Merry Christmas 2013

With three young children now running around our home, Aimee and I have come to feel like we are living in a black hole of time--where it goes, we don't know. What movies are showing in the theater? Couldn't tell you. What's popular on TV? Wouldn't know. How old are we? We forget. Are we still buying diapers? Yes still. So 2013 was a blur.

We recall that in January Aimee and I managed a couple days away from home without the kids as I joined Aimee in visiting Northfield, Massachusetts, original campus of Northfield Mount Hermon school founded by D.L.Moody.  The campus is now in the hands of National Christian Foundation and they are seeking the next stewards of this rich, historical gem.  You can check it out here.

In February we had every little boy's dream snowstorm with plenty of the packable white stuff to build forts with tunnels.

It seems then we had several more snowfalls of varying amounts that stretched interminably into spring, but we can't remember for sure--we were busy trying to match orphaned socks. In April, Aimee and Reagan stole away from me and the boys to go down to Florida for a girls week with Nana and Aimee's sisters.

Speaking of Reagan, she continues to break the growth charts, probably God's design for her to compete with her older brothers.  Indeed, she's not afraid to get in on the wrestling matches that frequently occur. She learned to walk at about her first birthday and is now fully engaged in wrapping me around her little finger.

Liam, our three year old, is daddy's little helper. He long ago claimed Andy's work boots as his own and insists on wearing them most days.  If there's any leaf blowing, lawn mowing, light fixture fixing, pipe unclogging--you name it--he is ready with his toy goggles, ear muffs, gloves and tools.  He is our early-riser too, up at the crack most every day for special time with Mommy and Daddy.  He decided on his own to self-potty train and just like that, no more diapers for him (yay!). Except he did attempt to give up pooping so as to avoid conquering the toilet.  That didn't go well.  He and Andy argue and laugh together in equal measures. Both are a sight that warms our hearts.

And speaking of Andy, our soon-to-be six year old is enjoying kindergarten as he grows up way too fast. One of his favorite pastimes is inventing new toys out of whatever he can find.  Most recently he taped one of our spatulas to the end of a PVC pipe to make a weapon which he called a “swordula”.  Earlier this year he drew the simplest drawing of what he called a chainsaw and then did a remarkable job building the thing—all for his little brother.  He is (usually) a sweet big brother to his siblings. 


Andy also gets to join me on our twice-annual camping trips with a group of men and their sons.  During our fall trip, we fired off a model rocket built by one of the dads.  Check out this cool video taken from the rocket itself:

Also in October, Aimee and I celebrated 10 glorious years of marriage. We are so grateful for the many blessings.

May God bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you,

Marshall, Aimee, Andy, Liam & Reagan

Merry Christmas 2012

The big news from us in 2012 was of course the birth of our third child, Reagan Sophia Minnich.  Reagan was born on March 15 and tipped the scales at nearly 10 pounds, just like her brothers did before her.

With now three kids under 5, Marshall and Aimee don’t travel like we once did.  We have no gorgeous mountaintop photos to share anymore.  Instead we get to make exciting announcements like “Andy and Liam are sharing a room now!”  Yes, that was a big moment for the boys this year.  The love and friendship they share is really heartwarming to see.  That is, when they’re not wrestling or jumping off of furniture.

We did get to visit the Andersen family at their Beaver Lake house in July.  Both Andy and Liam had fun being pulled on the raft, and Andy got to go out with Daddy on the wave runner.  Liam loves dogs and so one morning the house was woken to Liam feeding the Andersen’s dog Rosie while yelling, “Eat dawbie, EAT!!”

In the fall, Andy (who will turn 5 right after Christmas) started pre-school.  He is advancing quickly, learning to read, and loves to sit at his desk in his room and do ‘homework’. He is a really good big brother who loves to dote on his brother and sister, as well as boss them around once in a while.

Liam turned two in September and is our bundle of cuteness right now.  Words can’t describe some of the outfits he conjures using daddy’s earmuffs, his safety goggles, and shoving every possible tool he can find into his little jeans.  He is a smart little boy who figures out multiple ways to say the same thing when we are struggling to understand him.  He is our early-riser too, up every morning at the crack.

