Great Expectations

My son Andrew's latest Facebook post.

It was his way of announcing that his wife Rachel is pregnant. The envelope contained a invitation to his best friend's wedding. Andrew labeled the picture - "Thanks Luke and Megan for inviting our WHOLE family.

Facebook comments flew fast and furious. 90 comments so far. Facebook makes revealing juicy tidbits super easy. My first five pregnancies were pre-Internet days so news traveled a bit slower.

I'm so relieved this is out in the open. It was not an easy secret to keep. Andrew called a week before Christmas and said, "Hello Grandma Vik."

Andrew loves to joke and I didn't want to get my hopes up so I asked what he meant.

Turns out he wasn't joking. Lord willing, next July Keith and I will be grandparents. My grandmother biological clock has been ticking. I tried not to make any "hinting for grandchildren comments" around Andrew and Rachel because that would be annoying and I don't like to deliberately annoy people. (Just ask my husband who is trying to sleep while I blog in bed. If the light (dimmed of course) doesn't bug him, the pecking movements from my typing will.)

We were sworn to secrecy for a few weeks. I flunked secret keeping the very next day. It was the best news ever and I told two close friends and asked them not to tell anyone. We live six hours away from Andrew. What harm could it do?

The next day, I mentioned to another friend. "If you were to guess my secret, would you keep it a secret? I can't tell you, but if you guess, I'll say if you're right or wrong." My daughters had a fit so I didn't tell anyone after that. I only told three people. Keith told six. Normally we're better secret keepers but this news didn't want to stay bottled up.

My daughters are thrilled. They love babies. This poor child will be the first grandchild on both sides AND will have six aunts.

Lots of smiles at our house over this news with a few happy dances thrown in.

"Grandma Vik." I like the sound of that.

A lot.

Favorite Pictures of 2012

(almost everyone is wearing a pair of my reading glasses)

 
"Raising children is like making biscuits:  it is as easy to raise a big batch 
as one, while you have your hands in the dough." --E.W. Howe--

 I stole the quote from my friend Lori.

For your viewing pleasure,

My favorite family pictures from 2012

Muddy Buddies

(Amy and Anna)

Andrew and Rachel camped in the South Dakota Badlands

My DIL Rachel graduated from UW-LaCrosse in May
(photo by Cindy Schwerdtfeger)

  My Handsome Hubby
(photo by Brook Peckham)

First time my family has all been together in 22 years
(I'm the oldest - sister on far left is two years younger, 
sister in purple is four years younger,
and my brother is five years younger.  

Christina learning to shoot
(photo by Robin Stitzing)

Lani and Amy with two friends
(Little Girl's Beach near Ironwood, MI
photo by Lori Poppinga) 

Christina was Maid-of-Honor in this wedding
(I have a thing for hay bales)
photo by the wedding photographer

Wedding Photo Booth
(photo by Sarah Illick)

Enjoying my new purple reading glasses

Anna, Rachel, and Kiah

Lani's Birthday at Amnicon State Park

Our October Birthdays

Amy and Rachel

Lani, Anna's, and my reflection
(Korean War Memorial in Washington DC)

Amy, Lani, and Anna
(FDR Memorial in Washington DC)

 
Lani and Erica
(These two get along well, as opposed to 
other sister combinations who don't get along so well) 

Business as usual

“Your children are the greatest gift God will give to you, and their souls the heaviest responsibility He will place in your hands. Take time with them, teach them to have faith in God. Be a person in whom they can have faith. When you are old, nothing else you've done will have mattered as much.”

--Lisa Wingate--

I'm linking up with Lori whom I stole the quote from

/>
 

2012 - A Year of Blogging

I got this idea from my blog friend, Leslee at
There Are Angels Walking On This Earth Disguised As Moms

To participate simply post the title or first sentence of your first blog post from each month.  You can also add a favorite picture from each month, even though it doesn't necessarily go with the post.

January

 Amy participated in a Polar Plunge

February - Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of our first date

March

Met a Blog Friend in Real Life
(Carla from The River)

April
Good-byes are Never Easy - 
 Tribute for my friend's husband who died

May

 Memorizing the Book of James

June - (While my family was on vacation, my friend Lori guest blogged for me.)

If You Give a Mom a Minute to Write a Blog Post

July - 
 A Sunburn to Remember

August 
 My husband's Summer Philosophy

September

A Blue Moon

October

 Pride Goes Before a Fall
(Or Why I like Fall But Not Falling)
 

November

 Christmas Card Photo Fail 

December
 The Library of Congress

The original idea for this post came from here:
Work of Heart and Soul
 

New Year's Greetings

I got hopelessly behind last year. Today is a new beginning and I plan to get off to a good start. 

So since the Christmas ship has already sailed, our family would like to wish you a Happy, Healthy, and Grace-filled 2013.

(For friends and family who still can't keep track of which name goes with which face

Front L to R - Anna, Kiah, Lani, Angie, Christina

Back - Andrew, Keith, Erica, Amy, and Rachel)

It was a toss-up for which picture to use for our Christmas Card pictures. The kids voted for this one. 

In our family, the kids all get one vote, I get eight votes, and Keith gets 16. This picture was fun and I'm not categorically or philosophically opposed to fun, I just liked the first one better. I made an unpopular, executive decision and went for smiling and normal instead of fun and crazy. 

Finding a day when all ten of us would be together is not easy since Andrew and Rachel live six hours south. This was the first time since last Christmas we all were together. 

We had a window of one and a fourth of a day to get this done. I opted for the full day, but couldn't for love or money get people to cooperate. Either someone had work or school or other commitments. 

Thirty minutes before Andrew and Rachel left we finally set about the difficult task of getting ten people to look at the camera, smile and look intelligent all at the same time. (As it is, we made the mistake of having two people take pictures at the same time. If you look closely, some people are looking to one side, and the others are looking to the other side.)

We refereed a few disputes over certain sisters wearing other sisters' clothes without asking.   

I have a Pinterest board with family photography ideas and envisioned something like cool like this 
  

But instead got this

Or even worse, this

Not sure why we thought eating bird seed would make 

a good picture. It seemed like a good idea at the time. 

After ten cold minutes, 

Keith said, "Okay, that's good enough. We're done."

"But wait, we haven't done anything cool yet." 

(Other than take outdoor pictures on a cold November day)

Some year we might get our picture 

on the Top 50 Family Photos List,

But not this year.   

             Thanks for caring about our family. 
                  Blessings on the New Year.