Thanksgiving and Kid Comedy

Hi Family,

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Boise! We had so much fun visiting and eating. We're really looking forward to going back in a few weeks for Christmas. We came back last night (Saturday) and we had a lovely Sunday today. Melynie's family came over this evening for pink cupcakes (in honor of a cute kids book called Pinkalicious). It's so fun to have them so close by.

We have some kid comedy to report also. Tonight we called Carl to wish him a happy birthday. Mark, BethAnne and I sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Grace heard us singing and so she came downstairs and said "cake! cake! mine cake!" Then she looked around and asked "Where cake go?". Mark told her that we didn't have any cake. Disappointed, but undaunted, she asked- "Presents???" That's our Grace (she reminds me of someone...) What a cutie!

I hope you had a great Birthday, Carl. We love you and your little family. It will be great to see you at Christmas!

Have a great week, everybody!
Love, Aubrey

Gingerbread Houses

 

 

Tonight we made Gingerbread Houses, and we had a great time. Even Grace decorated a little tree, but then she ate it. For awhile they were wearing crowns that they decorated yesterday. They are our little princesses. We decided to make the trek to Boise for Thanksgiving, I'm getting a little homesick. So we're really looking forward to spending time with Mom, Dad, Chrissy, Jon and Rick. Everything else is going well here. We saw some good doctors at Seattle Childrens Hospital on Friday and they were very helpful (I was a little surprised after how hard it was to get an appointment with them). They were able to give us a prescription for an ointment to treat BethAnne's scar tissue around her button, an option we didn't know about before. It's painless and it seems to be working so far. In other great news, my friend Melynie's family moved to a condo in our subdivision (probably just for 6 months, but we're thrilled anyway). Melynie and I went to see Twilight on Saturday evening. It was a very funny movie, the problem is that it's not a comedy. We had a great time though. I'm grateful to have such wonderful friends and family. I'm grateful for an amazing husband and adorable children. And I'm grateful for the many blessings our family has received this year from a loving Heavenly Father. We have been truly blessed. Have a very happy Thanksgiving! Love, Aubrey

Kid Comedy

BethAnne's favorite new friend is my friend Melynie's 5-year-old girl, who is one of the sweetest kids I've ever met. This evening, BethAnne proposed a trade. She thinks we should trade our adorable, very two-year-old Grace for her new friend (they would switch families). BethAnne also said that if we missed Grace we could visit her on Christmas. :)

Snoqualmie Falls

 

 

 

 

Hi Family and Friends,

Early this evening, we went to see Snoqualmie Falls, only 30 minutes away from our house. We live in such a beautiful part of the country. We are so blessed to be here. If any of you ever want a scenic vacation you should come and visit. We hope you are all doing well. Things here are pretty good. I've been doing battle with doctor's offices all week trying to get BethAnne an appointment with a Specialist at Seattle Children's Hospital because of some issues with her cecostomy tube. Apparently, unless you're an existing patient, it's very difficult to get in to see a doctor, even if you have a fairly urgent issue. Finally, after some intervention by our amazing neighborhood pediatrician, we've been able to get an appointment to see a doctor on Friday. We've also planned a trip to go to Cincinnati for some normal tests and a laxative trial in February. It will be a longer trip (about 10 days) but it should be fine. Mark's mom, Carma, has kindly offered to come help Mark with Grace while BethAnne and I are gone. She is retiring next month, and we are very excited to see them more often (they are planning to move to Boise after their house sells, which is much closer to us than Maryland). Well, that's it for now. Have a great week!

Love,
Aubrey

From Grandma about the Wolthuis Reunion

We had such a wonderful time at the Wolthuis Reunion last night! We met at the Ogden train station, where 80 years ago Grandma Shurtliff's family arrived from Holland. There were about 400 people in attendance, wonderful food, displays, a reenactment of the family coming into the train station (this first picture - notice that Aunt Diane is playing Great-great-grandma Hillechiena, and Rielle is Great-aunt Jane, and Scott and Kerry's baby is Grandma Dena! It was feally touching. I feel so blessed to have had grandparents who gave up so much so that we could be born and live in America. They gave up what they knew and loved, so that their children could have a better life.


Here's Heidi and Brandon, Grandma and Kim - Brandon in his real sailor suit! Heidi and Brandon are going to Guam for three years with the Navy - and Heidi just found out that #2 is on the way! Fun!










Here's some people I love! You gotta love me for the red eye! One of these days I'll remember to push the lil' button that's supposed to help.....Love to all of you! I have one more of Chrissy and Jon that didn't publish - so stay tuned :)

Kid Comedy

Hi Family,

Our old family friend, Christmas, has a great blog at http://www.thedayafterchristmas.blogspot.com/
She does this great thing where she has posts called "Kid Comedy" and she tells great, funny stories about her kids (like funny things they do and say). I thought it would be a fun thing to do on our blog, because we could always use a funny story, and we have a lot of little kids in our family. So, when your kids do or say funny things, let us know (no pictures needed). You'll find you don't have to think too hard to find good material. I'll start.

BethAnne got in trouble today and had to go to her room for time-out. She was mad so she threw all the hanging clothes from her closet on her floor, dumped most of the books in her bookcase on the floor, and took out all of the clothes out of her dresser and threw them all over the room. As part of her punishment for the mess, she had to clean it all up before she could do anything fun or have any snacks. Somewhat surprisingly, she did a great job cleaning up the mess, under my supervision. When Mark got home, I was still pretty upset by the events of the day, so I asked BethAnne to tell Daddy what happened today. Her answer was classic. She said- "I did a great job cleaning my room today." :)

Your turn.

Love,
Aubrey

Halloween and stuff

Hi! I've been neglecting the blog, but I've loved seeing everyone else's updates. Your kids are adorable and it looks like everyone had fun with Halloween. We got just enough candy, but not too much because we went to a neighborhood party for most of the night. I need to get my kids to bed, but love you all!