8 months preggers

well, here we are, me and baby for surely not to be named russell. yeah, the space is getting a little cramped, but all is well. the quality of the pic is not great due to the fact that brad was online attempting to find a motor home we can rent in order to get to florida next winter without going bankrupt from the price of airline tickets, or going insane from three children and two us in the veen. anywho, here is another picture he took as i was attempting to grab the camera out of his hands. warning, it may be hard to look at the extreme size of the belly. 8 more weeks to go. whoa.

my last dr appt sandy had the boys so sonya and i got along much better without that distraction. i gained 0 pounds, so that gave us a conversation focus. no worries really, just not what we'd like to see. i feel the babe is taking from my legs as they seem to be appearing more and more chicken like as the summer progresses. also, i am measuring small which is again not really a concern as i did the same with both boys. as dr taylor said, we dont need me to have a 10 lb child because then it would probably never come out.

thinking about the fact that i have 8 weeks to go in this pregnancy makes me relieved and concerned simultaneously. i am relieved that the discomforts have an end in sight and the countdown is on for meeting this precious child. i long to be a complete fam of five and stop being pregnant with the emotions and the aches and the heartburn and whatnot. i do not feel at all prepared for the birth of baby however. no place is ready for the babe to sleep as wes is still in the nursery and the upstairs toy room is still in complete disarray. still waiting for the nesting instinct to overcome the exhaustion in order to get some work done in that aspect. expecting baby also makes me severely insecure about my current mommying. i feel i am not excelling enough to bring another child into the mix. this emotion is a mix of pregnancy hormones, swim lesson sadness from maxer, and my general lack of confidence in my own abilities as a mom. i know is sure could not love my babies more, but just not sure i am great at raising them all the time. i mean, this is a huge undertaking and i want to do right by them in every single circumstance. the most important objective i desire to teach my children, living to glorify god, is perhaps the most difficult. thank you jesus i can rely on your love and strength and guidance for this most important duty. i pray i may seek after him so passionately that my boys have an example to follow and my confidence and security may be found in jesus alone.

okay, so there ya go. off to empty the dishwasher. this i can handle ;)

happy fathers day

my sons are blessed with an amazing daddy.

bradley is a beautiful example of how to be a godly man, i am so grateful my boys can watch him to learn by his model. thus, i have written an ode to brad:

you are a fabulous daddy to our sons

you teach them about golf, and shooting squirrels with guns

they are learning more from you

with each experience that is new

you work so hard every day

so on this farm we can stay

living a life full of joys

playing each day with our boys

maxer and bear love you so very much

they seem to always prefer daddy's touch

when we see your truck drive in at 4

our excitement urges us to the door

to welcome home our fave man

you love us so well as only you can!

please note: this post is a little late as i had writer's block yesterday while attempting to get discounted drugs at perrigo with shoeless children while brad was out golfing with brian zoet BEFORE golf league claiming the event was "work related". trust me, the only relation to work was that they work together, and then golf together. however, i have completely moved past any and all resentment and the poem proves it :) love you brad

pool day

friday was hot hot hot. determined to get outside and enjoy the sultry weather we had been waiting all winter long for, the boys and i headed to our "park". after swinging for tens of minutes, it quickly became evident the mama was the one working hard in the sun while the boys were enjoying the breeze on their swings. new plan: kiddie pool. filling the pool became another challenge as every time i would sneak into the house to quickly get snacks, or clean up something or other, or get a little warm water for the pool, max and wes quickly pointed the hose at another target, saturating the already super wet ground and leaving the pool relatively empty. auntie kels called during lunch and a plan was set in motion to spend some time at the dykstra's pool. perfect!

the boys were delighted with the idea and quickly (about a 30 minute process) suited up and loaded into the veen. kels greeted us at dykstra's and we headed right for the water. it was amazingly refreshing. perhaps the best feature was the frog we found swimming in the pool. oh maxer was beyond excited. the giggles, and whoops, and hollers that he emitted while shooting the froggy down with water or scooping it out and slamming it back into the pool were precious. though these antics could be considered animal cruelty, kels and i were less interested in the frog's well-being and more interested in maxwell's excitement.

bear focused primarily on snacks and rides on the noodle and the tube. he did assist maxer with locating and screeching about the froggy. quite the co-conspirator this little one!

thank you so much to the dykstra's for allowing us this fun break from the summer heat. the pool felt delicous and the company was fab!

