Matt's brother Tim is getting married this weekend and the girls are SO excited to be matching flower girls. We practiced today to get their hair to flip out (Cymbre's idea - and a good one!) and then they wanted to try on the whole ensemble. I love it!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Getting ready for the Wedding!!
Matt's brother Tim is getting married this weekend and the girls are SO excited to be matching flower girls. We practiced today to get their hair to flip out (Cymbre's idea - and a good one!) and then they wanted to try on the whole ensemble. I love it!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Cymbre is 8!
Here's Cymbre, her *8* candle, and her Bright Sky Rainbow cake. We saw the recipe in the mini American Girl magazine that came with Cymbre's Kit doll and I found it online here: http://homepage.mac.com/baroose/iblog/C1523793326/E20070513202546/index.html I made yellow cake batter from scratch instead of white cake mix. I also made the frosting from scratch. I saved white frosting to do the clouds but was too tired by the time I assembled the cake so I went with a "cloudless sky."
Eli and Destiny are in the background waiting patiently for their cake.
Here's the cake in all its glory! It's pretty to look at but, in my opinion, not all that tasty. Everyone else seemed to love it, though!
Here's Cymbre with Harmony, Eli, and Destiny and the rest of the cake.
And here's our little Shiloh, just because he's getting so big!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
If you need me, I'll be moving off-grid!
Watch this! NOW! It's long but seriously, watch the whole thing and open your mind! It makes a whole giant heap of sense out of so much insanity.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Christmas pictures by Devon!
Here are our 2008 Christmas portraits, done by my friend Devon of Photography by Devon!
http://www.photosbydevon.zoomshare.com/

I love these two shots!
http://www.photosbydevon.zoomshare.com/
I love these two shots!
This was the best shot of the whole session - unfortunatly there were no corresponding
stellar shots of the little ones together...
still a GREAT picture of C and E!
Our silly pictures!
Friday, November 21, 2008
Coincidence?
Last night, Shiloh took his first steps. Finally. We were all very excited to see it happen. Cymbre picked Shi up with glee. He was pretty thrilled with himself too. It seems like walking should be no big trick after all these months of Knee-Walking he's done. He is also free-range on the stairs now, which is a huge comfort since we do a lot of up and down all day and our stairs are wood.
So here is the weird thing: We have 4 children. 3 of them have started walking at EXACTLY 15 months and 1 week. Cymbre did take a few steps at 13 months but sat down and did not take up walking as a means of conveyance until 15 months, 1 week. Eli preferred to crawl and would not walk and hold hands or stand on his own until 15 months, 1 week. And now Shiloh, who has been knee-walking for quite a while, not willing to stand on his feet or do the hand-holding walk thing either, just started cruising for real a few weeks ago and has now taken steps at 15 months, 1 week. Seems like a really strong genetic predisposition, doesn't it?? Nothing else about all the children has lined up like this - not gestational age at birth, not rolling, crawling or standing, not age of wanting first solid foods, not weaning age, not age of first using the potty, not ANYTHING that I can think of - just the walking.
Allegra walked before she was a year. Every family has to have a wild card and she is definitely ours.
Don't you love it when they give you something to think about??
So here is the weird thing: We have 4 children. 3 of them have started walking at EXACTLY 15 months and 1 week. Cymbre did take a few steps at 13 months but sat down and did not take up walking as a means of conveyance until 15 months, 1 week. Eli preferred to crawl and would not walk and hold hands or stand on his own until 15 months, 1 week. And now Shiloh, who has been knee-walking for quite a while, not willing to stand on his feet or do the hand-holding walk thing either, just started cruising for real a few weeks ago and has now taken steps at 15 months, 1 week. Seems like a really strong genetic predisposition, doesn't it?? Nothing else about all the children has lined up like this - not gestational age at birth, not rolling, crawling or standing, not age of wanting first solid foods, not weaning age, not age of first using the potty, not ANYTHING that I can think of - just the walking.
Allegra walked before she was a year. Every family has to have a wild card and she is definitely ours.
Don't you love it when they give you something to think about??
Sunday, November 16, 2008
We've got PERSONALITY!
Shiloh with a spoon he is evidently thrilled about, Allegra dressed as a bee and feeling very cranky because one of the friendly volunteers tried to talk with her, Eli and Allegra dressed as firefighters and ready to save the world, and Cymbre learning to play the piano - with a helper in the background.
Fall at the zoo with friends!
Shiloh is still my sweet buddy in the sling.
We headed to the zoo to meet up with a long time friend and his kids. We had a great time in the lovely fall weather.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Halloween!
Here's Allegra - as a tree,
Eli - as a knight in shining (duct tape) armor,
And Cymbre - as a princess.
This year Matt and I went to a costume party fundraiser for the Holland Area Arts Council. For that reason, the kids got to have fun with their babysitter while we went out dressed as The Incredibles.
We took Shiloh along since we did not know if he would be happy that long with the babysitter. He normally nurses twice during the time we planned to be away. And it ended up being really fun since we designed all of our costume ideas around having him along.
Here is our baby super hero. He loved having the mask on and for the most part he didn't even grab at it. When we showed him in the mirror, he just giggled and grinned. He's such a fun little friend!!
As it turned out, we won a prize for our costumes: they said it was for sweetest but the trophy says funniest. Matt was incensed that they did not take our crime fighting seriously. Actually, we spent much of the evening laughing at his silly foam muscles.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Cymbre's big show!
Cymbre was in the CARE ballet "Tales of Hans Christian Anderson" last weekend. She danced as a Lily of the Valley in the tale of Little Ida's Flowers. It was a great experience and a great show!

Cymbre with some of her loyal fan base. =)
Cymbre with some of her loyal fan base. =)
Cymbre with her friend Rose (a daisy).
They were both rodents last year in "Carnival of the Animals."
A special part of performance week with CARE is the warm ups the whole cast does together. This is one aspect of the CARE experience that really cultivates a feeling of being a close family or team between the kids.
http://www.careballet.org
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Fall fun at Meijer Gardens
We visited the gardens this week with my parents and my little sisters and brother. This outing was actually in celebration of Noah's "gotcha day" or the anniversary of his adoption. He's been in our family for two years now and what a blessing he has been!
Happy Gotcha Day, Noah!!
All the big kids thought these stepping stones were just fabulous and used them as running and jumping stones... until Allegra got knocked down. Such is her lot in life...
Shiloh wants to say...
Monday, October 6, 2008
Our deck!!
Photography lesson??
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