Birthdays and the basement

Matt is a man on a mission. He is bound and determined to get our basement finished.  If only time and money didn't get in his way.  My parents came to visit and my dad was commissioned to wire the basement my mom was commissioned to kids, cooking and ironing.  My dad came armed with his know how and his 1970's how to book.  Two friends from church also came by.  Between all of them and the book, we are proud owners of a mostly wired basement including outlets, light switches, and lights.  NICE.  Matt was so inspired he wired his shed the following weekend.  I told him I'll never see him now, he'll put a TV and a heater in his little 'man cave' and never be seen again.

Anyway, back to the basement.  We are hoping to make a bedroom, living room and a bathroom down there.  Some of it has been insulated.  We still need to add a drop ceiling in part of it and sheet rock it all. Plus the bathroom hasn't been started, so if you want to come by and lend a hand - you are welcome ANYTIME!

While my parents were here, we celebrated both Jessica and Maria's birthdays. Good times were had by all.  Thanks for all your work.  It was great to have you here!

Oreo ice cream cake - Anika's choice

Anika's presents: split skirt, leggins, two shirts and lucky charms

Jessica in her new sweater dress and  chocolate lucky charms

Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Kathy

Jessica is 8!

How can it be that this little spark plug has been humming her way through life for eight years already?  She chose donuts for breakfast, chicken noodle hotdish for lunch, and I haven't made her request for supper yet (pesto sandwiches) but its on the menu and we'll do that soon.  She barely fits into size 6 clothes, isn't quit 40 inces tall, barely makes it into the 10th percentile, and can be heard for miles around. She has a beat to her own drum in so many ways.  Hurry isn't really a word she understands.  Neither is quiet. Her body is always moving to some sort of beat - really.  People are amazed at how she can dance and move - even while walking.  She is always singing or humming or moving or dancing to the song she hears in her head.  She shines on the stage.  Lives to be in front of people, especially if she can hold the microphone. She'll tell you she hates school, but that's mainly because she just wants to sleep in and watch TV.  Why on earth would you want to get up and put forth some effort when you can just sing and pretend all day long!?!  She wants to be a horseback rider when she grows up and really wants horseback riding lessons this summer.  When asked who her friends are, she still tells you the names of the people back in MN, but did add two from MI this time around.  She still loves to pretend play - mainly puppies or horses.  She is a great little soccer and basketball player. Loves to turn cartwheels and has a fashion sense all her own, but she can pull it off!  Anything with bling she loves to wear.  One of her favorite lines is 'I love to read. Its one of those things that once you know how to do it, you just can't stop'. And she does love to read.  Currently she is working her way through Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew - a younger version of the Nancy Drew books.

We love you dear Jessica.  We love the spark and smile you bring to our day. We love how you make us crazy and laugh at the same time. I love how you still like to hold my hand when we are walking beside each other, or how you like to stand on the chair and sing at church.  There's still a little girl in there and its a beautiful one.  We can't imagine our world without you.  Happy Birthday!

a horse and scooter for her American Girl Doll -
 plus glow in the dark planets for her ceiling  to match the stars already there

Her birthday treat request - brownies and ice cream - with 8 candles - on the special birthday plate!

Happy New Year

Our New Year front door painting!

The party comes to MI from MN

As you can see, there wasn't much snow, but there was enough to make the sleds move down the hill so all were happy!

Friends came to visit, and we partied!

I came home from getting groceries to streamers and 40 decorations.  I got the necessary 40 gift pack of vitamins and stool softeners, so all is well now.

We celebrated with Pizza Ranch pizza and Coldstone Creamery dark chocolate mint ice cream with red velvet cake.  Oh yeah baby.  That's a party.

The next evening, mutual friends came over from Grand Rapids and we partied away with games and laughter.  The kids played outside for a time and we all played some group games inside.  Another good party.

The next day we went to the Y to play dodgeball and run off some pent up energy - it worked and fun was had by all.  That evening, two families from school and a few extras came over to ring in the New Year. And ring it LOUD!  It was a bit nerve racking for me to have my two worlds meet - MN and MI, but it really went well. The adults talked, laughed and played. There were more kids than you could count, mainly because they never sat still enough to be counted, but they were everywhere.  We introduced PIT to a few people and everyone stayed awake until midnight rang out and the ball dropped - live in this time zone!  

Goodbye came the next morning.  Goodbye always comes, and its never easy, but it sure is great to have the memory.  Thanks guys!

