Birthday Extravaganza

Starting on April 22^nd, our family goes through a whirlwind of birthdays:

Ezra turned 9 the 22^nd.

Mike, Kyle’s Dad has a birthday on the 24^th.

Kyle has a birthday on the 27^th.

Sandi, My mom has a birthday on the 27^th (yep, her and Kyle share), and this year was a big one for her…something about being 20 with 40 years of experience.

Then finally, Gunnar ends the month with a birthday on the 30^th, and he turned 3.

This year since it was “a big one” for my mom she said that all she wanted was her family to all be together. She’s crazy if you ask me. But we all did as requested and got together for the weekend. My parents have a time-share type thing and got two big rooms right off of Lake Coeur D’Alene for the weekend.

My dad had a cardiologist appointment that Friday so it worked out nicely. I came into Spokane around 10 Friday morning, met up with my parents where they were getting their car worked on and kidnapped my sister (can you say “free babysitting”). We then went and got four HUGE pizzas and took them into Kyle’s work. They had a later start that day around 1, so it worked out nicely for everyone to meet and devour some pizza before they had to start preparing for their trip down the river that evening.

After pizza (and some cake), my sister, the boys and I went and did some last minute birthday shopping while my parents went to my dad’s doctor appointment. My boys actually spelt most of the time and I had my sister sit in the car with them while I did my last minute shopping. I hate last minute shopping as there is so much pressure, but it’s not like I have a lot of shopping options up here in Priest Lake, and I think I did okay this time around.

We then took the boys to a park in CDA while we waited until we could time it so we could meet up with my parents at the resort. Each child (Paul, me, and Jami) and my parents took a meal for the weekend, so the cooking was fairly easy and you only had to worry about one meal. We all just made sure to have something to eat before we got in Friday evening. The resort it pretty far from town, so you had to do your shopping/planning before you arrived.

The weekend was wild! 5 boys aged 9, 6, 3, 2.5, and 1.5), yikes. Imagine when we add one more boy to the mix here this July…that is a whole lot of boys. Gunnar couldn’t be happier than when he is around his cousins. He loves them to pieces; sometimes I don’t think Ezra and Owen appreciate how much Gunnar adores them, as he really doesn’t want to leave them alone. Ryker and Zane had plenty of fun too…we spent a lot of time swimming, rolling down hills, walking along the water, and terrorizing our rooms (which are more like apartments). The only sad part of the weekend was that Kyle was busy working. He would arrive around 11pm and have to leave early in the morning…but I can’t complain I at least got to see him which was more than if we were not in CDA which is closer to his work.

I made some cupcakes on Saturday for after dinner and we all enjoyed them celebrating everyone’s birthday. At this point in the weekend, Gunnar had pretty much declared everyone’s birthday was over and it was his turn. He was trying to wait patiently but it isn’t easy for a three year old. We didn’t do a ‘friends’ party (I’m not exactly sure who I would have invited), so I bought some pirate hats, and cupcake supplies, and we had a little pirate party. He had picked the pirate cakepops out for me to make and I was going to make them for preschool, but well, life happened (and he didn’t even notice). He was spoiled with gifts and happy as a clam.

Whenever we are outside playing he always says something about their being “lots of birthdays” in reference to all his new toys he got for outside. I’m not really sure he understands the whole birthday thing yet…

 Kyle did get this lovely look while guiding. Hazards of the jobs...teenagers with paddles!

Battles

Battles. As parents we have to carefully choose which battles we determine are worth the fight...

Kyle's whitewater rafting season has started. Which consequently means that the almost three year old, the 19 month old, and the pregnant lady (26 weeks) are all hanging out together....alone, unsupervised! We are gauranteed one day a week of seeing Kyle, but we have seen him 2-3 the last couple of weeks. Let's just say the boys and I spend a lot of time outside. There are no outside toys up here (we are working on this), so they play with the sticks, mud, rocks, in the back of pick-up trucks, climb on everything, and turn every thing they pick up off the ground into a gun. (Ryker is especially accomplished at this, my sweet little 19 month old.)

Okay, back to battles. I used to try to fight the "gun" battle, but quickly learned that only defeat was in sight, and surrenedered. They boys know guns can hurt people and that we only shoot bears, deer, moose, and wild cats (oops, did I say wild cats?). I ignore the dirty looks I get from other moms at the park when my 19 month old picks up sticks and turns them into guns. I had a mom tell me a couple weeks ago that Ryker was "playing inappropriatly for a baby." Even the ladies in the church nursery have learned its not a battle worth fighting. Apparently they tried playing animal doctor with some of the stuffed animals in nursery one Sunday with my boys, but all Gunnar and Ryker wanted to do was get their guns (yes, they have pretend guns in our church nursery) and shot them.

