Water Fun

Our summer has been pretty mild here in Indiana, especially with what we are used to from Oklahoma; however, things have heated up this week.  Our temps have been in the 90s with humidty at 60-80% which makes for heat indexes well over 100 degrees.  (And, yes, Oklahoma friends, I do realize that you have been well over 100 degrees for probably a month straight now.) 


Anyway, we hit the water playground this afternoon and the kids had a great time.  See the fun below!

What in the World?!

So, I was just getting going again with my blogging and then I am out of commission for over a week!  What is up with that?!  I can't even really blame it on being busy although we have had a few more activities going on this past week including (but not limited to):

* Mourning the loss of our butterfly friend

* On June 22, I got the new Karen Kingsbury book (it came out on June 21) but I had just started a new book on June 21.  I spent extra time reading to finish the first book (completed midday June 23) so I could start the Karen Kingsbury book (immediately following) and finished it June 24 ... which was just in time to ...

* Pack for our weekend Family Camp outting at Camp Lutherhaven which we left for on Friday and returned on Sunday.  Pictures (of some of the fun) included here:

Cole enjoying the water

 Rachel taking a dip in the lake

Robbie working on one of his sand creations

Alexa showing off

Me and my friend Sarah

We went to this camp together as kids! 

She was there for the weekend with her three boys

Cole, Robbie, Alexa, Rachel

* Kids have been going to Vacation Bible School this week during the mornings.  (I get to lead crafts on Friday--yea for me!)

* Rachel and Cole started t-ball this week; their first "game" was today.

Cole getting ready to bat

Rachel on first base

This weekend we will be hosting guests on Sunday and next week I think I will be taking the kids for a quick visit to my grandparents.  Rob is done with football camps as of today, so now he will just have to take care of his own football players which lightens his load considerably.  We are looking forward to spending more time with him!

More Pics of our Current Habitat

First of all, I want to make sure that you pay particular attention to the details of these photos.  I worked very hard to make the space looked "lived in" like they do in furtniture stores with snacks, drinks, and sometimes even spilled/messy items.  I borrowed ideas from these professionals before I began this photo shoot.  (Note: This could also be translated to mean, I did not take time to clean any of the rooms before I took the pictures, so please don't look too closely.)

Living Room

Office/Craft Room

Dining Room

(There is also a kitchen and family room on the main level of the house but I seem to have gotten sidetracked before I took those pictures.  They will have to wait for another day.)

The stairs that have given the children what they always dreamed of ... a "story house". 

Ironically, we have only had one house without stairs (the one we just left in Oklahoma).  In this boring photo, you might note the empty nook.  We don't have any Mary statues (or statues of any other saints for that matter) which I am sure that this nook was intended to hold.  Instead, you will sometimes find a stuffed animal sitting in or even one of my kids.

Boys' room (View from the Door)

 

 

Boys' room (Inside View; Robbie's bed)

Girls' Room (Inside View; Alexa's bed)

Girls' Room (View from the Door)

Play Room

For anyone who hadn't been to our Oklahoma house, this is quite a big change in space.  Our home there was about ten years old, very open floor plan with high ceilings.  The kids shared two rooms; one with two sets of bunk beds where they all slept and one room with all the toys where they played.

The house here was built in 1941 (I think); it has about 200 more sq ft, but each area is its own separate room with standard ceilings.  The kids have enjoyed having separate rooms, it seems.  The boys' room is significantly larger than the girls, so they have most of the "boy" toys in with them.  The girls' room really just holds their furniture, so the current play room has mostly "girl" toys. I don't really like the separation of toys because they all play with pretty much everything and I want them to continue to do that without feeling like they are playing with a "boy" or "girl" toy or having to bother someone in their room to get what they want.  Both girls have expressed an interest in having their own room, so I guess we will have some discussions soon on whether to scrap the playroom idea and split them and the toys into separate rooms.

More on that and the yet-to-be-photographed rooms another day!

Something exciting to note in these pictures of the kids' rooms (exciting for me, at least) is that you can see four, yes FOUR, dressers/chest of drawers!  Until this time last week, all the kids shared two dressers; and just a year prior to now, we only had one dresser that they shared.  Don't ask me why, it's just the way it turned out.  But, now they each get their own dresser, and it is such a happy time!

The master bedroom and only full bath are also upstairs.  The kids' library (which consists of two bookshelves) is in the hallway upstairs which seems to be working out okay as it makes it convenient for selecting and returning books for bedtime.

Changes

Children change all the time; they are always growing, learning, etc. 

A move like we had can cause and magnify some changes as well. 

Of all the kids, Alexa has probably changed the most.  You can see for yourself here...

...although I am not certain that losing teeth can scientifically be linked to a move! 

Poor girl can hardy eat anything these days with those three holes in her mouth.  =)  I hope they start to grow in a bit before the corn on the cob is at its peak.

Animal Rescue Center

The kids have "rescued" an injured butterfly.  Part of one lower wing is missing which they noticed as it hopped around the yard a couple of days ago.  So, they collected it and are keeping it in Robbie's bug habitat box (seen here with some "pre-story" here).  They have collected flowers for the cage so it can have pollen.  They have added water and grapes (not sure if the grapes are good for it or not, but they thought it was worth a try) for additional nourishment.

