Bubba's Birthday

Somehow it’s been 6 years since Niels joined our family. How the years have flown. He was born about 8 weeks after I turned 30, in our last few months of medical school. He was a tough baby...he didn’t sleep well for the first year, but once he turned one and started sleeping well, he has been the best kid ever. I remember when he was 2 he would come up and hug me about 60 times a day. This boy...he is wonderfully tender hearted. He rushes into my room every morning at 6:00 to snuggle me. He asks what we will do that day, makes a plan about what he’ll eat for breakfast, and helps me get out of bed to go exercise. He loves to obey, and when I do have to scold him, he sincerely feels bad for disobeying. He always wants to finish his school work first thing in the morning, partly so he can then play learning games, but also because he really love math and reading.

He loves all things army/Air Force/navy related right now, so finding gifts for him is pretty easy. Grandma and Grandpa Iverson sent us Paul’s old Mega Force toys and Micro Machines. They (of course Anders assumes they are his) loved them so much they haven’t asked to watch TV for a week...they are constantly playing them.

Ane Chick-fil-a somehow managed to be his birthday meal choice.

I actually had a lot of fun making this cake. Thanks to the internet for lots of ideas that I threw together to make it work.

We love you Niels! You're the sweetest boy a mother could have!

In an effort to remain current on this blog, I think the easiest thing to do is post things about the kids, or squids, as my husband likes to call them. I don't have my phone cable with me now, and I currently have kids asleep in my bed (a thing I only allow when Paul works nights) so this post will be photoless:

On Thursday this week we were having a super play date. Sisters Savannah (a friend Anna's age) and Evelyn (Niels' age) were coming over in the morning, and Talmage, a friend from Hattie's primary class at church, was coming in the afternoon. But the playroom was a disaster, and I know from 7 years parenting that play dates go much better when the room starts out clean. So while I threw dinner in the Crock Pot, I sent them to the play room to get to work.  A few minutes into it, I realized they had composed a song. The lyrics:

Clean them up before they die!
Clean them up before they die!
Clean them up before they die!
Die! Die! Die!

Over and over again they sang it. They said it was the only way that they could get Niels to actually participate. I guess the simple "Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere" lost its magic on him. I didn't know if I should be concerned about the kids violence...instead I brushed it off, and was happy that they were all working together...happily, although perhaps violently.

June: part 1...yes, two months late

I seem to be getting pretty consistent about only blogging every three months or so, and then doing one big post for the whole month. It's sad that I'm consistently slow, but better late than never I suppose.

June. Our first June in Wisconsin. I should start by saying that this summer's weather has been AWESOME. (I write this in August, and it's 68 degrees outside! It hasn't been too hot for the park, and always perfect grilling weather...I digress.) The first two weeks of June we stuck around home - Hattie had her last week of 4K, topped off with an official graduation...which we find a little ridiculous, but oh well. It's a reason to celebrate I suppose. She was pretty darn proud of herself. I took a picture, but you can hardly see her, so it wasn't worth adding.

Next big project was the garden. Remember in May when my dad helped me build the planters? I finally got around the planting the last week of May, and built a little fence the first week of June to keep out lettuce-eating rabbits. The fence worked - we haven't had any more disappearing veggies. But the convenience of the raised bed is lost...weeding is a pain. Oh well.

We purchased a tent larger than we really need right now, but someday it'll be cramped. For now, it's nice and roomy, allowing Paul and I to use our air mattress whenever we camp. We had one backyard campout to break the tent in, and to get the girls excited about camping. I think they even stayed out the entire night.

After those first 2 weeks at home, we hit the road for 2 weeks, stopping first in Minnesota to visit Paul's brother Aaron and family. We camped with them along the Mississippi river - our first real camping experience. Kids loved it...can't wait to do it again.

Hiking the next day...overlooking the Mississippi, but hard to see

Niels did not love hiking

But eventually he bucked up...

...and fell right to sleep after the hike. What baby actually naps while camping? Love this kid.

