Getting My "Crafty" On

Anyone who knows me well know that I love to do crafty things. I have always had one craft addiction or another -- often continuing one addiction while happily attempting to start another. This had led to piles upon piles of crafting items in my home and a truly endless supply of "ideas I want to try." I can always tell when I'm stressed because the desire to craft creeps in and takes over the rational side of me which knows my time would be better spent cleaning, cooking, or in some other way caring for my home. I suppose this is my version of therapy. This past weekend I was introduced to a website called Pinterest. For those who are already familiar with this site you know how dangerous it can be! Needless to say, I was inspired. Below are a few fun things (some inspired by Pinterest and some my own ideas) that have kept me busy the past couple of days in my "spare" time:

Some fun homemade cards...


Halloween Treats for the neighbor kids...



A special thank you for Jake's teachers...

Summer Time and the Living is Easy...

Summer is the joyous time of year when I can once again even consider spending time doing something "just for fun" such as updating our family blog. It's been months since either of us last wrote so we probably have lots to catch up on. Still, this evening I find myself reflecting on what a beautiful summer day we had today and wishing that life could always move at this pace.

Our day actually started with the sad realization that Zach is still sick with some type of stomach bug. It's been 3 days now that he's been ill and we were hoping today he would feel better. Mike took the three oldest kids off to church and Zach and I settled in for a mommy & me morning. After 2 retched diapers (poor kid) Zach finally felt well enough to curl up in my arms and fall asleep. There is nothing as sweet as holding your child in your arms while he slumbers with his little head on your chest. I could stare at his beautiful face forever when he sleeps like this. It is so peaceful, so intimate, and leaves you with such a feeling of being needed and loved. This is MY child and I am HIS mom. There is no one I would rather be and no where else I would rather be.

Upon returning home from church Annika announced that she really wanted to go to Grandma Eriks' house and eat baked potatoes and play LIFE. Our plan was to grill a nice family lunch and eat together but she was so set on seeing her grandparents that we relented and let her give them a call. They happily agreed to have her for lunch and said she could hang out there for a while. She felt like a million dollars being allowed her own special time with Grandma and Grandpa. Annika is the type of child who enjoys time to herself and needs some peace and quiet. That's often hard to find here. She thoroughly enjoyed having a whole afternoon to do what she wanted in the peace and quiet of Grandma and Grandpa's house. She came home refreshed and thrilled to see her siblings and play with them once again. A far cry from how she has felt about them for the past several days!

Feeling a bit left out, Abby begged to be allowed to call Aunt Lizzy to see if she could hang out at her house. She figured if Annika could hang out at Grandma and Grandpa's then maybe she could hang out at Uncle Mark and Aunt Lizzy's. She called on her own and politely made her case. Her sweet aunt and uncle graciously agreed to let her come hang out for the afternoon. Now she felt like a million dollars too! While she was there they ate lunch, went for 2 bike rides, went to the park, and played games. Uncle Mark even taught her how to play Risk (I don't even know how to play that game!) If she'd had her way she would have never come home! Here was a middle child finally getting some one-on-one attention and she ate it up! What a blessing this afternoon was to her! She also came home in a great mood and ready to play contentedly with her siblings!

In the meantime, Zach took a short nap at home while Mike snoozed and I made some thank you cards and wrote little notes to some friends. Jake got his half hour of computer time and we all felt refreshed by our half our of personal time spent doing something we had each chosen to do. Once Zach woke up we drove to Grandma and Grandpa Dekker's house. Jake had been begging to go "hang out" at their house since his sisters each had a place to hang out. While we did not intend to "hang out" there we did use their place as a home base for a lovely one hour walk along Plaster Creek which is near their home. Mike had been on this walk before with the kids and knew it was a beautiful setting right here in town. We had a lovely time! Jake fell asleep just a couple blocks from the end of our walk. We let him sleep for 15 minutes or so and then drove the whole family home.

Once we got home Mike set up the kiddy pool where the boys happily played in the frigid water (kids don't feel cold!). I put my tired and sore feet in (I should have worn better shoes on our walk!), Mike brought out ice cream treats and drinks, and we sat and enjoyed the perfect summer Sunday afternoon. Once the girls returned home they threw on their suits and joined our outdoor "party". Pretty soon, Mike started the grill and we had a delicious meal of grilled chicken, grilled veggies, and red potatoes. We were in such a great mood we even went ahead and let everyone have dessert! Talk about making the kids happy! :)

We ended our evening with the three oldest kids running around the front yard throwing water at each other while Zach puttered around throwing balls and hitting them with a plastic golf club. By 8:30 we managed to have the three youngest in bed and now Mike and Annika are playing with trains in the basement.

A day like today makes me realize that there are way too many moments in my life that I have a tendency to rush right past. Having a sick baby who forced us to slow down our pace and kids who reminded us that they benefit from some "down" time away from one another helped us all function better as a family. I am thankful for a beautiful summer day, a family I love, the blessings of home/family/resources that enabled me to enjoy the day in the manner I did today. I am cognizant of the fact that I am abundantly blessed and I see today as a challenge to myself to slow down enough to continue recognizing that fact and to make sure that I thank my Maker each and every day for the never ending abundance in my life.

