Way Back Thursday: Prepositions are Everything

This is a picture of me and LeMieux in Jason's Room in "The Lodge" (which you can see had a strong beer-can chic vibe going. Many of his roommates worked at Joe's Taproom and were always helpfully donating decorations no longer needed at the bar) in Manhattan in January of 2002.  Though I never really loved the lodge, it was fine when Jason lived there with his fraternity brothers. But this picture was taken later, when most them had graduated. So it reminds me of his roommate Brent. Jason needed another guy to pay rent so he put an ad up and met this guy Brent (fun tip: if a potential roommate tells you he works "at the hospital" and it turns out he works "on the hospital" as in constructing it, maybe that isn't the only thing that could be a misrepresentation). Everyone was supposedly always against Brent so crazy things were always happening to him for "no reason". Like his boss would just fire him just for being late when it totally wasn't his fault for being late because some really mean person had pushed his car into a ravine for no reason whatsoever. And another boss fired him for no reason at all because it wasn't his fault some person stole his work boots. I mean, he can't work without boots, what do you really expect him to do? He was also super hot in his circle, so girls would always be fighting over him (Not normal girls. Think Jerry Springer), including one set of sisters.

Brent's main redeeming quality was he was in jail for most of the semester so he wasn't at the house. Of course, he didn't pay rent since he couldn't work while in jail, but he didn't pay rent before he went to jail either, so it was still a net win. I was in Manhattan over Christmas break because I took a class. Jason was with his family for the break so I would stop by Jason's house to feed LeMieux and spend time with her since she was a very social cat. One time, Brent asked me to drive him (his car was in the ravine, remember?) to his friend's house as I was leaving from spending time with LeMieux. I didn't really want to because he was so awful and stank like cigarettes, but I didn't have a pressing reason I couldn't do it other than I didn't want to so I felt like I couldn't say no (I am so much better at that now), so I said okay and we got in the car. I drove and drove to the outskirts of Manhattan and it was pitch black and we were in a deserted area. We were getting really close to Tuttle Creek Reservoir, and I was becoming increasingly concerned he was going to kill me and dump my body there. But it turned out, right before the reservoir there is a trailer park (of course we were going to a trailer park) and that's where his friend lived. Not long after that, he went to jail again, so that was pretty much our last interaction, though the good thing was I think he was in jail for writing bad checks or something like theft, not being a serial killer who dumped people in lakes. Bonus: His best friend was awful and abused animals and he stopped visiting once Brent went to jail so double win. It was totally worth not having the rent, especially for me since I wasn't really involved in the money situation.

Muffin Tin Meal

Wednesdays are a night where I don't like to cook a big dinner, since it cuts into my errand time, so we often have pasta. But there are only so many ways to cook pasta and it isn't super great for you, so today I gave the kids muffin tin meals, which is a way to give them a little of several things. (I just put Clara's on a plate. She gets confused if I give her food in a deep bowl. And she pretty much refuses to eat after 6pm anyway unless it's rolls, but I still offer her dinner every night, but only a tiny amount since she never eats it and we can always give her more if she breaks tradition and decides to eat something. I may try to find a small mini-muffin tin for her). Some ladies get pretty creative with this, but I have not as of yet, though maybe sometime in the future. For dinner tonight we had tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, pita with hummus, carrots with ranch dip, and oranges. We grown-ups had ours in salad form. It worked for everyone.

Sometimes Snow Isn't Snow

A few weeks ago when our family was arriving at church, there were very few parking spots left.  One of the only remaining spots had a little pile of snow in it.  It wasn't very big, so I just drove over it.  The next day as I went out to the driveway to go to work I noticed the front corner of the bumper was crumpled and caved in.  Thinking back to the previous day at church, I realized the pile of snow must have iced over, although we didn't feel or hear anything at the time.  We were driving the CX-9 at the time (if you were picturing my RX-8, please share with me sometime where you were imagining all the kids fitting), so that meant we were going to be without it for a few days while it was being fixed.  I chose a body shop that provided a courtesy car.  We weren't sure at the time if we would need to transfer the car seats to the new car, so I requested another CX-9.  In the end, the repair was only scheduled to take a couple days, so we decided it wasn't worth switching the car seats out.  I drove it to work today since the repair is due to be completed before the end of the day, and I'm the one picking up the car.  Here I am with the cool black CX-9.  I really wish ours was black, but instead it's "Dolphin Gray", which is nice, but it's not black.  Oh well.

