It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

We survived the wedding weekend!  Fair warning- there are lots of pictures, most of them aren't that great.

So since Shelly's been dealing with blood clots and other early pregnancy miseries and I haven't really done anything helpful, the girls and I brought lunch last week.  They enjoyed Gideon's "peetee."  Hehe.  He talks a lot more than Cadence does... the girls made a big toy mess and I mopped her floor for her so I could feel like I/we weren't just getting in the way.  

We rode bikes one slightly warm afternoon.  Cadence climbed up on Emmy's bike by herself, which is terrifying.   

 Friday morning Cecily woke up complaining that she had a sore throat so I didn't let her go to school.  Bob was home so I just took Emmy with me to Co-op.  We spent the rest of the day packing for Iowa and checking weather forecasts.  Because, of course, they were calling for the biggest snowstorm this season.  We were planning on driving out in time for pictures on Saturday morning so that the girls could get a maximum amount of sleep in their own beds.  Plus, Cecily was running a fever and we didn't want to take her out any sooner than absolutely necessary.  
So we got up super early on Saturday to snow on the ground and sleet.  *sigh*  It was not a fun drive.  The roads were nasty for the first hour and we almost went in the ditch once.  So scary.  But then it eased up a little bit and turned into rain for the last half of the drive and we made it to pictures right on time.  
They were at the local historical society- housed in a beautiful old library.  Pretty girls in pretty dresses.  

 And dapper little boys in bow ties.  

 And 'spenders!  They were so cute.  (note the mop bucket catching drips from the leaking ceiling...)

 Pictures went about as well as we expected.  Cadence would not let me put her down.  Jack and Gideon were not interested at all.  This picture makes me laugh so hard- Matt is hiding behind Jack trying to get him to look, and I'm behind Cadence holding her under her dress so she wouldn't cry.  You can see my skirt.... it's too bad no one had a camera off to the side.  

 Somebody snapped this one of us on a phone.  It doesn't look too bad, so hopefully the photographer got a good one.

 The kids got a little bit bored waiting for pictures to be done.  They explored the museum over and over.  Grandpa showed Emmy the statues of "Chief Black Hawk and Minnehaha" and she told us all about them later.  

 The little ones preferred watching videos of themselves.

 Grandma and the girls on the couch they almost matched.  

 The happy couple and Emmy.  

 Hey, it kept her entertained.

 Oh, this makes me smile.  Shells and Ned...

 Groomsmen and Bridesmaids and the museum lady putting out plastic to catch drips from the leaking skylight....

 Then, when they were almost done with pictures we discovered that there was a playroom.  With this awesome kid sized steamboat, mini cabins, and all sorts of fun things to do. Why didn't we know about this earlier!?

 Gideon's loading a barrel of apples and Cecily has a skunk(!?).

 Cadence wanted the large stuffed cow. "MMMM!"

