DeBoer Days

A little privacy please...

2012-01-27T18:49:00.000-08:00

Our little Luke isn't so little anymore! Just ask him. He's a Big Boy! It's official. No more baby - no bottles, no crib, and now (drumroll please) no diapers!!! We still put a pull up or diaper on him for naps and at night but he always wakes up dry. AND he has woken me up in the middle of the night twice to go to the bathroom. While I'm not thrilled to be up in the middle of the night I am impressed that he woke up knowing he needed to go potty!

He finally got the hang of going 'number 2' on the potty recently. For whatever reason he has connected the need to poop with the need for privacy. Thus, when he's doing business on the potty, he'll pull the shower curtain around him and create his own little private tent, just for pooping. It amuses me to no end. The first time I witnessed him do this, he was seated on the potty, grunting away, then looks up at me and says, "Mom, I need a minute" and pulls the curtain around him. NO Joke. Word for word - what 2 year old does that? I couldn't help laughing and, of course, getting the camera. I know, I know, he'll hate me later for posting this but I'm over it. It's my right, nay duty, as a mom to embarrass my children. :)

Luke's private pooping potty place

When he's not 'busy' in private he's accessorizing himself. Our BIG Boy! How fast time flies.

We love you Luke and are SO proud of you!!

Headpieces

2012-01-16T13:20:00.000-08:00

Elin has been showing off more and more of her personality. She is such an easy-going, fun-loving, sweet little baby girl! She loves exploring and is in the early stages of getting into everything. She isn't officially crawling but she definitely gets around - I'm not entirely sure how she does it to be honest. It is some combination of bouncing on her butt and pushing with her arms, at least when she's in the sitting position. She's able to scoot around on her belly but mostly goes backwards as there is little traction for her on our laminate floors.

While she's normally surrounded by toys, like most little ones, she is naturally attracted to other items - like the laundry basket. She tried to pull herself up on it but ended up flipping it over onto her head. At first her imprisonment startled her but she regrouped and found it as entertaining as we did.

Later that night we had both kids in the bathtub. Luke and I decided it would be a fun game to see how many foam letters we could get to stick to Elin's head. I think we had 7 or 8 on there at one point!

She wears them so well!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

So, I'm making good on my resolution - Christmas pictures/stories, as promised!

We were able to spend a total of 10 days in IL with my family this year. It was fabulous. As we were anticipating our trip to the Midwest, we were praying for two things: good health throughout our trip and at least a day of snow. Alas, we didn't get any snow BUT we were the only ones of the whole Thomson side to stay healthy! (I actually did come down with the flu one night, but it was relatively short lived, so I'm not really counting it.)

The locals were enjoying 'nice' winter weather, which as far as Californians are concerned, was freezing. :) All joking aside, we (mostly Luke) were glad to be able to get out of the house and do some outside activities- like go on a 'tractor ride' up and down the driveway.

Luke and Micah had fun trying to catch some snow flurries.We had plenty of indoors fun too- Pops played some songs on the piano.

Jingle Bells was a huge hit with the boys!

We went to the Children's Museum one morning (I don't have many good pictures, so I'm not going to bother posting any- sorry). Luke and Micah had a blast playing at all of the different exhibits. Luke's favorite was the water tables - he was totally soaked by the time we left. Matt attempted to dry out Luke's shirt with the blowdryers in the bathroom, without much success. Needless to say, that was a cold ride home for poor, warm-blooded Luke.

Elin liked the museum too - particularly because it gave her an excuse to show off her new boots from Aunt Andrea!

NeeNee and the boys decorated a gingerbread train. I must say, I was skeptical of how this activity would go - anticipating way too much sugar being ingested, a few fits being thrown, fights over frosting, inevitable meltdowns... you get the idea. But much to my delight, that was not the case at all! They really got into it and did a great job decorating the train, and the sugar intake was minimal (at least as far as I know). :)

Matt's mom went up to Michigan after Eric and Candice's wedding then took the train back to Chicago to spend Christmas with us at my parents house. It was great to spend additional time with her. Elin was especially spoiled with all the extra snuggles.

My mom gave all of the 'young 'ins' pajamas on Christmas Eve. We had a few attempts at a picture of all of us modeling our new jams... yeah, this is the best it got. sigh.

Elin was super excited about her first Christmas..see!

Luke was a champ in the self-restraint department and resisted the temptation to dive into all those presents before the rest of the family came over. After opening presents, the little ones were all ready for a nap. We actually got all four kids to nap at the same time, believe it or not! It was fun to play some games without being interrupted by kids asking for juice, needing a diaper change, or fighting over the same toy. We had our traditional Christmas meal of Swedish sausage (Grandma Phillips would be proud that Luke inhaled the Swedish meatballs and had two links of sausage). After cleaning up dinner, we had a surprise visit from the Big Man himself, Santa! Luke was pretty excited that Santa was at Pops and Nee Nee's house - at least until Jim and Julie's dog, Gracie, saw the intruder and sprung into guard dog action! It was quite entertaining actually.

All in all, it was a great Christmas day and Christmas vacation as a whole! We are always overwhelmed when we think about all of the ways we are blessed at Christmas time, this year was no exception.

Year in Review

2012-01-02T11:44:00.000-08:00

This year I resolve to get back on the blogging band wagon. I really enjoy blogging and especially love looking back at past posts, therefore, I am determined to get back in the habit. I was thinking that I would try and 'catch up' on the missing months that have gone by without a single post but, alas, that is too overwhelming. So rather than attempt to catch up here is the DeBoer year (well, maybe not year but at least the last 8 months) in review:

We sold a house, bought a house, and had a baby... at the same time!

Here I am, in labor at the hospital, signing papers with our fabulous realtor to close the deal on our new house.

Leaving the hospital with a new baby girl!

Along with the new baby girl came a new love for all things pink.

Bye Bye Beaumont

Hello Redlands (and lots of work! The front yard already looks way different.)

We said goodbye to our exchange student of two years, Jung.

We welcomed nephew/cousin, Caleb Wilson Klingemaier

We welcomed Julie into the Thomson family!

Jim and Julie's wedding in IL - July.

Luke had mono and developed the worst case of hives I've ever seen!

We welcomed Jordan into the DeBoer family!

Jordan and Andrea's wedding - Lynden, WA. - July

Elin was baptized in September which meant more visits from family!

Luke started toilet training!

He's still getting the hang of it but we're nearly there!

The Klingenmaier clan came out to visit over Thanksgiving week again this year.

We were thrilled to have them celebrate the holiday with us.

Hopefully we'll make this a yearly tradition!

During the week the Kling's were out here we had loads of fun-

We went 'hiking' in Oak Glen then visited Los Rios Ranchos where they had a petting zoo, hay rides, live music, coloring contests, etc.

We went to the S.S. Midway in San Diego. The adults had fun seeing the different planes and learning about the way of life for a navy man on the ship. The kids were a bit young to fully appreciate it all. They liked the planes but couldn't quite understand why they couldn't climb all over them. :)

We visited the beach in San Diego while we were there since it was such a gorgeous day!

Walking the 'boardwalk'

The boys had a blast digging in the sand and splashing in the water! I didn't think to bring Luke's suit so he was soaked and his diaper lung down to his knees after about 30 minutes. whoops.

Beach Babe soaking up the sun.

We fed the swarms of ducks at Ford Park. There were SO many ducks, it was kinda unbelievable. They weren't timid either - they'd snatch the bread right out of your hand when you weren't looking!

We visited Santa at Bass Pro Shops (free pictures with the Big Man)

This was our first time getting pictures with Santa - both my kids aren't quite sure about it.

Luke made his Christmas Program Debut at our church. He stole the show by falling off the steps into the poinsettas! (I'll try to post the video. It is hilarious!)

December had us traveling again - back to the Midwest for Eric and Candice's wedding and Christmas with the Thomsons

We traveled to Oxford, Ohio for Eric and Candice's wedding.

Which also meant seeing lots of extended family!

Welcome Candice! We love you!

Luke and Uncle 'E'

Ring bearer and two of the flower girls, enjoying a hard-earned sucker.

Elin and Daddy - rocking the red, white and black.

I've decided this post is long enough without all the baby's first Christmas pictures from our time in Chicago. I'll just have to make good on my resolution to update again!

Of course, I can't do a year in review without some mention of all the sports we've (Matt's) watched throughout the year. Elway, Jeter, Swisher, and of course, Tebow are all names used in daily conversation in the DeBoer house.

And we wouldn't be good Broncos fans without doing a little Tebowing!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful 2011! We look forward to see what blessings God has in store for us all in 2012!

Milestones

2011-10-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

The guilt is setting in once again. That 'second child' guilt that has plagued me since learning I was pregnant is hounding me. Every, ok, so maybe not every...but most significant and even insignificant events of the first year of Luke's life were recorded, pictures and video taken, and posted to the blog. And here we are in October, Elin is 5 months old, and very few of her significant milestones have been mentioned. She is right on track developmentally and continues in the 90th percentile across the board (height, weight, head circumference). We have been blessed with one healthy, happy baby!

Onto the milestones: (please forgive the terrible quality of our pictures - our digital camera officially broke and we haven't had the time, or funds, to buy a new one so some of the pictures were taken with the I-pad - thus they are pretty grainy and blurry, sorry.)

Milestone #1: Rolling over!

Elin has been rolling over, back to front, for awhile now. At first it was almost involuntary. She'd flip herself over quickly and then get mad because she was stuck on her stomach. She has since learned how to keep herself on her back and roll over only when she wants to. Just yesterday she started flipping over from her stomach to her back too. She's quite the mover and shaker, no doubt about it.

About to flip

On the belly and not too happy about it.

Milestone #2: Baptism

We had Elin baptized on September 11th. We were very blessed to have all the grandparents in town for the event. Even my godparents (Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Mark) and cousin Kristen were able to be here. It was awesome to be surrounded by so much family! Elin wore my great-grandma's baptism dress which is over 100 years old! She is the 5th generation that has worn this dress for a baptism. I think that is incredible. It means so much to me that my daughter wore the same dress I wore as a baby, my sister wore, my cousins, my grandmother and great grandmother wore. I was pretty nervous that she'd have a total blow out or puke all over it or I'd rip it somehow but all those fears were unfounded. And apart from Luke wanting to explore the 'stage' and nearly knocking down one of the displays during the service, the baptism itself was perfect. Elin barely flinched as the water was poured on her head. :)

Elin in my great-grandma's baptism dress.

Since I was slightly paranoid about ruining the dress I made another pillowcase dress for Elin to wear after being baptized. It turned out pretty cute, if I don't say so myself. :)

Milestone #3: the exersaucer

Ok, so it really isn't a milestone to speak of, but she does enjoy being on her feet vs. laying down. She spends many a happy moment in there!

And, of course, so does Luke. :)

Milestone #4: Solids

At Elin's 4 month well-baby check up we were given the green light to go ahead and start her on solids - beginning with rice cereal and moving up to fruits and veggies. We weren't super committed to feeding her solids, at least not at first. But then realized that she slept MUCH better after eating cereal and that was all the convincing we needed to go full-steam ahead. Currently, she's eating solids twice a day - usually oatmeal and a fruit around lunch and rice cereal and a veggie at dinner. She certainly enjoys eating (maybe you can tell by all her rolls and chub). Some of the favorites include peaches, sweet potatoes, pears, and peas - apparently foods that start with 'P' are high on her list. :)

Mmmm. Rice Cereal

Don't mind my ridiculous face in this picture. I have to consciously tell myself not to try and 'swallow' for Elin while feeding her. Even when I remind myself, I still end up making these faces and opening my mouth when I want her to open hers... can't help it.

And, of course, when we made a big deal out of Elin getting her first rice cereal, Luke needed to get in on the cereal action too.

Elin isn't the only one reaching major milestones in the DeBoer household. Luke is also growing up way too fast. He is now sleeping in a 'big boy bed'. He has been in his new bed since we got home from the wedding circuit this summer. The first night he fell out once. The second night Matt went in to check on him around 11pm and couldn't find him! (a little freaky actually). We're not sure if he fell out of bed or if he crawled out on purpose but either way we found him asleep on the floor under the bed! After the third night he got the hang of it and has been sleeping well ever since.

Luke slept on a mattress on the floor of our room while family was in town for Elin's baptism. All sprawled out.

