first of all, thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers for my family after the loss of my grandpa yesterday.

here’s our last couple of weeks in phone pics,

last week Thursday we hosted a play date with my friend Angie’s son, Tatum, my boys are obviously not very social or friendly!

after their naps, my mother in law wanted to have the boys over to play, just because! It was nice to spend some time at home to myself! I planned on putting laundry away but I read a magazine and then fell asleep instead!

Friday night we went to Qdoba as a family and then stopped for shakes at Steak n Shake! Sadler loves him some whipped cream!

Good thing he loves baths too, he made a mess! (PS. a haircut has since been had!)

I spent all day Saturday shopping at the Howell outlets with some girlfriends. We had a successful trip!

Just getting a book

I love gray’s eyelashes!

Tuesday night we had the awesome opportunity to once again attend the annual Right to Life Benefit Dinner. The speaker was Pam Tebow, mother to Tim Tebow. She has an amazing story and we were so blessed by her testimony.

Charlie Brown and Lucy *aka Grandma L* were at church Wednesday night!

This didn't make it on Insta gram but these are Gray’s friends at Kids Club Wednesday night:

he asked me to snuggle before bed! love that boy!

Thursday was an emotional day, not only was it the day my Grandpa died and the 5 year anniversary of the day I found out we were expecting Brenham, I also had the privilege to hear Angie Smith talk at an event put on my Starlight Ministries, which by the way, is an amazing organization located in Hudsonville for grieving families, its a free program designed for children and families of those who have lost a loved one.

I was looking forward to hearing Angie speak for months, I came prepared with Kleenex and her book, in hopes of getting an autograph.

It was an amazing night, she is so sweet and genuine and made me laugh just as much as I cried! And not only did I get an autograph,

I also got to spend some time talking, crying and sharing Brenham with her. It was a night I’ll always remember.

It was the week of meeting famous people for me, here’s just one more encounter I had yesterday:

:)

Friday was Grandparents day in Grayden’s 3school class, he is one lucky boy!

Sadler and I had a coffee date

and then he had his 18 month check up:

he’s a little squirt, 8th %ile for height and 14th %ile for weight!

Have a great weekend everyone.

November 1st is a day I will always remember.

Five years ago today, I starred down at the positive pregnancy test I had laying on the bathroom counter. It was my first knowledge of Brenham's start to life.
This morning, I starred ahead at the bedroom wall while I heard the news that my grandpa had unexpectedly passed away. It was my first knowledge of Grandpa's end of life.
Please keep my family in your prayers as we mourn the loss of my Grandpa.
I'm so thankful for the promise of Heaven, and know Grandpa is with Brenham in Heaven at the feet of Jesus.

November 1st is a day I will always remember.

from our soccer star and golfer guy

Oh boy! I can’t even begin to believe you are 18 months old already!
Seems like just yesterday (I know, so cliché, but so true!) we welcomed you into this world, by your birth mom’s side, and saw you for the first time.

You are so adorable, we get stopped all.the.time when we’re in public by people telling us how cute you are! We thank them and say, “we think so too!”

You are saying 30+ words, but only talk when YOU want to! Some words we hear most often; ball, uh-oh, whoa!, doggie, dada, mom, hot, yum, outside, shoe

You love shoes, but constantly take them off in the car! Stinker!
You take a morning nap if we’re home, but on days you sleep in, or when Gray has school, you stick with just the afternoon nap!
You sleep about 11 hours at night.
You are a great eater, there’s not much you don’t eat. A few favorites include; yogurt, oatmeal, carrots and hummus, ketchup :), hot dogs, marshmallows, grapes, tomatoes, applesauce, apples, chicken, deli meat, bananas, and prunes make you giddy!
You wear 12-18 month clothes and size 4 diapers.
You have your pedi. appt next Friday, so I’ll fill in growth stats after that, but I’m sure you’re still a little thing!
You LOVE water; washing your hands, baths, swimming, showers, you even get excited when it rains!
 
You LOVE your paci! Usually need to sleep with 2!
You love to play with anything your brother plays with, you don’t like when he takes toys away from you!
Sadler, you have quite the little temper! You’ve been getting time outs lately for that!
You are working on your 4 ‘i’ teeth to complete your set of chompers {until the 2 year molars}
You are so busy and so…lets say adventurous! You have such determination and strong will, I pray the Lord uses that in you for BIG things one day!


Sadler, we ADORE you. I can’t image our family without you in it!

We are so blessed that God chose US to be your family!

Psalm 126:2
"Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

We had been looking forward to last weekend for awhile now! We had such a good time on our trip to Chicago!
We headed out Friday morning shortly after 9,
 
we stopped at the bank, filled up the gas tank and headed to Michigan City. We spent a short time shopping at the outlet mall before we grabbed lunch at McD’s (which ended up being a bad choice, b/c there was a McD’s right next to our hotel in Chicago that we went to 2 other times!) and then headed to the train station!
This was the boys’ first train ride! They were both so excited!
 






About an hour and 40 minutes later, we arrived at our stop in Chicago!
We took a bus to our hotel, the Hyatt @ McCormick Place, thanks hot.wire for the great deal!

We settled in our room for a bit and then walked to a nearby pizza place.
When we got back to our hotel the boys went swimming, and then Robb walked over the McD’s to get us some dessert, oh how I love those rolo McFlurrys!
We all went to bed early and woke up around 8 Saturday morning!
Again, we hit up the McDonald’s for breakfast! Convince is key when traveling with kids, right?
Then we took the boys’ first taxi ride to Shedd’s Aquarium!

We got there a few minutes before they opened, which we were so glad we got there when we did, when we left around 1 there was a HUGE line to get in.



There just so happened to be a 4D Ice Age movie playing at the aquarium and I was stoked to take Grayden to see, he’s obsessed with Ice Age! He loved it!

Sadler was in awe of all the fish!

We had lunch at the aquarium and then headed back to the train station on another taxi.
We had such a great time there, the boys did great but they were exhausted!
They both slept the entire ride home on the train!

We arrived back in Michigan City around 4 and drove back home to Holland.
It was an awesome trip and I’m already looking forward to doing it again someday, maybe we’ll check out the zoo next time!

Sunday was super relaxing, just what we needed!

this is so so delish

sweet boy

you know, just sitting in a drawer...

fun at play group Monday morning

I thought I had a uti, which to remind you, I was hospitalized for last February, after having a sore back for a few days so I went to get it checked out. I ended up being just a sore back, phew! Better safe than sorry!  I often injury myself without knowing what I did!

Gray was the ‘beary special helper’ in his class on Tuesday!

this boy is so silly:

it was a gorgeous day on Wednesday, we went to the pumpkin patch

and we went to the ‘stuff and save’ sale at Old Navy, I got Robb 6 new uniform shirts for work ranging in price from $3.90 to $9.31 making a total of $36 for 6 button down shirts. One shirt regular price was alone $30! Woot!

super cute toilet paper pumpkins we made at mops on Thursday!

I love mops! this is my 4th year!