OH MY GOODNESS!!

It has been a week. I helped whelp 9 puppies for 12 hours on friday, we tried to revive two of them and succeeded with one, 8 survived. Spent part of the day on Saturday visiting them and trying to help my mom. Sunday, we literally cut itty-bitty tails off of itt-bitty puppies and pulled their dewclaws out, gluing and trying to stop bleeding at every turn. Evelyn started crawling this week. On Tuesday I went to Orientation for Caleb's school. I went to all the tables, waited in a bunch of lines, met Caleb's very sweet teacher, realized I forgot paperwork at home, took Caleb back to Harriet and Peter's, nursed Evelyn and got myself back to said orientation to finish everything up. I came back and took a dip with my kids in a beautiful pool, it was great. Wednesday was dramatic, trying to calm storms with friends and my future with homeschool vs. traditional school. I've put myself in the middle, not quite full-time homeschool, yet not really in "school," it's weird. It's Thursday now. River pulled too many feathers out of an escaped chicken - AGAIN! I go out there and this poor chicken is totally alive, with mortal injuries. Like the chicken is flying! But it truly can't survive it's condition, so I have to kill it. SO, SO lame! Meanwhile, Evelyn is crawling around my house, eating all sorts of things off my floor. Thank goodness Mom came over to help in my moment of crisis. I didn't even want to talk, killing an animal, even for good reasons is super lame - if I didn't make that clear before. Evelyn cut her first tooth this week, seriously?! She actually slept better this week than ever before, thank goodness! My floor is covered with homeschool curriculum for Caleb and Josiah. I have to schedule out our year since no one made a schedule for me, why didn't someone do that for me?! I'm planning on starting Josiah in Pre-K, but I'm pulling out all of these books that I used for Caleb and I just don't know if he's up to it yet, he's still a baby!

ok, dinner is due in half an hour and I have no idea what to make. WOW, I just don't even know what to think of my life right now. It is so full and everything is so good, but man it's full! And full of exclamation marks:) Things can't be too bad?!

Wish I could post a photo, but I lost the battery cover and now my camera doesn't work. Ordered a new cover yesterday so we can get some shots of our baby learning to crawl.

Caleb's dream

I was just going through some of Caleb's homeschool work for the year (we are nearly done!). I came upon one of his Creative Writing assignments and I thought you all would enjoy a good read:)

A True Story dictated by Caleb Sytsma, written by Mom
"Last night I had a dream there were many holes in the ocean, lots of rock holes and they had arrows on them to show if submarines could fit through them. Then there wasn't an arrow on one but Grandma, Josiah and I wanted to check if we could fit. The submarine could not fit and ran out of gas. Then Daddy came in a tow-truck submarine and they had more fuel, so they gave the fuel to us, but it all ran out again. Then a hover-craft came and towed our submarine. It could only go ten miles, but we needed to go twenty. Good thing there was a gas station to refuel the hover-craft! We went the rest of the ten miles, but right when it was at our driveway, it ran out of gas again! We gave it gas from out of our car. Then we went down and unhooked our submarine from the hovercraft. Daddy took our car to the gas station to get re-fueled. Grandma then came and she drove the tow-truck submarine to the gas station and so did the hovercraft pilot. Then everyone went back home. The End"

Evelyn is 3 months

Ah, she is so adored...a 3 month old little bundle of adorable! I think she is a little easier to just enjoy as she is our third. We just go along with the flow with her and appreciate every moment we have with her. She coos and gurgles and does whole-body smiles that knock her backwards. She sucks on her fingers and falls asleep wherever she is if she is tired enough. She loves it when her brothers, Caleb especially lays down and talks to her. They completely obsess about her. They wish she was always awake and say good-night to her reluctantly for EVERY SINGLE NAP! We have finally figured out some nursing challenges, that was a pretty big deal around here, and we are so much more at peace now. She wakes up once or twice a night, eats, sometimes talks a bit and then peacefully goes back to sleep. Okay, let's get to some photos.

Grandma and her babies

Grandpa and the babe

oh, the boys LOVE tummy time, they think she is so very strong!

He's an amazing big brother!!

First shots

Caleb's expression when getting to look at his sister.

I turn my head for a second and they've put a bow on her!

Just hanging out, gotta love the helplessness of this age

Poppy and his Evie

3 month photo shoot

She fell asleep on the changing pad and I missed it!

LOVE - LOVE- LOVE!!!!! Morning time today:)

Welcome Evelyn Rose Sytsma

Evelyn Rose was born one month ago. It was all so convenient, her arriving on a sunday afternoon and all. She has been a lovely baby and her brothers absolutely adore her!! She will be a light in their lives for quite a while at least:) If she is awake, they burst forth in joy and delight in her! It is truly amazing to see. We never thought Josiah would be so very keen on a little one, but he most definitely is. They make sure they wash their hands every time they want to touch her, talk to her in sweet little voices (sometimes a little loud) and totally invade her personal space and mine!

