Happy Birthday, Grace Christy Lengel

Labor began on Thursday, December 18th and 27.5 hours later, Grace Christy Lengel came flying into her Daddy's hands. The doctor did not make it for Grace's entrance and the nurse came in at the tail end. Daddy and Doula Mary did a great job, but Patrick has not been induced into a career change. :0)

Official stats:

Date of Birth: Friday, December 19th, 2008

Time of Birth: 5:53pm

Weight: 8 lbs 3 oz

Length: 21.5 inches

Looks Like: Big sister Elyse, they even sport the same cleft in their chin like their Daddy.

Grace is a wonderful baby. She is sleeping well and nurses like a champ. We are all in love with her (our Australian sheep dog, Pepper appointed himself Grace's guardian the moment she came home.) and the kids are always wanting to hold her and play with her. What an amazing Christmas gift we have received this year. I am so thankful to have baby Grace. She has brought great joy to all of us.

St. Nicholas Day 2008

Here are some pictures from our celebration of St. Nicholas Day (December 6th). St. Nicholas Day is a European holiday; one that Patrick's Father and siblings grew up celebrating as their mother was German/Austrian. We decided to incorporate this holiday into our Christmas celebration a few years ago and have really enjoyed it.

St. Nicholas was a real person (a bishop) who used his wealth to serve God and others. He was a very generous and loving man and a wonderful example to us as we remember the reason for this Christmas holiday-- God's generous gift to us--His Only Son.

On St. Nicholas Eve the children put out their shoes and in the morning they are filled with small treats (this year they found gum, fruit roll-ups, water paints, glue sticks, chapstick, etc). We don't focus on the Santa Claus aspect of the holiday, but more on the aspect of giving. We try to come up with a way the kids can give to others on this day. This year we made sugar cookies and decorated them and the kids shared them with the men who were putting new siding on our house.

Doing the cookies together was a great deal of fun for all. This was Noelle's first year making cookies with us and she got right into it like she had been doing it all of her life. Most of her cookies were rather unrecognizable after she cut them out but she sure was enjoying herself. Elyse was very much into the decorating part and put her all into adding her special touch. Mack very much liked the cookie dough and I had to keep reminding him that if he ate it all we could not cut out very many cookies! :) He was also a champion cookie cutter outer and icer.

We Are Ready

Here is a cute photo of the kids all ready for church.
We are also busily preparing for the arrival of little Grace. Her due date is the 11 of December and there is to be a full moon that weekend (a full moon can only help, right?).
She had us guessing last night as I was having some contractions. I was scheduled to sub for the first and second grade Sunday School teachers and Patrick was filling the pulpit for a minister who was away. We both were wondering if we would have to find subs for the subs! I am wondering if Grace is going to be just as ornery as her brother and sisters!
As you can see from the picture we are also ready for St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6th) and for Christmas. It hit me the day after Thanksgiving that my due date was only a week and a half away and that if the Christmas decorations were going to go up I had better get busy! The kids were a great help decorating the Christmas tree. They loved finding "their" ornaments and putting them on the tree. Some areas of the tree are heavy with ornaments and the strings of beads are wrapped around the tree in all sorts of directions but the kids are happy with their decorating job and that is all that matters.

November 11, 2008

Noeyisms

Noelle had us laughing all throughout the day.

This morning Noey, Patrick, and I were snuggling in bed. I am recovering from a cold and was telling Patrick about blowing my nose. The next thing I know, Noelle is in my lap and is blowing in my face. I looked at her strangely trying to figure out what she was doing when all of a sudden Patrick started laughing. He said, "She is blowing your nose!" Sure enough that is what she was doing. I have laughed about this all day.

This afternoon, Noelle was enjoying some goldfish crackers for a snack. Noelle always shares her food with our dog Pepper, and when she moved away from her snack bowl for a moment, Pepper helped himself. Noelle came running back over and scolded Pepper. She told him that he could not take her goldfish and that if he wanted some he needed to say please. That was a wonderful plan in theory but how does that work with a dog? No problem--Noelle said, "Please," and then gave Pepper some more goldfish! :)

I have mentioned before how utterly taken Noey is with her Elmo panties. Today she looked in her drawer and discovered all her Elmo panties. "Clean Elmos!" she said with excitement. She found a pair for herself and then began putting "Elmos" on her doll babies as well. It was so cute!

