Snapshots from December 2008

Here are some random shots from the month of December.

Here is smiley Joel. He is a very happy baby. He smiles all the time. Just now he was giggling out loud because Andrew was jumping around in front of him.

Noah and Andrew after their bath. My cousin Jean made beautiful hooded towels for all three boys. We use them all the time!

Noah and Andrew outside after the first big snowfall. Noah was so bundled up he just kind of stood in one spot, but he loves being outside.

Joel loves to sit up. Whenever he sits on your lap, he's constantly throwing his head forward so he can sit up straight.

3 men in a tub!

These boys love to sit in the middle of a huge mess and look at books. And they like to stay in their pj's all day!

Chris with his 3 boys. And everyone looks happy!

Heads up for Walgreens

A couple great deals this week:
Electrasol gel tabs are on sale for $3. There was a coupon for $2.50 off in this weeks press and you get a rebate for $1.50 so you make money!
Garnier shampoo and conditioner is on sale for $2.99. There was a coupon also from this week for $1 off and Walgreen's has $2 off coupons in their January EasySaver booklet. Make sure the cashier rings up the manufacturer coupon first, then the Walgreen's coupon, otherwise it won't work (I found out the hard way!). Free shampoo!
I am having a ton of fun with Walgreen's and have already earned a bunch there. I have $10 in register rewards to use before next week so I'll be able to get some free diapers!
I do have to make sure I only buy things we really need. Sometimes I get so caught up that I get things that we don't really use or need, so then I'm wasting time and money. But it is so great to get things we use every day for free!

Menu plan for the week

I'm trying to stick to my grocery budget better this year, and I'm trying to plan my meals in advance so I can buy what I need better. Here's what's cooking this week:
Monday ~ Meatball sandwiches with marinara sauce and spinach salad
Tuesday ~ Slow cooker spaghetti sauce with some kind of bread and veggies
Wednesday ~ Cheesy potatoes and ham made in the slow cooker to bring to the church potluck
Thursday ~ Slow cooker beef roast with potatoes and carrots
Friday ~ Teriyaki chicken with rice and canned corn
Saturday ~ Leftovers
Sunday ~ Soup and buns

Now, let's see if I actually stick to this menu!

Thankfulness

Top things we are thankful for from the year 2008:
1. Chris was able to take a job much closer to home in the theological area, thus being able to use his seminary background in his vocation.
2. All of our boys are healthy and growing and we were blessed with a new son, Joel Adrian.
3. We were blessed materially this year. We are well able to provide for ourselves and were able to purchase a van to accommodate our family. We are enjoying our new house, which we've been in for a year and a half.
4. Chris's dad continues to enjoy good health after his leukemia treatments. He was diagnosed 4 years ago.
5. We have family, friends, and church family, all of which we enjoy.


We have so many things to be thankful for that it is hard to list them all. But I think the above are probably the biggest things we are thankful for. In our culture, its hard not to take things for granted, and I'm learning to be thankful for small things as well as big things.

"In everything give thanks."

Walgreens Deals

Thanks to Mercedes at Common Sense With Money, I just made 7 dollars at Walgreens!
I bought 3 Robitussin and Dimetapp cough syrups for 4 dollars a piece. I had 2 $2 off coupons so I paid $8 for all three and got $10 back in register rewards to use next time I'm in Walgreen's. I also bought a car air freshener for $4.99 and will receive $4.99 back from Walgreen's on a giftcard, plus I can turn in a rebate from the manufacturer and make another $4.99!

Some people get a high from sky diving. For me, its getting super duper deals! :-)
I haven't bought much at Walgreens, but they have been having really good deals lately. My goal for the new year is to be able to earn enough money there to buy diapers.


Go here to find out more about this deal.

So Good!

This morning Noah was pretty cranky. Not sure what his deal was, I guess he screamed and cried a lot for Chris last night too. So I was planning on just staying home, but we were completely out of milk and juice so I thought I better make a run to Meijer. While I was there, I thought I'd check to see if the Coffeemate peppermint mocha cream had been restocked (there was none last time I was there). Well, there was no Coffeemate (it was on sale for 99 cents), but there was International Delight Chocolate Mint Truffle cream. So even though it wasn't on sale, I bought some and it is so good! I like the Coffeemate brand better, but this is my absolute favorite cream flavor. So, if you like chocolate, mint, and coffee, try this cream!

Big Brother, Baby Brother

My big boy helper feeding his baby brother (He did a good job, too!).



Big brother, baby brother.

This is Noah screaming in rage. He had to sit in a chair because he kept bothering Joel. This little boy has a very big temper!

All three boys.

Silly boy! So sleepy

My boys had a very busy Thanksgiving visiting two families in one day and Noah just crashed when we got home. We have a very small landing when we walk in the house so sometimes its hard with three boys and all our stuff so Chris carried Noah in and set him on the stairs expecting him to climb up, but he just put his head down and went to sleep! This happened once before but we hadn't caught it on camera. He was so tired!


And sweet baby Joel slept through it all. He is such a good boy. He sleeps about 10-11 hours at night and is so good during the day. He loves his swing and just got a new rocker that has "calming vibrations." I'm not so sure how calm they are, since the whole floor shakes when its on, but he seems to like it.

VanDen Toorn Thanksgiving

Here are some pics of the VanDen Toorn Thanksgiving. We had a big turkey/chicken dinner at the Engelsma's for lunch (20 + guests) and then went to my parents' house for a ham dinner with my family and my Uncle John, Aunt Ev, Courtney, and Matthew, family from Canada. I didn't take any pictures of the food or anything so here are a few more random shots.