In October, Andy got to go with Daddy to Stockton Lake with a handful of Daddy’s friends and their sons.  It was bitter cold and wet—perfect for a father-son outing.  Andy especially loved the potato-launcher:

Also in October, Marshall and Aimee did manage to take their first trip away without the kids!  Granted it was work-related, but we had a blast just hanging out at a nice hotel in Atlanta.  It was the 30-year anniversary of National Christian Foundation.  On our first night there, Aimee texted our nanny back home to say that we were available to talk by phone if Andy was available.  We got the following response: “Andy says you’re only gone three days and he’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

That little comment was a hit on Aimee’s Facebook page.  And speaking of, if you care to keep up with us throughout the year, ‘friending’ Aimee on Facebook is the best way—we don’t update this site but once or twice a year now.

In November we had a scare.  Our nanny, Faith, was driving the three kids somewhere when another driver pulled in front of and struck her car rather violently.  All were shaken up considerably but no one suffered major injuries thanks to seat belts, air bags, car seats and of course God.  Faith’s car was totaled though—pray for her as she seeks to replace it.

And so that about wraps up the story of the Minnich’s in 2012.  We again are grateful for the wonders God has shown us this year, and grateful for those of you who are a part of our life.  May your Christmas be merry and your new year bright,

Marshall, Aimee, Andy, Liam and Reagan

P.S. We did post some new photos from throughout the year here.  You can also see them on the sidebar.

P.P.S. One other development this year….Marshall’s Uncle Lee has written a memoir about Marshall’s grandfather and is shopping it to publishers.  Robert Matlack Trimble had some fascinating experiences during WWII, most of which were kept secret until his final years.  Among other things, we learned he was the last commander of the American/Russian air base in Poltava, gathered intelligence at Auschwitz shortly after liberation, and was honored for rescuing hundreds of POW during the war.  Lee has started the following blog with excerpts from the book—he would be blessed if you added a ‘hit’ to his counter:  http://fightingbastardoftheukraine.blogspot.com/

"I won't drop you for anything..."

"O-o-o-oh, oh Lord my God, oh Lord my God

Baby sister baby sister

I won’t drop you for anything

I won’t drop you for anything

--What was that--

Oh, oh, oh

Baby si-i-i-ister, Baby si-i-i-ister

I won’t drop you for anything."

Hope you enjoy the video above--turn the sound way up to hear Andy's sweet lyrics.  It aptly captures the love that he has for his new little sister Reagan, who is two months old at the time of this post.


And since you're here viewing our site for the first time in a long time, we'll catch you up on a few things.  First of course, Reagan Sophia Minnich joined us on March 15 weighing in at 9 lbs 6 oz and one week early.  And thank goodness for that!  Another week and we might have had another 10 pounder...


Liam is 20 months old now and is getting over the worst case of hand-foot-and-mouth disease our pediatrician has ever seen.  It never seemed to slow him down but he looked like he took a roll in a field of poison ivy.  He and Andy just moved into the same room together and are loving it.  Liam doesn't have many words but of course those he has are pretty cute, like "BB" for his blanket, "Deedee" for Andy, "Up me" for "pick me up", "dawbie" for his doggie Virginia, "doo" for two, and my personal favorite "poop me!" for "I have a poopy diaper".


Four-year old Andy, as you can see in the video above, is a very loving big brother.  He recently had a 'date' with his friend Zoe--he and their moms went together to the Kauffman Center to see Mr. Stinkyfeet. He and friend Eden will begin gymnastics together soon.  And yet another little girl keeps climbing our backyard fence and asking for Andy. Signs of things to come??  Andy still loves helping Daddy with all projects, and loves climbing just about anything, including Reagan's crib (no, we didn't put him in there ourselves!)

If you haven't already joined Facebook and friend-ed Aimee there, doing so is a much better way to keep up with us.  She frequently posts photos of us and shares the many cute things we encounter daily.  Here's some sample of what you might be missing:

“Andy: "Liam, you get to go with me to Nana Faith's today!  So you don't have to do boring things with Mommy."”

