Merry Christmas from the Phillips

Dear Blog Readers,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years! 

I pray that all of you will all experience true JOY this Christmas season!  

Also, I need to present my first Phillips Ponderings award.  This award goes out to one of my best friends and her cousin/roommate.  Congratulations, Stephanie and Nicole, you have won the Funniest Christmas card of the 2010!  (Who can top this next year?!)

 If you can't tel--because let's face it a picture of a picture isn't really that high quality.  Stephanie and Nicole are floating in their pool dressed in their winter gear. The card says "...We live in Florida and you don't..."  You guys are great.  Thanks for bringing me a great big laugh and joy even though you are taunting me about living in a cold climate instead of a warm climate.  Congrats again for the first ever award given on my blog.

Kyper kept his Mittens On

After Kyper woke up from his afternoon nap on Sunday, Joel started pulling out our snow gear.  He told me that even though he may not be feeling 100%, he was getting cabin fever.  So, we all bundled up and went outside.  Kyper loved it and he kept his mittens on, although I think that had to do with us putting his mittens on before his coat.  He couldn't really pull them off or actually use his hands for that matter.

Another funny story from last night.  Joel was giving Kyper a bath.  (Kyper decided it would be a good idea to rub a plate on his head that was full of maple syrup.  He smelled too sweet. ;))  I was in the kitchen and Joel in the bathroom.  I receive a phone call from Joel and this is what he said: "Guess what?  Kyper just farted, I saw the bubbles come up from his bum."  I said: "And, you thought this warranted a phone call."  Boys are so goofy.   I had to laugh and seriously I love my guys!

 After his bath he played so nicely with his car carrier.  He got this for his birthday and is just now really starting to play with it.  He loves it.  He especially likes to drive the cars around that came with it.

I was in a Christmas mood on Sunday and wanted to do some baking.  During the day we made chex mix.  Yum.  After Kyper went to bed, we made rice crispy treats with a twist.  Look below:

If you can't tell we dyed them green and made them into wreaths.  We added red hot cinnamon candies for the holly.  It was easy and fun.  I sort of wanted to make cookies, but this was Christmas-y and really easy!

We ended our evening with the viewing of the classic--Home Alone.

Like I said in the last post.  It was a good weekend.

A Good Weekend

I had a very good weekend.  Sorry, no pictures.  Why not?  Well, it was a weekend at home doing ordinary stuff.  You know, cleaning, knitting, and just hanging out with people I love.

Friday night, I was finally able to go to the monthly craft night at my church.  I got some knitting done.  I might have to pick it up at home here while Kyper is napping today.  It is a good winter activity for me and guess what?  It is snowing and it looks like we are finally going to get some accumulation.

Saturday, Joel and I cleaned the house while entertaining Kyper--hard task, but we some how accomplished it.  Then in the afternoon, my lovely husband took me for an early Christmas gift.  He arranged our neighbor to come over and watch Kyper, so he could take me to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  It was really good.  I love the Chronicles of Narnia.  I knew it was coming out sometime this year, so I re-read the book this summer.  The movie did very well with sticking to the message of the book.  They covered all the main events in the book--maybe not in the same order.  But, like I said the message stayed the same.  Go Hollywood.  I really hope they continue making this series.  We don't go to movies very often, but I urge you to go to this one, so it will make money and they can continue producing the series.  I own the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian is on my Christmas list and now The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be added to my list.  I plan on reading the series to my children and then some day they can watch the movie series.  (There are a few scary parts for kids in my opinion, so they do need to be old enough to handle those parts before they can see the movie.)

After we got back from the movie, we waited for our crock pot dinner to get done and then enjoyed dinner with some friends from church.  We had been trying forever to have Kevin and Jen over, but we have been gone a lot this fall and Kevin is often gone due to his work.  So, we finally connected.  We tried a pork tenderloin recipe and it was delicious.  It was pork tenderloin, apple jelly, apples and onions in the crock pot.  Probably some other ingredients, but Joel actually did the preparing so I don't know what they are.  We had thought about watching a movie with them or playing games, but ended up just chatting the whole night.  It was good to host friends.  I determined that it was the first time hosting church friends since we moved back.

