goofing around

grayson at 2.5

A couple of months behind!

The past two months have flown by me. I glance at my calendar and see that tomorrow is December 1. My baby is 3 months old, we've moved, celebrated Thanksgiving, and are turning our attention now towards Christmas.

Saturday we ventured out in the unseasonably warm weather to cut our own tree and had a fun time decorating it, and the rest of the house, over the weekend. Our goal now will be to keep the tree vertical and with all of it's decorations intact-not an easy one with a busy toddler running amuck!

We're settling into the new house, although there are still boxes and totes to unpack. I don't have the simple luxury of a basement or designated storage area in this house so I have to be very deliberate with each and every item that gets put away. Do we ABSOLUTELY need 3 Scrabble games?? How about 15 beach towels? I ask you, WHO REALLY NEEDS 5 or 6 GINORMOUS Rubbermaid totes filled w/ cute pre-baby clothes?

Aparently I do.

Anywho. It's funny to me how quickly we feel "at home" here. We've only been in this house a little over a month but it feels like A LOT longer...even though I still don't know all of the light switches and noises yet. We love it here though and I think that is why it feels like home so quickly. We've been blessed immensely and we couldn't be more thankful.

As the Christmas season nears we are looking forward to telling Grayson the story of Jesus and hope that he starts to "get it" more this year. We look forward to celebrating in our new house and to welcoming friends and family in to celebrate with us. With today being Dec. 1 all of the festivities will be here before I even know it and gone just as quickly. Isn't that the bittersweet part of this time of year? We're hoping to make the most of every day this December-I can't wait.

My baby is 6 weeks old!

Robinette's!

Fall is here!

I have a mum on my front porch step, we've had some Honeycrisp apples, and drank lots of delicious apple cider...oh how we LOVE fall around here!

Football watching has commenced on Saturday afternoons, and it's funny how something I used to abhor has become part of something I look forward to in the fall. My sweetie loves to do it so I have learned to embrace it-at least in theory. I will wear the apparel in half-hearted support but that's about as far as I've come. Maybe next year I'll actually watch a game w/ him?? Probably not. But I'm getting better!

We have a trip to Robinette's slated in the next couple of weeks to enjoy the last of the warm sunny afternoons and eat some famously good donuts and cider. And of course walks in the newly fallen crispy leaves. Ahhh, did I mention how much this household loves fall?!

We're also packing up our lives to move in a few weeks. SO EXCITING. I really don't like packing up to move but I am really looking forward to the bigger kitchen with lots more cupboard space and more importantly, THE HUGE MUDROOM to put all my junk that has currently never quite found a home here at this address. I might actually be the organized person I have always dreamed I could be...maybe?!

And to save the best for last; the kids! Grayson absolutely loves his little sister. Granted he doesn't quite understand that she isn't ready to play cars and trucks with him yet, not that he'd share with her anyways, or that she is kinda fragile! But he really is doing much better than I expected. And little Kellan is a GREAT baby! She has just snuggled her way right into our family and very easy-going and sweet. She's even doing a decent job of sleeping at night-last night she slept for 5 hours in a row...ah, sweet sleep! It's funny how after only a short time it seems like this little one has always been with us. She is such a blessing...they both are. I'm still hormonal of course but I tear up every time I look at them...God has blessed us so immensely-there are no words for the feelings I have for them.

Introducing: Our baby GIRL!!

KELLAN AVERY
August 29, 2009

7 lb. 13 oz.
19" long

August 2009

Changes

The last few weeks around here have been most certainly crazy. Last week we went from selling our house, to pulling it off the market for a year or so, back to moving-all in one day. And that indecision wasn't from pregnancy induced hormones. We had an offer that we countered, the buyers let their offer expire, and we were set to stay put. It just didn't "feel" like the right time to make a move anymore. Then a new buyer put an even better offer in, later that day, to which the original buyers countered again...obviously they really want our house. All of the "issues" that were making us change our minds went away and as of today we have a pending sale on our house.

CRAZY.

Or, maybe it isn't and I just don't buy/sell houses often enough to know that this is standard or normal or whatever. But it was a whole lot of craziness for this expecting mama and I *almost* expected to go into labor from all the stress of it.

NO SUCH LUCK.

Still pregnant. Although I am still eleven days away from my due date so I suppose I can't complain. I was contracting all day yesterday but with no progress...just annoyance. Maybe the baby is waiting to be born until some of the craziness in our lives goes away. Or maybe he/she is just waiting until Pete and I have a name picked out for a boy. We're getting closer...I think!

We haven't been up to much of anything else lately. Sadly. With me having zero energy and one sore and beat up body I'm perfectly happy to stay home, even though the summer is quickly fading away. I'm hoping for a long drawn out fall so we can at least get outside a bit before the horrible winter descends upon us. I'm forseeing trips to Robinette's and walks and maybe a beach trip or two-not to swim of course! And of course there will be packing...and lots of it!

