Happy all hallows eve

It was a date to remember for my boys. It started with an early-morning parade and then a class party and a special lunch. After school they got to go through their new treat bags and play with their dad who came home early from work today. I made a special spooky dinner. It was a little lost on my whole family. Joran enjoyed helping me with all the creations, but i don't think I was cooking for the right crowd. After dinner we went to tae kwon do and received one on one training because only three children showed up. They got prizes, shirts, cupcakes, stripes for their belts and numb chucks. Instructor Bill give them a mini session on how to use their nunchucks. They thought this was the greatest thing in the whole world. Then we got to meet up with Charlie and Daniel Budd to go trick-or-treating. It was perfect spooky foggy cold Halloween weather and they ran from door-to-door with the excitement only two, four and six year olds can have. After spreading out, sorting, and eating lots of candy, and practicing their nunchucks, it was a good challenge to get our little pirate Wesley, Batman and dinosaur snuggled into bed. Happy Halloween my dear children.

Teig at 26 months

"I of oo ow much daddy/ mommy."   Teig, can  you go do that please? "course." 
Why did you do that Teig, "because horse poop."
some of Teigs' favorite things: 
1."wip wip!" (lipgloss) Teig is entertained for hours taking chap stick out of his pocket, putting some on, and then putting it back in his pocket over and over and over again.
2. coins and marbles, buttons.  He loves to have money jingling in his pocket
3. my iphone.  "can I old it, iphone?"
4. reading books to himself, puzzles, hot wheels, balls
5. Gum and candy
6. grapes, raisins, strawberries
7. blowing me a kiss at bedtime

Gender revealed

When the picture showed on the screen of the ultrasound, Paul and I were both pretty sure we were seeing boy parts.  Paul mouthed "boy" to me and we were both resolute.  Dr. Butto looked around for a bit and then determedly stated, "I don't see any boy parts here."  What!?! We sat spellbound.  We tried to breath.  We could not say a word.  Then finally I whispered, "are you sure?"  Again he confirmed that he was 99% sure that what we were seeing was female.  Could it really be?  I was so determined to be happy that we were having another boy that I had not let myself even imagine how I would feel if it were a girl.  I had not practiced, even once the scenario where he would say, "girl".  I was afraid to react.  I was afraid he would say, "oh wait, look here..." but he did not.  

I was so sure I would still be the only girl in the family, and that Teirje would be in my arms in 5 months that I could not even process the news fast enough.  Then the appointment was over.  Dr. Butto shook our hands and said, "you can run with that news can't you?"  and we walked out of the office still in complete shock and disbelief.  

Could it really be?  Do I really get to have a baby girl?  Do I really get to have a daughter to love and teach and connect with in that way that only mother and daughter can?  I am beyond thrilled.  I am ecstatic.   March 8th is going to be fun and the months of getting ready to have a girl in the house are going to be a blast too.  How long do you think I will be able to wait before I start designing girl stuff?  We'll balance out those boys won't be Juniper Gayle?  It's going to be a whole different dynamic in the Aanderud home now.  Watch out boys because you don't have any idea what is coming. :)  Yippee!

We went to Anona's house where the boys were waiting to hear the news.  We all crowded around the table and let Eirik and Joren share the knife as they cut into the cake.  When pink was revealed they both screamed "Girl!!"  Eirik said, "I'm going to have a sister!!!?"  They were so excited.  Teig jumped up and down for joy.  It was awesome!  They have all been saying how much they want a sister.  They are going to be the best big brothers!  Yeah!

Anticipation...

Waiting for news that you have no control over can be excruciating.  We have been doing a lot of waiting.  We have been waiting to hear what the doctor we are hoping to buy the practice from in Oregon will say to our letter of intent.  We are waiting to hear back from the leasing agent about the new space we intent to build out.  We are waiting to hear if we are approved for the loans we have applied for, and we have been waiting for mock boards to finally come and go, but most importantly, we have been waiting to find out if we will add another boy to our clan or a little miss.  The appointment for our ultrasound is today, in a few hours.  The days of this week have drug on and on.  I will be honest and admit that I have been watching tv shows every night to escape from all the anticipation and nervous energy.  Yesterday I finally sat down and got serious about picking out a name for a boy so that if it is a boy I will be excited and have a vision for boy #4.  Paul liked my choice.  We have spent many hours on this before and I know the names he likes so when I asked him about Teirje Dane Aanderud, he agreed.  I also spent some time rereading the birth stories of my second two boys and with each I wrote how surprised I was how much my heart could grow to love another child.  With those precious memories on the surface and with a name chosen, I am ready to accept another boy with an open heart and a lot of joy.  That said, we still have our hopes that the Lord will let us raise a little June bug, and I fear the disappointment, not of having another boy, but of not ever having a girl.  If I knew I were having more children, I would not be so nervous, but I am pretty sure this will be our last little one. 
So I have prepared a special way to announce to the boys the gender of the little pomme growing inside me.  I made two cakes today, one pink and one blue with identical white frosting covering them.  After the appointment, we will cut into the right one.  I am in knots of anticipation!!! And Paul is, as you can imagine, incredibly stressed.  Boards study means goodbye Paul for weeks and weeks of evenings.  We will be full of news soon!  Wish us luck.

