The Plague

Not really, but we have been dealing with illness the past few days...Emmit with croup (again!) this weekend and Gerrit the flu last night. Emmit is doing much better and seeing we have steroids in the medicine cabinet for this illness, we can get it under control and move on. He has his 1 yr check up next week and up for discussion will be the reason he has had 3 episodes of croup since Aug. 

Poor Gerrit not knowing what hit him last night when he got sick. It was hard to explain what was happening to his body. He just thought I gave him too many gold fish crackers to eat! Works for me. 

I was hoping it was a one and done deal but it wasn't. I had everything taken care of by the time Adam came home from his business dinner only to hear Gerrit crying again - yep, it struck a second time! With Adam home, it was much faster to clean up.  Needless to say, we were starting to run out of sheets and today we did a lot of laundry! Without going into details, Gerrit was a trooper through it all. I stayed home with him as Adam had to do work in the field. He seems to be doing ok, he hasn't eaten much but what he has eaten has stayed down. We are hoping no one else gets it - especially Emmit. No fun having sick kids!

My Sister's Big Day!

Aunt Cara's wedding day finally came on Jan. 2! We had a great time and Gerrit did very well, considering he was dressed up and had to wear a bow tie (which he looked very cute wearing!).

Adam did an amazing job with the ceremony and played the part of 'minister' quite well - if people didn't know him, they would've thought he really was a minister he did so well. He actually might have some future business in marrying a few of my cousins down the road!

Emmit charmed everyone (once he had his nap) and made it easy for me to be mom and in charge of the ceremony.

After much bribing, Gerrit smiled for pictures and walked down the aisle with Mia.

Ella was longing to hold Emmit and couldn't wait for pictures and the ceremony to be over so she could hold him and not worry if her dress got dirty.  

Everyone loved watching the kids' movie between photos, even the woman in charge of the mansion took a break to watch it.

Notice, he's in his undershirt? Yes, as soon as the wedding was over, the shoes, jacket, bow tie, and shirt came off. Luckily he stopped there! :)


Gerrit loved his football guys he got at the end of the wedding and lucky for us, there was a window nook by our table during the reception he was able to use for his field.

Gerrit didn't want to dance so I held him and danced with him that way.

It was great to see my 80+ yr old uncle on the dance floor dancing to Twist and Shout!

The cake topper was made of frosting and included the 2 dogs and a Boston Red Sox hat (in honor of Bill).

It was a long day but well worth it. Cara looked beautiful and it was a perfect wedding for her and Bill.  Congrats to them both!

Win Win

We spent our New Year's Eve watching 2 of our favorite teams...MSU and U of M. Gerrit was sporting his Gopher colors (we figured no one would beat up a 3 yr old wearing 'the other team's colors') while the rest of us sported our green and white. We had great seats (thanks to Oma and Opa and their friends for giving us their tickets) and stayed for the whole game! Both boys did a great job of behaving themselves watched the game.
It was fun to see a former student playing too - he plays for the Gopher's. I didn't have him as a student but he was on the boys team when I was coaching girls at the high school. We saw many recruits walk through those gym doors watching him play which was fun to see!

I love my zoom lens! What great shots I could get when I was quite a ways away!
We ended our evening with dinner and then headed home. Gerrit surprisingly made it till midnight (it was not our intent) and was ok the next day too!

This was a great way and a favorite way to spend New Year's eve in our book! We won no matter who actually won the game too!

Ting Tong

Yesterday we visited Granpa Bob and Geri. They got a new ping pong table which Adam and Gerrit broke in. Gerrit enjoyed watching Grandpa Bob and Dad play but really loved it when he was able to

'play'. I use that word loosely because Gerrit's way of playing included a bounce on the floor before he hit it. Picture the ball bouncing numerous times on the table and then at least once on the floor before he would hit it (if he hit it at all). We were very impressed because he improved tremendously as the day progressed. I was thinking the whole time that this was a great hand-eye coordination activity for him (sad, but that is the PE teacher in me!). We had a delicious dinner before we headed back to GR. 

*why the name Ting Tong?

that is Gerrit's name for ping pong!

Emmit's Birthday Parties...

Its hard to believe that Emmit is one! Where has the time gone? It has been fun watching him grow and learn and become such a big boy! Not only did we have a few Christmas parties, we also had a few birthday parties for Emmit.

First stop, Grandma Marcy and GG's:

Emmit enjoyed trying out the cake thing and loved the frosting the best. I loved that GG bought a Bill Knapp's cake (haven't had one of those since I was a kid!) We spent the day with them and Uncle Travis before he headed back to MN. We had a fun time playing and enjoying everyone's company.

Grandpa Bob and Geri joined my family for Emmit's party today:

Gerrit enjoyed opening Emmit's gifts and then trying them out with Mia. Emmit again, loved the cake (especially the frosting) and even tried to give some to Uncle Jeff. Max got a bit too close and landed some on his nose! Max also was in charge of getting the gifts out of the packages and get them in working order (a job Dad was happy to hand over!).

Following the party, Emmit took a long nap and the rest of us geared up for the MSU vs U of M basketball game - in person! Pictures to follow...

Who's Behind That Lens?

GERRIT! He got a camera for Christmas...

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2010

We made it to Michigan and jumped right into the Christmas festivities on Christmas Eve. We hung out at my brother's house for the day and in the evening we opened presents. Emmit was a bit unsure about all the people and Gerrit loved playing with his cousins again. Gerrit and Emmit did quite well on the gift end but so did Opa - he got a few new golf clubs! The evening ended for Gerrit and I in the hot tub... a nice way to end a busy day (Dad was too busy playing video games with Max to join us).

 

Christmas morning Dad woke up not feeling well so rather than push it and try to visit with his dad, we decided to lay low at my parent's house. Cara brought over wedding stuff so I helped with that, Jeff's family stopped by to open stockings and Gerrit took to Mia's new ITouch real fast, Gerrit enjoyed playing Dr. to Oma with his new kit from Aunt Erika and he looked at his new book with Opa. Emmit enjoyed his bottles with Oma and even checked out her cane the only way he knows how - via mouth!

Even though Dad wasn't feeling well, it was nice to relax a bit after a busy week!