More Firsts

                                        Practicing Hard
                                     Caleb's first school program
                             Dancing Machine
                                         Handsome boy 

We had an eventful week in our house, full of new "firsts." It started with our first experience of having 3 kids sick at the same time! After 3 doctor visits and buying out the pharmacy, everyone is on the road to recovery. All 3 kids had pink eye. Caleb and Isaac also had a sinus infection and Cardale was starting an ear infection. Unfortunately, I have gotten sick over the weekend. Hopefully I recover in the next few days without a trip to the doctor.:) 

Caleb was in his first Christmas program this week! I was so proud of him. He stood up there and sang his little heart out while doing the motions. My parents and sister also saw him perform and he loved it. 

Another first, Cardale got his first haircut! We have been waiting for this event since he moved in with us.:) His Mom gave us permission to cut it and it looks great. I think the haircut makes him look older. Cardale will enjoy not having to sit through hair combing sessions anymore.  

We're looking forward to a relaxing Christmas. We'll go to my parent's house for Christmas and to Chicago for the weekend. Other than that, no big travel plans. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Happy Birthday Cardale!

Yesterday was Cardale's 1st Birthday! We celebrated at home with our kids. Cardale actually tried to eat some of the cake, which I wasn't sure he would do. He seemed to like the frosting. The cake itself was a sorry affair. I practically cried over the result. We were super busy this week and basically it came down to the fact that I didn't have time to make a cute cake. I decided to use a can of frosting which was a mistake, there wasn't enough frosting to cover the cake and there were crumbs in the frosting. It looked horrible! I was ready to throw it away. But, Nate reminded me it would still taste good and Cardale doesn't care what it looks like. So, I swallowed my pride and served the cake. Cardale also had fun ripping wrapping paper. A fun birthday overall!

I thought I would share a few thoughts about Cardale.

Dear Cardale,

We celebrated your 1st Birthday. We didn't know you one year ago, we had no idea you would join our family. We don't know the circumstances of your birth or what you were like the first couple months of life. We don't know which characteristics come from your Mom or Dad. However, we do know you. We've learned alot about you in the past 6 months. We know you're a light sleeper, that you can imitate sounds well, you don't listen to "no" very well, you love to dance and cuddle, you don't like having your hair combed, and you love playing in water- to name a few things. I apologize for the times I don't love you like you deserve. Having you join our family has challenged us to expand our understanding of what it means to love unconditionally. These past 6 months have not been easy, but they have been good. We do not know where you will be living at your next birthday. However, we do know that you are a child of God and He has a plan for your life. We pray that you continue to grow healthy and strong. That God blesses your life wherever He places you. You are a wonderful boy Cardale and we love you!

Back from the East

Getting a drink before the reception with Janna and Jason

Suzanne and Erik newly married

Grandma D watching a video with the grandkids. Caleb and Britta were very tense.

Britta and Caleb are 4 months apart in age. They play really well together.

The Box, Smith and DeMaster kids. Why do my kids freak out about pictures?:)

So we're back from our trip to NY. We had a wonderful, relaxing time. The boys enjoyed having Gpa and Gma DeMaster to themselves for a couple days and then playing with their cousins. We also drove out to Ballston Spa to visit our friends. We haven't been back there since we moved away 3 years ago. We saw our old house, which is for sale. The house looked the same, although they took out the pool in the back. We stayed with our friends overnight and had fun catching up with lots of people. It worked fairly well to drive thru the night. The boys didn't sleep as well as desired, but they weren't crying.

Cardale did great with the other family for the week. He was learning to walk before we left and now he is walking everywhere. No more crawling for him.

We completed our vacation with me making a whirlwind trip to Chicago for Suzanne's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and I'm glad I could go. I had fun hanging out with Janna and Jason.

