Christmas in Iowa (January 1)

Our Ropte Christmas ended up not being until New Years' Day this year, and we had a really fun, FULL day together, even if we were super bummed to miss some of our dear Ropte family who was stuck healing from a stomach bug from the night before :( Josh and Tiff graciously opened up their home on short notice so we could all still get together, since the farm was under a bit of quarantine.

Although our Ropte family gatherings are wild and crazy and LOUD, I enjoy them the most because they are filled with laughter and all these crazy cousins spending so much fun time together. My boys LOVE to see their cousins!

Aunt Manda once again pulled through with some fun games for the kiddos.

We can't wait for these two to tie the knot next March!

I just love my family so much! It was getting a little chaotic at the end, so we didn't get everybody in (and Sarah had already gone back to the farm to switch with Dan to watch the sick kiddos so he could visit too), but here's the original Ropte family, minus my Daddy, who will have been gone TEN years this coming June. It's insane to think of how much we have all changed in that amount of time.

And here's the crazy pack of Ropte cousins! 16 (and counting!), but we were missing 4 of the Indiana Ropte kiddos, since they were down and out with a tummy bug and therefore back at the farm :(

It was a really great time to spend together, and we got to share the last of our special family surprises with them, so stay tuned for some exciting news!

Of course, putting so many people in one place at one time, someone was bound to get sick, so we had an interesting start to our work week with the tummy bug at our house, but thankfully only the big kids got it, and Ryan and Mom and Dad were spared. I'll just note that deep cleaning a carseat isn't my idea of a good time, however I'm very grateful that it was contained only to a winter coat and the carseat instead of the inside of the minivan!

Lately in Windom (December 2016)

You can tell I must love my kids a lot if I allow them to make a gingerbread house each year. I really hate making gingerbread houses.

I'm gonna admit: I've had this internal battle about whether or not to do the whole Santa thing for a couple years now. It was worse this year when I thought the boys just kinda talked about Santa but didn't really care. Well, this year, Cashel was really big into Santa bringing him all these wonderful things for Christmas, and to be honest...Santa just didn't deliver this year. And so now my little guy has been talking about how Santa must have put him on the naughty list and he just didn't know it. We've had conversations about how unlike Santa, Mommy and Daddy give gifts because we love him and not because he was nice or naughty. Conversations about how God's love is even greater than Mommy and Daddy's, and how God loves him no matter if he was good or bad. But how does Santa fit in there? I'm not looking for advice, really, just...pondering it all. Kinda contemplating doing away with Santa.

The big boys love to help with holiday baking, but I'm beginning to figure them out. They don't like to do holiday baking because they want to help: They like to do holiday baking so they can eat every freaking piece of it and hoard it like crazy hooligans. Needing to find better hiding places at this point.

Kendrick may be all rough and tumble, but the kid is seriously terrified of water. He hates getting it in his face. He wants to wear goggles when washing his hair during a bath. He's terrified of showers. They won't even take him for swimming lessons because he just screams bloody murder. It has me a little concerned, truthfully.

Love this little guy and his Santa butts :)

It struck me so hard while the boys were up during their Christmas program just how big they're getting. At times, it takes my breath away. While I've been working so hard to just maintain the status quo in the house, they're growing each day, and it doesn't hit me until just random times.

If I hadn't already known I was pregnant at this point, I sure did now. With every pregnancy, the boys crawl all over me constantly. They fight over who gets to sit in the right spot on my lap. Sitting with Daddy is simply not an option. They even want to sit on my lap when we're eating.

Kendrick's little smirk gets me every time :) He looks so devious!

Kendrick totally flipped out when I tried rolling the dough for cookies.

It's so hard to just "let it be" when you are a perfectionist. God is teaching me so much through these boys. Looking at these cookies is hard. They aren't pretty. Oh my goodness, they are just hideous. But the boys had SO MUCH FUN decorating them. The kitchen was a disaster afterwards, but the kids had fun, so...I need to keep working on the whole letting it go thing.

I think I say this in every update, but I absolutely adore this kid and his smiley eyes. You cannot NOT smile inside when you see how those eyes twinkle when he laughs :)

Oh, my sweet boy. His joy is contagious!

