A Taste of Christmas

This Christmas was pretty busy. We were able to keep it to one party a day for five days. The kids did pretty good, but by the end of the week there were pretty tired. Here are a few of the highlights from the Grandparents' Parties.

Ruiter Family Christmas

Our tradition on Christmas Eve is to celebrate with the immediate Ruiter family. We always enjoy a gourmet meal, prepared by Chris' sister Kim & her husband, Dean. This year we had Indian cuisine. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and exchanging gifts. We are so fortunate that everyone lives close enough to do this every year. We are also grateful that we made it there & back safely, as we have had a plethora of winter weather & snow this past week.

Summertime

We got about 10-12 inches of snow today. It was pretty nasty for most of the morning. This is a picture at about 3:30 when it was just winding down.


I had this video around from this summer in case you are from Western Michigan and got dumped on today. We aren't supposed to get snow again until the blizzard this weekend. :-)

Christmas Program

Every year at church our 2's & 3's sing "Away in a Manger" & "Jingle Jingle Happy Bells" in the Children's Christmas Program.

We were so thankful that Addie has been doing well enough that she was able to participate. She sang all the words and stood & behaved beautifully for the songs, this alone brought tears to our eyes, as over the past 6 months we've wondered if she'd get her personality & skills back. We were very encouraged by her behaviour last night & praise God that she is doing so well right now.

Needless to say, Holden brought tears to our eyes for an entirely different reason.
This year Holden was the only boy there, typically he has 3 or 4 other friends to sing & dance with, but this evening it was Holden & the girls. The girls all behaved beautifully. Holden is definitely staking his claim as the middle child, and he will not go unnoticed. The video speaks for itself.

Adjusting...

Many have asked, "How are the kids?" I thought I'd do a quick update, which is best summarized by the pictures.

This is still my favorite picture of Weston...the look on his face says it all. Where am I? What's all the commotion about?


This picture summarizes Holden's philosophy right now, "Get while the gettin's good!" No one is watching....right?


Addie is doing her best at being a big sister. Despite intermitent melt-downs, she is loving having Weston around. She likes to hold him, and we're working on saying "I'm done now, please take him." As opposed to throwing, rolling or dropping him with no warning. Mom & Dad are quick, but not that quick! You can see the subtle look of mischief in her eyes...

Weston Henry Ruiter

Born :12.7.08 4:29 A.M.

8 pounds 10 ounces

20 inches

Fall

How great is it to be out in the yard with the kids in November. The weather allowed the kids to play outside in the leaves a few different days this week. Addie was determined to dig a tunnel and all Holden wanted to do was run the leaf blower.

Holden was even able to get a little business done while he was out there.

This last shot has to be my favorite of the bunch. I think it is such a great shot. Now you just have to figure out if it is Holden or Addie.

So Addie's tunnel didn't really work... She loved it anyway. ;-)

Princess-Cowgirl & The Monkey

For the past several weeks, Addie has been determined to be a Princess-Cowgirl for Halloween. She has had a definite picture in her mind of what it would entail, and every few days or so she would reveal another part of her costume. In the end, she ended up with her princess dress, necklace, gloves & shoes; horse-on-a-stick; and cowgirl hat with a tiara attached. She was quite proud of her costume.

Holden, on the other hand, refused to choose or try on a costume (could it be because he knew that they were all hand-me-downs?)... UNTIL....he realized that wearing a costume & smiling cute while saying "dick-or-deat" meant that EVERYONE gives you candy.


As we walked around the neighborhood, both kids were really more interested in all the other kids and their costumes. Addie was determined to find the "lady-bug's house." Every house we went up to she said "Is this the lady-bug's house?" (A little girl had come to grandpa & grandma's dressed as a lady-bug earlier in the evening & Addie really wanted to make friends with her.). Holden's repeated observation was "Those kids are running...I better run too!" Holden was really disappointed when we were done. He hung out by Grandma and Grandpa's door greeting all the older tricker-treaters hoping anyone would take him with.

It's amazing how innocent he can look when he wants to. For instance, when he is creeping towards the door. I think he is even doing the "look nonchalant," whistle in the first picture.

Either way, its pretty obvious that they even out did Uncle Josh and Aunt Bethany's costumes this year. Don't worry guys there is always next year.

Birthday Boy

Our little man turned 2 this past week. It's hard to believe the things that he is doing and saying. He is literally a "little man."




Thanks to Grandma Glupker (aka the "little grandma") for throwing him a nice party on his birthday, complete with balloons, hot dogs/mac-n-cheese, and grapes & strawberries -- all of Holden's favorites!




We were also blessed in that Addie had one of her best days in several months.

Our Dancing Queens

Fall around our house is a great time for so many reasons, but the most important of these is the return of "Dancing with the Stars." Addie fell in love with the dancing, great costumes and judging last year and thrives on it still now. The unfortunate part is that Holden has gotten the fever as well. As you will see Holden has latched on to the whole pageantry of the event as much as the dancing

As you can see I still need to work on my footwork. Think of it as a work in progress. Oh well... there's always next year.

Holden's Bible Verse

Holden has started "Big Boy" Sunday school and now gets to do great activities and learn Bible verses. His favorite so far has been Psalm 95:3 "The Lord is a great God." I think part of that was the awesome craft that he got with it. He loved waving the signs all over and telling us all the things that God made as part of his creation.

He really wanted to thank one of his teachers, Aunt Chris, for all the hard work she did to make the craft. (I'm pretty sure the only thing Holden did was put the stickers on the side of the cup)

Cousins

Addie has gradually been improving over the past few weeks. Earlier this week, Grandma Ruiter (aka "The Big Grandma") was coming through town with the kids' cousins, Aiden & Elena. Elena is one of Addie's favorite playmates in the whole world, as she is older & does a great job entertaining her. Anyhow, they stopped by for a short visit and this just made Addie's whole week!

"Great" Aunts!!

We are truly blessed to have such wonderful, supportive family & friends. This past week, we (I) were (was) particularly blessed by the kids' aunts, Aunt Kim & Aunt Sherri. Last week, Aunt Sherri came & played with the kids & stayed with Holden while I went to a doctor's appointment (see picture). This week, Aunt Kim (I forgot to take a picture) came and played with the kids while I cleaned and prepared the nursery for the new baby. She brought my favorite soup as well!

Thanks Aunt Kim & Aunt Sherri! We love you!

Business is Good

Holden has been using the computer a lot lately, but I guess we never realized how serious he had gotten.

The Mosquito Bandito

We made our annual run to the "Pumpkin Store" (you know, the place where somebody is getting rich selling pumpkins for $5 that he got by the ton.) The kids did pretty well, mainly because we only let them out of the car for a few minutes.

After the huge rains we had a couple weeks ago the mosquito population has been unbearable around our house. We can only play outside for a few minutes at a time because the mosquitoes start carrying the kids away. I even got this picture of Holden mid swat.

Holden never really knew what mosquitoes were until the past week and a half. He really gets it now.

I spoke too soon...

Addie decided to give Holden some of her "easy" puzzles, so she & Chris brought them down to Holden's room & put them nicely in the drawer for him to find later. Guess when he found them??? This is what I found when I went to check on him...





...Again, he always ends up nicely tucked in his bed, sleeping soundly.