Merry Christmas!

It's 7:15am, Christmas Eve, and I'm enjoying a nice cup of tea in front of the Christmas tree, in the quiet and stillness that comes while my two favorite boys are sleeping. There has been hustle and bustle the past couple days ...well-weeks, preparing for this wonderful holiday. Today, however, as we really begin to celebrate Christmas, I am determined to sit back and really enjoy it all. I will think upon our Savior's birth and meditate on how His birth in a manger, over 2000 years ago, has changed my life forever. And today, although I am celebrating His birth, I cannot help but remember His death and resurrection...the two events that have given me LIFE. Yes, it's fun to spend time with family, exchanging gifts, laughing, eating and making memories. But may we not forget the greatest gift that we were given, in the form of a sweet baby, Jesus.

I'm pretty certain I won't be online tomorrow to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. So, from my family, to yours...Merry Christmas. And, if you haven't taken the time to think upon the birth of our Savior, make sure you don't let this holiday pass by without taking time to meditate on the real significance of Christmas.

Let it snow!

We're so used to warm weather, even in December, that this weeks cold weather has been a very welcomed surprise. On Wednesday we took a quick drive up to Oak Glen where it was snowing and watched Noah as he experienced snow for the first time. Not only was everything white with snow, it was actually snowing. How fun! Here are a few pics of our little snow adventure. :)

Getting bundled up to go:

Noah with his snow bibs on:

Our little brown marshmallow:

Getting ready to go in the snow:
He didn't want to turn around for the pictures:

Updated picture

My new header is the latest picture of Noah in front of our Christmas Tree. I had a very limited amount of time to get this snapshot (it was right before bed) and although it's not the brightest of pics, I thought it was a fun one. Enjoy a couple of the others snapshots I got...he's was such a good sport. :) As you can see I was desperately flipping through the settings to find the right one...I really need to get to know my camera better. :) Enjoy!

Celebrations Galore

This my first night home since last Wednesday, and truth be told, if Hylke and I hadn't agreed that we would make no plans tonight, we might be out. Although it's exhausting at times, we've had so much fun at all of our Christmas events enjoying this wonderful time of year. We leave tomorrow for a little 2 day trip to Disneyland. We thought it'd be fun to stay over night this time so that we could take our time enjoying D-land at Christmas. I know Noah will just love all the decorations. He gets so excited to see our Christmas tree and the "yights" outside.

I start seeing the doctor every other week this month! WOW! I can hardly believe how quickly the time is going by. Here's my most recent prego picture:

I'm back....

I've been really bad at updating my blog, sorry. We had a great Thanksgiving; visiting both sides of the family on the same day wasn't as overwhelming as I anticipated it being. Noah did a great job and slept the whole time we were on the road! We truly have much to be thankful for! While we were at my parents house we attempted a family picture. We ATTEMPTED. Here's some of what we got:

I'm thinking this one is probably our best one:

At least Hylke and I were able to look at the camera and smile at the same time! :)

I guess naptime isn't the best "let's take a family picture" time! :)

Trying to get a cute picture of Noah in his Thanksgiving "outfit" (can you use that word for boys too??) wasn't easy either. Like I said, naptime is not a good "smile for the camera" time. :)

Finally, one where he is looking at the camera!

This past week has been a full week. We were gone Sunday-Monday morning saying goodbye to some of our closest friends, Mark and Amber Poncy. Our friendship with the Poncy's has grown over the past 5 1/2 years. The first time I met Amber was at our wedding (she was Mark's girlfriend at the time, and his guest to our wedding). Hylke and I were both in their wedding, have served in ministry with them, have boys that are 2 1/2 weeks apart and are expecting girls 6 weeks apart. Mark recently accepted a position as a high school youth pastor in Littleton, Colorado, so they packed up and moved out this week. We are glad we got some time with them before they left. And, to all my CO friends, it looks like we'll finally be making the trip to visit everyone! We've been intending on making a trip, but we actually have something on the calendar now!!

Tuesday was a day of recovery for me and Noah: unpacking, laundry, cleaning....all the fun stuff. :) Wednesday Noah and I went to an open play time at My Gym. We (Noah) had a blast climbing, jumping, spining and figuring out how best to make mommy run all around. :) I'm realizing that being pregnant, and chasing an 18 month old (tomorrow) all around My Gym is, well....exhausting! We both took a great nap afterward.

This coming week is even more full than this one has been! We have a JH service project, 2 Christmas parties, an overnight trip to Disneyland and dr.'s appointments! WOW! I'm less than 3 months away from having sweet Elliana. With December already flying by, I know it won't be long. Here are a couple little prego pictures (26 1/2 weeks):

It's beginning to look...

