Merry Christmas!

Click on the picture above to see a clearer/larger image of our 2009 Christmas Card.

And There was Much Rejoicing

On September 30, 2001 Joel took me on a very fun date. I had to go all over Calvin's campus and picked up roses on each stop and then he took me out for dinner. It had been one year since we started dating. We walked along the Grand River after dinner and he gave me a very nice heart locket. It was so pretty and nice.

But, then years later I lost it. I think I lost it on or around April 28, 2007--JP and Katie's wedding weekend. The last time I remember having it was at their wedding in Washington DC. I thought it was gone for good and this made me sad. I also was afraid to tell Joel that I lost it, because it was sentimental to both of us. Well, I finally did after several months, because I wanted to make sure it was really gone. He was disappointed like I was, but we knew it was only a necklace.

Well, a within the last two years, Joel ended up getting me another heart locket for one of my birthdays or Christmases. (I can't remember when.) That one was also very pretty and I was thankful for a replacement necklace.

But then, sometime after July 14, 2009 and before July 17, 2009, I lost the second necklace too. (Although, I have a feeling it may still be somewhere in AM's house in Iowa.) I know I had it when Kyper was born, because I remember that and there are pictures of me wearing it. I was sad, and again I didn't really want to tell Joel. I felt bad. But, I did after a couple months and he was disappointed but also kind of laughed at my forgetfulness.

On Dec. 16, 2009 Joel was very kind and retrieved my suitcase from the attic. I had used this suitcase when we went to JP and Katie's wedding. Lo and Behold when I opened it up the first necklace was hanging on the inside of the suitcase!! I was so excited and there was much rejoicing on my part and Joel's. (It is kind of funny though, because I know we had packed clothes in this during our several moves during the last four years.) I am glad I found the first one, because it holds more sentimental value than the second one.

The Many Faces of Kyper

The other night Joel had a little fun with the camera and Kyper. These were all taken within a few minutes of each other. He sure does have a lot of different facial expressions. One of my favorites is the bottom left corner...to me it looks like he is saying "no more paparazzi!"

Polar Bear Pajamas

Funny story. Last year as a Christmas gift, I got Joel polar bear pajama pants and my mom gave me some polar bear pajama pants. This, year my mom got all the grandkids new pajamas and guess what kind she got Kyper. (I guess it helps since I already posted pictures of him in it.) Well, we decided to take some pictures of all three of us in our pajama pants. This is the best one we have.

Our Little Sailor

While Kyper was growing inside of me, his Grandpa Phillips was building a boat for the next sailor in the family. :) Here are some pictures of the beautiful boat cradle that Joel's dad made.

Here is Joel and his dad setting it up.

Joel took a lot of artistic pictures of the boat and at all different angles. Here is one of my favorites.

He seems pretty happy about it, huh?!

It is finally ready for him to use it. :)

Thanksgiving Adventures Plus a Few Bonus Pictures

Before telling you about our Thanksgiving Adventures, I thought I'd post a few bonus pictures. This is Kyper with the teddy bear at 4 months.Here is my beautiful baby boy dreaming away.
Okay unto our Thanksgiving Adventures. We arrived in west Michigan on Wednesday evening. For Thanksgiving dinner we headed to Joel's aunt and uncle's house. Here is a picture of the kids that joined us: Kyper, Johanna and Weston. (Let's say I didn't have that many good pictures to pick from...)
After a day of traveling, Kyper and I relaxed at my parent's house during the day. We helped my mom prepare for the VanFarowe Clan. My mom hosted her extended family. My uncle was in town from out of state. The entire clan was there. Here are some pictures from the event:

Elizabeth and Petyon having fun in the chair.

My Uncle Brian and Aunt Marie, my Uncle Robert, and my mom and dad with my Grandma.

Kyper was my grandma's buddy for the night. Here he is sleeping in the midst of the party.