“Two new ones for the list of things I shouldn't have to say: 1) Don't drill your baby sister's face; (2) Don't lick the baby's spit-up.”

“First night of boys sharing a room and they're still talking to each other. All I hear is Liam saying "Hi Deedee (Andy). Hi Deedee. Hi Deedee. DEEDEE!!"”

“In my bed this morning: two adults, two boys, a baby, a dog, a toy full size chain saw, and one or more cold viruses. Life is full and blessed.”

And posted from a friend: “After a long talk about cow’s milk and people milk, Zoe of course wanted to know where babies come from. I told her the 3 year old version, "When two people love each other very much they get married and God blesses them with babies." After a few seconds of thought she says "I really love Andy and will have his babies"!”

“Within 5 minutes of Marshall leaving for work, I had baby poop on me, my bed, and two of my kids. As soon as I got that cleaned up and the children bathed, the baby spit up on me, her, and the bed. In all seriousness, I love my life.”

“After watching his older cousin throw the javelin, Andy made himself a javelin out of a wooden stake. Then he asks, "mommy why doesn't Zoe have a javelin?" yeah, Kim, why doesn't Zoe have a javelin?”

“Andy describing his lunch: we had egg sandwiches...on real bread because Passover is over. But we can still celebrate Jesus.”

“I'm not sure how to explain this except to say instead of giving the boys a bath while the baby slept I ended up sitting on the hall floor feeding the baby while a naked toddler cried and clung to my right arm and a naked four year old tried to help on my left. Marshall was only gone 15 minutes. How does this happen?”

“"Why did nana say Jesus is bigger than us if he's the same size as these other guys in the picture? Does God have a body? Why doesn't God have a body? Why does Chapstick make our lips better?” I love the nighttime musings of a four year old.”

“Andy thought he overheard me telling Marshall I couldn't drink coffee anymore. His concerned response: "Mommy, that's not good. You need coffee in the mornings so your words make sense." Pretty astute observation.”

“"Daddy, will you help me make my reciprocating saw this morning?" I feel like maybe this doesn't happen at other houses.”

“Me: "Andy, time for dinner."

Andy: "I'm not hungry mommy. I just flossed my breath and I don't want to make it stinky."”

“My four year old just used the word "accommodating".”

“I'm going into the office again but I'm wearing shorts as my protest against working on maternity leave.”

“Comment I received this morning at Starbucks: "Your children have gorgeous eyes. Do they get them from their father?" Let's rethink how we give compliments.”

“Today someone asked a guy in our office how his secretary was doing with her new baby (referring to me). Ironic since a senior partner at my old firm once vehemently told me I should never be a secretary.”

Merry Christmas 2011

For a minute it looked like 2011 was going to finish much like 2010 did for us. As you may recall, Aimee was in and out of the hospital fighting appendicitis and complications for much of December last year. This year, it was the flu and it visited all of us right before Thanksgiving, but Aimee got it particularly bad and for ten days we were back and forth from the hospital again. Of course, there was a reason why Aimee really struggled with it—she’s pregnant! Most of you already know that, but perhaps you don’t know that our third child is going to be a girl and should be arriving sometime in March.

Fortunately, one thing remained constant during the ten sick days in November—our little girl was safe and happy in the womb. It is amazing how wonderfully God designed us.

And speaking of a child in the womb, we pray you are joyfully anticipating Jesus this Advent season. Christmas always gives us pause to remember and be thankful for the blessings of the past year. Andy is almost four already and is growing into a very considerate little boy. He still loves helping daddy with projects and loves being a big brother. Liam is now 15 months old and a solid little boy. We call him our 25-pound sack of sand. When he and Andy get to wrestling, watch out! We’re working on the concept of “gentle”.

Aimee is now president of the foundation, which this year adopted the name National Christian Foundation – Heartland. Marshall is wrapping up his fourth year with Rhythm of Grace but is stepping down from his role at the end of this year.

We are grateful for the wonders that God has shown us this year and we look forward to many more. May you have a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Marshall, Aimee, Andy and Liam

P.S. Obviously we've ceased updating this site monthly, but we did upload notable photos from 2011 right here, or you can find them on the sidebar.

