Pingel Family Blog

We Are Alive!

2011-09-22T20:13:00.000-07:00

Due to a not-so-subtle email I received today (you know who you are!) I am attempting to update our blog. Part of the reason I haven't been posting is because our camera is broken, and I have spent the last several months using a go-phone that doesn't have a camera option. I do have a camera on my phone now, but we'll see if I do any better taking pictures. Haha.

So since last I posted, many things have changed for our little family.

#1 - Ben started working as a Project Coordinator for our bishop's construction company.
#2 - Due to the change in jobs we had to move. That might seem strange considering the fact that Ben is working for our bishop so we must be staying "in the area". The real reason for the move was our crazy landlords felt that a job in construction is too risky for their uber-OCD blood, so they said they wanted us to look elsewhere at the end of our lease. They were nuts anyway so it was good to move and now we live next door to one of the nicest people on the planet and we are very happy with the changes.
#3 - Two or three days after we found out we needed to move, we found out that Baby Pingel #4 was on the way. That was UNEXPECTED!!! But we are very happy about it. We found out yesterday that we are having a GIRL which was also unexpected. I even asked the ultrasound tech to tell me how confident he was in saying we were having a girl because we were so sure it was a boy. Go figure. So now we are back to debating about names (we had a boy name picked out since July) and we will see what happens. The due date is February 2, 2012...so stay tuned. Baby looks great so far, just measuring a little small but the doctor isn't "concerned" about the size, just saying it's a smaller baby so far.

What's new with the kiddos?

Well, Rachel started her first year of "real" preschool and has loved it so far. She always gets excited for preschool days. She is one smart little girl. She loves to color, is learning to write, and she is becoming quite a little helper around the house. She loves folding clothes. In fact today she was folding her blanket to lay on her bed and as she laid it down it shifted a little and she said "Ah! It needs to be perfect!" Silly goose.

Brandon is our little fireball. He loves things his way. His favorite things are "Wallace and Gromit" movies, cars, and trains. As I am writing this, he is standing in my room with his shirt covering his face...the mentality is if he can't see me, maybe I can't see him and he can stay up later. Sorry bud...back to bed.

Now Miss Elisabeth...oh what can I say about her. The world revolves around her. Just ask her. If ever she sees someone with something she wants she chants "ME ME ME ME" until our ears explode. It's so funny. She loves giving kisses and is a real sweetheart. She recently had her first urgent care visit. She got in a fight with a bookshelf...and lost. So she got four little stitches in her forehead. Hopefully she stays in one piece for a little while now.

And that's us in a nutshell. Hopefully soon I can get some pictures together and maybe just maybe I will start blogging more efficiently. Who knows?!?!?

Family Pictures

2011-03-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, we finally got some family pictures taken! We had to reschedule a few times due to all the rain up here. A girl in our ward took our pictures and she did a great job. She edited a few already, and we will have more in the very near future. She gave me permission to post the pictures here on our blog, but if you want to see more of her work, you can find it here.

All of the pictures were taken in downtown Coeur d'Alene. It was actually a pretty nice day. Rachel thought it was pretty cold though. Ellie was a complete nightmare. If we wanted her to sit, she would run off. If we wanted her to stand, she needed to be held. If we wanted to hold her, she squirmed and cried and made faces. It made for good times. And she HAD to have her binky...so she is still cute, but grumpy!

Here is my little Brandon. He was pretty pleased with himself at this point. I think he was just trying to cooperate to get more fruit snacks between pictures. :)

My pretty princess. I think she liked getting pictures all by herself. And she is just beautiful.

I really wonder how mortified Rachel is in this picture. I won't mention how many times we had to do this shot because Ellie kept running off. Ben liked it though...haha.

Ben gave the kids his iphone to watch a movie on while we took some "couple shots".

One day Ellie will cooperate right...?

Stay tuned for more picture fun. The rest will be done later this week, but we all know I can't post again for another couple months...gotta pace myself!

