Home SWEET home!

So we ended up leaving early due to changes in times of visitation for my uncle. Long story... so anyway, I left Wednesday afternoon (not to much time alone at all) and I came home early too... our precious little boy didn't sleep last night. Sleeping in general for him has been difficult, naps are far and few between and short when they did happen and bedtime was a nightmare... specifically last night. He was up from 3am until 5am... did you catch that 3-5! In a camper...meaning we were ALL up! I finally put him in the car at 4 and drove around, then I didn't dare take him out of the car so I tried sleeping in the van with him... didn't work... finally got him inside and asleep, but at the loss of lots of sleep for myslef. Didn't want to do that twice in a row, so we headed home! It's kinda nice to be home early, I can start laundry and cleaning the house up more tomorow in the morning instead of the afternoon! Unfortunately the boy is upstairs driving me NUTS! He's screaming... I know it's just cuz he's tired, but there is NOTHING I can do anymore... he will have to sleep eventually, RIGHT???????? I will post more pics and fun from our trip tomorow!
Just wanted to add one FUNNY pic of the crabby little boy upstairs... he didn't look so crabby here, he looked pretty hilarious actually! He kept going after the camera!

Change of plans...

No, my change of plans doesn't include anything about baby... but thank you all for
the encouragement, both here and via e-mail! I appreciate all of you and your positive thoughts. Again today I feel really well, so of course I'm getting concerned again!

Today, my uncle (dad's brother) passed away. It was definately not unexpected, but it did happen fast. He abused his body for the past many many years with alcohol and it took it's toll. He has been in the hospital off and on (mostly on) for the past year and few months up in Lansing. I feel guilty because I haven't seen him in all that time, I thought about going up to the hospital today to see him one last time, but I wouldn't have made it in time anyway. He had just had enough pain and asked the doctors to let him go. I can't imagine what a decision that would have been, he has a 3(?) year old little boy that he hasn't seen but a few times in the past year or so and will never know his dad, that is probably the saddest part for me.

So... because of visitation and funeral events, my family will be heading to the campground tomorow and I will be staying home... ALONE! Not sure how that will all work out, a few months ago I would have loved some time alone, now I dread it! I seriously don't know what I will do for 24 hours by myself. I will leave for visitation on Thursday at noon probably (not exactly sure on times yet), stay for half an hour or so and then head 4+ hours north to the campground. But it was either this or come home from up north and go back all in one day... that's about 9 hours of driving in one day... way to much for me!

I know I need to go to Target and Gap, and I could have done that tonight, but I will wait until I'm bored tomorow instead. I am so not good by myself, never have been and probably never will be. I used to be so bad I didn't like to to go stores by myself even. I've improved and can at least do that now, but still like to have company. The night is going to be the worst and longest for me, but I may just rent a few movies and go to bed early! I will definately miss my kiddies though! Sooooo much! (Oh, and Matt too!) I'm so happy that he's a great dad though and more than willing to take on this task of camping (setting up camp no less) with three kids all by himself. Should be interesting! I'll update upon our return!

So... now a few pics...
First of all a pic for a challenge from Nancy Comelab's blog... to post a pic of a special pic we took just to remind us... well this is where I'm at in my life right now! A reminder of how special this baby #4 is... and I really truly do feel that way. I am getting better and better by the day. I think each day that I feel good I get more and more scared that something is wrong which in turn just makes me appreciate this child that much more! Maybe that is God's plan!

And, pics from Landon's party yesterday...

Celebrating Landon's ninth birthday with family! I can't believe I have a nine year old! CRAZY!


The Heelies he got from Grandma and Grandpa and D and Ange! He loves them! His birthday was filled with all things feet... tennis shoes, rollerblades and Heelies! and lots of other gift cards and money and stuff...
Elliot LOVED the cake! LOVED LOVED LOVED it! He was quite the ham when he saw everyone watching him!
Landon was feeding him, Elliot thought it was quite funny!



And, some pics from the post the other day that I couldn't access at the time...

The fish that Matt caught...
Landon loved tubing!
Well all, I'll probably be back tomorow night when I get bored enough, or maybe I won't... we'll see! Enjoy your weekends and if I'm not back tomorow, I'll be back Sunday or Monday!

