February 2019

View from our hotel in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Not sure why he looks so angry- he just ate our lunch

Vacation with Carl and Karin Gabrielse

Somehow Grandpa ended up at a table alone with boys

Most of the extended Jongsma family

Rebounderz fun

Visiting Aunt Steph

Caberfae skiing

Lexi and Stephen are going down the hill

Julia at the top of the mountain!

Caleb made this awesome sports card in art class

Caleb's 8th grade Holland Rec team 

-Nate and Stacy went to Costa Rica for 5 days with the Gabrielse- kind of a 40th birthday trip for all of us. Grandpa and Grandma watched the kids and survived a puking kid, a snow delay and the typical craziness of 5 kids. After the trip Dad asked if I mostly drive kids around every day- basically, yes. Costa Rica was beautiful. We did some ziplining/rappeling in the jungle, had our lunch eaten by monkeys, relaxed on the beaches and just enjoyed time away.
- Grandpa Jongsma (Great-Grandpa) died in January at the age of 90. His internment and memorial was in February. Our family was able to attend his internment at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery. It was very moving to observe the military honors as he had been in the Air Force. The memorial service was beautiful- a chance to grieve, but also a sharing of our memories of Grandpa. We will miss him.
-The kids had a long weekend off, so Stacy, Julia and Lexi drove to Dayton, OH to visit Uncle Ben and Aunt Steph in their new house. Stacy and Steph saw the musical The King and I while the girls spent the evening with Uncle Ben. We are excited to have Steph/Ben only a 5 hour drive away right now.
-Our family went skiing at Caberfae- yep, all of us. This was the first time for the younger 3 kids. At the beginning of the day, Nate and I were questioning our decision. It was stressful having 3 needy kids and only 2 of us. The older boys went off with friends and had a great day. The younger 3 picked up some skills and mastered the bunny hill. Julia is terrified of heights and was not about to go on the chairlift to try a bigger hill.  However, our friend Carl Gabrielse was along and he spent time building up her confidence, got her on the chairlift and she skied down the hill! We were so proud of Julia! And Julia said, I did it once, not doing it again- ha! And she was happy skiing on the bunny hill with some friends. Stephen/Lexi were anxious to try the big hill. Let me tell you, it is tricky getting tiny Lexi onto the chairlift- but we did it. Nate helped Stephen and Stacy helped Lexi down the hill. We may not have looked very graceful, but the littles loved it. Overall, everyone had a great day and Lexi still says a month later in her bedtime prayers- thank you God that we went skiing.
-Stacy had allergy testing done and found out she is allergic to basically everything- dust, mold, ragweed, trees, grass, dogs and cats. Which explains the need for allergy medicine year round since her childhood. Boys, you are welcome for the amazing genes passed on to you. Stacy has begun allergy shots in the hope for an allergy medicine free life in a couple years- we will see.

January 2019

Caleb shooting a free throw

Fun in the school gym

Reuben and Tessa's family

Cousins (minus Stephen- he went to church early with Nate)

MSU basketball game with the Gabrielse

Julia's market day assistant

The big 4-0

One of my birthday gifts

Cadets playing with some robots

Market Day

-For New Year's Eve we went to the Gabrielse house with other families. We let the older 3 stay up til midnight. And our friends gave us a hard time for being the only couple with young kids that we had to put to bed and then wake up at midnight when it was time to go home. We would like to think the younger 2 kids keep us youthful..
-Nate took the older boys to a MSU basketball game along with Carl Gabrielse and his boys.
-Caleb and Isaac played on Holland Rec basketball teams for about 6 weeks. Nate coached Isaac's 5th grade team. The kids improved and had fun and Nate enjoyed the experience too.  Caleb played with other 8th graders from his school and he thrived. His coach encouraged him to try new things and we could see Caleb's confidence increase. Caleb scored consistently every game and he enjoyed being on a team that was winning games. It was fun to watch both of the boys.
-Julia had Market Day this month (oh Market Day, we meet again.) She wanted to make bath bombs to sell, but the bath bombs crumbled. So plan B was making chocolate dipped marshmallows on a stick. And they were a success! Julia came home with some Market Day profit.
-We had no snow over Christmas break and then the polar vortex hit in January. So cold and so much snow. I do not even know how many snow days the kids had- 9 or 10? I pulled out any snow day activity I could think of- tea party, take a bath, paint nails, fine just watch more screens.
-I turned 40 this month. Nate invited some friends over to celebrate and he and the kids made me feel loved. My 30's were spent raising babies and feeling exhausted. My 40's will be spent attending numerous kid activities-ha! Cheers to a new decade.
-Reuben's family visited us for a weekend and it was fun to host them. Granted, cooking for 17 people for the weekend was tiring, but we all had a very nice time. We ran around in the school gym, played games together and enjoyed catching up. One of our kids said, I wished they lived here. We said, we wish they lived closer but not necessarily here in our house.. We are grateful for family!

December 2018

First time ice skating

Stephen eventually skated without the support

-Kids stuck in the house- wrestling non-stop- parents will drive 30 min and drop $$ to ice skate

Isaac's first concert

Middle school band 

Isaac's last Sunday School Christmas program (and Lexi is a sheep)

House face lift mostly complete

Decorating Christmas cookies

Switch controller

Mario Kart 8 Switch game

Leap Pad

Air Hog

Box full of Barbies

Packers pj's

Dress from Grandma

Jongsma Christmas

Merry Christmas!

