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!

Budding Artist

I just wanted to quickly share with you Jaren's recent drawing of a combine. I think he did a wonderful job. Notice that he even drew the shredded stalks shooting out the back, the corn yet to be combined and even all the corn in the combine. Daddy is driving the combine.

Flu season already!

Well, as you can tell from the title, the flu has hit our house already. Isn't it kind of early for this? I spent Friday trying to potty train Bethany using the "Potty Training in Less Than a Day" approach. I had little success and felt very frustrated by the end of the day. By 8:30 that night I figured out why she wasn't overly interested - she didn't feel well. She threw up (thankfully I had a bowl nearby to catch it in) and remained sick throughout the night into Saturday. I unfortunately got sick during the night and all day Saturday. With Keith & Dale both gone for Parent's weekend at Dordt, Kurtis & Scott had a lot to get done on the farm. Especially since it was finally dry enough to get back into the fields after many wet days. Thankfully my parents were around and took Jaren & Erica off my hands for the day. Fortunately Erica will take a bottle without any problems when I need her to. Kurtis got sick Saturday evening, but refused to come home and rest. There was work to get done, and I can't say I really blame him for wanting to get as many acres of corn out as possible before the next batch of rain hits. He is in bed this morning and we have decided that in the best interest of getting anyone at church sick or having Jaren get sick at church that we are staying home today. Erica is not feeling 100%, but she's a trooper and nothing will slow her down.
Let's pray and hope that this is not an indication of how the rest of the winter will go!

Never slowing down

Well, Erica is constantly learning new things at a very rapid pace. Today alone she learned 4 new things. It's amazing if you really think about it.

1. Erica woke up from her nap, stood up and said "mama" until I came up to get her. I do have to let you know though that of course "dada" was her first word.
2. She pulled herself up by Bethany's kitchen to play - her first big girl toy! Needless to say she was very impressed with herself and everything she discovered in the fridge of the kitchen.
3. Erica learned how to drink from a straw like a pro. I had made yogurt smoothies for Jaren and Bethany tonight and thought I would humor Erica by letting her play with the straw. It took her less than 5 seconds before she had it figured out and was enjoying the wonderful strawberry/banana smoothie like the rest of us.
4. As if she hadn't had enough excitement for one day, tonight Erica started walking behind her hippo toy. Of course I didn't have the video camera or the digital camera ready, but Jaren & Bethany saw it also so we can relive the moment for daddy tomorrow.

I have mixed feelings about all the new ventures that Erica is rapidly going on. I love having my baby stay little, but I also am thrilled that she is healthy and able to constantly learn new things. I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings. I hope you enjoy the picture of her "cooking".