Moving to the Farm

Yesterday my dad told me I hadn't updated the blog since Halloween - I thought he was being dramatic. I hopped on tonight to prove him wrong and then it happened, the one time a year I am wrong and it had to be at midnight on a Friday night. So here I am updated pictures when I should be sleeping - only for you GPA Terry - only for you :)

The reason that I haven't updated the blog is because we had some big news - we MOVED! Josh accepted a new position at an algae plant (he thinks it should be referred to as a farm so hence forth it will be called the algae farm) in Shenandoah, Iowa, conveniently located 5 miles from my grandparents farm. So we spent all of November packing, and donating, and throwing, and packing, and cleaning, and very little sleeping or evidently blogging.

We traveled from Indiana to Iowa on Thanksgiving Day with the help of Josh's brothers and sister's-in-law, parent, aunts, etc., etc. We could not have done it without their help so - Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

They moved us in, tore up flooring, put together various IKEA furniture, cleaned, cooked and loved on our children.

About a week after moving in GPA Terry came down to celebrate and early Christmas with us. He dressed up as Santa with a beard and all for the kids.

Aunt V was down plenty to help and to play.

You'll notice in pictures of the farm house, wallpaper, lots and lots of wallpaper. Hopefully over the next year you will see less and less wallpaper and not just because it is falling off the walls of it's own accord.

In front of the wallpaper you will see Miss Isabel on her new train. She loves riding it around when she can get it away from her brother and sister who assure me that Isabel really likes sharing with them and that they didn't take it from her and make her cry.

It lights up and makes all kinds of fun noises.

Abram has really enjoyed getting into the spirit of the season. On this particular frosty morning - he told Josh that he was really cold. Instead of following the mainstream and putting on clothes to stay warm - he decided to put on his santa hat to stay warm.

It must be a very warm hat because here he is eating breakfast in pretty much just the hat and looks pretty cozy.

It must have gotten pretty cold for him to have put on some clothes. The kid really likes being naked.

A picture of two little girls with a lot more layers on :)

We made use of the tiny bit of snow that we got to go sledding - they would have gone all day if mama wasn't such a wimp!

When Isabel kept squirming away Stella had the great idea for me to stick her in her carseat while I finished getting ready. She's squeezed in there like a little pink sardine.

After a hard day of sledding we decided to make cookies. Don't worry there are no eggs in the batter so we can lick the beaters all we want!!!!

Abram has that sugar-glazed eye thing going on here.

Isabel doesn't get to lick the beater but she doesn't seem to mind.

Finally - we visited Santa. Stella zoomed straight past the line and right into Santa's lap.

You can get away with things like that when you're that cute. She promptly told him she wanted a prezass for Christmas. Santa incorrectly interpreted that as 'presents' which she continued to inform him 'prezass, I want a prezass.' I feel sorry for all of you who didn't know that meant 'princess.

 Clearly you need to catch up on your two-year-old interpretation skills.

Isabel wasn't so sure about the big guy in red but at least she didn't cry.

Abram on the other hand was very skeptical and this was about as close as he got - and really only then because Santa had a candy cane to lure him in with. Candy + making sure Santa knows you want a spider-man web shooter = Abram willing to get 3 feet foot radius of strange man in giant red suit.

Halloween

Everyone got into Halloween at our house. We have all kinds of fun dress up clothes so we practiced all month for the big night. The kids did great and jumped right into their costumes and headed out the door Halloween night. They had a lot of fun and did a super job using their manners while trick-or-treating. Even though they were having fun Stella was done after about 4 houses and I think Abram lasted for 7. Even though they only hit a few houses they came back with quite a bit of candy - I think being little and cute helps the candy per house ratio.

Doesn't my hair look bootiful?

 In the original Spiderman series - Spidey had a monkey as a sidekick.

Josh checking out the onslaught of kids heading down the street.

Our litttle Halloween princess didn't make it out of the house but she still had tons of fun.

Papa/Zoro had a few adult beverages to keep warm/sane on a chilly night.

Isabel found the candy and never looked back.

Abram's original costume design: SuperWitchClownCoCoChanelWarrior

10 Months Old

Isabel turned 10 months old last week. She is so much fun to be around! She loves to laugh, eat, and play - usually all at the same time. She brings joy to everyone she meets. We can't believe she'll be 1 in just a few short months!!!

Family Update

We've been having a great time as the leaves turn and the temperatures get a little cooler. I really can't believe it's mid October and little Isabel is growing up so fast. This is a picture of Isabel's first bath with sister and brother.

I put Stella to work raking leaves while we waited for Abram to get home from pre-school.

We've been trying to teach Isabel how to do the 'so big' game. She was a little confused at first.

Stella tried to help explain the concept.

Papa also helped by showing Isabel a picture of his dinner from our date night last week.

