The Standfest Family

Matthew's Baby Brother

2011-11-18T17:40:00.003-05:00

Matthew has decided to be a great big brother and share his toys with his baby brother. He very gently holds Duplos up against my belly and tells me that it's "Bay-bee's turn!"

Progress on Our New Diet

2011-11-08T12:17:00.002-05:00

We've been on the GAPS diet since July to heal our family's food intolerances. It hasn't been easy, but we are very excited to announce that Brendan is now healed of his dairy intolerance! He has had a glass of cow's milk at supper every night for the past week without any of his old symptoms. Luke is making excellent progress as well. He can have cow's yogurt regularly and a little cheese now and then without trouble. We haven't yet tested him on milk, but I don't think it will be too long before we're able to do that.
Nicklas has had much more trouble, but he is slowly progressing. We have finally managed to pinpoint the rest of his food intolerances on this diet and we're extremely happy about that. We always knew that there something else that he had trouble with, but we just couldn't figure out what it was. It turned out he has problems with onions, tomatoes, celery AND parsley - all things we ate on pretty much a daily basis which made diagnosing them virtually impossible.

Matthew and the New Baby

2011-11-06T18:16:00.002-05:00

I've been talking to Matthew about the new baby quite a bit lately - how he's living and growing in Mama's tummy, how he'll be born after Christmas and such. The other day, he really got to feel the baby kick a lot and understood what it was. He was beyond thrilled! The pure joy in his eyes at feeling his baby brother kicking his hand almost made me cry. The rest of the day he was telling everyone that the baby kicked his hand, holding up his hand to show them. Also, he keeps pulling up my shirt and poking at my belly button, asking if the baby can come out yet. Yesterday, I told him that no, the baby still needs to get bigger. He looked at me very seriously, patted my belly, and said, "Baby big, Mama."

Nicklas' Writing Skills

2011-11-02T10:55:00.002-04:00

Today during school, as Brendan was finishing his spelling, I gave Nicklas a warning that he would be starting his reading lesson in just a couple minutes. When it was time, I looked over at what he was doing (he had been drawing) and saw this written in his notebook:
"MAMAIDON
TNEEDtO
HAVAreeDiNg"
Translation:
Mama, I don't need to have a reading (I presume "lesson" was about to be written here).
I told him he did too need to have a reading lesson and sent him to the couch.
Then, I handed the notebook to Michael to read and ran off to the kitchen to laugh!
For a 3 1/2 year, he has amazing reading and writing skills and naughty though he was, it was still a pretty good attempt at getting out of a lesson.

Photo Albums

2011-10-17T14:49:00.001-04:00

I've posted links to Picasa albums of the scrapbooks I've made for Nicklas and Matthew's first years. I'll add Brendan and Luke when I finish them.

The News from the Farm

2011-10-14T16:34:00.005-04:00

Well, that last batch of kits didn't make it. Sad, but not too surprising. They were quite small and we knew there was a good chance of losing most, if not all, of them.
The boys are all doing well in school. Luke and Nicklas are progressing in their reading lessons and Brendan has finished his first math book and begun his second.
Matthew loves to talk about baby bunnies and "din-dins" (chickens).
Baby 5 is growing and wiggling lots.
Lucy is mostly housebroken now and will probably be moving outside soon. First we need to get some kennel panels though.

Surprise!

2011-09-20T21:40:00.002-04:00

This morning Michael went out to check on the rabbits and discovered that there were a number of brand-new kits in Daisy's hutch. Linus was removed from her hutch exactly 31 days ago, the morning after the previous litter was born. I guess it's true that rabbits can get pregnant again within hours of giving birth!
I moved the new new kits into a nest box and placed it outside of the hutch; mother rabbits don't do anything with their kits during the day anyway. This afternoon, we set up another hutch and moved the older batch of kits to it. Ideally, they should still be with their mother for another week, but they know how to eat pellets and drink water, so they should be okay. And if we leave them in Daisy's hutch, the new kits will have no chance at all.
Matthew was thrilled to get to pet each of the kits as we moved them from one hutch to the other. He absolutely adores them; his favorite words lately seem to be "baby bunnies!" Usually said very loudly and with great enthusiasm.
Lucy is doing well. She still has a problem with biting in play when she gets too wound up, but it is slowly getting better. She's sleeping through the night more often now and having fewer accidents in the house. She's also learning to sit. As soon as she sees the bag of treats, she sits beautifully!

It's Been Awhile...

2011-09-14T13:22:00.002-04:00

... but I'm gonna try doing this again.
We have several new additions to the house since my last post.
- Monica has given us four kittens: Tom, Honey, Peter Pan, and Katzie
- 2 Goats: Yukon and Xtra
- 3 Rabbits: Rex, Linus and Daisy. Linus and Daisy have given us 7 kits, now 3 1/2 weeks old
- 21 Chickens
- A 2 month old smooth collie puppy named Lucy
- And most importantly, our fifth SON is expected to arrive by mid-January

We've been rather busy here with endless animal chores, housebreaking a puppy, and of course, schoolwork! Brendan is beginning second grade, Luke is in Kindergarten, and Nicklas is doing preschool. Luke and Nicklas are both learning to read and both are doing a spectacular job!

An Update

2010-03-25T14:02:00.002-04:00

Our nephew Christian was born on March 15, so Brendan, Matthew and I went to Milwaukee to visit and help out for a little while. Luke and Nicklas are hanging out with Daddy back in Boone. We'll all be going home on Saturday. I've been enjoying my time back here with family, but I miss Michael, my middle boys, and my own home.
Matthew has learned to pull himself up on furniture while we've been here. He thinks it's very exciting but it has increased the number of bumps and bruises he has! He also enjoys trying to sneak up on Oma and Papa's pomeranian, Kit.
Brendan has been being a good helper as always. He's almost done with his reading book and his kindergarten math book. We've begun reading Paddington Bear together, which he loves. He's also gotten to hold Christian a few times!
After we get home, we'll be building a chicken coop pretty soon and once we get back from Christian's baptism in mid-April, we'll buy some chicks! Brendan's very excited about the idea of helping take care of the chickens.

New Teeth!

2010-02-14T23:23:00.003-05:00

There are six new teeth in our house! Brendan has cut all four of his six-year molars and is very proud of the fact that he now has 24 teeth - more than any of his brothers. And Matthew has finally cut his first two teeth! He's been drooling and chomping for a few months now; we've been expecting teeth "any day now" for at least two months. He cut his first, the lower left, on the 11th, when he was exactly six months old. He cut the lower right tooth on the 13th, his Papa's birthday.
Papa and Oma came to visit this past weekend. My mom and I tore up the carpet in the living room with a great deal of assistance from the older three boys. Luke and Brendan were working on pulling up staples and Nicklas wandered around with a pair of kiddie scissors randomly snipping at carpet and padding. Later that evening, Mom and I slightly rearranged the furniture, turning the TV armoire at an angle in a corner. Michael and my Dad hooked up a new receiver (our last one was fried in the recent power outages). When Luke got up the next morning and came into the living room, the first thing he said to me was, "Mama, why is the receiver black now?" Nothing about the fact that he had to look in a completely different place to see the receiver in the first place, just that it was a different color. Papa and Oma also brought us a fish tank and stand, which is now set up in our dining room and is occupied by one blue and red beta fish named Thomas. We'll be getting a couple more fish later this week most likely.

Latin

2010-02-02T17:32:00.003-05:00

We've been teaching Brendan Latin in school. No, we don't speak it ourselves, we've found a great program, Prima Latina from Memoria Press, that he (and Michael and I) are learning from quite well. But I didn't realize just how much the younger children were picking up until yesterday when Nicklas began to insist on calling his water bottle an aqua bottle. At supper Brendan was talking about one of his vocab words, amici, which means "friends". He was wondering how to say "my friends" and said "Oh, mea!" At which, Nicklas replied with "culpa." As in one of Brendan's recent vocab words, mea culpa, which means "my fault."

It's Been Awhile...

2010-01-29T17:00:00.004-05:00

But we're back. I don't know just how often I'll post, but I'm gonna try to keep posting somewhat regularly.

June 7

2008-06-07T15:53:00.002-04:00

This morning Luke was sitting on my bed and playing with some plastic hangers while I was packing clothes. He was holding them up and telling me what colors they were. "Pink!" "Green!" And then he held up a white one and said "Cow's Milk!" I laughed and told him it was white, but apparently he knew better than I did as later, when we were at Menard's, I was picking up some paint chips and found one that was indeed, named "Cow's Milk." I almost fell over laughing right there in the middle of the aisle.
And in Nicklas news - he sat himself up for the first time today. He's been trying to figure that one out for a few days now, but I figured it would be a bit longer than this before he actually pulled it off. He was playing on the floor in front of Papa, laying on his side, and then he was sitting up!

June 1

2008-06-01T20:02:00.002-04:00

The other day, I walked into the kitchen to find Luke carefully pouring a glass of water into my drawer of dish towels. No idea why.
Nicklas is moving pretty fast now. It's quite impressive just how fast he can crawl across the living room.
Brendan is still proudly telling everyone the First Commandment.

From the Mouths of Babes...

2008-05-27T08:53:00.002-04:00

Last night, Michael was reading the Scripture lessons for next Sunday during our evening devotion. The last verse of the Old Testament lesson was:

and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

Brendan looked up and said, "Daddy, 'The First Commandment: You shall have no other gods before me!'" He was quite proud of himself and we were very proud of him for connecting those two things.

May 26

2008-05-26T20:21:00.001-04:00

Watch out world...

...Nicklas is scooting!

May 21

2008-05-21T14:24:00.001-04:00

Brendan's new favorite hymn is "Lord, Keep Us 'Standfest' in Thy Word". The rest of us refer to it as "Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Thy Word".

May 17

2008-05-19T09:38:00.001-04:00

Awww!
Brendan and I were just working on his Uppercase Letters workbook and were practicing the letter "I". The page had a picture of an ink bottle and I pointed out that "I" is for ink. He looked up at me and said, "Mama, 'I' is for I love you."

May 12

2008-05-12T07:04:00.002-04:00

Nicklas has figured out rolling as transportation! He likes being able to get to his brothers' Quatros (huge Legos), Luke's Crocs (very tasty), and books (also very exciting). He does NOT like the leg of the couch (ouch!, plus it stopped him from rolling further) or rolling over so that his back lands on a toy (ouch, again!).
He is also pushing himself up on his hands and knees, but that doesn't last long. He has no balance yet, so when he pushes up, he quickly falls over onto his side.