On Saturday, I got my haircut from a good friend Elizabeth. She had a baby girl on July 2 (I should be able to remember that it is my brother's birthday and his wedding is going to be that day. And, get this we had Kyper on Elizabeth and Kort's anniversary.) I need to tell you a little story about Elizabeth and Joel. I don't remember the details, but I do believe that Elizabeth's parents and Joel's parents were friends from medical school. Joel's parents moved to Holland first and a few years later Elizabeth's family moved to the area. Joel was Elizabeth's first friend in Holland. So, I told her that maybe if (hopefully when) we move back to the area Madelyn will have to be Kyper's first friend. :) Here are some pictures of the two babes meeting each other.

Joel with Kyper and Elizabeth with Madelyn

So sweet--they are holding hands!

On Sunday, we headed to church with my parents and then had a nice lunch with some family before heading out. My mom bought pajamas for all the grandkids and they had some pictures taken that afternoon. Here is Kyper with Peyton, Mariah, and Sydney.

Here is a fun one with my parents in it. (The only one looking at the camera is Kyper.)

There you have it. Our Thanksgiving Adventures. After getting home we decorated the Christmas tree and put up other Christmas decorations around the house.

Coming soon: pictures of the boat cradle that Kyper's Grandpa Phillips made him. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Chronicles of Kyperman: Leaves, Airplanes, and Excersaucers

I just thought I would post some pictures of the latest adventures of Kyperman.

He likes to stand. Of course he does this with the help of his faithful sidekicks. He pulls some of the best faces!
Since the weather has been beautiful, Kyperman has enjoyed some nice fall walks.
Kyperman loves to fly.
He also likes his new toy--the exersaucer.
Although, this time he was more interested in watching the Lions lose...oh wait I mean play.
We had to get some pictures of him in the fall leaves--or flying over them. He wasn't a big fan of the actually touching the leaves.

Dad did a good job raking the leaves into a pile for some photo-ops. :)

Thanksgivings

Since, we have entered our way into November and are on our way to celebrating Thanksgiving, I decided to add a list to my sidebar of things I am thankful for. Enjoy my list. I hope to update it with one item each day.

Just to note, they are not in order of importance. My husband felt a little bad that he seemed so far down on the list! So, I thought I should clarify this.

Chronicles of Kyperman: Halloween

So, this past weekend we took a last minute trip to the west side of the state. Aren and Leah were in town from Milwaukee, so we decided Kyperman needed to see his uncle and aunt. After a long day at the hospital Joel and I headed out to Holland. We got in around 10pm. With a stop at Joel's cousin's house in order for Kyperman to have a late dinner. Thanks for the couch Tarah and Brian! Once, we got into Holland we visited with Joel's parents and Aren and Leah. It was great. We headed to bed and the next day was Halloween. I borrowed a pumpkin costume from one of my fellow MOPS (Mom of Pre-Schoolers). Kyperman made a very cute pumpkin. We had some photo-ops as you can see below. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera when we visited my brother and sister-in-law. They have some good pictures of the Sydney and Peyton as bumble bees and Kyper in his pumpkin costume. After visiting them, we headed back to Joel's parents and had a very good lunch of pirate steak. We then hit the beach--well most of the group hit the beach. Kyperman and I stayed in the car, because it was too cold and Kyperman was hungry. The next stop on our adventure was to visit my Grandma VanFarowe. Unfortunately, she didn't get to see Kyper in his pumpkin costume--there was a little leaking accident before our visit. (I love this picture of Kyper and my grandma!)Due to the timing, we were able to stop at our friends' house on the way out of town. Tim and Trish were hosting a Halloween party and we decided to stop by. Kyperman got his dinner there as did we. Trish made two excellent chili's! Finally, at about 7 pm we were headed back to the east side of the state. We made it home and headed to bed. We recovered on Sunday from our speedy trip.

Joel is now on an internal medicine rotation, which in this case means longer hours at the hospital. The nice thing with rotations is that they are only 4 weeks long, so he is already a quarter of the way done with this one and the hours. I hope the peds clinic has better hours--that is his next rotation. He will begin it the week of Thanksgiving.

