many good things

Taking a look back at the past 2 weeks.

Dec. 7:  Date night!  Janelle watched the boys while we went out for supper to the best place to get steaks in Sioux Center.  We watched the play "Black Coffee" at the Dordt College Theater.  And then we sat down for coffee at The Fruited Plain before coming home. 
Dec. 8:  MOPS Christmas party.  Went to Sioux Falls with mom, dad and Heidi to join Kerry for Griefshare.
Dec. 10:  Scrapbooking day!  Nathan spent most of the day with the boys so that I could make some progress on my projects that keep getting farther behind.  It was awesome!  I actually finished the online book that I had started for Levi!  Nathan took the boys sledding at Dordt in the afternoon.  And I found out later that a newspaper reporter had taken picures of them!  In the evening, we went to a Christmas dinner for Dordt faculty and staff which turned out to be a lot of fun.  The couples at our table had us laughing uncontrollably.  :)  I love that about Dordt...it just seems to me like people are happy and like to have fun there.  Breanna had come to babysit the boys so we decided to take advantage of our time out and went over to the Fruited Plain with some other couples after the dinner was over.  There really is nothing better than being able to have family babysit for us.  The boys have yet to be upset about us leaving them which is SUPER nice since this didn't happen too often with their other sitters.
Dec. 11:  After going to church in the morning, we went to Kerry's house to celebrate Ashley's 13th and Ryan's 30th birthdays!  It was the first birthday party we've gotten to go to since we've moved--something we wouldn't have otherwise been able to go to.  We stayed to listen to the cantata that Kerry sang in at their church that evening.

Dec. 12:  My friend Tessa came over with her triplets for a playdate in the morning.  In the afternoon I watched Aniah and Eden.
Dec. 13:  We had our first non-family dinner guests.  We'd run into another family who is new to town with 2 boys similar in ages to Dorian and Levi.  After eating together, we went to the gameroom at Dordt to do some bowling.
Dec 14:  It was the morning for the Christmas Social at Coffee Break and Dorian had been telling me for a week that he wasn't going to go because his class was going to sing some songs for us.  We finally decided that I'd talk to his teacher and tell her that he didn't want to sing.  So, to my surprise, when it was time to sing, Dorian walked to the front of church with his class, smiled at me when he spotted me in the crowd, sang along with all 4 songs and did the actions, and walked around when he was done, passing out candy canes to everyone.  I was SUPER PROUD of him!  VERY surprised, and very proud! 
In the afternoon I took the boys with me to have their very own bank accounts opened.  They were very excited and very patient.
In the evening we made cutout cookies.  It was fun to have mom join us.  Then she stayed to put the boys to bed so that Nathan and I could watch the Dordt men's basketball game together.

Dorian was very particular about getting the frosting on just right and putting each M&M exactly in the right spot.  :)  It was a work of art!  And very delicious too!

Dec. 15: We were invited to join some moms who meet for a playgroup at 1st Reformed church. There were many new faces, but after talking with one mom, I discovered that we were in the same graduating class at Dordt. :)

Dec. 16:  Molly went to the groomer for the first time and when I went to pick her up, she looked completely different.  It's taken us all a couple of days to get used to her new look.  :)  The Christmas bow was cute, but she managed to get it out by the afternoon.


It had been a rough night of sleep since Levi was not feeling well, so we had to decide if we were going to go and visit my grandma as we had planned.  Thankfully Levi was fine all day, so we were able to go.  I was the only one who had seen her apartment, so the boys got to see where she lives.  We also took a walk around the entire Retirement Home to see all of the many Christmas decorations.  The boys enjoyed counting the number of trees and Christmas bears that there were.  We were assuming that we'd just have the cutout cookies that we had brought along, but Grandma also had many other things for us to eat, as we should have expected.  :)  It was an enjoyable evening!
Dec. 17:  We drove to Sioux Falls in the afternoon and joined Kerry and the girls for an evening to look at Christmas lights!  For supper, we ate at an authentic New York style pizza restaurant that Kerry had told Nathan about.  Then we walked to the top of the tower at Falls Park, saw the light show at the mall, and drove down Penguin and Candy Cane Lanes.  

It's been busy, and our lives are filled with MANY good things! 

I've thought multiple times about how I love our new house.  We started our fireplace stove this past week and it's so warm and cozy.  It makes me happy to see it on!  And one day as I was unloading our dishwasher and putting everything away in the ample cupboard space that we now have, I was reminded again that I love our home.  And yet again, when I wanted to take out a couple of suitcases, to begin packing for our trip, I remembered about how when I took them out in our old house, we would literally be tripping over them since there was no where that was out of the way to put them.  And speaking of suitcases, it's hitting me tonight that we are leaving in about 4 days!  I also know that I'll be watching The X Factor for the next couple of nights to find out who is going to win the recording contract competition that I've been hooked on for the last couple of months.  :)  Guess that means that I probably shouldn't spend so much time blogging, and get some packing done instead.  :)