Back from the East

Getting a drink before the reception with Janna and Jason

Suzanne and Erik newly married

Grandma D watching a video with the grandkids. Caleb and Britta were very tense.

Britta and Caleb are 4 months apart in age. They play really well together.

The Box, Smith and DeMaster kids. Why do my kids freak out about pictures?:)

So we're back from our trip to NY. We had a wonderful, relaxing time. The boys enjoyed having Gpa and Gma DeMaster to themselves for a couple days and then playing with their cousins. We also drove out to Ballston Spa to visit our friends. We haven't been back there since we moved away 3 years ago. We saw our old house, which is for sale. The house looked the same, although they took out the pool in the back. We stayed with our friends overnight and had fun catching up with lots of people. It worked fairly well to drive thru the night. The boys didn't sleep as well as desired, but they weren't crying.

Cardale did great with the other family for the week. He was learning to walk before we left and now he is walking everywhere. No more crawling for him.

We completed our vacation with me making a whirlwind trip to Chicago for Suzanne's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and I'm glad I could go. I had fun hanging out with Janna and Jason.

Now we are back into the swing of things. The first day of reality is always tough. Can I rail against Walmart for a moment? I had to go to the store today so I took Cardale and Isaac with me. I need the double seat carts and of course all of those carts are outside covered in snow. This is not the first time this has happened to me at Walmart. So I raised the issue with the cart person again and proceeded to push/pull two carts around Walmart. Not a fun job. As I am leaving Walmart I saw they brought in 6 two seater carts. Hopefully the next people can benefit from it.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Weekend Update

I just got back from an overnight MOPS retreat. It was great to get away with the other leaders and reconnect, relax, and plan for MOPS. I am no longer the MOPS Coordinator so it is nice to have less responsibilities. Now I am in charge of Moppets, the program for the kids. Nate and the kids had a good day without me so that makes the weekend more enjoyable for everyone.:)

I volunteered in Caleb's class this week. I enjoyed meeting the kids he talks about and observing how he acts. Being there put my fears to rest about how Caleb does at school. He was very talkative and got along with the other kids.

I'm taking Cardale to the Dr. on Monday. He is 11 months old and still can not eat Cheerios, table food, etc. without gagging and throwing up. Hopefully the Dr. can order some tests and figure out what is going on. I would like to start solving the problem before he goes home. The transition back to his Mom will be hard enough, I don't want her to be further stressed by his eating problems.

Cardale has started taking steps on his own which is exciting! We also have a family watching him for the week we are going to NY. It will be nice to have a vacation with only 2 kids. I know some people do not understand why we would choose to leave Cardale behind. But, foster parents are encouraged to use respite care so you can focus on your own family sometimes. So, if you don't agree with us using respite care- please keep your thoughts to yourself! The decision was hard enough with lots of guilt in there that we don't need anymore.:)

So we leave for NY on Friday night. We're hoping to see some of our NY friends along with Nate's parents and Reuben's family. Should be a good time!

All Dressed Up

Here are some pics from tonight. Thanks to my Mom who found the baby's costumes. Yes, I know Baby Bop is a girl dinosaur, but who really cares.:) Caleb wanted to be a Green Bay Packer again. The weather was great and the boys enjoyed going for a long walk around the neighborhood. The neighbors get a kick out of seeing the kids all dressed up. I bought way too much candy this year, anyone need a couple bags?

The Rest of the Story

Here is what happened with the Halloween situation at school. We looked over the books and talked to the teacher on Sunday. We told her we didn't love the books, but it was okay for Caleb to hear them. Basically we told her we didn't think the class needed to talk about haunted houses, ghosts, etc. Her reasoning seemed to be that everyone celebrates Halloween and it's nothing major. The part that bothered me was she said, "I wish you had told me earlier that you had a problem with the curriculum so I could have changed things." She sends the next's week curriculum home at the end of the week. How were we to know at the beginning of the year that the class would celebrate Halloween? We didn't think we had to ask that question at a Christian school. She also said, "Please let me know if you have problems with any other holidays." That made us laugh. I think we're okay with the other holidays.:) She is a very nice teacher and great with the kids. This whole scenario is just weird to us. She's been teaching for 3 years and it's shocking to me that we're the first parents to bring up this issue.

Anyways, thank you for all of your input!

Fall Fun

Enjoying the corn maze with Aunt Steph

Going for a ride

Picking a pumpkin


My sister visited us last weekend. The kids always enjoy playing with her. We went to a local orchard and took in the sites. Nothing beats a cider donut! The only unfortunate consequence of the weekend was that we gave Aunt Steph a nasty cold. Everyone in our house (except Nate so far) has gotten this cold. I haven't had a cold this miserable in a while. Hopefully we all recover quickly!

