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.