Hindsight is 20/20

So looking back the signs were all there...and I even blogged about some of them...
"I slept for almost 2 hours, dreams and everything and here I am still tired!" From Fathers Day


Ha...and this one...
"Today I finally decided to get a bathing suit from Land's End, something that would hide my not so prego, but looks prego belly"


This one cracks me up...
"While at the picnic I had brought sunscreen and was putting it on anyone that asked, but in the chaos I forgot to put it on one important person...me! Keep in mind that I never used to burn, I could be white as winter, go to Florida, spend a day on the beach and get nicely brown... sometime during my pregnancy with number three the hormones changed and it only took about 5 minutes outside (sunny or cloudy, maybe even rainy) and I was lobster red, well I was hoping that would go away when Elliot was born, but no such luck!" From Thursday May 24


Oh, and this one...
"...the surgury was cancelled because my insurance wouldn't cover it. So, less than 12 hours before I had to be at the hospital, I found out that I didn' thave to go. Now, I had prayed about whether or not to have this surgury for quite a while, we are sure we are done having kids, but this would make it SO final!...God has a purpose and I may find out what it is... I HOPE that he will make his will clear to me, show me what the purpose of all of this is, but that isn't in my control!" From May 22

Definately never wanted this... way to close for me! Not sure how I will handle it, only with lots of prayers I'm sure! We were totally done, we were complete! This wasn't supposed to happen! I've been feeling nauseous, need to always have something in my stomach (which means lots of weight gain), brushing my teeth makes me gag (but no fear, I will continue despite the feeling), smells are definately stronger, I have been scatterbrained, and oh, so, tired!

So, if you haven't figured it out yet, I am prego AGAIN! Right now I'm not all that excited, but I'm sure once I've adjusted to the idea I will be ok. We just figure we've created two generations within our family (Landon and Bailey generation 1, and Elliot and baby, generation 2). I seriously am so worried about how I will cope, sometimes I can't even handle my one baby, much less two babies! So, yeah, lot's of tears and fears and prayers the last few days here at our home! Please keep us in your prayers!

I have a sign hanging on my wall that says "God doesn't give us what we can handle; God helps us handle what we are given." Oh how I pray that he helps me! HELP HELP HELP!

This little t-shirt is how we told our family...
(Oh, yeah, due date... Feb 14, so I'm only 6 1/2 weeks along, early to tell - YES, but I've never been good at keeping secrets!, although I can say I was more nervous to share this time!)

So... I"ve been preparing this post for about three days now, I will be uploading it tonight... and I've gotten a bit better, still not what I had planned, I'm scared out of my mind about how I will handle two kids under 16 months, will Elliot get enough attention, lots of different things, but I know I would be devestated if I lost this baby too. This morning I woke up feeling really great! Not nauseous, not tired (helps that it was 8:30), just great! But, that worried me... was everything ok? Prayed about it and guess what, God answered that prayer... I then was nauseous, and tired! And I had to get groceries (never been good at that while pregnant), but just the reasurrance was good, I would be sooooo incredibly sad if something happened!

Weekend Re-Cap

Friday:
Bailey ended up going camping with Maddie on Friday, she had a great time and was soooo proud that they made new friends (something Bailey isn't so great at)! Dimitri and Angela came over to our house while Mary and my dad went out for dinner. We had fresh salmon for dinner (caught that morning)! I just love a salmon dinner! Then we just hung out outside (such a gorgeous night), we played bean bag toss and just sat and enjoyed the kids. Ange and I did her nails and make-up too!

Saturday:
Matt slept in a little bit and then we just had a really really slow morning! Matt took the boys to the batting cage in the afternoon so I could rest a bit, then I went to pick up Bailey at the campground. After packing up the kids we dropped them off at my parents then we went out to friends to go for an early dinner. We ate at Pigion Lake lodge, the food wasn't bad, not sure I would recommend it though. It was nice that we were able to sit outside though! Then we launched the boat and went to the beach, played football, ate snack and just hung out. Then it was off to fish! We ended up catching two fish and got to hang out some more while we were out there. It was a fun night, enjoying a beautiful evening!