Family Brackets

It's that time again. I coerced everyone but Zach to fill out a bracket - Lisa helped Jake go through the bracket, but he made his own decisions. Here's the scoops on our Final Fours (champ over loser, then other two Final Four teams):

Mike: Pitt over Duke, Syracuse, Notre Dame

Lisa: Kansas over Ohio State, UConn, BYU

Annika: North Carolina over Notre Dame, Arizona, Florida

Abby: Michigan over Butler, Kentucky, Notre Dame

Jake: Notre Dame over Northern Colorado, North Carolina, Gonzaga

Yes, Jake has a 15-seed in the final. His East bracket was looking sort of reasonable, but then he moved to the West, where every first round game except Temple (7) over Penn State (10) was an upset. Abby had a hard time picking her Final Four games: she went eeny-meeny-miney-mo for Butler over ND, and really had to deliberate in choosing Michigan over Butler. Butler has been a popular choice for a few years now, especially for Abby. In 2009 she picked Butler to win it all, but then they lost the first game that wrapped up on the first Thursday afternoon. Of course, last year she picked them to win it all and they came within a few inches on a last second miracle shot of winning the championship. As a result, she did the best in our family. We'll see what happens this year.

Diary of a Night

This post is dedicated to all parents everywhere --

For those of you hoping to one day be parents, it may serve as a strong dose of birth control.
For those who are currently in the same stage of life that we are -- we commiserate with you.
For those who have moved past this stage may it serve as a reminder of what you once dealt with and are blessed to no longer have to deal with (I'm sure other challenges have taken it's place!).

8:00 Put Abby and Jake down for the night -- process completed by 8:30

9:00 Zach gets fussy - Lisa feeds him and puts him down for the night

9:20 Annika is sent to bed for the night. Zach wakes up and begins to cry - Mike goes up and pats his tummy

9:30 Zach falls asleep (So far, so good -- it's often much harder than this to get all 4 down!)

2:00AM Jake wakes up and wants to sleep with us. Mike gets up and puts him back to bed.

3:00AM Zach wakes up and begins to cry. Mike goes in to pat his tummy.

3:40AM Abby wakes up with diarrhea. Mike comes out from Zach's room -- he's finally asleep. Lisa goes to investigate sounds coming from the bathroom (assuming it's Mike due to the decibel level) and is amazed to find Abby there. Abby is happy as can be and excited about the magnitude of sound and substance coming from her body. Lisa is also quite impressed but also rather turned off by the magnitude of smells coming from Abby's body!

3:45AM Abby still in bathroom. Zach wakes up and begins crying again. Mike goes in to pat his tummy again.

4:00 AM Abby is back in bed. Zach is still crying. Mike gives up and comes back to bed. He's not feeling very happy at this point.

4:10AM Abby is back in the bathroom.

4:30AM Zach is STILL crying...

4:33AM It's getting quieter, maybe he's asleep!

4:35AM Nope! Wailing...

4:37AM Quieting down...

4:44AM He's finally asleep. Now we try to go to sleep. Not easy to do when you keep hearing phantom cries!

6:40AM The alarm goes off for the morning.

7:15AM Go to wake up Annika. She's mad because Abby doesn't have to go to school today. Abby wakes up (so much for her sleeping in). She is concerned because she thinks she peed her pants during the night. Unfortunately, it turns out she did much more than that, poor kid.

7:20 Stick Abby in the tub, strip the bed, begin load of laundry.

7:25 Insist Annika get out of bed and stop feeling sorry for herself.

7:55 Mike is gone to work. Annika is gone to school. The absentee line has been called. Abby and Jake are watching TV and Zach and I are going to have some breakfast. Let the day begin!

Christmas Happenings

Here are a few picture to share a bit of our life here during the past month. We start with a lovely picture showing our beloved Jesse tree. It seems that although we had previously always thought of the Jesse Tree as a special tree used with our Advent devotionals Abby and Jake thought of a new meaning for it this year. Behold our Jessie (& Woody) Tree:


This next set of pictures is an example of what happens when you try to get a great looking picture of your four kids for the holiday card. All thoughts of cute matching outfits have gone out the door and as you can see, we're not even stressing much about hair at this point. We'd just love to have all four kids looking at one time!

Close...

Closer....

Well... at least they're all looking...

Now, if you want to get individual pictures of them, that's another story... Zach is turning into quite the little ham.



And here he is eating his first ever Christmas cookie. I'd say he looks pretty pleased with it! His first introduction to sugar...let the cravings begin!

Some Halloween Pictures

We took the kids trick-or treating tonight by Mark and Lizzy's house since Kentwood was doing Halloween on Saturday night. Here are just a few pictures for you to enjoy!

The cutest little dragon you ever did see... (Zach, 6 months)




Jake (3 1/2) wasn't so sure how he felt about showing off his costume at first. He fell asleep this afternoon and we had to wake him up to get him ready to go out. When I asked him if I could take his picture he grumpily agreed. This is him showing me what he's going to be for Halloween. Luckily, his mood improved and he had a BLAST going from door to door. He took it as a personal mission to keep track of who said thank you and who did not!



Abby (6) wanted every so badly to be Jessie (from Toy Story 3) for Halloween this year. Little did we know what that would eventually involve. We looked into to buying the costume but it cost $54.00 -- way too much! So, I foolishly thought to myself - I can make that for WAY cheaper. And yes, I did indeed make it for much cheaper money wise. Time wise - hard to say! Abby loved it though so it was worth it. A special thanks for Mom Dekker who helped me out some with the sewing which was all done by hand!



Our beautiful Hogwarts witch - Annika (9)!

Just for Fun - Fall Pictures