Wednesday, October 26, 2011

36 weeks...

We're in the home stretch now. Garrison was born at 37 weeks and Caleb and Kiersten between 37 and 38. I sure hope this baby doesn't decide that he/she enjoys being inside too much to come out in the next couple weeks. It's been a blessing to deliver early, with each one healthy and quite content to meet the outside world:). Here is a picture Elyssia took of me this morning:




Here are a couple pictures of various family members enjoying our first successful homegrown watermelon:






These last couple pics are just because I thought the girls looked really cute this morning:).





Elyssia was all dressed up to go and play with a friend today and Kiersten wanted to get dressed up too:). She was very sad when they left without her. Thankfully the brothers asked to build a Lego house and included her, which has helped to take her mind off sister being gone.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Unexpected Visitor

This afternoon I opened the door for a bit to let in some fresh air. Apparently that's a bad idea. It also allowed an unexpected visitor to make his way into our house. Not a mouse this time. It was a SNAKE! Now before you totally panic, I'll tell you that it was only a gardener snake(not sure if that's the right spelling). It's been years since I've seen one though and I was walking through the hallway when I saw it move. It went into our bedroom and I headed off to find something to scoop it into. In my younger days I would have picked it up, but I'll admit that I'm a lot more squeamish these days, especially when I'm pregnant. Elyssia was upset that I put it outside. She wanted to keep it and show Scott. I quickly told her no. If she wasn't willing to pick it up, then it definitely wasn't staying.

Our house was quite peaceful today. Scott and Garrison left early this morning to go to Castor for his Grandpa's funeral. Elyssia spent most of the day reading, after she'd completed her schoolwork. Caleb, Kiersten and I went on a LEGO and game pieces treasure hunt. We've been working on it for over a week now. Today it finally paid off. We had at least 6 complete games put together. We had a game night tonight before bed and the older two seemed to really enjoy it. They both won a round of Candy Land. Then I tried playing Mancala with Elyssia. I couldn't remember all the rules, so went online to print them off. We decided to wait for Scott to play that one again. Next it was Richard Scarry's Treasure Hunt. The older two reached the ferry and crossed before I arrived. Then we played Memory. The older two tied, which made them both happy. It seemed to be my night to lose:). I don't mind... Oh, we also tried to play Connect Four. It was Caleb's first time and he refused to let me put my pieces in to block him from getting 4 in a row. That kind of defeated the purpose, so I think I'll play that with Elyssia next time. The LEGO search went quite well. I think that we're still missing 3 or 4 mini figures and a couple accessories, but we've found a couple dozen that were taken apart. A lot had fallen under the beds when the kids fell asleep while playing with them. We also had to find a lot of hands and heads. We have a certain little boy that delights in taking them apart and leaving them that way. We've now resolved to put them up high. I know that he likes to climb, but the idea is that he will now ask to play. We can then play together and put them back when we're done.

They were good little helpers and we managed to keep the house mostly clean, while doing one complete load of laundry. It was a bit cool outside, but sunny and beautiful, making it a really nice day in my book. 3 are in bed and Scott and Garrison should be arriving sometime in the next 30 minutes. Til next time...

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

You will be missed!

Early this morning Scott's Grandpa (Paul Neilson) passed away. I've really enjoyed visiting with him over the past 8 years. I remember the first time I met him. It was like I was talking to my own Grandpa. Their voices sound a lot alike and they had quite a bit in common. I'm thankful that our kids had the chance to get to know him a bit over the years. The other night we were playing Scrabble with Preston and the comment was made that it was funny how Grandpa would end up winning, almost by accident. My grandpa was the same way:) He played it for the first time about 10 years ago. He thought he wouldn't be any good at it. Once we showed him the basics, he ended up winning!
Thankfully Scott's family is very good at passing on family stories/history. Our kids will hear about him for many years to come and if the Lord doesn't come before they're grown they will be able to pass on those stories to their children. There are family pictures with him and also at least one video of him with Garrison. It sure is nice to have these memories to treasure. We'll miss visiting him on our trips to Castor, but will look forward to a reunion in Heaven:).