March?!?!

Wow...it may be March by the time I finish typing this post...this year is flying by!
Sorry I've been MIA for a couple of days after writing so much on here! It's been crazy busy of course! A couple updates for you...
~I've started my training for the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. This week includes a total of 12 miles walking and 30 minutes of cross-training. I'm doing great on fundraising right now. THANK YOU to those of you who have donated! You can check out my website here. Most donations take a couple weeks to show up, so I DO have more than just those three donations! :)
~I have kidney stones among other issues right now and finally had to call the doc last night for Vicoden. Today I feel good, but not sure I'll make it until my appointment in mid-March to see the Urologist! UGH!
~Henry is doing great and says (well, lately actually whines) "Mama" daily. Music to my ears! We haven't heard back from the speech therapist yet, so we are still waiting on that.
~Abigail's been terrible lately and it's been difficult on me. Doesn't help that I'm not feeling 100%. She's testing me...and winning so far. I've been praying for serious patience!
~Anything else...hmm...oh, yeah...I FINALLY got an iPod. I think it's funny that I haven't had one yet, since I'm usually ontop of these things. I just haven't ever felt the need for one. Now, with my training, I'll be spending hours walking so I thought an iPod would be perfect. It killed me to have Colin show me how to put music on it though! Those of you who don't know Colin...he comes from a very technically challenged family (ex. family JUST got digital cameras, they use computers very little, we bought them their dvd player since they never got one). It's hilarious! I have some great music on it right now, so it will be great to have!
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After church this past Sunday we went to my parents' house (like every week) and my dad asked Abigail if she wanted to go sledding in their backyard. We weren't prepared for this, so she only had a coat and snowpants (left over in the car from school thankfully!). She ended up wearing my dad's hat and socks on her hands for mittens! It became a family affair and we had a blast sledding! I haven't touched these pics and hope to scrap them soon, but for now, here are some from Sunday! BTW...the picture of Colin cracks me up! He's in his Cole Haan leather boots and all dressed up in Banana Republic. He looks like he's trying to model at the top of the hill. :) The joys of being the author of this blog!










Off to bed...maybe...it's still early for me...11:30 :)

More pictures...

I finished a new layout last night using one of the pictures of the kids lovin' on each other. Credits can be seen here.

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Yesterday, our Little Hands, Big Ideas group had a field trip to Hope College where we got to see animals and listen to a little presentation and info about the animals. The kids got to touch two snakes and were loving it!

Target Portait Studio

I have often had the kids' pictures taken at Target in Wyoming because you can't beat the prices! For the most part I have been very happy there. Today I received coupons in the mail. There's a Frequent Smiles card for me and one for a friend. It's a card that can be used multiple times for: free sitting, free 8 x 10 and $4.99 sheets. You can use it as much as you want until October 18. I was just thinking I needed to get pictures of the kids taken again! Anyway, if anyone else could use the other card, drop my a comment (you don't need to register for blogger to leave a comment) or send me an email.

One more thing...I know there are some "Blog Lurkers" out there who read the blog, but don't comment! So...hi Becky! Hello Eden! :)

Some Fun Pictures

This is one of Henry's favorite things to do right now...it helps that Colin pushes him around the house at break-neck speed though!

Abigail's new bathing suit :)

A whole selection of the kids goofing around together.

I bet you can guess which one is my favorite!

Hanks Update

Time for the monthly update on Henry...

He was evaluated by an Early On Coordinator today. She met with us at our house, talked to Colin and I for awhile and then played with Henry for a bit. Her conclusions were encouraging in many ways. She told us that in most things Henry is right where he should be...18-24 month range (he's 18 months old right now). That was encouraging, especially in his gross motor skills. There were many things he was doing that aren't expected until much later too, so that was great!

She evaluated his speech to be in the 7-10 month range. I guess that's kind of what we expected, but again, a little hard to hear the specific numbers. We're encouraged though, since we will be meeting with a speech therapist within the next two weeks to set up a plan for Hanks. We have already seen a huge improvement with his speech in just the past couple of weeks...it's great to hear him say "mama" now!

Thanks again for support and prayers...we feel 'em!

Crazy Bounce

We had a low-key Sunday this week and decided to do something fun with the kids. We took them to Crazy Bounce. They loved it! I took Abigail many months ago and she had a blast then, but yesterday she was crazy! She loved it! Henry had a blast too...he loved the ball pits as well as going through the obstacle courses and down the slides with Colin. It was hard to take good pictures, but I got a couple. The one of Abigail on the slide is blurry, but I had to post it just to show you how fast she went!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Catching Up

Lots to share today...so hang in there with me!

~We spent Saturday in Chicago. My mom, sister, Abigail and I went to "Disney on Ice: Princess Wishes" while my dad and Joel went to the Auto Show. The ice show was lots of fun - Abigail loved it and it was so fun to watch her enjoying everything! Here are a couple of pictures from our day:







~Got Abigail signed up for preschool for next year at Holland Christian. She'll go three mornings a week next year! She's growing up fast!

~I put together a quick layout of the kids jumping in Henry's crib. I wanted to scrap something in an 8 x 10 size to put in one of our frames and had these pics so I decided to put something together. Here's that layout:

~Abigail had her Valentine's Day party at school today...so cute to see everything she came home with! I hope that all the boys (11 boys, 3 girls in her class) loved their Princess Valentines! :)

~I read this on Gina's blog and thought it was kind of funny, so thought I'd do it a minute...
YOUR REAL NAME:
Bethany

YOUR GANGSTA NAME (1st 4 letters plus izzle):
Bethizzle

YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (fave color + fave animal):
Orange Dog

YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name + childhood street):
Anne Greenwood

YOUR STAR WARS NAME (last 3 letters of your last name + first 2 letters of your first name + first 3 letters of Mom's maiden name):
Derbenor

YOUR SUPER HERO NAME (2nd fave color + fave drink):
Red Coke

YOUR IRAQI NAME (2nd letter of your first name + 3rd letter of your last name + any letter of your middle name + 2nd letter of your Mom's maiden name + 3rd letter of your Dad's middle name + 1st letter of a sibling's first name + last letter of your Mom's middle name):
ELNOIRN

YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM NAME (Grandma/Grandpa's first name + Jones):
Shirley Jones

YOUR GOTH NAME (Black + name of one of your pets):
Black Salem

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Have a Great Day!!

Abigail @ 3 1/2 (almost)

Abigail will be 3 1/2 on February 18...wow! She is getting old! :) She's quite the Princess around here, bossing us around, making us laugh and always doing her own thing. She has really been enjoying threeschool this year and it's so fun to watch her in that environment. Lately she's been into playing "teacher" at home. She's been reading me stories...it's the cutest thing ever!

Henry @ 18 months

Henry is really growing up! He's becoming a big, solid boy - nothing baby about him anymore! He loves to torment Abigail, but loves her at the same time. He really is a sweet boy and it's so fun to watch him grow!

Snow Angel

Here's my newest layout of Abigail. This is from this past weekend, when she and I played outside in sub-zero degree temperatures! We actually had tons of fun! Credits can be seen here.

BRRR!!

It's Saturday afternoon and as I type this it is 8 degrees outside. It feels like -8 degrees though! Brrrrr!!! We have really been bombed with snow and a blizzard...it's miserable out there! Just about everything in West Michigan is closing, so I keep waiting for the call from work saying that we are just going to close tonight. I took the kids out with the intention of dropping movies off at the library. We made it a few miles and then decided to turn around - it was a white out! Pretty scary really! We decided just to come home, stay inside where it's warm and read some books.