Then this morning we woke up to snow falling.  It looks really slushy on the roads and is suppose to get icy later today.  Joel wasn't feeling well, so he wasn't going to go to church.  And, since church is a half hour drive in good weather, we decided not to risk it and stayed home.  I am bummed about this though--it was the children's program, which is always fun to see.  Oh well, better safe than sorry.

Like I said--it was a good weekend.  Maybe, we'll have to bundle Kyper up later this afternoon and see what he thinks of the snow this year.  (That is if he keeps his mittens on.)

P.S.  Aren and Leah, if this is a good blog post then a 4 am police stand off that has a police helicopter over your apartment and the highway closed down is a good blog post.

Action Shots From Milwaukee

Here are some videos from our time at the Children's Muesum in Milwaukee.  I actually had forgotten about these when I posted about the trip.

November Fishing

I was planning on getting this done in the airport in Las Vegas yesterday, but I ended up getting an earlier flight and did not have time to do this. So after much prodding from Julie, here is a tale of high seas adventure in pursuit of large fish...

"They call me Ishmael..." Oh wait, there were no giant white whales in this story.

It all started last may when Mom made Dad bid on a fishing trip on Lake Erie for Walleye at the Hospice Auction. Long story short, they won the trip. Mom gave it to me as a birthday present. Soon I was in contact with the captain, Les, who said "lets wait a few weeks and see if the lake cools down; its too warm to catch anything now." Later that summer "All the fish moved to Cleveland; its still too warm." So after 5 months of waiting for the lake to cool, it was decided we would go on the first weekend in November. "Its going to be cold, but we can catch some big fish," Les told me over the phone.

Since the fish were still in Ohio water, Mom and I had to meet Les and his buddy John down in Huron, OH. We made the 2 hr drive from Detroit and met for bacon and eggs before hitting the water. The fish get lazy in the fall and don't start biting until later in the day. After we ate, we grabbed fishing licenses, donned our snow pants, coats, hats, and gloves, and were on the water by 9:30.

Les is of the opinion to let his guests help out on the boat, so we all helped get lures ready and rig the poles. We hit the 3-4ft. chop head on into the wind getting sprayed and soaked, but it was a sunny day and we quickly dried out. We set our lines and began trolling. It was a slow start, bobbing up and down watching the roller coasters of Cedar Point on the western horizon. The radio was quiet, with the occasional report of a walleye here and there biting on a variety of lures with no pattern to their depth or preference. After about 2 hours, we broke into the snacks. I opened the Milky Ways and was just finishing my first one, when we got our first bite. The flag on the floating board went down and we began reeling in. John marked the spot on GPS and soon we netted our first big one. He was at least 5 lbs and over 20 inches. High Fives all around. 3 minutes later, Mom landed another big fish about the same size. Before we knew it, we had landed 4 nice big walleye.


We made several passes over the same area--there were dozens of walleye showing up on the fish finder. They were all pretty lazy passing up our lures. I broke out the Milky Ways again and guess what? They started biting again! It seemed to go in spurts like that all day. We would get two or three fish all at once, net them, and it would be quiet again. Every time I ate a Milky Way, the fish became active again.

Around 4:30, we started heading south to the boat launch. Them Mom hooked a "Lunker" (in the words of Johannes, my German exchange student brother from years ago). She reeled in a 10 pounder over 28 inches long! A beautiful fish.


Soon after that, we had more bites, reeling in another 3 fish. We decided it was time to head in before it got dark...we still had to clean the fish and then had a 2 hour drive back to Detroit. As I was reeling in the last line, Les said "hey, do you have one on there?" I double checked the line and saw a bend in the pole. "Yup," I said "I didn't even realize it." So there we were, netting another 5-6 pounder!

