Budding Artist

I just wanted to quickly share with you Jaren's recent drawing of a combine. I think he did a wonderful job. Notice that he even drew the shredded stalks shooting out the back, the corn yet to be combined and even all the corn in the combine. Daddy is driving the combine.

Flu season already!

Well, as you can tell from the title, the flu has hit our house already. Isn't it kind of early for this? I spent Friday trying to potty train Bethany using the "Potty Training in Less Than a Day" approach. I had little success and felt very frustrated by the end of the day. By 8:30 that night I figured out why she wasn't overly interested - she didn't feel well. She threw up (thankfully I had a bowl nearby to catch it in) and remained sick throughout the night into Saturday. I unfortunately got sick during the night and all day Saturday. With Keith & Dale both gone for Parent's weekend at Dordt, Kurtis & Scott had a lot to get done on the farm. Especially since it was finally dry enough to get back into the fields after many wet days. Thankfully my parents were around and took Jaren & Erica off my hands for the day. Fortunately Erica will take a bottle without any problems when I need her to. Kurtis got sick Saturday evening, but refused to come home and rest. There was work to get done, and I can't say I really blame him for wanting to get as many acres of corn out as possible before the next batch of rain hits. He is in bed this morning and we have decided that in the best interest of getting anyone at church sick or having Jaren get sick at church that we are staying home today. Erica is not feeling 100%, but she's a trooper and nothing will slow her down.
Let's pray and hope that this is not an indication of how the rest of the winter will go!

Never slowing down

Well, Erica is constantly learning new things at a very rapid pace. Today alone she learned 4 new things. It's amazing if you really think about it.

1. Erica woke up from her nap, stood up and said "mama" until I came up to get her. I do have to let you know though that of course "dada" was her first word.
2. She pulled herself up by Bethany's kitchen to play - her first big girl toy! Needless to say she was very impressed with herself and everything she discovered in the fridge of the kitchen.
3. Erica learned how to drink from a straw like a pro. I had made yogurt smoothies for Jaren and Bethany tonight and thought I would humor Erica by letting her play with the straw. It took her less than 5 seconds before she had it figured out and was enjoying the wonderful strawberry/banana smoothie like the rest of us.
4. As if she hadn't had enough excitement for one day, tonight Erica started walking behind her hippo toy. Of course I didn't have the video camera or the digital camera ready, but Jaren & Bethany saw it also so we can relive the moment for daddy tomorrow.

I have mixed feelings about all the new ventures that Erica is rapidly going on. I love having my baby stay little, but I also am thrilled that she is healthy and able to constantly learn new things. I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings. I hope you enjoy the picture of her "cooking".

First of many

This weekend is what I hope is the start of many more. What you may be asking...slumber parties. Saturday night Bethany and I had our first girl's night slumber party. Jaren was staying at town Grandpa & Grandma's house and Kurtis was out working late, so the girl's had a girl's night out. We went shopping at Wal-mart and then out for supper at Sister's (appropriate name for a girl's night). We then came home to watch "The Best of Elmo". We then ventured off to bed. Bethany slept on her princess couch and I slept beside her on the floor. After some talking and being goofy we both fell asleep. When she woke up in the morning she was thrilled to have me still right beside her. My body was saying otherwise, but it was well worth it and I hope there are many more slumber parties in the future.

First Post

Well, I decided to get on board and start my own blog spot to keep everyone up to date on what's going on in our lives. I'll try to keep it updated including adorable pictures of the kids since they change so quickly.

Jaren is now a busy preschooler. He attends SONshine Preschool in Oskaloose 2 morning a week. He also just got done with another session of swimming lessons. He is a pro at diving which is a talent he must have inherited from Kurtis because I couldn't dive if my life depended on it. :) He is also enjoying going to Kidshine on Thursday mornings while I go to Momshine (similar to MOPs). He's getting a little to smart for his own good. The other day we were trying to get him to eat his food and Uncle Jason (Kristin's) said, "How do you think I got so big and strong?", to which Jaren replied "You had birthdays!". I guess that won't be enough incentive anymore to get him to eat. Jaren was also priveldged to be in Kristin (my cousin) & Luke's wedding a couple weeks ago. He looked extremely handsome and was even told by the bride that he was the star of the show. This of course went straight to his head and he felt pretty cool.

Bethany is our energetic 2-1/2 year old. She is full of spunk and loves her daddy more than anyone else. She has enjoyed being able to ride along in the combine with Kurtis. She wanted to ride along with Jason (Karen's) in his combine but I told her it wasn't big enough. She said that she would go home and get her wrench to fix uncle Jason's combine to make it just like daddy's. (Jason, I thought you might feel good about that.) She is in the incredibly fun/naughty stage.

Erica is learning new things all the time. Now that she has been crawling for a few weeks, she is experimenting with standing by anything she can pull herself up by. She surprised herself last night and pulled herself up by the couch and then got this great big "I knew I could do it" grin on her face. She has also started learning how to climb the stairs. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to keep up with her. You can tell she has older siblings who adore her and whom she learns much from. Babyfood is no longer (and hasn't been for a month now). She is very independent and loves to feed herself anything you give her plus anything she finds on the floor.

Kurtis has been very busy in the fields and moving a few trees. He enjoys taking the kids with him, as long as it's one at a time. There's to much negotiating when Jaren & Bethany both ride.

Hope you enjoy the pictues.