we took our time easing into the week this time around. monday was a pajamas until noon, relaxing kind of recovery day from the weekend. as my boys get older, they seem to thrive with a little more guided activity than the days of 8-10 hours of farming the living room 80 acres. do not get me wrong, they still spend plenty of time planting and hauling manure with their john deeres. it seems inevitable though that after awhile maxer is making tracks in bear's farm and ayla jo attempts to ride on big tractor causing all sorts of strife. so then i try to have a plan in mind to bond over.

on monday, i was busy being creative in the kitchen. actually i was following a recipe with high hopes that my food critic bradley would not pass his fave judgement on my new recipes "its really good, except you forgot one ingredient babe. taste." so clearly i needed full concentration. therefore i collected every piece of craft materials and some old pasta to allow the boys to really allow their creativity to flow.

apparently they have my creativity. because their masterpieces included a pattern for maxwell and some "lellow" pom poms for bear. personally, i asked him what color he was using multiple times just to hear his pronunciation involving his entire tongue being thrust out his mouth. and baby blue also uses that technique with her l's. she now says "lala" for her own name and it seriously melts me with the cuteness factor. ps- my fam called me la la, and it is a riot having a mini me.

so maybe i dont have the most abstract thinking children, but they sure do know how to make messes and super adorable faces when fiercely focused.

i was whipping up some taters for dinner that night during their crafting exploration and max looked up long enough to notice i was using a mixer and asked to please eat the batter off the mixers. he was way disappointed to taste redskins and not cookie dough.

after only about 8 minutes, the crafts were completed and in that time between finishing his masterpiece and me assisting with the cleanup, bear put one of his lellow pom poms right into his ear. i got it out, but really kid. somehow we ended up with an extra pom pomed noodle that neither boy would claim. bear told me our napping cupcake made it. he may blame quite a bit on the youngest darling.

during our devotions, or god stories as wes calls them, we learned again about god parting the red sea for the israelites. as i knew it to be a familiar story to the boys i asked them to help me tell it with questions like, then what happened. let me just say i learned a lot. maxer told me there were rescue boats to save the egyptian army. i do not recall that part, but max's version would make an action packed mighty machines dvd.

aylaroo spent quite a bit of time riding her horse that afternoon. she is hands down the foxiest little cowgirl i've seen. a natural.

the boys joined in later in quite a different fashion. sister was mesmerized.

one more story to prove may days are hilarious and entertaining galore. while putting laundry away after dinner, i heard the boys shout to me, mom we like beer! when i rushed down the steps they were grinning and sharing my smirnoff cranberry lime drink. woopsy daisy. keep the alcohol out of reach mama!

i enjoy those days way more than the ones spent running from place to place. home sweet home is adventure enough for me!!

weekend

literally every time we are out in public with the kids, whether it be meijer, or blockbuster, or russ', someone always tells me to cherish this time with them, that this time goes by so fast. already i know they are all correct. for it is incomprehensible to me that i have been a mommy for 5.5 years. i am daily reminded of all the growth and maturing happening. my eldest now points out letters on everything, my youngest son can swim under water in the hot tub and my baby ayla jo runs back and forth in the living room with her brothers.

weekends are such perfect opportunities to really enjoy these ever growing and ever changing children. the whole fam is together and we just adore being in one another's company. cinnamon rolls on a sunday morning set the right tone for the day of worship and togetherness. sweet, special and delish. after a leisurely morning while daddy quick helped out at work, we gathered kids and headed out to boston market. quick note, boston market, though they have amazing chicken, they do not have ketchup. this is very detrimental to my kids' experience as they mostly eat ketchup with a little chicken attached. so, my bad for not bringing my own.

the sun was streaming, the snow glistening, and the veen was running as smooth as it did back in the days of 100,000 miles. so we drove. all the way to the beach. though i had visions of a walk on the snowy sand, brad had visions of napping in the sun. and he tried.

the babes were watching chitty chitty bang bang in the back. this is my fave movie of all time. so i was singing along to truly scrumptious, you're truly truly scrumptious. scrumptious as a cherry peach parfait, while all three kids were locked onto the screen. when brad got his fill of my musical stylings, we hit the open road again to find a bowling alley. the one we found was closed. so then we just drove home and bundled the big boys for some mule riding/sledding. because we have snow. and it is exciting!

