Our monkey named Joy

Joy has been working on getting the 'hang' of the monkey bars since she started school in September.  She has been begging to show us and we finally were able to make it out to the school to see her do it today.  (Side note, ironically, we ran into her teacher who was out walking her dogs)  She has had blisters that have popped and has callouses to prove how hard she has been working.  Now, if she could just muster the same amount of determination in other areas of her life, she would be unstoppable.  Let's pray for that!

Annabelle chatting with Joy

Annabelle has been having more and more to say around here lately.  There are times she goes on and on and on, which we adore.  In the video below, she is responding to Joy trying to get her to 'coo'.  It's so fun to watch Annie touch Joy's heart.  As you will see, Joy loves her baby sister! 

Family Pictures

 We had our first professional family pictures taken.  Not without a little drama of course.  We had them scheduled for 5:00 on Wednesday evening, not the easiest time of day to have all 3 kids ready with full tummies and happy moods.  It took me all afternoon to get everything in place for this picture.  Danny had some things come up at work and didn't arrive until 5:45.  We were very close to rescheduling, which would have been a major disappointment for me after all the time spent prepping for these pictures.  Thankfully, we were quick and got all these done in 20 minutes, with lots of bribing the older kids and bouncing the baby in between shots.  Overall, I am pleased.
 

 

Bench (above)

 

                                                                        Standing

                                                                   casual 1

                                                                   casual 2

 

casual 3

                                                                    floor 1

                                                                    floor 2

                                                                        floor 3

                                                                        sitting 1

                                                                        sitting 2

Pictures to print

Hi family (and friends).  Here are some pictures we've taken and are going to print.  If you would like me to order prints for you too, please email me and let me know which pic and what size.  The pics are Noah at 3 yrs old, Annabelle newborn, and all 3 kids.  Thanks.
                                                       Noah 1

                                                       Noah 2

                                                       Noah 3

                                          All 3 Black and white

                                          All 3 color

                                          Annabelle 1

                                          Annabelle 2

Annabelle's Baptism

Annabelle was baptized last Sunday, 9/13, the day after Joy's birthday since our whole family was here.  Since we don't have a church home in Stevens Point (we are feeling stuck between two choices), we asked our friend and pastor, Matt Wipperman, from Madison to do a private baptism in our backyard.  It was a very short, intimate, and perfect celebration of Annabelle joining God's family.  The Wipperman's have been part of all 3 of our kids' baptisms, so it meant a lot to have them here.  The baptism was followed by food, cake, and very nice gifts.  We feel so blessed to be surrounded by such loving family on both sides and for God's abundant blessings in our lives.

Annabelle update:  She grew a lot in her first month of life from 9lbs 5 ozs to 12 lbs 7 ozs.  She is in 3-6 month clothes already.  She also started out life as a very crabby baby.  The doctor recommended trying a dairy free diet, which made this farm girl rather upset.  But, Annie's symptoms progressively worsened, forcing me to try it.  And, behold, it has helped her tremendously.  So, selfishly, I'm very sad to not have dairy products in my life, but for Annie's sake, we are so happy to have a happy baby in the house.  The hope is that I can reintroduce dairy sometime after Annie is 3 months old, which is a time when a lot of babies outgrow their dairy sensitivity.
 She sleeps well, getting me up two times most nights.  I am starting to long for a full nights rest though.  Joy slept through the night at 2 months and Noah started at 3 months, so I'm really hoping Annabelle follows her siblings' sleep patterns.  She has also started taking at least 1 long nap each day, sometimes 2, which is allowing me to get more things done around the house and spend more 1:1 time with Noah.  Noah often says in a sad/disappointed tone of voice, "Annabelle eats a lot."  Poor guy.  I hope to make it up to him once Annabelle gets a little older.

Here are some pictures of the baptism.

Joy is 6

Joy turned 6 years old last weekend.  We had a small family party on Saturday at our house in honor of her birthday.  She had a great time and asked if we can do 'this' every year.  I imagine we will, but will include some of her friends in future parties as well.  She has made a few friends at school and on the bus in just two weeks of school already.  We've met some more neighbor kids and parents now that school has started too.  Stevens Point is feeling more and more like home with each season.  Joy was really excited for school to start, so the first week was smooth sailing.  The second week brought more tears and separation anxiety.  This week she seems to be bouncing back a little evident by her boarding the bus with a smile instead of tears.  The bus driver has been really supportive of Joy by saving a front seat just for her to sit, which makes Joy feel a lot more safe.  Joy continues to love her baby sister, Annabelle.  She is also interested in trying out ice skating, gymnastics, and basketball this fall.  That list is a little long for me, so we'll see which ONE we end up choosing.

