Here we go!!

Well it has been far too long. I intended this post to be about what I have been up to in the last couple weeks, but instead I'm posting about what we will be doing. We are embarking on yet another adventure. We just found out, yesterday morning actually, that we are expecting our 4th child. I know that it's not "kosher" to start telling people until you are much farther along, but I hate waiting. I have absolutely no patience with my own secrets. And what could be more fun than telling people on Christmas?

I especially like coming up with "unique" ways to tell our families. When I was pregnant with Micaiah we made t-shirts for the girls that said "Big Sisters' Club" on the front. The back of Charis' said "Member since 2004", and the back of Anya's said "Future Member 2007". Then we just sat back and waited for people to catch on. (it took a while) This time around we didn't exactly have time to plan much so for my family we sent a text (please note that we were sitting in the room with all of them and my family loves to text). The text read "Merry Christmas from the Nadvornik 6...yes that's right...count again". My Gramma was the first, and for a long while, the only person that got the text. It seemed like hours until everyone else started to get their texts and began to react. My mom was the very last because she was too intent on telling a story to look at her phone. It was priceless when she finally did read it. Much hopping and shrieking was involved.

We then left my family's house and went to Greg's. Every Christmas we line up in front of the tree for a big family photo. Greg offered to take the picture and instead of saying "say cheese" he exclaimed "say Jeni's pregnant!" Here is the resulting photo. Notice that only 2 out of the 11 other people in the photo even noticed. The rest of them thought we were joking and just kept smiling. I guess that's bound to happen when sarcasm and joking are your 1st and second languages. But everyone was excited to have a new member of the family, as are we. And though we are a little overwhelmed by the thought of all that is to come, we are really looking forward to our next big adventure!

Conversation with Anya

Me: You ready to go make some bread?

Anya: Yeah! I love helping you in the kitchen. I want to learn how to make everything in the world.

Me: That's wonderful. Why do you think it's a good idea for you to learn how to cook?

Anya: So I can make you chicken noodle soup (we've all been sick here) and then I can put it in a can. I'm gonna work at ALDI!!

Me: You are!?

Anya: Yeah, I'm gonna be the one that puts all the food into the cans and I'll work at the very first desk! And you know what Mama?

Me: What Sweetie?

Anya: You have a BIG bottom.

Me: Thank you, Anya. (What more can one say after a conversation like that?)

Sign of the Times

Micaiah ran up to me this morning, pointing and flailing his arms toward the window, shouting "E-mail Mama! E-Mail Mama!" Not quite sure what to be looking for, I poked my head outside just in time to see the "Mail Man" pulling away from our mailbox. Too funny!

Ha ha

So much for being excited (and a little too proud of myself). Anya lost her headband the same day I made it. That will show me!

The Pig-Tail Predicament

Okay, I am ridiculously excited about this. It's almost embarrassing how excited, so I thought I would share. My girls really like having their hair done, not the doing it part (they HATE that), but when it is actually finished. They have even named the different hair dos that they like. We have "Riley Hair", "Monkey Hair", "Ballerina Buns" and "Butterfly Hair" to name a few. (This isn't the embarrassing part) But when winter rolls around it's time for stocking caps. And stocking caps and most hair dos just don't mix. So after searching around for a while for a solution to this problem I decided to come up with something of my own. We do have ear muffs, but those have been turned into "thunder muffs" and cannot be used for winter anymore. I'll have to explain that one later. So here is what I came up with. (This is the part I'm a little too excited about)
Essentially I just knitted (horribly I might add, please don't look closely) a wide head band with some old cotton yarn I've been needing to use up. Then I sewed on some felt flowers using scrap felt and old buttons.
Then it closes in the back with another button.

Now "Butterfly Hair" (which is what Ani is sporting today) everywhere can be safe from "smashy hat syndrome" and the girls will not get frostbite. Now all I have to do is refrain from making one in every color of yarn I have lying around, and letting everything I should be doing pile up around me. Sadly, I already know how this one is going to end. Who says we have to have clean clothes every day?

Ready, Set, Decorate...

Greg loves Christmas, Christmas songs, Christmas giving, Christmas Decorating, Christmas sights, sounds, smells and weather. He even loves the sound of Christmas Bell Ringers (okay maybe that's pushing it). I, however, prefer Thanksgiving so I insist that we cannot start a new holiday until the previous one is completely over. So with half digested turkey in our bellies we start tearing down the Thanksgiving tables and decorations so that early the next morning the Christmas season can begin. We start the day by picking out some variation of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Our trees are usually pretty sparse and tippy. We didn't do too bad this year though. I think this tree actually has 3 good sides. Then we head back to the house to warm our frostbitten fingers, break out the Christmas records, and attack our tree with decorations. The kids usually line up on the floor and wait for the "ready, set, decorate", and then they are off.

