The Life of the Marty Party: November 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

Giving Thanks

We have so much to be thankful for...

Our Thanksgiving feast lacked nothing. The food was traditional and amazing. Things we Americans take for granted: marshmallows, pecans, and canned pumpkin...oh and we were lucky to find [very expensive] sweet potatoes at a high-end grocery store here in Krakow. AND thanks to family and friends for sending us all the necessary ingredients to make our meal complete!

We had a special Thanksgiving here with Q's parents and youngest brother (Justin). We missed Jessica, Steve, Rose and Jimmy...they are already in the states celebrating the holidays with family there--WE MISS YOU GUYS!!! It was a sweet, memorable time. We went around the table and each said one thing we are thankful for this year. It was very meaningful. God has really blessed us. I am so thankful for all of the special family time we've had this past year in Poland. Even though we've been working long hard hours getting this business off the ground, it has been a year of immense healing, growing, and reconnecting as a family. We have many special memories from our time in Lancaster but we've realized how crazy our life was there. Living here has given us a chance to step back...slow down and re-realize the importance of family.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers...I am thankful for YOU

Friday, November 27, 2009

Lefse

Quenton and I both have Norwegian in our blood, so lefse is a family tradition for both of us. I remember at all the family get-togethers around the holidays spreading it with lots of butter and rolling it up with brown sugar inside. And, my mother-in-law has told the story a million times about when Quenton was young and he found and ate -without permission- a huge...HUGE...stack of lefse that she had spent hours preparing for a special occasion. He will surely never live that down.
This year, Eden (and Truman and Briar too)got to get in on the family tradition and help Grandma on the Monday evening before Thanksgiving to make THE LEFSE.

Oh what fun they had and what a great learning experience for Eden. Grandma let her do every step all by herself and she did a great job! ...and then on Thanksgiving we all got to eat it!

bein' silly

Grandpa gets in on the taste test

"Lefse is beautiful" it says on the {lefse cozy}

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Leaving a Legacy

Today is my paternal grandparents' 71st wedding anniversary. What a legacy! I am so grateful to have such amazing examples to follow. At the end of October my parents celebrated their 44th. Growing old with the one you love is such a gift. It is what God intended marriage to be...FOREVER.
We were in Wisconsin a year ago just in time to celebrate their 70th. This year we send our wishes from afar but look forward to seeing all of my family at Christmas!

These pictures were taken last January at our "goodbye party" this was the last time I saw my grandparents before we left for Poland!

My grandmother is now 90 and my grandpa is 93

Happy Anniversary Grandma and Grandpa! I love you!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Tru Dawg!

Truman is EIGHT!!! Everyone always says it, but when my kids have birthdays it only seems more true...Time goes by so quickly!
We woke Truman up by singing Happy Birthday to him. Then, I told him the whole story about the day he was born and of course when I got to the part when the Dr. said, "It's a boy," I totally started crying. OF COURSE. I can't even teach these guys History without tearing up!

Truman LOVES chocolate! For his birthday cake this year, I made a 4 layer chocolate cake with whipped cream filling and dark chocolate frosting.
IT. WAS. YUMMY. I think I even like chocolate more after eating that cake!

We celebrated as a family...Grandma made her famous spaghetti with meatballs dinner and we set up a long table in Grandpa and Grandma's living room! Eden was working on the decorations for the party all day! She's such a fun big sister...a great party planner!

he received gifts and hugs from his cousin, Rose

Grandpa's gift started out ...now that you're 8 you have to work for your gift! There was a series of clues to find all over the house. He found this one in our fireplace,

Finally, the last clue led him to his own pillow where he found a card stuffed with US Dollars and Polish Zloty!

Truman had two friends over for his birthday party! Philip and Kaleb are his friends from church. The party started at the Krakow Tigers [American Football] game! The boys got good and muddy playin' their own game of football on the sidelines, and then we took the boys to our house from there...

Truman got a Wii for his birthday from Uncle Steve and Aunt Jessica! We have been having so much fun with it so Q decided we should do a Wii sports tournament at Truman's birthday party.

Truman wanted to have pizza for supper so I had the kids each make their own

We are in the right business for this kid! He has a sweet-tooth unlike anyone else I know! So, for his party Grandma made sure he had his favorite, chocolate chip, and I decorated it with another favorite, football!

Truman blowing out his candles...or from the looks of it in this picture, perhaps his friends beat him to it!

Well, I just want to take this opportunity to say, Truman is a complete joy to Quenton and I. He is just such a great little guy in every way. We are so proud of him. He has a great sense of humor, he's always making all of us laugh. He is a great little brother to Eden and the best big brother to Briar...I love to watch him with his sisters. His cousin Jimmy ADORES HIM! He's so great at any sport he tries...football of course being his number one favorite. He's so helpful to me around the house with anything I ask...I seriously only have to tell him once to do something and he just does it...FOREVER! I think I taught him to make his bed when he was like 3 or 4 and I told him he should do it every day...well, guess what! He's done it EVERY DAY SINCE!!! And the same goes for taking his dishes to the sink after every meal he NEVER forgets! He's caring and gentle and loving and kind, patient, sweet and thoughtful...I truly can't say enough good about him!
Happy Birthday, Truman, WE LOVE YOU!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Taylor Swift, a Skeleton, and a Little Asian Girl

We had a fun Halloween in Krakow! We spent all day getting[Eden]ready! We tied her hair up in rags to curl it like Taylor's! Then we sprayed a bunch of yellow and gold hairspray in it to make it look blonde. I did her make-up --of course-- just like Taylor's! It was so much fun! Briar made up a song...she sings everything lately SO CUTE...so she was singing, "I'm a China girl. I'm a China girl..." I said, we need to make Briar's hair stick straight because Asian girls have really straight hair... and Truman overheard and responded with, "but sticks aren't straight?" Well, chopsticks are! So sad Jimmy was so sick he couldn't even dress up as a puppy! But, Rose was a princess ballerina and we all went to a party at our American friends' (from church) house!

