Garage Sale

It the time of the year when everyone is cleaning up and organizing their homes (including myself) trying to get rid of extra stuff they no longer need. This weekend we had a garage sale at my Grandparents house and we made a combined total of around 600 bucks which is pretty good. I got rid of some nick knacks and some baby clothes and made some money...then I also went garage sale-ing to buy more stuff...but just stuff for Elijah. I've found that almost all the garage sales that I have been to only sell girls clothes and that's not good for me! I did eventually find some boy stuff and got Elijah some pj's and clothes. My seal of the day is a little ride on toy that I got for a buck!

Tulip Time

Well this week is Tulip Time and of course we had to get the babies all dressed up in dutch costumes and take them down to the beautiful tulips for pictures. On Saturday David and I took Elijah to Dutch Village and bought him his first pair of wooden shoes! They are so cute and he looks adorable in his little costume. Then Monday night Mom, Jen, Nyla, David, Elijah and I all went down town to watch the dutch dancers and take even more pictures. It was a lot of fun and I thought about getting out my costume that Grandma Blaauw made for me and wearing it for pictures with Elijah.

A Challenge...

I am going to challenge myself to try and update my blog at least once if not twice a week. I don't really know if anyone even reads this but hey its a good place to put my thoughts and talk about my adorable son! HAHA So today is friday (good) and its May 1st(good-april showers bring may flowers so hopefully not to much more rain) and its Tulip Time kick off tonight at the park and we are taking Elijah to his first fireworks! We are going to borrow Coltons Dutch Dance Costume from last year and Elijah is going to wear it. I will post pictures as soon as we get some.


Looking back 5 years ago:
Where was I and What was I doing? It was my senior year of high school and for the month of may I was pretty busy. Now only was I excited to be finshed up with school soon but I was busy with Track and Field, Dutch Dance, Marching Band and of course Senior Prom. Here is a picture of David and I at my Senior Prom. We were both seniors and had been dating for a year.

After reading every ones blogs that I have bookmarked on my browser I decided that I better update mine as well. Today is they day my Grandpas 'cremains' get buried. He wanted to be cremated and that takes a week to be done after the funeral so my mom and dad are going to the cemetery to bury him. No one else is going to go, just my mom and dad. Also another sad note, my brothers good friend Tommy that he works with, had his 5 week old daughter pass away yesterday morning. She had had hernia surgery and gone home and the doctors said to watch out for vomiting and other things and I guess during the night she threw up and choked on her vomit and when Tommy found her in the morning she was cold and he tried to do CPR but couldn't save his little girl. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare to bury their little angel.



So on a happier note now...

Things are going good for us now. Elijah isn't sick anymore and he is doing way better sleeping through the night now. Its kind of weird but usually when kids get sick it throws off their sleeping habits but when Elijah got his his sleep actually improved. He went from getting up a lot to not getting up at all during the night. It's been nice to actually get some sleep and I hope that it continues to stay the way it is. Also Elijah is still moving all over the place. I think he finally realized what he can do with his crawling skills. He has learned that he can follow us around the apartment and he likes to explore. His favorite spot to crawl to is the kitchen. He will sit next to the linoleum and pull his fingers across the floor and make them squeak. He gets the biggest kick out of the noise he makes. Elijah had also been pulling himself up for a while but now...he is taking steps while holding on to his toy shelf, or crib, or the couch... He is getting brave and wanting to keep up with his cousins. We also will hold him up and then move our hands away and he will stand for a few seconds on his own. But usually its not to long because he is such a wiggler and moves and falls over.

