August Adventures

 Travis spent hours down at the pond catching frogs at my mom and dads house. :)

 camp sunset

 Uncle Levi and Vivian

 there were new baby chickens in S.B*y, and Jenna was in her glory holding them and chasing them down.

 Someone enjoyed her blueberry pancakes...:)

All 10 of my parents grandkids. :)

 

August was bsuy! We had a few different adventures, one of them going home for five days. :) The weather wasn't very warm, bet we still went and crammed our summer into a long weeked! It was quick and busy, but lots of fun.

Fun Facts

Here are a few facts I have learned about our new town in the last week we've been out here:
1. It is not uncommon to see between six to eight big semi's with some sort of big trailer on the back waiting at each intersection.
 2. The parades don't skimp on candy. At home it was like each kid had to fight over about four pieces of candy. Here, each kid got about two handfuls from each float.
 3. There are alot of big pickup trucks that have the wo...rks on them.
 4. The Walmart here sells big plastic boxes that they try to pass of as homes. But hey! They are insulated, have cable and ac, all for a steal of 20,000! ;)
 5. It's alot nicer than people make it sound out to be. It's very family friendly with all the new parks, splash pad and the youth pool. I'm happy to be calling it home because it's where we are a family again!

Overnight company

We had our first over night company this week. Wally T's family came to ND to see what the hustle and bustle of this busy little oil town is all about, and ended up staying the night at our new home. It was fun to have them over! My kids were bummed when it was time for them to start heading home back to the U.P. the next morning!

A New Experience

Well, it took us 19 hours to move, but we made it to North Dakota! We had to take a big detour zig zagging through Minnesota due to all of the rain causing flash flooding and road wash outs on US2 and I35. But we eventually made it here, and it is beautiful! I had no idea what to expect, and had never been to ND before, so I was pleasantly surprised. We are loving the endless blue skies and rolling green hills with homes tucked in them here and there.

 As far as unpacking, it's safe to say that I am probably 80 percent of the way done. The new place is really nice! We are really liking it and now spacious it is. It's close to Walmart and the grocery stores, so that is a bonus as well.

The kids and I are going to go to a splash park this afternoon after Vivian wakes up. I have to plug the street number into the GPS, as I really have NO idea where anything is yet, and it's pretty confusing to me! But we'll get there, and we'll enjoy keeping cool. It's not the big lake, but it'll do for today. :)

Soaking up Sunshine

We have been trying to sneak in time at the camp while packing to move. :) It was a beautiful weekend, and we were able to soak up some much loved sunshine!

This Little Love of Mine....

 I found this dress for ten dollars at a garage sale last summer when Vivian was a baby with this purpose in mind. :)

 I was hoping to have a real photographer take her one year pictures, but I got my new camera in the mail, and with the fact that we're moving in a couple of weeks I figured I'd give it a go myself. It wasn't planned to do it today ( check out the dirty little toes. :)), but I had help and she was in a good mood, so we winged it.

I am pretty pleased with the way they turned out! What do you think? :)  Now to just print them off and frame my favorite!  ( btw- her hair doesn't usually stick straight up like that on top. the wind came along and blew her little wispy hair right up. She thought it was pretty funny, and that's how we got her to smile at us.)

Catching Up

 I haven't really been very good about keeping up on this blog as of late, but I promise I haven't fallen off of the ends of the earth. :) This little lady will be one in less than two weeks! Can you believe it!? I hardly can! She's been by far, my busiest little body around here. Climbing stairs, standing on her own for short periods of time, and starting to try and take steps towards walking. Eek! I want her to wait on that last one til her Daddy comes home from North Dakota to come and get us. :)

 All four of my little loves before church on Sunday morning.

 Vivian LOVES the bike. Anytime she's outside she's got one of us pushing her around. I think she needs one her size for her birthday coming up.

 And Jenna..... she's almost done with kindergarten. At her music program, her classmates each stood up and shared what their dream is to be when they grow up. There were policemen, firefighters, teachers, actors, a flower picker, and my Jenna, who wants to be an acrobat. :) Melted my heart.

