Party Highlights

While I am twiddling my thumbs today while the packers are packing (I know, must be rough!) I thought I'd do a little blog updating...

Here are some more highlights from our Going Away Party on Saturday:

Craig's Great Aunt Karen came to visit and was a big help with the boys at the party. Gage "claimed" the balloons that were out in honor of Craig's birthday the day before. Here is dear Aunt Karen taking good care of them for Gage while he is playing.


Our awesome Realtor, Mark Charter, with ReMAx. He has been our guy for a long time now! (Did I mention that our house sold in less than 2 weeks??!!) His wife Katie is so cute! I was not good at getting my camera out soon enough and unfortunately did not catch everyone, but here are many great friends that we love and will miss!

The Dvorak's
The Hill's
The Kincaid's
The Bartlett's
Angie Mowery and Mary Warren (Not sure if they know each other, but both were husbandless!)The Gibson's Mr. Gage enjoying a little ice cream treat!

Saying Goodbyes...

It is becoming more and more real that we are moving away. We are experiencing "lasts" now... Last week we had some of our favorite visitors here:

Aunt Holly and Will. (They do have a husband/father whom we love very much too...he just can't always make it! :)

We will miss their visits. My sister openly admits that she does not drive long distances so we will have to wait until Uncle Craig can come too now...hope that's a lot!!!

Eli had his 18 month check up with Dr. Swanson. It was our last time to see him. I admit I choked up a little on the way there!


Here is Eli with Dr. Swanson at 3 months.

We love Dr. Swanson! We will miss him!

On Saturday we had a "Farewell Open House" with lots of great friends. It was terrible not being able to spend more one-on-one time with everyone, but I enjoyed it anyway. We felt very loved. Oh, we are going to miss friends like these...


Then on Sunday we experienced our last service at church. I really lost it during the last worship songs when I was thinking about all that has happened in that special place over the years...being baptized there, meeting Craig there, dedicating my boys there...and I could go on and on.

It's really bittersweet for us. We have so many special friends and memories in Ames. But we are excited to establish ourselves in a new place. May we do our part to make our new community a better place because we are there!

The Little Patient

Our lil Eli the Great had to have surgery a week ago. He was born with an abnormality that has not corrected itself so they had to surgically fix it, and I'll just leave it at that!

I was absolutely dreading it! The thought of waiting for an hour to go to surgery with a child that does not like the doctor's office, and who could not eat or drink anything, then the idea of watching them take my scared and confused baby away from me was too much to bear!

But if I only knew that this is how it was going to go...


I wouldn't have worried a bit! He was so good in the waiting area! He enjoyed looking out the window, sitting in the chair and walking around. And he made no requests for food or juice. (Thankfully the surgery was scheduled for 7:30am!!)

And then to smile like this when he was dressed in his little gown on a hospital bed...!

Wow! We couldn't believe it! We know it was an answer to prayer, absolutely. The miracles kept coming too...When the nurse carried him away from the holding room to surgery, he did not cry, or even look back at us. What?!! And miraculously since he didn't cry, I didn't either!! I was so worried I would be a blubbering idiot, scaring him even more!

All I can say is, Thank you God!

Surgery went well. They prepared us that he would be crying a lot after coming out of anesthesia. He cried and fussed for about 30 min, then fell asleep off and on and became pretty content in Daddy's arms. We were anxious for his iv to come out so we could take him home. Finally the doctor okayed his release and we were home in time for lunch!

Big brother Gage was very curious about "what happened?" and about Eli's "owie". These pictures are so precious to me.Now if only Gage would share his toys with this brother he loves so much....

We are so, so thankful that this surgery is behind us, and that he did so well. One week later he is completely back to normal and his raring-to-go self.

Eli the Great

This is what I am seeing a lot of these days:


It just cracks me up! Little brother Eli is definitely the aggressor, clobbering Gage out of nowhere.

Gage puts up with it, but would rather not be clobbered.

I have to say, I love it! I'm sure one day big brother will reciprocate.

Chicago Here We Come!

Why am I not updating this little blog you may wonder... Among the day to day tasks that can bury me sometimes, we are preparing for here.

Chicago. One of our most favorite places. This picture was taken almost five years ago when I accompanied Craig on a business trip. Little did we know that five years later we'd be moving to this very special place! (A northern suburb to be exact.)

Craig was offered a wonderful job opportunity with Seimens, located in Buffalo Grove. We are so excited for this new adventure for our family! We have a great house/neighborhood near Craig's workplace waiting for us. In one short month we will be headed to our new home.