I am happy to report that Kyperman is still a stellar sleeper. Occasionally, he decides he wants a very early breakfast at 4/5, but then he goes back down for a bit. Kyperman is also starting to stretch his meals, which means a little more time for mommy to get things done in between meals. :)

Kyper's Baptism

Today, we celebrated Kyper's baptism. In our denomination, baptism is a sign of the covenant that God has promised salvation. It was very meaningful to us. We were thankful that we lived a little closer to family than we did in Iowa, because many more family could be there. My parents, Joel's parents, my brother (David), my future sister-in-law (Jen, Jeff's fiance), and my grandparents were able to come. Here are a couple pictures from the event.
This is the water they used for the baptism. As you can tell our church doesn't do immersion. Rather, Pastor Dan just drips some water on his head. I think it is pretty cool that they keep water in a rock.
Here is the actual event. We are so blessed to have Kyper in our family and it was exciting to show everyone he is also a part of God's family. We promised to raise him in a Christian home and the congregation promised to help us. It is such a meaningful event.
Here is our family picture from the big day.

Here is the cake that Joel made for the event. Doesn't it look awesome--both to the eye and to the tastebuds? I really only posted this picture for Katie and JP. When they helped us organize the kitchen we discussed this cake platter and when you would actually use something this fancy. I think this is the first or second time we used this dish. It is one of those things you get for a wedding that you really don't use unless there is a very special occasion. Well, we had a chance to use it. (This is a cool dish, because it can also be used for a punch bowl or veggie platter.)

I had to post this--it isn't super clear, but it is the one of the pictures in the post below. This is the picture that was on the screen while Kyper was getting baptized. When they switched to this slide--everyone said "awww." We do have a beautiful baby, don't we? :)

Chronicles of Kyperman--Nighttime Edition

Kyperman has been sleeping like a superhero at night. We have had only one awful night since we took him home from the hospital, where he was awake from 12:30 to 4:30. Finally, the faithful sidekick Dad figured out that Kyperman would sleep in his car seat. Therefore, for about a month or so that is where he slept for most of the night. Even then he would give mommy and daddy at least 4 hours at a time. Then about four weeks ago he started sleeping longer. He was still in his car seat when this began--he gave us anywhere from 6 to 8 hours of sleep! Yes, we are so spoiled and blessed with a good baby! Now onto the adventures as of late:

Two weeks ago, we decided to try to get him out of his car seat. He had been taking naps without his car seat, so I knew he could do it. We typically had just swaddled him with a normal blanket, and he would break his arms free. My concern was that he would wake himself up with his arms when he broke free. Fortunately, we had received a swaddle blanket for a gift. We decided to try that at night. It worked! The first night we didn't put him in the car seat, we wrapped him up in this swaddler and he slept a full night on his back in the crib--no car seat. He hasn't slept in his car seat at night since then! Success!

Just recently though, Kyperman has been having some adventures in his crib at night. He is still wrapped, but he moves his whole body somehow. I put him at what I consider the head of the crib. When he wakes up in the morning he has somehow crept down. We can't quite figure out the physics of his movement. I wish I had a video camera. He some how wiggles down and we feel like it would make more sense if he crept up and closer to the head of the crib. Since he doesn't have any arms available, we think he is doing this all with his legs. Which, I would think that he would lift them up and then push himself up. Not sure how he actually pushes himself down. I am glad he goes down though, because at least he doesn't wake himself up by hitting his head on the crib rails. So, in the span of about eight hours his feet are almost touching the other end of the crib. Good thing he doesn't move faster and wake up by hitting his feet. I am now putting him even closer to the head of the crib at night.

Photo Shoot

Joel asked me the other day about when we need to have Kyper's pictures taken. I didn't really give him an answer, because I knew we really couldn't afford things like this at the moment. Well, Kyper was looking exceptionally cute on Friday, so I decided to try to take our own 3 month pictures. Joel got off of work early that day, so he was around. I started getting out a blanket and sheet for a back drop. I started taking pictures and Joel said "Maybe we could use these for his 3 month pictures." I hadn't told him my idea, I just started, so I responded, "Yup, that's what I thought and why I am doing this." Fortunately, Joel loved the idea and took over the camera. He is a better photographer than me. (I am thinking that if this whole medical school thing doesn't work out, he could be a professional photographer. ;)) We had many pictures to choose from, but here are our top three. I used Shutterfly and are getting a few printed for some family.

Awesomeness is Alice

(Make sure you look below for two posts about Adventures of Kyperman.)

Okay, I need to tell you about this awesome website I found. Alice.com.

Alice is a website that you can do some household goods shopping on. I was watching Rachael Ray the other morning and she had a clip about coupons. I do try to find the best deal and if using coupons is a way to do that I do that. (I guess you can call me a good Dutch girl or someone who likes to save money.)

Okay, so Alice.com does the coupon clipping for you. You can go shopping for various household goods on it. For the most part it is toiletries and cleaning products, but they also have some dry goods and snack food. You log into your account and shop for products that you use. For instance, Joel uses one brand of shaving cream. I found it on the site and put it in my "cupboard". I can then select how often I need to replace it. So, say he goes through a can of shaving cream every month. I can be reminded in a month to get more. Now, the nice thing with Alice.com is that if there are coupons out there, they will find them and use them towards the products you are buying. Therefore, you don't have to do the tedious job of coupon clipping. The other nice thing is that they offer free shipping!!! So, not only are you saving money by using the coupons they find, you don't have to go to the store and use gas to go shopping for some of those household items we all need. It doesn't cost you anything to have the items shipped to you. (Now, I do think you need to have a minimum number of items.) The other way you save a little money, is that you are not buying the products from a store, but basically directly from the manufacturer, so the prices on the products are a little lower than they would be in the store.

When I heard about this site I decided to check it out. It was awesome. I had toilet paper, shower cleaner, Kleenex, and Joel's shaving cream on my grocery list anyway. I found all the products and the best deals and decided to order them through Alice.com. I did this on Thursday and they came today to my door. This will save me some money and time in the store--I don't have to scout the shelves to find these items. Another bonus, is that I will get boxes. Why is that important to me? Well, I know we will be moving in two years. We have an attic to store boxes, so now I will be able to get some good moving boxes for the next time I move. :)

I really thought there would be a catch, but you even get a free account on Alice.com. So, you don't have to pay a monthly fee or anything. :)

I put their banner on my sidebar. Check it out!

One more Adventure

I forgot to tell you about one other adventure that Kyperman went on in September. Kyperman and his faithful sidekick, mom, went to mom's cousin's wedding. Great fun was had by all (for the most part), but I don't have pictures to prove it. You will just have to take my written word for it. :)

On, Thursday Sept. 17 Kyperman and Julie headed out of Detroit metro after Kyperman's two month appointment. He weighed in over 11 lbs and the doctor stated he was in excellent health. Also, at this appointment he some shots. :( That wasn't very fun. The nurse knew we were going on a 3 hour trip (I just sang the Gilligan Island Theme song in my head). So, she made sure he had some Tylenol right before we left. Kyperman is an amazing rider. He slept all the way from Detroit to Zeeland. There were minimal tears once we turned on the road to get to my parents. :) We arrived in Zeeland around 4 and Kyperman ate. My mom got home at 5 and that is when the worst part of the weekend occurred. Kyperman was not happy! He started bawling and I couldn't calm or comfort him. I went to check if he had a dirty diaper. He was wearing long pants and lo and behold when I took them off I find that his little leg was very red and inflamed. Grandma took a look and we agreed that this was the reason for the hard crying. Hard crying is just not that typical of Kyperman. He had a local reaction to one of the shots. So, fortunately, I remembered to take some children's Tylenol along. I gave him some of that and then put a little ice on his leg. He fell asleep in my arms soon after and that was the end of the bad part of the weekend. :) That night, we got to see Aunt Susan, Nate, Nick and Elizabeth. It was fun, although Kyperman was cuddling with mommy for the most of the evening.

