Purple

So, if you are the sort of person who reads this blog on a regular basis then it might occur to you to question the timelyness of certain posts.  In light of the last post's mention of further comments concerning the birthday celebrations of two little beautifuls you may find yourself even more inclined then usual to complain/whine/kvetch or otherwise make your disapproval known. This is, of course, your right to do, but does not change the fact that life is busy and this post is just appearing now.

In addition to celebrating the girls's birthday on their birthday in Florida with the family, we also had a small birthday party here for the girls and their friends...

...and the (or a) parents of said friends.  Because while we are evidently crazy enough to have a party with 9 little girls, we are not so crazy (as of yet) to do it on our without the presence/aid/back up of some contingency of parental unit for each child.

  

You may recall that when asked the girls (especially Parker) had declared that what they wanted for their Birthday (was purple).  So we had a purple birthday party in which everyone wore purple and we served purple cake and purple icecream, along with Peanut Butter and Grape Jelly sandwhiches, grapes, and Blue Corn Chips.

 Even Hannah Kate got into the act and pulled out her purple dress

3 Years and Counting!! or Hey...How about that!!

Hey...would you look at that over there.  Right there over on the right.  There's a newish picture up over there.  Huh....look at all of us all in Auburn together.  When did that get there?  No really, when did that get there?  Cause I really don't have any idea.  I have not been on this blog in way way way way way way (you get the idea) too long.  Much to the chagrin of my beautiful, lovely, wonderful wife.  So now here I am looking at this blog and thinking...wow...there sure are a lot of changes going on around here.  A whole new look, and hey....look down there.  No, no, no...not at the pictures in this post (I'll tell you about them in a minute--stop trying to rush me) the pictures in the post before that.  The whole traveling Broges post.  I haven't read it yet.  But those are some cute pictures I didn't even realize existed.  What is particularly fun for me is seeing all the shots in my grandparents house up there.  Can't explain why but seeing my girls in that delightfully orange kitchen just fills my heart with joy.

What was that?  Where have I been?  Well...busy.  The whole PhD/work thing takes up a little bit of time and since that plays second fiddle living it up with Mary Jane and the girls I really have let this whole blogging thing slip.  Much to the annoyance of my beautiful, lovely, wonderful, patient, kind amazing wife.  You see (and I hope I am allowed to tell you this) she really doesn't like writing the blog and she has been forced to do be the person who does it (with the exception of that random post on our anniversary) for a while now.  She likes the having, but not the writing.  Personally I think she does a better job of writing the blog, but....  So why am I suddenly here now blathering on like an idiot?  Well there are a number of possible explanations.  Most of them are lies however, so I will skip them and jump to the one where I tell you it is Mary Jane's birthday on Sunday (Facebook will tell you to wish her a Happy Birthday so I won't bother to tell you) and she has told me the one thing that she wants for her birthday is for me to write a post and "not just pictures one with meaningful words."

Now, when your wife says this to you there are a lot of things that can go through your mind.  If your like me you could think something like "what kind of words aren't meaningful?" or "skip the words with no meaning?" but if you have an ounce of sense in your head you will keep your mouth shut and not utter these things.  Because if your wife says something like that to you, hopefully you will have enough sense to realize that what she is really saying is not "Oh, honey I really don't want anything else for my birthday...." but "listen buddy....you know I hate this, it's your turn."  (Mary Jane has requested that I take out the word hate in the previous sentence because it is entirely too strong and might leave people with the wrong impression.  She told me that she recognizes that it won't make the sentence quite as funny but... And so I have decided to add a long explanation about the whole thing as a compromise because marriage is all about compromise...though not really...but that is another conversation and it entirely depends on what you mean by compromise and this sentence has really gotten away from me so I am just going to s


So....Happy early Birthday Mary Jane.  Of course this isn't a Mary Jane birthday post.  Oh no.  That will come on Sunday.  No, I was given the task of talking about another birthday - or pair of birthdays. On Tuesday, August 30, 2011 Parker and Emma Jane turned 3.  We were in Destin with Mary Jane's family and had a purple birthday party.

