December IS the beginning of WINTER!!

Thanksgiving week was SOOO much fun. I have pictures (coming) from other sources from the holiday, because I'm really bad about taking pictures... but here is a quick run down of my FAVORITE holiday:
Wednesday:
- Dirk arrived home from WY on Tuesday evening.
- The kids had a 1/2 day of school, officially "Grandparents Day" so Grandpa Alan
and Grandma Cleo got the honor of carpooling and attending class!
- Dirk, Liv and I bought our Christmas tree!! Thanks for planning ahead babe!
- Wed evening Lance, Gretchen, Tori and Logan arrived from Fargo, ND
- Logan (3) announced they were here to see his dad's brother... guess the rest
of us didn't count for much!?! (until later... he and Thor are great buds now!)
- Played "Settlers of Caanan" with Lance & Gretchen

Thanksgiving Day!
- We loaded up food, kids and more to Ted's home outside of Hot Springs
- Dinner was GREAT, as usual... Mom's stuffing recipe is the BEST
- Kids got to play a Thanksgiving Day Scavenger hunt... GREAT idea Gramma Jan!
- Ride-giving abounded: 4-wheelers, tractor, horseback...
- With such nice weather it was hard to stay inside long enough to play games
- Turkey Foot Dominoes was accomplished! 2 games at least...
- Someone was watching the football games, but it wasn't me...
- Played "Settlers of Caanan" with Lance & Gretchen

Friday:
- Made Gingerbread house cookie dough, and baked...
- The "boys" went to town for gun-store shopping & etc!
- Played "Settlers of Caanan" with Lance & Gretchen (we are HOOKED!)


Saturday:
- Made frosting for Gingerbread houses... started assembling the 6 houses
- The "boys" went to the RUSH hockey game!! Whoo hoo!! Rush won, of course!!
- Decorated the Gingerbread houses... and ate LOTS of candy...
- who needs supper after all that candy?





Dirk spend this past weekend in WY intending on working... but the temps dropped so fast and so low, he needed to spend a day getting the skirting on the camper. One day after work he came "home" to find the propane had run out... the camper was VERY cold... and the water had nearly froze ... he said the water came out in ice chucks at first, then flowed after a moment!! That was a CLOSE call!! PTL it was OK. But he needed to get the winterization process done! I think it looks pretty good for plain old plywood sheets!




Dirk says he is MUCH warmer now... and shouldn't have to worry about freezing anymore! Usually he's the one keeping ME warm at night!! Imagine how cold I am right now?! (just kidding... :)

Thanksgiving makes me thing of BAKING!!

Have to start with this: dirk is home!! yeah!!
Followed by this: new position in the company will keep him travelling for at least another year... so just get used to it people (I'm speaking to myself here)... He promises to be home more regularly (he keeps his promises very well), and will most likely be working out of WY and or UT for the coming year. We're just happy to have him home for the next week! Nothing too special planned, just family time.

Just put in my Pampered Chef order (way too much)... it will probably be my Christmas present to myself... but I NEED it before the holidays so I have all the right tools to do what I want/need to do!

Lefse: Planning a support group for my other lefse-phile friends... I love eating it, but it's a lot of work to make... so the new plan is to bribe a few friends into coming over to help. Benefits: we all get lefse to take home, and we have a lovely morning together chatting and catching up! We'll see if we can fit it into our schedules now!!

Thanksgiving & Holiday Cooking: My BFF in Seattle asked for holiday suggestions... which reminded me to get out my holiday planner (3 ring binder) I made last year. It was a "smart mommy" idea from Family Fun Magazine (online)... if anyone else wants to start one, the "forms" can be printed from their website.

Notes I made to myself for THIS year are:
- find a good Thanksgiving DVD, like Peanuts or??
Anyone have any suggestions?

- Make pumpkin pancakes & waffles all month! LOVE THEM!

- Lille Norge Fest the Saturday BEFORE Thanksgiving at Canyon Lk Sr. Center

- Take a family photo together sometime this month! Why is this so hard?

- Start collecting fun candies for the Gingerbread houses to be put together
the day after Thanksgiving

- Save some of the Halloween candy for the Gingerbread houses...
not like we need to eat it all now!!


