She's One!

It's hard to believe Jaelynn Joy is 1 year already!  I wanted her to stay a baby longer.  Although Jaelynn had different ideas about that since the beginning.  I should have known I was in trouble when she starting crawling at 6 months.  Then she decided she should start walking already at 9 months.  She is my first climber and she definitely keeps me on my toes!

Jaelynn, your smile and laugh are contagious!  I love how everything is funny to you!  We are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Look Who's 3!

It's hard to believe time went so fast, but my little boy turned 3 this past Thursday!  It was fun watching him get so excited about opening presents.  For his birthday, we took Jace to Crazy Bounce so he could go "boing, boing, boing" (Jace's word's).  For dinner, we took him to Red Robin.  He smiled ear to ear when they sang Happy Birthday to him.  At night we had a party with presents and cake and ice cream.  That night we found him in bed sleeping with his new jammies and book....and also all of his other presents, including his new dump truck (which is HUGE!)  We love you so much Jace!  Happy Birthday!

1st Day of Preschool

My little baby is growing up way too fast! Jordyn had her 1st day of preschool at FUN Preschool today. I will admit that I cried a little after she was out of sight! Jordyn, however, did GREAT! She had a good time and is excited to go back!

It's Been Too Long

So...it has been 7 months since my last post! Way too long. We have been so busy and had such a crazy year. I will try to just update the highlights.

I'll start with Jordyn since she is the oldest. Jordyn turned 4 years old in August. She will be starting preschool this fall. Momma is not ready for this, but Jordyn is so excited! I can't believe how fast my little girl has grown up. She is such a big helper to me and loves to take care of Jace and Jaelynn. She is really big into princesses right now and truly believes she will live in a castle when she grows up. She calls herself "Princess Cressella Jordyn". She is really starting to come out of her shell when it comes to talking to other people and other kids. Of course she is still our "Kraker-like" Jordyn. She told me she wanted to go to preschool by herself without any other kids there because she doesn't want any new friends. She also told me she liked her new friend on the playground because "she does whatever I tell her to do." Jordyn's favorite things to do this summer are swim, swing, ride her bike, have a pretend store, play with Polly Pockets, play Just Dance, and play "Jordyn" with me (where she is the mom and I am the Jordyn).

On to Jace! Jace was 2 1/2 in June. Jace is at the best age! He says the funniest things and has really developed his own personality. He LOVES Jaelynn...too much most of the time. He smothers her and will not leave her alone. He and Jordyn are best friends and worst enemies depending on the day. Jace's big accomplishment this year: he is potty-trained! He was trained around March and I would have to say that boys are much harder to train than girls, but he DID it! I'm so proud of him. Jace is very into Cars (he loves Mater) and Thomas the Train right now. His favorite things to do right now are: make forts out of couch cushions, play with his Thomas train, play t-ball and run the bases, play with dolls (he's surrounded by girls, what can I say?), and destroy things. We call him Jace the Destroyer and he truly lives up to that name!

Jaelynn is growing up way too fast! I hate to say it, but the year has actually been quite difficult with her. Jaelynn was a difficult baby up until about 6 months old. She was only happy if she was being held and sometimes not even then. Ok...I got the bad part out of the way....on to the good. Jaelynn turned a corner at about 6 months and is much more content now. She is a very smily girl and she giggles (sometimes uncontrollably) at just about anything...especially Jace! Jaelynn is an excellent sleeper. She started sleeping through the night at 5 weeks old. She now sleeps about 13 hours per night and still takes 2 really good naps during the day. Jaelynn has her 2 bottom teeth in and she eats like a champion! She also started crawling around 6 1/2 months. Too early for momma! Jaelynn's favorite things to do are: eat, sit in her activity center/bouncer, crawl, squeal quite loudly and giggle, and swim/take baths.