May 8

2008-05-08T14:50:00.002-04:00

Nicklas is now rolling over in both directions and is quite proud of himself for that achievement. He also now weighs 16 pounds! He holds his head up very well while on his belly and is even starting to get his belly off the floor for short periods of time! Maybe we'll have another early crawler/walker just like Luke was... He's also a wiggle-worm. When I go to get him up from a nap, every time I find him in a completely different spot than where I laid him down.
Luke is still working on potty-training. We have occasional successes, but progress is slow. The entire day of Call Service he stayed dry! But most days he only goes once or maybe twice. I asked him yesterday why he wouldn't go in the potty. His response was, "Oma". "Oh, will you go for Oma?" "Yeah!" "Will you go for Papa?" "Yeah!" "Will you go for Mama?" "No." Oh boy, this is going to be a challenge!
Brendan is, as always, a huge help to me. He is learning to do more and more chores. He can make his bed reasonable well (for a 3 year old), can get himself dressed, puts the towels from the bathroom into the washer, puts away the silverware from the dishwasher, gets out bibs and napkins for supper, and two days ago, he got Luke dressed completely on his own and without being prompted by me! He is very sweet to Nicklas, getting him toys, wiping up drool and spit-up, and reading books to him.
Yesterday, Brendan informed me that he was a pumpkin and Nicklas was a bugaboo. "And Luke? What's he?" "Spoiled!" Sung a la Aunt Becky. At which, Luke jumped up and began running in a circle, singing "spoiled!" over and over.

April 17

2008-04-17T15:14:00.002-04:00

He's catching on...
When I put Nicklas down for naps or to bed at night, he has begun to cling desperately to my arm as I lower him down. "If I hold on tight enough, she'll give up and not make me take a nap!"

April 5

2008-04-05T13:27:00.001-04:00

At noon today, I asked Luke if he would like a sandwich for lunch. "No." "Well, what would you like?" "Bread!" "Would you like anything on your bread?" "Ummm... Jelly!"
But he didn't want a sandwich for lunch...

March 6

2008-03-06T09:59:00.002-05:00

I meant to update here a few days ago, but I've been rather busy.
Brendan told us a few nights ago at dinner that when he gets very, very bigger he is going to be a pastor.
Nicklas had his two-month check-up yesterday. He weighs 12 pounds, 4 ounces and is 23 1/2 inches long!
We traveled to Wisconsin last weekend to attend a friend's wedding. Brendan is still talking about "the party."

February 24

2008-02-24T15:02:00.003-05:00

Since we've all been pretty sick this week, nothing too exciting has happened. Luke fell and bumped his head once while I was nursing Nicklas, so Brendan ran and got the "green stuff" (Burt's Bee's Rescue Ointment) and put some on Luke's hurt. That was pretty cute. Also, Brendan has a new word. Boogity, boogity, boogity! That's what Daryll Waltrip yells at the beginning of every NASCAR race and now Brendan says it too. It's really kinda funny to listen to him try to say that.

February 17

2008-02-17T11:07:00.003-05:00

Monday-
My Birthday! Michael gave me a baby playmat that I've wanted since Luke was born. I love it; it's so cute and nice. Michael's parents gave me a gift card to JoAnn's - thank you so much.
Brendan was looking through the Oompa Toy Catalog and saw a picture of a set of blocks he has. He immediately ran to get his blocks and arranged them just the way they were in the picture.
Wednesday-
Papa's Birthday! I went into the kitchen this evening, shortly before the boys' bedtime to find Luke stretching as tall as he could trying to reach a package of cookies on the counter. When he saw me, he brightened up and said, "Mama, up pease! Key-key! (cookie)" He apparently thought that I would pick him up to get a cookie 15 minutes before bed.
Thursday-
This morning, Michael got up with the boys and let me sleep just a bit longer. He helped them make Valentines for me. Once they were made though, they weren't going to let me get any more sleep. They ran in to give them to me; they were so proud of themselves! It was quite sweet.
Friday-
I came down with the nasty cold that the boys have been fighting. Yuck! Brendan kept unbuttoning the bottom two buttons on his shirt today. About the fourth or fifth time, I asked him why he was doing that. "Ummm..." "Are you unbuttoning your shirt because you're silly?" "No, ummm... I unbutton my shirt 'cause... I HANDSOME!" Oh dear, I think I'm in trouble here.

February 10

2008-02-10T14:51:00.000-05:00

Nicklas is growing so fast! He had his one-month checkup this past week and weighed in at 10 1/2 pounds! That's almost four pounds gained since birth, almost a pound per week! He's a sweet and happy baby, believes he should always be held, and sleeps well most of the time. He just started giving real smiles yesterday. He also enjoys being gently bounced.
Luke is very sweet with Nicklas. This past week, during lunch one day he ran off to the living room where Nicklas was beginning to fuss a little on his blanket. When he came back a moment later I peeked into the living room to check on Nicklas myself; Luke had just propped a book open next to Nicklas for him to look at! I also saw him "reading" to Nicklas one evening this week. He had his own colors book and he was showing it to Nicklas and telling him the colors and what the pictures were. So adorable!
I've been busy working on their godfather's ordination stole recently. The other day, while I was working, I heard Brendan behind me, telling Luke that he was making him a stole. I looked, and there was Brendan, sitting on the ottoman, with my tape measure stretched out in front of him, pretending to weave a stole for Luke.
Also this week, Brendan told Elizabeth Richert that he loves her.

January 30

2008-01-30T15:58:00.000-05:00

Nicklas is doing great. He sleeps well, eats well and is growing so fast! He's already over 9 1/2 pounds - he was only 6 pounds, 11 ounces when he was born! I've had to put away all the newborn clothes already (sniff, sniff). He's very cuddly, he would be quite content to be held all day. As a matter-of-fact, he's napping in my lap as I type this. I'm getting pretty good at doing quite a lot of stuff while holding him.
Luke got a haircut the other night. I had only wanted to trim the back, that was the only part that was too long. But he wasn't going to sit still for that, so I had to get out the clipper. He didn't sit still for that either, but at least there wasn't so much risk of me snipping him that way. I cut it with the longest comb, but it's still so much shorter than I'm used to! He looks very handsome and his eyes look huge now. He also looks older, more like the almost-two-year-old he is. Last night, he told me that he was an animal. Not any specific type of animal, just an animal. I was informed that the animal wanted a kiss.
Brendan is learning to dress himself. He can do everything except buttons, snaps, and socks. But it still saves me a lot of time. He does everything he can while I get Luke dressed and then I just help him finish up. He's got quite an imagination. He's starting to create conversations between his toys.

January 23

2008-01-23T15:42:00.000-05:00

I was informed by Brendan this morning that Luke is a soccer monster (it's from Backyardigans) and he, Brendan, is a Packer. He then proceeded to run around the house with his little toy football and make touchdowns. This involved him spiking the ball and yelling "touchdown!" He had to be told not to make any touchdowns by Nicklas' head, though. I think he made about twenty touchdowns or so; the Packers probably could have used him the other night!

January 22

2008-01-22T11:08:00.000-05:00

A few minutes ago, I was holding Nicklas and burping him when Brendan climbed up next to me and, very quietly, sang "Jesus Loves Me" to Nicklas. He sang through the entire first verse! I was quite impressed as he usually only sings the refrain.

December 16

2007-12-16T12:07:00.000-05:00

Brendan keeps asking for Nicklas to come out now. He knows that Nicklas won't be coming out until after Christmas, but he also knows that when Nicklas comes out, Oma is coming. The other day he held a baptism for the baby Jesus from the Nativity scene. He had all the figures around Jesus and he was saying "baptism, baptism, baptism..."
Luke has been telling us lately that he's the baby. He points at himself and says very insistently, "BABY". We may be in for a bit of trouble...
Tomorrow, Brendan turns three! He's very excited about this and likes to tell people that he's going to be three years old. He's looking forward to the candles on the cake.

November Recap

2007-12-02T14:12:00.000-05:00

Everything's going well here. Brendan's learning to read. Luke has developed a habit of of running in circles around the living room, grinning and screeching. We call him "crazy baby". About a week ago, Michael was having a beer with dinner and Brendan asked me if I wanted some. I said no, I couldn't have beer because I have a baby in my tummy. Well, the other night, Michael was having a root beer in a brown glass bottle (Brendan thought it was beer). Michael offered me some and Brendan scolded him, "Daddy! Mama not have beer! She have baby Nicklas in tummy!"

One More Post...

2007-10-18T22:42:00.000-04:00

Since Luke was an absolute bear to put to bed tonight, I thought I would mention a few good and cute things he did today.
He folded his hands very nicely for prayer before dinner. Often, requesting that he fold his hands results in one of his infamous meltdowns.
He put his crayons away without any complaint when Michael asked this evening.
He woke up in a wonderful mood. Of course, he was a puppy, but he was at least a happy puppy.
After bedtime prayers, we sang "All Praise to Thee, My God, This Night" and he folded his hands and sang along. Well, he sang until we got past the part about the dump trucks. He was done then. Bet you didn't know there was a stanza about dump trucks in that hymn, did you? Well, there is, Luke composed it tonight. It goes something like, "Ah do bah doo dee dee ah, dump truck dump truck dump truck, ah dee bah doo..."

Tummy ache!

2007-10-18T17:53:00.001-04:00

After dinner tonight, we let the boys have cookies. This is a very rare treat in our house, so the boys were quite excited. When Brendan finished his cookies, he asked for more. I said no, that too many cookies would give him a tummy ache. He looked at me and said, "Brendan WANT tummy ache!"

October 18 - St. Luke's Day

2007-10-18T09:33:00.000-04:00

The Lesson I Learned Yesterday:

When you are standing in the kitchen washing dishes and your almost 3-year-old announces from the living room, "Mama, Brendan cleaning!" Do not simply assume that he's playing with his toy broom as is usually the case when that announcement is made, say, "Thank you, dear." and go back to your dishes. Oh no, not a good idea. You REALLY ought to go to the living room and find out just what he is cleaning and more importantly, what he is cleaning it with...

...He might, just might, be scrubbing the living room carpet with his brother's toothbrush.