40 is fine

Next on the birthday list was yours truly.
I can honestly say I don't really even remember what we did exactly on my birthday.  I know I went to work, but I didn't tell anyone it was my birthday and I know we all ate supper together at home.
Thanks to the wonderful world of Facebook, lots of people piped in with some birthday wishes.   And because a large portion of my facebook friends are high school and college classmates, most of them are at or going to be 40 this year as well.
Its funny to look back at life and remember where you were when others turned 40.  I distinctly remember someone from Faith Church in MN turning 40 and his youngest child was in our high school youth group.  Guess he had about a 10 year jump on me considering my youngest is in Kindergarten.
Now that I am 40, I guess I don't see what all the hoopla is about.  Its just another year.  Another decade.
So, here's to the other side of the hill!

Happy Birthday Jesus

We started the morning by emptying the stockings.  Yes, I bought some $1 candy and stuff to fill up the house even more.  We don't fill the house with the idea of Santa but we do hang stockings by the fireplace and fill them up on Christmas Eve and the kids empty them on Christmas morning.  Generally its candy, gum and pencils, which is mostly what it was this year.

Anika and all her gum that she now can't have because of braces - oops mom!

Then we have coffee cake with candles in it and we all sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.  Coffee cake doesn't last long at our house. I believe this was gone in around an hour!

We spent some time painting ornaments - each kid paints an ornament each year - and then we headed off to our friends on the lake for a delicious prime rib dinner.  Not everyone can say they played on the beach on Christmas afternoon!  We played a rousing game of Settlers of Cataan that lasted close to three hours - it was crazy long, but everyone stuck it out.

This is one of the last pictures ever taken of Mollie our beloved dog of our friends.  The owner sat down at Christmas lunch and announced that 20 kids were going to have a great dog to play with soon.  He was referring to the kids from the shooting in CT and Mollie.  Mollie was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago and was quickly fading.  She died about 12 hours after this picture was taken.  We all said goodbye before we left which is always hard to do.

We ended our evening in Grand Rapids with my aunt.  We went ice skating, along with a whole lot of other people - but we fully enjoyed it. We also enjoyed a small recital by the kids back at their house as well as soup and some games.

It was a lovely Christmas spent with some wonderful people making some great memories.

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve together.  Something I have learned to love is the time we spend just the six of us.  It doesn't always seem to happen, so when it does, and its an enjoyable time, I try to pack it away in my memory - especially for the times when things aren't so enjoyable.

Both Matt and I spent a few hours at work.  I came home and found that Matt had brought two kids away for a short play date before supper.  The family they were playing at came over for supper and then we all went to Celebration for our Christmas Eve service. It was a nice service.  Low lighting, personal candles, and lighting to Silent Night.  We enjoyed the song 'Follow the Shepherd Home' which is a beautiful song that has been sung in our church a few times.  

After the service we came home - just us - to open presents.  The week before there had been a 'Santa Shop' at school where the kids could go through and pick out presents for their family - $1 each.  The kids were so excited to give it a try.  Those of you who know me, know how excited I was about getting $20 worth of $1 items in my house.  More stuff, of course we need that.  And such vital stuff that I'm sure we'll use over and over again.  So, I was less than excited about the prospect but I conceded and handed over the money.  We had a chat about it at work, and I was reminded that the joy for the kids is in the giving, so I just need to smile and nod.

So, we are at home, opening these presents.  I was amazed at how much thought the kids put into getting presents for each other. They actually found things that were thoughtful and thought out and had no personal gain.  Brandon got Anika a book light.  A little light she can clip on to her book so she can read at night and he can sleep in the dark - brilliant.  It never worked, but what do you expect for $1 - but-  he really thought about it and it was a perfect gift for her.  He also got Maria another version of the game of Memory.  Maria is the queen of Memory.  All in all, three of the presents ended up in the Goodwill bag, one in the garbage and a few I don't have any idea where they are, but I was pleasantly surprised with the joy they had in watching each other open their gifts, and how much fun they had with it all. I am a self proclaimed hater of Christmas.  I find it all to be very stressful, very expensive, and way too commercialized. I like the music, the snow, the lights and the story, but that's about it.  I'm a pretty good grinch - I even have a stuffed one.  But I did genuinely enjoy spending that time as a family. And, thankfully, no one has asked me where the Santa hand towel is!

Christmas (and birthdays) at Papa and Mimi's

Anika and Jessica in their new sweater dresses

The weekend before Christmas we headed a bit south to Illinois to celebrate Anika and Jessica's birthdays with Matt's parents and Christmas with his parents and brother and sister-in-law's family.  We enjoyed the visit and of course the kids loved papa and mimi time, cousin time and presents.

