Our home

So, goodness.  It’s two days before moving day and I’m beside myself.  Memory upon memory is seeped into the walls of this great house and so many of them are flooding back to me right now.  Like this door. 

That’s the door we opened to walk into our home as parents for the first time.  And the second time.  And the third time.  The door that they ran to countless times to welcome daddy home from work-Sam stopping short to collapse on the ground, fake crying that he wasn’t first and Jack sometimes letting him win.  The door that we welcomed family and friends through to help us celebrate first birthdays, and second and third and fourth and fifth.  The door that they stood in front of for first and last day of school pictures-and so many more!  That’s also the door I wouldn’t go out of if I saw a lizard perched on that banister out there!  Ha!  That door.  Oh, I’m gonna miss that door!The nursery.  Where could I even begin.  Our babies’ first room.  So many sweet times rocking them, nursing them in the middle of the night.  Reading to them, playing on that floor.  I loved watching Mark wrestle them in there and read to Sam while Jack jumped off his back.  I remember when we first brought Jack home…we went up there, laid him in his crib for the first time, and Mark showed me all the baby boy clothes he bought, washed, and hid from me until that moment.  Oh, goodness.All the “today from the chair” pictures of Sam!  Silly boy!  I can remember him crawling for the first time in there and hiding in the closet so many times.  I remember Jack teaching Sam how to make a fort for the first time in there and Jack taking his first bath in that tub.  You know, Sam nor Margaret never did bathe in there!I love that sweet, sweet nursery, and I think all our babies did, too!  Sooooo many hours of sleep in there.  So thankful God gave us good sleepers!And then there’s the boys’ room.  (I already took down the matching valences hoping to use them in the new house-we’ll see!)  I love, LOVE that they share a room.  Countless hours of imagination and best-friend-in-the-making moments have happened in there.  They’re learning to count on each other, comfort each other, and of course wrestle and fight with each other being together like that.  I once read that one way to help your kids become best friends is to have them share a room.  Oh, that is my prayer.So many ‘games’ played in there and books read in there.  Pony rides, basketball games, games of army men, hide and seek, red light green light and on and on.  They would look out the window sitting on that window bench.  I remember when Jack saw a squirrel pretty close in the tree and named him and kept watching for him to come back.  That window seat was my secret storage place for the silent night candles and wreathes I would hang every day after Thanksgiving in here and in the nursery!  Most of all, what a blessing it was to check on these two each night and see them sleeping side by side.  Takes my breath away. Oh, there is so much more to say about this sweet home of ours, but I’ll save that for another time.  Otherwise this will go on forever!!  I’m so thankful and so grateful that it belonged to us for almost seven years during such a sweet season of our life.  It will always be so dear to me, but as Mark says, it’s just a pile of bricks.  We’re taking the memories and the magic with us!

Margaret’s First 30 Days

And some other fun ones…I love. love when she draws her legs up like this when she stretches!

Wrapping up November

Just a few fun ones from this month…

Sam LOVES to read his birthday book.  He’ll say, “See me?  See my cake?  I eat it with my hands!”--And he’s such a helper with the laundry! :)This was the day before Margaret was born-the last time the boys sat side-by-side in the car.  I moved Sam’s seat over and Jack’s back after this picture.Here’s our four-day-old.  Took this picture to always remember how teeny she was.And two silly boys being like daddy!  So cute!

The recipe

I talked to my aunt, and she said I could share her recipe!  I promise you’ll love them!  I have four dozen in my freezer right now!

Ingredients
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
1 C butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 C uncooked oats
12 ounces chocolate chips
_____________________________________________________________________
*Preheat oven to 350.
*Combine first three ingredients in mixer until smooth.
*Beat eggs and vanilla together and add to first mixture.
*Combine flour, baking soda, and oats and add to above.
*Add chocolate chips to combine.
*Form into balls and bake for 7-10 minutes. (I always bake a bit longer, so work with your oven.)
*Makes four dozen.

My beloved grandpa

My beloved grandpa.  I can’t find the words to do justice to the man he was and what he meant to me.  He was such a big influence in my life!  I do know that he is now perfectly healthy and enjoying the Glory of our Lord!

I’m so thankful for the example he was.  He loved my grandma with such an amazing, true, sweet love.  They grew up 264 steps, 13 houses, and 2 intersections from each other.  When we were talking about baby names before Jack was born, I asked grandpa what his favorite girl name was.  Without hesitation, he said, “Betty Lou.”  I asked one of my cousins what one of her last memories of grandpa was, and she said hearing him say, “You look nice, honey.”  Isn’t that sweet?!  From the many wonderful stories we always hear, he was an incredible father to his six children.  He and grandma showed them this great country and loved them dearly.  I just think they’re the cutest!  Especially mom in the green and Uncle Tim with no shoes on-in DC! I’m thankful for all he taught me and the strong example of faith he was.  He always reminded me to say my prayers and that Jesus loves me.  I remember when Linds and I started to drive.  He’d tell us, “Lights on for safety!”  And he loved for me (or anyone!) to comb his hair.  I remember him asking me to save a dance for him at our wedding.  Oh, how special that was to me.  I remember telling him each time I was pregnant.  He was excited and then wanted to make sure that I was eating enough and getting enough rest.  Love him. And I’m so very thankful that our boys were able to meet him and that Jack shares his name.  He called them his boy babies.  The smile he (and grandma!) got on his face when he saw them meant the world to me.  One of grandma and grandpa’s friends told me that Sam looks like grandpa.  I don’t know who he looks like, but that sure made me smile! My prayers are with grandma who was not only a loving wife to him, but also a devoted care taker over the last many years.  She’s an amazing woman and I love her so much. I know the Heaven’s were singing.