Here are a couple of our new favorite recipes from last year:

Sweet & Sour Braised Cabbage
4 slices bacon
2 cups thinly sliced onion
3 cups chipped & peeled green/sour apples
10 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
1 cup apple cider
1/4 cup Apple cider vinegar
2 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 bay leaf
3 whole cloves (optional) (I don't)

Cook bacon in a deep skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat until crisp. Set aside to cool, drain; then chop small. Take out all but 1 Tbs. of bacon grease, add onions; saute 3 minutes. Add apples; saute 2 minutes. Add cabbage; saute 2 minutes. Add cider, vinegar, salt, sugar, bay leaf & cloves. Bring combo to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cabbage is tender, stirring occasionally. Discard cloves & bay leaf. Sprinkle w/ bacon and serve hot or warm.

Good leftover and warmed again. Calories: 139 per 1/8 of batch, about 3/4 cup. (from Cooking Light December 2008)

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes
10 pounds white potatoes
1 cup sour cream
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
2 tsp. onion salt
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup butter

Cook potatoes & drain. Mash; add remaining ingredients (not butter) and mix well. Place potatoes in a pretty, oven-safe, freezer-safe dish. Dot with small pieces of butter. Keep refrigerated until 1 to 1 1/2 hours before the meal. (Can also be frozen, remove from freezer and set on your counter to thaw overnight). Bake at 350 degrees until heated through, might get slightly brown around the edges, which is kinda nice too. If you REALLY have to, you can warm up in microwave too... but you know what I think about microwaves... so don't do it... bake it in the oven... it's much better!

Carmel Apple Hot Cider
1 gallon Market Pantry(Target) Carmel Apple Apple Cider
2 cups orange juice
1/2 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
slices of lemon (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan, covered, over medium heat for 30 minutes, or until steaming. Serve. Makes 16-20 servings.

Optional: Heat all ingredients in a crock-pot, covered on high for 2 hrs until steaming, then turn to LOW to keep it warm all day.

If this isn't sweet enough for you, try this serving option:
Place 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream in a tall mug
fill mug w/ warm Carmel apple cider
drizzle w/ Carmel sauce before serving

YUM-O!!

Fall Fun!!

We are enjoying a GREAT Fall!! Except it feel more like winter?? Do I have the only family that jumps for joy and gets totally excited everytime it snows? The kids get so excited they can hardly eat their breakfast... they just want to get on the winter gear and go play!!! As you can see they made the most of our recent snow ... makeing a snowman with Grandpa Alan (kind of a tradition now...). Good thing they got right on it too... the snow was GONE by 3p.m that afternoon (Thursday, Oct. 8th).

We had a lovely long weekend -- Tante Carrie drove out for a visit. We made the MOST of the short time she was here... Bully's Blends for breakfast, a full day of shopping (with very cooperative kids! How did that happen?!). We went ice skating, watched Project Runway (fav show!!), made homemade pizza... Just had a great time!

Dirk update: I shouldn't even write updates, becuase everytime I write again, it makes me look like a liar.... So now he won't be back until the 2nd week of November. I guess I just need to start writing when he WON't be home... so far that part has been right EVERY time! He is coming home for a weekend visit this weekend...which we are all VERY happy about! :)

Potty Training? ? Again...

Well, I should preface this discussion by saying this is Liv's first attempted at being potty trained... The rest of the family, who were effectively potty trained somwhere between 11 months and 3 years of age are all STILL potty trained. (thank you Jesus!)

So this is not a commentary on the woes of backsliding... this is a mommy who was very happy to have two children well past the age of potty training, and not really super excited about potty training the 3rd. It's been a very relaxed approach. We've tried staying in just panties (her, not me) for the time we are home each day (mornings through early afternoon).

It nearly always resulted in an accident.... thus a deep cleaning of whatever surface was desecrated. I'm no "kate" (from Jon and Kate Plus Eight)... it's doesn't cause me to throw her and the affected items in the trash -- just the washing machine. (Well, Kate didn't throw her kids in the trash either.)

Three days of potty training under our belts, and there have only been 3 real "accidents." I actually consider that good progress. She does have a diaper on for naps and overnights (of course... this isn't my first 'rodeo!').

