Nate's Birthday

Birthday decorations for Nate's birthday. He got a Spiderman theme. :)
Caleb is excited about opening presents!
Watching Dad open his presents
Yummy cake

This past Saturday, Nate turned 31! He had to work all day and got home after 6:30. We got to eat some pizza and cake together though. Nate's company started the outage so he'll be working more for the next month. I am so grateful for Nate. He is such a hard worker and always helps around the house too. I am so impressed with his abilities to plan and build/fix things. He is a wonderful husband and father. We love you very much, Nate!

In other news, Isaac had his 3 year check-up. He is 35 lbs and 38 inches. He is 2 inches shorter and 5 lbs lighter than Caleb was at this age. :) It was fun watching him do the vision test. The nurse was asking him to identify shapes. He knew most of them, but got bored quickly with the task. He got one shot which turned red and swelled up a little. Otherwise he got a clean bill of health!

Julia had her 18 month check-up. She is 25 lbs and 32 inches. For a little comparison, Isaac was 28 lbs and 33 inches at this age. The doctor is really pleased with Julia's development. She is right on track and is quite verbal. We thank God for how well Julia is doing!

My Dad has surgery tomorrow morning at U of M for prostate cancer. I'm feeling nervous tonight, but overall I haven't been feeling too worried about it. I think it's because it's only surgery and not radiation or chemo too. We're praying that the surgery goes well and that Dad's recovery goes smoothly.

Happy 6th Birthday!

Opening his bow and arrow present (the arrows are nerf-tipped, no worries)
Steph, Julia, Jenn and Ryan (by the way- they are expecting a baby in April!!!!)
Tim and Jenny
Caleb, Isaac and Cardale with the Superman birthday cake
Caleb and Nate have matching hats now! Go Packers!
The Candy Cottage cake for school
Isaac came up with this fort by himself
Ahh, they are playing nicely- take a picture!

Caleb turned 6 years old yesterday! After church we had a little party for him. My parents, siblings, and the Winebrenner's came over. Caleb wanted pizza for his birthday meal, so we had pizza for our Sunday dinner. :) The adults enjoyed chatting and watching some football. The kids had fun playing with Cardale. It is so cute to watch the boys play together. This past Saturday marked the one year point since Cardale moved out of our house. Cardale is doing so great. Ryan and Jenn are perfect parents for him. And, they are expecting a baby in April! God is good! I made Superman cake for Caleb this year. It doesn't look like the traditional Superman logo because I based this one off a shirt that Caleb loved to wear. He likes the design, but decided he doesn't like the chocolate frosting on it that he requested. :) Caleb celebrated his birthday with his classmates today. I have a "Birthday Cakes for Kids" book and Caleb asked me to make the Candy Cottage Cake. It was an easy cake to decorate and it turned out cute. Caleb's classmates were excited to see candy all over the cake! He has 19 kids in his class, so the cake was polished off. I enjoyed meeting Caleb's classmates for the first time. They are cute kids, but I'm glad Mrs. Carey is the teacher and not me. ;)

We are so proud of Caleb. He has matured in so many ways. He loves to learn and ask questions. He is always paying attention to things around him and taking it in. (A good reminder to watch how I act!) He loves having us read to him. We also joke that he has secretly learned to read, but doesn't want us to know. He started reading last year in Young 5's, but mostly 3 letter words, etc. The past couple of weeks we have noticed him mouthing words in his books and has read some more difficult words to us. We sometimes look at each other and say, "How does he know that word?!" He does so well in school. He has a memory verse every week now and memorizes it easily. We're happy that he enjoys learning so much!

Caleb is also an awesome big brother. He and Isaac really hit it off this summer. They played so well together that I often found myself saying, "Enjoy it now, it won't last." :) Caleb also gained a sister this past year. He is great with Julia and still likes to pet her hair sometimes. :) If Julia is upset when there is a babysitter here, she'll often go to Caleb for comfort. So cute.

I pulled out a home video today of when Caleb was a newborn. My first thought was, "I looked horrible after giving birth!" I remember feeling horrible too. :) My next thought was, "How has 6 years gone by?" They have been 6 amazing years and we thank God for the gift of Caleb!

The End of Summer

Overlooking Lake Michigan
Camping at Hoffmaster State Park
Finger-painting with pudding
Real finger-painting
Visiting the St. Joe Children's Museum
First day of kindergarten!

We had a nice end to this summer. Nate and the boys had a "boys only" camping trip. And I said, "woo-hoo!" They went to Hoffmaster State Park near Grand Haven. It is probably our favorite campground now. The sites are large, shady, there are hiking trails and of course the lake. Julia and I visited the campsite for part of a day. I enjoyed getting some things done around the house while they were gone.