October 14

2007-10-14T22:13:00.000-04:00

Brendan is absolutely loving feeling Nicklas kick lately. He will come up to me throughout the day, place his hands on my belly, and say, "Nicklas! Kick Brendan's hands!" He is so delighted and laughs hysterically when Nicklas actually does kick. He also asks Nicklas to come out and play. He's starting to understand that it's going to be a little while yet before that happens, though.

September 27

2007-09-27T16:41:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm getting really bad at this. I've been a bit busy, I guess. Anyway, we found out that we're having a third boy! Everything is going really well with the pregnancy; I feel great and the baby, Nicklas, is growing and active. Brendan really enjoys feeling Nicklas kick and wiggle, Luke isn't so thrilled by it. Of course, Nicklas does seem to have a habit of kicking Luke while he snuggles with me...
I started Preschool with Brendan at the beginning of the month. He's such a bright little boy and I love watching him learn. He already knows his numbers from 1-10 and can actually count objects up to about 6 most of the time. He knows most of his colors and shapes and is getting much better at coloring. He knows most of the Lord's Prayer and a good portion of the Apostle's Creed.
Luke is taking more and more, although he rarely does it in front of anyone but us. He can do several signs as well.
Both boys are obsessed with motorcycles. Thanks, Dad. Lately, the keyboard bench has been being turned upside down and used as a motorcycle. Before that, it was the box that my photo printer came in.
My friend Becky and I took our children to the zoo earlier this month. Brendan loved the alligator and the jaguar; Luke wanted to join the kangaroo herd. Last week, she and I took the children to the fall festival at Salomon Farm. Luke was delighted by all of the tractors; Brendan enjoyed the petting zoo and the pumpkins.

August 6

2007-08-06T21:20:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's been so long. It's been a rather busy few months.
Brendan is completely potty-trained now!
Luke is starting to talk a lot more, although you still have to be paying very close attention in order to catch anything he's saying.
This afternoon I was finishing unpacking their room when I walked out to the living room to put something in the Co-op box. There was Luke, sitting at their little desk, sharing his pacifier with a stuffed puppy. He'd give the dog a turn, then take a turn himself. Very cute and sweet.
Brendan has fallen in love with Curious George. Oma bought him a book of Curious George stories last week and it is his new favorite. Today, he named his sock monkey "George". I pointed out that it wasn't actually Curious George and he looked at me and said very firmly and matter-of-factly, "George!" And that was that.
Our new house is very nice. I'm happy with it. It's much smaller than I'm used to, but I'm trying to use that as motivation to get us more organized and to get rid of the stuff we never use anyway. There are a few things that need to be fixed, but the landlord is working on them. It's going to work out well.
The new little one is doing great. Spends a lot of time bouncing around. Michael has already felt him move once. I'm so happy to be pregnant again; another new little one to love and raise, what could be more wonderful?

May 19

2007-05-19T20:16:00.000-04:00

Both of my boys are pastors now. The past few times that Brendan has been playing pastor on the stairs, Luke joins him. When Brendan sings, Luke sings. When Brendan prays, Luke prays. When Brendan turns to face the imaginary altar, so does Luke. Very cute.

St. Brendan's Day

2007-05-16T07:30:00.000-04:00

Happy St. Brendan's Day!
I gave Brendan a box of 24 crayons for his name day. He's thrilled! Right now, he's at the kitchen table trying out each color and helping Teddy color.

A Few Cute Moments to Share

2007-05-10T14:02:00.001-04:00

Brendan's meal prayer-
The other day at lunch, Brendan kept asking me to pray again. Well, we had already said Komm' Herr Jesu once, and after 3 or 4 extra prayers, I told him that if he wanted to pray some more, he was going to have to do it himself. He paused for a moment, fold his hands, looked up and said, "Jesus. Nummy, nummy carrots. Thank you. Amen." Then he ate his carrots. It's the first prayer he's come up with on his own.
No, Thank you, Luke-
Two days ago, Brendan was sitting in my lap, talking to my mom on the phone, when Luke walked up to us with a sippy cup of water. He offered it to Brendan, who responded, "No, thank you, Luke." That's the first time he's said no thank you. We've only been working with him on that for a little while, too.
Thank you, Pearl-
That same day, Brendan found a small feather on the floor. He brought it to me and asked what it was. I told him that it was a feather from Miss Pearl (our parakeet). He walked over to the bookshelf where she lives and said, "Thank you for pretty feather, Miss Pearl. Thank you!"
Signing "I love you"-
Yesterday, he mastered signing I love you. He started doing it at dinner, signing it and saying "Love you Luke! Love you Mama! Love you Daddy!" He was incredibly proud of himself. He did it again at bedtime, laying in bed and signing it to me while I rocked and nursed Luke.

Introducing Rev. Brendan Standfest...

2007-05-07T21:47:00.000-04:00

That's right, folks, Brendan is a pastor. He told me so himself. I was washing the breakfast dishes while the boys played and when I was done, I found them upstairs in my bedroom. Brendan was standing on the kneeler, wearing a cross necklace that he had pulled out of my jewelry box and chanting. When he saw me, he told me that Brendan was a pastor and could he have his Bible, please?

April 30

2007-04-30T14:45:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's been awhile since I last posted. I got a pretty nasty cold and then was very busy finishing the stole and then with trying to catch up on the housework that had been neglected during the illness and the completion of the stole.
Brendan and Luke are both doing great. We recently discovered that they both have wide feet. So we've spent a little extra money to buy them each a pair of Stride Rite shoes in wide-width. Brendan's look a lot like Daddy's, which he thinks is really, really neat! Luke's arrived today and he was so excited, he was trying to put them on over the pair of shoes he was wearing! He's recently decided that he really likes to wear shoes. He likes to stomp around the kitchen in them.
Brendan decided that he needs glasses like Mama and Daddy. On Saturday, we went to Cape Girardeau and stopped at LensCrafters to have Michael's glasses adjusted. I let Brendan try on a pair of kid's frames. He was thrilled and was quite upset when I took them off and put them away. So today at WalMart, we bought him a pair of sunglasses. They were even on clearance, yay! He was so excited to have his own pair of glasses! Oh, and Papa Tupper, he even figured out how to hang them from his shirt, like you sometimes do!
Luke has begun to talk a little. He said something sounding alot like Hello today. Yesterday, he said Austin, well, "Ah-tin", as in the kangaroo from the Backyardigans. He also has a word for peek-a-boo, but I'm not sure I can accurately write it down, so I'm not even going to try right now.
Yesterday, I was folding laundry and Brendan came in and started putting things away without even being asked! I was so proud of him for being such a good helper.
We've moved Luke into Brendan's room. So far, they're thrilled, but it's making for a very difficult bedtime. It's getting better, just very slowly. Brendan's being pretty good, but Luke keeps getting up, singing, bouncing, rattling the doorknob, etc.
This morning, Brendan drew a picture of church. He had been sitting at the table with a piece of paper and pen and called me over to show me the picture. There was actually part of the picture that vaguely resembled a steeple. He asked me to draw a cross there for him.

Family Photos

2007-04-13T08:34:00.000-04:00

We had our photos taken by Olan Mills yesterday at the Parish Hall. It was the first time that the boys have had professional portraits done. They refused to smile. The photographer did get some good ones, though. I hope that at least one of the family photos turned out well. There's one of just Michael and I that I think was really nice. I know there's a really cute one of Brendan giving Luke a kiss. There's a really nice one of just Brendan. I'm not sure if any of the ones of just Luke turned out well. Either way, I know we're going to be spending way too much money!
During the family pictures, Brendan started to get a little upset - he wanted Teddy. Luke picked up on the fact that Brendan was upset and had a meltdown. It reminded me of a couple days ago when Luke woke up from his nap in a terrible mood. Brendan tried giving him a pacifier to calm him down, but Luke refused to take it. Brendan was just devastated that Luke was upset and he couldn't make Luke happy again. It's so sweet to see how much they care about each other.
Oh, and I did eventually get Brendan to smile at the pictures by saying hamburger and french fries.

April 1 - Update

2007-04-01T23:39:00.000-04:00

Tonight as I was saying prayers with the boys before putting them to bed, I said the Invocation, then the Apostles' Creed, then the Kyrie. As I was saying the Kyrie, "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy", I realized that Brendan was whispering it right along with me, "Ohd ah essy, Eist ah essy, Ohd ah essy." He looked so proud of himself too!

April 1

2007-03-31T20:55:00.000-04:00

Not too much exciting happened this week.
One morning, I think it was Tuesday, I opened a jar of goat's milk to pour glasses for breakfast and set the lid on the table. Brendan saw the cream that had collected on the lid, said "MILK!", grabbed the lid and licked it. He had cream on his nose, lips, and chin and was quite happy!
Luke has discovered dancing. He spins around in circles until he falls down. Then he tries to get back up and keep spinning, but he's usually so dizzy that he falls back down before he gets all the way up!
He absolutely loves the Ergo Baby Carrier I bought with some of our tax return money. The Maya ring sling worked wonderfully when he was little, but now he's just a bit too heavy for me to comfortably carry him in it. So, I got an Ergo. It is wonderfully comfortable and fairly easy for me to get him in it on my back. I clip the waist buckle, set him on a chair, sit down in front of him, and he climbs right onto my back! He knows what needs to be done and he loves being in it, so he's quite willing to co-operate. Sometimes, he'll even bring it to me if wants to be carried. It's so cute when he does that! I do quite a lot of my housework with him happily on my back now.

March 25

2007-03-25T13:36:00.000-04:00

We're almost over our colds here. Just some runny noses to deal with yet.
I learned yesterday to make sure that the stickers are put away where Brendan cannot get to them. I went downstairs to change the laundry, came back up, and Brendan was covered with stickers! And Luke had a pair of cows on his bottom and a pair of zebras on his wrist. They were both quite pleased with themselves...

Potty-training is going fairly well. He still has plenty of accidents, but it's getting better and better. On Thursday, for the first time, he asked to go to the potty and actually went when he sat down. That was very exciting!
Our other exciting news is that goat's milk seems to be okay for the boys! We get it fresh from a friend of our neighbor. It's a little bit more expensive than rice milk, but it's so yummy! I never could drink rice milk myself, but I really like this goat's milk. Michael says I can't have a goat though. Oh well, maybe someday!

Happy Birthday to Luke!