We'll be moving the middle of November...somewhere. Currently we have a bid in on a house in Cascade, waiting patiently to hear on that. It would be a great house but there are others if it isn't meant to be.

All in all, a good month but a crazy one. My soul does feel at peace about it all though, whereas earlier in the month it was not. We're headed in a good direction, I trust in God that He's leading us where we should be. It took me awhile to get to this spot, but now that I'm here it feels so nice!

Can't update the blog without pictures, right?!

We're moving...somewhere!

What a crazy July it has been. I'm kind of glad it is over, although that also signals the wind down of the summer. And it seems like just yesterday it was cold and snowy April still and summer was so far off. Isn't it funny how time plays tricks on us like that?

We sold our house last week...in four days. The first couple that went through it, the first day it was on the market, ended up putting in an offer we weren't too disappointed with. In this market it wasn't THE BEST offer ever but close enough to what we had hoped to get so...we signed the papers and we're officially moving. Unless sometime falls through with the inspections and/or appraisal, of which we don't anticipate any issues.

So if you have extra boxes lying around your house that you've been wondering what you could do with: bring them over our way!

Thankfully we don't have to be out until the very end of September which puts my mind at ease just a little bit. We will have a crazy two months ahead of us, what with having a baby and packing up our entire life but as soon as we figure out where we will be moving to it will seem a little less crazy.

Mother's intuition tells me the baby will be here sooner rather than later. And no, we still don't have a name. In fact, I resorted to looking through the Pottery Barn catalog over the weekend for inspiration. No luck. But it will come, all in good time.

Emily and Aaron were married as well over the weekend, and they couldn't have had a more beautiful day for a wedding on the shore of Lake Michigan. I didn't take any pictures as I was chasing after a certain 2 year old that wouldn't sit still for the ceremony but trust me-it was wonderful. They are off to Mexico for their honeymoon and we look forward to having them over for a "packing party" when they return!

Sometimes it feels like our life is just a bit on the boring side and I wish that we had more excitement going on. In the last few weeks we've had a bit more excitement/activity in our lives than I'd like in that short of a time period. I'm ready for some down time, and I think that is on the horizon-somewhat. I'm thankful for everything that has gone down, including some of the more disconcerting things, but overall the buurstra clan is headed in a new direction and I'm optimistic...just ready for things to s-l-o-w down just a bit.

He definitely takes after his Dad.

This little boy LOVES ice cream. That apple did not fall far from the tree.

Suddenly Summer!

The once dreaded summer is half-way over already, I can't believe it. So far I've been lucky and only experienced a week or so of 90 degree weather with 285% humidity. Although, August is right around the corner.

On the baby front everything is going well. At my last appt. Dr. said I only have about 6 weeks left. Not sure if he was just trying to make me feel better as I sat there in tears in his office, gotta love those pregnancy hormones, or if with his many years of obstetrical knowledge can make an accurate guess like that. Either way, I'll take it. That would put baby due around the 21st of August...anytime in there, but before September, is just fine with me. He/she STILL doesn't have a name...so, maybe another 5 or so weeks will work out well.

Most of the pictures are from our latest trek to Duluth for the fourth of July. We had a great time as always and look forward to Nana and Papa visiting us here when the baby arrives.

And in other news...we're putting our house on the market. EEEEEEK! It is a little nerve-wracking to say the least but we are hopeful that the right buyer will come through and love it and that will be that. We're actively looking for a home to buy so if that perfect buyer comes along we won't end up homeless. It is a very exciting time though too, thinking about our next adventure in homeownership. I'm of course a tad bit emotional thinking about not living here anymore, even though there are things I look forward to in a new house. This was our first home together, the place we came home to after our honeymoon. This was where we brought our newborn son home to, his first memories of home will be from here. But alas, we're expanding this Buurstra clan and can't stay here forever. Kinda bittersweet I suppose.

On that note, I'm off to clean something. It always seems like there is something to clean when you're selling your house.

Two posts in two days-someone take her temp!

While waiting for Daddy to come home yesterday I snapped some pics of Grayson. As I said before he won't smile for the camera lately but I got a few on the sly. And an updated belly pic for those interested!

The one where she blames it on me.

My lovely friend Kara recently blogged about how it was my fault that she never blogs anymore. Because I introduced her to Facebook. Aparently she lives under a rock and doesn't get out much. And I twisted her arm. (I'm good at that.) And threatened to not be her friend anymore. Yadda yadda.

Well, at least it got her into "the cool crowd". She should thank me, she really should. :)

(Ya know I love ya Kara! Even though I scored really low on your Facebook quiz.)

Personally, I'd really like to know what in the world happened to Jeff's blog. Now let's all avert our attention his way and take it off the pregnant one! :)

Other than that mini-series drama that is about all that is going on around here. Summer has gotten off to a s-l-o-w start. We've been doing some minor home improvement projects lately like adding window boxes to the front of our house, powerwashing the back deck, and trying to figure out why our grass won't grow. Oh the joys of homeownership.