This guy ( please excuse the messy face) just turned three. I love my kids, but not the age three. The saying terrible twos is WAY off in my opinion. It should be terrible threes. At least with all four of my  kids. It's like someone flips a switch when they turn three and they get so SASSY! By the time three and a half rolls around they are somewhat better, but man oh man, Logan has been trying my patience lately with his major temper tantroms. I am just glad that Aaron will be home in ten days to help me deal with the chaos of raising four children. Then it's off to North Dakota we go for good!

A Spring Day in March

Three Weeks

This little girl has had a busy few weeks! She's got three, almost four teeth, she waves bye, and goodnight, is *almost* crawling ( I can wait a little bit longer for this stage. Once they are on the move, they are into everything!), and can push herself up into a sitting position.  She seems especially big since both of my sisters Loretta and Alanna just had two adorable baby boys! We welcomed Parker Eli on 2-13-12 and Henrik Arthur on 2-27-12.  I got to see Lo and Parker when he was brand new ( less than 24 hours) but haven't been to see her since as we've both had sick kids between the two of us for the past two weeks. Alanna is out in ND, so we'll have to wait til we see them either out there, or they come up here.

Speaking of ND, Aaron has been out there for three and a half weeks. Seems like forever ago. We are planning on meeting up with him halfway in MN in three more weeks. I can't wait! :) Lots has happened in those three weeks. I have two new nephews, Vivs has been on the move. Those are the positive. The neg. is I have an uncle who is in critical condition after suffering a hematoma a week ago. Prayers for his full recovery would be much appreciated. Also, on the other side of the family, and an aunt has been placed in hospice care after fighting MS for many years. Prayers for her comfort are being said as well.

And one last thing... It's MARCH! One month closer to spring. February is the shortest month of the year, but up here it feels like one of the longest. Kind of like a limbo between the end of winter, and the start of spring. It surely ended with a bang here with two snow days in a row. We got so much snow all at once, and with the wind causing it to drift, some of the back roads were so plugged up they had to bust through them with a big sno-go. I'm hoping March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. An early spring would be great!

100 Days Smarter

 Jenna has made it through 100 days of school. :) Check out her smile, one of her top teeth has poked through and is now about halfway down. I'm getting used to her new smile, and it makes me smile myself when I see her tooth there. It's been a few years since she's had front teeth.

 This little love is 8 months old, and she just got her first tooth on the bottom. She's rolling all over the floor, and is becoming our little vaccuum cleaner. A good reason to keep my floors clean! :) She is not crawling yet, but has been pushing up onto her hands and knees, and is leaning onto her knees from a sitting postion to reach for things in front of her.

This guy.... he's been my buddy with Travis gone to preschool in the mornings. It's usually just him and I for a few hours while Vivian is down for her two hour morning nap. He and I have been ejoying each other's company. Logan is such a fun kid, and there are many times during the day where he makes me smile just watching him be himself. :)

My Cloth Baby Diapers and Legwarmers

We recently tried out a new diaper and were asked to do a review on it. Brittany, the owner of My Cloth Baby sent us a diaper to test out. The first thought that came to mind when it showed up in the mail was that her shipping was super efficient. Great customer service goes along way.

 The second was how cute and soft the diaper ( click on the linked word to see a picture of the diaper on the website) itself was! I didn't think I was a fan of the minky outer material on a diaper, but it's probably our favorite one right now. I love it! And it stays just as soft wash after wash. She's also got alot of other darling prints for girls and boys or some gender nuetral prints along with a few solid colors. It's an Eco Grow One Size diaper and it's on the roomy side! We have Vivian snapped down to the second to last rise and she'll stay there for a while I think as there is lots of room to grow into the next snap up.

 The next step was to see how well it holds up to my super soaker of a daughter. It worked really well. The elastic was a good fit around the legs and her waist, so we had zero leaks. V has some pretty chubby thighs, so it's sometimes hard to get a good fit around them and also get a good fit around the waist at the same time so we don't get any leaks. I was excited that we were able to get good fits on both. :)

 Lastly, the price is super reasonable. Just 10.00 for the diaper ( half the price of some of the biggest leading brands). She's also got lots of cute leg warmers to match, along with a few other baby items in her store :)   All in all we have no complaints about the diaper! It's cute, a great fit, and holds in the messes well! We'll definetly be buying from her again. :) Thanks Brittany!

