Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours!

Haircut

Audrey got her first haircut a couple days ago.  It has taken a while for her hair to really start growing (look back at the pictures from August; it’s really short there) but just lately it has been getting longer and wispier.  It’s been hard to make it look anything but messy. 

Before:

Time for her first haircut.  She was so excited!  We took her to Pigtails and Crewcuts, a kids hair salon nearby.  She got to ride in a red fire truck and pick a movie to watch while she got her cut.  (She picked The Wiggles.)

The stylist, Jenn, put the cape around her neck and Audrey sat so still for the whole thing.  (That afternoon, when Audrey was acting out the whole thing with Logan, I heard her say, “Now you need to have this blanket on to keep warm.”  Haha!)

  

And After:

The best part?  The sucker and necklace at the end!

In November…

Life has been full and busy around here.  The lack of updates has been directly related to the lack of health.  In the past month, we have had coughs, colds, fevers, an ER visit for bronchitis, home nebulizer treatments, double ear infections x 2 kids, vomiting x 2 kids, pink eye x 3 kids, doctor visits x 6, three prescriptions of antibiotics, multiple night time wake-ups, and bedroom arrangements changing throughout the wee hours. 

In the meantime, Emily decided to drop her morning nap which had me wondering what else could be ailing her (and another $30 doctor visit to rule out another ear infection – my gauge of healthy vs. sick is all off kilter these days).  Turned out to be a typical developmental milestone at 16 months to need less sleep.

I think we’re finally healthy again.  We ran out of kleenex on the counter a week ago, and I haven’t needed to replace it yet.  No one is coughing.  I’ve had multiple nights of continuous sleep.  Whoo-hoo!

I’d like to share a few pictures of our trip to NW Iowa/South Dakota for Thanksgiving.  We wanted to visit both sets of my grandparents this year, and Thanksgiving seemed like a good time to go.  Our first night we made it as far as Iowa City and stopped there for the night.  The kids were thrilled that our hotel room had a bunk bed!

And they loved watching tv from bed.

It was fun to drive past our old stomping grounds (we lived in Iowa City for 4 years while Luke was in dental school), but missed all the friends that used to live there with us.

It was great to spend time with my grandparents and to let my kids get to know their great-grandparents better.  It was also fun to have my brother (Darren) and his family there with us, so the kids got lots of cousin time. 

Here are 4 of them looking at great-grandma’s Christmas village.

And 3 of them sleeping in the basement. 

They look so cuddly and sleepy, don’t they?  Don’t let them fool you!  The minute we’d go upstairs and start talking, they’d be out of their beds, laughing, in each others’ beds, etc. 

The kids with Great Grandpa and Grandma De Groot.

And with Great Grandpa and Grandma Vande Kamp.  (The added kids are my cousin’s children.)

And I really like this picture of Emily playing with her Great Grandpa and Grandma Vande Kamp at coffee time.

We were secretly hoping my niece (my brother Mark’s daughter) would be born before we drove through Des Moines on our way home, Nov. 26.  Hanna, my sister-in-law, was due Nov. 28.  Well, my sweet niece already already has impeccable timing and was born on the 25th, so we got to meet her in the hospital… less than 24 hours old!

A big welcome to Lydia Jo!

And now that our Thanksgiving trip is nearly a month past, I have many more pictures to share.  Our tree is up, Christmas cards are sent, gifts are purchased (though not wrapped), the advent calendar is eagerly anticipated every evening, and we are in the Christmas spirit.

More pictures and updates to come soon!

Reunion

Earlier this week, we attended the annual NICU reunion at Comer Children’s Hospital where Emily was born and spent the first two months of her life.  They set it up like a carnival, so Logan and Audrey had a fun time too.

The best part of the reunion, though, was to see so many healthy babies and to reconnect with some of Emily’s former nurses and doctors.  

For the past year, we’ve been sending pictures and updates to Laverne, Emily’s primary nurse.  When Emily was in the NICU, Laverne was assigned to Emily every time she worked, so we really got to know her well.  In Emily’s first two months, Laverne probably held and fed Emily more than I could.  We always felt that she was always looking out for Emily’s best, and we looked forward to Laverne’s shifts.

The last time Laverne held Emily, one full year ago, Emily was only 5 lbs.  Now she’s 18 lbs!  It was very special for us to reintroduce Emily to Laverne.

