2024

Feliz Año Nuevo!!!

Happy New Year!!! This was one of the more memorable new year's in recent memory. We went with the Schurr's to Mexico right after the Christmas holiday for an entire week of sun and fun at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. We realized on the flight down this would be the girls' longest vacation yet with a total of eight days away from home.

Our first stop was a night in Chicago in preparation for early morning flight the next day. What was supposed to be a fairly straightforward flight and bus ride turned into one of those epic travel days you are thankful happen only rarely (and hopefully without kids). Needless to say the kids were bit slaphappy and sleepy when we arrived at our resort several hours later than expected.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time eating food, hanging out at the pool, enjoying the shows, hanging out on the beach, and playing in the water park. The girls especially enjoyed paining ceramics by the pool and watching/participating in some of the poolside entertainment. Liesl insisted we explore the resort's jungle paths trying to discover new statues of various colors and definitely looked forward to her daily kiddie cocktail by the pool. Huxley was always intrigued by the evening entertainment, she even stayed up late enough to watch it a few times.

All in all this was a great week to unplug, relax, and spend some high-quality time together as a family.

Dreary Winter Fun

The long stretch between the end of the holidays and the start of spring is always a challenge. Short days, long nights, and color gray dominating the sky. This year we kept busy with variety of activities.

Ever since Huxley tried climbing last year she asks to go every so often, so we spent a a bit of time at Climb Kalamazoo seeing how high she could get on the walls. We also attended one of Liesl's favorite events of the year, the annual chili cook-off in downtown Kalamazoo! Everyone enjoyed sampling all the delicious entries. The girls got their nails done with Mom and we attended some school events. The Glow Party was a perhaps the most noteworthy, complete with glow BINGO, glow games, crafts, and a glow dance party!

We also spent some time hanging around the house. Using the nuggests to make forts downstairs is always a popular activity. This year, the EZ Rollers the girls received for Christmas was an especially popular choice for walks around the neighborhood, especially over the Reece and Calli's house. 

Huxley choose to have her 6th birthday party at Jungle Joe's. Fun was had by all at the Eevee-themed celebration with lots of jumping, running, and game-playing. Hux even hit a 1,000 ticket jackpot!

Easter, Liesl's 4th Birthday, and a Couple Random Things

As our family was preparing for a new house and a new baby we , of course, took time for some Easter egg hunts and to celebrate Liesl's birthday.

Similar to past years the girls enjoyed dying their own Easter eggs. We also ended up eating quite a few colored eggs in the week or so following the celebration. We went to Grandma Donna's and Grandpa Randy's for the annual hunt with the Sullivan's. We ALMOST found all the eggs. Grandpa Randy found one a month later with the lawn mower.

Liesl had her 4th birthday party at HTN Playground this year with lots of her friends. Unsurprisingly, the most popular piece of equipment for all the kids was the banana swing. Coincidentally (or not), that thing is also by far the most dangerous thing in the entire place. Luckily, everyone made it through without any serious injuries and we can caulk up another successful birthday party.

Building a House

Last summer Mom and Dad decided to build a new house with Allen Edwin instead of buying a pre-existing home. About 10 months later we got to move in! The whole process was generally quite painless. We made our selections last fall in a couple of days up at the Allen Edwin showroom in Grand Rapids, construction started in December, and we closed the first week in May!

This was easily the most arduous moving process that Mom and Dad have ever experienced since our family consisted of 4.5 people at the time. Soooooo much stuff! However, now that we are settled, appreciation has started to set in. Dad loves having an office with windows that is NOT in the basement. The extra square footage in the living areas and kitchen make for less clutter. Perhaps most importantly, especially as the kids get older, is the the extra bathroom. The next door neighbors even have kids that are very close to all three of ours!

On a more somber note we were terribly sad leaving our old house. It was our first home and we very much enjoyed the community feel of the neighborhood. We put in a lot of work and time transforming it into someplace we loved and grew our family from 3 to 5 there. However, we are so grateful for the opportunity to now have a house that fits our needs as a family and will give us a place to enjoy in the years to come. Cheers to new beginnings.

Welcome to the World, Knowles!

On June 14th at XXXXXX PM we welcomed Knowles David Schell into the world at Bronson hospital. For the third time, we had a scheduled induction and also for the third time it was a smooth and quick birth. However, this time around both Mom and Dad were VERY anxious to get home after the birth. Hospitals are the least comfortable place to care for a newborn. Fortunately, everything looked good and both Mom and baby were discharged the next day.

The girls reacted a bit differently to the newest member of the family. Huxley loved him from the start. She held him for a good 30 minutes when she met him in the hospital and stared at him the entire time. Liesl refused to acknowledge his existence for the first week, although she now shows him toys, talks to him, etc. Surprisingly (or perhaps not considering American employers' views towards parental leave...), Dad's parental leave is better than Mom's. Dad has 12 weeks of parental leave. Mom gets 8 weeks and has to cobble together another four to get to 12. Either way, both are looking forward to some time off to relax and bond with the baby.

So far Knowles seems to be an "average" difficulty baby who is healthy and (mostly) happy.

Summer Break...for Everyone!

Mom and Dad were both lucky to have 12 weeks of parental leave that gave them basically the entire summer off to get adjusted to life as a family of five. Its amazing how once you stop the rush of work and daily life how things slow down, but your time still gets filled. 

This summer was filled with baseball games, a few trips, friends, family, and trying to grow a lawn at the new house. Huxley finished her kindergarten year and did great! Mom and Dad could both see substantial changes as she grew and matured throughout the year. Happy/sad/proud, the perpetual emotion of parenthood. Huxley also had the chance to attend some camps this summer. She went to nature center camp for two weeks as a black chickadee and attended an art camp at the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts. She is really becoming a little artist! Liesl continued to be her spunky self and has started coming around the idea of having a little brother to take care of. She has even started to give hime some of her toys play with!

Gone

Change is constant as parent. Schedules change, the kids change, we ourselves change. There are moments along the way that crystallize that feeling. That make us pause for a moment and reflect on what was, what is, what might be to come. Mostly these moments are ephemeral, or might make an imprint for a few days or weeks, only to fade into the background as the inevitable forward march of our lives continue. But sometimes those moments are profound, and leave their mark on us for a lifetime. To be sure, some are big moments, like a graduation or birthday milestone, but other times they are completely unexpected, the result of an intangible mix of circumstance, emotion, and practical happenstance. 

I was struck the other night while lounging in the living room with the family by how fleeting childhood really is, and how once kids leave a developmental stage they never come back. Since we have three kids, with the oldest being 6 and half, I had already experienced this thought several times before, but this time was different. Liesl, just over 4 years old at the time, was watching TV and said something very sassy back to me with a scowl on her face. She said it with full knowledge it was rude and that it might make someone angry. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was almost physically taken aback. Not by anger, annoyance, or frustration, but by the feeling that the child who Liesl had been was no more...and she was never coming back. The innocent, sweet toddler we had come to love and hold and cuddle had been replaced by a....kid. Neither version of Liesl was or is better than the other, just different, but I could not help but feel a profound sense of loss at what was no longer there. What was...gone.