Didn't make the cut!!

Well the Christmas cards got mailed out today (most of them anyway!) Let me know if we normally send you one but you haven't received one this year (my memory isn't that great....I blame it on the pregnancy!)


We wanted to take a nice family picture and mail it out with our letters this year like we did last year, but that didn't exactly happen! Nathan and I both enjoy receiving pictures of whole families and not necessarily just the kids (although the kids are still cute!) so we like to do the same. Well, we just couldn't get one where everyone was looking, all eyes were open, the pic wasn't blurry, etc. So we ended up sending just a pic of the boys. This is the picture that got closest but DID NOT go out with our letters. Can you figure out why??? It isn't too noticeable on here since the picture isn't very big, but I'll give you a hint......it has to do with our goofball of a son wonderful 2 yr old Caedmon.....







I figured it wouldn't be too appropriate to send out that pic out as our 'formal' Christmas picture, although it is very cute and, now that I think about it, maybe it would be appropriate seeing how people know that we have a 3 yr old, 2 yr old and 1 yr old and getting them all to sit still, look, and NOT to have their fingers in their nose isn't exactly an easy task!!...plus, it shows more of the great chaos dynamic of our zoo family! :)


Oh well, now you all see it anyway!! If you so desperately want a copy of the gorgeous family with the 2 yr old and his finger up his nose, just let me know and I will mail you a copy :)

Have a great day!

Bonjour!!

Here are some pictures of the wonderful French family we met a couple weeks ago! The son, Alban, (we call him Al) lives in our building and his parents were here visiting him for a couple weeks. Because they had his apartment key and were leaving and needed someone to keep it for him until he returned from work, they knocked on my door b/c they heard a crying baby (imagine that!!) and knew someone was home! And the rest is history!! :)

They were such a nice couple and we spent the next few days conversing and cooking for each other (more her cooking for us!). She taught me how to make leek fondue (leeks are a staple in France and they were very amused that neither Nathan nor I had ever eaten a leek!...that's like us meeting someone who hadn't ever had a potato!), vegetable soup with NO stock, and a garden dish with lots of veggies and spices. Then she made us a half leek, half zucchini quiche (which was awesome!!) and the last time we got together they made us crepes or "American pancakes, the French way!" Which looked and tasted EXACTLY like lefse! They even made it round, spread butter on it and sprinkled sugared, rolled it up and ate it...just like lefse!

Alban is in America learning more about the wind power technology to bring back to France. He's been here about a year and a half and plans to return to France in March. Anne Marie is a retired English teacher and Francis is a retired engineer who worked on the railway that was built UNDERNEATH the English channel! Cool huh??

It was SO fun getting to know them before they left and learning SO much about France and their culture. We learned more about geography and France in those few days than either of us did in our whole schooling years! We also enjoyed learning and hearing the French language. Francis doesn't speak English, although he understands a lot, so it was super fun listening to them converse and translate for us.

Now that we know Al lives upstairs, we continue to see and talk to him often. Al talks to my kids in French and Tiernan and Caedmon are actually catching on! Tiernan will say goodbye and hello in French and caedmon will repeat anything you say to him in French, which is more than he will do in English! Brayan just loves him and runs up to him to have Al pick him up whenever he stops by :) It's so cute!

Nathan and I now have a small desire (I say small only b/c the only way to get to France is to fly which most of you know I'm not fond of!) to go to Paris and visit them!

Enjoy the Pictures!

Oh, and since i've posted now for two days IN A ROW (amazing!) make sure you read about Tiernan in the previous post if you haven't! :)

Alban, Anne Marie, and Francis

Since Francis is an engineer, he really liked the kids' train set!

Again, Francis playing with the train

Al and Tiernan

Caedmon, Anne Marie, and Tiernan

Francis and Brayan

What the crepes looked like when they were done. This one was Nathan's which he put maple syrup on instead of sugar

Francis making the crepes

Anne Marie teaching me how to cook the "French way"....which is LOTS and LOTS of veggies!!

Again, Anne Marie cooking.....I told her that I'd be taking pictures because it's not every day that I get to cook and learn from a French lady!

Francis cutting us a pomegranate and showing us how to eat it. Now that is one of our favorite fruits!

Tiernan snuck out of bed to say hi and to take a picture with Anne Marie and Francis

Tiernan

(I'm very frustrated with Blogger b/c it won't let me space between each of my bullet points even after I've tried everything to get it to stay that way...it has a mind of it's own!! So sorry, you'll just have to read it the way it is and put up with it :)

Whew! I'm finally getting back to writing about each of my kids! A few of you have asked if I was going to continue that ever, so I'm sorry for the long delay :) Next up: Tiernan!

Some of his 'school work'

More 'school' :)

Again....


And Again :)




Tiernan and Julia (the little girl, who's now 8!, who I used to nanny when she was just an infant!).....(Mary, I have a copy for you :)




Tiernan wrote his name by himself here, except a tiny bit of help with his 'e'

Posing for a pic at G & G McKeevers'

He's nickname is still Biggie and probably will be for the rest of his life. That was something that started when he was just a baby, by Nathan by accident, and it's just stuck. Nathan said before 'he'll grow out of it' but as of yet, he hasn't.