yesterday held one more outing for the meiste's, a trip to blockbuster in order to rent balto, again, and max's choice a hot wheels racing movie. this choice is quite different from a wolf dog saving a village by delivering meds, it has crazy music and car noises the entire full length feature film. but maxer was especially enamoured and bear tolerated the show as he is mostly a follower of max's lead. which is comical in its intensity.

by the end of the day, when brad took the boys upstairs and i cuddled my baby blue for one last bedtime story, i again felt overwhelmed with blessings and thankfulness for yet another day to love on and soak in these beautiful babes.

just so all are fully aware of the reality of our lives, and not just the extremely precious parts, as i write this blog, the boys are having a spitting contest. at each other. and i am letting it happen. so i can type. i know, mom of the year...

valentines

no, the actual holiday has not yet occurred, but the festivities are under way!

nothing says happy valentines day like guns and chocolate ;)

maxer had his valentines party and valentine exchange at school yesterday and the cuteness was literally amazing. his adorable teachers had previously encouraged the boys to please try to wear something pink for this special day as it also was the color of the month day. well i had some ideas to get my farm boy to put some pink on. for example, a bass pro shops hat all brown and camo except for a little pink bps lettering. he took one look at my offering and scrunched his eyebrows together and said in a loud voice " i am NOT wearing girl clothes!"

so then i just quietly put away the pink ring, pink broach, and pink scarf i had also found. instead, we dug through some boxes of clothes from my nephews we had in the storage room. at long last, we discovered a tie dyed orange and pink t-shirt, several sizes to large, with a shark on the front. well, in maxwell's opinion, the violent expression of the shark balanced out the girlish pink color, so he acquiesced to wear it. once he donned said shirt, he looked more closely at the shark to find a bit of the shark's nose was worn away. max pointed this out to me stating with a huge grin "look right here mom. this is bleed. because the shark just ate something"

i asked him not to mention that to anyone else.

from what i was able to discern between picking him up from school and throwing all the kids out of the veen so i could then rush to the stow company to work, max had a super time handing out and receiving valentines. as soon as he awoke this morning, he showed me each valentine and we read who they were from together. so cute. he has also already indulged in a couple packs of fun dip, which is pure sugar people. it could be a long day...

bear was not impressed with the fact that maxer received a bag of candy and hearts and bear did not get anything. he expressed his displeasure by throwing himself on the floor of maxer's school and loudly crying "why did no one get me candy?" miss cassie assured him next year he would get to experience the joy of valentines day parties. i am positive miss cassie is very excited to have bear in her class...

do not despair for bear though. he did get a special delivery of his own today. thanks to me, and the nice employees at splash universe in dundee, mi. somehow, despite our repeated attempts to bring everything home with us we brought to the waterpark, mommy and daddy puppy were left behind. the reunion was adorable. bear kept making like a crying sound and maxer came up to me and asked why bear kept making that noise, and i think it was because he was seriously overwhelmed with emotion. cute. and dramatic.

at home, we have also been discussing valentines day. a lot. the timing is perfect as there has been some love lost now that ayla jo can interfere in the boys' play. they are often yelling at her to stop. or bear is shoving her away. not loving. so, we used this holiday opportunity to talk about how much god loves us and therefore we should love one another.

i attempted to create a beautiful system of gifting one another with expressions of love: we each decorated cups with our names and some artwork. now, every morning, we write one other family member a card about what we love in them. or we color a beautiful card. then we distribute a piece of candy to another family member. this is so difficult for the boys to not give themselves candy, but they dutifully give someone else a piece of that coveted candy. mostly they choose daddy to receive this special gift. and i try hard not to feel bad about that choice even though i remind them multiple times that my cup is still empty. i know where the candy is stored, so i just fill my mouth when they are not looking ;)

last evening we opened what was in our cups and read the love letters we found in there. so. cute. i wrote one for each child and my darling husband. their faces were so proud at hearing what i wrote about max being a good friend and bear being a good listener today. bear responded to that letter by just giving me a kiss on the lips. love it! maxer drew a pic for brad of him taking the boys for mule sledding adventures. brads response to this clever idea, "why r these in cups?" i just replied, big picture baby. big picture. look beyond the cups to the greater lesson we are teaching the kids.

there is a lot of love.

beautiful

there's a saying something like "life is not about the number of breaths we take, but about the moments that take our breath away"

this statement holds a lot of truth. my life is punctuated by those amazing, breathless moments; meeting the love of my life, getting married, giving birth to a precious son, and another beautiful bouncing baby boy, and again to my captivating daughter. such profound events, overwhelmingly important.

