wrap it up

I suppose it's cliche, but I can't believe another year is over!  2016 has been great, and we look forward to 2017 being another fun and exciting year for our crazy little family.

As usual this time of year, we've been pretty busy.  The first week of Christmas break was spent stuck at home with sick kids and a van at the mechanic.  But, after we got through that and Mike started his break from work, we've been able to really enjoy our time!  On Christmas Eve we did our traditional family shopping.  We had the boys draw names, then took them to the mall to help them shop for the person's whose name they drew.  (On a quick stop at Gemmen's on the way Logan found his gift for Levi.)  Things went pretty well at the mall, and we even had time to look a little for Mike's gift for me (snowpants and gloves).  After we finished at the mall, we headed to Meijer to grab some baby things to drop off at Lakeshore Pregnancy Center.  We had fun picking out some girl clothes!

Christmas Day was a nice, relaxing day at home after attending church in the morning.  We had fun opening a few presents, eating a nice breakfast, and just hanging out.

Then this past week is when the craziness began!  Tuesday I took Caleb and Logan to meet up with a school friend at Kids Unlimited for open gym time.  They had so much fun!  Trampolines, foam pits, and mats and such for them to run around and play on.  Tuesday evening was the greater Steenwyk party at my parent's house.  My sister and her family made it into town in time for the party, so it was great to see them and also other family that we don't have opportunity to see much.  That was our first late night of the week...

Wednesday morning I was busy trying to clean the house since my sister was going to be babysitting Jackson for a while in the afternoon.  A bunch of the rest of us went to see Rogue One (Dad, Chad, Katie, Jenna, Eric, Lea Anne, Boden, Heidi, Mike, Caleb, Logan, Levi, and myself.).  So fun!  We saw it in 3D and that was neat.  That evening was the greater Krol party.  I actually jumped in and played volleyball this year (it's been a few years), and this old lady was a little sore the next day!

I think it was Thursday morning that we actually slept in.  Even Jackson!  He's handled the crazy schedule this week like a champ.  Starting mid-afternoon was our Steenwyk Christmas.  Family photos, carol singing, Christmas story, dinner, prayer time, and presents, oh my!  I put Jackson to bed there and he actually fell asleep.  Felt bad when it was time to get him up to go home, but he went back to bed at home just fine.  Meanwhile, the other boys have had so much fun hanging with their cousins so much!  Love seeing how they all get along.  

Friday around lunchtime I met up with my friend Angie for coffee.  Always nice to catch up!  Then Friday evening we went to my parent's to hang out with my family again.  This time was Bingo, birthday presents for some of the kids, and family discussion time (how to celebrate my parent's 50th anniversary next year, and our joining in the beef business).  It was another late night and Jackson slept in until after 9am this morning!  He took two naps today, went to bed on time tonight, and hopefully will be back to normal tomorrow.  Levi also napped today, and all the boys clearly needed  a break from all the activity.

Now it's 10pm on New Years Eve, and the boys have been in bed since a little after 8pm, Mike went to bed around 9pm, and I'll be going there soon!  Party animals!

Oh, by the way, Jackson has been walking all over the place, and it's just too cute.  :)  Farmer Levi has gotten alot of work done with the new combine and grain buggy he got; and Caleb and Logan, my little artists, have enjoyed painting an alligator and dinosaur that they got.

these boots are made for walkin'

Jackson keeps taking more and more steps!  Of course, he won't really let me get it on camera.  About a week ago we were all in Caleb and Logan's room and he took about 5-6 steps - we were all cheering loudly and he clearly enjoyed the attention.  :)  We're in a 'fun' transition time right now, but I think he's moving towards dropping to one nap a day.  He's already changing in what he will and won't eat, and becoming more challenging for me.  For example, used to be that he would gobble up scrambled eggs faster than I could keep up, now he won't touch them.  Stinker.

Last week was a little extra busy because Caleb and Logan had a couple rehearsals for their church Christmas program.  Wednesday night they had a rehearsal before Word of Life, and then all Saturday morning.  The program was Sunday night and went really well!  It was a cute program about a birthday party for Jesus, and had fun songs.  The boys were just in the choir part for most of it, then at the end they got to be shepherds.  So cute!  Caleb was a little fidgity up there, but Logan was very serious and focused.  Normally I've got some sort of story to tell after Christmas Program night, but not this time!  Things were pretty tame.  A few times Caleb was sticking his hand in his shirt where he had a button missing, but probably no one noticed?  :)  And, while Levi was up there with his group, Caleb did holler something at him from where he was sitting, but we didn't have any "major" incidents this year.  Levi's group (the 4's and 5's) did great!  It was a small group so we were worried about them being way too quiet, but they did well.  We had been encouraging Levi to go ahead and sing right into the microphone, and he actually did try a few times, but I don't think that one was turned up very much as I didn't hear him.  Hard to believe that next year Jackson will be up there in the 2's and 3's!!