Even if I have to reminder her, and take her to the bathroom about every 90 minutes, the effort is worth only using 1-2 diapers a day!! YEAH!!

Liv-isms:
After she ate a large supper recently she let out a noise from the bottom of her belly... and asked me "aat was at mommy?"... then followed quickly by "oh, I durped!"

Sitting on the counter, "helping" me make supper, she said
"Please" (holding up a bag of chips)
"No, we're going to eat supper soon"

"Please" (holding up a granola bar)
"No, we're going to eat supper soon"

"Please" (holding up an apple)
"No, we're going to eat supper soon"

"Please" (holding up a banana)
"No, we're going to eat supper soon"

I wondered how long this would go on before she would start to whine...

"Please" (holding up the box of toothpicks)
"ummmm... NO... but supper IS ready... Let's eat!)

Fall Birthdays

September is one of the 'full' months when it comes to family birthdays! Dirk's Grandma Lillian had her special day on September 9th. It was her 90th Birthday -- turning 90 on 09.09.09!! Why didn't someone call the Today Show?!! We didn't make the big party this time, but heard it was a lovely family get together.

Friday afternoon Holli (my niece) was in town for her girls to attend gymnasics class at Just Gymnastics... so we decided to plan a girls-night-out! Alex and Jess (from MOPS) came over to babysit (they live about 5 minutes away in Piedmont! How great is that?!)... and we headed out to Ruby Tuesdays for supper. Salad bar was stupendous as always!! We were all done by 8p.m. and had the sitters booked until 10... so we headed to Borders to chat, look at books, etc. We found the Inspirational section - which actually has a very nice selection -- and was much bigger than I would have imagined, 3 rows long (3 sides, or 1 1/2 isles). With the Body Builder going out of business, it's nice to know there is a place we can find books IRL, rather than having to order everything online.


We found a book we just couldn't turn down... "Living With the Lutherans," by G Kieller (not sure if I'm spelling his last name right?? the Lake Wobeogone guy) We laughed until we cried. Holli decided her mom needed it for comic relief!

The next day we all packed up and headed for Hot Springs. There are 3 birthdays on my side of the family, nephew-in-law Jason (20th); sis-in-law Jan (21st) and brother Ted (27th). We spent a lovely afternoon and evening together on Saturday at Ted's place. Baked chicken, stuffing and the works for supper...along with spice cake and brownies for dessert.

Fall is here!?!

With 2 1/2 inches of rain on Saturday it is fully feeling like fall around here!! I love fall, always ready for a couple months of cooler weather before the snow sets in (thought we don't always get through Sept & Oct w/o snow.... but that is another blog....)

What's new for....
Dirk: customer in New Mexico is still using the rented machines from Butler Cat, and plans to keep using the machines until the end of Sept. Estimated "home" date now moved (again... sigh...) to the middle of October. This IS a repeating pattern for all you lovely family and friends who keep asking... it's been happening since the original "wrap up date" the end of April.... I'll count on it when I see his tools back in the garage (smiles.)!

Dirk is planning to be home for a long weekend toward the end of September. No permanent plans (meaning, we haven't purchased an airline ticket yet!).

Nancy: MOPS started on Tuesday this past week -- "Life on Planet Mom"... it's a great theme actually, as no other person can really relate to what life is like as a SAHM except another SAHP(parent).

Even more, I am loving our Mom's Coffee group at Dove - every Thursday. We just started a new book, "Growing Kids God's Way." It is rockin' my world!! I never knew how much I WASN'T getting as a parent.... my eyes are opening, and hopefully it means a better experience through the growing up years for all of us. It's not that our kids were terribly challenging kids, maybe more that I had forgotten how to "speak" to my kids about what God's Word says!! Lesson One, growing a heart that Loves God's ways in our children, was so important for all of us!!

Thor: Life in 4th grade has been good. He loves his teacher and loves her approach to teaching -- seems like everything is just more interesting this year! Good thing since the homework is a bit harder and responsibilities have increased too. No sports yet... I'm enjoying the "lull" until hockey starts in about a month. Of course the play date invitations never end... Dirk says we are just a family of social net workers!!

