Swimming with Friends

This month we switched into Reese and William's swim classes so the kids could play together. Willem and Reese were thrilled.

Relaxing in the water

Willem and Reese both backfloated 3 times for 10 seconds and received ribbons. They were giddy to get their ribbons together.

Willem's Holiday Party

It's Tree time again!

We headed over to the Boy Scout stand again this year and found a tree we were all happy with. Willem enjoyed watching how the boys attached the tree to the roof of the car and Ellie loved running around the tree lot chasing her brother.

The next day, Willem helped decorate the tree. He was just the right size to stand in the corner behind the tree and pass the lights around to. We had fun looking at each ornament and talking about who gave it to us or what the special meaning was. He especially liked all of his ornaments and seeing how much his hand grew from last year.

Decorating elves.

Popcorn was a must while decorating, Ellie was pretty focused on that element of the day.

Last year we made hand print ornaments, look how much Ellie has grown since then! Oh time flies by.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Opa and Oom Rik had lots of quality time with the kids while we shopped. A lot of football was watched and a number of train tracks were built. All and all a good weekend.

Opa suggested checking out the Capitol, which we had only driven past before. What we thought would be a 10 min photo op turned into a really fun adventure. We were surprised at how nice the grounds were and all the monuments that were in the area.

Ellie, "Is anyone watching me pick this rose right now?"

Who knew there was such a neat museum so close to our house. Willem spotted the train on the way to the Capitol and was on a mission to go check it out. Ends up its the Mining and Mineral Museum.

Our 1st time at Zoo Ligthts. The talking giraffy as Willem says, was a winner. It was 75 degrees that night, some may say we were a bit overdressed:)

Willem's highlight of Zoo Lights was definitely sledding. We didn't get great pictures because of the lighting and motion but this was a really steep hill. Willem said he wanted to do it and he never flinched. Smiled and laughed the whole way down.

Willem's new favorite game: Pictionary. Trains are his go to thing to draw but today he decided to draw his family as well:

Thanksgiving aka Opa's Birthday

We are incredibly blessed to have all of our family within driving distance of our home. Thanksgiving this year began with a jaunt to Circle K to pick up the paper and then to Maw Maw's for a fantastic meal and great company. Then that evening we had a feast at our home and a family game night.

This year Thanksgiving happened to fall on Opa's Birthday. We've been practicing the Dutch Happy Birthday song and Willem was quite spirited after lots of turkey and pie. I didn't notice the sleepy effect, that turkey turned him into a one man band. Playing his drum and singing "Lang zal hij leven".

Jason made the turkey this year and it was fantastic. He brined it and found a recipe where it only baked for 2.5 hours. It was extremely moist and looked fantastic. Mom also cooked away on the potatoes and gravy and other dishes and the Weiss' brought fantastic pies and decorations. It was great seeing how our family feast came together.

Willem was very excited to show Opa and Lita his new violin and gave his first concert. Once he got going he became quite the showman.

"Let there be light":) Thanks to Erik, after dinner we were able to turn on the Christmas lights. Each year the holidays seem to fly by and this year our intention for the holiday season is to spend time with family, have fun and do what we can so that others can have a magical holiday season as well. Happy Holidays!!

Cooking with Love

Wednesday morning, Tia Julie, Willem, Ellie and I set out to begin our Thanksgiving preparations. I love the holidays and all the preparations. This year we decided to cook as much as possibly on Wednesday, so Thursday we could enjoy our time with Opa and Lita and the Torry side of the family. Willem was really excited to be cooking.

We tackled the hardest dish first with Tia Julie and Willem chopping 3 big onions and peeling lots of apples for a yummy Butternut Squash Soup. Lesson #1 Don't touch your eyes after you've been chopping onions. We thought we'd lost a man after that experience but Chef Willem came back to the Learning Tower and carried on.

Jason and I bought this apple peeler during our time in Iowa before Willem was born. Loved seeing him get so much enjoyment out of it.

Our joyful sous chef helped us a lot by taking good long naps and test tasting all the fixins for us.

Food always tastes better after you touch it to your head.

Willem made most of the cranberry jello dish all by himself.

Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without Grandma's famous noodle dish. They made the dough and let it dry and a few days later, Willem cut the noodles just like Julie and I grew up doing on Thanksgiving.

Ellie liked the dough and the flour. The side items were ready to go and Julie and I were ready for our nap.