DeMaster Christmas

Playing keep away in the pool with Uncle Pete and Grandpa
Crazy kids
Pete and Colleen
Getting ready for ice skating
Looks like Pete is going to crush Jack
Not many pictures of us together on the blog!
The kids and Jack
A new Packers shirt- awesome!
She really did enjoy Christmas
Quality time with Uncle Mike and Abby
We're getting a guinea pig!!
Julia got a big girl chair, no more highchair!
Grandma and her crafts
DeMaster family (minus Reuben's family)
The boys loved playing with the race car track that Pete gave to Nate
Julia's new scooter
Story time with Uncle Pete
Christmas morning breakfast
Ice skating

Merry Christmas everyone! We hosted Nate's family this year. His parents, brother Pete and sister Colleen with her husband Mike and their kids- Jack and Abby. (Reuben's family couldn't make it- we missed you guys!) Nate's parents spent a couple nights in a hotel which made the sleeping arrangements more doable. I did alot of food prep the week before- so that made meals a little easier. It was a little chaotic, but not stressful. I enjoyed being able to make food that the family enjoyed eating! Just a little way to show my love I guess. We went swimming in the hotel pool and ice skating. We got about an inch of snow one morning so everyone played outside before it melted. We went roller skating with our kids and Grandpa and Grandma last night. Caleb picked it up quickly, Isaac used a "walker" and had a great time. Julia spent most of the time running around, skates are a little beyond her skill level. We also did fondue with Grandpa and Grandma, a first for our kids. They didn't like the cheese fondue (what?!) but they thought cooking the meat was cool. The DeMaster Christmas was just fun. Lots of laughs and good conversations. Maybe it's because my kids aren't terrified of Uncle Pete anymore. Or because the cousins are older and can play together. Either way, it was sad to say goodbye to everyone. We always wish the DeMaster family wasn't so spread out over the country. But, maybe the distance is what makes the get togethers memorable. We are so thankful for our non-dysfunctional families! Ok, there is some dysfunction but that just makes it interesting. :)

Jongsma Christmas

Gma and Gpa gave her play food- there are 120 PIECES! Who is going to clean that up?!
New garbage truck!
Showing off the new rainboots
Good picture of my Mom and Julia
Love having my sister around
Caleb's best Christmas present so far- thanks Aunt Steph!
Isaac took this picture of me
Julia got to attend Isaac's preschool Christmas party- she felt so big
Grandma and the kids


Last weekend we celebrated Christmas with my family! My sister came in from Denver for a couple days. As always we love seeing her and hate saying goodbye again. My Mom, sister and I spent a day in Chicago. We took a train in from Michigan City, although we barely made the train as it was horrible driving conditions that morning. We had a nice time catching up, shopping and eating out. We stopped at Ghiradelli's for an ice cream sundae (awesome) and had pizza at Gino's East. My family was able to see Caleb's Christmas program at church. He was a shepherd. He didn't have any speaking lines or solos which is just FINE with him. I don't foresee him ever wanting to do that. We weren't able to get any good pictures of him in his costume. The kids enjoyed opening presents early in December! Caleb received an Aaron Rogers jersey (QB for the Packers) from my sister. He is in heaven. He loves wearing that shirt. And when he takes it off he tries to fold it. That is the only piece of clothing I have ever seen him fold. So adorable. For some reason I did not get any pictures of my Dad or Tim and Jenny at Christmas, sorry!

Isaac had his Christmas program at school last night. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the service (what??) so we don't have any pictures of his program either. We tried to videotape, but not sure how well that turned out. Isaac was very into it. He was singing with lots of expression, not over the top though. :) The preschoolers were definitely the highlight of the program.

I know I already posted about the His Little Feet choir, but I wanted to share one more thought. The choir said they were blessed by their time in South Haven and asked me to write a reflection on my time with the choir. They might use my piece in their marketing materials, we'll see. Here is what I wrote:

Spending time with the His Little Feet children has deepened my orphan advocacy and impacted my family. I have experience with adoption and foster care, but I’ve longed to participate in caring for orphans abroad. We have young children and taking a trip hasn’t been a possibility yet. However, the choir brought the opportunity to care for orphans to us. Hosting two boys was an experience that will stay with my family forever. It meant so much to form a relationship with the boys, even just for a couple of days. We were able to play games, hug them and just spend time together. My children hear about orphans, but this was a chance for them to see orphans are just kids like them, but they need a family. I cried after our boys left. It makes me sad to think I may never see them again on earth, but praise God for the hope of heaven! The choir’s performance gave me chills. I could see people “catching” God’s heart for orphans. We are thankful for the ministry of His Little Feet and definitely would encourage others to get involved!

