lately

Just a random assortment of what we've been up to lately...

Titus is perfecting standing - he loves to pull up on EVERYTHING! The last few weeks he has even tested out letting go a few times...crazy to think we may have a "walker" soon!

 Boden had "Character Day" at school - where you dress up like a character from one of our favorite books and then bring the book to school to share with the class.  He dressed up in his baseball uniform (t-ball t-shirt under his Cardinals jersey- had to wear them both) and took the book "Froggy Plays T-Ball." He had a lot of fun with it - he was so excited that he got to take his glove to school!

Boden is such an artist - he amazes me every single day with the elaborate drawings he comes up with - he will sit and draw for an hour sometimes - I asked him one day what he was doing and he said

 "oh,  I'm just using my imagination" - I love that kid!

this pretty much sums up Claire....sitting on the counter, crazy hair, hollering about something, with a dumped box of crayons...yep, that's pretty accurate.

Titus got ahold of a chocolate chip pancake I left unattended for about 10 seconds - lucky duck...

Boden read his first book! He is having fun learning to read and it is such a joy to see him grown and learn.  I love getting to see the lightbulbs pop on when he figures out a new word or concept.

It's been a pretty mild winter here - we had snow one day for about 20 minutes.  We've had a lot of days to play outside which the kids love and so does mama.

Boden's artwork was featured on the entrance wall at school - I just happened to take him to school one day that week so I got to see it and snap a picture.  He LOVES art!

in addition to standing Titus is constantly exploring the stairs.  I knew the day would come that I would dislike that double staircase...it's here! He makes a dash for the stairs every time I put him down (as long as the dishwasher is not open.  If the dishwasher is open he prefers to try to crawl in it instead). :)

Tea party with my favorites.  There is no photographic proof...but I was dressed up too! 

So that's a bit of what we've been up to - in between my kids catching every single virus and cold that comes near them. I'm so ready for spring and warmer weather to come!

a whole month already?

*warning: prepare yourself for photo overload!*

I can't believe it, a whole month has already passed since Titus was born.  It's been a busy 6 weeks with lots of family and visitors and learning and adjusting to being a family of 5.

Titus is a sweet baby and is so loved by his big sister and big brother.  They always want to be near him, kissing him, talking to him and holding him. He loves to smile at them, and we love to see his toothless grin.  Every one of those smiles is gold to me...a sharp contrast from the screaming.  He has been a bit colicky, so evenings are a little rough around here and there isn't much sleep happening at night.  But, hopefully that won't last too long and we'll all begin getting a little more rest soon.

He is definitely growing well...at 6 weeks he weighed 13lb 7oz and was 23.5 in long! He has gained 5 pounds since birth!

Bubbe & Zeyde (Michael's mom and stepdad) stayed for about a week after Titus was born.  They were a huge help with the kids and with meals while I was resting and recovering.  Then Grandpa and Grandma (Michael's dad and his wife) came for a few days.  The kids loved having them here.  They also made it possible for me to make it to church just one week after Titus was born....there was no way I could have made it out of the house with all 3 kids and have been dressed and presentable in public so soon!

Claire, Titus and Bubbe

The 4 Brueseke boys

Claire and Grandpa

Then a few days later, Nana and Poppa (my parents) arrived.  Poppa helped us out with some projects around the house - a new garbage disposal (yay!), some painting, a new bathroom vanity/sink, and started some grass growing in the back yard.  And Nana helped out with the kids and the LAUNDRY...which I had been completely neglecting.   We did have a little fun too - we took Titus on his first trip to the beach.  Although, he didn't quite enjoy it like we had hoped...he pretty much cried the whole time. :(  

After about a week, Poppa had to leave for a business trip, while Nana stayed another week and a half to help me adjust to life with 3 kiddos.  I loved getting to spend this time with my mom and she was a huge help to me.  I think she might have enjoyed spending time with her grandkids too :)  Poppa then came back for a few more days before they made the long roadtrip back to to Nebraska.

