Yesterday at about 4:30pm the girls and I were on our way to meet Bret at our friends' Jamie and Neil's house in Snohomish. Afterwards, we were going to go look at a potential new car (ironically) for me, and then go see Finding Nemo 3D with the girls. On the way, while following my gps, I missed a turn. I was on Marsh Road in Snohomish. Although the area seems pretty rural to me, there was quite a bit of traffic. There was a small paved driveway on the opposite side of the road, where I thought I could do a U-turn. I accidentally passed the driveway and my U-turn ended up in some tall grass and brush instead. Since our car is/was four wheel drive, I thought I could just put it in reverse and back out. Well, it ended up I was stuck. I'm still not sure exactly why I got stuck, whether I was stuck in the blackberry bushes, or since I was on a bit of a hill. I knew that if I just worked it a little bit, I'd be able to back out onto the road. I was stuck in this spot for less than five minutes. I had just begun to work my way out by rocking the car forward and back, contemplating driving further forward to get a different angle. At this point, my biggest concern was that I looked pretty stupid and had obviously chosen the wrong spot for a U-turn. Next thing I knew, a young guy pulled over and was walking up to my window. I opened my door and got out to talk to him, hoping maybe he'd have some pointers for me. When I stepped out I realized that the ground underneath the whole front of my car was completely engulfed in flames. He yelled at me to get the girls out of the car fast. He went around and got Harper out, and I grabbed Carson. In the moment, I envisioned the whole car exploding. I've never been so panicked in my life. Thankfully the car did not explode (yet) and we were safe. At this point traffic was already completely backed up. A nice man gave me a bottled water and let me use his phone to call Bret (mine was in the car). A woman who was a pediatric nurse stopped and helped me with the girls while I was panicking. While this was going on, the young man who had stopped (who just happened to be a volunteer fireman) was trying to put out the raging flames that were now underneath the whole car. Pretty soon it was obvious that the fire was completely out of control and the whole car was engulfed. The girls and I stopped watching at this point. We heard multiple explosions, not sure exactly what those were. By the time the fire trucks arrived, the whole car was a raging fire. I'd guess they arrived 15-20 minutes after we realized there was a fire. After the fire was out, Bret pulled up to the scene. He was so sweet, and was just so happy we were okay. I didn't get any speeches from any of the policemen or firemen, only reassurance that I'm not the first person to do this, and that it has even happened to a few patrol cars before. We were all a bit shaken up, but nothing too terrible. The kindness of all the people who came around us was overwhelming. The man whose phone I borrowed called later yesterday evening to make sure we were okay. The pediatric nurse who stopped let us borrow her a car seat for the girls. The insurance company will cover everything, thank the Lord. I'm feeling grateful and blessed today. Thank you Lord for your protection over our family in so many ways :)

Hey, it's only been a year!

Well, A lot has changed over the past year! Mainly, a new (okay, a year old) addition to the fam! Carson Jane! Carson just celebrated her first birthday. She's a crazy little bugger who doesn't really believe in sleeping, held her head up from birth, sat up at five months, crawled at seven and walked at ten. She is an incredibly joyful baby. Her latest moves are signing and saying more, waving and saying hi, blowing kisses, shaking her head yes and no, and "whipping her hair back and forth" :) Her favorite thing to play with is Kona.

Harper and I both started school this fall. Harper at Mill Creek Foursquare preschool, and me at UW Bothell. It's worked out great, we both go to school on Monday and Wednesday. I get to drop Harps at her school on the way to my school. Nana picks Harper up and she gets to play at Nana's on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. It's been a little tough trying to find time to study with the rugrats running around, but still great and I've been getting pretty good grades! Harper's loves ballerinas and princesses. She loves to sing and dance. She can now recognize all the letters of the alphabet and write many of them! She also knows what sounds a lot of them make. Harper loves to rhyme and she's really good at it! Hopefully I'll check back in less than a year from now :)

October

I think it's time to stop apologizing for neglecting my blog week after week, and just say I'll post whenever I post. With our crazy life, who knows when my next post will be!

The Niebs fam had a great August and September. We had an amazing assignment and met so many great people and friends. Harper got to play with three other two year olds every day! Shortly after we got home, Greater Edmonds YL had our Auction and Banquet which was a fantastic event. Then, finally, last week we started Young Life club for the fall which also went off without a hitch!

