VW Christmas

Our Christmas parties began a little early this year. For the past ten years, my mom's side of the family has gone to a hotel the weekend before Christmas. Everyone comes and we eat way too much food, play volleyball in the pool, play cards, and enjoy the weekend lounging around. It is so much fun, and we look forward to it every year! What a great idea by my grandparents to allow all of us to be together for the weekend under one roof...just a really big roof. :)

 Caleb and I got there early Friday to spend the afternoon with grandpa and grandma.

 Caleb and my cousin Darci's little girl Sierra. She is so cute!

 I think this was when Caleb was supposed to be napping and grandpa was napping instead. :)

 Caleb and my cousin Danielle's little boy Deacon. 

 Caleb's firs time swimming! The water was a little cold, but he did great and even gave us a few smiles (and no crying!)

 Thanks to my California friend Gina for the swimsuit. 

 Our tradition of pool volleyball. Scott's team usually does quite well. :)

Playing cards with Danielle, Deidra, & Darci. I always look forward to catching up with these girls!

 The gang before opening gifts Saturday night.

 Tony & the snuggie...a perfect fit! 

 Grandma & Caleb on Sunday morning. 

 The whole group. (Missing Jody & Shane & the girls).

I love these two boys in blue.

Thanks again Grandpa and Grandma for a great weekend!

Zumba

I love to run, but sadly the Minnesota winters do not allow me to do this very much. Thankfully, there is a zumba class in town. A woman from our church leads the class in the building right next to our house twice a week. It is a mixture of dance/step aerobics/cardio workout, and it is so fun! I go with a couple of my friends, and there are women of all different ages in the community that go. It is a great way to work out, get out of the house in the winter, and see some friendly faces.

Caleb is of course the only boy, but I think he loves it...I'm not sure what his father would have to say about that. :) I bring him in the carseat and he watches us for the first few songs, falls asleep, and then wakes up when we have to leave. He is such a champ! I know it will be a lot harder to go once he starts moving around, but for now I am thankful that I can still get some good workouts in with him.

Caleb snoozing while we work out. :)

Christmas is almost here

I cannot wait until Christmas break. I love my job, but I love being with Caleb even more. And I am so excited to not have to rush out the door to school and to be able to just relax with Caleb and John at home. What a blessing to both be teachers and to get to have this time off together.

With basketball season in full swing, Hispanic Bible Study, school events, and friends, it seems like December has been a little crazy. I think that makes me anticipate our time together even more over Christmas. But even among the hectic schedule, we have had a few Sunday evenings where we are all home together. I truly cherish this time together-Caleb sleeping on John's chest while I do my Bible study by the light of the Christmas tree.

I'm hoping for a lot more nights like this with these two during Christmas break...

Daycare

I love teaching, but it was still a very hard decision to leave Caleb in the hands of someone else every day. Thankfully, God provided the perfect situation shortly before Caleb was born.

John is the freshman and assistant varsity basketball coach at the high school, and we have become very close friends with the varsity coach Jamie, his wife Brigette, and their kids. Well, Brigette had a younger sister who was living in Wisconsin, and they decided to move back to Edgerton so her brother-in-law could teach at the grade school. Her sister was looking for a job and wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do, so she threw out the idea of doing daycare for Caleb. Her sister prayed about it and said yes. We were so excited! We really had no idea what we were going to do with Caleb, and this seemed like the perfect fit. Even more crazy is that Brigette's sister was also my cousin's best friend growing up, so I already knew who she was. She also went to Dordt and played volleyball for a few years, so we had lots in common.

 The three of them-6 1/2 mo., 3 yrs., 4 1/2 mo.

We have been more than pleased with having Becca take care of Caleb. She is an answer to prayers and then some. Becca has a six month old little boy and an almost 3 year old little girl. She is one busy lady in the mornings, but she always has a smile on her face. She just shines the love of Christ and I LOVE that Caleb is in her care every morning. It is such a blessing to know he is in good hands. Her daughter is also such a sweetheart and loves to help with Caleb. One morning she told her mom that her head hurt, and Becca asked if she needed to eat breakfast to help it go away. She said, "no...I think I just need to see Caleb." :) So I think Caleb is getting along quite well with her kids, which is always a good thing at daycare! :)

More than just watch Caleb, her and her husband have become some of our good friends. We love to have game nights with them, go to basketball games together, and just sit and talk when I pick Caleb up after school. I truly appreciate her friendship, and I am so glad they decided to move back to Edgerton!

Caleb all smiles at daycare.

Rolling Over

Caleb is officially rolling...apparently for some time now. When Jody and Shane came out to visit, Caleb rolled for the first time from his stomach to his back. Jody and John witnessed the event, but I sadly did not. Then for the next few weeks I never saw anything. I put him on his stomach and tried to get him to roll, but nothing happened.

