Book Meme

I really have not done very many memes and now I'm doing them two days in a row. Ram said I had to do this one since it involved books! Thanks Jane!

Book Confessions Meme
1. To mark your page you: use a bookmark, bend the page corner, leave the book open face down? I try to use bookmarks but one of the Lambs usually removes them. Sometimes I leave the book open face down until I can get a bookmark. I usually have to remember about what page I was on because the Lambs "help" me so much.
2. Do you lend your books? No-no friends here to lend them to. But I frequently will search for a book for a friend at Goodwill and send them a copy of a book that I like.
3. You find an interesting passage: you write in your book or NO WRITING IN BOOKS!
Yes, I write in books. Mostly I will get post it notes and write on there-I can move the post it note as I read and make notes to myself.
4. Dust jackets - leave it on or take it off? LEAVE THEM ON-THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE FOR! It drives me crazy that Ram removed some of his and threw them away before we were married. Plus you can't take books without dust jackets to Hyde Brothers if you want to trade it after you read it. When I worked at the library I frequently had to cut the information off of the dust jacket and tape it inside the book.
5. Hard cover, paperback, skip it and get the audio book?Ram wants hard cover. I don't care. Audio very rarely.
6. Do you shelve your books by subject, author, or size and color of the book spines?I have all of our huge library organized by Dewey with two exceptions. The kids have a bookshelf in their room that is not organized at all (other than on the shelf). The kids also have a box of books in the living room that they can choose to read from daily. I haven't got to organize Ram's theology books (all Dewey 200s) but I hope to have time to do that some day. We try to return books to their Dewey place when we are finished with them. I do have a pile by my chair in the living room that I am currently reading.
7. Buy it or borrow it from the library later? I am 7 miles from the library and with the Lambs so little I don't have much time to read. I own most of the books I am reading and just check out books from the library every once and awhile. I'm glad the library gives a month for me to try to complete the book before I have to renew it.
8. Do you put your name on your books - scribble your name in the cover, fancy bookplate, or stamp?Ram has a fancy bookplate. I only put a bookplate in it if I am going somewhere that I might lose the book. In this case, sometimes I put an address label inside the cover.
9. Most of the books you own are rare and out of print books or recent publications? We have a bit of everything. We probably have more older books than recent books in our collection.
10. Page edges - deckled or straight?Ram probably cares, but not me.
11. How many books do you read at one time?I usually have a big pile that I'm working on, but only actually read two at a time.
12. Be honest, ever tear a page from a book? No way, but rip up all my magazines.

ABC Meme

Wait--before you read this post, did you know STELLAN WENT HOME YESTERDAY?!!!!! Head over to MckMama's blog, and praise God with her! She even got to get home a little early thanks to a blog reader that was in air traffic control.

I refuse to do Facebook (that's another whole post), but I saw this meme on Esther's blog and thought it would be fun.

A - Age: 35
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: yardwork
D - Dog's name: never had a dog
E - Essential start your day item: I hate coffee, can't think of anything essential
F - Favorite color: green
G - Gold or Silver: gold
H - Height: 5'10"
I - Instruments you played: flute
J - Job title: Which job? Wife, Mama, end up being church secretary sometimes
K-Kids: Lamb 1 (5), Lamb 2 (almost 3), Lamb 3 (almost 13 months)
L - Living arrangements: 4 bedroom parsonage
M - Mom's name: Joan
N - Nicknames: Ram calls me Baby Doll
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: tonsils, morning sickness with Lamb 1
P - Pet Peeve: I can't stand the sound of filing fingernails.
Q - Quote from a movie: I'm too tired to think of any right now.
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: Hannah
T - Time you wake up: if Ram gets up with the Lambs at 7 or 8am, then I get to sleep in until 9 or 10am. If he doesn't get up with them then I have to get up at 7 or 8am. Can you tell no one is in school yet?
U- Underwear: Yes, please. Used to be Victoria's Secret until they changed the way they make them. Not sure what kind to get next.
V - Vegetable you dislike: I like almost all vegetables, except I'm not too fond of raw carrots, but I eat them.
W - Ways you run late: After growing up in the city I'm always checking that the doors are locked, and that all the appliances are off, etc. Also, I don't plan ahead enough for 3 Lambs to get ready, especially now that two of them want to do everything themselves.
X - X-rays you've had: teeth, elbow, chest
Y - Yummy food you make: Ram usually cooks and I usually bake. That's a good deal. I love my homemade granola.
Z - Zoo Favorites: penguins

Fun, right? Consider yourself tagged. I'd love to see your results! Just let me know if you join in, so I can read it too!

