Christmas in Pictures

Pictures!!

Here are a few pics of the kids most recently. We took Evan sledding by Ryan's parents house yesterday for a little bit. He loved being out in the snow. He even went down the hill by himself!

Just thought I would post some pics and update a little bit.
Life has been a little bit busier lately. Ryan is back to work it seems like for good now. This is a huge blessing, but also makes things a little more hectic with the babysitting situation. They apparently have 15 boat orders which means they have work thru Febuary at the least. It looks like it will probably be longer than that, if not indefinatly. Yay!
When I came back to work, knowing Ryan was soon going back as well I went down to four days a week which has been SO much nicer. I would love to go down more, but at this point, the work load at work may be too much for me to do that, so, I guess I have to hang in there a little bit longer! Its a nice break, and its nice to feel important and needed other than mommy needs, however I do miss my kiddos!!! They are growing so fast!!!!

Here are a few pics most recently taken:






We had baptism today for Alivia, as well as my nephew and cousins baby too. After baptism we had lunch at my brother and sister in law's house celebrating my nephew Garrett and Alivias baptism. What a blessing this little girl is to us. We love her so much, and she brings us so much joy. Love her to pieces! And how fun it was to be able to share this special day with Dave and Wendi and Garrett. Thanks Dave and Wendi for hosting today! Here is a pic of my Livvy pie in her baptism dress...without her cardigan. (I forgot to get a pic when she had everything on!) Yes, her dress is PINK...we arent a traditional family. :-)

"He gives. He takes away."

So..sometimes when I am bored, I blog hop and read intresting articles and blogs, and I came across one by a lady. I dont know her, I dont know the circumstances in her life, so some of the people she is talking about doesnt make complete sense to me, but you can get the gist of it. Never did I think of this verse this way until now, but it makes complete sense. I thought this was kind of a cool post, so I copied it and pasted it to share...

"The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord!"

-Job 1:21

"He gives and takes away. How many times have you heard this verse quoted? Or misquoted? I thought about this verse today as I contemplated that perhaps God was "taking away" something precious in my life. But I don't necessarily know if that is what Job had in mind when He said these powerful words. God is good. He doesn't take things from us to hurt us. I believe He allows sacred and precious things to be ripped from our lives at times. Take Todd and Angie, for instance. The most precious thing in their world was taken from them this week when they lost sweet baby Audrey to death after just two hours of life. Did God "take Audrey" away from them? Why would He do that?

On the same token, did God "take away" our current ministry? If He called us here, is He now "taking away" the opportunity to love these people and serve them? Is he "taking away" a pulpit where Josh could be proclaiming His word? Is he "taking away" our home, just to uproot us? Would He "take away" these things, even if it would make us stronger? NO. NO. NO. And again I say NO. I will never credit my good God with "taking away" good things such as this. Instead, I will give credit where it is due. Satan and his evil armies have grabbed hold of what God has given and they have "taken away". Satan is to be blamed, but God is to be given praise. For He has indeed taken some things away...

God has taken away our fear.
"For the Lord your God is living among you.He is a mighty savior.He will take delight in you with gladness.With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
-Zephaniah 3:17

God has taken away our sin.
"But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness."
-1 John 1:9

God has taken away our tears.
"He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears."
-Isaiah 25:8

God has taken away our ashes.
"He will give a crown of beauty for ashes"
-Isaiah 61:3

God has taken away our weakness.
"Yet it was our weaknesses He carried."
-Isaiah 53:4

God has taken away our sickness.
"He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases."
-Matthew 8:17

God has taken away our exhaustion.
"Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength."
-Isaiah 40:30-31

God has taken away our hunger.
" You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies."
-Psalm 23:5

God has taken away our darkness.
"The Lord is my light and my salvation - so why should I be afraid?"
-Psalm 27:1

God has taken away our defeat.
"I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me. You refused to let my enemies triumph over me."
-Psalm 30:1

God has taken away our mourning.
"You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing."
-Psalm 30:11

I praise God tonight for all He has taken away. I can rest secure in knowing that He Gives and Takes Away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!"