Here the kids are "waiting patiently" to begin and shouting "Happy Easter". Either they are confused, or maybe a little of Mom and Dad's sarcasm is rubbing off.

My job is to hand out the ornaments and keep the peace.

This is Micaiah adding his first ornament, or should I say cramming his first ornament into the deep recesses of the tree.

We also have our advent tree/Joshua tree. It has 25 handmade( by us) ornaments representing 25 old testament bible stories ending with the birth of Jesus. I usually put that one together because the ornaments are starting to fall apart.

So at the end of the day the tree is up, the lights are shining and memories have been made. And though I'm not a huge fan of most of this season I have to admit it is a lot of fun watching my four, I mean three, children singing, dancing and decorating the afternoon away.

Pennies from Heaven

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to the anonymous gifter of the Hy-Vee gift card. Last Sunday some very thoughtful person left a gift card taped to the outside of our van window. I have used all my super sleuthing powers to track this person down, but to no avail. I know that the point of leaving something anonymously is that you don't want to be found, but I still had to try. I just want whomever/whoever left this card for us that we are extremely grateful and it could not have come at a better time. Thank you so much.

My Past Comes Back to Haunt Me

This past weekend we had the wonderful pleasure to host my cousin (Joanna) and her boyfriend (Josh) for a few days. Often, when we have friends without kids over for a visit I have a tendency to forget that I still do. Now I don't lose them or anything (though I wouldn't put it past me), but if they are being quiet I simply forget that they are always listening. Joanna and I were reminiscing about one of my favorite places in the world, Silver Dollar City. We talked about our favorite rides, sights and smells. We also talked about our Fire-in-the-Hole ride record. (We rode it 24 times without getting off) Then, without thinking, I started talking about how when we were younger we would keep our belts loose so that after the ride started we could climb out of our seats and hop from car to car while the ride was going. The entire ride is in the dark so the technicians never saw a thing. The conversation continued and I never thought about it again. Charis, though, evidently thought about quite a bit. The next day we had a very long conversation about it. Here is a brief snippet.

Charis: Mom, how old were you when you got out of your seat on the roller coaster?

Me: Old enough to know better. (15 or 16)

Charis: So you didn't think it was wrong, or you did?

Me: I knew it was wrong.

Charis: Then why did you do it?

Me: Sometimes people do things even though they know they are wrong.

Charis: Did your mom know?

Me: Nope.

Charis: Did the workers know?

Me: No, they didn't know either.

Charis: But Jesus knew?

Me: Yes, He did.

Charis: So you did it even though you knew it was wrong and Jesus was watching?

Me: (gulp) yes.

Charis: You really should ask Him to forgive you.

Me: You're right I think I will.

Charis: Mom, one more thing, can I do that next time I go?

Me: NO!!!

You never know when or where that next little dose of humility is going to come from, but it always seems a little harder to swallow when it comes from your kids. I am supposed to be the one with all the answers, guiding them through the many mountains and valleys of life, perfectly practicing what I preach. Pardon me while I wipe the tears of laughter out of my eyes. I am pretty sure that when God hears conversations like this He has to be smiling. Using the simple things (one's) to confound the wise (or at least those that think they are wise). And those that should remember the children are always listening.

My Little Clean Freak

Micaiah has always liked things to be orderly, not clean necessarily, but orderly. He likes to line his up cars and toys in neat little rows. And from the time he could stand he has been my laundry helper. Yesterday I started to worry that things may have gone a little far. We were outside and he pointed at the ground and said (in a very distressed voice) "Oh Man, Shreesh Meshy! Translation - "Trees Messy.". He was really quite worried about all the leaves that the trees had left scattered throughout my parents yard. If I would have let him I'm sure he would have been very happy to line all those leaves up for the Meshy Shreesh.

I would also love to say that he gets his desire for cleanliness from me, but that's probably not the case. I am more of a recovering clutteraholic. I like to start projects and have a really hard time cleaning them up (or finishing them for that matter). Only recently have I begun to understand why my mom seemed to be so obsessed with cleaning. When I was little I just thought she enjoyed it. This is what my kids think of me. I now realize with all the other chaos in the house, having the visual chaos can push a perfectly sane person right over the edge. So, I'm sorry Mom, had I known that you were just trying to hold on to your sanity I may have been a little more helpful. Okay, who am I kidding, probably not. But, to make up for it, if you have anything that you would like placed in a row, I will happily send Micaiah over for the afternoon.