We pulled in the boat, headed to Les' hotel which caters to fishermen and had a cleaning station. After pictures with our catch, we took another 40 minutes to clean them all and bag them up. Then Mom and I were on our way back home. We had to meet Julie and Dad who stayed home with Kyper. (Dad had taken him out to the mall and to the pet store.; he had a new fan when Kyper saw all the dogs.)


Overall, we had about 16 bites, lost one lure and netted 13 fish resulting in over 60 pounds of walleye! (before cleaning). There was not enough room in my freezer for my share, so I am storing my fish with my parents--hopefully it doesn't all disappear! Actually, we have more than enough, so if anyone is in Holland any time soon, and wants some fish, give my parents a call.

Before this trip, I had become disillusioned about fishing. In all my years, I would catch a sunfish here and there, but never anything big--even on a deep sea fishing trip in Florida, only 1 person caught a decent sized fish in the entire afternoon we were out (my brother JP also caught a rock, but that is a story for another time). Growing up, we would fish for Northern Pike on the St. Mary's River in Sault Ste. Marie, but I only ever got 1 bite--and soon after that, the fish population dwindled and we quit our annual fishing trip. This trip to Lake Erie restored my faith in fishing. People actually do catch fish. And if you wait until November, you can catch some Monsters.

Milwaukee Mayhem!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Joel, Kyper and I headed west to Milwaukee.  We had been trying to get there for about a year and half now, but  it just hasn't worked out.  The reason we wanted to go--Joel's brother Aren and his wife Leah live there.  The reason we went that particular weekend--Joel had an interview with a hospital there for a neurology residency. I do not plan on traveling with Joel to any of his other interviews, but I couldn't pass up time with Aren and Leah, and I know Kyper would have missed seeing his aunt and uncle.

We drove out on Thursday morning and arrived our hotel (yes, an actual hotel) around 11:30am.  Joel needed to get there and be ready for some introductions and tours by 1:00pm.  Leah was at school and Aren was working, so Kyper and I had naptime in the hotel room.  (The hospital Joel was interviewing at paid for one night at the hotel, hence we took them up on the offer.)  After Kyper's nap we went swimming and went for a walk at the mall, which was right across the street from our hotel.  I was planning on hanging out with Aren and Leah that evening while Joel had dinner with the residents, but it ended up that I was invited to the dinner too.  So, Aren and Leah actually got to babysit Kyper at the hotel.  Thanks guys!  (I think it helped Kyper become really relaxed with them.)

On Friday,  Joel had his actual interviews--he had 5 half hour interviews with different Attendings from the program.  So, Kyper and I hung out at the hotel in the morning--had a nice morning swim.  In the afternoon we headed to Aren and Leah's apartment.  The rest of the day was spent at the apartment.  Leah got home and was able to stay with Kyper while I picked Joel up from the hospital.  We had an easy dinner at the apartment and then headed out to get frozen custard--apparently Wisconsin has really good frozen custard.  We all enjoyed it.

Saturday, we went to the Children's museum.  Leah had gotten a great deal on admission through Groupon.  Aren and Leah were excited that we came, so they could go and explore the museum too with a child. :)  Here are some pictures from our adventures:

Leah and Kyper playing in the sand.

Watching the bubbles with Uncle Aren.

Kyper loved watching the ball.

How high can Aren jump?

Kyper didn't sleep very well on Friday night, which meant I didn't sleep too well either.  So after the Children's museum, Kyper and I took a long nap.  Joel, Aren and Leah went on the Miller Brewery tour.  After the tour, we did Chinese take-out for dinner and hung out at Leah and Aren's apartment.

We left on Sunday morning and made it back in time for me to go to ALIVE, our church's middle school group, in which Joel and  I are volunteer leaders.

Okay, funny story about our sleeping arrangement.  On Friday night, Aren and Leah had given up their bedroom so that we could put Kyper's pack-n-play there.  This way we could stay up later than 7pm. :)  Well, Joel and I slept in their bedroom that night.  Ky woke up at 2am and went down again pretty easily.  But, then he woke up at 5 and was like "hi mommy and daddy!"  He normally sleeps until 7.  my guess is he wakes up around 5, but realizes no one is up yet, so he goes back to sleep.  But, this time he saw us.  We tried to keep him quiet and I think succeeded fairly well in not waking up Aren and Leah too early--we let him out of the bedroom around 7.

