this one we like to call "charlie asher, in his natural environment." i dont do this anymore, but i there have been times in the past that i found it difficult to wake up with the kids, especially charlie. (he's an early riser.) i would shoo them away, hoping they wouldnt wake up caroline, back when she was always in bed with me. they would go downstairs and basically have the run of the house. as i've mentioned, he is a picky eater but loves sugar. so he often wakes up super hungry because he didnt eat supper. on this particular morning, he was stuck up on the counter, and he had to pee. so he did. all over the counter. (not sure where his diaper was. he's potty trained now, but wasnt at the time.) so i came downstairs and this is how i found him. patrick said, and i quote, that's the funniest thing i've ever seen. i begged to differ! 

the other day we had a very very special outing: patrick flew us to douglass (just east of wichita), and we had supper with the inlaws. i hadnt flown with patrick in such a long time, and this time was more special than ever before, thinking about where we're going to be flying one day soon. (that would be east africa, if you havent heard! more on that later.) it was also the first time charlie and caroline have flown with daddy. all in all, i was just overwhelmed with the goodness of God. with peace and excitement all in one. there's been a significant chunk of my life now that i completely gave up my dream of going back to africa. and patrick didnt know he'd be flying again. now here we are, our family together, trying to be obedient, in the center of God's will for us, and it just happens to be our dreams coming true. What more could you ask for?

she did pretty well, her ears didnt seem to bother her at all.

what a beautiful sight! i am trying to make better choices than i have in the 8 wks since breaking my foot, i figure i dont have any excuses anymore. so bring on the fruits and vegetables! i'm pretty sure i buy more produce than anyone else in pratt. the cashiers always look at my cart a little funny ;-)

sometimes i still cant believe i live here. the other day patrick asked me to drop him off at "work." he was loading a truck. and the night before he asked me to pick him up at the

we've been doing cereal for a few weeks now, and she likes that. the other day i tried introducing vegetables. green beans. it didnt go over well! every time she took a bite, she screwed up her little face in this grimace, it was really funny. patrick said, jana, you're starting solid food with JARRED baby food? i said dude, if it werent for me, you wouldnt even know people made their own baby food. but yes, things have been a little different with the third. at least we're still nursing, even though its much more of an inconvenience when having to take into consideration the needs of the others as well. and potty training while nursing, wow. that's fun. charlie's doing really well, though. after a few really messy days!

the kids were very blessed (spoiled!) at christmas by our families, as usual. the racetrack is charlie's and the dollhouse hannah's, but they both have fun with both.

this was our first christmas at home, but because of the foot, it was different than it would have been. patrick and i really worked hard together, and it was special. not bad for our first one, i think! we hope to have some of our own traditions. i think patrick making the turkey should be one. he did the most amazing job. really. amazing. (also, we enjoyed cheese ball and crackers with venison summer sausage, earlier in the day. so he has to get a deer every year, for that tradition.) the rest was a simple meal, relatively speaking. it sure took us enough effort, though. alvin and loretta joined us for christmas dinner.

i got this dollhouse off amazon, it was marked down from $100 to $30. pretty sure its because it got such bad reviews from customers, the silly thing comes apart every time they play with it. you do get what you pay for. its still fun, though. except all those little pieces just waiting for the baby to get in her mouth.

my little man loves helping me in the kitchen, and he always borrowed hannah's frilly apron. so i got him his own. he wore it all day.

the boy and his dessert, its something else. he had been wanting a candy cane, so i got him a little one. he kept calling it candy corn. just getting his holidays confused, i guess!

we have lots of exciting things coming up, that really deserve their own post. and since i am uber organized these days, maybe i'll get around to doing it soon :-)

so we spent the actual christmas day at our house, and i have pictures of that somewhere i'll track down. then after that we went to david and des', and brett and jes came out to. i was nervous about the foot, and the kids not sleeping, and all that. but everybody helped out so much, and was so accomodating, brett and jess shared a room with hannah and charlie! we had such a wonderful special time, and i am so glad we were able to be together.

it was brett's birthday and our anniversary, so Des got us a special cake. it was beautiful!

patrick and i found that staying home for christmas isnt necessarily all its cracked up to be. everything depends on you, its alot of work! and we didnt even have anything big going on. but we worked all day friday and saturday to get ready, then sunday was pretty stressful, and patrick went back to work on monday. and to me, after christmas is the fun part. just eating leftovers, playing with the new toys, and being together. but we didn't have that, so we were really ready to go to the crisps for the weekend! des had to worry about everything, and we just ate and played.