The most recent battle that Kyle decided to take on was the issue of clothing. Gunnar is our little nudest. Mind you, I should clarify, he isn't completely nude, he almost always has on his underwear, but that is it. If you tell him we are going somewhere, the store, church, school, or even just outside, he will not put up a fight about having to put clothes on and he keeps them on. But as soon as we are back inside the closed door of our house, his clothes are off within 5 minutes.

So Monday on one of Kyle's days off he decided Gunnar is no longer allowed to only be in his underwear...he MUST wear clothes. So during breakfast Kyle got up and got clothes for Gunnar. Gunnar screamed, "Daddy I don't like clothes, no clothes!!!!" over and over again. Throwing a fit only made Kyle more determined, so he held him down and put clothes on the poor kid. Gunnar proceeded to cry off and on the remainder of the morning about wearing his clothes. But he is no dummy, so he proceeds to pee his pants. We won't make him wear wet pants....so he tells us he peed and then only gets a replacement pair of underwear to put on, no pants. At this point Kyle decided Gunnar didn't have to wear a shirt, but only pants. Not acceptable for Gunnar, he wanted only his underwear, so he pees in his pants again.

I'm not sure at what point Kyle held up his white flag, but all I know is that by the end of the day Gunnar was only in his underwear (and had peed a ridiculous number of times in his pants) and when I went in to check on him one final time before I went to bed, he had taken off his pajamas as was sleeping in only his undies.

I feel bad for Kyle knowing how it feels to be defeated when it comes to parenting. You can call us weak, but really I think it's okay to at times admit defeat....I just hope Gunnar decided that wearing clothes is cool before he becomes a teenager, I don't think I can handle my teenage boy(s) sitting around in their underwear all day.

One battle we recently took on and are winning is night time bed-wetting with Gunnar. We probably went all about potty training wrong as we didn't night train at the same time we did day training. We tried, but Gunnar never made it through the night, and would pee always more than 3 times a night (one night 7 times!!!!), so we decided to wait that part of potty training out. We valued our sleep and the amount of laundry that was piling up more than night training (priorities). I told Kyle before Gunnar was three, I wanted him to be COMPLETELY trained, not just during the day. Kyle had been bugging me for a long time about night training, saying that we should just try without a diaper, because Gunnar knows when he has one on and could care less about even trying to use the potty at that point...but I had alot of great excuses built up. However, recently I took the plundge. The first week went great, Gunnar only had one accident at night, which made Kyle feel awesome knowing he was right about the whole thing.. Now we are about 85-90%...which is better than I imagined. He wakes up at 2am like their is an alarm set and goes to the bathroom, if he happens to not get up at 2, he has an accident. Some nights when I notice he hasn't gotten up, I want to go wake him up so he doesn't pee the bed, but I figure that won't help in the long run, he needs to be the one learning to recongnize what his body needs. So I just suck it up and deal with the extra laundry.

I keep telling myself that parenting will get easier with time, but really I think the problems needing dealt with will just be different. All we can do is our best, pray for guidence and give them the encouragment and tools our children need to be successful....but boy, that sure is easier said than done. Until I get parenting all figured out I will just choose my battles VERY carefully.

The Ocean

Sometimes I feel like my family is on a permanent vacation. I feel so blessed that we have been given the opportunity and resources to go so many great places and partake in so many fun adventures.
This month has been crazy. Kyle has been away each weekend at whitewater rafting school and his rafting season starts in a couple of days. He will be taking groups down the Wenatchee River, Deschutes River, and mainly the Spokane River.
We all came down to my parents in the middle of March to spend some time with my grandma who was visiting from Tennessee. We all had a great time and enjoyed our time with grandma. I drove Kyle back up to Spokane on Friday and then came back to my parents to stay for a few more days while Kyle was off at rafting school.
The first day we were back we had two doctor appointments to attend, so we didn't even make it home until Wednesday evening. We were all ready to be home. We were a bit sad as a lot of our snow has disappeared from the rain, however our first night back we got 6-8 inches of new snow. So we had a good couple of snowdays. We even whipped out our snowshoes and went for a evening/nighttime adventure. It was fun to see the clear sky and hear the quite of the night. It was a bit creepy once we started hearing the wolves howl, but it kept me motivated to keep moving towards home.

 Sunday morning we took off to Spokane. There we had the opportunity to watch Kyle and some of the other guides from Peak 7 raft down the Spokane River. The water level was about twice as high as when they did their training on it, so they wanted the new guides to experience it when the level was higher. They boys had a blast running around the river and throwing what I can only assume was hundreds of rocks in the river. On our way into Spokane we spotted 3 bald ealges up in the trees.

Once Kyle was done we got back in the car and made our way to my parents. The next morning we left for the Oregon Coast. We made a stop  at Multnomah Falls on our way and the Lego Store in Tigard, OR. Gunnar loves both the water fall and the lego store. He was very pleased. We got to the coast at evening, we stayed in a vacation home with a great view of the ocean. Kyle's mom joined us on our trip.