Livvy's Stats

Just thought I would post Alivia stats. She was 10lbs 14 oz and 22 1/4 inches. She is in the 50th precentile for both height and weight. By far bigger then Evan ever was. He was always 25th precentile for weight until he was almost a year. Anyways, we are currently retesting for intolerance to milk because she had one postive the last time. I am hoping it is a fluke because she is doing really well with the formula she is on. Anyways...Thats about all. I'm husbandless this weekend and enjoying my CLEAN house. It is so nice to leave the house, and come home to exactly how you left it. :-) Still looking forward to when he comes home on Monday. I am sure by then I will be anxious and ready for him to be home!

Oh yeah...forgot to post this, even tho it is pretty big news. Ryan got called back to Tiara. This time it should be for good. If not, it will at least be until mid January. Praise God!

Pictures!!

I have been slacking big time with the pics. Here are a few of when we went up north to my Grandpas cabin on drummond island the begining of October.





We have been potty training for a while now, and Evan is doing AWESOME! He tells us when he has to go and gets so excited about his potty chair. We are so proud of him! I came home the other day and found him modeling his new undies! Daddy thought it was time he had some, so he made the trip to meijers with both kiddos and got Evan his very own Handy Manny undies. Evan is so proud of them and doing great! He has only had one accident so far and if he has to go...he makes sure to tell us. He doesnt want to get Handy Manny wet!



And finally here are some recents of my babes. They both are getting so big! I cant believe Evan will be two in January already! Time flies. And little miss Alivia is definatly packin on the pounds! Already in some 3 month outfits...:-( We go monday for her 2 month check up. Hopefully we will have better news about her formula situation.

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So this post isnt about anything to do with my family. Blogging is theraputic for me, so getting things off my chest and writing about them helps me sort things out in my head sometimes...

A good friend of mine is going through a really tough time right now. Her best friends husband (who is also a close friend to her) has been in the hospital now for over a week, I think actually going on two weeks. He has had problems for a while with his liver. So many things have been going wrong with his body. Last week though, it seemed as though he was starting to make a recovery. He was out of his coma, talking and it seemed as though he would be getting ready to come home, or at least go to a rehabilitation center until he was well enough to come home. Just in an instant something went wrong and he is now back on a ventilatior. His kidneys started to fail, and pretty much the doctors said they are doing what they can to keep him alive. She asked me something last week that I didnt know how to answer. I ask this question all the time of God. "why?" Why did God let him come so close to getting better, getting everyones hopes up that he would make it and be ok...then all of a sudden take that away? I had no answer for her. I wish I had some amazing Christian answer but I didnt. I tried finding scripture, but all I could find were verses about God being with us through the storms. There have been so many times in my life I have asked God WHY? Why did my parents go through what they did? Why did Ryan get layed off? Why did our neighbor loose their little girl? Why did our friend's 2 month old baby have to have a liver transplant? Why is Michael in the hospital fighting for his life? Why why why? The list goes on and on. I cant understand, and I never will until I meet Jesus face to face and can ask Him then.

I have been thinking about this for the last couple days, dwelling on this question like all Christians have in their lifetime. The only conclusion I have to come to is to look at the past, then look at the present. Seeing the path God has led us down, from tradgedy to where we are today. I look at my parents. Being on the edge of divorce so many years ago, to where they are today. God is so faithful. I look at the time when Ryan was layed off. The stress in our life, the worry. But God was there, He was faithful, and we have made it to where we are now. Not saying things are great, but they always work out! God is so faithful! I look at our friends who had to go through their son having a liver transplant at 2 months old...to where he is today, now a 2 1/2 year old little boy! God is so faithful! I cant understand Grace's death, or Michael fighting for his life, but I know God is STILL faithful. I may never be able to answer that question of why, but I am confident of His faithfulness through all of the heartache.