It was so great having family here to help us through the first month.  I was able to rest a lot, the kids got the extra attention they needed, and the house didn't fall apart....we are incredibly blessed and so, so thankful.

Nana and Titus

Claire helping Nana play Sudoku

Poppa meeting his newest Grandson

Here's a few more pictures of what we've been up to for the past 6 weeks:

Brothers

swimming

lovin' on babies

multi-tasking

Mama and her boys

hard to believe Claire and Boden were once as little as Titus

my parents brought my old guitar for Boden to play - he LOVES it!

playing at the park

this is how moms lose the baby weight...we don't get to eat! 

Daddy and his babies

Frozen Yogurt Bar

Bathtime

apparently Claire is more interested in texting than in the story book

a little chutes and ladders

Bubbles!

It's still so wild to me that we have 3 kids!  They are such an amazing blessing.  Thank you Lord!

The moving truck FINALLY came!  It was such a long, drawn out process. I won't bore you with all the drama.  But, it was quite frustrating actually...mostly for Michael, he's the one who had to deal with them, and he had to help unload it all since the "crew" that showed up was actually just the truck driver.  There was definitely a point in this process where I was about 80% sure we would never see our stuff again.  The moral of this story is....there are some things you don't try to save money on....clearly moving companies fall into this category.

So, we've got our bed (hallelujah!), Claire's crib, our couch, tv, fridge, AND the power cord to my sewing machine (which I've been almost as excited about getting as I have my bed).  When we packed up in November I kept out two bins full of projects I intended to work on and my sewing machine...but somehow packed the power cord/foot pedal of my machine in a box that went with the moving truck. big bummer.  Thankfully my mother in law was kind enough to let me borrow hers so I could finish up a few christmas presents and my mom let me borrow hers when I was visiting so I could finish a few projects there and hem my new maternity jeans.  Yesterday I whipped up a little bubble skirt I've been wanting to make for awhile.  I've got lots of ideas for Claire's spring wardroble so I'm excited to get started.

Speaking of maternity clothes, I must stop to say how much I love H&M.  They actually understand that pregnant women still like to be fashionable but most can't afford to spend $60-80 for a shirt or $125 for a dress. And their maternity jeans?! genius. You know the little pull tabs with buttons inside the waist of little kids jeans? They put them inside the waist of their maternity jeans.  I LOVE IT! The only maternity jeans I have ever worn that I'm not constantly pulling up.  One of the highlights of our trip to NYC was going to the H&M there that carries the maternity line (unfortunately the St Louis stores don't carry it, the website said it wasn't at any of the stores in here in VA, and they don't sell it online in the US).  So it was a wonderful surprise for me when I walked past the H&M at one of the local mall here and noticed the sign said they have maternity!!!  YAY!

The real reason for the trip to the mall was letting the kids burn some energy at the indoor playground there.  We went with a friend and her son.  They just moved here from North Carolina to join the staff at the church as well.  It's been so nice to have a friend in the same situation as we are.  The mall had a great playground - Claire found a fire truck that she fell in love with and claimed as her own.  Seriously, any kid that tried to climb on it she immediatly started trying to push them off of it.  We're beginning to see what having an older brother does to a little girl!  She has no problems standing up to 3 yr old boys who get in her way.  We're working on being a lady. :)

We've had a few playdates in the past couple weeks and it's been great! It's been so fun to meet families with little boys!  We love our friends in St Louis and all their adorable little 3 yr old girls, but Michael was so excited to hear that Boden played with trains, garbage trucks, and firetrucks last week rather than playing dress up in princess dresses! Everyone here has been so friendly and warm to us - we feel so blessed.  God is really taking great care of us and helping us get connected with people right away.

The other day we burned some energy at Kangaroo Jac's - and indoor bounce house playground.  The kids loved it.  Claire was probably a bit young to really enjoy the bouncers, but she still had a blast running around and watching Boden.

