Jongsma Christmas

Nate, the dog whisperer.  All 3 of them were waiting for his commands, ha!

Tim and Jenny with Stephen

Love my Dad

My cougar Mom- such a funny joke!

Raise your hand if you love your big brother!

Spending time with Cardale

I love how he scrunches on my chest and sucks his fist

We had an uneventful New Year's Eve this year.  Nate worked the night shift and I stayed home with the kids.  I didn't have the kids stay up late because Stephen is fussy in the evening, needing more attention and I didn't want to deal with tired, crabby kids the next day!  I finished feeding Stephen at 11:40 pm and crawled into bed.  Shows how motivated I was to see midnight!

The following weekend we celebrated Christmas with my family.  Steph couldn't come home this time since she was just home at Thanksgiving.  We spent a nice day at my parent's house with Tim and Jenny.  My parents have a dog, Tim and Jenny have a dog, plus a dog they were watching.  So there were 3 little dogs running around the house, it was a little nuts!  I am thankful Caleb isn't terrified of dogs like he used to be.  Cardale spent the afternoon with us which is always nice.  Jenn took Stephen's 6 week pictures.  He was alert the whole time and looking cute.  A funny story from Christmas with my family- my Mom received leopard print hat and gloves.  She put them on and I made a joke about look out for my cougar Mom, she's on the prowl.  She took the joke well and we all had a good laugh.  She looks very fashionable in her new hat/gloves.  Tim and Jenny are providing respite care for 2 weeks for an 11 year old girl, Danielle.  It's interesting because we provided respite care for her last year.  I'm proud of Tim and Jenny for saying yes to the hard work of caring for foster kids.

Julia's favorite joke right now is, "knock knock? Who's there?  Boo. Boo who?  Why are you crying it's just a joke?!"  And she asks it over and over again.  She is learning about rhyming at school and she is all over it.  Her mastery of language is amazing.  Isaac is doing an enrichment class every Tuesday afternoon so he brings a lunch to school and spends the whole day.  He is enjoying being big like Caleb and eating lunch at school.  Isaac's best friend, Ryan, is spending 3 months in Florida which made Isaac sad because he has to find someone else to play with at recess.  It sounds like Isaac has found another boy to play with though.  Isaac definitely prefers playing one on one instead of with a group of kids.  Caleb is glad that his teacher is back from maternity leave.  He doesn't share much about school, but he is doing really well and enjoys going.  Caleb plays with Jason alot at school.  We're still hoping to find some boys in our neighborhood his age.

Last Sunday we went back to Hope Reformed Church so we could introduce Stephen.  We all enjoyed catching up with old friends.  We miss our friends, but we're also thankful for the new church we are attending, Faith CRC.  People are incredibly hospitable and we appreciate a more diverse congregation.  

Christmas

6 weeks old

Isaac's Dutch costume for the church Christmas program

Stephen as baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph

Who has a phone out?

That's where you'll find Julia!

Caleb made a great calendar for us at school

Caleb went to a craft night at church and made cool gifts for all of us

Julia's new baby doll- it has a pacifier, bottle and diaper

Merry 1st Christmas Stephen!

The kids looking angelic

And then Stephen filled his diaper noisily which was hilarious

Christmas with the DeMaster family

Grandma got a kindle. Technology just draws Julia in...

We gave Grandpa a new cheesehead

First things first, Stephen is 6 weeks old now!  He's travelled to Chicago and Tennessee in the last week and did great!  He started smiling at us the past couple of days, it is so cute and rewarding.  Hopefully we can catch a smile on camera soon.  We have given him one bottle a week so far with some breastmilk and then I would finish feeding him.  He was doing fine with the bottle, but I wondered if he could take a bottle for a feeding without me feeding him too.  Jenny babysat today and gave him a bottle.  He did great and was fine until the next feeding time.  I felt like yelling, "freedom!"  Now I just need to keep pumping so we can do this more often. Stephen is eating every 3 hours during the day and about every 2 in the evening until his last feeding at 10:30 pm.  He then sleeps til 3 am and then gets up between 6:30/7 am.  He is still sleeping in his carseat at night because of his refluxy issues.  I am trying to have him take naps in his crib during the day.  

The kids participated in the Christmas program at the church we're attending, Faith CRC.  The kids sang Away in a Manger and Stephen was cast as baby Jesus.  I fed him before he went onstage and he slept angelically.  They asked  Nate and I to be Mary and Joseph, but Nate had to work a night shift.  At the end of the program all of the kids wore costumes from around the world.  The boys were in Dutch costumes and Julia wore her hanbok.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of the kids before they took their costumes off. 

The Saturday before Christmas we drove to Wheaton for the extended Jongsma family Christmas.  It was good to see my cousin Renee and her new son, Gavin.  My cousin Becky was in from Spain too.  We always have alot of fun at the Jongsma gatherings, always too short but they are fun!

We celebrated Christmas with the kids on Christmas Eve.  Julia's favorite gift was probably the baby doll.  The boys really like the hotwheels race track we gave them.  We attended a Christmas Eve service at a local church and just spent the day relaxing.  Nate had to work Christmas Day.  I took the kids to church in the morning.  It's slightly stressful when there is no children's worship so all of the kids stayed in the service!  My Dad came over for the afternoon because Mom was working too.  It was nice to spend the day with him and of course very helpful having another adult around!

The day after Christmas we started driving to the DeMaster family Christmas in Tennessee.  We drove halfway to Louisville, KY and spent the night in a hotel.  We drove through a horrible snowstorm that day, lots of cars sliding off the road.  The next day we finished the drive to Crossville, TN.  The GPS took us on a Kentucky Scenic Byway which was 40 miles of torture.  I have never been on such a curvy, twisty road.  All of us felt carsick, but Julia especially.  We stopped the car to let her walk around and she threw up.  Thankfully it was outside!

We stayed at the timeshare condos Nate's parents had lined up.  We had a 2 bedroom unit to ourselves which was nice!  Colleen's family shared with Mom and Dad and Reuben's family had a huge unit to themselves- which they needed!  Unfortunately Pete wasn't able to join us this year.  We opened presents together as a family and sang some Christmas songs.  There are some talented singers in the family.  We spent time catching up, swimming in the pool, playing games, playing with cousins, and doing crafts with Grandma.  We made the drive back in one day.  Julia got carsick again, unfortunately it was in the car.  That was fun to clean up.  The kids did great though on the long drive.

We're going to celebrate Christmas with my family this coming weekend.  We thank God for our wonderful families!