11 months and Father's Night

I can't believe one more month and Zeke is 1! Wasn't he JUST born?!? He is so fun. Zeke can always get us to laugh- he likes to shake his head or tilt it. He also makes funny faces and if you laugh...he just does it again! He loves looking out the window and is starting to cruise along the furniture.






Here is a picture from Father's Night. It was a cowboy theme...since Josh will be in preschool next year it is too bad they didn't have the cowboy theme next year! But Sam had a good time, and even though Josh wanted to go too, we assured him that next year he will have a night with daddy at school!

Quiz Answers

1. The picture is awesome because the boys are all playing by themselves. For those of you who thought the basement was clean...did you look at the picture??

2. Josh has 14 horses. However, I forgot to count the stick horse, so I guess really he has 15.

3. The first horses were Princess and gorbazorb---however, I have been informed that the correct spelling is gorbazord. Thank you kevin for telling me, and thank you nicholas for such a great name.

4. Everyone got this one right- Sam likes tinker toys, pattern blocks, and listening to music.

5. ZEke is playing with the barn and animals. (again, balls? did you look at the picture??) And yes, Zeke loves the barns and so it does cause some problems when Joshy wants to play with his barns. It doesn't matter that we have two barns, josh still gets upset and Zeke always wants whichever one Josh is playing with.

6. Sam took his Leafs JErsey to show and share, he was very excited. Mrs. V loved it and asked SAm if he ever goes to Calvin hockey games.

7. Zeke enjoyed the dogs, buddy and bennett, the most about CA. Having mom and dad to himself is a good guess- but there was like a whole night where he wouldn't even go to Kevin!

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My Quick Trip to CA

I was only in CA for two full days, so I didn't take many pictures. Here are the moments I did capture!

We took the 12:35AM flight out of CA. This photo is Zeke and I on the BART which took us from Pleasanton to the SF airport. The ride was just over an hour and Zeke slept on me the entire time.



The newlyweds, Hannah and Michael, giving Zeke a little love.



Weddings weddings weddings! Here is a picture from Robert's wedding. I had several sentimental moments when I saw all three boys...couldn't help thinking about the future of my three boys!



Zeke enjoyed the dogs! This is Aunt Martha's dog buddy. He also enjoyed watching Joe and Heidi's dog Bennett.

Christmas Break Continued

VanSchepen Christmas

Counting on Christmas 2008

On this Christmas Day 2008, Josh and I counted the Elephants, Giraffes, and Zebra's in grandma's house. We counted any we could SEE- this includes on Christmas decorations and toys. We did not count any that may be in the laundry, in a jewelry box, or hidden under a comforter (aka: grandma's sheets.) Here is what we DID see:

Elephants: 82
Giraffes: 54
Zebra's: 96 (one pillow had 40 zebra's!)

Merry Christmas animals!

Knoester Christmas

Ice Rink!

The snow arrived last night! LOTS OF SNOW and no school for Sam. Here is a cute picture of Josh enjoying the snow this morning.



Zeke is quite a lot of fun! He is crawling and getting into his brothers toys, and he loves to clap!






We babysat for Hannah and Mia last weekend. It was lots of fun. Zeke and Mia were really cute. Zeke was so interested in Mia's pacifier, but of course he won't take his own!



The ice rink is done! This was Josh's first time in skates.

Hockey, Bus, Sick, Christmas

Small Joys

Recently in Parenting Magazine there was an article about 5 friends every kid should have. One of the 5 was "the neighbor" friend. Also referred to as the "convenient" friend. The friend who you don't need to set a play date, you just send them over or outside and when they are done the head home. The last couple months we have really enjoyed our neighbor friend Eli. He is Josh's age but he enjoys playing with both Sam and Josh. Today in the snowy weather josh and eli played outside for like an hour, it was great!



I love the age 9 months! Zeke is so happy, he is crawling around and exploring. His schedule is simple- two naps and bed. He eats well and is just so cute! It is hard to get a picture because he always wants to crawl to me! Oh- and yes, he does crawl like Sam with the one leg up. Oh- and I can't get him away from the Christmas tree...





Tinker toys! Sam loves to build with his blocks and tinker toys. He will work on them for hours!



The bus is truly a small joy! We debated whether 0r not to have Sam ride the bus because he is so young. But it is great, and now that it is snowy out I love it even more! I don't have to bundle up Josh and Zeke to bring or pick up Sam. The bus does it all! And the stop is right outside our house!!



Kevin came home with a new SMALL SMALL toy...he won it in a drawing!