...alot like Christmas...at least at our house (and on my blog)! Normally we start decorating for Christmas sometime after Thanksgiving, but this year I decided to start a little early. Because I wasn't sure if we were going to be moving before Christmas, I didn't feel like decorating for Fall like I normally do...I just wasn't motivated to pull things out of boxes if we were going to have to pack everything up into boxes. However, since we're staying put for now, I was extra motivated to get our Christmas decorations up and enjoy the lovely sights and scents of Christmas in our house as long as possible. Hylke and I both typically agree that the Christmas season doesn't begin until after Thanksgiving, but with Thanksgiving only 3 days away, I cheated and began decking the halls yesterday during Noah's naps. I even played some Christmas tunes on our ipod while decorating...shhhh, don't tell Hylke. :) We'll finish all the decorating and get our tree sometime this weekend or the beginning of next week.

We will be visiting both sides of the family for Thanksgiving...both sides ON Thanksgiving. I'm not sure how many more years we'll be able to squeeze in time with both families, but we figured to stick with it as long as we can. Typically we go to my parents house a couple days before Thanksgiving and leave after a Thanksgiving lunch. This year, however, Hylke is teaching at our Thanksgiving Eve service at church...which doesn't end until 8:30pm! We hope to get to my parents house between 10:30-11pm. We'll stay until about 3 or 4pm and then drive a couple hours to Hylke's parents house just in time to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner. :) We're hoping that Noah will nap during our 2 hour drive so he's in great spirits to play with cousins and enjoy more festivities! We'll stay the night at the Hylkema's and come back sometime on Friday.

Speaking of Noah and sleep (well, I mentioned it above), I did something I never thought i'd do...I actually put Noah down in the 5 o'clock hour on Sunday night. No, this wasn't a nap, he went down for good. He's still taking 2 naps (except on my Bible study, T-mom's days and occasionally on Sundays when our schedule really only leaves room for 1 nap) but Sunday was one of those 'only really time for one nap' days. He took a nice nap...probably about 2 1/2 hours...but I could tell he was super tired come 5 o'clock. We typically put him down between 6:30 and 7pm ( I know many people think it's crazy, but babies need sleep!!!) and he wakes up between 7-7:30am. Well, it was about 5:45pm and I just couldn't hold him off any longer, so down he went. I was a bit nervous that I'd get an unwanted early morning wake-up call, but can I just tell you that we didn't get up until almost 7:30am!! My little guy was so tired from long weekend!

I'm on the laptop (pictures are all on the desktop) so, unfortunately, this will be a boring (no picture) post. I'll try and get a couple Christmas-y pictures up soon. :)

Ultrasound pics

Please excuse the poor quality of these pics. We are missing the manual and set up CD for our new printer/scanner/copier...I wonder if it was thrown away with our registration card and tags...:)!!! Anyway, I took a picture of our u/s pics and needless to say, they are a bit blurry.

Elliana sucking her hand:

Elliana's profile (it looks like she's giving the "peace" sign:

This is of Noah telling us it was a BOY! It's pretty clear!

This is of Elliana telling us it's a GIRL! The darker parts are the "three white lines" they look for.

Elliana and stuff :)

Today we had our "official" ultrasound. It was so fun to see little Elliana again, and to confirm that she's an Elliana, not a Zachary (our boy name). I hope to post some ultrasound pics soon, but I'm being lazy right now. ;) The ultrasound tech said that she's very active....something I already knew!! This little girl tumbles and kicks and moves all around. Noah was extremely active also, but I have been feeling stronger kicks and jabs earlier than I felt Noah's. She was being extremely lady like and crossing her legs when the U/T tried to get an official picture of her "female parts" but after going back a couple times, he got a couple pictures. When I went in for my ultrasound w/ Noah one of the first things the tech said was, well, I know what it is! Noah's legs were WIDE open. Already seeing the difference between my boy and girl. :)

A funny conversation between the u/t and me:

U/T: Ummm, how tall are you?
Me: 5'3
U/T: oh. hmm.
Me: BUT, my husband is 6'5" (Hylke was still in the waiting room at this point)
U/T: Ahhh. That makes sense.
Me: "chuckle" Why's that? (rhetorical question, of course)
U/T: Well, she has long arms and long legs...takes after your husband.

