Annabelle's 2 Year Check-Up

Here she is right before her check-up

I feel the need to preface this post by saying how truly grateful we are to have two healthy children who are growing and developing just as they should be. I've heard too many sad stories involving children and babies lately, and after Annie's appt. I was reminded once again of how thankful we should be (and we are), and also how important it is not to take health for granted. ANYWAY...on to the details of her appointment.



I'm happy I took her to Bennett's appointment a little less than a month ago because she followed his lead. She was less talkative and a bit more wary but was very cooperative. She even climbed up on the table without being asked because she knew this appointment was for her. She followed all of Amy's instructions and at one point Amy even got her to crack a smile. For those of you who know her well enough, you know that this is quite an accomplishment and has been since the day she was born. Her brother was cracking her up during the appointment though. Amy said she looked perfect and is advanced in many areas including language and fine motor skills. We asked how she can tell that in a 10 minute period and she said that it's just something they are trained to do and she has been doing it for many years. As far as her growth is concerned, she was 31 pounds (although before the holidays she had consistently been 30lbs...darn holiday treats) which puts her in the 87th percentile. She is 34 and 1/2 inches tall which puts her in the 88th percentile for height. We were happy to see she was even! What made us even more happy is that SHE DIDN'T CRY FOR HER SHOT! I guess that's it. We are just so happy to have happy healthy little ones and to be told so is very reassuring. Have a happy New Year everyone. Love Darrin, Elizabeth Bennett and Annabelle

Happy Birthday Princess Annabelle

WE LOVE YOU SWEET GIRL

almost 2!!

19 months
Almost 15 months

11 months

Almost 8 months. This is the first time I pulled her hair back with a clip.

About 4 and 1/2 months old...her curls are about to show up.

3 months old wearing an outfit I wore at 3 months. It was very hard to get her to crack a smile.

On Friday, December 29th, 2006 at 10:36 pm, our Annie Miss Annie made her grand entrance and she was as cute as can be. We knew we had a feisty one on our hands right from the get go and she hasn't disappointed. Here are a few pictures of our sweet girl with an attitude.

*Merry Christmas*

Since I haven't posted a new blog in a couple of days, and won't have the opportunity again until next week, we would just like to say.... from our family to yours, have a safe and happy holiday!
Love,
Darrin, Elizabeth, Bennett, and Annabelle, and Regal and Palmer too :)

p.s. Happy early anniversary Grandpa and Grandma VandenBerg. Love you and see you soon.

Brenda's Christmas Survey

Christmas survey
*Favorite Christmas movie (cartoon or children's)? Prancer or Annabelle's Wish (I cry watching both of them :)
*When do you usually start Christmas shopping? Around September
*Favorite Christmas present? I remember getting Care Bears one year and that was really exciting to me.
*Real or artificial tree? artificial
*Colored or white lights? white
*Favorite Christmas memories? Waking up with my brother around 3:00 in the morning, opening our stockings, then trying to wait patiently until 6:00 when we were allowed to wake our parents up.
*Favorite Christmas song? I like Amy Grant and all the ones sung at the Christmas church services.
*Do you like eggnog? a few sips is OK. I wouldn't drink it by the gallon.
*Peppermint candy canes or fruity ones? Peppermint

This survey is from Brenda's blog. Thanks Ron for the fun survey. It made me think a little.