 

Emily even reached out her arms to go to Laverne!  Sweet baby.

The NICU is an amazing place, and these people were all a part of this significant time in our life.  The whole reunion reminded me of how far Emily has come.  We are so grateful!

Last year - Coming Home - November 2010

This year – NICU Reunion - November 2011

Howdy!

We enjoyed the sunshine yesterday by taking the kids to my parents’ house for our yearly tradition of getting into costume and trick-or-treating at the businesses around the square in downtown Valparaiso.  This is the first year that Logan voiced his opinion on what he wanted to be for Halloween.  He chose Woody and wanted to wear cowboy boots. 

I ran with the Toy Story theme and got Jessie outfits for both the girls; Audrey, too, was won over by the cowboy boots. 

And, well, one-year-olds look cute in just about anything!

A little walk downtown is a fun reason to dress up the kids.  Afterward, Audrey begged to have her candy for dinner, but nothing beats a bowl of my mom’s homemade chili!

This may be my last year of matching costumes for the kids, but I’ll enjoy it while I can.  Yee haw!  :)

Pumpkin Patch

It’s that time of year for fall festivals, pumpkin patches, and apple cider!  We love taking a trip to the pumpkin patch and managed to go twice this year.  Our favorite pumpkin patch moved (sniff, we miss the old location) so we also tried a new one when Grandpa and Grandma (Luke’s parents) were in town. 

The kids are growing up!  Here are the pictures by the “How Tall This Fall” sign:

Daddy and Emily in the corn maze.  The weather was a-mazing!  I love it when we can go to the pumpkin patch in short-sleeves.

“Hey, guys!  Over here!”

Harvest Tyme Pumpkin Patch was a lot of fun too, although a little cooler that day.

Emily enjoyed playing in the corn sandbox.

And the older two liked the old-fashioned water pump rubber duck races.

I love fall and my three little pumpkins!

Crawling

Whoa!  It’s only been two weeks since I’ve posted, but we’ve filled our camera with plenty of pictures since then!  I’m hoping to add a couple new posts this weekend and will probably backdate some of them to when they happened, so scroll down until you see posts you’ve already read. :)

But first, the headline of the week is that Emily has taken off crawling.  She has army crawled for months, sliding around on her tummy to get from room to room.  This week she decided to pull her body off the ground and crawl on all fours.  It’s a little slower, but it looks so much more lady-like.

Here’s a little video so you can see for yourself.  :)

Bowling

  

Can I just say that I love Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood?  I recently discovered that amazon has several Mr. Rogers episodes available for instant viewing, so the kids and I have started watching some of them this week.  I love how after only a couple episodes, my kids already feel that Mr. Rogers is their friend.  The show is wonderful: the slow pace, the life lessons taught, the cultivation of imagination, the continuity of a story line (adventures in Make Believe build on each other), and the simple truth that “you are special” just because you’re you.  Audrey beams when Mr. Rogers sings to her, and I can clearly recall that same warm fuzzy feeling from my own childhood.  The show is both nostalgic and inspiring to me.  I enjoy watching the episodes with the kids instead of using this “video time” as a chance to get some things done. 

Today we watched an episode in which Mr. Rogers goes bowling, and Logan was so fascinated!  I don’t remember if we’ve ever taken him bowling before or not, but he loved it when Mr. Rogers took his television neighbors (us) behind the scenes of the bowling alley where the pins and balls are set up.  Mr. Rogers also taught him how to bowl, giving gentle tips and clear demonstrations.

All afternoon, Logan begged to go bowling!  We didn’t have any plans, so it seemed like a good night for it. We stopped at Culvers for dinner and then made our way to Stardust Bowling Alley.  The kids were so excited!

Check out Logan’s shoes!

We couldn’t use bumpers for the gutters because a league was starting in a couple hours, but they had this nifty ramp that the kids could use to roll their ball down the lane.  They LOVED it. 

 

Audrey had a minor run-in with the bowling ball (she was trying to carry her ball and tripped with her face landing flat on the ball – thankfully we had a dentist along who could quickly make sure her teeth were still in place), but besides that we had a blast and can’t wait to go back again sometime.

Logan got a spare!  He was so proud!

And Emily wanted in on the fun too!

Hopefully this is only the first of many Darling Family Fun Bowling nights.  :)