Tuesday morning we got up and headed to find some tide pools during low tide, while we found some we were a bit disappointed. We then went up to Tillamook to get cheese of course. Our kids were getting cranky so we skipped the air museum, on the way home we stopped at another waterfall that was about a fourth of a mile walk into. Being outside and getting our boys to burn some of their energy was critical to the success of our days....so they did a lot of walking and running. Luckily they both did minimal complaining about all the walking we made them do. When I tried using the stroller the both wanted out, so I rarely even attempted to use it.

On Wednesday we went down to Yachats. We got a bit of a later start than we had planned and the weather was not cooperating. We attempted to look at tidepools, and just as we were about to give up we found a starfish...which totally made all our searching worth it.

We then went back towards Newport for some Mo's clam chowder. We had about a 25 minute wait for a table and then were a bit disappointed with the chowder. I have been making my own and we decided we are fans of our own clam chowder. After getting our bellies full we went to the OSU Marine Science Center.  The boys were in heaven, they had fun touching lots of things and running from fish tank to tank to check everything out. We then made a few more stops on our way back towards the house in Lincoln City, as we did on our way to Yachats.

 We saw so many beautiful things and had a fun time as a family enjoying the beauty of God's creation. We headed to my parents Thursday and have stayed the night. On the way Kyle decided to get off the interstate and take the Columbia Gorge Scenic Byway. While there we had a herd of turkeys run out in front of the car and we had great views.

We aren't sure if we are staying another night, or what. Kyle's rafting contract starts on the first, so we are all just trying to enjoy our time together.

What we do...

We are still enjoying our time up in Priest Lake...it's not really much of a challenge. 

My brother Paul, his girlfriend Jenny, and his three boys came up to visit us the other weekend. We had a fun night in at a resort (with one very sick Ezra) in Couer D'Alene, the rest of the time we spent up at the lake. With so many people we were a bit cramped on space, but we managed and had a good time.

 5 monkeys in the sled.

 Sledding can apparently be painful. Luckily Kyle and I had a much smoother ride when we went down the same trail.

Riding on the "snow train" aka sled behind the snowmobile is fun, but with the fresh snow we were all getting it thrown in our faces which makes it not so much fun. So helmets and goggles, not only made the ride more enjoyable, but also safer.

 These two stayed back with me while the other boys went for a wild ride.

 At preschool they always have these fun days and one Thursday was "Monster Day." They told us on Tuesday. Tuesday night I spent super sick and Wednesday Kyle and I both were sick, so I forgot about monster day until about 6pm Wednesday evening. Kyle and I put our creative heads together and sewed him this shirt and hat (the monster eye). At first Gunnar wanted nothing to do with it, but Thursday morning he was excited to put on his monster shirt and happily wore it to school.

 We love the beauty of our surroundings.

 We also have movie/popcorn....often. Really, what else is any better.
This is our sophisticated and proper son who refuses to let me take a picture of him not doing something silly with his mouth (haha).

 This is our laid back and bum of a son. (Not really, Ryker just got his church clothes dirty and Gunnar was still wearing them.)

Kyle was just hired for summer employment with a group called Peak 7. He will be a white water rafting guide this summer...sadly that means we won't see much of him. He has training every weekend the rest of the month, so please be praying for his safety and my sanity.

Looking for Moose

 I almost forgot to share this story...Kyle would probably rather I forgot.
On a Saturday a few weeks ago, I left Gunnar and Ryker with Kyle and his brothers Shawn and Caleb. Our washing machine broke, so I was at the laundromat doing laundry. Kyle's dad showed up around the time I left and cousin Jimmy showed up shortly after. So there were 5, let's repeat that, FIVE grown (well, one is 13, but still) men around my two little boys!
I have heard many variations of the story for each individual, but from what I have gathered this is as close to the truth as we will ever know....
All were outside playing. Jimmy and Mike were working on the heater. Ryker started to cry and wanted to go inside. Kyle took Ryker inside. Kyle stepped outside to make sure Gunnar was being cared for. He called "Gunnar?" No answer. He called "Shawn, Caleb?" No answer. So he assumes that they all must be off somewhere together so he go inside to care for upset Ryker. (I'm not exactly sure where Mike and Jimmy were at this point).
Sometime later a little red pickup pulls into our driveway and informs the menfolk that there is a little boy, probably about two, in a black and red coat walking along the snowmobile path and was about to "The Little Store."
Hmm...that sounds a lot like our little Gunnar. Mike and Jimmy were the message receivers and Mike took off to the Little Store. Gunnar got a spanking and told to walk home (mean ol' Grandpa..haha). He cried the entire way home. He not only got to the Little Store but did so pulling his sled.
I pulled up into the driveway, probably about the time Mike was reaching Gunnar at the Little Store. I was informed "Gunnar is missing, some guy just pulled up and said they saw him walking on the snowmobile path." Can you imagine my panic??? There are woods directly behind us, a busy Highway in front of us, a rock crushing business to the right of us, and down the road about a fourth of a mile is the Little Store. Luckily my panic was quickly diminished as I walked out onto the snowmobile path and watched as my sad little boy walked himself home. I felt bad for him, and wasn't really sure who to blame, as everyone was pointing figures at each other.
Gunnar came up got a hug and told me he was looking for moose. He has a huge moose obsession, apparently its a bit of a problem.
We are so thankful for someone having enough sense to stop and tell us about our little run away. Really, all the men were clueless that Gunnar was gone, each assuming someone else was watching him. Lessons were learned and Gunnar is home safe and I doubt he goes out on any moose searching adventures alone anytime soon.
(Gunnar really loves moose and asks us almost daily to go out looking for them. He can point their antlers out on walls and anywhere else he might see them). My mom bought the giant moose from Costco for him to play with while we were visiting and he loved it.