Our Anniversary

Five years ago tomorrow Darrin proposed to me in Holland's Centennial park. It was snowing and all the Christmas lights were on. It was beautiful. We attempted to plan our wedding for December 4th (my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary) but we weren't having any luck making that day work with the church and reception hall. December 18th was the only date in December that was going to work and as fate would have it, that date would end up working out perfectly. We began all the planning and spring rolled around. Darrin began applying for teaching jobs. He looked online and found a job fair taking place in Morganton, NC. We decided to take a chance and see what happened. We flew to NC and Darrin attended the the job fair. He called me at the hotel and told me he'd been offered a job. I'll admit, I freaked out! He took it. We went down one more time to look for a house and began the process of buying our first house on Susan Drive. In the meantime, we spent the first half of the summer preparing for our move and in the midst of it all decided we wanted to be married before our move. I called the courthouse and we were scheduled in for about a week later...Friday, July 16th. We only told our parents and a few friends. Our parents were the only ones at the courthouse with us but afterwards we had a large shower/going away party. We asked my unsuspecting grandma to read something before we ate. It said something along the lines of, 'Darrin and Elizabeth VandenBerg-married July 16, 2004 at 4:00 in the afternoon...December 18 wedding is still on.'
It was so fun to see everyone's reaction. We moved to NC the following week. When we got to NC we headed to Darrin's school to look around. At that point I had been planning on finding any random job as it didn't matter to me what I did. While at the school I was offered the Reading Remediation position. The teacher before had just resigned. Everything was falling into place. The year went quickly and before we knew it, Christmas break was almost upon us. We only had to take a couple of 'sick' days to cover for the time we'd be in MI. Thank goodness it wasn't on December 4th! We had our beautiful Christmas wedding complete with Christmas trees, ornament favors, 12 flower girls, and the West Ottawa Vocalaires singing Christmas carols. It was wonderful. And four years later I still feel like a newlywed...still so in love...except with a lot more on our plates :). Happy anniversary to us. I couldn't be more happy!

Big Man

Our Big Man Bubba B had his three year well-child visit this morning. He did awesome. He was very cooperative and talked a lot to Ms. Amy. I told him this morning that they were going to check him over to make sure he was big enough to go to preschool. Amy made sure to tell him he is definitely ready :). Our buddy is 40 pounds and 40 and 1/2 inches. That puts him in the 97th percentile for his weight and the 95th for his height. He is the average weight and height of a 5 year old. Most people over estimate his age when they try to guess. Amy was pleased however that he was well proportioned. She gave him a clean bill of health and said he looks great. His next appt. is at 4 years old and he will be getting shots at that one...YIKES.

Colon Christmas Celebration

The first four pictures were actually taken on Thursay on our walk to Jenny's for the photo session :). The remainder of the photos were taken today at the Colon Christmas celebration. It's always been small but I was sad to see that this year it was even smaller. There was a long line to see Santa last year and this year we didn't have to wait at all. Next year I think I'm going to come up with something to put in the parade. Maybe I'll dress the dogs like reindeer and have them pull the kids in a sled :) The hardware store was kind enough to donate pork bbq and their store space for a wrestling fundraiser today. We were happy to make some money for the team!

catching snowflakes
really trying hard

Macey and Kelsey

I was so proud of my pumpkin girl. She was the first one willing to sit on Santa's lap. It took her to get the other kids to realize that he's not so scary after all!

We were so lucky to get a sleigh ride from the hardware store to the library.

The kids getting ready for the ride.

Bennett snow angels

The kids were in the Sturgis Journal last year with a picture like this.

Someone asked if I wanted to be in the picture...not really...but here it is :)

Christmas Photos

Jenny was kind enough to take the kids pictures today (thank you!) for a possible Christmas card (if I have time to do them). If I don't do a card then they are just really fun to have. Here they are in collage form. There were so many that I had to do it this way. Enjoy!!

quotes/pics/weekend

Bennett-Thinking he was trying to get out of going to bed by saying he needed to use the bathroom, I told him not to flush because I wanted to see what he had done. When I asked if he had gone yet, he said, "My poop is sticking in my butt. I need to shake it out." Darrin and I quietly laughed to ourselves about that one. And yes...he really did have to go!

Annabelle-She was standing over a large register when the heater kicked on and said, "Hair is blowing away Mommy!"

Here are pictures from the weekend.

Darrin and I at 84 East
Brenda's pretty melon martini

Erin, me, Brenda

Miss Annie acting shy at her party

Bennett, so happy about his new Diego book!