Growing

I wanted to show you this fun picture that we have of Tim, Hans and Hans' Mom checking out their height. The ground was slopped in Hans' favor, I am not sure if the results would be the same one month later. Tim has been a great help lately. He is happy to have his bunnies back and really happy about how well Mom and Papa took care of them. Papa brought us a hutch that will make taking care of them much easier. We are glad they came all the way out to visit us. It is a longer drive now than Ames was. Bummer.

feeling domestic or what!? (or is this nesting?)

Last Friday the kids and I had a garage sale. Although it was not a complete failure because in the end the garage was quite clean, the poor hard working kids only sold 2 lemon aids and NO cookies all day! They made amazing signs for me and Tim moved lots of stuff around whenever I asked as well.



Overall we didn't do well at the sale, but while we waited for the customers that hardly came, we finished painting the side table I picked up at a garage sale a week earlier. I quite like the finished product!



This week I made both homemade yogurt and fermented bean paste! I got the recipes from a new friend named Glory who has a little farm here. (I seems that I find the company farm girls fascinating I guess.) I hadn't tried making yogurt since we lived in Ithaca. I even added jello and made Popsicle. (That was the one way I got the girls to try it.) I like it with honey and blueberries. Notice in the last picture the slow progress of painting the kitchen too. The bean paste goes amazingly well in tacos and is at least a fourth of the price of canned high sodium black beans.



I finally had the heart to go through the baby stuff and get it all organized and pack a diaperbag for Stauffer baby #4. It was hard to hold little Levi's outfits, but I am getting better. It looks like he will be moving to family members soon so we wouldn't have gotten to keep him anyway. He is laughing and rolling and scooting around now.


The Dr. has scheduled an induction for Aug 24th if baby doesn't come before that. I pray the baby decides to arrive before that. I would like a little less medical delivery, but God knows what is best for all of us. I bought two going home from the hospitol outfits (one for each gender) so now I am set except packing a hospitol bag. (about 4 weeks to go!!!) I'll keep you posted as best as I can.

Family time

We went to the Brewers / Reds game. It was quite entertaining for everyone even though the Brewers lost that time. There were amazing fireworks afterwards. Hans wasn't half as impressed by the veggie dog!



Here are some photos of the birds in our back yard. Hans thought it would be a good idea to get a bird feeder and a hummingbird feeder. I liked the idea but hesitated thinking of all the other things we need or want to buy, but he was right. It was a great purchase because everyone in the family like to look at the wildlife in the backyard and we have even had hummingbird visits already! It is a challenge to get good photos since the birds fly away if you go anywhere near. I hope you like the ones I posted.

Putting our mark on the house

For those of you who asked me to send photos of the house . . .
Here is our family room at it's best (so far). It is the room we have done the most to. Hans took out "decrative dowels" that made it very dated and built and installed the lovley IKEA TV cabinet (it is styaing there forever, hope we still like it in 10 years). I painted around the family who wanted to watch TV (that took forever but they were cooperative for the most part.) And installed the room darkening shades (we get ne windows in about a month too). In the meantime I am in search oif stools to creat a coffee table and extra seating and the perfect curtains plus maybe doors on the craft cabilet and a glass topped table too (yeah I'm probubly dreaming).
We are having a garagesale tomorrow to reclaim our Garage and hopefully meet a few neightbors.

Keeping perspective. . .

It can be a challenge to keep perspective when in a brand new situation. I find as a 35 year old it takes me longer than it used to to except a "new normal." So I am realizing things are going pretty well and I am happy to admit we are having a good summer.

I have included a photo of the yard signs the girls earned with 18 hours or reading. They have finished the local library's summer reading challenge! They are now in the drawing (along with literally 2000 other kids) for the bookmobile to come to there house and have a street party.

There are a lot of new and fun things to do here and we have a lot of exploring to do. One of the new things we did this week was go to the local park and play in the splash park. Tim took some good photo's for us. I did my best to stay in the shade. This month we also saw amazing fireworks right from the van on the 4th and today was Annelise's 10th birthday. We went to the movies yesterday with a new friend and to lunch at Mommy's new friends house who has a hobby farm and we got to hold baby turkeys!


I am having some minor unpleasant pregnancy symptoms. I am starting to swell and my feet look like sausages even when I did very little on my feet today. I didn't include photos of that!

I did officially finish painting the family room this week! I will post photo's next time I post something. Provided my camera is still working after I dropped it again! (I need to install the wrist strap.)

If you read this let me know and tell me how you are doing too! -Erin Joy

Vacation!

Going on vacation is a great way to feel like your new house is home. It feels good to be home after vacation. We had a good time in Chincoteague and our favorite part was when Aunt Carol came for the last three days. She took these photos and mailed them to me so I have something to show you. Hans didn't go with us this year but hopes to go next year. It is a 10 hour drive now. We drove it all in one day on the way home. The kids have been wonderful. . .

We have been in Ohio a month but have only been in our own home for less than 10 days with the late closing and then vacation. I keep trying to tell myself it hasn't been long so I am not lonely. But i am lonely just the same, and so are the kids. We did invite a family over from church who have two girls close to Gabriella's and Annelise's age. They got along great and I enjoyed visiting with the mom. Now to find Tim a friend. . .

Hans is home today (vacation day)! Fun! He is putting together a huge TV cabinet we got from IKEA. It is a challenge for me not to help lift and stuff. He is building it all on his own. I took photo's I will post them when the rest of the room is finished as well. I hope to paint tomorrow. I relaxed almost all day today. I went garage saling with the kids this morning and then took a nap, watched a movie and then made dinner. I got a pair of roller blades for the girls and they each took a try on them, I found the roller blades at one sale and the safety gear at another one. They were excited to try them since Tim uses his roller blades that Aunt Carol and Uncle Dan gave him last summer. We talked about missing the Tulps while we tried them.

I hope you are all well. Feel free to call or write us to tell us how you are!!!