We are also in the throes of potty-training. We haven't been super serious about it but he is getting the hang of it. At this point it is 'hit or miss', depending on the day. Some days Luke will be very excited about going on his potty and wearing underpants. Other days, he throws a fit and cries for a diaper. I am not pushing it right now - I figure that he'll get it when he gets it. I try to encourage him to use the potty but I'm not willing to battle him about it, at least for now. :)

Luke and his potty

(yes, there is poop in the potty, it just isn't visible in the picture - probably a good thing)

Elin is up from her nap and letting me know that she's not happy to be left in her crib any longer, so that's it for now. Hopefully I'll get back on the blogging bandwagon and post more often than once a month, or longer. And since I feel weird about a picture of a pant-less Luke next to a poopy potty being the last image you see, here's a much nicer picture...

my little cuddle bug!

still here

2011-09-17T22:18:00.001-07:00

We're still here, I promise. I've just been terribly unfaithful about keeping our blog updated. Usually when I take such a long hiatus from blogging it is for one of 2 reasons: 1) we've been out of town or 2) there hasn't been much going on that I consider 'blog-worthy'. There have been plenty of events in the life of the DeBoers that still need to be captured on the blog, I assure you. And I promise you I will get around to it one of these days... only now it's nearly 10:30pm and it has been a busy day and busier week and I'm spent. So be patient. :)

Because I know that most of you who check the blog faithfully are not nearly as interested in what Matt and I are up to but come for the stories and pictures of our kids I'll post a few, just for you. :)

Sew Much Fun

2011-08-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

One of the (many) things that I love about having a daughter is the fact that now I have an excuse to make all sorts of fun craft things. Not that I really needed an excuse before Elin was born, but now it seems I have more motivation to create girly, frilly, pretty things. I have been having a great time finding craft ideas online and letting my imagination go wild, telling myself "I could make that"... whether or not whatever I attempt actually turns out is another story.

Last week I was bitten by the crafting bug and felt the urge to make something for Elin. Unfortunately, my supply of 'girly' craft supplies (ie: pink fabrics, ribbons, glitter, etc.) is quite sad. I do, however, have a surplus of Broncos and sports-related fabrics.

The result....

A Broncos Headband/Bow

"Dear God, please let the Broncos have a winning season"

A few days later a good friend of mine came over with her sewing machine and we were inspired to sew pillowcase dresses (all the rage these days) ;) We looked at one that she had bought for Elin off of Etsy.com and pretty much figured out our own pattern. It was SEW much fun to sit and sew, drink coffee, and chat together! I can't wait for our next project, Susanne!

Even Luke got in on the sewing action

Drumroll please....

TADA!! The finished dress!

(I honestly think I'm more impressed with the fact that I actually finished it, and quickly, than I am with the dress itself. I have a bad habit of letting craft project sit half-finished for months)

It definitely helps that my model is SEW darn cute!

Martha Stewart, I am not. But I did have fun and look forward to future sewing/crafting fun! (and I am on the hunt for some fun 'boyish' crafts/sewing projects, so Luke won't feel left out, don't worry) :)

These Days...

2011-08-12T15:03:00.000-07:00

We've been back from the Tour de Weddings 2011 for a few weeks now and have somewhat settled into life in Redlands. For the first few days I was struggling to remember where I had unpacked various items and felt completely scatterbrained. Now I know where things are (for the most part) but I'm still battling a bad case of scatterbrain-itis. There is so much to do around the house, beyond the normal daily stuff like laundry, cooking, cleaning, kids, etc. that my desire to multi-task is backfiring on me and I end up being far less productive than I want.I Oh well, I guess that's just how life is going to be and I'm ok with it... or I will be ok with it (I don't have much of a choice)

We've been trying to find a healthy balance between working around the house - painting, yard work, etc. and relaxing and enjoying our kids in the summer months while we are both home (gotta love the perks of both of us working at a school). :) We have done quite a bit around the house but that'll be another post another time. We have had fun playing around the house, taking walks, getting together with friends, and really just enjoying the DeBoer Four!

Getting silly with photo booth on the computer

Matt got an I-Pad for school. While he's been busy learning how to use it and apply the apps to teaching 6th grade Luke has been busy learning to knock down the pigs in Angry Birds. :)

We've gone to the park a few times (mostly in the morning or evening when it isn't so hot!). Elin definitely likes to lay out on a blanket and watch the wind move the leaves and tree branches

We've been torturing our daughter by forcing her endure 'tummy time'. She is not a fan, to say the least. She will tolerate it for a little while then quickly starts complaining. It is paying off though - neck muscles are getting stronger and stronger!

She definitely prefers to lay on her back, especially if she has company

I love this picture. I couldn't resist putting it in this post.

Its as though she's sticking her tongue out at me -

"stop taking nudie pics of me in the tub yeesh!"

Sweet sibling love!

The DeBoer Four.

This family picture isn't all that bad, actually! We'll take what we can get.

Andrea & Jordan's wedding week

2011-08-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

Thankfully, Luke got over his hive-attack after a few [miserable] days. We were extremely thankful that he was completely over his illnesses Andrea's wedding! On to the main event of our trip to WA... Andrea and Jordan's wedding! That's right, both of our younger siblings are now married. The wedding was fabulous! Andrea did an incredible job with all the planning and organizing. It was so great to see how the entire extended family and friends rallied around the couple and the DeBoer family for the wedding day - helping with flowers, appetizers, decorations, setting up/tearing down, etc. What a blessing! The wedding was at this great venue (which was actually a personal residence) with sprawling, beautifully landscaped fields and an airplane hanger~ which is where the reception was held. It was gorgeous! Unfortunately, it rained the day of the wedding so the ceremony had to be moved into the hanger. But it was still absolutely gorgeous! Beyond the weather being less than cooperative, everything else was picture perfect. You'll have to just take my word for it. Again, I have a pathetically small amount of pictures from the actual wedding day. I know other family members were taking pictures so I'm hoping to steal some of theirs eventually. Until then these will just have to do.

Matt and his sister, the beautiful bride, on the dance floor

Luke and Ava (1st cousins once removed...I think) cozying up to watch a movie on the I-touch before the ceremony. Too cute!!

Luke was pretty wiped out after the ceremony. He didn't take much of a nap that day (maybe dozed in the car for a grand total of 15 minutes, if that) and played throughout the ceremony in the back fields with an awesome babysitter. He put his head on my shoulder after dinner and was out.

...But not for long. Once the music and dancing started, he was wide awake and ready to boogie down!

After the wedding we still had several days left in Lynden with family. We had a nice balance of relaxing around the house and taking a few day trips.

Matt and Elin taking it easy

Elin and Auntie Andrea sleeping in on a rainy morning (days before the wedding, I just had to post the picture. It is too sweet not to.)

Great Grandpa DeBoer with Elin

Taking baths in the kitchen sink. I love the look on Elin's face in this picture. And no, we didn't do the dishes at the same time.

More relaxing with Elin

We took Luke to this awesome new playground in Lynden. Seriously, this playground was amazing! Luke, however, was less than impressed. He was much more excited about exploring the creek, throwing rocks into it, looking for fish... you know, doing boy things. :) I guess that just goes to show that God builds a better playground, hands down!

Picking raspberries off the bushes in Grammie's backyard. We picked enough for snacking, making jam and even a raspberry pie! Yum.

We took the ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island one day. It was ridiculously cold for being the middle of July! (So cold in fact, that Grandma and Grandpa DeBoer felt bad that I only had a light shirt on and bought me a jacket! Thanks again G&G!) The weather eventually did warm up a bit and we had a great time walking around, looking at the boats, and checking out the shops.

Luke and Matt on the ferry.

Luke still talks about riding on the 'Big Boat'

Elin, all snug as a bug in her stroller.

I think she slept the entire time we were on the island, honestly.

We also went to Birch Bay one evening for dinner. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, skipped rocks on the water, and had a marvelous time.

Again, I think Elin slept the whole time we were at the bay.

Showing off the perfect skipping rock... at least according to Luke

Roasting marshmallows with Uncle Eric and Aunt Candice...

...and stuffing his face.

Even sharing some with mom!

Flying!

Before we knew it, it was time for these DeBoers to fly back to California and resume a normal life... whatever that is. We had such an incredible time and are SO looking forward to round 3 of the wedding circuit in December (Eric and Candice in Ohio)!!!

Holy Hives!

2011-08-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

**Remember how I said to remember the whole strep throat/amoxicillin deal from the previous post... here's the rest of the story***

After spending 10 days with the Thomson side in IL we headed to Washington to spend 2 weeks with the DeBoer side for Andrea's wedding. We haven't spent much time in Lynden since getting married (like 10 days, total, in 6 years) so we were looking forward to being back in Matt's hometown, relaxing with family and helping with the wedding preparations.

At some point during the flight from Chicago to Seattle we noticed that Luke appeared to have a lot of red dots all over his arms and legs. He had been playing outside at my parent's house the night before so I just chalked it up to mosquito bites. As time went on, however, we realized that these were no mosquito bites but hives, clearly an allergic reaction to something. We were racking our brains trying to think of what he may have ingested or been exposed to that may have caused this. I called his pediatrician while waiting for our bags at baggage claim and was told to give him Benadryl. So we stopped at a pharmacy and gave Luke a dose of Benadryl on the road... and another dose after dinner... and another dose before bed... it wasn't working. In fact, things seemed to be getting worse. He was noticeably uncomfortable and itchy and his lips and hands were swollen. So, I called the doctor again. He told me to up the dose and if things continued to get worse and his mouth kept swelling we'd have to take him in to be seen.

'mosquito-bite' hives - first night in at Grammie's house

Uncomfortable but putting on a happy face

The next morning thing were worse so we took Luke into see a doctor at Lynden Family Medicine. I must say, the doctor we saw was awesome. He was so nice and understanding, actually taking the time to sit and talk with us and really listen to all our concerns, etc. Since we weren't home and able to see our normal pediatrician, it was such a comfort to have a caring, understanding doctor see Luke.

We told this doctor that Luke had recently been diagnosed with strep and was on his 8th day of amoxicillin and that I am allergic to amoxicillin, so that could possibly be contributing to his hives. He told us that 'old-school doctors' used to have trouble diagnosing strep vs. mono. They would prescribe amoxicillin or some other antibiotic and if the patient didn't break out in hives, it was strep. If they did break out in hives (even after several days on the meds), it was mono. So he ordered a blood test. Ding, ding, ding... Luke had mono! How and where a 2-year-old got mono is beyond me but the next few days were absolutely miserable. We, obviously, stopped the amoxicillin and continued giving him Benadryl, alternating Motrin and Tylenol and pretty much just laid on the couch watching movies and resting.

Poor Baby!

After 2 days, Luke's hives were still horrible and he appeared to be in such discomfort that I called the doctor again. I'm talking, the kid, who is normally extremely active and doesn't want to be held/cuddled for long, would not move any body part except his eyes. He would wince and cry when we moved him at all. It broke my heart! The doctor (again, I have to sing his praises) agreed to prescribe him prednosone, a steroid, to help with the swelling and itching of the hives. Thank the Lord, this worked. By the time Luke had the steroid in his system for 24 hours, the hives were going down and he was getting back to his active, happy self.

I hated the fact that he was sick and so uncomfortable but on the upside, I got lots of quality cuddle time.

Still puffy (part from the hives, part probably from the steroid) but getting better! Ready to play ball, hives or no hives, that's the Luke we know and love :)

Proof that he made a full recovery ~ just 3 days after starting the steroid Luke was splashing in the creek, playing at the park, and wearing us out. :)

Jim and Julie's Wedding Week

2011-08-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

We made it to Chicago without a single hiccup... easy flight, little traffic, no problems whatsoever. We got to my parents house and then things started unraveling. Luke wasn't feeling well and was running a fever that wouldn't go down with tylenol, Matt caught a nasty stomach bug (I'll spare you the details but trust me when I was it wasn't pretty), I caught the stomach bug a bit later. Needless to say we were all run down and feeling lousy for the first few days. I ended up taking Luke to the health clinic after two days of his fever and just not acting like himself. The doctor did a strep culture. The 10 minute culture came back negative but the doctor was sure that the 24 hour one would be positive since he had all the symptoms so he prescribed amoxicillin anyway. That seemed to do the trick and Luke seemed to be back to his normal self shortly. ***Remember this for an upcoming blog post***

Luke had a great time playing with cousin Micah aka "Mac" as Luke likes to call him. They played together great for the most part. Luke is in the delightful stage referred to as "The Terrible Two's" where everything is 'mine', sharing is from the devil and hitting is an acceptable reaction to whenever something doesn't go my way. That said, we had some challenging moments, but overall they had a lot of fun together and were so much fun to see interacting.