-The outage finally finished on Dec 28. A 75 day outage- we are all tired.
-Our family was healthy throughout the outage- that is amazing.
-We had band concerts, piano recitals, church Christmas program and school Christmas parties.
-Nate was able to be off on Christmas Day- a gift for all of us.
-We hosted the Jongsma family Christmas and Steph/Ben stayed with us for a couple days- fun for all.
-This year brought challenges, joy, travels, home improvements and health. Happy New Year!

November 2018

She's turning into a panda

Santos, Enedina and Ruth

Lexi loves babies

Ruth Escalante Lucas

Waiting outside for over an hour- freezing

Andy Mineo and Lecrae concert at The Intersection

Roller skating rookie

Mom, don't skate with me

BFF's- Julia and Asha

Michigan sweatshirt!

And a crossbow!

Thanksgiving feast

The boys table

Sweet brother moment, Isaac reading to Stephen

Preschool Thanksgiving feast

Batgirl doing her school thing

-I went on Isaac's field trip to Calvin College.  We listened to author Gary Schmidt, toured around campus and saw the gem/mineral exhibit.  It was fun to tell Isaac and his friends my "back in the day" stories. Isaac also went on a Hope College field trip this year. Now he can make an informed decision.
-Caleb is in phase 2 of braces, hopefully will be done with them in a year.
-Caleb began his basketball season. After tryouts the athletic director gave him the choice of whether he wanted to be on the A team and not play much or be on the B team and get more playing time. We were a little surprised the decision was put on Caleb! We were proud of how Caleb worked thru the options and made a decision. He chose to be on the B team, where he would be with his friends and get more playing time.  Caleb plays center position and scores points almost every game.
-One surprise from this season- Caleb got punched in the eye during a basketball game. The kid was on the opposing team and felt quite embarrassed about it afterwards. The whole story is too long to put here.  Caleb ended up with a black eye and got some fame at school, being the center of attention is not his favorite.
-Caleb is playing in the middle school jazz band this year along with regular band
-Isaac is playing the french horn in band and he loves it. He is still taking piano lessons so we get to hear piano and french horn practicing. Isaac is enjoying his 5th grade year with Mrs. Smit.
-Julia is taking piano lessons again this year. She has been quite adamant she does not want to play an instrument next year and wants to be in choir.  We'll see what happens.
-Lexi's most often used phrase these past months is "how do you know?" You will hear this pretty much anytime you tell her something.
-Julia is having a great year with Mr. Meyering. She is also having more fun at recess and likes doing playdates with friends.
-Rebecca and Asha Peterson went to the Cinderella musical at Holland Christian with Julia and I.
-Lexi's friend Josiah had a roller skating birthday party. Lexi has small enough feet that she could wear the skates over her shoes, so she didn't need any help.  Stephen had to use real roller skates and the struggle was real.
-Enedina had her baby 5 weeks early. Ruth stayed in the NICU for a couple weeks, but is home and doing well now.  Nolbi is 5 years old and loves being a big brother.
-Nate, Caleb, Isaac and myself went to an Andy Mineo/Lecrae concert. (They are Christian rap artists.) We had tickets, but everyone had to wait outside in line. We were not dressed for standing outside in the cold for over an hour. I would have jumped ship and said this isn't worth it as I couldn't feel my feet. Thankfully Nate was more pragmatic and the boys had good attitudes about waiting so long. The concert was fantastic. My favorite part was seeing the boys enjoying the concert. And even though Nate was in the middle of the outage, he gave up sleep so he could come with us.
-We celebrated Stephen's 6th Birthday! He requested a strawberry cake. I made one, he took one bite and said he didn't like it-ha! Stephen got a crossbow and lego sets like he wanted. His teacher is a huge U of M fan and Stephen likes all the things that Mr. Harig likes.  So he was excited to get a Michigan sweatshirt.  Stephen also wants to go hunting like Mr. Harig. Sorry kid, probably not going to happen. Stephen has an infectious giggle, is reading, plays so well with Lexi (they share a room now), still loves to cuddle with his mom (and smell me), always wants to wrestle with Isaac, and just brings joy to our family. Stephen is 53 lbs (84th percentile) and 48 inches tall (91st percentile). We love you Stephen!
-The outage was supposed to end right before Thanksgiving, well that didn't happen.  Things have broken and the outage is extended into December. We are all tired of the outage.
-We hosted Thanksgiving. Nate had to work, but he enjoyed the leftovers.  Grandpa/Grandma J and Tim/Jenny's family came over. I was very proud of my turkey and Mom/Jenny made many of the side dishes. We are especially thankful for Nate's health and that he has a job, even though it's wearing right now.
-The day after Thanksgiving we picked Nate up from work and drove to Wheaton for Great-Grandpa Jongsma's 90th birthday party.  He was in the hospital, but it was still good to catch up with family at the party. I had a chance to visit with Grandpa and have some meaningful conversation. We stayed at a hotel for one night and swam in the pool with cousins. Staying in a hotel with our family of 7, it's just not pleasant. Caleb had some kind of food poisoning and was in the bathroom most of the night, Julia didn't sleep well and the littles were up early. Yay for family memories!