Sunday:
Church this morning, finale to vbs, all the kids (and some leaders) got up front to sing the songs that we learned at vbs that week. So cute. After church we laid Elliot down for a quick nap while we got the boat ready and packed up for a day at the beach! We launched the boat and met my parents at thier friends cottage on the lake so the kids could all hang out on the beach. We took the tube too for the first time. Landon got to go and i went too! I told Matt that he had to be extra gentle with me though, I'm petrified of any "big" water (bigger than a pool, especially big with fish inside). I didn't fall off, didn't even come close! It was just a relaxing ride! Elliot had a blast at the beach, playing in and eating the sand, he loved the water (until a wave got to big for him and scared him) and fell asleep in the boat on the way back into the channel! Getting the boat out of the water was a joke, it took forever, the launch was so busy and people didn't seem to notice that there was a place for those launching and place for those retrieving! It was craziness, no one had patience (including myself after a little while) and everyone wanted out! (I think we were all hungry, it was dinnertime after all)

Tomorow I have to get ready for Landon's birthday party at our house, we are doing hamburgers on the grill, so I need to make a trip to the store! His birthday isn't until Saturday but we won't be here for it so we are celebrating with family tomorow!

*****and your only getting one pic because I've been trying to open up my pics for about an hour now and having no luck, I'm exhausted and going to bed... NOW! I promise to be back tomorow with new pics... you definately won't want to miss these, I promise! :)

More Pictures...

Baseball pics

Lot's going on here...

So with VBS in full swing things are busy busy busy here! Dinner (and lunch for that matter) have been on the go all this week, doesn't help that we didn't have groceries of course. We have to be at church every evening by 5:45, and were there until 9:00, now that the week is winding down I'm getting exhausted! It has been fun though! The kids are great, the music is fun, the weather hasn't been that bad... I think I will bring my camera tonight to get some fun pics!

We had a call on our house the other day... nothing happened, but at least it was a call! I was excited! We really really need to sell this house, we NEED more space! I'm so sick of it! (Oh, and I want a house with a pool)

No huge plans this weekend, the kids are sleeping at my parents house Saturday night (or at least staying there for a bit), Matt and I are going out with some friends, we may go out on the boat, or go to the beach or fishing or something then out for dinner, maybe in saugatuck! Should be a good time!

Short post...back with pics later... enjoy!

Ahhhhhh, relief!

From the heat that is! The windows are open, humidity is gone, breeze is blowing, it's just wonderful! This is the BEST kind of weather!

VBS
Vacation Bible School started this week, fun stuff! Matt and I are crew leaders for fourth graders this year (Landon's grade). Definately much easier than the kindergarteners that we did last year! Last night was so hot though, games are outside and it was awful muggy and hot! Tonight Landon has his last baseball game so Matt will be crew leader by himself for a bit, we'll see how that goes! Landon and I will be there, just a bit late!

Fathers Day
Matt received his canvas yesterday that I ordered him, he said it looked really nice, it's hanging in his office, I have yet to see it, but will maybe post a pic once I do!

Running
I haven't mentioned anything about running lately, because I haven't been running. For some reason about two weeks ago my ankles started getting really weak. Steps are painful, running is unbearable and walking is starting to hurt even. It's getting worse so I finally made a doctors appt to get them checked, guessing it's nothing, but hopeing they can do something about my "nothing" pain! I tried running last night for a game at VBS and almost fell flat on my face!

Camping
So we leave in a week and a day to go camping (Heather are you reading this... can you believe it?). That came up really quickly. We are going up to Interlochen this year (did I mention all this already a while back?), Matt can't wait to go here. Should be a good time, we are going with one other couple on Wednesday and then two other couples will come up on Saturday, at least one with kids that my kids can play with! I need to start thinking about packing (just thinking though)

Layouts


And I will end this post with... "Way down upon the Swanee River" which my neighbor is playing on the keyboard... again! Don't you wish you could enjoy the sweet sound of a keyboard playing?????? I DON"T!

Happy Fathers Day

So, contrary to popular belief having 17 kids at one's house really is pretty easy. Especially when they are 5 and older! Really no entertaining to do, just had to regulate a few arguments here and there, play a few games when someone was left out for a minute, we kinda just visited with another couple that stayed! Give me 17 two year olds and I may have to run far far away! FAR AWAY!

