Lily at Ballet

Lily was eager to do ballet and gymnastics this year, but we have decided that she can only pick one.... SO... when I heard about this combo class through a friend- I didn't hesitate, even though it's on the opposite side of town!!

Half ballet, half gymnastics.... And this year we will not move prior to the recital, so we have that to look forward to, also! Lily misses her friend Elia at gymnastics, especially, but when she has been shy, her new friend Raegan has been very sweet to hold her hand. It was fun to see that she could pick right up with the other 4 year olds in this class- and her teacher asked if she had done ballet/gym before - I think it was so fun for her to be in a new situation but still feel competent, and like what she was being asked to do was familiar, even amid the new setting!

Here are some pictures:

Lily at Ballet

Albuquerque!

We girls were so excited so go with Archer to his conference in Albuquerque this year. Last year he had raved about the hotel, and about getting to spend some time with our dear friends there, so when he asked if I wanted to go with the girls instead of staying home by myself with the girls, I said "YES!"

I had many high hopes of great descriptions of everything, but mostly we hung out with Erin & Erik, saw some Albuquerque sights, and in general relaxed. We also got to spend a few minutes with my great aunt Libby on our way through Santa Fe, so that was fun, too! (No pictures of that, sadly.)

The resort we stayed at was AMAZING, and we had such a refreshing time with dear old friends, we are hoping Archer will be needed at this conference again next year!

Our pictures (with descriptions):

Albuquerque Visit

  

 Erik's pictures, vastly better than mine: Five Little Monkeys!

Our First Halloween

If you know us very well, you know that we have not previously participated in Halloween, feeling like the evil origins and on-going events associated with the holiday were not innocent, and therefore we did not want to support or popularize that in any way.

This year after some discussion and prayer, we decided at the last minute (this morning!) to dress the girls up and go trick or treating.

Here is what happened.

We went to Wal-mart and bought costumes (and way too much candy for our little block, apparently):

We carved a pumpkin.

We strung our sidewalk with orange lights, lit our pun'kin, and went to visit our neighbors!

Then we drove down the street to a friends' church and joined in their Harvest Fest. An event during which I left the camera in the car. But then we came home, enjoyed some goodies, attempted to wash off the marker and spray glitter, and went to bed!

Lily wanted to know why we were doing Halloween when we didn't before, and I told her: "We used to not do it because we were afraid of all the evil things that people do on Halloween, but we realized that we don't need to be afraid on Halloween, because Jesus is more powerful than those people or evil spirits!". I think that about covers it on a 4 year old level.

I forgot how many fond memories I have of Halloween traditions, costumes, and oh it was SO fun to see my little Bride and Kitty Cat all dressed up (not to mention the chunka teddy and her glow band !) ! They LOVED it. You'd think they didn't usually play dress up every day.

Best Summer Videos

We had some great ones this summer!
Highlights:

• Noelle dancing at Austin & Jennifer's wedding
• Trying out the 4 new swinging devices made by Archer & Butch (two big girl swings, one little girl heirloom swing, and one movable chin-up bar!)
• Girls pushing Archer down the hill
• Clara crawling!

Summer 2011 - Top Videos

August All Over!

We're playing photo catchup!  In August, we spent most of the time on the road:

First, we girls left Archer working at home with Padme, and went to on an impromptu trip to Crested Butte, CO with my folks... for pictures of that, we'll have to depend on them, since our camera was kaput at that point.

Toasting the new Bride & Groom!

Next, we headed out to Henderson, KY, to see my cousin Austin get married! (Welcome to the family, Jennifer!) 

While we were in Henderson we took the morning before the wedding to romp around the James John Audobon Park, which was beautiful - we saw lots of raccoons and birds, took a hike, and played in the museum.

On our way down to Dallas from Kentucky we stopped in Nashville to see Rick and Rachel, friends from Princeton days.

From Nashville, on to Dallas, where we girls spent almost two weeks with the Deals', hanging out with friends and family, swimming, playing with Geeda and Ritter. 

Poor Archer had to fly back up to Omaha to get some work done most of the time we were in Dallas, but he got to come back for a quick Labor Day weekend trip so we could all go to my cousin Meredith's wedding- welcome, Jason!

Whew! We drove back up to Nebraska on Labor Day, and I guess it has taken me the month of September to catch up from only being home for a week during the month of August!

Summer Sunshine! It's hot here!

How it is going here in Tornado Alley:

Clara!

