Presidents' Day

It's Presidents' Day and the boys are both home from school.  I'm going to see if I can sneak in a little time blogging while they are downstairs playing the Wii, and in between loads of laundry!  :)  I've started my 5th load of laundry of tiny clothes, blankets, and bedding from the nursery.  I was going to wait until closer to the due date, but couldn't contain myself!  :)  It's really only 4 1/2 weeks away from the due date!!!  I've been feeling it lately as well...achy muscles, waking up multiple times each night, heartburn, etc.  But I know that the last month will go very fast so I'm going to try to chose to enjoy the journey and continue to be amazed at this new little life kicking wildly inside of me.  :)

 

The boys love to soak in their daddy time on Saturdays and Sundays!  They have been enjoying playing Carcassone, a new game that Nathan got for Christmas.  And I love how Dorian has Molly as well since it's usually the case that he can't leave her alone.

Nathan knows that I have been concerned lately that the boys aren't getting enough reading time in at home.  Dorian says that he already knows how to read so he doesn't need to read to me.  And so often lately, if I ask the boys if I can read a book to them they will turn me down.  I don't want to be too pushy, but I do want to be encouraging.  So one evening when I really had wanted Dorian to read some books that he took home from school, Nathan informed me that instead the boys were going to go downstairs and play with their marshmallow guns.  He thought it was kind of ironic and funny.  I do want them to just be boys...but I am torn because I also want them to enjoy learning and gain confidence as they grow.

Before...

And after! 
I was noticing how bare the coat rack looked while the boys were both at school.  It gave me kind of a lonely feeling I think, although I do really enjoy my quiet breaks at home.  But it inspired me to take a before and after picture to remember this stage in our lives!  :)  The sweatshirts remind me of how Levi loves to wear short sleeves...even when it's below freezing...so our rule has been that he needs to wear a sweatshirt with it before he may leave the house.  I love the camouflage and snake backpacks!  They are adorable.  And I love how the boys are both very good about hanging up their coats and putting their shoes away when they come home!

 

One week ago, Dorian came home from school sounding quite disappointed that he didn't have any Ninjago legos to play with.  After our discussion, it was clear to me that it was time for us to buy him some.  And I couldn't wait to get him some because I knew how much he wanted them.  He has been so super excited after receiving some for Valentine's Day, that he has brought them everywhere with him.  To school to show his friends, to Grandpa and Grandma's house to show everyone there, and he's begged to have Jayden (his friend from Kindergarten and our neighbor) over so they could play with them. 

Last week Sunday was a day of affirmation.  The day before we had made our first step at becoming members at Living Water Community Church, which was a big step for me.  During the service as I was looking around, all I noticed were the people that have and are becoming our church family to us!  The Wallaces, the Schuttingas, the DeGroots, the Baarts, the Kuipers, the VerVeldes, the Postmas.  I saw Mrs. Julie and Mrs. Shawn which are the boys JAM teachers.  I saw our neighbors that live down the street from us.  I saw Sherwyn Bolkema and his wife who had kindly invited us over for lunch a while back.  And I was sitting next to my cousin Janelle and her boyfriend.  Since it is a congregation made up of many people from different places, each Sunday there are many faces that I still don't recognize...but last Sunday, I believe that God was giving me peace about the decision that we had made to become members.  I especially love how the boys have made some friends that they play tag with after the service each week and they really look forward to it!  Are there things about Living Water that I'm not a huge fan of?  Yes.  But I do believe that it is the best fit for our family right now and for knowing that I am very grateful.  I have said many prayers asking God to help us find a church home and a church family to love.

On another random note, Levi's suggestion tonight for our baby boy's name was Fake.  He's come up with some others that are equally ridiculous.  :)  It makes me laugh.

32 weeks

I love it that I can be a part of some of the special events that the boys have at school!

 

Dorian's class had a Bowl-A-Thon to support Christian's family as he undergoes his chemo treatments.  

Levi's class had a Muffins with Mom morning!  We decorated a snowman together and Levi served me some delicious muffins!