What a Difference a Year Makes

2011-01-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

It's time for a tribute to my sweet baby girl: Elisabeth Michelle Pingel. I can't believe it's already been a year. I miss my little cuddle bug, but I absolutely love her independent spirit and adventurous nature. Ellie is the epitome of a sweet girl. She has one of those smiles that melts the hearts of friends and strangers alike. And baby girl has been sleeping in 12 hour blocks at night for quite some time. Ben and I don't know what to do with ourselves with this whole sleeping through the night thing! Looking at Ellie's newborn pictures almost makes me think we should have another baby in the house...almost. :)

So I thought I would just take a moment and post some pictures from the past year. She is a beautiful baby and we love her very very much. I might throw in some comments here and there, but just enjoy a look back at the first year of Ellie Baby's life. :)

Blowing kisses :)
Always our BEST sleeper. :)

Blessing Day for my little Angel.

Brandon and Rachel love Ellie. Sometimes a little too much.

Check out those arms! This was taken in August right as she was really taking off in the crawling phase, so her rolls have really gone down now.

Birthday Muffins!

This was her favorite present for her birthday. She got so MAD when we took it away so she could open the rest of her gifts. At least we know we picked a winner with the See and Say!

She "thinks" she can feed herself. She doesn't allow us to spoon-feed her. At all. So she gets lots of baths!

Here's to another great year with Princess Elisabeth! You might call this picture "The Princess and the Peas". Haha...I'm so lame...

Christmastime!

2010-12-17T10:19:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!

It has been a wonderful year! I thought I would follow the example of some friends and just post our Christmas letter on the ol' blog here. Yes we are too cheap and lazy to send cards out this year. Sorry. So here is a little update on our family this year:

Ben and Michelle: We are just trying to stay sane in our circus of children! We work together now so it's nice to have Ben at home more; we help people get out of debt, get proper life insurance, and invest for retirement and really love it. Ben is thinking about finishing his master's degree, and Michelle does a great job as always with the cooking, cleaning, and diapering!

Rachel: This little lady has been cracking us up all year. She says and does the silliest things. She is in LOVE with the missionaries. She always asks if they can come over for dinner. She also started a preschool group this year that she loved. We took December off and she came crying to me one day saying "I just wanna go to preschool!"

Brandon: This young man is growing up. He loves to watch "Horton Hears a Who" over and over and over. And he loves "Fwosty the Newman". Brandon is my clean child. He can't sleep in his room unless all his toys are put away. Love that!

Ellie: Big year for this girl. First of all, she was born. And she has filled our days with joy ever since. She is thinking about walking. She stands up for several seconds at a time now. She has four teeth. Her bottom front, and two top fangs. Silly girl.

We have much to be grateful for this year, especially those three beautiful faces in the picture above. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season!

Love,

The Pingels

Opinions Needed

2010-10-31T19:44:00.001-07:00

Five months ago, I got the haircut of death. Honestly, I did. The first few days after the hacking, I couldn't walk past a mirror without crying. Ask Ben. There is no exaggeration involved here. I learned some valuable lessons from this experience.

#1 Never ever ever let the power of the haircut chair overcome your better judgment
#2 If you come in with pictures of what you want, don't let people talk you into going shorter "just for fun" and then when they give you a DIFFERENT style than on your picture, it's that much more drastic.
#3 Never color your hair. At least me. I will never again until I am covering gray.

That said, I am in a bit of a pickle. I dyed my hair back to its natural color and have seen some growth in the past few months. However, I still hate the cut. Everyone I have consulted in person says not to cut it, but to give it time to grow out and see what happens. The more it grows, the more it stays the same. I have some pictures to show what a weird cut this is. There is this bottom layer that just drives me insane. So my question is this:

Do I:

A) Cut to the point where the hair is growing at mostly the same length to get rid of the strange dangly look?
B) Keep growing it out til its really long before cutting the bottom layer off (Ben thinks the shortness will give me insecurities again)
C) Are there any other alternatives?

See the random pieces in the bottom? Ick.

Sorry the pictures are upside down, I can't get them to rotate. Any way, advice would be nice. Thanks!

Plate Spinning

2010-10-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

Back in the good old BYUI days, I took a class in the general education department. The class focused on helping you become your best self in many areas of life. I wish I could remember what it was called. Anyway, at one point during the semester, my teacher brought up the subject of plate spinning. He said you could start spinning a plate and keep it going round and round even after you let go and added another plate to the stage. After awhile, however, you have to run up and down the stage to keep all your plates spinning, and if you add one too many, they all crash.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately as I have reflected on the way I live my life. I can spin one, maybe two plates really easily at the same time! I find that if I focus on keeping my house clean, I'm not exercising as frequently. Or if I focus on trying to research/cook super healthy meals, I'm not spending as much time in my scripture study. On and on and on.