Then on Saturday night, I laid him on his back and went to the bathroom. I came back and he was on his stomach. I was very surprised and once again very sad that I missed it! All of our friends came over that night (17 adults and 11 kids), and I told everyone the story. My friend who watches Caleb every morning finally let it slip that Caleb had been rolling from his stomach to his back for some time at her house. What a sweetheart for keeping it a secret for so long since I hadn't seen him do it.

Apparently Caleb is shy about rolling in front of me, but I finally did see him roll on Sunday. John and I were in the kitchen, and he didn't know we were watching. He lost his toy giraffe and flipped himself form his back to his stomach to grab it. We were such proud parents. :) So since I have finally witnessed the event and he has been doing it at daycare for a few weeks, I am now officially calling him a rolling baby.

Maybe his new movements will start working off some of the chunk on his legs. :)

Basketball season

It's getting colder, and that means our family has switched from fall fishing to winter basketball. The boys have had a few games already, and today was their first Saturday game. Caleb and I rode with john's parents to Marshall to watch the games. Caleb held up through the fire alarm going off, a very loud buzzer, and screaming fans. He also went to the game Friday night and did well, even with getting passed around a lot. I think he is going to have to get used to being in the gym, so hopefully he likes basketball as much as his daddy. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours...a few days late. :) This Thanksgiving, it is hard to even begin to count all of the blessings we have. A warm house as the weather gets colder, a very happy and healthy four month old, two great teaching jobs at a Christian high school, wonderful family, a loving husband, and so much more. And even though we have so many material blessings to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, I hope we remember that this is all counted loss compared to Christ. Living in a prosperous country like the United States sometimes leaves us wanting more and more of the material blessings God has blessed us with, but I pray that as Caleb grows up he realizes the real blessing is Christ and all the other things of this world are really not that important. I pray I remember that amidst the big thanksgiving meals and the holiday shopping. So this Thanksgiving, I am beyond grateful for the many things God has given us on this earth to enjoy, but I am most thankful for his son and the price he paid on the cross.

Here are a few pictures of us enjoying time with the amazing family God has blessed us with.

 Our family-Thanksgiving 2014. 

 Caleb and his uncle Andrew.

He was so smiley at his grandpa and grandma Top's house on Thanksgiving day.

 John with Caleb after early morning ice fishing-notice Caleb's shirt. :)

 Grandpa & Grandma Van Zanten came up on Friday for the weekend.

 Playing cards Saturday night. 

 Uncle Scott came Saturday afternoon and spent the night and had Sunday lunch with us. Caleb loved getting to spend some time with him!

We are so blessed and so thankful.

4 Months

Caleb is at such a fun stage right now, and we are really enjoying his baby babble and huge smiles. We had his four month appointment the other day, and he weighed 16 lbs. 2 oz and was 25 inches long. He has gained 3 pounds in two months and is getting quite chunky. :) We love his thunder thighs and big cheeks. Here are a few facts about Caleb at four months:

-he eats around 7:45, 11:00, 2:15, 5:30, and 8:00 and then sleeps until the next morning.
-he usually takes a 45 minute nap in the morning and then a 2ish hour nap in the afternoon. then he just takes 30 min. nap before his 5:30 feeding. he either takes a 20 minute nap before his last feeding and we feed him a little later, or he doesn't sleep at all and we feed him a little earlier.
-he has rolled over once...witnessed by Jody and John...but we haven't seen it since.
-he still goes by almost anyone, but he is starting to cry when a lot of people are trying to talk to him.
-he does great on tummy time and can hold himself up for a long time.
-he loves to lay on the floor and play with toys over his head or stand in his jumper thing and play with toys.
-he eats anywhere from 6-8 oz. from a bottle and still takes the bottle really well.
-he is starting to talk a lot again and almost giggle.
-we found out he had acute dermatitis at his 4 mo. appointment. his skin has been very red and dry, especially on his back, chest, cheeks, and scalp, but after putting creams on it for a week it is looking a lot better. the doctor did say this type of dermatitis is highly correlated with allergies, so we will keep praying that he doesn't get those like his mother.
-we still do the eat, awake, sleep schedule, and he seems to be loving it because he is still consistently sleeping through the night!
-he is starting to not love his car seat when we are driving and it is dark at night, but he does ok and often falls asleep on longer drives.
-he usually has a dirty diaper every couple of days, and on the day he does have one, he usually has 3. he continues to blow out of every diaper almost every time he poops. :)
-he is starting to drool a lot and sucks on his hands constantly.
-he loves to look at himself in the mirror. 
-he still does well at sleeping in loud places, but does wake up when he is being transferred sometimes.
-he is such a happy baby and really only cries when he is hungry or very tired and wanting to go to sleep.