Anika: 1st grade brings daily homework. The first night Anika was really excited to sit at the kitchen table with Thor and do her homework. By night two she was DONE with the responsibility of homework!! Oh how quickly the novelty wears off, huh?? We've found happiness in the middle ground of not LOVING extra work, but realizing if she just does it when she gets home, it's over and she has the rest of the night for free time.... Anika is beginning to love cooking in the kitchen, as long as we pretend we are "Martha Stewart and guest" doing a TV show, telling our audience how to cook whatever the recipe of the day is.... Oh dear...??

Liv: I suppose potty training would be a good idea now that she is 2 1/2 ... but frankly I'm just not in a rush. I get too frustrated when there are accidents, mostly because I knew I forgot to take her to the potty when I should have. Her favorite play time is "tea party" out on the deck with her dollies.

Now I'm only a MONTH behind in my blogging!!!

What have I missed?
1. a few pics from our summer in NM
2. what we did here in RC the month of August (it's gone?? where did it go??)
3. first day of school (1st and 4th grade)
4. gallbladder surger (done!! yeah!!)
5. beginning September and the routine life again!

1. Thor at the Nuclear Museum, probably our favorite spot in Albequerqe... he's sitting next to the periodic table that is etched into the marble floor... element #90: Thorium (too cool!)


Liv and Anika loved the hands-on children's hall. The museum does a great job of making it a family friendly museum. The children's hall runs through the center of the other exhibits... so parents can take turns (like we did) viewing the various areas and still keeping the kids happy.

It was a rainy, cool summer by NM standards.... the flowers were gorgeous in the dessert and mountain areas. We saw 1000's of acres of wild iris (not an exaggeration), prickly pear, and many more I don't know the name of... we were told by locals it was one of the most beautiful summers they have had.





Just outside of Abq is a National Park, the Petroglyphs. Here you can see Thor and Anaika standing in front of 2 rocks that were used as "blank canvas" for native people probably 1000 years ago. Some rocks have markings that date back to the mid 1700's (are obviously Christian in nature, and are credited to the Spanish sheep hearders). I was curious how the markings could last so many years... what I learned was that the basalt rock (came from volcanos that errupted many, many years before) gets a "sunburn" as it sits out in the hot dessert sun year after year. The natives (and others) used a type of acid to etch through the sun-baked rock, to expose the natural color of the rock below. Whatever natural materials they used, also "blocked" the suns rays ... so as the petroglyphs age, the pictures actually look "better"... the basalt rock turns darker brown/maroon/black, and the drawings stay a sandy brown color.


The Abq Zoo was another highlight of the trip -
Thor and Anika got to feed Lorkeets, a jungle bird with a fuzzy tongue!


We saw all the usual zoo type animals, but enjoyed the experience more knowing WHEN to visit each exhibit. It's not as much fun to just walk past a deep "pen" of say, lions and watch them sleep in the sun. It's still amazing to see the size and so forth... but the zoo did a good job of letting visitors help with feeding times, or other interactive moments so the kids could really experience the animal "doing it's thing."

The last thing before we left, we took a train ride through the park, where Liv fell asleep in the first 60 seconds of the ride (well, maybe 5 minutes?)... but she was POOPED!!

We spent many other weekends exploring the mountains near the town of Grants, where the company provided a rental house for Dirk (and us by default!). To the north was Mt. Taylor and La Mosca Look Out ...





One of our most memorable weekend trips was to the Grand Canyon. Of course, I didn't have a functioning camera that day... so we got this LONE picture with Dirk's blackberry.

2: I don't even remember what we spent our time doing in August... it flew by so fast... Dirk had to get back to work in NM right away, so he flew back the Monday after we arrived (Sat. the 1st). I spent the first full week unpacking and re-organizing the house. Somehow living on a camper's worth of necessities made our home here in RC feel CLUTTERED and unnecessarily FULL OF JUNK!! Each of the kids rooms got a thorough purging, probably got about 1/2 the stuff our of each room (with more to go later, when I can have a garage sale or ???)

Thor had a late birthday party at Parkview pool with some buddies from school. It was our ONE AND ONLY pool date this summer?! How sad is that? We usually spend a day a week at the pool. For this year, it was OK.

Our last "hurrah" for summer was a camping trip to Spearfish with various families from our church. It was a full and FUN weekend -- Dirk flew home for 10 days vacation so he could be here for the event.

