A Little Ella Humor

Here is a conversation that occured in the car on the way home from Costco today:

Ella: We are not going home! Where are we going?

Me: We are going to stop at church and pick up Daddy.

Ella: Oh, is that the plan?

Me: Yep, that's the plan, Stan.

Ella: I not Stan, I sitting!

Two Princesses

The Post That Never Gets Old

Each of the girls at 6 months...

Barn Party

Tonight we slipped on our rubber boots and headed out for a Barn Party. It was to commemorate a very special 8th grade girl named Julianna, who goes to our church. Three years ago Julianna was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease, discovered after sudden illness. The disease left her kidneys functioning at just 50% and had to be treated with chemotherapy. She was told she'd need a transplant. Three years later she is recovering great, not needing that transplant and being honored by Make-A-Wish. Julianna is an outdoor and animal lover, so her wish was for the organization to build her a barn, corral and pasture full of animals. Tonight we toured her barn, met her goats and bunnies and reminisced with her family about the blessings and hardships of the past few years. The year Julianna was diagnosed, she was pulled out of school. To keep her from falling too far behind, she would come to my house twice a week for math and science lessons. I have a special place in my heart for Julianna and enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate health and wishes come true with her.

Go Calvin!

Though they ended up loosing by 3 points in the last few minutes, today we still enjoyed watching the Calvin-Hope basketball game via the College Sports Network at the home of fellow alum, Nate. My Alma Mater, Calvin College, has long held a classic rivalry with nearby Christian college, Hope. This big basketball game is the climax of the contention, broadcast all over the country to spirited alumni fans. Today we gathered, ranging in graduation class from '98 to '04 ('30 if you count Delia), to cheer on our Knights with our non-Calvin spouses-- who were not worthy to be pictured. :)

The menu was classic ball game food: pizza, pop, chips, dips, homemade caramel corn and these brownies I baked and stenciled.

I even pulled out the old "No Hope, Go Calvin" T-shirt from the bottom of a drawer and dismissed my husband's reminders that it is now 10 years old. Yikes! Wasn't I just in college yesterday? When Ella saw me wearing it, she said, "You have a sign on your shirt, Mommy! What sign is that?" She made us all laugh by taking breaks from her coloring to randomly yell, "Go Calvin" like I taught her.

The girls did great, being the only kids at the toy-less bachelor pad where we watched the game. Delia's attention was held for a good hour with this simple pom-pom.

Dave took Ella on a date earlier this week to a high school basketball game. She made it through 3 quarters of the freshman game. So, this time we came prepared and armed with a bag of coloring books, stickers, crafts and stories. It helped that one of her favorite people in the world, our worship-coordinator Heidi (also the product of a mixed Calvin/Trinity marriage), was there to give her lots of attention.

2 Big Steps

This week we've mastered the S's...

If you didn't notice in Delia's 6 month pictures, she is Sitting up on her own. This new perspective on things makes her especially curious. She sits, examines things around her and is constantly reaching out to grab. Like eating, watching her sister play, any type of affection, toys and just breathing in general, this seems to make her very happy.

And after that first night in the big girl bed, we haven't found Ella Sleeping on the floor. She is doing great at staying in her bed and sleeping (we think) through the night. This week she missed maybe two naps because she couldn't fall asleep, but was content to have a rest time where she just read books in her bed for a while.

Delia's 6 Month Portraits

Another thing we did while Heather visited was get Delia's 6 month pictures taken. Heather first helped me make Delia smile and then, even more importantly, helped me decide which pictures to order (I find this job next to impossible!). What do you think?

Each of Us With Auntie

This morning my sister left. We each enjoyed her presence for different reasons...

Ella had a new playmate. She reveled in Auntie's attention-- coloring, reading stories, building houses and trains, watching movies and playing dress up with her.

Delia loved the new snuggle buddy. She was very generous with her cuddles and smiles for Auntie.

Dave enjoyed the competition. We played at least 2 rounds of Trains every night. Heather is a worthy competitor. We each won and lost our share of games.


I loved the nightly ritual we developed-- after Trains, a long soak in the hot tub, full of laughs and conversation. This was nice quality time with my sister.

So yes, we got out and did a few neat things, but most of the fun times occurred in the everyday routines at home-- eating meals together, playing with the kids, challenging each other to games, chatting in the hot tub, watching the Amazing Race finale, looking at old pictures...

