Tired

We aren't sleeping well in this house. This blog is about the last thing on my mind. Abigail is doing okay...still tough to get to sleep, but mostly staying in her room through the night. Henry is getting up every night. He freaks out when we bring him back to his room. He is not liking the "Everyone sleeps in their own room" rule. I've been up around 2 hours each of the last 3 nights in the middle of the night dealing with him. Johanna was hard to settle down tonight and last night...I don't think she's feeling well. I'm exhausted. Colin's exhausted. The house is a disaster. Pray for sleep for the Mulders!!

Helping Haiti One Dollar at a Time

I think about the people of Haiti constantly. All day. I've seen the news reports and cried. I went to the Dominican Republic in high school and we visited a group of Haitian people...crazy how I can clearly remember the people that we worshiped with that day. I remember their faces and think of them now...and pray they are okay. So what can be done? Right now money is what they need the most. We don't have lots of extra money, but I can find some. I have three healthy children, a home, warmth, health and the list goes on. I want to help and we will help in any way that we can.

We are joining some other blogs who are donating money based on blog comments. Here's what Colin and I will do. We will donate $1 for each person who comments on this blog post until midnight on Friday. Give the link to your friends...pass it along. We're good for it. :) We'll be donating to Compassion.

Here are a few other blogs to visit who are doing the same/similar thing(s), be sure to visit them too!

http://whenhellomeansgoodbye.blogspot.com
http://www.kellyskornerblog.com
http://www.designhermomma.com

Project 365

I decided to try out Project 365 this year. I've read about so many people who successfully did it last year and I decided to try to tackle the challenge. Ten days down...355 to go! I may not always post my pictures on here (in fact, I'm sure I won't), but you can always click on the Flickr link below or at the top right of my blog to see the Flickr album I have set up with the pictures and captions. The link is HERE.

Great Wolf Lodge

We took a family vacation with my whole family up North to Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate my dad's birthday. He turned 60 on January 2 and we went up North the week before. We had never been there before and the kids had a blast! I think they were more excited to go to a waterpark then they were for Christmas! We had a great couple of days of swimming, laughing, games and dinner out. Unfortunately Henry got sick so Colin wasn't able to go out for the adult's only dinner that we had planned for months. Such a bummer, but we definitely couldn't leave sick Henry with a sitter he didn't know. Other than that we had a wonderful time and would love to go back!

Vander Vliet Christmas

Later on Christmas Day we went to my parents' house for an awesome prime rib dinner and presents. We started a new tradition this year (from Germany) where my parents hide a pickle ornament on the tree and the kids have to stand and find the pickle ornament without using their hands and whoever finds it first gets to open the first present. The kids had fun looking for the ornament and it will definitely be a tradition that we'll keep for years to come.

Henry looking for the pickle ornament.
Johanna's toy from Joshua
Abigail with her FAVORITE gift...a microphone...it's annoying and she LOVES it! :)
Joshua opening a present from Grandpa and Grandma
A classic J/J pic...Johanna smiling (of course) and Joshua scowling...love it!

Christmas Morning with the Mulders

Every year we get up on Christmas morning and go to Colin's parents' house. This year the grandkids all had matching pajamas...aren't they cute? Next year we'll have one more in the picture since Brett and Luna are expecting in July! We had a great morning with family...it's always fun to have Brett, Luna and Tavid home.

Christmas with Our Family

Christmas is so much fun at our house! We celebrate on Christmas Eve with our family and my parents. We open presents and eat pizza from Lou Malnati's. It's just a fun night celebrating with family. The kids love it more every year and it's fun to watch them get so excited about the excitement of Christmas (and the presents of course).

Twas the Night Before the Night Before Christmas

We celebrate Christmas with our family on Christmas Eve. That means that Santa has to fill the stockings on the night of the 23rd. We explain it by saying that Santa has so many houses to go to on the 24th that some lucky children get their stockings filled early. This year Abigail wrote the note to Santa, Henry picked out the cookies (and chocolate milk of course!) and they all posed for a picture before going to bed. Then Santa got to work...

Johanna at 9 Months

Again, a little late. Again, I apologize. Johanna turned 9 months on December 17th. She weighs around 16 pounds, wears size 2-3 diapers, loves her bottle, doesn't really like table food and loves to smile and charm anyone around. She sure is a blessing to our family!

Celebrating Christmas at School

Both of the kids had special days at school before the break. Henry had "Jingle Bell Day" where a parent came and the kids sang songs, listened to a story and did a craft with their parent. It was a fun day and we had a great time making Henry's Jingle Bug that he named "Rainbow."

Abigail's day was a special day for a parent to come and make a Gingerbread house with their parent. We had so much fun making the old-school house with the milk carton in the middle, graham crackers on the outside and LOTS of frosting and candy! It was such a fun day with Abigail!

Visiting Santa

Making a Gingerbread House

We bought one of those pre-made Gingerbread House kits this year. It looked like a fun activity until we had everything out and had started and then read the directions. We had to put the walls together with icing...then let it dry for at least an hour. We did that even though the kids were dying since they thought they'd get to decorate it right away. After the hour was up we put on the roof, then read that it said "Let dry for at least 2-3 hours." Seriously?? Needless to say we still tried to decorate it. It caved under the pressure. So...the kids decorated Gingerbread panels...walls, roof pieces, etc. They had a blast and it didn't matter that it wasn't a house in the end. Next year I'll get the house all together ahead of time. :)