Trying to catch up

While my parents are here I had a lot of projects for them and I also hoped to have time to work on some projects myself while I had them babysit. Lamb 3 has been pretty sick and not sleeping well either. My mom got a sinus infection and my dad got a sore throat-probably caught germs from us. Tonight was the first time my mom felt well enough to work on some projects. My dad didn't do much today as he just didn't feel well enough.
I worked for a long time in "my" room tonight. I had a pile of scrapbook stuff-stickers, memorabilia to scrapbook, photos, etc. to organize. I knew I was behind when I had some 3 year old birthday cards in the pile. Lamb 1 is the only Lamb that has turned 3 and he just turned 5! I got most of it organized tonight. I did run out of room in the folder I was organizing Lamb 1's. I didn't quite finish organizing my new stickers.
I worked on this tonight in anticipation of going scrapbooking all day this Saturday. I'm trying not to get my hopes up because if one of the Lambs is ill I won't be able to go. At least I'll be organized for the next time. Hopefully I can finish the organizing before Saturday so I get to spend time scrapbooking instead of organizing.

Happy Birthday, Ram!

Ram saw this blog and wanted this cake for his birthday. Thanks Erin for the recipe! It was a strange recipe to be baked at 275 degrees and then put in the freezer to make it moist. I made the cake and my mom made the frosting while I took a nap. It was delicious and it we ate the last piece today. We had to celebrate yesterday because Ram had to go to the LCMS MN N District Convention today.

We opened presents yesterday. Ram's parents brought this box full of books when they came to visit last month. Ram also received several pi shirts and other gifts.

My parents are here visiting so they babysat the two older Lambs and we went out to dinner last night by ourselves with Lamb 3. There was one other couple in the dining area of the restaurant. Ram laughed at me because I noticed what they ordered and paid attention to them. It is so rare for me to not have to help one of the Lambs at a meal that I just didn't know what to do with myself! I really wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have any Lambs with me! Lamb 3 has croup, an ear infection, and a very runny nose so we took him with us instead of leaving him home. He is on antibiotics and slowly getting better. Now my dad has a sore throat and my mom has a sinus infection-I think we gave away our germs. I still have a sore throat. Thankfully Ram has stayed healthy. Since Lamb 1 was born we get to go out about once a year. We had a delicious dinner of beef strogonoff, salad, spinach artichoke dip, and wine.

Ram turned 34 so now it seems like he is closer in age to me... Since we have been married there haven't been very many birthdays that we were apart. Happy Birthday to my beloved!

Sad news-prayer requests

Tests today showed that Stellan's heart problems are coming back after his surgery on Tuesday. He will remain in Boston for awhile. His Mama is homesick for her husband and other 3 kids. Please keep them in your prayers. Please pray that the doctors can help Stellan too. http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

While I don't personally know Stellan, just read the blog, the next one is even more difficult for me. It is the brother of our babysitter (who used to live behind us, but now lives 7 miles away in town). He has been battling leukemia since December 2007. He has been through so much since then. Yesterday he was given the news that he has weeks or months to live. They can keep fighting with chemo but it will come back. I believe he is 11 years old. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sonshineboy Please pray for their whole family.

The Lambs have all been battling colds. Lamb 3 has a fever today. We couldn't get into the doctor until tomorrow. My parents are coming to visit so they will stay with Lamb 1. I will take Lamb 2 and 3 to the doctor 1 1/2 hours away. Ram has nursing home and shut in visits all day tomorrow. Please pray that we travel safely and can get into the doctor quickly and come home. It is a lot for me to travel with the Lambs by myself. Please pray that we can all get healthy and get over our colds that we have been battling for two weeks now.

Happy Birthday, Ram's Dad!

