Christmas Pose

Homeschooling in action

I just realized that the last three pictures happened to all be mess related, so to show that we aren't hopeless slobs, here's the three oldest quietly having school and practicing their penmenship skills (at least that's how it appears for the moment).

"Mom, what are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just wiping yogert off the ceiling."


Just a reminder that 'life' happens around our house.


Here's another one. I call it, "why I'm glad we got a hard floor."

Yum...

What's the best part of making rice crispy treats together? - Getting to clean up the mess all over the table from the youngest helper.

Recital

Election day

Deb has talked about doing this for a few elections now. Well, tonight the two oldest and I did it in celebration that the election is finally over tomorrow. It's a United States sugar cookie with the states colored in red and blue (well, pretend it's blue), representing the map many of us will get very familiar with as we await the results.

In the leaves

Here's the annual picture of the kids in the leaves - in our new yard! (Micah was resting.)

Splitting Wood

Catching up the blog with something I was going to post a few weeks ago. We went to Hayward to help split some wood. This is what three of us acomplished in just two days!

First pigtails!

Lydia finally has enough hair to try out some pigtails today. Aren't they cute! Compare this to a picture of her bald (but also cute) head about a year ago.

"Look how fast I can put the states together!"

This is from several months ago, but having just discovered HomeSchoolViewTube now we have a "decent" place to host videos. Enjoy!

Micah's Dedication

Micah was dedicated last Sunday. (Finally. We were putting it off because of all the moving hulabaloo.) It was wonderful to spend the day surrounded by our family and friends.

We particularly enjoyed backing up the Anderson family as they led worship. The regular leader was out of town, and they were very willing to step in.

A couple days later, we caught Micah apparently praying in his sleep.

Before & After 2

Probably one of the most dramatic changes we made was the removal of much of this wall between the dining room and our school/play/computer room. The small, doorway-size opening in the middle of all the living spaces was quite the traffic hazard, and this really opened things up. Also note how the floors now match - seamlessly.

By the old tree

The weather was too perfect tonight to practice violin inside.

Before & After

Here is the first before/after shot of the work that's been done around the house. The biggest change was definately the floors. This is taken from what is now the main floor laundry room, the bathroom is to the right, the school/play/computer room is to the left with the new circle rug.

Hopefully, many more to come.

Cousins

We spent a couple weekends recently visiting family in Illinois and then Wisconsin. It was a nice distraction from all the hullabaloo with moving, and the kids had a ball both weekends spending time with their cousins. Anyone who cares probably knows this already, but on the right are Erik's sister's kids from Belvidere, IL and below are Deb's brother's kids from Eau Claire, WI.

We've Moved!

Sorry I don't have any pictures this time. Our computer is packed and our camera is around here somewhere. (Has anybody seen my toothbrush?) It was a crazy weekend, but thanks to a bunch of helpers all our stuff got moved to the new place. Well, except for the stuff in the shed because the shed key got packed before we got that far. :)

Lots-a-Updates

Busy, busy, busy! Wow, times right now are crazy but exciting.

Work continues on the new house. (It's kinda weird sometimes to call it the "new" house, since it was built like 80 years before our "old" house.) Here's the wall between the dining room and home-school/play room. We're expanding the doorway so mom can keep a better eye on the kids while making lunch. New laminate flooring is almost done in 2 rooms (out of 6). The new appliances have arrived and the new main-floor laundry room now has plumbing (it's waiting for gas, dryer vent, and a new vinyl floor).

Meanwhile, we celebrated Noah's 3rd birthday - the first party to take place at the new house (even though we haven't moved yet).

Isaac had a violin concert, where he got to share the stage with the older kids. He did incredibly well.

A couple weeks ago we took a "break" from all this and the 6 of us drove down to southwestern Missouri. We spent the weekend at a camp with several MOMYS families. The 9 1/2 hour drive took more like 13, but it was worth it to finally meet and spend time with some families we've been (mostly Deb) getting to know in the virtual world.

Laminate - room #1

"So, how's the house coming along?"