So, we've been keeping busy around here, but we've slowed down a bit the last two days - Claire has a cold.  It started as just a runny nose, but as of today she's got a pretty rough cough, kinda sounds like croup and is coughing herself awake alot tonight. The YMCA has a prenatal yoga class once a week that I was really looking forward to going to tomorrow, but I'm guessing we will be staying home and keeping our germs to ourselves again.  Hopefully next week.

Burning some energy

We've been looking for ways to burn some energy around here...Boden is practically bouncing off the walls and needs to RUN!

The second day we were here in VA we joined the YMCA.  We are so excited about all the fun programs they have, especially for Boden.  Two mornings and two evenings each week they offer a GEKO (Group Exercise for Kids Only) class for 3-5yr olds that is 30 min long and he can go to while I work out.  We drop them off in the Stay & Play area and then the teacher takes them to and from the class and I just pick him back up when I'm done.  We've taken him a few times and he loves it....well, except for the sit-ups part, I was watching last night and they were doing 10 sit-ups....Boden did like 3 and then told the teacher "this is hard!"...and then proceeded to watch the rest of the kids finish their sit-ups. ha.  We had a talk later about perserverence and how sometimes things are hard, but you have to keep doing them to get good at it.  He pretty much just stared at me and then said "but....sit-ups are hard, mom." Yes, honey, I know, I know.

One day I saw them playing a game where they scattered things all over the gym and then pretended to "pick up the trash" and had to run around and put the things one at a time in a hula hoop, another day they were doing relay races across the gym (yay for wearing my kid out!), and today I saw them playing on little stilt things (you know, the plastic cups attached to strings? what are those called anyway?),

and my favorite is probably watching them do jumping jacks....ever watch a group of 3-5 yr olds try to do jumping jacks? it's pretty entertaining.  Boden just jumps up and down and flails his arms all around. so cute.

They also have a parents night out on Sat night that you can sign up for once a month - they will watch your kids from 6-9:30 and you can go out, at no extra cost (its included with a family membership).  That's exciting to us, since we don't yet have babysitters here.  And twice a month they have a parents morning out that Boden can go to for 3 hrs and do "preschool" stuff.  I think he will love that!  They have an awesome outdoor pool and splash park as well as a nice indoor pool.  I'm excited about getting the kids in swimming lessons next month.  I had wondered how I would be able to do a mommy & me class with Claire while having Boden with us - but since it's at the Y, he can go to stay and play while Claire and I swim.  Perfect!

I think the YMCA is going to be great for us - after just 5 visits Claire finally quit crying through the whole thing and yesterday she actually went right into her class on her own. It's a great break for me during the day to get a chance to workout without children under my feet and what mom can complain about getting to take a shower while someone else entertains your kids?  That in itself is worth the cost of the membership!

**Pics are a little fuzzy, I know - they were taken on my phone

All Things New

Happy 2011!  2010 was an exciting, change-filled year for our family, and I hope it was for yours too.  When 2010 began, I never could have anticipated all that it would bring.  I was a terrible blogger in 2010....terrible.  Two kids, pastoring a church, family, friends, vacations, the loss of a dear friend, weddings, morning sickness (better yet, all day sickness), packing, moving, etc, etc - I just couldn't find the time to sit down and write about it all.  Looking back, I wish I had.  I know there are small moments I have forgotten, and cute things the kids did, my feelings, frustrations and joys about motherhood, an all of the inbetween that I would have liked to have documented.  So, here's my fresh new start, and quite a long review of what happened in the rest of 2011....

Wanna know what's new with the Brueseke's?  Kind of alot, actually....

Boden turned 3 in July.  Often, when talking to him you would think he was 9, he is so funny, logical, imaginitive, and bright.  He loves to color, is doing quite well at staying in the lines, and gets excited about doing "school work" - he has learned to recognize all of his letters and is now learning their sounds and learning to write them. 