*** In case you didn't catch the link, or for some reason it just didn't want to work on your computer, to get to Brittany's website go to:   http://hyenacart.com/stores/myclothbaby

A New Chapter

Things have been kind of busy this month.... Aaron resigned from his job at the hospital on Friday and will be heading out to North Dakota to look for work out there. The kids and I will still stay here until the school year, and then figure out what to do after that. It was really rather sudden and unexpected this new change of events, but we're trying to see it as a blessing in disguise. It's time's like these where we turn to our faith and just put our trust in God. He's got a plan for us, and although we may not know what the reasoning behind this is now, it'll be apparent some day. We just need to be patient. So cross your fingers he finds work in his field, and that the kids and I ( especially I!) manage without him for weeks at a time. I'm especially thankful that we have both of our families up here to help us and give us all the moral support we need. But then at the same time, I'm thankful that I have two brothers who are willing to squeeze him into their trailer out in ND ( Thanks again guys! We REALLY appreciate it!) so he can support our little family.

Vivian is growing like a weed, she weighs about 17.5 lbs and is fitting into some 12 month clothes at 7 1/2 months old. We think she might be teething, cause everything goes into her mouth. Hands, toys, her plug, the food your holding in your hand.... :) She's onto eating table foods and so far we haven't discovered anything she won't eat. Her chunky thighs will vouch for that too. :) She's also sitting up on her own, yay! I love when they get to this stage where they can start entertaining themselves for short periods of time. To me it's a big turning point in the first year of their life where for once they aren't solely relying on mom for every little thing. It's kind of nice to have the small mini breaks too.

Travis got the record for the nastiest looking shiner in this house last weekend.... seems like this kid holds the record for most of the bumps and bruises in this house actually. I think he takes after his mom with my lack of coordination skills. Sorry kid..... He was running in the house with his winter boots on and he tripped and smacked his eye/forehead off of the runner of a wooden rocking chair. It looks more colorful each day.

We got lots and lots and lots of snow this January. But it's only been in one or two big spurts. Other than that, this winter as been pretty mild so far. You don't hear me complaining though! I feel as if we've skipped over the worst parts of winter, and before we know it, it'll be spring again. The sno go came by yesterday and cut back the snow banks, so now the streets are nice and wide again. The banks are higher than my head so it'll be a while before we see grass again, but it's still pretty out there with the fresh white snow. Logan loves it outside. I've been making an effort to help him get his duds on when the temps allow and get him outside. He'll stay out there til he's pretty much a snowman himself. :) It'll be nice though when all he's got to do is slip on a pair of shoes to go out.... but til then we'll just keep bundling up. Hope your staying warm, and all is well at your homes! Happy New Year - late, but hey, it's still January. ;)

Jenna Turned 6!

Some days I get sad that my tiny 6 lb baby girl is now 6 years old and growing faster every day. Her front teeth are finally starting to come it. She's pretty much thrilled about it. This morning she told me " Mom! I can feel my tooth in my mouth!" It's a big deal when your six. :) For her birthday we went to a local restraunt where you can eat for free on your birthday. She chose to do this instead of a party with friends. ( She's in Kindergarten, and doesn't really know many girls yet). She took her cousin
Hannah, and then asked if she could please invite Great Grandma Rita ( my dad's mom). Great Grandma was pretty thrilled to be invited. It was alot of fun, and I was glad for a grown up company at dinner. Jenna and Hannah kept saying how it was the best restraunt ever. We don't go out very often, so it was a big deal. :)

Look Who's Seven Months!

This little love of mine is 7 months old this week! Time sure flies! She's almost sitting up on her own, is eating a variety of solids, and weighs about 17 lbs. She's a big girl!! :) Logan calls her "Bibs" cause he can't prounouce his V's. She says mamama and has learned that if she yells she'll get some attention. Not always a good thing, but we still think she's adorable.

It's been a while....

It's been a while, but our holiday season came with a lot of sickness in our house! We had the flu, pink eye, and pink eye that turned into Cellulitis for Logan and he had to be hospitalized for a night for IV antibiotics two days before Christmas. It was kind of stressfull, but we caught it early, and after 24 hours of his IV's and one allergic reaction he was looking better, heading in the right direction healing wise and we were able to go home. :)