The Littlest Angels

 Each Sunday two little angels help bring the advent message. These two little beauties were up for the challenge this week!

Christmas Dance

Anika and a group of friends headed off to the Christmas dance. They got all dressed up and had place to go. It was held in a restaurant and banquet room. They had supper and then a dance. She had a great time!

Christmas and more

We had seven Christmas concerts in 8 days.
1. Jessica and Maria's music teacher is from a very musical family. Actually, Maria is good friends with one of her nieces! The music teacher has two sisters and it was a a very good concert.



2. The next morning, the church our kids' attend for youth programs had their kids' Christmas program. Very fun and cute!

3.  Sunday evening a friend played in a handbell choir. The congregational singing was AMAZING!

4. Next came Jessica, she played the trumpet in a trio, in the band, and then sang 'The First Noel' as a solo, followed up by 5th grade choir.

.

5.  Wednesday night was Brandon's turn. It was a short concert but well done.

6.  Thursday night came Anika in the high school's Christmas Collage. She played tuba for the first song and flute for the others.

7.  Friday morning Maria played in the third grade bucket brigade - drum sticks on 5 gallon buckets.

Winter Sports

Jessica played basketball for MCS this year. Her fifth grade team had lots to learn and made some great strides.  They started the season, barely scoring 10 points in a game. They finished the season in the championship, against the same team, and only lost by one point.  Jessica played very well. She is aggressive and handles the ball well. It was fun to watch her play. She is full of emotion and after games and practices has lots to work through! I love that little girl!



Brandon played on the 7th grade team. They had a rough season, but had fun and learned lots. There was definite improvement from last year.  Brandon continues to play hard. He has a size 11 mens shoe - seriously, what 7th grade boy has shoes that big?  Its fun to watch your kids play!

Maria turns 9

The baby of the family is definitely all that and a bag of chips. She is a fourth generation youngest which translates into lots of spunk, perseverance and a will to stick with and keep up with everyone around her. We love her smile. She can organize with the best of them.  She can spend hours coloring and still will play with Barbies or dolls. She works hard in school - and is becoming more bilingual every day!
Maria chose dirt cake for her dessert - made with chocolate ice cream.
We love you Maria - Happy 9th birthday!

Sunsets, pumpkins, and Halloween

We LOVE SUNSETS!  There is something that just sets my heart right when I am at the beach, the sound of the waves, the beautiful colors.  Its a happy place for me!

 

My parents came to visit for a few days.  My dad raises pumpkins every year. He etches the kids' names in the pumpkins when they are little and the pumpkins heal over with their names clearly shown.  This year he used some mammoth seeds. The smallest pumpkin weighed more than 80 pounds.  These things were HUGE.  They had so much fun carving. Huge faces, multiple sides. tons of fun!  Thanks Dad and Mom for your work and for bringing them out!

Halloween was a wet mess again this year. It had rained every year we have lived here.  Just Jessica and Maria wanted to hit the town this year. So they went as a fisher man and little red riding hood - convenient for the rain ponchos we had!

Fall sports

Brandon played for the same team he has for two years now. He has taken on the job of defensemen. It took awhile for him to want to play defense, he loved scoring goals. But he is good at it, and like I said, its fun to watch your kids play!



Anika was on the freshman volleyball team. She started out as the setter but moved to outside hitter. She played all around and was always hustling after the ball!

Somehow I managed to miss getting a picture of Jessica's team.  BUT this is her first year playing travel soccer for the West Michigan Storm. She is on the U 11 B team. Jessica has fun doing just about everything, but she is also full of emotion and so sometime there are bad days.  Every team member got to take their second place trophy home for the day, so we captured a picture with her and the trophy!

Maria continued to play for her rec team. She has played for the same team since we moved here, same coach, many of the same team members. Its been lots of fun getting to know these families.  Her team ended up winning the championship in overtime.

School begins again

Where does the time go? The days are long and the years are short!  Here they are - ready for 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th grades..... here we go!

Brandon turns 13

We have another teenager in this house!
Brandon loves to tell jokes, play a variety of sports, and loves anything to do with screens - especially video games! He loves to play board games, read and is always ready to laugh! Just a few hours after this picture, he had braces on that smile!

The very hungry caterpillar

Every year, we go out looking for caterpillars.... monarch ones.
Some years we are successful, others not so much. Last year we only found four and they success rate was not good.
We've learned lots through the years.
-In the wild, only 10% of the caterpillars make it to butterfly
-this is a female, females have thick lines and not dots on the bottom of the wings

This year, the kids found 16 caterpillars.... SIXTEEN!!!!  Every time they went out to get a leaf to feed a current caterpillar, they had another caterpillar on the leaf.  And the caterpillars are SO tiny. Smaller then your pinky finger nail.

Then they eat and eat and eat, make a chrysallis, and turn into this. Amazing!

I couldn't help but compare it to parenting. We spend time feeding and nurturing and then we let them fly away. We can only hold on to them for so long.

It is so exciting to watch these butterflies take off into the wind. I only pray I have that much excitement and amazement when I send Anika off in four short year!

And, for the record, we had two caterpillars die making their chrysallis, and two butterflies whose wings just didn't form and unfold quite right, so in total, 12 butterflies made it back into the wild, heading to Mexico for the winter.  Much better odds then the wild!

VACATION

Brandon was invited to visit the Upper Peninsula with a friend. He had a great time, they visited pictured rock, shot off fireworks and enjoyed a nice weekend! It was a great experience for him and we were so grateful!

I had the opportunity to visit my cousin's family in Alaska. It was an amazing trip. I stood on the top of the mountain, all I could see was mountains. I hiked on a glacier, saw whales, ate fresh salmon, biked by a moose, and learned how to net a salmon. I made some amazing memories with my aunts and cousins. Thanks for an amazing time, something to never forget.





We have so much fun every time we go to the cabin in Brainerd. I always say it is one of my favorite places on earth. To see the smiles on my kids' faces, to watch them play with friends they see once a year, to experience skiing and kneeboarding, to hear a loon call. Its value is priceless.








From the cabin we headed to Minneapolis to meet up with friends. Its always amazing to renew those bonds, but also to see that life has kept moving. We love our MN memories.



And then there's Iowa.  Grandpa Mike and Grandpa Nancy are amazing hosts with amazing dress up clothes. The entertainment factor goes a long way. We play at the park, we eat at Pizza Ranch, we play Uno Attack, and we take goofy pictures!



Many family members came to visit and to help my parents celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. We had a great time celebrating their life, love, and legacy.

Camp Geneva

Both Brandon and Anika had another great year at Camp Geneva this year. We love the life this camp has breathed into our kids. We love having others positively influence them. We love the friends they make, the fun they have and the way their faith grows, not to mention all the adventures they take!

Blueberry picking

We have some friends who own a blueberry field and they offered it up to us to have some time picking!  We love fresh blueberries - so yummy.  And we always freeze some to use in coffee cake throughout the year!

Family Adventures

We had a great time spending a few hours at Nelis' Dutch Village. The oversized shoes, the wooden shoes attached to skis, the farm animals, the ferris wheel, the zip line..... Somehow we keep missing the candle dipping, which is my favorite thing to watch!

We also went to a semi professional soccer game. The Muskegon Risers are a newly formed soccer team here in town. It was good soccer but the fans were not fun to hang around.