We have also had my niece, Kendal, living with us part-time this summer. We love having her stay with us and the kids are having a blast with her. She is such a sweet girl and a wonderful helper! She's also better than all of us at Just Dance!! We will miss having her around as much when school starts up.

Now on to us boring adults. Ok...I'm really boring. I have nothing to update about me except that I'm finally NOT pregnant! Oh...me and the kids did take a vacation to W. Virginia with Andrew & Tiffany and my mom and dad. We missed Jer, but we had a great time!!!! Jer has been busy this summer. He started a new job in February, driving truck for Bremer Sugar Distributors in Zeeland. He loves it and the hours are so much nicer than Cedar Crest. He has also been doing some side painting jobs and cement work. Jer went on a trip this summer to Virginia with our youth group. They did white water rafting among other activities. He had a blast!

I'm sure I've forgotten things, but I'll try not to go 7 months in between posts again!

WELCOME JAELYNN JOY!

This post is long overdue, but better late than never!

On Saturday, January 22, 2011 we welcomed Jaelynn Joy Velderman into our family! She was born at 8:24 am after about 4 hours of labor.....and a week of false labor. She was 9lbs, 10z and 19 inches long! She was past her due date (something that is new to me) so we were extra excited to finally see her!

Welcome to our family Jaelynn!! We love you so much!!!

Jordyn's Christmas Program

Last night, Dec 12, was Jordyn's 1st Christmas program at our church. Since she's only 3, a little shy, and this was her first program, I was going to consider it a success if she managed to stay up on stage throughout the whole program. She sure showed me!! She not only stayed on the stage but she stood and sat when she was supposed to and she sang the songs!

Way to go Jordyn; we are so proud of you!!

Happy Birthday Jace!

Jace turned 2 years old today, December 8!

He loves Curious George lately, so we did a Curious George themed party for him. We asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner and he said "Pii - aah", which is Pizza. He is telling us all day that he is "two". Also, when I sat him down for breakfast in the morning and put toast in front of him, he looked up at me and said, "I want cake!". We had the great-grandparents and grandparents over for cake and ice cream and presents in the evening.

Unfortunately, Jace was sick with a nasty cold/fever for his birthday. He had a rough day and you could really tell he wasn't feeling good at all. He was a trooper though and hung in there for the party. Unfortunately, as excited as he started out for pizza, cake and ice cream, he barely ate anything at all. Poor boy!!

Some things about my handsome 2 year old:

Jace started talking a lot around 22 months. He has also finally learned to nod his head for yes (used to be all no whether he meant yes or no) but he still won't say yes. This took awhile for him to figure out and really makes communicating with him much easier now! Jace wants to do whatever he sees Jordyn do (favorite phrases: "me do", "my turn", "no, me", "me too").

Surprisingly, Jace is very mild tempered. I would never have said that about him 6 months ago. He will keep himself busy all day (never needs to be entertained). He will go to anybody and is always willing to give hugs and very sloppy kisses. He has really turned a corner and rarely throws those nasty tantrums anymore.

Jace loves to do puzzles and is very very good at them. He likes to dance and build with megablox. He always want to wear his Crocs or slippers but hates having socks on. He has been in a big boy bed for 5 months now; however, he recently started to sleep between his bed and the wall. He loves Barney, Blues Clues and Dora. He chimes in on the last word in a sentence with most songs, especially Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Jesus Loves Me. He wants to do everything himself without help and gets very mad if you try to help him out.....must start over completely.

Jace is also going potty on the potty chair when asked, but still doesn't tell us he has to go yet.

Jace, you have been such a blessing to our family. We love you so much! You make us smile everyday and I don't know what I would do without your famous hugs and sloppy kisses!!

Halloween 2010

This was the 1st Halloween that Jordyn was old enough to really look forward to. She told me long in advance that she wanted to be a bunny. I was certain she would want to be a princess, but apparently since she is a princess every other day, she wanted to be something different for Halloween. We carved pumpkins the week before Halloween.

