Catching up!

Please forgive me for the massive post, but I have a lot to catch up on! It had been my intention to blog once a week, but it seems to be happening once every 1-2 months! I do hope to get back on the roll with that soon.

Well, we are still cloth diapering and loving it! The only complaint I have had so far is trying to figure out the best wash routine. Not really a complaint but just trying to figure out what works best with our hard water to make sure the diapers don't leak or smell! I am loving cloth diapering and must admit that I am a bit addicted to it.

Here is one of our very favorite brands: Apple Cheeks! I love the look and the fit.

Here is an ever popular brand, Bum Genius, which I do love very much. It is the most like disposables, so very easy to use.

And this is our favorite nap and night time diaper, the Thirsties duo diaper. There are two nice things about this diaper: 1. It only comes in two sizes so it has a good fit but isn't as bulky as a one size fits all type diaper. You don't have to buy a bunch of different sizes either to get that good fit. 2. You don't have to take the inserts out of the pocket to wash. It has openings on both ends of the diaper, so it just comes out in the wash! Very convenient. It's also super absorbent which is why we use it for naps and night.

We planted our first garden in the front yard! We started a little too late, so some of the flowers died early on, because we had such a dry spell in Texas. Sydney loved helping Mommy water the flowers with her little watering can. Fortunately the rain is picking up now, so our flowers are doing much better!

Carter started swim lessons this summer, and as you can see, he wasn't too happy about it at first.

About a month or so ago we were swimming at a friend's house and Carter slipped and fell face forward into the pool. It scared him so much that he has been terrified to get into the water.

Fortunately, by about day 4 of swim lessons, he was smiling again! He is doing very well now! I think next summer we will definitely get Sydney started early with swim lessons.

Sydney had her very first plane ride last week! Unfortunately, not under the best of circumstances. My Dad had a heart catheterization and found out that he needed heart bypass surgery right away. Sydney and I flew out to VA together to be with my family during the surgery. Sydney did very well on the way there! She slept on both flights (whew!) I was thankful to have survived that, considering I am now 7 months pregnant! The biggest challenge was having her on my lap the whole time.

We celebrated Dad's 60th birthday the day before the surgery, because his actual birthday was the day after the surgery and we knew he wouldn't be in much of a "party" mood! We were so blessed to have many of our family there together: Joel, Amy and I were all able to be there, which was great to have all three kids together. Amy's husband Walt, my Grandma (Dad's mom), and two of Dad's brother (Mark and Tim), plus Mark's wife Tammy and their son Josiah were all there too!

Mom and Dad also celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary just on the 19th!

Sydney really took to Aunt Tammy! She loved spending time with her, which was a blessing so that I was able to spend time visiting Dad in the ICU while Tammy watched her. Sydney unfortunately was not allowed in the ICU.

Here Sydney was having fun playing peekaboo with Great Grandma!

I couldn't have been more proud of how well behaved Sydney was all week, considering she was confined to either an airport, airplane or hospital waiting room pretty much the entire week!

She not only entertained our family while we waited 9 hours on that first day in the waiting room for Dad to get out of surgery and kept our minds off why we were there... but she also entertained the other families waiting for their loved ones. There was even one family that was waiting for their loved one to pass away (the Doctor had told them it was only a matter of days.) Sydney made them laugh and entertained them as well! She was so sweet and such a blessing to so many people!

Dad did very well with the surgery. They did 5 bypasses. I can't even describe how hard it was to see him that night after the surgery was over. He was still not awake and had the tubes still in. It was very hard. We all cried a lot. But by the next morning, he was talking a mile a minute! Then by that afternoon, the pain began to set in, and the talking subsided. He began to get depressed. It was hard to watch him through the highs and lows. Most of our family left by Tuesday, but Sydney, Grandma and I were still there. We left on Wednesday and Grandma stayed with Mom another week. I'm glad we were able to stay longer and be there for Mom. I know it was so hard for her to watch Dad go through that. The update is that he is now home (was in the hospital for 5.5 days) and doing well with walking and everything! Long road of recovery ahead, but we are all just thankful that he is doing well!

Sydney was SO happy to see Daddy and Carter again! Carter was also happy to see us too I think! Sydney had som fun trying on Daddy's shoes and hat, while sporting one of her Thirsties diapers!

On July 2nd, Steve and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! Hard to believe it has been 5 years and that we already have baby #3 on the way!

On Sunday, Sydney watched her first fireworks, and wasn't too impressed! She cried a lot, but thankfully we had her bear and blankie to hide her eyes, and that seemed to make it all better!

Whew! That was a lot to catch up on! Hopefully the next post will be a little bit shorter!

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.