One afternoon the boys wanted to finger-paint. Julia wants to be involved in whatever the boys are doing! I gave her some pudding to eat, I mean paint with. She did enjoy playing with the pudding for a couple minutes, but then she just started flinging it. And cleaning up the pudding was quite the process too. I don't think we'll do the pudding thing very often! I also took the kids to a local children's museum. I am always proud of myself when I do big outings like this by myself. Thankfully this museum isn't huge, so it's a little easier to keep an eye on them when they go 3 different directions. Unfortunately the museum didn't have a place for us to eat our packed lunch. But, the staff let us eat at their table in their kitchen- very nice of them.

I wanted to share a couple funny sayings from Isaac recently. The kids had balloons and Julia's accidentally floated away. The boys were a little upset that the balloon was floating away. I said that maybe someone flying in an airplane will see the balloon. Isaac then said, "Maybe Jesus will catch it." So cute. Another time I took the kids for a quick mall trip. We don't go to malls very often. Anyway, the boys suddenly noticed the mannequins. Isaac asked, "Can I touch it?" I said yes. Caleb and Isaac then asked if the mannequins were real, etc. I explained that they were just pretend. Caleb then asked, "Did they cut off people's heads and then make them?" What??? I then carefully explained that the mannequins are made in a factory and they are not real. The boys still stared at them as we walked thru the store. :) The other night Isaac said,"Why did the chicken cross the road?" His answer, "Because he had to go poop." Nate and I discourage bathroom talk, especially at the table, but we lost it. We were laughing so hard. The boys are in the stage that anything related to the bathroom is funny. How long until boys grow out of this stage, ever?

Julia is testing our boundaries these days. She just does things over and over that she isn't supposed to do. Gets a little tiring! We are doing time-ins with her. Where she has to sit still next to us for a minute. She also doesn't play with toys, which is frustrating. She prefers to follow us or the boys around. We're trying to weed out our toys so it isn't overwhelming and find toys that interest her. She does like to carry my purse or other bags around and say, "bye!"- very cute. For a long time Julia went to bed easily. The past two months have been difficult for her. She cries, talks, yells- just doesn't fall asleep easily. We tried going up every 5 minutes to pat her and say goodnight. (I read in an adoption book to try that technique when kids have sleep issues.) We also wake her up from her nap by 3:30 pm. For the past couple of weeks, she's been asking for water so we were giving her a drink and taking the cup away. She seemed kind of stressed about the water. So, we are now giving her a sippy cup with a little water in it and it seems to be working! She still doesn't fall asleep quickly, but she's just jabbering in her bed and not upset. I guess she just feels secure that the water is available if she wants it? Hopefully it continues to work! She is very social these days and loves to say "hi and bye" to anyone who passes by.

Caleb started kindergarten today! He was more nervous than I expected him to be. He is familiar with this teacher as his Young 5's class spent afternoons with the kindergarten class last year. Caleb told me that he was nervous about kindergarten because they do hard work. I kept reminding him that his teacher will help him and that he will do great. This week he has half days and then does normal full days starting next week. His class has 18 kids! We were shocked to hear that. He had 7 kids in his Young 5's class. I think Caleb thrives better in a smaller class, but this will be a good experience for him. He was miffed today because some girl brought pretzels for the whole class so he couldn't eat his own snack. :) I was excited to read that he will be memorizing the ABC's Bible verses. I learned those in kindergarten! You know, A- "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23" B- "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Acts 16:31," etc. I think this teacher will stretch Caleb, but he'll also enjoy kindergarten and learn alot. I still remember how my kindergarten teacher cut off my pencil eraser so that I couldn't erase my mistakes. Very upsetting for a young perfectionist. :) We are excited to see how Caleb grows this year!

Camping

Aunt Steph helping with marshmallows
Silly kids
Caleb learned how to roast marshmallows- from very far away :)
Yum!
The sand mountain
Eating s'mores with Grandma
Say "cheese!"

We took the kids camping for two nights at Yankee Springs State Park on Gun Lake. We borrowed a bigger tent from some friends, ours is too small now for 4 plus a pack and play! We had beautiful weather for the first part. We played in the lake and took some walks. My parents and sister came out in the evenings which was fun. The kids stayed up really late, but I tried to not stress about it. They did alot of giggling in the tent at night. The one down point is we locked our keys in the van and had to call a locksmith. The morning that we left, it rained. So we left the kids in the van and took down the campsite in the rain. We then ate breakfast at McDonalds on the way home. A good trip overall!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Tractor Cake
The birthday boy and his pig cookie

Julia enjoying her cookie
Daddy being silly
Present time!
Isaac received a rocket launcher that you stomp on
Such a handsome 3 year old!

Today is Isaac's 3rd birthday! We celebrated last weekend with Aunt Steph, Grandpa and Grandma Jongsma. I made a tractor cake for him which was a big hit. I started decorating the cake when the kids went to bed one night and finished around midnight. I preferred staying up late and not having any interruptions. :) Today we celebrated with just our family. He requested pizza for his birthday meal. Since we already had a cake, we did birthday cookies instead. Caleb had made pig cookies somewhere else and we thought Isaac would enjoy making them. Frosting, marshmallows, and cookies are a winning combination of course! We gave Isaac a stomp rocket that I believe said for kids 8 and older. He's 3, that is close enough, right? Don't worry he will always be supervised. :) We also gave him a Curious George DVD. The boys need some new DVDs. We're a little tired of always hearing Blues Clues or Boz. Caleb picked out a soccer ball for Isaac which was thoughtful.