Harper is getting big so fast. She speaks really well, carrying on full conversations with pretty much anybody who will talk to her. We've been completely out of diapers for over a month now, and she's doing great with big girl underpants! She loves to ask everybody in the room what color underpants they're wearing which of course we all find hilarious and totally encourage :) She also loves to sing, and knows the words to lots and lots of songs. If she forgets the words to a song she just makes up some new better words. She now knows all her colors, and just like her mama she likes everything to be bean (green)! One of her favorite toys is her dump truck... she is definitely her daddy's daughter! Hair bows and pony tails are not for my little girl, she HATES having her hair done! Harp is a spunky thing and very opinionated about pretty much everything ALREADY! I think she's excited for her little sister to come into the world, at least however much she understands it at this point. We'll see what happens when the baby is actually here!!

The new babe will hopefully be arriving any time! I'll be 37 weeks on Saturday, and I feel VERY ready! She's starting to really hurt me when she moves around, which hopefully means she feels squashed in there and will be making an appearance soon! Although this big belly is a lot for my body to handle, I feel relatively good. Compared to what some moms go through, I think I should count my blessings. The girls' room is ready, and we have all the baby supplies we need...so we are ready to rock whenever she is!

I am so excited about the new diapers we got today, we are going for it with the cloth diapers this time! We decided on Thirsties and Polar Babies... both covers work with old fashioned diapers, but we ordered some new super soft organic ones also :) The Thirsties also grow with the baby. Although we haven't tried them yet, they seem so economical...I can't wait to get going!




Well hopefully next time I write it will be with baby updates!

Summer 2010

Wow, it's been a busy summer so far! Bret and I have been busy with fireworks stands, camping trips and of course our yearly trip to Malibu! So many great things so far this summer, and tomorrow our whole family leaves for Washington Family Ranch in Oregon for our month long assignment!

Our Malibu trip was great this year. We brought about 110 kids from Edmonds Woodway, Meadowdale and Kings. They all had such a great time, and we had the opportunity to watch God touch many of their lives! We've been working hard to follow up with the kids from camp every day since we've been home. Very exhausting, but rewarding none the less!! Below is a picture of my girls and me making journals the night before we left!



Harper has grown and changed so much this summer! She is just a little talking machine. She is saying full sentences, and will repeat almost any word. It's amazing how many people she remembers and asks about as well! She especially loves all our Young Life kids and remembers so many of their names! She sings lots of songs including Happy Birthday, the ABC's, Jesus loves me and Ring around the Rosie. She is very good at counting and remembering letters, she is even starting to pick out letters on the computer keyboard! Harps definitely has a little mind of her own, she is VERY opinionated and strong willed. This sometimes makes parenting challenging, but I think she is growing into a wonderful little human being! She also LOVES the pool. She will jump in from the side, go underwater without a problem, and even jump off the diving board! I'm so proud of my little fishie! She will love the pool at Washington Family Ranch this summer! Oh, and she also got an awesome new bike for her second birthday! She loves her bike and all her new Elmo toys ;)

I'll definitely keep updating this blog while on our assignment next month!

Oh Boy

Clearly, I have NOT been keeping up with this blog. I actually considered giving up on it altogether, but I thought I might as well keep it and just write whenever I write.

Harper is quickly approaching her second birthday. She is talking so much, sometimes it completely blows my mind. She says complete sentences now, although, sometimes they're hard to decipher if you don't speak Harper language :) She has been singing the abc's for a few weeks, and occassionally we'll even catch her counting...so far she has made it to 15! She can also say her whole name "Harper Grace Niebruegge". We definitely have to watch what we say around her now, because who knows what she'll choose to repeat. She loves to be independent and do things by herself. One of the funnies things she does right now is ask for "baby coffee" first thing in the morning. Little does she know, baby coffee is just warm milk with a tiny bit of chocolate sauce. We are also trying to explain to Harper that she has a little sister on the way. It's hard to tell how well she understands it, but I think she knows something big is going on!

Bret and I are really excited to take our kids to camp this summer. We'll be at Malibu Club from July 18-24 this year. About a week after we get home we'll head down to Washington Family Ranch in Oregon for our 20 day assignment. I'm really excited for this assignment. I think Harper is at a great age to hang out at a Young Life camp all day! We'll also have some great friends there, and some awesome work crew and summer staff kids who are coming from our area! The best part about the trip is that Bret's mom and sister and my parents will be coming as adult guests during the last week! I really can't wait!

harper language

I finally got a video of Harper talking. She's actually starting to put words together now, I think she might be getting close to sentences. Oh boy!

Hugo 'The Boss' Stiglets Niebruegge

We (or maybe just I) decided that since Murph was gone, Kona needed a new friend to keep her young. Bret, Jake and I searched far and wide for a puppy just after New Years. We found the perfect little pup and Jake named him Hugo 'The Boss' Stiglets. Hugo is now about 12 weeks old, and he is a terror. He's going to be a very big boy...he gained 6 lbs in the two weeks between his first and second vet visit! He terrorizes Harper and Kona to no end, but at the end of the day we all love him :)