Monday Pictures-Week 32

It's another Monday. Not too many things have changed this week. The boys are getting more and more difficult to nurse at the same time. They are so easily distracted and spend much of their time trying to look around instead of eat. So it's a very real possibility that one (or both) of them could roll off my nursing pillow (if I'm not really careful). It's hard to hold on to two strong and squirmy babies. So I'm started to nurse them separately more and more. Logan has started trying to pull up. Although really he is just putting his hands on something higher than the floor and making a tee pee. Not exactly "pulling" himself up. But still the end result is that he is pretty much standing. They are both getting better at picking up Cheerios and putting them in their mouths. That's really about all I think. Here are their pictures for the day. We did bath night tonight. It was the babies first "solo" bath with me hover very close by.

Preschool Here We Come!

I registered Jack for preschool this morning. Apparently, it's a big deal. Registration started at 7 and I got there at about 6:35. I was number 30. The guy who was there first said he got there at 5! And he said that by around 5:30 there were six of them waiting. Thankfully, my "lateness" did not keep us from getting in. I was sorta hoping for the Mon/Wed class but that was full by the time my number was called so we got into the Tues/Thurs class. I wonder if anyone that wanted in didn't get in because they showed up at 7. Anyway, I'm excited and nervous about preschool. Thankfully it doesn't start until September so we have some time to prepare, but also that means more time for worrying. What if Jack isn't sufficiently potty trained by then? What if he can't pull down and pull up his own pants and undies? What if he can but he refuses? What if he's the troublemaker? What if he throws tantrums? What if all the other kids know their letters and he doesn't? What if in the middle of a lesson my son roars like a scary dinosaur?So you see where my mind is, worrying about all sorts of things that I don't need to worry about. But I'm also very excited. I really think he will enjoy it (hopefully right away).

House Saga

As is becoming my norm, I'm a little late in my posting. While I've posted things on Facebook and talked to many in person I never updated the blog. After much prayer and much patience, our house in Palatine officially does not belong to us anymore. Caterpillar's relocation company, Paragon, has acquired the house from us (as of Friday) and should the sale fall through for whatever reason at this point, it's not our problem. So for the time being, we are not homeowners and enjoying every money saving day of it. The process of selling our house is not something I want to do again for a long time. Many would say that taking 6 months to sell a house in this market is pretty good. I can't entirely disagree but it is a long time to feel like your life is somewhat on hold. And while we were incredibly grateful and excited when the offer initially came in, the month and a half following was long and filled with much anxiety as issues arose and frustrations mounted with people's inability to do their jobs correctly. A minor lawsuit between our association and a neighboring association over drainage issues almost cost us the sale. Because of our involvement with the relocation company the lawsuit was required to be disclosed to the buyer. We then only needed the buyer to say it was no big deal and Paragon could acquire us. We were first told this in January and expected the issue to be resolved in a matter of days. Instead the situation dragged on until last Friday. Our lawyer sent their lawyer two letters neither of which stated that we just needed an OK from the buyer, and both of which were filed away without ever being read. Also our association filled out a form disclosing the lawsuit, twice, because the first time they forgot to disclose the lawsuit. Seriously! So thanks to the hard work Paul put in tracking down information and the Lord watching out for us we got the news on Friday that the house was no longer ours. Praise be to God! Now we can move forward with the house we have an offer on in Morton. Things are going pretty well with that and we've gotten past the few hiccups that have come up in that process. Our inspection is done, the appraisal is done, the radon is being mitigated, we almost have our final loan approval, and hopefully the termite inspection goes off without a hitch. Paul and I are finally allowing ourselves to get really excited about the new house and are looking forward to getting settled. We have loved living with my parents. They have been so generous to us and so helpful with the kids. But we are looking forward to having our own space again and settling into what will be a more permanent way of life. We will be sad to leave but living in a temporary situation is not ideal and my parents will still be so close. (Yay!) I know they will miss us but their carpet will not!

