Church Christmas program and Norah's zoom Christmas tumbling show.

We got to enjoy some Christmas shows! Norah has been in tumbling this year and has enjoyed it. She had her Christmas show via zoom and she did a wonderful job! No one was allowed in (Kley dropped her off and waited for her outside), and I wondered if that would make her nervous because this was her first show like this before, but Kley said she walked in just fine! It was fun to watch her! She was so proud when she got home. 

She did this pose all on her own- our tumbling star!

All three of the girls got to be in the church program this year- so fun! This was in person, so it was fun to watch live. We wore masks, sat socially distanced, and didn't stay after to fellowship. Every state and place is different and has a lot of difficult decisions to work through during these COVID times, and I appreciate the many people in health care and those in leadership positions doing their best, whatever that looks like.

2/3 good smiles, we'll take it I guess? Lucy has a nice shiner on her eye from running into the corner of the dining room table. Ouch!

They sang some fun songs! Hearing kids voices praising God is one of the sweetest sounds ever. 

Ellory didn't want to go up for the first song and just sat on her teacher's lap, but made it up there for the rest! They all did great!

The program this year focused on Jesus' heart for the nations and His love for the world. :)

Gingerbread houses and Christmas train ride.

Now that the girls are getting a bit older, decorating gingerbread houses has become a favorite tradition! Last year and this year, we've done it at Kley's parents house and I want to keep it going! The girls loved it and were creative and engaged for quite a while. They were so proud!

I don't get one on one pictures very often- love it!

They had a little help here and there when they asked, but they did a lot of it themselves.

Uncle Kley and Will have a special bond! :)

My pictures are uploading in weird order, but it was a very fun Christmas project! A great afternoon with wonderful people!

There are usually several big community Christmas parties for kids that we go to, but many were cancelled this year, so we are making the most of what we do get to do! One event was paired down to just the train ride, but there was hardly anyone there and the girls were pumped to be able to ride three times and have a special outing with Kley. They still had a great time!

Family Christmas light tour date.

One of my most favorite nights of the year is our family date to look at Christmas lights! I love this tradition and it's so fun to watch the girls run around and ooh and ahh at their favorites. 

This Christmas band is one of our favorites- this is always our spot for a pictures with dad.

Ellory hugged so many Santas. There were a lot. She shouted hi to them too. Kids are so adorable!

Anna, Olaf, and Elsa were another favorite! (These characters were moved to a different location than in past years, right behind a huge bush. I wondered if that was strategic to keep kids on the path because too many were touching them, ha.)

The rainbow bridge is our tradition spot for a picture with mom. I love this picture. :)

This is our favorite house to go look at. There are so many lights and it's truly amazing. 

Our two-year-old niece, Jorie, is very into Toy Story, so we had to take a picture by Buzz for her.

What a fun night! The weather was pretty nice too, which was amazing!

Check out the last few years by the Christmas band! I love seeing the same tradition pictures each year. And I guess I was wrong- in 2017, the band photo was with me. Merry Christmas everyone and hope you have your own light tour fun!

Thanksgiving 2020.

Happy Thanksgiving! While 2020 has brought many unique circumstances for many, there is still much to be thankful for! I know I will look back on this time when our girls are older and have many more activities and be grateful for the time we had together this year when many activities were halted. 

We were home for Thanksgiving this year. We had a relaxing morning at home and watched the parade and played, and for supper we went to the De Jong's house. Thankful we could see his parents, sister, BIL, and nephew Will! Kley's grandma also got to join, which was very nice because she lost her husband a couple weeks ago and this was her first holiday without him. Glad she didn't have to be alone! (While all of our extended celebrations were cancelled this year, we still did celebrate with close family. I know there were many people who were alone for Thanksgiving for various reasons, and we pray that you felt very loved- by family/friends and most importantly by God.)

