Daniel's 2nd Birthday

Here is Daniel enjoying his cupcake at his birthday party at Pizza Hut in Idaho.

Blowing out the candles. I found these candles shaped like trucks. Perfect for our truck and tractor boy.

Mad at mom and dad for taking away his presents and giving him more to open.

Excited about all the "Green" tractors he got. He gets green from here and red and blue from Iowa.

Here is all the Gaalswyk kids and grandkids. As you can see, we have half of the grandkids. Donny and I keep telling his siblings to get going so they can catch up. But since last Christmas, the grandkids doubled. They had 3 last Christmas and 6 this year.

Christmas Trees

It is tradition every year in Donny's family to go to the mountains and cut down Christmas trees. We got one the first year of marriage but in my family we always had a fake one. So I got one the year Daniel was born and maybe when the kids get big enough to leave the tree alone, we will get a real one again. But until then it is just fun to go along and have fun as long as there is not tons of snow up there. We make a little camp and roast hot dogs and marshmellows. They cook hot chocolate and beans over a camp stove and then we climb through the trees looking for the best ones. Hall them back to the pickups and head home for Dutch meat ball soup and sandwhiches.

In the Bathtub

Here are the boys enjoying the water in the bathtub. I thought it was so cute them and their bare buns.

A little about me

I was asked to make a cake for a baby shower and so I found this cute idea online since we do not know what she is having. I also tried a new recipe. It was a butter cake with strawberry filling. So I just wanted to brag a little about how cute and well this cake turned out.

For any of you who didn't know, I took a class online last spring and summer and got a certification in medical transcripting. I started working for the local hospital doing this in November. My goal in taking the class was to be able to work from home with no daycare to make some extra money and help with all the little things that come along with raising kids. In starting my job I had to do in-house training so I am in the process of doing that and the kids are going to daycare 5 days a week. A new venture for us. But in a week or two, I will be moving home with my work and again be able to be a stay at mom and have reached my goal. I am so excited about the work and being able to take in some extra income and yet being able to raise our children.

It's been awhile

Sorry it has been awhile since I have updated but between work, Daniel's 2nd birthday, the holidays and all the parties with 3 little ones, time flies right by. So I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and got to see all of your loved ones. Donny and I had the chance to go home to Iowa for Christmas with the kids. We drove through the night both ways so the kids slept most of the trip which made it a little more peaceful as long as we could stay awake:)

So far Daniel has had 2 birthday parties every year. One is Idaho and One in Iowa. This year we did his birthday at noon and Christmas at night with Donny's family. At his party, after the first present he opened he was done opening them cause it was what he likes - trucks and tractors. But we kept taking them away and making him open more and he kept getting mad. But by that night he was ready. He would open one, set it aside and wait for the next. He came out really good. He has a whole toy box full of trucks and tractors now.

In Iowa we decorated Christmas cookies, went swimming, and just enjoyed time with my family.

Here are some pictures of our time there. As you can imagine, I have a hard time getting pictures between the kids opening presents, feeding them, and keeping them from fighting so I am awaiting some pictures from my sister-in-law from our Idaho celebrations. So I will share those with you when I get them.

Hannah and Everett enjoying the more than 1 foot of snow that was in Iowa at the time we were there.

Nicolas just had his first oficial haircut. We haven't taken a picture like this in awhile, but it is also rare we are together to much. My mom, sister Leah, and I. My sister is at vet school about 4 hours from my parents and has a boyfriend in North Carolina and me in Idaho, you can see why it is nice when we are all together.