2015: Year in Review and Massive Photo Dump (Part I)

I love year-in-review posts. Well, let me clarify. I love reading other people's posts, but I find them incredibly difficult to write. They take such a long time and I find myself wondering "Wow, what did we do that month? Anything? Apparently not..." But I'll try anyway--especially since I was so horrible about blogging in 2015 AND I didn't do a Christmas newsletter.

January
We started the year out by choosing a patron saint for our family with Jennifer Fulwiler's Saint's Name Generator. Our patron for 2015 was St. Godehard of Hildesheim, feast day May 4th, patron of traveling merchants (not really applicable), and against childhood sickness (hooray!) danger at sea (not planning any transoceanic trips, but good to know), fever (hooray!), hailstorms (well, we'd love a new roof but better not to have to deal with it), Oh, and against birth pains. Well, I guess that one's wasted because we're planning on waiting a while to try for #4 and won't be delivering a baby in 2015. Ha. Hahahaha. (This, friends, is what we call foreshadowing...)

Michael turned 4.

Alex and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.

Alex helped sponsor the high school's trip to March for Life in DC for the second year, and my wonderful parents came out to spend the long weekend with me and the boys.

February
Lots of time spent writing, *finally* got a second crib and moved JP from his little bassinet to a real crib in his own room, and, um... it was cold? See? These posts are so hard!

March

We found out we would, in fact, be having a baby this year. We took the pregnancy test on March 6th, the feast day of St. Colette--the name we'd had picked out for a girl for several years. So right from the beginning I was 99.99% sure we were having a girl.

John Paul turned 1 and took his first couple of steps.

We acquired a hand-me-down piano from my parents.

April

We spent Easter in Lincoln with my family and 7 out of 10 people in the house came down with the stomach flu. But it was a great visit anyway!

John Paul got his first hair cut and started walking in earnest.

May
We enjoyed a visit from my sister and her family.

At the end of May we went camping for the first time as a family. It was... quite the adventure. I loved camping growing up, and I hope we get to do a lot more as the kiddos get older. Camping with none of our own gear and three kids four and under was a little stressful. But it was still a beautiful weekend and some good memories.

And at the end of May we were privileged and blessed to attend the ordination of our dear friend and Liam's godfather. And somehow I didn't get any pictures except for a rather lame attempt at a family selfie on our way to the Mass. Sadness.

ignore the nose-picking going on in the backseat, please...

June

We had a gorgeous late spring/early summer and spent as much time in the yard as we could.

I turned 30, and my gut feeling was confirmed at our 20 week ultrasound when we learned that yes, we were adding a girl to the crazy mix of wild little boys.

a perfect birthday celebration at home with my boys

John Paul did not approve of the Otter Pops

We spent the last part of June visiting family in North and South Dakota. As always sleep was the hardest part of the trip, but we had a blast and the boys were such patient and fun travelling buddies.

meeting second cousins

we had a lovely visit with Alex's grandma--and despite his best attempts, John Paul did not manage to completely destroy her home OR throw himself down any crazy steep staircases

at the lovely cabin we rented with my parents and sister--it was so special to spend a week all together in the Black Hills

fishing

success!

we Rappanas are serious about our popcorn

we loved all the time with cousin James

And with that I think I'll have to make this into two parts so I don't break the internet with the number of photos in one blog post... Part II here.

Liam Turns 3

So way back in the last days BC (before Colette), this handsome guy turned 3. I spent the weeks leading up to his birthday wondering when Colette would come and how that would affect him... would we have to delay his birthday party? What if they ended up sharing a birthday--would either of them feel cheated? And so on... It seems more than a little ridiculous to admit it now, but I guess it went hand-in-hand with my unhealthy birth story obsession this time around.

And sure enough I woke up the morning of Liam's birthday party (Sunday, November 1st) with clear signs that we would be meeting Colette in the next 24-48 hours. Or so I thought. Little did I know that I had nearly two full weeks of prodromal labor ahead of me--but that's a story for another day.

Labor signs, fears, and contingency plans aside, Colette did not in any way disrupt Liam's birthday party. Or his actual birthday. Our celebrations were pretty laid back, but the birthday boy seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself.

the birthday boy in his "engimeer" hat

Liam absolutely loves hats, and although this was not going to be an all-out themed birthday I thought it would be fun to get something that would be a fun dress-up accessory for him and could serve as party favors for the cousins (although I don't know how excited they were about them). Amazon to the rescue with a cheap pack of one dozen train engineer hats. Liam was delighted and still wears the hats around the house most days.

my Aunt Lisa's chocolate cherry bars in cupcake form for dessert--a hit, as usual :)

a boy can never have too many trains

Oh my Liam--in that precious/infuriating stage between toddler and little boy. I love how he phrases things. Every request begins with "Should I..." Should I have another cookie? Should I go play trains? He loves telling knock knock jokes and reading stories. He has the sweetest little singing voice. And he has a bit more than his fair share of temper when things don't go his way... a tendency which is in no way improved upon by his determination to never nap again. sigh The joys of three... But they truly are (mostly) joys with this sweet little boy who suddenly looks so big and tall and sounds so old when he says "I love you Mom!"

Happy birthday Liam Roderick!

She's here!

Okay, yes, she has been here for two and a half weeks, and I am just now getting around to this blog post.

