Full Hands, Full Hearts

2010-10-08T13:11:00.003-04:00

Hello again! It's been another week, and it's been crazy as usual : ) We have been enjoying lots of time outside. This weather is my idea of perfect! In the words of Goldilocks, "Not too hot, not too cold. Juuuust right!" Throw in the wonderfully warm colors of fall, cider, cinnamon-sugar donuts, comfort food, and cozy blankets, and you might just have a glimpse of heaven on Earth. It makes me want to escape to a secluded cabin on a lake to spend my time curled up on an old, comfortable couch next to a fire with a warm mug in my hands, or in a rocking chair on a big covered porch just taking in the sights and smells of autumn. Ahh, I could stay in that daydream all day! But, back to reality...

I thought we had seen our share of sickness over the last 2 months after 3 out of 4 kids had a terrible virus in August and everyone had a round of colds in September. Yet, here we are again. Mary and Grace got very congested early in the week and still have terribly runny noses and little coughs. Hugh also got the runny nose and cough. Sam seems to be okay for now... maybe he just brought it home from school to share.

The first day Mary and Grace got sick, they slept A LOT. Here's what happened when they had a bottle before their usual nap time:

They're not letting a little cold ruin their fun though! Both girls love standing now. We had a push toy in the basement that we brought upstairs, so they're now enjoying their "new" toy and trying to get the hang of moving their feet when the toy moves forward.

And since Grace got her own "I stand up!" announcement on Facebook, Mary gets her own blog celebration. SO... heeeeere's Mary! She stands up now! ; )

Our girls are getting so big!! As of today, it has officially been 2 days since the girls last had breast milk. I'm of course feeling that combination of relief and sadness. I'm already missing that bonding time with my girls and watching them hold hands and looking at me, and that look of complete contentment on their faces. Then again, I'm proud of the accomplishment. When they were born, I didn't have any expectations about how long I would nurse them. I set small goals: 3 months and then 6 months. In the first month, I had some pretty bad cases of clogged ducts and mastitis, so just making it past that first month was huge. I kept thinking "Ideally, we'll make it 6 months." Well, we got to 9 months!

The boys have been up to their usual shenanigans. They played with Moon Sand this week, which made me remember why we only do that once in a while. Boy, did I have a mess to clean up!! And the boys were actually very careful with it... I guess there's just something about playing with sand inside that makes a mess inevitable no matter how careful you are.

When you're raising brothers who are close in age, you're bound to witness a lot of wrestling. Our guys have been full of energy lately and love to tackle each other (in a loving way, of course!). I hope they always keep that great balance of tough brotherly love : )

Well, there you have it! We're just gearing up for an MSU win over U of M tomorrow ; ) Jacob is really excited to have been invited to the game by some higher-ups at work to go and schmooze with some agents. Uncle Gunnar is coming for a visit, so I'm thinking we'll go rent some kids movies to watch and play outside tomorrow. Hope you enjoy your weekend!

2010-09-30T12:38:00.002-04:00

As promised, here are some pictures! From yesterday:

When Sam got home from school, Hugh wanted to put his big brother's shoes on...

He succeeded! (Notice they're on the wrong feet...) ; )

The boys had one of their favorite things for lunch... dinosaur PB&J!!

Hugh really wanted his dinosaur to eat the fishies...

And, as usual, the kids had the organic juice we love so much!

Mary and Grace made a big mess out of their lunch!! Mary loves to blow raspberries (hence her nickname, RazzMary) right when it's time to take a bite, and Grace was finger painting with her carrots (Grace is the top pic, Mary is the bottom)...

Pictures from today:

The boys love drawing with window markers!

Hugh was practicing his circles and scribbles:

Sam drew a yellow sun and a brown bug:

And the girls have fun watching their brothers draw silly pictures! (Grace, Mary)

Just the usual day-to-day stuff! Sam is keeping busy with preschool and soccer. He is using his imagination much more now and comes up with elaborate play scenarios for himself and Hugh : ) Hugh can't wait until he gets to start preschool and soccer... he kicks the ball around the backyard and really seems like a natural. He's still not talking all that much, but is trying to tell us much more! Mary and Grace are growing so fast. Grace is now a pro at pulling up and standing with whatever is in front of her. Mary is also great at standing, but doesn't pull herself up as much as Grace. She seems more content with sitting on her knees : )

As for me, I have a project to begin! This particular project has me singing Jingle Bells in September...

