For Aunt Arlene

Okay, so my aunt Arlene (or better known as Old Aunt Arlene by Bethany :)) was giving me a very bad time this past Sunday for not updating my blog so I'm dedicating my update to her.Here's a blog update just for you!!! :)

We have so much to be thankful for during this Thanksgiving season (and really all year long :). God has blessed us tremendously. We have been blessed with three healthy, beautiful children who are full of spunk, love, sincerity and are each just so unique from one another. They are the greatest kids in the world and I would definitely take the bad days just to get to the good ones. I have a wonderful husband who works so many hours each day for our family so I can stay home with our children. I love that he is so willing to sacrifice for us. He is by far the best husband and I love him.

Life is keeping us hopping and I'm definitely looking forward to the long weekend of relaxing with not much of a schedule. Below are a few more pictures to show what we've been up to.

The girls & I have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather and going to the park in the afternoon before we pick up Jaren from school. For some reason I didn't get any real pictures of Erica on this particular afternoon.

Jaren & Farm Grandma both had their Fall Program last week. Everyone did such a great job!

We celebrated one of our Thanksgiving meals this past Sunday.

Grandma with Brynn & Hailey - 2 of the 9 grandchildren

Sweet little girl!

Jaren loves playing carpet ball and played almost the whole time.

Another sweet little girl

I liked this picture of Drew so I had to include it also. :)

Today Jaren's school had a Thanksgiving chapel and then broke into their chapel groups for some fun. Each classroom had an activity for the groups to do and they rotated every 10 minutes. I was privileged to help out in one of the rooms. Jaren's taking his turn at Pictionary...eating was his word. So FUN! I love being able to help out in the classrooms and can't wait to go back again. I was also able to then eat lunch with Jaren. He's been waiting all year for me to come so I'm glad I could do that.

Catching up

I'm not sure where to begin. I finally got all the pictures off my camera and realized how far behind I am. To start on a sad note, Kurtis' Grandma VerMeer passed away on Oct. 22 after living a very full 99 years. She was a wonderful lady whose only wish is that her children and grandchildren grow up knowing and loving the Lord. Kurtis was blessed to go see her just hours before she passed. It is sad to not have her with us anymore, but her prayer of going to Heaven has been answered.

Great-Grandma with her Great-Grandchildren (some)

On a lighter, fun note...we've been busy having fun once again. My house usually shows the fact that we like to have fun more so than clean (at least the kids and I). I've been to Autumn Acres three times, helped in Bethany's classroom for a day, carved pumpkins with the kids (a first for all of us...or at least I don't remember doing them as a kid), went trick-or-treating along with all the daily things that happen around here. I don't have the time/patience to post a lot of pictures tonight so I'll just show you the costumes.

We had Cheer Bear (who looks a little crabby, but she really wasn't), Optimus Prime who was ready to tackle the candy, and Super Girl who was more than ready to conquer the world! Every time I took a picture of her this is how she thought she should pose. :)

The whole gang going for more candy. Despite the cold rainy weather it was lots of fun.

Harvesting continues

We are so very thankful that we have been blessed with some nice weather and the guys can all be out in the fields getting tons done before the next batch of rain. We haven't seen a lot of Kurtis, but are managing by taking turns riding with him. Erica rode with him in the semi from 9-1:30 and wanted to go back tonight after supper. She's invading on Bethany's turf a little, but Bethany benefited by having me come help out in her classroom all day. It is so much fun to help out and watch the kids all interact and learn. Here are just a few pictures of the harvest so far.

Jaren checking his corn to see if it's ready

Bethany taking her turn

Erica & I rode with Kurtis earlier in the day. This was Erica's first time in the combine because last year she was terrified of it. This year...she loves it!

It was wet out on Friday so Kurtis and I took the kids bowling and out for ice cream. It was so much fun. This was Erica's first time actually bowling all 10 frames and she loved every minute of it down to her fancy bowling shoes. I'll let the last picture tell you how the game went. :)

They all loved watching the balls pop back up. Thankfully no one got bumped in the head!

The smile on Bethany's face sums up our evening...pure joy!

Okay...even though the scores are not great for the adults...I WON!!! I guess I'm entitled to brag every now and then right?!?!

Where to begin???

Wow, I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of September. The month has flown by and harvest is officially underway. Kurtis didn't get home until 1:15 am this morning...what a way to break me into the harvest season. :)
Let's see, what's been going on here this month? Bethany was the leader for preschool towards the beginning of September. As leader she gets to bring the snack (fruit snacks & string cheese) and a show-and-tell item. She asked Kurtis to bring in his semi for the kids to look at and climb through. She had it all figured out that only 4 kids could fit at one time and she made sure to let the teachers know this rule. :) Kurtis and Bethany have a very special father/daughter bond and the semi is a big part of that also. Bethany is very hesitant to let daddy go anywhere in the semi if she can not come along. It's a good thing she loves preschool otherwise she'd be very tempted to skip class.

