Merry Christmas!

We're getting ready for Christmas at our house.  Our presents are all wrapped and goodies all made.  John is especially excited.:)  He knows what we got for Josiah and tells everyone who takes the time to ask him about Christmas.  Luckily, his speech still isn't clear enough for strangers, yet I think Cy might be able to understand him....Oooops!  Next year we won't let John see anyone else's presents.:)

I don't have any pictures because the camera is already packed.  The few pictures we have will have to come after Christmas.

Johnny always wants to listen to Christmas music from the computer (Pandora web site).  But he calls it "Christmas tree".  I'm not sure how he got Christmas music and Christmas tree mixed up.

John always has to say good night to Baby Jesus.  I have our nativity set up on the shelf that is in the living room near his bedroom so on the way to his room for nap time or bed time he always stops at the nativity, takes Baby Jesus and gives him a kiss.  It is so cute!

Lu Lu loves her Big Brother and always wants to play with him.  They love playing together in his Cars tent.  It is so cute!  Sometimes they wrestle too.  Today they were chasing each other around the house crawling and growling and laughing.  It was so precious to watch!

Lu Lu also loves Christmas music.  She loves to dance or rock to it (depending on if it's fast or slow).  Josh usually turns on Christmas music in the evenings and says that it puts everyone in a good mood...I think he's right!

I had my 12 week OB appointment today.  We got to hear the heartbeat!  It was at a rate of 162 which is good.  We were pretty excited and relieved since he couldn't find it last time and it took him a while to find it this time.  Dr. Obritch told us that the chance of miscarrage goes from 20% to 1-2% after 12 weeks (and hearing a good heartbeat) so we are very thankful and happy that this baby seems to be doing well after all our worries early on.

Josh finally saw a chiropractor last week for his neck/head aches that have been bothering him off and on and finally took him from a day of work.  He saw someone who grew up and lives on a farm by New Salem.  Josh really likes him and his neck is getting better.  He told me that he doesn't remember the last time his neck felt this good.  I'm very glad that he's getting relief.  I told him that it's my turn to go now.:)  (My OB Dr. gave me the green light to go to the chiropractor but only for upper back and neck).

We're looking forward to seeing our family for Christmas!!!  We hope you all have a great Christmas and keep Jesus at the center of all your activities!

Snow Fun!

This last week seemed to go by really fast.  I was busy at the church on Wednesday and wanted to go on Thursday, but the both John and Olue had a cold.  I decided it was just best to stay home.  I think Olue's to that dreaded age where she starts to only need 1 nap (but some days still needs 2).  She's only fallen asleep for her morning nap twice in the last week.  This is a little disappointing for me, because there are still quite a few things that are easier to do while she's napping, and I was really liking having 2 nap times to do them in.  I guess I'll just have to be more efficient.  She goes to bed really well at night, so that's nice.

Friday afternoon we took the kids out for a sled ride.  Olue didn't like the idea of the sled, so we took turns carrying her and pulling John in the sled.  Then Josh, John, and Cedar played on the little hill behind the house while me and Lu and the kitties watched.  It was a lot of fun...and typical John cried when It was done.  It was getting dark and we were all getting cold.  We enticed him inside with "cookies and hot chocolate".
On Sunday Josh had a ambulance call and came home with a bigger headache than he had when he left.  He ended up taking Monday off with the headache, but feels better now.  He's finally convinced that he should go to the chiropractor and hopefully get his reoccurring headaches taken care of.

We're still working on potty training John.  I know I just have to be more consistent....When he's wearing a diaper, he knows that he can go and not think about it.  When he's wearing underware he usually feels it coming and tells me if the 45 minute timer isn't soon enough.  This doesn't work when he's engrosed in an activity (like playdough)...especially if Mom forgets to set the timer...Ooops.  My fault.  BUT he still indescriminately poops in either underware or diaper.  He tells me immediately after he does it.  But he still doesn't tell me before.  So I guess on days that I'm tired, I just need to get over it and put him in underware anyway.  Easier said than done.

Here's some pictures from the weekend...I'm getting better at taking more of them!:)

Lu Lu playing with Cedar on Thursday night before we went to mass.

Johnny's on a mission.  He was filling his tent with as many toys as he could.  He did this again on Monday, but Olue was inside and he was burying her.  She didn't like that!:)

Johnny and Lu in the sled

Daddy coming to 'get' Mommy and Lu Lu

Lu Lu watching the boys play

Daddy and Johnny..."What's next?"

Daddy hiding in the weeds at the top of the hill and Johnny trying to come up and get him.

Daddy taking quick rest.

Johnny taking a rest

Daddy whispering to Johnny about going and "getting" Mommy and Lu Lu

And he's off

Here he comes growling

Daddy helping Johnny up the hill

Johnny sliding down on his back

getting pulled bavk up on the sled

Going down in the sled

Johnny having fun!

Crawling back up the hill

Right after John rolled down the hill.  He's really good at that!

