The last few months

Time seems to get away from me these days!  Here are some pictures of the past several months.  Jason and I took our first 7 day trip without kids in February.  We had an amazing vacation and the kids did pretty well splitting the time between the Grandpa and Grandmas' houses.  We stayed by the Santa Monica Pier the first night and watched the Northern Trust Golf tournament before being picked up by a friend and heading down to Long Beach for the next couple days.  Then we headed north to stay with friends that moved to California about a year ago.  It was kind of a shock to be free from child raising responsibility for so many days in a row! Jason got a few rounds of golf in and we both enjoyed much relaxation.  We drove up to the mountains to see the huge Sequoia trees - what an amazing thing to see.  It is hard to take in how vast these trees are until we were looking back at the pictures.  Amazing to think that some of these trees existed when Jesus walked the earth.

In February we also decided to put our house on the market and we tried FSBO for awhile.  We had some interest but nothing serious so we listed with a Realtor May 7 and we sold it May 29.  Now we have to be out by June 28.  We haven't found a new place yet so hopefully we can find something soon that will accommodate this timing!  At least the stress of trying to keep a perfectly clean house is over - that is about impossible with two 3 year olds and an 18 month old!  Now on to packing...  Through this whole situation we have put it in God's hands - he gave us these wonderful children so he can provide a place for us to raise them.  In our current house there just wasn't a lot of options to fit another baby in a bedroom aside from ours and I don't sleep well with an infant in my bedroom!  And, we felt Hailey and Brynn are just a bit young to be on a separate floor hence our desire to sell ours and find one with 4 bedrooms upstairs.  Hai

Hailey and Brynn were part of a tumbling class at the end of the spring.  They both really enjoyed it but Brynn REALLY loved it.  I think gymnastics might be her thing down the road...  Hailey would stand in line and sing while she waited for her turn.  She might choose other extra-curricular activities!

Klayton turned 18 months at the beginning of May.  We can hardly believe it.  He wants to do whatever his sisters are doing and unfortunately he is just not that coordinated yet!  They all play pretty well together though and the girls make very sure that he follows the rules.  Ha!  If only they would obey everything they scold Klayton for!  He makes me laugh every day with his silliness.  We have a walking route of right about 1 mile.  Klayton usually walks the first half and then takes the stroller the rest of the way.  This is the perfect way to tire them all out!  We walk past a school and the kids have been begging to play there so now that school is out we can finally go...well...for the next month anyway!

Hailey and Brynn will be 3 1/2 at the end of June.  They are both getting to be so imaginative in their play which cracks me up sometimes.  When we would show the house, we would put several of their toys in the back of the van along with any laundry baskets still full of clothes, etc.  So, one of their games is to "pack up the van" which means they put everything possible on the couch and then "drive" away.  It is so fun to see them interacting - we certainly have our share of squabbles but that is to be expected when you are expected to share pretty much everything age appropriate for you with your twin sister.  It is pretty convenient to have a twin though...they have started the giggling before bed as they chatter to each other about who knows what.  When I pop my head in to say it is time to rest, they say, "We are just talkin' mom!"  Oh, I am sure that is just the beginning.  Oh, and many times I have graduated from "mommy" to "mom"...that makes me feel like they are growing up too fast!

Here are some pictures of the kids over the last several months since I haven't posted their pics since February.

 Hailey loves to cook and bake in the kitchen.  She is like me though and doesn't like to clean up the dishes afterward ;).

 Brynn's hair can get a bit wild sometimes but I do love her curls!!

 The kids all love to feed bread to ducks or fish in the ponds at parks.

 Hailey and Brynn try to hold Klayton down for a picture of all three kids - never goes so well.

 Watching the parade at Tulip Time in Pella.

 Brynn waved back at everyone waving at her :).

 All the kids liked poffertjes...

 Mother's Day was great - I feel so blessed to be a mom.

 Playing "catch".  Somebody is excited about catching the ball!

 Everyone was excited to get the water table out again.

 Jumping on the trampoline - a new favorite.  We may have to get one of these eventually.

 Oh no, I can't find the ball!

It's A.....

Today, Kristin had her appointment and we got to find out if we were having a baby boy or girl.  We were able to take Hailey and Brynn with us, so they could see their sibling.  Before we started both girls told us that we were going to have a new baby brother but they were incorrect and we are going to have a baby girl.  We are so thankful that God has blessed us with another child and we can't wait for her to come into the world and join our family around the beginning of September.  Mommy and baby were both very healthy.  The nurse told us the baby was very active and it was very hard to get a glimpse of her face.  When we were looking at the ultrasound pictures on the screen, Hailey's comment on the below 4-D picture, "She looks like a monkey."  I think this made her sister sad as it was a little difficult to get a good look at her face after that.

