We Made It!

Wow, just a little more than a month ago it was still winter!! We are SO thankful that the spring/summer weather has finally arrived! 🙌🏻 That was a loooooong winter, but we made it through. And hopefully 🤞🏻 we’ve also made it through that terrible germ season- we’ve all been healthy and happy 🤣 since my last post.

In mid-April Jeremiah’s class did their Talent Chapel, where each child displays one of the talents that God has given them. It’s not always easy for J to figure out which talent to go with, but this year he really wanted to do scooter riding. But when he started talking about balance beams and ramps, I knew we weren’t going to be able to make that happen. (Also, he’s never ridden his scooter on a ramp or balance beam, so I’m assuming it would not have turned out well!) So on to a Plan B, which was making (with help from Dad) and flying different types of paper airplanes.

Cutest photo-bomber ever back there!

Norah continued to be the most difficult baby food eater EVER. What the heck. So after getting the spoon batted out of our hands constantly, we gave up. Baby won that battle! 😑 We moved on to table food and she has not looked back! Her first favorite was baby cheese puffs- so healthy.

Not surprisingly, she’ll eat any kind of bread. 😬 But also likes shredded cheese, blueberries, freeze-dried fruit..... we keep working on expanding what she eats, but this girl is a tough one. I’m sure I get the blame for that.

One more freezing cold miserable soccer practice in April!

Because who wouldn’t want to play soccer all bundled up in your winter coat? Why do we even live here?!?!

And then spring arrived. 🌷🌳🌼

And we all crawled out of our winter hibernation to rejoice and enjoy the sunshine and warmth!! Norah had her first swing ride, which she obviously loved. 😄

Some time after Easter (I don’t remember exactly when, because she’s the 3rd child and all), Norah went from army crawling to all 4’s crawling. Very fast.

This is our view, a lot. This was her 10 month picture on April 21! Next week she’ll be 11 months (WHAT!) and I’m sure that picture will be SO much better. 

She has been pulling up on low things on her knees (dishwasher, laundry basket) for awhile, but hasn’t really done much pulling up on her feet. Just this last week she pulled up to stand by the coffee table a couple times and that’s about it.

Let’s keep talking about Norah! She’s so darn cute, and apparently she’s the one I take pictures of the most right now. Sorry other kids.

She started making this funny face, then she laughs at herself! Seriously so cute.

Our tulips finally decided it was safe to come up (well, one bunch did. We planted 3 different groups, and 1 group came up, 1 group is stalled half-way up, and the last group never came up at all! ☹️ Sad, but can’t really blame them when winter lasts forever).

So some pretty big news for us is that as of April 27, Adam is done working as the GM for the Pizza Ranch. It was becoming more and more clear to both of us that him working there was just not what was right for him or for our family, and he felt it was time to be done there. We know God has big plans for him, but the Pizza Ranch just was not the right fit for his gifts and talents. And as of May 14, he is now an Engineer Tech at John Deere! We were so happy this opportunity came along and definitely feel that Adam will do great things there, with lots of opportunities for him to move up within the company in the future. He really has enjoyed it so far!

We are all pretty proud of this guy. The kids (and I!) are so happy to have daddy home in the evenings and on weekends again! He can come to programs and soccer games, and be the awesome involved Daddy that he is and wants to be. ❤️

Oh hey! More Norah pictures!

Check out this beach bod 💪🏻

The first weekend in May was Dutch Days! 🌷So on Saturday J walked in the parade with his class, and then we walked around downtown Fulton for a bit. It was a beautiful day! ☀️

J has been involved in Cadets at the CRC in Fulton, and he has LOVED it so much! The big finale was the Pinewood Derby race and it was really fun for us to see him race his car!

Unfortunately, no trophies this year, and I know he already has big plans for how he’s going to design next year’s car. I don’t think he had any idea he was building the car for a race, I think he thought he just got to build a vehicle, because he had all kinds of great ideas for how he was going to make his race car into an army tank! But that probably would not have been very fast. 🤣

Let us not forget about Hope! She has been doing so much “pretend play” and it’s so fun to see her use her imagination and creativity. Often she likes to “be the mom” and then “daddy you can be the dad, and mommy you can be the sweetie.” 😂😂😂 I don’t mind being the sweetie, because sweetie has to take a nap sometimes. 😬

And then sometimes she plays with her dolls and puts them down for a nap and/or gives them screen time. 😂

This past weekend we took a quick trip to WI and Chicago! We drove to WI after Jeremiah’s soccer game, and arrived in the afternoon. My parents watched the kids for us that evening so that Adam and I could go on a date- It was so nice!! (Thank you Mom and Dad!)

We were able to have conversations without being interrupted 5 million times. It was nice. 🤗

We spent the night at my parents house and then were up bright and early (thanks, NORAH) to head down to Chicago for my nephew Duncan’s baptism! 

It was a lovely Mother’s Day- made even better by spending time with my family! And it brought back memories of Jeremiah’s baptism which was also on Mother’s Day 8 years ago.

We are starting to get into a groove now with Adam at his new job and working regular day hours, and then next week Friday is Jeremiah’s last day of 2nd grade (how is this possible??). So then we’ll be getting into a summer routine- yay! Lots of fun and good things to look forward to! 😊