Why purple?  Well I'm glad you asked.  It started early in the summer when Mary Jane asked the girls what they wanted for their birthday.  Emma Jane was initially silent on the matter.  Park spent some time in thoughtful reflection and then announced quite decidedly that she would like "purple."  After some thought Emma Jane decided this made good sense and it was not long before both of them began announcing to all who cared to listen that they wanted purple for their birthday.  Mary Jane, being resourceful and creative in ways that I am not, decided this was something we could actually get for them - in the form of a purple birthday party.  So their was a purple table cloth and purple wrapping paper and purple party hats, and special purple cups and a purple birthday cake made by yours truly...with purple icing to boot.

Fun was had by all and it was really great to celebrate the girls birthday with Nana, Pop, Granny, Paw Paw, Uncle Mark, Aunt Teela, baby Lilly (cousin), Julie (Teela's mom) and of course Turbo (Nana and Pop's dog).

Okay, what is likely supposed to happen now is that I am supposed to find a couple more pictures of them with their purple Destin Birthday party and say some more sweet (read: meaningful) things about it and then smoothly transition to talking about the friend birthday party they had here in St. Louis the next weekend.

I started looking for the appropriate pictures and all I found was this

and this

So...it turns out I am likely going to need to load more pictures from the camera onto the computer and by the time I do that, blah blah blah...it all comes down to this.  You're tuff out of luck.  You're not getting any pictures of the purple St. Louis Birthday party that was five times the purple with only half the butter.  Nope.  Not going to do it.

Well not tonight anyway.

Tell you what.  If you agree to come back real real soon, I will get another post up.  Then Mary Jane can have TWO birthday presents (I spoil her) and you can have two posts by me.

In the mean time....look back at those pictures above.  Look at them wearing Nana's classes and clowning around.  Go ahead.  Look.

I can wait.

Now look at this:

Yeah...it's been three years.  It is hard to believe.  And look at them now:

The Lord has blessed us.  He has been merciful to us.  We don't deserve Parker and Emma Jane and yet we get to be their parents.  I don't understand all the twists of the path we have taken to get here, but I am so thankful for them.  Not just them, but Mary Jane and Hannah Kate.  This family is the greatest gift I could have been given.

If you care, I will endeavor to write more.  Because it makes Mary Jane happy, and because...I still love bragging on my family.

Blessings to all of you

and Happy Birthday Parker and Emma Jane

The Traveling Broges

As many people know, we travel alot- especially for having three children. Our summer started out driving to Chattanooga, then in June we went to Chicago. While we were there we visited Emily and Paul who know have a beautiful baby girl, Imogen. We took the month of July off (although Nana came to us) and then packed in the trips in August. Our first trip was to Cincinnati to visit Gigi, Gigi, Grandma Broge, and Grandpa Broge. We had a great time visiting, going to the pool, eating lunch at new places, playing the piano, washing the car in the driveway (we don't have one so this really was a new fun treat for the girls), and playing with the huge train set in the basement. Jason and I even got to go on a date.  We also had a little birthday party for Parker and Emma Jane (the first of three).

The men hard at work reviving the train set

Dress up clothes are all the rage right now

More on the rest of the trips to come...

5 months

Hannah Kate turned 5 months on the 23rd and then we left for the beach for a week! She wants to be a big girl like Parker and Emma Jane so bad. She watches every single move they make to the point where she doesn't even want to stop to eat.  This months accomplishments include: finding her feet and putting them in her mouth, mastering oatmeal eating (she loves her some oatmeal), a wide range a babbling noises- Jason thinks she is part dolphin and is trying to communicate with us in "ultra sonic sonar type squeals", pulling hair, and sitting up with minimal support. Here she is again with her post-nap hair :)  

Happy Anniversary!

Beautiful,

It's hard to believe that seven years have gone by so quickly. Thank you. I can honestly say they have been the seven best years of my life. And taking this brief moment to look back the one thing I am most certain of is that I am thankful I get to spend the rest of my life with you.

