Meeting Great Grandma

Here are some highlights from yesterday:

1. Our girls got to meet Great Grandma VM for the first time.

2. I went out for dinner with my high school girl friends. We had a fun time sharing cheesecake and catching up. Me and Melissa are both mothers of two (and teachers and pastor's wives!), Anna is very important working in LA for a production company and Steph is almost done with her OB/GYN residency. It's neat to see the different direction all our lives went in.

3. While I was out, Ella went with Daddy, Grandpa and Grandma to a very special restaurant called Islamorada in The Bass Pro Shop. I was told that she loved looking at the giant tank of fish and even sampling an exotic dish-- alligator!

Siblings and Cousins Are Awesome!

Today we enjoyed lots of quality time with the family. We ate good Chicago pizza, taught them the Train Game, had many dance parties and just hung out laughing and playing with the kids. The above pictures show some of the silly fun we all had together. The below pictures show Holly Days, the Christmas festival we got all bundled up to attend together. Ella told me it was the coldest she has ever been, but it was worth it to snuggle with cousin Aidan in the wagon, eat roasted chestnuts, pet reindeer, see decorated trees, lots of lights and a parade of emergency vehicles and snow plows.

Giving Thanks

Here is what I love about Thanksgiving: a special church service where we are reminded how blessed we really are, a crowded kitchen-- full of family excitedly trying to top each other with jokes and stories, that no matter what you say you are thankful for when we go around the table it will make Auntie Karen cry, corn souffle, smashed potatoes and vegetable medley, the Bowl Game, leftovers...and the list goes on.

Here is what was especially fun about this year's Thanksgiving: Ella said she was thankful for "Mommy, Daddy and Dee-lee-a" when we went around the table and then exclaimed, "Ella talk and everyone clap!" when the family reacted to her impressive articulation, getting to watch Survivor with our fellow family fans, observing Ella joyfully play with her cousins and seeing Delia beam with happiness at anyone who did nothing more than look at her.

This year we celebrated Dad's health, a new home for Chris, Karen and the boys, thriving and rewarding jobs (and lives in general), new babies, loving spouses, and all the wonderful little things the kids bring into our lives. God has blessed us beyond measure and we are so thankful!

Kristen Delia and Delia Kristen

Delia spends some time with her namesake...

Auntie's Surprise

We will be going home with one more than what we came with. Our newest addition is a kitty named Turbo who actually meows. He was named after Auntie Heather's real cat (who is beloved by, but frustratingly elusive to Ella) and he was stuffed and made right in front of her! Heather told us this morning she would like to take Ella to Build-A-Bear, a place she has never been before. After picking out her kitty, helping pump stuffing into it, warming a heart (and a meowing noise maker) to be sewn in, brushing and bathing it, making a birth certificate and picking out pink bows for its ears, Ella was one happy girl. Besides the outing to Build-A-Bear, Ella also had a ball playing in the mall's fancy tree house play ground. What a special treat, Auntie-- thanks!

Dutch Day

Well, we couldn't come to West Michigan without celebrating our Dutch heritage or reminiscing on the many trips we made here for family vacation growing up. Today Heather brought us to the Dutch Village where we took pictures of Ella in the big wooden shoe (we have this exact picture of Heather when she was about Ella's age!), watched the candles being dipped and picked out our Dutch souvenirs and candies. And of course, no "Dutch Day" would be complete without a meal at Russ'-- the only sit-down restaurant where all 5 of us could eat for $30...they definitely don't discriminate against Dutch people (our friends' way of saying "they're cheap!").

Uncle Dan, Auntie Heather, Water Slides and Fountains

Who would have thought we'd come to 30-degree, permanently overcast West Michigan and go swimming? When Heather told us to pack our swimming suits, I thought she was a little nuts. Today she took us to a super-cool indoor aquatic center, though. It had a whole playground in shallow water, a big water slide, basket ball hoops, a section divided off for inner tubes and rafts and a "vortex pool" which was Ella's favorite (remember when you used to walk real fast in one direction with all your friends to make a wave pool-- that's what this was. Ella called it "The Circle Pool"). What a fun adventure!

(We all tried this super fun, super fast slide a couple times. Here is Uncle Dan.)

We Made It!

At 6:15 am (4:15 our time) we arrived in cold, dark Chicago. The girls did great on the flight. Delia slept the entire time, Ella slept for about 2 hours. Dave and I did not sleep at all. Keeping Ella up until 12:30, when we boarded, kept us laughing. She was running circles, singing songs at the top of her lungs in super speed and saying random things like, "I run to the plane like the boys run to the river!" (???) She was totally excited to be on the actual plane and explained every detail of it to us.

