A Bowling Birthday

Saturday we celebrated our soon-to-be-nephew's 2nd birthday at the bowling alley in Spearfish, and had absolutely the best time! This is only the second time the kids have gone, although we're going to have to make a point of going more often - they love it, and us grown-ups had a great time too. My dad handily beat all of us with his 40+ year old bowling ball - I was amazed! The man has excellent form, and hasn't lost any of his skill these last several years. I'm still impressed, Dad!

Anyway, Cayel was the cutest little birthday boy - so excited about his adorable cake, all his presents and his bowling abilities. We were laughing about the fact he's definitely learned the words "MINE" and "NO," so he's adjusting to being 2 very well! :) Seriously, though, he's just a precious little sweetheart and a joy to be around. We adore him!

As for the rest of the weekend, on Friday night we took the kids to Horton Hears a Who, which is a WAY cute movie - loved it. Jim Carrey can do no wrong. Saturday afternoon the kids had their last basketball game :( and it was probably their best one yet. We're all kinda sad it's over . . . Sunday after church we made a mall run and got the boys all equipped for soccer, which starts TOMORROW. No rest for the Roisums!! Actually, the snow falling today might put a damper on that, but that's okay, I could go for 1 week without sports.

My world is currently completely consumed with planning our church women's retreat, which takes place in less than two weeks, so I'm starting to feel the crunch and getting rather nervous. I have all the "big" issues covered, now it's just taking care of all the little stuff and logistics. Actually, all I've done this entire day is work on the retreat and MOPS . . . . and my house shows it. Speaking of, better go get started on some cleaning!! Have a great week . . . .

Sick of sick!!

So our peaceful Easter evening last Sunday (with the kids at my mom and dad's out in Spearfish) ended very abruptly at 9:00 p.m. (a few minutes after hitting "enter" on my last post!!) - I get a call from my mom saying Noah was throwing up. UGGH. So Mark and I hopped in the car, and met them at a halfway point - Noah came home with us, and Jack stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. I expected to be up all night with him, but surprisingly he slept well, and was fine in the morning. We don't know if he was sick with a virus or if it was his anxiety getting the best of him . . .? Either way, he left a fine mess at my mom and dad's, which I still feel horrible about. Again - remember my "what's with the stomach-flu-at-night" question below? WHY IS THAT???

Then yesterday, Noah came home from school rather upset because someone in his class threw up at school (and then afterwards was sitting in Noah's chair). :) YUCK, when does this end?? So we're on pins and needles now, wondering if Noah was contaminated and we'll end up with yet another weekend ruined. I'm such a germaphobe, I know I need to get over it but we've had such an awful year health-wise, I'm just SO ready for a break. Anyway, enough whining . . .

We're hard at work on our family room downstairs, in the midst of our furniture switch - had part of it delivered and set up this week - here's the finished entertainment center:

We are LOVING this hi-def business - didn't know much about it until last week, but it's just awesome. The picture is totally amazing. Now we're waiting for the sectional to arrive on Tuesday - that's the part the kids are the most excited about.

Tomorrow the kids have their last basketball game :( and then we are off to Spearfish for Cayel's birthday party. Other than that, we have a pretty quiet weekend, which we are SO looking forward to!! Have a good one!

Happy Easter! (and Happy Birthday Cayel!)

"He is not here: for he is risen, as he said." Matthew 28:6
It seems like a lot has happened since the last post, even though it's only been a few days! Jack and Noah had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off from school, and it was so nice having them around - I loved it. It made me anxious for summer. We lounged around each morning, taking our time getting going, and did some fun things together each day. We decorated a gingerbread "Bunny Hutch" (basically a gingerbread house, but it came with sugar bunnies, spring-y decorations and pastel frostings), we colored Easter eggs, played games, read books, and they even went furniture shopping with me which was actually fun to do with them. More on that below.

Friday night we went to an excellent Good Friday service at the kids' school - Zion Lutheran - and it was pretty cute, Noah fell asleep on Mark's lap 10 minutes into the service and slept through the whole thing. He hasn't done that since he was a baby! Just worn out, I guess. Saturday we goofed around, finalized our furniture issue, and my mom and dad came in from Spearfish for dinner and to spend the evening/night with us. Saturday night, Mark and I concocted a "nighttime" egg hunt - hid eggs with reflective strips around the downstairs and the kids had to find them in the pitch dark with their flashlights. They loved it, and found them all. Today was a great Easter - another, more "official" egg hunt for the kids this morning; a fantastic church service-focused on the evidence of the resurrection; out to brunch with family; then a relaxing afternoon at home. The kids went out to Spearfish with mom and dad late this afternoon for an overnight, so Mark and I have a quiet night to ourselves! Catching up on some recorded TV at the moment!!

