Wonderfully Overwhelming

The love I have for my children is just so overwhelming!  And that my friends...is a great thing.  They make my everyday.  They are what love is.

                                         (Pictures taken by: A Moments Reflection Photography)
                                                              http://www.amr-photo.com/

Ohio

Last week my girls and I went to Ohio to visit my friend Karen and her 2 kids.  It was so much fun!  I had not seen Karen in almost 3 years.  And  even that was only for a couple hours.  So I was very excited to see her!  I have really really missed her.

I was very nervous for the flight.  Not because I am afraid to fly, but because I was going to have 2 small children with me.  And to my surprise, they did wonderfully.  At least on the way there.  The flight home is a different story.

We got to Cleveland and Karen  picked us up.  I was so excited to see her!  We got to her house in Mentor, Ohio.  I could see Lake Erie from her house.  It was beautiful.  I was so charmed by her little town.  And Meagan and Kayla became instant friends.  The next day we took the kids to the Cleveland Zoo.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!!  The lion roared and so did the leopard.  Meagan's favorite part was the seals.  I can't wait until Hogle Zoo has them, because both my kids loved them.  And of course the kids got spoiled with something from the gift shop.  That night we also made Taco Soup.  YUM.  Saturday we went to Kirtland.  I had never been anywhere that Joseph Smith had been, and so that was awesome for me.  To touch what he would have touched, and to stand where he may have stood.....an incredible feeling for me.  The kids were not as thrilled with the tours as I was.  They mostly wanted their lunch.  We also went to the mall and let Meagan and Kayla jump on a bungee trampoline.  They both had so much fun!  Madilynn and Braxton did pretty good at playing with each other.  My favorite thing said was when Braxton in his diaper said, "Come on baby, play wiss me."  As he strut out of the kitchen and she followed!  Karen and I laughed so hard.

Seeing Karen was so great!  It was like we had never been apart.  I feel so comfortable around her.  I wish she lived here, or  I lived near her.  I just miss her.

Sunday we went to church with them.  They go to the Kirtland ward.  The primary went up and sang, and so of course Meagan followed Kayla and sang along.  As Meagan stood up there she yells, "HI MOM!"  I think it is cool that she got to do that.  As Meagan and  Kayla came down from the stands, they walked hand in hand.  SO CUTE!  I have to say I admire Karen greatly.  She takes those sweet kids to church by herself every week.  And  doing that is not an  easy thing to do.  She amazes me.

On Monday we stopped at Lake Erie to take some pictures.   The kids were good sports, because it was FREEZING! Then we went to Middlefield.  Where there is a large Amish community.  I got some REALLY good jams and peanut butter spread from the gift shop.  mmmmmmm...  And we of course saw the horse and buggy's they use for transportation.  I did find it comical that they shop at wal-mart.  LOL!  

That night Karen and I went to eat at Texas Roadhouse with the kids.  Love that place.  I think Meagan and Kayla went potty 3 times while we were there.  Karen and I were going a little crazy.

Tuesday we went to Warren, Oh.  To eat at Franks favorite place, "The Hotdog Shop"  It was so good!  They don't make hotdogs like that in Utah.  We stopped at Frank's  sisters house.  It was nice to meet his family.  That night Karen and I tried to stay up late, but we were both so tired, we did not make it very long.  We watched Jeepers  Creepers 2 for old times sake, and then went to bed.

Wednesday was my last day there.  We went to take a tour of the Kirtland Temple, but sadly they were not doing any.  So we just walked around and took some pictures.  And Braxton kept saying that Jesus was inside.  So cute!

  We ate lunch at CiCi's pizza.  And then my long anticipated trip came to an end!  :( Time went by toooooo fast.

We did many more things, I just can't think of all of them at the moment.  I miss Karen like mad.  And her cute little kids too!  They are like family to me.  Love them.

Here are a few pics from the trip.

Sisterly Love

I love that they love each other so much.  That is all.

2012

I am not sure exactly what will happen for us this year.  But I do know this:  On Feb 16-22 the girls and I will be in Ohio visiting Karen!  I am so overjoyed at this!  Karen and I have been best friends since we were 11.  And it has been almost 3 years since we have seen one another.  And that was only for a few hours.  So it has been more like 6 years.  And that is just way too long.  