2007-03-16T22:01:00.000-04:00

It was a good day, if you ignore the fact that Luke and I both have nasty sinus colds...
My parents arrived last night after the boys were in bed. Everyone woke up a little too early today. We had banana muffins for breakfast, played for awhile. Brendan found and opened one of Luke's birthday presents before anyone could stop him. While Luke took a morning nap, my mom and I made a chocolate cake. I made popcorn with dinner - Luke's favorite treat. And then we had cake! Luke didn't want to blow out his candle. He was fascinated by the candle and wanted to touch it, but he wouldn't blow it out. The cake was delicious, Brendan kept asking for more and more. Luke ate the frosting. First he used his fingers to eat the frosting and then he picked up his bowl and licked the frosting off of the cake. He only ate a couple small pieces of cake. Then we opened presents. He loved them all, thank you to everyone! After that both boys got a bath and put to bed.

March 18

2007-03-13T23:12:00.000-04:00

Bath time is so much fun! The other night, Luke decided to go bobbing for rubber ducks during their bath. I couldn't see what he was doing at first, but he kept ducking down and popping back up, laughing, and with his face dripping wet. And then he came back up with a duck in his mouth. He took it out and quacked. They have quite a few rubber ducks and Luke loves to play with them and quack. He doesn't just quack at the neighbor's dogs... Later on, after I had gotten them cleaned up, Brendan apparently decided that I hadn't done a good enough job on Luke's hair. He took the wash mitt, dipped it in the water, and wiped off Luke's head. Then he did it again several times more.
Brendan is becoming a wonderful helper to me. Today, while I was folding towels, he came over and asked for the pile of napkins. I knew that he knew where the napkins belonged, so I gave them to him and asked him to put them away. When he came back, I handed him a pile of dish cloths. He said "thank you" and happily walked off. After he was done with the dish cloths, I gave him the bibs. He said "thank you" again as he walked off. Thanking me for letting him help me, wow! When I got downstairs, I checked the drawers and he had gotten everything into the correct drawers! Not exactly neatly, but everything was where it belonged.
My parents came to visit for Luke's birthday and "Gamma" helped by starting to potty-train Brendan. He did it twice the first day and several more times the second day! I'm very proud of my boy.
Brendan has a new "Spiderman" trick. Our front window is very close to the floor. He gets his toes up on the sill and holds on to the top of the sash and sidles back and forth along the length of the window - probably about 9 ft.

Two recent pictures

2007-03-12T01:24:00.000-04:00

Brendan got a cut on his hand last night. Kira put some ointment on it before bedtime and also put a Backyardigans band aid on it. Once he realized what was on the band aid he was thrilled! He even tried scratching himself and asking for more band aids. We didn't give in. But it's good to know that if he gets hurt again, we can give him another band aid and at least distract him from the boo-boo.

Mama also helped Luke draw his very first picture. This was the first time that it was his own piece of paper (and not his scratches on his brother's picture). Mama helped him get crayons and to make sure that they didn't go in his mouth. He had fun and so did Mama.

March 11

2007-03-11T14:22:00.000-04:00

Ummm... I know stuff happened this week, but my mind is drawing a complete blank. Hmmm.

Well, I finished weaving the first half of the stole! That was so exciting. I cut it off the loom and everything. Later today or first thing tomorrow I'll start on the second half.
This morning, as I was changing Brendan's diaper, Luke came over with Teddy and dropped him on Brendan. Brendan said, "Dee do, Buke!" (Thank you, Luke!)
On Friday morning, the boys and I walked up to the Lanham's. As we reached their house, the dogs came running around the corner barking. Brendan started barking back. Luke started quacking.
This afternoon, Brendan helped me make soft pretzels. He had a great time playing with a little ball of dough. He tasted it too, but wasn't too impressed with that! He was very happy to get to eat the pieces he had made.
Lately, Brendan has been calling Luke "Buddy". I referred to Luke as that while cleaning him up after breakfast the other day and he's been calling him that ever since.

There's our updates for the week!

March 4

2007-03-04T21:04:00.000-05:00

Hello again.
I've been quite busy here. Working hard on finishing up an ordination stole for a Sem 4 student. Plus, trying to keep the house and family from sinking too far into chaos while I do that. Not an easy task...
My parents are coming to visit for Luke's 1st birthday. So, I've got to work on tidying up the basement for them to stay in. Shoot, and I should probably get Luke a present too, shouldn't I?!
Let's see, what else has been going on? We've been talking about potty training Brendan. But every time we ask him if he has to go potty, he says, "ummm... nope." Luke is finding plenty of mischief to get into. We have also learned that Luke loves popcorn and Brendan can't stand it. Brendan is speaking in sentences more and more now. Very cool! He can also be a great little helper to me.
We're going to be doing psanky here pretty soon. I'm really looking forward to that. It's been two years now since I've done it.

February 25

2007-02-25T12:37:00.000-05:00

A blessed Lent to everyone!
We have had a fairly good week here. Well, other than the fact that I twisted my ankle yesterday afternoon. Not sure when or how I did it, but it sure hurts.
Luke has cut his 6th tooth! He's been working on it for a while now and has been quite crabby about it, so this is a very exciting event for us! He also learned how to click his tongue the other day and spent hours doing it. He thought it was absolutely hysterical.
Brendan has his own laptop now. Well, in his imagination he does. He took the green box from the toy shelf, dumped out the cars that were in it, propped it up on the end table and started typing and told us that it was "Myenen's dapdot." (Brendan's laptop)

He also drew his first picture of Jesus the other day. Fortunately he told me it was Jesus... It was very cute, he was sitting at his desk and drawing a big blue circle round and round. When he saw me watching, he pointed to it and told me that it was Jesus.

February 18

2007-02-18T18:51:00.000-05:00

I've decided to cut back drastically on my internet use for Lent. Thus, I will only be online on Sundays. But, I will try to update the blog AND the website each Sunday. Which actually means that they'll probably get updated more often than they normally do!
We have some really nice warm weather coming our way the next week or so. I'm really looking forward to being able to take the boys outside to play more (without having to wrap them up in so much clothing that they can barely move)!
We had lunch with the deaf today after church. Brendan watched with fascination as they signed and after a few moments he started to "babble" in sign. Very funny and cute.
This morning was his first time having cereal with rice milk on it. He usually eats oatmeal or dry cereal for breakfast but today he noticed me putting rice milk on my cereal and asked for it on his. He did remarkably well. Only a few drips got on the table.
Luke slept through the night again last night! Yay!!! Some nights he does and some he doesn't, but it's definitely getting better. He's also starting to say Dada. I think Michael's pretty thrilled about that.
Well, dinner is ready so I'm going to go eat!

February 14

2007-02-14T17:55:00.000-05:00

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

We're all doing quite well here. My back is completely recovered! That's a huge relief and is making life so much easier for me. Brendan is doing very well in our home preschool, I'm quite proud to say. He's getting very good at identifying the colors, letters, numbers and shapes he's learned so far. And he loves to point out Jesus in the pictures he colors each week. Luke is a daredevil as always. I think he spends all his naps and nights dreaming up new ways to injure himself. He has cut his two top front teeth! He has the two side top ones coming in, I think maybe later this week - two weeks at most. He also seems to be starting to sleep through the night! A very exciting thing for me.

I've recently come up with substitutes for soy sauce and cheese that are safe for our family to eat! Yay! We can have stir-fry and macaroni and cheese again!

Enjoy Brendan's first post below. I was trying to get him to type the alphabet as far as he knows it (A-E), but he got a bit excited and threw in a bunch of other letters. I don't think any of you mind!

Brendan's First Post!

2007-02-14T17:52:00.000-05:00

ACCCCCBVCCCCCDDDDS WEEE

January 29

2007-01-29T21:35:00.000-05:00

"Ummm... No Ecks, Mommy. Bret!" Translation: Ummm... No eggs, Mommy. Bread! Except that it was pancakes, not bread and there were no more. Explaining that to a two-year-old doesn't work so well. He seemed pretty sure that I could just magically produce more pancakes for him and he wanted nothing at all to do with my offer of scrambled eggs instead. A minor meltdown ensued. On the plus side, this was his longest sentence yet!
Luke's not speaking in sentences yet. Give him a few more days. He's already got two words. Bye and Duck. And yes he does use them both in the appropriate contexts and yes he is barely 10 1/2 months old. He's learning to eat slightly pureed table food. He loves spaghetti and Spanish rice. He's not too thrilled about meatloaf and veggies.
I could use a few prayers. I got a knot in my back last week and it's gotten worse and worse. Saturday night and Sunday morning it was so bad that I could barely move. It's a little better today. It still hurts, but at least I can move without crying. Of course, with the slightest bit of improvement I went and overdid it. I did way more housework than I really should have today and it now hurts worse than it did this morning.

Updates

2007-01-18T22:40:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since I posted last. These last few weeks have been quite busy for us.

On New Year's Day we headed up to Wisconsin for my brother's wedding. Well, we tried at least. We got about two and a half hours down the road and discovered that Teddy had been left behind. Brendan was distraught. We had no choice but to go back - we know from experience that getting a new Teddy won't work at all. The next morning we actually succeeded at leaving for Wisconsin and got there in the mid-afternoon. After a busy and crazy week, it was finally Saturday afternoon and we went to the church to take pictures before the wedding. Got Brendan dressed in his little tux, got Luke dressed in his little suit, turned to talk to Lydia and heard from behind me - thud, scream! Luke had fallen and hit his head on a rather sharp edge of a table leg and gotten a deep cut in his eyebrow. I nursed him right away and decided that we needed to take him in to get stitches. So, Michael, Luke and I went to St. Mary's, which is really close to CUW, and Luke got three stitches. He did really well and everyone in the ER loved him. We got back to CUW in time to see Stephan and Penny's vows.

Even stitches can't slow Luke down. We still spent a lot of time chasing that child around the hospital and the church.
Michael and I after the wedding, in of those few brief moments in which neither one of us has a child attached to us!
I'd post a picture of Stephan and Penny, but I can't seem to find any really nice ones right now.

After we got home, everyone got sick. Brendan had pink eye and a sinus infection, Michael had pneumonia and Luke and I had nasty colds. We're all recovering now, but it made for a rather yucky week.

Then this week, I started preschooling Brendan! It's been lots of fun.

Here's a picture of Brendan pointing out the letter A for me on his preschool poster.

And here's Brendan pointing out the number 1. We are also doing Bible stories, shapes, sign language and other stuff as well.

Luke's First Sign!

