Christmas in Iowa

We are back from visiting our family in Iowa. We were blessed to be able to spend almost a week out there over Christmas. The ride out took us 15 hours...a little different then the 10 hour trip it was before we had kids. Typically with kids it takes a good 12 hours, however this time the weather played a factor on the way out there. Once again we were blessed with traveling mercies and are very thankful for that. On the return trip we stayed the night in Davenport IA. It took a little while to find a hotel with a swimming pool that was open (for some reason most of the pools were closed so they could update them to some sort of code) this caused a little stress for dad since he PROMISED Miya if she was a big girl she could go swimming in the hot tub. All ended well (just a little more pricey then expected)!

I don't have a lot of pictures because I left my camera at G and G Hokesbergen's house but I do have a video of what Christmas night looked night and G and G Hokesbergens'. This was acutally quite calm for picture taking. If I would have videoed the the scence of them taking pictures without G and G there it would have been a little louder :)
The great grandkids had a blast playing together (at least I know Miya did). When I think back to Christmas when I was a little girl the best memory is not the gifts, but playing with all of my cousins, and of course getting into trouble with them. We wish our girls could play with there cousins and 2nd cousins more, but know this is how it is to be right now. We treasure the time we are blessed to spend together. I will post more pictures later....I don't have many though.

Update

Mom's surgery went as well as can be expected. She had quite a bit of pain after her surgery and on Tuesday. Today she is feeling better, she even had dad bring her to the grocery store this morning. She still has pain but much less.

As for the Westra family, we are in Iowa after a 15 hour car trip!!! The girls did great (except for about a half hour stretch which is to be expected). Miya enjoyed watching movies in the car and of course her dad spoiled her rotten. She got to pick out ANOTHER baby at a store we stopped at (the three in the car weren't enough). She is having a blast playing with her uncles, aunts, and cousins. Jayden is enjoying being spoiled too!

Today's the Day

Today's the day mom has surgery on her ear to help the symptoms of Minears disease . She has surgery in Detroit at 2:30 today. We pray the Lord will guide the hands of the surgeons and staff as they operate on her ear and give her and dad contentment and comfort as they go into this time of surgery and recovery. We know all things happen according to His will.

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

Early Christmas

We have been celebrating Christmas this weekend with our Michigan families. Friday night was the Wassink Christmas part at a hotel. Miya enjoyed playing with all of her "adopted" cousins. She really liked pushing her new baby in Brooke and Britney's new strollers. She would wonder off by herself down the hallways with the stroller and babies. She told us "I'm going to Iowa Hawkeyes" and off she would go. She enjoyed swimming too; in the hot tub, not the cold tub (her words).

We also opened presents with my family. The girls are spoiled rotten. Jayden and Miya are digging all of the their new toys. Thanks everyone for the wonderful gifts (Wassink family and Berens family). I'll post more pictures and videos later today.

Merry Christmas

Lotion Time

I really do watch my kids! It may not seem like it…but I really do. I guess it’s more fun to catch the silly things they do then the day-to-day stuff. I don’t think I really need to explain these pictures too much. Miya came by me and said, “it’s okay mom, my pants will dry, it’s okay”. By that time I was smelling the wonderful scent of baby lotion. I asked her what she was doing and she said Jyaden needed lotion. When I walked into the bathroom I saw the top completely OFF the lotion bottle, the contents of it on the girls and the towels. Most of the lotion however ended up in the bathtub…not on the carpet. Which is probably why I grabbed the camera instead of disciplining J Jayden thought it was great, she was licking the lotion off from the side of the tub (I know it’s weird, both of the girls have always had a thing for licking baby lotion). Our house smelled great for a few days!

If you look really close, you can see the big globs of lotion on the tub!

Oh Christmas Tree!

I can't believe it's been three weeks since I have posted! I'm so sorry about that....things have been a little busy round here as I'm sure they have been by all of you too. Here are a few pictures of our 2008 Christmas Tree. This one holds the record for second fattest tree ever! We took the tree home red-neck style--bungee strapped to the handles of the company vehicle. We kinda forgot that we couldn't open the doors once it was strapped down, so....Jayden got to ride home on my lap. Miya did a great job decorating the tree. She got sick of looking for the "perfect" tree and started to cry. Jeff pointed to a seedling and asked her if that would be big enough for the house (after she had told him earlier that it was too small) and she said "ya, let's just get a tree and go back to the barn". She had one thing on her mind, a cookie, hot chocolate, and a candy cane! In the picture she still has some candy cane on her face. Thanks Thurstons' for the great experience!