I had a difficult time finding a photo because Ram's dad is the one that always takes the pictures. I guess we'll have to try to take more photos of him. Here he is last year with Lamb 3.



The Lambs have been enjoying "Grandpa's Mix" named after him. Here is the recipe:
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/4 cup dark chocolate chunks

The Lambs love it when Grandpa comes to visit and builds train track for them with their Thomas trains.
We hope you have a great birthday and hopefully get a day to rest from working so hard and traveling for work!

Stellan made it through surgery!

UPDATE: Tonight at ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) several children and one mom were wearing orange. Then we used orange sand in the sand table. I thought this was all planned for Stellan-well at least the mom dressed in orange. None of the moms attending ECFE had ever heard of Stellan or the blog before. One mom was thankful I told her about it because she had seen "Are you praying for Stellan?" on Facebook today and had no idea what that meant. The mom wearing orange was proud to wear orange today when she heard about it. Lamb 1 kept talking about Stellan with his ECFE teacher and she had no idea what he was talking about. The Lambs all wore orange to ECFE today, I don't own any orange!
Check out the blog, Stellan is doing remarkably well. The doctor did a fantastic job in difficult circumstances.

The Lambs wore orange today in support of Stellan. These two photos were posted on the website. http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ Stellan and his family still need our prayers.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host:

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

He's not joking

I read this blog tonight and my blood pressure rose as I listened to the video! We have been TV free so I have been sheltered from this craziness. I was glad it was less than 4 minutes because I couldn't have taken it any longer.

HT: Father Hollywood

Happy Baptism Birthday, Lamb 3!

Well, I tried taking a nap earlier tonight (yesterday since it's after midnight), but I didn't get to sleep due to Lamb 3 not sleeping. So now it is after midnight and I'm finally posting this.

Today was Lamb 3's baptism birthday. Here he is last year.


We had a busy day today so I didn't get cupcakes made like I planned. Hopefully we can celebrate tomorrow.

He is blessed with 3 wonderful godparents-my sister, Rev. N. Higgins, and Darin Koenemann.



Go, My children, with My blessing, Never alone.
Waking, sleeping, I am with you: You are My own.
In My love's baptismal river I have made you Mine forever.
Go, My children, with My blessing-You are My own.
(LSB 922:1)

Baby Stellan

Stellan is having a risky surgery tomorrow morning if all goes as planned. Some blog readers are wearing orange tomorrow in support of him. I don't own any orange! The Lambs have matching orange shirts so they will wear those and Lamb 3 has an orange diaper cover.
My dad has been enjoying seeing the blog with the photos of Stellan's name all over the world.
Please keep Stellan and his family and his doctors in your prayers tonight and tomorrow. If you haven't been following the blog is http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ .

Wasting Time

During the school year I usually go to the country church so the Lambs can go to Sunday School. The tri-parish has a quarterly rotation. The church next door is always early service. The middle church and the country church rotate between the middle and late service. This is so they don't always have to be late service.
Today the Lambs still had colds so I didn't want them to be around the Sunday School kids and especially their new baby. They weren't sick enough to miss church though. Actually they are almost over their colds. So we weren't going to the country church at the middle service time.
I wanted to go to early service and just walk next door since we had that option today. I went to bed early last night (well early for me) instead of cleaning up the kitchen. I planned to go to early service, come home and clean up the kitchen, and make lunch before Ram returned home from the other two services.
I slept in and didn't get up in time to get everyone ready for early church. I still got up with plenty of time to get everyone ready and maybe clean up some of the kitchen before church. The Lambs were slow pokes and needed "help" with every step of getting out the door this morning. Help getting dressed, packing a few quiet toys for church, putting their dirty clothes down the laundry chute, putting on coats, etc. We finally made it out the door and were a few minutes early to church. At least we weren't late. But I wasted the whole morning getting ready for church instead of getting something done after church.
After church I quickly made egg salad with our dyed Easter eggs. Then I cleaned up the kitchen. Ram had a meeting to attend this afternoon. So it wasn't until 3:30pm that I had completed what I planned to have completed by 12:30pm. Plus Lamb 3 usually takes a nap around noon and his nap schedule was all messed up today. That made a fussy baby in church and not much nap for him today either.
I blogged about all this hoping that the next time I have a chance to go to early service that I'm motivated to get out of bed and not waste the morning.
On the plus side, the Lambs were pretty well behaved in church. Lamb 1 put on his seat belt plus Lamb 2's seat belt without me asking him to. And sometimes Lamb 2 goes outside without telling me. We have been working on this because this church is next to a highway. Today that didn't happen.
Now it's 4:30pm and I don't get a Sunday afternoon nap, but I'm going to start supper.