I have TWO Christmas stockings to make! Luckily, my mom is helping me with them. I also made Sam and Hugh's stockings, but they didn't have quite as much detail as these Sugar Plum Fairy ones. (Isn't that just the way it goes with girls?!?) I've been procrastinating for the last few weeks, which is part of the reason I'm writing it on our blog... it's going to force me to get started!! ; ) Maybe I'll post some "in progress" pictures to keep me motivated.

Refreshed

2010-09-29T09:56:00.000-04:00

Hi! If you've visited us before, you probably noticed our new look and new name. If today is your first visit, welcome!

I've been working for the last week to try and renew our blog. First, I Googled "blog makeover", "blog background" and "blog template" in hopes of finding just the right pre-made look, but couldn't find one that felt right. I had seen so many adorable blogs and thought, "If only I could figure out how to do it myself!" SO, those of you who know me will probably guess what comes next... That's right! I changed the focus of my research to teaching myself how to get the blog I wanted. I found several great tutorials about changing HTML settings, and also about using digital scrapbooking kits to create the photo elements on our page, and voila! Sure, it's not perfect, but it's homemade, and I love it (for now)! : ) I had so much fun doing it myself that I imagine I'll change things up every now and then.

As for the new title... that was inspired by perfect strangers. Having 4 under 4 1/2 must make us look like a circus whenever we leave the house. Every time we do, we hear the same comment over and over: "Wow! You sure have your hands full!" (In a few variations, but you get the gist.) We've even heard, "Man, every time I'm feeling sorry for myself, I'll just think of you guys!" Every so often though, a sweet older woman will say "Oh, you are so very blessed," which is much, much nicer to hear : ) This is exactly how WE feel about life with 4 young kids. We see them as the greatest blessing anyone could hope for, and we try to soak up every minute of the craziness before our 4 little kids magically turn into 4 BIG kids. And with 4 little kids keeping you busy, time sure flies by fast.

So, that catches you up on the technical stuff. Look for updates on family life and pictures coming soon! (Like, in the next few days.)

A bientôt!
~ Crystal : )

P.S. Special thanks to Kevin & Amanda for all the wonderful info and great FREE fonts! (Pea Biggio is the font I used for our title and sidebar tags.) I got my digikits from Digital Scrapbook Place and Two Peas in a Bucket.

AND... we're back!

2010-04-20T00:36:00.000-04:00

Top - Mary, Bottom - Grace

Easter 2010 Pics

Goodness it has been a long time! So, hello again! We have added 2 family members since we last chatted : ) Mary Elise and Grace Katherine are now 3.5 months old and time has just flown by. They bring so much joy to our lives! We never in a million years thought that we would have twins, and now of course we can't imagine life without them. It is a special thing to witness 2 sisters growing together and experiencing all of their "firsts" together. They are very happy babies and we often find them just staring at us and smiling : ) They love to be tickled and they've begun little out-loud laughs (the in-between kind that they practice for a while before they move on to full-fledged hearty laughs). They are really enjoying their exersaucer (we bought a new girly one!) and their jungle jumperoo. We make sure that they face each other while they're playing in them so that they have a happy balance of playing with toys and sweetly smiling at each other. More than enough to make a mama and daddy's hearts melt...

Well, I'll move on to the boys! They are crazier than ever with the wrestling, running around, jumping on the couch, and making messes : ) But, they still melt our hearts too. There are those moments when we'll catch them holding hands in the backseat of the car, or sitting together on the couch watching cartoons, or sharing a hug for no reason... and we know that in the midst of brotherly turmoil, they really do love each other.

Back to the reason I thought I'd begin blogging again tonight... we had an eventful dinner at the Geyer household. Over the past few weeks, we have been motivated to eat more healthy, natural foods. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution has helped this along, and yesterday we took the first big step by completely avoiding high fructose corn syrup while grocery shopping. (I should probably mention that we are completely in love with Horrock's market, which makes it SO much easier to shop for healthy, natural foods.) I'd also like to give a shout-out to Paul Newman, who began such an incredible line of all-natural foods and gave so much away to charity through the company. He fought in our military, started a camp for ill children, gave his time and money to so many, and was just an all-around great guy.

Anyway... the first nice surprise of dinner was when Jacob took out the water goblets for us to drink our Newman's "Lemon-aided Iced Tea". This is something I love to do because it just adds a little fancy flair to our crazy dinners, rather than using the usual plastic cups from Target. Jacob usually likes to poke fun when I take them out, but tonight HE said he wanted to make dinner special : ) Well, then things went slightly downhill when Hugh dropped his sippy cup full of milk on Mary's forehead, leaving her with her first goose-egg : ( (She's OK, just gave a few good screams and then was back to her usual smiley self.)