Luke thought rides on Pops' tractor were every bit as much fun as anything at Disneyland

Uncle Aaron took him on his first bike ride, which he LOVED! I'm thinking we may have to invest in some bikes and a baby buggy... we'll see.

With everyone in the DeBoer clan feeling under the weather for the first few days and the overall busyness of getting ready for the wedding and family coming to town, we did a lot of watching Buzz (Toy Story 1, 2, and 3), Cars, Elmo, and Thomas.

Elin seemed to think the little chairs that Pops and Nee Nee had were pretty sweet too.

But she was much more comfortable and content to be laying out on the blanket with her cousin Caleb

...when he wasn't punching her in the face, that is.

As I'm typing this I am realizing that I this is the first time I have mentioned Caleb, our new nephew! Introducing Caleb Wilson Klingenmaier - born June 2! Healthy baby boy (he was as big at birth as Elin was at 1 month - ounce for ounce, inch for inch.) We are so thrilled to have him as an incredible addition to our crazy family! Welcome Caleb! We love you!!

Speaking of incredible additions to our family ~ Jim and Julie are married!!! It was an absolutely gorgeous wedding. We were honored to be able to participate in it. I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I would have liked - a combination of being in the wedding party, trying to keep an eye on the little ones and my camera is on its death bed (seriously, I have to shake, smack and squeeze it to get the screen to show up. I need a new one in the worst way!) So, you'll have to forgive my lack of pictures from such a special occasion and take my word for it that it was beyond beautiful. We couldn't be happier to have a new sister-in-law! Welcome Julie!!

The newlyweds shaking their stuff on the dance floor

Luke and Micah were the studly little ring-bearers - looking smashing in their tuxes

Mmmm, wedding cake.

To think that someday Matt will be walking Elin down the isle... makes me a little teary just thinking about it.

Elin was awesome all day. There was no shortage of people willing to snuggle her at the wedding so she got passed around quite a bit. I'm sure on some level she loved all the attention.

The day after the wedding was a party at my parent's house, as the tradition goes. We Thomsons have to stretch everything out as long as possible, especially when it comes to partying, so this was no exception! It was so great to be able to spend more time with family and friends that we don't get to see very often.

Luke and Matt were a little worn out from the previous day's events and took nice long naps.

We went to a parade the morning of the Fourth of July. Luke was pumped about seeing all the trucks and horses and even Buzz Lightyear made an appearance!

Elin wasn't quite as excited about it.

(this is quite possibly the worst picture we have of her, but I couldn't help posting it!

Check out the chub!!)

Again, we partied on the 4th with a BBQ at my parent's house. Dad T smoked some ribs, we played yard games, the boys swam in the pool... it was your typical, all-American way to celebrate the 4th.

Chillin' with Katy

Pops takes a break from Grill-Masterhood to hold his grand-daughter. Good trade.

We had a great time in IL overall. Matt and I even got out one evening for a date! (which we pathetically spent going to dinner then Target, so romantic.) As always, the time went by far too fast and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. It was easier knowing that we'll see Pops and Nee Nee in September for Elin's baptism and the Klingenmaier clan for Thanksgiving. (Jim and Julie, you guys need to plan a trip west sometime soon!)

Thanks for everything Mom and Dad T! We love you!

Catching Up

2011-08-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

To be honest, I would really rather be laying on the couch, watching some ridiculous show on tv, wasting both my time and my braincells. I'm worn out and feeling way too scatterbrained to try and put two thoughts together let alone try and update our blog on the happenings of the DeBoer life for the past 2 months. But, alas, I know that if I don't force myself to get back in the habit of blogging I will regret it. I am already hearing Elin's future comments about my lack of blogging (my version of a baby book) for her. So here I am trying to figure out where to begin...

To say that the past two months have been insane would be putting it lightly. Since my last post we moved, again. This time we moved into our new house in Redlands, CA! The move went about as well as could be expected. We leaned heavily on the support of our amazing friends who were willing to help us move for the second time in 3 weeks ~ a lot to ask of friends who also have jobs, families and lives to get on with. We continue to be EXTREMELY grateful for all the help! We spent our first night on Wednesday, June 22 and had 4 crazy days of unpacking and attempting to get somewhat settled in.

Bye-Bye Beaumont. Thank you for the memories!

First dinner in our new house = a picnic consisting of McDonald's dollar menu items eaten off napkins on the unwashed kitchen floor. We're classy like that.

Unpacking, hopefully for the last time in a long time!

Thank goodness for the Baby K'tan! I'm not sure I would have gotten much done without it.

Thank goodness for Disney DVDs! I'm not sure I would have gotten much done without them!

(judge all you want... Luke watched hours and hours of Disney and Pixar movies while we cleaned and unpacked and packed up for our trips. It's how we stayed semi sane.)

I can't remember all of what I have already posted about our new house...have I mentioned it's a "fixer-upper"? Yeah, this house was in dire need of some love and attention (not to mention time, money and blood, sweat, and tears) We got right to work fixing/replacing the things we could, especially the things that needed to be done before we took off for 3+ weeks. Changing the locks was at the top of the list.

Matt is quickly becoming more and more of a Mr. Fix-it. I guess the 'do-it-yourself or pay to have someone else do it' mindset is good motivation... at least when the budget only stretches so far :)

Luke follows Daddy's lead and gets right to work on all the other doorknobs throughout the house.

And there's Elin also hard at work. Growing so quickly is hard work!

Knowing that our trips on the wedding circuit would be hectic we decided to see how Elin would do with a bottle before leaving CA. She was a total champ, chugging down a good 5 oz our first attempt, with me in the room to boot! I must say, I was relieved that she took the bottle so well. I do enjoy nursing, for the most part, but it is so nice that Matt can get in on the feeding action now and then. :)

The 4 days in our new house blew by and June 26th was here before we knew it. Thus, we headed to Chicago for part one of the wedding extravaganza! I was more than a little anxious about how both kids would do while traveling but they exceeded my expectations in a big way! Elin slept in the Baby K'tan pretty much the entire time we were in the airport (Again, major props to the baby K'tan ~ not sure what I would have done without it). Luke was also a total stud. It definitely helped that my mom had thought ahead and mailed us some traveling gifts for Luke to unwrap at various points during our trip. (Major props to Nee-Nee and the dollar store!)

DeBoer family of four Chicago bound!

Luke was so excited to ride on a big airplane! He sat in his seat like such a big boy, looking around, taking it all in. By the time the pilot turned off the Fasten Seat Belts light, Luke simply put his head down on Matt's lap and went right to sleep! He slept for more than half the flight. To say that was awesome would be a bit of an understatement.

Elin was as happy as can be after getting some good sleep in the K'tan. She and I had a grand ol' time making faces at each other. She's all smiles lately!

Her little smile, especially when you can see her dimples, just makes me melt!

There's plenty more to come, believe me! But I'm calling it a night. Stay Tuned.

Yikes

2011-06-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

Wow. It has been far too long since I've posted on our blog. Sorry. And I'm going to apologize in advance for my future lack of posting in the next few weeks.... we're a little busy. In the past month we've had a baby, sold a house, bought a house, moved into a rental, completed another school year, said goodbye to our exchange student, and kept up with a very active 2 year old on top of the normal day to day-ness of life. Now we're packing up again and moving into our new house only to pack up again - suitcases this time - to leave for about 3 1/2 weeks. To say it has been a whirlwind is putting it lightly. We're tired, to say the least, but we have been extremely blessed. Everything has gone very smoothly in terms of all the moving and house selling/buying. Elin is such a good baby, which also makes things easier. I'm sure I'd be even more frazzled if she was fussy and kept me up all night!

I still have hopes of updating our blog eventually with tales from these past few weeks... Elin's birth, transitioning to a family of 4, family being in town, the move(s), etc. but don't hold your breath. It may be awhile ( a long while). I will try to post pictures more frequently... like bait to keep you coming back and checking in on the (crazy) life of the DeBoers!

For Starters....

Attempt at a family photo

Elin being swarmed by Matt's students
First bath
No, I'm not trying to suffocate my baby. I'm trying to clean under her double chin where the spit up likes to hide and start to stink.

Girl time - watching The Bachelorette. LOVE it!

Jung's graduation

Entertaining Luke through movies on the internet while we unpack/pack/tend to a new baby

Grammie DeBoer with Elin

Snuggle time with Auntie Andrea

Dimples!

So, I hope this was enough to satisfy for now. As I said, we'll be moving (again) this week then leave next week for nearly a month as we head to Chicago for my brother's wedding then up to Lynden for Matt's sister's wedding! So, if I don't keep up with the blog for awhile I hope you extend me a little grace. I'll be back, I promise.

Update

2011-05-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

Things have been slightly crazy in the DeBoer house these past few weeks. I'm feeling a little guilty that Elin is now 2 weeks old and I have yet to post more pictures or updates on how she is doing. It's not that I haven't been taking pictures, I assure you that I have been taking plenty! My lack of updating the blog has more to do with the fact that we have to be out of this house by Sunday at 5:00! Which means that we have had our hands more than a little full with packing everything up, signing papers for both selling this house and buying our new house, and organizing the move. Add to that the fact that we're adjusting to being a family of 4, learning about our new daughter's eating/sleeping habits, keeping up with laundry (Elin's digestive system works VERY well - lots of poop and spit up ~ yay.) and trying to keep a very active 2 year old from unpacking all the boxes we pack up. So, I hope you can understand and extend me some grace for not updating the blog. Believe me, it is on my to-do list. It's just a lower priority at the moment. I'll get around to it eventually... bear with me.

Here's a few cute pictures to (hopefully) satisfy you for the time being. :)

Sugar and Spice

2011-05-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

And everything nice... that's what our little girl is made of!

Introducing:

Elin Joy DeBoer!

Arrived May 11, 2011

8:25pm

8lbs 6 oz. 20 1/2 in.

We are proud to announce that Elin Joy (pronounced Ee - lynn... yes, like Tiger Woods' ex-wife) made her debut Wednesday! She is healthy and beautiful and we are just, oh so thrilled with her addition to our family!

To put all the rumors to rest, yes, I was induced... and for purely selfish reasons. At my last few doctor's appointments I had not made much progress in terms of being dilated, etc. I simply asked my doctor at what point would he start talking/thinking of inducing. (I told him how my parents were coming into town and I was starting to worry that my dad may miss out on the birth of this baby if he/she is as late as Luke was) Honestly, I thought he would tell me we'd wait and see... nope. He shrugged and simply said, "let's see when I'm on call.... how's the 11th work for you?" Done deal.

I had mixed feelings about scheduling an induction before my official due date - like I was being a control freak or taking some of the 'adventure' out of going into labor on my own. Matt, on the other hand, was relieved to have something nailed down, especially in the midst of all the chaos in our lives right now. Not to mention that he now had set dates for making sub plans.

Our last picture as a family of 3

So at 6:45 am on May 11 we packed up and headed into Redlands Community Hospital ready and rearing to go! In fact, when I got hooked up to all the monitors at the hospital we realized that I was already having contractions on my own, just not strong or consistent enough to really take notice of - so who knows? Maybe May 11th would have been the date Elin was to arrive with or without the induction. Regardless, she's here! Perhaps eventually I'll update with more of the "birth story" but for now you'll have to settle for a few pictures.... plenty more to come, I promise. :)

Elin Joy - big, healthy baby girl!

Tired, emotional mama and new precious daughter
snug as a bug

Daddy's girl

Countdown

2011-05-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

I am officially two days away from my due date so I thought I'd better post the latest baby bump pictures before this baby arrives and I get too far behind on the things of life. I've been feeling pretty good actually, MUCH better than I was at this point in my first pregnancy. I've been able to sleep most nights in my own bed, my ankles still resemble ankles (at least most of the time), I haven't retained as much water - some, but not as much as with Luke, and I'm far less anxious about every little contraction/ache/pain. The worst discomfort I'm coping with is carpal tunnel in my hands, which is more annoying than painful. But if this is the worst of it, I can deal with that! We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of #2 - especially now that we finally agree on names (we may or may not have drawn the names out of a hat... whatever works right?) :) We are ready to meet him or her whenever he/she is ready to make his/her grand entrance!