Friday Night Family night

I mentioned in a previous post that I was planning a family photo with some pretty cool outfits.  I got my night.  I got one of the best nights I have ever had.  It was, I'll admit a tad selfish.  I dressed all my boys in my choice of clothes, made them stand in a beautiful field at twilight and have one of my best friends take lots and lots of photos.  They were great sports and I think they all liked their outfits except Paul.  He complained about his tie, but I really had no right to choose for him, I just hoped he would let me.  While we took pictures of Teig, Joren and Eirik ran out into the soybean field and picked a bag full of soybeans.  Eirik said, "mom, now you can have edemame all winter!"  They were so proud of their harvesting and so was I .  My little gentlemen were perfectly behaved and posed like little professionals.  I could not have been happier with them.  Then we treated them to family night out to pizza in Ann Arbor.  It was a fancy pizza place downtown where we had to park a few blocks away.  We are rarely out past dark and all of us walking together all dressed up in hats and ties made it feel like a really special occasion.  My darling gentlemen were stared down by adoring pizza patrons the whole way into the restaurant.  They were a darling sight to see.  As we ate together we were all so happy.  I got a wonderful vision of our Friday Family Fun nights tradition carrying on and when they are all older we will continue to go out and laugh and have a blast together.  These guys really are special and they do love each other tremendously.  I am pretty blessed.

Trip to the island of England with Sambo

In our house, Eirik almost always wakes up first.  I heard him talking to himself in the bathroom this morning.  To my surprise, I heard him say a bad word.  As I layed there thinking about if I should talk to him about it, I heard him talking again in the hallway.  As I listened, I realized he was praying.  It was the sweetest prayer.  "I love you so much Heavenly Father.  Thank you for everything, and thank you for your Son."  A minute later, he came in my room and told me that he had woken up feeling courageous and strong but then he had been tempted to say a bad word.  When he said it, he did not feel good anymore, so he decided to repent.  "Now I feel courageous and strong again!"  he said. 

I had a carved wooden stature from Aruba of a man in a loincloth.  We can him Sambo.  Joren like him and yesterday put on his own loincloth and told me, bye mom, I'm going on a trip with Sambo to the islands of England.  I told him that I would sure miss him, but have a great time and be careful and be sure to skype with me soon!  He waved and started walking away with this big statue as tall as him, and then I heard him sniffle.  Then he stopped and turned around, a big giant tear running down his cheek.  He looked at me and started sobbing.  "Mom, I will miss you too much!!"  I beckoned to him and he came and gave me a big hug.  I told him he could go on his trip tomorrow and today we could look at pictures of the islands I have visited together.  I got out my photo albums and we had a good "trip" around the world and down memory lane.

Tonight Teig would not go to sleep.  He cried and cried.  Finally Paul (he's the softy) got Teig out of bed and let him come downstairs to me.  Teig is talking now, but is new to saying a lot of things.  He has started to say "Oh Man" when he spills or doesn't get his way.  It is too cute for words.  He has been cracking us up and we have been listening hard to understand his new words.  So tonight when Teig came downstairs he said, "phone, call her."  I asked her who he wanted to call and he said, "ganma".  I always want to talk to my mom, so we called her and Teig told her "bed, cying, cying, I be bad."  I loved it.  He knew that crying and crying was a bad choice and he was being bad to be out of bed.  Oh, he is too cute. 
He has started singing "hello, hello" from Primary.  It's so cute.  (Did I already say that?)