He has an excellent memory - he has done great with memorizing any scripture I give him.  Earlier this summer he learned the entire 23rd Psalm in less that a week.  Mostly just by listening to me recite it to him while he played with toys.  This Christmas we taught him Luke 2:10-11.  Watch below for the clip:

Most of the time he is a delight - but that doesn't mean that strong will of his doesn't rear it's head once in awhile.  A rather common converstation with the strong willed Boden goes something like this:

Mama: "Boden, you can either take a nap in mamas bed, or in your bed today, but you ARE taking a nap.  You have the option, what do you choose?"

Boden: "Well, Mama....Actually....I don't wanna take a nap, Soooo, I can play in my room or watch cartoons...that's MY option."

It's also interesting as a parent, to have your child speak to you the way you speak to them.  Sometimes humorous, other times, downright scary to know that's what I sound like!

Miss Claire is now 14 months old!  She celebrated her 1st birthday on October 27.  We had a party with family the weekend before her actual birthday.  My sisters and I made a catepillar cake that coordinated with the birthday outfit I had so much fun making for her. 

She has been such a fun child - she started taking steps around 10.5- 11 months and she hasn't stopped since! When she's awake, she doesn't stop moving - in 14 months I think I've read her a total of 5 pages of a book while she was sitting on my lap! She loves to be up running around and exploring - and chasing her big brother, but when it's time to nap, there is rarely an arguement.  She lays down and is out for a few hrs twice a day.  And at night, just lay her down and she's out for at least 12 hrs.  She and Boden are like night and day in the sleeping aspect...I'm not sure he has EVER slept 12 hrs at night!

Claire had a lot of trouble with ear infections in her 2nd 6 months.  She had 5 ear infections throughout the year, and then starting in October, we just couldn't get rid of them.  She was on antibiotics continually for Oct and Nov and finally got tubes put in just before Christmas.  She has been much happier since.  She signs: eat, more, please, thank you, bye bye, sleep/night-night. She says: mama, dadda, ball, sometimes she says eat, and hi.  I think her speach was delayed a little by her constant clogged ears - we've noticed her really picking up more and following directions very well in the past month.  A couple weeks ago I asked if she needed to go potty and she turned and went straight for the bathroom and banged on the toilet.  I was so excited, thinking "this is going to be awesome! she'll potty train herself!" I got her all undressed, set her up on the potty, and what did she do? she flailed and screamed like I was pulling her leg off or something.  ah, well, at least she knows what I'm talking about, right?

Shortly after my last post of 2010 we had a whirlwind of life happen.... 

We took a family vacation with two other families to Destin, FL.  It was beautiful, fun and relaxing....for most of us.  Poor Michael was miserably sick the whole time.  He tried to have a good time, but just didn't feel good at all. 

Then in September, we made the decision to take a new position at a new church....all the way across the country!  Michael had been connected with the pastor of this church for several years, he had been one of Michael's professors at Regent University during his Masters Program (which he finished in Aug '10!!!! Yay Michael!) and they had gotten together whenever Michael was in the area.  This past summer, the opportunity arose for Michael to join Pastor Jim and the team at Western Branch Community Church, in Chesapeake, VA as the Discipleship Pastor.  After lots of prayer and discussions, we were confident that was what God was calling us to do.  While very exciting, it was also very scary.  We've both lived in the midwest our entire lives, and always relatively close to family.  This move would put us at least 16 hr drive from Michael's family and 22 from mine!  I've gotten used to being able to make the 6 hr drive from Missouri to NE to see my family with just me and the kids whenever Michael is out of town, or when family events are occuring and Michael can't get away, and had I definitely gotten used to Michael's mom watching the kids for me one day a week so they could get some "Bubbe" time while I got some "me" time.  We also love our church family in St Louis, and will really miss them all.  It was such a difficult decision to leave, but we had so much peace about the decision, we knew it was God.  And we knew that God would make it all work out.

Shortly after that decision was made, and we began preparing to move, we got another surprise we were most certainly not expecting!  Baby #3!!!  I remember very vividly having a phone conversation with my mom on Thursday.  Here's basically how it went:
Megan:  Mom, I've got some news!
Mom: You're Pregnant!!???!???
Megan: Are you crazy? we are getting ready to pick up and move across the country where we know no one.  I couldn't possibly also handle being pregnant through all that.  No, I'm not pregnant. If I were pregnant Mom, I imagine I'd be crying right now.
Mom: well, what's the news then?
Megan: I was just going to tell you we decided what dates we'll be visiting for Thanksgiving....