My cousin Matthew and Andrew. We played some games after dinner. Has anyone ever played Apples to Apples. Glen Beck says its a great game, but I don't get much out of it. It's not objective at all so there doesn't seem to be any point to it. Not my favorite game, but we did get some good laughs since Chris takes everything so literally.

I think this should be his new profile pic on fb.

Chris (yes, we actually got him to play with us), Nathan (I'm not sure why he wears short sleeves when its snowy outside), Courtney ( my cousin whose diapers I remember changing and now she is 16!), and Andrew (I remember changing his diapers too but then he's only 3).

Courtney and Michelle

Dad. Couldn't get him to play this time. Oh well. We'll have to break out the Rook next time the VanDen Toorn's come over.


Uncle John and Noah (Noah's not shy)


Courtney and Noah

Engelsma Thanksgiving

Here are some random pics from the Engelsma Thanksgiving (and I can't get this underline to turn off!). This was after we had dinner and were all sprawled around the house. I think a few people were napping.

Our niece, Corinna, and my sister-in-law, Ang.

Jayden Gillon (He's only a few months older than Joel.)

Andrea, Jayden's mom and Chris's sister and Noah.

Kaimira and Noah

Connie Ella

Grandma DeVisser and Cindy

Another Andrew story

I know my titles aren't very creative. Have to work on that. But this is just a short story.
This morning I tried get Andrew to talk to Chris on the phone, but he wouldn't. When I asked him why, he told me he was "shiny." After thinking about this, I realized he meant shy!

Family Picture Attempts

I've been wanting to take a family pic for our Christmas cards this year, so I thought Thanksgiving day would be the perfect opportunity since we would be dressed up nice. Didn't turn out quite the way I expected. So this year there will be just a pic of the three boys on our Christmas cards.

Andrew hurt himself right before the pics so he was crying and wouldn't look at the camera.

Still not looking and Noah is distracted too.

Probably the best one of the bunch but I still don't want it on our card. Maybe next year!

Indianapolis 2008

A few weeks ago we took a short and sweet trip to Indianapolis. Chris had a conference there, so Andrew, Noah, and I went along to keep him company (Cindy kept Joel for us) and play in the pool. Here are some pics:

Noah dipping his feet in the pool (This is right before he stood up and fell on his head. The floor around the pool was super slippery!)

Andrew playing in the pool. He used to be really scared, but now as long as he has his wings and ring, he's all good.


Andrew and Noah

Andrew and Noah before we went in the pool. The hotel was freezing so I made them wear sweatshirts down to the pool and we froze our tails off going back to the room.

Mommy and boys! (This took more than one try. I figure two out of three looking at the camera is pretty good.)

When the Fruit is Brought Forth

Nearly a century ago a young girl on the Hudson fell into an evil life and the county records show the history of her descendants. They were 900 in number. Of these, 200 are on the county records as criminals; 9 of her own children served an aggregate term in state prisons of 50 years; and a considerable proportion of her descendants were prostitutes and drunkards.
History records a corresponding fact: Jonathan Edwards was a man whom the Word of God had changed from sin to holiness. A record of his descendants is known. Out of 1400 of these, 8 have been presidents of American universities; 100 have been professors; 100 have been ministers of the gospel; 600 have been doctors; 30, judges; 25, officers in the Army and Navy; and others, mayors, senators, governors, and ambassadors.
(Taken from The Banner of Truth, Publication of the HRC)

I find it astounding that the way you live your life and raise your children has such an affect on your descendants. What an awesome responsibility.

An Andrew Story

Setting: Riding in the car to blue grandpa's house (Blue grandpa is my dad. As far as I can figure, he is called blue grandpa because his shop is blue. Chris's parents are white grandma and grandpa. Their house is white. Go figure.)
Andrew: Mom! (whimpering voice)
Me: What's wrong?
Andrew: My foot went to sleep and its not even dark yet!

From the mouth of a three year old.

Noah and cheese

Noah's absolute favortite food is cheese. He will stand at the fridge and say, "Chee, chee," when he wants some. So the other night, Andrew told me he was "hungry" (code word meaning he wants candy). I said he could have some cheese and he went and got a package of the presliced cheese out of the fridge and sat on the floor with Noah to have some cheese. I wasn't really paying attention, so when I glanced down at the floor, I was surprised to see this...

He had the whole package of cheese and he was chowing down, even eating the pieces of paper they place between the slices! So I snapped a pic before I took it away. (And yes, he threw a total fit!)

Joel, 8 weeks old

So I really planned to announce Joel's birth on my blog, but as you can see it didn't happen. So here are some pics of him at 8 weeks. I'm sure most of you have seen pics of him on facebook, but these are new. He is growing like a weed and is a mostly happy baby. He sleeps all night which is so helpful for me. I really can't believe he is two months old already. We are going to have so much fun with 3 boys, right Aunt Marlene??


Joel Adrian Engelsma, 8 weeks.




Discovering the world.

Laughing!

Great cleaning tool

I will admit, I do not scrub my bathtub every week like I should. So it had gotten really bad, like big ring of dirt/soap scum around the tub. So my mom had told me to try this magic eraser and I happened to get one free in the mail and it worked great! I only had to do light scrubbing (which is good since my belly kind of gets in the way while leaning over the tub) and all the dirt and grime came right off. Not only that, I used it on my fixtures in the tub which were very cloudy with soap and they shined right up! So now this cleaning product is a staple in my bathroom. Just thought I'd share that info and hopefully save someone some cleaning time!

Win a coupon organizer!

Enter here to win a coupon orgainzer, called The Couponizer!

I have been using more coupons lately and could really use this!

5 weeks to go

I had a dr appointment this morning and everything looks good. The heartbeat is in the 140's and I am measuring right on. I will NOT be revealing how much weight I have gained! :-) We are looking forward to this new arrival. Due date: Sept 23