Here is my big girl!  Oh, yeah, and one of her two front teeth came out.  The other will be out soon too.  Doesn't she look like she is 8 years old now?!

Annabelle Madison Rainbow

Annabelle Madison Rainbow joined our family on Monday, 8/3 at 10:43 AM.  She weighed 9 lbs 5 oz and was 21 inches long.  Her head was 36 cm, which is 3 and 4 cm smaller than her big headed brother and sister.  :)  The c section went smoothly and my recovery has gone well too.  We are very blessed to have parents on both sides of our family that are so willing to help.  Joy and Noah stayed with Rainbows in Madison Sunday-Thursday last week.  My mom came Thursday to Friday to help out as all of us returned home.  Peggy came Friday night and is staying through Sunday because Danny had to be back to work on Friday.  He works all weekend because there is a big and important
tournament at SentryWorld.  Then my mom returns to help out for all of next week.  And, we are looking forward to a visit from all of the Krafve cousins the weekend of the 15th and 16th! 
Annabelle is a perfect little angel.  She had her nights and days really mixed up the first 4 days, but just last night she finally slept longer stretches.  She had a slight heart murmur when she was born (Joy did too as an infant), but that cleared up and repaired itself within two days.  The human body is truly an amazing creation.  Feeding Annabelle has gotten better in the last 2 days as well too.  I look forward to being more mobile and independent, which should happen over the course of next week.  And my brain is trying to come to terms with the fact that Joy will start school just two weeks or so after our help leaves.
Speaking of Joy and Noah, they really love their baby sister, especially Joy.  Joy has been wonderful about helping when asked and she has even spontaneously/independently helped with things she has never done in the past.  For example, I got really warm while holding Annabelle yesterday, and Joy hopped up and turned on the ceiling fan in the room without being asked, prompted, or even expecting praise in return.  Noah was more excited to see me at the hospital than his baby sister, which makes my heart melt.  He likes her a lot is showing more and more interest in her each day.  Joy loves to hold her, pick our her clothes, and is super excited to help out with her bath this afternoon too.
Here are a couple pics of our little angel baby.  We are SO in love with her.

Noah drives four-wheeler, FAST!

I had to share this video.  Noah is in heaven lately, now that he can drive his own four-wheeler and go fast.  He didn't understand how to steer his bike and other vehicle like toys for a long time, but all of a sudden something clicked and he's driving and riding everything in sight.  My little guy just grew up a little more.  Below is a video Danny took on his phone of Noah driving the four-wheeler FAST.  He shot this video just a little bit after showing Noah the trick to making it go fast.  I hope it makes you smile.

Baby update

Wow has time flown by!  We have been so busy getting settled and updating/changing things in the house before baby comes, that I completely forgot to update this blog.  Anyhow, we are all doing well.  We love our house and have adjusted to the area very well.  Life for people/families in general seems less busy, simply because there is less to do here, which we appreciate.  We are trying to get as much done as possible before baby arrives.  At that time, I plan to stop all house related things except for the basic cleaning, cooking, and laundry tasks which seem impossible even with new babies.  Joy has enjoyed two weeks of half day camps, one craft week and one culinary week.  Both kids have dabbled a bit in gymnasics.  We've been to mulitple parks, the library, children's museum, farmers market, beach, etc multiple times.  I've connected with a MOPS group that we've enjoyed two group play dates with.  So, our life continues to keep rolling along.
Danny is enjoying his job as well.  He is very happy at SentryWorld.  The people he works with are great, especially since he got to hire his buddy, Joe, who worked for him in Madison too.  Joe and his family will hopefully be moving to Stevens Point too.
We have not found a church we are ready to call home yet.  We found one we kind-of like, and have been to a couple times.  There are a few other churches we want to visit still before we 'decide'.  Nothing has stood out to us yet.
Lastly, but most exciting, is our family and doctors have decided I will be having a c section on 8/3. Our baby girl will enter this world in less than two weeks.  Crazy!  I've dug out most of our baby items at this point and her room is painted, as is Noah and Joy's rooms, thanks to help from my parents.  Thankfully my mom has summers off, so her and my dad will be spending a lot of time with us after the baby is born so I can heal without having to chase 2 other kids around.  Deciding on a c section was very difficult for me.  I really wanted to try VBAC in hopes of having a better birth experience than I did with Joy.  But, the risks, in my case, are too high and not worth it.  We had an ultrasound to determine the size of our little girl and the results came back at 7.5 pounds at 36 weeks.  That puts her 1 week ahead, which is still less than her ginormous brother was.  We are all very excited to meet her!!

