Christmas with the Kuperus Family

After a beautiful church service this morning, we headed out to Hudsonville to spend the day with Casey's family. We had another delicious meal, opened gifts, and just hung out. It was another fun and relaxing day! After opening gifts multiple days in a row, the kids will probably wake up tomorrow wondering where the presents are! They definitely have enough new toys to keep them busy for awhile...

Big Day

Anyone know the correlation between the two pictures up above?

Well, if you're a certain girl who is 3 1/2 and FINALLY go poopy on the potty, you get to go on a special date with Daddy to the movies.

During Peter's party on Saturday, Esther finally achieved this goal! (We're not sure if it was to upstage her little brother, but we aren't complaining!) So, this afternoon, Esther and I went to the movies. Between the two of us, we managed to finish a bag of popcorn and a pop. She thought it was pretty cool and managed to sit relatively still through the whole movie.

Congratulations to Esther!!!

Christmas with the Waanders Family

Today we celebrated Christmas with my parents, my sister Karen, and my Aunt Elaine. After church we went to my parents' house and had a wonderful dinner and a fun and relaxing afternoon. We (ok, mostly the kids) opened gifts and had fun playing with the new toys!

In the evening we got together with a group of friends because our friends Tom and Tricia were visiting. They moved from Dearborn, MI to Orlando this year, and with the weather we had yesterday, I don't think they regret that decision one bit! It was wonderful to see them and our other friends. We had pizza and the kids had a great time playing together. You'll notice that the eyes of the girls in the picture below are not focused on the camera--they are intently watching the Elmo Christmas special on TV!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Peter!

Our little boy is 2! We had a fun day celebrating Peter's birthday. We started by going out for donuts this morning. I felt quite honored to be able to join the gang at Marge's Donut Den, since that is usually reserved for Daddy Donut Days. Later we had mac & cheese for lunch, and then Peter took a nap so he could gear up for his party.

Our families and a couple friends came over for pizza and of course Grandma K's cake! Once again, she did an amazing job and created a really cool train cake. Peter got some very fun gifts and had a great time hanging out with all his favorite people. Every time someone said, "happy birthday" to him, he'd say, "I two!" and then start clapping and saying "Yay!" We are so thankful for Peter and the joy and laughter he brings to our family. Happy birthday, Buddy!

10 Years......

For our anniversary, I thought I'd make a list of the major events/changes over the past 10 years.

1. 4 different houses/apartments, all within Grand Rapids. We have used up our amount of "how about you help us move" favors.

2. 10 job changes: Casey (7), Laura (3). Bonus points for anyone who can name them all (past employers who read this blog excluded).

3. The addition of one dog to our family.

4. The addition of three children to our family.

5. The deduction of one dog from our family.

6. The changing definition of the term "sleeping in." In 1997, it was 9:30 am on a Saturday. In 2007 it is anytime after 6:00 am on a Saturday.

7. The loss of a pickup truck and the addition of minivan.

8. Casey learning that balancing the checkbook by looking at the balance on the ATM display is NOT the appropriate method. (See previous post on mentioning Laura's type A, which stands for anal, personality.)

9. Being woken up by my wife in the middle of the night now means something totally different than it did in 1997 (use your imagination, but now it means someone is crying and needs a pacifier).

10. A pleasant dinner is any dinner that lasts more than 15 minutes without a child saying, "What is that? It smells funny."

Looking forward to the next 10 years!

Ten Years Ago...

Today is our 10 year anniversary! Wow, where did the time go? In honor of the day, I thought I'd list 10 things that make me thankful to be married to Casey:

1. He's funny. He makes me laugh a lot, and it's good medicine.
2. He's not overly romantic or sappy, but when he does something special, it is always very meaningful. He has planned several anniversary get-aways that were a total surprise for me.
3. He balances out my "type A" personality with his laid-back personality. It's a good mix.
4. He has a different organizational system than I do, but he allows me to try to organize his life my way and doesn't complain about it too much.
5. He's an AWESOME Dad! His days at home (or at the donut shop) with the kids while I'm working are very, very special. He also tries to do special things with the kids one-on-one, even if it's just running errands.
6. He's a hard worker. With each of the many jobs he's had since we got married, he's seen an opportunity to try something new and take on a challenge. He succeeds at whatever he does.
7. Even though he works hard at his jobs, he works even harder at balancing his work life with his family life. He makes us a priority.
8. He has a great relationship with my parents, which means a lot to me.
9. He's fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a firefighter!
10. He's just as handsome now as he was 10 years ago.

Last year on our anniversary, we were supposed to go out for dinner, but Casey got a fire call. Tonight we're planning to go out for dinner while my parents watch Esther and Peter. Miriam will go along with us since I'm her only food supply right now. Here's hoping that there are no fires in Kentwood tonight!

Plantinga Party

Today we had a get-together with Casey's Mom's side of the family. We always have a lot of fun catching up with the cousins and aunts and uncles as well. Of course we had to try to get a picture of all the kids, which is always amusing. I took about 8 or 9 shots, and this was the best one! Oh well. Esther had a great time playing with cousin Emma all afternoon, and Miriam got to show off one of her Christmas outfits. Peter occupied himself with all the trucks and cars he found in the basement. Of course after all that playing, Peter and Esther both zonked out in the car on the way home!

Cousins

Tonight Jeff and Renee cashed in a couple of the MANY babysitting hours that they've banked over the last 3-1/2 years. We put Tyler and Miriam in the bouncy seat together and they were quite cozy and happy in there together until Miriam starting trying to eat Tyler's hair. We're pretty sure she's just jealous of his thick locks! Although Tyler looks bigger in the picture, Miriam does actually have about a pound on him as of their weigh-ins this past week. We'll see how quickly he catches up...

Trains!

This morning we took the kids to Casey's Uncle Bob and Aunt Anita's house to see the trains. We did this last year and Esther thought it was pretty cool, but Peter was a little too young to get into it. This year Peter picked out his engineer hat to wear (so of course Esther needed hers too) and was absolutely in his glory. Esther enjoyed herself once again too. Uncle Bob let them drive the trains, blow the whistle, and load and unload logs. Aunt Anita had the tough job of entertaining Miriam while we were there. It was a great outing, and we appreciate them allowing us to visit!

God Is So Good

Peter has taken up singing in the last couple months. He sings a lot, and it's been so fun to listen to his progress as he goes from singing a couple words of a song to getting most of it right. He also does quite well with singing in tune. His favorite song is God Is So Good, and his rendition goes something like this:

God so so

God so so

He so so

To me

He pay pay (He answers prayer)

He pay pay

He so so

To me

This morning I was feeding Miriam in her room and suddenly I heard Peter belting out this in his room. Wouldn't it be great if that could always our first thought when we wake up in the morning? I know it's usually not mine, but Peter reminded me that I should wake up every day and be thankful. Life lessons from an almost 2-year-old are the best!