Our dryer started making this dreadful noise awhile back. It would go in cycles between a quiet, I can handle it screech to a full out, awful sound that would make you think twice about running it if someone was over or if a kiddo was napping. Well, God bless Mike, he took the dryer COMPLETELY apart and NOW it does not screech at all!!! So nice! I admit to being a little nervous when I walked into the room and saw the sight below, but what a guy to tackle such a project. :)
We had Grams and Popsy over for dinner and games this past Sunday. We had so much fun with them! Thanks for coming over Grams and Popsy!!
Playing Outside
Playing On the Farm
Playing Mario Kart
This week I find myself thinking, just thinking about so many things. I learned this week, that a friend of mine from my high school days has cancer. She most likely does not have very long left here on this earth. She has a husband and a young son. My mind can hardly fathom it. She is my friend. She is my age. She is 29. She is too young. She has so much left to do. She has a son to watch grow. She has more people to touch. I try to put myself in her shoes or in her husband’s shoes and I find that makes it very hard to breathe. I know that this is not the way they would have wanted or expected life to go, they would not have signed up for this path…
I had the opportunity to be at a conference that equips women to be better wives and mothers. One woman shared her long journey with infertility in the face of every single person she knew getting pregnant. That path was not what she signed up for.
Another shared a story of how for 22 years she had a seemingly normal life. Then her husband got sick and one thing led to another and now he is on medication for a bi-polar disorder. She has a new normal and it is not what she signed up for.
Still another woman lost her sight at age 15. She has been blind now for more years that she had sight. And it’s hard. It’s not what she signed up for.
I know in my mind that God is absolutely sovereign, that before any of these situations reached these families it came through God’s hand. I absolutely believe that, with all my heart, yet it is still so hard for me to understand the why’s of it all. But something I heard yesterday really touched my heart. It is not always well with our circumstances. Life happens, cancer happens, sickness happens, infertility happens, blindness happens. Our circumstances change in big ways and small ways all the time and it is not always well with our circumstances. BUT, even though it is not always well with my circumstances, it is well with my soul. I have been given, by Jesus Christ, enough grace to handle my circumstances, even when they feel like they may break my heart. It is well with my soul because of Jesus Christ and the hope that I have in him. I pray that if you read this blog that you can say, though it is not well with my circumstances, it is well with my soul.
Kate has not made it a secret that she would like to have a sister. :) My good friend, Wendy, had a precious baby girl a week ago, and it brought Kate’s desires back to the forefront of her thoughts. I told her it is possible that she would never have a sister and at best, it could be quite a long time, especially to a 4 year old. She took the news pretty well. She decided if she can’t have a sister, she will just make do with Creighton.
Dear Spring,
I would appreciate it very much if you would come soon. You see, I have a daughter, she is very high energy, and when she cannot spend every minute of every day outside, she resorts to doing the things that are pictured below. If you could come a little early, maybe just maybe our whole house will not end up covered in something it should not be (fingernail polish, permanent marker, etc.) Thanks.
For those wondering how the fingernail polish incident turned out, the fingernail polish has been taken away indefinitely and she did not get to sleep with her white blanket that night.
In other news, I had her preschool parent/teacher conference last week and her teacher said she is doing great, she’s ready for kindergarten, AND she has one of the longer attention spans of all the kids in her class. God bless preschool teachers. Just so you don’t think I only catch her doing “bad” things, I did catch her with a broom and dustpan cleaning up a mess she had made without being asked. She’s a ton of fun, but man alive, she wears me out. My Mom is right, I haven’t been bored in a REALLY long time. :)
Lincoln is doing great in the potty training ordeal. We are down to one diaper a day (night time) and he has not had any accidents this week (it is only Tuesday though). But, we’re excited for positive progress!
Creighton has started holding his hands above his head. We don’t know why, if he is doing “So big” or what, but he thinks it is really funny. I tried to catch him at it last night, but he’s a quick little guy, even with an SLR camera. :)
Another week has evaporated. We really enjoyed the warmer temperatures from last week! We had a busy week, but didn’t take a lot of pictures. Here is another one of the happy baby, hopefully he will still be that happy after I take him for his 6 month shots today. :) 
We’ve started the gaggy process of potty training Lincoln. He is successful about 60% of the time. It gets better everyday, but oh how I dislike potty training.
Kate got her first haircut by someone other than me. I just wasn’t sure what to do with it. Grace did a great job on it and Kate actually did well sitting still enough for her to cut it.
Kate didn’t have preschool yesterday, so we ventured over to the Children’s Museum. The kids love going there, but I’m not adventurous enough to tackle it by myself. Mike offered to take a few hours off work and go with us, which worked out really well. Another great trip.
I don’t know if anyone else has this experience, but I have noticed over the course of the past several years that I always struggle in February. I more easily get down, discouraged, and just blue. I guess the silver lining of having a “blue month” is that it is the shortest month of the year and it is now more than half over. :) I think my struggle with the month of February has only gotten worse since the addition of Kate to our lives. Kate loves life, is lively, and full of spirit. So, when the temps dip to single digits, she gets stuck inside, not necessarily because I think she couldn’t go out, but because I don’t want to go out. :) Why not send her out by herself you ask, you obviously don’t know Kate, she’d end up in Minier, I’m quite certain of it. Our latest Kate battle is the 60 minutes immediately following preschool. She comes home, immediately messes with Creighton and Lincoln and commences to be a truly awful child for one hour. I do not know what happens at that point, but she totally turns it off and returns to her good natured self. However, by then, I’m usually about to blow a gasket, although I’m learning how to manage my emotions better, most days it’s okay actually, but there is that occasional day when I think she just might push me right over the edge. So, I’m still trying to figure out what it is that I should do with her for the first 60 minutes after she is home from preschool…make her go play in her room for an hour, make her run for an hour, I just really have no idea. On the plus side, we have seen her mature and develop so much, so to those of you out there with kids with lots of spirit, take heart, it’s not always as challenging as at that 18 –24 month stage! It’s awesome to see some of what we have been trying to teach her sink in. We have been working on some memory verses with Kate and Lincoln, themed toward things that they have trouble with (being kind, being afraid, etc). A few days ago we were making valentines for her preschool class. She wasn’t sure she really wanted to give them to her classmates. I was about to encourage her to think about being kind, but before I could open my mouth she said, “Oh, I get it. Consider others better than yourselves (part of one of her Bible memory verses) I should give my friends my valentines.” It was so encouraging in the face of a challenging time with her, that she is listening, it’s starting to click.
Lincoln is starting to become quite the funny kid. He loves to say things to make us laugh. He especially loves to make Kate laugh. He makes a lot of funny faces. Our biggest challenge with him is helping him work on not being quite so shy and potty training. If anyone really loves the potty training challenge, I would lend him to you for a few days. I’m kidding…mostly. Anyway, now that I’ve bored you to tears, here are a few pictures.
One evening last week we needed a babysitter. Our kiddos LOVE my Aunt Joyce and who wouldn’t?? She reads to them, makes cookies with them, and a multitude of other fun things! Thanks Aunt Joyce!!
Happy lil’ guy
There is no way that Creighton will actually make it to the Doctor recommended age before trying certain foods with his siblings around. :)
One morning before church Lincoln was adamant that he needed his picture taken with his dad.
We also celebrated Feb Rassi b-days last Sunday. But since the picture I took isn’t very flattering of anyone, I won’t post it. *See, Dad R, at least I’m not a mean picture taker :)*
