Doc McStuffins

Nolan: "Mommy, Does everyone have Jesus in their heart?"

Me: "Yes, Nolan."

Nolan: "Even Doc McStuffins?"

Family

One of the main reasons we wanted to make sure we stayed in Rhinelander this holiday weekend was that Eric's sister, Stacy and her family were coming to stay.  We wanted to make sure to get some time together since we only get to see each other a few times each year.  Unfortunately, our kids were both feeling under the weather with nasty colds (AGAIN?!?!?), so the swimming they planned to do at Holiday Acres was a no go. 

We had a nice dinner at Holiday Acres on Friday night, with several of Eric's aunts, uncles, and cousins joining us, too.   

Saturday morning we got to have a little girls' time.  We hit all the cute shops that Rhinelander has to offer, and I even found a few more Christmas presents.  We finished up with lunch at Crimson Cafe (my favorite!) and it was nice to spend time with these lovely ladies!

After hearing of Eric's horrifying bowling scores from the last time we went bowling with friends, Steve and Bret thought that he needed a little tutorial.  They took him to the bowling alley later that afternoon and he ended up bowling over 100 both games.  MUCH improved!

Later that night, everyone came over for pizza and to watch the Badger game.  Nolan was super excited that he had a Badger shirt to match Uncle Bret.

Cousins!  (Alyssa (21) Olivia (1) Camryn (7) Nolan (4) and Taylor is studying abroad in Brazil!)

Cam was working diligently in her notebook for a while and when she was finished, she asked me if I wanted to read her story.  

"Camryn's Diary: What my family is like:

My family is sweet, loving, nice.  The thing I do not like is my family lives far apart."

What a sweet message to remind us to cherish the times we are together!  💓

Thanksgiving Blessings

This Thanksgiving was a first for me.  It was the first Thanksgiving in 31 years that I haven't spent with my parents.  Though it was quite a change not seeing all my relatives and enjoying Grandma's specialty dishes, we had a very nice and relaxing day.  We started the day watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, which was a first for my kids.  We had to giggle because Nolan kept asking us to pause it when he ran into the other room for a minute - we realized he's probably never really watched Live TV with commercials!  

Since I wasn't with the Weisenbecks this year, I thought I would bring one of their traditions to the Orys celebration with our top secret Caesar salad recipe.  It turned out great and Mama and Grandma Edie would've been proud!  

This holiday also marked a special 83rd birthday for Eric's Grandma Vivian.  She has been a resident of Milestone in Rhinelander for the past few years as she has struggled with Alzheimers.  Our family, Steve, and Uncle Dan headed over there for a birthday party in the afternoon.  Though I'm not entirely certain she knew exactly who we were, she was elated to see the kids (as were all the residents) and I know she felt loved.  

 After our cake and ice cream, we headed over to Steve and Patti's for our Thanksgiving feast with most of Eric's aunts, uncles, and cousins.  The ladies did their ornament exchange and the little kids had a blast playing together.  Livi ruled the roost and anytime the 3 boys got noisy, she let them know that she could be undeniably noisier with blood curdling shrieks that could be heard from space.  Everyone had a nice time, hammering home the message that we are so very blessed to have a family that loves each other and wants to spend time together.

I found this beautiful Thanksgiving prayer online and wanted to repost it here as a reminder of the bountiful blessings God sends to us.  May we do our best to remember to show our gratitude, always.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

God of all blessings, 

source of all life,

giver of all grace:

We thank you for the gift of life:
for the breath that sustains life,
for the food of this earth that nurtures life,
for the love of family and friends without which there would be no life.

We thank you for the mystery of creation:
for the beauty that the eye can see,
for the joy that the ear may hear,
for the unknown that we cannot behold filling the universe with wonder,
for the expanse of space that draws us beyond the definitions of ourselves.

We thank you for setting us in communities:
for families who nurture our being,
for friends who love us by choice,
for companions at work who share our burdens and daily tasks,
for strangerswho welcome us into their midst,
for people from other lands who call us to grow in understanding,
for children who lighten our moments with delight,
for the unborn who offer us hope for the future.

We thank you for this day:
for life and one more day to love,
for opportunity and one more day to work for justice and peace,
for neighbors and one more person to love and by whom be loved,
for your grace and one more experience of your presence,
for your promise:
to be with us, to be our God, and to give salvation.

For these, and all blessings, 

we give you thanks, eternal, loving God,
through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

- Vienna Cobb Anderson

The kids spent some decorating and playing with their Thanksgiving masks.  Nolan and I talked a lot about the first Thanksgiving this year, aided by the help of some great library books!

Grandma Viv is 83!

I just loved the way Grandma Viv looked at Olivia.  She was in love!

Daddy's girl

Weisenbeck Caesar Salad

Second cousin love!  (Charlie (20 months), Nolan (4), Olivia (15 months), and Emmett (3)

So grateful for these blessings in my life.

sleep

Sleep is such a hot commodity for any parent with young children, but man, we have really been struggling for over a year.  Shortly after Olivia was born, Nolan, our formally amazing sleeper, began to have some serious difficulty with going to sleep and waking insanely early.  For a few months, we moved him back downstairs into his old crib, and sat with him for sometimes 2+ hours every night until he would fall asleep.  Any other manner of putting him to sleep would result in severe anxiety.  Once asleep, he would wake for the day anywhere between 3 and 4:30 in the morning and would NOT go back to sleep, no matter what we tried.  He was wide awake, ready and raring to go, despite his groggy, miserable parents.  