3: First Day of School: August 26th!! Zion Lutheran again this year... where we have been very happy with the whole school experience for our kids. Thor in 4th grade and Anika in 1st. Dirk was still on vacation at this point, which made it even more fun for the family... he was able to come to all the "start up" activities: the open house, 1st morning drop-off, and 1st chapel.





4: The next Friday. Aug 28th was surgery day for me, the day after my birthday??!
As a side note: I got a great birthday present!! I went to get new glasses before I renewed my drivers liscense and was told by the optomotrist that my eyes have been healed (not his words, he just said "got better")... and I now have 20/20 vision!! No glasses needed!! Isn't that awesome!!

So Friday morning Dirk took me to RCRH at 5:30 a.m. to meet Dr. Green at the pre-op area for out-patient surgery. All went just as it was supposed to, surgery started at 7a.m. and I was done by 8:10 or so. I rested in the post-op area for a few hours and was home by 2p.m.

I'm still moving a little slower than usual (1 week later), but feel like recovery has been very easy. Thanks to family and Dirk, I didn't have to do much all week -- meals were brought to my home each evening by the sweet mommies at Dove; Dirk had cleaned the whole house and done every speck of laundry; mom and dad were on hand for any other jobs, big or small this week. The only thing I did was pick the kids up from school each day at 3p.m.!


5: I'm excited about getting back into the routine of home, kids, school and church again. No matter how much I DON'T do, there is more than enough to fill every day. One thing I learned about myself while being in NM is that I liked doing a load of laundry each day vs. doing ALL the laundry in ONE day. In some ways it feels less effecient... on the other hand, if I get a day behind, I only have one extra load to pick up, rather than 10!! Besides, I never really got it all done in one day... so it was just a HUGE amount across 2-3 days... I do each person in the family on each of the week days -- then the towels and bedding on the weekends. It's also been easier to teach Thor and Anika to do thier own laundry by spreading it out like this too... just another way to delegate more work!! Yeah!!

The usual....

Can you believe I've been home more than a week now and I still haven't uploaded any pictues from New Mexico? Crazy. Maybe it's becuase I had bedding and towels from 8 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms (NM house + SD house) and plenty of regular laundry.... a laundry room/storage area that had gotten WAY out of control.... and an upstair storage closet that couldn't really be opened for fear of what would fall on a person (well... that would be me... since I'm the only one around to organize!! for now...)

I feel like this IS my house again. It feels very nice actually. I've caught up on the two TV shows I still like... HBO's "Big Love" and TNT's "The Closer." Now I'm back to reading books like I did all of June and July.

I fell in love with a new author... for those who might not know me my fav style of book is Christian Fiction... I raided the Wal-Mart book section (if you didn't hear before, the only shopping with in 90 miles)... Here was my Library:

This was probably my 2nd fav of the summer. Set in the early years of Seattle, WA... about a logger looking for a bride...


This was 3 short stories under one cover... had a bit of mystery, history and of course a touch of romance.


I'm actually not done with this one yet... another 3 in 1 story. It's good, set in modern day South Carolina. Modern "life" stories just aren't the escape I'm looking for sometimes... It's a good book... but I probably will finish other before I get back to this one.

Read this one with Thor... how fun it was to re-live the series I read many times over as a kid!


This book is HILLARIOUS... I love the author's style. As you can see I've read 3 by her this summer. She keeps the plot moving quickly in all her books. As the title eludes, it takes place in Texas... about a spinster of 30 years!!


I liked this one for the history of the city of San Francisco -- early gold rush days. Also has a good lesson about not judging people from appearances, or even actions... no one knows the heart but God.

By far the best read of my summer. I read it in about 2 days. Once I started I just had to read it through. I've heard some people are offended by the authors choices in portraying God in a more earthly human form. But really, if YOU were going to have a face to face experience with God -- how would HE chose to present Himself to you?? I sure don't know... but GOD does!!

We are HOME!! Yeah!

