The Good and the just Plain Ugly

The first weekend of March, Braeden had the district Squirt B tourney in Waseca. It was his last games as a Squirt. Their team took the toughest draw in the tourney and lost all there games, but they played every team close. Braeden scored a sweet break away in the last game. A nice exclamation mark on his season!

That same weekend Preston had his end of the year hockey Jamboree. He is hoping to work hard this summer so he can start at level 3 next year. He is sooo close! In level 3 you get to play more games! He got awarded a nice medal!

The following week I was diagnosed with Shingles. Yeah for me! It is very rare in pregnancy, like 1in10,000. Oh joy! They even took a picture at the office of it. I may scan it in later, pretty ugly!
We hosted Braeden's entire hockey team and their families at our house the second weekend in March. The kids had a blast on the rink and running around the house. They are a fun group of guys!






We baked a rainbow cake for St. Patty's day. Laken got the recipe at Preschool and I was skeptical how it would actually turn out. But, it ended up pretty darn cool! Preston was home sick from school, so he got to partake. Later a Leprechaun secretly visited and sent us on a treasure hunt for gold candy coins and rolos!

Lessons from God

The digital reading on the test read, "Pregnant". I wanted to bang my head against the gray bathroom counter. How did this happen? I mean I just finished up nursing, haven't had more than one complete cycle and wham, a positive test. Not to mention all the stress I have been under trying to balance my workload and home load this fall. Pangs of self doubt and self pity begin to consume me.


Then, I'm overcome by terrible back pain. I visit my chiropractor/natural health doctor. Ironically, I notice that the family that piles out of the exam room is a family of 7. My lower back pain is so bad I can't even get off of her exam table under my own power. Dr. Jodi determines the pain is being caused by my inability to accept this pregnancy. She tells me I have negative energy running through my body. She advises me to go home and pray.


“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10) is one of my most favorite bible passages. And, that is exactly what I did and amazingly God started tugging massively at my heart strings and speaking directly to my heart and mind. It is always such an awesome experience when we truly allow ourselves to listen to him!


I stopped being afraid and doubting myself, especially when this passage was sent my way by a total stranger: Isaiah 41:13 For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you "Do not fear for I will help you". Yes, God will help us.

Also, in a total moment of self doubt in my role as a stay at home mom, my sister (totally unaware of my news) sent me this message, "When you go out on a limb, there is always going to be someone who strolls over to the tree, looks up, and mocks. “Anyone could climb that tree.” “You’ll never get down alive.” These people don’t take time to find out 1) about you 2) why you decided to climb the tree 3) how you managed to get up there 4) what you plan to do in the tree 5) when you intend to come down." So, true!

Finally, it has been overwhelming how many people have begun asking us, "When is number 5 coming? Or, do you have 4 or 5 children?" and they have all been nothing less than serious about the question.

I can truly say we are nothing less than excited for this new life at this point! We are quite giddy and full of love, in fact. We can not wait to meet this little person. We have been so blessed. The kids are very excited that we will now be tied in numbers with the neighbors across the street. The boys do not care if it is a boy or girl and Laken is hoping for a baby brother this time. In traditional form we wait until "birth" day to find out! Either way I am so grateful God is so confident in our abilities to care for these amazing children of ours. When I was a little girl I always told my Granny I wanted to have 10 kids some day. We will officially be entering, "Big Family" status.

I wholeheartedly believe God does have plans for each and everyone of us. We don't always get to choose our paths in life. God's the one in with the ultimate control. Some people search their whole lives for their true purpose in life...may be my purpose is to be a MOM. Sure some people will look at this career path as something that is not grand or impressive, something simple minded. But, I can't think of anything more difficult, yet more rewarding. It may be simple and ordinary in some eyes, but there may be nothing more noble.


I'm not unrealistic...I know it will be very challenging at times, but with a bit of humor and God walking this journey with us we will be just fine. After all, he could have chosen any number of ways to make his entrance and presence on earth, but he chose to do so through a MOM!

Baby #5 anticipated to arrive August 17, 2011

Our Honey Bousch is 5!

We had Laken's birthday on Saturday, Feb. 26th. The day started out with me needing to do hair for dance pictures. Thankfully Gammy and Grandpa were able to make the trek down. Grandpa went to Braeden's hockey game in Kasson. While Gammy watched Clara, so I could try my best to do Laken's hair (I am not a hair girl), get her in her dance costume and take her to pictures.



Back at the homestead we had an hour to prepare for the party, which was a "Wedding Theme" per the birthday girl. We had wedding balloons and guests were asked to wear a costume or their "finery".





Gammy even made her this AWESOME bride birthday cake! The Cake Boss doesn't have anything on her!










Laken requested we do an egg hunt. We did this one year when her birthday was close to Easter and she requested we do it this year, too. So, that was the first order of business after all the guests had a arrived. The eggs were filled with candy treats.


She requested we open presents next and was elated that Uncle Mike bought her this Cinderella Castle. Funny thing was, that Ava (the little girl with the black sweater in the pic) brought a present in the exact same bag as Mikes and was practically in tears, because she thought her parents had wrapped up the wrong gift.



Gammy gave Laken a Barbie complete with a wedding dress and veil she made herself. Laken hasn't put her down, yet!





Next on the docket was the cake! Check out everyone in their finery. Even Laken's classmate Carter wore a shirt, tie and vest!





Laken making a wish and blowing out her 5 candles!







Laken's final request for her birthday party was a pinata (she's never had one before) and she wanted to save that for last! Here she is winding up! She had such a great day!




Yesterday for her real birthday she was so excited to bring cake to school for snack time. She also wanted to get duded up in her Christmas dress. We celebrated with her when Brad got home from work. Brad and I gave her a training wheel bike complete with a seat on the back for her doll. Her first actual bike! Her siblings gave her playdough, sidewalk chalk and a groom's outfit for one of her Ken dolls.










We had one of the kids favorite meals, tacos, for supper and later polished off the rest of the cake from preschool. I can't believe she is 5 already! But, I'm glad she is so proud to be 5!