Is it possible?

Josie lost her two front teeth and soon after, Charlie got his first two teeth. I call that true "give and take"!!! :)

Daddy, STOP! (Tickle, Tickle)

Oh, I am soooooo tired!

Iowa

There are many things to love about Iowa.
- the green, green grass
- the big expanse of blue sky (even in the winter)
- the corn
- seeing for miles and miles
- the early morning sunrises and beautiful sunsets

There are many things to not like about Iowa.
- the smell of ripe manure being spread on the fields, especially this time of year.
- hog smell
- WIND that makes you wonder why anyone would live here!
- wind and bitter cold in the winter
- um, these little black bugs that never used to live here when I lived here before, but now live here since I have moved back. They come during the harvest, and spit acid on your skin (which totally burns).

I am sure there are pros and cons to every state and country. I thought I would share with all of you the things I like and don't like :)

cousins

After Hurricane Ike hit Houston, TX, Julie and Eden came to stay. During their time in Iowa, we had a get-together at the Trowbridges where we decided it would be good to get a picture of the Droog kids. From oldest to youngest: Katelyn, Samantha, Jennifer, DJ, Shayla, Josie, Shiloh, Emma, Shalom, Eden, Yishai, Charlie and new baby (Dan and Julie) on the way!!!!!

My Grandpa

My Grandpa Crull passed away this past Sunday. We have been busy this week packing, traveling to Illinois, seeing family that I never knew I had, attending the visitation, the burial and the memorial service.

I never lived close to my Grandpa and Grandma growing up, but my parents made a big effort every Summer to visit and stay with them for 2-3 weeks while my dad helped with the farming. It was one of my favorite memories of childhood - going to my Grandparents in Illinois. They had a huge farm with an orchard of apple trees, a swimming pool, GREAT food, pedal cars (yes the classics!), cats/kittens, cows, a riding lawn mower, and the list could go on and on. I was always sad to leave when our time was done.

My Grandpa was extremely musical. He LOVED music and sang all the time for weddings, funerals, with a Barbershop Quartet, etc. I remember when I was learning to play the piano, he would love to listen to me and would always encourage me to play with more feeling. (I suppose that is why today I "feel" so much through music). He would literally sit at the piano with me and sing with feeling. It was such a learning experience I never knew was even happening.

The last time I saw my Grandpa was over 2 years ago. I have to say that when my Grandma passed away when I was in 6th grade, our relationship changed. He remarried and we were still living far away, so everything changed. We did not see him as much as we had all the other years.

I think what saddens me is that our ties to our life and memories of Illinois may be gone forever. A part of history/generation is ending. A cousin of mine told me yesterday that he and his wife had visited a few years ago and video taped Grandpa for about 2 hours. They drove around and heard all kinds of stories - where he grew up, things he had built, etc. I have never heard those stories from him, but we now have it documented. History doesn't have to be lost if we stop our busy lives and spend the time talking, sharing stories, etc.

I will forever be grateful to my cousin who took that time to do that for our family. I look forward to hearing and learning more... from my Grandpa - in his own words, his own facial expressions. That will be something to cherish and hang on to for the next generation.

Thank you Brett and Julie!

PEEK-A-BOO

During Charlie's younger days, he figured out the game peek-a-boo all on his own. He would somehow get the blanket over his head, giggle and kick awhile, then quickly pull the blanket off. I think he is learning quickly how to self-entertain, which is a great thing to learn - I just never thought he would have it down at 4 months old, when he started this new trick!

Bathtime

The whole family gets involved with Charlie's bathtime! He loves the sink because he fits so perfectly, plus he can just splash away without falling over :) (Notice that poor Charlie is way in the back of everyone. Someday soon he will be fighting for the front.)

1st Tooth!

Do you see it? There it is FINALLY!! We had a hard time getting this little tiny thing to come through, poor baby.

Birthday Celebrations

DJ and Josie turned 7 and 9 in August. I am a little late in the game with pictures, but here they are!