Cornstarch Saves the Day

Today wasn't the best day as Clara wasn't feeling that great (I think it's her teeth. She seems to be getting 4-5 at once, including some molars) so she was super cranky. It was a beautiful day outside and she didn't even want to go out, which is very unlike her. Since I can't let Joshua go out on his own, he didn't get all the outdoor time he would have preferred so I wanted him to have a fun "project" to do once Clara went down for her nap. We made some dough out of cornstarch, oil, and food coloring. He likes playdough and I thought this would be a different texture along the same lines. He really enjoyed it, so we ended up having a reasonably fun afternoon, even though the morning wasn't so great.

Engagement Party

We recently got the exciting news that Kirk and Joanna got engaged and are getting married May 11th. Since they are both in town this weekend, Julie and Andrew had the great idea to host an engagement party today. So after church we went to their house and were joined by the hosts, the engaged couple, Matt, Abby, Mom, Ron, and David. Andrew made some awesome pulled pork, and although we couldn't stay all that long because of nap time, it was a fun time celebrating the big event with our family.  Here the couple poses with Joshua and Clara, and then Joanna shows off her ring with Clara.

More Tucker

It is really hard to get together with our friends the Hansons. They have four foster kids who go to daycare so someone is always sick and, since Hannah is so young and hasn't built up an immune system yet, we try to keep her away from people who are sick. However, tonight they were able to get a babysitter for the younger kids and came with Tucker and Vincent (who does not go to daycare so is not sick all the time and definitely not now). It was great having time to hang out and to see more of baby Tucker. Hopefully we will be able to get together more regularly again after flu season is done.

This is the first picture of Hannah and Tucker we took. He was not a happy guy at this time. I think he was hungry maybe. And Hannah's expression is like, "What is wrong with that kid? He is way too loud".

Here everyone was in better spirits.

A Big Deal over a Small Lump

The little bump on Clara's eyelid has been diagnosed as all of the following: a hemangioma, probably not a hemangioma, affecting her vision, and not affecting her vision. As you can see, there's been a bit of a conflicting information in the diagnoses.  The most recent "not affecting her vision" diagnosis came from probably the best pediatric ophthalmologist in KC, so we're going with that one.  To settle the debate on what it was, we were referred to the dermatology department of Children's Mercy Hospital, which should be the foremost authority in the area.  So today I brought Clara (my mom came along for the ride) for the appointment.  They confirmed it wasn't cancerous, which we didn't think it was, but it's good to know for sure, and they think it's likely to be a hemangioma, but without an ultrasound it's impossible to tell.  If it is in fact a hemangioma, it'll slowly go away and should be gone by the time she's 10.  If it's not, it'll just be a small mass on her eyelid that will stay the same size but could be removed at some point later in her life.  So that's good enough for us.  It's not cancerous or affecting her vision, so we'll just leave it alone and consider the case closed for now.  Here Clara enjoys the waiting room and struggles to resist the temptation to eat the crayons.

Nurturer by Nature

The stereotype with kids is boys like trucks and girls like dolls. I don't want my kids to feel constrained by stereotypes, but, to some extent, so far they are conforming to them, at least that particular one. Joshua does like Baby Stephen and enjoys feeding him milk and also taking his clothes off and changing his diaper and putting him on the potty. But that has been a pretty recent development and he also still really enjoys things like throwing Baby Stephen and also running him over repeatedly with his riding toy bus (it's a little disturbing when I say, "Oh, ouchie for Baby Stephen" and Joshua's response is "I like Stephen Car Ouchie" and he runs him over again). Clara, on the other hands really likes carrying dolls around and does not throw anything, especially not dolls. She seems to like Baby Stephen and his sister Baby Stella the best. Here she is about to feed Baby Stephen his bottle of milk.

Meeting Tucker

Today I met my friend, Callie, for lunch. It had been a very long time since I had seen her since I had Hannah and then she had Tucker and then we had sick kids. It was great to meet Tucker and to catch up with her. Since Jason works super close to where we were eating, he stopped by to say hi. Here is Jason with sweet baby Tucker.