A Lost Ring Found

I commented on Facebook awhile back about my tremendous joy in finding my lost wedding ring and promised the story would be posted on my blog, so here it is:

One morning, several weeks ago, we were getting ready to go to Craig's parents' house in Davenport. Gage was with me in the bathroom while I was getting ready doing his usual "playing" with the bathroom stuff. Later, on our way out of the neighborhood I noticed that I didn't have my ring on so I made Craig turn around and go back. When I went to the bathroom counter where I usually put it when I take it off at night, it wasn't there. I looked all around and couldn't find it anywhere. I went back to the van and said "Gage, do you know where Mommy's ring is?" Of course I didn't get an answer from an oblivious little 2 year old.

I felt so naked without my ring all weekend. The next week Craig and I looked thoroughly around the upstairs. I was just baffled and sick to think that my ring could be lost forever. (Craig was too, and not for sentimental reasons!)

A few weeks later we were in our hotel room in Las Vegas for a getaway weekend. I was in the shower when I heard Craig gasp. I peek out and what should he be holding? My beloved ring... that he found in his toiletry bag! Our dear little son must have put it in there that morning when it was out on the counter. The amazing thing is, Craig did not see it the entire time at his parents, or when he was in Chicago the next weekend!

Doesn't this picture just seem fitting?!

The find made it a great start to our Vegas trip! I couldn't have been happier. I suppose the few weeks I went without my precious ring made me appreciate it even more...and vow to never take it off again! Now Craig and I each have a good story about losing our rings...his is even more amazing. Maybe I'll write about it sometime. :)

Brotherly Love

Has it really been a month already?! Wow, since two people pointed out that it has been awhile it makes me realize that I DO have readers so I better get crackin! :)

I was just thinking the other day that I have not been taking as many pictures of the boys lately, and I'm not sure why that is. So I got my camera out and started snapping!

Here is Eli checking out Gage's train of trucks. Here are the boys playing together, one of my very favorite things no matter how messy it gets! This one cracks me up! I'm not sure why Eli has such a grumpy face. Here is a close up of his shiner. It actually is worse than it looks. Poor bud fell into a table while we were at a friend's house and caught his cheek. After naptime that day it became his first black eye. I love catching these two together!

Recipe Organization and Menu Planning

I have been realizing more and more lately that I love cooking for my family! It brings me such joy to make them happy with the food I prepare. I am constantly looking for new recipes to try. That is actually one of my favorite things to do! The other night I was telling Craig about how much I love to do that, and he kind of snorted-laughed and said, "That sounds so boring!" Well lucky for us he isn't the one doing the cooking!

I wanted to share a great new system that I have come up with. I have recipes galore, and they are on cards, papers, magazine pages, in cookbooks, everywhere! I wanted to come up with something that organized all of our favorite recipes in one place. This is my answer:


I LOVE my little binder! I found it online through Amazon. It has tabs that I have labeled "Breakfast" "Lunch" "Dinner" "Sides" "Breads" "Desserts" etc. When I find a good recipe to try in a magazine I tear it out and put it in another binder that is my "To Try" binder. When I find a recipe online I copy and paste it to a Word document and save it on my computer. Then after we have tried it we determine if it makes the cut or not into the Recipe Saver.

Every Saturday morning is my time to prepare the next week's menu and grocery list, then go do my shopping. I write out the menu on a white board that we have sitting on the kitchen counter. Craig refers to it often throughout the week when he is curious about what's for dinner. I love this routine! It works great for us. I would love to hear what you do! So come on all you "shy commenters" out there...Let me hear from you!

Good Times

It is definitely time for an update from the Engelbrecht Household! As I previously posted, Craig is now lifting the boys again, which makes my life so much easier! Those 6 weeks were grueling, but we had some great times in there too!

Craig's brother Kevin and his family came to visit! Dalton is just one month older than Gage, and Bentley is 3 months now (2 months when they were here!).

We had lots of fun having them here!

And these two little leprechauns were here for a few days during Spring Break.

Gage had fun watching Will play the Wii.


And we went to Jordan Creek for some shopping and playtime.

That afternoon while we were enjoying the beautiful weather, Gage locked himself in the Envoy ...long story! But the good news is that our 2 year old is so smart, he can also UNLOCK the door as well!


We also visited Gma & Gpa E. in there, and had visits from GrandMary too. So really, as you can see, those 6 weeks went by very WELL!

Here I Come!

Well, a GREAT thing happened last week...We (or should I say Craig) hit the 6 week mark of post-surgery recovery!!! So that means he can start lifting more. He is still taking it easy, but I am no longer tied down to being the only one who can lift Gage and Eli, which means I can actually leave the house, alone! Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore my boys, but everyone needs a little freedom too!

So miscellaneous appointments, women's Bible study, Bunco, and girls night out...here I come!