Glad you asked... Both grampa's have been a huge help. Painting is just about done upstairs, some major projects on the main level have started, and the first laminate floor is in process. Here's the boy's room.

lots-a-kids

I guess you could say it was in preparation for the MOMYS retreat this coming weekend... Mom and kids met up with 2 other families tonight, of which ours was the smallest. 17 kids in all. Can you pick out which ones are our's?

Updates (MACHE, Micah, and the new house)

First, we have to brag... there was a very familiar face on the latest blog entry from the Maxwell family. They have a wonderful ministry which has been a huge blessing to us, and their blog is likely read by hundreds if not thousands of people. Well, we saw them this weekend at the MACHE conference in Duluth, and during a stop at their booth they snapped this picture of the cutest baby there (our very own Micah) and published it on their blog.

Micah is doing very well. He had a 2nd blood transfusion on April 3rd and as been off his bili/light bed since April 13th. He's really been catching up on the weight charts, and gets cuteness comments wherever we go.

We finally closed on our new house on April 11th. Now we're in the process of doing as many projects as we can before moving. This mostly includes fixing some things, painting, some new floors, etc. Our dads have been enormously helpful with all this.

1, 2, 3, 4!

Welcome home...

Micah's transfusion went very well yesterday, and they sent him home today!

We will continue to keep a close eye on things. There is a chance he could need another one within the next few weeks, but we're glad to have him home.

Meanwhile, it looks like his older brothers have been having a good time with that heavy March snow we just got last night.

Oh, and the award for the best baby gift (I mean, one of the best - I don't want to offend anyone) goes to some of Erik's co-workers who gave a beautiful and refreshing bouquet of fruit. Mmmm.

Micah update

Micah is still at the NICU at St. John's Hospital. Micah's bilirubin has greatly improved over the last few days, however his hemoglobin has continued to decline. Therefore he will be getting a blood transfusion this afternoon. The Dr. expects this to give his blood the help it needs and he may even come home tomorrow.

Thanks for your prayers!

more pics of Micah

Still at St. John's, bilirubin is better, hemoglobin isn't yet.

What a day...

So, last night United says Micah can go home, despite his bili numbers starting to go back up a little - because we'll send him with a bili-bed to sleep on.

We kept him on that thing every moment he wasn't eating or being changed or something.

In the morning, we brought him in for his first pediatrician appointment to see how things were going. He looked very orange. The clinic didn't have needles small enough to find out how he really was doing, so we were sent to the lab at St. John's nearby.

Throughout these periods of waiting, he seemed more and more orange, tired, and limp. We waited at the lab for the results, and then were immediately sent downstairs to the Special Care Nursery because his bili numbers were very high.

So, now he's been re-admited (at a different hospital) and being closely monitored under the full-strength bili lights. Fortunately, they had a room for him with a pullout-bed/chair in it for mom.

Then, in the midst of all this, our house purchase is progressing faster then expected. We were asked to fax some paperwork and move forward with some things that we thought we had more time with. Somehow it all got done.

And to top it all off, Isaac had a violin recital. He did extremely well considering he hasn't been able to have his usual practice time with mom in several days. Yeah, Isaac! (Sorry the picture is a blur, but considering the day we had it seemed kinda appropriate.)

Welcome Micah!

Born at 12:38 at United Hospital in St. Paul

5 lbs. 5 oz.

Mom and baby are doing great.

We're moving to Fridley!

After a month and a half of searching and waiting in what is supposed to be a 'buyer's market' our offer on an incredible house in Fridley (one of the first we looked at back in January) has finally been accepted. We expect to move around late April or early May, depending on how long it takes to get through all this paperwork and stuff.

Check out some more pictures here.

(Guess we'll have to change the name of the blog.)

The latest on #4.

Baby #4 has given us an adventure in this new realm of rh-sensitized babies. We've had so many dopler ultrasounds, we could probably do them ourselves. He (yes, it's a he) has been up and down on the anemia chart, and will likely come out to see us in March.

One ultrasound technician said it's time to move on from all those cutesy profiles and printed us a picture of his "inter-cranial anatomy." Today, we caught him moving his mouth, and they printed out what he must have been saying.