Over the course of the last year, we have gotten him to go to bed much easier, mostly with the help of melatonin, per the advice of his pediatrician.  He is sleeping upstairs in his bed, but is still waking VERY, VERY early in the morning, despite the many techniques we have tried.  We have been wondering lately if he is waking especially early on particularly stressful days.  With his tendency toward being anxious, I decided to take the recommendation of some friends and get him a weighted blanket.  But, when I started to look, I realized they were $150+, and we just don't have that kind of money for something that we didn't know would work.  I decided to make one.  Nolan's been asking me lately to make him a special blanket anyway, so I figured this was a good opportunity.  We made it out of flannel and minky fleece, and it is filled with plastic pellets and weighs about 8lbs.  We added a satin binding to the edges to make it even more appealing to our tactile guy.  He loves it and thinks it's really cool to hide under it, but so far it hasn't made a meaningful difference in his wake up time.  I'm crossing my fingers that it may still help now that we're back from Eau Claire and are back in our routine.  

Eau Claire

For as long as I can remember, my Mom, Grandma Edie, Aunt Michelle, Kristin, and I have gotten together on Opening Deer Season weekend for some quality girl time.  Things have been a little more hectic for everyone in the more recent years, but most of us still made the trek to Eau Claire for some special time together.  (We missed Aunt Michelle and Kristin this year, but am thankful we got some good girl time on our cruise!)  

We spent the weekend playing with the horses, doing a little shopping, sewing, and enjoying each other's company.  Nolan especially loves our trips to Eau Claire and he was pretty pumped that he got to spend some extra time with his Great Grandma Edie, whom he rarely gets to see.  

The weekend was made a little extra special this year.  Luke and Annalyse arrived on Saturday morning from their 30 hour cross country drive back home from California.  They will be living and working in the Twin Cities and we are very excited that we will get to see them more often.  Nolan was over the moon to see "Uncle Wuke" and "Auntie Wyse" and I'm glad they will be able to be more involved in both of the kids' lives.

Jazz

There's a new horse in the herd!  Annalyse was fortunate enough to find sweet and handsome Jazzy out in Redlands, and he recently made the long grueling journey to Eau Claire.  We got to meet him last weekend and he is just as kind as he looks.  He's a big beautiful guy and handled Nolan's craziness like a champ.  He's a little quirky to ride, but is gentle and safe and we're really excited to have him around!  Welcome to the Midwest, Jazzy!

Doodle and Brakey

"Hi, I'm Doodle and this is little Brakey..."

Ever since Livi got these little Finding Dory car for her birthday, the two of them have LOVED playing on it together.  They take turns pushing each other on it and Nolan loves to pretend it's an ice cream truck and serve up some tasty frozen treats.  For some reason, he started calling Livi little Brakey and pretty soon he was known as Doodle.  It cracks me up to see them play pretend and I marvel at what their imaginations come up with! 

High five!

Lately, Olivia's vocabulary has exploded and she is understanding so many words.  She will obey simple phrases like, "Livi, get your shoes" or "Lu Bear, Close the door" and scurries over with her hand held high for a high five for some praise.  It is so cute and makes me laugh out loud every single time.   

More Mischief!

Life hasn't been all that noteworthy the past couple of weeks...we've all been under the weather and have been laying pretty low.  Nolan even ended up with his first case of strep throat!  But, our little Olivia has been in full force mischief-making mode, making us laugh at all her antics.  

She climbed out of her crib this week.  She just turned 15 months old.  Fell on her head and cried and cried.  Nolan was gravely concerned.  Fortunately we were able to lower the mattress one more notch and hopefully that will buy us a little more time before her next great escape.

She loves to steal the wet washrag from the back of her high chair and throw it and drag it all over the house.  This time she really got a kick out of wearing it on her head.  Silly girl.

Livi also loves to help Daddy wash Nolan's hair during their bath. I can't handle the cuteness!  

Because of our illnesses, we've spent a lot of time hanging out at home.  Nolan has really enjoyed playing with some of his new birthday presents, especially the gear building set from Uncle Luke and Aunt Annalyse.  He's made some really neat creations and sticks with it for quite a long stretch of time - which is an amazing feat for Nolan!

Here's to hoping we can finally shake these germs and get back to our normal.  We haven't even been to the library in two weeks!  We're in for lots of rest and relaxation this weekend, so hopefully by next week, we're ready to get back into our routine!

Trick-or-Treat!

We took the kids out Trick-or-Treating for Halloween last night, and despite Nolan's initial anxiety, they both had a nice time.  We only went to a few houses - Hakan's, Grandma Ruby's, the Brophy's, and Steve and Patti's - but the kids came home with huge bags full of candy and treats.  Nolan was Bob the Builder and Olivia was an adorable Minnie Mouse.  When we got to Steve and Patti's, they met us at the door in their costumes!  The kids thought that was pretty fun!  We finished up the evening with pizza at their house and had a nice, relaxing Halloween night.  

Fall leaves

Our big silver maple trees have really been holding on to their leaves this year.  Today was the first day all fall that I raked.  It was beautiful - almost 60 degrees and sunny and the kids and I had some fun playing in the leaf piles.