Good Clean Fun

I prefer to spend the time between snack and lunch outside every day, but it has been quite chilly lately, so much so that I don't think we can reasonably go outside, especially with Hannah. So I have been trying to find other things to do during that time. Today I filled up both sinks with water and soap and let the kids play in water. They both enjoyed it. Clara is much more cautious when it comes to messy play than Joshua (though really I am not sure how you could be less cautious than Joshua in that regard) so she did limited splashing, but I had to put Joshua's pants in the dryer when we were done.  Clara liked pouring a lot, though.

Way Back Monday: Ghost of New Year's Past

For New Year's 2002, we planned a trip to Colorado to see Jason's friend Jenny. It started out really promising because we had a really pleasant trip and ended up being one of the best New Year's and also definitely the one of the worst. We saw Garden of the Gods, which had signs everywhere strictly forbidding climbing on the formations. That didn't stop Jason, as you can see in the top photo. We also saw Manitou Springs and some other really fun things. We went skiing in Winter Park, though I realized I hate skiing with every fiber in my being and we haven't been since. But I was still glad we went because I had previously wanted to try it.  We had a really great time touring that area, and since it's not so far, I would love to take the kids there sometime.
Then we went back to Jenny's place to celebrate New Year's Eve. Jason was really excited about this pink champagne that I am holding in the photo (because he got it for me, and I loved pink. Not because he was excited to drink it for him). I noted in my journal that it cost $5 so I am guessing it was the good stuff. We thought that was quite the bargain and I kept the "cork" which is totally white plastic. But I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, we spent the new year in the emergency room since one of the people at the party got alcohol poisoning and had to be treated and I was not drinking much that night so I drove. It then became the worst New Year's Eve ever since I hate hospitals and driving in the snow and my night ended up involving both. He was totally fine after receiving IV fluids and made a completely recovery, though I would question if having bad judgment can be recovered from. We have not seen him since though, so maybe he is an upstanding citizen now, who knows. I am not sure we have had another holiday that matches that spectrum of highs and lows.
[Edit - From Jason] - Being the word nerd that I am, one of the things I remember most from that trip is playing an acronym-based word game that night.  The mechanics of the game itself weren't all that fun, but I really enjoyed trying to guess the acronyms.  Meghan left out one other notable detail of the hospital trip: the guy threw up on her the leg of her jeans, so she had to wear those on the way to the hospital, which made it even more wonderful for her.

Date Night

We are trying to have a date night at least once a month. For this month, we decided to take advantage of the three-day-weekend and go out on a Sunday. Unfortunately the restaurant we wanted to go to is closed on Sundays, which we did not find out until we got there. But we still had a nice evening and were able to eat dinner at On the Border and then spend some time watching tv, which may not sound very fun, but we never get to watch tv and especially not together, so it was very nice and relaxing.

Rocks, Water, Mud, Sticks, and Ice Cream: A Perfect Day

This year Meghan and I decided we want to start having dedicated one-on-one time with the kids.  We think this is important for all families, but especially ones with multiple kids.  We'll always have three who are close in age, and we want to make sure each one of them has dedicated time with each parent just by themselves without their siblings.  We won't start with Hannah until she turns one, but we're going to start now with Clara and Joshua.  We decided today would be my turn with Joshua.  I thought, "What could we do together that he would love?"  I decided to take him to an area in southern Olathe that was near a park but was very nature-y and would have things he loves: dirt, trees, sticks, water, and rocks.  When we got there, we found a bonus item: hedgeapples.  Joshua loved throwing them as far as he could and poking them with sticks (they were squishy, maybe because they were rotting?).  We searched for quality sticks, played in the dirt and mud, threw rocks (and stick and leaves and dirt) into the water of the creek, and generally had a great time.  He didn't want to stop for his morning snack, so we skipped that, and he didn't even want lunch.  But that's mandatory, so he begrudgingly walked with me to the car, but he was happy to find that out lunch plan was Culver's, with their delicious burgers and some yummy ice cream.  It was a great day for him, but it was really special for me to get to have some time with just me and my little son.

A Big Girl Who Plays With Toys

Hannah has been able to grab for awhile now, but so far I haven't seen her do a lot of it without encouragement. She has batted at toys quite a lot, but I have never seen her pick one up on her own accord. But today she picked up the Winkel and enjoyed shaking it around for awhile. She has gotten way more active and curious lately. It is definitely exciting to see her little personality develop.