Caleb had his 4 year old check up today. He is 3 ft 7 inches tall, 45 lbs and very healthy! Unfortunately he had to get 4 shots. I was proud of him though. He was only hysterical for a short amount of time. I felt a little bad because after the first two he said, "Mommy there's only one shot, right?!" I had only said there would be a shot, not 4 of them. Bad Mommy.

As I write this Nate and Caleb are sleeping outside in the tent. I know, my husband is crazy about camping and Caleb is following in his footsteps. It's like 46 degrees right now and falling. I'm just glad I have boys that will camp with Nate in cold weather so I don't have to!:)

So we have come across our first school quandary. Caleb's preschool teacher sent home the list of books she'll be reading to the class next week. Now, keep in mind that this is a Christian preschool. They all deal with "scary" themes and one even has a ghost in it. For the class Halloween party the kids can dress up, which is fine, but one of the crafts is a haunted house craft. This just isn't acceptable to Nate and I. We don't do much with Halloween in our house. We'll carve a pumpkin and take the kids trick or treating in the neighborhood (which Nate still isn't crazy about, but I like dressing up the kids :) )- but we don't decorate or do anything with the scary stuff. We just don't agree with making light of witches and other stuff, because those things really do exist. So I talked with the teacher and she dropped the books off for us to look over before school next week. I phrased it to her that we were concerned about Caleb being scared by some of the books and having nightmares. Which is partly true, he does get scared easily and is already afraid of the dark, etc. So she wants me to tell her on Sunday what we think of the books. I just don't know what to do! We don't want to be crazy parents, but we still want to stick to our beliefs. I'm leaning towards reading the books to Caleb this weekend and stressing that the scary stuff isn't real and that it's just a story. It would also be a good time to reinforce that God is always bigger than the scary things and that He'll help us when we're afraid.

I guess I'm wondering what some of you think. I know some of you have taught in Christian schools or have older children- did you have similar situations there? I guess we thought celebrating Halloween wasn't going to be an issue in a Christian school. Anyone else have ideas of how we could handle this?

Poop Happens

Lovely title isn't it? It pretty much sums up what happened this morning. Isaac and Cardale both woke up crying this morning. So, I carried Isaac downstairs to get his milk and Cardale's bottle. I noticed Isaac had peed thru his pj's, so I went to change his diaper. Of course, no diapers downstairs. I took his diaper off him and thought he'd be ok while I made Cardale's bottle. BIG MISTAKE. I went back in the room and Isaac was staring at a pile of poop on the carpet. I was a little upset, but not a big deal-just cleaned it up. Cardale was still crying upstairs so I left Isaac and went to get Cardale and some diapers. I come back down and Isaac is crying. Sure enough Isaac is sitting on the floor with MORE poop on the carpet and now it's on his feet, hands and face. Horribly disgusting!! Seriously, in the 3 minutes I left you alone you had to poop again?! So I'm cleaning him up while he's crying and Cardale is crying as well b/c he just wants his bottle and then Caleb starts yelling, "Mommy, can you open the gate, I have to go potty!" Fabulous. Can I go back to bed now?

Thankfully God is merciful and we made it thru the rest of the morning without any more poop or Mommy meltdowns.:) When I told Nate the story, his response was something along the lines of "poop happens?" A fitting title indeed. :)

Overdue Post

Colleen and Mike's baby- Jack DeJong

So what have we been up to? Why is it so hard to remember what has been keeping me so busy?:) This post will probably be a random string of events and thoughts, sorry!

I forgot to post that Nate's sister Colleen had her baby. Baby Jack was born on Caleb's birthday, September 19. Caleb was very excited to share his birthday with his new nephew! Hopefully we'll meet Jack sometime soon.

We've been enjoying this past week of warm days. The babies like to roam around the yard and play in the sandbox. Thankfully they don't put much in their mouths anymore! Isaac is starting to imitate animal noises and Cardale can mimic words/sounds really well. Cardale still can't eat Cheerios/table food without puking. It is frustrating b/c he is 10 months old now, but hopefully by his 1st birthday he will be ready.

I have started taking a Zumba class at the gym. Zumba is an aerobic/dance class that uses salsa and Bollywood music. I look ridiculous dancing- my bony elbows flying around and hips that don't shake, but it's fun!:)

Nate is still in training at work, and will be until May. The training is going well overall. The bad part is that he has to work 2nd shift often. It's hard on both of us, but doing the supper/bedtime routine by myself every night gets old fast. Nate wins the "best husband" award. Tomorrow he is taking all the kids to my parent's house for the weekend and I'll have the house to myself! I am hoping to get alot of housework done and then Sat night having some fun with the girls.:)