Yes... it is true, we are HOME in our yellow house in Piedmont, SD!! Got home last night (Saturday the 1st) around 7p.m. Kids loved getting home. Liv ran straight for swing set and said "my swing... MY swing... MY SWING!!" We didn't hear a word from any of the kids for the rest of the evening; it was almost as good at Christmas... they were exploring all the stuff they forgot they had... and all the stuff they forgot they missed so much while they were away.

Dirk rode/drove home with us for the weekend, but will be flying back to NM on Tuesday AM. He was very much hoping to be done completely this week or next. The day we left, it looked like the earliest he could make it home would be more like 3 weeks from now. It was just too close to school starting, and a very important Family Camp Out weekend with our church... added to the issues with my gallbladder (surgery or not??) So on Wednesday night we made the final decision to come home this weekend so the kids and I can partake in a little local summer fun - pool and park dates, etc. Plus a little back to school shopping, a late birthday party for Thor, etc., etc.

Can't wait to see all you local friends again... We've missed our family, the Dove (church family) and friends!!


The following is re-cap of our New Mexican adventures, by week... Feel free to skip; I just like to have a written copy of what we've been doing in life. This is more for me than anyone else.

Week 1: May 23-31
Moeller family gathering in Rosholt
Celebration of niece Maddie's high school graduation
Met Maddie's boyfriend Jake -- (nice guy, we'd keep him...)

Week 2: June 1-7
Left SD for NM, stopped in Dodge City, KS on the way
Unpacked and settled into the "Red House"
Kids loved the secluded, big yard and played in the mud and rocks constantly
Mom loved the privacy fence all the way around, but got tired of washing muddy clothes!
Rode our 4-wheelers in the Cibolla Mountain area, near Mt. Taylor

Week 3: June 8-15
Kids played with each other like they were best friends
Great family time in the evenings!
Played lots of Skip-Bo
Found a great campground in ABQ(Albuquerque)
American RV Park: pool (YEAH!!), playground, and free breakfast every morning
Went to the National Museum of Nuclear Science - LOVED it...
Thor has decided to become a Nuclear Scientist

Week 3: June 16-21
Signed the kids up for Art Camp and Cheer leading (Summer Rec program)
Went to the park for the Free School Lunch for the kids!
Left early on Friday for the Grand Canyon
Camped at Mather Campground - saw a family of elk there
LOVED the canyon!!
Only wish we could have seen a good sunset, too cloudy while we were there.

Week 4: June 22-28
Kids got quite tired of playing with each other
No one wants to play outside anymore
Monsoon rains started early this year, didn't work to play in the park as often
Went to Walmart one too many times this week...
Good thing they had Art Camp to go to every day!!
Our Mt. Taylor camping trip got rained out... didn't want to camp at 9,000 ft. with crazy lighting all around us!
Went to Albuquerque instead.
Discovered a great love for the Whole Foods Market!!
Drove to Acoma - aka "Sky City" - an ancient Pueblo city built on top a mesa
Explored the museum, visitors center and local artisan shops

Week 5: June 29- July 5
Thor isn't sure Art Camp is so much fun, but the alternative of staying home was worse....
Anika LOVES the cheer leading!
Got new curriculum for the Mom's Coffee/Bible Study from Growing Kids God's Way
Trying to work ahead in the curriculum to be prepared for this fall
Dirk had Friday off for the 4th Holiday -- left for ABQ and American RV Park again!
Drove to Los Alamos to visit the Bradbury Museum (more Nuclear stuff) and tour the cute mountain town.
Spent the 4th at the ABQ Zoo -- awesome fun!! Best zoo we've visited yet!
Saw the city fireworks from the hilltop near the campground
Had to shop at Whole Foods (again!!)

Week 6: July 6-12
Actually had to clean house and do laundry this week
Doesn't feel as much like a vacation now...
Went camping at the Zuni mountains with a friend of Dirk's - Jesse and son Tony
Rode 4 wheelers all over the Zuni Mountain range
Got our fill of "dessert" style ATVing
Don't care if I ever see another cedar or pinon tree

Week 7: July 13-19
Still feeling crappy (me) since the 4th of July weekend
Liv ran a fever for a day or two also -- figured we all got a touch of a "flu"
Kids are still going to Art Camp 4 days a week
Dirk found and extra laptop at work for the kids to use at the house to watch DVDs
Wow... no wonder I was happy to let the kids watch movies... they are so quite for 90 minutes!!
Went to Family swim at the Milan Village pool - Dirk discovered "goggles!"
Camped up in the Mt. Taylor area again
Rode the ATVs to La Mosca Look Out, 11,036 ft
Also rode to "Edge of the World" on the south side of Mt. Taylor

