Touched Twice Reedsburg 2010

Here Comes the Sun!

Life is full settling into a new home.  Mike has mastered the pool in record time.  He is such an engineer. He has his spreadsheet with stats everyday and is constantly making changes in chemicals to get the balance just right.  BUT hey….its working!!!!  Diego and Yerly have come to love the pool.  They weren’t sure at first since the shallow end is 3 ft. They strap on their lifejackets( a requirement to be outside now in the back :)  )

Diego and Yerly fit our family like a glove.  We hear over and over how well they are adjusting and how it seems like they have been with our family forever from our family and friends.  It is a huge blessing for us.  Oddly, it has been a bigger adjustment for the kiddos who used to be the youngest two Rothwells.   Diego and Yerly are happy and love life, which is a great thing for all of us to witness and absorb. Diego at times struggles with a little internal anxiety that appears on his little face from time to time…but we no longer have the throw- up- anxiety.  They are both doing extremely well homeschooling and beg to have their turn daily.  They are nearing the end of learning every letter and the sounds in the alphabet in their Sing Spell Read Write program.  Diego amazes us with his ability and desire to learn despite being behind Yerly in his education.  He has caught up with her and we are wondering if he will surpass her in some areas, which will be astounding….since she is one smart chic!

The end of spring capped off with our church carnival….a BIG WIN with Diego and Yerly.

  

PONY RIDES!!!

We kicked off summer with a camping trip to Wilton….our fav memorial day spot.  We set up camp at the little city park campground which is off the 400 bike trail and a short drive from the Kickapoo River to canoe and a walk to the swimming pool and most importantly the PIE SHOP.  We don’t all fit in the camper anymore, but the older girls are real campers and set up their mattresses and teen pad in the big  tent.

 

CAMP ROTHWELL

Pregnancy at a spry-40 is going well.  Swimming has helped and the fact that God prepared my bod last year with training for the mini triathalon and doing a biggest losers program losing 15 pounds…that are now back again.  oh well….Im looking forward to nursing the pounds away. I can burn the BIG cals while sitting with a baby…NICE!!! We decided to find out this time around seeing as we rid of ALL of our baby supplies just last fall.  I even sold all of the cloth diaper wraps and new cloth diapers…ugh!  So off we went to restock the supply once again and the Waunakee Garage Sales have brought us back up to baby par.Soooo …it is a boy…they say.  Diego and Dayne gave a huge shout out that they won! It will even out the hormones a little more in the house with 4 boys/man and 5 girls/women.  We are still amazed at the Master Plan God created.  We are Glad HE is in charge, because we sure would not have chosen this path at our age.  Losing that little boy 7 yrs ago, leading to adoption, leading to a long awaited pregnancy which will infact knit Diego and Yerly more intricately into our Rothwell family as a big brother and sister.  Just amazing. 

 

Firetrucks and Spaghetti

The annual firemans spaghetti supper is another sure sign of spring.  Families walking to the fire department, reuniting with old friends after a long winters hibernation and just good food!!

Dayne and Diego and Yerly were more than excited to go.  Dayne… because his friend Joseph would be there and he is a superstar at the firestation with his dad the firefighter and his grandpa the old fire chief, Diego and Yerly were just excited to go somewhere as a family.

 

 

Easter Days

Easter Blessings!  We are without words some days as to how Great is our God. 

These days as we hit a milestone in our pregnancy….we revisit the memories often….Seven years ago when we lost a baby boy midterm, we did not understand how “all things work for the good of those who love Him.”  We could not understand how the loss that was felt so deep was in some way a part of God’s plan in shaping our lives.

That loss lead our hearts in a whole new direction.  We were very unsettled and felt God’s calling to expand our family.  We were not getting pregnant after several ( 5 to be exact) years of trying  and after two losses.  The desire for a baby was placed in our hearts and left unfulfilled for a reason.  So that would examine all that God has to offer.   We wondered if God was calling us to use our experience in Mexico to adopt a sibling set from a latin american country.