* Only one siren-sounding since we've been here, and wow do people take those tornado warnings seriously! I (Kimberly) was out but close-by at a women's book club, and when the sirens went off I drove home quickly to make sure Archer wasn't outside with the girls instead of in the basement. Well, he was in the basement, with the door open standing outside watching the wind and sky and listening to his weather radio.

* Lately our girls' favorite pastime must include hearing, watching, or singing/pretending to be "Dee-Doe," which is "Do-Re-Me" from the Sound of Music.

* Clara has entered the "I've rolled over and I can't get up!" phase of movement! She loves playing with toys, and sometimes complains when no one is entertaining her (and sometimes when the entertainment is a bit too rough!), but mostly is still a very contented baby with a cheerful smile and lots of giggles and coos!

* Noelle is talking up a STORM! She is quite understandable (at least to us), and verbose. For example, recently asking her what she wanted to do that day, Noelle launched into this monologue for about 5 minutes (mostly repetitious after the first few things):
Me: "What do you want to do today, Noelle?"
Noelle: "Pay La-lee." (play with Lily) "Pay Cahlah Jane. Watcha me Dee-Doe. Simmy me poo. (Swim in my pool.) Pay out-sy. (Play outside). Pay La-lee. Pay Cahla Jane. ... etc."

* Lily just got her first real bicycle with training wheels yesterday and is LOVING to ride! It is, of course, a princess bike, so there is double excitement there. She really enjoyed Vacation Bible School a couple of weeks ago, while she still feels shy when I drop her off (either at VBS or at Sunday School"), she said to me that "I didn't like it at first, but then I did." She's enjoying playing with some new friends, and asks me almost every day "when is the next people coming to visit?". She loves having house guests, especially old friends!

* Speaking of visitors, we have been thrilled to get so much use out of our new guest room in our first month here! Both sets of grandparents, two sets of friends, and one great-aunt and cousins have come through Omaha since July 4th! The upcoming August would seem dismally boring if we weren't traveling mid-month to two weddings towards the end of the month!

* We're getting settled into church (Coram Deo), and have been thoroughly enjoying getting to know the families in our "missional community" (akin to a small group in our part of town) through play dates, a ladies' book club, and a men's Beer & Bible night! We're also really looking forward to hanging out with these folks at our MC camping trip this weekend!

* Archer is feeling productive in his new job now after a couple of weeks of mostly learning the ropes, and has been working on a demo for some higher-ups for the last couple of weeks and enjoying the technical work (of building the software he's demo-ing) and polishing his presentation skills for a new kind of audience.

* I (Kimberly) have been struggling with the effects of post-baby blues since just before we moved, but have seen some great improvement in my outlook and overall health since I joined the YMCA and have been taking advantage of the "free" childcare while I hit the treadmill (with some non-boring Jesus music on my iPod and Bible verses on notecards) for a few minutes on a regular basis!

* We've also had some revelations wrt our parenting strategies (thanks to some insights from friends and family), and feel like we have some new effective (i.e., sanity-helping) parenting ideas that have not only helped us keep the chaos of three babies in check, but also have enabled both big girls (especially Noelle) to feel more secure and cheerful, as well as obedient!

* We're praising the Lord for our new community, have rejoiced in continuing relationships with "old" community via Skype, Facebook, and best of all visits!

* I took a very prepared (a little too prepared) trip to Costco a couple of weeks ago, and I finally finished preparing all of the perishables (yesterday!) into freezer meals, and our freezers are officially full to the brim! I was hoping to make a monthly Costco trip, but it looks like I may have to wait until September to have room in my freezers for more food. Unless we have guests every night... anybody want to come over?

* Yesterday we organized our garage - the final step in the unpacking phase, so we are officially unpacked! It feels good to have "everything in it's place", and we are enjoying our new home immensely, although we still miss "me aye-yah home" in Michigan, where both children have requested that we go back to in the last couple of weeks.

Girls on one of the swings Archer and Butch made in our backyard.

Omaha!

We're almost completely unpacked!

Here are some pictures of our new digs - more later!

At Home in Omaha

Easter Explained

Dr. Batch

Archer defended his dissertation last Thursday, and this past Friday was his graduation from the University of Michigan's School of Information! He has a few revisions left to do still, but otherwise got a thumbs-up and positive feedback on his dissertation.

As to the graduation, he says it would feel more "real" if he was actually done with the revisions, but it's exciting all the same! 

