Holland Aquatic Center

James had Monday and Tuesday off of school for a mid-winter break this week : ) So after a few nights we spent away from the kids up north we decided to come home with them and squeeze in a few fun things with them too. They LOVED the aquatic center and we will have to go back again soon. We also took them to Chucky Cheese's : ) They had fun there too but Holy Cow, I haven't been there since we took James' nephew many years ago.....it's not quite the same when you aren't a kid yourself!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Baby Averie and Miss Soarah come for a visit...

My cousin, Ashley's, two daughters came for a visit over lunch today. The kids had a great time playing together and Simon and Sierra LOVED the BABY!

First Born..

I ususally skip these but this one was kind of cute!

Your First Born

Here you go mommies - a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about your first born!Let's see how much you remember!

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED?Yes! Even though it was only 6 months after we got married.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME?yep

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?What was I thinking? I was just kidding?!

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU?No

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU?I was 26 when he was born

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT?prego test

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST?James

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX?Uh, YES!

9. DUE DATE?NOvember 7, 2005

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS?Yes, all the way until about 2/3 through with the pregnancy!

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Burger Kind and Pizza (but really I eat that all the time anyway : ) )

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST?Morning sickness, uncomfortable, couldn't sleep on my stomach.

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX?Boy

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? Kind of wanted a girl, but really didn't care either way!

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? lots, around 35 or so

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER?Yes, a couple.

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW?All planned.

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY?not besides the normal stuff

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH?Holland Hospital

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR?Went in Monday morning, super early. Was supposed to be induced but they said I was already having contractions, I just didn't feel them, weird. Broke my water at some point. Got an epidural. Pushed for over 2 hours, nothing was happening (not that we knew that since the nurse didn't bother to explain) suddenly, we were whisked off to a c-section to get him out quickly : )

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL?James

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH?James + staff

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? c-section

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN?Yes!

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH?8 pounds, 8 ounces

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ?November, 14, 2005, 1 week late

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER?Simon James

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY?3

GYMNASTICS...

For the kid's birthdays this year we decided instead of a gift to give them an experience. So we choose classes at a gymnastics place near our home. Simon LOVED his first day yesterday. This is his first experience in any type of structured activity but he did great. In the beginning he warmed up with a large group which included 3 and 4 year olds and he was the only new one, so everyone else knew what they were doing and what motions went with the song...Simon first just stood there and stared but eventually caught on and joined in. Then he broke off into just his 3 year old class. He was with three other little girlies (of course)! They are really making them go through the paces and learn gymnastics. He had to practice on the balance beam, flipping over bars, summersaults....as well as other stuff mixed in. He said he wanted to go back again so I took that as a good sign : )

AND...

we are sharing the new baby's middle name. She will have the middle name of "Jeanne" after James' Grandma Grooters! We went and told her (actually she is the only one besides James and I who knows the entire name now) and she was very excited. She is VERY deaf at 94 years old (I think) so we have to shout everything at her. She finally understood we were naming the baby after her and then wrote us this note!

We are having another.....

GIRL!!!! WOW, everything looked great at the ultrasounds today and she is perfectly healthy at this point. She was all curled up and not really awake and moving too much so the tech didn't know if we were going to be able to find out or not. The baby was NOT cooperating. After many many pokes and jostles in the very end from the tech she moved enough that we could get a glimpse and it was 100% positive GIRL! AND we have a tentatie c-section date of Monday June 15, 2009! I'm sure it will be here before we know it.

SIERRA

Sierra turned 2 about two weeks ago and we had her 2 year check-up with the doctor today. Everything looks good, I might be prejudiced 'cause I'm her mom, but I think she is way ahead of the game in most categories. She weighed in at just under 26 pounds which put her in the 40th percentile and her height was measured at 33 inches which put her in the 30th percentile : )

Phew....

Our computer is back safe and sound and fixed. Unfortunately they must have had to reboot the whole system so we are now left with the annoying job of redoing the whole computer to where we like it but we luckily recently bought an external hard drive so I don't think we lost much : ) I added a new poll to the side of the blog....vote! I'm curious to see what people think : )

Computer repairs...

We sent our laptop away last week for a warranty repair for the wireless internet so it has been a little wild trying to do my everyday Internet activities plus run Petunias! James luckily got a iPod touch for Christmas which I am loving; ) and hopefully I will be able to add some updates with pictures soon.

Sierra's 2nd birthday party

We had a "Pinkalicious" birthday party with the extended fam this weekend for Sierra. Wow,as I write that I can't really believe she is already two, even though she is two going on seven, most of the time. We themed the party after her new book pinkalicious where a little girl turns pink because she ate too many pink cupcakes! She loved the party and I'll post pics soon.

ULTRASOUND...

Is scheduled for BG3! We will hopefully hear that we have a healthy baby boy or girl on Feb. 2! I can't wait!!

WIND STORM LAST NIGHT!

What CRAZY weather we seem to be having here in MI. The whole family woke up at 4 am today to the sound of some of our siding BLOWING OFF the house. What in the world? Anyway it isn't horrible but definitly something we are going to have to get fixed quick so we have a few descisions to make. We have never loved the color of our house....so we might check into residing it ALL or more realistically probably adding cedar shake to a few spots in the front...hmmmmm!

CELEBRATION...

We had a great Christmas. Aunt EB arrived from NYC on Tuesday night and we celebrated Chrstimas Eve with the DeVries Family. Christmas afternoon and evening were spent with my Grandpa Tamminga and that whole clan and then we celebrated with the DeVries side on Saturday. The kids loved every second of it and are now KIND OF recovering until the next celebration: NEW YEAR'S EVE!

Christmas Morning

Our family celebrated together Christmas morning. We woke up and got the kids all excited about opening their presents under the tree and celebrating Jesus' Birthday : ) Sierra made it downstairs a few moments before the rest of us and we found her RIPPING into all the presents. Needless to say she knew exactly what was going on this year and couldn't wait to open everything in sight!

SNOW FORT

James built the kids a super fun snow fort in all the PILES AND PILES of snow we HAD : ) He used the snowblower to make a trail all around our front yard.

Merry Christmas from the GROOTERS FAMILY!

Christmas came early with the Oosterhouse and Grooters side of the family

Steve, Heather, and Lake came to visit MI from CO for a while this past weekend so we got to celebrate Christmas with that side of the family early. It was a GREAT time to hang out and the kids especially liked spending so much time with there cousins : )

12 week appointment

I had my 12 week appointment for the new baby on Tuesday. Things looked great! At first she couldn't find the heartbeat (which I don't think is uncommon this early) so I got to have an ultrasound which was amazing. "He" looked so cute : ) and his little heart was beating away. "He" also was kicking and squirming and waving his hands so that was fun to see. I lost a little bit of weight, which is NOT NORMAL at all in my pregnancy...guess I'll have to work on eating : ) oh shoot!

We sent these T-shirts to family this past week!