When we got to Dave's parents house we were greeted by Uncle Kyle, Auntie Kris, Cousin Calvin and Grandpa and Grandma, of course. It was great to see them right away and introduce Delia, but honestly the morning we spent with them is a bit of blur due to sleep deprivation. Since a 3 hour drive to West Michigan awaited us, Dave took a good nap. Ella was so tired she even allowed herself to sleep and cuddle with Dave-- something she NEVER does. This was a special time for Dave.

Nine Lives, You Say?

Dave and I regularly genetically diagnose our girls. "Where does she get that from...you? Why does she do that...did you do that?" But one thing about Ella we can't figure out is where she gets this crazy love for cats! Dave is extremely allergic and I've never been fond of this animal, so why does she spend 3 hours straight chasing and carrying around Jetta's kitties? This morning we had a ladies' lunch and social hour(s) at Jetta's house. We sat in the living room, sipping tea and laughing as we watched the kids (Ella) torture the cats outside. She would tackle them by their necks and spin them around. To catch them for carrying, she would grab what ever was the most convenient body part (tail, back legs...). She had a wonderful time! Another funny mention about the morning was that she picked out her outfit completely by herself. She climbed the numerous tubs of clothes in her closet, pulled this dress down and insisted on the hat and cowboy boots. What a little fashion plate!

Temps in the 20s...Here We Come!

Today we pulled out the cold weather hats to prepare for our venture into the arctic tundra of the Midwest (looks like highs in the 40s/lows in the 20s!). Ella was so excited about this, she insisted on keeping her hat on all day. We ran some errands and I fear what others were thinking about the mom who lets her child wear a ski hat when it's a sunny 72 degrees outside. I did manage to wrestle it off her head before her nap...

Another Use for the Ball...

...and Delia's reaction to her crazy sister.

(Dave suggests that you mute this video while watching it.)

Red-Eye Ready

Sorry we haven't posted in a while. Life here has been pretty boring. As we prepare to depart on our big trip in 3 days, I'm just working down my to-do list. It's very exciting, full of things like laundry, Target trips, getting the house ready for our house-sitter and packing. We talk about this trip all the time and Ella can tell us that she lives in California and she will be taking a plane to visit Grandpa and Grandma in Chicago. We've gotten a few new treats to prepare for our long (but direct, thank goodness!) middle of the night flight: these cool neck pillows and a whole box of little treasures to unwrap on the plane (this came in the mail from Auntie Karen.)

The Jesus Light

Dave has been giving me a hard time lately because I seem to have introduced Ella to a form of idolatry. Lately, she's been waking up troubled at night, so we've been discussing how she can talk to Jesus when she feels scared. We teach her how to pray and that God is always with her and will always protect her. I even found this old Jesus night light to put in her room to help her remember that Jesus is with her at night.

Well, she has decided that this light is the actual Jesus she is talking to. How do I know this? I find her sitting next to it, having conversation! I tell her, "No Ella, that is just a light to remind you about Jesus who lives in your heart. That is the Jesus we pray to." She says, "No, I talk to THIS Jesus." We prayed together last night and she said, "Wait! I go get Jesus!" and came running back with the light. It's terrible, I know, but we are getting lots of giggles from it!

Reading Sister Stories with My Sister

In this photo Ella is enjoying her crib, something she may not get to do too much longer. While we were hoping to ride out Ella's transition to a big girl bed as long as we could (Delia is perfectly fine in the cradle in our bedroom and no where near sleeping through the night...) a couple days ago, Ella made other plans known to us. She has learned how to nimbly climb out of her crib, open the door and let herself out of her bedroom. When she finds us, she greets us with such glee, exclaiming, "I'm awake!" Since a new bed is not in our time or money budget at this moment, we've been working hard to just teach her, "NO CLIMBING, you call for Mommy when you are done." This seems to be effective for now. Incidentally, Dave was the only child among four who ever climbed out of his bed, Mom informed me. This is his fault! :)

A Little Behind

Because of all the shopping, planning and preparations (I baked 8 batches of brownies and peeled and cored tons of apples) that go into the Harvest Party, we just got around to carving our pumpkin today. Ella was pretty interested-- this was the first time she's done this. She loved looking at and talking about the "ooey-gooeys" inside, but NOT touching them. It was her request, also, to make a face that was "very happy, but not too scary." I took her seriously-- could our pumpkin smile be any more friendly?

Happy Harvest from a Cow and 50s Girl

Thought you may enjoy some pics of the girls in their Halloween costumes. While Halloween, trick-or-treating and things of that nature are somewhat taboo in our community, we still had fun dressing up and attending a Harvest Party at church.