We played some wii, played a rousing game of fox and geese out in the dusting of snow, and stayed warm by the wood stove.

We ate supper with some of Matt's extended family (uncles/aunts/cousins) before heading back to Muskegon for Sunday morning worship.  

It was a short trip, but a good one!

cousins and presents, what more could you ask for?

Christmas at Meijer Garden

We headed to Grand Rapids another evening during Christmas break before Christmas.  We headed to Meijer Garden to view their Christmas around the world.  There are many Christmas trees all decorated for a different country with an explanation of the decorations.  We had fun finding the pickle on the German tree and going over memories about the Spanish tree.  Aunt Kathy and Mary met us there and we spent some time running around outside - the kids love the children's garden even in the dark and cold - and while we were out there the horse and wagon came by so they all took a turn petting the horse!  We got to see some of the Art Prize art work and spent a long time looking at a 'Where's Waldo' sort of art project made out of different articles of household supplies.  Another room had an electric train running through several rooms and buildings found in Grand Rapids made out of all natural elements.  Mushrooms for roof tops, acorn tops for chimneys, flower petals for shingles, etc.  Very well done.  Another great adventure!

Strange - maybe creepy - Santa sighting

The kids were outside playing one day before Christmas and I was inside doing who knows what, but I'm sure it was important.  Brandon came in to tell me that Santa was outside and wanted to take a picture with them but I had to come out to make sure it was ok.  I was a bit confused, so I asked a few questions.  Brandon again informed me that Santa was outside and told him to come inside to get his mom and the camera so that we could have a picture with Santa.  I obeyed and this is what I found when I got outside!  The guys car is even decorated with reindeer ears.  He has the real beard.  He drives around town offering up his picture services free so that parents don't have to go to the mall and pay for a picture.  At first, it was cute.  Then as he was driving away and turning around in several people's driveways, I realized how creepy it was and I wondered how easily someone like him could have wandered off with one of my kiddos.  I made sure he left the neighborhood before I went inside and I had a talk with my kids about never getting in the car with someone like that. Maybe he's just a nice old man doing something nice for the neighborhood, but I didn't pass up the teachable moment!

Church Christmas Program

Celebration church is linked with Calvin Church for our youth programs.  This is where all four kids go on Wednesday evenings.  Maria to a group called 'Little Peeps', Jessica to GEMS, Brandon to Cadets, and Anika to Middle School Youth Group.
We were asked to attend their Christmas program.  There were two practices, held during morning church service and then the performance was another morning service, so we didn't see the people of Celebration very much.
I enjoyed watching the kids and I think they enjoyed being a part of it.  They definitely enjoyed all the treats after each service!
Maria's group sang a song called 'ring the bells' and then each child said who they wanted to tell about Christmas.  Many said Grandpa or Grandma or mom and dad, but our little princess said she wanted to tell everybody who didn't know about Jesus.
Brandon and Jessica were a part of a handbell choir.  They held a certain color of bell and when the conductor raised their card color, they rang the bell.  A song was playing in the background and they were the accompaniment.  Brandon was rather disappointed that he didn't get to play his bell very often and Jessica had two bells that she played LOTS.  I could tell it was an issue, but I also pointed out to him that when he played his bell, very few others were playing, so even though it wasn't often, it was important.
Anika and three others read parts of Luke 2.
The overall story of the program was telling the Grinch about the real meaning of Christmas and each of these groups was just a part of it.
All in all a good day.

ring the bells

colored hand bell choir

reading Luke 2

Christmas traditions

painting the front door

The finished product

painting an ornament

cut out cookies

decorating the cut out cookies

The indoor light show

Christmas is the ideal season for traditions, although the kids remember just about everything we do on every holiday and inform us if we do them wrong the next year!
Every year (thanks spot for the idea) we paint our front door with powder paint mixed with dish soap.  Its fun to paint and it is fairly easily removed (by Anika and a friend).
We paint the kids' hand prints on the tree skirt and paint the year next to it.
Each kid chooses a ceramic ornament and paints it.  Matt paints an identical one for them so they have their own version and Matt's version of how it should be painted.
Sinter Klaas leaves an ornament and a candy cane in their wooden shoes under their beds.
We bake and decorate cut out cookies.
We attend light shows.  This year it was moved inside and wasn't nearly as fascinating as when it is on 14 different houses, but it was still pretty fun.  The mini golf course also does a light show which was quite enjoyable.
Usually, I print out a calendar with suggestions for what we should do every day.  This year, I just printed a huge list of possibilities and crossed off what we accomplished.  Quite a few!

