PicTuRes

Here are some photos of our latest happenings at the Vugteveen home. Birthday celebrations, bike trips, popsicles, sisterly love, and much more.

Mother's Day - mommy and her girls

The girls and their chairs from Grandma VanDyke, they love them


Addi in her camo outfit from Uncle Bob - The cousins at Papa's Birthday Party

Sisters- I sure hope they are the best of friends, love these pictures

Happy Birthday Aunt Kari!

It's that time of the year again, garden time. $15 to plant, tons of vegetables!

And my raspberry bushes are growing from last year, I might have some this year, long story but I will be so excited to see some berries actually appear.

Kylynn and Mommy on the bike trip

Prayers are needed...

Well, after 7 years of teaching I am displaced and will need to pick from a list of open positions next week. The scary thing is that I think there is a slim chance I won't have a job. Everyone tells me I will but I don't know. I just need to have faith that God has a plan for me. As I walk down this path I just need to give it all to Him. That is difficult though. So please pray for peace of mind and clarity of mind as I choose, if I'm able, a job next week. This is very scary for me. I know that this is what I need though at this time. I've been teaching 7 years and I think it's time to try some new things and I just pray that I'm able to be somewhere with people who will make me think and challenge me.
I also need prayers for my aunt who is battling breast cancer. We found out yesterday that the genetic testing was denied by the insurance, a $3k test. We really need this test to know if they need to do further treatments or surgeries so the doctor is writing a letter, please pray that this will be approved and she can learn the results. Pray that she is strong through this and also for the family. This has been very tough on us, Marj is so strong and I just want her to know that she can hand it over to our gracious God and he will provide and take care of her. She means so much to us and it has been tough on me knowing all that she has gone through and will have to go through. ***A little side note, my wonderful husband sent me flowers this week becasue of my struggles and that he forgot to set my alarm and I was late to school, well I beat the kids but barely.
We're off to TC for the weekend, hope the weather is nice. 4 days of work left!!!! I can't believe the school year is coming to an end. Busy week ahead, packing my classroom, saying good bye to 28 5th graders, a facial, and oh yeah picking a job for next year.

T*U*L*I*P*T*I*M*E

That's right, we headed out to Holland this past Saturday to check out the tulips and take some pictures. The girls enjoyed it, Addisyn doesn't want to light long now that she is walking. Every day she gets better and better. Here are a few shots from our tulip trip.

My girls

Addisyn Joy - our little walker

Kylynn Joy

Kissing the tulip, I told her to be careful the tulip police might come

Told you, she doesn't light long

she's WALKING

Wednesday night our little Addi Joy started walking all over the place. She is starting to walk more and more and before we know it she'll be taking off. Right now she will pull herself up on the couch and then turn around and walk but she doesn't get up if she falls, she will crawl her way back to the closest object and then pull herself back up again. I wanted to share a short video for my mom who is so anxious to see her walking. Enjoy!

We just got home from Hagar Park, the girls loved it. Kylynn did not want to leave and started to cry. We told her we could come back tomorrow or maybe go to another park and that seemed to satisfy her. I think this summer is going to be a blast with our girls. Bike rides, the beach, the park, just playing all of the time, with Kylynn getting so much more into everything this is just going to be an enjoyable summer. I'm really looking forward to May 29, my last day of school, at this point it can't come fast enough. Here's our trip to the park.

back to the grind...

Kylynn and I both did not want to get up this morning. We survived though. Now I am updating with Easter photos before I begin working on my presentation on my Action Research for class Wednesday night. But the good news is I will be done with classes until September. I have to finish the paper yet but I'll be done with classes:)

We had a wonderful Easter with our girls. Kylynn was so much fun and she really did get it, that is what makes it fun. She sat in big church with us and only spoke up once, she did great. Now we're just waiting for some warm weather so we can be outside more. Kylynn can't wait to play in her sprinkler.Kylynn coloring her eggs.

Kylynn, Mommy, and Addi, coloring Easter EggsKylynn Joy in her new Crocs and Ariel sunglasses.