2006-12-26T14:53:00.000-05:00

Today Luke signed for the very first time! I was holding him in the kitchen while Michael and Brendan were eating lunch when he reached his arm out and started to open and close his fist. At first I thought he was trying to reach for something on the counter, but if that had been the case he would have been leaning out of my arms and he wasn't. He was just sitting upright in my arms and signing milk! So I nursed him right away. He was thrilled! He kept signing milk while he ate and was just so happy. I'm so proud of my little boy!

Brendan's Baptismal Birthday

2006-12-23T19:01:00.000-05:00

Two years ago, Brendan was baptized. The day of his birth was wonderful, but the day he was baptized was glorious! What a blessed reassurance to know that our beloved little son was a child of God.
This is the hymn we sung at his baptism at Zion Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne on December 23, 2004

"Salvation Unto Us Has Come"
by Paul Speratus, 1484-1551


1. Salvation unto us has come        
 By God's free grace and favor;       
 Good works cannot avert our doom,        
 They help and save us never.        
 Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone,        
 Who did for all the world atone;        
 He is our one Redeemer.         

 2. What God did in His Law demand        
 And none to Him could render        
 Caused wrath and woe on every hand        
 For man, the vile offender.        
 Our flesh has not those pure desires        
 The spirit of the Law requires,        
 And lost is our condition.         

 3. It was a false, misleading dream        
 That God His Law had given       
 That sinners should themselves redeem      
 And by their works gain heaven.       
 The Law is but a mirror bright       
 To bring the inbred sin to light        
 That lurks within our nature.         

 4. From sin our flesh could not abstain,        
 Sin held its sway unceasing;        
 The task was useless and in vain,        
 Our guilt was e'er increasing.        
 None can remove sin's poisoned dart        
 Or purify our guileful heart,-       
 So deep is our corruption.         

 5. Yet as the Law must be fulfilled        
 Or we must die despairing,        
 Christ came and hath God's anger stilled,        
 Our human nature sharing.        
 He hath for us the Law obeyed        
 And thus the Father's vengeance stayed        
 Which over us impended.        

 6. Since Christ hath full atonement made        
 And brought to us salvation,        
 Each Christian therefore may be glad        
 And build on this foundation.        
 Thy grace alone, dear Lord, I plead,        
 Thy death is now my life indeed,        
 For Thou hast paid my ransom.         

 7. Let me not doubt, but trust in Thee,       
 Thy Word cannot be broken;        
 Thy call rings out, "Come unto Me!"        
 No falsehood hast Thou spoken.        
 Baptized into Thy precious name,        
 My faith cannot be put to shame,        
 And I shall never perish.         

 8. The Law reveals the guilt of sin        
 And makes men conscience-stricken;       
 The Gospel then doth enter in        
 The sinful soul to quicken.        
 Come to the cross, trust Christ, and live;       
 The Law no peace can ever give,        
 No comfort and no blessing.         

 9. Faith clings to Jesus' cross alone       
 And rests in Him unceasing;        
 And by its fruits true faith is known,        
 With love and hope increasing.        
 Yet faith alone doth justify,        
 Works serve thy neighbor and supply        
 The proof that faith is living.         

 10. All blessing, honor, thanks, and praise        
 To Father, Son, and Spirit,        
 The God that saved us by His grace,-        
 All glory to His merit!       
 O Triune God in heaven above,        
 Who hast revealed Thy saving love,        
 Thy blessed name be hallowed.

Brendan's Birthday

2006-12-16T22:32:00.000-05:00

Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet Brendan!
The past two years have been the most wonderful ones of my life. I thank God daily for the wonderful blessing he has given me in you, Brendan. You have cheered me up with your silly smiles and sweet kisses more times than I could count. Your hugs have melted my heart time and time again. Your innocent, exuberant giggles make me laugh, too. I have loved watching you grow from the not-so-tiny baby who needed me to do everything for him to the big, strong two-year-old who can get himself into his own chair, feed himself, scrape his plate in the garbage, and help his mama in many ways. I rejoice when I hear your little voice try to follow along with prayers and hymns and when I hear you proudly say "Amen!" at the end. I look forward to watching you continue to grow and follow whatever course God has set before you. I pray that your life will be blessed and happy, that you will one day find a loving wife and raise up wonderful children like yourself - ones that can melt your heart with their happy grins. But I'll miss the two-year-old you when that time comes. I'll miss the little boy who climbs up in my lap and wraps his chubby arms around my neck and says "Uv yu, Mama!". I love you too, my precious boy!

A Shameless Brag

2006-12-08T15:17:00.001-05:00

Brendan continues to amaze me with how fast he picks up sign language. Today he learned the sign for car. He heard a group of grackles chattering in the yard and started signing bird. He heard an airplane fly by and signed plane - complete with sound effects! Today I began to teach him fingerspelling along with the spoken alphabet. (I've been singing the alphabet song to him for a very long time, but I've just begun asking him to repeat the letters after me.) He tried to repeat every letter, sign and spoken. He got the pronunciation of almost half the letters right. His fingerspelling wasn't so great, but I've just begun to teach him that and it's rather difficult for such a young child to form those signs perfectly. He did make very good attempts at it. He signs many words while he says them.
He's also becoming a very polite, helpful child. He usually says please when he asks for something. And when he forgets, he's quite happy to say when we remind him. He almost always remembers to say thank you. I very seldom have to remind him of that. He hands me wipes when I'm changing Luke's diaper, takes things to the garbage when asked, helps me scrape plates after meals and today he "helped" me wash dishes.
Luke is walking fairly well now. He can even stand himself up now without holding onto anything! He hasn't started signing yet, but he does watch very intently when he sees people signing.

2006-12-03T11:23:00.000-05:00

Brendan has decided that the star on the Hardee's sign is sleeping. Every time we drive past Hardee's he points at it and shushes us. Sometimes he also signs "sleep".
Other than that, there's not too much going on here. I'm starting to look for a place for us to live in Fort Wayne next year. So if anyone wants to say a few prayers that something wonderful, cheap and really close to the Seminary will appear for me, that would be awesome!

Update

2006-11-29T15:07:00.000-05:00

We're all recovering from our colds now. Just a little bit of residual coughing and drippy noses left. Luke is getting much better at walking - last night he took 12 steps in a row! He's so excited about it. And he's such a tiny little guy still so it's funny to see him walking around!
Brendan is becoming quite the two-year-old. He's discovered the word "No" and uses it all the time, even when it's something he wants! As in, "Brendan, would you like to go outside?" "No! (Pause) Hat! Shoes!" Yesterday, he let me know that he wanted to know the sign for dog. He signed and said Daddy and then Mama and then he looked at me with a quizzical expression and said "Woof?" So when Daddy got home we asked him what the sign for dog was. Brendan learned it instantly. This morning, he came up to me holding a cow puzzle piece, barking and signing dog. I told him that was a cow and showed him the sign for cow and he learned that one immediately as well! His ability to pick up signs is amazing sometimes. I really need to work harder at learning more myself so that I can keep up with the pace at which he's able to learn them.

Sniffle, Cough, Sneeze

2006-11-21T12:04:00.000-05:00

That's the current soundtrack here in the Standfest house. All four of us are sick. Brendan started with it late on Friday and yesterday morning the rest of us were sick too. Brendan's almost over it, though. Hopefully, the rest of us will be feeling better soon. My parents are coming to visit for Thanksgiving and it wouldn't be too much fun to be sick for their visit!

Update

2006-11-11T21:14:00.001-05:00

Okay, the website is now at www.standfest.org.
There's still a lot of pictures left to be added, but I'm working on that as fast as I reasonably can.
We went to a wedding reception this evening at St. John's. I'd never met the bride or groom, but it was fun to get all dressed up. The boys had a pretty good time as well. I'll post a picture of us later.

Two Posts In One Day!!!

2006-11-09T22:37:00.000-05:00

I'm doing pretty good here, huh?
Luke tried walking again this afternoon. He'd pull up, let go, stand for a moment, step forward with his left foot... and then freeze. And then he'd get this panicked look on his face like he couldn't remember what to do next. Poor baby! Eventually, he'd fall down because he can only stand for so long.
He did climb onto the hearth and one of the living room chairs today. Those were both quite exciting to him.

After the boys both woke from their afternoon naps, I took them outside to play. It was so lovely outside! Brendan had a wonderful time playing in the leaves. I taught him to throw armfuls of them up in the air. He was so cute saying "un, do, dee, dush!" translation: one, two, three, whoosh! And throwing his little handfuls of leaves in the air. Poor Luke though wasn't so sure about being outside. He insisted on being in my arms the whole time.

Drumroll, Please...

2006-11-09T14:28:00.000-05:00

www.standfest.biz/beta

That's not its permanent home, eventually it will be moved to www.standfest.org. But for now, it's where it is, it's all set up and ready for people to see. Let me know what you think! Also, let me know if you find any typos or broken links and I'll fix them as soon as I can.

In other news, Luke took his first steps on the evening of November 7! Took us completely by surprise - by the time we realized what had happened, he was sitting on the floor, looking as though everything was completely normal. He hasn't walked anymore since, but wow! 7 1/2 months old and he's taken his first steps...
He's also very good at playing peekaboo. I showed him how to put a light blanket over his head and pull it off a couple weeks ago and now whenever he finds a light blanket (or the living room curtain) he starts to play peekaboo. Even if no one else is playing with him!

Brendan's getting to be more and more of a two-year-old. He's learned the word "no" and uses it a lot. It rarely gets him anywhere, but he keeps trying. He's getting more and more verbal as well and is picking up new words and signs very easily. Yesterday, we were playing with his alphabet blocks and he was pointing at the pictures and telling me what they were. I was quite impressed with how many he knew. The ones he didn't know, he would point at and look at me, I would tell him and he'd repeat it. He remembered many of those by the next time we came across that picture again.

Coming Soon

2006-11-03T15:17:00.000-05:00

Announcing...

Our new website! It's not quite done yet, but it should be ready by sometime next week. For now, our blog will remain right here but it may be switched over to the new site at sometime in the future. I just haven't decided yet if I like the blog program there or not.
I'll let you all know when the new site is ready and what url is.