October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a busy time for all of us Lengels. There were school parties and a couple of nights of trick-or-treating. Thursday night the children did trick-or-treating at the high school where Patrick works. Friday night we opted to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood rather than attend the harvest festival at church which we knew would be very, very crowded. As it ended up, Patrick was needed at the high school football game to handle the music and I was left to take the children trick-or-treating, several of whom were quite tired already. The time came to get everyone in costume and my girls began to fall apart about what costume they were going to wear, as well as many other factors. Noelle was in hysterics because I had emptied her Halloween trick-or-treat bag into a big bowl so that she could reuse it and I guess she thought that I had taken her candy. She was beyond the point of reasoning. The good news is that we were able to get everyone in costume and out the door. Once we got outside everyone calmed down and we had such a fun time together.

Mack caught up with some friends from school and he enjoyed visiting with them a little bit as we trick-or-treated, and Noelle just enjoyed the entire experience. She was so funny because she was not as much concerned about the candy that the neighbors were offering her as she was with their pets. She got so excited over the dogs or cats that came to the door and wanted to love on each one of them. At one house, Noelle actually ran inside after a cat--kitty got away, and luckily our neighbors thought it was funny.

One neighbor was showing Noelle her Halloween yard decorations, and Noelle sat down in the empy lawn chair to try one of them out for herself. Next our neighbor (we had never met this lady before) picked Noelle up and took her over to show her one of her goulish decorations the lit up and moved in one of her trees. Noelle was taken with that as well and talked the lady's ear off.

All in all, Noelle enjoyed our neighbors, their pets, and the candy that she was given. By the end of our trick-or-treating time I noticed that she was waddling (worse than me! :). One lady commented on Noelle toddling up to her door and asked me how old she was. I told her that Noelle was 2 1/2 and that she was waddling because she probably had to use the potty. That kind lady invited us into her house so that Noelle could potty. Unfortunately for Noelle it was too late, she was wet, but it all worked out because that lady had a dog! :)

We headed home for a change of clothes, one happy Mommy and three (four) happy children. I got Noelle cleaned up and tucked in bed and came downstairs to get Mack and Elyse headed for bed. As I walked throught the living room I discovered our Australian Sheep Dog (Pepper) enjoying a lollipop. The lollipop stick was sticking out of his mouth and he was very happy with his grape tootsie roll pop ( I assume it must have fallen out of one of the kid's bags.) It was such a funny sight--I wish that I could have gotten a picture of it but my camera has given up the ghost!

Mack told me that it was the best Halloween that he has ever had. It certainly was a fun time, and Elyse and Mack were so patient with Noelle. I was proud of them.

October 30, 2008

The Power of Elmo Panties!

Noelle started showing interest in using the potty this summer, just a few months after her second birthday. We encouraged her, but she was just not completely ready so we took a break for a few months. Lately, Noelle has been really into big girl panties and has wanted to wear her training panties or her big sister's panties.

My mother-in-law wanted to encourage Noelle to use the potty and offered her a treat if she would go for her. Noelle did use the potty and I suggested that her treat be Elmo panties (she likes Elmo). Noelle was so excited about the prospect of Elmo panties just for her. She sat down on the front steps that afternoon and told me that she was going to wait there for EB (what the kids call their grandmother) to bring her her Elmo panties. I told her it might be a while before EB got back with her new panties and suggested we go play. All afternoon Noelle kept asking me when EB was coming with her Elmo panties. Well that evening Noelle got her panties. She was so excited! She tried on just about every pair in the package. Sometimes she had on two or three pairs at the same time!

Now that Noelle had Elmo panties she did not want to wear her old boring diapers, so she began to use the potty and has been for the past three or four days. Elmo has stayed dry!! The Elmo panties that she is wearing changes every so often throughout the day still because she gets so excited about another pair of Elmo panties that she has to change and give the new pair a turn. :)

So, with the help of Elmo, Noelle is now potty trained!

The Pumpkin Patch

October 18, 2008

It was a cool, crisp autumn day (our first here in South Carolina) and the perfect day to head to the pumpkin patch. Elyse, our four year old, had been asking if we could go and pick pumpkins. The kids loved picking out the "perfect" pumpkins. It was interesting to note that the older the child picking out the pumpkin, the larger the pumpkin. I named this picture, "Me and My Four Little Pumpkins." :)

The Little Mommy

October 19, 2008

We jokingly call our two year old daughter Noelle, "The Little Mommy." She mothers and cares for her dolls, her siblings, and animals. The other day she was even carrying an earthworm around and talking to it and even giving it kisses--Yuck!



This afternoon I slipped off to use the bathroom off the kitchen, and I could hear Noelle asking her babydoll Annabelle what she wanted it to eat. I heard the pantry door open but apparently Annabelle did not see anything in the pantry that she wanted to eat. When I got into the kitchen I found the refrigerator door open and Noelle munching on a hotdog (already cooked). I found Annabelle seated at the kitchen table with a hotdog in front of her. I had a good laugh. It seems that Annabelle and Noelle share a favorite food. :)