Thursday, August 27, 2009

The end of the summer

Well not too much has been going on since Steve's surgery so I haven't had anything to post about. But I just thought I would post once before the Summer ends and our chaos begins! Steve is recovering well. He still couldn't lift the kids (nothing over 10 lbs) for two weeks after his surgery. That was hard on Mom having to do all the lifting when we went places together, but we survived! Steve has started his Seminary classes and is working hard. He said he has studied more in the past week than he did his entire four years in College! I believe that as I have heard the stories of his slacker years in College! He is learning a lot and is excited to see what God is going to do with this.


We are officially starting homeschool "preschool" for Carter next Monday. So right now we are just having fun playing together while the summer comes to a close. I am planning to blog about my homeschooling since it is all a learning experience and hope to share some of that with you all! We are going to be following the Heart of Dakota curriculum for 2-5 year olds, called "Little Hands Toward Heaven." We'll start on Monday and see how it goes! I am not stressing over it since Carter isn't even 3 yet (will be in two months) and whatever he learns now is just a bonus! Looking forward to getting my feet wet in homeschooling to prepare for the real deal! Carter already has a great head start as he knows pretty much all of his letters and sounds and can count to 15.

Sydney is still a little joy. She has been taking off with the crawling thing. Now that she is more mobile, she is learning to sleep on her stomach. She never used to do that before. I sometimes find her in interesting positions like the picture above. I don't know how that can be comfortable! She loves to move all over the house. And unfortunately, pick up fuzz from the floor and put it in her mouth! Yuck! So she's always choking on that... not fun!

She has also discovered the cats. And the target of her obsession seems to be Therapy, above. Poor little guy used to get abused by his brother Roo and now he is the object of Sydney's obsession! She loves to pull his tail and try to eat it. Here he is "hiding" from her.


Look at her, looking so innocent on the outside of the gate, while Therapy stays safe and sound inside the baby gate hoping she will just "go away!" He stayed there a good 20 minutes without moving.



Who could resist this face? We are going to have to keep her locked up when she gets older! :-)
Just kidding of course...


Or this face? Carter has very curly hair, and I had a little fun the other night during bath time. He's my little ham, always loving a good camera shot! I think it's across between Jimmy Neutron and Peewee Herman! Love my little man!





Saturday, August 15, 2009

A week to remember

Well it has been quite the eventful week in the Westdyk household. On Monday morning around 4 a.m. Steve woke up to go the bathroom and felt pain. He wasn't sure what kind of pain, but that's when it all started. Steve leads the Men's Bible study for our Sunday School class on Monday mornings at 6:15 a.m. (yes, they meet that early!!) so he headed off to the study. On his way home he started to feel more pain and also felt nauseous. He came home before heading off to the office to say hi to us like he normally does. Instead of heading to work, he went to bed. After waking up from about an hour nap, he was in so much pain that he was doubled over and could barely walk. He first called our Doctor to see if he could get an appointment. He didn't know how serious it was and didn't want to go to the ER if it wasn't necessary. Turns out our Doctor is no longer practicing here and we had no idea! Since he couldn't see another Doctor until the afternoon, we headed to the ER, kids in tow and all. Three hours later, we learned the worst, it was his appendix! Boy did our week change within seconds! Once I heard the news, I headed home to let the kids nap since they had spent all morning in the ER and were going stir crazy. Steve just had to wait at the hospital until they would let him know when his surgery would be. Finally at long last, his surgery was scheduled for that evening around 7:45 p.m.! Thankfully, our dear friends the Murrays were already planning on watching the kids that night so we could have a date night. Instead we spent our date in the hospital together! They have promised us that we should not consider that our date night, and they would be glad to watch the kids again for us!


Here is Steve minutes before he was rolled off for his Appendectomy. He was getting a little nervous by this point and just anxious to get it over with, as he had been waiting all day for it to happen! We left him around 7:30 (Steve's parents were there with me) and around 9:30 p.m. were able to see him up in his room. Everything went well, the Doctor even showed us lovely pictures of the inside where it was removed. Be thankful I am not posting those!! He did have an infection so the Doctor told us he would like Steve to at least stay until Wednesday so he could get his antibiotics and make sure he doesn't get a fever. Thankfully, the next day he did not have a fever and was already walking around and doing great. The Doctor said he could go home that evening at 8 pm. We were thankful! Steve's parents came and watched the kids for me on Tuesday afternoon so I could spend some time in the hospital with Steve. We were so thankful once he got home that evening. He is doing very well. Just a bit sore and still can't lift anything heavy, which means he can't lift the kids! All in all, it went smoothly and we're just thankful it is over with. We're also thankful he caught it so early on.