Happy Thanksgiving

This is the "Nice" Miya Last week, Miya and Grandma Berens made some Turkeys for Miya's friends. Miya talked about going to Grandma's house and making somftin (something) all day. She cried when I said she would have to do it another day because Grandma didn't feel good. Grandma was a trouper and pulled through her spell quickly and made turkeys with Miya, making her day! Miya loved handing them out to her friends; she also enjoyed eating them...she enjoyed licking off all of the frosting. Thanks Grandma for making a memory with me!!

This is the real Miya!!

Every dads dream!

Hey everyone! Dads turn again!

What a blessing it is to have healthy kids who love to play. Another cool blessing is vacations days from work! (best blessing would be to have the option of being a stay at home dad, but that day isnt here, yet) Anyway, Miya and I got to do some cleaning in the garage. A hidden blessing about children is a two stall garage is no longer a two stall garage when kids have toys (notice vehicle #2 standing outside in the snow). We put all of Miyas stuff in the barn, and before retiring the lawn mower for another season, we decided to have a little fun.


Miya wasnt a big fan of sledding, (something tells me she somehow remebers last years face plants into the snow after falling off the sled) so we decided to hook the wagon up from grandpa and grandma Westra and do a little offroading. It was fun, but I think it may have been costly. Got stuck with the lawn mower a few times, no big deal, but got finished, parked the mower in the garage and saw we had a completely flat tire on the mower. Oh well, next years hunny do list I guess.

Weve been getting a lot of snow at work. A couple feet to be exact while only getting about 5 inches at home. (I didnt believe the lake affect snow thing when I moved out here, so I wont bother explaining it to anyone who isnt from Michigan...gotta experience it I think)

Other than that, things are going very well. Kids are growing too fast, and the seasons are definately changing.

As often as I write on this thing, I better add one more comment. Holidays are quickly approaching! Hope everyone really enjoys them. Stay out of the stress of them, remember what they are all about, and dont take family for granted! Weve had a few reminders here the last few days that we dont know how many of these holidays we have left. Live life to the fullest and have no regrets! Love you all

Jeff

Walking

Jayden has discovered that it's fun to walk behind toys. She really hasn't shown ANY interest in walking until last night when she "accidentally" started walking behind the tractor. When we hold her fingers while she's standing by us she won't put one foot in front of the other. However, last night she was trying to stand-up by the tractor and it started moving. The first time she did a face plant. She got right back up and tried again and then proceeded to walk behind it. As you can tell from the video, she thinks it's quite funny...not sure I think it's so funny! Thanks for the tractor Gramma and Granpa Hokesbergen!

Surprise!

A week ago tonight, Jeff came home with these beautiful flowers for me. I thought they were because I was having a rough weak. He thought they were because he said something he shouldn't have earlier in the day (something that on a normal day would have been nothing). Either way, they are beautiful flowers and still look great after a whole week! Thanks honey, I love you.

What a Day

I knew today would be full of fun already at breakfast. Jayden would not leave Miya alone. She kept standing up by the highchair, grabbing the tray, and pulling. She had to reach on her tip-toes to grab it; almost to the point of hanging from the tray. After she would white-knuckle the tray both girls would start laughing until Jayden fell down. Then it would start all over again. Jayden so wants to be just like her big sister (and her big sister can't seem to leave her alone these days). The next event for the day was laundry. The girls decided to do the laundry for me while I was doing something in the kitchen. Once again I noticed it was very, very quiet...except for Jayden's giggle every once in a while. So I grabbed my camera and went to check it out. Jayden was sitting in the middle of a pile of clothes that Miya was pulling from the 'clean, FOLDED' laundry basket and throwing on the floor. I asked her what she was doing and she said "I help you fold laundry mom". I replied with "thank you for your help Miya" One of the pictures below shows Miya just after she whipped a shirt into the bathroom!!

