It is high time I catch up and keep up on our blog! It has been almost a year and a lot has happened!
Deana has since graduated speech and as long as she is not around her big brother she does not stop chattering. And it is chattering...she is making up for the delay in speech and asks everyone in the stores what they are buying/doing and why and most often she asks "what next?" She still thinks it's funny though to sign with Bubba and leave Mommy guessing what they're scheming...

We did a lot of camping last summer, the kids love it and I need the time away from the house with them so that I am not so distracted with housework that I don't appreciate how quickly they are growing up. We rent our trailer out (to pay for tuition, and it did this year) and I am camping with it whenever it isn't rented, it is out a lot at Chapel in the Pines. This is only a mile or so from home but it's quiet and the kids have reign of the park during the week and the water is clear and shallow (the only way I will swim in a lake) and safe for the kids to roam. Tim comes out at night and goes back home for work so it's good that we're so close to the store.

Everett started kindergarten this year. He had a hard fall season with asthma but only missed a few days of school, they go every other day so that worked good for us and his allergies because it usually takes about a week from start to end when he is having trouble. He was really tired at the start of the year and we attributed it to the asthma meds but come to find out he was only seeing with one full eye! His right eye just has peripheral vision, no central and that left eye was compensating for it making him really tired (understandably so!). He has surgery March 1 and we hope to stop any progression of sight loss in both eyes. It has started in the left but is not as severe as the right eye. Other than this he is a very normal and rambunctious 5 year (almost 6) year old. He loves soccer and riding his bike and giving his little brother piggy-back rides around the house. He has lost 2 teeth and has a loose 3rd but he won't let me pull it!

Jackson is about as terrible as terrible 2s can be...he is into everything he can get his hands on. 3 times he has emptied bottles of baby powder all over the nursery! He likes the taste of it, yuck! He loves to empty lotions and hair gels too. He has drawn with crayon on almost every one of my walls and then has clean it off by himself, with my magic eraser.

He and Everett are terrible mean to their sister Deana and way too helpful with Kara. Although they did sit down for a picnic with her today so I guess they're not all bad. They knew exactly what they wanted...little ham sandwiches, carrots, grapes, cheese sticks, and juiceboxes. So this also became dinner and they were none the wiser, eating from Deana's pink and purple princess tea set!

Kara is 3 months now, she was born November 13. The end of the pregnancy was terrible but the rest was not so bad, I actually lost almost 40 pounds! She was 7pds 12oz (I think), my biggest one yet! She is extremely good and loves all the attention she gets. She eats and sleeps on a schedule and when we are out she usually sleeps the whole time. She goes to bed around 9:30 and sleeps until about 7am, she has done this from the start and it definately makes up for the end of the pregnancy! I had a lot of little problems with this pregnancy, but the culmination of them made it my worst yet, maybe I am just getting to old for this, hmmmm!

Tim is starting to get busy again in the butcher shop, we had a little lul between deer season and spring but it looks like things are picking up a little earlier this year. This is good, it means we are getting new farmers and buyers and word is getting around and people like us! It's interesting to see where this business takes us there are a lot little paths we can take off the main line of butchering and it's neat to see where we go.

I am on a serious excerise and "eat right" kick and it's sort of working, first I lost weight and now I am noticing my shape is changing but not as much weight loss. I guess it's shifting around but hopefully I can start losing again. I am also the queen of organization and have stowed everything I can in grey totes and labeling them all. They are floor to ceiling in the boy's closet and everywhere there is room for them. You see, I don't nest when I'm pregnant I just wait until it's over and then hit it full force! I do the same with cleaning my house, I can't believe some of the things I don't notice to clean when I am pregnant but when I'm not it's real obvious!
It sounds like we are headed to MN again over Memorial Day and seeing my last blog was about last year's trip I thought I should maybe catch up on the fam. before we go.

Tim & I had a little romantical getaway a couple of weekends ago. We drove to Traverse City on a Thr. and visited wineries and toured the city. On Fri. Barnhills and Dykstras came up and we went out sledding, it was like sledding but to the extreme...the hill was iced over and we were on tubes and had a leader that gave us spins with the maximum g-force, I thought I was going to go "wingin" off but thankfully my hiney stuck in the hole of the tube so I really had nothing to worry about! I had to roll to the left with all my force to get out of the dumb thing! On Sat. we did a "thrift trail" and visited the local thrift stores, we didn't find much but it was fun anyway. It was a great little vacation (even though we went somewhere colder, than warmer!)

All right, well, TTFN and I will write again when I have updates!

What a Trip!