Now we are back into the swing of things. The first day of reality is always tough. Can I rail against Walmart for a moment? I had to go to the store today so I took Cardale and Isaac with me. I need the double seat carts and of course all of those carts are outside covered in snow. This is not the first time this has happened to me at Walmart. So I raised the issue with the cart person again and proceeded to push/pull two carts around Walmart. Not a fun job. As I am leaving Walmart I saw they brought in 6 two seater carts. Hopefully the next people can benefit from it.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Weekend Update

I just got back from an overnight MOPS retreat. It was great to get away with the other leaders and reconnect, relax, and plan for MOPS. I am no longer the MOPS Coordinator so it is nice to have less responsibilities. Now I am in charge of Moppets, the program for the kids. Nate and the kids had a good day without me so that makes the weekend more enjoyable for everyone.:)

I volunteered in Caleb's class this week. I enjoyed meeting the kids he talks about and observing how he acts. Being there put my fears to rest about how Caleb does at school. He was very talkative and got along with the other kids.

I'm taking Cardale to the Dr. on Monday. He is 11 months old and still can not eat Cheerios, table food, etc. without gagging and throwing up. Hopefully the Dr. can order some tests and figure out what is going on. I would like to start solving the problem before he goes home. The transition back to his Mom will be hard enough, I don't want her to be further stressed by his eating problems.

Cardale has started taking steps on his own which is exciting! We also have a family watching him for the week we are going to NY. It will be nice to have a vacation with only 2 kids. I know some people do not understand why we would choose to leave Cardale behind. But, foster parents are encouraged to use respite care so you can focus on your own family sometimes. So, if you don't agree with us using respite care- please keep your thoughts to yourself! The decision was hard enough with lots of guilt in there that we don't need anymore.:)

So we leave for NY on Friday night. We're hoping to see some of our NY friends along with Nate's parents and Reuben's family. Should be a good time!

All Dressed Up

Here are some pics from tonight. Thanks to my Mom who found the baby's costumes. Yes, I know Baby Bop is a girl dinosaur, but who really cares.:) Caleb wanted to be a Green Bay Packer again. The weather was great and the boys enjoyed going for a long walk around the neighborhood. The neighbors get a kick out of seeing the kids all dressed up. I bought way too much candy this year, anyone need a couple bags?

The Rest of the Story

Here is what happened with the Halloween situation at school. We looked over the books and talked to the teacher on Sunday. We told her we didn't love the books, but it was okay for Caleb to hear them. Basically we told her we didn't think the class needed to talk about haunted houses, ghosts, etc. Her reasoning seemed to be that everyone celebrates Halloween and it's nothing major. The part that bothered me was she said, "I wish you had told me earlier that you had a problem with the curriculum so I could have changed things." She sends the next's week curriculum home at the end of the week. How were we to know at the beginning of the year that the class would celebrate Halloween? We didn't think we had to ask that question at a Christian school. She also said, "Please let me know if you have problems with any other holidays." That made us laugh. I think we're okay with the other holidays.:) She is a very nice teacher and great with the kids. This whole scenario is just weird to us. She's been teaching for 3 years and it's shocking to me that we're the first parents to bring up this issue.

Anyways, thank you for all of your input!

Fall Fun

Enjoying the corn maze with Aunt Steph

Going for a ride

Picking a pumpkin


My sister visited us last weekend. The kids always enjoy playing with her. We went to a local orchard and took in the sites. Nothing beats a cider donut! The only unfortunate consequence of the weekend was that we gave Aunt Steph a nasty cold. Everyone in our house (except Nate so far) has gotten this cold. I haven't had a cold this miserable in a while. Hopefully we all recover quickly!

Caleb had his 4 year old check up today. He is 3 ft 7 inches tall, 45 lbs and very healthy! Unfortunately he had to get 4 shots. I was proud of him though. He was only hysterical for a short amount of time. I felt a little bad because after the first two he said, "Mommy there's only one shot, right?!" I had only said there would be a shot, not 4 of them. Bad Mommy.