The baby is growing nicely as indicated by my expanding belly. Aparently I look bigger this time around since I've had several people ask me now if my due date is imminent. No, that isn't but my hand reaching up to slap you is! Just kidding. I wouldn't actually do that but darn it-I'm not that big! (Am I?)

We are down to dr. appt.'s every two weeks now which means the end is getting closer. I'm very excited about that and about meeting the little bean. A girl name has been decided-yay! But don't bother asking, we're not going to tell you. And as for a boy name...let's just say it better be a girl. Most of baby's stuff is washed and ready though and the nursery is anxiously awaiting another inhabitant. Grayson goes in there almost daily to play with all the baby's stuff. He's totally geeked and I think it just too precious how little he understands about the upcoming upheaval to his world. (Insert devious laugh.) But he is very loving and kisses the baby (my belly) and occasionally talks to the baby, and wants to share his pacifier. I think he'll make an excellent big brother.

I wish I had some recent pics of him to post but he has developed a love/hate relationship with my camera. He LOVES to put his little greasy fingers on the lens and push all the buttons but HATES to actually have his picture taken. I'll try soon though to get some updated ones, even if it takes a little bribery. It works people, don't knock it until you try it.

Better late than never.

My friend Melissa sent me this in a forward today and about a third of the way in tears were rolling down my cheeks. It very well could be the pregnancy hormones in full effect but it also has a great message that I'm going to try to desperately remember in these crazy chaotic years as a Mom.

Mothers
by Anna Quindlan, Newsweek Columnist and Author

All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in
disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three
almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast.

Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to
be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who
sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry,
who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep
their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the
bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all
by themselves.

Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with rubber ducky at
its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible
except through unreliable haze of the past.

Everything in all the books I once poured over is finished for me
now. Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on
sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood
education, all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the
Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect
that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories.

What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the
playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what they
taught me, was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.
Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then
becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it
is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to
positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice
and a timeout. One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2.
When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on
his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up.

By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs
because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent
this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing.
Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research
will follow.

I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton's
wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three
different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking
for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk. Was
there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something
wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed,
physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China.
Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk,
too.

Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me,
mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the,
"Remember-When-Mom-Did Hall of Fame." The outbursts, the temper
tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell
off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The
nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the
youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her
geography test, and I responded, "What did you get wrong?". (She
insisted I include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's
drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from
the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them
to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?

But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make
while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is
particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in
photographs. There is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the
grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages
6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked
about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that
night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next
thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.


Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me
and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I
thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd
done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because
they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The
books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top.

And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people
I like best in the world who have done more than anyone to excavate my
essential humanity. That's what the books never told me. I was bound
and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me a while to
figure out who the experts were.

It's May!

I'm stuck still thinking it is April but my calendar tells me differently. Thankfully the weather is a little bit here and there too.

We had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. Spent most of the day at home just being together. My loving husband went out and got cinnamon rolls for breakfast and we lounged in our jammies as long as possible. Then we headed up north to Belmont for further celebration with family that included a very yummy dinner cooked (in part) by the men.

I'm not a super big fan of the Hallmark holidays but what I do love about acknowledging Mother's Day is that I reserve the right to turn my own internal "to do" list off. I didn't think once yesterday about what I could or should be doing as I hung out with my husband and son.

I simply enjoyed it. And I think that is present enough.

Well, almost. I requested some outdoor plants to brighten up the exterior of our abode. Done and done.

On the baby front we are doing well. It is interesting to me though how much different this pregnancy is from the first time around. I would have thought my body would have just adapted right to pregnancy mode. It almost seems to be the opposite and it feels some days like it is revolting. Going up the stairs is a chore and sleeping has become well, frankly a nightmare. My mother-in-law gently indicated yesterday how *hot* this summer may be, she had two babies in August and one in July. Um ya, not looking forward to that but hopefully the sprinkler in the back yard and the beach just a short drive away will help with that. If I have enough energy to get myself out there that is! And yes, I do mean just to the back yard!

I've felt a ton more movement in the last few weeks too. Pete actually felt the baby as well which is so fun. We're still going to battle over names but I'm sure as the impending due date looms closer and closer on the horizon one of us is surely going to have to give in. *One* of us. And I think we all know who that will be.

Just kidding.

Kind of.

I actually am not solid on anything right now which is kinda freaking me out. I really like one girl name but I'm fairly certain I won't get my way this time around so back to square one with only some slight possibilities. Who knew this would be so hard?!

Since I don't like to post without pics...

I think he likes it!

Grayson's first smoothie. He has NO IDEA that it's actually good for him. Let's keep it that way.

Playing catch up

Spring get-away to Seattle, WA and Victoria, British Columbia