Sisters:)

Our family on Easter, it was a little windy

Kylynn Joy says and does the darndest things...

Okay, so here are a few of the conversations and things she has done over the last few days that have just cracked me up.

"Daddy, I went poopy."

Jason, "did you make a mess in my toilet?"

"Yup, all over."

Jason, "well you better go clean it up."

"No, Colleen will do that." (Colleen cleans our house)

Pretty sad when your 2 1/2 year old tells you the cleaning lady will take care of that.

Today Hannah and Jessica were talking to Kylynn about their piercings and tattoos. She said she didn't want one and the next thing you know she goes to her room comes out with a brown crayon and hands it to Hannah. We were like, what is she doing. She starts taking off her sock. Mind you, the girls have tattoos on their feet. She wanted Hannah to draw her a Jesus fish on her foot. We just died laughing.

One of her new words is 'actually'. Like, "actually, I think maybe Addi doesn't like that Mom." She is quite the little mother to Addisyn, I just smile and shake my head. I guess it would be pretty boring without her, it was when she was visiting Grandma, now Grandma misses her cause she is such a little chatter box.

We love you Kylynn Joy, I sure don't know what I would do without you.

Spring Break...

Well, it may be spring break but the weather is not like spring at all. Bummer! I would love to be outside with the girls this week but it's only 40 degrees. Hopefully by the end of the week it will warm up.

Kari and I enjoyed a wonderful weekend in Chicago this past weekend. We left Friday morning and shopped the Michigan City outlets, great deals! Especially for the girls. After shopping for 4-5 hours we headed to Shaumberg to IKEA. It has been a few years since I've been there but Kari had never been. It was funny to watch her, she was pretty overwhelmed. I got some good deals and enjoyed looking at all of the IKEA furniture. We then made a pit stop on the way to our hotel at Target, Kari got her Wii Fit, she was so excited. We finally made it to the hotel and were ready to head up to the room to relax, a no go. Our key would not work in the door so we trucked our luggage through the parking log, off roading a little and through the front door to have the guy tell us it wasn't our key it was the machine. We laughed pretty hard, I can honestly say it was almost the first time I peed my pants, I didn't but came very close.

We got up the next morning and headed for the city. We did some walking, some more walking, and yet some more walking. We found Kari her sweatshirt she wanted at Forever 21, saw the Bean, ate at the Cheesecake factory, walked some more, and hit Trader Joes. After leaving the City we headed to Woodfield Mall, where I found my sweatshirt from Forever 21 and some other good deals. We finally made it back to the hotel and Kari wanted to condense her bags, she ended up with 2, I had a whole lot more than that, did some condensing but let's just say I was pretty successful this shopping trip.

The girls slept in for me yesterday, it was great. We got up at 9:30, got ready and headed to Target and Meijer. Today the girls went to Auntie's, I worked at school for about 3 hours and ran some errands to get the girls' Easter baskets ready.

Tonight I finally made it back to SNAP, a little break. I hadn't been there since last Wednesday, it showed. I was struggling. I am making myself go again tomorrow night, Thursday night and for sure Sat and Sunday. I'm looking forward to scrapbooking on Friday night with Julie. Maybe I'll get started tomorrow night so I can get organized. I'm pretty far behind. Almost a year behind in my family book, a few months behind in Addi's book and about 8 months behind in Kylynn's book. Time to get crackin. I'll leave you with a few pics from the last few weeks.

Addisyn was walking for us last week. Her big sister took a little mini vacation in TC with Grandma and Grandpa Vandyke. I think that Addi was comfortable with Kylynn gone and didn't feel like she would be knocked down. She hasn't been walking much since Kylynn has been back. We're trying not to push her but we know she can do it.Kylynn and Addi in their cherry bathing suits. We're stocking up for the summer.The girls were having fun in the laundry basket. Kylynn said "Addi, you get in and I'll push you." Well, they both ended up in there, a little cramped but they had fun.

Kari and I by the BEAN, I have now seen the BEAN.Shopping in Chicago, Starbucks in hand!