Grandpa Chucks Birthday = BEST Letter Ever

We went to a great, kid friendly restaurant on Monday night to celebrate G'pa Chucks birthday. They had a kids section of toys, so the kids did great. Plus, it was a burger joint so fries are always a quick way to my kids hearts. Brooklyn actually declared at one point "This is a pickle and fry kind of night!!" If only anything made my heart skip a beat like a fry basket does for my kids :) Love the innocence.

Before we left Brooklyn drew a beautiful picture for his birthday card and then brought it over to me, asking me to write down what she wanted to say. This is verbatim what it said. To say this made us all smile, especially Grandpa, is an understatement. It got laughs and tears.

Dear Grandpa Chuck,
You are my favorite Grandpa. You have always been my favorite Grandpa. You have always loved me for joy. And Grandpa, you have an amazing heart. God, will you love Grandpa Chuck for always? Grandpa will you love God for always? I love your big heart. Now Grandpa, what do you like playing with me when you are at my house? Grandpa you are the favorite Grandpa of my whole life. Do you like to have fun and take me to Old McDonalds? So God, will you just love my Grandpa and take all his sin? You cleansed Grandpa Chucks heart from sin.
I love you.
Love Brooklyn

*** Dad, when you read this know that when I asked her what her birthday card would say to Papa it was that you are her favorite Papa of her life. She has a lot of love to go around for her peeps ;-)

It was a very fun night filled with lot's of bad for you food, kisses, smiles and laughs. Happy birthday "GWAMPA"! We are still two days later talking about cake and fries. In the words of Benny after we left "dat was fun gwampas birday!"

8 class countdown!

Couont em!

Exactly 8 classes until this guy is done with school foreveER!!!! But whose counting. Oh wait, I am :)!

We are sooooo excited. We even booked our trip to Maui to celebrate just the two of us. Matt started the degree completion program at George Fox Jan of 2009 (5 months after Brooklyn was born) , finished 16 months later, had 8 months off and then started the MBA program in Jan of 2011 (5 weeks after Ben was born).

42 of the last 50 months has been work, school and family balance. He has handled it so beautifully, with such balance, grace and ease. It has truly been a test sometimes (particularly during the all day Saturday classes). All that being said, we are THRILLED to close this amazing chapter and see what's in store next. What in the world will he do with all his spare time? :)

 

"we go shwimming?!"

We had a super fun satruday.

To start the day off we headed to a restaurant on the east side called "slappy cakes". There's a griddle in the middle of your table where you can customize your own pancakes! Dangerous or fun...you pick. We talked a LOT about "don't touch, very HOT" so thankfully we made it all the way through our meal un-scalded. The staff was amazing, kept bringing little cups of chocolate chips & blueberries for Ben when it was obvious he was getting antsy. We rarely go out to eat for that exact reason, Ben just isn't quite there yet. Brooklyn LOVES going out to eat, so this was definitely a special treat.

We had so much fun making fun shapes out of our pancakes.

Brooklyn got to order a hot cocoa. One of her all time fav's! She was very pleased with the over the top presentation.

I took this shot of the boys heading to the car. Melt me from head to toe.

Then later after everyone took great naps we headed to the pool for some fun. Both kids loved the slide, although Ben a little more. He kept saying "slide? again?!"

All day Sunday we would hear from little man "go scwimming? Dat was fuuuun!" Can you tell he enjoyed himself from the picture above?

Wednesday ramblings from a mom in love

I'm a mom. Surprise!

But seriously. I'm a M.O.M. To not only 1, but 2 amazing kids. I don't know about you, but every 6 months or so it dawns on me all over again that I have been put in charge of these kids...to raise them, love them, encourage them...but even beyond that I am raising these teeny tiny people to be functioning humans in society. That's a lot of pressure! I make a joke to Matt when this thought enters my mind and then I look up to the heavens, kind of like "really? Me? You trust ME with these two precious lives? I'm just a kid myself!"