That did it! She totally got what 'so big' meant after seeing that giant sword of food papa was about to consume.

We look so cute when we bundle up to go outside.

We headed to a local apple orchard and pumpkin patch one nice day last week. Abram really enjoys picking apples and inspecting each one for quality.

Isabel had a great time too.

We picked up some pumpkins at the patch for carving. I didn't get many good pictures of the actual carving but here is a shot of Abram and Stella providing sacrificial pumpkin gut offerings to our squirrels. Last year the squirrels ate at our pumpkins until they looked like they had some type of flesh eating bacteria. So far the offering seems to have worked because they have stayed away from our carved pumpkins.

Here are the finished products. Stella requested a happy pumpkin and Abram insisted on a pumpkin with 'jaggy' teeth.

They seemed pretty happy with the final product.

In other updates:

Abram:

• Loving preschool in the 4's room
• Went on his first class field trip to the ND Hockey Rink and then last week went to the apple orchard
• If you watched the pre-game broadcast before the ND - USC game, On Notre Dame, you might have seen some of Abram's classmates. They came and filmed the 4's class for part of the special.
• Abram loves playing with his sisters and does a great job helping out around the house.
• He really enjoys pretending and make-believe.
• He is very into the thought of having a dog. We have never talked about getting a dog. He will occasionally ask why we don't have one. A few weeks ago we were watching cartoons and a commercial came on for Blue Buffalo dog food. He didn't say anything at the time but a few days later he asked Josh if we could buy Blue Buffalo for his dog. Josh told him we don't have a dog. Abram said, "I know, but when we do have a dog we should feed it Blue Buffalo, those other dog food companies try to trick you into buying their food." Score 1 for the Blue Buffalo's PR firm.
• Another dog story. Josh was explaining to Abram that sometimes Abram is just going to have to do what Josh says because he's the Papa (you can imagine the events that led up to this conversation). Josh asked Abram if he understood. "Yes - and when I'm a Papa, I can tell my dog what to do." Yes - Abram - Yes you can :)
• One more Abram story. We were on a long car trip so I tried to teach Abram and Stella about knock-knock jokes. I am a horrible joke teller and messed up even the most basics jokes in the car. They totally didn't get it, so I started over and said, "knock knock," and I swear that they both broke out in the most hysterical laughter they have ever heard. Maybe they thought if they just laughed at whatever I said next I would stop trying to teach them how to tell jokes.

Stella

• Stella goes 2 days a week to the same pre-school Abram does and I was very worried about her since she has always stayed home and can sometimes be shy out in public. I had nothing to worry about because she loves it! Josh does drop off and he says she is so excited when they arrive she starts hopping with excitement. She has a friend named Carla and she loves her teachers. We are very excited she enjoys school so much.
• Josh was at a job interview a few weeks ago so I had the kids for a few nights by myself. Of course Stella decides to re-learn to crawl out of her crib the night he left so we've started again with Stella in a toddler bed. She is doing much better this time and has only pulled the dresser over on herself one time (don't worry she is okay - her parents who heard the enormous crash are still recovering)
• She loves to bake and will drop anything to cook with me, which is really fun.
• At night we've started going around the table saying a 'high, low, and a funny' for each person's day. Abram really enjoys this and loves telling us about his day. Stella doesn't really understand so it turns into her telling us which items of her dinner are her high, low and funny which is pretty funny in itself.
• Stella loves shopping and will pretend she is shopping around the house.

Isabel

• Has learned to crawl and chases Kitty Cat around the house trying to pet her. Unfortunately for Kitty Cat, Isabel has a very aggressive kind of love.
• Is starting to eat the same food we do in small bites.
• Loves to laugh.
• Can clap and do 'so big'
• Is one of the happiest babies I've ever met.
• Loves anything her sister and brother are doing. 
• Has started to pull herself up onto her knees trying to pull herself up onto furniture.
• Her hair is so long we have to put it in a little hair tie or it gets in her face.

Josh

• Is in full job application mode. He has applications out to many universities for faculty positions and a few industry positions. We are trying to be patient since the process for faculty positions usually lasts well into spring. 

Sara

• I accepted a new part-time position with the Nebraska Cancer Coalition that I can do from a distance and I'll be able to stay with my mom or Aunt Vicki in Omaha when I go back for meetings. It's nice to have a balance between time home with the kids and still keeping my foot in the work door with this position.

Cats

• Are begging everyone to just leave them alone, except to feed us...please, please remember to feed us!

Isabel

With Abram and Stella I always posted their pictures each month of their first year. I have dropped the ball with Isabel so I'm going to try to make up for it with a post dedicated just to her sweet face. She and I went back to Omaha for a few days this past week and she got lots of attention from Nana and Aunt V.  Here are a few pictures of their adventures.