We are so proud of Isaac. He is a silly, affectionate boy. He has alot of energy and throws himself into activities, literally! He hurts himself often and gives me gray hair. His vocabulary has taken off this year, but he still says funny words. He says, "I have a g'dea!" for I have a good idea. He likes to make up nonsense words and ask what they mean. He often makes us laugh by pulling his pants past his stomach and walking around funny. Isaac adds so much joy to our family. We thank God for the gift of this little boy!

R & R

We went for a 3 hour canoe trip on the Muskegon River
The flower beds at the place we stayed- (insert eye roll)
The Bed and Breakfast we stayed at
Not much of a group picture!
Julia, Heidi, Lisa and Hannah
Caleb at the bottom of the sand dune
Here comes, Isaac!
Handsome boys

Nate and I have been married for 9 years now! We celebrated by going to a Bed and Breakfast for two nights. My sister, Mom and some babysitters took turns watching the kids- thanks to you all! We went to a place called The Shack near White Cloud, MI. We bought a certificate at Caleb's school auction. The place is a mix between a hotel and B&B. We had a hot tub room which was really nice. However, the place itself wasn't our favorite ever. The decorating scheme was a little outdated and the whole place had a campy/cutesy feel to it. We weren't super impressed with the breakfast either. There were signs around the place such as, "Eat what you take," and "Go to bed, lights out at 11." I guess we felt like someone was watching over our shoulder to make sure we made good decisions. The place does give guests a banana split every night which is a perk, but I don't think we'll stay at the Shack again. :) We did have fun canoeing down the Muskegon River for a couple hours. It was a beautiful day. We ate at some small town restaurants and just enjoyed a laid back schedule. Nate gave me a wonderful present. He had my blog made into a hard cover book! I've always worried that blogger would lose my blog history or something, but now we have our family journal in print. Such a great gift!

This weekend we had our annual college friends get together. On Friday night the adults went out to dinner without children. We also went mini-golfing and were eaten by mosquitoes, but had a great time! Today, the families met at Tunnel Park in Holland for a beach day. It was overcast and there were huge waves, but that made it more fun. I am grateful my kids aren't afraid of the lake, but Julia makes me nervous! She is always running for the water. We had a smaller get together this year, but we still enjoy catching up and watching our kids play together. Tomorrow we will celebrate Isaac's 3rd birthday!

New York and Wisconsin

Box, Smith and DeMaster families
Ready to play in the water
Sam Box and Nate watching kids in the sprayground
Brayden, Isaac, Riley and Caleb
Olivia, Talia, Julia and Hannah enjoying the sand
Julia was a sandy, muddy mess!
Nice action shot of Caleb
Isaac's 3rd birthday quilt from Grandma DeMaster
Fishing at my grandparent's cottage in WI
Peeling corn at the cottage, some things don't change :)
Julia loves chewing on corn on the cob
Having fun in Lake WI


Last month we visited Nate's parents in Rochester, NY for a week. We had beautiful weather. We went to a couple of parks and took some nice walks. We went to the Children's Museum as well. We met some of our NY friends at Seneca Lake State Park for a day. There is a really nice sprayground and the kids played in it all day. Seneca Lake/beach itself was not very nice, but the kids didn't mind. :) We had a fun day catching up with our friends. Julia came down with an ear infection so we visited an urgent care in Rochester. I'm thankful for antibiotics! Isaac had a fever for about 2 days, but then he was fine. While in NY, Isaac opened his birthday presents from Grandpa and Grandma DeMaster. For the grandchildren's 3rd birthday, Nate's Mom makes a quilt. Isaac received a truck quilt that matches the boys' bedroom great! Isaac was also excited to receive a sprinkler from them. He refers to his presents as "my birthday party" and asks when he can have more birthday party? :) His birthday is on the 15th, so it will be soon! The day we left Rochester, Nate's parents got their moving truck. They moved to Ft. Myers, FL. Nate's Dad took a new Christian school principal job. It's a long way to FL from here, but hopefully we can fly down once a year- in the winter of course! :) We're excited for them and their new opportunities.

This past weekend my sister and I took the kids to my grandparent's cottage. We had great weather and the water was nice too! Unfortunately there weren't enough other adults around to do watersports, but we still had fun. Thankfully my sister took pictures during the weekend because I didn't. I just don't remember to take pictures. Don't even ask me how far behind I am on our photo books!

We're travelling alot this summer and it's great! The kids do pretty well in the car and Nate has been using vacation time. Next week Nate and I are going away for 2 nights to celebrate our 9th anniversary. We're already thinking about what we want to do for our 10th anniversary next year. :)