Jace did not enjoy pumpkin carving. He liked drawing on his pumpkin, but as soon as we cut the top off and showed him the "guts" inside, he was appalled! He didn't want anything to do with his pumpkin anymore. This was very surprising since he LOVES to be messy!

Even though Jace didn't help after the "guts", he was still quite proud of his finished pumpkin! Jordyn was obviously happy as well!

Jace was a frog this year. He hated putting his costume on, but once he calmed down, he would hop all over the place.

Jordyn LOVED being a bunny! She hopped everywhere she went. She got frustrated that her ears fell off sometimes. She made a pretty cute bunny!

The kids also attended their first ever Halloween party at the Woudwyk's. They got to decorate candy bags, play a lot of fun games, eat cupcakes, and play with other kids their age. They had the BEST time!!

BIG BOY BED

Jace recently started climbing out of his crib, so we decided that he must be ready for a "big boy" bed! We tried it for the first time for his nap this afternoon. He did EXCELLENT! Jer put him down for his nap and he stayed right in bed on the first try! Good job Jace!

Loving his new bed!

1st time sleeping in his new bed! Looks like he read a few books first!

Busted!! He woke up while we took pics of him napping....

no worries, he went right back to sleep!

Happy Birthday Jordyn!

Jordyn turned 3 years old on Monday, Aug 2. It was a lot of fun for her and us since this was her first birthday that she was really excited for. She has been into princesses lately (thanks to her cousin Kendal) so we decided to give her a princess birthday.

She woke up to a princess breakfast.
We took her to her favorite place to play, DeAnna's Playhouse!

She played house, got groceries with daddy, put on shows for us, had story time and many other things.

We took her to Red Robin for dinner. She had her favorite...chicken strips and fries. The staff also sang Happy Birthday to her, gave her a free sundae and a balloon.

She ate the whole thing (minus the cherry) plus had ice cream again at her party....definitely Jer's child!

In the evening, we had a small party for her with family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDYN! I can't believe how much she has grown up over the past year. Jordyn is such a caring little girl. She is constantly "cooking" us food in her kitchen and LOVES to take good care of her babies. She has a great memory and actually "reads" books to us which she has memorized. We only have to read her a book a few times before she knows it. She can say all of her nursery rhymes, her alphabet and counts to 15. She also loves to sing songs to us. She listens her music in the van and before bedtime and has whole CD's memorized. Jordyn's biggest accomplishment this year was being potty trained. She was trained about 1 month after her 2nd birthday except for at night. A few weeks before her 3rd birthday, she started wearing big girl panties at night. So far, no accidents. Yea Jordyn!!

We love you so much Jordyn and pray that you will love God with all your heart. You have been such a blessing to our lives!

What We've Been Up To

I haven't been good about updating the blog this summer. But here are a few things that we have been up to!

My mom camped at the Holland State Park for a week in June. We spent a lot of time visiting her and playing on the beach. Jordyn even got to sleep overnight in the camper with grandma!

We spent the 4th of July weekend at grandpa & grandma Dirette's cottage and the family. We did a lot of swimming and playing in the sun!

My family also came out to the Dirette's cottage for a Saturday in July and did some boating. It was a beautiful day to be in the water

I started my 2nd trimester in July. Hooray to feeling like myself again!!

Jer & I took Jordyn & Jace to the Ottawa County Fair. We walked thru the animal barns, went on rides, and of course ate junk food!

Jace cried after 1 time around on the carousel. That was the end of the rides for him!

Jordyn was brave and went on her first roller coaster ride all by herself. I was shocked that she did it and even more shocked that she stayed on once it started!

Jordyn also had her 1st real pony ride at the fair! Jace didn't want to go near the pony's.

This past weekend we camped for a long weekend at Baldwin Oaks with the Kraker's, Koeman's, and Essinks. We had great weather and a ton of fun!!

Jordyn also celebrated her 3rd birthday on August 2!