It was another great visit!

"It's a Wonderful Day for a Picnic!"

Here's a newsflash: sometimes the weathermen are actually right on. When we woke up to sunshine and bright blue skies, we decided to ignore the weather reports of cold temps and 70% chance of rain and head out to the foothills for an outdoor day. We packed a picnic lunch and planned on wandering around the beautiful grounds of a local winery. As we drove the skies got darker and darker and even though Ella kept exclaiming, "This is a wonderful day!" we could have done without all cold and rain.

At the winery we tasted wines and came home with a bottle of their special apple wine. We explored the grounds in the drizzle and posed for pictures by the creek and beech trees. While hiking towards the giant "Ironstone" sign made of shrubbery, we were buzzed by a flock of very low flying, noisy geese. In the spring, this winery is known for the gazillion blooming daffodil bulbs. We were happy to see the ones in wine barrel planters were already going. We spread our blanket and munched on our sandwiches in a gazebo sheltered from the rain. And on the way home we swung through the Starbucks for some warm drinks.

Even with the dreary weather, it was a lovely day...and a treat for West Michigan resident Auntie Heather. A picnic in January is unheard of for her!

The VM Cookie Kitchen

Today while the girls were napping, the three of us spent some quality time perfecting our Stroopwafel making abilities with my new wafel iron from Heather. Dave and I are huge fans of this traditional Dutch cookie, but I've never made them. Heather has never made them or even heard of them. We found the work was quick and fun if we each took a job...

I rolled the dough and pressed the wafels on my iron (the easiest job, in my opinion)

Dave cut the thick wafels into 2 pieces, making a middle for the gooey caramel filling and sacrificing his fingers to the heat in the process.

Heather spooned the filling into the wafels and pressed the halves together. We didn't know it, but we gave our guest the hardest job! We had some laughs about the Lucy-Candy-Factory-Likeness of this job...it was tricky to keep up with production!

Ah, the fruits...ahem COOKIES...of our labor. After the first few, they turned out perfectly and were so delicious!

Adventures at Ikea (with Heather!)

Last night my sister arrived for a last-minute visit. After realizing that, one, her nursing schedule gave her 5 days off in a row and, two, flights are pretty cheap right now she called us a week ago with vacation intentions. As previously stated, we always feel the need to excursion when we have visitors, so today it was to our new Ikea in Sacramento. Hooray for cheap Swedish home goods! We had lots of fun roaming around the store deciding how much we really needed and watching Ella try out every funky bed and chair. Delia took a nap in Auntie's cuddling arms while we browsed.

Check Out This "Big Grill!"

We've known for a while that it was time for Ella to move out of the crib and into a Big Girl Bed. We also knew we didn't want to put money into a temporary or disposable bed for this stage-- we wanted to buy something long term that Delia would use too. Some time ago we found these awesome "bunk beds" that reminded me of the stackable furniture I used in college. The top bed sat on a desk and shelf and the bottom bed came out straight under that. They were cool, but very expensive and Dave and I were having a hard time purchasing something that pricey. Yesterday we went out to do just a little more looking before settling on the unsettlingly expensive bed. Good thing we did! We found a white bunk bed we actually liked better and because it was a clearanced floor model we got it for just $400 (and got to take it home yesterday too!). They are more standard bunk beds, but that is okay, because it is not as many pieces to store while Ella uses just the bottom part. Also, it comes apart to be two separate beds if we ever wanted that option. So, what an exciting night! Our friends, Sara and Arend helped us out and delivered our new furniture in their pick-up. Because these beds were about a third of the price of the others, we felt okay about going to Bed Bath and Beyond and picking out some new bedding too (dug some great Nautica quilts that match the room perfectly out of a major sale pile!). Ella is PUMPED about her new Big Girl Bed and while she loves hanging out in it, she doesn't sleep great in it. It took her until 11:30 to finally doze off and this is how we found her asleep in the morning...

It's a season of growing up and transitioning here in our family. So far, we are enjoying it!

Dave's Reading List 2007

So, last year, I (Dave) saw that another blogger friend of ours had compiled a list of all of the books that he had read for 2006. Thinking that it would be cool to keep track of what and how much I was reading, I decided to blatantly steal his idea for 2007.

I present to you my reading list for the last year. The following, then, is the list of all of the books that I finished reading in 2007, which means that it does not include articles read, parts of books that were never finished, and does include a few that were started the previous year and finally got done this past year.