Teig; talking and tantrums

Teig learned to talk... This week.  It seems like with all of our children they have reached a certain age and overnight they just decide, "now I will talk."  It has been great fun seeing him suddenly see how gratifying it can be to ask for, and get what he wants.  It's also been a bit hysterical when he throws a tantrum when he can't get what he wants.  It's not very nice of me to say it, but his tantrums are impressive.  We try not to give them a lot of attention, but I'll tell you a story in a second about a good one.
School starts in two days.  We have had a great time getting ready, buying backpacks, new lunch boxes, waterbottles and school supplies.  New jeans and hightops, flannel shirts.  I did not make it to many mom 2 mom sales this summer because of Paul's Sat. work schedules, so I have been "forced" to buy a few new items for school wardrobes this year.  It has been a very sparse gathering, but fun for mom anyway.  I decided it is time for mom to get her way and dress her boys how she wants to for an upcoming family photo.  I told Paul my plans and he basically rolled his eyes.  I said, "come on, I have three boys, let me dream.  It's all I've got."  Anyway, I have a plan and hopefully you will see some cute new family photos coming soon.
Back to school prep.  Tonight Paul decided to let the boys use his old cell phone as an alarm clock and tonight the boys are giving it a trial run.  As we plugged it in and Paul showed them how to use it, Teig got the green eyed monster jealous look and when we told him it had to stay plugged in or it would not work, he got really ...... really... upset.  He threw himself on his back, his breath was held ready for a giant scream.. as we waited, we tried to explain to him again and to help calm him down but someone started to giggle and then we all could not help it, which made him even more upset to which he threw himself over on his face and pounded his fists.  The scream had still not come and Paul said, "wait for it..." which made us all giggle even more.  Poor guy, when he finally screamed, it was deafening.  Don't worry, we gave him lots of love.  He is darling.  Oh, so absolutely darling.  The boys dote on him.  They hover and protect him so lovingly. 

It's creative

Joren has a new teacher at church.  He also has a new habit of forced burping all the time.  He has to leave the table when he does it, which doesn't phase him much.  He spends a lot of dinner time in the corner (burping).  His new teacher told me she asked Joren what his mom thought of his habit and he told her that she says it's creative.
HA!!

Bikes ahoy.

Tonight was a big night for all of my boys.  We decided to go on a walk after dinner, but instead of walking, Teig wanted to try out a big bike.  He figured out that he could ride the two wheel bike with training wheels all by himself.  He is just two, but he was cruising along at a pretty good speed all evening.  If we tried to help him, he would stop, move our hand off of his handlebars and then continue riding.  He only rode into a ditch one time, and then only cried for a minute even though he bit his tongue.  Joren decided he would give riding another try as well.  We have worked throughout the summer on bike riding but we haven't had success until tonight.  Joren's bike (actually Eirik's bike since Teig was on Joren's) is a little tall for him.  He can't get on by himself, but that did not stop him.  If we helped him up on the seat, he could ride all the way down the street with no help until it was time to stop because, again it was too tall for him and his feet can't touch.  He was so proud of himself!  He did not want to stop.  Next, Paul insisted that Eirik try.  Eirik has had a block about riding his bike. He has done it before, but he is missing the desire and pretty full of fear of falling.  Eirik cried a lot, but Paul insisted and threatened to take away a week of TV and spank him if he did not try.  And try he did.  He rode a long way by himself.  He did not enjoy it until I think the very end when he finally stopped crying enough to realize he had not yet been hurt and he was doing it.  We could not get Joren and Teig off the bikes at the end of the night so we went around the loop a second time.  I was so proud of all the boys.  They all learned new skills!  Maybe we will do family bike rides next year.. finally! :)

President mom

Today Eirik and his friend Charlie were starting to get on each other's nerves.  They had been playing together for most of the day and Charlie felt like Eirik was bossing him around and Eirik called Charlie a jerk, which led to some punching and some locking of doors and some yelling.  This is what we overheard,
Charlie: "You can't tell me what to do.  You are not the boss of me."
Eirik: "Maybe I can't, but my mom can.  She is the president of the Relief Society over the whole ward!"

Some funny messes

Teig is a picky non- eater.  I only successfully get a few bites in him each meal, so I was surprised one Sunday when Teig ate all of his half banana.  I congratulated him and took him right to the car.  Little did I know but his banana was in the pocket of his church pants and when we got to church it was smashed in a big sloppy mess down to his knees.  He looked at me and made a face like he does when his diaper is stinky and pointed his pants.  Then he made the baby sign for banana.  Ha!