Gingerbread houses

Brandon's class made gingerbread houses in class.  Graham crackers frosted around an empty milk carton then covered in candy. Parents were asked to join in the fun, so Matt went and made his own creation.

Jessica made a gingerbread house at GEMS.  These were serious gingerbread houses - made a day earlier with the true gingerbread cement like frosting.  Jessica decorated each piece of roof (both sides) with a different candy with every intention of eating each piece of candy during the remainder of the week.  She did pretty well, but at times a knife was needed to pry the candy off!

Christmas in Iowa

We made our Christmas trip to IA again this year for Christmas with the Zevenbergen side.  We always stay with my 'Dordt' family which everyone loves. We spent time with them on Friday evening and then on Saturday morning. Early in the afternoon we went to the mall to ride on the train and I saw my college classmate that works there.

riding the train in the mall

The afternoon and evening were spent with the Zevenbergen clan at the Dordt Alumni house.  It was a crazy bunch of characters, but lots of fun was had.  My kids look forward to being with their cousins, even if it is a short time.  We played games, we ate, we laughed.  I decided we've all raised a bunch of competitors.  They were making up their own game of who could land the plastic shaker egg on a pillow when thrown from the loft.  Seriously, we can't make this stuff up!

all 12 of them - who are these kids anyway!?

We spent 12 hours on the road on Friday and 12 more on Sunday.  We had safe travels, dry roads and plenty of technology to keep everyone busy.  Matt stayed home to take care of things here.  I loved listening to the books on CD we had gotten from the library.  To the point that if the kids wanted to talk to me,  I was rather annoyed!  I was listening to a  book for goodness sake!  But we made it home and then off to school and work again on Monday!  But the memories are forever!

Jessica's debut as guest conductor

We attended the local high school's Christmas concert at the Fraunthal Center.  Western Michigan Christian's Christmas Collage. Its a great concert every year.  Very well done, great musicians.
We commented on what a difference a year makes.  We attended this same concert last year.  Sat in much the same place.  Enjoyed it.  But this year was quite different.  Upon entering the balcony, our favorite place to sit, we recognized more than five families, sat across from our neighbors, behind our realtor, in front of a family from school, a classmate of Anika's sat with us, a classmate of Brandon's gave Brandon a look (4th graders!), and Matt spent all of intermission schmoozing all the people he knew in the balcony.  The first small ensemble contained Jessica and Maria's 'mom' from the musical they were in last spring.  The kids stayed awake for the whole concert.  We've made quite the progress in one year.
It was a wonderful concert again.  There is never a quiet moment.  One group finishes, and another group starts.  Its very entertaining.
At the beginning of the concert, we were reminded there would be a drawing for the guest conductor for the final song the band would play - 'Sleigh Ride'.  We didn't think much of it, but we did spend some time showing the kids what the conductor did, how she raised her arms and the instruments went up, how to conduct 4 beat time, etc.  At intermission, I was plotting who's name we could put in the hat.  Who did we know in the auditorium that I could put their name in, and they would get called up there! That would be so fun.  Matt looked at me and pointed at Jessica.  Jessica, our girl who shines on the stage.  I asked her if she would like to, and of course her answer was 'sure.'  So, Maria, Jessica and I went off to find the sign up hat. Brandon and Anika were far too embarrassed and Matt had to chat.  We found it, entered her name and headed back to our seats.
Intermission ended and the man came out with the hat, pulls the name and begins to read it.  At the same moment, Matt leans over to me, with Jessica in my lap, and starts to say Jessica's name to us.  As it turns out, the guy on the stage and Matt were saying the SAME NAME.  Jessica had been picked!  We headed back stage to receive her instructions.  They all looked at me and asked if I was Jessica, to which I pointed at her and said 'nope, she is!'  There eyes got bigger!  The high school students back stage thought it was great and we saw a few of the people from the musical which was fun.  Jessica was so nervous she headed to the bathroom three different times in between talking with the band director.  We got a box on stage so she could be seen and off she went.  The crowd audibly reacted when an 7 year old walked out there.  We have it on video and it is priceless.  She did a great job, the crowd loved her, the students kept playing, and the fake snow completely engulfed her at the end of the song.  It was a great memory!

On the way out Jessica informed me she no longer wanted to be in band.  I was quite surprised because I figured this would encourage band.  She told me she didn't want to play in band, she just wanted to be the conductor!