37/38 weeks pregnant.

I wore this to work just after Easter and the students told me my belly looked like a giant Easter egg. Just what every woman wants to hear. :)

38/39 weeks along....

???? to go.

Blur

2011-05-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

The last month has been a blur, a total and complete blur. Before any of our loyal blog readers start jumping to conclusions about why that may be, let me set the record straight... we have not had the baby yet. I am a few days away from my due date and feeling pretty good actually, so that's not the reason for craziness in the DeBoer house... at least not yet. :) Lots has happened in the past few weeks. I'm not entirely sure where to start....

About a month ago Matt and I decided to try and put our house on the market. We had been talking and praying about this for a long time. (We are staying in Southern California - sorry all out of state friends/family who were hoping we'd move back to the Midwest...not so. We're just hoping to find a home in Redlands - more central to where we spent the majority of our time) After talking with a friend who is a realtor we decided to go for it and see if we got any action. We spent the majority of our spring break cleaning, fixing, painting, etc, to get our house ready to list. We put our house on the market on a Wednesday morning and by the following Tuesday we had an offer! That's right, 6 days later we received an offer on our house! We couldn't believe it, especially in this market. We figured our house would sit on the market for a few months at least. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we'd be looking at an offer in under a week! We looked it over, talked with our realtor, friends and family, and of course, prayed like crazy about it and decided to accept the offer. The offer is contingent on us finding suitable housing - be that a rental or a home to purchase - but the buyer wants to close in 30 days. So that meant that we had to hit the ground running searching for a new place to live! And the search is still on! We found a house that we really like - excellent location, great layout, nice sized lot, etc. but needs quite a bit of TLC...ok, honestly it may need more than just some TLC, like some blood, sweat and tears, but we're willing to look past all that and see the home's potential, at least enough to submit an offer. Which is what we did. We submitted a low ball offer and are in the waiting/praying game until we hear back. It is a bank-owned house so things tend to take longer. In the meantime, we have talked with a very generous man from church who is willing to rent us his furnished home on a month to month basis - and include utilities, garage storage for our stuff, and cheaper rent than we pay in our current mortgage! God is SO Good!!

So where does all this leave us now?

We are set to vacate this house by May 31st at the latest and move into the rental. In the meantime, we'll hopefully hear back one way or another about home in Redlands and see what doors God opens and shuts. Oh yeah, and I'll have a baby sometime in there! Just to add one more thing to our to-do list. Do you think we're insane? I wouldn't blame you if you did. There have been times that I wonder if we've lost our minds, especially early on I could not imagine how everything was going to work out. But God is SO faithful. We have continued to be blown away with how He has provided.

Amazingly, we aren't feeling too stressed out or even overwhelmed. All along we have been praying that God will open doors and give us the faith to walk through them. At this point we don't really even know what to pray for except that God's will be done. We know that He is faithful and has blessed us in extreme ways, especially through this whole process. We are continuing to trust Him, knowing that He is in control, He knows what the future holds, and we rest in His amazing love for us.

SO, that about sums it up. Throw in Easter, busy spring months at school, church responsibilities, a trip to the Wild Animal Park, Holland Festival, and being 9 months pregnant... see why the month has been a bit of a blur?

Two!

2011-04-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, does time fly! It is crazy to think that we are the parents of a two-year-old already! That's right, Luke turned TWO last Tuesday. We had a good time looking back down memory lane, celebrating Luke and all that he has brought into our lives. Over the last two years he has brought us so much joy, such love, such fun... along with times of frustration, annoyance, and headaches... but we're choosing to remember and focus on the joy, love and fun stuff. We love our (not so little) Luke. Happy Birthday big boy!

We decided to use Luke's birthday as an excuse to have all our friends over for a little BBQ. It just so happens that all our friends are the parents of Luke's friends, so it worked out perfectly! The house was packed with people we love and who care about Luke. I know I've said it before, but it is SO amazing to have such a great circle of friends. When we live far away from family and relatives can't be here to celebrate with us, it is awesome to have such great friends who, in many ways, are family to fill that gap.

Look at all those booster seats!

Luke and his buddies
Chowing down on hot dogs- classic toddler birthday food.

Don't forget the cake!

Who needs forks when you can just shove the entire piece in your mouth at once?

More please!
On Luke's official birthday we were much more low-key. We had a nice little birthday dinner and brownies for dessert then skyped with both sets of grandparents so they could watch Luke open up the gifts they had sent him. He was quite excited about the pile of presents this year, especially those in Buzz Lightyear wrapping paper!

Trying to get him to smile/say 'cheese' for a good picture while standing next to a pile of presents was too much to ask for.

Skyping with Grannie and Pops in IL, then Grammie in WA. Gotta love this technology that allows Luke's grandparents to still participate in his birthday while being miles apart.

A new Elmo book that Grannie (Nee-Nee) and Pops recorded themselves reading to him- a fast favorite.
More puzzles from Grammie! He loves taking all the puzzles apart but hasn't quite gotten the hang of putting them back together again yet.
And a bike from Mom and Dad!
This was not my best 'mom' moment when it comes to thinking ahead. I didn't realize how much assembly there actually was involved in putting the bike together. And I didn't think ahead that a two year old doesn't have the patience to wait for his handy-man-handicapped dad to try and put the thing together. Whoops. Buzz Lightyear to the rescue! - seriously, we just put on Toy Story and Luke was entertained long enough for us to figure out the instructions and assemble the new bike. Lesson Learned.

Luke 'helping'. Love the look on Matt's face. :)

The finished product!

(Luke was too busy watching Buzz to be bothered to smile for me... oh well)

We realized that this was the second birthday that Luke opened presents without any pants on. I'm not sure why that was but maybe we're starting a new tradition here...I suppose we'll just have to see if he can stand to wear pants on his 3rd birthday!

Thank you to everyone who helped make Luke's birthday special! We love you all.

Obsession

2011-04-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

To say that Luke is obsessed with trucks/cars could even be an understatement. He loves trucks, buses, cars, vans, trains, planes, motorcycles, bikes.... anything with wheels really. And we're talking he REALLY LOVES these things. He has pointed out all trucks, buses and planes while we're driving for months. I honestly never realized how many trucks and buses are on the streets until Luke started pointing them out, nay, screaming them out! His collection of toy trucks and cars has grown over the past few months. He likes to drive them on the coffee table, line them up, knock block towers over with them, even sleep with them. Some children prefer soft, cuddly teddy bears or blankets. Not Luke. He needs to be surrounded by his cars. Such a boy! Sleep tight.

Chocoholic

2011-04-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

I have an enormous sweet tooth. I'm pretty sure I helped myself to a bowl of ice cream nightly when I was pregnant with Luke so it's really no surprise that Luke inherited my love for sweet things, especially chocolate.

Brownie mix was on sale a few weeks ago - chocolate on sale! Like I could resist! Luke always enjoys 'helping' me in the kitchen and was especially thrilled to help make brownies. Mmmm.

Licking the bowl clean

Gotta love the chocolate goatee
Last week Luke discovered hot chocolate is pretty tasty too... in powder form. He had taken the box of hot chocolate out of the pantry, into the living room and behind a chair to indulge his craving. Do you think he knew he wasn't really supposed to be eating that? Stinker.

The pictures are of him going back for seconds after I took it away and put it back in the pantry. I know, I probably shouldn't have taken pictures, which only reinforces the behavior, but I couldn't help it! It was a true 'terrible two's' kodak moment.
Since then the powdered drinks have been relocated to a higher shelf.

Madness

2011-04-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

March may officially be over but basketball madness is still going strong, at least in the DeBoer house. Every year Matt gets completely into the NCAA tournament. He loves filling out the bracket, picking his upsets, watching the games, listening to the commentary.... And every year his enthusiasm is contagious. He succeeds in getting his class and his family excited about the tournament as well.

This year is particularly fun because Luke is very much into basketball. He points out all the basketball hoops he sees and is constantly pulling on our arms (mostly Matt's) to have us shoot hoops with him.

He is getting better at shooting from a distance and actually has decent form, according to coach dad. He's definitely a lefty, pushing the ball up with his left hand and following through with a snap of his wrist. (not shown in this picture) I have a video of Luke and Matt playing basketball but blogger won't let me upload it, or any other video, for some reason. puzzler.

Studying the bracket and picking his teams. We all filled out a bracket this year - Luke did the best during the first round, picking ALL of the upsets.
I'm pretty sure the basketball madness in March will only get worse as Luke gets older. Heaven help us. :)

Little Reader

2011-03-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

Luke is big fan of books. He loves to have us read him story after story... when he'll sit still for that long, that is. Lately, he's taken to picking up books and "reading" them on his own. He'll sit there, flipping through the pages, looking at the pictures and babble to himself. It is adorable. I would love to know what is going through his mind whenever he is 'reading' on his own. We're hoping this love of books and reading continues for a long time to come!

After bath-time reading...

..Early morning, pre-breakfast reading...

Nap time reading....

And some self-help reading!

Getting Crafty

2011-03-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

Last Monday was a cooler, rainy day. Luke and I desperately needed a new form of 'indoor entertainment'. The kitchen was already a mess and cleaning it was already on my To-Do list during Luke's nap time so we simply added to the mess, you know, for fun! Last year I came across a recipe for making edible play dough. Nothing fancy- just oatmeal, water, and flour- ingredients I have in the pantry at all times. Luke loves "helping" me bake/cook so he had a great time mixing up all the ingredients.

Once everything was well mixed we had fun shaping the dough into balls, snakes, pancakes, etc. Luke really got into beating the mass of dough with his spoon - getting out his pent up aggressions perhaps?
Once Luke lost interest in the dough and had moved on to some other toy, I got creative and shaped a few airplanes (Luke's latest obsession) and beads (I figured they'd be good for working on hand-eye coordination). The cool thing about this play dough is that you can bake it, so we baked our planes and beads for about 3 hours at 225 degrees, making them rock solid and paintable.

A few days later Luke had a blast painting his new "toys". Thankfully we have non-toxic, washable paint because it was everywhere once Luke was done being artistic. If I had thought ahead I would have had him paint them outside since it was a nice outside and would have made the clean up much easier. Oh well.

Carefully studying his painted bead
This picture is terrible quality, sorry. You can still see Luke is looking strangely like the Joker from Batman with the lovely paint marks around his mouth. Yes, he thought it was more fun to paint his mouth after awhile. Thus, the lack of a paint brush in this picture- the brushes were taken away by mean ol' mom. But that didn't stop the fun, oh no. Luke simply rolled the beads around in the paint using his hands. Creating quite the mess but having a marvelous time!
The finished product!

Please don't judge my terrible painting skills when it comes to the airplane. We'd already had one airplane crash land into a pile of crumbs on the kitchen floor so I wasn't going to try extra hard to make this one look nice, knowing it is just a matter of time before it's in the trash. :) But I'm ok with it! I got three crafty activities that Luke loved out of this, plus painted 'toys' for him to continue to play with... all for very, very cheap. I'm definitely not complaining!

You Know You're In The 3rd Trimester When...

2011-03-09T15:12:00.001-08:00

Your belly button "pops" and every Tom, Dick and Harry feels the need to inform you of it.
You lose your ankles and gain a chin (or two)
Your maternity shirts (which were once too loose, baggy and long) are now verging on being mid-drifts.
You are constantly asked when you're due - you give them the due date and hear, "Wow! Are you sure there's just one in there?!"
You can no longer get up from any reclining position by yourself. Rather, you roll around like a turtle on it's back until someone has mercy on you and pulls/pushes you up.... OR your husband stands there watching and laughing at your predicament and futile attempt at using stomach muscles that no longer exist.
You put 'Go to Frugos' on your daily To-Do list.

30 (ish) weeks pregnant

Yay for the 3rd Trimester! Only a few more weeks to go - ready or not!

Snakes and Pancakes

2011-03-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

The past few weekends have been on the cold and rainy side which meant that our activities were limited to what we could do indoors. Play Dough to the rescue! We've tried playing with play dough made of oatmeal, flour and water before - totally not the same. It's not nearly as squishy or moldable and even if it is safe to eat it tastes nasty so Luke wouldn't want to eat it anyway. The real deal is much better... we could play for hours! Luke loves squishing it in his fist, making balls and then flatten them into pancakes, rolling out snakes, and much more!

