Caleb and Mom's Excellent Adventure

Nothing like a self-portrait
The main Christmas tree at the Museum of Science and Industry
Very cool locomotive
The toy train set-up was really neat
For Grandpa J: Tree in honor of the Stanley Cup winners- The Chicago Blackhawks!
Chick just after hatching- probably one of Caleb's favorite exhibits
The South Korean tree
In front of the German submarine from WWII
Look out for the tornado! There was also a lightning display- a little too real and loud for Caleb's liking.
The Netherlands tree
Field Museum- Tyrannosaurus Rex bones!
Creepy little robotic dinosaur
T-rex is going to eat you!
The triceratops wasn't as scary
You can see Caleb in the background- he did not want to get too close to the T-Rex!
One example of the huge display of real/stuffed animals at the Field Museum
Elephant near our table at the Rainforest Cafe

On Monday, our family was supposed to go to the Museum of Science and Industry. Isaac came down with a terrible fever on Sunday and was not better on Monday. Julia also had a cold and was rather crabby. So, Nate made a huge sacrifice and stayed home with Isaac and Julia. Caleb and I made the trip together. We spent about 4 hours at the Museum of Science and Industry and we had a great time! I hadn't been there since I was a child. I also wasn't sure if the younger kids would enjoy this museum. I think Isaac would appreciate most of the museum and Julia would have fun just walking around. Caleb and I didn't do the coal mine tour or the submarine tour. I think both would be too dark/loud/scary. We'll take the kids when they are older.

We then went to the Field Museum. Again, I hadn't been there in years so I was curious as to how family friendly it is. Caleb has been saying for a long time that he wanted to see dinosaur bones and we finally saw some! There is a T-rex display and it is very impressive. However, that is only dinosaur bones display. One of the special exhibits was the robotic dinosaurs. Caleb was a little nervous, but he probably could have spent much longer just sitting and watching the dinosaurs move, grunt, roar, etc. We had the option to see a 3-D movie about T-rex, but it looked scary even to me! So we passed on that. The only other part of the Field Museum that kids would like is the animals exhibits. There is a large area of real, stuffed animals from around the world. I'm glad we visited this museum, but we'll wait to take the kids when they are older and can appreciate more of the museum.

We then went to the Rainforest Cafe in downtown Chicago for supper. I had never been to this restaurant so I was curious if it was as good as all of the hype. :) It is a fun restaurant and Caleb enjoyed seeing all of the robotic animals on the walls. Later in the evening my cousin informed me that there is a Rainforest Cafe at the Grandville mall. What?? You mean I don't have to drive to Chicago just to try the restaurant?! Oh well. :)

After supper we drove to my grandparents' house and spent the night. One of the main reasons for this trip was that my cousin and her husband were in from Atlanta. We only see each other once a year and it was great to catch up with them again. This was a memorable and fun experience with Caleb and I am so thankful we could do it!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Decorating the real tree with our family ornaments
Adorable in pigtails
I like this picture b/c of the cute face she is making
Isaac enjoys "washing dishes" otherwise known as making a big watery mess
I took this picture and then Caleb threw that snowball at me when I turned around. Little punk.
It's marshmallow girl- I can't put my arms down!
Chilling in the fort Daddy made

Going for a sled ride
Opening presents from his teacher at the Kindergarten Christmas party


First of all, the Bulls game Nate and I went to was awesome! We had good seats and the game was alot of fun. At the end of the game, the Bulls hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer and sent the game into overtime. The Bulls then won the game- it was all very exciting! Scottie Pippen was at the game too! He was sitting directly across the arena from us and they showed him on the big screen. The night would have been perfect if Michael Jordan had been there too. Nate laughs at me b/c I cover my ears whenever someone tells me what Michael Jordan is really like. I prefer the hero I followed as a kid to the real person. :)

On the 11th we celebrated Julia's Family Day! She has been home for one year now. She has adjusted so well and we can't imagine life without her.

About that same time we had the stomach flu hit our house. Julia had it for the first time and it wasn't pretty. I wasn't prepared for how stuff gets stuck in girls' hair- gross. I then got the flu and had to call Nate home from work. Isaac had a mild version and we thought we were done. However, Caleb then got it and once again we thought we were done. About 3 days later, Nate got it. This is the most drawn out flu bug ever. Thankfully it was just the 24 hour bug and we recovered fairly quickly. I hope all of this sickness means that we will be healthy over Christmas. :)

The kids are enjoying this snowy time of year. Julia loves being outside, which is good because it takes about a half hour to get her snow stuff on. I am always proud of myself for going outside with the kids. I really don't enjoy it, but I know it makes them happy if I do it once and a while.

We have all of our Christmas decorations up and have been celebrating Advent every evening. I am slightly embarrassed to say we have two Christmas trees this year. A couple years ago we bought a pre-decorated tree for a charity event. The tree is pretty, but we can't put our family ornaments on it. And Nate really likes real trees, so we bought a 5 foot tree for the toy room. The other day we stopped at a friend's house and Isaac said, "Look Mom, snow poo!" I looked and realized he was pointing at a Winnie-the-Pooh Christmas decoration. Too cute.