In Memory Of Grandpa Blaauw

Henry Blaauw
BLAAUW - Henry Blaauw, aged 86, of Shelbyville, went to be with his Lord and Savior Tuesday, April 14, 2009. Henry was raised in the Rockford/Sparta area. In 1945 he and his father became the proud owners of a beautiful Hopkins Twp. farm. On December 27 that same year he married his childhood friend and sweetheart, Marie. With the help of Marie, their farm grew and prospered. After milking dairy cattle for 50 plus years, Henry finally had time for his second love - woodworking. With wood he harvested from his own farm property, he crafted many cherished pieces of furniture for his children and grandchildren. Henry proudly served on the Hopkins Twp. Planning Commission for 43 years enlightening others of the importance in preserving valuable farmland. He served on the Federal Land Bank Board and was an active member of the Farm Bureau. He was also a member of United Church of Wayland and served on many of its boards/committees throughout the years. He is survived by children, Mary (Richard) Reurink of Middleville, Janet (Michael) Bremer of Grand Rapids, Carol (Dennis) Dornbush of Spring Lake, Kenneth (Karen) Blaauw of Hopkins Twp., Richard (Terry) Blaauw of Zeeland and Nancy Blaauw of Elsie; 15 grandchildren; 13 great grandchildren; brother, John (Alyce) Blaauw; sister-in-law, Chris (Ed) Kooiman and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife, Marie of 61 years, parents, Tjeerd and Jacoba Blaauw, brother, Andrew Blaauw, sister-in-law, Marge Blaauw, sister-in-law, JoAnn and brother-in-law, Bill Berenbrock. Funeral Services will be held 11:00 a.m. Friday April, 17, 2009 at United Church of Wayland with Pastor Nancy Zerban officiating. Interment in Maplewood Cemetery. Memorial Contributions may be made to Allegan County Medical Care Facility or charity of choice. The family will greet relatives and friends Thursday at the funeral home from 5 to 8 p.m. Arrangements by: Archer, Hampel & Kubiak Wayland Chapel 269-792-2237

So much news!

In my last post we had that Elijah was starting rice cereal...now he is eating all the first foods: peas, green beans, carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes, and applesauce, pears, bananas, peaches. He does really good eating his foods and usually has them gone in no time.









Elijah is also now crawling all over the place and loves to explore where ever he can get! He really likes keeping up with all his cousins and crawling to Mommy and Daddy when he wants us.











Elijah is now also pulling himself up.
His favorite spots are his toy self and in his crib.














Elijah is now in his big boy car seat! We were getting tired of hauling him around in his carseat so we found some new ones and installed them this past weekend. He seems to like it and its working out pretty good. He got to ride in the front of the grocery cart today and was a little tippy but otherwise all is good!

My first Food

Today we decided to start Elijah on rice cereal. At first he wasn't quite sure what to think but he smiled and wanted more. It was so cute to watch, especially since he started laughing while eating. He was having such a great time with it. Here are a few pictures.




His first bite














He enjoyed eating and
did a fairly good job with it.











He was so happy and
was laughing while eating















All gone! Big boy!

Licking the bowl is
the best part!

6 months old!

I've been slacking on updating my blog so I thought I better do it now while David is playing with Elijah. Things have been going great. Elijah is rolling all over the place...one of his favorite spots is under the couch. He likes to roll over to it and get his bottom half and a shoulder under it. He is getting pretty good at sitting up and can now get up on his hands and knees in the crawling position...now its a matter or coordination and moving the arms in legs to get him crawling. Its so much fun to watch him. He is constantly wanting to be moving. We also took Elijah swimming for the first time on Valentines Day at a hotel. He wasn't quite sure what to think of it. Afterwords he just cuddled up with daddy while mommy swam some more. We also went to chuck e cheese for Davids birthday which makes 2 trips there with Elijah! He doesn't know what is going on but he had fun watching all the kids run around. By the end of the night he crashed in mommy's arms even with all the loud music and crazy kids everywhere, he was so tired. Elijah still isn't sleeping through the night but we are trying some different things to try and change that...we are not letting him sleep after David picks him up from work and he gets so tired and crabby around 8:30 but we don't let him go to sleep until around 9:30. Hopefully things will start working out because I get crabby to when I don't get enough sleep either!


Here are Elijahs 6 month pictures that we had taken 3-2-09 at Sears. They turned out pretty good but Elijah was a little tired and was a little scared of the lady taking the pictures at first. But he warmed up and we got a couple of cute smiles out of him.

Elijah Russell Gets Dedicated To the Lord!









Our Family


















Pastor Steve holding Elijah









Praying for Elijah and us














My little man all dressed up in his dedication outfit













My little peanut boy!

Dedication

As I sit here bored listening to the inauguration of Barack Obama I wonder what else could be more interesting... many things as a matter of fact... ELIJAH! and yes I did get a picture of him by the TV with Obama in the picture as a moment for his baby book. This history in the making is important and something we all will have to come to support even though we may not like it. The most we can do is pray to the Lord to give Barack guidance and wisdom to help our country prosper and come back strong.

David and I will make important choices in our son and future childrens lives as well. One that we soon will be celebrating is the dedication of Elijah to the Lord. Pray that the Lord will give us guidence and wisdom to raise our son in the name of the Lord, to bring him up to be a gentle, loving, respectful, young man who loves the Lord with all his heart.