Week 8: July 20-27
Anika's squad cheered for the local t-ball game - the Milan Bombers
Camped in ABQ again - they recognize us at American RV Park now...
Anika and friend Paige started having play dates nearly every day
Got and appointment with Dr. Jane Pitts to see why the nauseous and other digestive problems aren't going away...
Got an ultra sound to confirm there is a stone in the gallbladder causing "issues"
Went to church at Calvary of ABQ -- HUGE church of 13,000
Kids loved being a part of an active kids ministry again
Had lunch at a local "Mexican" restaurant -- really good food
Wanted to go shopping, but ran out of time...

Week 9: July 28-August 2
Anika cheer squad performed at the Good Sam Nursing Home
Last week of Art Camp and Cheer leading
Milan Recreation Dept had an end of the summer pool party for the kids
Decided the kids and I needed to get home to finished the summer
The work project for Dirk is dragging out (again) - perhaps won't be done until late August
Packed the family stuff -- left enough for Dirk to survive for another 3 weeks...
Left Milan at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.... stayed over in Denver
Got to Hot Springs around 2pm on Saturday and stopped to see Holli's family
Arrived home around 7 p.m.

On our way to New Mexico

Tomorrow morning we leave on a new family adventure!! It's kind of a long story... I'll map out our tenative plans...

Thursday night we will arrive in Rosholt, SD -- my home town -- actually staying out on the farm with my brother, along with the rest of the Moeller clan for our annual family get-together.

Friday Dirk is flying into Fargo. We will ALL be very happy to see him, and know that we don't have to say "good-bye" again!

Saturday is our "busy day"... driving to Hillsboro, ND to visit his Grandma Lillian, who will celebrate her 90th Birthday in September. That evening we are driving south to Rothsay, MN to meet a the farm of a girl-friend (mine) from high school to celebrate my 20th reunion from Hillcrest Lutheran Academy. Thanks LaShawn for hosting us all (hopefully there will be a few of us there?!)

Sunday the Moeller family is celebrating my niece Maddie's high school graduation! YEAH Maddie!! She is on her way to SDSU in the fall, going for her bachelor degree in Nursing! Jon has a big-deal party planned at the farm... guess who is decorating the cake?!

Should be fun, and a chance to catch up with lots of family who live in the area... Moeller, Jackson, Nigg, Jensen, Heesch, Peterson... the list just goes on and on... I never realized coming from a large, close-knit family was such an odd thing until I moved away from Rosholt (small-town life)....

Monday we are heading out on our big road trip -- our first pit-stop will most likely be Astoria, SD (not so far south!!)... to visit Dirk's parents and sister. Then we will be officially ON OUR WAY... to the dry, hot, mountain region of New Mexico!

Don't worry if you don't hear much from us... there is no internet avaiable at the house where Dirk lives... and if we aren't there, we will be in our camper (again, no internet!)... It will be an interesting month for our family... no cable TV,the only DVD player will be in our Suburban! No internet... etc.

We do have our cell phones... so we can keep in touch on occasion!
See you all in July!! (I think?)

Heathy Kid Check Ups Today

We visited Dr. Whitney this afternoon for the annual Healthy Kid visit. Of course... Two healthy girls, just as we expected.


Anika weighs 42 3/4 pounds, which is the 50th percentile for her age; and is 44 inches tall, which is the 25% for her age.


Liv is 25 3/4 pounds (35%); 33 1/2 inches tall (30%); and the circumfrance of her head is 48.4 cm (73%). Hmmm... sounds like Liv has a big head, comparitively?!

Anika was just happy she didn't have to get a shot... Liv was fortunate to only need one this time. Still not her favorite moment of life, but she got over it and was more than willing to accept the sucker as a bribe of appeasment from Nurse Faith.

For all my dear friends with little newborn babies at home today!