**Photos have been removed due to an forseen (by me) necessity that need not be seen by others! :)**

While I re-folded the laundry, Miya started a new trend. I know it will quickly catch on in all of your households too! I'm not sure who was the first to sport the halo of stickers, but I couldn't resist the cute photo op. Just so you know, there were no tears pulling Jayden's out. The verdict is still out on Miya...she wanted to wear them for her nap :)
What will they think of to do AFTER their naps??

Happy 50th Birthday Dad

The 19th will be my Dad's 50th Birthday. So we decided to throw him a SURPRISE party this past Friday. It worked (barely), he had no clue. I think it was the first time he didn't know something. I have a video of him but it's very hard to see because of the lighting. If anyone knows how to lighten it up please let me know. I would love to show everyone the SCARED look on his face as he entered in the house! Thanks to everyone that came to the party and waited forever....

Sleeping

This is a picture of Jayden sleeping durning her nap today-might I add her very, very, short nap. She didn't want to sleep today and was determined not to fall asleep. Well, she ended up falling asleep for about 30 minutes, sitting up in her crib. After her nap she stood up by the railing and called (cried) to get out. I guess when she's tired enough she'll fall asleep anywhere!

Five Minutes

I was folding laundry in the laundry room for no more than five minutes this morning. Just before I went in there Miya went running into Jayden's room because she had just woken up from her nap. I told Miya to play nice with Jayden and then went to fold the laundry. I was bringing the folded clothes to Jayden's room and noticed it was very, very, quiet. I figured there must be something going on. At first glance, all appeared to be fine. On second glance I could see Miya's guilty face and a couple of air heads (candy) in her hand. On third glance I noticed Jayden's mouth was completely red. A more in depth look showed that Jayden was enjoying a cherry red air head. It was all over her face, pj's, sheets, bed, pretty much everywhere. I asked Miya what was going on and she said it was snack time because the timer went off; which it had because we were making cookies. So she was sharing her snack with Jayden. I couldn't get mad at her. She was sharing one of her candies, which is very precious to her, with her sister. They were having a great time eating and playing in Jayden's crib. The joys of motherhood!

Little Jayden

So tonight little Jayden decided that it would be fun to try to climb into the bathtub. At the time she was the only one in the bathroom (Miya couldn't be left out and quickly jumped in the tub to be in the middle of it all), Jeff looked over at her and saw her lifting up her leg...like a dog. She kept doing it. She then started to climb up on the wipes container before lifting up her leg. Her goal was to get into that empty tub, especially when Miya was sitting in it.

What will she try next??? Riding a bike?

M-I-Y-A

For some reason I'm unable to upload the video of Miya spelling her name. I'll keep trying. In the meantime here are some pictures of the girls.

When in the kitchen, Jayden's favorite place to play is by the stove. She sees her reflection in the door and gives it kisses. She LOVES giving kisses. Especially to the younger girls at church (Brylynn, Brittany, Anika, and Riley)...they think it's great too and keep coming back for more!

Miya with her Daddy!

As you can see, Jayden is a go-getter around Miya. Whenever Miya is reading books Jayden wants to try too. However, Jayden prefers to eat the book, not look at the pictures. Only board books for Jayden!

Miya always to tries to hold Jayden like this, actually she tries to pretend Jayden's her baby. This is one time that Jayden actually played along without screaming for help!

As you can see by the clothes, all these pictures were taken on the same day. They were not poses, I promise. I've been trying to good pictures of the girls playing and they both happened to have 'good' days on the same day. :)

That's all for now. Thanks for checking out our blog. It really is fun to do if I can stay on top of it. If anyone else wants to start one it's really easy and I'd love to help you...Glenda, Tonia, Marcy, Sandee, Dawn (I could keep going but I won't). I would love to see pictures and hear of what's going on in everyone elses life.