Surrounded by his collection of pancakes

oh, so happy!
loving the snakes
Proudly showing off his pink snake

All that play dough playing certainly works up an appetite! Mmmm, grilled cheese!

And for dessert.... :)

Daddy's boy

2011-02-19T14:29:00.000-08:00

Luke is becoming more and more of a Daddy's boy. He's been a mamma's boy for the majority of his 22 months but lately he's been switching sides. It has been a joy to watch, honestly. Luke gets SO excited when Daddy comes home, we're talking the type of toddler excitement where, when Luke hears the garage door going up he must drop whatever he's doing and run around in circles, laughing, and eventually go hide because he just can't contain his excitement. It is amusing to say the least! Oh, Luke still has a soft spot in his heart for good ol' mom but we both know who he'd rather play with, hang around, and imitate... Dad. I've got the pictures to prove it.

Playing with photo booth on our computer on a Saturday morning

Watching sports before bed

Bath tub fun

(Matt will probably despise the fact that I posted this picture...sorry Matt! But as long as I am the founder, author, creative director, and editor in chief of this blog I'm calling the shots. ) :)

Practicing their golf swings... in the living room.
Watching for planes flying overhead

Playing at the park, enjoying the 75 degree weather.

Surfing the net (most likely some sports site)
Ah, my boys! They're my favorite.

Bread

2011-02-11T12:12:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I enjoyed this year's Christmas present from Matt... a bread making lesson with some friends! It was so much fun (Thanks again, Leonards, for setting it up and hosting). We ate lots of tasty treats, chatted, laughed a lot, and learned how to make bread - "stupid easy bread" according to our teacher/baker extraordinaire, Sandra. It really is 'stupid easy'. Just four simple ingredients, mixing it up, letting it sit/rise for 2-24 hours, knead, bake and enjoy! The awesome thing about this dough is that you can make tons of things out of it - bread, rolls, pizza dough, pitas, etc. AND it's healthy for you since it doesn't have all the added preservatives that packaged breads do. Needless to say, we're big fans. I haven't bought any form of bread since taking this 'class' if that tells you anything. :) Plus, Luke loves to help in the baking process which makes it even more worth it!

Little baker COVERED in flour.

Kneading the dough

(Sandra had another word for this part of the process but I can't, for the life of me, remember it. Oh well, at least I remember how to do it - that's the important part right?)

Fresh homemade bread. Mmmmmm.

And just because I have a recent baby belly picture, I'll post that for those of you who are interested in how large my midsection has gotten.

This is at about 25/26 weeks - measuring at about 27 but I'm sure that its just a big baby or the way I'm carrying it. I measured large the entire time I was pregnant with Luke too and he was 9 days past his due date. It does amuse me when the kids at school comment about how HUGE I am already. I love the look they get when I tell them I still have 3 months to go! Haha. Middle schoolers... gotta love 'em. Things are going along well with this pregnancy- no major problems or complaints (apart from my love/hate relationship with maternity clothes). I do feel like it is going by quickly and May will be here before we know it!

Blocks

2011-02-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

Luke is quite the fan of blocks, which is a good thing since he owns hundreds! He likes stacking them up, lining them up, pointing out various animals/fruits/vehicles that are stamped on the sides, etc. I thought he'd be more into knocking down towers but as of right now, he much more interested in the building/preserving of the tower rather than the destruction of it.

For Christmas this year Luke was given a set of 75 blocks from Uncle 'Ick' (Eric) and Aunt Candice. I'm pretty sure we've played with them on a daily basis since Dec. 25. This past week we built a tower using ALL 75 blocks!

Hard at work - look at the concentration on his face

The construction process
The finished structure!

I'm not sure what's more impressive... the tower we built or the fact that Luke is actually looking at the camera and attempting a smile in this picture! :)

At first I thought that getting Luke to smile for the camera was just a lucky, one time thing. Not so! He is now grasping the concept of smiling and will even say, "cheese!". Such a proud moment for any parent. :) From now on our pictures will (hopefully) look a little different.

"Cheese"

(and I promise you - Luke and I had an EQUAL share in the building of the tower. I did not take over this construction project and then give Luke the credit. Just so you know.)

Winter.. ?

2011-01-30T19:23:00.001-08:00

We have been ridiculously spoiled these past few weeks with some incredible 'winter' weather. Just one of the many perks of southern California living! We literally had to remind ourselves that it was, indeed, still January and sadly, no, spring break is not just around the corner. Today it is cooler and rainy ~ perfect for staying inside catching up on all the chores we put off while the weather was too nice to stay cooped up indoors (like updating the blog... ahem, Sarah.) :)

These past few weeks have brought several opportunities for us to be outside enjoying sun and warm temps. Matt has been coaching the 7th/8th grade girls softball team. Luke and I ventured out to a few of their home games to cheer them on... they won each of the games we were at which made it that much more enjoyable. Luke had a blast, pointing out the ball (whenever it was pitched, thrown, hit, etc), daddy (each time Matt would run out to coach first base or come back to the dugout), and each plane that flew by (there were several flying right overhead). I'm convinced that Luke left those games dirtier than any of the softball players, but it was worth completely worth it!

Giving Daddy a high five between innings

Trying to make sense of the cheers coming from RCS' dugout (it's a softball thing, Luke)

We went to Ford park one Sunday afternoon to play on the playground and feed the ducks. Luke absolutely LOVES to feed the ducks! We went through 1/2 a loaf of old bread in about 45 seconds, then he moved on to trying to feed them his snack of pretzels.

This one duck was quite friendly and practically fearless, getting up close and personal. Luke probably would have tried to pet the thing had we let him!
Playing on the playground after the ducks had had their fill of our bread and pretzels.

We received a fire pit from my parents for Christmas this year. We had hoped to be able use it while the DeBoer clan was here but, alas, we had terribly rainy weather so those hopes were dashed. Matt put his cadet skills to good use and built us a fire one evening. We sat outside as a family, roasting marshmallows and again, simply enjoying the amazing 'winter' weather. Luke did very well (we were slightly nervous about him near an open flame). He never really tried to touch the fire but would point to it and say, "Hot". Thus, no burn victims or ER visits... only delightful family time!

Luke may have an impressive future in playing 'chubby bunny' based on the amount of marshmallows he can stuff in his mouth at one time.

Mmmmm!

Ok, Sarah - I've updated the blog! Thanks for keeping me on top of things!

Oh Baby

2011-01-08T17:46:00.001-08:00

I have been feeling a little guilty about my lack of blogging/documenting this second pregnancy. We were pretty good about taking 'belly pictures' every week or so when I was pregnant with Luke and writing down all the major events throughout that pregnancy. This time around I feel as though I am already neglecting this poor baby! It's not that this pregnancy is any less special or that we love this baby any less, it's just that life is busier with a toddler. But enough of my excuses.

I mentioned in my previous post that I had my 20 week ultrasound on Dec. 27th. I still have to scan the pictures we were given so I can put them up on the blog and send them to grandparents. In the meantime picture half baby, half alien and you pretty much have a good mental image of what our baby looks like at this point. We opted not to find out the gender again - while it was very tempting to know (especially since the technician said she could easily tell, this baby is not shy) it was so much fun being 'surprised' when Luke was born that we want to have the same thrill with this baby as well.

So far, things have been going great in this pregnancy. The first trimester was a bit rough, more so than my first pregnancy. I was sick and felt lousy a lot more often than I had with Luke. There was even one week when we joked that there was no doubt this was Matt's baby because every time I ate cereal of any kind I would throw it up within minutes. Sorry if reading that makes you queasy, its more for our memory's sake. :)

Since the second trimester hit I have been feeling great - lots of energy, still sleeping well, not too uncomfortable and starting to feel this baby move around, which is always incredible. To be perfectly honest, I feel as though I have enjoyed this pregnancy more than my first pregnancy. The first time around was amazing, don't get me wrong. Everything was new and exciting but also anxiety promoting and nerve racking with the threat of the unknown. This time, I feel as though I know more of what to expect, what's normal and what's not, have more realistic expectations about my body, weight gain, water retention, etc. so I'm more comfortable and relaxed about all the changes.

As time passes, I get more and more excited about the thought of being a mother of two. I have

had my moments of panic, wondering how I'm going to manage but then I look at friends who have two, or more, and our parents, who managed with three and figure I'll manage just fine... eventually... I hope. :)

The latest 'belly pic' at 21 weeks

DeBoer Family Christmas

2011-01-03T13:17:00.000-08:00

Matt's side of the family came out to spend Christmas with us this year. It was awesome having everyone around and really awesome to not fly anywhere this year (especially after last year's fiasco). You'd think I would have been better about blogging more consistently while they were here since I did so well over Thanksgiving when the Klingenmaier's were here... not so. Sorry.

So, I'm back to the "cliff note" version of blogging for this past Christmas. Hope you don't mind.

The planning of everyone coming in to CA could have been a bit better. As it was they all flew in on four different days to four different airports. And on top of it all we had some of the worst rainy weather at least I've ever experienced while living in CA (we heard on the news that this was a 100 year rain, meaning it rains this bad once in 100 years). That did not help the whole traffic/driving situation much. But we were just happy that everyone made it in ok. Matt did the bulk of the shuttling to and from the various airports. Towards the last of the trips he was a bit burnt out of driving, especially in the pouring rain and nasty traffic. He came up with some creative ways to keep his spirits up....

Matt's mom didn't recognize him at first when he met her at the airport!

Once everyone was present and accounted for we started in on the serious business of having a jolly good time! Our first excursion in southern CA, after the rains had subsided a bit, was to go to a few wineries. I was the official designated driver, one of the "perks" of being pregnant (laced with just a little sarcasm). Everyone else had a great time sampling various wines and we ended up having our wine cabinet well stocked for the holiday. And I did have a good time going along, taking pictures, and chatting with family to and from the wineries, so don't feel bad for me that I couldn't partake in the sampling. :)

One of the wineries had a tractor parked out front. Luke thought this was a playground just for him!

When we got back from wine tasting, the women went right to work fixing dinner since Bill and Harriett were coming over that night. It was great to enjoy a nice meal together and continue chatting over coffee and cookies.

Luke, always the little helper, assisting Candice with making cookies. Yum!

Uncle Bill and Aunt Harriett gave Luke his first Christmas gift of the year - a toy truck that lights up and makes noise! Luke was SO excited opening up his present.

You can see the pure joy on his face! He even had to sleep with the truck that night (and several nights since). Thanks Bierlings!

On Christmas Eve the weather had done a complete 180 - no more cold and rainy mess but clear, blue skies and nice warm weather. We had all had our fill of doing 'indoor' activities so we headed into nature, taking a nice little hike in the hills behind Crafton Hills College.

Luke loved being outside and did very well on the hike... even hitching a ride here and there.

Such a boy with his boots and walking stick.
My parents sent us a fire pit for Christmas. It took all three DeBoer men to put it together. (handiness does not run in this family) :)

We went to church together on Christmas Eve - it was a wonderful service by our new pastor. Then came home to a house filled with all sorts of glorious smells - we had a ham cooking, salad, and Eric had made his 'famous' mac and cheese. Mmmmm was it all good.

We opted to put Luke to bed and play games on Christmas eve night rather than follow DeBoer tradition and open presents since it was already getting late and Luke was not in the right frame of mind.

Christmas morning we enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls, Swedish coffee cake and coffee while we opened the mound of presents under the tree.

Luke probably had as many presents as the rest of the gang combined! Talk about being spoiled!! He was so much fun to watch open his gifts. His excitement and enthusiasm was contagious.

Reading his new Thomas the Train book

Luke received an Elmo puppet from my brother. It was hilarious to watch him open it up. He was extremely excited but held back a bit, almost like there was a celebrity visiting him.. he normally sees Elmo on TV but now here he is in the living room! It didn't take long before Luke warmed up to Elmo and the two became fast friends. :)
Mommy and Luke opening up presents.
Grammie and Luke playing with his new train from Uncle Aaron and Aunt Erika
The rest of the family on Christmas morning
Uncle Jordan, Aunt Andrea and Luke checking out the new fire truck puzzle.

Daddy and Luke opening up the basketball hoop from Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie

I'm pretty sure that Matt and Eric had more fun with the basketball hoop than Luke. Luke got into the action of course, but Matt and Eric pretty much boxed him out and took over playing with the new toy. :)

Even Jung got into the gift-giving/getting action. We got him a snuggie! It was really the perfect gift for him, even if it makes him look like an Asian Martin Luther.