Things are Good

I'm often asked, "How are things going?" My answer is simple..."Good. But, we need to find our purpose."
It's been about a month that we have been up at the lake. We are having a blast. Enjoying taking it easy, but also realizing that we need to find a purpose. We really stay plenty busy, but also anxiously await to see what the Lord has in store for us next. We have some ideas, but have to be certain before we go blabbing on about them on the world wide web. But stay tuned, hopefully exciting things will be happening soon.

In the meantime, here is what we have been doing...
We spend a lot of time outside playing in the snow. Gunnar had his first major sledding crash a few weekends ago at a Pettit sledding party. That is always a sure place for someone to get hurt, to bad it had to be the youngest Pettit who was participating in the sledding. Gunnar is fearless and climbs to the top of the hills all the big kids were using. He jumped in the sled and headed down. Unfortunately he got strapped into the sled (who puts staps on sleds anyways?), so there was no way he could bail and it kept him seated for about 4 nice and intense barrell rolls down the hill rather than dumping him in the snow. He was a champ. Kyle ran to the bottom on the hill, Gunnar said "My leg hurts. That wasn't fun. I want mom." Haha. Really the picture I got of his crash doesn't do him any justice, but I only caught the first roll as I dropped my camera in horror for the rest. The second picture is some wounds from underwear dancing and falling on the ice the day after. Him and Ryker have both had another accident on the ice and both had cut up faces. But they are still all smiles!

 My dad bought an older model snow mobile and brought it up. The four wheeler just wasn't cutting it in the snow anymore. We are having so much fun on this thing. We use it daily for joy rides, the "snow train," sledding, etc. It is perfect and we appreciate my dad letting us use it.

 If we get bored, there is almost always something to dig out. We dig out vehicles, snow caves, and we also made them a snow slide on some of the snow that has been plowed in front of the trailer.

Gunnar goes to preschool at the elementary school twice a week for 3 hours each day. He loves it and it gives him an opportunity to interact with other kids.
We had Ryker in a playpen because we didn't bring his crib, but he was sleeping just horribly so we found him a toddler bed. It has been a bit of a challenge, but once he is asleep he sleeps so much better!

I've been trying to make the trailer feel a little more home like and started with curtains. Just looking at them makes me feel better. We are learning to deal with lots of fun problems, like losing water due to a pressure switch issue, losing hot water, being cold, having to much heat,  the washing machine breaking down, and lots of other fun things. We are debating on putting carpet in as we don't really know how long we will be here, and we were going to put in new doors, but decided it wasn't worth the money. I thought living in the old, run-down trailer would really bother me, but it's been okay. Everyone is happy, and we have each other, so we couldn't ask for much more!

In baby news, it's true, we are expecting baby #3. It came as a surprise, one not so welcomed at the time of moving and chaos, but has since become much more welcomed. Other than extreme sleepiness and headaches, I have been okay. I haven't had much morning sickness at all, which is a much welcomed changed. I have to go all the way to Coeur D'Alene to the doctor which is a good hour and half drive away. But I see a midwife who will deliver me in the hospital and works in a OB/GYN clinic. So if there are any problems there is a medical doctor close by. So far I'm enjoying the experience, although it is much different from Germany and I do miss Dr. Schwind. We had an ultrasound a few weeks ago as they thought I was measuring a bit bigger than my estimated dates. Turns out, I was probably only about a week off, but they think I'm just larger because of it being my third child. I feel huge, after gaining less than 20lbs with both Gunnar and Ryker, I'm a bit nervous about gaining so soon, but I'll deal with it I suppose. The baby is due July 24th. I forgot the ultrasound pictures up at the lake (we are down visiting my parents) so those will have to wait, but at the ultrasound we also were able to find out the sex of the baby and.......