On Friday, Kyperman and mom got to see a really good friend Renee and her little baby girl Abby. Maybe she will post pictures on her blog of Kyper and Abby together, because she was the only one with a camera that morning. Abby is a beautiful baby and it was fun to catch up with Renee in person rather than just through facebook or our blogs. After Renee left, we had lunch with Grandpa and then headed to Aunt Joy and Uncle David's house. We just relaxed there for a few hours. We got to see Syd, Peyton and Mariah that afternoon. Kyperman and mom left David and Joy's and headed back to Grandpa and Grandma Koning's for the next leg of the journey. We rode up with my parents and grandparents to Glen Arbor, MI. (That is a small city in the beautiful north.) We made it to our hotel and slept for the night.

On Saturday, Kyperman got to meet some pretty cool people. Before exploring Glen Arbor, we got to go to the condo where another Koning family was getting ready for the big wedding. We got to see my aunt and uncle and cousins. It was so cool to introduce my cousin's to Kyper especially Kevin and Travis. Kevin, Travis and I were all born within months of each other, so we were known as the three musketeers of our family. I was really glad that Kyper and I got to go to his wedding (we went to Travis's in August.) It meant a lot to us and I think it meant a lot to the bride and groom. The only sad part was that Kyperman's other faithful sidekick, dad, couldn't come along. Joel was busy working on medical school stuff that weekend. (Don't worry he made time for some fun by going to Port Huron and watching the freighters. Actually, he spared me from an afternoon of boredom. I just don't get too excited spending an entire afternoon and evening watching freighters. No offense to anyone.) Okay, back to Glen Arbor. Kyper, mom, grandma and grandpa had a little time before the wedding so they all explored the town of Glen Arbor. It was a beautiful day. They hit up some of the stores including the Cherry Republic. The theme of the store is Life, Liberty, Beaches and Pie. My dad stated that they had the best cherry pie ever--he has high expectations, so that is saying something! I made sure to get some sour cherry gummies from the original store....oh so good. After strolling downtown, we headed back to the condo and got ready for the wedding. We got VIP passes to the wedding, since we were taking my grandparents. It was nice. Kevin and Mara had a beautiful wedding. I wish I had pictures to show you. They got married on a bluff that overlooked Lake Michigan. It was a perfect day and a beautiful ceremony. We also had a lot of fun at the reception. However, we had to leave before the dance really got under way because we were headed back to Zeeland that same night. (It was a good 3 hour drive). Oh, I forgot to tell you that Mara got some wooden shoes from Kevin's family. Mara is Irish and we are Dutch. So, at the reception Mara got some wooden shoes and had to dance in them. How fun. I guess at the rehearsal they gave her a top ten list of what makes a good dutch wife. (Finding all the bargains, buying things on sale even if you don't need them, using lots of brown sugar when baking, eating windmill cookies, king peppermints, knowing how to play Rook, etc.).

On Sunday, Kyperman and I slept in a little bit. I know Grandma and Grandpa Phillips dropped by and peaked in but we were still sleeping. We got home at midnight and then didn't get to bed until after 1. After Kyperman had breakfast he and I hit the road again to head back to Detroit. We had missed Joel and wanted to get back to him. :) Again, Kyperman did amazing in the car and we enjoyed a Sunday afternoon with Joel once we got back home.

That was longer than I intended it to be. I guess pictures say a thousand words, so I didn't type as much in my last post. Make sure you look at those adventures as well. :)

September Adventures of Kyperman and his Faithful Sidekicks

These adventures of Kyperman are in reverse chronological order--due to how the pictures uploaded.

