stories from the past week

Dorian says a prayer before he eats his snack at preschool.  I don't know it, but I've heard it a few times.   Since preschool started, Dorian has started praying at home before our meals and he often uses phrases from his preschool prayer.  It's usually somthing like this.
Dear God, thank you for the trees growing and for the rain, and for the mato (tomato) plants, and for Levi and daddy and mommy and me, and for the pictures on the wall, and.....amen.
And of course, now that Dorian has been praying Levi also wants to say a prayer.  So for a few weeks now he has said a prayer phrase by phrase, after me. 
It was, Dear God... thank you... for this food...  Amen. 
And last night for supper, we were going to do the same thing but he insisted that he wanted to pray by himself.  And we were both shocked because he said the following prayer all by himself!
Dear God, thank you for this food and for the trees growing.  Amen.
So precious!
And now my prayer is, Dear God thank you for my 2 little boys!  Amen.

Friday afternoon Dorian was playing in the living room while I was doing something on the computer and I heard him singing "Buenos Dias, Buenos Dias, Como Estas, Como Estas" to the tune of Where is Thumbkin.  I've never heard him say a word of Spanish before, but he'd just had a Spanish lesson that morning at preschool.  So cute and so totally unexpected!  :)

We were driving on Friday night to visit a couple from our church, Morrie and LaVerle.  When we passed Mc Donalds Levi says, I want french fries!  I didn't know that he had that association.  I guess that's not such a good thing, but it made me laugh!  :)

Today Dorian came into the bathroom as we were getting ready to head out to the evening service.  He picked up a comb that was on the counter, put it under the water and spiked his hair up in the front.  Then he says,  I look like Mike!  (Mike is our neighbor.)  We just laughed at him and asked him if he was going to go to church like that.  And he said, no, people would freak out.  Freak out!  Guess he got that phrase from us.  :) 

And now a little about our past week.  We were busy preparing for the Baas Fundraiser.  Monday we purchased about $800 of food at Gordons.  Tuesday we scrubbed 600 potatoes.  And Wednesday we served a meal of Chili and Baked Potatoes to approximately 350 people.  On Thursday I returned the unopened extra canned goods to Gordans.  Since there were so many people who helped with preparations for the event, the evening ran very smoothly.  My heart goes out to the Baas family who is struggling with their son's diagnosis of an aggressive brain cancer.  I pray that they felt loved by the support they were shown.

Levi had his last swimming lesson on Thursday night.  And as I had mentioned previously, we visited a couple from our church on Friday evening.  It's a couple that has been so warm and friendly to us since moving here and now Morrie is not improving after breaking his hip from a fall that happened a few months ago.  The boys did well since we brought our portable DVD player and they watched Curious George for a good part of our visit.  They were also thrilled with the M&M cookies that LaVerle had made for us!  We had a nice visit.

Now we're trying to do some preparations so that we can leave on Tuesday to see family in NY for Thanksgiving.

highlights of our past week

Last week Saturday was cold.  We realized that winter weather and snow would soon be here and decided it was time to prepare for it.  So we cleared out everything from the rafters in the garage, organized it to make room for the summer stuff and also in an attempt to fit both vehicles in the garage for the winter.  By the end of the day, our deck was cleared off and our garage had never been cleaner.  When we put both vehicles in the garage to try it out, Nathan was unable to exit from the driver's side so he had to climb out of the passenger side instead.  :)  So...now I'm not so confident that our plan will work out...but I'm still happy that our garage is organized.  I'm realizing how precious storage space is when you have 2 little ones.  Now I'll have to work on getting the basement in order.  Our stuff keeps multiplying there somehow as well.  :)

On Sunday we served coffee and cookies after the service.  We had homemade soup and fresh bread from the bread machine for lunch!  Since we had taken down a bed frame from the rafters in the garage, we decided to just set it up in Levi's room even though we don't intend to move him out of his crib for the next couple of months.  Maybe we'll attempt the switch after the holidays are over.  We went to the evening service and Dorian fell asleep on Nathan and slept through the entire service.  The take home message to me was to ask the elderly their stories of God's faithfulness, they have more experience and we can learn from them!  After the service was our first Common Ground potluck at church for the year.  I couldn't believe how many couples were there.  It's a wonderful thing that our age group at church just keeps growing.  When we got home that night Levi was so excited to see the stars and the moon in the sky.  It made me smile to hear him say "bye stars...(see you) later" while he was waving to them!  A good reminder to enjoy the little things!

I can't seem to remember much about Monday.  It usually seems like it's a day to catch up after the weekend.  I know I did laundry and dishes.  We had moved the little table and chairs from Levi's room into the living room and the boys have been quite busy coloring so I'm sure they were busy with that for part of the day.  But I do clearly remember that by the time that Nathan got home, I was excited to head out on my own and get groceries by myself while Nathan watched the boys.  It just seems like Dorian and Levi have been really arguing a lot lately and I feel like I am constantly breaking up battles between them.  Any suggestions?  I've heard you just need to let siblings fight it out and figure out how to work the problems out on their own.  Really?  It sounds easy.  I don't know.

Tuesday morning Dorian didn't have preschool, but there was a playdate at Jen's house!  It was nice to talk with friends and the boys played well there...for the most part.