The next night, we knew we needed to get better sleep since we were driving home.  So, Aren and Leah had the pull-out sofa bed and got the air mattress out for us.  Yes, a 16 month old had his own bedroom.  While 4 adults slept in the tiny living room/dining room.  I am so spoiled to have such a good sleeper.  We had quite the laugh about it and wished we could take an aerial picture of their apartment that night.

Christmas Time has arrived at the Phillips

We had a very relaxing Thanksgiving weekend.  We didn't drive out to the west side of the state until Thanksgiving morning.  We had dinner with my parents and my sister and her kids.  We hung out at their house for most of the day and then headed to the Phillips house.  Joel's parents had gone to DC to celebrate with Joel's brother and sister-in-law who live out there.  So, it was just Joel's younger brother and his wife, and us at the Phillips house.  Oh and I can't forget about Henry.  Kyper loves Henry--he's a rabbit.  We actually let him out, so Kyper could have fun chasing him.  Poor Henry:

Where's Henry?  (Look closely and you will see him.)

There's Henry!

We didn't do any shopping on Friday.  Instead, Joel, Aren and Kyper went to the beach for a bit, then came back and fried some fish that Joel and his mom caught on a past fishing trip.  (I'm trying to get Joel to write about it, since it is his story

They didn't stay too long due to the cold.

Beer-battered fish and Aren

Meanwhile, Leah was gracious enough to help me make Christmas stockings.  I cut the fabric and she handled the sewing machine.  Once we got going and figured it out it went pretty fast and we made three stockings.  :)  I really wanted homemade ones for Joel and Kyper since I have mine from when I was little and it is homemade.  I loved that aspect of my stocking.  I have decided to retire my childhood one though, and made a third one for me as well.  This way we have three "matching" ones.   They don't actually match in fabric, just in style. :)  Here are pictures of the stockings:

Joel and I are holding our own stockings, Leah has Kyper's

That evening we spent at my parents' house and had a game night with my older brother and his family and my younger brother and his wife.  We played Apples to Apples and I actually won 6 green cards.  I am normally not that great, but maybe it helped since I was playing with family.  Poor Joy, she didn't get one until the last card and it was a sympathy one from my nephew Nate.  We still love you Joy!  My brother actually picked at least two of my cards, so thanks Dave!

We drove back home already on Saturday morning, because we hadn't had a weekend at home in a long time.  We took the opportunity to decorate for Christmas!  Here are the pictures:

Kyper wasn't super interested in the tree until the lights were put on it or until Joel was trying to straighten it out. :)  Now, there are a few ornaments he likes and wants to play with.  I am trying to teach him to ask me before he pulls them himself. :)  We put kid friendly ones on the bottom, so I don't care if he plays with them, but I don't want him to pull at them.

The tree, our nativities. and stockings

Our new advent calendar and our advent wreath

Stockings hung with care

A closer shot of our nativities.  (One is the willow tree and the other is made of olive wood)

I am getting in the Christmas mood more and more, but I need to admit that I think snow would help.  It is cold and there is no snow.  I think I would accept the cold more if there were snow and it would feel more Holiday-ish.  But, we have almost all our Christmas shopping done.  I actually did some wrapping before Thanksgiving.  Those were gifts for Katie and JP though, who will not be coming for Christmas this year.  It's Texas' turn to have them.  Michigan is sad, but understands.  Since Joel's parents went out there for Thanksgiving, we sent our gifts with them.

