For You Lisa :)

Every Christmas and Summer my College Roommates try to get together to catch up.  This year Laura was in town from Boston, and Sarah (Beamer) was in town from California.  We met at Monellies and had some great conversations.  Caught up on Julies new addition, Lauras life as a single teacher in Boston,  Jill awaiting her new addition (she is now #5), Beamer updating us on the girls, and Sara's life back here in Michigan.  We missed Suz as she had some prior engagements, and Lisa as she is in Libya saving the children of the world.  Can't wait to hear everyone's update in the summer.  Great times ladies. We didn't want to leave each other...it felt like no time or distance had passed.  Love those girls :)

Christmas Parties Galore!

This Christmas Break started with  picking up Uncle Joey and Aunt Sarah from the Airport.  It was too late for my boys, but my nephews (Ben, Chris, and Sam) stayed up late to pick him up.

Our first party was with the Krosschells.  It was an ALL day affair starting with breakfast downtown.  Here is a video of one of Caleb's first gifts...SO excited.

Opening Edward (From Thomas the Train)

Tyler opening some gifts...he got the hang of it right away.

The Krosschell Boys..James, Sam, Tyler, Caleb, and Bennett

Tyler with Aunt Jen

We also go together with Jill and Jason's girls (Maia, Gabby, and Lexi)

Christmas Eve we spent with the Schaap side of my family

Caleb giving Great Grandpa a hug

 Waking up Christmas Morning

Getting ready to open some gifts

The final party...the DeYoung Party:

Ben, Chris, Tyler, Caleb, and Sam

What's in here?

Gonna miss Uncle Joey and Aunt Sarah :(

 Oh...did I mention I won the annual DeYoung Bowling trophy?  Me and 7 year old cousin Asher.

We had an awesome Christmas...So blessed to have such wonderful family and friends!

Happy Holidays

Every year after Thanksgiving we go out as a family and cut our Christmas Tree.  This year was WAY better than the last.  It was 55 degrees and sunny, last year it was raining and freezing.  I stayed in the truck with Tyler the whole time last year.  Caleb was super excited to go.

This is the perfect tree for our house.

 Caleb wanted to take this HUGE tree home with us.

Tyler tripped over everything, but his pose is sure cute.

AH...at last we got the tree in the truck ready to go home.

Fall

We had a very busy Fall.  Jeff started coaching again at Calvin.  Practices started in the middle of October.  Looks like the Calvin basketball team has a lot of talent this year, but they are young.  It should be fun taking the boys to the games, now that they are a little bit older.  

We  had a very Happy Halloween.  Caleb had a party with his friends from school.  He wanted to be Mickey Fireman for that party.  For Trick-or-Treating he was Spiderman, with Tyler the cutest chicken EVER.  Jeff and I had our annual Halloween party at the Dykstras.  We dressed up as Biggest Loser contestants.  We started the night big and lost weight through the night.  It was a good time.

Happy Halloween

 Biggest Loser Before and After

Having Fun in the leaves