We have been so amazed by the outpouring of love from the people in our Church through this ordeal. Yes, I know that is what the body of Christ is for, at least what it is supposed to be, right?! But it was the first time we really witnessed it first hand, aside from the meals we received after having each of our children. We received so many phone calls, emails and several even went to the hospital to visit Steve. It was a real encouragement to Steve and really blessed him. Here Steve is holding a get well cookie basket from the Choir director at Prestonwood. We were very surprised that they sent us! It was so thoughtful and kind, and I must say yummy!


The last bit of news for the second half of the week is that Sydney decided this would be the week she starts to crawl! While it is a joy to see her crawl finally, it now brings an added element to the day: watching her like a hawk! She is all over the place! She didn't waste anytime figuring it out. The other frustrating thing about it is that she now wants to move all the time! Which means nap time has been torture for us! She has learned how to roll over to her belly and scoot on to her bottom in the crib. It took me two and a half hours yesterday just to get her to take her afternoon nap! So frustrating! Hopefully she will catch on soon and nap time will not be such a stressful time for us.



Monday, August 10, 2009

The Lake

On Saturday we finally got to go to the Lake to spend the day with our dear friends and my former employers, Dan and Lisa. Almost a year ago they bought a Lake house at Cedar Creek Lake, about an hour outside of Dallas and spend every weekend there relaxing from the week. They seem to be in heaven when they are there and now I know why! It really felt like we were on vacation and we were only there for one day. Their house is beautiful and has an amazing view of the Lake and sunset.

On the way to the Lake!

Carter spent a lot of time hanging out by the windows. It was a gorgeous view! Unfortunately I think he left his mark there with his finger prints on the glass!

This is the view from the back yard.



Carter and I in front of Dan's new boat!




The back of the house and back yard.




Sydney and Daddy had fun playing on the couch together.








Aunt Lisa and Sydney on the dock at sunset.



Carter looking cool in his shades!





Lisa showing Carter the bait. Carter had fun watching the minnows swim.



The family after Daddy's big catch!



What a gorgeous sunset and great ending to a fun day! The kids loved it and we really enjoyed spending time with Dan and Lisa again. Steve and Dan got to go exploring on the boat while Lisa and I enjoyed lounging on the floaties on the Lake while the kids "napped." Carter didn't actually nap. I think he was so excited from the day, he spent the entire naptime talking to himself on the bed! At least he let us have quality adult time! I have missed Dan and Lisa a lot since I stopped working for them, so it was wonderful to get to spend the day with them.










Monday, August 3, 2009

Time to post...


Guess it's time for a post. Nothing really new and exciting to report. Sydney is trying really hard to crawl, but only has been successful at crawling backwards. I have tried to get a good shot on video but haven't been able to yet. She always does it when the camera is off. Once I get it, I'll post here. The other night we were at a friends' house for a Bible study and she crawled back from the middle of their living room floor all the way back to their fireplace where she could go no further! She cracks us up daily.



This is the best picture I have so far of Sydney's bottom two teeth. Hard to see here, but they are there, I promise!

She always seems to have slobber on her clothes. Here she looks like she is pondering something!



Carter is a joy as always. He loves to learn his letters and sounds, play with blocks and learn Bible verses. Yes he enjoys learning Bible verses! Let's hope that joy continues. Steve is in the process of registering for his first classes in Seminary. We are excited about this.



Carter really loves his sister. Except when she puts his toys in her mouth. Then he has a major melt down! Trouble is, she does this often!







We couldn't be prouder parents! We thank God daily for the joy our children are in our lives.



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About Me

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I am a homeschooling mom to four. I just had a VBAC after 3 c-sections this year after I was told I no longer had the choice by my first Doctor. I am a childbirth instructor for Birth Boot Camp. My first class starts January of 2013!