merry christmas!

well, we made it through 4 christmas eve services despite the outrageous snowfall, the flu and other small obstacles that come with small children and mother nature!






all the boys wanted were bionicles (a lego robot thing) and we were able to bless them with the very last two (or should i say santa did!) and jane was blessed with some great gifts handed down from some friends.




thankfully, we were able to transform jane from morning munchkin with impossible hair, to christmas angel just in time.

Jane's First Few Steps

The Princess & the Pea

We had a really nice Thanksgiving holiday in Eugene with Nonny & Poppy & Tim's whole family. It was fun to see how all of the kids have grown and it's becoming more enjoyable to hang out with the adults while the kids play together.

Jane, now 10 months, was even able to hang out with the kids (with Colette's help). The kids found this princess costume for Jane and it finally hit me, she's a girl. I know, I know, you would think after 10 months of changing her diaper and giving her a bath I would notice that she is indeed a girl, however, she is so easy going and fits in with her brothers, it's easy to forget that she is indeed a princess.

She has been teething, getting in those top two front teeth, and she has had some rough nites sleeping. It reminds me of the story of the princess and the pea where if she can feel the pea at the bottom of all the matresses and lose sleep, she is indeed the princess. If only getting new teeth was a assurance for future royalty!

Sometimes I wonder if I'm going a little overboard with the "all about my kids" blog (which really seems to be more of an "all about Jane" blog), but the truth is,
I feel so privileged to be able to stay home and be with my kids, especially with today's financial stresses.

I feel so privileged to be able to look them each in the face everyday and try and figure out who they are and who they are going to be when they grow up. Yesterday when I asked Ben what he wanted to be when he grows up, he wanted to be a doctor because he did a good job taking care of his brothers' owie the other day. And Joey still wants to be a rocket-shark. Who knows, maybe we'll need rocket-sharks one day if there really is life on Mars :)

I feel privileged to watch my kids grow taller and smarter and not only see them grow physically, but spiritually too.

I feel privileged to catch glimpses of their imagination come to life like Joey's "Strawberry School" where everything he isn't allowed to do in real life is totally ok there and where rocks shoot out rainbows and they play "cool rock and roll music". Or where Ben can play with a piece of rope and one of my cooking wooden spoons for hours on end.

I feel privileged that they still want my attention...even after disciplinary action or time outs, or saying "no" for the 20th time in 20 minutes.
Or that they appreciate each other's attention. Joey misses Ben when he is at school. Ben misses Joey if he goes to work with dad. Even Jane is spends most of her day following her brothers around trying to catch a minute of their attention.

So, I'll just keep writing about the children as long as I can; as long as they keep needing me and I need them anyways...which is hopefully for a really, really long time.

Halloween Eh?

We had to take a quick trip up to Canada 2 days before Halloween and truthfully, I wasn't sure if we would get the chance to go trick or treating. But thankfully, my mom was up for a drive so Jane and my mom and I drove in the car behind the boys and watched them go door to door in my old neighborhood (at the last minute, I happened to through a cowboy hat, bandana and the police costume Joey got for his birthday in the car).


It goes to show you that if things don't go exactly as planned, you might just end up with something as good or even better (Canadian candy is YUMMY---especially Aero bars).
We didn't get to see Aunt Greta, but we thought of her hanging out with us the whole time we were there...it's so great to be living just a couple hours away from her now eh?

just say "hallelujah"!

i had a friend say the other day that when she is feeling blue or stressed out, she just starts humming and it all goes away :)
so maybe if i just say "hallelujah" with jane and surrender my arms in the air, all life's struggles will go away for me too!
our jane is darling and is cutting 2 bottom teeth right now...8 months is a lot of fun!

1985 and "I Have a Dream"

So people have asked, "What exactly happened in 1985?", and I have to refer to the music which may have inspired Ben to say such a thing...

Songs from 1985:
Take on Me--Ah-Ha
What About Love--Heart
Raspberry Beret--Prince
I Want to Know What Love Is--Foreigner
Born in the USA--Bruce Springsteen
Broken Wings--Mister Mister
and finally the ultimate song from 1985
We Are the World--USA for Africa

and on the way home from the park today...

I Have a Dream
Ben: "Mum, can we go to McDonalds?"
Me: "No, honey."
Ben: "Sam (his cousin) said HE is going to McDonalds."
Me: "Well, he might SAY he's going, but I don't think he is. He already had lunch."
Ben: "Well, he can dream can't he?"

