Honeymoon

We had a great time in Costa Rica! The weather, although it was the "rainy season" was perfect - sunny and warm every day.

Our flight from San Jose to Quepos was canceled due to rain. We had to spend the first night in San Jose, and our hotel in Quepos felt badly. So they upgraded us to this suite -with a private pool, an outdoor jacuzzi, full kitchen, wrap around deck that overlooked the beach and the rainforest, and glass wall taking in the full view:

We did a tour ziplining the canopy of the rainforest one day. It was by far the most fun day! Our group was small (2 other couples) because Costa Rica is empty during the rainy season.

After the zipline, we got to swim in this waterfall:

The walk to the beach near our hotel was about 10 minutes. Here's my view over the top of my book:

Our view from our balcony - where we spent most of our time:

We took another tour, kayaking through the mangroves:

There were monkeys on our balcony every day:

We also saw sloths nearly everywhere we went. We saw a black and green poison dart frog hiking during the zipline day, several iguanas, a python in the mangroves, toucans in the tree across the street from our hotel, and a total of three kinds of monkeys (howler, squirrel, and white faced).

The day we went snokling we saw star fish, a sea cucumber, and a sea urchin.

It is WONDERFUL to be home! I missed the girls so much it hurt. I still miss them, even though we're home! They were completely happy with my mom - I honestly don't think they ever got that achy feeling I had. Mom said they were not sad at all while we were gone. She had them at our house on school days and her house on the long weekend.

Now we are back into our routine, which I love. Willow has an ECFE class tonight. They both started swimming lessons last night. Lily's in Girl Scouts again this year. They are both seem to have adjusted to all our life changes very smoothly and happily.

Wedding

Here are all 7 of us together during the ceremony last Saturday, Sept. 18:

We had a great wedding! The sun was out and the bugs were not. We got married on our deck at 5pm with most of our favorite people.

Lily and Willow had updos done that morning:

Cutting the cake - at our house:



Jeni's picture of our vows:

Lily and Willow walked me down the aisle (Willow kept calling it Iowa):

Lily pulled me to the garage shortly after the ceremony to "talk to me in private". She wanted to know when she should start calling Marc dad. I told her whenever she feels comfortable - today, tomorrow, or when the judge says he's her dad. She's said it twice already - nervous, giggly, and silly.

We all love our new house - it doesn't feel new anymore, aside from the fact that we don't have many pictures on the walls. The girls both regressed terribly for about 2 weeks right when we moved in, after those 2 weeks they've been back to normal.

Lily LOVES first grade, loves her new brothers and sister, and is doing great overall. She's a happy, confident, pleasing little lady. Lily thinks of everyone, all the time. She is thoughtful and sensitive and helpful. I still worry that she worries too much (the irony...). Before we moved into our house she reminded me to check the batteries in the smoke detectors. After we'd lived here a couple weeks she suggested we do a fire drill in the dark ASAP. We saw Wicked last night (Marc, Megan, Lily and I) and Lily cried in terror through most of the 2nd half. Dare devil she is not.

Willow is MUCH more reasonable, but still a challenge. She's funny, stubborn, smart and LOUD.
She thinks Sam walks on water most of the time - unless she doesn't get what she wants, then she's mad at the world. She got the giggles during the ceremony when all the kids were up front and it made everyone giggle. Willow generally has that affect on people.

Marc and I will visit Costa Rica (ALONE) in October. My parents will stay at our house with the girls for 7 days. We are all thrilled to not have any pending "events" - no home sales, no moves, no wedding. We are well aware of the ups downs in the years to come - but for the last 6 months we've been dealing with all of that in addition to the "events". We are thrilled to be where we are - together.

July

We've had a couple fun weekends at my parents' cabin this summer. The girls love getting rides on the 4-wheeler: Grammy and Lily could cuddle all day. I'm not sure who enjoys it more, of the 2 of them!

Willow and Lily both love "fishing" off the dock. Willow got mad at her pole more than once and chucked it in the lake. She is MUCH more reasonable, but I think will always be a little hot head!

You'd never know it looking at her smile sometimes, but she can turn on a dime!

We move into our new house on August 6: The highlights of the house are that there are 5 bedrooms (Lily and Willow will share until Ben graduates next year), an office for Marc who works from home, Lily doesn't have to switch schools for 1st grade next fall, and it's in the same attendance area for Marc's kids as when they're at their mom's house.