Easter week

We had a whirlwind of a week Holy Week and were busy this week too.

On Holy Saturday we went to an Easter egg hunt, 3 confirmation parties, and a confirmation service.

On Easter we had a baptism at the Easter service and then we went to their house for dinner (tons of food!) and the kids played outside in the beautiful weather and we had another Easter egg hunt at their house.

Monday we tried to get caught up and make bread, yogurt, hummus, boil eggs, etc. All things that we were out of. Ram joked about all the kitchen appliances we were running at once. That night we had the military farewell service that I blogged about earlier this week.

Tuesday the Lambs came down with colds so they were disappointed we skipped ECFE.

Wednesday Ram had classes to teach and a voter's meeting. I called a friend from college and talked for several hours until it was very late at night. I only see her/talk on the phone with her once or twice a year. If we would get together more often then I wouldn't have to talk so long!

Thursday Ram had a pastor meeting and Ladies Aid.

Friday we were supposed to go to the doctor for checkups and shots for Lamb 1 and 3. With their colds I didn't want to drag them 1 1/2 hours to the doctor. Plus it would have meant a day of shopping once we were that far. So we chose to reschedule for May and stayed home. Since Ram had a free day he went to visit a member north of here about 2 hours. That meant a whole day gone. I walked to the post office with the Lambs in the beautiful weather. I made granola and cookies.

Today we finally dyed Easter eggs since we never had time before. Ram wrote his sermon.

Tomorrow we will go to church, but not Sunday School, because I didn't want the Lambs with their colds to be around the other family at Sunday School with a new baby. So far, Ram and I haven't had the colds yet. Hopefully we can all get healthy before my parents come to visit late next week. And the Lambs want to get back to their scheduled activities like ECFE and library storytime.

Silly Lamb 1

I had some milk to use up before it expired so I made tapioca pudding one night and vanilla pudding the next night. It was all from scratch. I have made tapioca pudding since Lamb 1 was born, but not homemade vanilla pudding. Lamb 1 won't eat any of it even though he knows it is full of sugar. He claims sugar is his favorite food! I know that he had dairy problems, but he loves ice cream now. I tried letting him put chocolate chips on the pudding-he just ate the chocolate chips and left the pudding. This seems so strange to me, we loved it when my mom made tapioca and there were never leftovers no matter if she made a double or triple batch!This same child loves lentils, hummus, and other "different" foods. Oh well, there was more pudding for Ram, Lamb 2, and for me!

Farewell Troops

The last two Mondays we have attended church services at LCMS churches for the military in the area that are being deployed on Sunday. The first one, Ram assisted with the liturgy. We have two members being deployed from two of our churches in our tri-parish. The second one, Rev. Smith did the whole service. It was difficult for him because his son is one of the ones being deployed. Here is their family.

These 5 are all members of the same church being deployed. That is a lot from one small church.

We were a little late to the second service and it should have been easier for me because Ram was in the pew with me. But Lamb 2 didn't feel well AND none of the Lambs are used to Ram in the pew AND this was the 7th service the Lambs attended in 9 days. So I wasn't able to hear everything. But from what I did hear, it struck me that not only do our troops really need our prayers now but our country also needs our prayers.

Here is the hymn we sang from the Armed Forces Hymnal.

Lord, guard and guide all those who fly

And those who on the ocean ply

Be with our troops upon the land

And all who for their country stand;

Protect our nation day and night

And may our trust be in Your might.

Watch o'er our cities; guard our skies

And calm our fears in trying times.

Console the families suffering loss;

Help us to bear their heavy cross.

Give us the will to do our share

For lands and people in despair.