As I write this Nate and Caleb are sleeping outside in the tent. I know, my husband is crazy about camping and Caleb is following in his footsteps. It's like 46 degrees right now and falling. I'm just glad I have boys that will camp with Nate in cold weather so I don't have to!:)

So we have come across our first school quandary. Caleb's preschool teacher sent home the list of books she'll be reading to the class next week. Now, keep in mind that this is a Christian preschool. They all deal with "scary" themes and one even has a ghost in it. For the class Halloween party the kids can dress up, which is fine, but one of the crafts is a haunted house craft. This just isn't acceptable to Nate and I. We don't do much with Halloween in our house. We'll carve a pumpkin and take the kids trick or treating in the neighborhood (which Nate still isn't crazy about, but I like dressing up the kids :) )- but we don't decorate or do anything with the scary stuff. We just don't agree with making light of witches and other stuff, because those things really do exist. So I talked with the teacher and she dropped the books off for us to look over before school next week. I phrased it to her that we were concerned about Caleb being scared by some of the books and having nightmares. Which is partly true, he does get scared easily and is already afraid of the dark, etc. So she wants me to tell her on Sunday what we think of the books. I just don't know what to do! We don't want to be crazy parents, but we still want to stick to our beliefs. I'm leaning towards reading the books to Caleb this weekend and stressing that the scary stuff isn't real and that it's just a story. It would also be a good time to reinforce that God is always bigger than the scary things and that He'll help us when we're afraid.

I guess I'm wondering what some of you think. I know some of you have taught in Christian schools or have older children- did you have similar situations there? I guess we thought celebrating Halloween wasn't going to be an issue in a Christian school. Anyone else have ideas of how we could handle this?

Poop Happens

Lovely title isn't it? It pretty much sums up what happened this morning. Isaac and Cardale both woke up crying this morning. So, I carried Isaac downstairs to get his milk and Cardale's bottle. I noticed Isaac had peed thru his pj's, so I went to change his diaper. Of course, no diapers downstairs. I took his diaper off him and thought he'd be ok while I made Cardale's bottle. BIG MISTAKE. I went back in the room and Isaac was staring at a pile of poop on the carpet. I was a little upset, but not a big deal-just cleaned it up. Cardale was still crying upstairs so I left Isaac and went to get Cardale and some diapers. I come back down and Isaac is crying. Sure enough Isaac is sitting on the floor with MORE poop on the carpet and now it's on his feet, hands and face. Horribly disgusting!! Seriously, in the 3 minutes I left you alone you had to poop again?! So I'm cleaning him up while he's crying and Cardale is crying as well b/c he just wants his bottle and then Caleb starts yelling, "Mommy, can you open the gate, I have to go potty!" Fabulous. Can I go back to bed now?

Thankfully God is merciful and we made it thru the rest of the morning without any more poop or Mommy meltdowns.:) When I told Nate the story, his response was something along the lines of "poop happens?" A fitting title indeed. :)

Overdue Post

Colleen and Mike's baby- Jack DeJong

So what have we been up to? Why is it so hard to remember what has been keeping me so busy?:) This post will probably be a random string of events and thoughts, sorry!

I forgot to post that Nate's sister Colleen had her baby. Baby Jack was born on Caleb's birthday, September 19. Caleb was very excited to share his birthday with his new nephew! Hopefully we'll meet Jack sometime soon.

We've been enjoying this past week of warm days. The babies like to roam around the yard and play in the sandbox. Thankfully they don't put much in their mouths anymore! Isaac is starting to imitate animal noises and Cardale can mimic words/sounds really well. Cardale still can't eat Cheerios/table food without puking. It is frustrating b/c he is 10 months old now, but hopefully by his 1st birthday he will be ready.

I have started taking a Zumba class at the gym. Zumba is an aerobic/dance class that uses salsa and Bollywood music. I look ridiculous dancing- my bony elbows flying around and hips that don't shake, but it's fun!:)

Nate is still in training at work, and will be until May. The training is going well overall. The bad part is that he has to work 2nd shift often. It's hard on both of us, but doing the supper/bedtime routine by myself every night gets old fast. Nate wins the "best husband" award. Tomorrow he is taking all the kids to my parent's house for the weekend and I'll have the house to myself! I am hoping to get alot of housework done and then Sat night having some fun with the girls.:)

It's Off

I wanted to update you all on Isaac's cast. His cast was taken off on Friday! They took some x-rays and everything is healing nicely. It was such a relief, I couldn't stop smiling. He can now take baths and play outside in the sand and water with no worries! I had to laugh at the Doctor's comment. Isaac wore through the bottom of the cast on his heel. The Dr. said he has never seen a young child wear through a cast, usually it's older kids. What can I say, the boy does not sit still!:)

The babies are starting some Mommy clinginess. They will both sit at my feet and cry to see who I pick up. If I happen to pick up one of them during the day, the other comes over and cries at me. This is not a fun stage and I'm hoping it ends quickly!

