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!