Busy May!

Mother's Day!  Being a mother is truly one of the biggest blessings in my life.  This year I've felt like my girls have gotten to be so grown up.  Some days, I feel like they are just my little best friends.  We can sit around and talk about real stuff and I just love their company. Addison, Emily, and Hailey - you bring me SO MUCH joy.  I love you more than you'll know! And I'm so thankful to have been raised by such a great mom - who I've learned so much from.  And then also being able to live near such a fun mother in law has been an added perk to marrying Ry.   Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!! This year Hailey did ask "Mom, how come there is a Father's Day and a Mother's Day but no Kids Day?"  I told her every day is Kids Day. :) 

 My girls helping me plant flowers! Such big helpers! They get SO excited when a flower blooms!

For Memorial Weekend we drove 8 hours to northwest Iowa to see tons of people!  Our first stop was at my BFF Heather's house!  My triplets got to finally meet her triplets!!  I can't even explain how surreal it was to see them all together.  I never even knew ONE set of triplets before having my own...and now my college roomie and I were having breakfast with OUR TWO sets of triplets.  Amazing.  and SO WILD.  :)

 Tyler (3 1/2),  Derek, Micah and Andrew (1 1/2), Hailey, Emily, and Addison (5 1/2)

 Heather and I and our multiple blessings :)

 Derek, Hailey, Andrew, Emily, Tyler, Addison, and Andrew - WOW

 Then we drove another hour to visit my Grandma since she celebrated her 90th birthday!!!  Let me just tell you that my grandma has ALWAYS been an inspiration to me.  I have written countless papers about her, drawn pictures of her and I in art class, and given reports about her.  She has struggled with the horrible illness of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome since she was in her 20's.  So she is ALWAYS tired... ALWAYS exhausted.  And you know how you get crabby when you're just a little bit tired?  Well my grandma never ever complains.  She may tell you if it's a bad day...but that doesn't stop her from saying something she's thankful for in the same sentence.  I KNOW she prays for each of us grandkids and great grandkids all the time.  She truly shows a love for the Lord and I will ALWAYS look up to her.  My grandma's greatest desire for her birthday was to go to church and sit with her entire family.  I love you Grandma!!!

 Then we made a stop at Dordt College - where Ryan and I met and graduated from!  The kids had a great time running around the whole campus.  Right now, if you ask them where they will go to college, they all scream "Dordt College!" :)   (They don't know other colleges exist but still ..it would be fun if they went there) :)   Anyway, this picture is so crazy.  So this wall is the wall where Ryan and I would sit and chat for hours when we were first getting to know each other.  This is also right where my brother and his wife met too!!  So now, here our kids sit......so crazy!!!  (Emily, Kamryn, Hailey, Addison, and Bryce!)

 Bryce is my only nephew and I just had to put a picture of him cuz I think he is sooo stinkin' cute.  He has such a fun personality too and makes us all laugh.  Love you Bubba!!

 Running around campus!!  The kids have SO much fun together.  I wish they lived closer!!!

 Here are all of my cousin's kids!

 Grandpa Joel chasing the girls through the tulips. :)

 And this picture is of two miracles..  Yep,  Addison weighed 3 pounds 12 ounces at birth (31 weeks) and is doing amazing.  And my cousin Janelle's daughter Maci, weighed 1 pound 6 ounces at birth (water broke at 23 weeks, had her at 26 weeks) Maci's chance of survival was VERY slim.   And now she's 18 months, 17 pounds, and walking all over the place doing great.  God is so good!!

 Great Grandma with all her great grandkids

 Love every chance I get to see my sista!!

 And all my cousins!!

 And of course, my family!!  So blessed!!

 K and this little guy may just be the cutest thing EVER.  Ezekiel (Zeke) was adopted by my cousin Tim and his wife Beth.  Everyone ADORES him!!  His cheeks are the best and he'll be walking SOON!

 We had a lot of down time in the hotel hallway while the kiddos napped and then after they went to bed. So we got creative playing games with golf balls and chatting all night!  Thankfully the hotel wasn't busy because we took up the entire hallway! :)  Brothers Craig and Kyle...Ryan and Cory

 Hailey reading to Great Grandma...

 And THEN.... Ryan's side of the family also lives in Iowa...so we stopped to see them too!  Here the girls are with Grandpa Junior!

 Then we took the girls to see the infamous Dooyema Chicken Farm!!  (7 million chickens live there!!) AHH!!  It's quite the impressive production though!!!  Ry and his girls...

 Yep, it smelled like you can imagine. :)

 Just a few eggs...

 Chickens piled high and low down this like 500 foot hallway.  This is only ONE of HUNDREDS of hallways like this.  I only made it like 5 feet down and then the chickens started squawking and feathers started flying in my mouth...but the girls walked all the way down!!!  They definitely have some "Dooyema" farmers blood in them. :)

 Daddy said he used to throw these....:)  (H E A)

 Grandpa Junior, Uncle Eric and the girls.

So fun to see everyone!  And the girls actually traveled really well!  Lots of movies and coloring and napping!  Woohoo! :)