So my question to anyone who might read this is how do you find your sense of balance? There are many good things I need to be doing. I guarantee one of my plates is NOT keeping up with current TV shows. Every plate I want to spin has merit. So how do I do all the things I want to do without crashing and burning?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Six Months

2010-08-04T10:08:00.001-07:00

Our sweet Ellie Baby turned six months on July 26. I can't believe it has been six months already. Our little princess is growing like a weed. She is a chubber. She has rolls in places you just wouldn't expect...like in her armpit. She has cankles, Relief Society arms - you name it, she's got it. But she is super cute in her roly poly-ness.

Ellie is the sweetest baby ever. She loves to play peek-a-boo with her brother and sister. Sometimes Rachel and Brandon are a little too rough with her, but she is learning to take it in stride.

She loves to eat, eat, eat. Her favorite food right now is pears. She can't get enough of them. She's not so crazy about her veggies, but she will learn one day, right?

Basically Ellie is the cutest baby on the planet (So I'm biased) and we love her to pieces!

My Little Man

2010-07-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

I just feel the urge to pay tribute to my handsome little Brandon Bear. I have been so so proud of him this week. We decided to start the arduous task of potty training. I was a little nervous because Rachel was...well...a nightmare. I didn't want to go back to cleaning puddles several times a day and stumbling upon human playdough again. But Brandon was showing serious signs of readiness. The big one being that he would ASK US to let him go potty in the toilet before bed. Wow.

So on Monday, we said goodbye to his diapers. He had probably three accidents during the day and wet the bed that night. By Tuesday we were down to two accidents in the morning and sleeping through the night while staying dry. Wednesday brought two accidents, and he came into my room in the middle of the night to help him go potty. Today he hasn't had any accidents and has asked me to take him potty when he felt it was time. I can't even tell you how excited we are about this.

My little man is awesome. Everything has gone so smoothly. I don't even think we will have to worry much about church on Sunday. I think he is going to be awesome. He has had several outings and hasn't had a single accident while we were out. He makes potty training seem like a breeze! So anyway, maybe this is a strange post, but I am proud of my son, by golly!

Out of the mouth of Miss Rachel

2010-07-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

I always love reading about the funny things kids say, so I thought I would take a minute and share some of the silly things Rachel has said lately.

1. Rachel was watching Grandma make a wedding cake last week. Apparently Rachel went on to tell Grandma that she was going to get married in the temple. And play dressups in the temple. And there would be fireworks.

2. Rachel has developed a dislike of jelly on her sandwiches. So I asked her what she wanted for lunch. After I suggested macaroni and cheese, she said, "No...maybe tomorrow. I want sandwiches! But no jelly. Leave it in the fridge".

3. Rachel loves her little cousins....maybe a little too much. Yesterday she said, "No more Ellie right now. Put her in hospital. I want Baby Jordin!"

4. Rachel has a little animal game that you can mix and match the parts of the faces with different magnets. She found a little pink tongue, and the drawing had a line down the middle. Completely mortified, she looked at me and said, "Mom~it's a bum! It's a bum". I tried to tell her it was just a tongue but she insists it was a bum.

5. Everyday, without fail, she will tell me something about a crazy apple coming. Sometimes it's in her tummy, sometimes its name is Thomas, sometimes daddy "throwed it away". But we hear about it on a daily basis.

6. Sometimes when I ask Rachel to do something for me she will say, "Oh...I can't right now. I sooo sick".

7. We are trying to teach Rachel to automatically say please without being told. Yesterday she asked for a sandwich by simply saying "I want a sandwich". So I said, "I want you to say I want a sandwich, please". So I said we would practice and I said, "Okay I...." and I motioned for her to finish the sentence. After a brief pause she said, "Love you?"

8. She differentiates grandmothers by calling Ben's mom "Grandma" and my mom is "Grandma in the blue house".

There are many more silly things she says and I just love her to pieces. I hope I wasn't the only amused by her little Rachel-isms. :)

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

Look at us- two blog posts within a week!