Monday Pictures-Week 31

Happy 7 months to Schaeffer and Logan! Schaeffer started pulling himself up last Monday night. I turned around and there he was using his ball popper machine to help him stand up. I love how they pick the most unstable object to pull up on. Since then Schaeffer mostly likes to pull up on me. He has a bit of a hard time figuring out how to grab hold of other items in a way that would help him stand up, so he spends a lot of time hanging on me right now. Almost any time I sit down on the floor he crawls right over and stands up. He's very, very interested in standing around. Logan isn't interested yet. He's more into exploring, making tee pees and smacking his lips. He loves to make sounds with his lips and or tongue. Schaeffer also got his second tooth this week. Logan still has none. The boys have also started crawling off together on little explorations of the house. Logan likes to lay by the tiled floors and slap them with his hand. Here are pictures of the happy boys playing this afternoon.

Randomness

Here are a few random pictures I wanted to post. You've heard (read) me mention about how Schaeffer likes to crawl over or into things, especially his Lil' Zoomers Speedway. Here is the evidence. He thinks he's so funny. Logan came to join the action though as of now he doesn't climb in the toy.

And here are two of the Valentines Jack made this year. He had a lot of fun getting to paint by rolling balls around in a box. And he loved helping cut out the hearts using the Cricut machine. He's a pro at pushing all the right buttons at all the right times. He also helped glue and then picked out which heart he wanted to give to which person. I did my best to let him do as much of this project as possible. I'm way too much of a control freak when it comes to arts and crafts projects. I think they turned out super cute. Guess we should deliver the one for Great Grandma since it's after Valentine's day now!

Don't You Just Love It

When We All Get Together Like This?

This past weekend we had an impromptu Vest family gathering. Many of us hadn't seen each other since Christmas and since everyone (almost) was free we got together for a couple of days. Times with my family are fun but they are exhausting. With seven adults and six kids things get chaotic and loud, but it's so fun to see everyone and enjoy each others company. The kids always have a lot of fun playing with each other and I love that they love each other. Here are a few pictures of the fun we had.

 Mom and Dad recently went to Hawaii and brought back Hawaiian outfits for all the kids. Since there wasn't a size for the soon to be here baby we decided to take a picture before Baby Winkelman arrives, even though it's the middle of winter. We thought it would be cute to dress them up in their von Trapp style outfits and stick them in a snowbank, but we figured none of the kids would be fond of that idea, so just imagine it in your head. The older kids loved their outfits, especially Micah. He slept in his shirt and wore it to church the next day. So cute.

Saturday after naps Paul and I took Hailey, Jack and Micah outside to play in the snow. Paul built this giant snowman for them and Hailey and I put on the accessories. We also built a small fort with a slide and pulled the kids in sleds on the snow packed driveway. They all had lots of fun once they got used to their bulky winter clothes.

Here are the three babies. They played a lot in the safety zone I set up (somewhere the big kids couldn't get to). George did such a good job sitting up by himself while he played with Schaeffer and Logan.

Monday Pictures-Week 30

The babies must have aged quickly because you may have noticed that last week was week 28 and this week is week 30. Or several weeks ago I mislabeled and just realized. Ooops! Oh well, it's all straightened out now. I know you were terribly concerned.

This week wasn't marked by anything too significant, just improving on skills they have started to develop. It's very interesting to have to babies at once and see how they come up with different ways to accomplish the same thing. Schaeffer is a definite army crawler, he relies heavily on his arms to propel himself forward. Logan on the other hand is much more like an inch worm. He relies heavily on his legs to propel himself forward. Both have gotten quite proficient at their method of mobility and Schaeffer is more often discovering that there is a world outside of the living room that he is capable of exploring.

Schaeffer showing off his tooth, you probably need to click on the picture to see it. And Schaeffer in mid army crawl.

Logan demonstrating his tee-pee making abilities and his extremely adorable smile.

