Bowling, Piano, Friends

What a week it's been. On Monday I didn't have to work because of the MLK holiday, so we took Jack and Jovie bowling, per Jack's request. We had such a great time, but unfortunately didn't remember to bring the camera. Here is a reenactment of the event. Jack bowled a 60, which I thought was pretty solid for his first time. Jovie just sat in her stroller and watched us, while eating snacks of course:)

One of Jovie's new interests this week is going anywhere she's not supposed to go. The stairs, the dog's water dish, etc. She is enjoying exploring via crawling, and is scaling walls and furniture on foot. A new favorite toy is the piano. We got this piano from my parents house a while back. It's the piano that my sisters and I grew up playing. Hopefully she'll learn how to play too some day.

Finally, here's a picture of my best childhood/high school friends and myself. Yesterday we attended a funeral/memorial service for Natasha's son Case. What an incredible service it was. After the service we were able to have some really nice fellowship with friends, and end the night visiting with Natasha and Reese's families. What a fun night of laughing and talking! Natasha, your family is hilarious, and hopefully we really do make a trip over to Moses Lake to visit Michele:)

Love and Prayers

Just got back from church where our congregation prayed for many families dealing with the loss of a loved one. I emphasize many because it seems as though many people in our community are facing this sort of grief lately. One such family is dear friends of ours, the Heeringa's...Natasha, Reese, and Lane. They lost 5 month old Case this past week, who died from SIDs. They are experiencing a pain that is so deep, there are no words to describe it. Because of this I wanted to post something I took from our sermon today, something I don't normally do because I have grown up to be what I call a "quiet believer" in Jesus Christ. Today we were reminded that in the Christian race to victory, death is not the finish line, but the beginning of everlasting life. To those who are grieving for the Heeringa's because of the loss of Case, I pray that through this hard time you will share with others what God's intentions are, and that our life here on Earth isn't the home that God prepared for us, it is in Heaven.

I also wanted to share some pictures of sweet baby Case, and the friends that loved him during his short 5 months here. These pictures were taken over Christmas by my friend Tory. We had all gotten together to spend time with Tory, who was visiting from Montana, and Natasha, who was visiting from California. When Case was here on Earth, he was sure loved by LOTS of people!

Cardinals and Name Pancakes

What a day! The Arizona Cardinals have officially advanced through the first week of the playoffs with an overtime victory against the Packers. We are relieved and celebrating at the Day household tonight. What a game it was...anyone who was watching knows. Here are the Cardinal's fans above.

Jack and Jovie received a "Kids in the Kitchen" cookbook from their Grandma Day, and we just tried out one of the recipes. Jack and I make pancakes on a regular basis, but this recipe was for name pancakes. To top it off, the name that is featured in the picture beside the recipe is "Jack" so Jack wanted to make it EXACTLY like the one in the book. He even went as far as saying that the syrup had to be placed exactly where it was in the picture! I wonder where he gets these obsessive compulsions from? :)
Anyway, we had a wonderful day!

Birthday Girl

Jovie is 1! The VanDiest Clan gathered this evening to celebrate Jovie's first birthday. We had a low-key party with dinner, presents, and cupcakes. We had "snow on the mountain" for dinner (hard to explain, so if you're curious then you can email me) and cherry cupcakes topped with white chocolate snowflakes. 

Below-the present opening crew.

Jovie inspects, and then dives in :)

Cookin up some trouble with cousin Finnley!

Earlier that day...Chef and Sous Chef

It is so hard for me to believe that the baby is 1! I know people say this all the time, but where does the time go?

New Do

Finally! Jack let me cut that mop of a head of hair that he's been sporting since early fall. I just love that I can see his face again. No more mop or mullet!

Christmas 2009

Round 1, Christmas Eve at the VanDiest's: Jack couldn't be more excited about his Indiana Jones lego sets with matching movies from his VanDiest grandparents. He's also pretty psyched about the new Transformer movie from Finnley. All of these things have already gotten plenty of use.

Jovie trying to get into Peter's present.

Relentless.

