Washington DC trip

Last week I headed to DC with 5 other co-workers to our DC office to hold our annual Watchmen on the Wall Pastors Briefing. We hosted 300 pastors at the Hyatt Regency and with speakers, spouses, etc. we had over 500 attendees. It was a fun event to work at and everything went very smooth. We were able to go out a few nights and hit some fun restaurants and do some shopping and hang out the DC staff.

We had some great speakers and you can go to watchmenevents.org and click on View Online to watch some clips if you wish.

Brian was in charge of Carter for the week and he did GREAT. Carter was spoiled by many trips and bike rides to the park and of course his grandmas took great care of him as well. Brian even said he gained a few more notches of respect for me. All the little things that we just naturally do as moms add up to a lot of work!

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma!

Saturday night we were able to celebrate my Grandma DeJonge's 80th birthday at Royal Park along with her and grandpa's siblings. It's hard to believe just a year ago we were celebrating grandpa's 80th and he is no longer with us. It was tough for me to see his brother b/c he looks just like grandpa.

We had a great night with our family. Here is a pic of the DeJonge side.

Singing Happy Birthday before one of Aunt Pam's delicious cakes.


Of course Carter had to help Great Grandma open her gifts.

A pic of grandma with her grandkids.

We pray that God blesses us with many more years with grandma. She is very special to us and her and grandpa raised one amazing family and have a lot to be proud of.

Just to give daddy a hard time I wore this shirt :)

A weekend full of events

Phew...we have had a busy few days! We started off on Saturday night throwing a 30th surprise party for my brother Mike. Here is the cake that took me FOREVER but I think it turned out pretty good.

Here is the half sheet cake I made to go along with it...by the time I got to this one I was sick of decorating so it wasn't as fancy.

My dad and Mitch were in charge of keeping him busy all day. Kim told him the garage door broke so he had to come in the side door. We got him GOOD. He had no clue. Kim threw a great party and we had a lot fun.


Sunday we started off the day by celebrating Liam's baptism. I thought it was pretty neat that a year ago on Mothers Day they announced they were pregnant and now a year later he was baptized. His buds Cameron and Rylee also were baptised. I think Carter liked VP's nursery better than ours too!

After baptism we headed to Pointe Lake for a wonderful lunch. Tim was having fun teasing Carter with the lemon. Jen's decor of lemons and limes made for great toys.

Carter and Norah playing together.

We actually celebrated Mothers Day with mom Meeuwsen last Sunday. We had mom and dad over for lunch. Carter helped Grandma Karen open her presents.

On Mothers Day we had my family over for dinner at night. Carter had to help Grandma Mary Ann open her gifts too.

Mom and her kids and grandson.

And last but not least we had our annual Friends of FRC dinner at the Amway for my work Monday night. I was in charge of ordering the flower arrangements and helping with setup. It was a great event and nice evening.

Tulip Time '09

First off blogger is so annoying and always puts my pics on here in reverse order...they are all of Tulip Time so I guess it doesn't really matter.

So far we have made it downtown 3 times and plan to go again tonight with my family and some friends. Here is Carter on Wednesday watching the parade. He LOVED it and wanted to be part of it...especially all the street scrubbers...we just may have to do that next year. Wed. turned out to be beautiful and was actually hot! Carter was down to his onesee by the time we left.

Tuesday night Carter and I went downtown to watch Jenni dance. Here she is with all the kids of which she made their costumes. From left to right: Carter, Rylie, Norah, Liam and Cameron.

Here are all the mommies with the babies. I know...I am the only one without a costume. Jenn on the far left is wearing mine! :)

Jen with the three dutch boys. Liam is wearing the costume Carter wore last year. Carter was 6 weeks, Liam is 6 months!


LOVE this one with Jen and Carter.

Saturday night we went downtown with Tim, Jen and Liam to eat junk food and take some pics. It was hard to get any of the boys together.

We may owe the city some money. Oops!

Dandelion Festival

Saturday morning we headed downtown Borculo for the annual Dandelion Festival. First we ate at the pancake breakfast and then we headed outside for a few games and a pony ride. This duck game was about the only game he could play and of course he loved to play in the water and eat the ducks.

Our neighbors showed up and Sydney wanted to ride in the wagon so I took them to go see the calves.

Carter even got to ride the pony. He loved to pet his hair and ride with no hands thinking he was such big stuff. Daddy had to walk with him b/c I am deathly allergic to those things!

Then it was time for the parade. Carter had fun sitting by Aunt Kim eating the candy and watching all the big trucks. He loved all the noise....good practice for the Tulip Time parades!

Cake & Carter

Well here is cake #3! Kathy and I officially graduated! Make sure and check our her blog to see her cakes too! I know it doesn't look like much but the roses are really hard and take some time.

Also, Carter's one year pics are up online so if you want to see them they are located at http://www.carliafaye.com/proofing.
When you go to the website, click the Access Gallery link and enter in the access code below:
Access code: carter

Some need to be edited yet but this is a start if you want to see them. Again, I didn't think we had any of him smiling and Carlia worked her magic! I think the ones of Liam and Carter are hilarious.