Green books get a positive review, Red a negative, and Black are just neutral.

Personal
“The Ambler Warning” Robert Ludlum 632 pgs.
“Wicked” Gregory Maguire 409
“The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” L. Frank Baum 230
“Map of Bones” James Rollins 523
“The Worst Hard Time” Timothy Egan 330
“Velvet Elvis” Rob Bell 194
“The Story of Christianity” Justo Gonzalez 815
“The Grapes of Wrath” John Steinbeck 455
“Everybody Wants to go to Heaven, But Nobody Wants to Die” David Crowder & M. Hogan 262
“Flyboys” James Bradley 492
“Over the Edge of the World” Laurence Bergreen 420
“Brave New World” Aldous Huxley 323
“Rules” Cynthia Lord 200
“Land of Lincoln” Andrew Ferguson 280
“Guns, Germs, and Steel” Jared Diamond 440
“My Grandfather’s Son” Clarence Thomas 293
“The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid” Bill Bryson 268

Professional
“The Unquenchable Worshiper” Matt Redman 122
“Since Nobody’s Perfect… How Good Is Good Enough?” Andy Stanley 94
“Abraham” Bruce Fieler 224
“Keeping Hope Alive” Lewis Smedes 181
“How Can the Bible be Authoritative?” (Speech Manuscript ) N.T. Wright 40
“Shaped by God’s Heart” Milfred Minterea 188
“Who You Are When No One’s Looking” Bill Hybels 113
“Revolution of Character” Dallas Willard 190
“Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done” Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan 269
“Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport” Richard Mouw 127
“The Externally Focused Church” Rick Rusaw & Eric Swanson 220
“Leading Change” John P. Kotter 187
“Don’t Waste Your Life” John Piper 189
“A Work of Heart” Reggie Mc Neal 199
“Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference?” Phillip Yancey 334
“The Five Love Languages” Gary Chapman 203
“The Tipping Point” Malcom Gladwell 280
“What Every Sunday School Teacher Should Know” Elmer Towns 180
“What to Do When You Don’t Want to Go to Church” Peggy Sue Wells & Patt Palau 213
“Velvet Elvis” Rob Bell 194
“The 21rst Century Pastor” David Fisher 248
“The Present Future” Reggie McNeal 155

Totals for 2007: 10,716 pages, 39 books

For someone that grew up hating to read, I do feel pretty accomplished looking at a list like this. But, being in 2 different book reading groups tends to help.

Play

Whenever we have visitors, we are always prompted to go exploring. We search for new fun places we can investigate, exciting outings we can take. Grandpa's visit encouraged us to check out a Children's Museum in Stockton this morning. What we found was a great interactive play experience for Ella! This museum's unique approach to learning through play was to create many different "adult worlds" the kids could play experientially and imaginatively in-- the bank, post office, shoe store, farmers' fields, fire station, police car/motorcycle, hospital, etc.

At the beauty salon Ella could have her face painted. She chose the usual-- a truck on one cheek and a heart on the other.

We'll have to go back some time when Delia can play too. While too young to play with Ella now, she had a blast just playing in her stroller, smiling, squealing and blowing bubbles.

Here Grandpa scans the groceries Ella wandered around the store picking out for her cart.

Ella and Grandpa give the weather report on the nightly news.

Daddy and Ella drive the bus and sing "The Wheels on the Bus" song.

Oh no! Daddy is injured. Good thing Dr. Ella is in the back of this real ambulance to take care of him.

This was artistic Ella's favorite part: a crazy craft room full of every material imaginable for making collages, dolls, pictures and sculptures. Ella especially liked this messy painting area.

After a lunch of In and Out, we look forward to an afternoon of napping and football. It was definitely a fun morning-- thanks to Grandpa for visiting and inciting us to entertain!

Hi Grandpa!

This week Grandpa's work sent him to San Francisco. This means when he finished today, we got to pick him up and take him to our house for a long weekend! What he came to California to do was pretty tiring, so today we just took it easy, rested and caught up. We made him lots of homemade meals since he's been eating out every day this week. Ella is happy to have a new audience to show off each of her toys, books, crafts and tricks to. Ella also has been making our parenting responsibilities pretty easy as each thing she needs help with (from rocking before bed to pushing up her Go-Gurt to reading the Bible to building towers) she says, "Grandpa do it."