 We changed and ate lunch at Rachel's parent's house.  Then we drove through more sleet/snow to Dave and Tami's.  Cecily's tylenol was wearing off, poor girl, so we dosed her up again and tried to get her and Cadence to take a nap.  It didn't work because Dave and Tami have a cool house with lots of fun toys.  Visiting Tami's family was always a bright spot in our dreaded trips to Lester, so it was good to spend time with her family.  
The girls went to church for the evening and ate supper with the Lanz girls and my family (once they got there- the storm was worse in IL).  Bob and I went to the rehearsal dinner, which was amazing.  The food was so good.  A couple from church had it in their home- they called him "the smoke master," not a misnomer, as the fillet mignon was sublime.   It was also really nice to just be able to eat and be served and not have to take care of small children... 
We were a little late to the singing at church.  Poor Cecily was not feeling well at all.  She got more tylenol and we hung out in the fellowship area for the rest of the evening.  Of course by the time we got back to Lanz's it had kicked in and we couldn't get her to bed.  Or the other two.  *sigh* Traveling with kids is stressful enough, a sick kid makes it so much worse.  Thankfully we had gracious hosts.
Sunday was a beautiful day.  It was crazy, the weather was suddenly sunny and almost warm.  We had a good day in church; we wouldn't let Cecily go to Sunday school because she was still feverish.  Emmy didn't want to go and she actually went in to church with Clayton.... and then she got scared and Clayton brought her to me crying. Hehe.  Poor Clayton.  We managed to get the girls fed (even our slowpoke eater Emmy!) and to the bathroom before they wanted to usher us in.  So I took one girl to the bathroom and then came back in with the next one and somebody asked, "Didn't I just see you in here?"  Haha, yes, pretty much feel like I've spent half the weekend taking children to the bathroom...
Cadence got to play in the babyroom with the Lanz girls and Jack and Gideon during the wedding and Cecily and Emmy and I got to sit way up front.  Cecily's fever finally broke during the service!  I kept surreptitiously checking her forehead.  I only got teary eyed a few times and they said yes, so it was a great success!
Then we were off to the reception!  The girls were not impressed with the line.        

 They did pretty well for awhile.

 I got to meet Andrew!  That was exciting.  And it's always good to see Brent and his family.

 Matt and I took care of decorating the Wagoneer.  I wonder how many vehicles we've decorated together... 

 We were nice.  It's very understated, elegant almost... haha.  Matt's 'family' decals were a stroke of genius.  

 The kids liked the balloons.

 Cadence is over the reception at this point... taking selfies with Carli.

 It's too bad that this is blurry.  "I want to go hooommee!"

 Cecily wanted to take a picture of us.  

 Then the line was gone and they discovered the chains and everybody perked up for a bit.

 The happy couple... they look tired.  

Then they left the reception in a shower of bubbles and drove the Wagoneer off into the sunset.  We changed clothes as fast as we could and high tailed it to the border.  The girls slept all the way back. We made it home for a late supper by 8 and had the girls in bed by 9. 
I spent Monday recovering.We watched Grace and Eden most of the day and were lazy and got nothing done except a load or two of laundry.   
Yesterday the girls got to go to Kenna's house for a little bit while I got groceries.  
Otherwise, we are enjoying a very low key, slow paced, spring break. 
Blessings.

Between winter and spring

I feel like I'm falling behind on blogging... partly because I've had trouble importing pictures to my computer.  And possibly laziness.

FFA strawberries came in, so I spent an afternoon making jam.  I don't bake bread so unfortunately I didn't have any fresh homemade bread to taste test it on.  Sad news, fresh homemade jam on fresh homemade bread is pretty much heaven.  

 Cadence thought it was funny to put the tablet on the toy school bus and push it around the house... except they aren't allowed to have electronics in their bedrooms... 

 Bob and Nathan and Matt hosted Jake's bachelor supper two weeks ago so I took the girls to the farm for the evening.  My father, bless his heart, is taking up bee keeping.  

 We made a paper chain count down of days until the wedding!  They are so excited.  

 I found Cadence with my phone, looking at pictures of Gideon... quite proud of herself, little sneak.

 Cecily and Emmy had a dentist appointment.  It was Emmy's first time and she did great.  She was most excited that she would get treats.  Hooray for new toothbrushes and stickers!

 We can't do the little kid swim times anymore since Cecily is in school, but they do have open swim every afternoon/evening so I took the girls to the "big inside pool."  It's getting much easier to manage alone, the older two are pretty confident with their puddle jumpers on so I just have to deal with Cadence.  And they can mostly dress themselves, which is 3/4 of the battle. 

 We got to watch Griffin for a little bit one morning.  

A rare Walmart trip and they had samples!   Best Day Ever.  (or something)

 When the littlest one thinks she is big enough to help and you're just not fast enough... 

 Last Friday was so nice.  It was a day off school, there was no Co-op, and Bob had the day off work.  No one had to get up and we had no where we had to be.  It was a delightful morning. Then I found a lock of hair in the garbage.  