I'm not surprised at all. Noah was a long skinny baby for the first 4 months...then he filled out and kept growing tall. At Noah's U/S, the tech also commented on Noah's long arms and legs. I'm so glad they'll have some of their daddy's tall genes...something my side of the family has very little to offer. :)

Well, I have decided to go ahead and have a repeat c-section; a decision I am very comfortable with and confident of. I was really going back and forth, but since Hylke will be taking a group of JH students to Mexico 2 weeks after my due date, my decision became much easier. I couldn't risk being overdue and still potentially having a c-section, giving us only a week or even less before Hylke would leave. My doctor was so helpful, he didn't push me either way, but gave me all the options. He did let me know that because Noah got stuck there was the possibility that my birth canal was narrow. This would, of course, have a higher chance of repeating itself. My sister actually had a similar problem with Isabella being stuck and the drs. said she needed to have a c-section with her next b/c of how traumatic Isabellas delivery was (2 failed attempts at suctioning her and finally having to use forceps...and still having major tearing). It's a good thing too, Lily was over a pound bigger than Bella was!! Sooooo, Hylke and I decided that a c-section would be the best option for us. I'm very comfortable with my dr. He's really great. One of the nurses that works L/D (and goes to our church) told me that he is an outstanding surgeon and the best OB. He is not who delivered Noah, although that doctor did an outstanding job also. Soooo...it looks like March 2nd will be the big day....which means, only 15 more weeks!!

On another note, Noah is talking up a storm! It is so fun to hear him talk. He says something new all the time. He loves airplanes, trains and busses in addition to trucks and will point them all out. He says all of them, but instead of train he says "choo-choo". He loves to say "Hello" and "bye-bye". He will pick up our cell phones and say, "Hellllooooo" and anytime we leave, or he sees a car driving away he says, "bye-bye". Yesterday he heard me talking to Hylke and when I hung up the phone Noah said, "honeeeeeey" Yes, Hylke is my honey. He says grandma/grandpa, oma/opa, amy, bella and lily (which is kind of like lilililil) The list could go on and on. It amazes me at how much he soaks up each day...kids are amazing. We are loving each and everyday with our very active, very curious, very sweet little boy. He's such a sweetheart.

I hope to post some fun things (pictures) this week...i've slacked a little.

hello and bye bye

Halloween

We had a wonderful Halloween. Our church puts on a big Halloween extravaganza called Halloween Happenin' where about 5,000 people from the area come out for some great fun. This year Noah even got to do a bit of trick or treating at "Camp Trick or Treat". He still has no idea that he got candy (or rather, what candy is), but loved the excitement of someone putting something in his pumpkin. We had a fun time hanging out with some of our good friends, Andrew and Denise, their daughter (one of Noah's best friends) Sienna, and her new baby brother, Nathanael. Hylke was with us some of the time, but the youth (JH-College) had their own section, Surf City, that they took care of, so he was a little busy with that. I'm glad he was able to join us for Noah's trick or treating time. :) Here are a couple pictures of our night. You can view all of them here .

Mowing our...ummm...tile in the morning. :)

Just looking cute. :)

On our way to Halloween Happenin'

With his beach bum daddy

and his 8 ball mommy. :) I had to do something with this prego belly of mine!
Trying to figure out what to do next

Singing and dancing to the music

trying soooo hard to pick up this pumpkin with Sienna

Mommy time

And one more....almost 22 weeks:

Chicken Noodle Soup

Does anyone have a great recipe for homemade Chicken Noodle Soup?? If so, please share!! I don't expect you to leave the recipe, but e-mail me and let me know!!

Cricut

I had the joy of playing with a cricut machine for my very first time this week. WOW! Thanks to my sis-in-law, I was able to begin "Noah's Book of Animals" I suppose it will become "Ellie's Book of Animals" one day too!

Since Noah loves animals so much, I thought it would be fun to use her Kingdom Animal cartridge to make my first die-cuts. Once I got the hang of it, I was creating and printing in no time!

Here are some of the animals I have for the book (please excuse the poor picture quality):

(This one has a dark green RIBBIT that I must have misplaced. :) )There was no sound for Elephant so I just printed out the word ELEPHANT to put below.

I really look forward to playing with the machine again (and, of course, hanging out with my sis-in-law). I can't wait to finish this fun book of animals.

TAG! I'm it.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

4 things...
I was tagged by my friend Julie to do this...fun!
Here we go...

4 THINGS I WAS DOING 10 YEARS AGO:

1) Working the night shift at Von's while going to school

2) Getting ready to visit Julie at APU (I'm pretty sure it was mid-october when I came out...that was a fun time!)

3) Figuring out what exactly I wanted to do with the rest of my life

4) Working with HS students at my church

4 THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST FOR TODAY:

1)Make lunch

2)Relax (I've spent the morning knocking off most of the real to-do items from my list!!)

3)Enjoy time with my mom when she arrives

4)Make dinner

4 RANDOM THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY HUSBAND:

1) I love that he's dutch and still pronounces certain words with a little accent. (most people don't notice it, but if you're around him enough you'll start to notice. ;))

2) I love his sense of humor. He's the funniest person I know.

3) I love that he completes me. We are a perfect match! :)

4) I love that he is a constant source of encouragement to me.

