Christmas light tour and holiday fun 2025.

Yay for December fun! We have gotten so much snow already this winter (way more than all of last year and it's not even Christmas yet!), which has been so fun for the girls. They love playing in it and it definitely keeps them occupied outside longer in the cold. We went to the big sledding hill in a neighboring town one afternoon and they loved it!

We loved the games and crafts at the library Christmas party, and Lucy and Ellory loved that one of their favorite school volunteers was dressed as Santa!

Our annual Christmas light tour at our favorite place was a highlight! We stopped for supper first and then hit the lights. Our favorite place is all on one property and they have tons that you can walk through and it's so neat! It was below zero, but really wasn't too bad and we still had fun!

Some of their favorites that they wanted to take pictures by.

Lucy and Ellory are doing a big unit on penguins at school and reading Mr. Popper's Penguins, so they thought the penguins were cool!

Norah is looking older these days!

The girls and I have taken a picture in this spot for many years, so fun to look back on.

One of my favorite nights of the year!

Ellory found her favorite animal!

Thankful for fun Christmas traditions and special family time. :)

Thanksgiving 2025 (and gingerbread houses!)- De Jong side.

We were in Des Moines with the Schut side for most of Thanksgiving break (where we also celebrated Christmas), but we were thankful for a fun night with the De Jong side when we got back! We had a delicious meal together and did our annual tradition of gingerbread houses!

So fun to see all their designs!

Always love cousin time!

Great Grandma De Jong got to come too!

Love whole group shots (except missing Jana in this one, who took the photo!). 

Happy Thanksgiving- so much to be thankful for! And thankful for start of Christmas fun with gingerbread houses!

Thanksgiving/Christmas 2025- Schut side.

We spent Thanksgiving in Des Moines this year and also celebrated Christmas too! My side rotates each year, so this year was the turn for Thanksgiving all together and then Christmas with the spouse's side. We will still go to Des Moines for a few days over Christmas break just for fun and because the girls have awhile off for school, but our official Christmas celebration was during Thanksgiving. We had a fun few days with family- much to be thankful for!

Matching cousin Christmas pajamas are so fun!

My favorite four!

Sweet sisters. 

Cousin fun at Keaton and Rose's new house (minus Stuart who was sleeping).

We got to tour my brother's new house and it was amazing and so beautiful!

Thanksgiving supper all together- the best!

The whole crew! (Minus Margo who didn't want to join.)

This trip was a little different than usual because my parent's are in the middle of remodeling their basement (where we stay when we are there). It was supposed to be done by Thanksgiving, and unfortunately wasn't, but oh well! I'm thankful that were able to stay at my sister Kayla's house, who bought her own house two years ago. Thanks for hosting us, Kayla!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas! Grateful for His many blessings to us!

Thanks be to my brother, Keaton, for continuing to make picture taking a joy even as a grown adult by purposely making faces. :)

Meeting new nephew/cousin Stuart!

Over Thanksgiving in Des Moines, we got to meet our newest nephew/cousin, Stuart Herald! He was born October 17, 2025 at 8 lbs. 10 oz. and 22 in. What a cutie! I think it's very sweet that his middle name is a combination of both of my grandpas, Herlan and Donald (Herald), who both entered Heaven in the last year. Getting to hold him was so special!

Lucy and Ellory recently.

Lucy and Ellory are in 3rd grade! It's wild how fast they are growing. Lucy and Ellory are both doing very well with school this year. They are busy learning cursive, multiplication tables, and learning how to write and type pretty amazing stories! We recently had conferences and are so thankful for our beautiful, smart, kind girls- both teachers had many wonderful things to say about Lucy and Ellory! It's a joy to hear that they are both doing well academically but are also kind too.

Lucy and Ellory enjoyed a great summer. Both played softball and did a great job, fun to watch them play! Go Cubs! Both did great at swimming lessons and passed level 4. Both did VBS at a local church and loved that it was lego themed. They did summer piano lessons in June/July, and did a few shorter term activities too that were just for a few days, like soccer camp, nature camp, golf camp, and volleyball camp. A couple fun summer activities were visiting the Sioux County Youth Fair, hosting our annual 4^th of July fireworks party, and picking strawberries at Getting's Gardens. We went to Des Moines a couple times and enjoyed parks, Living History Farms, Groen's pool, zoo, Science Center, and family staycation fun. We hosted 19 tenters in our backyard when Ragbrai started in our town this year. An unfortunate summer happening was getting hit by a huge derecho and suffering a lot of yard/house damage, but thankfully we were all okay and able to get it fixed up. We also got to take a trip to Rapid City to visit Gigi and Taylor, and we got to stop at the Badlands National Park on the way to use Norah's free 4^th grade pass- so neat! Lucy and Ellory were both very brave and competed in the kids triathlon where they had to swim down and back, run half a mile, and bike a mile. They did so great!

Lucy and Ellory did volleyball this fall and enjoyed it! They are in Sunday School and piano lessons (we had to find a new teacher because Ms. Heidi stopped teaching, but we thankfully found a great one from church!). They are great at helping all the younger kids each week at our life group. Ellory is in a jazz and lyrical dance class with Norah this year- fun they can go together! Lucy did flag football this fall and truly loved it so much- what a beast out there!

We celebrated Norah turning 11 this fall and Kley had ACL/meniscus surgery. We have enjoyed some fall favorite activities like Morning on the Green, Fields of Fun, and Scarecrow Farm. Lucy and Ellory are wearing size L/10-12 clothes and Lucy is in a size 1 shoe and Ellory is in size 2. Lucy was a Vikings football player and Ellory was a panda for Halloween. We got to go to Des Moines in the fall too to celebrate Aunt Kayla's birthday and to cheer her on in her half marathon, she did amazing! Lucy and Ellory gained a new cousin, Stuart Herald, on 10/17/25 at 8 lbs.10 oz and 22 in. We are looking forward to meeting him at Thanksgiving! Another very special fall happening was that Lucy and Ellory met with our pastor to talk about communion, and both took their first communion on September 7- so so special! We are so proud of you, Lucy and Ellory, and pray you both continue to grow in the Lord! This fall, we got to do both of their special birthday activities. Over Labor Day weekend, Ellory and I went up to Sioux Falls and had a super fun day together. We went to Washington Pavilion, Sky Zone, and to see Anne Wilson sing! Lucy and Daddy got to go to Minneapolis to ride a few rides at MOA and go to her first Vikings game- amazing!

Lucy loves to listen to music- Phil Wickham is her favorite. She likes puzzles, hot wheels cars, crafting, building, legos, minecraft blocks, and anything sports related! Ellory loves bracelets, crafting, dolls, animals, listening to music, writing stories, and figurines. Both are becoming excellent readers and it's so great to watch them enjoy reading! We love you so much, Lucy! We love you so much, Ellory! You are a joy and we love being your parents!