 

He loves to talk!

 Tummy time.

 

Caleb's first cold

Caleb got his first cold yesterday. I started feeling sick last week already and he was doing great...until yesterday. His little nose is running and his eyes and cheeks are red. He is a little more cranky and I can just tell he doesn't feel quite right. Thankfully he has his 4 month doctor appointment tomorrow, so the doctor can check him out and make sure it's just a little cold.

As I was holding him in my arms tonight, I couldn't help but feel terrible that he was sick. I just felt so bad that his nose was running, and I wanted desperately to take the cold away from him. Then I suddenly remembered back to all the times I had been sick as a child and my mother would always say to me, "I wish I was the one who was sick. I wish I could take it from you." She would crawl into my bed in the middle of the night and brush my hair and sing me to sleep when I didn't feel well as a little girl. She would pull the couch out into a bed in the living room so she could be closer to me in case I needed anything when I was in grade school. She would take me into the emergency room and pay twice the money to see a doctor when I had an ear infection in high school. She would drive 5 hours to Dordt to get a hotel room for me when I was puking for days straight in college. And through all those times, even with very bad sicknesses, she would always say, "I wish I was the one who was sick. I wish I could take it from you."

I never understood how she could say that when I was feeling so miserable. How could anyone wish they had what I had? Why would anyone love me and care about me so much?

I'm beginning to understand now, Mom. Thanks for taking care of me all those years.

Family Weekend

I know Thanksgiving isn't for a few more weeks, but our family got to celebrate a little early by being thankful for all being together. My brother-in-law Shane didn't have to work on Tuesday for Veteran's Day, so their family decided to drive out to Minnesota for a long weekend. My parents came up from Pella and my brother Scott came over from Sioux Falls, so we had the whole family together under one roof. Now getting everyone to fit under one roof and having enough food to eat was a little bit of a chore, so I was very thankful my mom came up a few days early and took care of Caleb and helped make meals. :) We were also very thankful we were moved into our new house so that we had enough beds for everyone!

My mom with Caleb before the whole gang arrived. She is such a huge help and I really appreciated having her around a few extra days.

My dad arrived Friday night, and Jody, Shane, Erin (3 years), Kate (9 months), and Scott all came on Saturday afternoon.  Shane and Erin hadn't met Caleb yet, so I was very excited to finally have the whole family together!

Caleb was not so excited to see Kate. :( Thankfully they warmed up to each other throughout the weekend.

Shortly after everyone arrived we went to take family pictures. It was a bit chilly and the children were not extremely excited about the event, but we did manage to get a good enough picture for a Christmas card.

 The Van Zanten Family 2014.

 Grandpa & Grandma with the grand kids.

Our family. 

After pictures, we headed to the gym to play some basketball and then relax at home for the night.

 Uncle Scott reading books to Erin and Caleb.

 Playing with toys in the living room.

Auntie Jody reading books to Caleb.

On Sunday morning my parents stayed home with all of the kids because Kate wasn't feeling so good, so John and I and Jody and Shane got to enjoy a church service without our children. Then we went to Chandler for Sunday lunch to see all of our aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents. It was great to have such a big group together!

 Grandma, Erin, and Grandpa getting some quality time Sunday morning.

 John, Caleb, Shane, and Kate. We thought Caleb was going to look like a shrimp next to Kate, but he didn't. He is growing up way too fast!

 Grandpa and Caleb sporting their Minnesota gear.

Jody, Kate, Caleb, and I after church. Crazy our babies are only 6 months apart! I don't know what I would do without her parenting advice and friendship.

We also tried another grandparent/grand kid picture...it was a slight struggle again. :)

 We love you Erin! :)

Caleb was excited for the picture. :)

On Monday morning I had to go to work, and my family decided to come check out the school so Erin could see where I taught. It made the day a lot more fun to have them as visitors!

Jody, Shane, Erin, and dad raising their hands in class. 

The rest of Monday night was spent hanging out, taking baths, and just enjoying being together. I feel like I never get to see my sister and my nieces, so I was loving every minute of having them around.

 Me walking with Kate. She is crawling but hasn't taken any steps on her own yet.

 Jody giving Caleb a bath after one of his blowouts.

 Caleb loved having his auntie around!

 Our happy boy. He did great with all the company and was full of smiles as usual.

The weekend went great, and we had a lot of fun playing with the kids. We think they had fun too...at least part of the time. :) We are already looking forward to Christmas when we can be together again!