Good one!

Here is that video of my dad. Can you guess who he is???

Harvest Party Pics

Another Harvest Party come and gone. It was really fun to watch the kids and their different personalities. The girls were old enough this year to be a little more independent of Greg and me. Micaiah, however, still needed a "hand buddy". The night ended up being a little less fun for him than I had hoped, but you never know what you are going to get when kids are involved. It turns out, Micaiah, doesn't like people in costume or crowds. I really thought he would like the games, which he did, as long as no one in a costume was within a 10 ft. radius of him. Oh well. Charis was on a mission. Goal=get as much candy as possible in the short amount of time we had to spend there.The kids were also given passports and could get them stamped at each booth. She went through the booths methodically so she could get her passport stamped in the most efficient way. She went through 3 passports by the end of the night. Anya just wanted to play, passport forget about it, waiting for candy was almost too much of an annoyance to her. She was a little disappointed at the end of the night that her bag wasn't nearly as full as Charis'. All in all it was a fun night.

Hopefully I will be able to post a video of my dad, but right now it's giving me too much trouble.

Ani's best friend

Ani: Gramma, do you know who my best friend is?

Gramma: No???

Ani: It starts with a "G".

Gramma: Who is is it? (Secretly hoping it's "G" for Gramma.)

Ani: It's God!! Do you wanna know why?

Gramma: Sure! (If you have to be second best, God is definitely the one you want to
come in second to.)

Ani: 'Cause He's the only one that has the power to make me happy....and CRAZY!!!

Fall is falling...and falling...and falling

Ever since I moved out of my parents house I have longed for a house with trees in the yard. I love their majestic beauty and the wonderful shade they provide. I love the instant history they impart just by being there. I imagined tree houses, tire swings and hammocks on warm summer days. Last year I finally got my wish. A house with real trees. What I forgot to take into consideration, in my idealistic musings, is that once a year these trees tire of their shade giving leaves and dump them mercilessly all over your yard. Again and again and again. We have filled 4 large trash cans and 4 large yard bags with leaves this past weekend, and haven't even made a dent. It is funny though the leaves themselves, though hard work, have made for plenty of new family activities. We have raking leaves into a pile, jumping in the leaves, shoving leaves into your brother's pants, burying your sister, forgetting she is there, accidentally stepping on her and then all out chaos. I did happen to get a few pictures before the madness ensued. So now when I look back I them I can forget what a pain the leaves are, and remember only how much I love my trees.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Since Halloween/Harvest Party is my Christmas I thought stealing a line from a Christmas song would be appropriate. I know it's not a very "Christian" holiday to love so much, but I do. I'm not into the witches, ghosts and goblins - In fact I wish that wasn't a part of it at all. I just like dressing up with my family. I like thinking of the theme, making the costumes and then eventually wearing them. Who doesn't like to be someone else for a day? I also think that I secretly like it because it's one of the only holidays of the year that our families don't have anything planned (sorry families). Not that we don't enjoy our families, quite the opposite, but trying to figure out who goes where and whose feelings might get hurt if we don't show up, stresses me out. Needless to say this is my holiday.

As far as our costumes go I always set certain "rules" for myself.

1. I want to spend as little money as possible (bonus if I don't spend any at all).

2. We must stay within the chosen theme (the kids help choose the theme). A few of our previous themes have been: Charlotte's Web, Monsters Inc., Breakfast, Super Mario Bros., Beauty and the Beast and Where's Waldo?.







3. I prefer not to buy premade costumes (it takes some of the fun out of it for me), but if I do I usually alter them.

4. Save everything for the last minute and then wonder why I ever liked this holiday.

This year we are gearing up to be characters from Peter Pan. Anya lives in Neverland anyway so we thought it might nice for us to join her in her "reality". Greg will be Peter, Me - Tigerlily, Charis - Wendy, Anya - Tinkerbell, and Micaiah - lost boy, Michael, or John. We'll see what we come up with and post pictures later. Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween/Harvest/October 31st.

Beautifully Irrational

I love this quote by Bill Cosby (The one on our title picture). It kinda sums up how I feel about having kids. It is a completely irrational idea to bring these selfish, needy, helpless little beings into one's life on purpose. If anyone had any idea of what they were really getting into before they had kids, human beings would probably have ceased to exist years ago. Yet they add more beauty, love and joy to to our lives than I ever thought possible. So since it makes no logical sense to have children, I'm glad I'm insane.