the reason for the season

on saturday, we went christmas shopping. perhaps that sounds more involved than the actual activity. we literally loaded the veen and headed to target to buy each and every present save for a couple randoms i ordered online. we were armed with some giftcards earned via brads credit card, a teermans christmas bonus, and my teermans paycheck.

yes all three adorables were along.

the experience was intense. it was festive. it was expensive. it was successful. and it was anxiety inducing.

i seriously adore my babes and husband with everything i have. i desire the very best for them in every aspect of life. somehow, at christmas, this desire morphs into buying into the concept that more is better. maxer likes remote controls, i want to give him every one they make. bear is fascinated with cheetahs, i want to buy a real one and keep him out back. ayla jo is a girl, so i want a wardrobe for her complete with lace and pink and frills.

there is always more and better things.

this feeling of desperation to fulfill my children's every want and blow them away with even more THINGS is in direct juxtaposition to what christmas really celebrates.

the birth of our saviour.

to a virgin. in a manger. ultimate humility. ultimate sacrifice.

and the ultimate gift. redemption.

that is more than enough. my heart pounds with gratefulness and shame. i am so thankful for all baby jesus' birth represents. and so so sorry that i so easily slip into our society's distracting and commercialized version of an act of love so incredible it is beyond my comprehension.

other kids will get more toys this christmas. but mine will get enough. so i put back a pink princess chair for baby blue, a garbage truck reminiscent of toy story 3 for bear, and a set of lincoln logs for maxer. and i read my cuties luke 2 this morning and hid a baby jesus in a manger for them to seek like wisemen. and i prayed that the lord help me with my unbelief, that he overwhelms my heart with knowledge that He. is. enough.

let it snow

right now, as i type, i do not see any snow. the only white is the cloudy sky. otherwise, the grass is greenish still, the driveways soaked with puddles, and the trees bare and brown. however, this was not the scene on friday. on friday, we woke up to snow!

a beautiful sight awaited us, all bright and white. i am so grateful i was up before the boys this day, for i got to witness their adorable reactions. bear caught a glimpse outside the upstairs window on his way down the steps and said, "max, the snow came back!" both boys kept exclaiming that they must have been asleep for a very long time. and then came the request to venture outdoors and play.

after 35 minutes of layering, searching for lost mittens, zipping, shoving mittened hands through arm holes and overall bundling, the boys were ready for the first snowy adventure of the year.

thankfully, there was a little snow left on sunday, when daddy was home to play. my three boys took to the hill in our backyard. leave it to bradley to come up with a sledding game in which he shot the boys down the hill and aimed for objects at the bottom such as the tractor frozen to the ground or one another trying to make it up the hill.

those couple wild outings practically wore away all the snow, so scant the accumulation and so hearty the play.

the amount of fun they packed into their sledding extravaganza's was immense. enough to last through these incredibly mild temps.

snow is cold, requires much more preparations, creates hazardous road conditions and severely limits activities. however, it sure provides some good times in the backyard.

love these nights

with the opportunity to work at teermans and the stow co, many of our nights are spent apart for a bit. we always end up together, and that is my fave. however, the busyness makes nights home even more beautiful.

last evening brad had pig school. the boys were incredibly disappointed that they could not accompany him to get pqa certified as i imagine they were picturing pigs at school. sadly, that was not the case. i was feeling a bit burnt out after a really intense crafting session yesterday resulting in some christmas presents and baths for all three. so the thought of being alone for the night with the little was daunting.

the crafting is happening in the pic above. can you find where our ginger haired princess stashed her lollipop? yeppers, its stuck to her cute tights. that makes me laugh out loud.

thankfully my husband the hero rolled into the driveway at 6 instead of his 10:30 prediction. we were all thrilled. brad probably the least of all as i was not really planning on him for dinner and therefore made us all some gourmet grilled cheese. by gourmet i mean regular grilled cheese. and chips. wow. lucky, lucky man.

so the night was spent enjoying one another's company. one of our fave fam activities occurs on the stairs. bradley and bear are on one end, and maxer is on the other. they whip a ball up and down. i am petrified of this game as i cannot catch to save my life. and it really seems like they are trying to hit one another more than toss it gently. either way, i am out.

these two crazies were looking especially handsome all night long sporting some john deere hats courtesy of great grandpa and grandma. they are both beyond proud because they think they can read the john deere on them. max does point out all the letters correctly and is now somewhat convinced that john deere and john zoet (brad's boss) are one in the same...

please note maxers shiny face. he had chapped lips. apparently brad had/has this problem as well. so maxwell likes to put his own vaseline on. this results in lots of vaseline all over his nose, cheeks, foreheads and a little even on his lips.

this little lovely has a fever. i know. the only benefit of illness is that it forces us to slow down and just be. here is ayla jo being a princess. playing dress up with her pretty.

ayla jo is saying cheese. look at those lips!! i just want to plant kisses right smack on them!

thank you lord for these fabulous family nights together where not a lot happens other than togetherness. what a blessing to live in this love!

blood draw

i took ayla jo and weston to zeeland community hospital yesterday to get baby blue's blood drawn for a routine lead level check that is required of all babes her age. i know what you are thinking, what an amazing mom. the first day no one is puking and you make her go get poked?! but here is the thing, with this fam you just do not know when the next round of throw up is going to happen, so you have to live life with a seize the day attitude. so we seized.





