January 2015

Winnie the Pooh slippers!

Making ninja stress balls for Caleb's school project

The final product and the final mess

Snowy night

Isaac learned this in school. 

We were in MI while...

they were in FL

Birthday cards

Birthday breakfast in bed

Celebrating Rebecca's 40th birthday

Hibachi restaurant for my birthday dinner- the Packers lost. Can you tell from Caleb's expression?

Reading together or arguing, hard to tell

Eating cereal and milk for the first time, I'm so proud

Selling his product at Market Day

In January, we had more snow days.  Ugh.  Caleb made good use of Christmas break and made his product for market day.  I was impressed with what his class learned about economics, how much it costs to make a product and how much to charge so you have a profit.  He happily sold out of his ninja stress balls and made a nice profit.  Julia took Saturday gymnastic classes during January and the older boys played basketball.

Julia and I started Korean language classes.  She mentioned wanting to learn Korean, so I looked into it.  We found a Korean church in Grand Rapids that has a Korean language school.  The school meets every Sunday from 1-3 pm.  The first time we went, they had us try the preschool class.  It was okay, but Julia wouldn't really learn the language.  We tried the 1st grade class, which was taught in English, but the other kids were beyond Julia's level.  The school worked to help us out and got a teacher for just Julia and I.  Julia likes and dislikes Korean language school.  She has an ear for language, so in the long run I think she will appreciate this.  But, it is challenging to sit for 2 hours and practice reading/writing Korean.  It has been hard to give up Sunday afternoons, but it is worth it.
Nate had a conference in Florida, so he flew down with Julia and dropped her off with the grandparents for a couple days.  Julia enjoyed her one on one time with Grandma.  She swam in the pool, helped Grandma babysit and delivered Meals on Wheels. Julia loves spending time with her grandparents!

I turned 36 this month.  We had a busy day on my birthday, so we celebrated the day after.  The kids had sports in the morning and I taught the foster parent class in the afternoon.  That evening we celebrated Rebecca Peterson's 40th Birthday.  It's kind of fun that my good friend and I have birthdays a day apart.  The next day, Nate helped the kids make me breakfast in bed before church.  They woke me out of a dead sleep and I had to rally quickly to look surprised and happy that they made me breakfast. Ha ha.  That night we had plans to leave Stephen with Tim/Jenny and we would go to a hibachi restaurant with the older kids.  Well, the Packers were playing so we kept delaying our departure.  We finally just had to leave for the restaurant, only to discover the restaurant had the game playing.  Unfortunately, the Packers lost their play off game.  It was hard for Caleb to recover during dinner.  But, we all enjoyed the hibachi experience and I'm thankful for another year!

December

Christmas Eve 

All the DeMaster grandkids

The happy grandparents

We're so cute

Roller skating pros

Queen Elsa dress

Family game of Twister

Washing dishes in the hotel bathtub- hotel living DeMaster style

Waterpark fun

DeMaster family watching the Packers game

Go Packers

Dallas really liked Stephen's present

Queen Elsa making appearances around Holland

Jongsma cousins

Isaac wrote- his gift to give is teaching people math so they can count more.  Julia wrote- she can read to her little brother.

Olliebollen for New Year's Day

In December, Stephanie was still in town for a couple weeks because of Mom's surgery.  Dad, Steph and I saw The Messiah performed at Calvin College.  Always a good Christmas season tradition.  

We finally finished our adoption paperwork and the dossier was sent to China!  It took about a year to get all the paperwork in order.  Now we wait to find out who our daughter is!

During Christmas break, Rebecca Peterson and I took our kids roller skating.  We left Kai and Stephen home with Nate.  The boys all ready knew how to skate.  Julia held my hand for a little bit, but then she did it by herself.  She had a great time.  

On Christmas Eve, our family opened gifts and pretended it was Christmas Day.  We had a relaxing morning and opened gifts.  We gave each child a toy, clothes and a book.  Caleb's toy was a new basketball.  Isaac's was a pogo stick and Julia got a makeup kit.  I can not remember the toy we gave Stephen!  The boys got Packers pajamas.  Julia received a Queen Elsa dress.  She was very excited!  That evening we went to Christmas Memorial church with the Jongsma family.  We went to Tim/Jenny's house for appetizers and opening gifts.  Nate worked Christmas Day, so I went to church with the kids and then went to Hastings for a couple days.  

On Dec 28th, we packed up the truck and drove to Ohio.  We stayed at a hotel/waterpark with Nate's family.  Everyone was there except for Pete.  The kids (and adults) loved the waterpark.  Meals were interesting.  Family units kind of did breakfast and lunch on their own.  Then we did supper all together.  The hotel rooms had a tiny "kitchen."  It was a counter with a microwave and mini fridge.  We brought a big roaster pan and electric griddle along with kitchen utensils.  We cooked soup and spaghetti before we left home and kept it in a cooler.  We then warmed the food up in the roaster.  And washed dishes in the bathtub.  I call it hotel camping, DeMaster style.  The stuff of memories. We opened gifts and just enjoyed spending time together.  We drove home on New Year's Eve day.  We were all exhausted and didn't even try to stay awake til midnight.  On New Year's Day I made olliebollen!  We kind of like keeping this Dutch New Year's tradition.  Besides, who doesn't like fried donuts?  

November 2014

Catching up with Enedina and Nolbi

Look who's 2!

Mmm, Elmo cake

First snow day, before Thanksgiving!!

All the grandkids love seeing Grandma

Thanksgiving, so thankful to have Mom at the table

Turkey legs

My boys are carnivores

Ok, so November...  November 2 was Orphan Sunday.  I was given the opportunity to lead the congregation in prayer for vulnerable children around the world and in our community.  Enedina, Nolbi and her fiance, Evelio came for supper.  It was nice to meet Evelio, he seems nice.  Nolbi is growing so fast.  We don't see or hear from Enedina as much as we would like, but we love her and pray for her.