My little helper

He does not have the folding part down just yet.  Good thing he’s cute!

From my phone

Yep, tons of pictures.  These little square snapshots of our days are just as precious to me as the ones I get with my big camera, so I want to make sure they’re backed up in a couple different places.  Plus, Mark doesn’t have Instagram, so here you go, babe!, and I really like looking at these all together.  Makes me smile.

So thankful for all these moments!

So, does he look like me?

Everyone, even perfect strangers, comments on how much Sam looks like me.  Clearly I’m missing it, because I’m not quite sure who either of the boys looks like.  I compared Jack and me as babies, so I thought I’d do the same with Sam.  Looking at these, he favors my baby pictures more than Jack did.  What do you think? And here we all are in our family baptismal gown.  Love, love this gown.  Made with love by my great-grandma Woudenburg in 1950 (right grandma/mom?) and worn by three generations of Betty and Robert Wiersma children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Updates to come!

I've been asked when I'll post something new-soon, dad-and if we're still at the Zoo-no, Adam! I love that you guys love to see pictures of these two little guys almost as much as I love taking them!

Right now, my computer's in the shop-I got a virus. I should have it back by Tuesday, so stay tuned!

In the mean time, Jack and Sam say hello and that they miss their grandpa and uncle!

From my phone

Just some recent pictures I don’t want to forget about! (And my phone froze up the other day before I got these pictures off, so that gave me extra incentive to back them up!)Love. them.

Curious Jack

This is where we won’t be hiding Christmas presents!

Windows Live Writer- A PSA

A few blogs that I read have been having a tough time publishing with Blogger. If you are one of them, or even if you’re not, I encourage you to download Windows Live Writer! It will make blogging SO much easier-I promise! Click here to read about it and download it. You’ll save time and won’t have the frustration that I know I use to have when I was using Blogger to publish.

You can insert pictures straight from your desktop and move them around in your post with ease. While you’re creating your post, you see it just how it will appear on your blog-- See what I’ve circled in red? Those are the quick controls for font size/color/style, left/right/center justifying your type, etc. In orange-those are the quick controls for inserting pictures, photo albums (a photo album is when you see my pictures fanned out-there are other display options too), videos, hyperlinks, etc.

When you’re inserting a picture or pictures, all you have to do is click on picture, from one of the places circled in orange above, find the pictures in your file-I’ve selected two at a time circled in red below-and then click ‘insert’-I’ve circled it in green below.And here they are! I have it set to where the default border is what they call Photopaper-the white border-but there are other options as well.Once you have a picture selected, the option tabs I’ve circled in red will become available. Under ‘Picture’, you can change the position of your picture, choose the border, etc., ‘Advanced’ allows you to change the size, crop, tilt the picture, etc., and ‘Effects’ allows you to change a picture to black and white, sepia, and on and on. I’ve also shown you how you can still label your posts just like in Blogger. Windows Live Writer syncs to your blog. Two more really helpful features-spell check and control C/control V. You can insert a picture by copying and pasting.

Anyway-Windows Live Writer has been extremely user friendly and a very quick way to publish to Blogger with NO frustration. I hope this was helpful and I hope you’ll try it-because if you follow my blog, I probably follow yours, and I love seeing your babies sweet faces! Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy Easter weekend!

Pondering what’s for dinner

My vote…those cheeks!!

A baby divided

Jack has enjoyed his first football Saturday and cheering on both of his grandpas’ teams! Although he’s loving the maize and blue and red and grey, his favorite colors are GARNET AND BLACK!

Yep, he’s a keeper!

I don’t think I can love him any more, and then I look at him again and I do!You’re my heart, little one, and I love you!

Celebrating!

We have a week full of celebrating, so Jack has been extra smiley and practicing extra hard on sitting up. He’s even working on blowing kisses! {Just kidding!! But doesn’t that second picture look like he’s puckering up?!}

Smiles and kisses to all those that we love!

Like father, like son!

The new Bumbo ad!?

So my dad's not at all biased and thinks this is the new face of Bumbo! :) Jack does love it, and we've gotten great use out of it, so I would be more than happy to give it a great review!! I think he likes the view he has sitting up, and now that he can reach his feet, he's quite entertained!

We enjoyed lunch and the British Open today with Grandma and Grandpa Thomas and Uncle Doug. Thanks so much for coming up to visit and for the farm animal toys you brought for Jack! For now, they go directly into his mouth, but I know he'll figure out that they make sounds soon!

When they left, we all got to take a Sunday snooze, including a power nap from our little man-sleeping from 1:30 to 3:45, waking to eat at 4, and then falling back asleep until 5:30. I guess he was still catching up from all the excitement he had yesterday at Emmie's party! :)

I found out about Windows Live Writer from a photography blog that I read, so I downloded it and wanted to try it out with one of my new favorite pictures. It has some pretty neat features, and it is very user friendly! Give it a try-I bet you'll like it!

Jack will be five months old tomorrow, (I can't believe it's been FIVE MONTHS already!!) , and Mark and I can truly say that this little man has stolen our hearts! We love every minute with you, buddy!

on his way to the tub!!

18 weeks, 4 days