Playing in the Puddles

We have had TONS of rain over here in Bentheim. Spots of our lawn have turned into little ponds, our garden is a mud pit (sunk to shins), and Miya informed me that she was jumping over the river in the lawn in the backyard. Instead of brumming about all the water and the fact we'll have to bale our lawn we went out and played in it! The girls loved it even though it was a cool evening. Jayden was just a shivering but didn't want to quit. Here are some pictures.

Baptism

We were blessed to be able to have Melanie's baptism Sunday. At the moment, our chruch does not have a Pastor. We have been having Professor Gritters preach for us on Sunday mornings, but he is in South Africa right now. So we were very excited when Rev. VanOverLoop was able to Baptize Melanie. He took the time away from his very busy schedule and visited us while Melanie was in the hospital. He would go sometimes in the early morning hours to visit with Jeff and Melanie, and sometimes during the day to visit with Melanie and me. He was always very encouraging and left us with bible passages to ponder on. We were very excited and thankful he was also able to Baptize Melanie. His sermon was titled Sufficient is My Grace, the bible text was II Corinthians 12:9. It was a very humbling sermon. I look forward to listening to it again and again.

We had lunch at church this time so everyone wouldn't have to travel out to Bentheim. Everything went very smooth, except I forgot to take pictures of Melanie with family. I'm not really sure what I was thinking. I have a couple of her (laying on the floor), I guess that will just have to do. Her dress was made by Jeff's Aunt Sandy. It was BEAUTIFUL!! And of course, she wore it for about one minute before marking her territory around the collar with spit. I think it just smelled too good for her :)

The Video wouldn't load so here are some pictures.



Sunday afternoon nap! She was one tired little peanut!!

Miya's 4

Our oldest, little girl is FOUR now!
Miya you are changing right before our eyes! Everyday you look more girl and less little. You are becoming more independent with each day too. You are trying to understand everything in the world around you and are constantly asking why. You started the why questions at an early age, but as of lately you ask them to understand, not just out of habit (like you've taught your little sister to do). You LOVE playing house and baby with Jayden. With Dad you like to rough-house and 'hide shakey' at bedtime. You enjoying doing pretty much anything with mom as long as she's not on the computer or getting groceries. Melanie is your favorite to hold and cuddle with. Lately you say "I gave all my loves to Melanie today" which means you gave her all of your kisses-somehow we always manage to find more.

You wear your Dora undies to bed now and have 'rests' instead of naps. You are beginning to pick out your own clothes now which are the craziest combinations, and you think you have to do your own hair-which means putting in every clippy you can find! You still could sit and read books ALL day long. With the nice weather, you and Jades are outside by 9:00 and somehow 'wet' by 9:30 and needing to change into your swimsuits (even though mom says "no playing with water").

Favorite food is 'steak kabob' which is any kind of meat in your eyes. Favorite lunch item lately is peanut butter sandwiches....just peanut butter and bread, NO jelly (with strawberries or grapes on the side). You have discovered how to get Jayden to ask mom for something you know you shouldn't have...like ice-cream for a morning snack. You and Jayden typically go to bed around 9:00, however you talk till about 10:00 most nights (about what we do not know???). The two of you together are going to give mom and dad some gray hair I think!!

When we are running errands you will say 'hi' to everyone we pass by, if you're not too busy asking questions. You also enjoy yelling 'hi' to people that walk past the house, even if it means running out the screen door in your undies to yell 'hi'. If they don't yell hi back you always say "Mom, they weren't nice to me, they didn't want to say hi".

Usually you are very patient when we ask you to "wait a minute" and are a very big helper around the house. Next week you will be starting Sunday School and then it's pre-school in the fall. This will be the beginning of a whole new world for you. You will be making friends, being away from home (and Jayden), and having to learn lots of new things. I'm so excited to see the plans God has for your future (even though that means you're growing up). I pray that you will praise God with all you say and do.

On your birthday we visited Dad at work and he took us to your favorite restaurant. Then we went back to his work for some cake from the ladies in the office! Of course the visit had to end with a ride on the Gator. What a great day!!

Inevitable

We had our first experience with urgent care and stitches for one of the girls yesterday. Guess who? Those of you that know us are probably wondering what Jayden did since she's our monkey. But, it was Miya (although she says it's Jades'fault). We were at the grocery store and were about 1/4 of the way done with groceries. I needed a lot of groceries so I put Melanie's carseat in the front of the cart where Jayden usually sits and let Jayden and Miya walk....together (I learned my lesson). They were mucking around and before I knew it Jayden had dropped a glass jar of something (sauerkraut maybe?), Miya with her cat-like reflexes tried to pick it up before mom could see they dropped something and sliced her hand on a piece of glass before she realized it was broken. She's crying and mom is spinning in circles wondering what the next step should be. I wrapped her hand in a clean spit rag and told her to quit crying, she was fine (I had no idea how deep the cut was-poor kid). So we haul off to the bathroom (on the opposite end of the store) after informing an employee of "clean-up on isle 5". When we rinsed her hand off I started to wonder if stitches were needed but decided to finish our grocery adventure. This time with a new seating chart. Miya in the cart with her hand wrapped in a bloody spit rag hanging out the side (we were quite the sight). My goal was to get groceries as quickly as possible which we were doing, that is until we saw a very friendly lady that wanted to comfort Miya and then tell us all about her life. We were polite, but looking for anyway to sprint through the rest of our groceries. On our way out the door I asked a fellow mom if she thought this cut would need stitches since I had no clue. With one look she said "yup".

So we headed right to the Dr. right? ? Nope, we brought the groceries home first so they wouldn't spoil. And since we couldn't get in at her peds office I knew we'd probably be at urgent care for awhile and little Melanie was out of milk. Once we dropped the groceries and retrieved the milk we were off for an afternoon of WAITING. Miya did great. We made a big deal of her getting to be the "patient" this time (she's had lots of hospital experience). She got to sit on the bed by herself AND watch TV. She was very excited about this but was wondering when they were going to bring food for the tray by the bed :)

Getting the actual stitches didn't go so great. I'm not sure if her poor little hand wasn't numb or if she was freaked out by the scissors. But that is something I don't ever want to experience again. I'm so thankful Melanie was so tiny with all of her pokes and procedures and couldn't say "mom no, no mom" over and over again.

Once we were done (and waited some more) it was off to the ice cream shop for superman ice cream, instead of supper.

Id' like to say all ended well, but there was one more incident at the Westra household before bedtime. Bath time!! Many of you know that the girls tend to poop in the tub. They haven't done it for a very long time, until last night. Miya had to go; I was changing Melanie and told her to hold it. Well she took that in the literal sense and made a mess on her stitched hand. EWWWW! There were lots of tears from the Westra girls over the next 20min, excluding only Jayden. We'll be keeping a close eye on those stitches for infection.

Thankfully the girls ALL went to bed well, not even one reminder to quit talking. Yesterday was a day I don't want to repeat, but I am able to look at it today and laugh. I know there will be a time when I miss crazy days like these, so for now I'll enjoy them as much as I can.
Watching Curious George
Feeling pretty good after hand was numbed.
Before the cut was cleaned.
After the 4 stitches were completed. She called them "those black pokes"

Her smiles are back. She's excited because she gets to keep the bracelet.