zoo, reunion, and another trip to the ER (catch up part 1)

Another month has flown by.  And, boy has it been full. 

We ended August with a pretty busy week.
We went to the farm to feed fish and water plants since my parents were on vacation. 
 Nathan and I went out to eat with his parents on evening. 

We went to the Zoo with Aunt Cynthia and the Braker cousins. 

Gideon, Avery, Aurelia, Eva, Isaiah

Aurelia LOVED the animals

Aunt Cynthia bought them both stuffed animals

She loves it

Lori watched the kids so that I could go in to work one morning. We stopped at the coffee camper on the way and took her some coffee. That was definitely a highlight. :)

Aurelia has discovered that toilets flush. Which is not a good thing. 

sigh.

She thinks sun glasses are hilarious

:) I love trampolines

Why is it, that this is so stressful?? hahaha

I want to let him help but it takes so much restraint on my part.

Aurelia turned 11 months. It's killing me how fast she's growing up. 

hehehe

beep

she is going to give us a run for our money.

Grandpa and Grandma sent postcards to the kids.

kitties!!!!!!

Gideon enjoys mail

On the 31st, we went to the Braker reunion.

The best picture I have of all of the siblings 

Lois, Betty, Jane, Glen, Don, Jim, Morris, Marvin standing.

Luke, Nathan's 1st cousin once removed, is 6' 4". He's in high school.

Aurelia is short. Even for her age. 

On the 1st, we went to a cook out at Matt and Lena's.

so many boys

smores

We also got word that Jake and Rachel had their baby!

Liezel Fae

 A few more crazy kid moments:

Aurelia likes to run around au naturale after baths...

:)

And then Aurelia scared us to death... and we ended up in the ER. Again. 

I was working on packing for vacation and had Gideon playing with play dough at the counter.  I was trying to figure out how a lantern worked on the counter too and Aurelia was screaming at my feet... So, I set her on the counter.  I made sure that there was something on the opposite edge to keep her away from that edge, I was on one side, and Gideon was on the other. Safe, right? Nope, I just turned my back for a second and heard the thud. 

It was awful.  She was laying on the floor, eyes wide open. Not crying but also not really breathing. I picked her up and ran into the living room. She started shaking and going stiff and gasping for breath.  Then she closed her eyes and passed out for a few seconds. She came too and started screaming uncontrollably for about ten minutes then.  She couldn't keep her eyes open and eventually went to sleep again.  At some point in there, after the first awful 30 seconds to a minute,  we decided to call the doctor. They said we could just take her in to the ER.  

So, since my parents are out of town. I made a quick call to Lori. She met us at the ER in Eureka. Kandace waited out in the van with Gideon and Lori kindly came in with us for moral support. 
Of course little Aurelia was nearly back to her self, maybe only a bit subdued, by that point so we were a bit more relaxed. 

getting to drink water on the doctor's order

:) waiting on the doctor to come back.

Lori took Gideon back to her house. The doctor monitored Aurelia for a while before we were discharged. 

It was a pretty late night before we got everyone home and calmed down. 

*more catch up blogs to come*

In Christ
~Michelle

In Summer

August started out in a rush.

On the first, I took Gideon and Aurelia to the Washington pool.  Rebecca and Jessica met us there with their kids too. 

She was happy

Isaiah, Eva, Avery

Then they came back to our house for lunch and played a while. 

After they left, I put the kids down for naps and cleaned the house and packed.  When Nathan got home from work we loaded up the van and left for Leo. 

Since I work at Gateway now, we have to go to the sale. And, not only that, I have to sing in the employee choir.  I had to be there a day early to practice, so the kids got to spend a long weekend playing at Rita's. 

Gideon love's Rita's house because she has this cool train set. 

and they have a pool :)

Kray :)

 Nathan and I pretty much chilled at Rita and Loren's, stayed out of the chaos, and enjoyed basically a mini vacation. 

They sale went well.  I'm not one for huge crowds and auctions intimidate me, but it went well and we had fun.  

The kids didn't last very long...

We took the kids back for naps around noon. So, I really didn't get to experience the full scale of the sale. 

We spent another quiet afternoon by their pool. :)

Rita kept apologizing for lack of entertainment...there was no need. We had a great time. :)

Oh, so Kacie accidentally bought a trampoline.  To spare her the wrath of her parents, and because Gideon would love a trampoline, we decided to take it off of her hands. 

It fit!

Tate entertaining Gideon

Troy went out for ice cream with us in the evening.

We stayed for church on Sunday and then headed home. It just so happened that Sunday was our 6 year anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to us. 