Just got a call from my dear friend who is home with her wonderful new baby, just a week old today... She's already struggling with "life" and getting enough sleep. It's so much harder when you have older children who still need you a LOT... and the new baby who needs you a LOT MORE... oh yeah, and then a husband, a home, and perhaps even a life outside of being a mom and wife?!!!

So here is my refresher course on Baby Care and Daily Routines, from the book BabyWise by G Ezzo... (also published under the title, Growing Kids God's Way).

Daily Routine Cycle -

Step One: Baby is awakened by Momma. As much as you can, try to wake baby, gently and sweetly, within the same 30 minutes each morning. As baby grows, they will learn to wake naturally happy, and not be upset or have the first instict to cry.

Step Two: (30-40 minutes) Feed & Burp Baby; take care of baby's physical needs - clean diaper, bath, get dressed for the day, etc.

Step Three: (30-40 min) Nurture & Stimulation Time - sing & play w/ baby; go for a walk; bouncy seat set where baby can watch you or look out a window; swing time; play-n-pack time with ONE age appropriate toy/visual; interaction w/other parent or siblings.

Try to alternate activities that are hands on w/ baby and activites where baby is allowed some free-play time.

For example: Early morning: swing time;
Mid morning: going for a walk;
Early afternoon: singing & reading time.

This helps mom to gain some freedom from holding baby all day long. Mom can be very near, within eye-sight of baby, and baby will feel completely secure and comfortable.

Step Four: (90 - 120 minutes) Nap Time - first 10-15 minutes can include holding, rocking, swaying, singing. Try to keep the pre-nap routine the same every time, perhaps draw the shades in thier room, put on a lullabye CD softly. Lay baby in his/her crib and leave them to settle themselves into a nap.

Repeat Steps One through Four for the rest of the waking hours of the day.

The Nighttime Routine for Newborns is to feed them only when they wake, no less than 3-4 hours from the last time they were fed. Do not spend any extra moments giving the baby stimulation, keep the baby in as dark as setting as possible. Touch is important, but refrain from talking anymore than you have to. As baby grows in size he/she will not be dependant on emotional needs given during nighttime feedings, and will more easily be able to sleep through the night.

As baby grows older, the routine will stay very much the same, except each stage will stretch longer in time. Feeding and Physical needs, Step Two, may never take more than 20-30 minutes... but Step Three will stretch out to a few hours, as will Step Four - Nap Time. By the time the baby is 1 year old, you will have only 2-3 daytime cycles each day.

Anika is 6 TODAY!

Happy Birthday dear Anika... Anika decided she wanted her ears pierced for her 6th birthday. Dirk and I had not contemplated her wanted this in her younger years... not to say that many families haven't chosen to pierce ears earlier in life... it's just not the way we were raised. Actually, neither of our mothers like the idea of ear (or any other form) of piercing at all.

Anika gets and idea, contemplates the options, and then.... she is SET. Sometimes I wonder if she really needs us (parents) anymore? If we really had any serious objections, of course, she would have had to live with our decision... but we didn't... so our gift to her was a trip to Claire's today to get her ears pierced!

She was talking about "facing her fears" all morning. The point of this was not to make her afraid of anything... or force her to get her ears pierced. So I talked with her about how this was her choice. She could decided not to do it at any moment, even if we were at the store and just about ready to begin. She did not HAVE to get her ears pierced. She said, "if I decide not to do it today, can we go back tomorrow?" I said, "no, if you decided you don't really want it done today, that is just fine. We'll just go to the mall and have a fun 'date' together. But we won't talk about getting your ears pierced until after your 7th birthday."

That didn't sound good to her, I guess... SO, today was THE day! She was happy and excited, and of course a bit nervous. Here we are at Claire's. Waiting for the clerk to start the process! First she cleaned her ears with an alcohol rub. Then they marked the exact spot on each ear with a fine point marker. After mom gave the "OK" on placement... we were ready to go! Can you see the "stress" beginning to show on Anika's face? She went back and forth between this and a cheesy smile the whole time!? She counted to 5... but actually pushed the earring through on "3"... Anika didn't even flinch!! Even for the 2nd ear... She cries more when she gets a shot at the pediatrician's office!! When we were all done, she was very happy!! And couldn't help but tell EVERYONE we saw, the rest of the day... that she had just gotten her ears pierced!