activities

Life has been busy busy for the past week, and it shows no signs of slowing down!  Hope I can keep up this pace for a little while.

Last Wednesday night we went to our church's Thanksgiving Eve potluck and service.  I hadn't been too sure I wanted to go to the potluck and try to manage that with two babies, but the food was too tempting and I couldn't resist.  The only major mishap was when Caleb yanked on the table runner, which made a drink tip over onto a girl a couple seats down.  She was very nice about it.  :)  We weren't able to stay for the whole service since it ran into the boys' bedtime. 

Thursday morning my whole family was hoping for our first annual turkey trot, but the weather didn't cooperate.  A couple runners still went out, but it was too yucky out to go for a walk with the whole fam.  We did visit for just a bit in the morning with my sister and her family who were in from out of town.  We had a delicious dinner with Mike's family, headed home for naptime, then went back out for a party with Mike's dad's side of the family.  I found it interesting to watch Caleb and Logan during this party.  Mike and I were playing volleyball with his cousins while the grandmas watched their grandkids.  Caleb very persistently kept trying to get over by us - at one point Mike stopped to talk to him real quick and when he turned to get back to the game, Caleb was SO upset!  Logan mostly just sat and played with a toy by himself.  I'm not totally sure if that's just his personality, or if it was also because he's been a little under the weather.

Friday we spent most of the day just getting ready for the big party!  We had 40 people here to celebrate Caleb and Logan's first birthday!  Unfortunately, this isn't a time of year where we can do much outdoors, so that meant we had to fit everyone inside.  Mike cleaned the garage and borrowed a heater so some could be out there - most of our nieces and nephews ended up eating out there and I think it worked really nice.  Helped keep some of the noise out of the house.  :)  And, it looked like they all got along really well - some of the overheard conversations were pretty interesting, and they even broke into song at one point.  Caleb and Logan didn't get into the cake too much - they tried some, and did manage to get it all over their face and in their hair, but I don't think they actually ate too much.  Actually, Caleb ended up gagging on his and I had a little extra mess to clean up.  Present time was, shall I say, interesting.  I never knew it was so exciting for kids to watch other kids open up presents!  As if it wasn't crowded in the house already, our nieces and nephews were totally swarming us while we opened presents.  It was fun to see them having fun with it all.  :)  Caleb and Logan did get to enjoy some of their presents right away - they got so many neat toys.  I think the whole evening and having so many people in the house was a little overwhelming for them - they seemed a little cranky.  But, after things quieted down they were fine, and now they've been having fun playing with their new toys.

Saturday was my family's Christmas party.  We had our traditional Christmas breakfast - although for the sake of everyone's sanity it's now at brunch time rather than breakfast time.  After breakfast there was a grapefruit eating contest, and I'm proud to report that my honey won!  Of course we followed our other traditions - story time, prayer, singing, family photo, and presents.  We also put together baskets for Lakeshore Pregnancy Center, which I am so excited about.  This was Mike and I's year to choose a charity and we chose to have everyone buy different baby items to put together baskets for Lakeshore Pregnancy Center.  We did a girl basket and a boy basket - there's lots of cute stuff!  That evening we had a yummy steak dinner.

Sunday was one last meal with my family before my sister and her family left to go back home Monday morning.  We probably won't see them again until the summer!  :(

Yesterday was Caleb and Logan's birthday.  Mike took the day off of work and we drove to the outlets in Howell to do a little shopping.  And in the evening we went to the Christmas parade in Zeeland.  It was so nice!  It was a beautiful night and so fun to see all the lights.

Got up early to spin this morning, and no time to rest today...or tomorrow...maybe Thursday, but certainly not Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or next Monday....  Phew!