Mom's homemade cake for Josie. The kids like to pick their decorations, and Josie wanted squiggles. I can do that!!

All the kids together. This could be a first!
DJ chose a spiderman cake (mom did NOT make this one). We had a combined b-day party. Josie seemed fine having a "boy" cake too. :)

IT'S ABOUT TIME

I have found that I am terrible with correspondence, and now I have found that it takes me 2 months to post a new blog! I might have to send out another email for people to check it out, because by now they have given up. I truly hope to be better at posting since I have two full-time school kids, and one part-time school kid and a baby who takes wonderful naps. There really should be NO excuses, right? I gotta run because I have pictures to snap!!!!!!!!

Training

I think training DJ when he was an infant was much easier than it has been training Charlie.

Now that our house has become a 3 bedroom home from previously being a 4 bedroom home, we have 3 kids in one room. Charlie's crib is in with the girls, which causes a big problem when it comes to training him to sleep through the night. (no, he is STILL not sleeping through the night!!)

We have done the method of training where Charlie will start to cry, and we all (yes, all - even DJ downstairs can hear him crying) endure the crying for 10 minutes. Jeff or I will go in and pat him on the back and then let him cry for 15 min., then we go in and pat him on the back and we continue on in this pattern. Well, the first night we were all awake for a good hour or more. Of course, Charlie decided to do this a few times during the night. Needless to say, our whole family was exhausted by the time the sun popped up!

We have now set up a nice comfy "bed" downstairs in DJ's room, on the floor for the girls, until Charlie is sleeping completely through the night. It is amazing how much a little person can change everything that has been established for years!

Maybe if DJ had been number 4, he would have been the same as Charlie.

Summer Time Fun!

Oops! Got some hair with this one!

Summer rec ball for Josie and DJ.

All ready for our trip to Michigan (Yes, they were all awake at 4:30am!)

On the playground at Lake Michigan in South Haven.

The Pier!
The kids with their good friends, the Batts girls - Madelyn, Audrey and Ellie (except Charlie, who missed out on the whole lake thing because he was hungry.)

We have been busy having fun this Summer. We have done some traveling, some swimming, some laking, some summer rec for the kids and some staying home for "family night". We still have a few more fun things up our sleeve, but we will have to be quick because the days are dwindling fast!

WE ARE GOING PLAID

If anyone was in Jr high or highschool during the late 80's or early 90's, this would have been a common picture. I have to say that back in highschool, when Jeff would wear his plaid blue and white pants with his blue golf shirt, he looked oh-so-good!!!

I can't believe my kids are now wearing the plaid bottoms. That truly makes me feel old!

Finally!

We finally have a family picture with ALL of us in it!

Dance, Dance, Dance

What fun it is to dance with your cousin. Alleke is from Spain and is visiting us for a few weeks. She seems to be adjusting to American culture pretty well. So much so, she feels like dancing!!

Our Little Bear

The big adventure!

I don't know how much different my life is to other stay-at-home mom's, but I just have to share my feelings on our big family adventure this past Saturday.

We went to Sioux City for the day to celebrate my birthday!!!! I was so excited!! :)

Baptism

Baptism was this past Sunday. It was a fun day and it actually went smoothly! Charlie's uncle Newton preached, which was very special to us. DJ, Josie and Emma sang "Jesus Loves Me" for the special music and did great, even though it was different singing in front of everyone versus just practicing in the van (at the top of their lungs!) We had a lunch at Jeff's parents house after the big event. It is amazing how much time and energy went into Baptism morning, when Charlie didn't have a clue what was going on. He slept, except for when the water was put on his head. Then he cried.

Jeff and I thank God daily for our little "miracle", as we call him. Despite our human efforts to plan our life, God decided to plant another little one in our lives and we are so thankful for him and the responsibility we have been given to raise him as a child of God. We continually pray for strength and wisdom every day as we raise our four children.

Here are a few pictures of the day. We realized when it was all said and done that we had forgotten a picture of our family. I guess that is what happens when it comes to the fourth child. We hopefully have it video taped!

