New camera, ballet and melting a momma's heart

We have a new camera! yay! I have a lot to learn but so far so good! Keeping it VERY FAR from Logan! :)



My friend Katie and I took Olivia and Hannah to see the Nutcracker Ballet yesterday. The dancers were AMAZING!!! Olivia loved the girls but seemed pretty distracted and fidgety, come to find out she had a temp of 101 when we got home. :( but she is good today! It amazes me how fast kids bounce back.


Logan's new best friend. We take him just about everywhere. Along with Rebecca. {sigh}

This is quite possibly my favorite picture of my Logan. A BIG BIG smile that melts me every time. Almost makes me forget the boundary-testing going on these days. Almost. Nope I remember. But God is good, and once a challenging phase is over He helps me forget. I LOVE you bub, and I am SOOOO going to remind you of how you run to your room and slam the door when you get in trouble. :) I'm sure it will be so cute when I am recalling it to your children, but right now? Not so cute. So quit it.

Making ornaments for our tree. Olivia and Logan LOVE to do crafts. We have been purchasing the buckets of holiday craft stickers from my favorite store, that I try to stay away from ,that starts with a T. It is a really fun crafting time and it is a good way to fill our challenging time of the day 5-7pm, however, my vacuum is entirely overworked and starting to rebel. I bet when I change the bag I will find mountains of sticker papers.

By the way, I love how I put all of the effort to make my home look nice when people come over. When in all reality, I take a picture of my kids and you see the mountain of stuff that I never want anyone to see. Oh well, there you have it! what my counter REALLY looks like! A computer bag, lots of papers, bills, looks like a couple Bibles, more papers and I can't even decipher the rest. ugh. :)

Hugs from Indianapolis!

Family photos

My great friend Jamie is a GENIUS with a camera! Seriously. The picture above is one that she took for us recently. I love it! The fact that we are all looking at the camera is a sheer miracle for our family, I assure you! Thanks Jamie! Can't wait to take more pictures soon!

humbled and proud

A trip to the mall today proved to be a very humbling experience as well as an experience that made me such a proud momma. After attempting a trip to the mall at what would be nap-time (on a nap day, if he needs one, you get the idea) my patience being tried to the max, Olivia asked me to take the kids to the play area. To which I immediately said "no way, Logan is too tired" She seemed to be working on her persistence at the moment (the quote "If you don't succeed, try, try again" comes to mind), and I gave in.

Little did I know there was a little girl in the play area who DESPERATELY needed a friend. I won't go into the details, but let me just say it was both heart-wrenching and precious at the same time. I was both humbled at the thought of how big our God is, how small my little world is (I didn't WANT to take the kids to the play area, but He had a bigger plan) and that He has already started tugging at Olivia's heart. I was also very proud of how Olivia handled the situation, we had a big talk in the car on the way home. I was in tears, she was confused, Logan was saying "Sorry momma, I WILL listen" (apparently my tears come more often after he doesn't listen? learning alot about myself in this trip to the mall.) As I tried to explain my tears, tried to explain how wonderful God's plans are for our lives, trying to reassure Logan that he was not in trouble, I was just overtaken with emotion. I was truly humbled and so proud all in one.

Thank you God for giving us opportunities to show your love to others.

Thank you that Olivia is so sensitive to your voice.

Thank you for the honor of raising my children.

Random thoughts... 12/9/09

Yesterday I bought a new wall calendar for our kitchen. It has scenes from Italy (one of my top must-visit places!) It was only $1 from Target. Right now it is almost COMPLETELY empty. But by this time next year that $1 purchase will hold months full of appointments, milestones and reminders. It feels like we are starting fresh, not too busy for 2010 at the moment. At Bible Study Fellowship yesterday our speaker suggested that we really think about how we spend our time. If our days were like rooms in an attic, what would God choose to keep? The things we did for His kingdom. And what would he choose to throw away? Perhaps the busyness we can fill our days with that really just end up stressing us out. I am praying that God would remind us of this as we fill up our new calendar throughout the new year.

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Yesterday during snack time at Bible Study when it was Olivia's turn to share what was going on in her life, she chose to tell about how I shut my finger in the trunk in Grand Rapids. I wish there was some way she could convey the SERIOUS restraint this momma showed (only by the grace of God) while I was in such IMMENSE pain! Thank goodness God was there when I needed him (He always is) because I didn't know at the time that she would think this event was worthy of sharing with her class. :)

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What is up with our weather?

I'm just saying...

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That's it for now... hugs!

Gotta love PBS Kids!

Olivia: "Mom. I have a hypothesis. The smallest part of our bodies is the black part of our eyes."

Me: "wow, where did you learn the word hypothesis?"

Olivia: "Dinosaur Train"

Gotta love PBS Kids!

Great Wolf Lodge

(I apologize for the small camera-phone pictures.)

