Happy Birthday Brian!!

Today is Brian's 28th birthday! Unfortunately we are both working today and he is bowling tonight so not much celebrating going on today. His birthday treat even has to wait until tomorrow...I know, such a bad wife I am! He did get spoiled on Sunday though and I did surprise him and we are going with Josh and Bobbie Jo to the Pistons game next weekend so we will do a lot of celebrating then!

A Big Heart

Well for one day we had a Nintendo Wii. Someone from Brian's work found a couple and let Brian buy one. On Saturday we had talked about how much my cousin was looking for one and on our way to church on Sunday Brian got the call that he had one. Then our sermon was about sharing and then Brian was showered with birthday gifts that he had a big enough heart to bring it to my cousin last night and surprise her. He sure made her day! I told him in a month or so if he still wants one he can gladly go buy one....I have a feeling a big TV might be part of the deal too. :o) We have enough friends that have them so we will just have to play theirs for now. God has truly blessed us with so many things in life that we will be just fine without at Wii.

Brian's Birthday

Yesterday we had both of our families over to celebrate Brian's birthday (it is on the 30th). The girls had a lot of fun helping Uncle Brian open his gifts, blow out his candles, and taking him outside with all the neighbor girls to slide down the hill on our snow tubes.

Babysitting

I had to add some pictures of our newest little neighbor girl, Sydney. She is 3 months old. Brian and I got to babysit her Friday night. The more practice the better! Sydney enjoyed watching the Pistons with Brian.

More projects

We'll I hope this is the last of our projects before the baby comes. My dad and Brian's mom came last week to help paint our walls going downstairs and one of the walls in the living room. It sure adds some color to the house and I think it looks great. Good thing we each have a parent that likes to paint! And they both did a GREAT job! Brian and Lucky were great supervisors as you can see.

Now Brian's deer is much more comfortable in his natural camouflage environment.

Week 30 here we come!

I had a Dr.'s appt. today and all went well. I measured right on track and the baby's heartbeat was 140 so it went down a little from last time. And of course, I gained a few more pounds. Guess that's all part of pregnancy! The doctor could feel where the baby was and he said he or she was in a good position. I made the doctor guess what we were having and he said he doesn't like to guess until 36 weeks but he thinks it may be a boy. So we will see in 10 weeks!

(sorry I couldn't resist adding the picture...don't you just want to squeeze those rolls!?)

Curtains

I know I have mentioned it before but I do have one of the best friends ever. Jen made me these curtains for my birthday. We have had them up for a while but just took pics of them. These are in our living room. She made pillows to match too. We are going to paint some walls the green color this weekend so we shall see how it looks...I am kind of nervous but our house needs a little color. I couldn't believe how much the curtains added to our living room. Thursday Jen came over with the curtains for the nursery. Are they not adorable? She also made a cushion for the rocking chair and pillows for the crib. I am so excited about them. Now Brian has her working on some curtains for the kitchen. :o) She self taught herself everything and it blows me away. Between her and Tim they could start their own business! Thanks for being such great friends you guys....you know Brian and I couldn't do half of what you guys do!

Brian's buddy

Last night after Brian put the groceries away Lucky thought the bag would be a fun place to hang out so Brian thought he better take a picture of her. She normally doesn't look this scary...its just because of the flash, I promise. :o)
Then later I caught him laying on the floor petting her...I tell ya, he loves her!

...and the nursery after!

After mom and dad left last night I quick put everything else together in the nursery to surprise Brian (except the stuff I needed hung on the walls). Here are some pics of the nursery thus far...a few things we need to add yet but we have a great start!


A couple of our Christmas gifts...I always had this painting by Joel Tanis in my bedroom at my parents house and I never did anything with it so my mom had it framed and matted and gave it to us for Christmas. The colors go perfect with the nursery.

And Brian made sure we put up the aquarium on the crib. That was a gift from mom and dad Meeuwsen.

Here is a pic of the dresser we put together.

And the closet that is slowly getting filled.

The nursery before...

Last Saturday we started working on the nursery. Grandpa Top came over and him and Brian put up the bead board in the nursery. Here are a couple of pics of what the room looked like before (the black is chalk board paint the family before us had up...we covered it up).

Grandpa and Brian working hard.

Last night my parents came over to help me put the dresser together. I had teased Brian that when he came home from bowling I would have it all put together....I surprised him! Of course I had to cave in and tell him my parents helped.

Belated Christmas Party

Saturday night we went to Brian's parents for a belated Christmas party since Karinda was sick on Christmas day. Here are the girls modeling their dress up clothes. They also got some fun bouncy balls (like the exercise balls) that they bounced around on and giggled all night long.

Guitar Hero

Friday night we went to Crazy Horse with the DeWitts and then went back to their house to play some guitar hero and some Olympics on the Wii. My years of band definitely helped with guitar hero and even though my hubby claims he is a bowler I beat up on everyone and won both games. And of course we had fun playing with Jacob...he is by far my favorite little guy. Always a ball of energy!

As promised...New Years Eve pictures

New Years Eve

Monday night we celebrated New Years Eve at Tim and Jen's. What better than to have them be surrounded by friends after a diffcult week. We started the night off with a potluck dinner followed by some crazy rounds of Catch Phrase and then watched the ball drop. Our friends from Colorado were in town so it was fun to hang out with them too.

I think my camera batteries just died....sorry no pics. I will have to add later. Trust me...Brian took PLENTY of them!

More parties

Friday night we had the extended De Jonge Christmas party. Here is a picture of me and my cousins. Brian had a terrible head cold so I left him at home on the couch.

Saturday night we had the Boer's Christmas party/baby shower for my cousin Brandon and his wife Kristin. My mom thought we needed a picture of us and our bellies.

A sad day

On December 26 my best friend Jenni and her husband Tim gave birth to a baby girl at just 22 weeks. Addison Paige was a beautiful and precious girl and will forever be missed. I was able to spend the day at the hospital with Jen and Tim and hold Addison, pray, and wonder why God brought her into this world for only one short hour. She was perfect and already had her mommy and daddy's features. Please continue to pray for Jen and Tim as they go through this difficult time. They are amazing people and God is already helping them through this. Here is a picture of Addison holding her daddy's wedding band.

De Jonge Christmas

At night we headed to my parents house for Christmas. Before we left we thought we would try to take some pictures in front of our tree with the self timer. As you can see we need some practice. The picture at mom and dad's turned out much better.

Brian's favorite gift this year was his new jacket from my parents. No more purple and yellow Ski Doo jacket!

We gave my mom a new sign to put up once Baby Meeuwsen arrives.

Meeuwsen Christmas

Christmas morning we started the day out at Brian's parents house for breakfast, stockings and gifts. Unfortunately Karinda was sick so Kylie got all the attention (she didn't seem to mind). :o)

Here is Kylie showing off her new outfit we bought for her Build a Bear. She didn't let go of the panty or purse the whole time....too cute.

Baby Meeuwsen got some cool gifts too!