Valentine's Day 2021.

 Happy Valentine's Day from our three lovely ladies! :)

Lucy and Ellory recently.

Oh, how Lucy and Ellory are growing! They will be four soon! We are planning to celebrate in Des Moines with the Schut side, at home with the De Jong side, as a family, and have a friend party with a few girls from preschool/Sunday school. Ellory wants Paw Patrol and Lucy wants flowers, so we will have a Paw Patrol flower party! They are looking forward to it.

At the beginning of the school year, Ellory switched to a 10 shoe and Lucy to a 9. They both just went to the dentist last week and did amazing! Sat so very well and were very brave and let them do everything they needed to. In early January, they both switched to 5T clothes. I was originally going to wait until spring to switch, but they are growing and were ready. Fun to get some new outfits! They wear Norah's old clothes, but also need some new ones too to fill in the gaps and because there's two of them!

Lucy and Ellory had a big fall! They started preschool, which was a big endeavor as that was their first time really going anywhere without us. They are doing well and we are so happy about that. Occasionally one or both is clingy or cries a bit at drop off, but their teachers are so great and they say they are fine after a minute. They seem happy when I pick them up and say positive things about preschool, so we are glad they are enjoying it! They also were able to start the 3s Sunday school class, and on Monday mornings they go to Kindermusik. They've been going to Kindermusik for years, but this is the first year they are old enough to go all by themselves. They are enjoying that too! It's so fun to watch them be happy with their activities and doing well. We don't take that for granted and we are very thankful. It's so neat to watch them progress in coloring/writing and practicing their name.

Lucy loves to sleep with two of her stuffed animals that she calls Teddy and Leo. She falls asleep quickly, and usually is the first one awake. She occasionally wakes in the night to go to the bathroom or just wants us, but is doing much better than before and usually sleeps through the night, yay! She's a daddy's girl. She likes to be a leader and helper. She loves doing special jobs and is orderly- she's very good at cleaning up (when she wants to be), and knows where everything goes, helps remind me of things, and likes to set up her toys in an organized way. She has excellent verbal skills. (Just recently we have noticed a stutter sometimes, but are hoping that's just a phase, as we have never noticed that before.) Lucy is sensitive and reacts to hardships or being upset with tears. She loves to make crafts, which is basically just creating all sorts of things with colors, stickers, paper, scissors, and glue sticks. Her favorite shows to watch are probably Peppa Pig, Caillou, Daniel Tiger, and Butterbeans Cafe. She loves to play restaurant and family, Hot Wheels cars, playing outside, and she loves this building construction set she got for Christmas. She recently learned how to change her doll's clothes and loves to do that, and enjoys trying out her new bike.

Ellory loves to play and have a good time, but also loves to have her alone time too. Sometimes she likes to play alone or rest in her bed for a bit. Ellory is good at giving compliments and noticing things about people. Ellory is content being a follower- when they play family she always likes to be the baby and is fine doing what Norah and Lucy tell her to do. She has excellent verbal skills, but sometimes needs reminders to use them. She reacts to hardships with anger, but is usually incredibly sweet. She loves to pretend she is different animals, usually a dog, cat, or nice lion. She loves painting, magna-tiles, playing outside (but not when it's too cold), trying out her new bike, and reading books. Her favorite show to watch is Paw Patrol. She did well at her eye check up in December and was excited to get new purple glasses! She wears them well. Ellory sometimes takes a bit to fall asleep, but is a solid night sleeper and is somewhat often the last one awake.

Two other fun highlights were that Lucy was a penguin and Ellory was a cat for Halloween, and they got to meet their new cousin Averie over Christmas. They both recently tried ice skating for the first time and loved it! Lucy and Ellory, it is so fun to watch you grow. You play so well together. Being your parents is one of our greatest blessings and we are so very thankful you are our daughters. You are full of light and joy and we love you deeply!

Norah recently.

