Big Sister

Maggie to Bode: I'm the big sister, so I get to tell you what to do.

Me:  No, that's not how it works.

Maggie, indignantly: Then what are big sisters for???

...And a Happy New Year

With the start of the New Year has come my return to work after the birth of our God's latest masterpiece, Brooks William.  I hope to post more about his arrival later.  This has been a bit of a hectic week just trying to get back into the routine of everything and balancing work with three young children.  Thankfully I have two good older helpers in the form of Maggie and Bode, a helpful young nanny that comes a few mornings a week and the sweetest little baby face to remind me of my priorities.

We were at home for New Year's Eve, but started a new tradition (maybe?) with countdown envelopes.  Inside each one was a fun activity for the evening....Make brownies, eat popcorn, have a pillow fight, make snow angels, dance party, etc.  We welcomed in the New Year at 8:00 pm with a very helpful Netflix countdown hosted by King Julien from the movie, Madagascar.

And here are a few videos Steve made of our holiday season:

Our family Christmas:

The Gibbs family Christmas:


The Evelsizer family Christmas, which had to be postponed due to our kids' sicknesses:



And a video of some sledding fun that Maggie, Steve, and Bode enjoyed while my sister, Brooks, and I went to a movie:

The Wait

It's on.  Now that my official due date has come and gone, the contentment I felt a week ago has been replaced by annoyance that I'm "still" pregnant and uncomfortable.

As we've been waiting, we've tried to fill our time with memory-making activities as a family of four.

Steve and I were able to go on our first date in two months thanks to Steve's parents being in town last weekend.  His love affair with sushi started last spring when we went out with some friends, and now that he has brought me on board, I was more than happy to accompany him to Ichi Tokyo in Rochester.  California rolls - yum!  We finished our date with Caribou Coffee.  I have treated myself to a mocha more often these past two weeks than I care to admit...

Steve took this super flattering photo of me using baby as a drink holder.

Later in the week we went to Applebee's on a family date, knowing that we might not be going out for a leisurely dinner for a while.

My girl.  We've had our share of confrontations recently, but she's still my sweet princess.

They wait so patiently at restaurants now.  Bode brought cars to play with on this occasion.

Cubbies  Bible character night.  We realized this was the dress up theme at the last minute, so quickly tried to put together an Egyptian princess costume, per Maggie's request.  That's Moses in the basket.  Oh, and Moses is her newest idea for a baby name.

 And then came Halloween.  Steve was helping to coach the Stewartville Tigers to a Section Championship victory, so I loaded Maggie and Bode in the minivan to go trick-or-treating at just a few friends' houses.  We came back home to watch It's a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters that came to our door.

Ariel and puppy.

And on Halloween, as I put this shirt on, I realized I looked like a snake that just ate a very large rodent.  So there - I dressed up, too. 

Today while I was at a baby shower, Steve took Maggie and Bode to a volleyball game.  Maggie was asked when she thought baby would arrive.  And apparently this is what she said, "Well, I was thinking Halloween, but now I'm thinking Valentine's Day."  Thankfully, I KNOW that will not be the case.  He'll be here soon.  :)

Saturday School

Stewartville finally got some good press after a couple gun scares this school year.

Steve was interviewed by a local news station about their plan for Saturday School, and is optimistic it will be a good intervention for students!

http://www.kaaltv.com/article/stories/s3598471.shtml

Happy Birthday, Dear Bode

Bode is three!  Can't believe my little guy is no longer a baby and is no longer going to be THE baby of the family.  He has grown so much this past year, and continues to provide us all with laughter and hugs.

I tried to ask him the same interview questions as I did with Maggie, but most of his answers were, "I dunno."  Here's what I got:

The best show on TV is... Go, Diego, Go!
My favorite color is... blue.
My favorite toy is...(holds up new truck).
I like to take these things to bed with me at night...balloony (the balloons he found in his room this morning) and puppy.
My favorite movie is... Cars
My favorite animals are... cows.
My favorite sport is...football.
My best friend is.. Eli.

Other things that currently make Bode, Bode:
The way he still calls his sister, "Dee Dee," even though he can now say Maggie.
How everything somehow gets turned into a weapon in his hands.
His insistence on giving everyone "Hug, kiss" when saying good-bye or good night.
His flexibility in playing princesses, dolls, and dress-up with his sister even though he also has interests that are very stereotypically "boy."

Love this guy!  And because my posts have been very dominated by Maggie recently, here are lots of Bode pictures from today:

We started off the day with some balloon fun in the kids' room.

Breakfast was chocolate doughnuts, which Bode selected yesterday at Target.

Our first Kiwi Crate arrived a couple days ago, so we had fun crafting hobby horses after breakfast.

I tried to get a nice posed picture, but as soon as the horses were finished, they were OFF!

They both insisted on wearing hats (we don't have cowboy hats) and boots.  Bode settled for Maggie's pink snow boots.

Bode had to show off his muscles, with coaxing, to match the card from Unky and Aunt Kate.

Before lunch, the kids and Steve accompanied me to my 38 week OB appointment, complete with a tour of the BirthCenter. 

After lunch it was naptime.  But first, Bode insisted on gathering all of his balloons in bed.

"Take a picture of me, too!"

 Then presents...

And cake.

Bode woke up singing this song this morning and kept repeating it throughout the day.

Then it was time for Bounce World!

We finished our day with Bode's choice of dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.  

On to year four!

Baby Names

Yesterday morning before I dragged my large and weary self out of bed, Maggie was asking me about the names of the bones in our bodies.  As I gave her the rundown of bones in her leg, she paused when we got to the kneecap.

"Patella," she mused. "That's a pretty name. If the baby was a girl, I'd name it Patella."

Where is the third one going to fit during cuddle time?

Fall Days

It's hard to believe how quickly September flew by.  Even though counting down the days to my due date sometimes makes it seem like time is just crawling by, the weeks do indeed go quickly.

As a family, we are definitely in a good routine and schedule now.  Even though we have some sort of activity almost every weekday evening, my lighter workload this year (just upped to .75 FTE) has made this fall seem a little less hectic than the past couple years, at least from my perspective.  Steve is adjusting to his new role as both Middle School and High School principal, but is thankful for two wonderfully capable assistants.  Here's a rough outline of our weekly schedule outside of work:

Sunday - Church and Sunday School

Monday - Maggie - preschool, Sara - Moms in Step, Steve - School Board

Tuesday - Our day off of extra activities!  This evening is often reserved for grocery shopping and other errands.

Wednesday - Maggie -preschool, Sara - Junior High youth group, Maggie - gymnastics (only a few more classes left), Maggie - Cubbies

Thursday - Bode, Maggie, Steve, and Sara - Parent Child ECFE class

Friday - Maggie - preschool, Steve - football game

Saturday - Maggie - dance

Here are some photos of our past couple weeks:

Our Homecoming Princess in the parade on a very cold Friday afternoon.

Angelina Ballerina pre-ballet class.

We don't normally get to sit in, but this day was a parent observation day.

This late afternoon/evening was spent at Sekapp Orchard in Rochester.

I tried to discourage this, but Steve ENcouraged it.  At least I brought along some of Shaklee's Basic H2 to clean them off first.

Time to select their pumpkins.

Bode wanted one with a blueish tint.

Maggie wanted a white one.

And we were sure to get one for baby brother, too.

Gymnastics.