Trip to the funny farm

Spring has sprung at the Creech farm!  We hadn't been out to my sister/parents farm in 3 weeks due to vacation and then a week of the flu that took down everyone but me.  Poor Preston missed 4 days of school and threw up about 30 times!  His classmates wrote him get well cards...it was so sweet!!  Once we were finally healthy we went to visit the new babies...the lambs!

 Cameron was a little bit unsure at first!

 It didn't take long for them to become best buddies!

 It also took about 2 seconds flat for Preston to ask if we could have one at home!  I thought they were so cute that I would love to but I think we're not allowed if we live in the city.  I'm sure our neighbors would LOVE us!!!

 Owen has been talking about these lambs all winter and how he will be their shepherd.  He even told the teachers at preschool who thought he was making it all up.  He says he wants to be like David!

 

 Here's the boys on the farm side of the property where a creek is getting pretty full from all the rain water.  My dad is poking Preston on the head with a stick but Preston had no idea he was up there and didn't feel a thing.  Hard-headed, I say!

 King of the mountain!

This is also about 90 seconds before Owen ends up falling over into the creek and his fun is over.  He ended up sitting on the edge of the creek with me in just his skivies.

 "Now that Owen is out of the way, I will fill his boots with water!! (cue evil laugh!)"

 Back at the house, the babies needed to be fed.  I am a pro bottle feeder by now so I fed this one.  I did end up spraying milk in my face which doesn't normal happen when I feed humans!

Here's the King of the Mountain before he was dethroned and stripped of all but his underwear.

The kids have so much fun over at the farm!  We are so grateful to Sara and my parents for allowing us to take part in this adventure without having to do a lot of the work!

Our trip to Destin

We haven't really been to Florida since Sara moved away so I was excited to get to enjoy the beach and the sun again over Spring Break this year.  I was a little bit apprehensive about driving down which took about 14 hours because I didn't know how the kids would fare.  Well, let me tell you, Pinterest came through for me in a big way.  They gave me this idea about writing each child's name on a clothespin.  While you're on the car ride, you clip their name onto the visor and then you remove it if they are acting up.  During that time, you randomly do checks and whoever has their name still on the visor gets something special.  I decided that the kids would get 50 cents every time their clip was still on the visor so I made a sticker chart to show their progress.  They had the ability to earn up to $6 to use towards souvenirs when they got to Florida.  I was impressed by how much the money motivated them.  If you have a road trip planned anytime soon with older kids, I'm sure this will be a hit!

We went down to Destin, Florida with Wes' brother Chad and his family and his sister Amy and her family.  There was 17 of us in all.  This was the place that we stayed at.  It was a wonderful house that fit our families perfectly!  It was in a neighborhood that looked like it was straight out of Desperate Housewives.  We loved being in a neighborhood because it allowed the kids to be able to play things like kickball and baseball without worrying too much about cars.

It's so funny that we all have a two-year old.  They were like the three musketeers, getting into trouble at every turn.  They would follow each other around and sneak snacks from the pantry or from our rooms.  It's rumored Gisele (Chad's 2 year old daughter) may have eaten half of Amy and Jay's chocolate chip cookies.  I also witnessed her eating 4 packs of our fruit snacks!  Cameron would just cruise the kitchen and put his hands up hoping to snag a bag of chips or cheez-its.  They also loved to escape out the front door and head towards the street when no one was looking.  Thankfully we had a deadbolt that we could use that kept them inside!   They are definitely little rascals!  Here's a picture of them giving us a few moments of peace by watching a movie in Cameron's bed.

These boys were the other set of 3 Musketeers that we had.  They are 7 (Canon, far right), 6 (Preston, middle) and 5 (Quinn, far left) and they play together fabulously!  We are so happy to have all these boys!

Getting ready for family pictures

These pictures always make me laugh because if you were there while they were being taken, you would have seen the sheer chaos of bringing us all together.  I'm pretty surprised in how good it turned out!

The view from the beach.

The last night there.  I love my boys!

Wes apparently forgot to smile but the rest of us turned on the charm on his behalf, especially Owen.  

First things first!