We have a lot to update on since my last one! Norah lost her second tooth, bottom right, on 9/30/2020. Her first one was quick to come out, but this one was slower. It was loose for a couple weeks, but Norah didn't want to pull it or have us pull it either. It eventually was hanging on by such a tiny thread that I told her she needed to pull it or I would, and she went in the bathroom and pulled it! At her six year wellness check, she was 50 lbs. (78%) and 48” (92%), pretty consistent percentages her whole life. So thankful for a growing and healthy daughter! She celebrated her 6^th birthday in October and basically had four parties! It was sad we couldn't have a big party all together because of COVID, but it was a special birthday and Norah had a great time celebrating and that's what counts! We celebrated in Des Moines with the Schut side, and at home with the De Jong side, as a family, and she had a few friends over for a Frozen 2 party. So fun to celebrate our Norah!

Norah started kindergarten in late August. She went to our local elementary school for three weeks and we made the decision to homeschool for the rest of the year. Many factors went into this decision, but mainly it was just that we felt God leading us to that. Going to school was a tough transition for everyone in the family. Everyone missed each other and Norah said the days were really long, but she was doing better and we think she would have adjusted fine had we kept her there. It was hard to send our first child to school during COVID. The school was doing their best and we don't fault them, but it was hard to not be allowed in the school at all. I would have loved to be the room mom, walk her to her class, and go have lunch sometimes. We prayed a lot about it and talked to other homeschool families in the area, and felt His leading that this was the best decision for our family for right now. We loved her school and teacher and had no issues with that, and we don't plan to homeschool forever so she will be back there someday. We are waiting until the end of the school year to make an official decision about next year. All in all, we don't regret homeschooling for this year. It's been good for our family and nice to have some extra time together. It's fun to see her learning firsthand. Overall it's been good. There are advantages and disadvantages to all methods of learning.

On the homeschool front, Norah read her first short book the other day- how amazing! Way to go, Norah! Her homeschool unit has a letter and Bible concept for each week, like this week is E for elephant and the Bible concept is “I will remember what God has done for me.” It's neat how it all ties together. They mix a lot of things into it and each day of the week is the same ideas, just changed up for the new letter and concept. We are liking it! There are two other girls that go to our church that are doing homeschool kindergarten also (the same curriculum) that we have over for playdates sometimes too, which is fun to try to keep friendships and peer interaction happening.

Norah is doing tumbling on Thursday nights, and she seems to like it! They did a Christmas show via zoom and Norah did a wonderful job. She knew all the moves and did them with confidence! Norah also participated in our church's Christmas program and did very well with that too. She sang and knew all the words/actions. She goes to kindergarten Sunday school also and seems to enjoy it.

We had a rough time for awhile late fall/early winter with attitude and tantrums, but Norah has been doing much better lately and we are thankful. A beautiful aspect that came out of hardship is Norah has been coming to us with genuine remorse and apologizing several different times after a hard moment. She is very sweet and has been a great helper lately. She loves to get the laundry from the dryer and bring it up, take the groceries inside from the car, etc. and asks me sometimes what she can do to help me. Love her kind heart! She loves to play with Lucy and Ellory (of course it's not always peaceful, but most of the time they get along well). She loves to play with her Barbie house she got for her birthday, and has been testing out her new bike when she can that she got for Christmas. Norah loves to color, play school and family, play-doh, paint, play outside, magna-tiles, write on her clipboard, watch a lego ninja show on her ipad, and has recently been loving listening to music (playing different songs on a few of Kley's itunes playlists on his desktop computer). She has some typical oldest child qualities, just like her mom!

Norah switched to a size 13 shoe at the beginning of the school year, and in December switched to M/8 clothes. I was originally going to wait until Spring to change to the next size, but she was growing and needed it! Fun to get some new outfits. Norah sometimes takes awhile to fall asleep, but oh well! She has been doing much better at sleeping through the night. Occasionally she will wake up to use the bathroom, but most nights sleeps all night. She does a great job of playing quietly in her room during rest time.

Two other fun highlights were that Norah was Gabriella from High School Musical (and Daddy was Troy!) for Halloween, and she got to meet new cousin Averie over Christmas. Norah, you are a treasure and we love spending time with you. You are beautiful, sweet, loving, funny, beautiful, and full of joy. We are so blessed having you as a daughter!

Celebrating Will's (our nephew/cousin) 2nd birthday!

It was so fun to celebrate our nephew/cousin Will's 2nd birthday! It's so much fun to watch the girls play with him. Being an aunt is so special! He had an adorable Little Blue Truck/farm theme. Happy Birthday Will! We love you so much!