Fun photo shoot…

During Christmas break I had the opportunity to take pictures of a friend’s son for his senior pictures.  You can view the blog post at my photography blog by going here.

A glance at the last few weeks…

Seth checking out the tree.

Helped staple 1,000 candy canes to invites to a Christmas carol church service. These were handed out at a parade that we weren’t able to attend since we had the flu that weekend.

A student, at the school my husband teaches, backed into our car as we were pulling out of the parking lot to go look at houses…so frustrating. Cost $850 – we decided we’ll just live with the dent. We can’t ask him to pay for that…we hope to get a “new” car eventually…well, some day....maybe.

Since we didn’t have any of our Christmas decor with us, we went to Target got a 4 ft tree and Isaac picked out the ornaments. He picked this blue and purple T-Rex along with a package of ornaments – at least they were coordinating colors.

Seth eating a fruit and grain bar. Made quite the mess. He LOVES table food. Don’t let him see you eating because you will HAVE to share it with him.

Sock monkey I made for part of my nieces Christmas present. Go here for the tutorial.

Made buttons with Isaac to give to his teachers at the mom’s group we attend. We made peanut butter blossoms, saltine toffee, chocolate espresso snowcaps, pecan bars and buttons all wrapped in recycled formula cans that I wrapped in Christmas paper – glued on with modge podge – and tied some bows on. Worked nicely to keep the goodies from being smashed. Wrapped each type of cookie in individual bags and then placed inside the can.

Had two “snow” days this week. We only got a dusting, but they had several inches in the mountains so school was called off for my husband. Exams were made optional..first time ever in the schools history. It’s been an interesting week. Second “snow” day was rainy for us, but icy in the mountains.

Please excuse my horrible unedited pictures. But this is our little tree. I’m hoping to take a better picture tomorrow.

Every house we go to here in TN that has boys, has play guns. I’ve never been one to encourage playing with guns, but we felt Isaac needed to learn the correct rules of playing with one (I know I’m a bit of a paranoid mom). So we got him one from the dollar store and all I can say is he is definitely a boy and I hope I don’t regret this decision.

My baby is 9 months old. Where did the time go? At lot has happened in the past 9 months…crazy to think about it all.

Sorry, for the long post…but this is all the time I have right now. Trying to pack for our move, pack for our 10 day trip to Indiana to see family for Christmas and move the rest of our belongings down here. Making tons of calls for the old and new house to get ready for closings on both. Still making a few last minute Christmas gifts and I ran out of wrapping supplies last night…need boxes, wrapping paper, and tissue paper. I just need to remember to breath and take one day at a time… I can’t wait for Christmas so I can relax and enjoy time with family and celebrate our Saviors birth.

Linking to show and share day at:

December, already?

Can it really be December 1st already? I will admit that I love this time of year. It does get busy and hectic and this year it will be even more so with moving the rest of our stuff, selling our house, and hopefully buying and moving into our new house. This December will be different in that we probably won't have much snow, if any. I'm from the Midwest and I am used to having TONS of snow. This doesn't bother me too much though, except for missing the beauty of it all. We will be back in that area for Christmas break, so I'm hoping we get to enjoy the snow while are there. Isaac will love it too and keeps talking about how snow comes out of the clouds.

Have you started/finished your Christmas shopping yet? I for one, can't stand crowds. Especially when I have two little ones in tow. So I have all my gifts purchased and just have a few left that will be handmade by me. I went shopping Monday morning thinking it wouldn't be busy since everyone should be shopped out from the weekend...well I was wrong. So I think I'll be avoiding stores as much as possible the rest of this month. I'll go out for groceries, but otherwise if I need something I'll just order it online or wait until after December.

One thing I am missing is being able to decorate. All of our stuff is back at the old house and we wouldn't have much room to decorate here anyways. I did purchase a little 4 ft tree and let Isaac pick the ornaments. What did he pick? Brightly multi colored ornaments and a blue and purple T-rex. He is quite excited about the tree.

Do you have any special traditions you do for this time of year? I recently found out about doing a Jesse Tree for advent. Isaac & I colored and cut out and glued the first 6 ornaments onto cardboard (used a cereal box) yesterday. I think we were supposed to start the readings 2 days ago, but we will start tonight. I hope it helps Isaac understand what Christmas is really about.

I'm hoping to edit some pictures that I took of our cute little tree and my boys...I'll try to get those up soon.

Happy December 1st everyone!

A few more pics...

I'm not sure why but blogger only let me post 4 pics at a time. So here are a few more pics from New Year's Day of Maya & Isaac playing the piano at Grandma & Grandpa Venema's house.

New Year's Day

Sad to say the holidays are over. I love the holidays even though it can get a bit busy. It's so fun being able to relax and get together with family and friends. It's nice to get out of our normal routine and be able to celebrate the holidays with family. We were able to get together with our families, visit relatives in Pella, IA and be able to just relax at home together as a family and have friends over on New Year's Eve. Here are a few pics from New Years Day when we were able to take the kids sledding. Isaac had a cold so he wasn't out too long and wasn't too happy about being outside. But we got some cute pics of the kids.

