Independence Day

As anyone who has had a newborn knows, the first few weeks are little foggy. I have found this to be particularly true with number four. For the first three weeks of his life, Peter had no concept of night and day which lead to many sleepless nights with him. Of course on most mornings, with three other children to take care of , sleeping in has not been an option. Needless to say, I have spent much of the past month completely exhausted.

I have been amazed by the way my three other kids have adapted to my lack of mothering or parental attention. Isaac, especially, seems to have become very independent - and thoughtful - over the past month.

A few weeks ago, on a Sunday morning when Andrew had to work, I was lying in my bed in a coma when I should have been up getting the kids ready for church. Isaac came in my room to tell me he was awake and through my stupor I said something, probably unintelligible, about Isaac needing to get ready for church. I immediately fell back to sleep. A little while later, Isaac came back in my room completely dressed and ready for church. I mumbled something about how proud I was of him and then fell back asleep. A little while later I was awakened for the third time by my sweet son. I can only assume he realized if I was ever going to wake up, I would need some help because this time, in a very gentle quiet voice, Isaac said, "Mom, I brought you a Diet Coke." Oh, bless him.

Again this morning I was tired and in a deep sleep when I heard my doorbell ring at 8:15. I woke up, wondering who it could be, but instead of answering it, decided to roll over and go back to sleep. A minute later I heard someone knocking on the door and figured I better get up and see who it was. I went and opened our front door, and standing there, fully dressed with shoes on was my Isaac. He had gotten up while everyone else was still asleep, gotten dressed and gone outside to play. In doing so, he had accidentally locked himself out and knew if he was going to get back in he'd have to wake me up.

He's a funny, independent little son and I love him so!

Our New House

After renting a house for the past year, we recently bought and moved into a new home.
We had been looking for a house for the past several months but nothing we saw seemed like the right place for our family. Finally, in early May, just weeks before the birth of our fourth baby, and weeks before we had to be out of the house we were renting, a woman in our neighborhood called and asked if we were interested in walking through their house they were preparing to sell.

From the moment we walked into the house, it felt like home. The house only has three bedrooms, a tiny garage, and all the quirks of an older home, but somehow, I knew this was where our family should be. As I saw our kids playing in the backyard, it seemed like they belonged there. We have spent the past month moving in, welcoming a new baby into our family and trying to settle into normalcy. Through all the craziness, we are grateful to have a place to call home - a place where we all feel like we belong.

About the title...

A few years ago, when we only had two kids, we were driving from Minnesota to Chicago for a family vacation. As we drove, Andrew told our kids how excited he was to be going on vacation with them. He said there was no one he would rather be with than our family. He then started to cheer, "NO BETTER GROUP! NO BETTER GROUP!" Abby and I joined in chanting, "NO BETTER GROUP" and even Isaac, who at the time was fairly non-verbal, started cheering, 'GA GA GOO!"


Since then, "NO BETTER GROUP" has become somewhat of a family motto. Since its inception, we have added Henry and Peter to our family, and in our opinion, the group just keeps getting better. When we talked about starting a family blog, we figured the best name for it, would be our family motto, "NO BETTER GROUP!"


We hope that you'll enjoy spending time on the blog and getting to know our little group.