Tator Tot's new blanket

I came home from running errands one morning to find a fed-ex box on my porch.  It was very exciting, since I wasn't expecting anything.  I hadn't ordered anything online lately, so it took me by surprise.  (Another fun thing about the package was that it was addressed to Dr. and Mrs. Phillips....I love that my husband is finally Dr. Phillips!)

Okay, I am sure you may be dying to know what was in the package--oh, the title of my post gave it away?  :)

Yes, technically the package wasn't for either Joel or I.  It was for Tator Tot.  Inside was a beautifully hand-knit blanket, newborn hat, and nice note.  Joel's parents lived in Jackson before Joel was born.  His mom made a very good friend there named Liz.  I have never met Liz, but I have heard about her.  Liz and Joel's mom still stay in touch and Liz is a very good knitter.  I know she is far superior than me, not to mention much much faster.  Ha--I am still working on a scarf I started when I was first pregnant with Kyper, so 2009.  Liz knit both Katie and JP's baby a blanket and Tator Tot a blanket.  It means a lot to both Joel and I that she made this for our precious little baby. You can't tell from the pictures, but it is incredibly soft!  Here are the pictures:

A Friendly Visit

ER was a nice rotation for Joel in regards to having a little more free time.  He only had to work 20-9 hour shifts.  He actually got every Friday off in January.  So, it was a perfect time to have friends come and visit.  Tim, Melanie and Judah happily came to our place once we invited them.   They came in on a Friday morning.  We didn't do a lot Friday, because of our kids' naps.  But, Tim is an electrician and helped us finally get a land line working...THANK YOU!  It hadn't worked since we installed one in October.  It is actually Rebuilding Together Detroit's land line.  I was able to at least forward calls to my cell up until now.  It is so nice to have the phone working though.  (Although, it i RTD's number, it is nice to have a land line in the house for when baby sitters are here.  We ate at Cheli's Chili that night and then came home to play some games once kids were in bed.


Saturday, we did the River Rogue Ford Factory tour.  It was neat to see how F-150's were made.  The tour included two short movies, but Kyper did not want to sit through those.  So, he and I went on a pretend road trip to Florida in the f-150 they had on display.  Kyper was a great driver during our zig-zag route and over the mountains.  We then got to walk through the assembly line and actually see employees doing there jobs and making new trucks.  Kyper's favorite part was probably either playing in the truck or taking the bus to the factory.  (You take the bus from the Henry Ford museum to the factory.)

Joel headed to work for the afternoon at 3 and worked until midnight.  Tim, Melanie, the kids, and I all took a nap.  Let's just say the adults had stayed up a little later than normal the previous night.  We had pizza after our naps and then just vegged.  We actually made it until Joel got home at midnight.  I didn't last much longer, but as I was sleeping on the couch Joel finally saw the movie Office Space.  After the movie we all crawled to bed knowing morning was coming far too soon.

Tim, Melanie and Judah joined us for church on Sunday.  After church we consumed delicious enchiladas and all took naps.  Tim, Melanie, and Judah headed home shortly after nap time.

It was so good to see them!  Judah is 8 months old and is such a chill baby.  He did so well at our house.  Kyper loved having baby Judah at our house.  He brought Judah baby toys to play with and really did a good job on not loving him too much.  There was only one time I can remember that he was being too rough that we had to say something to him.  Hopefully this foreshadows good big brother behavior.  :)

Here's some pictures:

A little Mario Kart action (at least for Melanie and I)

Tm and Melanie reading to Judah and Kyper.

A Free 3-day weekend? What to do?

Joel actually had a 3-day weekend in January when he was on ER.  Did we decide to stay put?  Oh no, we headed back to see some family since Joel didn't get to spend much time with them over the holidays.  It was worth it, it was on a weekend the west side of Michigan actually experienced typical winter weather aka lake effect snow!  It was nice to see the snow and Kyper had a lot of fun playing in it.  We also got to spend some time with friends that we don't always get to see while visiting the west side.  Here are some pictures of the weekend:

Clearing the snow off the slide

Uncle Aren and Kyper

Why not go through the cool tree tunnel?

Walking with Grandpa

Tim and Tricia had us over for the hockey game.  It is always good to catch up with them.

We actually were in town for one of my nieces birthdays--Fricano's pizza was enjoyed!

My entire family--Kyper is hiding behind Aunt Susan. :)

The cousins playing before our pizza came.

Playing with one of Peyton's birthday gifts.

Throwing a snowball at the house

More snowballs

Daddy showing him how to do snow angels.

A fun fort at Grandpa and Grandma's house

"Smile boys!"

I think the only thing we don't have pictures from is our double date.  Joel and I took advantage of grandparents and went on a double date with another couple.  We headed to 8th St. Grille with our friends Scott and Stephanie.  It was a very nice evening out.

Guessing Game

Well, we are under the 100 day mark of this pregnancy.   When did that happen??!!  This pregnancy seems to be going much faster; maybe it is because my days are full of taking care of a 2 year old.  (Funny side note: I have been asking Kyper how old he is and his response is "Three in July".)

I set up a fun guessing game for little Tator Tot.  I did this for Blueberry aka Kyper last time and it was fun to see when people thought he'd be born and what gender.  Therefore I wanted to do it again for this little babe.  Click HERE for the link. The GameID is TatorTot.

We have been taking pictures of the growing baby belly, but they are not on this computer, so I guess you will get a collage of that in another post.  I also have some other posts to write that will include pictures.  One about our weekend trip to Holland where we were able to see lake effect snow and another about our friends' visit to Detroit.

Time in Holland

Kyper and I spent a whole week in Holland after Christmas.  Joel had to work the whole week and all our normal activities weren't happening.  Therefore, Kyper and I headed west to visit family.  (Joel was able to meet us there on Friday night since he had done some switching with other residents and had New Years weekend off.)