Here are some pictures of the events from the last couple of weeks:

Archer's Dissertation Defense

UM Graduation

Greenfield Village & Ford Museum April 2011

It's Spring! First Park Day and Afternoon Porch Time!

Clearly, God is Gracious

I've said numerous times that the Lord has a sense of humor, and I think recently He's been chuckling at us in numerous ways. Not only were Mr. & Mrs. Planners' adoption plans halted by the Providential gift of our newest baby girl, but additionally here were are five and a half weeks from our expected move-date, and Archer's new employer still does not have a location for us to move to!

The Lord has truly been teaching us what it means that:

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."  

(Proverbs 16:9)

In our family Bible time we've been reading Genesis, and I've kinda gotten hooked on the names... people's names really describe who they are! So when I was thinking about a name for our new Batch, the meaning of the name became especially important. And of course we think it's beautiful, just like the girl herself!

Clara means "clear," or "bright,", and as we were praying for God's clear direction in how to be growing our family, He did make His will perfectly clear. No adoption for now, but another home-grown Batch for our family!

Her middle name, Jane, a feminine form of the name John, means "Yahweh (God) is gracious".  Throughout my pregnancy I was surprised at how "easy" a pregnancy it was (although frankly pregnancy usually treats me pretty well anyway), and I thought Lily was the easiest baby on the block, but really, Clara Jane is unbelievable! At 3 weeks old we can almost set a clock by her self-defined daily routine, and when she is awake, dry, and fed, she is happy just to hang out and look around quietly at her (not-so-quiet) big sisters. In many ways over the last 9 months the Lord has shown himself to be gracious to us, but especially in this: God (or, more precisely, "I AM") truly has been gracious to us through this beautiful and contented baby!

Another fun association is that John is my (Kimberly's) daddy's name, and my dad's grandmother's name was Jane - I knew her as "Mama Jane". My cousin Byron nicknamed her "Mama Janer" at one point, and somehow that got stuck in my mind after Clara was born, so I have to admit to calling her "Janer" or "Janes" (Lily's first mispronunciation of it!) as well. She doesn't seem to mind.

Daddy & Clara

Mama Jane, Kimberly and Melissa

Now that Clara is with us, I especially love thinking about her name and how the Lord chose to give this child to us.

Thank you, Lord, for Clara Jane!

Clara Jane

Clara Jane

It's a Girl! Batch3 Birth Story!

Upon the heels of her sisters' birthdays, our newest Batch arrived...

God really has had a sense of humor with our family this year. Not only did He give us another baby due in March, but He made sure that she was born within a week of her big sisters' birthdays as part of quite a story.

Saturday, March 12th, was the big Winnie the Pooh Birthday Party for Lily & Noelle. There were 14 little people at our house for two hours, along with a total of 6 saintly parents there to corral the chaos. It was a blast, the kids had a ton of fun, and we were all wiped out!

Sunday, March 13th, we "lose an hour" of precious sleep, head to church, then post-church naps and rest. Still, with all of the weekend's activities, everyone was a little cranky, and we decided to go out to dinner to avoid food prep, cleanup, being cooped up in the house, etc. On the way to the restaurant, our car started doing weird things, and after we stopped for gas, it would simple start, stutter, shake, and stop.  So Archer pushed the car from the pump to a parking spot, and the girls and I ended up walking from the gas station to the restaurant, where we started our meal while Archer spoke with the gas station attendant and tried to diagnose the problem. Archer had his wallet, but we had no phones, and Noelle was in her pajamas with barely a coat on.

After we all ate, Archer called a cab from the restaurant to meet him back at our car to pick up carseats, then drive back to the restaurant to pick us up. The cab never showed, Archer successfully started our car and we ended up making it home in our own car around 8:15pm.

I started getting the girls ready for bed while Archer made phone calls about getting a rental car that evening, since it seemed too risky to be without reliable wheels even for a one night with Batch3's due date looming 9 days away.

At 8:30pm Archer came up to tell me there were no car rental places open until the morning, unless he was to go to the Detroit Airport (35 minutes away).  I told him that wasn't going to work, because my water had just broken.

After some confirming calls to the midwife and to our friend Sharon who was "on-call" for us for watching the girls during Batch3's birth, we ended up borrowing Sharon's 2nd car for the night so we could reliably get to the hospital when labor got going, and settled in to wait for the contractions to start.