We also had some good news for Cardale. The social worker said everything looks good for him to go back with his Mom, they're just waiting for paperwork, etc to go through Indiana. It's frustrating b/c IN is not moving quickly, which doesn't help Cardale at all. The transition is going to be hard enough for him, why make the separation even longer? Please pray that paperwork gets done quickly, that his Mom continues to do well, and that the transition goes smoothly for him and our family. We do not have a timeframe yet of when he might leave.

On a fun note, Nate and I went out for a date on Saturday night. It is always nice to have dinner away from the kids and have a conversation without interruptions.:)

Happy Birthday Honey!

Happy Birthday to my dear husband! Nate turns 29 today, he finally caught up to me.:) I was looking back at how we celebrated his birthday last year. Thankfully he's not in the middle of an outage this year, he doesn't remember much about his birthday last year.:) We opened presents this morning when he got home from work (he's working 3rd shift this week). After he slept today we drove to a local children's museum. Nate's nuclear power plant teamed up with the children's museum to have a nuclear reactor exhibit at the museum. Tonight was a free night for all the power plant employees. The exhibit was neat for older kids, but ours weren't that impressed.:) We're all caked out here after having Isaac and Caleb's birthdays recently, so Nate is having apple pie.

We love Nate so much and thank God for him daily!


Happy Birthday to Janna as well!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

For some reason I can't get this picture to load correctly. Grr. You get the idea of the cake.

Pig cupcakes

Caleb and Wesley admiring a toy
Pinata!

Caleb is 4 years old today! Yesterday, he celebrated his birthday at school. While I was browsing through a cookbook he saw a picture of pig cupcakes and decided that is what he wanted to bring to school. He had lots of fun making the cupcakes with me and loved sharing them at school! Today we celebrated by having his friend, Wesley come over with his family for supper. Caleb's pick for his birthday dinner, hotdogs and chips.:) So we grilled out and had chicken for the adults. Caleb originally wanted a Clifford cake, but then saw a picture of a racetrack cake and changed his mind. It was a little more difficult to make this cake because the kids were around. Isaac stuck his hand in the side of the frosting and Caleb kept bumping me while I was decorating. Oh well, they had fun and the cake was great! I also learned that they don't make pinatas like they used to. Now there are strings on the bottom that the kids have to jump up and pull off until they pull the right one to release the candy. I guess it's safer than swinging a stick around blindfolded, but where's the fun in that?:)

I am so proud of Caleb. He has grown up alot this past year. Since his 3rd birthday we've added two babies to our family. He is such a good big brother and is great with babies. I really can't leave the house with the babies unless Caleb is with. He pushes Cardale in the stroller while I carry Isaac. Such a good helper! He also loves feeding Cardale his bottle and petting his hair of course. Caleb has left the toddler years. He can now get himself dressed and goes to school without crying. When did my boy grow up? We thank God for giving us such a wonderful boy to raise!

Operation Table Food

You want me to do what with this?
So far so good...
Success! No puking!

Cardale has a terrible time with table food. Anytime a Cheerios or tiny bit of food touches his tongue, he gags and throws up. He's 9 months old now and we decided to try teething biscuits. He did pretty well with this first one. Everytime a tiny chunk came off in his mouth he pulled a horrible face. But, he didn't throw up and he kept putting it back in his mouth. Progress!

He has his 9 month checkup at the beginning of October. I'm curious to see how much he's grown. He has gained about 4 new teeth in the last month or so. Teething is so hard for him. His gums get all swollen and bruised and sometimes bloody. Poor guy. Isaac is also getting his molars, so lots of fun in our house!

Cardale loves being mobile! He enjoys being able to crawl to wherever the action is. He is also showing his temper more. He has the angriest sounding scream when he wants his bottle, now! He also mimics sounds really well. He says da-da, claps his hands, waves goodbye and I think he does the "all done" baby sign.