Oh how I have missed blogging!  I know there are only a token few of you left who read but I still love to write so I'm going to keep doing it.  We just got back from our vacation to Florida but as I was downloading my pictures from the trip, I realized I had some pretty cute winter pictures to share first!  This is our first winter in Brownsburg and let me just tell you...it was lovely!  We have a lot of trees in our front yard and back yard and when they were covered in snow, it looked like a winter wonderland.  I don't really love snow that much but after this winter, I'm now a fan!

Before I show you our snow pictures, I just wanted to give you a public service announcement;  This picture is why self-portraits are such a bad idea!  A double-chin is almost inevitable when you take it yourself! :)  Owen is our budding photographer...he loves to steal the camera and take lots of interesting pictures of things like carpet, the chair, the floor....you know, the things most people love to see pictures of!  He always leaves an incriminating picture of himself just in case we don't know who the culprit is!

 Onto the snow!

 This was Owens first time making a real snow angel.

 Here's Cameron showing off his giant chompers.  

Preston is ready for his close up!  This is his 3rd winter coat of the season.  He lost the first one...still not sure how that is possible. So I inadvertently bought Preston a replacement coat from Goodwill that ended up being a girl coat...I mean he only wore it to school like three times before I figured it out!  So, this time I went to Kohls to make sure I was buying a boy coat instead of a girl coat. 

Here's a photo I like to look at when all the kids are fighting.  Deep down I know they like each other.  We try really hard to instill a closeness in the family because I really think that friends will fade but family lasts forever!

When the hard times come....

I'm not sure what first triggered it.  I think it was when I looked at Wes' paycheck and said "Hey, we're missing a hundred bucks this month!"  Come to find out, the government apparently doesn't have enough of our money so they decided to take some more!  This left a really bad taste in my mouth.  I must have missed WHY they were taking more money out of checks so in the end it just felt like we were being stolen from.  Pair that with already having to cut down our budget about $40 a month at the beginning of this year and I bet you can guess what happened; 

I decided we were poor.

I moped around for a few days wavering between anger, pity and fear.  I just felt helpless for the first time in a long time.  When Wes and I overspend, it doesn't hit me so hard because I know there's always another month to do better.  But when you already feel like you're living on a tight budget and then have someone come and "pull the rug"out from under you, that's a different story.  Now, I do want to say I know we are not poor.  Not even close to it.  I know we live in the most blessed country in the world and that we are richer than about 95% of the world's population.  I know this in my head, but my heart was saying "That's all well and good but what happens when you have unexpected expenses that you can't pay for?  What are you going to do then?"  Fear began to grip my heart.  I started thinking about it constantly and worrying about things that we had already committed to.  Should we really go on that vacation?  Should we really be buying the kids more clothes?  Should we really buy the kids presents for their birthdays or just put a little money into their college funds? (My kids would burn me at the stake if they knew I was thinking about that one!)

Then I went to my Father's house.  I can't tell you exactly what the pastor said but I left with this thought going through my head, "Do I really believe what I say I believe?"  Do I believe that God loves me? Yes.  Do I believe that He has guided my path these past 31 years?  Definitely.  Do I believe His Word when He says "See how I take care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field?  How much more will I take care of you, my beloved child?"  I had to say YES! I do believe that. 

And with that, I was reminded that NOTHING happens that God doesn't know about and control.  He works our lives together for HIS good.  Will there be painful times?  Times where God doesn't make sense or seem to fit into the picture of what we had of Him? Most assuredly.  But think of how much comfort we can take in knowing that the Being who knit us together in our mother's womb is still the One who is watching over and providing for us today.  I was so encouraged that God brought me to this place and I hope it's a place that I can stay and camp out in for the rest of my life; resting in Him instead of my own understanding.  I hope that if you are struggling with fear or trying to understand God's will in difficult circumstances, instead of pulling away from God, you will draw nearer to Him.  He will be our Refuge and Strength if we just allow Him to.

Has anyone else struggled with hard times lately?  You are not alone! 

Ps.  While writing this post, I have thought about a half dozen close friends or family members who are going through things 100 times worse than me and I started doubting that I should even write this blog because I feel like my struggles are pea-sized in comparison.  But in the end, I think that we can find encouragement in sharing our struggles, no matter how big or small!

