Sledding

The kids went sledding before Christmas with the neighbor kids. We only had one bloody nose, Mason, he hit a tree. We got close to 2" of rain which melted all the snow. Today we woke up to over 2" of snow and we could possibly get 2 more inches. The kids will be back outside playing again today I'm sure.

Update

Kyra's culture came back negative so we are going to take the wait and see approach. If she continues complaining we'll take her back in.

Mason has an endoscopy scheduled for January 6th. He will be checked for H. Pylori, celiac disease, acid reflux, and food allergy, along with a couple of other things. The doctor said 12 out of 13 times he finds something, the other 1 time it's a pain that is unexplained.

Valynn is at a sleep over tonight. It's a bittersweet one as Allie is moving the end of January so it'll be her last one at Allie's. Kyleigh is busy being Kyleigh and having fun with her new "trick", turning the TV on and off.

Mark has been home in the afternoons all week. Kids and I are enjoying him being home. Work is going good and we see and end in sight for the semester. We are ready for Christmas, the kids can't wait to open their gifts (I'm excited about mine as well).

We wish every one a Merry Christmas!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

I was hoping to get pictures posted sooner but it was a crazy week.

Tuesday Valynn and Mason had their school Christmas program. Kyra and Kyleigh got to stay home with the babysitter. They did great and the program was wonderful. Mason got to sit with us during the program, while Valynn sat in the stands.

Wednesday was Kyra's Christmas program. We've been going to the preschool for five years now and it's been almost the same every year. Kyra did a wonderful job and only showed the audience her underwear once. Mason came with me to Kyra's program while Mark took Valynn to CCD and had Kyleigh.

Thursday was crazy as I dealt with a work related problem most of the day and then ended up spending an extra hour at the school dealing with the issue. My dryer also quit drying so I hauled three loads of laundry across the street to dry. I broke my ricer when trying to make the lefse as well (that is a picture of Kyra helping me mix the lefse). We took the kids to the Festival of Lights and once again it was wonderful. Kyleigh screeched the whole time in delight. After was walked along the light at the riverfront we went to Steak and Shake for shakes and french fries.

Friday I took Kyra back to the doctor because I didn't think her UTI was cleared up, the infection was mostly cleared up but there were some other issues with her sample so I have to call later today to get the results and decided what our next step will be. I was home for 15 minutes before the sitter came and I headed to work. After working for an hour I stopped by the school to finish discussing the issue which was finally cleared up and then headed over to Valynn's classroom for her Christmas party. Mark took half a day off of work and helped in Mason's classroom. When we got home from the parties I started rolling and frying lefse. Valynn helped me fry while Mark and Mason worked on the dryer. After the lefse was done I did flatbrod.

Saturday after a breakfast of buttermilk pancakes I made krumkake (the previous batch was already gone), and buttermilk donuts. I then cleaned house while Mark fixed the dishwasher. I got my rice pilaf done for supper and started Christmas cards until our company arrived. Brad and Chantel came over for supper and we watched the Johnson kids, that makes four adults and 11 kids. We had a great visit, the kids played nicely, and we watched the Christmas Story.

Sunday we went to church, did some grocery shopping, and then I went with Tonya to a local winery to pick up a bottle of wine for her parents. This week Mason has a follow up with the GI so I will keep you posted.

Sunday School Christmas Program

We are definitely getting into the Christmas spirit in the Rinkel household. We enjoyed having the neighbor girl with us all week. We didn't get the snow that was expected here so no snow days for the kids but we did get the house decorated and on Friday and Saturday Mark finished putting up the lights outside. The kids helped me make Rosettes and Krumkake and managed not to eat it all. Saturday night Mark had his work Christmas party at a local dinner theater. This morning the kids had their Sunday School Christmas program. Valynn was an angel, Mason a shepherd, and Kyra a sheep, they did a great job. Kyra fell asleep Saturday afternoon around 4:00 on our way home from Christmas program practice, she slept until 4:00 Sunday morning and then took a nap at 9:00 Sunday morning. I think she was a little tired. This afternoon we had the babysitter come back so Mark and I could finish our Christmas shopping for the kids and each other. Our wallets are now lighter but we are done with our shopping.