Happy 2011

Praise God that 2010 is in the tank. Looking back, it was definitely filled with blessing, but it was also very hard and ended with a very rough month for this family.

How do you know when you've been to the hospital too many times? When you receive multiple get-well cards from the same staff on the same day (they send one to every discharged patient). All told in the month of December, we made 5 trips to the emergency room, were admitted 4 separate times, had 3 surgeries, and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in the hospital. We are very thankful that Aimee is on the mend finally.

Meanwhile, just as Aimee is emerging from this involuntary weight-loss program, Liam is growing like a champ, staying somewhere in the upper 90 percentile of everything. He is a strong little boy who will wiggle and stretch in your arms until he is upright and facing outwards (to see what's going on around him). He has also figured out how to roll over.

And leave it to our toddler Andy to find a way to soak his shoes and socks in milk. At a restaurant. We'll just leave this one to your imagination.

And speaking of Andy, we celebrated his THIRD birthday a few days after Christmas. He is developing his speech skills daily, but thankfully we still get to enjoy some of those sayings that only children can produce, such as:

"that kickles" (tickles)

"that weird"

And at bedtime or nap-time, Andy tells us he wants us to sit with him awhile to keep him company ("keep me cumpadee").

But in the midst of these cute phrases, he'll throw in grown-up words like "otherwise," and he'll correct Daddy by saying "No Daddy, that a goose-neck trailer, not flatbed."

We didn't take many photos last month for obvious reasons, and those we do have include pictures of tubes coming out of Aimee's body (the editor gave the ix-nay to posting these).

May we all enjoy a tube-less, hospital-less, blessed new year!

-Marshall, Aimee, Andy and Liam

"It okay Mommy, God with you. He in your heart."

If you are looking for our Christmas message, it got moved down the list (see below). Not long after posting it, Aimee developed appendicitis and had to have surgery. It all went well [update: so it didn't go so well and Aimee ended up back in the hospital -- three times -- for another surgery and procedure because of complications], but the real point of this post is to share the following. Upon returning home from the hospital the first time, Aimee said to Andy, "Andy, I was kind of lonely while I was in the hospital--I missed everyone," to which Andy responded, "It okay Mommy, God with you. God take care of you. He in your heart."

These words were especially poignant as this family spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning apart from one another--Aimee and Marshall in the hospital, Andy with Nana and Aaa, and Liam with Aunt Jill and Uncle Darrin. Aimee came home on Christmas day and we celebrated Jesus's birthday on the 26th.

Merry Christmas 2010

2010 brought many blessings and surprises to our family. We knew going in that we were expecting our second child in September—that bit of news arrived on Christmas Eve of last year. But not content to accept just that little bit of change to our lives, we found ourselves undertaking a major house renovation in the short time before the baby’s arrival. It began so innocently of course—just a simple house-painting you see. But before long we discovered a gaping rotted hole in the exterior of our home. We had to do something about that and the many other little surprises that we found. Ever seen “The Money Pit”? And William “Liam” Minnich was not willing to postpone his arrival to give us more time. He came home from the hospital with much of our basement still residing in our living room, a nice film of dust on everything, and no washer or dryer.

Our house is coming back together and we’re starting to breathe again. It is so nice to return to this blog with our Christmas greeting to you, our friends and family. Back when Aimee and I still had a “life” and had time to update this blog monthly, it had become a sort of prayer of examen for us. It was a monthly opportunity to look back and see what God was up to in our lives. Lord willing, we’ll get back to this practice—but we’ve learned to give ourselves grace on that. Until then, we hope you enjoy several months of photos (March through November) now posted on the sidebar. We also have numerous videos to share, but they are not yet processed. Check back later for those.

Besides Liam’s arrival and the construction upheaval in our home, not much has changed. Aimee continues her work with Servant Foundation, and Marshall with Rhythm of Grace. Andy, who was treated to all sorts of heavy machinery demonstrations in his own home this summer, is still wearing his work boots as often as possible. He is almost three and is a proud big brother. We are thankful for our health and for the grace and mercy of our Father. He is so good to us.

May your Christmas be blessed and your New Year prosperous-

-Marshall, Aimee, Andy and Liam