Happy 2nd Birthday Cameron!

Cameron James Cook began making his arrival onto the earth on February 7, 2011.  Now that I know him and his personality, I'm not surprised that he didn't need any help coming out.  He knew when he wanted to be born and he made it happen.  He is exactly like this today.  He sees what he wants and go head first in to get it.

 Cameron was a wonderful baby.  He slept a lot which was very kind to his mother and he didn't have any trouble plumping up.  We thought Owen was a big baby but Cameron surpassed him as he grew.  He brought a lot of excitement to our house as Wes and I learned to juggle 3 boys!  It gets a lot more complicated when you have 3 children instead of 2 because someone is always doing double the work.  Wes and I had no problem keeping score of what each of us had done so we could say "I changed the last dirty diaper, your turn!"  That's modern marriage for you folks!

 This was a typical look for Cameron; sleeping in the car seat.  Life doesn't stop when you're born 3rd child in a family, you are just always taken along for the ride.  I always wonder how his personality will be different from Preston or Owen's because he is forced to just do what everyone else is doing.

I always had this dream that my kids would love playing together and would just share and love each other so much.  This dream was right along side the dream that I would always stay a size 4.  As we all know, not all dreams become reality.  Yes I am still a size 4, but no my kids don't play very well together.  Okay, fine, I'm a 5.  Okay fine, my size is the answer of this equation (5+4-1/75x the square root of butterscotch pie).  Anywhooo....This picture is probably right before one of those blocks went flying into the forehead of one or both of the boys.  Whenever Owen and Cameron play together you can guarantee fireworks.  They are so close in age and Cameron does not back down and that makes for some interesting fights!

One thing Cameron loves to do is when he's not causing mischief is to have fun!  He has such a cute sense of humor and makes us laugh with his antics. 

He also lives by the mantra "the dirtier you are, the more fun you must be having!"

 As Cameron enters his second year of life, we are excited for what is ahead.  He talks more than any of the other boys did at this age.  He is a pistol and let's us know when he is pleased and not pleased but even after he throws a giant fit and ends up getting what he wants, he politely says thank you.  Hey...I guess it's the little things! 

Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet Cameron!  You bring so much love to our lives and we can't imagine living it without you!

Is January over yet??

 Happy New Year!  Oh wait, I'm a little late!  Yes I have been a major blogger slacker.  Sorry about that.  Things have been pretty nice around here this month.  We've been just taking it easy, enjoying our new house and hunkering down whenever the snow comes.  I just love looking out the windows at the snow (all from the comfort of my warm home). 

Here's a typical look at what life is like...lots of pushing and playing around:

We entered both Owen and Preston in the Awana Grand Prix this year for the first time.  It was also the first time that Wes had made cars like this.  He didn't have the proper tools so he had to use a chisel!!!  I don't know why the thought of it makes me laugh, but it does!  

So when they got home from the Grand Prix I was excited to hear what happened when Preston came in and said "I got last place EVERY race!"  He was not pleased.  Wes came in and told me that everytime his car would come in last place, he would just glare at Wes like it was all his fault!  Well, a day or two after the race, Wes realized he put Preston's wheels on backwards so it really WAS all his fault!  At least next year, all they can do is improve! 

This is Preston right before his 100th day of Kindergarten.  They had to dress up like 100 year old men to commemorate the event.  I thought he looked pretty cute in his full suit although he looks more like he's running for office!  Funny thing is, the suit is one that Wes used to wear when he was Prestons age.

At the beginning of the year, we got to go to Wes' work party which is always a huge highlight.  His work always goes all out and it is usually in downtown Indianapolis.  It was at the JW Marriott this year.  We decided to go all out this year and get a hotel room to make it like a real date!  (I mean, married person date..haha!) Wes has been on so many business trips that we were able to use points that he had earned to get a free night.  Now that's what I call a great deal!

Here's the view from our hotel room.

Here's a few pics from the actual event.  I don't know who those guys are in the background but I'm pretty sure Wes does.  Just because you work at a big boy job doesn't take the little boy out of you apparently! :)

This is one of my best friends, Mary.  She and I have been friends since Wes first started working at ININ.  She is such a wonderful, fun person to be around!