After the presents were all opened and Luke was down for a nap we all set to work again preparing an incredible Christmas day feast - turkey, cranberry salad, stuffing, rolls, Andrea's fabulous potatoes, green beans, and apple pie and cookies for dessert. Delish!

Christmas night consisted of relaxing, playing games, and of course, some serious snuggle time with Luke.

On Sunday, we decided we would don our tourist hats and head into LA/Hollywood to the Chinese Theater, Wax museum, Guinness Book of World Records museum and the 'walk of fame'. It was fun to be able to walk around and do the tourist thing.

Next to a statue of the longest living man.

Luke as the world's heaviest man
Our little family by the Wizard of Oz characters at the Wax Museum
Eric and Austin Powers
With Steve Carell
The Joker... a little creepy
Spider man wasn't so bad
Posing with the Hulk

Funny side story of the wax museum.... I had somehow gotten farther ahead of where most of the family was looking at various wax sculptures and decided to wait for them to catch up. I stood in a corner that lead to a stairway used by the employees so I'd be out of the way of other tourists. One lady apparently thought I was a sculpture at first and completely freaked out when I moved. We both had a pretty good laugh!

Monday was Candice, Eric and Jordan's last day in CA. It was gorgeous day so the crew headed out to Santa Monica Pier. I had my 20 week ultrasound Monday morning so Matt and I met up with them later (thus the lack of good pictures). It was fun to walk around, take in the sights, enjoy the sun and waves (from a distance) and just have some quality family time.

Luke, again, had more fun being swung from arms than walking on his own. Lucky for him there were plenty of hands to hold on to.

Overall, we had a marvelous time with the DeBoer side this Christmas. We are looking forward to all the joyous events to come this year... May= baby #2, July= Andrea and Jordan's wedding, December = Eric and Candice's wedding! It'll be a monumental year for the DeBoer family!

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

2010-12-10T09:06:00.001-08:00

Our Christmas decorations are fairly pathetic. Since we have normally been away at one of our parent's homes for Christmas we haven't really made much effort in the past to decorate our house nicely for the holidays. Some years we didn't do anything at all since we'd be gone for the majority of the holidays. We figured it was too much work to decorate only to leave and then come home to take it all down. This year we are hosting Christmas with the DeBoer side so we decided we'd actually put some effort into decorating. I'd been wanting to get a new tree for quite awhile and had been searching for deals on the internet but didn't really come across any that stood out so we just put up our ridiculous, Charlie Brown-type tree again and planned to get a new artificial tree when they went on clearance after Christmas.

Apparently Luke had another idea. He's been extremely curious about all the ornaments on the tree this year (last year I expected him to be more interested but he pretty much just left them alone... not so this year) Since the majority of our ornaments look like little toys, he just wants to play with them. The whole "look, but don't touch" thing doesn't really work here.

One evening Matt and I were busy in the kitchen, knowing that Luke was playing in the living room with the nativity scene, when we heard a crash followed by crying. Best we can figure, Luke tried to pull a stubborn ornament off the tree and ended up pulling the tree down on himself! No, I didn't get pictures, although now I do wish I had captured the moment. (does that make me a bad mom?) Luke was fine, a little shaken up but other than that no harm done. The tree, on the other hand, was not so fine.

(after picking it up off Luke and propping it against the wall)

That was when we decided to bite the bullet and get a new Christmas tree before going on clearance... one that looked much nicer and was much more sturdy incase Luke got the nerve up to pull more ornaments off the tree.

This new tree is SO much nicer! It comes in three parts vs. the old one that had a center stand and you needed to put each individual branch on separately. It is also pre-lit which is, oh so nice! I put lights on the old tree three times- once because I misjudged how long the strand of lights was and ran out of lights by the time I reached the top of the tree, another time because Luke pulled half the strand off the tree, and the third time I forget why. Regardless, it was awesome to just connect the plugs and be done with it! The only down side is that it is an artificial tree, meaning no fresh pine smell. I bought some Christmas tree-smelling candles but they don't quite cut it. oh well.

Matt and Luke setting up the new tree

"Fluffing" the branches
The finished product!
Hopefully this tree will last through a few more Christmases and a few more kids wanting to play with the ornaments!

I let Luke play with most of the Christmas decorations, so long as they are safe. As a kid, I LOVED playing the different decorations, especially the nativity scene, so it is fun for me to watch Luke play with some of the same things this year.

This is the nativity scene my parents had in our house while I was growing up. My parents gave it to me last year. I have lots of fun memories with this nativity set. It is so much fun to watch Luke playing with it now.

A few days after this all of the nativity scene figures disappeared. I searched high and low but couldn't find them anywhere. After about a week, Matt finally found them in a random cabinet! I was thrilled. The thrill wore off, however, when we discovered that the majority of the animals on one set no longer had any ears! Oh, the joys of toddler-hood.

In other related news....

2010-12-04T07:02:00.001-08:00

Now that I've caught up on the posts about our Thanksgiving break I'm back to posting about our normal, everyday life, which involves one big announcement...

In case you can't quite figure it out since the shirt is on the big side Luke is going to be a Big Brother! That's right, I'm pregnant with baby DeBoer #2! We are extremely excited and looking forward to what life is going to be like with two little ones. As of this post I'm a little over 17 weeks along due mid-May (the official due date is May 12 but we're putting no stock in that whatsoever). We've known for awhile and have already told most family and friends. I'm just a little behind in making an 'official blog announcement'.

This is me at about 14 weeks (I think) - showing much earlier than I did when I was pregnant with Luke. Sadly those stomach muscles never quite recovered. sigh.

A comparison to my belly with Luke at about the same stage in pregnancy.

The 'related' part of our news is... drumroll please...

Ok, so you can't see the main news on either Luke or Micah's T-shirts but since they are matching I'm sure you can figure it out....my sister, Erika, is also expecting #2! Yup, we're pregnant at the same time! Erika is due June 6 but the baby will come late May. That we are putting stock in since she is more high risk. SO, there you have it. Two more babies to add to this generation. The Thomson clan is growing right before our eyes, literally.

Twin baby bumps! SO much fun!

Klingenmaier's in CA: The Last Days

2010-12-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

After cooking, cleaning and, of course, eating way too much on Thanksgiving we were all ready for a day of some R&R. The weather was pretty junky...very Midwestern-style weather for this time of year; cold and rainy. While all the adults were pretty much content to lay around, eat left overs and take long naps the little boys were not so keen on the idea and became stir crazy early on. Lucky for them we have enough floor space to be able to get a little creative. We moved our normal furniture to the sides of the room and brought the outdoor toys inside! They boys loved it (and by boys, I mean both the little ones and their dads, who could watch their sons play while also keeping an eye on the football games on t.v... it's the best of both worlds).

Micah learning to climb the ladder. Luke waiting ever so patiently.

Showing Micah how to slide like an expert

Micah's turn!

He wasn't so sure at first but quickly got the hang of it and enjoyed himself thoroughly.

Later in the day we ventured to Frugos, a frozen yogurt place where you serve yourself and pay per ounce...easily a piece of heaven on earth. We sampled all the different kinds of frozen yogurt and each made ourselves a nice bowl with plenty of toppings. Yum. I could seriously eat Frugos daily! After eating Frugos the boys were nice and sticky, covered with frozen yogurt drippings, chocolate sauce, etc. Needless to say, it was bath time when we got home. But that doesn't mean the fun was over! On the contrary. Bath time, aka splash time, with a cousin is the greatest ever! At least according to a 19 month old and almost 11 month old. I designated myself to be the videographer/photographer. This put Erika on the front lines of the splash zone! I think she was as wet as the boys were by the time we pulled the plug in the tub!

"You've got a little something on your head Micah"

Luke graciously helped Micah clean that oh, so hard to reach spot on his back.

squeaky clean and cute as can be!

The next morning we, sadly, had to pack up the car and head back to LAX so the Klingenmaier's could trek back to the far off land of Illinois. We were/are extremely grateful for all the fun we had and the time we had together. And of course, we wish we all lived closer so we could enjoy times like this more often...maybe someday. But for now, we are glad to have had this time together and look forward to the next time! We love you Klingenmaiers!

Klingenmaier's in CA: Day 6 & 7- Thanksgiving Day

2010-11-26T19:20:00.001-08:00

Day 6 of the Klingenmaier CA vacation we had originally thought we'd head out to Joshua Tree and do a little light hiking. However, after walking throughout the zoo the day before we still a bit worn out by Wednesday morning. Both Micah and Luke were fighting runny, gunky noses and hadn't been sleeping/napping the greatest. We weren't so sure that hiking around Joshua Tree in the cold wind without adequate warm clothing, especially for the boys, was a good idea. So we decided to post pone the Joshua Tree excursion and opted for something indoors and a little closer to home. Aaron found a children's museum in Palm Springs that looked good so we loaded up the boys and headed east. The weather in Beaumont was not so pretty but Palm Springs was beautiful...real CA weather. :) It was a smaller museum but had plenty to offer a 19 month old and almost 11 month old. We all had a great time watching the boys play, enjoying the warm weather and just hanging out. I took as many pictures as I could before my camera battery died. Here are a few, in no particular order...

The Micah Man learning about magnets

Coloring Pictures

Coloring a turkey in honor of Thanksgiving

Playing in the sandbox outside - adults trying our best to keep the sand IN the box.

Micah chasing a ball around the grassy area. Poor kid was a little small to keep up with all the older kids running around and had to seriously fight for his toys!

Back to the sand

Taking a joyride

Testing out the police motorcycle

More fun toys

Digging in the archeological exhibit, complete with the costume

Aaron and Micah's turn on the motorcycle

Making a ramp/maze for the ball to roll down

When we got back home Erika and I got busy prepping for our Thanksgiving meal. We definitely felt very 'grown up', planning and prepping everything for the meal ourselves. It was so fun to be able to chop and chat. I rather prefer cooking that way!

We found a recipe for the turkey on allrecipes.com that sounded good so we decided to give it a try. We had to brine the turkey for 24 hours in a salt water mixture. I thought my stock pot would be big enough but I was way off. Aaron found a large bucket in our garage and put it to good use holding the turkey. So we are a little bit on the redneck side! It turned out fabulous regardless of the slightly unconventional way it was prepared.

View of our fridge the night before Thanksgiving. Not much room. We had to get creative with the small amount of space but it worked out.

Luke 'helping' Erika make a mint chocolate chip cheesecake for dessert

Some final preparations of the turkey before popping it in the oven on Thanksgiving morning

Luke was just a little anxious for the bird to be done! It smelled SO good!

Sister Cooks - our first Thanksgiving together as the adults. No more kiddie table for us!

The finished meal! It's making me hungry all over again.

Matt and Jung digging in

Mmmmm. Good.

The boys even did the dishes afterward!

... Sort of.

After completely stuffing ourselves and getting the meal mostly cleaned up, we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon of watching football, naps, playing with Luke and Micah, and chatting. The DeJong's joined us for dessert later on in the evening adding two more little boys to the mix. It was so much fun watching them all play and interact together. Needless to say there were toys everywhere! Which is really how it should be. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are so very thankful for all of God's blessings and hope to live out our gratitude on a daily basis.

Klingenmaier's in CA: Day 5- San Diego Zoo

2010-11-24T08:34:00.000-08:00

Tuesday we ventured south to the world famous San Diego Zoo. The weather was great- sweatshirt weather- perfect for a day walking around the zoo. The zoo wasn't crowded at all and practically all of the animals were out and active. It was really a perfect day for the zoo.

Both boys slept for the majority of the ride down and were very excited when we finally arrived. After a quick picnic lunch in the parking lot we were ready to explore the zoo! I took lots of pictures so I'm going to let the pictures and captions tell the story.

The whole gang by the Zoo entrance

Of course, one of the boys favorite exhibits was the ducks and flamingos. They could have probably watched those silly ducks all day but we figured that we can always go to the park to watch ducks, we can't go to the park to watch tigers, elephants, etc. so we moved on.

Pointing out all the sleeping flamingos standing on one wobbly leg

Watching some species of monkeys- I think we saw at least 5 or 6 different species of monkey while at the zoo. One of the highlights, for Matt at least, was watching a chimpanzee poop in his own hand and then eat it. I had to walk away - that's a bit much for my stomach these days.

