March

Kai and Stephen sledding together, when did they get so old?

Indeed

Those glasses make him look like Grandpa DeMaster (when he was younger)

Goofy kids

Family dinner at Logans restaurant

Hard at work

And there is light

Easter party- why doesn't he take normal pictures?

We caught the Easter bunny! (And we released him)

Coloring eggs

First Easter

The girls

How the kids usually look

End of the day Easter picture

The grandkids. "We're from MI, we don't know what to do with sunshine on our faces." 

First dentist visit, he did great

Lexi and Keira

Ninjas

So, what to write about March?  We celebrated Julia's birthday, I'll do a separate post for her. We didn't have any sports going on, it was nice to have our Saturdays and weeknights mostly free.  We had gym night with our church.  Someday all of our kids will be old enough to play on their own so Nate and I can enjoy events like gym night. We took turns watching the littles so we could each participate in some of the fun.  We also had family fun night for the kids school.  It is kid fun night, not parental fun night.  And Nate conveniently had to work a day shift so he couldn't come til later, mm-hmm.  Thankfully he was able to take the youngest two home early because they were not having fun.  The older three love the carnival games and picking out prizes at the end.

We attended the local foster/adoptive family Easter party.  Lexi was pretty excited to walk around and pick eggs up.  She was more excited about the candy inside the eggs.  Dallas and Keira were also at the party.  We tried to get a picture of them with Stephen and Lexi- unsuccessfully.  None of them would stay put for a picture.

Caleb and Julia began orthodontic treatment.  They both have an expander to make more room in their mouths.  We have to turn the expander every night, which can be a frustrating process.  I foresee many years of orthodontic visits in my future.

Caleb had a band concert.  Nate and I are very impressed with the caliber of the music program at Holland Christian.  The concert featured the 5th-12th grade bands and at the end of the concert, all of the students played a song together.  Band concerts bring back so many good memories for me.  Caleb also began lacrosse practices at the end of the month.

For Easter we went to our church and then drove to my parent's house for lunch.  Tim/Jenny and family were there as well.  We tried to get some nice family pictures, we got the general idea.

Spring break began at the end of the month.  I took the kids to Hastings overnight.  The older 3 kids and I went to see the movie Zootopia with Cardale.  The older boys also spent time at Cardale's house that day.  We are grateful we can still see Cardale.  He calls us his first family instead of foster family, it's cute.  And Julia is convinced Cardale is her cousin.

We had parent teacher conferences and got glowing reports from all of the teachers.  We are so proud of our kids and how hard they work in school.  We are more proud of their character and how they live out their love for Jesus at school.  Our kids are pretty awesome.  

Pete's Wedding

Beautiful memorial candle for Mom

During the last weekend of February, Nate and I were on our way to Mexico for Pete's wedding!  We flew out early Friday morning to San Diego and met up with Mike/Colleen. We rented a car and drove about 2 hours south into Mexico.  The wedding was located near Ensenada, Mexico in a wine valley.  The wedding was small, about 20 people were invited.  We all stayed at a charming hotel with beautiful surroundings.  On Friday evening there was a cocktail hour and we enjoyed getting to know the other wedding guests.  On Saturday morning we relaxed.  The DeMaster family has never gotten together without children (at least in the 15 years I've been around.) It was so nice to chat with the family and realize again, "hey, we're fun when there aren't children around!" We ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant and they also served cookies for breakfast! They were speaking my language.  In the afternoon, a group of people took Pete off the hotel grounds for awhile.  Jess and Pete didn't want to see each other and Jess was getting a little stir crazy in her hotel room.  The group went to a place that advertised hummer adventures.  There was a hummer, but it wasn't much of an adventure.  The hummer pulled a hay wagon type trailer behind it.  The hummer adventure is really meant to transport people along a winery trail, so I guess it would seem fun with some wine on board. 

That afternoon, Colleen and I gave Jess a couple gifts.  Colleen had painted a picture based on the flowers on their wedding invitations.  It was beautiful. We also gave Jess a family scrapbook. We had the DeMaster and VanStelle aunts/uncles write a welcome/congratulations note and include a family picture.  That way Jess could "meet" the extended family.  

And Jess wore Antoinette DeMaster's wedding gown!  Antoinette is Nate's deceased Grandma. The dress is from the 1930's and Jess looked amazing in it.

The wedding ceremony took place on the hotel grounds in the late afternoon. I'm just going to share what I wrote on facebook about the wedding. 

The whole weekend was a wonderful celebration of them. The ceremony was achingly beautiful. I was aware of the rootedness of generations of family who love Jesus. God is so faithful to us imperfect people. There was much evidence of Mom's beauty and legacy of faith surrounding us this weekend. We cried and we celebrated. And we had lots of A-mazing wine. 

 After the ceremony we hopped on a bus and went to a local restaurant.  Pete had told us to expect the best food of our lives.  We were not disappointed.  This was a top notch restaurant.  There is no menu, the chef makes new things everyday.  I lost track, but I think we had a 10 course meal.  (They were small portions.)  And with every course there was a new glass of wine!  I couldn't drink the wine fast enough and at one point I had 3 glasses in front of me.  Dad helped me out and finished one.  I have not had that much wine, well probably ever.  We were all feeling gooood.  It was a great day celebrating Pete and Jess.

Sunday morning we left around 8 am.  We took a different route back to the border because someone said it would be a faster border crossing.  Well, it wasn't.  We sat in line at the border for about 2 hours.  We got into San Diego just in time to drop off the rental car and catch our flight.  We arrived at Grand Rapids around midnight and the Shoemakers brought us home.  

While we were gone, our family was busy watching the kids.  My Mom watched the kids on Friday and my Dad came out that evening.  Steph flew in late Friday evening.  My parents and Steph spent the rest of the weekend caring for these hooligans.  The kids were very excited to have Aunt Steph here.  Steph and I got to spend Monday morning together before she flew home Monday afternoon.  It was too short, but it's always good.  In about a month we'll be celebrating Steph and Ben's wedding!   

February

When it's winter we visit the indoor playground

100 crayons for 100th day. Pin that

She walks in heels better than me

I clean one room, they empty bins in another room.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Child labor

Pedicures with Grandma

65th Anniversary

Snow fort with the neighbors

Fun with Grandpa

No snow on the ground, Nate set his new hammock up. And then it snowed again

Waiting for summer

Lexi spied this toy of hers from China and was very excited to play with it 

In early February, Julia and Isaac had their 100th day of school.  Julia was supposed to attach 100 items to a shirt.  What? Teachers should not be allowed on pinterest. So she decided on 100 crayons.  We taped them on and she left a trail of crayons behind her at school.  And some ended up in her coat pocket, which I did not know, and the coat was put in the dryer. Which left red crayon on everything.  Grr- all because of the 100th day of school.

Rebecca and I attended a local IF:Gathering.  The IF conference is held in Texas, but is simulcasted around the world.  The conference has biblical teaching and encouragement for women.  It was good.

On the 6th we attended the local Korean Lunar New Year party.  Julia wore her hanbok and Lexi wore her Chinese qipao (key-peh.) We also brought along some Asian students from Hope College.  One of the students is Julia's Korean tutor.  Her name is Hyeji and she is a freshman at Hope.  She grew up around Detroit and taught at a Korean language school while in high school.  Hyeji comes twice a week.  Julia's feelings about learning Korean vacillate between enjoying it and thinking we are torturing her.  Typical response for her age. The actual Lunar New Year was on February 8.  We invited Jim and Sue Shoemaker over for dinner.  I cooked bibimbop and mandu, Korean dishes.  We had the Shoemakers participate in a Chinese new year tradition. The elders of a family give each child a red envelope with money in it.  Each child comes forward and bows to the elder before receiving the envelope.  Our kids really got into it and the Shoemakers had fun too.

We have had some snow days scattered throughout this month along with weeks of sickness.  The stomach flu and colds have made their rounds.  I won the Mom of the Year award.  Lexi had a cold and then was kind of ornery and not sleeping well for a couple weeks.  I finally took her in, convinced the Dr would say nothing was wrong.  Turns out she had a raging ear infection and couldn't hear in that ear!  Our other kids scream at night, pull their ears, etc when they have an ear infection. I wonder if living in the orphanage taught her to be stoic- crying at night doesn't really get your needs met.  Anyway, it made me sad that she had been in pain for a couple weeks, but I think I know her "sick signs" better.  Lexi has become my shadow in the past months.  She plays with Stephen, but prefers to be under my feet.  I am glad she is attaching to me, but there are struggles.  When she wakes up too early from naps or bedtime she will go back to sleep for anyone but me.  As soon as she sees me she wails because she associates me with comfort.  Which is good- most of the time.

The highlight of the month was having Grandpa DeMaster visit us for a week.  We were all happy to have him around.  He spent one on one time with each of the kids and helped Nate with projects around the house.  We did fondue while he was here which our family hasn't done in a long time!

At the end of the month, Nate and I went to Pete's wedding.  I'll write about that in my next post.

January 2016

Can't have too many tub pictures

New Year's Eve with the Petersons

Minion puzzle from Grandpa D

Goodbye Rudy

Hello! 

Last day of the pacifier

I got a light saber!

Caleb trying to play the wii, Lexi is helping

18 months old!

Cousin playdate

Julia doing some gymnastics

Snow baby

Wacky hair day

Game time

37th birthday

There's a hole in our kitchen

Visiting the cemetery

FL beach in the winter

Weekend with Dad

Caleb began playing indoor soccer this month.  He has one game a week.  His team is new to indoor soccer and many of the other teams have played together before.  Caleb's team isn't winning their games, but they are having fun and becoming better players.  Isaac is playing basketball on Saturday mornings this month.  The high school coaches and players run drills with the kids.  Isaac has enjoyed it.  Julia spent an afternoon doing gymnastics.  I met an adult Korean adoptee who coaches gymnastics and she was interested in spending time with Julia.  Julia was hesitant in the beginning to try some of the equipment, but she warmed up quickly.  Not many kids get unlimited access to a gym like that!

Lexi turned 21 months in January.  Have I mentioned she is a climber?  She spends most of the day moving items so she can climb onto them.  She is an impressive jumper and she loves trying to put clothes on.  Stephen is not very interested in putting clothes on by himself.  Lexi can say most of the names in our family, but doesn't unless prompted to.  She understands everything we say, she just isn't very motivated to talk yet.  Stephen and Lexi can be cute together.  Lexi was crying and Stephen said, "Lexi needs a friend named Stephen."  Lexi's hair is growing into her eyes, but she yanks every hair tie out and I'm not sure it is a battle worth fighting.  We took Lexi to the aquatic center for the first time.  She loved walking around in the water and trying to float.  She tried to hide in a locker while there, very cute.

This month we took the pacifier away from Stephen.  We didn't have any travel plans or major changes happening, so we decided it was time.  We told Stephen he could pick out a toy and pay for it with his pacifiers.  While walking thru the store he stuck one in his mouth, one last time.  He picked out a light saber, because the older boys have them too!  He was happy with his new toy until naptime.  He was so sad, I felt like a mean Mom. He kept asking to go back and get them from the store.  He hasn't napped great since we ended the pacifier.  He maybe naps a couple times/week now.  He was waking early in the morning for a couple weeks after as well.  He was our only child to use a pacifier so this has been a learning experience for us.

The kids had wacky hair day at school.  Last year Julia wanted color in her hair.  We tried hair chalk, but it didn't work.  This year I bought some colored, fake hair online and it was fantastic.  The hair clipped into Julia's hair and she loved them!

The big transition this month was our guinea pig Rudy moved out.  Rudy has been with us for 4 years and guinea pigs can live up to 8 years old.  The kids took care of him, but never played with him.  And Rudy kind of smelled and took up space in the toy room.  Rachael Small took Rudy as Lucas wanted a guinea pig for Christmas.  The kids were very upset in the beginning about Rudy leaving, but the day he left there were no tears.  Stephen is the only one who regularly says he misses Rudy.  The kids have been campaigning for a new pet, but I think it is only because they don't want to be the lame family that doesn't have a pet.  Ha!

For my birthday we went to the Peterson's house.  Rebecca made a fantastic dinner and provided the cake- with the right kind of frosting too! The kids gave me a mug that says "the best mom ever" with a picture of our family.  It's my daily self esteem boost.  Nate gave me a weekend in Florida for my present.

I spent a weekend at Dad's house in Florida.  Nate stayed home with the kids and they had fun doing what they do when Mom's not around.  It was cool in Florida, but I won't complain- it was warmer than MI!  I enjoyed relaxing and spending time with Dad.  We visited the cemetery and saw the completed name plate.  Mom's death still seems surreal, maybe it will always feel that way.  Like she should be back any minute. We had dinner with some of Mom/Dad's friends and went to their church.  I appreciated talking with Mom's friends.

The last weekend in January I taught a foster parent training again. The last time I taught was before Lexi came home, so it had been awhile.  It was like riding a bike, it all came back.  I am in the process of becoming trained to lead a Trauma Informed Parenting class for foster/adoptive parents. I enjoy interacting with foster/adoptive parents and sharing experiences.  Nate is still working normal hours.  He became qualified as a shift manager which is a big deal.  So proud of him!  And the last news from this month is we are changing things in our kitchen.  We had a mason bust out the range top in our brick wall and make a hole big enough for a new frig.  We were nervous about what if the frig didn't fit?! The frig reveal photo will be in next month's post.