Wednesday Dorian had a dentist apt.  I had talked to Rebecca about watching Levi during that time so she ended up coming here with Jacob to eat lunch with us and then Dorian and I headed out for about 45 minutes.  Dorian often has a hard time in new situations, so I was nervous about how he would do.  I bribed him with a package of fruit snacks if he did well, and he did!  It was the first time he's had his teeth cleaned even though he's been to the dentist before.  He thought the chocolote toothpaste tasted good.  :)  We didn't have chocolate toothpaste when I was a kid...not fair!  :)  For supper we went to church for the WW meal.  I felt like I was taking care of details for the Baas Fundraiser the whole time we were there.  It was good to get some more details figured out though.

Thursday we went to the John Ball Zoo.  The weather was nice all week and we wanted to take advantage of our Zoo Pass one more time.  It was especially fun to watch the boys feed leaves to the goats.  I didn't know that goats liked fallen, dried leaves so well.  We were there for at least 45 minutes!  I had packed peanut butter sandwhiches and applesauce which they ate in the double stroller, watching the goats.  :)  A fun morning.  Levi had his 5th of 6 swimming lessons at 5:30.  He likes to splash daddy and see his teacher.  He's been jealous of Dorian being able to go to preschool so this is something special just for him.  Dorian and I colored pictures together and  made dinner.

Friday morning Dorian had preschool.  I love opening up his orange folder when he gets home to see the papers that he has worked on.  That's usually when he'll tell me about his morning.  :)  I was on a mission to get pictures ordered from Snapfish to work on Dorian's album.  I haven't printed any pictures for over a year now!  My mission was accomplished...the pictures are ordered and on their way.  Then Nathan called and had been looking at what we could do for our evening.  He found out online about a Santa parade in a mall in GR and the appeal to that was that it was free.  The other thing he found was that Seseme Street Live was performing at the VanAndle Arena but tickets were pricy and we were really trying VERY hard the last few months to stay on budget.  Well, we impulsively decided to get tickets to Sesame Street Live (and we're still hopeful to stay on budget:)!  We knew that both of the boys would enjoy it and we were excited to get out of the house and do something fun as a family.

I took the boys over to the park after naptime.  We played hide and seek together which we usually do when we are there.  There are many great trees to hide behind!

Then when Nathan got home from work, we drove up to Grand Rapids for the show.  Dorian intently watched the whole time and Levi was really getting into it!  He was clapping and dancing and singing.  :)  His excitement was so precious to watch!  It made the show for me.  :)  And we even shelled out for popcorn and soda.  As we were walking out, Nathan turned to me and said, "It used to be Jon Bon Jovi and now it's Sesame Street Live."  :)  It was hilarious.  But we were both happy about it.  What a spontanious and fun night! 

Today was a day to catch up on little things around the house.  Nathan had to work for a good part of the afternoon and evening.  We watched football and had homemade pizza for supper, and had our usual Saturday night of bathtime, popcorn and a movie.

God is good.

October

Yeah, they posed with me for a Fall picture.  :)

Dorian wanted to be silly for the camara!  :)

Levi was watching the neighbor with the leaf blower.

Dorian drives this little car around with all of his special things (rocks, pine cones, chalk, etc.)!

Drawing more rainbows!

I love how Levi puts his little feet on the door handle to push himself up when he's brushing his teeth.  :)  He's still so little.

I decided to get crafty with the boys and we made a parking garage out of a cereal box!

Friends from church at Robinette's Corn Maze.

The Cat in the Hat and Curious George this year!  The boys love to watch both of these shows on PBS.  :)

Nathan remembers wearing this costume when he was little! 

happy birthday

October 12
4 years old already!  We were so excited to celebrate!

Waffles for breakfast and then off to preschool...and I was the classroom helper!  For lunch we met Nathan at Froggies to eat and then we headed home for nap/quiet time.  Later that afternoon we opened gifts together.  :) 

HisKids radio from us.

He really wanted his own instrument...but I'm regretting getting this I think.  Wow...it's loud!

Mom and Dad Tintle skyped with us to watch Dorian open the gifts that they had sent!

Nathan had just as much fun with it as Dorian did.  :)

His first ball glove!  Thanks Aunt Suzanne.

He was thrilled with the stickers that were in his card!

That evening was Father's Night for preschool.  Nathan had moved his flight time in order to go with Dorian for this special time together.  And as it turns out...Dorian wouldn't go in and didn't want to do it.  :(  So Nathan took him to a park to play chase together and he had a blast.  When Nathan came home, he rushed out the door to catch a flight out of Chicago for a conference that was starting the next morning.
A full, fun day!!!

Katherine & Mikayla

October 8
We had a fun day with Katherine, Mikayla and Mr. & Mrs. Everett!  We spent most of the morning/afternoon just hanging out at our house eating lunch together, and waiting for our napping kids to wake up.  :)  Then we went out to Lake MI!  The weather was beautiful.  :)  We ate a delicious dinner at Boatwerks and ended the day back at our house to watch Dorian open his birthday present that they had brought along.  :)

October 10
It was a picture perfect Fall morning for a family walk around the block! 
Railroad tracks, Baker Lofts, and Prospect Park.