New Words

2006-11-01T23:43:00.000-05:00

Brendan's new words:
"Dah Doh" = "Thanks be to God"
Not quite sure how that works out, but every time I say "Thanks be to God" during our family prayers, he says "Dah Doh". He's also getting very good at bowing for the Gloria Patri and is getting better at crossing himself.
"Jump"
Well, it's not actually that clear, but I can't figure out how to spell his actual pronunciation. He's learning to jump right now and says "jump" every time he tries it. Mostly, he just crouches down and stands up fast, but once in a while his feet do actually leave the ground.

Goofy Kids

2006-10-31T11:59:00.000-05:00

Brendan's ears are bugging him a little today, so I put some Hyland's ear drops in his ears. He wanted me to put them in his mouth. So I offered him a teething tab (they're tiny). He tried to put it in his ear.
This morning I let Luke try Gerber wagon wheels. I gave one to Luke and one to Brendan (if I hadn't given Brendan one, he might have tried to take Luke's). Brendan tasted it and gave his to Luke. So Luke was sitting there, one in each hand, taking a taste of one, then the other, then back to the first...

Christmas Wishlist

2006-10-22T18:45:00.000-04:00

For grandparents, aunts, uncles, and the like:
I've been asked a few times now for ideas for the holidays and have just created a new wishlist for Brendan and Luke for Christmas and Brendan's Birthday. It's in the right sidebar as "Brendan and Luke's Wishlist". A few more things will be added in the next week or so, but this is a start.

A Visit to the Park

2006-10-11T00:21:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, we took the kids to the park.

Our little dare devil Brendan loved the slide.

He also enjoyed pretending that he was a turtle.

Our family got to play on the teeter totter together. The boys really seemed to enjoy it. Here is a picture of Daddy and Brendan enjoying the teeter totter together.

Here is Brendan zooming past on his swing.

Here is a picture Mama and baby Luke's first time on the swing together. Luke enjoyed it, especially since he had Mama.

We had a great time at the park and will have to do it again sometime. Hopefully we can make it over there again before it gets too cold for the boys.

Luke has a new favorite teething toy, a target gift card.

Bumps, Milk and Block Stew...

2006-10-10T15:05:00.000-04:00

Oh, wow, it's been way too long since I've last posted! Sorry.
Luke's cruising and stood unassisted for two seconds today. I'm still in shock here over that. That boy is still a week away from being seven months old! He's also got a knack for gruesome self-inflicted injuries. He has more bumps and bruises... Just yesterday, he standing at the end of the hearth when he fell, bumping his head hard on the stone on his way down. We have a foam cushion on the edge of the hearth, but of course he missed that. He had one huge bump from that. The swelling's gone down now, but he's still got a colorful bruise.
Brendan is doing well. He's getting pretty good at drinking out of an open cup. At least until he decides that he's done and pours it out on the table without any warning. And then, "Oh wait! Maybe I wasn't done with that after all..." "Milk? Milk? Peesh?" (spoken and signed)
He's learned a few more signs and words lately and has finally begun to call me Mama. before this, I was simply known as "AhhhhhEEEEEEE!!!"
Yesterday, I was tidying up the kitchen and looked over to the dining room where the boys were playing. They were both sitting next to my Dutch oven, which was filled with blocks. While I watched Brendan folded his hands and prayed, Luke watched him very intently. As soon as Brendan said Amen they dug in, Mmmmm!!! What a tasty pot of Block Stew! So cute.

Luke Standing and Brendan's Ketchup

2006-09-23T15:03:00.000-04:00

A week or two ago, I wondered why it took Brendan so long to settle down for his nap. We put him in his room like usual, but he just seemed to take forever to settle down. Since he got to sleep late, we had to wake him up so he would eventually sleep at night. When we woke him up...

I found out why he had trouble sleeping. His room was clean when we put him down for his nap.

Brendan has taken up a new hobby, knitting. He pretends to knit whatever mama's latest project is. It's really cute.

Luke has been continuing to climb up on everything including our fireplace.

Here is a video of him caught in the act.

At least Luke has a huge smile on his face when he does it.

Here is proof he has conquered the stairs, without anyone's help.

Brendan has finally learned how to sign his favorite word, ketchup. it's not perfect, but it's pretty good considering he's only 21 months. He does know how to say ketchup, but signs it more often.

Here is Brendan signing ketchup both right and left handed. The only thing cuter than this was his big smile when he got some ketchup.

More Signing

2006-09-18T23:24:00.000-04:00

Brendan has now learned to sign thank you and ketchup. He's very excited about signing ketchup since it is his favorite food. We got a video clip of it tonight at dinner. Michael will add it later, I'm sure. He is also signing sentences! He has asked me for "more milk please" and "eat please" in the past two days. I'm very impressed with his signing development lately. I need to hurry up and learn more myself so I can keep teaching him more! And for those who worry - he does speak plenty too. He has a spoken vocabulary of about 50 words. He doesn't use them as often as he uses signs but he's still doing very well for his age.
Luke finally cut his first tooth! It only took about two months of screaming and sleepless nights... He is happily pulling himself up on everything and unhappily falling down from everything. I took him to the grocery store with me today and he rode happily in the carrier, sticking out his tongue at everyone we passed.

Cute!!!

2006-09-15T21:12:00.000-04:00

A couple cute moments:

Brendan has learned to say please. He says it and signs it at the same time. It usually comes out as "peesh", but it counts!
This afternoon, after nap, I read a few books to Brendan and then let him "read" to himself for a little bit while I played with Luke across the room. After a couple minutes, I looked over to see that he was reading Snuggle Wuggle. It's a cute little book with animals giving their babies hugs. How does a bunny hug? Snuggle wuggle, snuggle wuggle. Etc. When I read the book to him, I give each hug differently. He was paging through the book mimicking the hug I give for each animal! How does a monkey hug? Swing-a-ling, swing-a-ling. He was swaying back and forth. How does an otter hug? Tumble bumble, tumble bumble. He was bouncing up and down. It was so adorable!

An Update from Our Little Corner of Chaos

2006-09-11T15:04:00.000-04:00

That's what it feels like right now, at least!
Oh well.

The boys are doing great. Luke still hasn't cut a tooth, but he hasn't been quite as cranky about it the past few days. He's also learned to sit himself up and to pull himself to standing on the stairs! And this kid isn't yet 6 months old!!! I wouldn't be surprised one bit if he's walking in a couple more months. I was a very early walker and it looks like he's gonna take after me.

Brendan is still picking up new words and signs. His latest sign is "sleep". He's so funny with it - he'll sign it on one side of his head and then the other. And then he'll go back to the first side - back and forth... Usually saying "shhhh" while doing it. And his latest word is "ketchup". I was unloading groceries this morning and he pulled the bottle out of the bag and said it, very excitedly. It's one of his very favorite foods. We can get him to eat almost anything if we put ketchup on it.

Luke Videos

2006-09-04T15:14:00.000-04:00

I had some free time today and decided to take a few videos of Luke moving around. Then I tested out uploading them to Google to share them. Unfortunately, our camera only records 16 seconds and then stops, otherwise they would be longer.

Let me know what you think.

Luke is awake!

Luke is trying very hard to escape!

Luke escaped and is attacking Daddy!

Luke's Marathon

A Tricycle for Brendan

2006-08-30T22:12:00.000-04:00

Brendan got a tricycle today! We ordered it Sunday evening and amazingly it arrived this afternoon! I wasn't expecting it to arrive until sometime next week. Unfortunately, the helmet we ordered hasn't arrived yet...

But we let him ride it anyway. He was ecstatically happy! He hasn't figured out how to use the pedals yet. I'm pretty certain that he understands that they make the trike go, he just doesn't get how to use them yet. He had lots of fun anyway. Michael couldn't get him off the trike to come inside for dinner - he had to carry Brendan in still on the trike!

Oh, and Brendan's new sign is "music". He signs it whenever he wants me to turn on the radio or, if the radio is already on, it means he wants me to dance with him. I was very impressed that he learned this one as I had only shown it to him a few times and hadn't been very consistent in teaching it to him at all.

---

Here is a picture of Luke enjoying some [drool and] computer time.

Just like Daddy

2006-08-27T22:31:00.000-04:00

So does this mean that Brendan wants to be a pastor too?!

... or does he just want to be like Daddy?

Luke seems to like my goofus ball almost as much as I do, except I don't try to eat them (although the sprongies (tentacles) are quite tasty).

Chester update

2006-08-26T22:37:00.000-04:00

It's been a while, so here are some pictures of the family.

Here is Luke, enjoying eating his hat.

Since I've been busy at church a lot, Mama has had her hands [and back] full with the boys.

Luke enjoys playing on the floor and his new doggy is pretty cool too.

The boys have been getting along pretty well. Sometimes, Brendan really wants to curl up with his brother in bed.

I'm not sure if Luke is yawning or smiling. Either way, we've all been pretty tired.

Brendan still has his cute smile [and a few cuts, scrapes, and bruises].

Luke has discovered that toes are the best thing in the world to gnaw on. They don't necessarily have to be his own, nor does the person need to know he's about to gnaw on their toes. He likes to surprise them.

Graham Crackers

2006-08-24T16:29:00.000-04:00

I think Luke has a little radar in his head that lets him know exactly where every crumb of graham cracker Brendan has dropped is.
On Saturday, Brendan decided to share part of a graham cracker with Luke, who has not yet been fed any solid foods. I walked into the living room to see Brendan sitting next to Luke, both with a piece of graham cracker in their hands. Luke was thrilled! Happily sucking away at that cracker. It was taken away and Brendan was told not to give Luke pieces of his food.
Ever since, Luke gets really excited every time he sees a graham cracker and really upset when he can't get to it.
He's also three times now found good-sized chunks on the floor and twice has gotten them into his mouth before I grabbed them away from him. I swear I look araound for them before I lay him on the floor! But he keeps finding ones I didn't see...
Poor sad baby, once he's done cutting this tooth I'll probably start him on a little bit of solids. I'd like to wait until he's six months old, but he's definitely showing signs of being ready.

Sorry!

