Happy 1st Birthday Carter!

It is really hard to fathom how quickly one year go! I am starting to catch myself referring to Carter as my baby, but not sure if I can call a one-year-old a baby. It really has gone much too quickly for me. Carter has been such a wonderful addition to our family and is so incredibly loved by his sisters and I could not have asked for it to go any better. The girls have never resented him for taking up some of their time and destroying some of their creation. He has been incredibly flexible with getting Hailey back-and-forth to school and moving to a new home. Carter has been very healthy with just an occasional cold or ear infection (which I think he has right now). His development is right on schedule and for all of these things I am eternally greatful. Thank you to all of our family and friends that have encouraged us, prayed for us, and helped us with Carter's first year of life.

Great Grandma Vis

Happy Thanksgiving! We are home again after having a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. These are some great photos that we got to take with Grandma Vis after Thanksgiving dinner. She really enjoyed watching the kids run around.

O Christmas Tree

The girls get to have their own tree this year downstairs that they can decorate as they wish. This is the tree that we have had since we got married and has been our primary tree in all of the years in our tiny apartments.

For the first time, we went to a tree lot and picked our our tree and strapped it to the top of the van

A little reunion

In just 10 years look at what has happened to the Miedemas', Beckerings', and VanEssens'.

Dance like no one is watching

Carter loves to watch his sisters dance.
If you are wondering what they are looking at on all of the pictures, it is themselves. There is a full length mirror over in the front corner of their room and they love to watch their own moves.

Miedema Cousins

Grandma Miedema and the Zeinstra girls came for a visit this weekend! Mike and I went out to the "Cold Play" concert Friday night and had an absolutely wonderful time. The girls had endless fun while we were gone, however Carter preferred to be with us. Thankfully Macey battled through to win so that his night was cut short by some much needed sleep.

Above is what Carter's reaction was to the dance party that you can watch below. Poor Carter, when the Miedema's get together there is a lot of girls.

A Kindergarten Party

Hailey just had a Fall Celebration Party at school with the kindergartners and their families. She continues to love school and is making more friends all of the time. School has been a wonderful thing for Hailey as she has become much more confident and independent. She also just brought home her first report card and it was awesome. (Mike said "have you ever seen a bad kindergarten report card?) Anyway, we have parent/teacher conferences next week and we''ll get to find out more about how Hailey is adapting to school life.

It's Cold Outside

As winter moves in here in Minnesota I find myself very thankful for our recent move to a house. The winters at Como were a bit long with the lack of space indoors. We are also thankful for a garage so that we do not have the scrape the windows, however I'm sure that when the time comes to shovel the drive way I might be writing in a more negative tone.
The picture above shows Taylor and Carter in our "end zone". Mike has been playing a lot of football with kids downstairs, usually resulting in some type of injury. At other random times throughout the day I here Taylor yelling out play calls like "Blue, 92, hut, hut, hike".
Last weekend I went to a conference for Moms and am again energized for my profession of being a stay at home mom. I bought these shirts for the kids. I recommend getting one like Taylors' if you have a challenging child. That way when they are doing everything in their power to push your buttons you can look at the shirt and it says "Yep, Jesus loves me".
(Carter's shirt says "Constructed by the Creator"--so cute.)

We continue to be amazed at the eating capasity of Carter Dean. He often out eats his sisters. This is his latest favorite: Mac-n-cheese.

He also still gets a morning and evening "baba". I love it because it is the only time he sits still.

Weekend Guests

Believe it or not, Pam and I scalped tickets all by ourselves. We ended up in the lower level, on the 50 yard line. We had a blast.

Cass and Jake got to hang with Ginnie and Wil atthe Vikings game. It was such a good game.

The weather was outstanding. Brad, Pam and family visited from Rock Valley. They even brought Charlie (their dog) and Taylor loved him.

Happy Halloween!

Trick-or-treating at the mall!

Pumpkin carving at the neighbors

Our own little costume party.

Hailey's Field Trip

Hailey had her second field trip of the year and I was lucky enough to join her. We went to a nature reserve and it was cold. We learned about the tree life cycle, went hiking, and made apple cider with an apple press. It was so fun to see Hailey active in her new environment.

Sink Bath

My baby, my baby, how long can I call him my baby.