It is actually Dave's Youth Group that sponsors the Harvest Party as a fundraiser. It is so much work for Dave, but it is very rewarding! Seeing our whole fellowship hall packed with kids of all ages and their parents, all dressed up and enjoying some fellowship is neater than the money it raises. We know families appreciate the fun dinner and the many creative games with candy prizes as an alternative to trick-or-treating. We personally had a great time-- we painted gourds, played Go Fish, Candy Walk and Bozo Buckets (there were lots more games, but these were Ella's favorites) several times, marched in the costume parade and had our faces painted. Delia found some other cows to "graze" with (high school buddies) and Ella said the best part of the party was seeing her friends.

A California First! (A Rare Dave Post)

So, tonight while Jen was putting Ella to bed, I experienced a California first. I was sitting down, when all of the sudden the couch felt like it was a waterbed or like it was on a moving platform. It only lasted a few seconds, but I got up and said, "Jen, I think we just had an earthquake!"

Since Jen was rocking Ella at the time, she didn't feel anything, but we could see the strings on our blinds, the doors on Ella's closet and all dangling decorations still swaying slightly.

Jen's response was, "What should we do? Should we be scared?"

Sure enough, shortly after, I learned that there was an earthquake that measured 5.6 centered about 50 miles away near San Jose. There is more information about where it was and who felt what, here. Even though it was labeled "a moderate earthquake," from what I have heard there has been little damage-- the worst possibly being some glass jars that fell off a grocery store shelf. It probably won't make the national news.

Okay, so the event and telling of the story is not that great, but I feel it was a significant milestone for our life in this western state and felt the need to share.

3 Cheers for Pastors!

Our girls enjoying their pastors at work-- Delia being baptised by Pastor Bruce and Ella playing running games with Dave at Youth Group. (Photos by Jeremy Cloud)

While we always feel appreciated and encouraged in this church (people communicate this with regular emails and cards...), October is when we especially feel loved because that is when gifts come out! October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Last year the little kids did a program for the pastors and we had a whole-church pot-luck to honor them. Not needing this kind of attention every year, Dave does value the smaller gestures-- over the past 4 years he's been gifted with dinners, ties, candles, CDs, kind words, generous gift cards, etc.

On Friday night we tried to show our senior pastor, Bruce, and his wife, Joyce, how much we appreciate them. Ella picked out a cool music playing card, decorated it and we had them over for dinner (pita bread with pesto, garden tomato salad and chicken cacciatore-- recipe over to left). There are many things we love about Bruce. He is a totally compatible ministry partner for Dave, from the way they preach to how they view most issues-- very similar. He has set a culture in our church for being caring and friendly. He is such a good model of a generous, time-giving leader, that many people in the church follow his lead, making this one of the most outgoing churches we've ever been in. With this, he is awesome at Pastoral Care. We even cut our night a little early because of a cell phone call he got from people who needed him. Last (and best), he has developed a great relationship with Ella. Ella absolutely adores Bruce and runs to his office whenever we get to church (mostly because she knows she'll get candy...) When he comes over, he'll spend the whole night reading stories to her. He always gets right down on the ground when he sees Ella to have a long conversation with her. I look forward to both my girls having this close friendship with their senior pastor.

So, now a question to you. Do you have a pastor you need to appreciate? On this end of it, let me just remind you how hard a pastor's work is, how much of their hearts and minds go into it, how they constantly sacrifice family and personal time to serve you, how their capacity to love people is so big, how well they model a life like Christ's. October is a nice yearly reminder that we should tell our pastors, "THANK YOU!" And to all our pastor friends and wives, we appreciate you-- your friendship and partnership in building His Kingdom.

Apple Picking (Take 2)

Today we found Fall. We had to drive 2 hours north to do so, but it was worth it. We went to Apple Hill, a several mile stretch of one apple orchard after another. Each boasts more fantastic harvest activities and more delicious apple goodies than the one before it. It was scenic-- full of gorgeous changing leaves. It was tasty-- we ate fresh apples right off the trees and shared a caramel apple for dessert. It was fragrant-- the crisp smell of pine and dry leaves mingled with that of baked apple pies, cobblers and dumplings. It was toe-tappin'-- we found a great Bluegrass band to listen to while we ate lunch. It was quality time-- watching Ella crunch through leaves, dance to the banjo, get excited over farm animals once again and take her first pony ride made us all happy.

I'm Happy/I'm Sad

The good news is that we see far more of the above faces than the below faces. Delia is not just in a happy phase, she's in an all-out "I love life and have uncontrollable joy!!" phase. It takes next to nothing (just a look from one of us) to elicit a smile and happy wiggle dancing. She is laughing and just this week started "chattering" which she does almost nonstop when she's not sleeping. The pictures below were captured in her one minute of sadness today and that sadness (maybe anger) was triggered by me snapping pictures of her instead of feeding her. :) Even her sad faces are precious, though. She has a great bottom-lip-out pouting face.