And, then...that night I didn't sleep at all! I have never had that happen, but it was so weird.  I got up and cleaned for a couple hrs, tried to sleep again, then got up and knit for a few hrs, and then read, and finally around 5 am I fell asleep.  Friday morning I felt so awful.  I assumed it was from not sleeping.  We went to the dentists office and I almost had to leave because I thought I was going to vomit from them smell.  I told Michael we needed to get a pregnancy test just to rule that out so I would feel better.  I remember the look on his face when I said that, it was like "Are you crazy?" haha.  So, later that afternoon, we sat on our bathroom floor staring at a positive pregnancy test - both  in complete shock! Thinking "Seriously, God? Did you not think we had enough going on right now?  How do you expect us to do this too?"  I didn't cry like I thought I would though - I was excited - even though I was shocked and completely freaked out - I was excited.  How could we not be?  Obviously, God knows what we don't know - and he's a much better judge of what I can handle than I am.

So began the awful "morning" sickness - which was actually mostly afternoon and evening sickness.  Which actually worked out rather well.  I survived the day until naptime with the kids, and then Michael would get home and take care of the kids and make dinner for them while I spent the evening in bed or vomiting.  It was pretty awful this time around.  I got weekly migraines through the first trimester too.  Not alot of fun - I'm SO glad that is behind me now. The 2nd trimester has been much better to me.

Then, in the end of September, we woke up in the middle of the night to a shocking phone call.  Our dear friend, Renee Ploen, had passed away suddenly.  Just sitting on the couch at home, her heart stopped.  She was just 56 yrs old.  Mike and Renee have been like family to us - Our friends, mentors, another set of parents.  I will never forget that night in the hospital or the days following.  Nor, will I ever forget Renee. I have never met anyone quite like her - she loved the Lord so much, and everyone who knew her, knew that.  She was so honest, always told you like it was, even if she knew you weren't going to like it.  And the way she did it was with such love, there was no way you could be mad at her.  I loved that about Renee.  She never tried to make me feel better by sugar coating things - if I was whining to her about something and I was wrong, she let me know it!  And man, when she prayed....watch out!!! She was a prayer warrier - especially when she was praying for her family.  Oh, and she was funny - I smile everytime I think about her, she always had me laughing when I was with her.  Espeically her famous Walmart parking lot story.  Those of you who know that story are laughing right now just thinking about it, aren't you?  I miss Renee so much.  She taught me a lot about marriage, life, family, and being a pastors wife.  Renee's death caused me to examine my life and really think about how I spend my time and what is really important in life.  I am so thankful that God brought the Ploen's into our life when He did.  This is one of my favorite pictures of Renee because it is exactly how I remember her - always laughing and so full of life :

At the beginning of November, we began our "family tour."  Michael finished up his position at Destiny Church and we decided to wait to move until after the holidays.  We rented out our house to a lovely family, had movers pack most of our stuff and haul it to storage until we have it moved to Virginia, and moved to Sullivan, making Michael's mom and step-dad's house home base giving us the opportunity to spend time with Michael's family in the area.  We also made a weekend trip to Branson and Silver Dollar City with Michael's dad and Rocky, spent a couple weeks with my family in Nebraska around Thanksgiving, a trip to New York City with Michael's dad & his new wife, Rocky, another trip to Nebraska to celebrate Christmas and also my cousin's wedding, then back to Missouri for Christmas...and then packed up everything for the road trip to Virginia!  (There's so many pictures from all of these, I'm not going to try to upload them all here - but I do have a lot of them posted on Facebook, and will be posting many more in the next day or two, so I would love for you to check them out over there.)

