Candice... and other pictures

Here it is almost Christmas again... Seems like the fall flew by on wings of wind, only it still feels like fall! Dreary rainy, foggy, and cool but not freezing weather feels more like October than December. We did get a bit of snow one day, but it disappeared quickly. Lovely while it lasted, though!

My good friend, a photographer, got some pictures of Candice as a newborn. They are SO good, I thought I'd share a few with you!

 

 

Ok, maybe more than a few... anyway, she was, and is, SO precious! So, here are some more recent ones for you to enjoy. And no, your eyes aren't deceiving you. She's a big girl. At 4 1/2 months she weighs 18 lbs 14 oz! She not extremely chubby either, growing long as fast as she's gaining the weight. She can roll over some, and has been working hard at honing those grabbing skills.

Just in case you forget what the other children look like, here they are posing for a picture for my new camera:

We have been staying super, super busy lately. School takes a lot of my time and energy, as is trying to get into the hospitality habit again, and baking LOTS of Christmas cookies! Oh yes, and we took a "quick" trip to PA for Jere's grandma's birthday party, stopping at the Creation Museum on our way out to take in their Christmas program, living nativity, and light display.

  

    

I do hope to get family pictures taken soon, if you want a copy let me know! In the meantime, have a blessed Christmas and a fabulous New Year!

Wildcat Mountain

Yesterday was such a lovely warm day, we couldn't stay inside! So after lunch we headed off to Wildcat Mountain State Park and went hiking. We had lots of fun hiking, looking for wildcat dens (Leanna refused to go anywhere near rocks that had any sort of holes in them!), watching some deer meandering through the woods, and then we had a picnic supper. I thought you might enjoy some of the pictures we got of the children!

 

Deer watching...

 

So much news...

Okay, my deepest apologies. I have had my hands full lately, and time to record happenings has been scarce.

First of all, on July 25, Jaron took a tumble off his bike and hit his head. Which ruptured a vein inside his skull. Which led to a few days in the hospital and surgery to remove the clot. All right around the time I was due. He made an amazingly fast recovery, and today only has some residual vision issues that glasses seem to have corrected, thankfully. His helmet is now mandatory equipment!

Well, our daughter decided to wait... and wait... and wait! I was finally induced at 12 days late, due to her predicted size. She finally arrived, at a big 10 pounds, 15.5 ounces. (Can anyone blame me for just saying she was 11 pounds?) Candice Ruth hasn't stopped eating, or growing, since! Sweet girl!



A few weeks after Candice's arrival, we started school. We needed the structure of school days just to save some sanity with Mom not up to full power yet.

Jaron started 3rd grade officially, though he's doing some 4th grade work.

Eliott and Leanna both started Kindergarten. And loving it!

We went on a little family "vacation" when Candice was just a couple weeks old, to pick up a couple of wrecked vehicles, one of which is to replace our fast dying van and one to pay for the other one once it's fixed up and resold. We took a little drive out through Door County, and stopped on the shore of Lake Michigan to enjoy listening to the waves. I love waves!

The sisters.

Candice at 1 month old.

One day our Amish neighbors came to harvest the hay on our property. The children were fascinated!

I have big helpers when it comes to laundry!

This photo is a quick one I grabbed after biking a couple of miles on the state bike trail, then walking through the long tunnel, previously a train tunnel. It was a good experience, though Jere was the only one who actually enjoyed going through the tunnel I think!

Candice at about 2 months. Weighing in around 16 pounds. No, it's not my imagination all she does is eat, and all I do is feed her!

More work on our house...

Yes! We have TWO rooms totally completed! Makes me so excited and happy! There are a number of other rooms that only need a small amount of work, so I'm expecting to see the number completed go up a little more quickly than these first two. Especially once Baby's here and Jere takes some time off of work...

Anyway, here are the pictures!

Upstairs bathroom, in the midst of the project...

Upstairs bathroom, completed!!

That towel bar is a piece of driftwood from the shore of Lake Superior, and the hooks are boat cleats. I was attempting to go beachy with this bathroom.