Life has had some fun things for us lately. Here's a little what's been happening in our lives:

Bikes! We got Rachel and Brandon their own bikes, and they are in heaven! Rachel got a princess bike and helmet, and Brandon got a Toy Story 3 bike and helmet. Brandon has yet to grasp the concept, but Rachel did pick it up pretty quickly. She still has some learning to do, but they still love it!
Fourth of July! What a fun time! We had a short but very fun trip down to Soda Springs. We haven't had everyone together for so long- it was great to be together again! We had a lot of fun on Saturday geochaching- I think we'll have to give that a try here at home as well. The weather turned out very nice on Saturday, and we had some fun getting some ice cream. Brandon kinda got it all over himself. Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Mike had Ellie with them, and slipped her some ice cream while Michelle wasn't looking. She quite enjoyed it, and made her cousin Adam quite envious.

Our big girl Ellie is eating cereal now too. Let's just say she's not underfed, and Ben has taken to calling our princess "Thunder Thighs." She's now in the 75th percentile for weight and the 25th percentile for height and growing so fast! We love her little smiles and bright, happy eyes.

While it was a very quick trip, driving down late Friday and coming home Sunday, we had a great time. Now to rest!
We moved into a new place just over a week ago, and we love it! We are saving $200/month, and it's a great, secluded location. It's a relief being on a single level, and the home has a lot more room to it. Stop on by- we're open for visitors!

Old Friend

2010-07-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

This might seem like a really really REALLY strange post. But that's how I roll. Here goes. Once upon a time, I had a really wonderful roommate in college. After we went our separate ways, we kind of lost contact...until we were reunited through blogging. However, this friend of mine went private a while back and I completely forgot. One day I realized that the reason my sidebar kept showing zero updates from her was because she was private and had been for months. So...my invitation to said blog has expired and I have no way of contacting this wonderful person to tell her. And so I am sad. So, to my old roommate Aubrey D., if and when you read this post, could you email me an invite again so I can spy on your life?!? And to anyone else that may still be reading, sorry about my lack of recent posts. Our camera is broken so I figure what's the point in blogging right now?!?!

Ellie's Blessing/Rachel's Birthday

2010-05-10T14:43:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I can't get some of the photos to rotate correctly....forgive me. At least I'm trying to post something right?!?!

Ellie was blessed on May 2, 2010. She wore the same dress Rachel wore three years ago at her blessing. Ellie was almost two months older than Rachel was though, so the dress just barely buttoned! I was very excited to have her blessing a little later in her life because as you can see, she was old enough to smile in her pictures!

Rachel and Brandon love their baby sister!

Why didn't anyone tell me I had a hair running across my face?!?!?

The grandkids with Grandpa/Grandma Rupp.

Since Rachel's birthday was on May 4, we celebrated both special occasions last Sunday. Rachel has been talking about her birthday for a few months now. She was so excited! She even requested an Ariel cake. This is the cake that her Grandma and Aunt Katie made with a little help from yours truly.

Rachel loves to wear her Aunt Katie's old princess dressups, so our little princess was dressed like Cinderella for her birthday bash. I think it was fitting.

It was a beautiful day to celebrate our two little princesses!

Brandon Bear's Birthday

2010-04-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, world's worst blogger goes to....me. Finding time for the blog these days is hard to do. Sometimes I think about blogging, but it always loses to more urgent tasks like cleaning up spit up, changing diapers, or taking that much needed nap! But here I am now ready to blog!

My sweet little Brandon Bear turned TWO last week. I can't believe it. Brandon is a ball of energy these days. He is always climbing, running, jumping, throwing, etc. He is all boy in a major way. A few weeks ago, the poor boy climbed onto the counter and touched the stove top moments after I had turned it off. I ran in the kitchen to the sound of his shrill screaming. So he spent a couple weeks looking like this:

But he is all better now. He really didn't even let the injury keep him down for long. By the end of the night he was already playing and having fun. He still requires daily kisses on his hand though. I think he will have that need until the scars completely fade.

Anyway that was off topic. Let's talk birthday! We didn't do much on the actual birthday because I had a multi-stake YW training meeting in Spokane that night, and some of Ben's family had other obligations too. So during the day we had a family in the ward over for a playdate. They gave Brandon a bubble machine that the kids absolutely loved. We have used it every day since! Then that night we had a small party consisting of a picnic outside, and we opened a few presents. Brandon was SO excited about his new big boy underwear with Disney Pixar characters. He didn't even want to open anything else. Until he saw his new Elmo stuffed animal. He was so happy.