And I said the other day that I had another thought to share... recently we found Bailey in the backyard by the train tracks (which is forbidden) eating black berries with the neighbors. Really the berries weren't harmful, but how did she know that (oh yeah, and the neighbor girl "told" her to eat them), so we told her not to eat berries again and that she absolutely could not go back by the tracks! End of story, right? No, not with my almost 6 year old, independent little girly! So after the party I was taking one friend of Bailey's home and she said, "Bailey was eating berries tonight"... the same ones I specifically told her not to eat! I was quite quiet for a while and let her friend get out of the car before talking to her about it. I'm seriously scared by this. This is quite a regular occurance for her, doing excatly what I tell her not to do! My mind flashed forward quite a bit to her being a teenager, and me telling her that drinking and driving or drugs aren't safe and her making sure to go do exactly what I tell her not to do, S-C-A-R-Y stuff! I'm petrified of the day she rebels and gets hurt, I love her just the way she is right now, what will I possibly do when she doens't listen to me and it's truly dangerous? How can I drill this into her head that she needs to listen to me? I talked to her about how when I tell her something it's because I want to keep her safe and she seemed to understand, but did she really?

Yesterday Matt was fishing and came home with five salmon! Yay! We went for dinner at some friends house last night, the kids played in the pool, we had a campfire, s'mores, fun times!

So, did you have a good fathers day? We did. Church this morning. I actually put Elliot in the nursery for the first time, which went really well suprisingly. May have to try it again next week. After church we went for lunch (desperately need groceries, been doing way to much eating out lately) at Ruby Tuesdays, then home to nap! I slept for almost 2 hours, dreams and everything and here I am still tired! Tonight we went for dinner at my parents house, while we were there Landon got to fish in the "pond", we had steaks on the grill and ice cream sundae's for dessert, yummy!

Isn't Bailey's skirt the cutest? Found it at Old Navy yesterday, Love It!

OK, off for now! Have a great week! (Oh, yeah, and picture count so far (almost two weeks with camera) 2859, Matt is getting soooooooo annoyed)

Part B (Full of pics)

Bailey and her rockin' gymnastics skills...


Bailey & Kennedi with thier certificates from gymnastics...


Matt's salmon...


The kids at the pool...


Landon jumping...


Bailey jumping in the pool on Thursday...


Landon is happiest anytime there is a basketball nearby...


Just a cute pic of Bailey...


All the kids at the party...

Sorry about the sideways pics... can't fix that mostly b/c I'm just to lazy!

Part A

I feel like I've been gone for so long and so much has happened... so this could get long... sorry if I loose you! (Totally understand though)

So for my birthday we met Mary at DeBoer Bakery (that's not how they spell it, but I'm not sure of the dutch spelling) (not "& Cafe") for some yummy cinnamon rolls and muffins! THen the kids and I went to Target to look for a beach umbrella, no luck, but still spent money, then to Bed Bath & Beyond to get one (knew they would have one), unfortunately I didn't have my coupon and didn't have time to run and get it so full price it was, not that it was that much! THen off to gymnastics for Baileys last day (pics will follow in part B later), Matt suprised me and showed up to pick up Elliot and Landon which won him some BIG points! When I got home Matt was still cleaning fish but when he got done we went to the pool which the kids absolutely LOVED! Elliot had a ball even though his naps were cut so short (instead of the normal 2 naps totaling 5 hours he had one nap totaling 1.5 hours), we were still paying for it on Friday though. At night my parents took the kids and Matt and I went for dinner to Mongolian Barbecue, good but not near as good as last time I was there, while we were there I dropped a raw egg on the ground... little embarresing, but not nearly as bad as it could have been if they found out it was my birthday, when they would have sang to me around the grill! No thanks! After dinner we went to Meijers (on 28th street, set up was totally backwards and turned around, took for-ever) to get stuff for the party, then hope to pick up kiddies and put them to bed after they all did some cleaning (I was exempt b/c of my birthday, love those days). So all in all it was a good day, I got money from pretty much everyone and Matt's mom got me one of those bean bag yard games that I've been wanting Matt to make me for years, so I was excited about that! Matt got me an ipod a few weeks ago! I still ahve some money left (even after buying my bathing suit), so I will be going shopping hopefully soon!