The other day I was sleeping a bit later than the kids and they ran into my room to tell me that Teig had killed baby eggwin.  I found that Eirik had hidden an egg behind the couch the day before as he played baby eggwin with him.  Teig found him in the morning and broke him all over the floor, couch and draperies.  It was lovely.

The Summer Begins

The fireflies are out in MI.  It is magical.  I was worried how our days would go, so I have over prepared and it has been paying off.  We have had a wonderful, and somewhat high raising, transitional first week of summer vacation.  I found a ton of ideas of fun things to do on Pinterest and made a shopping list including things like ivory soap, water balloons, shaving cream, pool noodles, glow in the dark paint etc.  We went out and loaded up on the goods yesterday morning.  I also bought sand toys and a slip and slide.  The Myrabo sisters; Lizzy and Abby came over and helped the boys blow up water balloons and then helped them throw them at each other in the afternoon.

 

Then we got the squirt guns out and had another water battle.  Later, Dee came over bringing a huge load of decorations for a beach party.  I told her about Joren's obsession with drinking coconut milk on a beach and that we were planning to throw a beach party.  She brought a blow up palm tree, hula skirts, leis, and straw hats.  I never imagined a blow up palm tree could elicit such excitement with anyone, but it had the right effect on my kids.  It was the first thing they wanted to do when they woke up and after our 1.5 hours of table time that I am going to insist on every day for the summer, we got right to work inviting friends for an impromptu beach party today.  We got three kids to come, which was a little less than ideal, but we drank coconut smoothies out of coconut glasses, had pop cycles and slid down the slide with the hose on it into the pool.  The best part was that I found some Hawaiian steel drums music on a new app on my iPhone.  It really set the mood.  We had a great afternoon, which we followed by a night at the movies seeing the new show Brave.  Paul and I loved it, but the boys were too scared,  Teig stayed at Lizzy's.  The bears were pretty scary, but Paul and I got to snuggle our kids tight and cover their little eyes.  Paul cried a little, he later told me, because our little guys won't always let us snuggle them like that.

 

Eirik braved the tropical storm after our beach party bringing in the last of our goods.

 

I got this great picture of Joren eating a turkey leg from the Father/ Son stake campout they went to last week.  Joren delights in being a "man"!

  

Tonight we had fish sticks for dinner and he said, "mom, that's not fish, it's coyote meat, and I killed it!" I also found him chopping wood in the backyard with the axe he made me lash for him with the wood and twine he brought to me.

 

He had it pretty rough today because the big boys kept making him be the bad guy or the zombie in all the games and they kept destroying him.  He also did not enjoy getting squirted with the water and he got hurt a bunch of times.  Then Tor knocked him off the porch onto his face and made him drop his soda.  He's been a really good sport about being Eirik's "minion" most of the time, but I think it might have caught up with him today. 

 Joren has some reading and writing goals for the summer.  He was very positive this morning, even encouraging Eirik who was not.  It was fun to see them reverse rolls for a minute.

 This happened just after table time when I turned my back for a minute.   I let him keep it in his hair all day.  I knew he was pretty proud.  It's his punk rock look.

  

This is the face Teig makes when you tell him to smile. :)

Today was all about Teig because it seems like he gets the short straw pretty often.  I could tell our extra attention helped and he had a better day because he didn't throw quite as many of his sensational tantrums.  He takes after Eirik in his talent for tantrums.  Impressive.  The kid will throw his head back on anything at 20 mph if he is mad.  I look forward to him being able to form a few more consonants!  He really understands us, but we sure can't understand him!  He sure is cute though!

Also, Paul covered for Grekin today by himself with 97 patients scheduled this morning.  82 showed up and he saw them all by himself.  That was just in the morning.  At lunch he went to the hospital for some paperwork and then up to Dr. Manz clinic where he did 4 surgeries.  Does that impress anyone else as much as it does me???

Miami 2012

Global Pathology labs in Miami invited Paul down to study slides for a week with them and guess who got to come along? :)  Paul was in Miami Sun to Sat and I met him Wed through Sat.  This felt like a real vacation. We sat in a hot tub, had a midnight dip in the pool.  We got to go out to nice restaurants like Sushi Siam where I had the best Thai dish I have ever eaten. I could not get enough.  Paul's sushi was amazing too. 