I smile and think to myself, yes, we can ALL dream.

pastor ben

This summer we were in on vacation and decided to take Sunday off. So we asked the boys to lead us in worship and asked Ben to prepare a little word to inspire us. He went away with a notepad and pen (remember, he can't read or write words yet:) and when he came back, we had no idea it would be the sermon it was...and when...!

ps: make sure you listen until the very end.

something old, something new

i had to post this picture just because i think it's so fun and it's the perfect picture of something old (my parents are only 75 years young!) and something(s) new.

so is my family room...it started as the old red wall that we loved because it was warm and vibrant, but when my husband is away, the mice will play and so it went from red to...


white with the names of the boys because they "helped", to...

the final new wall, light blue.

well, light blue with three very cute kids doing exactly what they are supposed to do in a family room.

and joey went from his old standard hair cut...long and surf-dude-ish to...

short bangs (oh my goodness, this is what happens when i leave dad alone with scissors!), to...

a very handsome new joey!


here's to trying something new.

Pig Tails

our sweet jane has the cutest hair...she has these tendrils in front that make her look a little "Hasidic" or "Amish" so, we thought we would try pig tails and i have to say, she looks pretty darn cute.
we also had the opportunity to celebrate my mom & dad's 75th birthdays in Abbotsford with my dad's family and longtime friends...it was a wonderful evening (a surprise which surprised even me!) filled with lots of visiting and laughing and most wonderful of all...singing...

(ben & joey reading the hymnal and singing along)

you see, i come from the mennonite heritage so it's almost fitting that jane has the hair to go with the heritage (no pun intended)...
(my dad, victor vogt (his best friend), my uncle bill and uncle karl)
(my sweet aunt erna (in red) and aunt evelyn and my mom and her dear friend dorothy's heads)
part of the sweetness of the singing is the connection everyone has with the hymns they sing (in beautiful 4 part harmony i might add)...but i'll have more of this in a later blog...

onto celebrating joey's 4th birthday...
since jane was born in january, joey has asked me everyday when his "shark birthday" would be...and finally, it arrived! we had family and friends over to celebrate joey.

even nonny made it up for the special occasion!

Happy Birthday Joey

joey, hour 1

my sweet joey, today, 4 years ago you came into the world. you made us smile then and you make us laugh now. you have the most joyful and playful attitude towards life and we love you.

joey year 4

happy 4th birthday joey!

First Day

Firsts...

Ben started Kindergarten and got on the bus for the first time, all by himself, no tears (from him :)

And Jane started crawling...really crawling...first falls off stairs...first crawls through brother's legs, first crawls under chairs and getting stuck for the first time...
I've had my first experiences "letting go" as I watch Ben go onto a big yellow bus into the great unknown...wonder what will happen for Ben for the first time...I'll keep you posted.

The Poetzl Olympics

We just got back from vacation and while we were at my parents place in Nelson, in between swimming and playing outside on the beach, we would turn on the Olympics and watch in awe how people could be so amazing. We were so impressed, we decided to compete in our own Olympics! Winning the gold for:

GYMNASTICS

Jane Poetzl

FISHING

Ben Poetzl

ROCKET SWIMMING

Joey Poetzl

TEAM STREETCAR RACING

Joey Poetzl

SLEEPING

Jane & Daddy Poetzl

POUTING

Joey Poetzl

WHEEL BARROW RACING

Ben Poetzl

TEAM HUGGING

Ben & Joey Poetzl

Sit Up and Smile

My niece reminded me to update my blog the other day
and said I should post something about Jane sitting up
since back in May we declared the day she rolled over,
"Roll-over Day".
But since Jane has been sitting up for a couple of weeks now,
I just decided to declare July
"Sit Up and Smile" month.

It is a good reminder that it's easy to "lay down" on the job...
just do the regular day, day out things and not be spontaneous
and end up being a bit grumpy at the mundane acts of
making food,
making food go in mouth
and not on floor,
doing dishes,
doing floors and laundry
while keeping kids occupied,
cleaning toilets (boys)
and changing sheets (boys & baby)
while keeping kids happy and creative and
teaching them their ABC's and 123's.

I don't want to just "do"
but I'd rather be like my 5 month old baby girl
who is so excited about everything that goes on around her
and who can't keep her head down when I change her diaper
because she wants to see who is changing her and what her
brothers are doing
and what toys she can play with
and what I'll do to make her laugh
while I'm changing her.
I want to sit up and look around and see the bigger picture
instead of laying down seeing only what looms above.
So, here's to sitting-up month.
Go ahead.
Give it a try
and tell me what you see.

Summer is Here

You know summer is here when you can go to a Mariner's baseball game...(check out that skyline)...


wear your swimming goggles anytime...
and try sitting up by yourself and just end up in the ultimate pose!