Catch Up

Hello countertop! This area is now bottle free.:)

Caleb test driving Cardale's new trike. Such a good big brother.:)

We acquired 3 xylophones over Christmas. The boys are starting a xylophone trio.

Well, the Christmas break is ending. Caleb has missed school and is excited to go back on Monday. The boys enjoyed seeing so many family members over the past two weeks, and we didn't even have to travel much! Our family room is now covered in new brightly colored plastic toys.:) We have double of many toys as Cardale will be taking his with him when he leaves our home. The kids got over their sicknesses and we were all healthy over the holidays.

You may wonder why I took a picture of my countertop. I had a moment where I could visibly witness a parenting milestone and decided to document it. Cardale is now off the bottle! No more making bottles, washing bottles, traveling with bottles- can you tell I'm excited?! I now have a little square of counter that is no longer continually covered with bottle paraphenalia.

In other news, almost everyone knows now that we are adopting! We are adopting a baby from South Korea. We do not know the gender, but the baby will be between 9-12 months of age. We hope to be matched next fall and hopefully will travel to South Korea in December to pick up our child! We are very excited, but it still seems a little unreal since it's a ways off. We started this process with Bethany in the spring. There was a lot of paperwork and social worker visits this summer, but now we're just waiting. If you have any questions, feel free to ask- we love talking about our adoption journey!

Christmas

It's about time to update the blog! We had a really nice Christmas season. We hosted Nate's family for about 3 days for Christmas. Our house was very full, but everyone had a great time! The first picture is the whole family, minus Nate's brother, Pete. The second picture is of the boys with Nate's Mom. She made matching vests for them, very cute! Isaac was our little elf this year, as shown in the third picture. Caleb was more than happy to open Isaac's presents for him, such a good brother.:)

After everyone left we had about a day to clean up before we headed to my parent's house. We then drove thru the night to Rochester, NY to visit Nate's parents. Driving thru the night actually worked great! We had alot of fun being back in NY. Nate was really wishing we lived there again. One of the highlights was getting together with some former NY friends. Sam and Angelisa drove out with their 3 kids for New Year's Eve and spent the night. We had so much fun! A big thanks to Mom and Dad DM for hosting us all and the crazy kids.:) The fourth picture is Angelisa with Isaac and her daughter, Talia, who is 6 weeks younger than Isaac. As for the rest of our NY friends who read this blog, hopefully we can get together with you the next time we're out there!

The last picture is at the Children's Museum in Rochester. They had a Bob the Builder exhibit, Caleb was very excited about it! Mom and Dad DM also babysat the kids a couple times so Nate and I enjoyed a couple dates.

The biggest blessing is that we all stayed healthy and had safe traveling. We are so thankful for our friends and family across the nation. God is good!

Gearing Up!

The first picture is one shot of the many we took of the boys, trying to find a good Christmas card pose. It's not easy taking a picture of two squirmy boys!

The second one is Nate's lastest injury. He was playing basketball and dislocated his finger. He pulled it back into place by himself. I'm glad I wasn't there to see that- I would have been grossed out! So now he is wearing a splint and the finger is swollen and purple.

The Christmas countdown has begun! Actually, we've been counting down for awhile, but the busyness is starting tomorrow. My MOPS group is doing our Christmas party so my co-coordinator and I have been busy planning that. Please pray we have a good turnout!

On Friday we are doing our little Christmas with the boys. On Saturday we are heading to Chicago for the day for an extended family Christmas. Then on Sunday the DeMaster clan is arriving and staying til Wednesday. On Thursday we head to my parent's house for Christmas. After that we are heading to Rochester, NY to stay with Nate's parents for a couple days. Whew!

Last night I was stressing out about how much I have to do in the next couple weeks. But, Nate prayed with me and I felt God's peace. Prayer is so amazing! I'll still be busy, but I'm not going to worry.

O Christmas Tree

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, how pokey are your branches....

I think that is the theme for our tree this year. We went and cut one down yesterday. Caleb had a great time and Isaac stayed in the car. We ended up getting a Blue Spruce and I don't think we'll get that type next year! It is a very "pokey" tree as Caleb says. Nate and I had to wear gloves while working with the tree. At least I know small children won't mess with our tree, it will be too painful! I am very happy with how full it is, no Charlie Brown tree this year!

In other news, Isaac has been keeping us up at night. The past two nights he has been waking up at 3 am and crying for 30-45 minutes. Last night he made the night even better by waking at 5 am again at which point I finally fed him. We know he doesn't have to eat at 3 am. Conventional wisdom says it takes about 3 nights for kids to break a bad sleep habit and sleep better. Tonight is night 3... I hope conventional wisdom is right. It didn't help that Isaac woke up early from his nap this afternoon, just as I had laid down for a nap! Timing is everything.