The boys had a 2 hour delay from school yesterday and I was kind of bummed because I was just gearing up to get some scrapbooking done and was looking forward to the morning to do that.  However, Heidi offered to take Levi for the afternoon to play with Eden and I took her up on it!  Unexpectedly, I ended up not doing any scrapbooking, but a lot of picking up and organizing.  These were some of the pictures that were on our fridge.  The bottom 2 are Levi's beautiful and colorful creations.  Dorian made an entire book for me!  It goes like this:  "There was a lion in the forest.  There was a little boy went into the forest.  But there was a lion but the boy just kept going onto the forest.  But the little boy didn't like getting bit from the lion."  It's beautifully illustrated and stapled together and I love it!  Then there is a rocket that he made to give to daddy after he returned from his trip to Washington DC this past week.  And I love the snowflake that he made to look like an alien.  :)  And I also love the picture he brought home from school one day that says, "Thank you for the coces (cookies) I love you."  It's inspired me to make him cookies for an afternoon snack.  :)

I am now 32 weeks along and starting my 8th month of pregnancy!!!  At my Dr's appointment this afternoon, Levi got to help with finding the babies heart beat. :)  And I scheduled 4 more appointments in March and one in April!  I'm getting to know the scheduler, nurse and doctor quite well over at the Sioux Center Medical Clinic.
I was super excited to order wipes and newborn diapers and Levi shared in my excitement this morning when the diapers arrived on our doorstep!  They are VERY tiny.

I've been having a lot of fun getting the nursery all ready and looking cozy.  Levi wanted to be in all of the pictures that I was taking this morning.  :)

It was a lot of fun to take out the little tiny clothes that the boys used to wear.  And it was fun to go shopping this past Saturday to buy a new little outfit to take our little boy home from the hospital in!  :)  Speaking of shopping, I ended up shopping in Sioux Falls since Nathan wanted to take the boys tubing there.  I really didn't need anything and it would have been better on the budget not to go.  :)  But it was a lot of fun to leisurely stroll through Hobby Lobby, Younkers, Menards, Babies R Us, Target and World Market.

I'm loving how the animal ABC cards look up on the walls! 

I have to admit, sometimes I just go and sit in the rocker to soak it all in.  :)  And then I usually find something to rearrange or to do.  But my list is getting pretty short...things are nearly all in place.

The boys are getting more excited and wanted to begin a countdown already.  :) 
53 days until March 23!

Jaguars

Funny story.

I was watching Eden and Adria this afternoon.  Levi was showing Eden a paper that he made at church that was covered with band-aids.  They had read the Bible story of the 10 Lepers.  She asked what the band-aids were for and Levi said, "There was mans called jaguars."

And I cracked up laughing!  He thought that the 10 Lepers were leopards, thus he called them jaguars!  :)  I don't think he got much out of that Bible story. :)

Happy New Year!

On New Year's  Day the boys woke up coughing a lot.  We ended up staying home most of the day and then went up to Sioux Falls to pick up Mom and Dad Tintle from the airport!  We were excited to celebrate Christmas with them, excited that the boys could spend some quality time with them, and excited that we didn't have to travel this Christmas.  The boys were thrilled to ride on the moving ramps at the airport, see some planes, and to see Grandpa and Grandma!  We went out for supper at Granite City which was delicious, but it was evident that Dorian was wiped out from his cough and needed to get some rest. 
The next morning (Wednesday) we had a Christmas party together.  We ate delicious food (including some of the Christmas cookies that the boys decorated), opened gifts, listened to Christmas music, and enjoyed each others company.

The boys opened a new Beyblade dome and beyblades to go with it!  After getting it set up and figuring out how it worked, the boys were both having a lot of fun with it!!!

On Thursday, we went up to Sioux Falls to spend a couple of days there.  We stayed overnight at the Ramkota which had an indoor water park that was perfect for the ages that the boys are at.  They really enjoyed the big water slide!

On Friday, we went to the Science Center and Cinedome at the Washington Pavilion.  What a fun spot! 

On Saturday, we swam in the morning at the hotel and in the afternoon we went to the Butterfly House.  I decided it would be fun to touch a sting ray and also thought it would be good for my kids to see me being brave.  But the funny thing is that when I actually did touch it, I freaked out.  :) 

Nathan, Dorian and Levi each touched a baby shark!!!

The butterflies were beautiful and it was quite calming and relaxing to watch them.

Dorian and Levi had fun looking at the butterfly chart and identifying some of the different kinds they saw.

 

 

We enjoyed doing things together that the boys enjoyed doing!  However, we did not ever ask the boys where they wanted to eat because it would have been McDonalds, Chuck E. Cheese, etc.  Instead, Nathan looked up some fun new restaurants and we ate very well!!!  Nathan and I also got to enjoy 2 evenings of free childcare while his parents were visiting.  :)

 

It was a fun start to a new year!