So..... I've been telling the girls that if kids cut their own hair it hurts really bad, and the only way it doesn't hurt is if an adult uses a special scissors...... today I found a lock of hair in the garbage. 
Me: Emmy! Did you cut your hair? 
Emmy: It didn't hurt! #mustnotlaugh #whitelies #curious#couldhavebeenworse#rightbeforethewedding

Thankfully, it's really not noticeable at all. Cecily got to spend the afternoon at Hanna's house; then we went shopping and out to eat in the evening.  It was a good reminder of why we don't do that very often with three crazy girls.  They discovered a talking fridge while I was checking out.  

 Saturday morning the girls and I went to Jake and Rachel's church shower.  They were really good- thank goodness for Janelle's old toys.  Bob had plans with the potluck guys that evening, so the girls and I went back to the farm for supper.  We sang some Sacred Harp- but we only had one book, so we had the ingenious idea to take pictures of the music with our smartphones.  What can I say, we Wysses are smart AND talented.  Haha. Or something.  

 Sunday was Grandpa Beutel's 90th birthday party.  The girls are always so excited to find out we are eating supper at the fellowship hall.... not that they do a lot of actual eating.  Well, maybe dessert.  It was a nice evening.
There have been a few warmer days to enjoy snacks on the porch.

 I almost forgot about Pi day (Crazy, I know!) until Bob mentioned they were supposed to bring pie to work the next day... it was about 8:30pm.  Soooooo... I quick made a batch of pie crust and he got a strawberry and cream cheese pie made with pie filling (sorry coworkers!).  I used the rest of the pie crust to make taco pie and mini apple pies for our supper.  Oh!  And baby Jesus disappeared from our nativity set sometime in December, only to reappear in a fancy purse at the bottom of the dress up clothes on Pi day.  There was great rejoicing! 

 Unfortunately, Pi day did not line up well with my Thermodynamics lecture this year so we did not have pie and ice cream.... I just made ice cream.  Because homemade ice cream makes everything, even Thermodynamics, so much better.  

Swinging in the sunshine. 

 Little Emmy got invited to a Little House on the Prairie tea party on Saturday.  She was so excited to go to Eva's house.  And Hanna came to our house so Cecily wasn't too jealous. She wasn't done eating when I picked her up, no surprise there, so she brought most of her "tea" home.  

We had communion in the evening.  Since W-ton's communion conflicts with Jake's wedding lots of my family came with us and Kandace, Carli, and Cliff watched the girls.  It worked out so well.  
Cadence and Emmy have been snotty and coughing again.  *sigh*  This morning Cadence was coughing up all of her sinus drainage, and needed a kleenex every two seconds so she didn't get to go to church. She was a gross, snotty, mess- poor kid.  The big girls did great at the Easter program tonight.  They were so excited about it, even though I didn't let them wear their wedding/Easter dresses yet.  
Blessings.  

Farewell to February

And now it is March already.  Winter might be almost over!  We've been getting outside and there is sunshine!  I don't dislike winters coziness, but then I see the sun and I'm more ready for spring than I thought.  It's been a winter.  Lots of upheaval and brokenness and sadness going on around us... I told Bob not long ago how thankful I am for him and his faith and the HOPE that we have... Our friendly across the road neighbor went to the hospital shortly after Christmas with what they thought was the flu.  Instead they discovered a brain tumor and she never came home.  She was in the hospital for over a month... when he came over to tell me she had gone, my gruff neighbor hugged me (twice!) and cried... how do you be the church to people who don't have a church?  how do you comfort people who grieve with no hope?   

Anyway.

We really had a fairly illness free winter.... or so I thought.  Two Saturdays ago Cecily got sick and spent most of the morning on the couch with a bucket.  Woot.  So we missed Wyss cousins game day, which was disappointing.  But she felt better pretty fast (probably just something she ate, right Dad?) so we all went to church Sunday.  