Oh may our nation always be

A torch aflame with liberty,

A haven for the dispossessed,

A land that welcomes many guests.

And may we keep our motto strong

"In God We Trust" be e'er our song.

Buying a new car

I really do plan to post about our new car that we bought in February soon-I just keep getting other ideas for blog posts AND I haven't taken a photo of Ram with the car yet either!

We found it was cheaper to buy a new car with the deals than to buy a used car. Ram also read in the April 5 Sunday paper that you can deduct the state and local and excise sales tax off of 2009 returns. You can take this deduction whether or not you itemize deductions. The deduction applies to vehicles manufactured both here and abroad. This deduction is limited for taxes paid on up to $49,500 of the purchase price (no problem, we didn't even pay 1/2 that). Plus the amount of the deduction has to do with your income (again, no problem, Ram doesn't even make close to the limit). The vehicle must be purchased after February 16 and before December 31, 2009. Guess when we bought our car? February 20! Ram's dad also purchased a new car in March. These qualifications may rule out many buyers, but it will help us and be a significant savings.

We are thankful to Ram's parents for helping us to buy a new car. We are also thankful that we bought it at just the right time to take this deduction!

Why to turn off the washer and dryer before you leave the house

I hope that you all had a Blessed Holy Week. My first blog post after Holy Week gives us all a visual reminder to be careful.

Click here and look at these photos.

A Looper's sister had this fire in their house. This house was on the market and many of their belongings were in storage in order to sell the house. But they did have some antique furniture and other items in the house. No one was home. She put some bedding in the washer before she left and the washer caught on fire. The fire put itself out with water from the pipes steaming and lack of oxygen from the house being sealed up. When she returned home she did not know there was a fire until she entered the home. The fire inspector said that usually homes like this burn to the ground. They plan to use the photos of this for training. The entire house is a loss and will be gutted to the studs.

I have always been careful about the dryer after a friend in high school told the story of how they had a house fire because of a dryer fire. Then another one of our friends had a house fire a few years ago because of the dryer. I haven't always been as careful about the washer though. This makes me want to check our smoke alarms regularly and never let the washer OR dryer run when we aren't home.

It also is a good visual for our children of why we should stay low during a fire if you are trying to make an escape.

7 in 9

7 church services that I plan to attend with the 3 Lambs in the next 9 days and Ram has even more.
Palm Sunday (Ram has 3 services)
Monday of Holy Week-Military Deployment for area town at LCMS church service
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday (Ram has 2 services)
Confirmation on Holy Saturday
Easter (Ram has 3 services)
Easter Monday-Another Military Deployment for other area town at LCMS church service

God willing all the Lambs will stay healthy so we will be able to attend all these. Pray for me in the pew with 3 wiggly Lambs-especially Lamb 3 is a handful no matter whether it is a morning or evening service. All he wants to do is run and that's not possible unless he runs up and down the church aisle. Also pray for me getting the Lambs dressed these 7 days. It's a battle to get all 3 fully clothed to go out of the house. They would love to wear pajamas bottoms, go barefoot, and not wear shirts like they do around the house. Ram will be home some of these times to help me, but he'll be extremely busy this week.

I think I'll be like the Concordia Sisters and not blog during Holy Week. It will be good to meditate on Jesus' passion this week. Plus I'll be busy with the Lambs this week. See you next week!

Homeschool/Family Retreat

August 4-6, 2009 at Redeemer in Fort Wayne.
Registration information coming soon.

Speaker: Dr. James Tallmon, Patrick Henry College
Topic: A Well-Trained Mind to Contemplate God and Engage the World
Cost: $25/adults, $20/18-12, 11 and under free
Maximum cost per family: $90
Only 1 meal provided. No housing arrangements.

Schedule:
Tuesday August 4
12-1 Opening Worship
1:30-2:30pm Opening Plenary: Tallmon
3-4pm First Sectionals
4:30-5:30pm Vespers
6-10pm BBQ Dinner and Square Dance

Wednesday August 5
9-10am Matins
10:30-11:30am Plenary 2:Tallmon
12-1pm Sectional 2
1-4pm Lunch on own/nap time
4-5pm Vespers
5:30-6:30pm Plenary 3
7-8pm Sectionals 3
8:30-9:30pm Compline

Thursday August 6
9-10am Matins
10:30-11:30am Plenary 4
12-1pm Communion Service

We are trying to figure out if we can attend. We would stay with my parents in Fort Wayne if we do go. It sounds like a great time-not just for homeschoolers. All are invited!

Goodbye Brutus-Part 2

Background Story: Ram named his old Blazer, Brutus. In 1998 Ram had gone home from Seminary on Christmas break and got stuck in WY in a ground blizzard with his old truck. His old truck died and he had quite an adventure getting home. So after Christmas break, his parents gave him their 1996 Blazer to take back to the Seminary to have a dependable car.

I am being very sentimental about selling Brutus. Ram is glad to be done with car repairs on an old car with 167,000 miles. Here's some of my sentimental memories...
Brutus took a group of us out the first time I met Ram.
Brutus held the cookies (and my phone number) that I baked for Ram when he went home for summer break from the Seminary and when he got home he called me. (He forgot to take them with him).
Brutus picked me up for our first date.
One of our mutual friends said to me after we were engaged, "Ram is a great guy and he has a nice car too!"
Brutus drove Ram to his vicarage in Metairie, LA (and Ram even spent the night on the side of the road when Brutus broke down on the way there).
Brutus hauled many loads around town, especially when we were cleaning out my grandma's house.
Brutus drove us for our trip out West the summer after we got married.
Brutus drove us to our home here in MN-(with a full load of stuff that wasn't on the moving truck).

Ram reminded me that HE drove me, not Brutus, and there's not so much to be sentimental about. I still have good memories. I hope that our new car has some good memories too.

Goodbye Brutus-Part 1

Ram bought a new car in February-(another post on that later)-and we were too busy to try to advertise to sell Ram's old Blazer. We had it parked out front of the house and a lady in town talked to us about buying it for her grandson. The problem was that the car didn't start a few weeks ago. So we spent $850 to get the car repaired and then sold it for $1800. At least we didn't give the car away! We feel good that we sold it to her in good condition. Her grandson is 17 and he will have to work at a summer job to pay his grandma back. I can't imagine having a car at age 17, nor the responsibility of paying car insurance, gas, etc.
So on Thursday, we had to hurry to clean the car out of junk that accumulated in there since Ram got the car from his parents in 1998. We should have done it after we got the new car, but we've been so busy that our first chance was then. Ram cleaned it all out and vacuumed it and the buyer came over and took it for a test drive and paid us for it. On Friday we went to the license branch to do that paperwork and dropped the car insurance. We are glad to check those duties off of our to do list. We are glad to not have to pour any more money into the Blazer for repairs too.

Happy Baptism Birthday, Lamb 1!

Lamb 1 with his godparents and parents

Go, My children, with My blessing, Never alone.
Waking, sleeping, I am with you: You are My own.
In My love's baptismal river I have made you Mine forever.
Go, My children, with My blessing-You are My own.
(LSB 922:1)

Concordia St. Paul choir

Tonight I took Lamb 3 and went to a concert at a church in our circuit about 45 minutes away. Lamb 3 wanted to walk around and explore so I wasn't able to hear the whole concert. But what I was able to hear was lovely. I especially appreciated the Latin texts. They are just beginning their tour and are headed to Sioux Falls, Omaha, Kansas City, Madison, etc. next week.

It wasn't until I was sitting at the concert that I realized how much I miss good concerts and choirs like tonight. Coming from a hometown of Fort Wayne, IN and then 4 years at Concordia, Mequon I took concerts for granted. I think tonight was the only concert in our circuit by a Concordia since we moved here 6 years ago.

After the concert when they were getting ready to go to their host's homes, it reminded me of being in wind ensemble and our tours. Good memories!

The director mentioned that the choir members pay a fee to go on tour. This surprised me. We didn't pay anything to go on tour with the CUW wind ensemble. We just brought spending money. We were just expected to represent the school well, try to recruit future students for CUW, and play our instruments well. I don't know how CUW does it now, but I'm thankful that I had the chance to go for "free" when I was there. I don't know if I would have been able to afford to be in wind ensemble in addition to all the other college costs if I would have had to pay to go on tour.

