Snow Fun!

Just wanted to share a couple of pictures with you of Jaren & Bethany playing out in the snow last week. It was the first snow of the year so they were very excited. We went sledding Thanksgiving day, but unfortunately I did not get any pictures...instead I was in charge of pushing them down the hill. :) As you can tell, they enjoyed throwing snowballs at me, but I did get them back. They also liked to hide out in their "restaurant" to warm up and make me food.

I thought I would also include a picture of Erica with her new Christmas ornament. She thought it was the great that mommy actually let her play with it for a while. The crying started after I took it away from her when she tried to eat it.

See the resemblence?

After watching "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" last night with the kids, I noticed a strong resemblence of Bethany and Cindy Lou Who. Take a look and see what you think!

Check-ups and Flu Shots

Well, yesterday was the wonderful day for flu shots. I thought it might be a good idea to have the kids get shots. I know it doesn't cover the stomach flu, but if we can avoid the nastier kinds of flu that are out there then we'll be better off.

When asked who was going first for their shot, Jaren proudly said he would because he's so brave since he's a 4 year old. He was very brave and didn't even cry saying it only hurt a tiny bit. Bethany on the other hand started crying the minute I said it was her turn. The crying lasted through the shot, but stopped once she was off the table. Then she started crying again when the dr. came in and I had him look at her nose. We thought she had maybe broken it by falling out of bed (she was suppose to be taking a nap, but instead was goofing off with Erica). Thankfully he didn't think it was broken so we didn't have to traumatize her anymore with x-rays.

Erica had her 9 month check-up yesterday. It's hard to believe that she's already that old, and harder yet to believe that she'll be 1 in less than three months. She weighed in at 14 lb 14.5 oz., which is at the 0-3% for her age. She was 27 1/2" long which was in the 50%. The dr. highly encouraged me to suppliment her with Pediasure to try and get her weight up a bit. I promised him that I do feed her and she eats a lot, but she is a very active little girl therefore burns many calories. I need to feed her high caloric foods (must be rough :) ). All in all she is a very healthy little girl with a lot of spunk!

I've included a photo of Bethany and Erica wearing their new scarfs that Aunt Ruth and Sonja made for all the little girls in the DeKoning family. They are adorable and of course Bethany has to wear it all the time - inside or out!

Catching Up

Well, it's been a bit since I last posted so I thought I should catch up. Lots has been happening lately including Halloween, Kurtis's Birthday, CRC 150th, family get-together. I guess I'll start in the order they occurred.

Kurtis celebrated his 29th birthday on Oct. 27. The kids had a great time making him cards and putting together a snack attack pack to give him for his birthday. We also enjoyed a special breakfast of muffins and an omelet roll. Jason, Kurtis's twin brother, came down later in the day to enjoy a great day of harvesting. Unfortunately, the combine broke down around 5 o'clock which meant the we had the evening free. Keith took us all out for suppoer to celebrate their birthdays, even though I'm sure they would have much rather been combining.

On Sunday the 28th, the Pella Classis celebrated the CRC's 150th anniversary. As Jaren put it "That's even older than great-grandma and great-grandpa and the other great-grandma!" We had a wonderful joint church service which Gloria was very involved with planning. Afterwards we went to my parents house for pizza to celebrate Kurtis's birthday once again.

On Tuesday night, my mom, the kids and I took off for Ankeny to go trick-or-treating. We met up with Jennifer, Luke & Reagan at Jason & Kristin's house and walked through their neighborhood. The kids got more candy than they need in a year, but Kurtis and I are helping them along. :) My kids also went trick-or-treating at Central College the previous Thursday with my cousins - double the candy this year! I''ve attached some halloween pictures for you to enjoy. Jaren was a Ninja Turtle (Leonardo) and Bethany was a pretty princess.

Yesterday, the 4th, we went to my Uncle Gene and Aunt Helen's house for the annual DeKoning fall gathering. We try to have an early Thanksgiving before my Uncle Marv & Aunt Ruth take off for Arizona. It was a loud, fun gathering. We are so thankful that we have such wonderful families that can get-together and have a great time. There was more food and desserts than we needed, but welcome to the holidays!

Well, that's a quick summary of what's going on over here. I think we have a couple of calm weeks, and then the holidays will be upon us. This has got to be one of my favorite times of year. I've already been scoping out great gift ideas for people and can't wait for my chance to go shopping!