4 JOBS I HAVE HAD:

1)Blades Sports Grill

2)Vons

3)Sunridge Community Church

4)Teacher- Arrowhead Christian Academy

4 MOVIES I HAVE WATCHED MORE THAN ONCE:

1) How to Lose a guy in 10 days

2) Meet the Parents

3) Elf

4) Miracle on 34th street (I tend to watch several Christmas movies each holiday season)

4 PLACES I HAVE LIVED:

1)Pittsburgh, PA

2)Turlock, CA

3)Granda Hills, CA

4)Chicago, IL

4 PLACES I HAVE BEEN:

1) Hungary

2)Hawaii

3)Austria

4)Czech Republic

4 PLACES I WANT TO VISIT:

1)The Netherlands

2)Amish Country

3)Hawaii (I know i've already been, but I want to go back! :))

4)New England

4 TV SHOWS I WATCH:

1) Cold Case

2) The Office

3) 20/20 or Dateline

4) CSI

4 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME:

1) I was a cheerleader in high school

2) I spent two months in Hungary with Campus Crusade

3) I love to make homemade cards and scrapbook (when there's time....:))

4) I would love to learn how to sew

4 people I tag...
1) Janna (when she comes back to blogland)
2) Julie I.
3) Misty
4) Amy

That felt good!

I just returned from grocery shopping and boy was it a great trip. I determine the success of a trip based on how much money I was able to save from coupons/club card sales. My total b/f coupons and club card savings was $134.10. I paid $60.42 that is a total savings of: $73.68!! YAY!

I did not buy anything that I did not need (I went in with a list)
I did stock up on a couple items that I had a coupon for and were on sale. For example:

-Lawry's Marinade: Regular Price: $3.89, sale price $1.66, or 3/$4.98 I had a coupon for $1 off 2 So I got 3 for $3.98 a savings of $7.69!

-Prego Spagetti Sauce (my personal favorite...even over homemade!) 4/$5, I had a coupon for $1 off 3...I purchased 3. I paid $2.75 for 3 jars.

-Mott's Apple Juice: Regular price: $3.79. I had a raincheck for 5/$7, I had 2 $1 coupons that I was able to use, I paid $5 for 5 64 oz. jugs of Mott's Apple juice! A savings of: $13.95

-Yoplait Yogurt: Regular price: .90 (RIDICULOUS!!!) Sale price: 20/$10 (with an additional $2 off if you spend $10) 20/$8, I had 3 .40 coupons that i was able to use. I paid $6.80/20 yogurt cups or .34/yogurt cup. a total savings of: $11.20

In addition to some other savings, here is one last deal I have to include. Albertsons had several coupons on the back of the add that gave you $2.50 of free halloween candy w/ certain purchases. So, in addition to the Lawry's Marinade savings above, I also used the store coupon that gave me $2.50 off any halloween candy for buying the marinade. I used one other free candy coupon (for the ice cream I bought) so I had a total of $5 off the purchase of halloween candy. Well, the halloween candy was on sale for 3/$4.98 and I had a $1 off 2 bags of candy coupon, so I only paid $3.98 for the candy but had $5 off...that means I got 3 bags of halloween candy for free plus $1.02 in coupons toward the rest of my bill!!

So that, my friends, is how I saved $73.68!

Talking

You'll notice that he says, "buck" or sometimes just "buuuu" for truck. I think that he does that because I always say, "BIG truck". Maybe he just combines the two. I think its super cute. He will point out every truck, RV, bus or van that passes by...he'll repeat, "buck" until we acknowledge each and every one. And, no, it doesn't work to say, "Yes, Noah, I see all 5 of those trucks up ahead." :)

Some cute pics were uploaded to my dropshots account: www.dropshots.com/jhylkema

Playdate

Earlier this week Noah and I went over to the In't Hout's and had lunch and playtime with Julie and Eva. We always have a wonderful time with them! It was so much fun watching Noah and Eva play...they have so much fun together. Julie has posted some pics on her blog, check them out. You'll get a sneak peak at the baby love that's blooming between them...haha. :)

My little cowboy

Sorry in advance for all the pics...Noah's just so darn cute. ;)

Friday night we had our biggest Junior High outreach of the year. It was a western theme this year, and we had so much fun! This year as our entertainment we had Danny Ray come out and perform....OH MY GOODNESS! This man is incredible. He is an illusionist, (a member of the Magic Castle in LA) performs all over the world, loves the Lord, shares the gospel...and came to be with US!! You have to check out some of his stuff...it's mind boggling. We had over 60 visitors and over 30 students that didn't attend church...awesome! We're so excited for how the Lord will continue to use this event in the lives of the students who were there.



Noah got to join in the fun for a bit (then mommy put him to bed and had a babysitter come for the rest of the night :)) and boy did he love all the excitement (and all the attention he got). He was the cutest little cowboy there (even though he refused to wear his cowboy hat!). Here are some pics:

Learning how to rope:


Hanging out with some cowgirls:

Looking handsome for church today:

Strike a pose:

Getting ready to jump: