November 2016

Remembering Grandma DeMaster

Stephen's birthday supper at Bob Evans

Little turkey

Is there a Lexi in there? 

Bowling fun

Grandparents cheering the bowlers on

Family

Ben teaching Caleb 

Solidarity

Video games with the uncles

Thankful

Nate and I went to Mayo Clinic and it was so helpful to have Grandpa DeMaster staying with the kids.  Stephen had Preschool Dad Night while we were gone and Grandpa was a fun fill-in.  The older boys had basketball practice on Saturday mornings during November.

We had parent teacher conferences and all of the kids are doing well.  Our favorite part is hearing about our kids' character and how they live out their faith at school.  We are proud of all of our kids!

Stephen celebrated his 4th birthday!  Ever since he couldn't have a Thomas the Train cake for his 3rd birthday, he has insisted that is what he wanted for his 4th birthday.  I ordered a very cool Thomas the Train cake and he loved it.  We gave Stephen a remote control car for his birthday.  I also recently made Stephen's baby book and he loves showing it to people.  Stephen is often heard saying, "I love it!" in any number of situations.  We are thankful for Stephen and we love him very much!

Grandpa DeMaster spent Thanksgiving in San Diego.  We spent Thanksgiving in Hastings and the Jongsmas were all together.  We just had a very pleasant holiday.  We played games, ate good food and enjoyed being together.  Nate was going to lose his hair soon because of chemo so the kids shaved Nate and Ben's hair.  The kids loved the experience.

We are thankful for all of the many blessings God has given us!

October 2016

Picking apples with Grandpa. Stephen's face...

Post Farm field trip with Grandma

Minot, why not? 

International Peace Gardens

Sister Love

On each side of the border

Snowmobiling turtle of course

Unseasonably warm day at the beach

Grandpa's Birthday

Got leaves?

Isaac was the stormtrooper

Cheerleader, Yoda, and mouse

Nate took the camper to Traverse City by himself for a weekend.  He went to a co-workers wedding and just enjoyed some time alone.

The following weekend Nate and I flew to Minot, ND.  We had a relaxing and fun weekend with Steph and Ben.  We slept in, ate good food, took naps, went on a hike, and did some sightseeing. Nate and I benefitted from a weekend away from life and responsibilities.

Julia participated in a cheerleading clinic thru school.  She had 3 practices and then cheered at the high school football game halftime.  Unfortunately, Nate and I were in Minot so we missed her performance.  Our friends said she did great though!

Nate's Dad moved in with us near the end of the month for which we are thankful.  And we all enjoy spending more time with him.  We celebrated Grandpa's birthday by making a Black Forest cake.  We gave him a sun lamp- partly a joke but, also partly beneficial as he will miss FL sunshine!

For Halloween this year, Isaac went trick or treating with friends.  Caleb decided he was too old to dress up.  Stephen wore the mouse costume my Mom made when I was a kid. We had nice weather so Julia and I made it thru the whole neighborhood.  Stephen and Lexi loved trick or treating and Grandpa took them home a little early as they were getting tired of walking.  And it is amazing how much candy 4 children can collect.

September 2016

First day of preschool

Lexi loves baby dolls

Camping with the Petersons

Normal family pictures do not exist

Picnic lunch in the rain at a soccer game

Star Wars cake

Apple picking with Grandma

Celebrating Nate

For Labor Day weekend we went camping with the Petersons.  We camped at the CRC campground. The campground is very nice.  However, we will probably not camp there again.  Just too concentrated of Dutch CRC culture.  We have a lot of fun with the Peterson family and hope to camp together every summer.  Jim, Rebecca and Nate want the 4 of us to go backpacking sometime.  Backpacking does not appeal to me.  We'll see if they wear me down.

September was a busy month.  Stephen was a little nervous about preschool, but quickly loved it.  Lexi and I began attending a Mandarin story hour.  The teacher is a Chinese woman and there about 5 kids in the class.  One of the boys is 3 years old and recently adopted from China.  It was fun to watch Oliver and Lexi play together and also good for Oliver's Mom and myself to connect. We received a CD of children's songs in Mandarin.  Lexi and Stephen love listening to it in the car and singing along.  Julia is learning Korean again with her tutor, Hyeji.

I took beginner Korean classes for about 4 Saturdays this fall.  I am also now qualified to teach Trauma Informed Parenting (TIP) classes for foster/adoptive parents and had two trainings this month.

Caleb celebrated his 12th birthday!  He requested a Star Wars rebel alliance symbol cake.  One of his gifts was Pokemon cards.  Do you sense a theme?  Caleb had some friends over on the weekend- they played video games and ate junk food.  My little boy is growing up.  We are thankful for Caleb and love him very much!

Nate celebrated his 37th birthday.  I did not make a cake for his birthday because we are usually caked out by that point.  However, I do not remember what I made.  Honestly, Nate's birthday was a blur.  Just a couple days prior he had been told that he might have leukemia and he needed a bone marrow biopsy done. And so began a new chapter in our family's story.  I am not going to include much of that story in this space as we have a separate blog set up for that.  This blog reminds us that life is still happening and life is still good in the midst of seeming chaos.  We love Nate very much and look forward to celebrating many more birthdays together!

August 2016

Nate wakeboarding

Stacy waterskiing

Lexi's first boat ride

Cousins at the beach

Having fun with Aunt Steph

Moments of cuteness

His Little Feet friends

His Little Feet choir and host families

Julia travelled to FL by herself!

Cousin love

Cousins at the park

First day of school

Krape Park waterfall 

Fishing at Krape Park

Carousel

Fire truck

Campground lake

The old church bell on the new sign

Grandma singing in the choir

Playing in the cemetery by the old church sign

Julia and Elsa 

Summer and I- we used to play here as kids

Where the old church used to be

The old house in Freeport

Tri-County reunion

The month of August began with the older 3 kids attending a week long day camp called Kids Rock.  They attended with the Gabrielse kids.  The kids had fun, but it wasn't anything special so I do not think they will be going there again.  Aunt Steph came out for a week.  She spent some time with us and kept the kids overnight so Nate and I could celebrate our 15th anniversary!  We went to a bed and breakfast in Grand Haven.  It was very nice to have some time away.

The His Little Feet choir was in town for 3 nights.  We hosted two girls from Ethiopia- Dereshaye and Sintehyo along with Auntie Gerda from South Africa.  Gerda has stayed with us in the past so we enjoyed catching up with her.  The choir performed at our church and they always love spending time in Holland.

Julia flew by herself to Florida and spent about 5 days with Grandpa.  She was a little nervous on the flight down, but she did great!  They spent their time going to the beach, swimming in the pool, going to a movie and eating ice cream.  Grandpa made Julia a nice photo book of her visit.

Some local friends invited our family to their Lake MI cottage for an evening.  They took us out on their boat which was our first time on Lake MI. We have lived along Lake MI for 10 years now so we were excited!  The best part was we could do some skiing and wake boarding.  Waterskiing is Stacy's happy place.  Isaac tried to get up on waterskiis and he was close to getting it.

Isaac celebrated his 9th birthday!  He requested an underwater theme cake- it was blue frosting with gummy fish on it and other decorations.  One of his birthday gifts was Pokemon cards.  And here is where I share disappointing news.  I accidentally deleted months worth of pictures- which included Isaac,  Caleb and Nate's birthdays.  Argh.  At least I have a little video montage of Isaac's birthday saved on the computer.  We are thankful for Isaac and we love him so much!

The kids began a new school year.  We have a 6th grader, 3rd grader, 2nd grader and a 3 year old preschooler.  Craziness!  Caleb and Isaac are in the same building this year and can ride their bikes to school together.  Stacy rides bikes with Julia and Stephen to school.  Stephen attends preschool on Monday and Wednesday mornings.  Lexi was a little confused at first about being the only one at home, but we fill up our time easily.

The soccer season began. This was Caleb's last year in Holland Rec soccer.  Nate was an assistant coach for Isaac's team.  We had a beautiful fall and not too many miserable soccer games.  Each of the boys had a fun soccer season.

We went to Freeport, IL for the last weekend in August.  We camped at Lake Louise in Byron, IL.  It was a nice little campground.  We spent Saturday morning at urgent care inside Shopko because Stephen broke out in hives.  They prescribed steroids, which got rid of the hives.  Stephen gets a little spun up on steroids though.  We went to Krape Park where I used to play.  We also drove past my old house.  On Saturday afternoon we swam at the campground lake with Natalie Haas and her kids.  Saturday evening was a Tri-County reunion. I enjoyed talking with friends I have not seen in years.  Sunday morning was the 150th anniversary of my childhood church- German Valley CRC. Now it is called Grace Valley CRC.  It was a trip down memory lane to re-connect with old church friends.  The church has been torn down and there is a new building so it wasn't the same but, still a great morning.