Speaking of TVs - here's our furniture issue - on Wednesday night our "main" TV, downstairs in our family room, basically blew up. We knew something was wrong because the picture kept going out, but on Wednesday the picture completely went out, it started shrieking (!) and then we could smell burning plastic. Nice. Well, you can't buy the "old fashioned" TVs anymore, so we made the inevitable upgrade to an LCD, which of course doesn't fit into our old entertainment center . . . so we also had to find something to put the new TV on. Anyway, we got it all squared away now, with the new items being delivered this week. Hopefully we are technologically saavy enough to figure out this new equipment!

Yesterday, our precious nephew-to-be (Josh's fiance's son) turned 2, so a special happy birthday to you, sweet Cayel! We're looking forward to your party next week!

Lastly, Jack had a big night Saturday night - he lost his first upper tooth. He looks so different, but SO cute. We love making him smile at us, but he's quickly getting annoyed with that. So, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy collided at our house Sat. night, and the Tooth Fairy left his money in an Easter egg on his nightstand. :) He thought that was hilarious. Here's my baby - like my mom pointed out, I remember when we were so excited about this tooth coming IN!

In Recovery Mode

We came down with the CRUD here this past weekend - yuck!! Last Thursday night, Jack woke up at 11:30 with the full-blown stomach flu - WHY IS IT that when kids get the stomach flu, it's always gotta be at NIGHT??? Unbelievable. I was in a deep sleep at the time - absolutely the worst way to wake up. One minute I'm in a deep, peaceful sleep, and 10 minutes later, scrubbing the carpet, our comforter, our bathroom floor and rugs. Anyway, poor Jack continued in this fashion every 45 min. or so until 7:00 a.m. I had about three 1/2 hour naps throughout the night, so I was a zombie by Friday. He spent the day recovering on Friday, and was pretty much back to normal on Saturday - then I came down with it Saturday night. Fortunately I didn't have it as bad as Jack - I had more fever, chills and body aches.

So Saturday night I was up all night again - this time because my body ached so bad I couldn't lay down and be comfortable. Now today I'm finally feeling more normal - still really weak, but much better. I'm SO HOPING that cold/flu season is ALMOST OVER!!!

Meanwhile, Mark's dad came from Willmar for the weekend (brave man!! He knew Jack was sick, but came anyway - what a Grandpa!!). He arrived Friday afternoon and was able to see the boys play basketball on Saturday, so they were really happy about that. They did NOT want him to leave - even offered to give him all their money if he would stay. :) Needless to say, it didn't work.

Some better news for us is that THE NEWSBOYS are coming here in April!! Even cooler yet is that we got SIXTH ROW tickets - on the floor! We're so excited - ever since we saw them in IA last October, we've wanted to go again.

The kids are now done with school until next Tuesday - on Easter break. I'm excited to have them home for a few days, I have a few fun Easter-y things planned for us to do. It's great to have a few days off and be at home, not traveling!!

Anyway, I'm off to make supper . . . oh, I added a YouTube video to the right, it's the 2nd "Video Bar", first square (I have no idea why 4 post under each one -?) - it's hilarious, if you need a good laugh, watch it!

Mark on the wall!

So last night was a BIG night at Awana for us, for a couple of reasons! First, if you aren't familiar with Awana, it's a FANTASTIC church program where kids go one night per week and have a lesson, games, and work on memory verses. There are several levels - kids start out in preschool at the "Cubbies" level, then when they hit kindergarten they start "Sparks," where they stay through second grade, and then move on to Truth & Training in 3rd grade. Anyway, Mark is in his 2nd year as a Sparks leader, and I'm a "back up" Sparks leader - I go on the Wednesdays I don't have sorority.

Well, each spring, they have "Stick it to the Commander" night, where the kids get to tape the Awana Commander to the wall. This year, our Commander had an injury and couldn't be the victim, so they had the kids vote for which leader they wanted to take his place . . . . . they voted for Mark. This is a huge deal - the kids just go crazy for this event - they each get a certain length of duct tape to use according to how many verses they'd completed in their book thus far. It was a crazy night, but really fun - and to top it off, Jack and Noah officially completed their book last night, meaning they have memorized 32 bible verses since September, with references too!! And they remember these verses too, it's not like they say it one week, and forget it two weeks later. It's just amazing. One they worked on a couple weeks ago was John 1: 1-4 - -it took a couple weeks to get it down, but wow, it's exciting to hear when they do.