Those two months were quite challenging for us to be always living out of suitcases, in someone elses home, and our kids totally off-routine....but, I wouldn't change it.  I'm so thankful to have gotten to spend so much time with family and friends before we left.  Saying goodbye was hard, but we are excited about what God has planned for us in this next season.

So, Here we are in our new home, Chesapeake, Virginia!  It was a long 2 day road trip to get here, but the kids were awesome.  They may have watched more cartoons in those 2 days than they usually do in 2 weeks, but hey, we do what we have to do to survive, right?  We are still living out of suitcases (sort of) since our moving truck is a *little* delayed, and we are still living in someone elses home (which I cannot complain a bit about, we are so blessed to have been provided with our own semi-apartment area where the kids have their own space to play) until we find our own place, but we ARE working on getting into a routine!

Michael is excited to jump in to his new role at the church, and we are both excited about meeting new friends and getting to know our new church family.  Excited to find out if our new addition will be a little brother or a little sister (which we will hopefully be finding out VERY soon), excited to find a new home for our family (that will hopefully be big enough for lots of visitors!) and excited for the weather to warm up so we can spend a little time at the nearby beach!  We are EXCITED about all the new things to come in 2011!

**The family pictures you see here in this post and on my new header were taken by my beautiful friend and amazing photographer, Heidi Keene. She did an amazing job even though Claire refused to crack a single smile the entire time (turns out she wasn't feeling well and she spiked a fever that evening). Check her work out at http://www.heidikeeneblog.com/ and if you are in Nebraska - I highly recommend her!!!

8 Months

I absolutely cannot believe it's been 8 MONTHS since Claire was born! The time has gone by so much faster than I could have ever expected. We've been having lots of fun getting to know Claire's personality, watching her grow, and probably my favorite thing as a mother so far - seeing her interact with her big brother.

This is the standard "Claire face":

she makes this face all the time, especially when she's concentrating on something - trying to pick up a toy, or figure out how she can get to something across the room. Which she is pretty darn good at by the way. She started pulling herself around, kind of an army crawl about a month and a half ago, the same week she started sitting all by herself. Now she's starting to get the hang of actually crawling, but hasn't perfected it yet. That doesn't stop her from scooting, rolling, pulling, and sliding all around until she gets what she's after. She's a very determined little girl.

Claire is such a happy baby - she has her moments, but for the most part, she is so smiley and happy. My favorite part of the day is the morning. Even though I'm exhausted when she wakes me up at 5:30am, she is so happy and "talkative". She jibber-jabbers, giggles and smiles until we are all awake with her. And when her big brother walks in, she squeals and kicks her feet. She loves him so much and he is her world right now. Even when he's tormenting her by trying to check her eyes with a magnifying glass, pick her up by her head ("like the lions do", he said), or pull her around the room by her hands "teaching her to crawl" - she just thinks he's amazing. And he thinks she's pretty amazing too - he is always wanting to help her do something or teach her something. As a mother, this brings me so much joy. I pray each day that they will continue to love each other and take care of each other as they grow up.

Claire is also a great eater. We started feeding her purees a little earlier than we did with Boden because she was always trying to grab our food out of our hands or screaming at us while we were eating. So far, her favorite is avacado by far and the only thing she seems to reject is broccoli. She'll eat it when it's mixed with other veggies, but not alone. She really loves picking up her own food - banana chunks, cheerios, etc. Usually about half of it makes it in her mouth and the other half I find in the highchair. :)

It's been hot here in St Louis so we've been frequenting the neighborhood pool a bit lately too. Claire LOVES the water! She splashes and giggles and then tries to drink the water. oops. Boden is loving the pool too. He's more independent in the water this year - using his floaties and sometimes a raft. Thankfully this year he's developed a more healthy fear of the water- last year he had absolutely no fear of it and would just jump right in regardless of having a life vest on or not or if anyone was in the water to jump to! He started swim lessons last week and is having fun with that - blowing bubbles, and learning to float and kick.

We are just loving being a family of 4 and we are thankful everyday for our beautiful, healthy babies!