I am so thankful for this chance to go visit her.  And it is all possible because of a gift.  To that person, you know who you are.  I am so very thankful to you for this.  I don't know how I will  ever repay you.  

Gerritt will be staying home all by himself.  Hope he is ok. LOL, I know he will be fine.  But this will be the longest we have been apart since we have been married.  I will miss him, the girls will miss him and he will probably miss us too.

On March 6th my little sister will be getting married!  WHAT?!  It seems like she should only be 10 yrs old!  Good grief where does time go?  She is a beautiful bride.  I went with her when she got some bridal shots done.  She just looked amazing.  I can't believe she is getting married!  Her fiance is one lucky man!  

After that there is not much going on as of right now.  I think we are going to get Lagoon passes again this year.  Meagan is already talking about it.  

Although, I am turning the big 30 this year......hmmm.......yipee?  I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to my 20's....I will  miss them so.  I just can't be this old!!!  I don't understand how this happened to me so fast!  

So I hope I can keep this blog up better than last year.  I would like to tell you that I have set goals, and all  that crap....but I didn't.  I hope for things, and I will strive for things.  That is all  I can do.  So BRING ON 2012!  And please enjoy a few photos for this year!

Christmas!!!

 We started out the Christmas season just before Thanksgiving this year by putting up the tree and decorations!  As you can see we had LOTS of fun!

 Gerritt does not enjoy putting up this tree.  But he is always a good sport about it.

 They are so helpful and adorable at the same time!

 This year we let Meagan decorate most of the tree herself.  At least everything she could reach.  I think she did a pretty good job.  She was  very proud of herself.

 Pictured above is when we were all ready for a family Christmas party!  We got to have lots of food, play and Santa came!  But sadly I left my camera at home.

Below, is Christmas Eve.  We got to go with our neighbors, the Gulli Family, to their church's Christmas Eve service.  It was very nice!  

 Last year we discovered Layton Parks lights.  So Meagan was VERY excited when she knew they were back up!  I think we drove through more than a dozen times.  Possibly even 20.  Her favorite display was "THE BEAR CATCHING FISH!!!!"  We stopped there on Christmas Eve and ran through as fast as we could.  It  was FREEZING!

 Then we came back home and opened PJ's!  

 We spent the rest of Christmas Eve at our neighbors, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and had Gingerbread and lemon sauce.  YUM!  Christmas Eve was so special and fun!

 Christmas morning, Meagan ran into our room yelling, "SANTA ATE ALL HIS COOKIES!!!"  She was so excited this year!  It is  so much fun!  Meagan was so excited about everything this year!  And Madilynn just thought everything was great!  It is so much fun to have little kids!  

Later that day, after breakfast and church, we went to my parents house. Opened more gifts, and ate a yummy lunch.  We played with cousins for a little while.  And then it was off to Gerritt's parents.  We got more gifts there and more yummy food!  Oh I love Christmas!  

Christmas came and went much to fast!  But we made great memories!  

2011

I thought I would start you off with a few photos!  Ok, A LOT of photos!  There is a post after the pictures, so scroll on down!

All photo's, except the Santa photo, are taken by "A Moments Reflection Photography". 

2011 has been a great year in the VanderToolen house!  We have had a lot of fun with 2 kids this year!  We are still living in Layton, and love our cute little house!  This year we got Lagoon passes, and it was seriously AWESOME!  Meagan loved it, and Madilynn was a good sport in the stroller.  Gerritt and I even got a few fun date nights with  them!  I highly recommend them!  Also in May we took a trip with Gerritt's parents to Vancouver, BC Canada!  So beautiful!  I love it up there!  We got to visit with Gerritt's Grandparents, Ruth and Doc Cumbers.  They are so fun!  And my girls LOVE them!  As do we!  It was such a fun time and a joy to spend time with them!  We also got to spend time with Gerritt's Aunt Judy and Uncle Frank, and their daugher Marianna and her husband Petar.  They are really fun to hang out with!  I wish they or we lived closer so we could get to know them better!  We love you all!  We got to go to a really fun Zoo while we were there, where they fed tigers, and we got so see hippos swim and play more than I knew hippos ever did.  We saw a grizzly bear being fed and many more fun animals!  We also went to the Vancouver Aquarium!  We saw all sorts of fish.  But our favorite was the Beluga whales!  There was one that kept swimming right by Madilynn, it was amazing!  Thank you to Marianna who made that day possible!  We had such a great time in Canada.  We can't wait to go back someday!  Not just for the people, but the fish and chips!  mmmmm, how I miss them!