Caleb had his church Christmas program last week. It was a fun program and he enjoyed singing the songs. His age group dressed up for the manger scene and originally Caleb was going to be a rooster. And he was excited about being a rooster. You all know Caleb doesn't do dress-up, but he was looking forward to this. The day before the program he found out he couldn't be the rooster because he was too big for the costume. He had to dress up as a sheep instead, he was not excited about that. :) But, I give him credit because he wore that sheep costume with a good attitude and looked pretty cute. But don't tell him I said that!

Christmas vacation has now started and we'll be off and running. On Monday we're taking the kids to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I hope they aren't too young for it. We'll also spend the night with my grandparents and see some extended family. We celebrate our family Christmas on the 22nd and then leave for Pittsburgh on the 23rd. Nate's whole family will be there for Christmas! That means we'll have two family get-togethers with them in one year- that doesn't happen very often. We'll then drive to my parent's house on the 26th and have Christmas with my family on the 27th. (My sister will be home for that too- yay!) We'll have a couple days at home and then we'll head to my grandparents on New Years weekend for the Jongsma Christmas. And then school starts again! Can you see why I'm praying that we all stay healthy? :)

If I don't update before Christmas, I pray that you all have a wonderful Christmas celebrating Jesus' birth!

Thanksgiving

A glimpse into Julia as a teenager- makes me shudder!
Making Cardale's tractor cake
Hey cutie
Celebrating Cardale's 3rd birthday!
The best part of the weekend- Steph was there!

The highlight of Thanksgiving 2010 was that Stephanie surprised us and flew home for the weekend! It was great to see the look on my parents' faces. :) We all enjoyed just spending time together at my parent's house. We cooked the turkey in a turkey fryer this year. Nate and my Dad were in charge of the process and it turned out great! I thought it would be greasy, but it wasn't. The turkey cooks alot faster in a fryer than in an oven. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the men outside frying the turkey. :) We also celebrated Cardale's 3rd birthday with his family. It is so great to watch him grow up. Isaac says often that, "Cardale is his fwiend and when is Cardale coming to our house?" The only downside of the weekend was that my Mom was sick. Hopefully the doctors can figure out what's going on soon. Julia was sick as well and ended up on antibiotics when we got home. She is finally sleeping thru the night again after about a week of night wakings. I've been a little under the weather, but I think I'm almost better. I believe my family passed on some sickness to my Dad and sister, so sorry. We have so much to be thankful for this year. Julia has been home almost a year, my Dad's cancer is gone, my Mom had successful surgeries, my sister is loving Denver, and the rest of our family members across the country are healthy and doing well. Thank you, God! I would ask that you all keep my Grandpa in your prayers. He has an aggressive tumor in his prostate and has some hard decisions to make about treatment options. We appreciate your prayers!

I received some free tickets to a dress rehearsal for The Nutcracker put on by the Grand Rapids Ballet Company. Last night I went with some friends to the show. I haven't seen The Nutcracker in years and I loved seeing it again. I told Caleb that at some point our family would go to see the ballet. He was not thrilled about that. He is very anti-girl anything right now. Oh well, he can experience it at least once. :)

Tomorrow night, Nate and I are going to Chicago for a Bulls game! Nate has never been to an NBA game, so I bought these tickets for his birthday. I haven't been to a Bulls game since their glory days, but I'm excited to go again. Unfortunately I don't know anything about the Bulls players now like I did in the Jordan years, but I'm sure Nate can fill me in. :) Tim and Jenny are going to watch the kids for us- thank you!

An Orphan Sunday Video

Here is a great video I just had to share. Brought tears to my eyes!



An Orphan Sunday Video

Family Fun

Such a cute M&M
Anyone else see the irony in this picture? :)
Caleb's face says it all- "My teacher is making me pose for this picture and I don't like it!"
Bubble fun with Grandma
She was trying to blow the bubbles and looked adorable- of course couldn't catch it on camera!

Caleb's school had a science fair last week. Caleb's class guessed which color occurred more often in a bag of M&M's and then counted them. Very scientific. There was an M&M costume available for the kids to try on. Caleb was not interested, but the younger two make very cute M&M's.

A local adoption group hosted an event at The Grand Rapids Children's Museum for adoptive families. I took the kids and met my parents, Jenn and Cardale there. We also saw some other friends there. I really appreciate the efforts put forth by groups to recognize adoptive families. At these type of events no one asks you if the kids are yours or not. :)

Latest happenings

Watching "Pororo" clips on You Tube
Shoes for Orphan Souls- 50 pairs of shoes and counting!

