Summer Fun

I know that I'm way behind but here is a quick rundown of the summer. So Summer has come and gone and I will have to say it was amazing. The weather itself was fantastic. We only had to run the air conditioner about 2 weeks out of the whole summer. It was nice on the pocket book too. We went to the beach as much as we possibly could and took many family bike rides to park. The one thing I love about Northern Indiana is that we are only 1 hour from the beach. The kids absolutely LOVE the beach.

The biggest event of the summer was Zarek getting his tonsils and adenoids out. He came through it really well and he had a pretty speedy recovery. It was the best decision we made. He had suffered with enough episodes of strep throat and he snored terribly. He now no longer snores and hasn't complained of a sore throat for a very long time.

In July we celebrated Maeci's 3rd birthday. It was a Strawberry Shortcake theme. I even made a homemade strawberry cake topped with icing, sprinkles, and strawberries. We had a great time. We invited family and a few friends. She had a blast and couldn't open up her presents fast enough.

Jerimae and I also celebrated 11 amazing years together. I am incredibly blessed to have such an amazing husband that loves me so unconditionally. I couldn't imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else. I look forward to see what God has in store for us in the future. We celebrated our anniversary in South Haven, MI. It happened to be the Blueberry Festival there too. We stayed right downtown at the Hotel Nichols. That was totally a gift from God. Because it was the Blueberry Festival, there were absolutely no vacancies anywhere. Jerimae started to just call around and we were able to get a night there at the hotel because there happen to be a cancellation. We had such great time together, then again, we usually do.

Another amazing time we had together was at the Coldplay concert in Indy. Jerimae and I love to go to concerts together and enjoy a lot of the same music. The Coldplay concert was by far the best one yet.

I did quite a bit of sewing this summer also. I will blog about it at a later time.

I'm looking forward to next summer. I hope it is just as amazing as this one.

Just Not Enough Time in the Day

Well, I'm realizing how difficult it has been for me to keep this blog updated. We've done a lot over the last few months, but I just haven't found time to blog. I'm counting down the days til we are done with school; it can't come fast enough. We have decided for the boys to start school in our local public school. The boys and I got to have a tour of the school and they are super excited (and so am I). I'm ready to have a break and spend some desperately needed one on one time with my Maeci. We are really looking forward to this summer. The location of our house is perfect. We are a short bike ride away from a park and we discovered that it even has spray grounds for the kids. We can also bike to down town and enjoy all the great little shops.

The following is going to be an overview of the last few months here in the Yoder household:

In January we went on a field trip to The HealthWorks Kids Museum in South Bend. It's a great little museum that helps the kids learn the importance of staying healthy. They have a lot of fun activities for the kids to do while they are learning. Here are some pictures:

The boys have been spending time with Jerimae learning about music and playing the guitar and djembe drums. One night they made up a song. Maeci joined in on the fun too. Check out the video clip.

For school we've been studying insects and butterflies, so one day we made a bunch of our own insects and butterflies out of a bunch of craft supplies we had around the house. Here are some pictures:

In March, we celebrated Zarek's 6th Birthday. He got to have a slumber party with his friends and he chose Cowboys for the theme. I had a lot of fun planning this party. I made a jail out of big cardboard box and took pictures of each of the boys in the jail. They loved it.

The boys did an obstacle coarse with stick horses, played a bunch a games, and beat a pinata. When the boys finished each game they received a new part of their cowboy costume.

We then had cake, opened presents and watched a movie.

We had a total of 7 boys. It was crazy. Let's just say that we will not be having another big birthday party until the boys are 10 yrs. old. Needless to say, the boys had a blast and that's all that matters.

Zarek received a surprised present on his birthday...he lost his first tooth. Then just a couple of days later he lost his second.

Then in April for Easter we went downtown South Bend for some Easter festivities. We met up with our friends the Bouchers. The kids had a lot of fun.

For Easter, we had an Easter Egg Hunt and Maeci won a Dora Kite.

This gets us through til Easter...I will post more over the next few weeks.

a recap of the last couple of months

So, some of you are probably thinking it's about time for a blog. Did I drop off the face of the earth? Some days I wished I had :) It's been an absolutely crazy couple of months. I spent most of the end of October through the first 2 weeks of November, packing, purging a bunch of stuff and painting the new house before we moved in. We moved in just the nick of time. It snowed the day after we moved. Not really the best time of the year to move in Northern Indiana.

But we are all in our cozy little house. We are still trying to get used to all the quirks that come with being in a new house. (the house isn't new, it's just a new house for us) So the last two weeks of November have been spent unpacking and decorating for Christmas. I actually had a lot of fun decorating a new place. Christmas is one of my most favorite holidays and if I had enough money I would decorate every room in my house. We love to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Saviour and we also get to celebrate my birthday and my oldest son's birthday (7 yrs old). December is a really busy month for us but we have a lot of fun!!

Below are some pictures from Kaleb's birthday:

The theme for this year was Spy. I didn't go all out like a did this year, but we did do a few fun spy games and everyone got something in there goody bags that a spy would use.















We actually had a lot planned around Christmas, but Zarek got really sick. So all our plans were postponed til after the New Year. We actually opened all our presents Christmas Eve because we were suppose to be out on Christmas. So Zarek was feeling his best then, but Christmas was spent on the couch watching lots of movies. It was actually really nice to relax and not be be traveling all over the place. After a visit to the doctor, we were told Zarek had strep (which is what I thought), but he also had scarlet fever. So he had to stay in the house for a week. He was back to himself the next day after getting some antibiotics. This year the boys got a ton of Legos and scooters. They will be very busy for a long time. Maeci got a toy kitchen and puzzles. I got a new digital camera and cell phone. I will be better at remembering to bring the camera and be able to take much better pictures.

Jerimae got a beard trimmer and new cell phone.

Kaleb lost a tooth on Christmas day and then a few days later lost the other.

New Years was not to exciting. We just spent it at home together watching Kung Fu Panda with the kids. Again, a nice relaxing holiday for the Yoders. We finally finished celebrating Christmas with all the grandparents Sunday, Jan. 4th. Christmas was really long for us this year.

So now were are trying to get all back to normal. Back to school and all the decorations are put away. We are still unpacking. We will probably be doing that for awhile. God had blessed us tremendously during 2008 and we are looking forward to what He will do in 2009. I know that no matter what circumstances that my come our way this year, we can be at peace because our hope is in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.