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.

The holiday season

What a busy time has gone by with all the holiday celebrations! We had a great Christmas season and its was so much fun with Elijah. Next year will be even better because we won't have to open all the gifts I wrapped for Eli...he can do it himself! Below are a bunch of pictures from our holiday celebrations. They are in backward order though because the blogger is retarded. I hope you enjoy the pictures!






At my parents house on chrismtas day the cousins got presents from santa claus! There was a quad, discovery table, and a wagon! They are so much fun and the kids love playing with them.





Look at all those presents! We ended up taking a break halfway through so the kids could take a nap! While they were sleeping the adults opened more of theirs!










These are the totally awesome alpha-peek-a-blocks i wanted for Elijah. They have the letter on each block then an object that starts with that letter on the inside...so cute!





This is me, my mom, and sisters Katie and Jennifer. I make them all bags for christmas. Moms was a bumble bee one with 4 diaper pouches that go inside...its her grandma bag. then my sisters are brown with either pink or blue and they even have pockets on the inside...i was so happy with they way they turned out and they all liked them to so that was good.







Aunt Jen got Elijah a glow worm for christmas because he was our little glow worm while he was on the billi blanket for his jaundice after we brought him home from the hospital.









Our Christmas tree christmas morning.










This is what Santa brought for Elijah









He loves his jumper.








can you see the jars of food on it? Those are what we put in his stocking... practical things like food, pacifiers, and a clip.







David and Elijah opening up presents. My boys are so cute!









Here is what we got for Elijah for christmas... a huge pile of clothes... 4 Berenstein Bears christian themed books that are so cute and then a paise baby cd.








so cute with a bow on his head.











This is one of the things david got for me. Its the creative memories keeper for organizing your papers and stickers into themes... Everyone who scraps needs this its so awesome!






a family picture in front of the tree after we opened all our gifts.

At Dale and Joys for christmas we got the kids all matching pj's. They were all so cute and we had to get some pictures. Alydiah, Xavier Elijah and Lijah

Elijah sitting on Santas lap at the Smith christmas party...no crying this year... we will see what next year brings.

At the coffey christmas I thought it would be nice to get a 4 generation picture of Elijah, David, Dale and Russell... so cute...david needs a flanel shirt though...

And at the tanner christmas party we finally got to see our cousins from Texas and their super cute kids...Cady and Chase. Cady was so cute to watch with the little kids and she loved talking to and playing with Elijah