I was going to try to take a cousin picture and then a family picture, but Lucy has been very clingy to Kley this week so she wouldn't sit without him, so we combined the two. Thanks to Will for giving out the best smiles! We also had to snap this before Will went to bed, so Will and Ellory had already had a bath, so we had a mix of clothes and pajamas. But who really cares what you're wearing this year, right? :)

Pre-supper talk about what we are thankful for!

So fun that the girls are entering the game stage where we can all play together! 

The weekend before Thanksgiving we got to go to Des Moines! It was initially sad because we were supposed to go visit my sister/BIL in MN and meet our new niece Averie, but MN issued some new mandates a few days before we were supposed to go saying that you weren't supposed to gather with anyone you don't live with, so unfortunately we couldn't go. We are hoping to meet her at Christmas! Since we were already planning to be gone anyways, it worked out nicely to go to Des Moines! We hadn't seen my parents in awhile, so it was nice to go there too. Love cousin pictures! It's so fun to watch Jorie be old enough to play together! (Murphy, our almost one nephew, was napping.)

Jorie really loves Toy Story and it's so cute, hence the Woody outfit and holding Buzz!

The one outing we did while in Des Moines was going to visit the Groens! They are great family friends from growing up, and their oldest daughter Stephanie is one of my closest friends and she was home for Thanksgiving, so it was so nice to see her! Her parents had recently moved to a nine acre farm, so the girls had fun exploring outside and seeing their sheds. (Is that even the right word? Shed implies something small to me and these were massive- Kley was jealous! He would love to have a space like this for his hobbies.)

The girls love to color, so they enjoyed helping make a welcome home sign for Whitney, another Groen gal who was coming home for Thanksgiving but hadn't arrived yet.

They all loved a four wheel ride with Daddy! They each had multiple turns!

Play time!

Happy Thanksgiving! We are so grateful for His rich blessings to us.

Recent reads.

The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis- Kley and I read this book together. We have been licensed for foster care/adoption for four years now, and while I still feel naive and unexperienced compared to many, I am so thankful for all that we have learned and are learning in our training classes (you have to take six credits per year to keep your license up to date). So while I didn't feel like I learned tons of brand new things while reading this book now, it was a good review and refresher. I wish we would have read it sooner. If you are considering adoption and/or foster care, I would highly recommend this book! It talks about building trust and affection, dealing effectively with learning or behavioral disorders, and disciplining in love.

The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian- A friend lent me this book awhile ago, and it took me a very long time to get to it, but I 'm glad I did! It had short chapters, about 30, about different aspects to pray for your husband about, so I read a chapter a day during my devotions and finished in a month. I enjoyed it a lot because it prompted me to pray for different areas that I don't usually think of. I would like to read some of her other books too, like the parent one.

Church of the Small Things by Melanie Shankle- I've read several other of Melanie's books, and I have enjoyed all of them. She is funny, relatable, and her books are entertaining and a light read (and I mean light read in a good way). I love hearing other's stories, and she is a great story teller- my favorite part of her books. She is a Christian, but I wouldn't say this book is for a Bible study per say, but more as a fun solo read or one to just talk about amongst friends. I love how she tied it all together in the end- life is about all the small little moments. We need to try to find significance in the daily things. While the big moments are surely defining, we mostly live in the small moments and that's often where God is working in us. 

Three greats.

We recently lost both of Kley's grandpas in six weeks. While it's sad to say goodbye on earth, we are so thankful for the hope of Heaven and that they are with Jesus. Bus Ver Steeg passed away on September 30, 2020, and Hallard De Jong passed away on November 8, 2020. Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned this on the blog or not, but we also lost Kley's grandma, Alice Ver Steeg, a few years ago on September 3, 2017. The three of them were wonderful and we are so grateful for their legacy and the support and encouragement they gave to us. These are throwback pictures to when they first got to meet our girls. I treasure these pictures and the memories we have with them! We are thankful to have had all eight grandparents for as long as we did. Kley now has one grandma living and I have all four of mine still living- such a blessing to have good relationships with all of them!