The boys being brothers. Schaeffer just sat there and wouldn't look at the camera, Logan was all over the place. These pictures make me think of brotherly love. Hugging, leaning on each other, and pushing each other.

Friendship

Moving always brings with it the challenge of meeting new people and making new friends. The things I miss most about living in Palatine are the friendships I had. In fact friendships are the things I miss most about every place I've lived and left. I'm sure that is true for most people. I've been recently blessed to meet a new friend. Talk about God's great timing. Brittany and Shane recently moved to Morton (July/Augustish), they have a 2 1/2 year old son and twin 7 month olds. Honestly, I'm not sure I've ever met someone in such a similar life situation as me. During this time of our lives with the chaos of toddlerhood and twin babyhood Brittany has become a good friend who understands the ups and downs of my daily life. We've started trying to get together with another friend every other week, much more is difficult with so many young children. But between that and our quick chats at church it's so nice to be making a new mommy friend. 

Today we ventured out in the cold to enjoy a play date with the Drury's. Silas and Jack played well together. They love playing chase/running circles around the house and we love that they're burning off energy. While the older boys ran and the four babies ate and played Brittany and I got to have adult conversation. It was lovely. Turns out we both use one spoon to feed babies and don't care if one baby eats the food that just got swiped off the chin of the other baby. I know, it's gross but it was so wonderful to know that we both did it.

Jack and Silas giving high fives.

Building a tower in the back of the CAT dump truck. Jack's favorite toy, no surprise there.

The 4 babies. Simeon & Lieren (almost 8 months) and Schaeffer and Logan (almost 7 months)

Monday Pictures-Week 29

Every Monday I sit down and try to think back over the past week and remember what we did and if the twins did anything new I should record. And every Monday I have a hard time remembering. If I give myself enough time it starts to come back to me and I slowly remember that it was just this week that we had the blizzard. I suppose that was fairly insignificant for the twins, just that they got to sleep in a cold room due to the power outage and see Daddy and Grandma and Papa more this week. I also remember that Logan started moving. The week before he started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking. This week he has continued that but gotten more stable and also progressed to getting up on his hands and tip toes. Then over the weekend he started making forward progress. It's not an official crawl more of a lunging action, but it's enough to get him things he wants. Logan has also gotten a whole lot better at sitting this week. Much less tipping over and pretty much no support needed anymore. I'm pretty sure that was this week. Schaeffer is really into crawling over things and can often be found half in his Lil' Zoomers Speedway toy. He also has figured out how to work the gumball machine lever. He is really working to figure things out. They also have been sleeping pretty well. More nights than not this week they've slept all night. I know that technically it is considered sleeping through the night when they go around 6 hours I think. And they've been doing that for quite a long time. I however, consider it sleeping through the night when I don't have to get up before it is time to get up. Thankfully, it seems the twins are doing that more and more lately.

The Coming Week

Here we go. Paul used to travel a lot for work. It's one (of many) reasons we decided to move back down to Morton. Having him gone so much with only one child was challenge enough, I knew that having him gone with three kids would be so much more. We have enjoyed six and a half months as a family of 5 without Paul having to travel. It's been wonderful. But tomorrow he heads to Tuscon for a week. We shall see how I do. Thankfully, we are still living with my parents so I won't be totally on my own all week. Still we will miss him greatly and while I'm sure he will miss us too, I bet he will enjoy his week of quiet.

Monday Pictures-Week 28

Schaeffer got his first tooth this week! And Logan started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth this week. It seems crawling is in his future, who knows when exactly, but he's getting there. Schaeffer is still army crawling along and rarely lets anything get in his way. He is often crawling right over the top of whatever is in his path. One day a soft sided lunch box full of Hot Wheels. Yesterday a changing pad. It's getting harder to get their pictures together since they are getting more mobile. Someone is always looking to roll or crawl away.

Schaeffer crawling over the changing pad.

Logan just after being on his knees. He doesn't look up when he's actually on his hands and knees.