We got to walk up and down Lincoln street in Miami Beach shopping and enjoying the sights and people watching.  Thursday I spent 6 hours at the mall shopping.  I can't remember ever doing that before but it was great.  I found some great deals and I love my new clothes.  That night we went with Jesse to a restaurant called Nexxt on Lincoln street. 

We all ordered wonderful fish tacos and as we were finishing it started to rain.  A slight rain turned into a heavy rain which quickly became a howling torrential tropical storm.  We were more than 15 blocks from our car and we decided to run.  We were completely drenched and at one point we were running through puddles up to our calves.  It was a run we won't soon forget.  The next morning we spent a good 1/2 hour trying to find out the session times for the new Ft. Lauderdale temple, only to finally realize we could not find a phone number because it is still under construction!  It is not yet open, so instead we drove to Biscane Bay and rented a kayak. 

We layed in the 7" hot water on the sandbar that felt like it was in the middle of the ocean for a long while as the gentle waves lapped over us.  It was sensational.  We went to Coconut Grove shopping district for lunch and had Gyros and walked around for a bit.  An antique store there was quite interesting.
Our next adventure was awesome!  We stopped at Vizcaya, a mansion built by James Deering in 1916.  We got to tour the house and gardens.  It was incredible!  It was an amazing mix of my favorite Spanish Colonial style with a Miami/ tropical twist along with strict period rooms like neoclassic and rococo.  It was captivating to learn the history of the house and gardens and to imagine what it might have been like to be around when it was being built.  When we went into the dining room Paul said, "It feels a little weird in here."  We went out of the room and Paul repeated his statement to one of the tour guides and she said, "oh yes, it is haunted in there."  Paul went back in and the hairs on the back of his neck lifted again and he said he could definitely feel a strange feeling.  He left the room and it went away and went back in just to have it return 3 times.  We later looked it up and the website we visited said Vizcaya is like the holy grail of haunted houses.  Many sighting shave happened there.  It was an amazing place.  We bought a book about it because we wanted to learn more and we want to model our gardens after parts of the gardens there.  They were so stunning!  (I found these pictures on travel websites.)

 

That night we got to eat the meal I have been craving for 10 years- authentic Cuban food, shredded pork, yellow rice, black beans, caramelized onions and sweet plantains.  It was perfect!  Afterward we got Cold Stone Ice cream and watched TV in the room.  It was such a perfect weekend.  I love my Paul and it was a very nice way to celebrate Father's Day with him.

Playing Survivor

When my sister Amy was in town three weeks ago we watched Season 1 of a show called "Out of the Wild" about 9 people who volunteered to be dropped off in the middle of Venezuela and backpack out with no assistance.  The goal was to survive and find civilization. It made a great impression on me.  I think I spend an excessive amount of time thinking about survival and preparedness, even though I would not consider myself a very eligible candidate for one who would actually survive some kind of disaster.  Anyway, I told the kids about the show and they decided they wanted to watch it so we turned on season two about surviving in Alaska.  After 3 episodes they decided they needed to play Survivor so we had to dig up the winter clothes (because Alaska is cold, right?) and get out Paul's hiking backpacks, which I made heavy by secretly adding gallons of Apple juice, and we set off to survive in the wilderness. The woods behind our house has become a great sanctuary.  It is magical back there.  We have built a pretty impressive little stick fort.  On our expedition we hunted moose and bear and hung them up to make jerky and we foraged for berries and nuts and made a stew over a "fire" we built.  I made a snare and taught the kids how to make their own too.  Then Paul gave us a Survivor 101 class.  It was a lot of fun and we made plans as a family to go on lots of real outdoor adventures.

Can I drink out of a coconut shell when I grow up?

For months now Joren has been asking me the same question: "When I grow up, can I go to a beach and drink coconut milk out of a coconut shell and lay in a hammock?"  The kids remembered the one I made for them in the old house so they asked me for a sheet.  I told them we did not have any trees close enough together but I challenged them to try to come up with something anyway.  They went outside and thought of hanging it on the swing set!  Brilliant.  It worked great.  It's awesome when the ideas don't all have to come from me!  Of course I felt guilty being in Miami last weekend laying on a beach looking up at coconut trees above us so when we got home I did my best to try to make a bit of his dreams come true.  I made some coconut/ lime smoothy and encouraged him to lay in his  hammock in our backyard and turned on some Hawiian music and let him relax for as long as he wanted.  I think he really liked it.  You can see here, he is winking at me!  What a little charmer.