After many prayers and seeking….Now we have two little love bugs  in our family and God has decided to bless us with a baby as well. After all of these years, we just sit in Wonder!!   We can only imagine that God had a plan for Diego and Yerly to be in OUR family and that God has a plan for this new gift.

As we approach the midterm of this pregnancy and the period of loss, we can completely envision this new little life and with a renewed hope that all things do work for the good of those who love Him.

We continue to pray that this baby will remain free of the GBS infection.

 

CELEBRATIONS

we celebrated ella and greenly’s birthday!!! 12 and 2 yrs old!

Easter Finest!

We had a great time decorating eggs this year, with a new excitement brought to the table from two little people.

 

The city easter egg hunt was almost as exciting as we walked out our front door, across the street to the park!  

 

We woke up at the crack of dawn to go to the free Kalahari indoor theme park admission from 530 am until 8 am.  Tired, but so much fun!!!!

Spring has brought a new love….BIKES.  For spring break, we put the training wheels on both of the little love bug bikes.  They love the freedom of being able to ride around the sidewalk!!

For St Pattys Day we celebrated with all things Irish and we had an Ireland Unit Study day for homeschool coop.

Diego and Yerly said their names and ages in english with their lovely shamrock hats!

Gretta gave a report on scones, a tradition from england and ireland and she gave samples of her own scone recipe.

Ella told a little about St Patrick and served a green sherbet drink.

Dayne told a little about leprechauns and had a little tootsie roll hunt for the kids.

After a long hiatus...we are back.
Much has changed in 3wks.
1….We sold our house.

Packed our house after living there for 14 years and homebirthing 2 babies there and bring 2 adopted babies home.
2….We moved to our new house.

We have unpacked the necessities and are recycling much!!!
3. Mike and I went to New York City to celebrate our 4oth bdays with my wonderful sister and brother in law!!!

We have had an ultrasound and found that we will be adding to our family around our anniversary and Yerly's Birthday- Late September.
What a surprise and happy 40th birthday to Mike and I.
We were NOT expecting that. God must have a plan..since our house sold so fast and we have this big house now. We are feeling totally blessed these days, in all that God is doing and the friends and family he has surrounded us with. It still amazes us!

Diego and Yerly are still trying to wrap their brains around the idea of a baby in my belly. I think they thought they just appeared at the orphanage. Yerly is now wondering when her baby will grow?

Arroz Con Leche

We had a D and Y favorite today for lunch.  We had some leftover rice from dinner so we made Arroz Con Leche.  Once they knew we were making it, they immediately started in song:

Arroz con leche
Me quiero casar
Con una señorita
de la capital.

below: dancing to party music in the front room

The meal also triggered a memory for Diego.  He told us that he was given arroz con leche after he split his chin.  He told us a little boy was chasing him with water in his mouth and Diego fell on the cement and split his chin.  After the doctor came and gave him a shot he had arroz con leche.  :)

Mike turns 39 +1

We started out the morning with Gretta, Ella and Dayne awake at 4am to make breakfast.  I heard them getting up and decided to join them.  They made Mike an Omlette before he headed off for early work.  So sweet!

  We sent Mike 4 black balloons with 4 candy bars to his work.  He didn’t find it really funny.

We celebrated Mikes bday night at the MooseJaw!  We had the entire basement to ourselves and ordered wings and pizza and pop and played games around the bigscreen.  It was really fun!  We went home and had cake and opened his presents!!!

Cant wait to celebrate both of our bdays in NY with Al and P!!!  

BOYS and Monster Trucks

For Mike’s 40th he really wanted to do Monster Trucks with the Boys.  So he got tickets for the three of them and our brother in law Patrick and nephew Jaxson.  They got Pit Passes and toured the trucks beforehand.  Real Men!!!

1600 HP Hummer with 60 inch tires.

Dayne, Jaxson and Diego

Love Bugs

the super shoppers!!!

Playing Pioneers and Cowboys. Diego loves to dress up!!!!

Just too cute not to snap a picture