He will turn 4 on Feb. 23rd.

He is 31 pounds and 3 ft 2 inches tall.

He is still in a 5 point harness carseat. I know

I could technically put him now in a big boy booster seat but since he's still so close to the cut-off weight, we've just kept him in his carseat. Plus the booster seat I have is really low so he can't see anything out the windows either.

**side note** All 3 of my kids are in 5 point harness car seats and pretty soon I will have FOUR kids in 5 point harnesses.....do you understand just a little why going places with them, especially by myself, is just not necessarily desireable?? :)

He has been completely potty trained, including nights, since last April. (2 mos after turning 3)

He's our kid who wouldn't sleep if we didn't make him. He's been like that since birth. I remember saying when he was about 2 weeks old..."I thought newborns were supposed to sleep!" He sleeps through the night, only getting up to go potty or to ask if he can sleep on our floor.

He can count to 20 without help and to 30 with some correction if he skips a number.

He is a VERY slow eater (mostly b/c he's talking so much) but is starting to eat alot and understands that if he eats all his food, he is eligible for a snack later.

**side note** My kids ate the most eggs the other morning than they have ever before. Between the 3 of them (reminding you that they are 3, 2, and 1) I scrambled 12 eggs!! Yikes! That garden and those chickens hopefully are coming soon!! :)

He sleeps with a fish pillow that I made in high school swimming and his teddy bear from my parents house as his security things.

Loves to go to church.

Is starting to get obsessed with coloring in the lines. It takes him about an hour to color a picture (not kidding!) b/c he is VERY careful about staying in the lines. Then he wants to hang the picture on the frig to "show my daddy when he gets home"

Is very much a daddy's boy and loves to hang out with Nathan. He absolutely loves when Nathan reads with him and watches/dances to the wow christian music videos.

His favorite song is Daylight by Remedy Drive, which he would watch on the wow dvd all day long if I let him.

**side note** Nathan and I are going to go see Remedy Drive in concert in Jan but you'll never guess where???????? LUVERNE!! Yes, that is right...they will be performing at the Palace Theater downtown Luverne about, oh, 2 BLOCKS FROM OUR HOME!! We will WALK to their concert!! How crazy is that?!?! We will definitely video tape them singing Daylight from our cell phones for Biggie :)

Favorite new thing to do is to play the drums on the couch with wooden spoons....or spatulas, or wire whisks, or anything he can find in the utensil drawer! He also likes playing his 'air' guitar.

He can almost write his name by himself.

He is the MASTER of puzzles! Give him a puzzle and he'll figure it out fast! He also memorizes where the pieces go after just a few times putting one together so he can just grab a random piece and lay it in the middle of the puzzle without any other pieces by it b/c he knows that's where it will be going.

He loves to play baseball and will hit the ball when he's pitched to.

He likes to play hide and seek with Brayan and jump on mom and dad's bed with Caedmon.

He can say Hello and Goodbye in French without prompting. Also count to 3 in French, which he does in the elevator when he sees the 1 2 3 buttons.

He's transitioning to size 4T clothes and wears size 8 to 8-1/2 shoe.

He LOVES LOVES LOVES to "do school" and work on his letters etc. He often asks me if we can 'do school'. I hope to keep him interested in learning.

INTERNET, FINALLY!!!

YAY! We finally have the internet! We TRIED to go without and just to use the computer at the library when needed but with doing so much online (bills, emails, blogs :) it took too much time away from my family and hubby in the evenings so we decided to just get it! I think it'll be worth it! So that also means that I can finally start updating my blog more!! I plan to try to start tonight after the little munchkins go to bed! And way to vote on my boy/girl poll! At first the girl votes WAY out numbered the boy votes but now boys are starting to catch up!! If you haven't voted, do it!! :)

Pics

Well, we are settled and it feels great! We are loving being back and having more space!! Here are some pics from our time in St Cloud. Notice I put up a poll on my site to the right, so you have to participate, I want to see what people think!! :)

Tiernan riding the horse at Coborns :)

This is how Caedmon fell asleep one night after we moved

Caedmon showing his muscles...this is something you HAVE to see in person, it's so cute!

My Three Boys!

Where's Tiernan??

Careful Uncle Jonathan!...Don't drop Caedmon!

Careful Uncle Jonathan, don't drop Tiernan!!

Caedmon and Brayan lookin' at the cows

Tiernan and younger cousin Mercy. (Funny story about Mercy....she's only a couple months older than Caedmon but like her mom says 'she came out talking' so she talks in complete full sentences and sounds WAY older than 2. Anyway, she came up to me when we first saw her and I said 'Do you know what my name is?' And since I've only seen her a couple times in her life (they live in Texas), I told her "I'm Auntie Dawn" She just stares at me and SO seriously (and matter-of-factly) goes "What's your FULL name?!" HA! Gotta love those kids!