Cardale has been with us 3 months now and I feel like we have finally established our new groove as a family.

Ouch!

So, Isaac decided to break Caleb's record and get a cast at 12 months of age instead of 15 months like Caleb. And yes, this broken bone involved a bed again! We were at my grandparent's cottage over the weekend and Nate was changing Isaac on a top bunk bed. Caleb ran into the room and yelled, "Daddy!" Nate turned to look, and Isaac rolled off the bed. He cried for about 15 minutes and wouldn't walk, so we took him to the local ER. They took x-rays and couldn't find anything. This past week he has been walking, but noticeably favoring his left leg. I took him to an orthopedic Dr. today and they determined he broke his tibia right by his ankle! He will be wearing a cast for 3 weeks. At that point they will take the cast off, get more x-rays and see if it's healing. Isaac is very frustrated today and just sits on the floor and cries, hitting the cast. The Dr. said in the next couple days he'll figure out how to walk on it. As you can see in the last picture, he is starting to take some steps.

We're glad Isaac doesn't have anything seriously wrong with his leg, but we'd appreciate your prayers over the next couple weeks!

Another First

Getting ready for school!
Home from preschool and still smiling!
Last day of Dash and Splash at the gym.


Caleb had his first day of preschool today! The day went so smoothly, I never would have predicted how well he did. Your prayers for him definitely worked! He was very excited and didn't shed any tears or talk about being scared. He was a little nervous when we got there, but was ok when I left. He was all smiles when I picked him up and said he had alot of fun! It helped that his teacher came to the house last week to meet him, so he was comfortable with her. He has school in the mornings, Monday-Thursday.

My morning was wonderful today! I had a taste of how Moms of older kids get so much done. Cardale takes a long morning nap and Isaac takes a 1/2 hour nap too. So for 30 minutes I had the house to myself. I got so much done! I could get used to this school thing.:) However, I was a little sad to see my first baby going to school. Where does the time go?

Now that Caleb is going to preschool, he can no longer attend the dash and splash program at the gym. I really wish the gym offered the class in the afternoon too. He made alot of progress in that class and is more comfortable in the water.

Cardale is officially crawling now. We'll have to post a video clip of that soon.

Colorado Pictures

Keeping busy on the airplane
Enjoying the campfire with the family
Stacy, sister Steph, cousins Ashley, Justina, and Kyle
The family sang "Happy Anniversary" to us around the campfire:)
Of course, ice cream completes a vacation!

Looking Good

Isaac had his 1 year check up this week. He is 24 lbs and 31 inches long. He is about 2 lbs lighter and one inch shorter than Caleb was at this age. He still has the milk allergy, so we'll hold off on introducing any dairy for another year. We accidentally spilled milk on Isaac and wiped it off with a washcloth. A few minutes later he rubbed his face with his hands and broke out in a rash. So, the allergy is still present.:) Cooking dairy free has been a little challenging, but not as difficult as I anticipated. We can now switch him to soy milk and off the soy formula. Otherwise he is a happy, healthy one year old!

Colorado Trip

So this is one of the few pictures we have of our CO trip! The camera story is funny now. There were about 12 of us travelling to the airport together, so my Grandpa arranged for limo rides. We took the camera out in the limo to take pictures and guess what, that is where we left it! We realized we had left the camera later in the day. Thankfully the limo company found it and gave it back to us when we returned home. Needless to say, we don't have many pictures! I'll post some as my family emails some to us.

As you can tell in the picture, Caleb was not happy about the limo ride. He always stresses about the unknown and that day of travelling was filled with new experiences. I had never been in a limo so I was pretty excited! Caleb's reaction to the limo was nothing compared to his reaction about getting on the airplane. He had been crying about flying on an airplane for the past couple weeks. When we got on the plane, Nate had to carry him crying down the aisle and shouting, "I don't want to ride on the plane!" I'm sure all the passengers were thrilled to see us boarding.:) Eventually, Caleb calmed down. The ironic thing is that Caleb flew so many times when he was a baby b/c we lived in NY. Unfortunately, he doesn't remember that. Isaac did fine in the plane, he just didn't like to sit still. Thankfully there were alot of family members to pass him around too.