It's just kind of mind blowing. Even more so now that we have some decisions to make outside of "what should we make them for dinner". Decisions about school for Brooklyn next year. She's either going to be the oldest or the youngest of her class. We are confident in our decision about holding her back so she has the advantage of being a little older rather than way younger, but still that means heavy decisions for next year. She'll end up doing something twice, whether its the 4's one more time or kinder twice. Sounds so trivial as I write it, and I know in my heart that God already knows the answer and I just need to trust my instinct...but this marks the first decision we've had to make on behalf of our child that has truly taken lots of prayer, consideration and thought.

I sometimes pause and think back on my life as a child. Especially now that I have a daughter (heaven help me).

My mom used to take me to get my hair highlighted in high school. Every school dance I got my nails done, and not just a manicure, but full blown acrylic nails! I mean, that's crazy. Now that I'm a mom myself I think about it and audibly shake my head and say "there's no way we are paying for Brooklyn to get her 17 yr old hair highlighted or her sassy teenage self to get fake nails for each winter formal." But on the flip side, I'm *just* wise enough to know that I have NO IDEA what high school will entail (or even next year for that matter)...until we're there. I have no clue what kind of things I will be willing to sacrifice (like my parents did) in order to spoil errr I mean, bless my kids. Parenthood is much different than I thought it would be. Harder, messier, uglier, tireder (is that a word?)...but also so much more miraculous, take your breath away, knock you off your socks, send you to the moon, would do anything kind of love than I could have EVER wrapped my puny mind around. I'm a better person having these two in my life, and I pray with every fiber of my being that I don't screw this up :)

And that's my rambling thoughts on this Wednesday. Oh the things I do...and will continue to do for these two faces.

Playing "hair style" the other night

28 to great check in and recipes

Well, we're heading into week three of "28 to great" and we're doing...great! I have so many amazing recipes that Matt has either created or found to fit in the parameters of eating healthy, raw, fresh, preservative and sugar free (mostly), wheat, gluten free YUMMY dinners.

 

He made a yogurt dip to accompany grilled salmon one night, it was incredible. So the following night we grilled chicken thighs, and made lettuce cups and used the leftover yogurt dip instead of cheese or another bottled sauce. I could eat these every day. Seriously my mouth is watering just thinking about them.

 

Grilled chicken lettuce cups:

Bib lettuce for the cups

Grilled chicken thighs with a little home made rub: chili powder, coriander, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano

Corn sauteed in coconut oil

Diced red onion

Chunks of avocado

Yogurt dip: plain greek whole fat yogurt, ginger, garlic, cilantro, lime juice s & p



 

 

The non creative nights have looked like this:

Not too shabby. Lot's of grilled or roasted veggies (above was butternut squash, brussel sprouts and asparagus), lemon chicken and some jasmine rice. Yum!

 

I have a few more Feenstra Faves that I'll share. We are looking and feeling better, but I'm not going to lie, working out 6 days a week and foregoing some of the loves of my life (cheese, sugar and BREAD) has been a crazy hard experiment in self control and discipline. I made the mistake of going to costco, hungry, during sample time. Ugh! I had to hold my breath and run through! I would love a giant pizza followed by a few slices of chocolate cake!

 

Two weeks to go!

 

Last week after everyone was finally feeling better I decided to take the kids spur of the moment instead of napping, to the childrens museum. We were there for 3.5 hours. They had a BLAST!!!! Brooklyn continues to show such love for animals. They have this vet clinic and it was where she wanted to stay the whole time. Caring for the dogs and cats. I love how much she loves and talks about animals. Such a true passion!

 

We were talking the other day about going to ride horses some day and she has mentioned to anyone and everyone she has seen since that "my mom is going to take me to ride a REAL horse". 

Ben playing with the animal cages

face paint fun
 

Grocery shopping

Yippppeeee!

Girl's Christmas Pictures: 5th Annual!

This has come to be one of the things I look forward to the most when December arrives. Girl's (and one boy ;) Christmas pictures. It's getting crazier to coordiante schedule wise and getting the kids to sit still long enough, but we did it! Here is a look through the years again and a few of my favorite from this year. Love these kids, each and every one of them! So blessed.