On that warm Chattanooga summer day seven years ago when you said I do (not I will, but I do...I loved you all the more for caring about the difference) I knew you were the best gift God had given me, but now I know just how little I understood the truth of that statement. I knew you were compassionate, but I had yet to experience the full range of that compassion; I knew you were smart, but I had yet to live with your quiet, humble wisdom; I knew you loved me, but had yet to see how steadfast your love was, even when I am a jerk; I knew you were strong, but had yet to walk through tragedy with you; I knew I didn't want to live life without you, but hadn't realized I really hadn't been living life until I met you. You have given me far more than I could ever hope to give you.

Thank you.

I love you.

Happy Anniversary.

Love,

your band of hus

Four Months

Hannah Kate turned the big 04 months on July 23rd. This past month's biggest accomplishment has been becoming an avid finger sucker. They are in her mouth all the time... the same two on the same hand. We have even said goodbye to the binkies. Why don't I have a picture of it yet? I have no idea and didn't even realize I didn't have one until I sat down to write this. So alas, it will have to come later.

Hannah Kate is oh so close to rolling over from her back to stomach, and she can even turn herself around in a complete circle- pretty talented I know. I made an attempt to give her some rice cereal to which she made horrible faces and spit every last drop out, so we are going to try again in a couple of weeks. She wants to eat big people food so bad!

Her other current joys in life include:

- Watching everything Parker and Emma Jane do

- Pulling hair

- Attempting to sit up whenever laying down- she has freakishly strong abdominal muscles

- Chewing on toys

- And again- sucking on her fingers

Parker thought Hannah Kate needed a bracelet for the picture

Hannah Kate wasn't too thrilled with this photo shoot- What you can't see is Parker and Emma Jane each holding their own "cameras" and "phones" taking pictures of Hannah Kate while I am trying to... can we say overwhelmed?

The other HUGE undertaking that has occurred in the Broge household has been... potty training. While Jason and I knew this would be quite the undertaking to have two children at the same time doing this- we were unprepared for how intense it would be. We had a three day intensive don't leave the house/ pump the children full of liquid/ give out M&Ms like crazy/ weekend and now we are pleasantly surprised at the results. Yay!

Summertime

Summertime is well under way! At the end of June Hannah Kate turned three months. She is developing more and more personality everyday. Like her parents and sisters, she is proving not to be the most laid back person (shocker I know). She likes to be entertained by Parker and Emma Jane, held, and awake at three AM. She has mastered rolling over from her belly to back although still gets stuck occasionally. She has also found her feet and is able to turn in a complete circle on the playmat (very entertaining).

The obligatory three month elephant photo

So I tried once again to get a picture of all three. I must have said something about making a silly face which prompted Emma Jane to accidentally crush Hannah Kate's face. Afterwards while Hannah Kate cried and recovered from this insult we had a talk about how we can't cover up her face with anything :) Side note, Parker is in fact wearing her sparkly princess dress with her "nurses coat" (NOT a doctor's coat) over it. She wears this almost everyday, and what you can't see is that she also has on high heel dress up shoes.

Parker and Emma Jane are doing fantastic. Having twins is just the best. I love love love watching them interact. They have games they play I don't understand, they make each other laugh (and cry), they tell each other what to do now, and try to help each other. Its awesome. Parker talks talks talks all the time. When she's not talking, she is singing. She wakes up singing most mornings and naptimes. She is SO emotional which is good and bad. Emma Jane wants to be a grown up most of the time. She loves to do anything active- jump, run, swim, etc. She is definitely more strong willed than Parker. They both love Hannah Kate which we are so thankful for and I look forward to the day when they can all three play together.

Because I'm not the kind of person that can just pick up and go with three children, we have been fortunate enough to have lots of summertime fun come to us. Our backyard has a cornucopia of toys and we have lots of friends who have been willing to come to us to play. Maggie and Ben, some small group friends, came over a couple of weeks ago. Maggie is the girls age and Ben is about to start kindergarten. They all played well and Ben got chased by three girls at the same time. It was very funny. Henri and Graham Byrge have also been frequent visitors and we always have a good time when they are come over!!

Chasing Ben... I have a feeling this won't be the last time Ben is chased by a group of girls. That boy is hilarious.

Pool time with Henri

For the fourth of July we didn't do much. It was nice just to all be together as a family for three whole days. We hope everyone had a fantastic holiday!