Easter already!

Gabe's 6th birthday party

Joy's 1st birthday party!

Chicago

Time sure flies by! I am eagerly waiting for summer vacation, when time is on my side. :)

We had a great time exploring the Chicago over Mid-winter break. Joy turned one the following week on Feb. 26. Unfortunately we were all sick, but we celebrated anyway! Joy enjoyed her cake and all the attention.

Joy has grown so much! She started walking at 10 and a half months and she hasn't slowed down since. She is full of new vocabulary. She says more, no no no, uh oh, Todd, nana, papa, and kitty. We think she says Gabe and bottle, although we are not encouraging that one because we want to get rid of them soon! She is drinking from a sippy cup like a pro, and she happily eats table food. She started sleeping through the night a day or two after I switched her to whole milk. I'm so thankful.

Now she is thrilled to go outside or even in our screened-in porch. It's so exciting to see her experience the world around her. She has an amazing degree of empathy. She has comforted crying babies by giving kisses in our church nursery and patted her 5 year old cousin Owen tonight when he was crying. She has been throwing kisses for months, but we never get sick of it because it is so cute! She also has a temper, but we only see this when she is tired or not feeling well. We are in love with this beautiful little girl.

Gabe turned six on March 31. He is an amazing little boy. He received so many legos as gifts and assembled them all within two days. He alternates between pretending to be Indiana Jones and Link from Zelda (a video game). He's got great costumes and a great imagination!

Seth and Megan are exceptional students. Now that they are in the grade I teach, I can see how responsible, friendly, and hard working they are. We always thought they were fabulous, of course, but they make me proud everyday at school. Sometimes it's easy to forget this though on the ride home because their arguing in the car drives me crazy!!

We are truly blessed by our children. God is good. All the time.

Joy's first Christmas!

We had a blessed Christmas! It was a wild and crazy time, and the kids really enjoyed it. Tom and I are especially glad for the week after Christmas!

Joy is such an easy-going, happy-go-lucky kid. She is really enjoying her new toys, especially the Disney princess ball pit for kids 3 and up. Hmmm. It's taken this fourth child for me to start ignoring the age recommendations - I knew she'd love this! She is quite a talker. Her words include: mommy, mama, my mommy, dada, hi (echos this), and my MIL swears she said Todd (Tom's brother). Not sure about that one!

Gabe had a Star Wars Christmas. He managed to build the two lego sets in two days. I thought $50+ worth of legos would last a little longer . . . oh well! Tom got a Frank Lloyd Wright lego set that Gabe said he'd help him build it. I can't wait to watch. Gabe had a little cavity filled last week and I got a glimpse at an even whackier kid than normal after he had gas for 10 minutes! What a hoot!! He even said getting his tooth drilled was fun. What a nut!

Megan got her long-awaited DS. I'm not sure what the attraction to this is, because I couldn't pick out a game for her even though I tried. She gets to do a little shopping once the stores calm down and restock! She was a big help this Christmastime because she helped me make 4 or 5 batches of caramel fudge sauce. Although the growing up is inevitable, this is our first Christmas with doubters. A real bummer!

Seth wanted a guitar. He was very pleased with it, but now what?? I guess we'll have to look into lessons. I know Tom would like to learn too. I wonder if there is such a thing as two for one lessons! He also got a couple DS games, so he'll be entertained for quite a while. He is such a thoughtful boy. He asked his Uncle Todd to pick up two gift cards for Tom and I to Biggby coffee. He has a very generous spirit! Now I just have to make sure he pays his uncle back!

Time flies!

Well I went back to work in October and haven't posted since! Oh well, no news is good news, right?

Joy transitioned from an army crawl to a walrus-type crawl to a faster-than-lightning crawl! She is getting more and more daring as she moves from furniture to furniture. We are amazed how long she can stand up without holding on to anything and how carefully she can bend down and begin crawling! She's amazing! Sometime around 8 months she cut her two bottom teeth. Boy are they cute!

She really fought the food thing for several months, but now she is eating baby food including cereal quite well. She's also enjoying puffs, cheerios, mandarin oranges, and toast with jam! We even tried mac and cheese! She started sleeping through the night around 9 months of age. We have had a few weeks of blessed sleep! (Except for the nights when the intermittent colds she catches from daycare interrupt her sleep and ours!)

Speaking of daycare, she adjusted perfectly well to it. We're so lucky and relieved!

More later . . . Christmas break is only 4 days away!!

Fall=Football!

Seth played in his first scrimmage on Saturday. He's #75 (behind Jedi Gabe)!

He's on the Tar Heel team. We're very proud of him!!

Play date!

Joy and Devin had a play date today! (Thanks Andrea and Kelly!) I am so thankful for our growing family of friends. There have been so many unexpected blessings from our adoption journey. This is definitely one of them!

The last day of August!!

It's hard to believe summer is wrapping up. Seth, Megan, and Gabe are ready to go back to school. I'm thankful I have until October to get ready to go back!! Joy is 6 months old already. Here's a few pics from the last week.

A basket full of blessing!

A backpacking baby?? Tom might get his outdoorsy girl yet!

Tom and Gabe at the Hudsonville Fair.

Cran-Hill Ranch

We spent last weekend at Cran-Hill Ranch. We had nice weather (a little humid) and the nights were great for sleeping. Joy slept poorly the first night we were there, but slept normally the next night. The kids enjoyed looking for frogs and turtles, visiting the cats in the barn, and playing carpet ball in the game room. They made some cool tie dye shirts too. We had a potluck with six other families from our church on Saturday night and a campfire. It was a nice time of fellowship. Our last night there Joy woke up at 3 AM with a fever. I wasn't too worried because Megan and Gabe had a fever earlier in the week that went away after a day or so. She slept fitfully until morning when I gave her some Motrin and she was her old self again. We packed up early and headed home.

Gabe riding horse. I can't believe how big he is!

Tom and Joy by our campsite.

Joy loves to lick! I hope Gabe's knee was clean!

Megan and Joy at the beach.

Where's Seth??? That's what we asked all weekend. He was off with Tyler or Aaron DenBesten having a good ole time. I didn't get any pictures of it though!!