HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BETHANY!

Today is Bethany's 3rd birthday. It's hard to believe that it has already been 3 years, but God has truly blessed our family by giving us Bethany. She is sweet and sassy and we wouldn't want it any other way.

We started the morning off by having a special birthday breakfast Bethany picked out - cinnamon muffins, scrambled eggs, bacon & chocolate milk. She gave me a great big hug and thanked me for making it. Moments like that make all the naughty moments worthwhile. This afternoon we took a quick trip into Pella and Kurtis & Jaren picked out a play-doh farm set to give her for her birthday. She loved it and they are busy playing with it right now. Tonight we will enjoy pizza, pop & a movie of Bethany's choice.

We will be having a birthday party with the aunts, uncles, cousins & grandparents on Saturday night, so look for another birthday post soon.

I think Bethany is enjoying her birthday even though we had to change our plans due to the weather...surprise, surprise. Chuck E. Cheese will just have to wait until another day.

Happy 60th Birthday

Well, this past weekend was spent celebrating Gloria's 60th birthday (Kurtis's mom). We had a great time and even got a break from the kids for the day...which was a much needed thing after so many cold, snowy days together. :)
We started the afternoon on Saturday by going to the Science Center in Des Moines. We went to see the Alps on IMAX which was a new experience for most of us. It was really cool to see and I would recommend it to others. We then walked through the Science Center and had fun trying out the different things. We maybe would have gotten a little more out of it with the kids, but we had fun anyway. We then made a little pit stop at a coffee shop while waiting for our reservations for dinner. We ate supper at Azalea's which I would recommend to anyone looking for a different type of restaurant to try - not kid friendly though. We concluded the night with a wonderful cheesecake dessert at Lonita & Tim's house.
Sunday was a little more partying as we had lunch with the VerMeer's - Gloria's family. Unfortunately our kids were not able to attend. Jaren broke out in a rash during church that morning so I ended up taking the kids to my mom & dad's house, went to the luncheon, and then went back to get Jaren and take him to the doctor to find out what he had. The doctor said it was something viral, so we are treating it as Fifth's Disease. So far the girls are fine and haven't broken out, so let's hope it stays that way since we have Bethany's birthday tomorrow.
It was a very fun weekend and we were glad that we were all able to be together to celebrate this big milestone for Gloria.

Going stir crazy!!!

Well, today is another snow day home from school for Jaren. He was pretty bummed since he was suppose to be the leader today. He is wearing is shirt from Hawaii and was going to bring his new ukelele that town Grandpa & Grandma gave him for show & tell. I told him he'll have to do it next time.
To break up the day a little, I got out a gift that I had origianlly bought for Bethany for her birthday coming up. They have too much energy that they need to burn so I brought it out...it's a Dora dance mat with music video. As you can see from the pictures it even has a Dora costume. They can now watch tv & exercise at the same time, how great is that?
I've also included pictures of our playdoh adventures yesterday when we were also stuck inside due to the snow falling outside. Jaren & Bethany kept the animals busy playing hide & seek.
Erica was busy playing with the T-rex mountain (ok, so she was eating the dinosaurs and pretending she was the T-rex :). What a silly little girl.
Kurtis in the meantime was sick all day on Sunday, laying in the chair sleeping with all the chaos going on around him. Thankfully he's feeling better today so he's outside blading away the drifts of snow.

The pictures won't upload right now, so I'll try in a little while.

Another snow day

Well, it's Sunday morning and normally we'd be running around getting ready for church. But once again we are having a snow day and are stuck inside all day. With the ice during the night now changing to snow and the extremely windy conditions, it is not a very favorable day for going out to enjoy the much snow we already have. Thankfully the kids were able to go to town grandpa & grandma's house last night, so hopefully they won't be quite as stir crazy today. I've attached a few pictures of them playing out in the snow last week. We got out the sand toys and figured we might as well use them in the snow as well. :)

Erica trying to climb the snow drift by our garage.

Jaren & Bethany digging and burying things in the snow.

It's hard to tell just how deep the snow is because they are not sinking in, but it went up almost to my knees when I was walking through it.

Popcorn, Movie Night

The favorite night of the week at our house is popcorn, movie night. The kids are always asking if they can have popcorn, movie night. We try to limit it to once a week, usually on Saturday night. But since the temps have been so cold lately, they haven't been able to play outside much, which results in hyper children. So to calm them all down before bed the other night we had a popcorn, movie night. They all decided it would be fun to climb on daddy's lap to watch the movie. Just to reassure you, Erica is eating fruit loops, not popcorn.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

I think we are going to make the title of this blog our theme song for the week. We are in the midst of having our second major snow storm this week. They are saying that this is the worst one this season. Jaren is home from preschool again today after having missed on Monday also due to snow. We are all going a bit stir crazy, but yesterday we were able to get out for a little bit before the storm started. Kurtis just called to say that he got his truck stuck in the ditch and was walking home...he just got done pulling Keith's truck out also.
My parents are enjoying warm, sunny Hawaii right now. I think I'll get on the next plane out to join them. :)

Erica's growing...well sort of :)

Well, Erica had her 1 year check-up today. Here are her stats:

16 lb 1/2 oz (not even on the charts)

28" (20%)

She is on the small side, but we already knew that. In comparison to Bethany, she was 17 lb 10 oz and 29". We are going to be taking Erica to an eye dr. in Des Moines to have her tear ducts checked out. She's been having a lot of problems with clogged ducts, and hopefully they will fix them. Other than that, she is a very healthy little girl. She has truly been a blessing from God during this past year.

Look how much I've grown!

Random Pics

Here are some radom pictures from the last month. They include snowman pizza, Kurtis's new toy & getting ready to go to "Hawaii".

Kurtis's new toy - now he can haul their corn and beans

Our Hawaiian dancer!

We're ready to go and party. We helped my aunt & uncle celebrate their 40th anniversary. Congratulations!

The kids were pretty sure that we were actually going to Hawaii - would be pretty nice right now. My parents and aunt & uncle are flying there right now.

Micah, Jaren & Bethany with the snowman pizza that they made

Erica's 1

It's hard to believe, but Erica just turned one on Saturday. Where did the year go?

We celebrated Erica's birthday a week earlier with family. It was a great time and she got a lot of really adorable clothes and a few fun toys.

Our little birthday girl!

Erica riding her new bounce & spin zebra

Trying on her birthday hat

Let the mess begin!