This picture is a little blurry, sorry, but I had to post it anyway. The boys were far too interested in the animals to bother looking at the camera.

The Klingenmaier boys

The DeBoer boys, in their matching Calvin sweatshirts

(no, we didn't do that on purpose, it was the warmest sweatshirt Luke had with a hood and Matt was already wearing his. They are super cute though!)

The DeBoer family - rare picture with Luke actually looking toward the camera!

Checking out an interesting animal (I forgot the name).
It was like part giraffe, part zebra, part donkey.
More monkeys
Playing on the hippo statue outside the hippo's tank.
They probably would've stayed there for hours playing if we let them.
I think Luke was watching more monkeys in this picture, but I can't remember exactly what animal it was. Regardless, he was awfully excited and animated!
Watching the polar bears swim around and reach for berries

This mountain lion was right next to the wall of his cage, looking at the spectators, growling, and pacing back and forth. It was a little creepy but pretty cool at the same time. We were just glad that there was a fenced wall between us and the lion. Coming across that sucker in the wild would be terrifying!

Around 3pm the clouds rolled in and the weather cooled off a bit. Time to bust out the blankets for added warmth.

We decided Micah bared a strong resemblance to Mother Teresa... what do you think?

While walking back to the exit we got to see some trainers transporting two of the animals- an Arctic Fox and a New Guinea Singing Dog. It was crazy to see them on leashes walking through the park. At first I thought nothing of it, like they were just regular dogs. I'm sure had it been a lion or tiger walking through the zoo on a leash it would have caught my attention earlier.

Both boys fell asleep once we were on the freeway home and slept until we were ready to stop for dinner. We had a delicious and healthy dinner of fat, I mean fast food, and headed home. We were all ready to hit the hay by the time we got back to the house. Today we are mostly rested and ready for whatever adventures this day has in store for us. Stay tuned...

Klingenmaier's in CA: Day 2,3,&4

2010-11-22T21:16:00.000-08:00

We have thoroughly been enjoying our time with the Klingenmaier's these past few days! We've managed to have a 'well-rounded' time thus far, a good mixture of fun and activities and relaxation.

Saturday was a rainy day, which gave us a wonderful excuse for laying around the house in our pajamas until embarrassingly late in the day. We had a great time watching Luke and Micah play and interact with one another. Matt and Aaron got their fill of college football (if there is such a thing). Erika and I did some shopping- nothing really fun like clothes shopping, mostly errands/groceries but it was nice for us to get out of the house without our kids in tow and just hang out together.

Playing/mess making

The next generation of football fanatics
We had thought/hoped that Micah would be encouraged to start walking while here since he'd be challenged to keep up with Luke. This is not the case, at least not thus far. Instead of Micah being influenced by Luke, Luke is being influenced by Micah and will crawl around after him! It is really very amusing - watching Luke chase after Micah by crawling, both boys laughing, Luke having a tough time keeping up with the super crawler. Good times. Good times.

The chase is on!

All around the living room and up the stairs
Taking time out from the chase to give a cousin a hug. Makes me melt, just a little.

Giving us a demonstration of how big they are... SO big!
The main event of Saturday was that the Klingenmaier's had a photo shoot scheduled with the always amazing Mark Leonard (keep an eye on his blog to see the final photos - markleonardimaging.com) Poor Micah had to be woken up from a nap for the photo shoot and started out being a bit of a baby diva, not wanting his picture taken. But he eventually warmed up to the idea and they got some really great shots!

The master in action

Sunday was a fairly normal day for the DeBoer's: church, naps, football. The Klingenmaier's were a bit more adventurous and braved going out to Santa Monica to meet up with a good friend of theirs. Thus, I don't have any great pictures to post from day 3. You'll have to check my sister's blog to see her take on the excursion.

Monday (today) Matt had to be at school for an in-service day. Erika, Aaron, Micah, Luke and I decided we needed to go up to Oak Glen to try for ourselves these cider doughnuts I've been hearing about. We weren't entirely prepared for the weather up there unfortunately and it was extremely cold. The thermometer on the door of the Snow-Line orchard shop read 32 degrees! But we (with the exception of Luke) are from the Midwest so we braved the cold and stuck around for the 20 minutes needed to have fresh, warm cider doughnuts and fresh, hot apple cider. Totally worth it.

sampling various types of cider

Sisters and our boys
Luke was just a little cold! Poor little guy doesn't have a winter coat yet so he was bundled up in a few layers and actually stayed under the blanket - normally he'd kick it off and try squirming out of the stroller. Gotta love my little California boy!

watching the fresh doughnuts coming out of the machine

To say Luke loved the doughnuts would be an incredible understatement. I think he had 3 or 4!

"What do you mean I can't have another doughnut?!?"

We had a nice afternoon of naps and playing around the house then headed to a friend's house to watch the Monday night football game: Broncos vs. Chargers. Too bad the Broncos didn't have the best game but we still had a great time.

Up next: The San Diego Zoo!

Klingenmaier's in CA: Day 1

2010-11-20T19:27:00.000-08:00

It's official: the holidays are here! Which also means that the Klingenmaier's are here! My sister, Erika, brother-in-law, Aaron, and nephew, Micah, arrived in CA yesterday. Unfortunately the weather yesterday and today hasn't been very California-ish but that's ok- they're on vacation. :) I've decided that I'm going to try and post more frequently during their visit for two reasons: 1. that way I can document all the important and not so important details of our time with them and 2. I don't have one massive blog post to do about the entire week they are here later on.

We didn't really do much yesterday apart from drive home from LAX and get dinner at Souplantation. (I love Souplantation). Once we got home Luke and Micah were as hyper and happy as they could be. Luke was thrilled to have all the attention and playmates. Micah was mostly thrilled to be out of travel mode, which means no car seats! It was quite active around here, let me tell you!

The real action of the night, however, occurred after both boys went to bed. Erika and Aaron were on their way to bed also when Jung comes running down the stairs telling me that he just witnessed a mouse running into our bedroom. (this was probably the most animated Jung has been....ever) With that we all went upstairs on a wild mouse hunt! After a bit of chasing the mouse from room to room, moving furniture, experimenting with shoe boxes, and only a few shrieks Matt ended up trapping the mouse while Aaron smashed it with a tennis racket! Ew. The mouse wasn't exactly dead yet and laid there twitching until he hit it again and then scooped it into the shoe box for a proper burial.

This is the second mouse we've found in two days! The first was dead in the garage. After this experience I think it's time we invest in another rodent removal system....

Painting

2010-11-19T20:39:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of going to a friend's house last weekend for a coffee, craft'n, & chat'n party with some girlfriends. It was a glorious time of much needed chatting, coffee drinking and catching up on various crafts that we have all been wanting to do. Great idea and GREAT time! I painted a toy train that spells LUKE between the engine and caboose. My plan was to paint it then give it Luke as a Christmas gift but, alas, that plan was thwarted once Luke found the train later that same day. At least he likes it. I attempted to finish painting it while Luke was busy playing with Matt in the other room - no such luck. It's as though he has a sixth sense about when I am wanting to do something he really can't/shouldn't be part of and needs to throw himself in the midst of things. I put the train away but let him play with some of the washable, non-toxic paints I have. He LOVED it, naturally. He only painted on himself a few times and never tried to eat it, so I think we're making progress!

What a Masterpiece!

Friends

2010-11-08T07:41:00.000-08:00

It must be said... we have the best friends that anyone could ask for! We have truly been blessed with amazing friends all across the country and even in other countries around the world. Since moving to California and far away from family we have made some incredible friendships ...friends who have become like family in pretty much every way. We have gone through job changes, pregnancies, births of babies, etc. with these friends and now we get to watch as our kids develop friendships with one another. Here are a few pictures of Luke with some of his buddies from the past few weeks.

We went 'trunk or treat'-ing with some friends in Beaumont on Halloween. A bunch of different vendors (shops, churches, etc.) set up their cars and handed out candy from their trunks. The kids had a great time walking from car to car getting their goodies, stoping only about every third car or so to eat one of their treats. :)

Luke with a few of his gal pals - Maddie, Aliyah, and Mackenzie

Luke and Mackenzie were boy/girl monsters or aliens for Halloween.

We didn't plan it but boy were they cute together!

Every week Luke goes to Jonas' house during the hours I work. He loves going to play with Jonas - we'll pull into the driveway and Luke will begin squealing with delight, saying "Jojos" (Jonas). This past week we were able to watch Jonas at our house for the day. It was SO fun to watch them interacting and playing with each other. They were hilarious together- most of the time. They had their moments of wanting whatever toy the other one was playing with and things of that sort, but overall, we all had a great time together!

Buddies were even dressed alike, not on purpose.

Painting with water on the back patio.

Painting with water on the kiddie table
Blowing bubbles...sort of.
And these are just a few of Luke's many, many little friends. But his best pals of all would have to be mom and dad! There's just no replacing that special friendship!

Fall Fun

2010-10-30T10:32:00.001-07:00

I love California in the fall. I love that the weather is cooler but not cold, comfortable jeans and sweatshirt weather. We've had a rainy streak the past week where we've been stuck playing indoors so we've been trying to take advantage of the sunny, semi-warm, dry days. There are numerous pumpkin patches/harvest festival places to visit around us. Last weekend we thought it would be fun to get Luke out of the house and experience picking his own pumpkin. The place was huge with tons of activities for all ages - petting zoo, games, rides, craft booths, hayrides, pumpkin picking, etc. Unfortunately, it was also over-priced (in my opinion). Luckily for us, Luke had a blast just walking around looking at everything! He's a cheap date.

Photo op. by the pumpkins

Luke, Daddy and an enormous pumpkin

Climbing up and down the hay bale pyramid was free and loads of fun

Luke made it all the way to the top - with a little help from Dad

Walking through the pumpkin patch was a bit tricky, watching out for vines and rotting pumpkins - didn't stop us though.

I actually got in on one of the pictures, proving that I am part of these excursions
We ended up having a terrific time, wearing ourselves out and spending nothing more than about an hour or so of our time. Perfect Saturday afternoon adventure.

Every year the mom's group at our church has a costume parade for the kiddos at The Village - an assisted living community in Redlands. The kids get to dress up and "trick or treat" around the tables in the fellowship area while the residents are having coffee time. We went last year but Luke didn't quite grasp the concept seeing as he was only 6 months old. This year he had a blast! We were loaned a costume from friends from church - Thanks Odenbaughs!! At first Luke wanted nothing to do with dressing up. He was fascinated by the costume but didn't want to wear it.

So, Matt decided to model it, hoping that might spark Luke's interest. I think it just freaked him out more.

Fortunately, the day of the costume parade Luke saw all the other kids dressed up and was happy to participate. He made one of the cutest aliens I have ever seen!

Enjoying a halloween cookie

Showing me the pumpkin and little scarecrow

"Trick or Treating" by the residents' doors with Aliyah and Olivia - he couldn't wait for me to get the wrappers off the candy before stuffing himself... that might make for some interesting/colorful diapers in the next day or so.

In spite of having just absorbed a week's worth of sugar, he was pooped and cashed out on the way home- that's the telltale sign that he had a great time!

Goodwill

2010-10-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

I LOVE thrift stores. I generally prefer to rummage through the racks at a thrift store versus face the crowds at a typically over-priced- loud- teenie boppin'- rude sales people- mall. That said, I don't always have the time or patience (particularly with Luke in tow) to be able to search through the racks at Goodwill hoping to score a great deal on something someone else no longer wanted. This past week I had some time to kill and stopped in Goodwill hoping to find Luke a Halloween costume. They didn't have any costumes Luke's size unfortunately but I was able to find a bunch of fall/winter clothes for him that I am particularly excited about (obviously, since I felt it was worthy of a post on our blog!)

I got:

3 sweatshirts

1 Fleece zip up coat

2 fleece sleepers

2 pairs of jean

2 pairs khaki pants

To make this even more impressive, all of the clothes I scored were brand-name... Levi's, Baby Gap, Old Navy, and in VERY good shape! All for a grand total of *** drumroll, please**** $16.00 (for those of you who don't shop for baby/toddler clothes I'll give you comparison... earlier this week I bought a warm sleeper for Luke brand new from Walmart for $7.00. If I had bought the same sleeper at Babies R Us it would have cost me about $15.00.) So, be impressed. :)

The DeBo's: Cliff Notes Version

2010-10-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

I've done it again. I've completely neglected our blog. Sorry. I was kindly reminded by a good friend in church last Sunday that it has been a long time since updating. She was sweet enough to say she knows I'm super busy so updating the blog isn't going be top priority. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sarah, however that's not necessarily the case. Yes, we've been busy but nothing every other family doesn't also have to handle every day... keeping up with kids, work, house stuff, daily chores, etc. Nothing glamorous whatsoever. Oh it hasn't been all work and no play. We've had our share of fun as well, especially with an active, amusing toddler in the house.