Ryan snatched up a cookie when we weren't looking and was going to town on it. This is his, "What? You think I ate a what? A cookie? Hmmm...never saw one." face lol

This guy is knocking it out of the ballpark in preschool this year. We still need to work on a few things before Kindergarten, but otherwise, he's right on track!

Painting their "mistletoes"

Christmas is so dang messy!

This kid loves the water!

This guy, however, likes to stick to about waist deep water, and is nervous to be in any body of water where he isn't in control. He really, really dislikes water anywhere near his face.

Meeting Baby Benjamin was really, really sweet :) He's adorable!

Every once in a great while, they place nice like this. It does warm my heart :)

Ryan has officially reached the, "I'm too busy for pictures" stage haha

This is quite possibly my favorite picture of all time :) Kendrick is really starting to come around to Ryan more. Granted, both he and Cashel tend to put him in a headlock to cart him around (which usually leads to crying), but they do have good intentions :)

The norm around here :)

Daddy and 1/3 of his mini mes :)

We totally did not notice that my hat that I put on Ryan's head kept slipping down over his face until after all the picturs haha

These two love their Aunt Jess!

I have to admit: I think my favorite part about Christmas being over is that I finally have my closet space back from all those presents!

Make a snowman kit for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Johnson haha :)

That's pretty much it for December! More to come in the new year!

:: 2016 :: A Review of our Year

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 2016 has been the most difficult year for us so far. How's that right out of the chute? ;)

This has been one heck of a year of transitions and exhaustion and just feeling our limits both personally and as a family. I know that without years like this one, you don't grow. So...I guess the upside of 2016 is that we've grown. We've become less selfish while learning how to make time for ourselves and for each other.

We've learned how to manage when we're falling apart. We've learned how to fall apart and then pull up ourselves by the bootstraps and carry on. We've learned what love means on a deeper level than any year prior to this one, and learned about love aside from the butterflies and rainbows. And we've also learned that just when we think we're absolutely at our breaking points and we think one more thing is going to throw us over the top, God allows something even more ridiculous to be piled up on top of it all. And yet...here we are! Strong, happy, together, not in the nut house (at least not in 2016 haha), and everyone has all appendages accounted for (even if Kendrick did get his first stitches, so there's that).

In all that, however, the year really has been amazing, and really not ALL difficult and crazy and wild and messy. We've had a ridiculous amount of fun and laughter and adventure and, well, still a heck of a lot of mess (we do have 3 little boys, after all).

We started the year celebrating Cashel turning 4 with a fun overnight family trip to Sioux Falls, which then led into a really boring and lazy and COLD next six weeks while we awaited our newest little man's arrival.

During those six weeks, Cashel had his first winter program for preschool and Kendrick had his first visit to the allergist, in which we verified what we already knew: He has a moderate tree nut allergy (although not to Almonds) and a mild peanut allergy. We're so grateful to have some Epi Pens on hand now, as accidental reactions are pretty terrifying for us!

Ryan was born on March 12th, just the morning after his due date. We are all SO in love with this little man, and he has fit so perfectly into our family!

Ryan and I were in this sort of "pause button" period for a while, while I was on maternity leave for three months and was able to fill my days with peaceful snuggles as well as tackling some fun (and extremely necessary) projects around the house. I also was able to meet up with a number of friends while on maternity leave, make a few shopping trips to Mankato, and a couple day trips to Humboldt to see my Mama. The weekends and evenings snapped me back to reality quickly as the house filled again with the craziness that comes with two very, very busy big brothers. We had quite the transition (as you can see below) for a few months, as Cashel and Kendrick really began to fight more and push each other around.

Towards the end of my maternity leave we took our first little family vacation to Wisconsin Dells for a long weekend, and we had a lot of fun! The boys still talk about going back, although I think we might wait a few more years until they are old enough for the big water parks without such close supervision. (I think Daddy got a little worn out from pool duty)

Surrounding that trip, Mark spent a lot of time out at the farm helping with planting, so we took a few trips down to see him and let the boys go for tractor rides, which they always enjoy.

Mark's sister and her family came to surprise us for a visit over Memorial Day weekend, and it was fun to catch up with them over the weekend.

June started Mark's softball season, and between planting season and softball nights, I had to start learning how to really manage with all 3 kiddos for bedtimes on my own, which was a challenge. We filled the summer with softball, strawberry picking, lots of pool evenings at the local pool, lots of time outside, park time, and grilling out.

