Annual Almond Stick Making

Four generations of Van Diest Family members got together on Saturday for our annual almond stick making. It's a tradition from my Grandma Van Diest's family, and I don't know how long they've been doing it, but I've contributed for probably 5 or 6 years now. It has been a long time since there have been children at this event, but now that all of us grandchildren have children, my grandma's church gym was overrun with baby equipment, kids games, and toys. I just had to take a few pictures to document what an amazing task almond stick making is, and how much work and love goes into them. We all give them away as gifts during the holidays, and I've learned in the last few years that they sell at a few stores in Lynden for like 7 or 8 dollars a piece. They are a long standing Dutch tradition in our family. Beth and I were discussing how special it will be to carry on the tradition for years to come.

Thanksgiving Fun

What a wonderful day. We had so much to be thankful for today. My dad summed it up best...today we are so grateful for our health, the beautiful kids that keep blessing our family, each other, the wonderful food we get to eat, and most importantly our mom. She has been through so much in the last 7 months from her surgery, to chemo, and now radiation, but today we are so thankful for the recovery that has taken place. Scans don't show any visible cancer, which is a complete miracle. That's just all there is to it. Yes, she's had amazing doctors from the surgeons to the oncologists, but the way everything has come together is nothing short of a blessing from above. For this, there just aren't enough words to describe our thankfulness.

After the Thanksgiving festivities wrapped up, my mom brought out these gingerbread kits for the kids. It was quite the task putting them together so that they would stay put, but very enjoyable. The kids loved all the candy. They decorated the houses with the candy and then took it all off to eat it. I didn't see the point in stopping him, however he did get a very thorough teeth brushing when we got home.

Jack, Finn, and Ryan

Jack

Finn and Ryan

Jack (Finn and 9 month pregnant Beth in the background)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you could think of plenty of things to be thankful for. Now onto Christmas!!!

Blog Question

In talking with some of my friends last night, I learned that even though I update my blog almost weekly, it doesn't always show up on some of your blogs that I've updated. Like on Sarah's blog it says I updated 1 month ago, but really I've updated probably 3 times since then. Anyone know why, or what I can do to fix that? If not, check often because I try to update every week.

Jovie's Appointment

We had a really good appointment with Jovie's new Pediatric Urologist, Dr. Grady, from Children's Hospital on Friday. He explained Jovie's condition to us in excellent detail, and is allowing her to continue a prophylaxis antibiotic (preventative daily antibiotic) for another year to year and a half while we wait to see if the problem corrects itself. In case you don't remember from my previous post, Jovie has vesicouretal reflux, which means that urine which should normally stay in the bladder until being emptied travels back up the ureter into the kidney (just on the right side) when the bladder gets full. This puts Jovie at a high risk for kidney and/or UTIs because of potential bacteria that could enter her urine and travel up to infect her kidney. The problem is a "weak" connection where the ureter meets the bladder. This problem can sometimes be outgrown with age, so the doctor wants to see us again in 12-18 months to retest to see if anything has improved on its own. The most likely scenario however is that she will remain infection-free for 12-18 months because of the antibiotics, but will still have the weak spot and reflux when she is retested, which will lead us to dealing with correction of the problem (ie: surgery). Overall it was exactly what we wanted to hear at this point in time (no rushed surgery for our 10 month old), and we feel reassured with this doctor and the attention we received during our appointment. Still no easy fix for this, and it's been brought to light that there is a 30% chance that Jack could have the same condition, and when they asked us if he's ever had any unexplained fevers, Rob and I just looked at each other and I replied, "Yeah, lots". This doesn't mean that he has it...there are lots of explanations for random fevers, but it does mean that he has to have an ultrasound to get everything checked out. So, antibiotic every night for Jovie, an ultrasound for Jack, and an appointment at Children's in another year at the earliest to get Jovie retested.

We spent the end of the week in Seattle with Rob's parents. Jack's grandma took him to the zoo and took care of him while we had Jovie's appointment. From there we went up to Mill Creek to Jason and Sydney's house for fun-filled weekend. We played games, went to So You Think You Can Dance (the tour) at the Everett Events Center, and lounged around the house for an overall relaxing weekend. A great time with family and friends! Now we're just getting geared up for Thanksgiving (thank the Lord it's only a three day work week for me) at my mom's, and hopefully a visit from Rob's family on the weekend.

Rainy Day Post

No, Jack and Jovie could not look more alike, and yes, Jovie finally figured out how to get her feet underneath those chubby thighs to pull herself up. She's been pulling herself up to her knees for awhile now, but today she had lots of practice and finally mastered the skill of standing to reach the remote control.

I stayed home from work today for an extended weekend to let Rob recover from a head cold and to get new tires on the CRV. We had such a nice day all hanging out inside together while it was cold and rainy outside.

Halloween and Company

For this past Halloween weekend Jason and Sydney, our dearest friends from college, came up from Mill Creek to visit.

Jack as a "Superhero". We're not really sure who he was, other than Superhero Jack. It was a makeshift costume. Jump suit courtesy Danielle (Jack's preschool teacher), mask courtesy Jason and Sydney as a gift, and the cape was an old pillow case. I wonder how many more years I'll be able to get away with a Halloween costume like this. Everything was free...that's my kind of costume.

At my aunt Robin's house, Jack ran into a little boy dressed as Optimus Prime (Jack's costume last year). He stopped and stared at him, then told him "I love your costume", then gave him a thumb's up. Jack was all about observing others and enjoying the night. Several times he would say, "I just love Halloween."

Jovie's costume was a little more involved. She had a fairy costume that at the last minute ended up being too small, so we tried the backup costume, a duck, which also ended up being too small (she's quite round these days). It's a good thing that we held onto this frog costume that Jack wore when he was 1 year old, because we pulled it out of the closet at the last minute. It worked out perfectly, because it was warm enough for her to come along trick or treating. This picture of Jovie and my mom is priceless. She was all smiles until my mom put that witch hat on. Then she wasn't so sure.

Jason and Rob in matching superhero shirts. They also had masks like Jack, and fashioned capes out of Hawaiian sarongs (an old college dorm room memory)...a four year old is a grown ups excuse to dress up for Halloween.

Sydney and I (and our new friend Nick Cannon aka man in the horror movie in the background). The four of us are just sitting down to what ended up being an all night Cranium tournament. Sydney and I won the first round, and the boys won the 2nd and 3rd rounds. We played until 3:00am, but with the "fall back" time change it was only 2:00am when we called it quits...not too shabby.
Overall a wonderful weekend with our dear friends. I just wish they lived closer:(