Residents of Stevens Point

We are here!  The population in Stevens Point rose by 4 1/2 people over the weekend of May 16-17.  The movers did a phenomenal job and they worked hard!  They deserve farmer level bragging rights and only farm kids/farmers are allowed to give that kind of honor.  :)  They packed our house in 2.5 days and then loaded the truck the last 1.5 days.  They ran into a few time consuming 'snags' both in Madison and Point, but pushed through and got the job done.  If you ever need a moving company, I highly recommend Merchants.
Our family has been living under one roof for 1 full week +.  It is so nice.  We haven't felt too lonely yet because we look forward to seeing Danny everyday now!  We haven't met any neighbors yet.  The down side of a very private lot like ours (being surrounded by trees) is it isn't that easy to run into the neighbors.  We will probably reach out to those closest to us in the coming weeks.  The house kiddy corner looks to have a 5ish year old girl and a 3ish year old girl, so that is hopeful.  We have done a lot of unpacking over this last week.  The basement is still a disaster, but 1st floor and 2nd are in good shape.  I can cook meals and kids can play.  I am adjusting to having very different grocery stores.  I had to request an item at Copps that I just can't find at any store here that my kids can't live without, or me either because of their constant disappointment, and that item is Stonyfield yogurt tubes. 
Joy has adjusted very well to the new house and city.  Noah, however, has stated a few times, "All done here, I want to go home" or some close variant of that statement.  But, thankfully he quickly gets busy and doesn't seem too affect by it.  The kids have also slept great from day 1 so that is a blessing we are very grateful for.
This week the kids are looking forward to a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Rainbows.  They are very excited.  I'm excited too because I'm hoping to get the rest of the unpacking done while they are gone so I can move onto decorating and painting before this baby arrives around August 7. 
Here are a few pics from our move.  I didn't get any of the truck on this end of the move, but thankfully my mom was on the ball and took a few.  :)

And this little man is my newest nephew, Emmitt James Hughes, who was born on April 19.

Entertainment Night

Joy had her last singing performance with her PreK class last night.  The whole school did a show called 'Entertainment Night' which featured several classic Walt Disney songs.  Joy has one week left of school until we move over the weekend of May 15.  School is out on Wednesday of the following week so she won't miss much anyway.  The movers come on Monday, the 11th, to start packing the house up and the moving truck comes Wednesday (I believe) for them to start loading.  We get to sleep in our house through Wednesday night but we aren't counting on the house being useful for much else during the week.  Thankfully, Danny's parents live in Madison so we will be spending a lot of time there over the course of this week.  We close on both houses on Friday, the 15th.  The guys arrive in Stevens Point with the moving truck to unload our stuff on Saturday and Sunday.  We have many mixed emotions at this time.  One of the sad ones is leaving Eastside Lutheran School.  It has been a perfect fit for our family.  Here is a video of Joy singing last night.

Van

We have checked one more thing off our 'To Do' List.  We got a minivan, pre-owned, to fit our expanding family.  The kids love to play in it and I'm quickly getting the hang of driving it.  Now we just need a sticker family for the back window and it's a legit mom-mobile.  We traded in the old and tired Kia Spectra and kept the Mazda 5.  Now, Danny can drive a vehicle he actually fits in, even if his drive to work is now only 3 miles instead of 15 to 50.  Plus, the Mazda will also allow us to transport 3 kids if the van is out of commission.  Joy and I have named her 'Pearl' because the color is pearl silver.  However, the color seems to change depending on the light.  Here she is...