A Best Friend Doesn't Have to Be Sure of Your Name

At Joshua's adoption finalization party he received a gift from our friends the Tildens. It was a stuffed animal dog named Scout.  It's a cool toy because you can program it with some of your child's interests and information, including his or her name, favorite color, favorite food, and favorite animal.  Scout can sing songs, play games, interact with the child, and play music.  He'll use the information you program when he talks.  Like he'll say "My favorite color is blue.  What's your favorite color?"  Of course, he says whatever you programmed as your child's favorite color, so your kid will appreciate the shared interest.  One thing that's funny is when he says Joshua's name, he says it with a raised tone at the end, as if it were a question.  He'll say, "Awww, I love you...  Joshua?"  I think it's just a flaw in the algorithm to turn your original typed text into voice, but it's funny almost every time.  Best friends, eh Scout?  And you don't even seem sure of my kid's name?  Suspicious.  Anyway, when Joshua first got him, he didn't have much interest.  We rotate the toys occasionally, and one day after Scout was rotated back in, Joshua suddenly really liked him.  Since then, he's grown to like him more and more, and Scout was recently promoted by Joshua to mandatory sleeping companion.  When we put Joshua in bed, if Scout isn't there, Joshua will say, "Sout?" (the "c" isn't there yet).  Once Scout is in bed, Joshua will sometimes press his paws to interact with him for awhile as he goes to sleep.  Here Joshua hangs out with his buddy Scout before bedtime. 

Delayed First Photo

Usually after we have a new baby (which seems to happen quite often), we try to get an "official" picture with each of our family members with the baby.  Julie and Andrew stopped by tonight on their way to dinner to drop off some things at our house, so we took advantage of the opportunity to get their picture with Hannah, since somehow it hadn't worked out to get it closer to the time Hannah was born.  Here the proud aunt and uncle sit with one of their little nieces.

Potty Training

We started encouraging potty use a little bit more this week. So far it is both challenging and going well. It is going well because Joshua is more than happy to use it anytime we suggest it for the most part. I know a lot of my friends have not had this situation so that was a pleasant surprise. He has had a couple accidents, but overall it's going pretty well. The bad thing is he is totally trying to game the system. He gets a treat (either an M&M or part of a piece of gum. He most often chooses the gum.) when he uses the potty. So he wants to go every five minutes and will sit there quite awhile to produce a couple drops to get his prize. I am not sure how to handle that since I want to encourage him to use the potty, but also really don't have the time to devote every second of my day to helping him with this. We'll see how it goes as we continue with it.

Independent Snacker

Joshua definitely likes doing things himself at this point. One of his favorite snacks is almonds and oranges. Since Cuties are in season now, he really likes to peel them himself before enjoying them. This is a good tactile activity for him that gives him a feeling of accomplishment.

Baby Watching: A Spectator Sport

Now that Hannah is in the bassinet part of the Pack 'N Play, Joshua can't see her as easily from a distance (the napper is elevated and at eye level).  So he likes to come over and stand on our little round ottoman to look down at Hannah.  Clara likes to copy Joshua, and she's also interested in Hannah, so today they both spent a lot of time trying to squeeze onto the ottoman together so they could both watch Hannah.

No More Napper

Hannah has recently been twisting around in her Pack 'N Play napper a little bit.  When that happens, you're supposed to take them our of it, because if they move too much they can roll right out of it.  So, like we did for the other kids, Hannah moved out of the napper (which we can then remove from the Pack 'N Play) and down into the "bassinet".

Salty Blue Ice

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to have family night weekly. We may not do every week, but our goal is definitely to do it almost every weekend. Today we went out to dinner and then did a Bible lesson and a sensory activity. Our sensory activity was using ice and blue water as well as salt. Joshua really enjoyed it and Clara had fun too, though she isn't quite old enough to use an eye dropper or things like that.

The D is Silent

Tonight I had the opportunity to go see a movie with my friend Jason.  We decided to go see Quentin Tarantino's latest move, Django Unchained.  There was some over-the-top violence, as is expected in a Tarantino movie, but it was a really good and really entertaining movie.  I can see why it was a Best Picture nominee for the Oscars, though probably nothing is beating Lincoln this year.

Way Back Wednesday: Ghost of Christmas Past

When I saw this picture, I knew I had to post it even though it's not that great of a picture at all. But it reminded me of the Christmas ten years ago when Jason proposed since Terrence and I were both on that very couch and likely under that very blanket.

