The whirlwind is calming

As I posted earlier, we bought a house! So after we closed on the house we spent 6 weeks working on it 24/7 to get it ready to move into. So it came to be moving week... finally. I (Mandy) had been sick on and off for a few weeks during construction and finally, 3 days before moving, Jason convinced me to take a pregnancy test "just to rule it out". And instead of ruling it out, we were shocked to find out that we were expecting our third little Kirschenmann. We were caught a little off guard, but we were VERY happy. Children are such a blessing from God!

Then two days later (the day before the move) we got a call that everybody dreads. Our pastor, Brian McGuire was having a heart attack. We rushed to the ER. But he had passed away. We were devastated. He was Jason's boss, mentor and our friend. He was only 52 and had 6 kids, 3 still living at home. Please remember his wife and children in your prayers.

So we still had to move the next day, I just wanted to put it all in a pile in the front lawn and light a match. Our stuff just didn't seem important to me at the time. Our church was SO wonderful though. They helped us move, even arranged the furniture and set up the beds. Some ladies came and put up our curtains, and cleaned the bathroom and put the girls' rooms together. So wonderful to have people in our lives that will do that.

Then the very next day was Miriam's 4th birthday. We had a party at McDonald's planned but we postponed it, we just weren't feeling very PlayPlacey that day. 

The last 3 weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions. So happy, so sad, confusing, stressful, exhausting. Now both girls and I are fighting a bug of some kind, just feeling yucky. So the unpacking is going much slower than I had hoped, but I'm not stressed about it. I have 3 months worth of new pictures to post, and a new ultrasound picture! Sometime soon I will do that. Just wanted to tell you all why we fell off the grid for a while.

P.S. At the ultrasound we found out that I had been pregnant for a while, since mid December. So I'm 10 weeks along, baby due in September! YAY!

Gma & Gma Applegarth visit us here in MN

 My (Mandy's) grandparents (my mom's parents) came to visit us on their way through to visit other family. Miriam and Eden LOVED having them here. So did Jason and I.

 Grandma let Miriam help her make bread, Miriam sure loved that!

Our new house!

 Ok, so brace yourself for some ugly. Yeah, it needs work but we're so excited to do it! We're hoping to close in the next week or two, we'll keep you posted. This picture above is the downstairs bathroom.

 Dining room off of the kitchen

 Living room

 HUGE back yard with fence most of the way around it

 There's a toilet in the front lawn... just in case we need an extra

 AND there's also a bathtub buried in the front lawn... your guess is as good as mine

Halloween 2011 - Eden sits up!

 Eden had not been sitting at all. As soon as we would let go she would just slowly tip right over without even trying to stop it. But then on Halloween we tried again and she sat all by herself for about 5 minutes! She's so funny. Now she loves to sit up and be able to see more and reach the things she wants.

 My little bug and my little princess

Catching up a little!

SO sorry it's been so long since I've posted new pics. The girls are growing like weeds and every day has new challenges and blessings. Eden started sitting up by herself this week. Her interests include sucking on her toes, sucking on her thumb, sucking on her toys, laughing at big sister, peeing on her changing table, being cute, and baths. She's a tall skinny girl. She's in the 75th percentile for height and head size, and only the 20th for weight. But she's SUCH a content baby! She's so relaxed and easy going. She just doesn't get upset about much. It's great!

In other news, we found a house to buy. We haven't closed yet but we are hoping to do so by Dec 1st. I will post pictures when I can. It's a bit of a fixer-upper but it has extra space for our growing family. AND 2 bathrooms, thank you, Lord! I'm dreading moving again but I'm so excited to be in the new house!

September

Miriam is at such a fun age too. She's VERY interested in school now. She can spell her name and is almost able to write it by herself. She loves practicing writing. She's still a social butterfly. She'll make friends with anyone in any situation in the blink of an eye. When we eat out, after she's done eating, she sometimes asks if she can go "meet people". She loves princesses and dress up. She's getting a little obsessed with marriage and babies. It's so cute, she tells us about her plans for the future all the time. "Mom, when I get big I'm gonna get married and have 4 boy babies... 1, 2, 3, 4... and 6 girl babies... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... that's a lot of babies, Mom!"

August

Our baby is a thumb sucker. We tried our best to get her to stop... we've officially given up.

 Our visit to NE to visit the Bade family

The fair and some random pics

 August 13th - Age 3 months

 Our skinny little lady

 On my birthday we went to the fair. Had a blast! Mmmmm... funnel cakes!

Stephanie's visit

 Jason went to camp two weeks in a row, then had 4 days home and left for Venezuela for 2 weeks, so the girls and I had lots of time by ourselves. Luckily we had some visitors to break the time up. While Jason was in Venezuela my sister Stephanie came to visit us. We went to the Judy Garland museum, so this is us as a Munchkin. I am trying to wrangle up some pics from Venezuela to post for next time.

The month of July

 Sweet sisters - Eden age 2 months

 Grama Bade and Grace came to keep us company
while Jason was at camp. We had a great time!
Grace is doing her Eden face in this pic.