Lamb 3 Birthday Photos

I'm very proud to be posting these photos on the day of his birthday. I still haven't posted photos from Lamb 1's birthday almost a month ago.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa (Ram's parents) for the presents!
The play food the Lambs received for their play kitchen.

Lamb 3 drinking pretend OJ

All 3 Lambs ate eggs for their first birthday meal. Lamb 1 and 2 gobbled them right up. Lamb 3 wouldn't touch them. Lamb 1 decided to put them in Lamb 3's mouth. He closed his mouth tight and wouldn't try it. He ended up eating baby cereal and spinach instead of eggs. So I knew he was hungry, but not ready to eat eggs!

The Lambs all doing the Eric Carle puzzle with sounds-cool present after Mama figured out it needed batteries and didn't come with batteries. Ram told her it said that on the box. Who reads the outside of the box?

Lamb 3 didn't know what to think of the lit candle

Lamb 3 crumbled up his cupcake and took a few bites but didn't seem to care for it.

Lamb 3's birthday

Well, our whole family all went down to the local cafe this morning to watch Lamb 3 on TV along with many of our church members that were there for breakfast. Lamb 3 was the only birthday today on TV. I don't think it is posted on the Internet yet, but it should be here later today. Lamb 3 wasn't interested in breakfast. He just wanted to run around and show off what a good walker he is.

If you are looking at this today (4/2/09), take a look at Lamb 3's Lilypie ticker on my sidebar. I forgot to look at it on our anniversary, but I remembered to look at it for Lamb 1's birthday.

We opened presents this morning before we went to the cafe. The Lambs received lots of play food for their play kitchen. Lamb 1 has been cooking for me since we came home from the cafe. Lamb 3 enjoyed playing with the boxes more than the presents.

Ram has to go to Ladies Aid this afternoon and I'm not sure how else we will celebrate after he gets home. We did bake cupcakes on Tuesday so I'm sure we'll eat those!

Happy Birthday Lamb 3!

We love you!

(Hopefully I can post photos of his first birthday soon!)

Lamb 3's birth story

I am posting Lamb 3's birth story in honor of his birthday tomorrow. I went for an ultrasound on April 1, 2008 in the morning. The decision was made to induce that afternoon because Lamb 3 was small and I had only put on 10 lbs the entire pregnancy. The due date was April 9. I came home and prepared Lamb 1 and 2 for me to go to the hospital. Lamb 1 is very much into routine and needed to know what was going on. Ram and I went back to the hospital (about 45 minutes away) and the induction started at 4:30pm. At about 2:30am they checked me and I was 5 cm so they called the midwife and decided to fill the tub for a waterbirth. My water broke then and I did not push, but Lamb 3 just popped out! The midwife did not make it. They had not started to fill the tub with water. The nurses didn't have their gloves on yet. The nurse in charge of the newborn baby had gone to the bathroom. One nurse hurried to put a glove on and caught him. He was born at 3:07am. The nurses all came to meet me over the next couple of days as it is practically unheard of to go from 5cm to baby out in less than a 1/2 hour! It was a miracle that he was born 1 1/2 hours before the deadline (for inducing) to start pictocin or something stronger. It snowed on April 2 so I think the weather change helped us too. Lamb 3 was born healthy and 6 lbs 10oz and 21 inches. He is the only Lamb that I had out of the water (not a waterbirth).

Just like Lamb 1, Lamb 3 had a knot in his cord

Lamb 3 with Mama at the hospital the day he was born

Ram with Lamb 3 at the hospital on the day he was born

Lamb 3 was tiny but healthy!

Lamb 2 didn't like Mama being gone to the hospital and took a long time to adjust to Lamb 3, but he loved being a big brother

Lamb 3 was so tiny when we put him in the car seat to go home from the hospital

Lamb 1 loved helping with Lamb 3, especially at bath time

Lamb 3 at 2 months

He sucked his thumb for awhile, but doesn't suck his thumb now

We praise God that we were blessed with a healthy boy. We have enjoyed this past year with him.