So we waited, cleaned up the house, made last minute emails and phone calls to arrange the week now assuming we'd have a new baby, started laundry, the dishwasher, and then settled in to watch a movie.

Around 12:45am I had a couple (literally, 2) real contractions that brought flashbacks to the births of Lily & Noelle, so we called the important people, and by 1am were in the borrowed car with the infant carseat literally thrown into the backseat, and racing to the hospital. We were admitted at 1:15am, and measured at 4-5cm and +2 station. After a few agonizing minutes in triage where the nurse attempted to get a 20 minute continuous monitor of the baby (Woman, I'm gonna have this baby by the time you get it!), she gave up and I made the nurse practically run with me down the hall into our own room (I wanted to make it before another contraction) and into the birthing tub.

A few minutes later, at 2:06am, Clara Jane was born. She weighed 7 lbs 8.3 oz, is 20 inches long, has a head only 13 inches around, and is very beautiful, of course!

Winnie the Pooh Party

Last year Lily and two friends went to the Hands On Museum for her birthday. This year after attending a friend's 3rd birthday party, complete with themed games and cupcakes, Lily told me she wanted her birthday party at "Olivia's Mama's House". Ahem. So I endeavored to put on an all-out themed birthday party, and thanks to Google, came up with a few ideas. It was a joint party for both girls (I promised Lily that when she is older and she and Noelle have different friends they can have separate parties.), and no fewer than 14 little people attended, with 4 saintly parents who came to help us maintain the chaos.

Here are some highlights:

"Loons"

Coloring Pooh Coloring Pages

(Note: When planning a toddler birthday party, each "activity" only consumes about 5 minutes of attention-span.)

Picnic!

Cake! Gorgeous Pooh Cake by our sweet friend Sharon, and messy Honey Pot Cake by yours truly.

Pin the Tail on Eeyore
(Note: A little too much waiting for 3 year olds, but they did it!)

Toss Piglet or Tigger in the Air Game




Drop Tigger into the Honey Pot Game

 

Pooh Party favors

Pooh Ears

 

And many games of Duck Duck Goose (or Piglet Piglet Pooh), jumping on the couches (dare I say off the walls?), running around in circles with balloons, and general fun havoc, which I think left everyone (probably most of all the parents) feeling like this:

Happy Birthday, Lily & Noelle! 

And Many Thanks to all our friends who came to celebrate with us!!

Noelle's News

It seems that Noella Bella (what we usually end up calling her around here) has decided to grow up super quickly to prepare for her baby brother or sister.  She is saying lots of new words: adding to her very clear interpretations of "woof woof"s and "meee-ow", are "moooo", "poink", and "cu-ak cu-ak" and in the kitchen category she is very clear in her desires for unlimited amounts of "cahk-cahk" and "tine"s. (Cows, pigs, and ducks, chocolate and clementines.)

She now understands that there is a baby in Mama's tummy (she does think she and Daddy might have one too), and she is helpfully using the potty and/or taking off her diaper when it's dirty.

Other things Noelle is increasingly enjoying are: "buhk", "binks", and "Elmo" (or "Mo"). These words are sometimes uses with various meanings, deciphered based on context. Books or buckles sound a lot like blankets, and depending on whether Noelle is trying to turn on the computer to watch Elmo or Veggie Tales videos or trying to take my phone out of my hand to say repeated "HI!"s to Ritter and Geeda on the phone helps us interpret "Mo".

No More "Farfs"

Lily used to called scarves very hysterically "farfs".  But when Aunt Melissa and Ritter were here this month, the farf is no more... instead it is the very grown up "It's a scarf, Mom."  

Where, Oh Where Has My Little Baby Gone? She's been replaced by a Little Girl, who plays dress up,

 twirls,

sings, and makes goofy faces at the camera more often than not.

Oh, and has enough hair for a braid!

She's a super fun girl, though, and I'm enjoying her friendship and perspective. As the oldest child of two oldest children, she loves rules and being in charge, and she's incredibly helpful.  She's recently started "reading" to her sister and friends when their requests for books from Mama are denied for a few minutes. 

Last weekend when we had a big crew of parents and toddlers over for a ridiculously chaotic dinner/playdate, I noticed that it was quiet in the living room because all of the kids had gone downstairs. I didn't see any adults missing from the room, so I asked in general, "Are there any adults in the basement?"

 The quick reply from another dad was, "Lily's down there!"