5 years

yesterday marked 5 years of wedded bliss for my amazing husband and me. i write those words with a very sincere and thankful heart. according to our plan, we would be cooking up our first baby at this point in our marraige.

according to god's perfect plan, we are cooking up number three :)

this pic looks like more fun anyway :)

5 years seems both super fast for all we have been through with children, familial concerns, and life experiences, and relatively true to the fullness of life we have enjoyed together since that day we wed. i remember so clearly preparing for the wedding, walking down the sidewalk aisle into the waiting arms of my husband-to-be. i truly get the same feeling still whenever he drives in the yard from work. excitement, anticipation, adoration, and mostly gratitude that god would bless me so abundantly.

in anticipation of some date night action to commemorate this occasion, i had asked my mother in law to babysit the boys weeks in advance. since she said yes, i had been looking forward to some time alone with my husband. we opted to dine at crazy horse, utilizing a gift certificate given us by the zoet's for christmas. brad attempted lobster for the first time, while i stood by my fave:ribs and cherry coke with grenadine. after eating enough for a small nation, we journeyed to laketown to just be together. we climbed up the stairs, stopping every 5th step as i was having braxton hicks like they were going out of style, and found a hot spot in the sand way above the beach. here we talked. we chatted about our love that is ever growing, our anticipation for the years to come, and how we have seen god's faithfulness throughout our marriage. at that point, i still could not catch my breath as babe was hogging all room in my belly, and my supper was taking up the rest of it. so we climbed back down and retrieved the boys.

mom and dad lampen treated us all to a pontoon boat ride where brad caught some fish, maxer casted like crazy, and bear continually perched precariously close to the edge of the boat. it was a romantic night of festivity and love.

our retirement plan

on a beautiful summer night, or really any night, my boys love to be out on the golf course. we find plenty of excuses to get out there and hit some balls. winding creek is oh so close and beckons us often. possibly one of my fave pastimes of the summer as it involved some beautiful father/sons bonding, and i mostly stay seated in the golf cart making encouraging comments and producing snacks from the diaper bag. on sunday, a fellow golfer commented that brad had brought along his gallery. i took that statement as a compliment, and a mission.

one of the very best parts is getting to watch maxer in action:

seriously, the child is 3 and can already outhit his mama. we did not fully recognize the rarity of maxer's ability until we handed bear a golf club this summer. whereas maxer started making contact and perfecting his swing at 18 months, wes still utilizes the one-armed chop method. not to pressure the child or anything, but maxwell's success and resulting generosity to his parents would really do wonders for our retirement. ;)


bear thrives at keeping me company in the golf cart, or wandering around the course pointing out birds, bugs, and rocks. everyone has fun and learns a lot. makes us wonder if baby #3 will round out the foursome, or bring a more feminine dimension to our outings... either way, we can wait until august to find out!

home again

we are back at the meiste farm after another amazing week of camping. this last trip was to hungry horse and included all our fave things about camping: beautiful bonding with friends, delish camp food, late nights and late mornings, park time and sun sun sun. last week was punctuated by a few notable events however:

take this example of clever ingenuity crafted by my very own husband! he wired a wagon to the old trike we received as a gift from some elderly campers last year. the kids always want a ride so brad made it possible to give several of them a ride at once! the pedaling was difficult and the safety nonexistent, oh but it was fun! later on in the week, brad had quite an accident with the trike resulting in some pulled muscles and bleeding leg. he is recovering nicely.

one of our fave features at hungry horse is the kiddie pool. this pool is only foot deep and is perfect for letting the children play while the mama's watch from the sideline without much fear of drowning. the one time i did have to jump in and help bear, i only got my feet wet! my boys spent about as much time getting ready to go to the pool as they did in the pool, but they still enjoyed themselves immensely in that time :)

of course the first day was not over before bear took a spill. he was riding his bike down the large hill right by our camper and wiped right out. minutes later on the merry go round, he knocked his teeth into the metal and bit his lip. blood, blood, everywhere. the child is a little accident prone.