I was horrible at taking pictures, so most of the pictures are from New Years.

Since Christmas was on a Sunday, my dad's side of the family moved their Christmas party to the 26th.  We rent out the local Christian school gym.  The kids love it since they can just run and play with the gym equipment.  After that party, Kyper and I headed to Joel's mom's side of the family Christmas gathering.  We don't see his cousins, aunts, and uncles often, so it was good to see them.  (I took a few pictures due to the cuteness of the scooter train!)

The Koning Scooter Train

Tuesday, Kyper and I both got haircuts.  We then just spent most of the day at my parents.  My parents have a membership to Fredrick Meijer Gardens, so that evening they took Kyper and I, and my brother's family to see the Christmas tree display.  There was a train that entrigued Kyper for the majority of our visit.  He also enjoyed seeing the turtles and walking in the jungle.

Wednesday we relaxed at my parents for most of the day.  That evening, Leah (Joel's sister-in-law), Molly, and I threw a baby shower for Katie (Joel's other sister-in-law).  I actually took pictures at this event. ;)  Katie is due at the end of March and I am due in the beginning of May, so the cousins will be about 6 weeks apart.  (Now to convince JP and Katie to move to Detroit so they can play together. :))

Thursday, I had breakfast with some really good friends and then moved over to Joel's parents' house.  Kyper and I hung out with with Grandpa and Grandma Phillips and Uncle JP and Aunt Katie.   Kyper and I went to dinner at my Grandpa and Grandma Koning's house since it was my mom's turn to provide a meal for them.

Friday morning Katie and I had some fun sister-in-law bonding time.  We headed downtown and grabbed something to eat at Cranes and then window shopped at the fun little stores.  After Kyper's nap, Joel's parents, myself, Kyper, Katie and JP headed to Fredrick Meijer gardens again.  Kyper had fun seeing the trees, trains, and turtles once again.  We got back and had a nice dinner at the Phillips.  While waiting for Joel to drive home, Katie, JP and I went over to a friend's house.  Joel arrived in Holland at 11:30pm--he was on-call until 8 that night in Detroit.

Saturday, the Phillips girls headed downtown for Christmas massages.  Joel's mom got all the daughter-in-law's a massage for a Christmas gift.  It was wonderful.  Especially considering Kyper decided that it would be okay to wake up at 4:45am that day.  After our massages, the boys met us downtown and the Phillips siblings were off on a photo scavenger hunt that Joel's mom and dad created.  We didn't get everything on the list, but had a fun time hanging out with all 6 of us.  It actually took us an hour and a half just to do 4 items.  But, that was because we were hungry and decided to actually eat and chat at the bakery that was on the list.  After the scavenger hunt, it was time for Joel, Kyper and I to open our gifts from the Phillips and for a few of them to open the ones we gave.  (They did the rest on Christmas eve night.)  Saturday was New Year's eve, so Katie and I hit up the store and got some fun appetizer foods while the boys went hiking at the beach.  We just did a light salad for dinner and appetizers throughout the rest of the evening.  Kyper celebrated by sleeping and the rest of us got out the glow sticks and noise makers.

Snow fence jumping

The Phillips Six

Aren is set for camping with his gift from us or snow shoveling. :)

JP and Katie got Kyper a waffle maker that makes waffles in animal shapes.

Kyper and his Cooners

Our light dinner--the beginning of New Years eve.

The guys drinking their brandy from South Africa.  (It was a stocking stuffer from JP)

Leah with her wine and glow stick---ringing in the new year.

Sunday, we went to church with my parents and then headed to the Christmas Koning party.  They waited to do a big party until Joel could be there.  My mom had made some good food and punch and we just had a good afternoon with my family.  Kyper loved playing with all his cousins.

My brother Dave and niece Peyton

Mariah and Joy

Christmas gift opening or chaos?!  Fun either way.

"does your shoulder hurt mama?"

Kyper is making sure Grandpa Herk has a strong heart beat.

Joel didn't have to work until Monday at midnight--it was his first ER shift.  He is on ER this month and actually has a pretty nice schedule.  Not too many nights and has his Friday's off.  Next month will be a bit crazier since he is on Internal Med again.  He likes the rotation enough, but there are a lot of social issues with the patients and it is long hours (that is the part that is tough on me).  We are just grateful that he is doing it in Feb--the shortest month of the year (although this year it is only shorter by one day since it is the leap year)!

Christmas

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were pretty quiet around here.  Joel had to work Christmas eve at 8pm into Christmas morning.  We didn't see any extended family and stayed put in our own home.  We missed seeing our families, but it was so nice to have a relaxing holiday with just my little family in our own home.

On Christmas Eve we attended our church's Christmas eve service.  It was a really nice service.  Joel headed to work and Kyper and I slept.

Christmas morning, Kyper and I went to our church service where I had nursery duty. Joel actually got home about the same time we were leaving for church.  We just missed each other.  He slept while we were gone.  We woke him up after church and then did stockings.

What else is in there?

He got an owl ornament in his stocking.

 We all took naps that afternoon.  Joel slept the longest--makes sense since he was up the whole night working. :)  While Joel and Kyper were snoozing, I started making the traditional steak dinner.  I grew up having my immediate family's celebration on Christmas Eve.  My mom always made a really nice steak dinner, therefore I want to keep that tradition alive. :)  It is delicious!

Kyper and I enjoying the steak dinner

Aren't we mean parents, we didn't open gifts until after supper on Christmas night. :)  Kyper didn't seem to mind!  

"Cheese!"

I got Joel this bacon t-shirt.  He loves it. :)

This by far was Kyper's favorite gift from us!  This was Joel's old Brio train set.