Adventure 4
Here are some pictures of the fun he had at the cottage with his two sidekicks--mom and dad. :) We made apple pie while there. Kyperman cruised on the paddle boat--rest assured we stayed close to shore. We took several walks in the woods and on the beach. Kyperman had a photo shoot in his pack-n-play. Dad went swimming. Needless to say a fun and relaxing weekend was had by all.Here are some more artistic pictures taken by Joel. We saw three to four deer each morning in the front (lakeside). Those are cobwebs on the grass in the top middle picture. The top right corner is the reflection of the cottage.
Adventure 3: Uncle JP and Aunt Katie's visit
Uncle JP and Aunt Katie came to visit. Although what brought them to the area was sad-Katie's grandfather passed away (please pray for peace and comfort for her family), we had a good time seeing them and hanging out. Here they are hanging out with Kyperman.
Kyperman had to model this onesie--it was a gift from the mellons. He looked great!
Adventure 2: Apple picking.
Kyperman and his faithful sidekicks went apple picking one Wednesday afternoon. Joel had Wednesdays off on his last rotation. I have coffee break that morning. Kyper got to hang out in the nursery with some pretty fun! So, after coffee break we headed to a local orchard and picked a big bag of apples. We got macintosh, golden delicious, red delicious, and royal galas.
Adventure 1: Tim's wedding weekend.
Sorry I don't have any pictures from the wedding. We headed to the west side of Michigan on Friday night. On Saturday, Kyperman got to hang out with Grandpa and Grandma Koning while his sidekicks were at Tim and Melanie's wedding. Joel stood up for Tim. We got to hang out with friends at the reception. After the wedding we headed to Grandpa and Grandma Phillips house. We decided to enjoy the sunset on the beach. Here is a family photo from the adventure. :) Kpyerman also got to see Great Grandma Phillips. Overall, a fun adventure.

Labor Day Weekend

I thought I should recap our Labor Day weekend.

Friday night Joel got done with work early, so that is when we headed down to Wyandotte. See pictures in the post below.

Saturday, we had a relaxing morning at home. That afternoon we drove a little east of Ann Arbor to Waterloo State Park. A bunch of families from our church were there camping all weekend, so we decided to go and spend some time with friends. We were able to enjoy the potluck and hot dog roast as well as a nice walk by Portage lake. We were sad that we weren't able to enjoy the beach too much, so we decided then what our activity for Sunday would be--beach.

Sunday, Joel packed the car with beach attire and a packed lunch. We went to church in Dearborn and afterward headed to the state park again. We enjoyed an afternoon of friends and sunshine. (Well, not Kyper--we had him covered all day--the picture below shows him in his stroller taking a nap.) We left late in the afternoon and came home to relax, bake cookies, and give Kyper a bath from the beach day he "experienced". They turned out good.




Monday, Joel had the day off. Most of the day was spent relaxing a home. I was able to get laundry done and the three of us did a Meijer run. We found some cheap steaks at Meijer and decided to grill for dinner. We enjoyed some time out in our backyard as a family. :) (Not the best picture of me.) We must have worn Kyper out because once he did fall asleep last night (11pM) he slept until 5 am! This is progress my friends. We'll have to see if it is a fluke or the beginning of us getting a little more sleep. (I know it will change once he begins teething and what not, but here's hoping for more nights like that.)



Now we are back to the routine of September. Joel is at the clinic and I am home with Kyper. Joel will be off tomorrow, which is fun since Katie (his sister-in-law) is in MI. We are going to meet her in Lansing for lunch.

Have I told you that I fall more in love with Kyper whenever I see his smile. :) It is the best. We have another picture of him with my teddy bear. He (Kyper that is) has grown so much in the last few weeks. He will be two months on the 14th!


Okay I am going to end this post with a random thought I had the other day. Joel emailed his uncle a picture of Kyper with the freighter (you have to understand--the Rosema side of the family loves everything freighters--Joel often visits a website: www.boatnerd.com). So, I was thinking that Joel's uncle is Kyper's great uncle. However, this doesn't really make sense. See, here is what I figured out. Our parents are Kyper's grandparents and their parents are his great grandparents, but our parents' siblings are great aunts and uncles already. Shouldn't our parents' siblings be Grand-aunts and grand-uncles, so that the same term is used for the same generation? Do you follow my logic? Now, that is what I call a Phillips' Pondering. :)