2006-08-23T14:32:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to get around to posting! We've been quite busy, obviously, with getting settled here. Now, things are more orderly, the boys are mostly adjusted, and we've found most of our stuff. There's still some boxes way back in the laundry room I haven't gotten to.
The house the church provided for us is very nice. I'll admit, the bluff across the street and the woods in the back do make me a little nervous with a very fast toddler. But the yard is huge and so far Brendan's been very good about stopping when I tell him to. Brendan loves the four stairs up to the bedrooms. We didn't have any stairs in our last house so these are pretty exciting for him. He's also learning more and more words and signs every day it seems. He's just learned the sign for "I love you" and uses it every night when we sign it as we leave his bedroom after bedtime prayers.
Luke has learned to crawl! He started on Saturday. We're all in a state of surprise over that. He's only 5mo. & 1wk. today and he's been crawling for several days now! It's still rather clumsy, but he can get himself pretty much wherever he wants to be. He's also not too far from being able to sit up unassisted. Oh, and he speaks in full sentences, too. Ok, maybe not, but I'm not sure it would surprise me coming from him right now! He is working on cutting his first tooth, though. Which has made for a number of VERY long nights here.
Today I found a children's show that I'm alright with Brendan watching. So far, the only TV he's really seen is the evening news, some Baby Einstein DVDs, and an occasional episode of the Simpson's (good, quality entertainment :P). Anyway, I was trying to fold laundry this morning and he was unfolding as fast as could fold so, out of desperation, I turned on the TV and started flipping through the guide channel to find something to distract him. Well, I found The Backyardigans on Nickelodian. I love it! It entertained him, it wasn't about a bunch of kids being direspectful and disobedient, it was a group of animal children having imaginary adventures in their backyards! They were polite, smart, and cool! It reminded me alot of when I was a kid having backyard adventures with my brother and our friend Julie. Oh, and there was music and dancing. Brendan was dancing along with the animals and having an absolute blast! So cool!
Anyway, Brendan just woke up early from his nap. At least he took one today...

Hello, Chester

2006-08-05T00:33:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know we've made it safely to Chester. We're pretty busy right now with unpacking and all but we'll post more when we can.

Bye-Bye Fort Wayne!

2006-08-01T20:58:00.000-04:00

For those of you who asked, we are feeling better. We still have sniffles, but we are doing much better than last week.

The packing is coming along pretty good. We'll be ready to go tomorrow without much of a problem.

Both of us have really enjoyed Fort Wayne. We've had a great two years here, but it is time to move on. It's sad, but we didn't move to Fort Wayne so I could just be a student all my life. I'm really looking forward to the vicarage, it should be a great learning experience.

It looks like I won't have time to post for a while, but here are some more pictures.

Brendan discovered an air conditioning vent and had a fun time squatting over it. Afterward, he had to travel around the room and find all of them.

Here is a picture of Luke doing the 'happy dance', waving his arms, in place while kicking his feet.

Luke enjoys giving out his cute little smiles.

Brendan loves Teddy soooo much...

He takes such good care of him that he even makes sure to clip Teddy's nails.

The boys love their mommy, and Mommy loves them too.

Apparently, Brendan had twins (Freddy is on the left, and Teddy is on the right).

Now that Brendan is done teething, Luke has picked up the slack. Just like this brother, Luke has fallen in love with Norbert's cherry flavored foot.

So long Fort Wayne, and thanks for all the memmories! (Don't worry, I won't pull a Connie Chung!) We look forward to seeing you again in another year. Good-bye Fort Wayne!

and Hello to our new home in Chester!

Sick...

2006-07-27T20:53:00.000-04:00

Ugh, everyone's sick today. I'm not sure if it's allergies or a cold, but we've all got it. Just what we need while trying to pack the house for our move...
Brendan learned to say "toe" today. But his favorite word today was "oh, no."
Luke is fussy and won't sleep. Michael is taking his turn trying to get him to sleep. I'm not sure what I ate that upset him so much, but he's had an upset tummy for a couple days now. Poor baby.
My mosquito bites are getting better though. The ones on the bottom of my feet are almost healed. The ones on my ankles are still driving me nuts off and on, but it's not as bad as it was.

Today's Update

2006-07-24T20:51:00.000-04:00

We're busy packing like mad here. The house is an absolute mess from all the packing and we've been going to bed way too late each night. The combination of these two things is making for one very stressed mama. Add to that the fact that Saturday night I got several mosquito bites on my feet - two on the bottom of one foot - and I'm not doing too great. I've been limping around the house because it hurts to step on the bites.
The boys are doing well. Brendan has learned two more signs in the past couple days - blanket and ball. He may also have said please and yes today, but we're not completely sure. Luke is rolling more and more. I don't think it will be too much longer before he learns to roll across the room.
Well, that's my update for now, I've got to get back to packing.

What A Morning!!!

2006-07-21T14:33:00.000-04:00

We got to sleep in a little this morning. I got up at 7am and Luke and Michael were still asleep in bed and Brendan was asleep in his room. Got a few things done before Brendan woke up. Then he woke up. I think he hit the terrible twos this morning. I got him up and started to make his breakfast. When his oatmeal was ready I called for him to come eat. He was playing down the hall and ignored me. I went to go get him and saw what he was playing with. Petroleum jelly!!! He had found the jar in a half-packed box in the hall, gotten it open, and was rubbing it into the carpeting! Yuck, yuck, yuck! Then, as I grabbed his arm to get him away from there and clean him up, he grabbed teddy with his petroleum jelly-covered hand. Eeeew! So we got him cleaned up, blocked off the hall, took teddy away to hopefully be cleaned, and gave him his breakfast. He decided to drink his oatmeal. Fortunately, most of it landed on the table and got scraped back into his bowl. And his favorite word today seems to be "Nooooooo!" Then Luke woke up and needed to be changed and fed. And then changed again. Eventually I got my breakfast and shower. Then we had to run around like mad to get everything ready to go to the doctor's. Both boys had well-baby checks today. We left running a couple minutes late, got up to Dupont road, were halfway to the office and saw a road construction sign. Annoying, that'll slow us down. Oh wait, it's not just construction, it's closed! Michael called the doctor's office and got directions to get around the construction. We were 15 minutes late. Not a crisis though, Dr. Tallon's office was running late anyway. The boys are both doing great. Luke is already 15 lbs. 2 oz. and 24 3/4 inches long. Brendan is 31 lbs. and almost 37 inches. And they're both doing quite well developmentally, too. We counted and Brendan has 27 words! Plus, he uses 8 signs and recognizes a couple others.
Something cute/funny:
Last night was Luke's first time sitting in his high chair at dinner with us. Brendan and Luke both thought this was wonderful! Luke blew a raspberry and Brendan laughed hysterically and blew one back. They went back and forth like this all through dinner - laughing and blowing raspberries at each other.

More Daddy Practice [for Brendan]

2006-07-12T10:54:00.000-04:00

Brendan has been a good Daddy for his Teddy.

This morning Brendan was in our bedroom by Luke's swing with Teddy. I turned it on and put Teddy in the swing. Brendan turned on the music and walked out the door slowly and told me to "shhh!" He came back right away shaking his head "No" and picked up Teddy and walked in a couple circles with Teddy and put him back down and turned the swing back on.

He must have been watching Mommy with Baby Luke.

After Teddy was back down in the swing, Brendan walked out the door and screamed.

He's gonna be a great Daddy...

2006-07-11T12:38:00.001-04:00

So yesterday afternoon I was holding Luke and walking around trying to calm him down. I wandered into our bedroom and what did I see?

Brendan standing next to the swing with it on and playing music. Nothing too unusual there, he loves the swing. Teddy was in the swing. Brendan looked up at me, put his finger to his mouth and said, "Shhhhh!" He was putting Teddy to sleep in Luke's swing!

Later on, I was carrying Luke in the sling and made a little sling for Brendan with one of his playsilks and tucked Teddy into it. He was thrilled! I don't think we got any really good pictures though. We tried, but he wasn't gonna hold still.

He loves helping me out, or at least trying to.
I was folding a pile of towels and had them all lined up at the foot of our bed and went to put the kitchen ones away. When I turned around, Brendan was pulling the pile of bathroom towels off the bed. I almost yelled at him to stop, but then I realized he was trying to help. He picked up one still-folded bath towel from the floor - quite an arm-full for him - and carried it all the way across the house to the cupboard where they go, opened it and shoved the towel inside! It wasn't quite on top of the pile, but he sure tried. I fixed it and handed him a bath mat to put away. That was much easier for him to do and he was so proud of himself for doing it.

He's also getting much better at feeding himself with a spoon. This morning he only spilled about a teaspoon of oatmeal on his bib!

Luke is rolling from back to front now. He's been able to roll front to back since he was 1 month old. He hated being on his belly though. So he rolls onto his belly and gets really mad, then I have to roll him onto his back because he doesn't seem to remember how. And then we repeat the whole thing. Again and again...

Lydia's Birthday Party

2006-07-02T07:03:00.000-04:00

This is a week late, but better late then never, right?

Here is a lovely picture of Lydia riding her cow.

Joan was sweet and got Brendan a really cool color changing straw cup, but apparently the straw isn't dishwasher safe. :( Brendan loved his cup.

Luke had a good time with Mommy...

... and Aunt Penny, and everyone else who would hold him.

Lydia was sweet and kissed Luke.

We tried getting a picture with Lydia and Brendan and their babies that Kira made for Christmas. Brendan wasn't in the greatest mood for that. He only slept about half an hour that day on the way to Lake Mills from Milwaukee, and that was it. The idea was to have him take his nap there, but he never calmed down enough.

Brendan did get a quick smooch in with Lydia, but it was under protest since he was cranky.

Brendan did better when he was put in the pack and play with Lydia.

Lydia also loves hanging upside down. Here's a picture of her just hanging out.

Here's a cute picture of Lydia and Julie (her mommy).

Lydia was so cute. I had to get a little bit of snuggle time with her too. She loved giving hugs.

Beyond that, I can't believe how big she is getting. It's been so long since I saw her last. She's such an adorable little girl. I hope that something works out where we can see her more often, but that may have to wait a couple years.

Pish, woof!

2006-06-29T14:43:00.000-04:00

Two entries from me in one day! Aren't you all lucky?
This one will be quite short though, as the boys are both awake and Brendan is probably poking Luke in the eye with a pacifier right now.
Luke is wearing a romper with some little orange fish on it. I've pointed them out to Brendan several times, telling him that they are fish. Well, he just pointed at one and said, "pish, woof!" to me. Now I have to explain to the kid that fish don't bark!

Recovering From Travel

2006-06-29T12:04:00.000-04:00

I think we're all finally recovered from our trip. The kids are back to sleeping at their "normal" times. As normal as they ever were, I guess. The house is almost back in order from the chaos of packing and unpacking. Now we just have to make a brief visit up to Troy, MI and pack up our house for the move to Chester.
Here's my quick review of our trip:
Driving at night no longer seems to work especially well for us. It used to be that we could put Brendan in his carseat at bedtime and take off. By the time we reached the freeway, he'd be asleep and he'd sleep the whole way. It didn't work this time, either going or coming home. He was awake most of the trip and really fussy. Luke didn't sleep great either, but at least he only wanted to eat once each way.
Thursday, we took the kids to the Domes. They were beautiful as always, but Brendan was super-cranky and we left earlier than we had planned.
Friday, we went to the Zoo. Luke slept almost the whole time. Brendan wasn't in his best mood, but he did seem to enjoy all the animals, especially the tiger. He was fascinated by that tiger! And we had great weather for a trip to the zoo. It was sunny, but cool - absolutely perfect!
Saturday, we went to Lydia's birthday party. Brendan slept on the ride there (less than an hour), but that was all the nap we could get him to take. He did pretty well though for having gotten that little sleep. He and Lydia played very nicely together before the party started. Once, I peeked into the living room to see Lydia pointing across the room and telling Brendan something in Lydiese. Wish I knew what she was talking about. Brendan must have understood, he seemed quite interested in what she was saying. Another time, I peeked in to see her teaching him how to feed bottles to her baby dolls! Very cute.
While we were in Wisconsin, Brendan started to call my dad, "Papa." Well, sometimes it came out, "ah-pa." But it was really cute anyway.
He also did really well with Snow.
Last night I figured out why he had been a bit crabby in Wisconsin. He has now cut ALL of his two-year molars! Yay! As soon as he's done getting these out, we're done with teething from him for a long time!!! Which means I won't have to deal with him and Luke possibly teething at the same time.

Milwaukee Zoo Visit

2006-06-24T11:43:00.000-04:00

We went to the Milwaukee Zoo yesterday. We all had a fun time.

Brendan really liked the hippos (Daddy's favorite animal) which proves he has good taste. Although I was able to get one picture with him looking at the camera, the rest of the pictures were of him looking around Daddy to look at the hippos. I thought it was cute.

Brendan was fussy for a little bit, but then we gave him a na-na (banana in Brendan talk). He enjoyed it and it calmed him down for a while.

I guess Luke got hungry after seeing Brendan eat his banana. After we went through the Cat house (Brendan's favorite part of the zoo), Luke decided that he needed a quick snack. He ate very well, and then took a nap. He was in baby heaven.

We tried getting a quick family picture in. It sorta worked, but the sun was kinda bright. I guess it's the thought that counts.

Although Luke slept most of the time at the zoo, both he and Mommy enjoyed the snuggle time in the sling.

We enjoyed the zoo and had a great time. We'll be sure to visit it again someday. Hopefully, we'll make it to the Detroit Zoo when we visit there in mid-July and the Fort Wayne Zoo in July before we move. The closest zoo to Chester looks like it is about 45 minutes away, so we should enjoy them while we are close.

Unfortunately, Julie and Lydia couldn't make it. We'll see them later today at Lydia's birthday party.

Milwaukee Visit

2006-06-22T22:47:00.000-04:00

We're in Wisconsin this week for Lydia's Birthday party on Saturday.

We all survived the travel. I'm not sure how, but we do have a few pictures of Luke sleeping, but I think these are the only three times he has slept. He's been having a rough time.

Maybe he needs to fall asleep on Uncle Stephan when he is asleep?! At this point, I think we will try anything.

Snow is still here, just as cute as ever. It's nice to see her again.

Brendan has enjoyed sometime with Aunt Penny. Sitting on her lap is fun, but she makes sure that he gets enough zurbits (raspberries) on his tummy.

Brendan has worked very closely with Grandma to learn how to pet Snow gently. He adores her and makes sure to say "Hi" to her when he sees her. Snow is still uncertain of Brendan, but she enjoyed getting petted by Brendan.

Brendan has been spoiled with extra outside time. He has enjoyed playing outside with everyone. Here is Brendan trying to pull Daddy in the wagon. It didn't work out that well, but was fun while it lasted.

Despite Brendan's busy social life, he has found time to "ride" on Grandpa's Harley and untie Grandpa's shoes.

Super Brendan made a brief appearance the other day. There must be something wrong with the picture, since it looks like he needs someone's help to fly. I think it's just a bad angle or something.

Last night, we had dinner with the Thorsons (a family that Kira used to babysit for). They gave the boys a nice piggy bank to play with. Brendan enjoyed it today. Luke is letting Brendan play with it for a little while longer. Once he's big enough, I'm sure they will fight over it.

We took the kids to the Domes today. It was enjoyable, but both kids had a rough time.

Apparently, it wore Brendan out, since he wound up sleeping on the ride to Grandma's house and actually stayed asleep once we got in the house. As a result, he took his nap on the couch today.

Once Brendan was asleep, Luke woke up and got to play with Uncle Stephan and Aunt Penny.

Later today, we are going to the Milwaukee Zoo and Lydia will join us. It will be nice to see how much she has grown.

A Really Big [and overdue] Update!

2006-06-22T18:20:00.000-04:00

It's been quite a while since I last posted. I have been quite busy with our family, school and work.

As Kira mentioned, we received our vicarage placement to St John Evangelical Lutheran Church, Chester, Illinois. About 410 miles away from my dart in Platteville, Wisconsin.

Brendan and Luke have been adoreable. They seem to get cuter and cuter by the day.

Here is further proof that Luke is a cutie pie ...

... and proof that Brendan is a cutie pie as well.

Grandpa and Grandma Standfest visited a couple of weeks ago ...

Brendan got some time reading with Grandpa ...

... and in turn, Brendan had some time reading his book upside down to Grandpa.

Grandma and Brendan got to read and play in Brendan's new(-ish) big boy room (Daddy's old office).

Everyone got spoiled with some snuggle time before bed.

Luke also enjoyed snuggling with Grandpa and Grandma.

A week or two later, Brendan rediscovered how much he likes swinging and playing with pebbles.

Grandma Tupper visited so Daddy could help a friend move to the Holy City to attend Notre Dame.

When Grandpa dropped off Grandma, Brendan was sure to get some laptop time in.

Later Luke and Brendan teamed up to squish Grandma.

Luke had some trouble sleeping that night and then curled up with Grandma.

When Grandpa picked up Grandma, he apparently taught Luke how to eat his overalls.

That sums up most of the last two months or so, and I'll try to post a little more often now.

When Did That Happen?!

2006-06-05T19:26:00.000-04:00

And HOW did I not notice? The other day Brendan started yelling and I realized that he had his bottom two-year molars. And it looked like they had been there for at least a week or so from the size of them. Somehow, I never noticed that he was cutting them... Weird. The top two haven't cut yet.
Saturday I made a felt board for Brendan. I cut out shapes (circles, squares and triangles) to start teaching him his shapes. I'm not sure how much he's learned yet, but he definitely LOVES the board and shapes! He gets so excited over putting the felt shapes up and then swiping them back off again. We were playing with it this afternoon and he tried to put his Hot Wheels car on the board. Oddly enough, it didn't stick as well as the shapes did. Hmmm...
Luke is growing fast. He's already up to about 13 1/2 pounds. We bought him a Bumbo Baby Sitter. It's a special seat that allows little babies to sit upright. He loves it, but can only sit in it for a little while at a time yet.

Not allergic!

2006-05-22T14:10:00.000-04:00

So I just got a phone call from the doctor's office. Brendan's not allergic to anything.
Well, I guess it's good that it's not an actual allergy. That probably means he's got a better chance of outgrowing whatever his issues may be. I KNOW he's sensitive to dairy and soy.
In other news: I went out today with both boys and we all survived! I needed to run some errands at the mall so we rode to work with Michael and then I headed to the mall with the boys. It went fairly well. Brendan was NOT happy about riding the elevator four times. I knew that would be a problem, he's always hated them. Takes after me. But there really wasn't any other option. Can't exactly take a stroller down the stairs or escalator. I bought him a new Sandra Boyton book at Waldenbooks to make up for it. He was thrilled - he LOVES books. I also got some new clothes for the boys for summer (thanks again for the gift card, Aunt Michele!). I bought them both two pairs of bib shorts and several tops each. Then, we got home, I got the boys out of their carseats and realized that I didn't have the housekey! Agh! So, I loaded the boys back into their seats (Brendan was really ticked off about that) and drove back over to the Seminary to get Michael's key. By the time we got home, it was already noon, Brendan's naptime, and we hadn't even had lunch yet! Oh well, at least he fell asleep right away instead of fighting it like usual.

[Another] Quick Update...

2006-05-14T22:02:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry that I haven't updated lately either. This is the last week of the term and it is coming to a painful end. I'm looking forward to next week. It will be nice to spend time with my family and not have it effect my classes.

Here is one picture that I had to share. We finally managed to get a picture of Brendan kissing Luke. Althought he has a hard time with understanding why Luke gets a lot of attention, Brendan sure does like his brother and shows it between the kisses and talking to him.

Back to my term paper...

The Standfest Family

Matthew's Baby Brother

Progress on Our New Diet

Matthew and the New Baby

Nicklas' Writing Skills

Photo Albums

The News from the Farm

Surprise!

It's Been Awhile...

An Update

New Teeth!

Latin

It's Been Awhile...

June 7

June 1

From the Mouths of Babes...

May 26

May 21

May 17

May 12

May 8

April 17

April 5

March 6

February 24

February 17

February 10

January 30

January 23

January 22

December 16

November Recap

One More Post...

Tummy ache!

October 18 - St. Luke's Day

October 14

September 27

August 6

May 19

St. Brendan's Day

A Few Cute Moments to Share

Introducing Rev. Brendan Standfest...

April 30

Family Photos

April 1 - Update

April 1

March 25

Happy Birthday to Luke!

March 18

Two recent pictures

March 11

March 4

February 25

February 18

February 14

Brendan's First Post!

January 29

Updates

Luke's First Sign!

Brendan's Baptismal Birthday

Brendan's Birthday

A Shameless Brag

Update

Sniffle, Cough, Sneeze

Update

Two Posts In One Day!!!

Drumroll, Please...

Coming Soon

New Words

Goofy Kids

Christmas Wishlist

A Visit to the Park

Bumps, Milk and Block Stew...

Luke Standing and Brendan's Ketchup

More Signing

Cute!!!

An Update from Our Little Corner of Chaos

More Family Videos

Luke Videos

A Tricycle for Brendan