Stevens Point Home

We have a place to call home in Stevens Point, WI!  There are some pictures of it in the link below.  Every other 4 bedroom house (with bedrooms on the same level) that was on the market was already sold or sold within a couple days of going on the market.  This house, has been on the market for 3+ months, as if God was holding it for us.  We had originally ruled it out because it has wallpaper everywhere, and we are not fans of wallpaper.  However, when we had slim options, we decided to give it a chance.  It was the last house we looked at, out of 12.  We had a few that were okay at this point, but didn't have that confirmed feeling that any of them were 'our house'.  As we walked through, we quickly fell in love and knew this was supposed to be our home.  Thanks God for the bad pictures online that kept a lot people away!  Currently, our moving date is May 29, but we have been working with everyone involved to move that date up because the distance between Danny and us is getting difficult.  We think we have a new date of May 15, but are waiting for confirmed paperwork on it.  The inspection on the house went well.  It needs a new furnace (and probably air conditioner), some appliances, and some new gutters among other small fixes.  And, the wallpaper has got to go!  We plan on slowly picking away at the wallpaper over time.  Someday it will be just how we want it.  We are so thankful for finding a house that will serve us very well.
We'll keep ya posted as our journey continues.  Take care and God Bless!

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Noah is 3!

Our big baby is now a big boy after turning 3 over the weekend.  He was blessed with all, but one, extended family member coming to Madison for his birthday and party last Saturday.  Gary and Peggy's church, Mt Olive, graciously let us use their gym and toys for the party.  The parents had to drag the kids out after 2 hours so maybe we should had a longer party??  We all had a wonderful time and are very thankful to everyone who took the time to come celebrate Noah.
Here are a few pics and a video of his celebration.  Cheers to Noah!

Offer!

We received an offer for our home on Monday, the 23rd.  We accepted and are so thankful.  God is good!  He is providing for us in His perfect way and in His perfect timing.  On Monday, Danny was feeling pretty down and regretting this decision.  He was even wondering if we made the right decision.  But, as God does, he confirmed Danny's questions with a BIG 'YES' with our realtor calling him late that morning with an offer.  Our closing date/moving date is May 29.  The offer was only $5000 under asking price, which is more than expected to get, so we are happy, happy, happy!  The only contingencies are for financing and passing home inspections.  We feel pretty confident this sale is going to work out and though we still have to be available for showings, at least they should slow down now that we have an offer pending. 
I was worried for part of last week because a kid (now adult), who was on my case load 10 years ago when I did case management in the Emotional-Behavioral Disturbed field, came for a showing of our house with his family.  He was interested but never followed through, which I am greatly thankful for.  Knowing his personality, I feared he would be a bad fit for our neighbors.  But, the offer came from somebody else.  Praise God again!  So, now Danny and I are researching houses to buy.  Our criteria limits us a lot, so we are praying for a clear 'open door' to our next home.  That criteria is: 4 bedrooms on the same level, a wooded lot/no neighbors in the back (like we have now) and something that is move-in ready, with little-to-no work to be done. 
We have also started shopping for a pre-owned van.  There is so much going on from car repairs, to researching vans, to home inspections, home surveys by moving company, to window replacements gone wrong and needing to be redone, to Noah's 3rd birthday this weekend!  My head is spinning sometimes.  But, I'm trying to soak it all in and enjoy the blessings in every moment. 
Danny's head is also full with a large work-load at this time.  There are days the kids and I are thankful to be here in Madison with friends and family because Danny is working such long days right now.  He has been coming home once a week and on weekends (for the whole weekend since the course is not open yet).  Danny sure is an important part of our growing family!
That is the latest from the east Madison Rainbow family.  :)
Please keep us in your prayers.  Thank you!

And the baby is a...

GIRL!  Yes, we found out yesterday that our family is welcoming a baby girl in August.  Since Danny couldn't come to the ultrasound because he is working in Stevens Point as of this past week, we had the tech write the gender on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope.  That evening, soon after Danny arrived home for the weekend (hooray!  we missed him), Joy opened the envelope and excitedly revealed the gender to all of us.  I caught it on camera so we could enjoy the moment over and over again.  Noah's reaction, though he doesn't understand, was funny too.  Sadly, our regular video camera didn't have a charge left, so I used my new smart phone.  As you will see, I've learned something about how to take videos on my phone.