Sorry for going on and on, but I guess I needed to even remind myself today of this. Thanks for listening!

slackin

So apparently having another child and working full time again proves I cant post as much as I used to. :-) I havent even posted pictures of our family vacation from 2 weeks ago yet! I'm slackin! (Although...not quite like some people we know...umm Tracy...:) ) Anyways...

So, whats new with us? I am happy to announce my less than 7 week old daughter is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! This is a Godsend. I think after what He dealt us with Evan, He maybe thought He should give us a break with this one. :-) We have kinda worked it so her last feeding is between 10 and 10:30, and she has been sleeping between 5:45-6. We will take it! I dont know either if I blogged about it either, but we did switch her to formula a few weeks ago due to her crazy tummy issues. She did great her first 4 weeks, but it was like a switch flipped and after every feeding she would cry and fuss. She just couldnt get comfortable. We also had some more issues with the original formula she started on so we took her in to the doctor. Her doctor thought maybe she has an intolerance to milk, so we had to do some tests. Out of three tests, she had one positive, so we have to test again in 2 weeks. She is on the gentle formula now and seems to be doing much better, however if she has more positives, she may have to go on a special kind of forumla that doesnt include milk or soy. Hopefully she wont have another positive, and we can continue on the formula she is on. Poor baby. I hate watching her in pain!

I'm also back to work now which is going just fine. I dont love it, and its not ideal but it works for right now and we are all adjusting ok. I said this when I had Evan too after I went back to work, but it is crazy the actual ache you have when you miss your kids. I feel the same way now when I am at work. The actual physical ache. Crazy I know, just because I still get to see them when I get home, but yeah...still sucks being away from them.

Well anyway..I will post pics of Drummond Island later but we went up there the begining of October. We havent been there since Ryan and I were first married. It was good to be up there again and just relax before coming back to work.my grandparents have a cabin in the woods, so Ryan was able to hunt. He saw a few deer but nothing great(By the way, I forgot to post anything, but the night before we left he sat out and got a nice size doe.) Evan loved riding the four wheeler and playing outside. It was cold but so much fun. What a great way to spend my last week of maternity leave.

Not much is new with Evan. Just talking like crazy. The things he says lately are hilarious. He always suprises me with words I didnt know he even knew! We have been working more and more with him on the potty and he is doing great! Pretty much everytime we put him on he goes, so he is getting the hang of it. We will just keep working with him.

I'll post some pics later. Looking forward to having our small group come over tonight. It has been too long!

After a just over a year, we have decided the house is coming OFF the market. This is something that Ryan and I have prayed about, stressed about...me, cried about. (I did just have a baby, and am still completly emotional!) Over the last three weeks, we have been so up and down with this disicion, and I have been so confussed on what the right disicion would be. I kept praying God would just make it so clear on what He wanted us to do. Praise God, the answer became very clear, and it looks like we will be staying for a while. This is just such a relief to me. I have been so stressed wondering if we were making the right or wrong disicion. I just wanted to know one way or the other where we were going to be. Thankfully, this burden is gone, and I know now we will be here. Our friends live literally right down the road from us, so we are happy to be able to stay close to them as well. Anyway, no more showings! Although, that was one way my house was forced to be clean...we will have to see how well I can keep this up with out having to be forced to clean!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! We are off to my grandpa and grandma's cabin for a nice long weekend. I will not have a phone or a computer til Wednesday night! Yikes! Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Harvest Party!

This past Sunday night we (my siblings and I) hosted a Harvest Party at my parents house. I believe it turned out to be a huge success! We had tons of fun watching the kiddos do pumpkin painting, horse/pony rides, hay maze, hay ride, digging for candy in sawdust...and eating yummy food and drinking cider. My parents have a perfect house to do this kind of thing. Hopefully we can continue to do these parties. I think the adults had just as much fun as the kids! Here are just a few pics of Sunday night.