Johnny playing with playdough

Playdough smile!

Lu Lu walking.  She is so tired here.  It's right before bed.

Put it in the bucket.

Take it out of the bucket.

Lu Lu's favorite place to play is in the kitchen coupboard that I gave the kids.  Her new thing is to take things (cookie cutters, measuring cups, etc.) out of the ice cream bucket and then take them out.  She's very deliberate about it.  I can tell she's learning something!

November Happenings

November has been a crazy month.  We found out we are expecting our 3rd little one at the end of October, and the first trimester exhaustion hit hard.  And just when I had finished all the canning and was looking forward to winter craft projects.  I'm getting my energy back now, so that's nice.  We had a little scare around 6 weeks when I thought I lost the baby.  But a doctor's apt and ultrasound confirmed the TINY little one with a strong heartbeat.  There was a blood clot between the placenta and uterus that was releasing when I nursed Olue.  So Olue was weaned immediately and Josh spent the rest of the week at home with me and the kids.  (I was supposed to take it easy.)  Josh had been gone to Wiliston for work the day that the whole scare went down, so it was nice to have him at home with us for a while.

I wasn't able to go hunting for my big buck at Mom and Dad's because of no travel restrictions on the pregnancy for two weeks.  I was a little disappointed, but we more so just miss seeing them.  It's been a long time since we've been with them.  I got the all okay at my 8 week appointment that everything is going well with the baby and we're excited and relieved to be able to travel and go on as normal.

The new baby is due on June 29th.  We are so excited to have another little one.  We just had a baby baptized in our church on Sunday.  It's just so fun to see those new little babies!



John washing up the table with two washclothes



Lu Lu eating cheerios

Johnny in a stocking hat

Our first Snow

Josh picked up Kristina and Josiah in Fargo on Nov 12th and they stayed with us for a week and a half until Thanksgiving.  It was so much fun to have them here.  We got our first snow on Monday after they came.  We all had fun playing out in it.

Johnny tip-toeing in the snow

Johnny's snow is starting to melt

Johnny throwing a snowball at Cy

Johnny and Cy played guns a lot while he was here.  They especially liked to play this game right when Daddy was about to get home, so he could get in on the action.

Johnny showing off his gun

Playing Dead

Ready for more aciton

Josh and his first car

The week that Kristina and Cy were here, Josh sold his car and the ford truck and we bought a new Silverado 1500.  We questioned wether it was the right time to do this, but yesterday when there was a decent sized drift behind the truck we knew for sure that it had been the right time.  I'll have to get a pic of the new truck to post.  We are very excited to have a reliable winter vehicle.

Grandpa Loegering holding Addy and Lu Lu

We went to Roger and Sue's for Thanksgiving weekend.  We spent Thanksgiving Day at Grandma and Grandpa Hayes with great food and beautiful weather.  The guys worked on rocking horses that Josh and Jake are making for Christmas presents for John and Addy.  We all took a walk in the woods in the afternoon.  It was a great day!

The boys playing football

Josh & Jared in Grandpa's shop

Grandpa and Jake

Cy and John

John and Oakie

"Go get it Oakie!"

Ruth, Olue, Kristina, Vika

Katie, Sue, Addy

On Friday all the girls went black Friday shopping except me.  I enjoyed sleeping in.  It was very nice!  Ruth did pick me up a new set of sheets for our bed.  They are amazing!!  After the girls got back, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's again to make Christmas Cookies.  It's a tradition for their family and a lot of fun.  Johnny just got in on the sugar cookie decorating last year, but this year he helped with almost everything.  I was so proud of him.  He even unwrapped the candies for peanut butter blossoms without eating them!

unwrapping candies

Jared and Olue

adding sprinkles

Johnny piled a few of his cookies with tall towers of sprinkles.  I think Grandma might need to buy some new sprinkles for next year.

Mom and John having fun

Playing in the living room while the cookies bake.  Addy, Thomas, Katie, Tolya, Vika, John, Jake

Jared, Olue, Stacie, Ruth

Thomas and Addy

Josh thought it would be funny to see what the kids did if the lights got shut off.  That's why Johnny looks kinda scared.

Saturday night we let the kids stay up and play late with Grandpa Loegering

Lu Lu and Johnny getting Grandpa

What a cutie

What a face

Two top teeth coming in

Grandpa Loegering didn't make it as long as the kids did.  He zonked on the floor while the kids played around him

Addy and John were giving Uncle Jared toys

Josh's Grandma (Roger's Mom) passes away while we were home for Thanksgiving.  We weren't able to make it back for the funeral.  The drive is way to long for the kids to make it twice in a week.  We pray for her and rejoice in her ending of earthly suffering and coming into the kingdom of heaven.

We had Santa Day on Saturday and did very well selling horseradish, popcorn, soup beans, jellies, and pickles.  I was a little disappointed that I didn't sell as much jelly and pickles as I had hoped, but I've had people call me since to buy directly from me...So I no longer need to be disappointed.