Friday night our school had a Parent's Night Out babysitting fundraiser for some of the highschoolers going on a missions trip this spring.  So we gladly dropped the boys off and headed out for a date!  (Too rare of an occurrence.)  Tacos el Cunado for supper, then Barnes & Noble to just hang out browsing at books and then having coffee.  After the craziness of harvest season, it is SOOOOOO nice to have more time to spend together and actually have conversations.  Kinda funny, on our way to drop the kids off we were all in the truck and swerved a little on an icy patch.  Then on our way to pick the kids up, there was a smaller truck in the ditch in that same spot.  We pulled over to make sure he had a phone to call for help and he was fine.  Glad it wasn't more serious, and glad we weren't the ones in the ditch!

Saturday morning we fit in a drive to Benton Harbor to deliver beef while Caleb and Logan were at rehearsal.  The weather was a little wintry, but not too bad.  On the way back we did see a couple separate vehicles in the median, one looked pretty bad.  Sunday was pretty snowy, but thankfully the program wasn't cancelled.  We drove around in the truck all weekend as the van needs new tires and isn't getting them until Friday.  Of course, I've been slipping around in it this week so far.  Monday school was cancelled, and we had a really nice snow day.  A year ago I dreaded snow days, but it was actually a nice, relaxing, fun day.  I even got to go out a play a bit with the big boys when Jackson napped.

Amy and I have gone to a spin class at Zeeland Rec a couple times now, and it's been great!  It was really rough the first time, but it felt good to get some exercise, and I could notice improvement at the second class already.  Now to try and get moving the rest of the week, too!  I took possession of Mike's old fitbit, so we'll see if tracking my activity motivates me at all.

merry

It's the Christmas season and we are enjoying it!  I have been partaking in Christmas music for quite a while already, but we put up the tree about a week ago, and I just love having it up.  Mike helped me get the little trees on the porch set up, and I just got candles for a few of the windows - it's all so pretty.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend.  Thanksgiving Dinner was at VanBeek's, and almost all of Mike's family was able to be there.  On Friday we ended up going up to the cottage overnight and had such a nice time!  Harold and Kara were up there with their kids, and Friday night we just hung out, then Saturday we took a drive to look at some land for hunting.

Monday evening we celebrated Caleb and Logan's birthday with grandparents.  And then Tuesday was their SEVENTH birthday!!  I can hardly believe it.  My little babies are big boys now!  It is so much fun watching them become their own persons with different interests, talents, and personalities.
Thursday evening was the school Christmas concert.  Caleb, Logan, and Levi were all a part of it, and they did great!  They were all three up front at the same time (with the rest of the elementary), standing in different spots, and it was hard to keep an eye on all three at the same time.  :)  I didn't want to miss what one person did just because I was watching another...

Friday night we were able to get a piano from some friends.  We brought over pizza and hung out a bit, then moved the piano from their place to ours.  We put it in Jackson's room as we don't really have another good spot, and everyone's enjoying it so far.

Saturday afternoon was our first family Christmas party of the season.  With my mom's side at my parent's house.  Nice to see some of the family that we don't see very often.

Yesterday afternoon was our first real, accumulating snow of the year.  The boys had fun playing outside!  We even took Jackson outside for a bit and he seemed to enjoy it.

Jackson is ALMOST walking.  Definitely going to happen soon!  He has taken 1 or 2 small steps, and is much more steady standing on his own.  He says bye-bye and waves, and a couple times has said nigh-nigh.  So fun to see him picking up on different things: he'll hold one of his toy phones up to his head and 'talk', the other day he grabbed one of his shoes and held it by his foot, when I go in the bathroom with him he puts his finger by his ear knowing I'm going to clean his ears, and a little while back when he had a runny nose, not long after I had wiped it, he took his hankie out of the backpack and kinda wiped his nose.  He has been doing a little climbing, which I'm not a huge fan of.

Levi is still pretty focused on farming and combining.  And, he's often looking for ways to work and be a helper!  Love the initiative I see in that guy.  The other day he did say something about missing me some when at school ("When Silas gets sad and misses his mom, I miss my mom, too").  Sweetheart!

Loving Mike's off-season!  We just eat up all the family time.  Every day it's a pleasant surprise when he gets home from work at such a reasonable hour.  And, of course, Friday's off are AWESOME.