maxer had school and we were out and about anyway. of course i had lost the work order given me by dr lund three weeks ago so i called in the am to request that the office fax the work order downstairs to the waiting registration nurse. nurse ruth assured me that would be no prob.





prepared as i was going to get, i dropped max smiling and wearing red for red day off to school and proceeded to zch. there we registered and bear beelined it for the drinking fountain. have we really been there enough to remember locations of drinking fountains and toys and whatnot? apparently yes. so wes got a large cup of water while i wandered around with the dolly until two two year old twins and their parents bombarded the waiting area and entertained themselves with my daughter. aylaroo was real tolerant though they were all up in her business chasing her back and forth down the hall. bear joined in the fun and i kept trying to drop large batches of purel on the twins because i no longer see other kids, just other germs.

finally, we were brought back to another registration area where this sweet grandma tried to overlook the fact that bear kept falling off his chair and ayla jo kept pouring wes' cup of water all over herself. i gathered she has 1 grandson named jack who lives in the area, has a photographer as a mom, has many sleepovers with her, and who was really hungry during their last shopping trip thus becoming a monster child. i think that last tidbit was her way of suggesting i try feeding my kids once in a while in hopes they would become less monsterish. thanks.

we were then whisked to the blood drawing area where two girls, at least 20 years my jr, had all four of their hands full with my fam. weston made himself at home on a bed in the room while i squeezed sister between my legs and bear hugged her while they took several attempts at locating her sweet little vein. i prayed out loud constantly "jesus be near! guide her to the vein lord, protect baby ayla" etc. seriously, painful to watch. at last the blood was drawn and i look over to weston, very concerned that he will be scarred for life after watching his sister traumatized by this bloodwork. he speaks into the chaos " hey, do you have any stickers?"

they had stickers.

we left with several bambi stickers, a little less blood, and with the knowledge that we made quite an impression.

take two

confession: i am a little bit obsessed with the twilight saga. i know, i know. ridiculous. but here is the thing, it is a love story consisting of amazing passion, beautiful commitment, and entertaining storyline. there, i said it. judge away. and just to be clear; i know it is just a story and i still love jesus.

so last night, i sneaked away for a 9:20 showing of breaking down at the holland 7. so.much.fun. i met my dear friend steph there after putting children, and even the husband, to bed. i called my sissa's on my way there for moral support as i was feeling like an elderly lady attempting to recapture her youth by watching a movie intended for teens. megan assured me there were some older people like me when she went. i am one of the older people, alas. thankfully, the ticket boy disagreed. he charged me as a student, which was conveniently almost $2 cheaper. score. i mean, he probs just hit the wrong button, but for real. thanks holland 7 boy.

during my conversation with meg, we recounted the last time i went to see a twilight movie. brad called during the show to let me know max had the pukes. i was feeling confident that this time would be different as we just had the pukes. 2 wks ago.

guess what i came home to at 12:30 am. the pukes. from max. and tears from wes, and panic from brad. (the panic was due to the fact that i had given maxer winter oreos, with red frosting for his snack before bed. so you can use your imagination as to why the pukes would be alarming in color.) boo.

so here we are again. after frantically calling dr lund with vain attempts at remaining unemotional, i pleaded for any information into what i was doing wrong. why are my kids getting the flu repeatedly. i am going to have to homeschool, there is no way max can keep up with classwork when he is home with the pukes every other week. we are all going to be sickly thin and surviving on saltines and 7up until the kids are out of the house and coping with their own pukey offspring. i asked brad to please consider farming in hawaii. they cannot possibley have the stomach flu down there as much. i asked brad to also please consider pine rest as i am getting a little beside myself.

now before grandma hops on the first flight back to michigan, let me assure you we are fine. just doing a lot of this:

hunting games on the computer.

wearing jammies

whining


and healing. my sis in law amber suggested praying boldly and loudly over my kids this verse in isaiah"by his stripes we are healed". that is my theme verse right now. winning victory over sickness in the name of jesus!

five little monkeys

tuesday afternoon, i picked maxer up from school and he literally started singing "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed" in the parking lot, and did not stop singing/chanting until he fell asleep. i believe they may have learned that in school today...

he was beyond precious, the way his little voice inflected, the way he used his pinkie and pointer finger to make the phone on which mama called the dr, the way he always referred to the monkeys as little monkeys throughout the song.

since it was happening all evening, i began thinking; that poor mama. sounds like she had 5 little weston's. always bonking their heads. always calling the dr. she must be one tired mama, because i only have 1 bear and 2 other monkeys and that is enough. enough. enough.

my weston monkey is battling a bad cold right now. croopy in sound, gravelly voiced, and bambi watching in attitude. our home is just not the same without a little bear ramming around. feel better soon bear bear.

ayla jo has mastered the steps, up and down, like a little monkey. so cute to watch that little person get just where she wants to go. last night, she slept straight through the night. i think this may be the second time. ever. it was amazing. she has also recently caught on to our attempts at distracting her with another toy in effort to take captive the one in her clutches. she just handed me a plastic horse and expected me to give her my phone. apparently she had some things to discuss with bopa.

love my 3 little monkeys.