our first evening we got some delish pizza cut into HUGE pieces. the best part was how we ate that pizza for several meals, therefore not needing to cook additional items. love that!

this trip also included a hayride! as i was a little late in buying the tickets, we had a ride with just our fam and random little boys. intimate. my boys had a riot!!

all in all, another delightful trip. we are happy to be home, but eagerly anticipating our july journey!!

7 months preggers

celebrating another awesome report from the dr this month.

baby continues to grow right on schedule, and so do i!

one thing that gets more difficult as i add children to the fam is working up the courage to find people to babysit for these appointments. when child is no big deal, but asking anyone to watch both boys gives me a guilt trip. and now that we are this far in, i have used my entire list of generous keepers of kids. therefore, for this last dr visit, we all went together: me, baby, and the boys. 28 weeks generally indicates the time for gestational diabetes testing. so we added some lab work to the early morning agenda.

i was already sweating as i huffed and puffed the double stroller filled with my beautiful boys, their blankies, poptarts, ju ju, books and toys. we wheeled into registration and with relatively no troubles continued into the lab where i sucked down that orange drink in 5 min flat. bear was convinced that i was selfishly indulging in a delicious treat without him, so he fought for the beverage the entire time i was sipping and coolly/calmly shushing him and strapping him back into the stroller. feeling good about that accomplishment, i maneuvered the stroller over to the dr's office right on time for my appointment.

the weigh-in was a success. in fact, i gained a whopping 7 pounds, an amount never before gained in one months time in my pregnant life. impressive. then comes the pee in a cup portion of my visit. this is always a stressful time for me as i have pee anxiety issues which make me almost unable to perform. usually with much self talk and coaching, i get eek just enough out and embarrassingly hand over the paper cup. well enter two rambunctious though still cute children into the bathroom with me. focus is not happening, and pee is not coming. the boys are pulling apart the tower of cups, unsticking all the labels, and flushing the toilet while asking "what you doing mommy?". by some miracle, i peed, mostly in the cup. hallelujah. we were on our way to room 5.

once settled, the nurse expressed her desire for me to have a girl since i had these two wild boys already. i made some sort of noise that let her know i heard her but refrained from launching into the speech about how now that we have two boys another would just add to the fun of boyness, but a girl would also be a blessing... basically, i dont get to choose so i will take whatever god gives me. i was hoping to assist in the speed of the appointment by not uttering a nonessential syllable.

after a briefish wait, in comes sonya. she is not my dr, but some sort of close to dr person in the medical field. she is capable and knowledgeable, but severely lacking in social graces. when she entered the room, maxer was playing on the stool, swiveling back and forth and giggling with delight. the first thing sonya says is " i am going to need you to get off the stool". max looked at her and laughed assuming the tone and words she used were a joke. no joke, she tried to pick a fight with my 3 year old. i kindly asked max to get off the stool, he obliged and we moved on. during the discussion concerning my zero questions or concerns, she would stop speaking anytime either boy made a noise. she has four kids. this was going to take the rest of my life if we did not speed things along. after doling out some goldfish, i convinced sonya to continue with my exam. heartbeat is strong, measuring on schedule, all is well. thankfully, i had to be back at the lab an hour after i drank the orange pop for a blood draw so she set us free.

back at the lab, we had a little time to kill with book reading and chasing one another around the lobby. this also gave us the opportunity to retrieve a bowl of poptart that we left down there during the earlier visit. oops. as the nurse is drawing my blood, both boys are on my lap intently watching the procedure. the nurse asked of max and wes, "are those boys twins?". i assured her they were not, as they are two years apart and look like opposites. clearly this nurse is a close friend of sonya's.

when everyone was strapped into the van, i was exhausted, relieved and proud that we successfully completed the visit. i also am a little more comfortable with the decision to have only three kids and no more. wow