Des had a quilt from a family member that she'd kept for a long time, and she made it into a tree skirt and stockings. It was such a neat idea.

the highlight of the evening, for me at least, was the cowboy and ballerina costumes des got for the kids. she made a tutu and headpiece for hannah.

we actually had pictures done, as a family. i should have more soon.

brett and jes entertained caroline quite a bit, they were practicing! I've been meaning to get a post about this for awhile, they are adopting a baby. everything is done, they're just waiting on God to bring them the right one. even have an adorable nursery all ready.

how can you tell we're in kansas? :-)

des made me, jes, hannah and charlie each our own bag. charlie's has a monkey, and hannah's is pink and has flowers like mine.

they re-enacted that little song hannah did in church, and charlie only knows a few of the words. but he got really into it, it was so funny. you kind of had to be there, but years from now, i hope i can look back at this picture and remember, "i just wanna know just wanna KNOW!"

a nasty christmas surprise

so this length of time in between posts sets a new record, even for me! but looking back, i wont even know i didn't get around to reporting on events till 6 wks after they happened, right?

unfortunately, deer season came right in the middle of the broken foot saga. so we missed patrick during that week. But it was worth it, now that we have all kinds of good stuff in our freezer!

so one of these days, we had finally gotten around to doing school. (so glad its only preschool, because we've sort of taken an 8 wk hiatus!) and Caroline's rockin the bumbo, on the dining room table. and hannah says, mommy, i think caroline's pooping. oh, ok, i'll get to that in a second, i want to keep doing school. and then i forget. and i love the bumbo, i do, but i tell you what, its the worst possible thing for poopy diapers!

we are still trying to figure out what our christmas traditions are going to be, and so far every year i've made different things. but these were pretty good, i think they might make the list. charlie definitely thought so. but then again, he has more of a sweet tooth than anyone i've ever met. (and i come from a family that appreciates dessert!) You cannot leave this boy alone in a house with sugar, of any kind. in the morning, he will come downstairs before everybody else and just tear into anything that's out. i found about 12 reeses peanut butter cup wrappers on the counter. and he doesnt get sick. i dont know what to do, he's worse than a puppy. the other day they were eating lunch and hannah said, mom, charlie's standing on the table. i thought, surely she's exaggerating. but no, he was standing right in the middle of the table, with his shoes on, pulling on the chandelier. this boy thing is a whole nother world of parenting.