Changes!!

WOW! I know it's been a LONG time since I've been on here, but I just wanted to update everyone real quick!

We were in St Cloud waiting in between jobs from Oct 7th until yesterday! We FINALLY got a call (After thinking we'd might need to change careers!) on Thursday and we were able to move back to LUVERNE last night!! We are in the same apt building as we were before, just a different apt. The apt that we are in now is the same set up as our other one though, so coming from our apt in garner, we fell as though we are living like KINGS! :) So we are settling back in here and trying to get everything unpacked and put away. We went from st cloud to garner (packed, cleaned and moved out) and then from garner to luverne (unloaded everything) all within about 13 hours! It was a packed day and we couldn't have done it without the help of my dad and his truck!! THANKS DAD!!

Oh, the other thing that is exciting in our lives is that we are adding another little blessing to our family!!! We are expecting baby #4 in March and are very excited! Even though I'm almost half way done with the pregnancy, I'm still waiting for my belly to 'pop' out! I have a tiny little bump but no one would even be able to tell I'm pregnant :) I do feel the baby move though and have heard it's heartbeat a couple times, so I know it's in there! :) (And don't feel bad if this is the first time you've heard anything...we didn't tell anyone until I was 15 weeks along (now 18)...that was a LONG wait for me! :)

Hope all is well with everyone and, again, I'm sorry this is so short, but once we get the internet in our apt, I'll be able to update the blog more and post a bunch of pics, etc! Until next time...!

Welcome to October!!

Ok, I know I did a post yesterday, but I thought I'd do another one today!! It's been a long time since I posted often but now that I feel like our lives are getting exciting again, there's more to post :)

So we thought Nathan working 293 hours in August was a lot....WRONG! In September he put in a WHOPPIN' 347.5 hours!!!! Wowzers!! Keeping in mind that most "normal" people worked around 168. But, then again, if you haven't caught on yet, WE'RE NOT NORMAL!! :) But that's okay cause 'normal' is boring...hehe :)

ONE MORE WEEK!!!! The deadline for the job is Oct 8th, a week from today!!! They are going to be trying as hard as they can to be done by the 6th though because if they get done then, they get a bonus. Nathan thinks that they will actually make it!! As long as we don't get any rain that slows them down, it should be alright! A few nights ago it rained the whole night and we got about an inch. Nathan said the next day was just spent getting unstuck so they didn't progress much. Now that it's dried up, they are back at it! He still starts at 7am and gets off at 8pm. I'm glad that its started to get dark earlier and earlier so the foreman is tempted to keep them their any longer than 8...it's too dark!! We are looking forward to having Nathan off work for a little while (maybe a week or two??) until the next job starts....we ALL need a break!!

We are very anxious to get out of this place as well. I have 12 boxes already packed and sitting by the door and continue to get a couple boxes packed per day. We won't have much time to move when we find out where we are going since they usually call him for a job on a friday and they want him to start the next monday, so I'm trying to get as much ready as I can now.

I'm SO ready to have FOUR WHOLE BURNERS to cook on! :) instead of just 2! That's one thing I'm looking forward to. There's not too much about this place that we will miss....although the two things that have been nice are 1)my clothes line right outside my door...i LOVE that!!! and 2) Donna!! She's been such a sweetheart and loves us so much. I know we will be missed by her.

Some things I won't miss? Hearing the marching band start practice a block away at 7:00 AM EVERY weekday!! Hearing the music/walking/digging in cupboards/coughing of our neighbor. Smelling the constant smoke of our new neighbors that moved in downstairs. actually, there were two apts (one next to donna and one in the basement) that were moved in to a few days ago and they all smoke so it tends to just float right up here when we have our windows open. Having our landlord not fix ANYTHING that he said he was going to or that we've asked him to. The CREEKY-NESS of our floor!! It's so horrible! The stove not working, the cupboards in the bathroom falling off, the bathtub being tilted so all the water by the faucet runs down onto the floor, no light in our fridge, having to push the fridge with our legs in order to shut it, no roller thingys in our drawers just wood on wood, NO light in our living room!! Our living room is seperated from the other rooms so light from the kitchen or something doesn't just flow into the living room and the other day the kids broke our lamp that was in there so now we have NO light in our living room....So, after like 7:15, no going into the living room if you need something...good thing Brayan sleeps in there, at least it's dark! :)

But despite all that stuff that, I know we've been blessed. We have a wonderful lady who lives below us, neighbors behind us that gave us cucumbers from her garden, and another neighbor who let us pick apples off their tree. A safe town to live in where I could walk the kids everyday. A huge park a block away. And we actually found an apt in Garner (which is where we wanted to move based on where Nathan was going to show up for work) that let us pay month to month so we didn't get caught up in a lease when it was just going to be short-term. Oh, AND we were 10 minutes from our milk farmer! THAT has been SUPER nice!! So I try to focus on those things and not the other stuff :)

Now I'm just excited to see where the Lord leads us next! Where do you think we'll end up??