But first we stopped at More Than a Cookie so Grandma could give us some treats and see the costumes

Briar and Rose

Truman

this was during the "mummy contest"

The party was for kids but Daddy wore a funny green wig. Personally, I thought he looked kinda hot in it.

Then he put it on me...

We all went trick-or-treating at our American friends' houses

Q and I have been married for 16 years. We've been through so much together from traveling the world and living overseas to the births of each of our 4 children and everything in between. Our marriage is stronger than ever and for that we are very grateful. We do not take it for granted and we're always working on staying close and improving our relationship. Marriage definitely has it's ups and downs just like every part of life, but we've chosen to relish the good and to learn from the bad and grow through it. In 1996, we started our life together in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Q was an associate pastor for 5 1/2 years. Our life changed forever in 1999 when we had our first baby...a girl. In 2001 we had a boy.
In 2003, Q began working for HOPE International. We moved our little family of four to Kiev, Ukraine for the first 15 months and then transferred to Lancaster, PA where the HOPE headquarters is located. We lived in Lancaster for 4 years. During that time we happily welcomed our sweet baby #3, another girl.
Then, in January 2009, Q resigned from his position with HOPE and we moved our family overseas to Krakow, Poland to join Q's parents and siblings in a family business. The business was called "More Than A Cookie". We baked and sold gourmet cookies and brownies, ice cream, and specialty coffee drinks. Our passion has always been to further the Kingdom and support ministries close to our hearts so the idea was to give a portion of every purchase to support children's ministry.
In December 2009, we moved back to the states yet again. This time to the home we know and love *Minnesota*. [We have since sold the rights to our family business in Europe]. It has been a great experience to reconnect with family and friends after being gone for 6 1/2 years. I was able to start up my cleaning business again and I still love it. Q is back with HOPE International working as the development representative doing fundraising work here in the twin cities and Chicago as well. We feel so blessed to be part of such a great organization.
In May 2010, We bought a house on a lake...which is so fitting for Minnesota...and we have really enjoyed getting settled into our life here. Have you heard the saying "new house new baby"? Well, we found out baby #4 was on the way only 4 months after we moved in!*SURPRISE*
We evened the score with another boy and our party of five became six last May. We know each one of them is a special gift from God and we are enjoying this incredible journey of parenting together. It's not always easy but we can't imagine our life without any of them. We feel so blessed.

Eden is 12 years old. She is a beautiful, sweet, fun and very creative girl. Eden enjoys sewing, drawing, painting and any kind of art project. She is also very talented in singing. She's played fall soccer for the past 2 seasons and this year her team even won the championship. It has been such a joy to watch her grow into a young lady {preteen}...it could not be more true "the years go by so fast" we have enjoyed every stage so far. What a great big sister and help to Mommy and Daddy she is! She is very responsible and is always watching out for her little brothers and sister.

Truman is 10. He loves sports. His most favorite is football...any version...He plays on a city league team, he plays on the Playstation, he plays with his friends at school and with just himself in the backyard while narrating the play by play (this version is especially fun to watch out my kitchen window) and then of course there's his favorite NFL team, the Vikings, he loves to watch on Sundays...he even collects football cards. He also plays on the traveling basketball team and he is very good. He was on the track team in the spring and he won several blue ribbons in that as well. He's just one of those athletic kinda guys.
He also really loves fishing! His biggest catch was on a guys' weekend with Daddy when he caught a 24 inch Northern.
Although Math is his favorite subject in school, like his sisters, he is also very good in art and he even has his own little creative side.
He has such a great sense of humor. He's always making all of us laugh. He is a total entertainer. But, he is also one of the most thoughtful, sweet and sensitive boys you'll ever meet. We love this about our Truman. Most of all he is so happy to finally have a brother! It's been so fun to watch him with Jude.

Briar is 5. She started Kindergarten this year and so far she loves it. She goes for half days. In the morning she rides to school with Truman and then she comes home on the bus at noon. I love getting her dressed in the morning and doing her hair in fun braids or piggy tails, buns or curly buns. I want to take a picture of her every day because she is so stinkin' cute! Briar also played soccer for the first time this fall. She did a great job. She's not terribly aggressive or anything but it was still really fun to watch her.
She is such a fun little girly girl! She loves to play kitchen, babies, Barbies, Polly Pockets, dress-up, make-up...I guess "girly girl" would suffice! She even has her own little sense of humor. I wish I could video tape every moment right now because she is so adorable and she says the cutest things in her sweet tiny voice.
Briar is my best helper in the kitchen. I love that she doesn't just get bored with it half way through and quit. She always helps until everything is completely done.
She has been loving her new role as "big sister". She is definitely Mommy's little helper. Briar always helps me with bathtime for Jude and she loves to change his diapers and even burp him. I have loved watching her with him. It is truly precious. Every day when she gets off the bus she runs to give Jude a big hug and kiss!

Jude Blaser Marty baby number 4. Arrived on May 21st at 10:27am via C-section.
Weight: 7 lbs 6 oz
Length: 21 inches.
We didn't know we would ever have a 4th baby, yet here we are...completely in love with this little boy. He has completed our family. We are all crazy about him.
Jude is such a perfect "baby of the family". He is so laid back. He is very patient...it's like he knows there are 3 siblings to compete with for our time and he's totally okay with it. He's such a little love nugget speaking of which he already has so many nick names including but not limited to:
Ju.d.ju
juju.b
jude dude
lovey love
the man
the one
total munch
munchabunch
love munch
kicky bubbles
honey love