our evil rat king. and patrick has pretty big hands. this story deserves its own post. sticking it in the middle here does not do it justice. long story short, we realized we had a rodent a while ago, and patrick set some mousetraps out. then he tried glue traps. then he tried rat traps. then he tried waiting up, listening for it, then coming with night vision goggles and a sniper rifle. well, you get the picture. at least it was a gauntlet of traps all over the upstairs. but we couldn't put the rat traps out because of the kids. and we didn't want to do poison. but this thing was literally terrorizing us. caroline has been in my room because it was too hard to get around in the middle of the night with the crutches. so patrick has been downstairs, because caroline's been staying in our bed. one night i was coming back from charlie's room, half asleep, in the dark, on crutches, and something runs out across my path, from the bathroom into my bedroom. where my sweet baby girl was sleeping. what was i to do? i didn't want to wake anyone up. i didn't want to go in there, but there was no way i was leaving caroline alone with the thing. so i just went in and eventually fell back asleep. but it would get stuck on the glue traps, then get himself off. repeatedly. and leave sticky tufts of hair all over the place, so we could see where he'd been. and yes, i found some ON MY BED. (Lord, please let that have been during the day!) about this time charlie started talking about the "bunny" in his room. he would gnaw on the doors to the bedrooms, and in the morning there would be literally piles of sawdust on the floor. i just had visions of this demon rodent attempting to bite his way into my childrens rooms. patrick researched online what to do. he stalked it. i would hear it at night, but i'd be too scared to turn the light on. we just could not get it. i told patrick we had to go stay somewhere else. at least move down to the basement, even on crutches. then one morning i was getting dressed, and patrick was in the shower. he was still home, because he was taking me to the hospital to get an xray and see if i could get my cast off. now, you have to understand what our closets looked like. i have clothes in about 5 different sizes, and all seasons. 80% dont fit, so they are in bags, or even just sort of thrown on the floor of the closet. patrick had cleared nearly everything out, when he was setting all those traps. i had mentioned, you know you disturbed his home, he probably went somewhere else. then i saw alot of hair in another piles of clothes, in another little closet next to the big one. (old houses have funny closets.) i called him, but he couldnt hear me and we were late. so i was getting ready to reach into a drawer that had been open. when i SAW MY CLOTHES MOVE. yes. that's what happened. at that point i jumped back onto the bed, as fast as one can jump on crutches, and called patrick again. he comes streaking in (there may have been a towel involved) and i just point to the drawer. sure enough, he sees a long, nasty, disgusting tail. uggghhhhh. i do not handle this well at all. i am near tears. i am near hurling. i want to scream but i dont want to scare him off. patrick tries to shut the drawer to keep him in there, but he jumps out and hides under the bed. yes, the bed that i am on. this is even worse. patrick tells me to just exit the bedroom, but once again, i am on crutches and dont move very quickly and what if the thing runs out towards me and i cant get away from it? hyperventilating. i manage to force myself off the safety of my bed, out of the room. patrick shuts the door and puts towels under it so the thing cannot escape under the door. then its war. i hear banging and cursing and squeaking. i call the hospital and tell them i will be late, under the circumstances. then, as i remember what this thing has put us through every night, i am no longer scared of it. i am angry. i am very angry. i want patrick to let me in so i can help. but i am not much help on crutches. how does one catch and kill a rat? eventually, i believe, he pinned its tail down with none other than my trusty crutch. then squashed it dead with one of the glue traps. it was a most unsettling time, the whole week and a half or so. thank God we have neither seen nor heard any evidence of other such horrible creatures. but then i wanted to sanitize our entire upstairs. every single item of clothing we own, almost, was in piles in the bedroom. nasty, disgusting, hairy, gluey, some chewed through, smelly piles. and once again, i'm on crutches. hannah and i worked very hard to sort it, throw some away, get it down the 2 floors to the laundry, and stayed there basically all day. then when patrick came home he steam cleaned the floors, which had splotches of rat pee all over the place. since patrick works very hard, and i was disabled, we didnt' get cleaned up for a few days. i actually slept in the same sheets. (low maintenance, people, that's what we're going for! :-) I still have to remind Charlie that daddy killed the bunny and it is no longer in his closet. (i guess the thing liked to go back and forth between our closets.) You can all imagine how glad we were to catch this little beast. it was an early christmas present. i wanted to put his head on a stick as a warning!

 

we were up to other things, as well. for some reason i decided this should be the year we start christmas cards. then i realized i had been waiting until hannah was old enough to help stuff :-). if you didn't get one, please leave a comment with your adress!

my friend sarah invited all our little preschoolers at church over for a cookie making party. it was so sweet of her, she even came to pick us up, since i couldnt drive. the kids had alot of fun.

i wish it werent blurry, but i will still treasure this picture for as long as i live. ever since i've had my first baby, i get teary eyed every single time i see kids (even strangers) up in front, sharing what they have learned about the faith. whether its a baptism, testimonies from a mission trip, kids doing a vbs song, or a christmas program. it is just so special, so amazing, the promise and potential of young people committed to Christ, and what role they will play in the Kingdom. What it must do to the enemy to see these little arrows. so as you can imagine, when it was finally my little girl up there, i just couldnt stop! we almost missed out, though. i got a letter in the mail on thursday from her SS teacher, telling us what time to bring her there, and all that. I hadnt heard anything about it, probably due to my inconsistency with sunday school. (yes, i'm blaming it on the foot. you will notice i blame everything on the foot. unashamedly! :-). but these days i spend most of it in the nursery feeding caroline anyways. so, she brought me a cd of the song, and we practiced it fri/sat, and they "sang" it on sunday. as this was her first time being in front of people, i asked her about being nervous. she said, oh mommy, i dont get nervous, i'm a big kid!" :-)