June...so far

Now June in a nutshell...

Here's Joshua...not so sure about being a big brother and not so sure about his world changing!Introducing Luke William. Born on June 4, 2010 weighing 8 pounds, 11 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. He is my second nephew and fifth niece or nephew overall. He's absolutely adorable!
Rebecca, Brad and Luke.
Henry, Abigail and Johanna playing around in Grandpa's new lawn wagon...they love it!
Henry and Joel and Kelly's dog Harry. :)
Henry sure thinks he's hot stuff holding Luke. I know it's cliche, but I really can hardly remember Johanna that little!
Luke William
These were the teacher gifts for Abigail's teachers. I took pots and spray painted them with chalkboard paint. Then we wrote "Thanks for helping me grow" on them in chalk. Inside is a packet of seeds wrapped in scrapbook paper with a piece of chalk. We gave these to the art, music and speech teachers as well as the librarian. We gave one to Abigail's main teacher too with a gift card.

A couple of new "firsts" for Johanna this month. Her first S'more...yes, she loved it!
Her first popsicle. She definitely loved it. It was a 90 degree day and the perfect day to try her first popsicle!
He looks like he's up to trouble, doesn't he?

Love this picture of Abigail.
A rare sweet moment between the two kids.
Henry loves the slip and slide at our house. We had a few really, really hot days so I set it up out front for him. Even without a hill it's still tons of fun as you can see.



Hopefully my next post won't be one summarizing July!!

May in One Post

I cannot believe that I've gone this long without truly blogging. Life is just so busy and I feel as though I am constantly playing catch up. This will be the longest post EVER as I try to cover most of May...in one post. Thankfully this blog is mostly for my family and me, because I don't think anyone is going to stay with me to the end of this post!
In April and May we had a big scare with Gracie. She was very sick for awhile. We spent quite a bit of money to do tests and have her checked out. The diagnosis is Leukemia. We made the decision not to invest more money into treatment and when the time felt right we would put her to sleep. She was so sick that I thought it was time to put her down, but Colin just wasn't ready yet. Well...she made a miraculous recovery and seems to be doing perfectly. Colin jokes that we should rename her "Jesus" since she basically came back from the dead...I'm not so sure about that. As much as the dog drives me crazy I am really glad that she is doing well.

We've been "blessed" with two litters of baby bunnies in our backyard this Spring. Henry was in Heaven, he just loves animals. One morning Henry woke me up with a baby bunny about an inch from my face and just said "Hi." Needless to say, I was not amused. :) I later went downstairs and this is how I found two of the bunnies on the couch.
Tulip Time 2010...the kids loved going to Kinderplaats like we do every year. Abigail especially liked the Camp Geneva stuff since she'll be going to day camp there in July.

The kids LIVE for holding this snake every year. They know that it terrifies Colin so the love it!



This was Abigail's first year marching in a parade. She LOVED it! She was SO excited to march and see everyone yelling for her. She asked her teaching if she could be on the left side and knew to look for us in front of Froggy's. Doesn't she look proud?

Johanna LOVES noodles. One day I gave her a bowl of spaghetti and she just went to town. I had to take pictures because it was cracking me up seeing this little girl shoveling down a whole bowl of spaghetti without flinching. :)

Henry had his preschool graduation at the end of May. It was a great program! He had a wonderful year with a wonderful teacher. We are very blessed that he will have her again next year for Young Fives. I love watching these programs...they are so cute!


The "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song.

So proud to be getting his graduation certificate from Mrs. Zwart.

Johanna chilling at Tunnel Park during Henry's class party on his last day. Fingers in the mouth of course.
This is the pot I made for his teachers. I painted each of the kids' hands with a special paint and put them on a big planter. I then wrote their name on their hand, planted flowers and put a sign that said "Thanks for helping us grow." They also got gift cards from the class.
Henry's class of 2009-2010 with Mrs. Zwart and Mrs. Mulder.

Update?

Yeah, I need to update this blog. I will. Soon. I promise. Maybe tomorrow?

Questions from Henry

Henry has been driving me nuts...there is no other way to say it. He asks me a hundred questions a day. I don't think it would bug me that much if he was content with a short answer (or maybe even a white lie answer), but he isn't. He just keeps asking more questions. And I'm going crazy. Here are some of the questions he asked today:

Mom, when you are in the ground (dead) is your brain still thinking?
Mom, if the baby bunnies died, where did they die because they aren't in their hole?
Mom, can I have a weak snack?
Mom, can I get a toy at Meijer?
Mom, when will Becca have her baby?
Mom, why is Becca's baby a boy?
Mom, why did God choose for Becca to have a boy and not a girl?
Mom, when will Abby be home?
Mom, how long is 15 minutes?
Mom, why are some Garfield shows long and some short?
Mom, will there by chicken and fries in heaven?
Mom, when will the new Donalds be open?
Mom, why is it four more days and not three?
Mom, when will you die?
Mom, are peacocks real?
Mom, why isn't Ariel real?
Mom, why do we have to take baths?
Mom, when baby birds are born why do they have to learn how to fly and can't do it by themselves?

Those were just in about the past 10 minutes. :)

Poems by Abigail

On Friday Abigail's class had Poetry Day at school for the moms for Mother's Day. It was absolutely adorable. All of the kids wrote and presented two poems...one about themselves and another about anything they wanted to write about. Then there was a movie that showed pictures that the kids painted and wrote on about why they love their mothers. Then the sang a song and we had snacks. It was absolutely adorable and every minute was awesome.

Abigail's poems were really awesome I think. Here they are:

Abigail
Daughter of the Mulders
Lover of her family
Who feels happy when there is a wedding
Who likes to learn about babies
Who fears the night
Who would really like to see Bebe
Who dreams of Grandma YoYo
Being her teacher
Who wonders why moms and dads go
To bed so late!
Abby

My Sister, Johanna
by Abigail Mulder

Sleeping with my sister
She peeks over her crib
Crying for mommy
We say "Noisy baby"
I cannot sleep
Boiling milk for bottles
Mommy comes
Smiling baby!
I can sleep
Johanna

And then her picture in the slide show said "My mom gives me a kiss and if I wake up she gives me orange juice. I love my mom!! by Abby"

I love you too, Abigail. And I'm so proud of you.