Master bedroom, before. There was mold in behind the drywall so we ended up having to gut it.

Master bedroom, after.

The nursery area.

Aren't those closet doors just something?!!! I LOVE them! My man is so talented...

Family fishing day...

On Sunday Leanna's chicken pox were still not quite scabbed over, so she and I stayed home from church. In the afternoon, though, we were ready to go DO something! After a quick lunch we went to try out fishing at a nearby lake we'd never fished before. That was hot, but fun! Jaron caught one fish, and Jere two, but they were too small to keep. Oh well, maybe next time!

"Father's Day" camping trip

We spent last weekend camping! It was a surprise for Jere--of course I had to tell him before we left as I can't lift much of anything anymore so he had to do all the heavy work, but he was surprised anyway. We had talked about going camping sometime this summer, but because of pregnancy issues we were pretty sure it wasn't going to happen before Baby. I was glad I was feeling up to doing it! We really had a good time. The weather was a little on the chilly side and it had been raining in the morning, but it didn't rain at all while camping, and the fire felt good. The activities for the children revolved around biking on PAVED roads, going fishing, and trying to find things to draw in their nature journals they made before we left. The adults tended the fire, made food, baited hooks, untangled fishing line, cheered when fish were caught, and took the family on a long nature hike looking for things on a nature hike scavenger hunt list. Ok, I almost didn't make it back from the hike, and a good portion of my time was spent in my new reclining lawn chair, but it was a good time making memories as a family.

My handsome, just casting for a child's benefit.

"Looking at you!" 

Little Miss' first fish. She was SO excited to reel it in, but then was terrified of the thing when she actually landed it! (But thoroughly enjoyed eating it, too!)

 

  Little Miss and her fishing pole. Just too cute.

Little Man taking a break from fishing... in MY chair!

And this trooper pulled in 4 of the 6 fish we caught! 

End of school! And other notes...

Yes, we have reached the end of the school year! What a joy to see our children growing up and learning. And what a relief to not have school assignments every day! I love teaching them, watching them learn so many new things, and learning alongside them (yes, I'm learning too!), but I'm also glad for summer break.

End of school year party! Jaron finished 2nd and most of 3rd grade, and the other two did preschool work. Hooray for them!

Here are a few random glimpses into our lives...

Occasionally the boys' parakeets are allowed to fly around the house. One day they decided to join us for lunch. We discovered parakeets don't like rice. 

Jere built this shelf for a client's trophy buck, and also did the chinking in this fancy log cabin.

Happy birthday to Jaron!!! What a big boy he's getting to be. 

Delighted with a nice, new, binoculars. A gift I was happy he got, since one of our big subjects for the next school year is birds and other flying creatures!

Things are going pretty well around here. We have broiler chicks in our basement right now, which will hopefully provide meat for the coming year in a couple of months. Our cow and heifer look like they'll both be calving in the next month or so. The cute little garden is all planted. We decided on only enough garden to provide fresh veggies through the summer this year, since I doubt I'll be up to canning much over the time Baby is supposed to come! With one of Jere's sisters getting married, I have some serious sewing to do in the next month. But thankfully I have nothing else to do for it besides show up early with a camera.

Baby seems to be doing well, growing and kicking just like he or she is supposed to. We did have an ultrasound to make sure we didn't have another repeat of Jaron's hernia, but the tech was not able to tell us if we are having a boy or a girl--much to my disappointment! As for how I'm doing... well, the end of July can't come quickly enough!

Raising children has its challenges, but it has its fun too. This morning the power went off suddenly, so I did a few non-electric things and waited for about 10 minutes before letting Jere know. I might have waited longer if we hadn't had chicks that need a heat lamp. He called me and said that he'd had the boys recently helping him with some electrical things, and taught them to turn the outside (main) breaker off and on. Sure enough, the main breaker was switched off! One of the boys confessed to it and both were educated with the importance of leaving electrical stuff alone unless under direct supervision. *smile* Life is a never-ending adventure!