Life Lately

Hello all. Can you believe it is October already? Seriously, I feel like we just left July and now its October?! Oh well, its my favorite time of year. Leaves changing, apple cider...mmm. Makes me want to sit down with a good book in my pj's and read. Fall means a lot of differnt things to the DeVries family. For me, I cant wait for the first day I trade my flip flops for socks and tennis shoes, apple cider and leaves changing...For Ryan, it means the begining of hunting season. Its a very anticipated time of the year. Ryan has been going crazy with hunting fever. So much so, he is sitting in the rain tonight hoping to get one. I think this is CRAZY, however Ryan doesnt seem to see the problem with it. CRAZY!! Anyways...

Evan has been adjusting really well to his new baby sister. If anyone knows Evan, they will know he has issues sharing his toys. Evan is the typical little kid. When someone has something, he wants it, if they go to something else, he then goes for that...anyway...with his baby sister, he actually wants to give her all of his favorite things! His beloved "kitty" and all his favorite tractors and cars...it is so cute. (and amazing!) Anyway...he loves his baby sister. They are so cute together.

Unfortunatly, Fall means the start of cold and flu season. This is never good for Evan. Whenever Evan gets a cold, it is never a good situation. Trying to prevent some of his breathing issues, Evan has been on a steroid inhalent since August. He is going to be on this for a year doing one treatment a day. When Alivia came home, we slacked a little a missed a few treatments...which guess what? Yup, Evan is sick again! Thankfully though, the steroid is helping a lot and he is not nearly as bad as what he has been in the past, thank goodness. He also does abuterol every four hours right now trying to kick this cold. He does ok with his nebulizer, but most times Ryan will give it to him while he is sleeping so he cant run away. Here is a pic of him and his "fishy" mask.

And little Miss Alivia. She is growing SO FAST! How is it that she will be a month old on Tuesday? My baby is growing up! Her cheeks are getting chubbier by the second thanks to her insanely good appetite. She is so precious and we are so in love with her! How could I doubt loving two children equally? Its so natural! Here is a pic of her in her mossy oak onsie we are borrowing from Aunt Heather. (Thanks Heather!) Now all we need is Ryan to get a deer to have her picture taken with Daddy and the deer, and her mossy oak onsie. So cute! (For those of you who havent lost your husbands due to hunting season, and wouldnt know what Mossy Oak is, it is a hunting brand) Anyways..

Ryan is still doing great in school. Two classes right now. One online, and one he has to go up to Muskegon on Tuesday nights. It is hard to believe he is almost done with his first year! He is also working some. This last week he was called back for two days. There is talk about 12 more boats from now until January, but you never know if that is rumor or actual truth. We will see!

I am loving my time off and not quite ready to go back to work the end of this month. I love staying home with the kids. However, right now I know I have to sacrifice and work while Ryan is layed off in school. It is just a stepping stone for the next chapter in life. Anyways... Hope everyone has a wonderful rainy weekend!~

Alivia's Stats

I forgot to mention last week Alivia's stats from her first doctors appointment. On monday when we went she was up to 7lbs again, which was only an ounce less then when she was born. Her jaundice level was an 11 (they dont worry until its around 15) but her doctor wanted us to come in on Friday. As of Friday her levels were at 8 and she weighed in at 7lbs 8 oz! She gained 8 ounces in 4 days. She is a little pigger. Anyway, she is sleeping awesome as well. She goes anywhere between 3 1/2-5 hours at night! I will take it!! I was so not expecting such a great sleeper considering Evan didnt sleep through the night until he was almost 10 months old! Maybe its a girl thing, I dont know, but I love it!

