Hope's Baptism

February 1st was a big day!  Hope Caroline was baptized, and also the Wissinks were welcomed as new members at Calvary Reformed Church in Holland (Calvary on 8th). The weather was great for our drive over on Saturday, but this is what we woke up to on Sunday.

It had started snowing during the night and I don't think it ever stopped until sometime during the next night. When we turned on the TV Sunday morning there were notices of church services being cancelled.  We were hoping that we would not see Adam and Rachel's church listed!! We were able to make it to church safely, although the driving conditions were not good. The Brassers had planned to be at the baptism because they were in Hudsonville, but they wisely decided to stay put in their hotel there.

Rachel took a couple of pictures at home of Hope in her baptism dress, which had been made from my wedding dress. The seamstress even made a headband with a little flower made from the fabric of the dress. She looked pretty adorable!

The blanket that Hope is lying on is pretty special, too.  It was made by Bob's Grandma Wiers, before Matt was born.  So that would be Hope's great-great-grandma!  What a blessing to see God's faithfulness through the generations!

Before going into church

The Wissinks were welcomed as new members at their church that morning, as well, so they had to stand up in front of church for quite a while---first for the welcome, along with some other people, and then for the baptism.  I think Hope was pretty much charming the entire congregation, as she looked out at everyone with those big, beautiful eyes. The pastor took her in his arms  to do the baptism, and at first Hope was fine with that. But when she realized that she did not know this man, she started to cry. Once she was back with her Daddy, she was quiet again. :)

 

After church, with Grandpa and Grandma

It was a small group for our lunch of sloppy joes, back at Adam and Rachel's house. And not very many people to eat the delicious cake! The weather kept the Brassers from coming, and Adam's parents left for home right from church, also because of the weather.

We had decided to stay in a hotel and had gotten a good rate at the Holiday Inn Express.  When we saw what the weather was like we decided to stay an extra night instead of heading for home on Sunday afternoon.  That gave us some really nice bonus time with the Wissinks.  We came back to the hotel after lunch on Sunday, and then after a while they came over to use the pool at the hotel. That was lots of fun for Jeremiah, and Hope had her first swimming pool experience. 

The hotel has an indoor-outdoor hot tub, and I decided that I really needed to try that out.  How often do you have a chance to sit in a hot tub in the middle of a snowstorm?  Bob thought I was crazy, but I thought it was great!

Yes, we were outside, and it was snowing!

It also happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, and so we had our own little party in the lobby of the hotel.  We called in an order for appetizers at Buffalo Wild Wings, and Adam and Bob ventured out to pick them up. 

Monday morning we woke up to blue skies and sunshine! We had a great trip home, except for about 20 miles of snow in Indiana--poor visibility and snow-covered roads. But once we got through that, it was great the rest of the way.

It was a wonderful week-end!  What a blessing to witness the baptism of another grandchild!

January in Brookfield

It's sort of become my tradition to spend New Year's morning making olie bollen while I watch the Rose Parade. I love those olie bollen, but I don't love the fact that the house smells like hot oil for the next three days.  But I guess I sort of forget that part of it over the course of the year, and I heat up the old fryer again every January 1. We usually share the bounty with the Brassers, and this year they came over to watch some football and to eat some olie bollen.

Lew is celebrating an MSU win!

It was very cold in January, and so it was a great time to stay inside and work on jigsaw puzzles.  I  tried to schedule my puzzle-making in between my babysitting days, so that involved a few late nights in order to finish a puzzle. I've done several since Christmas--some more fun than others.  But the most frustrating one was one I had bought at a rummage sale that some people from church had last summer. It was such a nice picture of an Amish buggy going down a country road. But what a disappointment to find that there were 3 missing pieces!

No more rummage sale puzzles for me!

I don't really make New Year's resolutions, but if I did it would be the same one every year---to get organized and get rid of stuff that we don't need! Well, I did undertake one small organizational task--my cookbook shelf. I had WAY too many cookbooks, and I realized that there are a lot of them that I never really use.  So, a bunch of them went to Half Price Books for a little bit of cash. And some of them really just needed to be tossed out.  Like this Calvin Christian School Cook Book from 1986. (And, yes, I am a very messy cook--and I inherited that trait from my mother.)

The torn pages? Muffin loved to pull this

book off the shelf and chew on it.

(maybe because of the food spilled on it??)

The muffin section was Muffin's favorite. :)

Bob tries very hard to keep our bird-feeders filled during the cold, snowy weather, but it's kind of hard to do. These guys seem to know exactly when he fills it, and then they stop by to help themselves. 

This year for the first time our church was a remote site for Calvin's January Series. So for 15 days, we had the opportunity to hear some great lectures. We had a pretty good turn-out most days, and I think people really enjoyed it. And there was another Calvin event in January---the broadcast of the big Calvin-Hope game! Milwaukee area alumni and friends watch it at TGI Friday's at Miller Park. We had a good turn-out for that as well, and the Calvin fans were happy for a win!

The Calvin-Hope game also gave our little Hope a bit of fame.  Rachel sent this picture to Calvin, and it has been used a couple times on Calvin's Facebook page. Could there be a cuter Calvin fan?

"My name is Hope, but I root for Calvin!"

I also made a quick trip to Michigan in January, during one of the times when Adam had to be out of town. I was very fortunate to hit good weather both ways! That's something that you can't count on in January...or February, or maybe even March. So I was very thankful for that. It was a short visit, so only a couple of pictures to show for it. 

In this picture, Hope was enjoying her musical crib toy and she was talking and making all kinds of cute noises.  And I got a really cute video of it.  Too bad that I don't know how to put the video on the blog. :(

I can't end this January post without including a penguin report. For the past few years Bob has made a guest appearance in the 1st grade class as a penguin!  They have a unit on penguins every year, and this is sort of the culmination---dare I say highlight?--of their penguin unit. He reads them a couple stories about penguins and they ask him some questions, etc. And I must say, he's really perfected that penguin "waddle!"

Christmas in Brookfield

Our Christmas fun began on the 22nd, the Monday of Christmas week, when the Wissinks and the Okuleys arrived. I had somehow managed to get all my shopping done, Christmas cards and letters sent out, mailing multiple packages to California, and some baking and cooking done by this time.  For someone who tends to procrastinate this was a major accomplishment!

After dinner on Monday we piled into two cars and went to see the Holiday Lights Display at the Country Springs Hotel in Waukesha.  They have this every year--a huge, drive-through display of lights.  When you get finished with that you can go into a building to see a really nice model railroad display.  Of course that was a big hit with Jeremiah!  We also walked through another building that had a very nice, almost life-size, nativity on display.

Tuesday was the annual Cedarburg outing for JoAnne, Abby, Neil, Rachel, Hope and me. This was Hope's first (of many, probably) visit to Cedarburg, and she took it all in stride. Lunch at the Cream and Crepe is always a highlight, and it did not disappoint.

 Hope is not impressed with the amazing dessert crepe!

 She seemed a bit bored with the shopping as well.

Wednesday was Christmas Eve, and Ben arrived that morning.  He had not met Hope before, so they had some get-acquainted time.

It's sort of become our tradition to go out somewhere for a nice lunch on Christmas Eve, since we don't really have a full meal in the evening. This year we decided on Cafe Hollander in Wauwatosa, and it was a good choice.  We all went to church for the beautiful 5 pm Christmas Eve service, and we all managed to light our candles without any problems.

After church we got all the appetizers made and the table set in record time. Many hands make light work!

I could probably substitute the picture from last year--

the table looks pretty much the same every year. 

Jeremiah enjoying his appetizers

After we ate it was time for presents, and unfortunately I took very few pictures. So here are the few that I took.

Jeremiah with his side-loading garbage truck.

(not to be confused with the one that he already has at home)

Molly was not forgotten. She is attacking her

new toy--a stuffed reindeer.

While we opened presents we had a Facetime session with Matt, Cheryl, Josie and Evan.  We watched them open presents and they watched us open presents. Not quite like being together, but the next best thing.

Neil was the holder of the iPad during our Facetime session.

On Christmas morning we start out with butterhorns and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and then we do stockings.
  

I think that a Play dough session has become a tradition for these two. 

I think this was his gift from Abby and Neil.

Hope had some bonding time with her aunt and uncle.

Lew and JoAnne joined us for Christmas dinner that afternoon.  Abby and Neil left later that day for Ohio, and Ben also went back to Chicago that evening. The Wissinks stayed until Sunday. 

On Friday afternoon we went bowling, but I did not get any pictures of that adventure. I should have gotten a video of Jeremiah's ball making its way down the alley..........s-l-o-w-l-y.  At one point it actually stopped and started rolling backwards! After bowling we went to Chick fil A for dinner. Jeremiah enjoyed the play space.

And just a few random pictures from our time together:

                               Hope and Auntie Abby having some girl talk

Bob enjoying his caramel apple from Amy's in Cedarburg

Hope in one of her cute Christmas outfits....

...and another cute outfit.

Bath time in Grandma's kitchen sink

And finally, a few pictures featuring Hope's hair:

You will only see her hair like this right after her bath.

It's starting to dry and starting to stick up!

And here she is in full "crazy hair mode!"

Could she be any cuter??

Thanksgiving in California--Part 2

Evan's birthday celebration continued into the next week, with the arrival of a gift that I had ordered for him.

Lots of pieces!

A project for Grandpa!

One more birthday gift

I somehow only ended up with 2 Thanksgiving-related pictures.  Cheryl and the kids made some cute little edible turkeys---using yummy things like oreo cookies and candy. 

Evan and his turkey

My contribution to the Thanksgiving dinner at Elgersmas?  A couple of pies.  Of course making pies always involves pie crust cookies.

Our visits in Redlands usually involve some visits to a nearby park.  This time I think we only made it there one time.

 A couple pictures of hanging out at home:

Very intent on his Play-do

Chillin' out!

 The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to the Holiday Lights Festival in Riverside.  This was a really nice event, and obviously very popular.  We were happy that we got their early enough so that we beat some of the crowds, and were able to find a place to eat dinner (outdoors!) without a long wait. There is a historic hotel, The Mission Inn, that occupies an entire city block, and it is decorated beautifully for the holidays.  We walked around the whole block enjoying all the lighted displays.  The balconies are also decorated, with carolers, toy soldiers and nutcrackers.

2 silly kids and a snowman

There was also a display in the courtyard of the hotel, and we intended to walk through that as well.......until we discovered that the line to get in was about two blocks long.  We decided to skip that and went to meet the reindeer instead.

By the end of the evening, Josie was ready for a little ride on Dad's shoulders.

And the next day was Sunday....which means more pancakes!  Evan was right on hand to help out again.

And an intense game of Zingo before we had to head to the airport for our trip home:

Grandpa looks a bit puzzled!

And that's it for the California report!