On our wedding website we had at the time, here is my engagement story:

It was Christmas Day and Terrence and I had spent most of the day at my parents’ house. Jason was supposed to come over that evening so that we could exchange gifts, but he was running late. Terrence and I were so tired from the hectic day so we decided to nap on the couch. Jason finally arrived with the presents. Presents always make me happy, but I was less excited than normal because the only thing I really wanted for Christmas was a microwave and my parents had already given me that. When he first arrived, he went in my bedroom to put his clothes in the closet. He brought Terrence with him and took quite awhile so I asked him what he was doing. He mumbled an answer that I didn’t hear, but I didn’t really care enough to ask again so I just let it go. Then we did the gifts. Jason is really into Christmas so he turned out the lights except for the tree and turned on Christmas carols and got eggnog. It was really nice. Then he brought me my gifts and we opened them. I gave Jason a jacket and I got several small things like the third season of Sex and the City and a coffee table book of the Kansas City Cow Parade. Then we were done and Terrence was sleeping on my lap and I was kind of dozing off. But Jason kept saying that I couldn’t go to sleep because Christmas wasn’t over yet. A lot of times he wants to stay up much later than I do so it didn’t seem unusual, but I was so tired. Jason kept trying to play with Terrence and waking him up and moving him. That really was irritating me because he wouldn’t let the poor dog sleep. Finally Terrence woke up a little bit and Jason took him outside. When they got back in, Terrence promptly curled up and went back to sleep. But Jason kept moving him and asking me about his collar and things like that, but I was too tired to really look and I thought he should leave Terrence alone. It was getting close to midnight and I was glad because after midnight Jason said we could go to sleep. Then Jason said, “Look at Terrence’s collar” and I saw something sparkly. And then I knew, but I wasn’t sure what to say because he hadn’t actually asked me yet so I said, “Oh, what’s this?” That felt somewhat contrived because I knew what it was, but what else could I say? And then he said that we were perfect for each other and that he had no doubts that we should spend our lives together and he asked me to marry him. I of course said yes and was really excited and happy. And thankful. It was a very nice Christmas present that I was not really expecting and such a nice way for him to propose, even though I didn’t really notice the ring on Terrence’s collar for the first 2.5 hours.

And Jason's Story:

 Meghan and I had agreed that we would spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our families. We had arranged to meet each other at her apartment on Christmas night to exchange presents. I specifically pushed for this because my plan was to propose to her on Christmas Day. When I got there she was tired, but we proceeded to exchange our gifts. To set a Christmas/romantic mood, I turned off all the lights except for the Christmas tree lights and turned on my family's traditional opening-presents music, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas. My master plan was to incorporate our new two month old pug, Terrence. I decided I would put the engagement ring on his collar, intending that she would see it on him while the three of us were sitting together, and then I would take it off and propose to her. All I needed was a little cooperation from Terrence. I didn't get it. After opening our gifts, I took Terrence into the other room and attached the ring to his collar so it dangled like a tag. Meghan asked what I was doing, and I mumbled a response, hoping she wouldn't hear and would let it go. I then brought him back out to the living room where Meghan was laying on the couch. I set him down, and he immediately scampered over to the couch, jumped onto her chest, and laid down to go to sleep. I could tell by her eyes than she hadn't seen the ring. Undaunted, I occasionally tried to jostle Terrence around in hopes that he'd get up so she would see the ring. Finally, he got up, turned in a circle, and laid back down. Unfortunately, Meghan, who was very tired herself, didn't see the ring. I occasionally jostled him some more, but he refused to perk up and move around enough for her to catch a glimpse of the ring. After an hour or so had gone by, I was getting frustrated, so I decided to take him outside to go to the bathroom, hoping the cold air would awaken him. While outside, I adjusted his collar so the buckle and other tags were out of the way, leaving only the sparkling diamond ring hanging from his neck. I brought him inside, and SLOWLY set him back down on the couch, but Meghan was making eye contact with him the whole way, and, again by reading her eyes, I could tell she hadn't seen the ring. I became more desperate, and I tried making conversation about the size of his collar and harness in hopes she would look down at it, I tried to have Meghan sit up to drink her eggnog so that Terrence might be forced to sit up too, I tried jostling him some more, and I tried laying down next to her on the couch which I hoped would cause Terrence to stand up while we adjusted our positions. Alas, he slept and slept and slept some more. Finally after passing the two-hour mark, and with midnight approaching and my plan on getting engaged on Christmas Day becoming less and less likely, I reached the emergency point. I asked Meghan to sit up, which she sleepily did, and Terrence with bleary eyes sat up too. Left with no alternative, I said, "Look at our dog." She replied, "Yeah, he's cute." That wasn't what I had in mind. I said, "No, look at his collar." She looked down, finally saw the ring, and her eyes lit up. I know Meghan's not the kind of girl who would ever jump up and down or squeal at anything ever, so I wasn't surprised when she smiled and said knowingly, "What's this?" I took the ring off Terrence's collar, got down on one knee, said a few words, and asked her to marry me. She said yes. So my plan of a surprise engagement on Christmas using Terrence worked out in the end, no thanks to our little puppy who failed in the only task I gave him as my accomplice. I expect better work from him next time I need him for something. Maybe we'll just stick to sits and stays.