however, every day leading up to meeting brad shaped me and guided me so when the schoonvelds invited me on a blind date with a farmer i accepted the invitation and fell hopelessly in love with the dashing young man. lots of the days before brad were significant and moving. lots were mundane and filled with work and school. but each one held great weight in that god used it to make me me and my life what it is today.

so though my breath caught on my wedding day as i walked towards a new life shared with brad, there were so many days and dates preceding that day i hold captive in my memory so when i became a bride it was with great joy and excitement and anticipation.

perhaps that is why i always wish to add more to that quote when i see it hanging in someones house or posted on facebook. i do not want to discredit the beauty and importance of all the in between type days when i was newly married and learning to be a wife and share a life. and you just cannot have a baby every day. trust me, i only had a baby on three days in my life, and that was enough. wow. but that does not make the days spent with those fabulous children less significant.

my days now are typically pretty exempt from life changing events, though they still abound in these growing little lives around me. and though we get to experience glorious weekends at waterparks that give us the fun of anticpation and memories a plenty, most of our weekends we are at home. and that is so happy and so fulfilling.

having coffee with a sweet neighbor while our boys run back and forth through her kitchen and ayla jo cheers them on brings me such satisfaction, such peace and happiness. bundling the boys to assist brad with getting some pigs in is exciting and bonding and special. brushing baby blue's ever growing hair and taking in the slight scent of baby still left there causes my heart to overflow with gratitude for that moment.

the truth is, i probs wont remember how cupcake wore her white patent leather shoes all day, refusing to remove them even for a nap. i will most likely forget that bear lost his flipping car 4 times before 2pm today, necessitating 4 hunts, and 4 victorious discoveries. i wont recall maxers studious face as he signed his name proudly on valentine after valentine in preperation for school tomorrow. nonetheless, each of those minute occurences made me so thankful for each one, reminded me of how blessed i am by these babes, and how loved i am by a heavenly father who gifted me today, and all that it holds.

and maybe embracing and experiencing the every day makes the big days even more meaningful. loving and experiencing life daily with the littles feeds the desire and delight when we get to experience something uniquely special with them. these are the days of building the foundations of relationship and learning and education. let us not discredit them.

what a privelege and what a responsibility.

may i live every day with the wonder and excitement of knowing this day is yours lord.

well child (s)

at 10:07 this morning, i am home, have a baby sleeping and two boys watching an educational dvd from the library. today's choice is there goes a monster truck with dave and becky, cerca 1980. hilariously out of date with their acid washed jeans and big hair. i am laughing hysterically as monster truck driver dave is explaining big dummy the truck, and my boys repeat big debbie and giggle.

this morn is pretty typical. except, we are home after already having one dr's appointment during which all three children were seen by dr lund, followed by a donut outing, and a quick stop at the library. all this before 10am.

needless to say, i just brewed another cup of coffee.

oh my kids are cute. i really hate dr's visits due to the anxiety of hustling three kids out the door and in a presentable fashion and the stress of their behaviours and possible pokes. this morning was all in all a blessing. though i had to awaken each child from a hard slumber, they woke happily and agreeably. i had planned to leave the house at 7:30, and woke bear up at 7:27. we were a little late in our departure, but that fiesty meiste had only smiles and games while i dressed him in his half slumber. maxer was quite concerned, even threatening pukes last night out of fear, but he also went right to work getting ready for the day this morning.


we arrived right on time and checked in with miss tammie, a nurse we know and adore. i then noticed ayla jo was still sporting her jammie top and chose to overlook that little glitch. the boys sat quietly on the couch waiting for our turn. i was such a proud mama of these polite and well behaved boys. when we were called back, both boys were weighed and measured. maxer is in the 97th % for height. wow! bear is a bit on the smaller side, but very healthy and consistent.

both boys also had their vision and hearing tested. bear was a little clueless as to the happenings, but managed to pass. maxer had no trouble and his little face was precious in his expression of concentration and delight at knowing he was doing well.

with a slight wheeze in max's breathing and in baby blue's the only concern, we were on our way home an hour later. thank you dr lund for seeing all three.

to celebrate the awesome news of basically healthy kids, we went to good time donuts. we were all able to choke down some of those good time donuts while watching the disgusting fish floating around their dirty tank. i think the kids were not as grossed out as i was. but, eww. clean the tank people.