On the Market

Today was the first day our house was officially open to the public.  The house was listed last Tuesday, but interested parties were asked to wait to view it until the first open house, which was today, or after.  There were 14 groups of people who came to the open house today and all feedback was positive.  We have two more showings scheduled late tomorrow afternoon, which means we have to be out of the house from 2:45 to 6:00.  Thankfully, we know a lot of people around here to visit and the nice weather will make it easy to pass time at a park too.

Below is the link to our home.  It took 2.5 weeks to get it in tip-top shape.  We are extremely happy with how it turned out.  Many friends and family helped clean, prep, and/or paint the house and  watched our kids so Danny and I could work.  The house was ready today only because of all the support we received and we are deeply grateful.


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Changes ahead...

2015 is the year of change for the Rainbow Family.

First, we’d like to share that we are adding a 5th member to our family in early August.  We are very happy and excited to meet the newest member of our family.  Joy wants a baby sister and Noah isn’t too aware of baby at this time, but he will occasionally lift my shirt and say, “Baby in there.”  We will learn the gender at my 20 week ultrasound on March 23.  In addition to this baby being added to our family, our kids are getting 2 more cousins as well.  My sister is due with her 2nd baby, which is a boy, at the end of April.  And, my sister-in-law, Sarah, is due with their first baby at the end of August, just weeks after I will have our baby.  We are very excited to meet all 3 of these babies!!

Second, God decided that having a baby wasn’t enough excitement for our family in 2015.  So, He opened a new door in Danny’s career.  Danny has accepted the Director of Golf position at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, WI.  It is owned by Sentry Insurance.  Though the course and facility were easy for us to say ‘yes’ to, leaving Madison was a very difficult and emotional decision.  We are happy here and Danny wasn’t actively seeking a new job.  But, when this position was brought to our attention, we thought, ‘why not’.  The chances of him getting the job were slim-to-none, right?  Well, after 3 interviews, Danny was offered the job on the spot.  So here we go...  Danny starts work at SentryWorld on March 16.  He will move into an on-site hotel (residence) where he will stay on nights he doesn’t come home.  SentryWorld is 1.5 hours away from our home in Madison, so he will drive home some weekday nights and on weekends.  The kids and I will stay at our house in Madison until it sells, so our official move-out date will not be determined for awhile.  Sentry is providing a relocation company, so we don’t have to pack, move, or unpack a thing we don’t want to.  That makes this pregnant mama very happy!  Lastly, at this moment, Noah doesn’t understand that we are moving.  But, Joy does.  She took it hard the night we told her, but by the next morning she was excited and telling everyone at school about it.  If you are interested in seeing a few pictures of the course and facility, you can go to www.sentryworld.com.

That sums up where we are at in this moment of this year.  Please bookmark this blog if you are interested in getting updates about this process we are just starting.  Please keep us and all the details of this coming year in your prayers.

Love and hugs from the Rainbow family!

Better Late than Never

So here is a long overdue update from our family.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families and extended families.  We traveled a lot and have been enjoying time at home and the return of our regular routine.  Even though the cold and snow get old, our family is always grateful for this time of year when we get Danny home both Saturday and Sunday.  Speaking of Danny, his 34th birthday is coming up this Sunday.  He is debating between bowling and mini golf with the family.
Below are a few videos we took of the kids in between the holiday busyness.
The video starts with us 'enforcing a consequence' that ended up being fun, oh well.  Most people know Joy as a quiet and timid child.  But, she is not so quiet at home, a lot of times.  This day, my auditory sense was overloaded, so I sent her outside to yell, "I will use my outside voice outside."  And the video shows the fun that came from that.  Then there is a short segment from Joy's Thanksgiving program at school.  Side note: We are not allowed to take video of her Christmas program because it is a church service.  Lastly, our little athlete, Noah, was creative one day while watching football and started practicing/imitating on his own.  He set a football on a tee (the 'tee was a doll potty chair).  :)  Enjoy!


Lastly, our little princess lost her first tooth last night.  The tooth fairy left her $2.  She chose to go to the dollar store today to spend her money.  And, all on her own, she chose to buy one thing for herself and one thing for Noah.  And, she followed through.  I'm so proud of her!  And a little sad that she is growing so fast!