Saying Prayers

After reviewing our blog I noticed that we don't have many videos of Miya lately. So we did some catching up tonight. These will probably have to be in different posts due to the size of the videos...if they fit at all. The first is of Miya "tucking Daddy in" on the kitchen floor and saying their prayers. She usually says them better but I know everyone out there understands....kids won't do their normal thing when the camera is on. The second is a video of Miya "coloring" as she calls it. She tries to spell her name as she doodles (thank you again Uncle Kyle for the cool Christmas present). FYI this is Miya's normal (if you can call it normal) Saturday night attire...nightie (complete with fleece and footie's) and of course, curlers for that pin-straight hair.

Jayden Standing

Jayden has mastered crawling. She is now on to bigger things; like standing up. As you can see in the video, she is 'trying' to stand up already. Just this morning she crawled over to her bouncy seat and pulled herself up so she was standing by it. She was more leaning on it than standing, either way, I quickly put all fours back on the ground as I'm not ready for her be doing that yet. She is after all, only 6 months old. Our baby is not a baby anymore :( I'll try to post later in the week with some pictures of Miya and Jayden.

Here is a quick video of Jayden's most frequent activity lately, aside from chasing Miya around and NOT sleeping! Kissing. As soon as she hears the kissing noise she leans in for the kill. She has been doing this for awhile; now we have it on video.

Park Pictures

Here are some pictures from a visit to the park a few weeks ago with the Wassink girls and kids. I'm a little envious of how nice the weather looks in the pictures.

A Visit to Iowa

Last week at this time we were enjoying a visit with our family in Iowa. The girls made it through the long trip very well. Better on the way out than on the way back; I think they may have been a little over tired on the way home. Dad had just started combining beans when we were out there so Jeff and Miya enjoyed helping with the harvest; riding in the tractors and the combine. Jayden thought its was great watching all of her cousins always running around. She has been a little fussy since we got home, I think she misses all of the action. Today Miya was outside helping Jeff and Jayden was in the house with me; nothing would make her happy. Once Miya came back in and played with her she was much happier. She just wants a kid around her. It was so good to see our family in Iowa again. All the little ones are growing so quickly, the married adults are busy buying acreages and starting their own farms, and the older kids are busy in school and college. It was so much fun watching all the cousins play with eachother and seeing their personalities. We miss so many of the little things living far away:( Hopefully we won't have to go that long without visiting Iowa again. I'm having a little trouble posting pictures...I forgot the memory card for my camara so I'm tyring to post pictures from e-mail and it doesn't seem to want to work. I'll keep trying.

Crawling??

My, my how time flies. It seems like we were just in the hospital with Jayden; taking her home in a car seat that seemed way too big. Holding and feeding her in the wee hours of the night, keeping her safe from her big sister. And now she is crawling. Our little baby is crawling, already. It kinda took both of us by surprise yesterday when we turned around to see Jayden 3 feet from where we had set her down. Look out Miya, nothing is safe anymore!

Are You Kidding Me?

I tried to tape Miya's newest saying. For a couple of days it's all she would say, now she won't say it because she knows we want her to. I guess I have to be a little quicker with the video tape. One day we were talking at dinner and she said something about Charlie and I asked if she was kidding, she replied with "No, I'm serious." That was her response for a couple of days. Where she learned that.... I have no idea, but it was cute while it lasted. You'll also notice in the video that Miya still has no 'sits' in her. She is constantly moving around.

More Fair Pictures

'Jayden hanging out in her stroller'

I tried to get a video of Miya walking Uncle Tyler's pigs, however I ran out of tape on the video camera and battery on our digital. So we went back to the fair on Friday night with the specific intent to tape Miya walking the pigs...however on arriving at the fair we found that the pigs got pneumonia and all of the healthy pigs were shipped out to slaughter that afternoon. So, we did not get to tape again. I think Uncle Tyler and Aunt Alyssa are going to be going to a winter show this year so hopefully Miya will be able to help train their pigs :). We would love to be able to meat the Westra family in Iowa this summer for a pig show for Miya....we'll see how things go! So far she kinda lets the pig walk her. As for the rest of the animals at the fair....she still has no fear. She will walk right up behind a cow, calf, or steer and grab their leg (which makes me very nervous). She also likes to stick her fingers into the bunny and rooster cages. Things will calm down now that the fair is done, but I find myself already missing it. Miya was at a very fun age this year and I know that next year may be a little more difficult as Jayden will probably just be walking (I don't want to think about that yet).