Saturday we had the family party. Ben's mom made the cake. It turned out wonderful! I helped with the red hair, but it was all mostly Shari. Seriously-don't let her tell you otherwise. I did not make this cake. But I will learn and will do it in the future. But look at it--isn't it wonderful!??

Later that night we had a dinner and party. Brandon got some more presents, which I don't know what we were thinking...why did we give this crazy boy GOLF CLUBS? Are we insane?? But he loved it, so it's worth it.

All in all we had a great weekend. We love Brandon Bear! He is such a sweet boy (when he isn't biting us!) We love how he babbles constantly now. And he is constantly requesting that I sing Cinderella songs for him and hum songs from all the Pixar movies. He loves bubbles, balloons, movies, and Elmo. He can be a handful, but we sure love him!

My Review of Roku HD Player

2010-03-29T13:14:00.001-07:00

Originally submitted at Roku

The best-selling HD Player (as known as Netflix Player by Roku) plays High Definition video and connects to surround sound audio.

A great product!

By King Benjamin from Post Falls, Idaho on 3/29/2010

Pros: Built in Wi-Fi, Easy to set up, Easy to use, High quality picture, Compact

Cons: Need fast internet service, Can't browse Netflix, Sound sometimes cuts out, Needs more channels

Best Uses: Living room, Bedroom, Primary TV

Describe Yourself: Home entertainment enthusiast, Netflix fan, Movie buff

We use this in our living room and love it! It's very easy and convenient to just stream the movies on the TV. I was surprised how easy it is to set up.

The sound quality sometimes gets lost, but otherwise I have no complaints! I would definitely buy again.

(legalese)

Elisabeth Michelle Pingel

2010-01-30T09:57:00.001-08:00

Elisabeth Michelle Pingel was born Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 3:40 p.m. She weighed in at 7 pounds 7 oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Ben says the story of her birth could be summed up in about three sentences but for those of you that like details, I will give a fuller account with pictures of our beautiful little girl randomly placed throughout.

At my last OB appointment, my doctor told us he would be going on a two week vacation and wondered if we would be interested in being induced provided that I was dilated to at least a two during the exam. Since I was, we decided to go ahead and schedule an induction for the following Tuesday. I was more than ready to be done being pregnant. He told us I might go into labor before the scheduled day on my own. Every day I woke up a little upset that I was STILL pregnant. Doctors shouldn't give you false hopes like that.

The hospital has been fairly busy in the baby department lately so we (mostly me) were concerned that there might not be a bed available for us so we were so excited to call on Tuesday and be told to come right in at 7:00 as planned. It was SO weird to drive to the hospital perfectly comfortable and walk into the ER with a smile on my face instead of being in large amounts of pain. The whole induction process made me feel like we were cheating the system, but I'll take it.

The doctor didn't show up to break my water until 8:30. That made for a very boring and frustrating hour and a half just sitting around with nothing to do. We still can't figure out why he told us to be there at 7:00 if he wasn't going to show up for an hour and half...but I digress. Ellie wasn't actually ready to be born on Tuesday...it took a lot of effort for the doctor to break my water. I was just laying there thinking "Oh this is just great. We made it this far just to get sent home because the water won't break". Luckily he finally got it to break and we were on our way....or were we?It took forever for me to start dilating and contracting. They had to administer high amounts of pitocin (sp) to get things going. However, as soon as I started feeling the contractions they ordered the epidural because my nurse said it's better to err on the side of getting one than suddenly being unable to if things suddenly went fast. So I got an epidural while barely feeling any pain from contractions. I guess things evened out a little because the first place he tried to give me my epidural wouldn't work so I had to do the shots and everything a couple of times and that wasn't pleasant.

Lots of time passed and suddenly the contractions started coming. Soon I told the nurse I was feeling some "pressure" and she checked me and found I was fully dilated and ready to go. She told me to sit up and push just to see how close we were. I had just started to sit up and she told me to relax because the baby was right there. So they ran and got the doctor and Ellie was born in one push. It was fabulous.

