November 2018

She's turning into a panda

Santos, Enedina and Ruth

Lexi loves babies

Ruth Escalante Lucas

Waiting outside for over an hour- freezing

Andy Mineo and Lecrae concert at The Intersection

Roller skating rookie

Mom, don't skate with me

BFF's- Julia and Asha

Michigan sweatshirt!

And a crossbow!

Thanksgiving feast

The boys table

Sweet brother moment, Isaac reading to Stephen

Preschool Thanksgiving feast

Batgirl doing her school thing

-I went on Isaac's field trip to Calvin College.  We listened to author Gary Schmidt, toured around campus and saw the gem/mineral exhibit.  It was fun to tell Isaac and his friends my "back in the day" stories. Isaac also went on a Hope College field trip this year. Now he can make an informed decision.
-Caleb is in phase 2 of braces, hopefully will be done with them in a year.
-Caleb began his basketball season. After tryouts the athletic director gave him the choice of whether he wanted to be on the A team and not play much or be on the B team and get more playing time. We were a little surprised the decision was put on Caleb! We were proud of how Caleb worked thru the options and made a decision. He chose to be on the B team, where he would be with his friends and get more playing time.  Caleb plays center position and scores points almost every game.
-One surprise from this season- Caleb got punched in the eye during a basketball game. The kid was on the opposing team and felt quite embarrassed about it afterwards. The whole story is too long to put here.  Caleb ended up with a black eye and got some fame at school, being the center of attention is not his favorite.
-Caleb is playing in the middle school jazz band this year along with regular band
-Isaac is playing the french horn in band and he loves it. He is still taking piano lessons so we get to hear piano and french horn practicing. Isaac is enjoying his 5th grade year with Mrs. Smit.
-Julia is taking piano lessons again this year. She has been quite adamant she does not want to play an instrument next year and wants to be in choir.  We'll see what happens.
-Lexi's most often used phrase these past months is "how do you know?" You will hear this pretty much anytime you tell her something.
-Julia is having a great year with Mr. Meyering. She is also having more fun at recess and likes doing playdates with friends.
-Rebecca and Asha Peterson went to the Cinderella musical at Holland Christian with Julia and I.
-Lexi's friend Josiah had a roller skating birthday party. Lexi has small enough feet that she could wear the skates over her shoes, so she didn't need any help.  Stephen had to use real roller skates and the struggle was real.
-Enedina had her baby 5 weeks early. Ruth stayed in the NICU for a couple weeks, but is home and doing well now.  Nolbi is 5 years old and loves being a big brother.
-Nate, Caleb, Isaac and myself went to an Andy Mineo/Lecrae concert. (They are Christian rap artists.) We had tickets, but everyone had to wait outside in line. We were not dressed for standing outside in the cold for over an hour. I would have jumped ship and said this isn't worth it as I couldn't feel my feet. Thankfully Nate was more pragmatic and the boys had good attitudes about waiting so long. The concert was fantastic. My favorite part was seeing the boys enjoying the concert. And even though Nate was in the middle of the outage, he gave up sleep so he could come with us.
-We celebrated Stephen's 6th Birthday! He requested a strawberry cake. I made one, he took one bite and said he didn't like it-ha! Stephen got a crossbow and lego sets like he wanted. His teacher is a huge U of M fan and Stephen likes all the things that Mr. Harig likes.  So he was excited to get a Michigan sweatshirt.  Stephen also wants to go hunting like Mr. Harig. Sorry kid, probably not going to happen. Stephen has an infectious giggle, is reading, plays so well with Lexi (they share a room now), still loves to cuddle with his mom (and smell me), always wants to wrestle with Isaac, and just brings joy to our family. Stephen is 53 lbs (84th percentile) and 48 inches tall (91st percentile). We love you Stephen!
-The outage was supposed to end right before Thanksgiving, well that didn't happen.  Things have broken and the outage is extended into December. We are all tired of the outage.
-We hosted Thanksgiving. Nate had to work, but he enjoyed the leftovers.  Grandpa/Grandma J and Tim/Jenny's family came over. I was very proud of my turkey and Mom/Jenny made many of the side dishes. We are especially thankful for Nate's health and that he has a job, even though it's wearing right now.
-The day after Thanksgiving we picked Nate up from work and drove to Wheaton for Great-Grandpa Jongsma's 90th birthday party.  He was in the hospital, but it was still good to catch up with family at the party. I had a chance to visit with Grandpa and have some meaningful conversation. We stayed at a hotel for one night and swam in the pool with cousins. Staying in a hotel with our family of 7, it's just not pleasant. Caleb had some kind of food poisoning and was in the bathroom most of the night, Julia didn't sleep well and the littles were up early. Yay for family memories!