neighbor friends…

Oh, Abigail’s first science fair was in there somewhere too.

I can’t believe I have a kid old enough to have a science fair!  She did an experiment with static electricity and had a great time with Daddy!

So, I’ve been introduced to this new website called Pinterest. On this site one can “pin” (like on to corkboard) anything you might come across while searching the World Wide Web.  Once an item has been “pinned” onto your board anyone on Pinterest can see it and choose to “repin” it to their own board.  The categories range from home decor, to DIY crafts/projects, kids crafts, fashion, and more.  So, basically I’m hooked.   I’ve found that I need to limit myself on how much time I spend on Pinterest though!  Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed with the desire to create something, and frustrated that I don’t have much time to do it.  Therefore, the need to limit my time there!  But, it is a really fun site and I like that I can pin something and come back to it when I’m ready for a project.  Perhaps now I could just pin the 200 sites I’ve booked-marked over time onto our laptop! (I’m sure Erik would appreciate the freed-up memory space).

All that to say, I had been wanting to make something for the front door that could fill the time between Valentine’s Day and Spring and so I turned to Pinterest for inspiration.  It was fun to make although the yarn wrapping was quite tedious!  I was hoping to finish the entire wreath in one naptime, but had only accomplished about 2/3 of the wrapping in a baby’s two hour nap!  Now I enjoy opening up the front door and admiring a completed project.  (If you have been a parent to small children you can appreciate the satisfaction of a completed project!)

I had so much fun making these flowers I made some matching ones with the girls for themselves and their Hello Kittys…

Sam decided he wants to learn how to walk!  Big sisters get in on the action.

Before

During

After

I couldn’t bring myself to cut off too much, but believe it or not, he got about an inch taken off the back!

It wouldn’t be the Christmas season without our Small Group Christmas party!  Don’t the guys look dashing?!

Our friend sporting the sweater he won last year at the white elephant and a mustache won this year… a perfect complement to the sweater, we all agreed!

Diesel, enjoying a “hookart” received at the white elephant!

Just couldn’t resist posting this one too. He seems to understand that this chair is his.  He loves to get in it all the time!

Christmas Eve, at last!

Went to the Christmas Eve service at church,

Enjoyed dinner with some friends,

And prepped for Christmas morning.   We then enjoyed some hot tea and Christmas cookies by the glow of the tree.

This was one of my favorite Christmas decorations this year.  Lucy’s teacher made it and placed it on top of her Christmas gift. I just thought it was so sweet and cleverly made.  It is made out of doilies and is attached to a clothes pin.  I pinned it above the Nativity set on top of our piano.  It made me smile every time I stopped to looked at it!

Merry (belated) Christmas!

A little bit late, but this is a brief sum up of our “Count Up” to Christmas this year!

Each day of December we open a pocket.  Inside is either a family activity to do or a tiny trinket…

Among the activites was… making chocolate dipped treats for gifts,

Taking pictures of one another (I think the girls are doing their “Rock Star” impersonations here)…

(A kiss from sisters under the mistletoe).

Decorating a tree for the birds (more like a feast for the squirrels!),

dressing up fancy for dinner,

 And making gifts for teachers.

Here the kids are waiting for Santa to come down the street on top of the Fire Truck.

Here come the candy canes!

After helping me wrap all of Daddy gifts one day, Lucy said, “Now I need to do my gifts!”

So she went up to her bedroom and “Christmas shopped”!  She chose a beaded jingle bell necklace that she had made in preschool for Abigail, a tiny stuffed teddy bear for Samuel and one of her books for Daddy.  She drew me a family portrait, but wanted me to have it early so she gave it to me right after completing it.

Here she is with her gifts all wrapped.  She was very pleased that she too was now ready for Christmas!

An afternoon visit from my Mom’s dear cousin and her granddaughter (visiting from Holland!).

Lucy’s school Christmas concert…

Lucy has known that the prize for “saving her thumb” for bed is a trip to Build-A-Bear, where she could have her choice of any stuffed animal and outfit… but she just wasn’t ready to give up the sucking yet.  After Abigail went last year (Lucy came along too), Lucy said she didn’t want a Build-A-Bear.  But then recently she began talking about how when she goes she wants to pick out a Hello Kitty just like Abigail’s.  One day Lucy pointed out to me that she had stopped sucking her thumb.  I wasn’t quite sure if this was the case, but after a couple of days I saw that she had indeed given it up!  At first she began carrying around a play cell phone and little doggy to keep her hands busy (ALL of this was her idea!.. We were  just observing it all)!  So, I began drawing a little picture of a bear on the kitchen calendar for each day that she did not suck, and told her when we have one whole week of bears then we’ll go to Build-A-Bear.  And sure enough, a week passed and still no sucking (not even at night time!!)  So, the day after Thanksgiving we went to get her prize. (Of course it was Black Friday!  Which meant that our parking spot was a mile away from the mall entrance… but we skipped our way to Build-A-Bear!  No one seemed to mind; this was a monumentous occasion!)  Sure enough she picked out Hello Kitty!  and a purple Rapunzel dress, complete with glass slippers.  She also asked for a “salon set” (which has a mini hairdryer that actually works!).

It’s been about a month and still no mention of “just one thumb-suck”!   I think Abigail has felt the need to “step-it-up” and I haven’t seen anymore nighttime thumb-sucking from her either…a little positive peer pressure, I suppose!

The proud, new owner of a Build-A-Bear Hello Kitty.

(The girls asked that I take a picture of the Hello Kittys together)!

Erik mowed the yard for the last time this season and with that comes lots of rides to use up the rest of the gasoline!  Here’s Samuel’s first tractor ride…

We also got out to visit Erik’s grandparents.  Here’s three generations of Wanaselja men!…

(so handsome!)

Of course Thanksgiving was another highlight of the month.  We hosted for the first time this year (on our new Lancaster, extendable table… now we can have 10 kids like a good Amish family)!

(Sporting her handiwork from school)

(Posing as Indian princesses, I think)

(Always a good help in the kitchen )

(Enjoying some cousin time)

Even squeezed in a chilly trip to the zoo…

(Of course Lucy kept reminding us that “This was not a fun day”.  Even last night when I was tucking her in bed (mind you it’s been a few weeks), she felt the need to remind me that the zoo was “not fun”.  Such a stinker!  In her mind the only redeeming value of the zoo would have been a ride on the carousel, which at the entrance we were told would be the only ride open (since it was chilly and a bit drizzly on and off), but when we got there no one was to be seen.  I guess the operator got tired of waiting around for kids that day…

I never told Lucy that I saw a picture of her friend on Facebook riding the carousel just a few days later on a sunny warm day).