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.