one more stop, a library trip rounded out the morning. here is what i know. we accomplished a lot this morning, but there is a lot of day ahead of us. and i am already getting questions regarding brad's arrival at the home front.

sledding

this winter has wild weather patterns. snowy one day, then rainy the next. therefore when there is snow on the ground, we better be participating in some wintertime activities. and sunday we did!

this pic stirs something in my heart about the man i married. perhaps it is his protective eye watching his boys proudly, maybe his stance, ready to equip those darlings for fun. oh, love!

inspired by the knowledge of another warm front coming sunday evening, we knew we had to take drastic action and fully enjoy the white stuff while it lasted. so, we went sledding at my grandparents house.

allow me to please better explain the hill down which we sent our precious and cherished children. this hill is huge. and steep. and ends in a creek. as a child, i took many risky rides down that hill and the adrenaline and fear came rushing back when we arrived on sunday. one particularly fateful day, my grandpa and dad went down together on a toboggan. this ended in my grandpa's glasses and face breaking. this is a serious hill.

baby blue remained on flat areas pulled slowly by her enthusiastic mama. cupcake is not in love with this adventure. but she looks good trying.

so, we had a small window of opportunity in which to take advantage of this amazing activity as ayla jo needs her naps and the rain was on its way. therefore, we left the house right about lunchtime and determined that we needed a little sustenance to provide the energy required for climbing back upt that monsterish hill. so we settled on burger king in the veen. gourmet. classy. that is just our style people.

after several sleds, we had some company. wild turkeys.


brad and max had front row seats to this cool spectacle. thanks for the cool surprise jesus!

so daunting was the hill, and the climb up, that we eventually resorted to sledding down the deck.

quite sure these two can make an adventure out of anything including sleds.

this was actually a super fun idea. brad and i had to stand guard at the bottom so as not to lose a child down the hill solo.

what a daddy, willing to make the ultimate sacrfice.

look at that face, bring it on.

ayla jo did not have the benefit of trompsing up and down that hill on her own. any movement at all in that snow required parental assistance. so i snuggled her in my sling and got a workout of a lifetime by hefting her to and fro. this is the point during which we knew we were done. still cute, just done.

what a memorable first downhill sledding experience for one and all! so grateful for the protection god blessed us with during this outing. my grandma admitted she was thankful to be in florida so as not to have to witness the shenanigans of the meiste sledding experience.

enjoying the small things

sickness in our fam forces a major slow down.

though i hate that maxer's tummy was upset resulting in a restless and floppy 5 year old, i adore the opportunity to change pace to something allowing for true recognition of all the little lovelies that make up our days. yesterday, we certainly enjoyed the small things:

tea time

lets play this all day long please. (thats my request, not necessarily aylaroos. i cannot get enough of the darling pouring of tea)



tea for two with bear. my daughter now refers to her brother as bear bear. it is the cutest.


though it looks like baby blue is all about sipping tea ladylike from her cup, she is actually yelling into it and then giggling about the way her voice sounds.


notice the hair pretties i love them more than ayla jo does.

watching youtube videos.

stuck tractors are a favorite, look how involved those cutes are!



baking some sweet treats with my cupcake

the snow

bundling the cutest little snow bunny ever in preparation for this:

mule sledding

getting a good pic of this ordeal is quite complicated, even with the new christmas camera at my disposal. sitting on my knees on the back of the mule, trying to keep from shooting over the side of the thing, bracing myself against the jarring, and capturing the glee on the faces of my sons is to much for me to handle.



bradley and i are reading wild at heart together as our devotions. awesome book all about how god intentionally created men's souls to long for adventure and conquest. all my boys proved that theory to be absolutely true by participating heart and soul in our outdoor activity.






what better combination in winter than an atv with daddy behind the wheel and children strung behind?!

there were a few spills. we almost lost bear. well, we did lose bear, but stopped long enough for him to catch up. he is one wild child. totally worth waiting for ;)

even baby blue got in on the action with the assistance of her insanely long legged mom. seriously, i do not even know where to go with those things. clearly that is obvious from the pic.




the sunset




after all the crazy awesome tricks the boys impressed us with while mule sledding, god gave us the best show of all.

a beautiful gift given out of love. look at his splendor, its all over. in the sky, in these beautiful faces.

the nest.

the perfect ending to our day of chillaxin. babes and parents snuggled together amidst every sleeping bag and throw we can find. the boys actually spent the entire night here in this blanketed bliss.