Christmas Party with the Sterk's

We had a Christmas party with all of the Sterk's. Most of the guys (and a few ladies) had to do motions to the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. It was pretty funny!!
The kids all had a great time playing with each other. It's so fun to watch them now that they are getting older and interacting with each other a lot more.We also celebrated Grandpa Sterk's 60th birthday. Katelyn had fun taking playing with the gift bags!Here's Rylee taking pictures. She got a camera for Christmas and it was definately one of her favorite gifts, if not her all time favorite!

Christmas Evening

We were so busy with parties that we didn't open gifts at home until after dinner on Christmas!! Last night we were out late with the Sterk's, then we spent all morning with the Dykstra's. When we got home from there we took naps then relaxed a little before letting the kids open MORE gifts.I'm not very "creative", but I was able to make the girls each a big fleece tie blanket for their beds. They are really soft and warm and the girls love them!

Here's Rylee reading one of her new books with her dad. We got the girls a ton of new dress up outfits and accessories. They love playing dress up!Here's Katelyn with an upside down tiara.Rylee got a new CD player/radio/tape player for her room.They also got a lot of Mr. Potato Head toys.This picture didn't turn out very well, but the girls got new stockings with their names on them. They are really cute!!

Christmas Morning

We spent Christmas morning with the Dykstra's. Katelyn had a blast ripping the paper off of her gifts! That was almost as fun as playing with all of the new toys. Look at that face....Rylee had so much fun, she was all smiles the way home. Katelyn on the other hand passed out!!

Chritmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with the Sterks. We all had a great time and the girls had so much fun playing with their cousins and opening all of their gifts that I couldn't get them to even look up for any pictures! These are the best ones I got.

The Velthouse Christmas Party

We went to Sunset Manor for a Christmas party with the Velthouse family. The girls had so much fun playing with all of the other kids. Here's Katelyn having some dessert with Grandpa! The kids played a game where they passed the teddy bear around while music played, and when the music stopped the child with the bear got to open their gift.

Our Goofy Girls

The girls were being goofy playing with their sunglasses. Here's Rylee's cheese face :)

Our Little Angel

This was Rylee's first time being in a church program. We were a little worried since she had to be on the stage in front of our whole church (which is huge) but she did awesome! It was a 15 minute program and although she started the class a little later than most of the other kids she learned the entire program in about a month. She was an angel in the angel choir.
The program was at the beginning of each morning service so the kids had a party during the first service and in between first and second. During the chaos between services Rylee and her friend Natalie snuck out of their classroom (where they were supposed to stay), walked all the way around the entire church together and went up onto the dark stage holding hands. Jon and I were sitting in the front row waiting before the second service began when we saw them go up there and sit down. Luckily they didn't get lost wandering around the church alone!

November 2008

November 27

This week we went to Playworld with Grandma Sterk after Rylee's class at the YMCA. The girls were so excited, Katelyn went crazy when we got there. Once we opened the door she ran for the play area yelling!

Katelyn loved playing in the bouncy thing with her ball. She kept falling and she would get right back up.

Rylee played soccer this week. She loved it, and she was really good at kicking the ball.

November 23

Our brakes went out on our Expedition, so Grandma and Grandpa Sterk let us borrow their van while we got it fixed. Thank you guys sooo much!!! The girls thought it was fun to climb into the backseat while I put their carseats in. Later that night we put up our Christmas tree. Rylee had so much fun putting the ornaments on (which she kept calling "instruments" for some reason). Unfortunately the pictures aren't very clear :(

November 20

This week Rylee played tee-ball. She loved it, the kids were all so funny to watch! First they played catch for awhile. Once they started playing ball none of them really knew when to run the bases, so they just waited until they were told to run. Katelyn had fun chasing all of the stray balls that were going everywhere!

November 14

Here are the girls sitting by the fire after their bath.

November 13

This week Rylee played basketball at her class. She loved shooting hoops, but she was not very good at dribbling the ball!! She kept trying but she just couldn't figure it out and ended up chasing her ball everywhere. It was pretty fun to watch!

November 7

Rylee was so proud of the crown that she made!!

November 6

Rylee's gymnastics class is over, so I signed her up for the Sports Sampler class at the YMCA. They play a different sport every week, this week they played flag football. Rylee was so happy that she has the same teacher from her gymnastics. Of course Katelyn couldn't sit on the sidelines, she had to put a belt on and run around with the big kids too!

November 5

I took the girls (and Sadie) to the park today. The weather was perfect!! We all had so much fun, except poor Sadie, she did not like being stuck on the leash!!

The girls loved playing on the merry go round. It took Katelyn awhile to sit down so I could push them!

After playing for awhile we went for a walk in the woods. Rylee kept trying to pull down all of the small trees.

This is my favorite picture, the girls walking down the path together holding hands.


They decided to stop and throw leaves for awhile.

Rylee also thought it was fun to sit in all of the big fallen trees we could find, so I got a picture of the girls with Sadie.

November 3

It was really nice out today, the girls played outside without coats on!!

November 1st

This was so funny!! Rylee was supposed to be cleaning her bedroom before her nap...instead she turned her radio onto the christian station 99.3 and was singing about Jesus. Then she got out the bible and decided to read the bible.