How is it that my little boy has grown up so fast? Every night Ryan and I go in his room and watch him sleep for a while. I know this may sound corny and cheesy, but I love doing it, and probably never will stop. Anyways, in the last week my little boy has grown up so much to me! He isnt my little baby anymore. After holding Alivia, and going to hold him, he looks and feels like a giant. I love that little man so much. I just cant believe how fast time goes. It feels only like yesterday we were changing his newborn diapers, getting up with him for middle of the night feedings. As much as I love the stage he is in, I am a little sad knowing these years are going to pass us by so quickly. I just have to make the most of them while I have them. And I guess while he still loves his mamma coming in his room at night for cuddles.

We're home!

After 48 long hours after the arrival of Alivia, we were finally able to come home Thursday night. I really do love staying at the hospital, but by 7 on thursday night, I was definatly ready for my own bed, and good food again! Alivia is doing great! She sleeps way more than I remember Evan sleeping. I feel like I only have brief moments of awake time with her before she is zonked out again. Nights are going so much better than I anticipated. She is up about every 3 hours to eat, eats for about 20 minutes, then is out again. I actually feel like I am getting some sleep! Evan loves Alivia, unfortunatly tho he has a bit of a cold. Because of my niece Ashley who as a newborn got RSV from a cold, almost didnt make it, I am super paranoid about her getting sick. We are constantly washing hands and rubbing on the antibacterial lotion. Ryan caught a little bit of it as well and has barely touched her in 2 days. Not the greatest homecoming having a house full of sick people, but at least so far she is still healthy! We go to her first doctors appointment tomorrow so I am anxious to see how much she has gained. She is a little pigger when she eats. Ryan and I feel so blessed to have our two precious little peanuts!

Welcome Alivia Kristine DeVries

Yesterday we welcomed into our family our new precious daughter, Alivia Kristine! She was born at 6:56pm, weighing in at 7lbs 1oz, and 20 1/4th inches long. She is absolutly perfect, and we are so in love with our new little miracle. God has never been more evident to me then now, when looking at my wonderful family! He is so good!

Waiting....

Well there is an end in sight! Just a little bit longer and we will be joined with another little peanut to love. I am getting excited, and nervous...and worried for Evan, hoping he doesnt feel neglected by his mommy spending so much time with a new baby. As much as I am excited about having another child, I cant help but be a little sad knowing Evan wont be our baby anymore. I love that little man more than anything on this earth and the thought of sharing my time, and loving another human being like I love him is somewhat overwhelming and scary. I know it will be natural, and I know it will be instantanious. I know all these things, but just to comprehend them, it is unfathomable to me. I know every mother must feel something like this when expecting thier second child right? Anyways, I really cant wait to meet this little one, and it will happen very soon! I cant wait!

While we have been waiting this past week, we have had 3 showing requests, (2 that I actually agreed to!) one of which are coming back through again on Tuesday. Talk about BAD TIMING! Where were these people a month ago? We have been debating for so long about taking our house off the market, and once we actually are probably going to do it, we get all these showings. Anyways, I know if something comes of this, it is GOD's timing which is always perfect, and I need to keep reminding myself that. However, I cant get to ahead of myself and automatically assume our house will sell, but just the timing part is frustrating. So anyway...thats that.

Ryan is back in school again, taking on his second English class and another diversity class required for nursing. Hopefully it will be a decent semester for him and not too difficult with all that is going on. It was hard getting study time with one child, adding another to the mix might be intresting!

Well, that is all for now. Hopefully my next post is introducing our new little peanut!

Tri Ponds Camping

I figured if I didnt get this on here now, I would forget about it and not post anythhing. This past weekend we spent Friday-Sunday morning camping with our small group from church at Tri Ponds campground. All though the weather was cold and rainy, we still managed to sit around the fire all day Saturday and had a great time. The pool there looks awesome, but unfortunatly didnt get a chance to use it due to the weather. It was a great time to get away with great friends. We had so much fun and look forward to doing it again next year if everyone is able. Hopefully the weather is a little nicer then. Here are a few pictures of Evan in his cosie coup, which was a big hit with the kiddos.