So here's the progression of Mark being attached to the church basement wall:
Getting started (with a few of the Sparks watching) . . . A couple of the men got the "base" going . . . .

Now we're on the way . . .
Here's Jack getting his turn . . .


And Noah's turn . . . .
They even let me have a shot . . .
All finished, ready to pull the bench out from under him - will he stick????

And it's a SUCCESS! The goal was to get him to stick for 1 minute - well, he still didn't come down, and they ultimately cut him down.
He was such a good sport - pretty sweaty when he got down, and his hands were numb, but he had fun with it the whole time. One of the girls tried writing "I love Green Bay" across his chest, but it didn't show, lucky for her! :) The kids just had a blast.

Tomorrow we have Grandpa Paul coming from Willmar for a visit this weekend - a LONG awaited visit! After 3 or 4 failed attempts at getting out here, he's finally going to make it, although we'll miss Grandma LaRayne - she has a back injury and can't make the trip.

Have a great weekend!

The Arrival of Aaron Gabriel Wranek

He's finally here!! We have a new nephew! Right on time, actually - we all just jumped the gun a little and thought he should have been here a week ago, since mommy was READY. He already doesn't listen very well . . . . We are just thankful for a wonderfully healthy little boy, weighing in at a plump 8 lbs. 4 oz. He entered the world on Tuesday night in Cedar Rapids, IA, after a short labor - only 4 hours, but a grueling 4 hours for my sister, who didn't get an epidural unfortunately (not by choice!). She's recovering and thankfully has my mom and dad there to help her and Lane for a few days. I'm wishing like crazy I could hop in the car and drive across SD and IA to be with them, like when Colby was born, but unfortunately I can't - too many things I'm responsible for here at home at the moment, and we're also dealing with a "Noah issue" - severe separation anxiety of all things. We didn't experience this with either Jack or Noah at the "normal" age of separation anxiety - 2-4 - so we're really shocked by this and trying to figure out how to handle it! He's having panic attacks at school after I drop him off - can't stand saying goodbye to Mark in the morning before work, cries at bedtime if a babysitter is here, etc. I'm hoping this passes soon - it's truly exhausting for all of us.

Anyway, here's another photo - the proud grandma (my mom), Aaron and big brother Colby:
Congratulations, Betsy and Lane, we're sending you our love and prayers. Welcome to the world, little Aaron!!

An Icy Weekend :)

This past Saturday, the temperature in Rapid City reached a record-breaking 73 degrees, and so what did we do? Went ICE FISHING! :) The boys had been asking to go all winter, and Grandpa and Uncle Josh had a free Saturday, so we took advantage of the opportunity and headed up into the hills outside of Spearfish on an ice-fishing adventure. Here we are (above right) trekking out onto the lake - it was GORGEOUS, actually a perfect day for this. It was 55 degrees where we were, not too bad for ice fishing! The boys quickly discovered that ice fishing takes a little more patience than the regular fishing they do in the summer - frequently asking Josh if he was sure there were fish in this lake - ?!? He kept reassuring them, and sure enough, both Jack and Noah each caught a rainbow trout. Even though they only had 1 catch each, we had a great time, just enjoying being outside and together!
Here's Noah carefully watching his hole:
And Jack at his:Mom and Dad enjoying the scenery:

Noah with his fishy (check out how it's jumping!):

Jack with his catch (it's on the line, down by his ankles):

And here's Jack getting bored . . . . We made it back to Rapid on Saturday afternoon in time for the boys' basketball game, had some friends over on Saturday evening, went to church on Sunday, and then took to the ice AGAIN, only this time at the ice skating rink! The kids had been asking to go since October, their first venture into ice skating, so we finally got it done! We are really amazed at their determination to get this down - within the first 10-15 minutes, Jack had SEVERAL really nasty falls, and Noah had a few of his own, but they wouldn't give up, they pushed on for an hour and a half, refusing any offers for a break. By the end of the afternoon they were doing really well, so progress was made!

Now we're having a normal week, the usual activities and meetings (I'm starting to get anxious for summer!!) We are also still WAITING PATIENTLY on the arrival of our new nephew, my sister's baby - her due date was today, but she's feeling like she's 2 weeks overdue. He's an estimated 9 pounds or so right now, and Betsy's terrifically uncomfortable, so we're hoping for ANY DAY/MINUTE NOW! :)