Julie's Florida Getaway

As I mentioned in the last post, I went to Florida for a few days without husband or child.  It was a much needed break for me.  God must have known I needed a break, because I only booked plane tickets two weeks before I went.  I was tired and really felt like I needed some quality friend time, so I randomly looked up tickets from to Florida where two of my best friends live.  The tickets were ultra cheap!  I got down and back for less than $200 (plus lodging and most meals were free--thanks Stephanie!)  When Joel saw how cheap the tickets were and we realized we could handle the trip financially, he told me he thought I needed to go.  He knows me so well.  I love him and I love that he supports me!


I flew out on a Wednesday from Grand Rapids.  So, I took Kyper along to Grand Rapids and met my mother-in-law.  She took Kyper and dropped me off at the airport.  Kyper got to spend four days with Grandma and Grandpa Phillips since Joel was working that week and then he had a guy's camping trip that weekend.  The flight went smoothly and I landed in St. Petersburg on time.  Rebecca and her new little daughter picked me up!  It was so nice to meet Hannah.  She is super cute!  I did dinner with Rebecca and her little family.  We caught up and then Stephanie who had picked Melanie up from Tampa came to Rebecca's apartment to pick me up.  (I didn't stay at Rebecca's because she, John and Hannah were packing and getting ready to move to a new place the following weekend.)

Thursday morning, Rebecca and Hannah drove to Stephanie's house and we all had a nice breakfast together.

Rebecca had to get back to packing, so she couldn't stay for the whole day.  That afternoon Stephanie, Melanie, and I hit up the outlet mall in Orlando.

As Stephanie said on facebook.  We didn't get the headbands--not because we couldn't handle them, but they couldn't handle us.  :)

Friday we decided to hit up the beach.  It was 80 degrees and sunny!  Perfect weather for the beach.  So, after a relaxing morning and a stop to get the best strawberry milkshake I have ever had, we hit up Pass-a-Grille beach.  We even went in the water--up to our waists.  Stephanie must truly love us, because I am sure most Floridans don't go swimming in November.  It is probably mostly tourists from the north that would do that. ;)  Here is a picture of the beach beauties:

(Steph got a little cut off, but it is the best picture of us that we have like this.)

Per Melanie's request we headed to a brewing company for dinner.  Did I mention it was her birthday?  It was great being able to spend her birthday with her.  Here we are at the Tampa Bay Brewing Company:

After dinner we headed home to eat cake!  Stephanie put about 14 extra candles on the cake and we had a good laugh about that.  She just wanted a perfect heart. 

And Stephanie was mean--she got trick candles.  It took a little while to get them all to go out for good.  Melanie was a great sport about it.

Saturday was my last day in town.  Fortunately, I didn't fly out until later in the afternoon, so we could still have some fun that day.  Stephanie showed us around downtown Lakeland that day.  It was pretty neat, because they were having a farmer's market and a shabby chic flea market downtown.  So we walked through the vendors.  We also walked to Lakeland's botanical gardens:

From there we headed to the airport to drop me off.  But, we first had to stop at Parksdale farm again.  That is the place we got the awesome strawberry milkshakes.  We got another one and chatted there for a bit before going to the airport.  (I want to go back during strawberry season--apparently they have some of the best strawberry shortcake down there and that is totally my favorite dessert.  Although, I am not sure anything can beat how I grew up on it--Jiffy mix shortcakes and Michigan strawberries.  But hey, I am not that discriminating about my favorite dessert.)  Okay, so I had a picture--not a great one of the milkshakes, but it won't download right now for some reason.  

There you have it my getaway to Florida.  It was such a good time with some amazing friends!

Vagabonds

Over the last 6 months (including the end of Nov.)  both  Joel and I have been to 13 states (Kyper--12) and  all of us have not lived in our house for 8 weeks of the last 6 months. 