And now she is here blessing our lives with her sweet spirit and good nature. She has been our easiest baby so far. I think we owe that partially to experience with Rachel and Brandon. We learned a lot from the early days with those two and Ellie has definitely benefited from that. Ellie is a champ at eating, and she poops every time we feed her (TMI I know, but we think it's funny). I know right now all she does is eat, sleep, and poop, but she does get a little more alert every time she wakes up and I just love watching her take in the world. She is a wonderful baby and we are so blessed to have this new little girl to fill our world with love and PINK.

The Last People on Earth to Blog About Christmas

2010-01-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure I used to update our blog on a weekly basis. Wow I have gotten bad these days. But things have been busy and chaotic and its a rare moment that I can spent more than a couple minutes at a time on the computer to devote to blogging. Otherwise the kids come up and want to help me push the buttons.

We had a good Christmas this year. Rachel was really into it for the first time. Though she hated meeting Santa, she loved watching Christmas cartoons (and still does today if I let her even though Christmas is over). Rachel and Brandon love to walk around the house singing "Frosty the Snowman" and they loved to take down every ornament on the tree...especially the candy canes.

So here are some shots of our Christmas adventures this year. Enjoy. Sorry I am so bad at this. I will try to post pictures of when our new baby comes before she is twelve.

We hit the jackpot with the kids this year. Nothing is better than princesses for Rachel and Brandon loved his new Elmo jammies.

The kids were being cute in their new jammies. I just loved that they were holding hands and smiling together in this one.

Ben didn't have very good luck getting the kids to pose with him...

Here I am in my Christmas jammies and 34 weeks pregnant. I think I put Santa's bowl full of jelly to shame.

Christmas morning was the one time in our lives that the kids decided to sleep in. Go figure huh? Ben tried to wake up the kids by going in the room singing loudly and making all kinds of noise. He even took his finger and drummed on their chests...nothing. So we went downstairs and had our own gift exchange together and then the kids got up!

Notice the bright lights streaming from the window. This picture was taken at about 8:30.

The kids liked opening gifts this year...except clothes.

Brandon loved his new firetruck. We couldn't get him to open other gifts because he was so enthralled with this one.

Rachel gets to be a little mommy all day now. She loves taking her new doll on walks in the stroller and putting it in the bassinet for night night. She really is a good mother.

Brandon loved this little horsey. It rocks and makes little noises and brings smiles all around.

All in all we had a very fun morning with the kids. It's fun to see them start to understand things and get excited. We can't wait for next year!

Tis The Season

2009-12-14T13:49:00.000-08:00

First of all, I just wanted to say that Ben's post made me blush...a lot. He's sweet and sappy--just how I like him. :)

We have some great pictures of Rachel sitting on Santa's lap at the Ward Party coming soon....for now just visualize looks of terror mingled with hatred. She has since told me she does not like Santa. But I have to wait to get the pictures from Ben's phone...so stay tuned.

In the mean time, I have a request for all you supermoms (or dads I guess) out there. I am on a real budgeting/money saving kick and I want to stay motivated. What do you do to save money on groceries or other items? I just want some creative, thrifty ideas. Also, if you are into couponing I need some details because I just don't do well because the only coupons I find are usually for things I don't buy anyway.

Well any tips you might have would be appreciated!

A Few of My Favorite Things

2009-12-09T08:13:00.001-08:00

Hello, this is Ben for a change. Well, the blog isn't Ben, but Ben is writing. Anyway, I just wanted to share with everyone a few of my favorite things and why.

One of my favorite things: Brandon

This kid is a little stinker. For whatever reason, he loves biting my head when he's on my shoulders, so he doesn't go up there much anymore. He also likes to play with my face, but that hurts when he digs in, so he doesn't play with my face much anymore either. And while he may absolutely exasperate me in a way few others can, I love this little guy. Every day when I come home, he screams and comes running over for the biggest hug I've had in my life. The other day, he heard the garage door open and was waiting by the door. As soon as I opened it, he screamed and scared me to death. But, I got the biggest hug I've had in my life, and all was well. I love playing and wrestling and sharing our love of cars- this kid is great. Brandon is one of my favorite things.