Friday we were cleaning much of the day and preparing! I got my bathing suit on Friday which I'm still not sure about, I think I was expecting a miracle suit, I wanted to be supermodel skinny and for some reason it doesn't work that way... so I need to decide if I'm going to keep it yet! 6:00 was party time, we ended up with 17 kids here, less than I though, but still enough! It went pretty well, we kept it so low key, didn't plan any games or anything, just food and fun. They played the bean bag game, basketball, bocce ball, football, trampoline and just hanged out (pretty sure that's not a word, but I'm at a loss for an alternative right now). We did s'mores over the fire and then everyone left! The kids had a ball and really I think I could do it again every week (if food weren't so expensive) it was so easy! (see part B for pics later)

This morning Matt is out fishing, I just got off the phone with him and they already have 4 fish in the cooler and have lost three, so they are doing great, two more and they are at thier limit! I got a great suprise, Elliot got up for his bottle around 7:10 (which is about 40 minutes later than normal), then suprisingly went back to bed until... get this... 9:00! What a great kid!

Some more serious stuff...
I had to bring one girl home last night and was on my way home from her house, driving down 96th around 10:00, watching and waiting for deer (I hit one last year so I'm petrified now) when there was all of a sudden a blob in the other lane, I slammed on my brakes, my heart was beating out of my chest (like in cartoons), when I was slowed down a bit I realized that it was a kid riding his bike... wearing dark clothing no less! I was scared out of my mind! Why are some people so dumb?????????????

And you know what, I had one other thought, but I'm rambled enough, I may have even lost myself at this point I will save it for another day! Enjoy your weekend, I will be back with pics later today or tomorow!

Just wanted to share...

a few layouts while I take a break from getting ready for the party tonight!

Have a good weekend!

Bo-Ring...

Not much to share today! We didn't really do much! Bailey had gymnastics again, then I made the kids take a nap, they were so crabby and driving me C-R-A-Z-Y! Tonight Bailey had a t-ball game (her last) and then we went for ice cream afterwards! See lot's of pics below!

Tomorow is my birthday and Matt took the day off, he's going fishing in the morning and then we are hanging out either at the beach or a pool! Depends totally how Elliot is doing, but it sounds so good to me! Matt and I are going out for dinner at night (not sure where yet though, maybe Buffalo Wild Wings or maybe Cabrera's, never been there before) and getting stuff for the summer party that the kids are having on Friday night, so far there are 20 kids coming (between the two of them), should be a fun night (for them at least)! So yeah, not sure I'll post again until Saturday (but hey, I'm pretty faithful, who knows)! If I'm not back, enjoy your weekend, I'll be back with pics I'm sure!

No calls on our house yet, not sure exactly what I expected, but I guess I was thinking we would have at least had a call by now, just a call wondering at least, definately not ready to show it to anyone for sure, but I could be if someone just wanted to ask! Yes, I know some of you have had houses for sale for a LONG time and I know I'm expecting a lot, but I guess I was just excited, although I don't plan on moving for a looooonnnnnnggggg time!








P.S. Yay for us, Matt just got back from Meijers with ... not one but two new cordless phones with caller i.d., no more being attached to the wall while on the phone, seriously, I shut my phone off for a while today I was so sick of talking on it and not being able to move. and double yay, I am ordering a Lands End suit (with birthday money) when I'm done here they have one in my size today for some reason, in brown, really wanted black, but brown is just as good!

Good day...

Today was a good day, all around really! I was blog hopping this morning and checked Sarah's blog and of course she had to mention something about the bakery! YUMMY! I absolutely love donuts from the bakery! Specifically Zeeland Bakery! YUMMMMMM-MEEEEEEE! So, the kids and I headed over there by foot (gotta walk off that donut ya know!), got our donut and headed to the benches to enjoy them outside in the beautiful weather! Wouldn't you know it but Sarah ended up riding by while we were eating so we visited with them for a bit which was nice and also did some other visiting, it was like social time in downtown Zeeland!

