Welcome baby Tyson!

Mark and Stephanie welcomed baby Tyson Lee Holden into the world Tuesday, May 6. He was just a little peanut at 6lbs 11oz and only 19in. Mom and baby are both doing well and should be coming home Thursday. I hope to get some better "non-flash" pictures of the little guy this weekend (before he realizes how much his auntie loves to use the camera :) God bless this little bundle of boy!!!


Becoming a big sister is hard work! We have McKenna for a few days and I was lucky to capture her napping today on the couch :)

Patience

As a mom, wife, Christian, teacher, etc. I've learned that patience is hard to come by. This morning our pastor gave a sermon about patience and how perfect God's timing is. How many times have you prayed for someone/about something and thought, "Thanks God for NOT answering my prayer?" It's so hard to keep in mind how perfect God's timing really is. He answers our prayers, but not always as timely as we think He should. Sometimes maybe, as Christians, we're even praying the wrong prayers..........that's definitely one of my weaknesses as a Christian - I need to remember that even in the midst of the most hopeless (what I feel is hopeless) situation God is listening and showing me His divine plan. Prayer is NEVER left unanswered - think about it - God has a LOT of prayers to answer :) So, keep praying - unceasingly!!! These recent photos I took of our amaryllis (sp?) bulbs reminded me of God's perfect timing. Our boys were so excited to see the things actually get leaves that grew to be about 2 feet tall!!! Then Lucas said to me one day, "Mom, I heard that Nicole's plant has a bud on it!" I told him his and his brother's were probably NOT going to get buds because the leaves came first. Honestly, I was about ready to dump the bulbs out! Then, one day, I noticed something that looked a bit different from the other leaves.............it was a bud!!! I told the boys it wouldn't open until it was as tall as the other leaves - that it would take quite a while, but if we were patient, we could see the bud open. Wow God's perfect timing is AWESOME!!! Not only did we get one bud, but between the two plants we got four!! The boys (and I) were so excited. Better yet, I got to take a few pictures of these beautiful flowers (thanks grandma and grandpa!). God is great!

Look Mom No Hands!!!

So, we've hit one of the BIG inevitable milestones..........walking!!! Jackson is SO proud of his newfound freedom. Though he's only taken 3 consecutive steps, he's determined to master this new skill. It's so fun watching him trying to keep up with his older brothers.

This is Jackson's untamed hair right after his bath - it just keeps growing, and growing, and growing..........

Like I said in an earlier post, sleeping babies just melt my heart, especially when they're my own!

Proof we really went on vacation

As most of you are aware, we took our first "Spring Break" with kids this year. I know many of you have been patiently waiting for this evidence (thanks for your continued patience as i weed through the pix). It's quite a daunting task to weed through all the snapshots that were taken over 10 days. I guess that's what I get for liking to take pictures :) We had an EXCELLENT time, however (as previously mentioned), forgot the SPF rule of REAPPLICATION. I had peeling legs on a 10 month old (not something to brag about!). We had WONDERFUL, SUNNY, HOT weather to enjoy. We had to find some "out of the sun" activities to do by our third day down there due to the sunburn. We looked through the lists of reciprocal botanical gardens/museums (through our Frederik Meijer Gardens membership) and found a fun children's museum to occupy our time. We also visited a great outdoor (mostly shaded, thank goodness!) botanical garden (that was also free b/c of our membership in Grand Rapids - what great perks to have!) in which the boys enjoyed chasing chameleons all over the ground, plants, trees, etc. We made the trip to Sea World (thanks to my aunt that sent us free tickets!). We definitely got our exercise in that day (along with a HUGE test of patience as we waited early to get seats to the Shamu show). Lucas rode on his first roller coaster ride with me. The rest of the week we spent either lounging by our courtyard pool (only a matter of steps out our condo) or at the beach (across the street). We also visited Siesta Key (one hour south) for an afternoon. It was definitely worth the drive and wait for a parking spot (to me at least :) Tim just asked why we needed to drive an hour to the beach when we had one across the street (remember the beautiful turquoise waters and powdery sand, Tim?). I took the little ones for a walk along the shore in the double umbrella stroller - PULLING the stroller works WAY better than pushing the stroller through sand/water (remember that next time!). It put the little boys to sleep (on Siesta Key, go figure :) We topped off the vacation with an outdoor meal a few miles south of our condo while enjoying a beautiful sunset. It was good to get back and into the swing of things, but SERIOUSLY, when is the warm weather coming back??? And I sure am glad gas was NOT $3.76 while we were filling up every 300+ miles. Stay tuned, I might add more PIX to this posting (if i get a chance)......................

Sweet Baby Brooke

These are a few shots from a couple weeks ago I took of my newest niece, Brooke Lyn Kraker. There's just something about a newborn sleeping that just melts my heart!

Intimidated?

So I'm often intimidated to blog just text as I read other blogs (especially of those who seem to write so eloquently). So.......instead of updating this post with a few paragraphs I will be taking a different approach - one big list! Why not? I live my life in lists (grocery lists, to do lists, etc.) so why not blog in a list?! So here goes!
1. I realized tonight my oldest was singing a Hannah Montana song while picking up his toys (and Reece was singing along)
2. You get to guess which parent actually sings along to one of her tunes :)
3. Proof my kids live in the 21st century: Lucas asked me to "just email" his teacher because he forgot to thank her in person for a gift.
4. I would be rich if I could invent a computer that is voice activated (if that's already invented - please inform me!). Imagine how much MORE i could get done around the house if i could iron while blogging!!!
5. If you're wondering why I haven't posted pix of my kids lately, I'm waiting for my new photo software to arrive (and I've been buried in like 10 loads of laundry - SERIOUSLY!!!) :)
6. I'm having buyers remorse as i recently discovered this fantastic FREE software for editing photos at www.picnik.com
7. Tim and I failed SPF 101 this spring break as all 3 of our kids burned and PEELED!
8. I'm getting old - Lucas just said to me (as i was stumbling for words to say) "You'll get it out mom!"
9. Goodwill ROCKS!!!
10.I recently rediscovered the Lakeland Library Cooperative - what's better than being able to "order" books, dvd's, cd's, etc to be picked up at your local library (well, being able to do it while ironing would be WAY better!) - and they are all FREE!
11.I love posting this way as i can interject my most random/add thoughts at whim!

Stay tuned......

We are back from our trip to Florida (we got home Sunday am and have been catching up on sleep and laundry since). The kids survived the 50+ hours in the car (most of them consecutive 20+). We even made it back sans tickets/car problems (probably shouldn't have mentioned that last one, now we're due for some van trouble, right?!). I will post some pix once i get them off the cards and onto our computer and sorted/edited.......no guarantees on a timeliness manner though :) Sorry in the lack of posting lately - we actually went 10 days without the internet!!!