Red-Eye Route

Because of the two-hour time difference, it's hard to have a same-day flight from the West coast back to Kansas City toward the end of the day.  As a rule of thumb, if you can't be on the plane by 4pm, you can't make it back the same day.  Our meetings ended today at about 4:30, so there was no way I could get on a plane and end up in KC tonight.  So I had two options: Wait until the morning and take a flight back, which would take most of the day, or take a red-eye tonight and fly through the night and eventually end up in KC tomorrow.  I chose the latter.  Our meetings were in San Francisco, and the first flight out of SFO was at around midnight.  I noticed there were flights out of LA that also left at around midnight.  They both had similar options for connections back to Kansas City (no direct flights either way).  Since I'm more likely to get frequent flier status based on flight segments, I decided to take a short flight to LA, and then take the midnight-ish flight from there, which gets me an extra segment without delaying my trip.  I also decided to take the longest possible flight from LA to allow me time to sleep. So here I am in LA (which I don't love, despite the sign), shortly before "getting ready for bed" (taking out my contacts and brushing my teeth) and boarding my 11:55pm to Atlanta.  It's a four-hour flight, and then I'll fly two hours back to KC, arriving at 9:30am.  I'll get six hours of sleep (I have a window seat both ways), allowing me to be reasonably refreshed and ready for the day when I land tomorrow morning in Kansas City.

Da Dip

When Jason is gone, I do not normally cook. Sometimes we try to keep it relatively healthy. Other times we have fun food like tonight, when we had mini tacos. Joshua really enjoyed these, especially because I gave him some dip (greek yogurt with a bit of salsa mixed in). He is at a stage where he really enjoys dipping things so a dip pretty much drastically ups his enjoyment of a food item.

And the Winner is... LBC!

When we moved to this house, we decided to find a new church, both because our other church was now farther away and because it just wasn't quite meeting our needs.  Since then, we've visited a lot of churches.  A couple months ago we had it narrowed down to three finalists, Lenexa Baptist Church, Life Church (which is a church we've attended in the past), and Kaw Prairie Community Church.  Over the past couple months we tried each of them again with the goal of choosing by the end of the year to allow us to start the new year in our new church.  Nate and Carla introduced us to LBC, and Carla, with all of her endearing effervescence, would occasionally ask for updates: "Have you decided yet?  Did we win?!?"  And now that we've decided, we were able to say to Carla, "Yes, you won!". 

LBC isn't perfect for us, as it's jam packed with people, and we will probably have to take a shuttle from a satellite parking lot on most days.  We're not Baptists, so we don't agree with them theologically on everything, but we do agree on the important stuff.  There were a few main things that led us to choose LBC.  First was the good pastor and outstanding worship music (in the contemporary service).   It was the best music of any church we've been to, maybe ever.  We also really liked the people.  Everyone seemed very nice, which was true for all of the churches, but the people there just seemed more passionate.  They also have excellent children's programming (including good ol' AWANA), which is important to us given that we have three children.  The biggest reason, though, was the adult Sunday School, which only LBC had.  We weren't sure about going when we first tried it, but Nate and Carla convinced us to go.  It's a really great group with good discussions.  Because of my travel, it's not likely we'd be able to join a small group during the week any time soon, so being part of a Sunday School class not only allows us to get plugged in, but also allows for the type of spiritual growth and Christian fellowship that we wouldn't get with the other churches.  The primary reasons for going to church are to worship God and to increase the strength of our relationship with Jesus, and we felt LBC offered us the best way to do that.  Going to Sunday School followed by the late service means no morning naps for any kids who need them (currently Clara), and it means getting up way earlier than we otherwise would and getting the kids up earlier than they normally do, but we feel it's worth it.  Joshua and Clara are in the children's ministry during Sunday School and church, but for now Hannah is staying with us.  Here she is with Meghan at the conclusion of our first service as regular attendees of our new church.