Glasses!

Miss Brynn now is the proud owner of her very own purple glasses! She is very excited about them and Hailey is getting over the fact that she can see so she doesn't need them...

To start at the beginning, Brynn failed the eye screening at her three year appt. Her pediatrician referred her to see the eye doctor so Jason took her. She did great at the doctor despite the 1 1/2 hours of tests she had to do. They found she has amblyopia (lazy eye) and even though it is not noticeable by looking at her, her right eye is very weak. So, first attempt to fix the problem is glasses. Hopefully her right eye will strengthen since she can see clearly now. We go back in eight weeks to check on that eye again.

She tried on several pairs and picked these purple ones. They have little green circles on the inside of the "arms" which she thought were cute and of course, they had to be purple!!

We picked them up on Thursday afternoon and Hailey and Klayton were playing in the toy area while Brynn was getting them fitted. She walked over to the toy area and said to me, "Mama! I can see you guys!". So precious and I am so thankful that she can see better. She is still getting adjusted so the glasses come off and go back on several times during the day. However, I am confident she can see better so hopefully she will figure out that keeping them on all the time is best.

Notice the scrap on her forehead, nose, and chin. The day before she got glasses she biffed it running outside on the sidewalk and did a face plant into the cement. Thankfully this was not the day after glasses or we would have been going back for a new pair on day 1!

Her cute little purple case and Brynn's favorite - her own "cleaner". Wow...this is big time!

Catch up

I am way behind on pictures so here is a very long catch-up blog on life!
Here are a few of Hailey and Brynn's 3 year pictures.
3 year stats:
Hailey - 30.6 lbs. (around 45th %)
37 1/4 in. tall (around 50th %)
Brynn - 33 lbs. (around 65th %)
37 7/8 in tall (around 69th %)

Hailey wanted a Hello Kitty (yellow) cake for her birthday party.

Brynn wanted a Rapunzel (lemon) cake for her birthday.

We had two very excited girls the day of their party!

On to Christmas. Hailey and Brynn helped make the classic sugar cut-out cookies and decorated them with lots of sprinkles. "Lots" is an understatment. We had 3 empty bottles of sprinkles for half a recipe of cookies....yes, my girls love sprinkles!

On Friday (Christmas Eve Eve) we opened presents as a family late afternoon before we attended Christmas Eve service that evening. After birthdays, the kids were pretty good at opening their gifts and knew what they had to look forward too!

Hailey and Brynn were just as excited about Klayton's toys as their own!

Klayton, of course, loved the wrapping!

After gifts, we started a new tradition of homemade hot chocolate (the good stuff with liquid chocolate!) and cut-out cookies. It was a hit with everyone.

Saturday was Hailey and Brynn's birthday so daddy took them in their pajamas to Hy-Vee and they each got to pick out a treat from the bakery case for breakfast. They both chose cinnamon rolls and Jason picked up Starbucks too. A great way to start the morning!

We headed down to Grandpa and Grandma's later on Christmas Eve and had a nice dinner and gift exchange with my side of the family.

Grandpa Talma reading the Christmas story.

No hesitation on what to do with these wonderfully wrapped packages this year!

On Christmas day, we spent the day with Jason's family.

Always have to attempt a picture of all the kids together.

Grandpa Van Mersbergen reading the Christmas story to all the kids.

Since naps are hard to come by, it has become tradition that Brynn takes an afternoon nap on daddy on Christmas.

On Monday after Christmas, we celebrated Christmas with extended family and had our last extended family gathering on New Years' Eve. What a blessing to be surrounded by wonderful family and celebrate such an amazing season.

New Years Eve late afternoon we headed back home and had people over to bring in the new year. Below are a couple of Hailey and Brynn's good friends, Camille and Lola. Camille and the girls stayed up until 11 PM. Yes, we paid for it the next day with overtired children but we all had a great time so it was worth it!

Cold season came to our house in early January and it has been off and on since. The kids had a few days where they barely made it off the couch so we had lots of movie time!No fun to be sick! And I thought we were on the mend and today all three kids have bad runny noses again... It could be a long winter!

Speaking of winter, I guess we can't really complain since we have had wonderful weather here for December/January. Never thought the kids would be playing at the park in sweatshirts in January but when it was 64 degrees why not?! The funny thing is that Hailey and Brynn insisted they needed their winter coats because it was supposed to be "cold outside" this time of year. Silly girls.

One last picture - a favorite game is to have Klayton push Hailey around on this riding toy. Once in awhile she will return the favor but most of the time Klayton is talked into pushing. Good exercise I guess!

All for now. Maybe my resolution for 2012 should be to update more frequently. Not counting on it but it is good to have goals, right?!