And yes, my mom was here for the first two weeks of her life. And my dad was here as well for the second week. And thanks to paternity leave + a snow day + Thanksgiving, Alex only had to work one day of those first two weeks. And for some reason I waited until I was totally on my own with all four of the littles before even attempting to blog.

But she is here, and she is wonderful, and we are all so very in love. Birth story, more pictures, and tales of figuring out life with four under five (at least until M's birthday in January!) coming soon. Ish. Soonish. Like, probably next summer. [Edit: birth story here]

Colette Cynthia, born November 14th at 9:37am, 8 lbs, 20 1/4". Let the adventures begin!

Boy Talk

Michael (4 1/2)

Alex: Mama's pretty awesome, isn't she?

M: Yeah. And pregnant!

M: (enunciating very deliberately) My ears have yaks in them!

Ash: Um, wax, not yaks. 

M: (much screaming from the basement)
Ash: Michael! What's wrong? Are you hurt?
M: (sobbing) No! My church fell over and that's not what I expected it to do!
poor guy... sometimes Legos are more trouble than they're worth...

M: I think I'll need grown-up underwear.
Ash: Um, okay. Do you need some new underwear? Are those getting too small for you?
M: No, when I'm a grown-up.
Ash: Yes. You'll need grown-up underwear when you're a grown-up.
M: And then I'll live in my wife's house.
Ash: Oh, okay.
M: Across the sea.
Ash: Oh! That will be far away!
M: Well, I will have some vacations.
Ash: I think vacations will be a good idea.


Liam (almost 3)

L: (much screaming from the basement)
Alex: What happened?
L: John Paul took it from me!
Alex: What did John Paul take?
L: John Paul did it!
Alex: But what did he do?
L: John Paul took it away from me!
Alex: I know Liam, but what did he take away from you?
L: I don't know...

L: Knock knock!
Alex: Who's there?
L: Banana.
Alex: Banana who?
L: Banana orange!
and then he laughs hysterically like he just told the best joke in the whole world... it's the only joke he ever tells--and he cracks himself up each time

L: Hey, I have an idea! I have an idea!
Ash: What's your idea, sweetie?
L: I don't know...
Ash: You don't know what your idea is?
L: It went downstairs.

Ash: Liam, you need to eat some of your chicken if you want ice cream after dinner.
Liam: I have an idea!
Ash: What's your idea?
Liam: No!

the boys with Grandpa this summer

7 Quick Takes (vol. 41) -- The Laudato Si' Edition

I know I'm a bit late to the game with responses to Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si', but I'm late with pretty much everything these days. And of course it's never too late to get started. So here are seven ways we've been living out care for our world in our little corner of it. Or maybe I'm just totally exhausted and overwhelmed with toddlerness and third trimesterness and beginning of the school yearness. You decide.

Ready to be awed and inspired?

--- 1 ---

Leave the scrambled eggs on the floor. The 18 month old decided he wanted to dump his breakfast on the floor instead of eating it? No problem. Don't bother cleaning it up--in an hour or so he will rediscover it and eat every. single. crumb. for snack time. The 2 1/2 year old will probably help. Team work? Check. Waste not, want not? Check. Clean(ish) floor without breaking out the broom? Check.

--- 2 ---

Don't pull the weeds. So maybe you had grand plans for landscaping and gardening and all the green thumb things way back in April and May. And maybe the budget for that stuff decided to disappear down the drain of the master bathroom project that became never-ending. And maybe all your creative energy disappeared into growing one tiny human and keeping three others alive and (mostly) happy. But guess what? Bees like the weeds better--and helping out the bees is super important. And the weeds clearly have very low water needs (see next point), and are therefore the environmentally-friendly option. So stop feeling guilty about the overgrown au naturale look of your front flowerbed. Encouraging native flora is definitely Laudato Si'.

an actual bee on an actual weed native wildflower in my actual flower bed

--- 3 ---

Only water the grass/flowers every couple of weeks. Because water is a precious resource. And expensive. And your brownish lawn will make your neighbors feel a lot better about their yards. And if you don't water it you will rarely have to mow. (Note: may be a problem with heathen HOAs).

--- 4 ---

Bathe your children once a month. Or less. Really, if they aren't too smelly or sticky they are totally fine. This encourages a healthy immune system (or something like that) and conserves water. And when you do bathe them, throw as many as you can possibly fit into the bath or shower all at once and scrub away.

--- 5 ---

Bonus points if you combine tip #3 with tip #4 and just kick the kids outside to run through the sprinkler instead of actually showering them.

he looks clean to me!

--- 6 ---

Let the kids run around in their pajamas all day. For multiple days in a row. You will save on water and detergent for laundry and justify uberminimalistcapsule wardrobes. Bedtime is that much easier because everyone is already in their pajamas! Our current record is approximately 72 hours in the same set of pajamas. I can tell that you're impressed.

--- 7 ---

Use as few dishes as possible at mealtimes to save on clean up. This will likely involve the kids eating directly off the table or counter, but you know they weren't going to keep the food on their plates anyway. Silverware is a waste of time and water. And if your kids are anything like mine they sometimes forget that they aren't puppies and lick their food straight off the plates. It may not be acceptable for public, but at home we'll just chalk that one up concern for the environment. Cups, unfortunately, are pretty much necessary at this age... although I can just imagine the boys' excitement if I let them start drinking milk straight out of the jug. We're not that hardcore... yet.

So there you have it. Are you impressed? Horrified? Think you can do better? I'd love to hear it!

Linking up with Kelly for Seven Quick Takes!