Aiden Turns One

Today was Nate and Carla's youngest child Aiden's birthday party.  It was held in the basement of their church, as the number of people attending was more than could be held in a house.  They had a couple bounce houses set up for the kids, and they also provided lunch and cake.  We happened to end up sitting at the same table as their family and also Carla's parents, who were in town from Montana for the event.  This meant we had front and center seats for the official smashing/eating of the cake by Aiden, who is at the opposite end of the table from us in the above picture.  Joshua and Clara both loved the cake and would be willing to go to birthday parties every day of their lives if given the option.

Temporary Fun

Today I took Clara to see a pediatric eye specialist for the bump on her eye. The doctor found that it wasn't really impacting her vision and doesn't seem worrying, though she would like a dermatologist to look at it just to be sure. Though I was happy about the diagnosis and that we won't do surgery, it was quite a process getting the exam. They needed to dilate her eyes, so it was a three hour exam. At the beginning, shown here, Clara was pretty happy to be there and see all the toys and fun things they had. By the end, she was at the end of her baby rope. It was a long day for both of us, but I was glad that it seems to be only a cosmetic issue.

Not a Fun Fiesta

K-State's football team started the season with very little expectations as they were projected to finish in the middle of the Big 12.  After some big wins early in the season, it became clear that they were a very good team, and they continued to climb the national rankings.  After beating Geno Smith and West Virginia, Collin Klein became the Heisman frontrunner, and after we beat TCU, we were #1 in the country.  We were two wins away from playing for the national championship, which would have been the greatest sporting moment of my life, before a crushing loss at Baylor ruined it all.  Still, we had a chance to win the Big 12, and we beat Texas to do that.  That's certainly a good result to a season, especially one with such low expectations to start, but after being so close to a chance to play for the title, it felt like a disappointment.  So tonight was our last game of the season, the Fiesta Bowl against Oregon, which I watched with the three Barton brothers at Nick's house.  The Ducks won, but it didn't really matter at that point.  We won the Big 12 but not the national championship, and none of that changed from this game.  Still, it was a great season for Bill Snyder, Klein, John Hubert, Chris Harper, Arthur Brown, and the boys.

3 Months

Today Hannah turned three months old. She is a very mellow baby. I actually feel like she doesn't do as much as my other babies did at her age because she is satisfied doing whatever most of the time. Like she can definitely roll over from her tummy to her back. But most of the time she just accepts tummy time and doesn't have an issue with it so she doesn't roll over all that often. Also if I put her on her back she mostly is just fine with being there and doesn't try too hard to roll over to her tummy (which as far as I know she cannot do yet). It will be interesting to see if she is really determined to move (crawling or walking) like the other two were or is a later walker. In general, she has a very sweet disposition and gives everyone lots of smiles. She will bat at the toys on her baby gym, though she does not have a great deal of interest in holding things yet. I do not know how much she weighs since her next doctor appointment isn't until four months, but she definitely is growing and eats very well and I think in length she could go up a size. However, I am holding off for now since Clara is in that size and I haven't figured out how I want to handle them both being in the same size yet. Plus though some of her pants are a bit short, her onesies are still okay so she isn't uncomfortable and I am think the size up would be a bit loose in the waist. But soon we probably will move her up. She hasn't grown out of her reflux yet, but hopefully that will happen in the next few months. She definitely becomes very uncomfortable if she doesn't get her medication on schedule. Since she can roll over at will, we will remove the nappers from the Pack 'N Plays soon for safety.

Snow Kids

We didn't really have a white Christmas (scattered, lingering, mostly-melted snow doesn't count, but we definitely had a white New Year. Last night while we were playing with glowing jewelry and whatnot, we were getting snowed upon, so it's good that we stayed home, as the roads weren't good. I had today off of work, so I decided to take Joshua and Clara out to play in the snow.  That was one of my favorite activities growing up, so I was excited to share it with them.  We had a fun time.  I was worried they (especially Clara) wouldn't handle snow getting on her and the cold well, but they both really enjoyed it.  If we get another snow this season, we'll definitely do it again.