June led right into July, which was just as busy as the rest of our year had been. We started the month with the big annual summer Ropte GTG at the farm, which was followed by the 4th of July, our annual church picnic, another weekend in Humboldt visiting my Mom, a MUCH needed weekend away in Sioux Falls with friends and without the kiddos and more pool time with and without friends.

At the end of July, we had a wonderful week of vacation at a little lakeside bungalow at Lake Blackwell near Alexandria. We had a great time relaxing, doing lots of fishing (for the boys), exploring the area, kayaking, canoeing, splashing around in the water, exploring the gorgeous grounds, chasing and feeding ducks and geese as Noonan's Park,

A few days after we returned from our vacation, we celebrated Mark's 37th birthday, and the next day, Mark's brother and his family arrived for a week from California.

Towards the end of their visit, Ryan and I went to spend a few days with my Mama while my sister and her family went on vacation.

Soon after we got home, it was county fair time, and the boys had a blast on the rides this year!

At the end of August, I spent a couple days and an overnight in Minneapolis for work, then returned home to prep for Kendrick's 3rd birthday party the coming weekend.

September brought back to school time for Cashel, and he started his second year of preschool.

We kept our weekends busy with a Kite Festival in Jackson, a Kids' Rodeo down the street at Reinbows, King Turkey Day, and our annual trip to the orchard for apples and pumpkins.

We celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary on the 23rd, and with 3 kiddos and being so busy, we opted to just take the day off work and spend it in Worthington. I had put together a surprise anniversary video that we watched together in the same sanctuary we got married in back in 2006, which was a special treat :) It was nice to reminisce a bit ;)

October ushered in our busy season, with LOTS of trips out to visit Daddy and Grandpa at the farm.

When we didn't make trips out to the farm, the boys and I tried to soak in as much of the gorgeous fall weather as we could. We visited lots of parks, had lots of little picnics, and took lots of trips to a newly discovered nature area with awesome trails for the kiddos to roam. But mostly, if I'm being honest, we just spent every possible evening down going for tractor rides.

Our Autumn was filled with lots more together time, fun with leaves, pumpkins, apples, Halloween fun, Mama's 35th birthday, and lots of time for Mark in the field. This is always the most trying time for us as a family, as before kids, I felt alone a lot during harvest, and now with kids, I feel more overwhelmed with all the responsibilities of the household and kiddos falling on me. I kinda reached my breaking point the second weekend of hunting in early November, and then the whole of harvest and hunting sorta culminated when Kendrick busted his forehead open, warranting a trip to the E.R. for the first time.

Thankfully, it healed pretty quickly, and he didn't miss a beat!

We had our second annual Friendsgiving get-together the weekend before Thanksgiving, which was fun, but Thanksgiving itself was very low-key, as we just had Mark's Mom over for lunch.

Just before Thanksgiving, I learned that I was going to have to help with a work issue that required me to hop on a plane the Sunday after Thanksgiving and head to El Paso, TX to then work in our sister plant in Juarez, Mexico for 3 days. This would have normally seemed like almost a vacation, except for the fact that I found out the Saturday after Thanksgiving that I was pregnant with a very unexpected baby #4. I was a mess emotionally and didn't sleep well the whole time I was there, so glad to get back home to my boys!

December was a bit of a blur, although at the beginning of the month we didn't really do a whole lot. The first two weekends brought lots of snow, keeping us home-bound for the most part. The boys had their Christmas program at church, and we visited the Pioneer Village Christmas with friends. However, aside from the normal seasonal activities, we traveled a lot at the end of the month: To Omaha to see Mark's sister and meet our new nephew, to Minneapolis for Christmas with Mark's Mom's side, to Worthington for Christmas with Mark's Dad, and to Humboldt for Christmas with the Roptes. It was a bit too much Christmas crammed into a two week period, but we enjoyed each celebration for sure!

And that's it for 2016! Whew! I'm hoping that 2017 is a little less exhausting, but considering we'll have 4 kids under 6 by August, I have a feeling it's just going to be a very long, tiring year. Nevertheless, we just keep on moving along and praying that God gives us the strength to tackle each new day. Mark and I don't ever seem to have an abundance of energy, but the amount of grace He gives us is sufficient.