Recap:
It all begin in June, when Joel did a rotation in Grand Rapids.  We stayed with our friends, Tim and Melanie for 4 weeks.  Then we headed to IA--state 1--for a week.  (Drove through Indiana--state 2--and Illinois--state 3-- to get there.)  Then we came home for a little bit--about 4-6 weeks.  Then we headed north to Traverse City for another rotation.  We lived there for 4 weeks.  After Traverse City, we had our family vacation.  We drove through Ohio--state 4--Kentucky--state 5--Tennessee--state 6--to get to North Carolina--state 7.  We spent a few days down there.  Then we proceeded north to Virginia--state 8--to spend the night with Katie and JP.  The next morning we drove through Maryland--state 9--and Delaware--state 10--to get to Conshohocken, PA--state 11.  There Joel had a test, which we should have results for in about 4 weeks.  We then drove back to MI.  After being home for about 3 weeks, I decided to look up plane tickets to Florida.  I needed a break and I needed some quality time with some of my best friends.  I found an amazing deal and I spent about four days in Florida--state 12 for me.  I got home on a Saturday and we then drove to Milwaukee, WI--state 13 for me, 12 for Joel.  Joel had an interview out there and we spent time with Aren and Leah (Joel's brother and sister-in-law).  Next week, Joel flies to Las Vegas, NV--state 13 for him--for an interview.  Kyper unfortunately has only been to 12 states, because he didn't get to go to Florida and won't go to Nevada either.

So, yes, I feel like a vagabond.  Why did we even decide to rent our house for another year?!  We should have just put all our stuff in storage and moved from place to place--it may have been cheaper. :)   Joel has two other interviews out of state--PA and OH, but after that all of us should be done traveling for a few months.

Pictures and stories from Florida and Wisconsin will be up soon. I just needed to write about all the states we have been in and in what order for posterity sake.

Some fun Holiday Ideas

Guess what?  Shutterfly is giving 50 free holiday cards away to bloggers!  All you need to do is write a review about them and tell your blog readers what you like about Shutterfly.  Here is a link to this promotion:  http://bit.ly/sfly2010 

Joel and I have used Shutterfly many times in the past.   Not only, can you upload all your digital pictures on Shutterfly and store them there free of charge and print individual pictures, Shutterfly also offers many products that you can make with your pictures.  In the past Joel and I have printed pictures to put in our own frames as well as give to family members.  We have thought they are very reasonably priced for individual pictures and the quality of the print is very good.  I plan on using Shutterfly to make photo albums of our little family as well.    We can get the prints shipped right to our house or send them to our family and friends.

I really like receiving photo cards from our family and friends whether it is for a baby announcement or a holiday card.  Since, having a baby I think it is good for us to send them as well so that our friends and family have a recent picture of our family.  Although it is difficult to find the perfect card (because there are so many to choose from), I have fun looking at all the fun designs and feel great when I find the one that fits our family.  Here are some that I found that might be in contention for this year’s holiday card:

I love the colors, the snowflakes and that you can put three pictures on this one.  Plus this one folds, so we can put a nice Christmas message inside.

I love the way the red just fades into the picture.  I would need to find a cool black and white family photo to use for this one.

I like this because it is one big picture plus you can write a message inside.  I love keeping the photo cards I get of other people and this one would be a great one to keep on the fridge.  I love the word Joy on it, because that is what holidays and family bring me—Joy!

I guess you will have to wait and see what one I actually choose. :)

Shutterfly has some other great products.  I actually don’t want to tell you about a few of them, because it may be giving away a Christmas secret away to some of my blog readers. ;)  But, know that Shutterfly has some great products that you can give as gifts!  Go on over to their website and see for yourself--click here.

Homemade Apple Pie

Every fall, we go apple pie and every fall we do almost the exact same thing with the apples.  We make apple dumplings and two apple pies.

We have made the dough homemade for the dumplings some years, but sometimes we just pie the pie crusts that you can get in the store and use those.  They both taste good.  This year we bought the crusts, since we were in Traverse City and didn't have all the ingredients there to make the dough.

The apple pies I make we have never made our own crusts.  Yes, I go to the store and buy the pie crusts already in the tin pie pans and use that.  I then make a crumble topping for the pie.  It is way easy and it tastes amazing.  They come in a pack of two, hence why I make two apple pies every year.  I did that earlier this year.