Then Bailey had gymnastics (only 2 more days...) and then we met Matt for lunch which was fun, Elliot did wonderfully despite the fact that it was naptime! Elliot came home and took a 3 1/2 hour nap and Bailey had Morgan over to play while Landon was at Dimitri's!

Matt had to go look at a job tonight so we went along and the kids got to go swimming, we ate pizza, Landon and Baily bowled on the Nintendo Wii (guess what's now on his wish list, which is where it will stay until the price comes down a LOT) and then we went to get ice cream! Great times, the kids had a blast! Definately tired now though!





And, I did this for Matt today for Fathers day, I'm getting it on a stretched canvas from winkflash (40% off using coupon code RM77CV63)! He can put it in his office, he was wanting more pics of the kids, so this should be good for a while!

The good and the bad...

First the good...
Our house is finally FOR SALE! I figured we would never get it truly ready, so even though there is still stuff to be done, I went ahead and put the sign out. It's an older home, we are doing a few things yet and if someone wants to see it they may have to look past a few things... oh well! It feels wierd to have it for sale even though this has been our plan for quite some time, it's our first home, our kids have pretty much grown up here (Landon at least), and as much as we need something bigger I may actually miss the place, even the train running through the backyard!

OK, so now the bad... actually there are two of them!
Yesterday while getting ready to go out on the boat I called Matt from my car on the way to pick up lunch, he answered the cordless and talked while on the boat (in the driveway), then he set the phone down on the edge, he thinks once he got out he put it on the steps by our door (but it's not there...). Well when we got home I went to check caller i.d. to see if anyone important called, couldn't find the phone, paged it, still couldn't find it, called it, and still couldnt' find it... so now we don't know where our phone is. Unfortunately it's our only cordless and our only phone with caller i.d., so all day today I've answered the phone every time it rang (when I could hear it at least) which is something I normally don't do, and when I do answer the phone I'm stuck to the wall with it! Ahhgggggg, what did people do before cordless? I'm holding out on replacing it, hopeing it will turn up SOON, but if it doesn't by tomorow night a new phone is in the forcast for us!

Today I finally decided to get a bathing suit from Land's End, something that would hide my not so prego, but looks prego belly, found one I really liked (which came in a one piece and a tankini) and guess what... nothing in my size! Wouldn't you know it, so that was quite a bummer too!
And, wouldn't you know it as I'm trying to post a pic of the suit I like it won't let me, so in case your wondering I will post the link... just in case you care you can see it here! And if that doesn't work, well bummer for you! :)

With that I will wish you a wonderful Tuesday! (No pics, can you even believe it, I took some tonight but the process of downloading is so much bigger with these much larger files so I may actually share tomorow!)

OK, I'm back it's killing me, I need to add something visual... so here is a layout I've finished recently, I've been finding it so hard to scrap, no inspiration, definately still trying though...

Not doing anything special with the pics...

but here are some anyway! We went out on the boat today for a few hours, totally taking a chance by giving Elliot only an hour nap so we could go in the afternoon instead of evening, we were worried that it would be a really short trip, but it worked out so well. Elliot actually fell asleep and Matt got to put some lines in the water... one fish on, none in though! Bummer!



Oh, and Sarah, guess what... I put on SPF 45 and didn't get burned, yay me! Matt on the other hand wasn't so smart! He is a bright red tomato! Bummer for him!

Great family time today and now let the busyness begin again...lots of games and meetings this week, supposed to be nice weather so hoping to MAYBE make it to the beach, MAYBE, not sure how Elliot will do though!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Big day today...

Today was Bailey's recital, she was so excited and loved every minute of it, although we are both really tired (her more than me of course), I helped backstage during the first show and then was able to sit in the audience during the second, I got some ok pictures, I just need to figure out how to work my camera, even with some tips from Nina I didn't do so well, I need to play around more, I just didn't want to mess up, so I went with settings I knew would "work" but not produce anything wonderful, here is a very small percent of the pics I took...









She was in tears when she saw her hair in the mirror after taking all the pins out, partly because she was so tired, partly because it looked soooo funny! Poor girl!

Tomorow is church, then we are hoping to go out on the boat if Elliot naps well! Have a great sunday!