 

 Hope all is well with everyone reading...if there is anyone left!!

My Grammee

 The week between Christmas and New Years was bittersweet as we said goodbye to my wonderful grandmother.  She will be greatly missed!  I was able to say a few words at her funeral and I thought I would share them here so you can get an idea of what a great lady she was.

I am so honored to be able to speak a few words about my grandmother Josephine Razenberg who we lovingly referred to as Grammee. There is no way that I can sum up her life lived in a few short moments but I thought I would honor her by telling you what lessons I learned from her life.

The first lesson I learned from Grammee is how to love fully. From the time that I was a small child I was struck by my grandparents love story. Their love for each other had to be put on hold as my grandpa was called off to war. I'm sure a lot of similar relationships interrupted by war couldn't stand the test of time, but theirs did. When he returned from the war, they were married and their love remained strong to the end which was over 60 years. How can we not be inspired by that? And their love was no ordinary love as I realized they didn't just love each other, they liked each other! They loved spending time together. I cannot remember more than a half a dozen times where I saw one without the other. They were best friends with each other. I can tell you that as I went off to college and looked for a mate, their example was never far from my mind. I didn't just want someone who I would spend my life with, I wanted someone who would be my best friend.

Another lesson I learned from Grammee is to enjoy every moment to the fullest. My grandparents loved to travel. I don't have an exact count but I know that both of my grandparents have seen many, if not all of the 50 states. They taught me how important it was to enjoy the world that God has created. When I was young, they would travel down to Florida every winter and spend a few months down there just soaking up the sun. I would be so jealous thinking of them sitting by the ocean as I sat in school with my feet freezing from the frigid Michigan winter. And then Grammee would come back and we would compare the tans we had on our arms and she would always have me beat. Grammee also loved reading and doing word searches. I can still picture her sitting in her padded rocking chair filling out what seemed like her millionth book of word searches. I used to try and help her fill them out but she showed herself to be a far superior word searcher than I.

Grammee was also the Queen of fashion in our family. She had not one, but two closets full of clothes! She may have had other closets hidden away that I never discovered. She had a love for clothes that I am afraid my sister Lindsay and I may have inherited. She taught us that a girl can never have too many clothes and that it was IS possible to find shoes that matched your outfit exactly! She also loved jewelry and always had beautiful nails that she manicured herself. She had an emery board and a jar of nail polish near by at all times! Her profession was doing hair so it's no surprise that her hair was always done and looked beautiful. I remember one time we were riding in her car and discovered her rain bonnets. We couldn't figure out what they were until she told us she wore them so her hair wouldn't get messed up. Us girls had fun just trying them on whenever we were riding with them in the car.

She probably didn't know this, but Grammee taught her granddaughters how to be strong women. She grew up on a farm and I am sure this went a long way in making her a strong woman. One of my favorite memories of her involves a fateful arm wrestling match. My sister Sara came home from her basic training from the Air Force feeling strong and confident. Out of nowhere Grammee challenged Sara to an arm wrestling match. At first Sara refused, worried that she would hurt break Grammee's arm and told her “I'll go easy on you!” Grammee just smiled and said “I'll warn you, I'm pretty tough.” We all laughed thinking Grammee would be easily beaten. As they began the match, to our surprise, they were pretty equally matched. As the match continued though, Grammee stayed strong while Sara started to falter. In the end, Grammee was victorious and we were all thorougly impressed! Mike had a good laugh about it until Sara said “Ok, Mike, you wrestle her and he said “Not after I saw you get beat! We still talk about strong-armed Grammee to this day.

To the end of her life, Grammee was faithful. She was faithful to her husband, her children, her grandchildren and most of all to God. I have learned recently in church about how generations before us can have an impact on our faith either positively or negatively. We as a family have been so blessed to have the example of John and Josephine Razenberg. I wholeheartedly believe that our families are stronger in their faith because of THEIR faithfulness to our Heavenly Father. Psalms 112:1-2 ESV “Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! (2) His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.”

We love you and will miss you Grammee.