Our extended weekend thus far

Happy belated Thanksgiving! We had a busy but wonderful day with both of our families. We truly have been blessed and are so thankful for all of our wonderful families and friends. And more than anything, the love of our life, Carter.I think my cousin Brad had more fun playing with Carter's toys than Carter did. Definitely the engineer in him trying to figure it all out.
Yesterday Jen, Debi and I survived Black Friday. It really wasn't that bad and there wasn't anything we desperately needed so that helped. We had a lot of fun as always. We left at 5 and were home around 3. I think most of my shopping is done and it feels SO GOOD!

This afternoon we went and picked out our Christmas tree. And believe it or not the first one that Brian picked up was the one we took home!

And TADA! Only a couple of hours later and its decorated and complete with presents!

Tonight we are off to see Santa Claus and to the Maly's for a Holiday get together with friends for some yummy ribs that the Maly's make! Can't wait!

A shout out to my grandpa

Another week....another busy weekend

Sorry I haven't been posting about what we have been doing during the week...there isn't much to do when its cold! We do stay pretty busy though...Brian plays basketball on Monday nights and bowls on Wednesday nights and I try to get to aerobics class on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings so the weeks go pretty fast with work added into that. Carter and I did get to go play with Jackson and Liam last week too.

We had a really fun weekend. Friday night we went to the Grill House with our friends Sheri and Brian. I set them up on a blind date about 3 months ago and I have to say I think I can check them off my list of successful set ups! I have set up about 4-5 couples and they are all married so my success rate is pretty good! Aren't they cute together?

Saturday Brian and Jason practiced shooting their guns for Iowa and did a little hunting so I headed over to hang out with Martha and the boys. They were all getting tired so we threw them in the tub. It seems busy with just Jacob running around...wait til next fall when they are all running around!

Jason wanted to claim this picture as the guys babysitting and doing baths and letting the ladies go out..ha, yeah right! We will see if that ever happens! Boys, boys, boys...unfortunately Martha and I are outnumbered!

Yesterday we celebrated my dad's birthday. His birthday usually gets tossed in with Thanksgiving day but I wanted to make sure we did it separately. Here's the cake I made.

Carter wanted to help grandpa open his presents. The envelopes tasted great!

Carter and I made caramel corn for grandpa. It was a pain to make but turned out pretty good for my first time.

Girls Weekend

This weekend since the boys were away at so-called 'deer camp' I had my nieces Karinda and Kylie over night. Friday night the neighbor girls came over and we made jewelry boxes and purses. Here are the girls showing off their purses. From L to R, Kylie, Karinda, Rylee, Abby.
Then Saturday we dropped off Carter with Aunt Kate at a craft show (I won a door prize!) and then headed to Rivertown with Briana, Rylee and Sydney. We first took the girls to Build a Bear. We were celebrating Kylie's birthday so she got to pick out an outfit...Hanna Montana of course! Then we did a little shopping, rode the carousel and had lunch.

After lunch Briana thought the girls should all get their ears pierced...Rylee and Karinda said no way but little miss Kylie wanted hers pierced. So we headed to Libby Lu and she showed up the older girls! She was so brave and was so cute.
It was fun to hang with the girls. Kate and I topped off the weekend by sitting in the hot tub for a long time last night and relaxing. The boys came home today from Eric and Kate's cabin. I'm pretty sure their guns never left the cases. :)

Where's the tree?

The Christmas tree that is! Carter and I did some serious shopping today. What else is better to do on a cold, rainy day? Daddy is gone to Iowa with Jason De Witt to scope out the deer for the December hunt so we thought we better go shopping! I got so much done and I even got them wrapped! With a couple things I ordered online I think I can cross about 5 people off my list! Yeah! Carter was an excellent shopper too...I know next year will be a different story!And what has Carter been up to? He loves to sit and play and this week he just started to say more consonants and is doing more 'talking'. He is growing like a weed. He still doesn't like to roll...only if you really really want him too. He is still a GREAT sleeper and takes two great naps every day. I am trying to get rid of the mid evening cat nap before the Holidays...so far he is doing pretty good. By 8 he is definitely ready for bed. His hair is REALLY coming in too...I have been having fun with gel and mousse! Still no teeth and I can't feel any coming. I checked my baby book and my two bottom ones came in at 5 1/2 months. According to my growth (unfortunately Brian doesn't have a baby book) he is pretty close to what I was each month....just a touch bigger. Some days he is a mama's boy; I told Brian he can't complain b/c we all know he is a BIG mama's boy. We LOVE Carter to pieces and are enjoying each and every stage. He is such a blessing from God; we can't imagine our life without him. Oh and yep, he still sucks those two middle fingers...I am surprised they haven't fallen off! Ha, ha.

Lovin' Liam

Today I got to go see Liam with Jen again. He is getting so BIG!!! I couldn't believe how much he has changed in two weeks. He is doing SO GOOD too! They were hopefully going to circumsize him tonight and he was going to get moved to the fourth floor...one more step to coming home! Jen was excited b/c she was on the fourth floor while on bed rest so she will get to see all her old nurses. We stayed for two of his 'care' times today and went for lunch in between and to visit Debi at Lemmen Holton; she gave me a tour...what a beautiful place! When we came back from lunch Jen had to go take care of 'making dinner' for Liam so I got to have him all to myself! The nurse was on lunch so I had 3 babies to tend too! Good thing they all behaved! :) It was so fun to get to rock and hold him for a while. One baby in his room was born 7/24 and is still on oxygen but hopefully going home soon; I just wanted to hold him so bad and it made my heart ache that he just lays there all day and he is 3.5 months! It made Jen and I so thankful for Liam's good health and he should be going home within the next few weeks. So please continue to pray for Liam and all those other little babies that are there. Oh and two nurses thought we were sisters...we get it so often that we just say, yep!

Here's a few pics. I absolutely LOVE the one of Jen and Liam. Isn't she a beautiful, happy mommy?!



Thanks to Vicki and Alyssa for watching Carter too! They wore him right out...the kid actually fell asleep taking a bottle tonight!

Carter's first Halloween

Despite Carter having a head cold we still survived Halloween and he was a trooper, well actually a Monkey!

Here is a recap of our busy day. First here are the treats that I made to give to everyone. I kind of felt guilty getting candy that obviously Carter wouldn't eat so I made witches on sticks for everyone. We started off the day with Jackson the giraffe visiting.

Then it was off to visit Great Grandma at Bibles for Mexico and then to Great Aunt Betty's house.

Then we stopped at FRC and then headed to daddy's work to see daddy and grandpa and meet up with Karinda as Dorothy and Kylie as Sleeping Beauty.

Then we went to Great Grandma Top's house and Grandma Meeuwsen was there as well. Carter was sleeping when we stopped at Great Grandma Meeuwsen's house so he just stayed in the car.

Then it was home for a nap and we were off again! We went to Great Uncle Ken and Aunt Pam's house and then to Mark and Debi's where Carter's girlfriend Norah was! She was the cutiest little white tail deer! All she wanted to do was get Carter...she is so funny!

Then we ended the night at Grandpa and Grandma De Jonge's.

Aunt Kim and Uncle Mike stopped by on their way home to give Carter a whole bucket full of goodies.

And, our little family. Overall Carter made out better than his parents! He got tons of baby food, bibs, socks, mittens, and even money!!!

We had hoped to visit a lot more people but it takes longer than we thought so sorry if we didn't stop to see you!