Another of my favorite things: Rachel

One word: sweetheart. Yes, she may be emotional. Yes, she may be determined to get her way. But she's got a way of melting my heart that few others can. When she starts singing "A dream is a wish..." you can't help but love her. Wherever we go, she loves to seranade us along our way, from Frosty to Popcorn, even singing Ring Around the Rosy. And there's nothing like just sitting there holding my precious little girl while watching Phineas and Ferb together. Rachel is also one of my favorite things.

One of my most favorite things: Michelle

Think we're going to get sappy? You bet. Michelle's greatest trait is how she gives so willingly of herself for others. Without question, she'll put others' needs before her own. If she needs to go without eating for a bit, fine. If it means she doesn't get to shower or do her makeup because the kids are having a rough day, fine. If it means that her husband needs lunch so she can't go to bed quite as early so that she can fix it, fine. Not to mention the countless hours of reading to, singing with, and teaching Rachel and Brandon. Throw in cleaning up after 3 miraculously messy Pingels, and we have wonder woman Michelle on our hands. And I love her. And she's one of my most favorite things.

Who Knew?

2009-11-17T10:07:00.001-08:00

About a month ago, I posted a confession about my addiction to sugar. At that time, a friend suggested that I read the book "Sugar Shock" and I would change my ways. It was definitely an interesting read and I was inspired to stop eating sugar.

The author discussed various ailments linked to sugar that ranged from obesity and diabetes (obviously), to acne, heart disease, and emotional issues. I was convinced that a lot of health problems were connected to sugar, but I wasn't sure on the emotional end of things. I had never experienced mood swings resulting from sugar...or so I thought.

I did really really well for about a week, not eating anything tempting whatsoever. Then little by little I started eating sugar again, partly as an experiment. I immediately had physical reactions like stomachaches but nothing happened to me emotionally.

Last night, the missionaries came over for their usual bathroom stop and bowl of ice cream. Usually I just drink water while they have their ice cream, but last night I joined in the "fun". Ben left to take the missionaries home and everything was just fine. Ben got back about ten minutes later and we were just talking and enjoying our evening. But then as I was doing the dishes, a dark cloud fell over me and I was suddenly in a bad mood. Ben couldn't figure out what was wrong with me and neither could I. As I went upstairs to get ready for bed, it hit me like a bolt of lightning--the ice cream cone had in fact taken a toll on me. As soon as I recognized this fact, we were able to talk about things and everything was fine again. It was so weird.

I am not saying you can blame your moods on sugar all the time, but I do think something happened to me last night because of that ice cream. I went from very happy and chatty to quiet and withdrawn. Very strange. This gives me yet another reason to be converted against sugar!

Autumn Leaves

2009-10-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

I love the vibrant reds and oranges of fall. It makes the coming dread of Halloween so much more bearable. Yes it's true, I hate Halloween. But we will probably do something for the kids....anyway, I digress.

Last Sunday we went over to the Senior Pingels for dinner as usual when we discovered the lawn was covered in beautiful leaves. We took advantage of the opportunity and took some pictures of the kids. Unfortunately, it was a little cold outside and Rachel let us know it...so we only got a few. But enjoy this look of the kids in the fall.

We leave too close to Seattle...Rach is becoming a tree hugger!

Brandon loved sitting in piles and piles of leaves

Don't really know what this is about, but they look sneaky.

Candy Girl

2009-10-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

My name is Michelle Pingel and I have a problem. A big problem. I am in love...with chocolate, candy, sugar, cookies, cake, pie, ice cream, chocolate milk, and in desperate times, marshmallows.

For some reason, I have no ability of restraint when it comes to these sugary temptations. If there is something in the house, I will surely eat it. If we don't have anything in the house, I dwell on the cravings until we go somewhere in which my sweet tooth (or teeth rather) can be satiated.

It's terrible. I don't even experience the "joy" of eating these goodies anymore. It's almost like a mechanical thing. I eat it because it is there. And I don't even savor the experience. It's almost like I inhale the chocolate without even really noticing that I am eating it.

I need help. Has anyone experienced addiction to the degree I have described? Is there hope for me? I don't think I could tell myself these things are "off limits" because that inevitably leads to binging later on. So I need some advice. How do I limit the amount of "naughty" foods I eat without getting the deprivation feeling which leads to relapse? Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. :)

Out of the mouths of my babes

2009-09-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

I have become the world's worst blogger. I freely admit this and express desires to do better in the future without much hope of that happening anytime soon. Anyway, though my blogging life has been dull, life in the real world has been quite hilarious. At least to me. So I thought I would share some of the funny things the kiddos have done/said recently.