I forgot how much newborns sleep, so it's kind of like having a newborn visitor from time to time and an alarm clock that wakes us up three times a night:) She IS lovely though and Matt and I are definitely falling in love with her. She is starting to give cute little faces and hold her head up more and more. We are awaiting the arrival of her smile now:)

Here are some photos of her

Generational Blessings

I was sitting with Caleb at lunch today, he's five. We were by ourselves, Josiah was napping and Matt was at work. He asked me what I thought he would be when he grew up. I told him the appropriate thing, he is good at so many things, he can be anything he wants. He also doesn't need to decide until he gets older. He looked at me thoughtfully and said, "I think I will be a Dad." As in, that's it, just a Dad, that's all one needs to be. He then goes on to explain that he is learning so many things in school right now that will help him be a good dad. Also, he knows how to build a chicken house since he watched Daddy and Poppy build one. He said, "when I get to be a Dad and I want to build a chicken house, I will just call up Daddy and he will help me."

I absolutely love that he knows that being a dad does not end when your children are adults, nor does being a son end when one has children of their own. He has seen with his own eyes what a healthy father/son relationship is from watching his dad and grandpa. I love that Matt is a good father, I love that he has a good father and has learned so many things from his "Pa/Old Man/Dad."

Sometimes a lot of attention is drawn to "Generational Sin." I want to draw attention to Generational Blessings. When one generation follows after the Lord with all their heart, leaning on their heavenly Father, lives are blessed, not just for that generation, but for many to follow. I remember watching Henry, my father-in-law at my first meeting with them. As I was busy making an awesome first impression by burping loudly at dinner, Henry was treating Lorna kindly, being a generous host to me and topped it off by doing all the dishes. This was all so foreign to me and I knew right then that Matt had been raised by a good man. I continued on with my relationship with Matt knowing with all my heart that he would be a great father. Praise the Lord for his wisdom as I did marry an amazing man and father! Praise the Lord for his Generational Blessings

This is how we prepare for a baby

We have a baby girl coming in two months. I am not trying to teach my boys how to be quiet for the baby, nor how to hold her, or how they should behave. I'm letting them be as noisy as they want! I don't look forward to having to make them be quiet because the baby is sleeping and she's a light sleeper, so they have to keep it down or the baby will wake up and I'll be cranky and the world will fall apart.

Josiah asks me sweet questions. I told them last week that the baby is upside down in my tummy, so Josiah stands on his head and asks if that is the way the baby is:) He says that the baby will drink milk and some apple juice and I tell him "no, she'll only drink mommy milk" and he understands. He knows that she won't be able to walk yet and that she'll probably want to be held a lot. I hope they will understand when I am so tired I can't see straight. They probably will as that may or may not mean that they get to watch some television, I'm not saying:)

Josiah joins his brother in the bunk bed in a few weeks when he turns three. I hope that goes well. I'll be preparing the baby room at that point and I'm excited for that.

Starting Kindergarten

We got the package of books and materials about a month ago. Last year for Pre-K, it was a medium sized box, filled 2/3. This year, it was two large boxes filled to the brim with more books than I could fathom! I pulled out the teachers guide about a week and a half later, once I dealt with the shock of so much material, to be blown away by the literal size of the teachers guide! I brought it inside to show Caleb and he was like "WOW, that's HUGE!" I was so glad to have someone else with me who understood the magnitude of this guide, literally no one else would understand. We both knew at that moment how much work we had ahead of us.
I brought the books into the living room and there they sat, until I got up the nerve to go through them (due largely in part to my sister-in-law Janelle looking through them and telling me how fun it all looked!). So, the day we came back from Caleb's fifth birthday party, I went through all the books, organized them and decided to start TOMORROW.
So we have been doing this for a little over a week now. There is a lot to do everyday, but we seem to be getting it all done with no more than a decent amount of effort. Josiah has to entertain himself through part of it and we save some of the reading for Josiah's nap time. Once we started, he was all of a sudden able to hold a pencil correctly, amazing since that was definitely not in the cards just a few months ago. I love how surprising the development is at this age. They can either do something, or not, and if they can't, they may be able to a few months down the road. This is why I love homeschooling. I know when something is just not going to happen now and return to it a bit later.
Pray for us as we start this year. We will have some "school vacations" at odd times, hence the very early summer start. I plan to take off a few months when the baby is born. Caleb is really learning right now and it is so fun to see.

Putting children to sleep

I was just putting Josiah down for a nap and felt so grateful! He started entertaining himself too much in his crib recently (we keep our kids locked up in a crib until they are 3:) for his naps and kept waking himself up out of his sleepiness. So when one thing stops working with kids, you just try something else and break that "bad" cycle. I decided to just hold him and rock him until he fell asleep and then transfer him into his crib. This worked, so I have continued to do it. It takes about 5 minutes and is the most wonderful time of my day I think. I get to sit with my finally-still toddler in the cool darkness, hold him, look at him and just enjoy him in his sleepy stupor. If he starts talking to me I tell him to close his eyes and go to sleep or I'll put him straight in his crib, so he closes his eyes and goes to sleep. Josiah is at this age where he is so utterly predictable and lovely. It's so obvious when he's hungry, sleepy, excited, joyful, bored... I can read him like a book and I enjoy that.