 Aurelia doesn't travel well. Gideon doesn't do much better. They did nap for the first 2-ish hours but then it was pretty much whining and screaming for the last 3. What fun. 

I came home to a glorious garden though!

Cafe au Lait daliahs are seriously one of my favorite flowers. 

Tomatoes, flowers, beans...

Monday,  Russ and Jay Mogler were in town. A bunch of Metzgers gathered at a lake house for the occasion.  And, since there was family, food, a beach and swimming, we said sure, we'd come. :)

kids playing on the beach

I didn't get a very good picture, but Gideon did go down this slide.

All the cousins adoring Logan

Metzgers

Our car needed new brakes and we had just replaced the brakes on the van so when they quoted us $700, we decided to try to do it with help.  Nathan's uncle Jim willingly assisted. We used the farm shop and they got it done in two hours and for less than half the cost! 

Gideon joining in

"helping"

We live right by the train tracks. Every time a train passes we all have to run to the door and watch it. Aurelia can even make a "choo-choo" sound of sorts.  

:)

We went to the farm one day to work on more produce. This time it was peaches. 

Dad brought in his honey that he extracted from his hives.

It's fantastic.

A watched pot never boils

fresh canned peaches :)

or jars of sunshine...whichever

 Gideon got a Lego farm set at the Leo sale. 

It has kept him occupied for hours

These two...

If only they were always this kind to each other

 My dad came and helped us mulch one evening.  Gideon of course was a very willing helper.

I tried very hard not to worry

iyiyi 

:)

Fresh mulch always makes things look so nice

"I wanna be like you-ooo"

At least it's just a tomato

:) she thinks she's a little queen

Aurelia got her first trip to the ER. 

As you can tell, she was not in the least bit distressed.

The story is Aurelia puts everything and anything in her mouth.  Some rather large things have passed through with no difficulty.   One Sunday evening, I noticed she had something in her mouth. She refused to give it to me or let me look in her mouth. So, I gave up and stuck her in her highchair for supper.   Then she stared full on choking. Only for a little and she managed to get whatever it was out. But she couldn't swallow it down. She was gagging, and swallowing over and over again.  Then she puked but nothing would come out but spit. I could see anything at the back of her throat and she was screaming her head off. It took a while to calm her down. Needless to say we were a bit scared.   She was fine, but since we didn't know what it was, and it could have been a Lego, a bobby pin, or any number of other things that may not be able to make it out again, we decided to take her in. 

She was fine. The x-ray didn't show anything metal and nothing has come through in her diapers since, so we probably will never know. 

You know... kids are exhausting. 

 

sigh. 

A week or so late, Nathan and I finally made it out to eat for our anniversary. 

So stinkin' good

Nathan likes shrimp...

Watching the garbage truck 

We have hummingbirds! 

Our grill has been broken all summer and we finally got it fixed. I broke it in with some steaks and sweet potato fries. 

:)

We celebrated Grandma's birthday after church Wednesday night. 

:)

Mom and Dad came over in the evening and helped us set up the trampoline. :)

:)

Grandpa even did some jumping

Aurelia loves animals. She sings songs to this book. hehe. :)

We've been spending a lot more time outside now that we have a trampoline. 

hehehe

 Last Saturday, the 17th, we went over to Lori's for a pre-wedding family dinner. 

The 18th, was Trent and Tiffany's wedding.  It was beautiful.

We didn't get to spend much time in the actual wedding.  I got to haul kids out of church from way up front twice.  They were both exhausted and cranky, so we decided to leave a bit early and head to the reception in hopes they would nap. They did, so we sat in the parking lot and they both got a partial nap in. 

:)

Congratulations Trent and Tiffany!

Aurelia was shot

My garden is going crazy. I have more tomatoes then we can eat.  

:) but fresh produce makes me happy

We don't want summer to be over

I love it when they play together

Troy came over to play :)

We gave Aurelia her first Oreo... 

She was quite pleased

These two can get in the fridge by themselves now...

After nap snuggles

We went to Target...

They have the coolest carts!

:)

And they have playhouses set up.

Gideon could have stayed there all day.

Then there was this...

 

This past Thursday night I met up with these girls :)

Katy, Joy, Haley, Emily, me

It's been ages. Our conversations have definitely changed in all these years but we still have fun.

Last night, Nathan had some of his coworkers over for pizza and games. 

Easton came :)

They had fun 

And today we are having a catch-all lazy Saturday. 

static!

reading books on the trampoline because why not :)

We have some uneventful but busy weeks ahead of us. I'm clinging to every last bit of summer I can.  I can wait quite a bit longer for fall. 

In Christ

~Michelle