Merry Christmas

Announcing....

Isaac in the hospital

We were so blessed to have so many of our friends and family make it to the hospital to come meet our little man....I tried to document all of them but know I missed a few (including Kim:)....thank you so much for coming to love on us...it meant so much to us!

The Line Up

Per tradition, here are all of our babies at 3 days old:

(click on picture to make it bigger)

Issac insisted on his fish face which makes the comparisons a bit trickier:)

Introducing

Isaac Andrew Ferwerda

born November 30, 2012 at 12:49 pm

7 pounds, 12 ounces

19 1/2 inches

We are so in love and adjusting to our full house!!

Getting Ready

The rest of our Thanksgiving weekend can basically be summed up with "getting ready"!  Getting ready for Christmas and getting ready for our sweet baby boy to arrive.  He's set to make his entrance SOON....so we're getting ready in all sense of the word:)  

A little ipad time with dad - thought it was a cute moment:)

Trimming the tree (Paige and Will put the ornaments on, and then Annie took them off:)

We managed to get them all on!  Here's hoping Annie leaves them alone for the rest of the Christmas Season!

And the stockings have been hung - six sure makes for a crowded mantle:)  

We're so ready to meet our little guy!

Gobble, Gobble

We taught Annie how to say, "gobble, gobble" this year - it is precious.  Wish I had it on video.

There was much to be thankful for this year.  On Thanksgiving Day, we were thankful and abundantly blessed to celebrate with BOTH of our families.  My mother-in-law graciously opened her home to all of us and my family traveled up to spend the day with us.  It was so special - especially for my kids - to have both sets of grandparents together.  A BIG thank you to both of our families...it meant the world to us to all be together.

(Sorry in advance, there are a lot of pictures - but there was a lot of family in one house:)

Probably our last picture as a family of five:)

The beautiful table Cindy set

My mom and Dan were the official apron wearers.

Sorry Grandpa, but I just love that you wear this apron on Thanksgiving:)  

Uncle Peter, Will and Grandpa Ron

 my sister. mom and me

And me with my little girl 

After dinner, the boys played football - it was in the mid 60's on Thanksgiving Day and snowing on Friday.  Go figure!

Then they watched football

Annie got a little reading time in with Grams

 Paige and Uncle Zach

The 3 kiddos with their grandparents

Happy Halloween!

Better late than never!  We honored our sport roots this year - Will as a Spartan football player and Annie and Paige as cheerleaders.  It was a cold, windy, rainy day but that didn't spoil our fun!

 A little Halloween Pumpkin carving....

 Our athletes with Grams and Grandpa

All this athleticism is exhausting!

The dads - including Mitt Romney.  And yes, Ben is wearing the same costume as last year.  Based on what he paid for it, he's set to be Maverick for many years to come:)

Thumbs up

Yes, I dressed up as a soccer ball.  Limited options when you're 8 months pregnant.  At least it went with our sport theme:)

Ben giving all the kids a pre trick-or-treat pep talk

And the trick or treaters - minus all the mommies and babies who decided staying inside may be a better plan:)

Thanks to our buddies, the Merricks, for hosting another fabulous party.  Our kids love spending Halloween at your house:)

Cousin Time!

Our cousins came into town last week and we crammed lots of fun into a few short days.  I love the friendships my kids have with their cousins.

A quick side note: Paige was "Star of the Week" last week.  

She was so excited to put her answers on the class wall.  One of the questions was, things that make you happy?  Paige answered, "Sleepovers with my cousin, Maren" :)  So a sleepover with Maren was top on the agenda for last week.  Cell phone pictures just don't do it justice, but here are the girls before bed:

Our big fall apple orchard outing was rained out:(  So, we all headed to Koetsier' s for a bit of inside fall fun:

A little corn digging.  We found corn all over when we got home...in their shoes, in Annie's diaper....very special!

Some tractor racing....Annie holds her own with the boys:)

Pumpkin painting

Cousins, sizing each other up....

 And my kids - we take what we can get with Miss Annie:)

Don't Veer for Deer

Every time I get on the highway, I laugh when I see the sign that flashes above the road reminding us West Michiganders to not veer for the deer.  Yes, Fall is here in full swing and we're loving it!

As usual, we've crammed a lot into a few short weekends of beautiful fall weather.  

A trip to Robinette's has become an annual tradition.  We loved hanging out with Grams and Grandpa, eating donuts and playing on the HUGE pillow!

Another fall favorite around here is Art Prize - the kids loved seeing all of the art at the Ford Museum and even playing on some of the art:)

Ben and I got to spend a night downtown, watching 15,000 lanterns being set off into the sky.  To say it was breathtaking is an understatement.

We also spent a quick weekend in Chicago for Homecoming at Wheaton.  The kids loved the football game...it was so much fun showing the kids around our old stomping grounds and seeing dear college friends:)

And what would fall be without a craft night making pretty wreaths?  I'm pretty impressed with us and our craftiness on this one:)

  

I've been promoted!

Last year, I officially became a "soccer mom" - and THIS year...I've been promoted to "coach's wife"!  Yes, Ben rose to the challenge and coached 5 kindergarten girls in a sport he has never played:)  He did so great - the girls absolutely loved him and his enthusiasm.  I personally got a kick watching Ben jumping around in a leprechaun state, getting the girls to kick the ball in the right direction:)

It was sort of a family affair :)

 Annie and I were the cheerleaders, Will was the ball boy...... 

Paige was the fearless player......

And Ben, Super Coach! (or "Coach Dad" as Paige referred to him)

Soccer Saturdays this fall were so much fun - sad to see them end!