We're going to have a small, casual wedding/celebration in September.

We were all up at my parents' cabin for the 4th of July, except Ben (who had to work). The weather was perfect for playing in the water all weekend!

Willow is THREE!

Marc sold his house! He moved in with us 2 weeks ago. We're looking at a house, hoping to have a new place where we fit with all 5 kids as soon as possible. We'll set a wedding date after we have a closing date.

In this video clip, Willow is reading a book from Marc. She combines Polar Bear (what do you SEE) with Brown Bear (what do you HEAR) constantly! At the very beginning she hears Lily and I get home from shopping for her birthday gift and says "I hear my Lily best friend", which is how she always refers to Lily. Lily Best Friend.

Willow's birthday is Friday, June 4th. She is doing great!

Mother's Day

Marc's fixing up an old tricycle of his kids for Willow to cruise around on. She loved it! Grace, Tate, Lily, Willow:

Sam got Lily to ride her bike without training wheels:

Fear, excitement, concentration, pride. You know how you just know your kids' expressions so well you can recognize every emotion like that? The mouth holds one set of feelings, the eyebrows another. Even the hands... it's all there!

Marc picked the girls up early from school/day care one day to take them shopping for Mother's Day. They had a beach theme: sunscreen, beach blanket, flip flops, and nail polish. He took pictures and downloaded them to create a 8.5x11 souvenire for me. I really like Marc.

Marc sold his house! He's moving in with us a week from Friday until we either sell mine or find another that would work for us - whichever comes first.

Easter

Every time I think Marc has lost his mind for getting himself into this mayhem, I have a moment like this remind me that it's not all mayhem: I love this picture. We're leaving the Ordway and the girls need a hand walking on the ledge along Rice Street:

Como during spring break:

Lily loves her uncle:

Yaya and Willow have a special connection:

I know some kids hate getting all fancied up, but I had to beg these two to change into play clothes at Grammy's after church on Easter Sunday. They love wearing dresses and they love matching each other:

All business:

Very, very little business. Willow smashed about 3 eggs during this process:

March

Lily took gymnastics this winter/spring. I'd like to say this was her coming off a triple flip on the vault, but the truth is that she just flat out jumped off:

The bars are her favorite "event":

Check out the number of supporters she has! Megan was there too, but felt her hair day did not merit a photo:

We love going to the Children's Museum on Friday nights:

They have a cool dinosaur exhibit right now. Willow is digging for fossils:

But her favorite activity remains using the hand dryer. She's now mastered the backward maneuver:

I could RAVE about the current China exhibit. It was Lily's favorite this time. She claimed to remember practically everything that was there from her 11 month experience in China. She kept saying "Oh, I remember that." and "I already know about that."

We attended the Early Childhood class with the Easter theme recently. Willow loved the playdough and painting the most:

Lily loved everything, but she claims she's getting too big to participate.

We met a friend at the Maple Maze and Lily was big enough to get pretty high on the kiddy-climbing wall:

The activity of the spring has been pushing babies in their strollers. And, apparently, posing with an attitude and hand on the hips:

I've averaged about one showing a week - every week hoping "this is the week". I have 2 showings this weekend - Monday's showing will be my ninth. I get positive feedback overall, but no offers yet. One family commented that they would like to make an offer, but they have to sell their own home first. That is the reason Marc and I are not seriously looking yet - I don't want to fall in LOVE with a house and then have it sell before ours are sold.

Marc's house is on the market now too. He's had about 10 showings too, and lots of good feedback.

The girls are more attached to Marc than ever. They are sad on the days we don't get to see him and beg to go to his house when his kids are there. Just after this picture was taken they broke into the annoying 2-year old power struggle of "MY dad" then "No! MY dad". I noticed Marc didn't stop the argument - because he was busy melting. They don't call him dad, but Lily talks a lot about when he becomes her dad. I think they were just trying on the sound of the word. They had a similar argument in the car recently about Ben: "MY Ben." "NO! MY Ben" and on and on.

When they don't appreciate how I do something, they'll talk about when Marc can do it for them. For example, I am too rough and rushed when I do their hair. Willow said one morning this week: "Mom? You do Lily hair. Mart do my hair. O Tay?"

Say a prayer for two buyers to find our houses SOON!