We're home! Yeah! We just spent the last week in Edgerton and it is wonderful to be home! It was just a little vacation and it was relaxing while there but the road trip really stinks! It should take us about 10 1/2 hours to get there (which is bad enough!) but the way out took 12 1/2 thanks to traffic downtown Chicago! The last 1/2 hour or so out of Chicago I was throwing up with car-sickness and no where to pull out! My poor family! Thankfully it didn't make anyone else sick! The kids were really tired of the drive though at about 4 hours in so the last 8 1/2 were with screaming, antzy, grumpy kids...it was really a horrible trip.
While there tough we spent some quality time with Mom & Jerod. Coral had knee surgery so we were able to spend time with Carl & Brenda & Coral too. She also graduated highschool on Tuesday, the 26th. Crutches and all she looked great! It really brought back memories though of being in a similiar situation at my graduation.
Sunday was interesting, it may ahve been the most service we have, personally, ever had! There is no nursery at Edgerton so I tried Jackson in church...he lasted about 5 minutes and we were there at 9:00 so we had 25 minutes before church even started! I sat in the basement with him and was able to greet each elder and deacon and chat with Rev. Lee for awhile too. By the time it started Jackson was so sick of it and ready for a nap so I took him home, about 3 blocks away. Jerod was home sleeping so I put Jackson down, waited until he was sleeping and went back to church. Deana was sleeping (which never happens!) on Tim when I got back and so I took her and about 20 minutes later she peed on me! Tim went out for papertowels (the floors are hardwood) and I went home! So no visiting in the morning, I didn't even have a chance to say "Hi" to Lyssa or Michelle or any of the aunts and Grandpa Bleyenberg! Satuday night Jackson was up most of the night and kept Deana and I up too so that may be why she slept in church but she was not ready to take a nap and so Tim stayed up with the kids and I took a 2 hour nap, it was great! Well, Tim did not put Jackson down because he was being good so when it was time for night church Jackson was ready for a nap! I just stayed home at night and didn't even attempt to take him. I listened to Rev. Eriks online with Jackson asleep on me, it was actually a good thing I stayed home...I had another headache. When will these nasty things stop!?
The kids played outside nearly all day/ everyday it was great! Stacy, Mom, Brenda, and I played a lot of rounds of Blokus. It's kind of like Tetris for 4 people and really challenging!
Memorial Day was spent at a pancake breakfast at SW High (Tim's old high school) where we had breakfast with Skip & Barb Hunter. We knew of them before that morning but it was nice to meet and get to know who they really are. We went to a little pond with kids after that and went fishing. The dock was not stabilized on the shore so as everyone walked out it would slowly sink in and float out. Stacy and I parked our butts on the end of the dock and played anchors while the rest of the family fished, it wasn't bad it gave us a good excuse to just sit and make the kids do the sunscreen thing and chase kids! Can't complain! Everett definately out-fished everyone too! he had his little "Cars" pole from his brithday and just kept on catching the fish! He had a little help from Tim casting and waiting, but Everett reeled them in! There was something like 25 fish caught total!
Tim and Brian had a lot of time together, they worked on the farm fixing and dinking around and shooting a lot of blackbirds! They stood in the garage and shot out the window! They went fishing a couple of times and pickled the Walleye. They did a lot of driving around the countryside too, who can blame them it's so peaceful out there!
The way home, thankfully, took 10 hours (this may be our record!) I was sick again but held it in and the kids were a lot better. Jackson was the biggest pain, he cannot understand being in his seat for so long and he can't color, play computer, or really enjusy the DVDs that Deana and Everett do. Everett slept almost 5 hours of the ride and Deana slept 3 1/2!
Anyway we're home safe and the store and the house are still standing, what more can I ask for!

Mmm...Lasagna & Beer

This has been a really good day! And not just because I had a sip of beer!
I have not thrown up today! Yeah! The end of morning may be coming!
The whole day has just plain gone well...
We were out the door in time for Deana's Speech Class (this is unusual, it's a good thing they have play-time for the first 10 minutes of class!) and Everett, Jackson, & I hit a lot of good deals at D&W while she was in class. Who can pass up Ben & Jerry's for $1.00?! I even found some snacks for our MN trip next week, talk about preparation :) We picked up the toybox of outside toys from the house on Bauer, so now they can play in the backyard without my tupperware and spatulas!
The rest of the day was just smooth, no major fights between the kiddos and we cleaned the toy room right when we came home from school so I didn't even see much of them this afternoon. It's like they have all new toys again, love it! I even had time to make a batch of brother Tom's cookies for MN and cleaned out my freezer too, what a day!
I even had dinner ready by 5:30. It's been a long time since I have been able to do that, I was getting really sick late afternoon. And yes, we had lasagna for dinner with california-blend veggies and Tim had the beer, I was really jealous so he gave me sip, so smooth!
I just hope the rest of the night will go well and I can keep from snacking...I have a Dr.s appointment tomorrow and I don't want to have gained any weight. In fact I have lost another 6 1/2 pounds since my last appointment (that makes about 15 pounds lost so far!) so I guess I'm really not too worried about gaining. When I'm pregnant my cravings have seemed to be fruits and veggies with every pregnancy, but I guess that doesn't say much for my diet when I'm not pregnant. The body craves what it needs when pregnant. Fortunately I will have been pregnant (after this one) 3 of the last 6 years so I guess it's not so bad. I just have to be sure and keep this up when this one's born. If someone else is reading this, maybe you can help me stay on track after this one, just asking me what I've been eating will be enough to keep me on top of it, I am a terrible liar! We have also been talking about health club memberships after this baby, I am still trying to talk Tim into joining now...there are still a lot of workouts I can do even when I am pregnant.
Anyway, Tom's here to cut more trees and I want pics this time so I better get moving.
Have a good one!