Gooooo Hawkeyes!

Since my husband is such an avid Iowa Hawkeyes fan I thought it would be appropriate to post these pictures. We got this jersey on sale on our way home from Pella after Christmas. It is a little big on Isaac but he will get to wear it awhile then. I do have to say that I am not a Hawkeyes fan since I am not from Iowa, but I think people assume that since that is where Joe considers himself to be from (even though his family moved around a lot). Joe is a die hard fan though since the Hawkeyes don't always have the best of teams in football or basketball. When I suggest that he pick a different team (this is usually after his team has had a bad loss and he's upset), he says that isn't being a true fan. If it were me I would just pick a better team so I wouldn't be so frustrated all the time. But that just shows you how much I know about sports or at least paying attention to certain teams and how they are doing and being able to name all of their players and stats like Joe does. It's just something that you have to really enjoy and to be honest that is my husband's hobby...I would rather be off scrapbooking or reading a good book :) I do like going to a game every now and then...being at the game is a fun experience. Watching it on TV isn't always that exciting to me. (Sorry honey...maybe one of these days I'll learn to enjoy it more).

Prayers Answered

My sister had a baby girl tonight at around 7:00pm. Kate Michelle Van Egdom weighing in at 4lbs 8oz, but is healthy and doing well. I'll post pics as soon as we get some. Mommy said she is doing well also and that Kate is even nursing pretty well even though she is quite small. Thanks for your prayers! What a wonderful gift from above!

Happy Holidays!

It's been a busy couple of weeks around our house, but I thought I would write a bit and post a few pictures for you to enjoy. Christmas Eve was spent at home with just our little family. We opened presents that night. Isaac was really into it and loved tearing the paper off the gifts. Christmas Day was spent at Mom and Dad Venema's house. We enjoyed delicious appetizers, followed by a wonderful meal and then cookies and goodies for dessert. It was a lot of fun getting together with the family. The little ones had so much fun opening their presents. It is fun to watch their expressions as they open their gifts. The next day we went to Pella, IA to visit Joe's grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We left DeMotte and the streets were iced over so it took us 2-1/2 hours just to get to Mom and Dad Venema's house (it normally takes 45 min). We almost didn't go but decided we had gotten that far and the ice was melting so we continued on to Pella. Within the trip there and the trip home the next day we had ice, fog, rain, sleet, and flooding. I think we need to try and stay an extra day next year so we can try and visit a bit longer. It was good to see all the relatives again though. New Year's Eve we stayed home and had our niece overnight. She is a year older than Isaac and they had so much fun playing together. New Year's Day was spent at Mom and Dad Venema's house (although Mom was still in Iowa). The guys watched football and the girls took care of the kids. It has been nice having my husband around a bit more these last 2 weeks. He starts a new semester of school this week and he is going to be busier than usual. Our next break we are looking forward to is Spring Break.....Florida here we come! (We can't wait!)

Isaac showing off his new White Sox shirt.

Isaac playing with his new present (a basketball hoop).
I think daddy had just as much fun with it as he did.

Opening gifts. Isaac loved tearing the paper.

Showing off his new Christmas outfit from Grandma DeJong.

Great-Grandma Van Gorp and Isaac

Our smiley little boy. He thinks he is big stuff now that he can climb up on his little chair. (PJ's were a Christmas gift from Grandma Venema)

Ice Cold Winter

It's been a bitterly cold winter week with temps below zero and wind chills of -30. Monday we woke up to everything being frozen over. We had a bad ice storm where the rain came and instantly froze to everything. It hasn't been warm enough for any of it to melt. Lots of people have been without power and with the freezing temps that is not fun. Thankfully our has stayed on. As you can see from the pictures trees have cracked in half and branches have broken off from the stress of the heavy ice on them. It is quite a mess. When I was walking outside to take some pictures I didn't even sink into the snow and didn't make any footprints because the snow was so frozen. Our backyard is like an ice rink. We have stayed inside most of the time this week so to fill our time we made cookies and reorganized some things. Isaac likes to dig in my cabinets so since he was pulling everything out and even got into one of the cabinets, I decided it would be a good time to reorganize them.
We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and are able to safely get to/from family and friends this week. Stay warm!

It's Snowing!!!

It's snowing again! The snow is so pretty outside, falling slowly and gently to the ground. Isaac keeps looking at it saying "Whazzat?" He is so amazed by it all. We went out and tried out his new sled. He loved it! Here are a few pictures and a video for you to see.

Isaac loves the snow!

Isaac saying "Whazzat?"

Isaac in the Snow

Here is Isaac having fun for the first time in the snow. I actually had to go to the dentist yesterday morning so he went to a friend's house. She has three kids of her own and was watching three others. I'm a bit bummed I didn't get to see it, but he was so fluffy in his snow suit that he couldn't walk....he just stood there and smiled. I was going to take him out in his sled in the afternoon but most of the snow had melted. We will just have to wait until the next snow fall. I can't wait!

Isaac in the snow

He looks stuck here, doesn't he :)

Isaac and his friends