The fun (or funny) part about all of this is that they have let the butterfly out to play in the backyard each day for an hour or two and  then collect it again and retun it to the cage.  The above picture was taken when the butterfly was out at recess today.  I am impressed that the butterfly is still alive and don't know how much longer it will last, but I guess they must be doing an okay job of taking care of it.

Also once today when I walked into the kitchen, the butterfly was on the kitchen floor.  The kids had left off the cover to one of the vents when they were outside and somehow the butterfly managed to sneak out through the open hole but didn't get very far. It has since been scooped up and returned to the bug box to see if it will make it another day.

I love these kids!

We Made It!

 

... and now that we are on-line at home, I can tell you all about it!  I hope our delay in checking in doesn't mean that we have lost any new followers who may have tried to look in on us.


We crossed into Indiana in the early hours of Saturday, May 28.  We stayed at my mother-in-law's for a few days to relax, catch our breath, and wait for our rent house to be available.  On June 1st, we came up to South Bend and moved into this house.

We seem to be settling in fine and have some fun things to look forward to on our summer schedule.  For now I will leave it at that, but I will be sure to add more pictures and details of events in the coming days and weeks.

Birthday Girl

Today is Alexa's birthday; she is seven now. All of my children's birthdays are special and sentimental in their own right. The birth of our first child where everything about it was a first; the last one because we knew it would be the last and they were twins. But, Alexa's is the most emotional of all of them.

She came five weeks early with no signs prior to my water breaking at the doctor's office while waiting to meet him for the first time. (We had just moved to our new town two weeks before.) I think my appointment was about this time 10-10:30 AM on a Wednesday. Rob had come along to help with Robbie and to meet the new guy too. We'd had to wait a long time, and Rob was about ready to give up and go back to work (at his new job) because he had a meeting he shouldn't miss. However before he left, my water broke and things started moving more quickly from there. Even though a lot happened fast in the few hours between waiting in that exam room to the time Alexa was actually delivered, I remember everything very clearly. And, that isn't even the emotional part!

During her second Apgar check, the nurses found Alexa's heart rate was racing and nothing they tried over the next hour or two was fixing it. A helicopter was called in and she was flown to Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis who had a pediatric cardiologist on staff and a NICU equipped for such issues. Within 24 hours, they had her in good shape with just the use of medication. On Saturday morning, we got to take her home. We continued to give her medication until she was eight months old with cardiologist check-ups every two or three months. There has never been any indication of additional troubles; for that we are extremely thankful!

I only got to hold her once for a couple of minutes -about two hours AFTER she was born- before she was flown to the other hospital. We did baptize her before she left; a pastor from the local Lutheran church whom I had just met earlier that day while waiting to deliver came and baptized her while she was already in her special crib box to be transported. The nurse from the helicopter was there for that and prayed with us, and I remember thinking how special that was. I was released from the hospital on Friday morning (way too early for c-section delivery) so I could go to St. Louis, so on Friday afternoon (two days after she was born), I got to hold her again and nurse her for the first time. Like I said, they kept her one more day, taught us how to give her medicine, gave us a stethoscope, told us things to watch for, and sent us on our way.

Whew- it's been seven years, but I remember those moments like they happened yesterday.

Happy Birthday, Alexa!

Caption Contest

If we had enough readers (which won't happen until I actually start writing regularly), I would be tempted to hold a contest to see who could come up with the best caption for this photo--

Seeing that we don't have many readers and I don't have time to monitor a contest or send out a prize, I will just share my thoughts. The picture is our dog, Birdie, "sunning" in the backyard. I am not quite sure if she is trying to even out her tan or practicing her road kill pose for her doggy drama group that meets later today.

Another Birthday?

How can it be that four years have passed since we brought two itty bitty babies home? Okay, so they weren't that itty bitty all things considered, but compared to this ...

they were just little peanuts!

Cole has been waiting for his birthday since October, and we have officially been counting down for three weeks using a calendar on the refrigerator, so they were both pretty excited. Gifts were randomly showing up in the mail along with the ones we had purchased and were piling up ready to be opened, and Grandma Kroll brought more over with her so they were definitely ready to celebrate Saturday afternoon when we FINALLY finished lunch and let the festivities begin!

Happy 4th Birthday, my Cuddle Bug and Cuddle Bear!

First Time

For the first time EVER, we had all four of our kids in different places for a while. That may not sound significant, and it probably isn't, but it was a big enough deal that I was conscious of it happening.

With the twins being our youngest, they tend to be together most of the time. There have been several times they have been in separate places, but most often they are with one of the other kids, or the other kids are together at school or a church event while Rachel and Cole are doing different things between Rob and I or between my mom and I. Boy and girl events sometimes take place as well (The girls are much more likely to want to go to the grocery store with me than the boys when given a chance to stay home with Rob. Imagine that!?)

Today, Robbie had a baseball meeting for parents and players (Rob took him), I was coaching Alexa's basketball game, Rachel had a birthday party (girls' only - it was a princess deal...polish, make-up, dress-up, the whole deal), and Cole went to Grandma's so he could have fun too. With some juggling of dropping off and picking up the younger ones, all outtings were a success and we all ended up back at home four hours after the first vanload left.

It was the first of many such days, I'm sure, and would probably be forgotten except I have recorded it here. =)