Caleb doesn't take naps anymore, he hasn't for about a year now. He isn't as predictable as Josiah is, you will think he's fine all evening until something sets him off and then he just straight cries until he climbs into bed and gets his nighttime song and prayers. I'm sick a lot at night right now and Caleb is so gentle and sweet with me. He can tell when it's hitting me and just kisses me and tells me how he hopes I get better soon. He used to comfort me when I would throw up, but now he just kind of runs for the hills:)

Babies are sometimes hard to put to sleep, but I must remember that it isn't always hard. It turns into a precious routine that is paramount to their existence. I wish all my memories of putting babies down were easy, but it all turns out ok. It has taken all the ingenuity and wisdom we could muster over the years to successfully get our children to sleep as positively as possible. I appreciate my teammate who has been there to figure it out with me and will continue to be there with our new bundle, thanks Matt. Some women have to do this stuff all alone, but thankfully, not me:)

Camping Yosemite

Yosemite came up unexpectedly for us this spring. The Fulwylers had been planning to go for months and  told us that we were welcome to try to get reservation for the same weekend:) Reservations for Yosemite go very early, about 7 months ahead of time, and we just can never plan that far in advance, one never knows what life might hold. Well, they keep a whole loop blocked off until the last minute in the spring, just in case it floods. So we checked, and checked and called, and checked and one afternoon, they were open! We snagged up a spot and so did the Fulwylers and so did our parents. We all got spots fairly close to eachother over Mothers Day weekend and we were so excited!
Here is Josiah and Hannah in the bike trailer. They can finally get along a bit:) Praise the Lord!

 John, Janelle, Hannah and Norah:)

 The boys with Mimi and Poppy

 Norah...eating again!!! She is always eating! and if she's not eating, she's screaming because she wants food, or she's just being adorable.

 We all brought our bikes and biked all over the valley. It was a refreshing way to travel through that busy place. It was so much faster and I feel like we really got to be a part of such a wonderful location.

 The family in front of Lower Yosemite Falls

 I was itching for an awesome, solid, kick your rear type of hike. So we begged Henry and Lorna to watch the boys one morning while we ran up a mountain. We went to the top of Upper Yosemite Falls and it was awesome! I love my husband and I love hiking with him. I love that he's my best friend and he gets me and loves me so much:)

 Hannah and Norah - these girls are so awesome!

 Grabbing water in the safety of Poppy's arms.

 Sleepy afternoon.

 Norah grabbing water too:)

 Mimi was always very popular!

 Caleb made a new friend in John's brother, Paul. He gave him a shoulder ride when we were just over it.

 Love family self-portraits, it's gonna get pretty crowded soon:)

Our new camper!

So, Matt and I have been searching for a tent trailer ever since our last cabin camping trip last summer. I realized how much I enjoyed camping when it was made more accessible by the presence of cabinets full of plates, cups, silverware, salt, pepper, an inside stove, sinks, an indoor potty:) If you know me, you know that I definitely can enjoy the more rustic ways of life, however, with a family, I want some conveniences or else I'm going to end up working the entire trip, not relaxing, adventuring and enjoying myself. I also really wanted to be able to travel to places that don't have restrooms, picnic tables, etc., like Avila Beach, the most beautiful beach around here. My mom had just started searching for a new ultralight trailer to be able to travel to field trials with her dogs on her own. After about 7 months of independent searching, we finally decided to come together and purchase a trailer together that would meet all of our needs. This is what we ended up with. Our new co-owned camp trailer:) 

We have a very busy spring and summer ahead of us and springtime is just so pretty at the beach around here that we decided to take advantage of a few open weekends and head down to Avila for both of them. We stayed on the beach the first weekend, and then up on a hill overlooking the beach the second weekend. It is just so stinking beautiful there! We are totally hooked!

Henry and Lorna got a fifth wheel last year and have been enjoying theirs greatly over the last few years, so now we can join them and give the boys all their dreams in a single weekend, camping, beach, biking and best of all, Mimi and Poppy!

Cinnamon rolls brought back to camp in the morning

Mimi, Poppy and the boys at Avila Valley Barn

Learning about waves with Mimi

We would take both of them in the trailer until we got to the Bob Jones bike trail, then pull out the Caleb's bike from the back, set him up and then he'd peddle all the way to Avila Valley Barn, a good 2 miles each way

The first time all of us have been kayaking together! We paddled two times as a family on our second weekend. The first trip took us to a beach that Matt and I had visited while dating. I truly felt like we had done a full circle. I am so happy!

Our view the second weekend, up on the hill

Henry and Lorna, aka Mimi and Poppy

Caleb took a big fall on our last bike ride, he got a bit too confident I suppose. He took a hill and turn awfully fast and thankfully angels protected him as he hit this ice plant. His bike stopped up at the top and he continued over the handle bars down into that ravine under the bridge.

The ravine. He came out with just a few scratches on his face. Matt and I were both a bit traumatized, Caleb cried a minute, then got back on his bike and we finished the ride.

We look forward to A LOT of camping as a family in our future. The boys really got the hang of the camping thing by the second weekend, sleeping in until 7/8 am:)