Last week, I was sitting on the couch when my dear Brandon came up from behind and bit me on the arm. Before I could even say something to him, Rachel comes up to me and starts rubbing the bite marks gently and says, "Brandon, that hurts".

We babysat some friends today, and while they were here, Rachel starting spinning in circles upstairs singing, "I love Coen, I love Coen, I love Coen".

Rachel has an obsession with nature. A few weeks ago, she was looking out the window and couldn't find the sun because it was a cloudy day. She runs to me with complete dismay in her voice and says, "Sun's hiding in the clouds! What are we gonna do?!?!?"

Brandon's two favorite books are "Click Clack Moo" and "Hippo Goes Bananas". Sometimes we hear him in his room in the morning going "Ick Ick Ooooh" for Click Clack Moo, and other times, he will be holding his face saying "Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh" because Hippo Goes Bananas is a book about a Hippo who gets a toothache.

Brandon learned a new word this week: MINE..

Rachel loves playing with her Princess dolls that Great Grandma Thomson gave her. We were playing the other day and she just kept saying "Oh, that's beautiful!"

Anyway those are some snippets into the lives of my dear children. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did...although I'm sure I enjoyed reliving my memories more!

TIE BREAKER!!!

2009-09-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

What were you doing on 09.09.09 at 9:00? We were sitting in the waiting room anxious to get an ultrasound and find out our baby's gender. Ben sat in the room rather comfortably playing Tetris, while I found it rather hard to concentrate on my book, Anna Karenina, because I had been advised to drink 32 ounces of water before our appointment without bathroom privileges. Have any of you ever tried to drink 32 ounces of water within the first 3 hours you were awake for the day? It's tortuous. Luckily we had a kindhearted ultrasound technician who took pity on my plight and allowed me to have a comfortable ultrasound :)

And the results are in! Here we have two pictures of a very healthy, beautiful, soon to be born in another 21 weeks baby....GIRL! WAHOO!!!

I was very excited, although not surprised, when the tech told us he believed we were having a girl. It was so fun to see all her little fingers and toes and to see her moving around. He was trying to get some 3D shots for us, but she was so active that everything came out a blur.

Ben thinks this picture is a little creepy...but I think it's cute. Like he told his mom, just picture this with a little pink bow on her head and everything is fine! They said she is measuring perfectly and that everything looked great.

Baby Girl Pingel Number Two: We are so excited to meet you in a few months!

Family Pictures

2009-08-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

The time has come for the Pingels to have some updated family pictures! Ben still loves photo editing, so I have to indulge his addictions sometimes! Thanks to Ben's mom, we were able to take some pictures yesterday. You would never know it from the pictures, but the kids were EXTREMELY grumpy during the photo shoot. We literally laid them in their beds as soon as the last picture was taken and then Ben and I took our "couple" shots together while they were napping. So without further ado, here are some recent pictures for you to enjoy. Sorry no baby bump pictures yet...I don't look all that pregnant yet...I just look like I can't stop eating doughnuts and ice cream. :)

Rachel helping Ben wash the car...with chocolate on her face (definitely my daughter!)

Brandon being his usual cute self...what can I say, he is a doll!

The happy couple...just like newlyweds!

Ben's favorite picture. He just regrets that his foot is covering one of Brandon's. I just regret that my feet are ginormous.

Rachel vs. Ben

2009-07-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows our little Rachel knows that she is one funny girl. You never know what she is going to say, do, or sing next, but there is never a dull moment with her around. One of her favorite things to do lately is....argue with her dad. It's hilarious! Sometimes when the screen saver on our computer comes on she will say "Moon!" And Ben will say "Earth!" And they will go back and forth saying moon or earth. Or...they fight about numbers. She will have a number tile that is the number seven and insist it is a one. Ben will correct her, but she is relentless.

The other day we had another funny moment between Rachel and Ben. We were getting the kids ready for bed and Ben started tickling Rachel. Finally Rachel got away and said, "No Ben. NO!" He looked at her and said, "Hey, my name is Daddy". Rachel got a huge smile on her face, pointed to herself, and said, "Mine's Rachel!"

These two crack me up!