On November 7, we woke up to find our truck was stolen overnight.  The person came into our garage (the access door may have been unlocked), walked into our house, took the keys and drove off with our truck.  We couldn't believe it.  The police asked if there was anyone we knew who could have done it.  Unfortunately, a young man who spent some time in our home the previous summer had a history of stealing.  A couple weeks later I was looking at this young man's facebook page and he posted a picture of himself in our truck.  Unbelievable.  The police upped their search and he was found about a month after he took the truck.  The brakes were the only thing we needed replaced.  And he threw out all our kid carseats, stroller and anything else we had in the truck.  This whole experience was fearful and stressful for our kids, well us too.  It was difficult for all of us to process why Isaiah stole from us.  We had all gotten along with him.  We are still in the legal process for Isaiah's crime.  The only thing we would like to see is an apology from him.  I don't know if we will ever receive one, but we do know God asks us to forgive him.

In November my Mom had pancreatic surgery at University of Chicago.  This was a huge surgery, it took 10 hours.  Steph took the month off so she could stay with Mom.  The surgery was a success!  And the road the recovery is a long one.  But, we are thankful Mom won't deal with pancreatitis anymore!  And we were super thankful that Mom was home for Thanksgiving and could celebrate with the family.

On November 19, our baby turned 2 years old!  I made the traditional 2nd birthday Elmo cake.  Stephen loved the cake, he kept saying "nelmo!"  We had supper at church so I didn't make a special birthday meal.  We did have donuts that morning.  Stephen's birthday gift was a small trampoline for the basement.  Really, it was a gift for all the kids.  Stephen is a fun 2 year old with a stubborn streak.  He enjoys playing rough with his brothers and going outside with them.  It is great having a 10 year old brother that can watch him outside.  Stephen also enjoys playing babies and cooking in the toy kitchen with Julia.  It is safe to say he has played more with Julia's babies than Julia ever has.  He carries the baby around, walks it in the stroller, gives it kisses and puts it "nigh-night."  It's adorable.  He also likes playing with trains and trucks so don't freak out.  Stephen's speech took off and he talks alot.  Not everyone can understand him, but I usually can.  He has fun with his cousin, "dalyes" (Dallas).  Stephen is a mommy's boy.  He is sad if I leave him at home alone with Dad and the rest of the kids.  I am enjoying this stage because I know it doesn't last forever.  Stephen is slowly getting better at nighttime sleeping.  He still wakes up once/night because he is cold or lost his pacifier.  If he sleeps til 6:45 am, I am happy.  He takes great naps.  I'm limiting him to 2 hour naps and putting him to bed around 7:30/7:45.  Stephen does not eat vegetables.  He used to love sweet potatoes, but won't eat those now either.  Whatever, I'm not going to stress about it.  He drinks rice milk in the morning and evening.  He eats regular cheese pizza and ice cream now.  He's still allergic to eggs.   I understand now why people say last children are "spoiled."  I am just more relaxed with him than I was with Caleb.  Let's not sweat the small stuff shall we? Stephen adds joy and fun to our family, we are blessed!

October

1st grade scarecrow day

Isaac teaching Julia addition

Our dossier on its way to China

Helping with leaves

Dallas loved the leaf piles

Apple orchard

Looks good

Isaac wanted to pick all morning

Boo at the zoo- Julia is a cheerleader

Mom and Yoda

Caleb and Jackson at soccer party

Cutest Yoda I've ever seen

1st lost tooth

Mouse in the house

Carving pumpkins

During the transformation

The finished product

Since it is February and I'm writing about October, this might be a short post.  In October we finished up soccer.  Julia didn't love soccer and we figured this was her first and last season.  At the last game she announced, "I can't wait for soccer next year!"  Really?  The kids had Grandparent's Day at school.  My Mom was a trooper and attended with an IV bag on her back.  She is one awesome Grandma!  I took an excellent parenting class for adoptive/foster parents in Sep and October.  It was called TBRI- Trust Based Relational Interventions by Dr. Karyn Purvis.  She is awesome and I came away with new techniques and understanding.  The kids had parent/teacher conferences and all of them had glowing reports.  I'm proud of my kids for working hard and loving Jesus in all they do!

Julia lost her first tooth! She did not want Nate or I to touch it, she thought we would be too rough.  So she asked the school secretary to pull it out!  I couldn't believe it.  Mrs. Meiste got a tissue and pulled the tooth without a complaint from Julia.  School secretaries are the best.  Julia was excited to get her first visit from the tooth fairy.  When her second tooth was ready to come out I told her she was not allowed to ask Mrs. Meiste to take it out.  Luckily for Julia it fell out when she was eating.

Somehow we got a mouse in our house.  It was quite the morning excitement for the kids, watching Nate corral the mouse.  He was able to open the door off our dining room so the mouse was able to live free instead of getting stepped on or something.  Gross.

About a year after we started the adoption paperwork process, we finally got our dossier mailed to China!  Such a relief and now we wait.

 I didn't get any Halloween pictures this year!  The boys wore their Star Wars costumes again.  Julia was a cheerleader.  The day before Halloween we went to trunk or treating at Ridge Point church.  I have never seen so many people for an event.  We had to wait a long time to walk thru the cars and get candy.  And it was COLD.  Thankfully, Stephen stayed home with Nate.  On Halloween we drove to Wheaton to visit my grandparents.  Nate was a little excited that we wouldn't have to hand out candy at home.

Nate did an awesome job on the brick by our fireplace.  The brick was not pretty, so our friend recommended painting it.  We are so glad we did, it looks amazing!  And I am thankful for my handy husband who did all the work.