Orphan Sunday is done! I started planning/ working on Orphan Sunday this summer and I was really excited about it. I was also nervous that maybe people just won't care. I kept reminding myself that God is using me to get the message out, He is the one who will move people's hearts. Our church did a shoe drive with Shoes for Orphan Souls and we collected 50 pairs of shoes. As we packed the shoes I thought about how excited my kids are about a new pair of shoes and how happy an orphan somewhere will be to receive a pair of shoes. I wanted our church to participate in this shoe drive because it shows people that even little things can make a big impact. I also arranged for part of the MI Heart Gallery to be on display at our church. The Heart Gallery contains professionally done portraits of MI kids waiting to be adopted. Another orphan advocate shared with me the prayer cards she uses at her church. Each card contains the picture of a MI child waiting to be adopted and a little bio. On the back of the card are ways the sponsor can pray for the child. I had people sign up for a child so that I can let them know when the child is adopted. We all know prayer is powerful! During the service I shared about different ways to get involved in orphan care and some mission trip possibilities this summer. There is a 2 week mission trip to Romania that I would love for our family to go on sometime. It's a family friendly mission trip and you spend most of the time in hospitals holding babies and in the orphanages playing with kids. Most of the Romanian orphans will never be adopted and will grow up in the orphanage. The orphanage workers do their best, but these children need all the loving they can get. I would love to take our family to Romania this summer, but don't think that's going to happen. :) I'm really excited to see how God will move our church to love and serve orphans!

The first picture is of the kids watching Pororo, a Korean cartoon, on You Tube. All of them get excited to watch it and start dancing around the room to the songs. Pretty cute.

Caleb had his first serious offense at school. I won't go into all the details. However, tonight he wrote a note to Nate and I apologizing for misbehaving. He also wrote a note to everyone in the family saying he loved us. It was very cute. :)

I have been battling a sickness since about October 14. Basically an upper respiratory infection. I've had two rounds of antibiotics. I had to go back in today because of chest pain every time I coughed, sneezed, etc. I guess the lining of my lungs is inflamed so now I am on a round of steroids. My youngest two are both on antibiotics now too. I hope we all kick this bug soon!

Halloween

Ready to show the neighborhood some cuteness!
Isn't he the cutest bunny ever?!
Gotta love 'em

As I've mentioned in the past, we don't make a huge deal out of Halloween. We carve a pumpkin, but that is the extent of our decorations. We like the idea of letting kids dress up and pretend, so that is what we do. They aren't allowed to be scary, evil or gross things. We then trick-or-treat around the neighborhood. It is always fun to see the other neighborhood kids looking cute. Many of our neighbors don't pass out candy, but that is ok. The kids still come home with more candy then they need. :) Nate surprised us and got home from work in time for the costumes and trick-or-treating. I have also mentioned in the past that Caleb does not like to dress up. I imagine he will be a soccer player for the next several Halloweens. :) However, the other day he told me he wanted to dress up like a wolf next year. Either of the Grandma's want to tackle that job? I'm a little suspect though that he would actually wear the costume. :) Isaac wore a bunny costume that my Mom made when my siblings and I were kids. And Julia was a little Baby Bop. She rode in the stroller and quickly got excited when people started giving her candy. She is a little sugar addict like her Mama. :)

And the most exciting news, the outage is done!!! Nate is off for 4 days in a row- so nice. I am very proud of all of the work Nate did for the outage. I don't understand much of it, but I do know that he was entrusted with alot of responsibility and he rocked it. Now we go back to normal shift work until the next outage in 18 months. :)

Grandma!

Enjoying some time at the park

Playing Settlers with Dad
This is probably the cutest picture ever!
Using the "sunbrella" at Caleb's soccer game
A great week with Grandma!

Nate's Mom stayed with us for a little over a week. The day after she arrived, I went to Boston for the weekend. I then spent the rest of the week quite sick. Everyone knows that when Mom gets sick, the house falls apart- especially if Dad is working crazy hours too. :) But, Grandma was here and it was so helpful! I went grocery shopping and realized we were also getting laundry done and the house cleaned because Grandma was around. Such a treat! The kids enjoyed having Grandma's undivided attention. They read lots of books, did art projects and played outside. She also went on a field trip with Caleb's class. Mom and I went to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. Steven's sons have a band called 'Caleb' that played some songs. Then Steven played some of his oldies and new songs. Steven's wife, Mary Beth, then spoke about their family's journey over the past two years after the death of their daughter. I actually heard her speech at the orphan conference I attended, but it was still moving. The Chapman family is a big supporter of adoption and orphan care. I ran into quite a few people I know from the local adoption community at the concert. It seems like Mom's visit flew by! Thank you again for coming, we all enjoyed your visit!

Hopefully the outage will finish up next week. We're all ready for that.

Robin's wedding

Beautiful Bride
Robin, Ricardo and her parents
Friends since high school!
Deb and me- I look a little sick :)

This past weekend I flew to Boston for my friend's wedding. I've known Robin since high school. I stayed with Deb and her family for the weekend and had fun hanging out. Traveling was not fun. I came down with a horrible cold a couple days before I left. I was coughing and sneezing all over the place, not pretty. I sounded so horrible that Amy's (Deb's sister) kids were afraid of me! I didn't spend alot of time with Robin because I didn't want to get her sick before her honeymoon. I did get out on the dance floor for awhile. It was a short weekend and most of it was in a fog. :)

Nate's Mom is visiting for a week so she watched the kids while I was gone. I am so thankful she is here. It has been a huge help what with me being sick and Nate working long hours. The kids are enjoying Grandma's visit too!