Travelling with two young kids over time zones was not fun. The first two days were pretty rough as sleep schedules were all messed up. Thankfully things improved over the week and we all had a great time. The whole Jongsma family was there, all 34 of us. We stayed at YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. We stayed in a lodge where each family had a hotel-like room. We ate meals in a big cafeteria, which reminded me of Calvin. Some of the highlights were; hiking, horseback riding, swimming, hanging out with family, and taking advantage of lots of willing babysitters! Nate and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary while in CO. My family watched the kids so we could go out to eat at a restaurant which was a nice treat!

The trip home was less stressful. Caleb was still nervous about the plane, but he calmed down much faster. We realized that in our day of travel we took a car, a bus from the rental car place to the airport, a train in the airport, a plane, and a limo. Pretty much all modes of transportation!

Cardale did well with the foster family he stayed with for the week. The family is pretty amazing. They had 4 kids of their own and then adopted a sibling group of 5. Right now they have 7 kids living at home. They are also in the process of adopting a 1 and 3 year old from Ethiopia. Cardale had plenty of attention and entertainment there. I think he was happy to come home and he was smiling alot.

Overall it was a great trip!

1 Year Old!

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy! Isaac is 1 year old today. It is hard to believe I was as big as a house and gave birth to an 8 lb 14 oz boy one year ago. I remember looking at Isaac and wondering what his personality would be like. Well, he is mischievious, curious, happy, and outgoing to name a few. He will eat anything and doesn't have any stranger anxiety yet.

Yesterday we celebrated Isaac's birthday early in Chicago with my family and grandparents. I made a dairy free Curious George cake, as our nickname for him is Curious George or Trouble. He loves cake! He enjoyed tearing paper off his presents too. Our gift to him was one of those collapsible tents with balls, both Isaac and Caleb think it's the greatest! We thank God for our beautiful boy!

See ya!

We're heading to CO tomorrow! We're going to YMCA of the Rockies for a Jongsma family reunion for a week. We dropped Cardale off at another foster family. It was sad to leave him, but it will be a nice break to have only 2 kids. Talk to you all later!

Caleb quotes

Caleb has been reading the book, "If You Give A Pig A Pancake." It starts with, "If you give a pig a pancake, he'll ask for some maple syrup." Yesterday at supper, Caleb said, "If you give a Cardale a pancake, he's going to throw it up." We started laughing so hard. You can probably figure out why Caleb said that, yes, Cardale did throw up after we gave him a piece of pancake. He has a very sensitive gag reflex.

It is fun watching Caleb develop a sense of humor.

Last weekend Nate's parents came for a visit. The boys always enjoy seeing them. On Saturday, they took the boys to the beach. Caleb doesn't like Lake Michigan and Isaac kept eating sand, but overall they had fun!:)

We also had our annual college friends get together last weekend. We went out for a kid-free dinner on Friday night. It is so nice to have uninterrupted conversation! On Saturday afternoon we went to one of our friend's house and hung out. Originally we had planned on going to the beach with all of our kids, however there were 6 babies added to the group over this past year. Babies and beaches do not mix well, so we wisely nixed that idea. It's always fun to see everyone again!

Fun Times

I thought I would post some new pics of the boys. I pulled out the kiddie pool this week and the boys loved it! Isaac mostly enjoyed getting in and out of the pool repeatedly. Caleb enjoyed having a playmate in the pool! I put Cardale's toes in as well, but I couldn't get a picture of all three boys-Isaac doesn't sit still for long and he goes under easily. Cardale was happy sitting in the stroller and observing the mayhem.

Another exciting development is that Isaac is walking! He has been practicing taking steps on his own. The farthest he has gone is about halfway across the room. I love watching babies learn to walk. They look like little Frankensteins with their arms straight out in front of them.

Today is a rainy day here, but that is ok. The last picture is of the boys "watching" golf together. Isaac only sat there for the picture and then wanted down. My Mom was here for a couple days which was a huge help. We always enjoy having visitors!