Emmy's been putting together some hilarious outfits, usually centered around her favorite summer tank top.  At least she's abiding by the no bare legs and long sleeves under short sleeves when it's cold rule?

There wasn't any school President's day, but we didn't do anything exciting.  I started working on the girls' dresses for Jakey's wedding.  The first time I looked online to see what was out there, at the very first website, I found dresses that were the perfect colors and level of dressiness and a really good price.  It was clearly a miracle so I bought them.  In four different sizes. Because although they were the perfect color, they didn't have sleeves.  The easy way would be to have them wear cardigans overtop.... buuuut.... that covers up half the dress.  I prefer my girls to have sleeves for church, and wearing a cardigan in the summer is hot (also not a battle I want to fight).  So I got an extra dress and used the skirt to cut out sleeves.  I don't like putting in sleeves.  Especially in fully lined dresses that are already completely constructed.  But.  It's done now, and it doesn't look too bad. (You'll have to wait for the wedding pics, sorry, not sorry.) 

 She wanted to help stir.  With the spaghetti fork and tongs.

"Mom, I tried on your boots to see if they are your size!"  Cadence has bobby pins in her mouth and my mirror....just like I do. Little mimic.

 Cecily had her first school open house.  She showed Emmy and I all around, and all the cool art projects.
When it's cold and dreary out I feel the need to clean out.  Plus, we just put new shelves in the electronics/toy closet and I made Bob go through all of his random computer stuff so I could organize it.  We threw away a bunch of old obsolete computer parts and software.  Hooray!   

 Saturday evening was the annual Koch Soup Supper. Always good food and good pie.  All I had to bring was pickles, so, win- win. 
Sunday we went to the cabin with Matt, Michelle and Nathan, and Greg and Mary and all of our crazy kids.  The boys practiced grilling for Jake's bachelor supper and the kids ran themselves ragged.

 Little Gideon... so cute.

 This week has been rough.  Emmy and Cadence have had fevers come and go and faucets for noses and coughing that will.not.stop.  Cecily has just been tired and cranky.
Also I was carrying a laundry basket and gouged a chunk out of my hand.  I may have said something along the lines of, "I hate our stupid narrow hallways!"  Seriously, they are barely wide enough to pass code.  It's not like that's a super easy place on a hand to bandage.... grr.  Insert rant about 1960's home designers here. 

 Lynelle came home from school with Cecily and stayed for the afternoon. We had a very giggly lunch and they played inside and outside and even did pretty well with including the younger two. 

 It's nice to get outside again.  Cadence looks like she's tired and not feeling well... poor baby. 

 Last night was unpleasant.  They had been coughing so much... and occasionally coughing up phlegm.  Cadence was sad because her blankie was in the dryer so she was crying/ whining in her crib.... then Emmy coughed so hard she threw up a little bit, not too bad but it got all layers of her bedding.  Mur.  I got no quiet wind-down time that evening, one would stop fussing just in time for the other to start coughing and repeat.  And they coughed all night and it woke me up every time.  No rest for the weary. 
Today was Dr. Seuss day at school.  They were supposed to dress like their favorite character; Cecily wanted to be Sally from "The Cat in the Hat."  She wore a white shirt and a blue skirt and a red bow.... and then spilled her juice all over herself at breakfast.  She was so disappointed.  She put on another skirt and different shirt but it just wasn't the same.  She wanted me to send this picture to her teacher of her real outfit. 

 Mom has been wanting to see the girls since they've been gone in Florida, and I didn't want to take my sick children to Co-op, so she came in the morning while I taught.  I was tired after the previous night and they just seem so pitiful and ill that we got McDonald's for lunch. 

 So rather than leave you with tales of my tired, grumpy, sick children, enjoy this ancient gem found whilst looking for pictures for Jake's scrapbook:

You're welcome.
Blessings.