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!