Justice... You Can Always Count On Him For Comedy

Best conversation ever:

(While I was feeding Wren her bottle tonight)
Justy: Mama, I love wren's tummy.
Mama: I do too.
Justy: Mama, you had a baby in your tummy right?
Mama: Yes, Wren was in my tummy. Have you ever had a baby in your tummy?
Justy: Howie was in my tummy.

What?

Best Quote Ever

Howie has decided emphatically that he does NOT want to get married and have children when he gets older.  He insists that he never ever wants to leave Mama and Daddy's house, a fact that I will find delight in reminding of when he's 16.  So today he walked up to me at the dinner table, arm around his sister, and proclaimed, "This is my wife, Mama."  It melted my heart.  Wren has Howie (and Justy too) wrapped around her little finger.  He brought it up again later and I broke the news to him that you can't marry your sister.  So I guess he's back to plan A- living with me and Josh for his whole life.

Siblings

Believe me there are many moments throughout the day that I must pray for the strength to not pull my hair out.  But I am also blessed to witness sweet moments shared by our kiddos, and it gives me hope for the future that they will grow to love each other more.

The kids tend to think of this sofa as the perfect wrestling spot.  All 3 of them together.  Josh and I are ok with that as long as it doesn't involve poking the sofa or each other with sharp pencils or something.  Isn't that the fear with leather?  I'm just dreading the day when I hear a popping noise and "Umm, Mom..."  Pick your poison with young kids. Either you're worried about stains or sharp objects.

Chillaxing in front of the tube.

You couldn't pay me to play in a wet, cold sandbox, but none of the appeal is lost on this crowd.  They love it.  Even sitting in it.

Bike riders extraordinaire.  I realize the matching sweatshirts are a bit much, but they were given to us and this way they're a walking Christmas party.

Not to be outdone, Wren sits on her bike.  Now if only she can figure out how to make it move out of the grass.

Howie and Justy are super into coloring.  I also wanted to show that the old man skinny pants have moved onto the next child- Howie once made a splash in these and now Justy is carrying the banner.  The ladies in the nursery thought he was dashing.

November Update

The last few weeks have been so crazy I have neglected to visit my blog.  Between Sandy and other craziness it felt like much of October and November kind of disappeared, and then I woke up and realized it was nearly Thanksgiving!  2012 has flown by!  Holy moly.  Here are some newsworthy events that have taken place in the last few weeks.

1. Wren turned 1 and is walking!!  This was actually October 16th so more than a few weeks ago.  Her first year of life was full of adventures in learning a new place and how to be a mama to 3.  She is such a joy.  She just started walking in the past couple weeks, which of course she is obsessed with.  

1st birthday complete with milkshake at Chick Fil-A

2. Howie and Justy are obsessed with Legos.

Josh has had such a blast building fortresses and armies with them.  Love to see their creativity.  

3. We had a great Thanksgiving here.  Although we sorely missed our families we enjoyed sharing dinner with a wonderful family from church and going to the Macy's parade in NYC in the morning.  The boys were awed by the HUGE Mickey Mouse and friends who floated by.  So many things to be thankful for this year! 

Our wonderful neighbor kept Wren at home so she's not in the pic.  

Hurricane Sandy's Aftermath in Our Neck of the Woods, which was relatively unscathed.

Sandy was really something else. Amazingly Teaneck was relatively unscathed, though there was at least one large fire and there are many, many trees and power lines down, and probably 90% of the houses, businesses, and stoplights are still in the dark. In God's mercy our power was restored after a short 24 hours, I think because we are down the street from the hospital in Teaneck. So our house is warm but our next door neighbors are still without power. We are doing everything we can to be a blessing to those around us! But compared to the Jersey shore, Hoboken, NYC, and other towns around here it seems to me that Teaneck did pretty well. We're so grateful for God's protection but so sad for those who have lost everything in this.

Hi. I'm Pretty Sure Eggs Are NOT My Friends.

I've suspected it for a long time and now it seems pretty certain- I gave this poor girl fried eggs earlier last week and now she's pretty miserable and has rashy bumps on her skin.  No omelets in this girl's near future.

Redecorating in Progress

We just recently redecorated our living and dining rooms.  We are renting our current house and I can't say that I'm a fan of the paint colors that were chosen by the owners- the house already has a serious lack of natural light and then on top of that the walls are very dark... which makes the rooms look even darker.  So we have a serious lighting issue.  Since we're not sure how long we'll be in this house (although def. until next summer), we don't necessarily feel like painting, especially since our color options that would be allowable by our landlord are very limited.  When we first moved we had several big book cases in the living room (the same ones from our St Louis apartment) that took up an entire wall in the living room.  We realized upon greater consideration and more than a year of living in the house that those needed to go.  They made the already dark room look even darker and smaller.  So we got those out and moved a loveseat downstairs as we had gotten a new ocean liner sectional couch.  Wow, it's big.  In classic Desch fashion we didn't bother to measure the room and then the couch to see how the fit would be.  It looked like it would be fine, so we went ahead with the purchase.  The day it was delivered I remember Josh and I were sitting on the stairs watching the delivery people move it in, majorly sweating if it would fit or not.  I saw how big each piece was as the movers brought them in and saw the shrinking space between the end of the growing couch and the wall...  turns out that although it does fit by about 6 inches on one side, it is far too much couch for such a tiny room!  But we love it anyway!  It seats tons of people and maybe someday we will have a bigger living room where it will look more appropriate.  Anyway a wonderful friend from church (Kel- the former Christine Griebel!!) took me to the Brooklyn Flea Market a few weeks ago and I was able to find some things that I loved.  Along with being a hotbed for hipsters- I had major insecurity that my jeans weren't nearly skinny enough- there was a wonderful selection of interesting furniture, clothing, artwork, food, jewelry, and randomness.    We still have pics that we will hang on the wall when we get around to printing them out (a pitfall of digital photography!!) so it's a bit of a work in progress.