Bethany sitting in the leader chair.

Checking out the outside of the semi

Patiently waiting their turns to climb inside

We helped celebrate our nephew Joshua's 1st birthday. We celebrated while watching the IA vs IA State football game. Thankfully Dordt College has the same colors as IA so the kids could all wear the appropriate colors.

Cheering for the Hawks must be a lot of work! :)





Eating the delicious cake and loving every bite

Jaren got his first black eye after showing off on his scooter. We had just arrived at our friends' house and he went flying over the scooter's handlebars. Talk about making a grand entrance. He cut open his eyebrow and had quite a bump on it. The black eye showed up just in time for school pictures. :) I didn't get any pictures of it since he was pretty upset and in a lot of pain, but maybe the school ones will show it off nicely.

Here are a few other random pictures from this past month also. October will hopefully be a little slower for the kids and me, but unfortunately things really pick up for Kurtis now. This is when we give each other a kiss and say, "See you at Christmas." :)

We are looking forward to going camping tomorrow through Sunday since both kids are off school for the Heartland Conference. The weather for the most part sounds beautiful if we can just get past the rain forcasted for Thursday.

Bethany feeding baby Lindsay her bottle. Bethany is truly a little mommy and loves to take care of other kids and babies.

I found this awesome K'nex set at a garage sale for cheap so I bought it thinking Jaren and I could have some fun putting it together. I'll show you a completed picture in 2-3 years. :)

This is the day (weekend) the Lord has made!

The Lord truly blessed us this past weekend with beautiful weather for our annual Van Mersbergen camp out. I think we can all say that this was a great weekend for building memories. Between the kids fun run, the 2 mile race, geo-caching, rocket building/launching, notebook making, and our family church service, we still found plenty of time to relax and really enjoy each other's company.

We'll see you in a year at Ox-Eye!

Our group finding the first cache...we had such determined little searchers!

Relaxing on Sunday afternoon. Poor Hailey was stuck in her cage just like at the zoo. :)

Jaren retrieving his rocket after one of many launches.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...Blast off!!!

The guys all had so much fun. It was fun watching the adult guys acting like kids again also.

Our camp shirts.

One of our potluck meals together. We have some really good cooks in the family!

Uncle Howard gave the message, but first made sure to bribe the kids with all the candy they wanted for the day if they sat quietly! "Uncle Howard's the best." quote by Jaren. It was fun to watch Erica and Bethany attempt to eat sour warheads!

Our time of praise & worship.

Katelyn, Alyssa & Mackenzie did a beautiful job with the dancing.

Drew & Bethany hanging out.

The girls had fun putting together decorative notebooks.

Erica & her buddy Mackenzie.

Kurtis & I in our matching running outfits.

Some of the group after our 2 mile run/walk.

And they're off!!! The kids starting their fun run.

Bethany on the winners stand.

Jaren's turn on the winners stand.

Erica receiving her medal. She ran the whole way with a huge smile on her face. :)

Anxiously awaiting their running bibs.

What a busy weekend! Good thing Grandpa makes a very comfy bed.

1st Day of Preschool

Today was Bethany's first day of preschool and she LOVED it! It was a shortened day where they split the class in half and asked that a parent(s) come along to help ease the transition and see first hand what happens on a typical day of preschool. I loved that I was able to go along. It was so much fun to watch how Bethany interacted with the other kids. She makes friends very easily and will play with any girl...boys are not so much her thing right now. :) Bethany is very ready for Thursday to roll around so she can go back to school for a full day, lunch and all.

All ready to go to school. Proudly showing off her princess monkey shirt she picked out herself.

Heading into school for the first time as a student.

She found her name tag and book bag hook like a pro.

First activity she picked - coloring - this way she could observe what others were doing for the first few minutes.

Bethany made a couple new friends already, Anna & Hannah. Pretty easy to remember. :)

Mrs. C reading the group a story. On Thursday the whole class will be together for the first time.

Bethany with her wonderful teachers & aide.

1st Day of School

Well, Jaren had his 1st day of school this past Wednesday. He is now in 1st grade and I'm very excited to see all he learns and how he grows in every way. He has a terrific teacher who has just as much energy as all the 1st graders...23 of them. Erica was really confused as to why we were leaving Jaren behind and kept saying, "Don't leave my brother." She's going to be just as upset this week when we start dropping Bethany off at preschool.

Tomorrow starts the first full week so we're going to really have to push the bedtime schedule otherwise there will be a very crabby little boy by mid-week. :)

Looking less than thrilled to have his picture taken. We even had to go back in the evening to take pictures when no one else was around. :) Before you know it he's going to be demanding me to drop him off a block away!

Our big goof ball

The girls looking slightly thrilled to have Jaren at school. Not really they were just being goofy.