'Miya telling the baby calf to 'stop' so she can pet it.'

Trouble, Trouble, and more Trouble. (Miya, Zach, and Alex)

Miya giving the monkey some money. She would bust out giggling EVERY time
it took the money from her (which was often).

Fair Week

Last night Green Valley was the sponsor for the Rodeo at the fair. Before the rodeo was a customer appreciation dinner which Jeff had to be at for his customers and after that everyone went to the rodeo and sat near each other. Miya thought it was great. She actually sat still for most of it. She kept telling us when they would fall down (which is everyone but the barrel racers)! She did get a little freaked out by a psycho horse rider. I left Miya standing on the gate while I grabbed Jayden's spit rag (I know I should NEVER leave a child standing on a gate...) I turned around to see a horse, and rider, skidding towards the gate directly in front of Miya. I looked at her (I was standing by her by now) and she couldn't even breathe she was so scared; she wasn't even ready to cry yet. For those of you that know Miya well you know she an animal lover and has no fear when it comes to them. She was terrified and I don't blame her. The lady said it looked like Miya wanted to pet a horse (which she did) so she ran her horse directly at her from across the pen. Probably not the best idea for a two year old. She apologized and moved on (thankfully). Green Valley also had a bunch of free ride wrist bands they were handing out so after the rodeo (yes, after) we took Miya on a bunch of kiddie rides. Her eyes were glassed over because she was so tired, but she had a blast. It was a late night but a lot of fun.

Today was the pig show. Both girls had a lot of fun and slept on the way home. I was hoping Jayden would nap at the fair but I guess that was wishful thinking; there is just too much she might miss.

"Miya with Kenzie and Zach-my cousin's kids. She watches Miya when I work
at school."

I love racing

Guess who?

Yeah, we had a great time in Bristol. Im glad I got to watch some good racing since my own isnt going very well. I started racing offroad derbys again a couple weeks ago. I raced to races and made it 1.5 laps. Pretty impressive. Mechanical problems though, not driver problems. Gotta put an alternator in the car and we should be all set. Anyway, as Nicki was saying, Bristol was great. Thankfully there are cars to watch and not just people (pretty hillbilly environment in the stands) at Nascar races. Lets just say there is more than enough interesting people there on a regular basis. We got scanners which were really cool, so we could listen to the drivers talk back and forth to their crew chief and spotters. They are really busy talking on a half mile track because there is always traffic to deal with.

We got to walk the track which was unbelievable the amount of banking there are on the curves of a half mile track where the drivers are doing well over 100 mph. We stood at the base of the track to the top of the track was probably 8-10 feet.

I got to play tire guy, watched some amazing scenes from the sky before the race from fighter jets to skydivers with the American flag attatched to him, took some closeups pictures of cars. Got to get a real close look at Kasey's 9 Budwiser car, Nicki got some autographs, and we got to smell like exhaust. It was great.

We smelled like burnt racing fuel so bad after that race, but I loved it. It was an awesome birthday present from Nicki. Anyway, I will probably remember more some other time. Just gonna post some pictures and get to reading b4 I go to bed. Love you all

Jeff

Week Away

A week ago we were able to travel to Bristol, TN to enjoy a Friday and Saturday Nascar race. Jeff was sooooo excited to go to this race; I was so excited to see the foot hills of TN and West VA (I actually thought I was going to see my first real mountains....maybe next time). We left on Thursday and the first few hours were really, really quiet in the car. I think we were both wondering what we were supposed to talk about. We are seldom together with just the two of us and no girls. I think we both enjoyed the peace of a quiet car driving away from the daily grind. When we both realized the peaceful car ride was going to last A LOT longer we began talking and having as much fun as possible in a car without a two year that doesn't stop talking and a crying baby. Sunday we spent the day driving around West Virginia admiring God's beautiful creation. Monday we did some fishing at the falls we found the day before-to no avail. We also went golfing and did a lot of driving and eating! Tuesday we focused on getting home to our girls (and house visitation)! We had an amazing vacation and both of us (I think) were reminded why we married each other almost five years ago. Hopefully we are blessed with another five years (and another vacation). I'll try to have Jeff post some of his race pictures in the near future.