Happy Valentine's Day!

To see the kids at the Hope Girls Basketball Game "pink out for cancer" click here: http://www.hope.edu/pr/athletics/wbb/1011wbbfans.html


Sophie's heart shaped pizza we made for dinner!
Writing what we love about everyone on a heart before dinner

Sophie and Abby showing Valentine's Day love at school

Noah and Sophie at their school party

Yummy fruit tray I brought for the school party (their teacher did a great job requesting fruit and veggies..and a little candy for the party!)

I hope you had a Valentine's Day full of love. We did!!

Shining our Light

Today in church we heard about the verse, "Don't hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see so that everyone will praise our heavenly father." -Matthew 5:15-16
"Shine" is a word that we keep close to our hearts for the past year because of the way Grandma Bonnema lived her life. It was our "word" for last year. It was the perfect verse for our day. Today we took our kids to DeVos Children's Hospital to donate all of the gifts that were brought to their class birthday party yesterday. We put this on the invitation and our kids were fine with it the entire time. Not to say they didn't think about the concept of giving away all those toys! We were so incredibly proud of their enthusiasm for the donation. They did not complain. They did not ask to keep even one toy. Their class very generously donated.
Today a woman from the Children's Hospital came down to the lobby to meet us and was so excited to see the wonderful, enthusiastic 'success story' that our kids are returning to give back.
Today my amazing 7 year olds cheerfully 'shined'. We couldn't be more proud.

Happy 7th Birthday my Angels!

We are having an amazing 7th birthday! It started with a party at Hope College with their entire class entitled, "The Physics of Intergalactic Flight" (we are VERY in to Star Wars these days!). Grandma and Grandpa Bonnema, Grandma and Grandpa Mosher, Tom and myself were the 'assistants' and a Hope student taught our class. They built paper airplanes, learned about birds, launched alka-seltzer rockets, and built hover crafts. 22 VERY excited first graders...nothing better than that!! We ended the party with homemade vanilla cupcakes! Then we were off to 'Froggy's' where Aunt Lynn, Uncle Steve, Deven, and Tori joined us. After a great lunch we went back to our house for presents and homemade chocolate cake! We've had a wonderful afternoon relaxing, enjoying new toys, and celebrating our miracles.

Snow Day!

The view from the front...

Even Tom is at home...but working very hard

Not us, we are not working we are snuggling and relaxing!!

The view from the back

The blizzard 2011!! We love snow days!!

Sweet Adelee, we are snowed in our house but we are watching cartoons, snuggling, and staying in our jammies :) (she was a little concerned after watching the weather channel with Martha yesterday!)

A long weekend!

We had a wonderful long weekend full of fun! Friday the kids were off and we filled the afternoon with a trip to open gymnastics and a birthday party for a friend at Crazy Bounce (they were the ONLY ones in their class who had never been....whew, glad we took care of that!). Needless to say they fell asleep quickly that night! Saturday the kids had basketball, we had a great brunch with Bill and Joan and we played all afternoon! Sunday after church I took the kids snowshoeing and out to Starbucks to warm up. Tom worked all weekend on our laundry room re-do, which is looking AMAZING!

We are on the birthday count down....the kids can hardly stand it! I usually spend this week soaking up the miracles that are my children. It is so hard to wrap my mind around how far they have come.

Valentine Houses

Today at school the kids made Valentine Houses. They had a blast! Noah's was very unique and very tall! I have no idea how he made it all the way down the hall to the display case! Sophie and Abby showed traits from their early finger painting days! Sophie had both hands COVERED in frosting and Abby had only the tip of her pointer finger! They all had a blast and so did I being in their classroom! They are off from school tomorrow and we are looking forward to a relaxing quiet morning and a very busy and fun afternoon!!

Baby it's cold outside!

Temps are in the low teens this morning at bus stop time. As I type I still can't quite feel my fingers! The kids were all bundled up for school! It takes us about 10 minutes to get the winter gear on. The blessing is that they can do it all themselves now!