Meagan turned 4 in October and has loved being a big sister!  Meagan is full of funny things to say, and is always asking questions.  She is a joy in our home.  There is never a dull moment with her.  She joined the Sunbeam class in January.  I was very nervous for her to leave nursery, she is a very lively little girl.  But she has done very well.  She has given her primary teachers comical relief for sure.  She has a very vivid imagination, she told her teacher that there was a child stuck in the podium, and we had to ensure her, that there was no one stuck in there.  I don't know where she would have gotten that.  She loves to play Angry Birds on anyones phone or ipod that may have it.  So she just had to have an angry birds cake for her birthday.  It took some special arrangements, but we got it done.  She is very smart and surprises us with things she knows all the time.  She is eager to learn more and more.   

Madilynn had a great 1st year of life this year!  She turned 1 in August.  We love her so much and she is HILARIOUS!  She knows how to joke around already, and loves to torment her big sister.  It is very funny to watch.  I just don't know how we ever lived without her.  She is saying a lot now.  Of course the usual, mommy and daddy, no, mine.  She also says, I sad, where are you, I love you, cookie, eat, I want coke (she says this for any drink).  And so many more I can't think of right now.  She is running around everywhere and tends to have a bruise somewhere on her head at all times.  She is a little accident prone.  She is awesome at naps and bedtime.  She loves playing with all her toys and taking care of her baby dolls.   She loves to make animal sounds.  And she loves to sing the meow duet song that we play on youtube.  She is going to be a great singer, she can already carry a tune!

Gerritt is still going to School at Weber working on his Bachelors in Economics, with a quantitative emphasis. And working with LDS Church Security.  He loves his job, and also loves being the Medical Coordinator for Security.  He does amazing at work, school and home.  He has his girls wrapped around his finger.  And they know it too.  He is still a true runner and gets out there even when it is FREEZING outside.  I wish I was more like him.  He amazes me everyday.  I just don't know what I would do without him.  I love him so much.  

As for me...well not much has changed.  I am blessed to be able to stay home with my 2 beautiful girls, and for that I am truly thankful.  I started running in the summer, and started doing pretty good...but then...well...I stopped.  But I can see now that it is possible!  I have started babysitting my nephew 3 times a week, and that is bringing in a little extra cash for us, which is nice.  I have also started doing a lot more baking and cooking, and that has been a fun adventure!  But most of all I just love being a mom, greatest job ever!  Gerritt and I celebrated our 5 yr anniversary this year!  I can't believe it has already been 5 years, and I look forward to many many many more!  

We have had our ups and downs this year, but for the most part we cannot complain.  We are truly blessed, and we couldn't be more happy as a family.  Family is one of the most important things in the world.  We look forward to 2012, and the fun adventures already planned!  One of them which includes me finally being able to go and see KAREN!  YEAH!  While Gerritt hopes to be able to go see the Olympic trials in Oregon in June, one of his life long dreams.  And of course I am sure my children will make me laugh daily and I look forward to watching them grow more and more.  

And of course, we realize the true meaning of Christmas.  This is the time of year when we look forward to presents and food and all sorts of other celebrating traditions.  But it is the time when we reflect on  the birth of our Savior and King, Jesus Christ.  We recognize his hand in all things!  We are blessed because of him, and love him eternally.  He is our Redeemer, Savoir, Brother and Friend.  We love him, we cherish him, and we are eternally thankful for his life and sacrifice.  The celebration of his birth is a remarkable one.  A lesson I enjoy sharing with my children.  Teaching them about the Savior is so important and special.  

May you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, The VanderToolen Family!