But back to the good! We made a salad with black and green olives, yellow and orange peppers, and, big surprise... Newman's Olive Oil & Vinegar dressing. Both of the boys were chomping on the peppers before dinner and they LOVE them. Actually, Hugh decided that salad was all he wanted for dinner, which I suppose is better than nothing at all. If you know Jacob, you better prepare yourself for his next big surprise of the evening.... he ate ALL of the salad. I mean every part of it. The black and green olives, and the peppers. I am SO proud of him! He has slowly been trying new foods over the last few years and this was a big step for him : )

And, I think my favorite part of the night was Sam announcing to us at dinner: "I'm a superhero! I can't fly yet, but I will someday, and I'll SOAR all over the sky!" ; )

Time flies

2009-11-01T19:55:00.000-05:00

Wow, fall is quickly passing us by! We have stayed pretty busy these last few weeks....

Sam has settled into preschool life very nicely and really enjoys the time he spends there. It's so fun to see the pictures he brings home and to hear what he did at school! He is also taking part in a "preschool sports starter" in our town, which includes soccer, basketball, and floor hockey. He had a blast with soccer and starts basketball next week. In everyday life, he surprises us all the time with his observations and understanding of the world. He's really exercising his independence... which is both fun and challenging!

Hugh is also enjoying Sam's time at preschool, because it means some one-on-one time with Mama : ) He absolutely loves to "read" books! He brings us books to look at with him, and often will sit down and just flip through them on his own. He thinks that his big brother is super cool and likes to follow Sam around and play with his cars. The two of them run around the house giggling and wrestling all the time. As some of you know, Hugh is our "bruiser" and is seldom without a bruise. He likes to just jump in and have fun, which means he bumps his head and falls down quite often!

Jacob has stayed busy both at work and home. He is now a manager in his office so he is enjoying the new challenges. After another long round of studying, he just took his fall actuarial exam and we are hopeful for a passing grade! He loves spending time with his boys Sam and Hugh, and the three of them can often be found dancing goofy in the living room together : ) Sam picks up on a lot of Jacob's phrases, and Hugh is usually running around the house yelling "Da-da! Daddy!"

I am still enjoying life as a stay-at-home mom, and am trying to get in some quality time with the boys before our girls are born! I'm in my 30th week of pregnancy and finding myself slowing down quite a bit. This pregnancy with the twins is much more challenging than my pregnancies with the boys, but we will have twice the reward in the end! We are so looking forward to holding those sweet baby girls, and to our life as a family of 6. One of my favorite moments lately has been Sam singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to his baby sisters. Hugh has no clue what is headed his way, but I just know he'll be a wonderful big brother!

A short week!

2009-09-08T08:57:00.000-04:00

Well, Labor Day has come and gone. Can you believe it's September?!? We're really looking forward to autumn and everything that comes with it... apples, fall colors, comfort food, primetime TV, sitting in front of the fireplace with a mug of hot cider and a cozy blanket : )

To kick off our fall festivities, we visited Uncle John's Cider Mill this past Sunday. The kids had a blast playing in the huge sandbox, on the wooden train, and riding around the kiddie track on tractors, bikes, whatever they could get their hands on! We snacked on donuts and cider and saw some nice classic cars because there was a car show going on the same day.

In the world of Sam and Hugh, music seems to be their new "thing". They love when we turn on music and just dance around the living room. Sam grabs his guitar to play along, and they both play bongos with the beat! They both show signs of having good rhythm, so we're happy that our band and dance roots might carry on : )

Plans for the week: Sam starting preschool!! We'll have an update on that coming up.

Welcome to our blog!

2009-09-01T13:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks for visiting! We've just begun, so check back often as we will be adding posts and pictures. We hope that this will be a good way for us to update family and friends on the latest Geyer happenings : )

As we approach autumn, Sam will soon be starting preschool. He has grown up so much in the past few months, and we know that he'll really enjoy getting out on his own and making new friends! Hugh is now 1 year old and is a perfect combination of sweetheart and rebel. It seems like he masters a new skill every day. And the latest news on our expected twins... they're girls!!! We're so excited to raise 2 boys and 2 girls. It should be a fun ride!

You may have noticed the phrase "Just another day in paradise" under our blog title. This is a favorite song of ours (sung by Phil Vassar) because it fits our life just about perfectly right now and reminds us that even when things are crazy, there's nowhere else we'd rather be! If you'd like to check it out, here's a YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yakW10rgKX0. Phil Vassar is a wonderful singer/songwriter; he has several other songs that we love also.

More detailed posts to come soon!