6 kids at church the next day...not exactly relaxing.

And an amazing father's day feast prepared by Tandy. I am still dreaming of those stuffed potatoes.

Most of the week was filled with little outings to the park and such. Hattie and Anna loved spending so much time with Nora and Sara. They make quite a crazy group of girls.

One day we visited the Quaking Bog - quite literally, a bog that you can walk around on. I was nervous the entire time that Niels would step off the path and fall into the stinky, mushy water. But that boy loves following paths and was soon the trailblazer.

We were all pretty mucky and dirty from all the squirting and splashing. The adults loved it and the kids thought it stunk too much.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Me and my kiddos all actually smiling at the camera!

Of course we went to a few parks

One of the parks was right next to a pond. Nora and Anna were quite confident heading out into the water. Nora is fearless by nature, and Anna is a follower of the strong-willed. So together they got into deeper water than I would have liked. Check out the zoomed out picture to see how far they really were.

We also stumbled across a puppet show in the park...

Our kids typically woke up much earlier than everyone else. And since our family (minus Niels) was all in one room, we begged Hattie to be as quiet as possible when she woke up. We often found her with Niels (also an early riser) watching "baby shows" on the iPad in the morning. Not the greatest habit, but it let us all get a little more sleep in the morning.

We enjoyed eating lots of yummy food while we were there...kids got Mac n Cheese and adults got Turkish cuisine :) We can't wait to go back again and see what else Minnesota has to offer!

February came and went...

How has February past already? Not that I am complaining - Paul has been on a month of internal medicine, being on call every 4 days with no Saturdays or Sundays off. So I am glad that this month is 3 days shorter than the other ones. Here's a little of what we've been up to...

Okay, looking at this picture I forgot that Paul did have one Saturday off, during which we went to Home Depot for an ice spreader. It happened to also be the free craft day. The girls had a blast building their own Valentine holder. They can't wait for this Saturday - going back to see what the St. Patrick's Day craft is :)

Disaster struck. We have had 5 or 6 decent sized snow storms this winter and it finally caught up to us. Apparently the gutters around our entry way were rather clogged, not allowing all the melting snow to drain properly. So when the melted snow froze again at night, it back up UNDER the shingles. Something called ice damming. Then when it melted, it entered our entry way. This has made me VERY ready for spring so we can get a new roof, a snow and ice shield, and repair whatever damage has been done in the attic (possible mold, etc.) It also damaged the electrical circuit to the front of our house, so we don't have any light in the entry way or kitchen. Gratefully, our kitchen outlets are on a different circuit, so I can still cook dinner.

Paul had Valentine's day off, so as the extremist that he is, he created quite a party for the girls. Between Party City and WalMart, we had flowers, balloons, heart-shaped pasta, and red velvet cupcakes. He even bought a kit to make chocolate covered Oreos. The girls loved it, and I was glad that his day off we were able to do something fun with the girls.

 Anna sneaked Oreos all day. Every time I saw her, she looked something like this.

I took them to see Disney on Ice...of course, they were in heaven. Paul later took them to the circus...sorry, no pics.

With the cold, snowy weather, we really stay home most days and try to stay warm. Niels loves the dishwasher - standing and taking all the silverware out that he can, and banging all the dishes together. My chubby boy is nuts, but I love him.

Despite our leak, I love all the snow! I just need a snowblower so it doesn't take me more than an hour to clear our driveway (it has been snowing for the last 24 hours...I'm going to have to shovel again.)

Typical silliness...Anna was "ice skating" on wet wipes.

 

And we whipped out our St. Patrick's Day decor...the girls are already planning our trap!

 Anna has joined Hattie in the creativity department. Here she wrote her name...right letters, wrong order. (Couldn't get the images to upload in the right direction)

And here are her first stick figures :) Love the huge grins.

And to conclude the post, I just wanted to highlight my very annoying "new baby growth" hair. Anyone else hate this as much as I do? Getting tired of trying to tame it down every day!