2008: Kali, Brooklyn, Remi, Taylor

2009: Kali, Taylor, Brooklyn, Remi

 

2010: Remi, Brooklyn, Kali, Taylor

2010: Ben was barely there :) but sissy was sure proud to show him off as her own

2011: Kinly (Kali's new sister), Brooklyn, Ben, Taylor, Remi, Kali

2012: Ben, Taylor, Gracie (her first year! Em's daughter on Tays lap) Kali holding Kinley, Brooklyn & Remi

 

So much new to report

Let's see...where to even begin. I still need to post all my Christmas pictures.

Ben is officially POTTY TRAINED. I truly wasn't thinking we were even close to ready. not.even.close.

A few friends had potty trained their girls a few weeks prior and I was so envious of the diaper less lives they were leading, but more than anything that they were THROUGH it. Getting through potty training is the hardest part.

Well, ironically a few days prior to Christmas Ben said to me "need to go potty" and I kind of laughed it off, but decided to bring the potty chair in again because hey, why not. So he ripped his diaper off, walked over, sat down like and old pro and blammo, peed in the potty! Brooklyn and I were jumping up and down clapping for him like his own personal Dallas cowboy cheerleaders, doing high kicks and all :) He must have taken a liking to all the attention because he went in the potty four more times in the next two days. I still wasn't really sure this was going to take, so I decided to wait til after Christmas when he had his new Thomas the Tank Engine underwear Santa brought him and then we'd feel it out again.

He must have really been ready. He did amazing. I didn't even read the three day potty training guide I used with Brooklyn, no salty foods, no pushing of the fluids, just bought pull ups and put underwear on him every day. Day 1, he rocked, day 2 he had a TON of accidents, day 3 he did pretty good, day 4...DONE! I carried a spare pair with me in my purse for the first ten days or so, but don't need to anymore. We're fully trained!!! I'm one proud mama. Mainly because just like when we found out we were pregnant with this mischievous boy, he surprised us again with his own time table.

I came down with the flu last Thursday, suffered through it while Matt held the fort down over the weekend, and both babies woke up Sunday morning with really high fevers and now (Wed eve) they are both still hacking and lethargic. Pretty miserable.

The other new news, which most already know, but thought I'd make an official announcement. I have a new career endeavor. I have been taking Barre3 classes barre3.com for a year, and one month in I knew I wanted to become an instructor. So, over the summer I auditioned for the training program, went through my weekend intensive the first weekend in November, began teaching my family and friends classes, then on to what they call "community free" classes, taught to actual clients but just more practice for me. Now, I am officially one month in to being a certified, paid, bonified instructor. I am loving it. Finding balance between teaching at all three studios, sometimes taking the kids with me, sometimes needing child care, and then emergency situations arising and needing to find a last second sub has been a huge adjustment. I am finally as of this week really feeling like it's all starting to "click". I am absolutely LOVING teaching. I love the format, the clients, the energy, the comradery and the fact that I get to connect and help women achieve their fitness goals and go deeper into their bodies. This past year has been one of real transformation for me in the fitness aspect. I feel so blessed that I have had the chance to re-connect with the athlete that got pushed out from all my miscarriages and pregnancies for fear of disruption.

Matt and I are doing (through barre3) a challenge that is put on every January called "28 to great". It's clean eating with menu's to follow, no preservatives, gluten,dairy, pasta/bread, alcohol, sugar free diet. Coupled with the challenge of working out 6x week (preferably doing a significant amount of barre classes and cardio). We are 3 days in and I already feel big changes. I was starving yesterday evening, so I realized I need to add one more wholesome snack during my day. I'm feeling more energized and definitely slimmer already. I'll update a few more times along the way. The biggest "give up" far and away is the dessert for me. I had to force myself to come to bed at like 8 last night so I didn't stare longingly at the kitchen, tempted to grab a handful of m&m's or whatever sweet fix I could find :)

Update on both kids coming soon! Happy new year!!