Later that night...For two years now Jack has made up a treat and carrot plate for Santa and his reindeer. Many of his Santa questions were answered this year in the form of a couple different movies...the old classic "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" which I had never seen before, and a new Disney special called "Prep and Landing". Both great resources ; )

Round 2, Christmas Day at home: Ahh...the wait is over! Remember when Jack lost his video games until Christmas a few week back? Well, we stuck true to the punishment, and on Christmas morning after all the presents were opened and everyone was fed, he got his video games back, plus a new one from Santa. Here are Rob and Jack trying out Lego Batman.

Jovie's 1st Christmas.

She was up for a total of 45 minutes before she went back down for a nap...crabby and exhausted from the night before I guess.

So, in the midst of all the Santa hoopla and everything else that has nothing to do with the real meaning of Christmas, we did take many breaks and have many discussion of why we (Rob, myself, and Jack) celebrate Christmas. Here is Jack putting together a nativity scene from stickers he got from his great aunt and uncle in South Carolina. Thanks Clyde and Wan for the thoughtful card and stickers:)

Finished product.

Round 3, Christmas at Camano: with Grampa and Grammy Day, Aunt Sara, and a brief visit with Granny, and Cousins Chris, Amy, and Aaron. The theme was food...in every sense of the word. We ate so well...in fact it seems that all Rob and I did was eat. The kids received lots of fun play and real food related things to go either with their new play kitchen or to help mom in the real kitchen. Rob and I received a gift certificate to a quaint little dining establishment in Bellingham called Ciao Thyme. Thanks for all of the neat and thoughtful presents! Also, thanks for putting up with us and the noisy children:) You'll be happy to know that the Jovie's sleeping patterns are back to normal.

6 Grandchildren & Santa

Today Santa was kind enough to stop by my mom's house to take a picture with all the kids so that we didn't have to cart everyone to the mall. Julie coordinated the event since she loathes malls more than anything. Good job Julie, and good job Santa. Santa was as jolly as ever! Jack and Ryan took the whole thing very seriously, and seemed to be totally wowed that Santa was sitting in Grammy's living room. Finnley screamed the second Santa walked in the front door, and Jovie screamed the second I put her down. It was eventful, and the video that Rob took is priceless. My pictures on the other hand didn't turn out very well. I wasn't paying much attention to my settings, so my red eye is off, as well as my indoor flash. Oh well, it's a pretty cute sight anyway.

Grammy, Finnley (20 months), Almira (4 days), Ryan (4), Jovie (11 months), Peter (5 months), Jack (4)

A little more torture:)

Me and Almira. Beth and Adam welcomed baby girl Almira Kathryn on Monday night. She weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces, was 20 inches long, and is a sweet little girl. Beth and Adam are proud first parents, and are doing great! We are all proud aunties, but I think Adam's family wins the prize for most excited/enthusiastic. This is the first grandbaby for the Hodgins family, and the girls are just loving and spoiling Almira already.

Tis the season

Here was Jovie being rewarded with a Christmas cookie and juice for being a perfect angel after a short (20 minute) trip to Target on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Jack was serving part of his punishment in his bedroom for being an absolute monster in Target, which is of course why our trip lasted 20 minutes.  I have never had a problem with my eldest child in a store before. Nothing that could not be solved with a free children's size popcorn or a piece of gum. I think however that there was a sense of holiday madness in the air, and Jack just decided to run with it. Needless to say I will NOT be going back to any store in the near future with either of the children, and I am so thankful that Rob ordered all of our Christmas presents online 2 weeks ago, making it possible for me to avoid department stores altogether until after Christmas! Oh...the rest of Jack's punishment is that he lost all his video games until after Christmas. This is a big deal for this child. In his free time he lives for playing Lego StarWars or Lego Indiana Jones video games. The kid hums and sings the theme songs for these games every chance he gets. I think it will be good for him to have a break.

Here is Jack tromping through the tree farm last weekend. He was pretending he was Darth Vader, and with his pretend light saber he was slashing through the tall brush saying "Wait for me Darth Vader's mom!" Did I mention we were taking a break from his StarWars video game?

Yes, that is Rob, my dad, and my brother in law Adam tying our tree to the racks of our brand new (old) mini-van. We got this mini-van from Rob's parents a while back, and are loving it! We only had to make one stop on the way home to secure the tree back to the racks, but that was because of a harsh Northeasterly wind.

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:(