However, this year I made a third apple pie.  My MOPS group made apple pies at the last meeting.  We made the dough and everything!  And, surprisingly it was pretty simple and I think I might have to try it next year.  The one thing that I am a little disappointed about is that we didn't measure out the ingredients ourselves, because it sped up the process that day when 20 women are doing it at once.  And, I believe the lady who measured the ingredients put way too much salt in my dough.  I am a little worried that she put a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon.  I almost always half the amount of salt a recipe calls for--especially when baking.  So, the crust is too salty.  We figured if we took the top part off, then it tasted a lot better since the sweet apple mixture soaked into the bottom crust and you don't get as much of the salty crust. 

The only thing is if I want to do this, I will need to go buy a pie pan.  Yup, I do not own a pie pan.  Oh well.  We'll see what next year brings.  I also saw a lot of other MOPS women using an apple peeler/corer/slicer.  That made it go really fast!  What a great contraption.

Here are pictures of my apple pie.  I think it looks pretty nice considering it is my first time ever making the crust by hand. :)

Before it was baked

After baking

 

Side note:  MOPS stands for Moms of pre-schoolers.  (Not children in preschool, but children who don't go to school yet.)  I went to a group down in Dearborn last year and enjoyed it.  This year I changed groups to one closer to my home.  It is a great way to find other Christian moms in your area.  MOPS is a Christian and national organization.

Thanksgivings

I have done this before, but I will be adding a new thing I am thankful for each day until Thanksgiving to really prepare for the day.  A few notes:

I probably should do this for the entire year, because we should be thankful everyday.  I should specifically do this on bad days.  Thinking about all I have to be thankful for is a great way for a bad mood to turn into a good mood.

The items I put on here are not in any particular order.  Although, to be honest I am most thankful for Jesus.  I know that he will technically be at the bottom of the list, since the new items get added to the top.  But, you can think of it this way.  Jesus is my foundation.  Everything I have to be thankful for is due to him and knowing him as my savior.

Monkeying Around and More Fall Activities

I just thought I would share some fun pictures and videos with you from some recent happenings.  I don't have any pictures from our Halloween evening.  We headed to our church and went to a few trunks and then walked around the neighborhood with our friends that have older kids.  Since Kyper doesn't really eat that much candy and can't have peanut butter yet, we didn't get too much candy.  He did get a couple tootsie rolls, so I let him have one today.  He enjoyed that.  :)

 Kyper can't seem to walk very well when there is a monkey on his back.

Kyper helping carve the pumpkin

Argh!  I'm a pirate pumpkin

Halloween 2010 Kyper our monkey

Kyper loves bears at the zoo

The polar bear stretching

Here he is in his monkey costume.

We got Kyper a cool new ball.  Here's what happened next. 

Don't worry he was fine.  We all laughed and then proceeded to play the game again.

 

This was the fun activity we did today.  It was laundry day.

Updates on my Guys

You first get to hear about Kyper. He had his 15 month appointment today. He is a happy--except he likes to show off his lungs while the doctor is examining him and when the nurses give him the shots--and a healthy boy.
Here are his stats:
Weight: 23 lbs. 1oz (25th percentile)
Height: 30 1/2 inches (50th percentile)
Head Circumference: 18 1/2 inches (50th percentile)

He also is cutting some more teeth. 2 that I can see, but I am thinking there are more coming.
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Now, you get to hear about Joel. He had his first interview on Thursday. It was at Garden City, which is in metro Detroit. He has 6 more lined up. All scattered throughout November and December. We are hoping to hear from a few more places. Here are the dates so you can pray for him.
Nov. 12 (Botsford)
Nov. 19 (Medical College of Wisconsin)
Dec. 2 (St. John)
Dec. 9 (Erie)
Dec. 14 (DMC)
He has one more for Henry Ford, but a date has not been decided on.
He also has one in Las Vegas.  The date is yet to be determined.

The Plunge and some other Random Items

I took the plunge tonight and dyed my own hair. I decided to go darker brown.



This happened the Monday before we went to Traverse City. (It was fixed later that week.)

Here are some pictures of our road warrior.