Lena's Three Year Portraits

We had Lena's picture taken earlier this month since she is turning three next week. She did a great job and the pictures came out really well. She's a natural in front of the camera; the photographer just loved working with her.

This one was candid. She was rolling around on the floor being goofy when she was supposed to be standing up. The photographer thought she was being cute, so she snapped this pic.

I had no interest in being in the pictures, but the photographer insisted on this shot and Jim loved it because of the look on Lena's face. It's "classic Lena."

We're getting ready for her birthday party tomorrow. She is going to love having the house full of people!

Valentine's Day Weekend

Last Sunday, Grandma Sheryl, Aunt Hil, and Cousin Noah came up for the day. They went to church with us, then we went out to lunch, and then we went back to our house and let the babies crawl around the floor for a while.

Happy happy boy. Look at that gorgeous smile!

Eva and Noah being interested in the same toy.

He was all about posing for Aunt Lesa's camera that day.

Babies on the move.

Grandma and her girls.

My funny Valentines.

The next five photos were all the ones I took trying to get a good picture of the three kids. Believe it or not, this first one is probably the best!

Then Noah decided he didn't really want to pose anymore and started squirming around in the chair. But I love the look on Lena's face in this one as she is hugging her sister and her cousin.

This one's hilarious. Lena can hardly be seen because Noah is flinging his arms around, and Eva looks like she's been drugged or something!

This one's not bad except that Noah was still turning over.

Now Eva's got her pacifier in because she started to get fussy too. This is where we gave up and called it a day!

Noah looking like such a big boy.

Also that weekend, we discovered these handprints on our living room wall. For a while I wasn't sure what she had on her hands that would make marks like that, because we always wash her hands after she eats, but then someone suggested that it was lotion, and I think that's probably it. Lena is becoming very independent lately and probably helped herself to the lotion that we keep in the living room. And what else do you do when you've put too much lotion on your hands? Make some artwork on the wall, of course!

We had a great day with Grandma, Aunt Hil, and Noah. We were so glad they came up to visit that day. We will get to see them, and a bunch of other family members, next week when we have a birthday party for Lena. Can't believe she's going to be three already!

Blizzard 2011

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting my pics of last week's blizzard. The weather forecasters were pretty accurate this time; they predicted 10-16"; we got 11 and Grand Rapids got 16.

This blizzard was especially memorable in the Roemke household. In the couple of days before it hit, I went to the grocery store and stocked up on everything I could think of so that we wouldn't have to brave the elements for anything. The one thing I hadn't planned on: one of our kids getting sick. The snow started coming down really heavily around 5:00 on Tuesday night and just as dinner was ready, Jim and I realized that Lena was sick. It came on really quick; she had been kind of sleepy that day, but I thought it was because she hasn't been sleeping well at night. Then when I announced that dinner was ready, she said she wasn't hungry and just laid on the couch without moving. She had bright rosy cheeks and felt warm so we took her temperature. 102.7 Yikes! She didn't have any respiratory symptoms and even though she didn't have an appetite, she wasn't complaining of a stomachache, so we weren't sure what was going on. I called her pediatrician's after hours number and was advised to take her to the ER. Oh man! The hospital we go to is 21 miles away, and by that time the blizzard was pretty much in full force.

As badly as I wanted to be with her in the hospital, we decided it was best that Jim take her because he is much better driving in winter weather than I am. And we didn't want to expose Eva to hospital germs so I stayed home with her. Jim and Lena left home around 7 and I sat here worrying like crazy until I heard that they made it okay. The good news was that the ER was mostly deserted, so they got right in and were seen right away. I thought that Lena might have had a UTI, so they put a catheter in her to check for that. That was negative, so then they did a strep test. That also came back negative. A high fever with no symptoms except bright red cheeks is indicative of Fifth Disease, so that's what they diagnosed her with. They gave her a maximum strength dose of ibuprofen and her temperature started coming down pretty quickly. By the time they left the ER at around 10:30, she was acting much more like herself (the two popsicles the nurse gave her probably helped too!).

So after another worrisome wait, they made it home safely. When I asked how Lena did at the hospital, Jim said that she absolutely loved it. When the nurse was leading them back to the exam room, she ran ahead of Jim and grabbed hold of the nurse's hand and walked with her. In the week since she has been there, she has talked about hospitals, medicines, and nurses quite frequently. The other day I burned myself on the oven rack and when she saw my "owie" she looked at me excitedly, with eyes wide and said, "You get to go hospital?"

She seems to have made a full recovery. Her fever didn't last long and she never got the rash. We were kind of waiting for Eva to come down with a fever, since we were told Fifth Disease is transmitted to others like colds, but so far nothing.

So here are some pics we took last week of the snow.

Before the blizzard. Eight inches on the ground.

Before: front yard.

Before: angel.

Before: bird feeder.

Blizzard hits.

Wednesday morning. Had trouble opening the front door.

After: angel and bird feeder. Yep, the angel is under there somewhere!

View down Main Street.

Now 17 inches on the ground.

Our little pine tree.

Accumulation outside the garage door. Glad we didn't have to go out on Wednesday!

The Intrepid buried under the snow.

Door going out to the deck.

Snowy deck.

By Friday Lena had been feeling well and had no fever for long enough that we thought she was okay to go outside to play for a little while. We had our driveway plowed by the same guy who does our church parking lot, so there was a huge pile of snow to play on and sled down.

Lena had a hard time getting up there, but she finally got it!

King and princess of the mountain.

Sledding down the hill. She kind of got swallowed up by the snow when she landed at the bottom.

Yeah, we probably won't be rid of this snow until after Eva's birthday!

My little snow bunny.

Trying to get a good pic of the girls together.

Eva is crying because Lena accidentally whapped her in the face with a snow-covered mitten.

This one's not bad.

Daddy sat in the snow too long and got snow dingleberries!

Daddy and Lena having a snow clod fight.

Eva trying to get in on the action.

I love this one because she looks about as happy to be out in the cold as I did.

Lena had a bit of a hard time walking in the snow. (See video below.)

Main Street. Some kind neighbor used his snowblower down the entire sidewalk so we didn't have to shovel.

The snow was higher than Eva's head when she was sitting.

Action shot of Daddy sledding down the hill.

Eva trying to look over the snow at the traffic along Main Street.

Trying to walk on the snow again. Wipeout!

Here's a video of Lena trying to walk on the snow.