Great Wolf Lodge was AMAZING!!! It was so much more than I thought it was going to be and the kids loved it! We loved it too! (the parents, ha!)

I am already starting to plan our next trip (not until next year, but so excited already!) :)

This is a picture from their website


Not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but the lobby was BEAUTIFULLY decorated for Christmas! Loved it!

Still going...

*Still using the camera-phone. ugh

Olivia's birthday celebration officially started in October with the trip to the American Girl Doll store.... and it is still going strong almost 2 weeks past her birthday. Here are the events of her big day...

We took Olivia, her cousin Isabel and her friend Maggie to Fun-Time at our gymnastics place. so fun! (the pics at the gym didn't turn out) They all had their American Girl Dolls while they played. so cute!


Then the girls came back for lunch, ice cream pie and playtime!

Then Grandma and Apu came to celebrate! More Ice cream pie!!!! yum!

Today Grandpa and Grandma W's gift arrived. We knew it was coming UPS and I think she opened the front door to check for the package 150 times before noon!

It finally arrived, gifts from her new favorite store, American Girl!

Rebecca in her new outfit.

This weekend we are off to the Great Wolf Lodge for Gigi's gift of the waterpark overnight!

Then Sunday is the FINAL hoorah! Disney on ICE!!!

This has been such a special birthday for a very special girl. Now it is over, just in time for Chirstmas! HA!

Thank you Jill and Susie for her cards, so sweet of you guys! Thank you Maggie for the BEAUTIFUL necklace!, Thank you Isabel for the CUTIE tea set! Thank you Grandma and Apu for the FUN clothes,toys and Disney on Ice, Grandpa and Grandma W for the CUITE outfit for Rebecca!! and Gigi for the waterpark!

From Olivia: Thank you for my presents and cards in the mail. Thank you Grandma Kathy for Rebecca's outfit. and thank you for mommy (I didn't tell her to say this, I promise!) and thank you for bubby and thank you for daddy and grandpa W and for Grandma Kathy and gigi. I'm finished.

It's finally here!!!!

To say we have been WAITING for Olivia's birthday to arrive would be an understatement. We talk about it ALL year! I can't believe she is 5 but at the same time, there are times when she appears older. I love her thought processes and all of the in-depth discussions we have. She is truly our angel and a wonderful gift from God.

As I explained to her (AGAIN) the events that took place 5 years ago today, I couldn't help but think it all went so fast. I heard someone say "The days may go slow, but the years go fast" I couldn't agree more.

Here is Olivia at the beach making a pretend birthday cake... yes we were actively planning in July...

And here is the actual "cake". Actually, Olivia doesn't like cake (she gets that from Uncle Brad, wierd, I know.) so she requested an ice cream dessert. So this ice cream pie has a chocolate cookie crust, her FAVORITE ice cream, mint chocolate chip in the middle and her second favorite, chocolate on top. Topped with peanut butter cups, her ALL TIME FAV!

Tomorrow morning we are off to "Fun time" at the preschool-age gymnastics gym with Maggie and Isabel. She STRICTLY said "NO BOYS, not even Silas" which I think is funny, as he is often in tow with Aunt Kiki :)

In a couple of weeks we head to Great Wolf Lodge with Gigi and then to Disney on Ice with Grandma J. for a "girls night".

Not to mention the American Girl trip that was technically for her birthday a couple months ago. Grandpa and Grandma W. along with us, the mommy and daddy, will be supplying her with ample outfits for Rebecca.

It's funny. I was the mom who said I wouldn't make "too big of a deal" out of my kids' birthdays, but this year it just turned into the well-thought-out, ever-expanding, almost-never-ending event Olivia hoped it would be.

Happy Birthday sis, you are so loved.

Quote of the day from Olivia:

"Mom, will Logan get a present on my birthday too?

I wouldn't want his feelings to get hurt."

We are calling it "kiddie-chic"

Our kitchen table broke the other day. Plus-side? I have had my eye on a new table for awhile. The minus-side? Tommy is out of town, thus I have no way of getting a new table for a few days.

In the mean time, we have the kids' table in the kitchen! We are tossing the idea of an oriental-themed dinner so we can eat while sitting on pillows.... anyway, this puts a new twist on meal-time at our house!


In keeping the "kiddie-chic" theme, Olivia - resident tree decorator, finished her masterpiece last night. Complete with stuffed animals, bracelets, headbands, necklaces and a pink boa. This is by far my most favorie tree ever!

Grand Rapids

We joined Tommy on a business trip to Grand Rapids this past weekend. My momma came along which is always SO much fun!

We took the kids to the Frederik Meier Sculpture Gardens, AMAZING!!!

This is the waterfall in the tropical garden, sooooo nice in the fall....


This is the HUGE horse sculpture, truly breathtaking. I think we read that it was a tribute to Leonardo DaVinci...

Can you see the kids at the bottom? The horse is SOOOOO big!

(the pictures are from my phone, still need to replace the smashed camera....)