This week the kids have Christmas programs on Tuesday and Wednesday and their classroom parties. I'm supposed to work everyday. Tomorrow I'm meeting someone from back home that now lives down here. The kids are done with school for Christmas break on Friday. Have a great week all!

wedding (101 photos), by Chantel Rinkel

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Brady and Jodi's wedding

We left Thursday afternoon for Minnesota. We hit icy roads in Iowa which prompted a call as to who has a wedding in Minnesota in December. We left the farm Friday morning and headed towards Fargo. The rehearsal went well, it was nice visiting with everyone. The wedding was beautiful and we have a wonderful new sister in law. Kyra did a good job as flower girl. She made it down the aisle, almost hit the bride once with her flower ball while standing up front and then went to sit with Grandma and Grandpa. Kyra went 110% from the time she got her hair done until 30 minutes into the reception and then she crashed hard. Our smartest move was bringing our niece Cindy with us to babysit. Valynn and Mason danced the night away. Kyleigh spent most of the night dancing as well. On Sunday we stayed for the gift opening and then met our friend Donn for lunch. We then went back to the farm for the night to watch the Vikings loss. On Monday we made it back to Illinois.

I was hoping to get pictures posted yesterday but it was crazy here. Kyra had gymnastics, I got home and had a friend call asking if I could pick her son up from the neighbor's in home daycare, so I had him for 2 hours. Then Chantel called and asked if I could take Allie a night early so I had to get things ready for her arrival. Allie is staying with us until Friday while her parents are in Texas house hunting. The brunt of the storm missed us, it's cold and windy but we didn't get the snow they predicted.

Mason had his gastroentonologist appointment today. He is on Prevacid for two weeks to see if acid reflux is causing the stomach discomfort if it doesn't improve the next step is an endoscopy to see if the problem can be determined.

Kyra fell off the top bunk last night and might have broken her nose. We talked to the neighbor who is a PA and he said to just have her nose checked at her next appointment. It's looking better today but it was swollen and bleeding last night.

Kyleigh is at a really cute age when she's not throwing a tantrum. She is using a couple of words on a consistent basis now, I wish one of them wasn't uh-oh but I'll talk what we get. She know to wash and dry her hands after I go to the bathroom. Now if I could only get her to use the bathroom I'd be set.

Valynn is getting impatient with me and not decorating for Christmas. She wants to set up her Christmas town.

I had best move on to another task before the three kids get home from school and Kyleigh wakes up from her nap. Have a good week and keep warm.

We are home but soon will be gone

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great time in Indiana. We left Wednesday morning. Thursday Aunt Cindy and Uncle Rick cooked a wonderful meal. On Friday they took the older three kids to the circus. The kids thought it was great and got to ride an elephant, except for Kyra, she didn't want to. They saw horses, bears, tigers, lions, acrobats, clowns, etc. While the kids were at the circus, Mark, Brandon, Grandma, Kyleigh, and I met Tyler for lunch. Saturday we checked out the Evansville zoo, very nice zoo and we got to see the handy work of Sprinklers Plus (aka Uncle Rick and cousin Derrick).

We got home on Sunday in time to watch the Vikings beat the Bears! Today I took Kyra and Kyleigh to the doctor. Kyra has a UTI. Kyleigh has what might be the beginning of an ear infection. She tipped the scales at 19# 15 oz (10%) (she would have weighed 20 lbs. had she not pooped right before we weighed her). She is also 30 1/4 in. long (45%). We will be keeping a close eye on her since she isn't saying very many words but as the doctor explained he tends to see extremes in 3rd and 4th kids. They either talk ALOT (Kyra) or the don't need to talk because everyone knows what they want (Kyleigh). She gets her point across by grunting so why should she learn to talk.

Tomorrow Mason has Pajama day at school. I will be helping out. Thursday afternoon we are leaving for Minnesota. We will be staying at the farm Thursday night, picking up a niece and heading to Hawley for Brady and Jodi's wedding. We will head back to the farm on Sunday and back to Illinois on Monday.

Have a great week. Sorry no pictures but I forgot to take my camera to Indiana. I'm waiting for Aunt Cindy to send some but we won't have any of the circus.