Penny Penny Hands Up

Aunt Julie and Cousin Eden came to visit a few weeks ago from the far away state of Texas, so the Droog family had a get-together. It is quite common for the game "penny penny hands up" to be a part of a Droog get- together evening. It is a game that even the little ones can play, and of course it requires being sneaky which they ALL love. If I have posted these pictures correctly, they should show a few stages of the game. At the end, the other team has to guess which person has the penny under their hand. Some of the Droog's are great fakers!!!!

The BIG sister

Emma has been the little sister to DJ and Josie for 4 years. She is so excited to finally be a big sister to Charlie and she is doing an amazing job!!

"Party of Two" Continued

Quite honestly, I look back to our life as two and think it was pretty boring - free, but boring. Don't get me wrong, Jeff and I enjoy eachother's company very much and would love to go on a date once in a while, but I think we all know how that goes when there are 4 kids involved (one being a 5 wk old!!)


Our early married days were spent working A LOT, socializing, exercising, etc. We were both full-time students at a private Christian college, which meant high tuition. Jeff was told at one point from the financial aid guy that he had made more than any other student, ever. That's why we actually ended up paying more for school!! Good incentive to work, huh?! Jeff built hockey rinks and worked for a cleaning company (about 30 hrs a week). I worked at a local grocery store, a group home, and at the college. I ran 3 miles a day, Jeff golfed when he wanted, and together we got together with friends whenever we felt like it. Oooh, the good ole days.

We finished our years of school and moved to Michigan to start our new life. Jeff had a teaching job, so I started looking for work as a social worker. It took about 8 months to get a job in my field, but I got one and we were rolling in the dough! After our first year in Michigan, we bought our first house and started to think about filling it up with more than our two person party. About 7 months later, I was pregnant. Yay!!!

Our 5 years of being a "party of two" was now going to be a "party of three" and we were totally excited.

Party of Two

As the title of our blog indicates we are using this space to journal the different things that happen in the life of our family of six. So, we generally write about our current experiences or situations. We thought it would also be good to let everyone know how we got to this point. So we are going to include a few blogs about how we got to this point in our life.

“Party of Two”

It is a lot easier to go out and get a table at a restaurant as a party of two. Monica and I met when we were both students at Unity Christian High School. We did not know each other very well and we had different groups of friends most of our high school years. We started to notice each other more when we took “Christian Marriage and Family” as a senior year elective course. Monica and I were paired up as a couple to make a budget. Since that spring of 1992 we have been a couple. We dated for our first two years at Dordt College and then got married in June of 1994. I will let Monica tell you more about our life as a “Party of Two.”

What's Next?

Charlie has now been at home for 4 weeks. It has proved to add to our busyness and bring us joy. Since his arrival our family has dealt with jaundice (which requires a very inconvenient billi-wrap), the stomach flu and Influenza A. Up until his birth, our family had been healthy all year. Charlie does not seem to notice, he just eats, sleeps and well you know.

SNOW DAY!!

If you have ever seen the movie Snow Day, or have ever been a kid in a snowy climate, then you know the joy attached with the words SNOW DAY. We had one of those today. I can imagine that certain parents dread these days. Having all the kids at home under one roof, or having to find arrangements for your children if you work, would be a hassle. Fortunately, Monica is a stay at home mom and I am a teacher. As a teacher I celebrate the SNOW DAY even more then I did as a student.

Party of Six?

So, why "Party of Six"? When Jeff and I were first married and we had just moved to Michigan (yes, we finally had cable!), we watched the show "Party of Five". It became one of our favorites and we looked forward to what would happen each week.

On January 27th, we welcomed home the 6th member of our family, Charlie Alan. We had been a "party of five" family for 4 years and we had planned on keeping it that way, until...well, I probably don't need to explain the rest!

We are now a family that consists of Jeff (the dad), Monica (the mom), DJ (the older brother), Josie (the oldest sister), Emma (the younger sister) and now Charlie (the baby). We are now a "party of six" because let's face it, when there are six members, it's always a party!!!!!