Grandpa reads "Goodnight Chicago" is his good Chicago accent.

Grandpa, like most everyone, has no trouble making Delia smile.

Oh, the childhood memories...Dave vs. Dad in Stratego

Slow Down, You Grow Too Fast!

There is a part of me that wishes my girls would stay babies forever. This is the part that calls my friend Teri from the Target almost crying when I can't buy Delia the Swaddlers diapers anymore because she won't fit in them. It's the part of me that is reluctant to move Delia out of the cradle she still sleeps in next to me. It's the part that cuddles and rocks Ella so long at night, she has to finally ask, "Are you ready to go in your bed?" Having said that, though, I am proud and happy to see my girls growing and learning as they should be.

Ella is officially potty trained. She actually started a few weeks ago, but we've recently hit some milestones that label it "official"-- total independence, no more accidents and even using the big potties when we are out in public. While we never stressed about getting her potty trained, we are happy that it's done. Besides that, we see so much development in her artistically and spatially, lately. She colors, paints and dots with intentionality and you can actually tell what she meant to create. She strings beads on necklaces (one of her big prizes for using the potty) and builds train routes. She can play a simple game of memory and puts together bigger (25 piece) puzzles too.

Delia continues to be the biggest love bug-- full of smiles and snuggles even in some new found mobility and independence. She is finally big enough for the exersaucer and she LOVES it. It's so nice to have my arms free for bigger chunks of time while she plays on her own. She scoots and rolls around to get toys that interest her. She seems to understand toys too-- crinkling and shaking them, pressing buttons to turn them on. She is very close to sitting up on her own. She has been eating rice cereal for a few weeks now also and will start with pureed fruit soon.

What a blessing to get to parent these two cuties. What they learn and do and how they interact with each other and me gives me great joy every day!

Sunny Again

"I am awake! The sun is awake! I am happy! I go say, 'Good morning, sun.'" This quote from Ella this morning filled us with so much hope and optimism. We've been wageing serious war against a nasty stomach flu virus for the past 5 days and today I think I can boldly declare us the victors!

We were praying Delia and Dave would stay healthy, but as it turns out Delia did get it. It was so sad to watch my tiny little baby's body deal with throwing up, fever and extreme fatigue, but she seems to have recovered fine. Yesterday we celebrated being in the clear, then Ella started up with round 2-- we were so discouraged and confused. Why did she get it back? We don't know, but again, after a miserable day yesterday she presently seems back to normal. Today Dave is feeling a little off, but is okay so far and it the first day in several that we are actually dressed and eating.

To match our gloomy mood inside the dark house yesterday, we also saw a pretty bad storm. It rained all day and the wind was so strong it blew around our patio furniture, took a good hunk off our tree and knocked down our back fence. We read that 600,000 some Californians are without power. The bridges over the bay were shut down because semi-trucks kept blowing over and the mountains measured their snow fall in feet while having avalanche warnings! But, like our illness, we turned the corner and the sun is shining today.

So, after living through the storm and the plague, here is our survival list, a few blessings we take for granted, that we couldn't have lived without (excluding the obvious Saltines, water, Jello and Gatorade):
1. Washing machine and drier. We went through jammies by the drawer and towels, sheets and rags by the linen closet full.
2. Costco's chicken pot pie. A warm, delicious meal full of comfort and veggies when we didn't want to cook or clean up.
3. A good book. While holding kids or sitting up while they slept, Dave and I together read over 1000 pages this week.
4. A good show. Thanks to Kristen, I was able to watch a marathon of my favorite show on DVD (with no "flying hamburger" commercials to worry about!)
5. A good movie. Some favorites were Jungle Book, Charlotte's Web, The Wheels on the Bus and "The Little People Movie from Mr. Phil"
6. An air mattress. For camping out in the girls' room at night, or cuddling on in front of the TV all day-- avoid the unwashable couches!
7. A nurturing spouse. Dave was amazing in taking care of us and single-handedly supervising clean-up efforts.

So again, we wish you much HEALTH and sunshine today!

No Olie Bollen For Us

Happy New Year!

We here in the VM household are battling the stomach flu. First I started yesterday morning, then Ella early last night. We are praying Dave and Delia don't get it. Dave did a great job taking care of me and the kids all day yesterday and sleeping with Ella all night. Hope you are all healthy and happy and enjoying the beginning of 2008!