So, here's the cliff notes version of the life of the DeBoer's lately...

Cliff Note 1. San Diego Zoo

A few weeks ago we went to the world famous San Diego Zoo. We had been given passes from our friends - Thanks again Schenkels! We met up with our friends, the Schenkels and the Wiers', at the zoo and had a GREAT time! It was pretty hot and involved a lot of walking but it was such a fun time. Luke definitely loved seeing all the animals and we all enjoyed the time with friends.

He didn't last in his stroller long, go figure.

He probably spent more time up on Daddy's shoulders- the view is much better from there.

Luke and his friend, Aliyah. They were SO adorable together the whole day

Cliff Note 2: Big Boy Haircuts

Both Luke and Matt were sporting some seriously shaggy hairstyles so we figured it was time to play barber shop. I've cut Luke's hair a few times already but I've always used scissors. This time we opted to try the electric clippers. We popped in an Elmo DVD and buckled Luke in his seat with a cookie or two and voila! No more shaggy hair. I think he looks so much older now which is both exciting and sad at the same time.

The DeBoer boys and their new do's

Cliff Note 3: Cuddle Time

Since Luke is on the move 95% of the time we try to cherish the moments when he will sit still long enough for us to cuddle with him. Luckily for us, one of his favorite things to do is read books so it's pretty much a win-win situation for us all.

Reading with mommy

Cuddling with Daddy

Cliff Note 4: Feeding the Ducks at Ford Park

Since Matt is away this weekend (in Denver for a home Broncos game - more on that in future posts) last weekend we thought we should get out of the house and do something fun as a family. We were thinking of going to a pumpkin patch and carving pumpkins but it didn't quite work out. So we grabbed the stale bread sitting in our pantry and went to feed the ducks at a park in Redlands. Luke LOVES watching the ducks. He kept pointing to them swimming around in the pond saying "Dus! Dus!" - we're pretty sure that's 'ducks' in Luke language.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. I'm telling you, our life is truly not that exciting. So if I get behind on posts again you probably aren't missing much. :) Thanks for tuning in anyways!

Spoiled

2010-09-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

For living several states away from any immediate family members we are certainly spoiled when it comes to others helping to care for our child. Luke is now 17 months old and we have not yet had to pay for a babysitter. It's not that we haven't gone out without the little one and it's not like we haven't tried to pay our sitters... they refuse, calling themselves "surrogate grandparents" or "good friends" and allowing us to return the favor by watching their kids. It is amazing really. We are so blessed by this incredible community it blows me away.

Just last week we were seriously spoiled, but this time by the legit grandparents. Matt and I were able to go along on a middle school retreat for two days with RCS so we were looking for someone to watch Luke for two days, one night. Grannie Jannie and Pops to the rescue! My parents scored an awesome deal on plane tickets and flew across the country to be with Luke while we were gone. Awesome. It was so great to know that Luke was in such capable hands (they did a pretty good job raising me after all :) ) and knowing that Luke was in his house, his bed, with his toys, and getting quality time with his grandparents really made it that much easier for us to enjoy the retreat. So, thanks again Mom and Dad T for EVERYTHING! We can't tell you how much we appreciate it.

Luckily for our loyal blog followers, my parents are avid picture-takers - at least when it comes to their grandchildren- so we have them to thank for this posts illustrations.

Luke clearly had a terrific time while we were gone....

Showing Pops all the latest fashion trends

Playing with the latest in technology
Taking naps
Catching up on some reading

Getting a night on the town... mmm, Applebee's - Even Jung got in on that action - He's thrilled, in case you can't tell.

Nights out really wear out a toddler
Scoring some great finds at some local thrift stores - the golf sweater was just too awesome to resist and the football book has John Elway in it, like I could pass that up!

Who needs to go to the playground when you've got Grannie and Pops to swing you around?!?

Thanks so much Grannie and Pops!

We love you!!

Chef Luke

2010-09-06T15:10:00.001-07:00

We hosted our small group last week, which means a few things.... good friends, good conversation, good lesson. It also means I have to get my rear in gear and have the house clean and some tasty treats to offer. I didn't plan ahead so instead of trying out some new fancy recipe I opted for the "add a cup of water and an egg" type of cookie mix. Luke, of course, had to be smack in the middle of all the baking preparations.

He quickly declared himself the official taste-tester

The next morning Luke pushed a chair over to the kitchen island and kept pointing to our spice cupboard saying, "pwese. pwese." (that's please in Luke language) I had a few empty containers that I filled with corn meal, oatmeal and flour. He entertained himself mixing and stirring and shaking containers for the majority of the morning. That's the upside. The downside is that now that is ALL he wants to do.

If he's not experimenting with his culinary skills he's re-organizing the kitchen.

Starting with the spice cupboard

McCormick spices make excellent stacking blocks!

once he'd mastered the spices he set out to re-organize the pantry as well. This mostly consisted of throwing away all of Jung's Korean food - like father like son! :)

What we've been up to...

2010-08-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

No, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. We're still around and busy as ever. Here are a few highlights of what we've been up to... (in reverse chronological order)

... school started this past Tuesday at RCS. Matt began his 6th year teaching in Redlands! It's crazy to believe he's been there for that long already. Of lesser known news, I began my first year at RCS as a school counselor. I'm working part time (15 hours/week) which is practically perfect in every way, allowing me to get out of the house, use my new masters degree, and still permit me to be home with Luke in the afternoons and two days per week. Despite the fact that the first week of school was graced with temperatures well above the 100 degree mark, we had a great first few days and are excited about this school year.

... Jung returned to live with us this school year. He arrived on August 18th. It was fun to pick him up at school and feel like little time had past since we dropped him off at the airport to head back to Korea. We had fun reminiscing about last year- how awkward it was for the first few days. Not so this year. It's been good to have him back.

(picture from last year - Luke crawled into Jung's lap to watch a pre-world cup game)

... We reorganized, cleaned, purged, repurposed, and rearranged nearly every room and cupboard in our house in an attempt to get prepared for our students to arrive (originally we had signed on to host 2 students again this year but later learned that one of the students would be living with his mom instead - can't really fight that one. ) It felt eerily similar to nesting while pregnant. We ended up moving Luke and all his furniture into the downstairs bedroom. This would allow our students to basically have an entire 'wing' to themselves. Matt and I quickly realized how out of shape we were (are) while heaving dressers, beds, mattresses, etc. up and down the stairs. We got Luke settled in downstairs and used to his 'new room' just in time to get an email letting us know that one of the students would not be living with us... so we got another work out heaving all the furniture around again and moving Luke back to his original room. whew.

... in the midst of all the 'nesting' / preparing for our students arrival I was bit by the redecorating bug. I have been disgusted with our kitchen chairs for awhile. Last year was a bad year for the chairs. Two teenagers and a toddler = lots of stains and overall grossness. I have wanted to reupholster the chairs for awhile. One afternoon I wandered into a fabric store and found some that I fell in love with. Bada bing, Bada Boom... new chairs. I had left over fabric so I made a window valance for the kitchen window as well. Originally, I bought a different fabric that I didn't like so much. SO, I made pillows out of that and found other fabric that I recovered the pillows from our living room set with. Don't be too impressed. Martha Stewart I am not. If you look carefully at any of my projects you will find glaring errors and cut corners... just don't look that carefully. :)

Before...

...after

... we were blessed with a few weeks of absolutely beautiful weather. I'm talking high 70's/low 80's in July in Southern California! That's unheard of! We took full advantage of the cooler weather and planted new shrubs and ground cover. As of the last few days the temperatures have hit 100 degrees or higher by mid-morning which does not bode well for our poor little plants. We keep watering as often as possible but they are looking pretty sad and pathetic at the moment. We're hoping that we can at least keep the roots alive and then the plants will revive themselves once the weather cools off more. Keeping our fingers crossed.

before....

... while planning out where we were going to plant shrubs and what we wanted the end result of our patio to be, Matt got the idea to build a BBQ pad, so to speak, for his new grill (remember the grill he won at the Holland Festival last year? He felt it needed a seat of honor in our backyard). In Matt-fashion, he got his idea and moments later was digging away in the spot he planned out. :) A few trips to the Home Depot later to buy bricks and pavers and presto-change-o! New BBQ zone.

digging/prepping the spot

my bare-chested boys working so hard

the end result

... it hasn't been all work and no play around here however. We have had fun and lots of it, especially with an active, curious, and hilarious 16 month old that keeps us busy and laughing for most of each day.

Splashing in the sink

experimenting with edible play dough (Luke played... Matt ate)
Building towers

making messes on the patio

making messes out of dinner

trying out new fashions

some naked reading (who doesn't read naked, seriously?)

and wearing ourselves out.

phew. That about covers it. I think we're caught up. We'll see how long that lasts, no promises.

And now, the rest of the story...

2010-08-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how we have been back home for a month now, it seems appropriate that I finally finish posting about our time in the Midwest. sheesh.

Our time in IL was filled with animal adventures. Luke hadn't been to a zoo or really been around animals much so we thought it would be a fun experience for us all. Lamb's Farm is, well, a farm with lots of lambs basically. It's not far from my parents house and offers lots of little fun things to do for young kids- a petting zoo, train ride, playground, pet store with puppies, etc. It was a perfect little outing for an afternoon.

The boys' first encounter with a miniature pony.

There was an old tractor that Luke could climb on. He had a blast.

Not sure who had more fun, Luke or Grannie.

Checking out all the lambs and goats from a distance.
The train ride.
Such excitement!

The excitement lasted about half way through the ride, then the "I want to get down and run" desire kicked in. Matt had to be the human seat belt for a very strong, squirmy little boy. Not the easiest job to say the least.

Off to meet the goats and sheep up close and personal
Luke had fun brushing the sheep.
Grannie, Matt and I had fun trying to keep Luke from eating the bristles of the brush.

A few days after conquering Lamb's Farm we decided we were prepared for what Brookfield Zoo had to offer. Jim and Aaron had to work but the rest of us packed up lunches, snacks, water bottles, sunscreen, and cameras and decided to brave the heat and humidity to explore the zoo. We were so glad we did. It was a great time!

At the entrance to the zoo.

Can you tell it's the beginning of the day - we aren't all wiped out and sweaty yet. :)

Luke wasn't too happy about being confined to the stroller or being carried or forced to hold someone's hand. He's quite the independent child let me tell you. I'm not a big fan of putting my kid on a leash, but I feel that may be the direction we're headed in!

The sea lions

Watching the polar bear dive in and swim around.
We went into the children's zoo, which was basically Lamb's Farm all over again with the various farm animals to pet and experience hands on.

He was allowed to touch the baby chick with one finger.

Watching the pigs and cows- enormous pigs and cows.
Becoming acquainted with Mr. Goat
Luke and Pops in the gorilla house.
Grannie Jannie and Micah in the gorilla house
Silly boys
We were able to celebrate Jim's birthday while we were at my parent's house.

Hugs for Uncle Jim- the best present of all.

There is this great splash park close to Erika and Aaron's house that we went to one afternoon. It totally puts the splash park in our neighborhood to shame. Luke LOVED it. We could've stayed there all day and probably would have if it didn't close at 2. What kind of pool/splash park place closes at 2pm on a summer day?!

Luke stole some kid's bucket and had a glorious time dumping water on himself until we made him give the bucket back.

Erika and Micah soaking up the rays.
Trying to climb up the slippery crab and drink the water at the same time.
Multi-tasking at it's best.
We had a fabulous time on our vacation. We got to spend some great quality time with family and friends, had a good balance of relaxing at home and getting out to do other fun things together. It was wonderful. Needless to say, we were pretty pooped at the end of it all, but it was totally worth it.

On the way to the airport

Back in CA, sleeping away as we wait to be reunited with our luggage.

Loving the umbrella stroller.

Again, we had a marvelous time. We can't wait to be together again, whenever that may be!