Traditions

I love traditions! When I was little my parents had some special Christmas traditions, bedtime traditions, and others that still make me smile when I think about. As a married couple Shane and I have started our own traditions and one of them is heart shaped pizza on Valentine's day. It is an awesome tradition for many reasons; number one-Shane cooks, number two-we don't have to worry about making special plans, number three-we both look forward to it, and lastly Shane used to make heart shaped pizzas on Valentine's day when he worked at a restaurant in highschool. I very much want our children to cherish family traditions and so this year we got to introduce Sullivan to our Valentine's tradition. We had a great evening as a family!

Love

As Valentine's nears the romantic in me gets all warm and gushy when thinking of love. When I married Shane I thought there is no one on this earth I could possibly love more than him. And then Sullivan came along and it opened up a whole different all encompassing love, and it gives me a whole new view of parents (and the things they'll do for their kids). Here are a few love is.... from the vande voort household.

Love is changing the third poopy diaper in less than an hour

Love is changing dinner plans at the last minute so a pizza craving can be filled

Love is getting up to an upset baby at 2am when your not even sure if your alive

Love is taking out the trash when it isn't your chore

Love is cuddling with your little and big baby on the couch

Love is taking time to spend with the ones you love.

Love is taking time to spend with God each day.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Shane's mad decorating skills

Way to go Shane! Shane mastered the decal and it looks great!

the small things

When I was pregnant I really wanted a healthy baby which God gave us(but if I could choose I wanted a girl), but God decided to give me a little boy. Maybe someday we'll be blessed with a little girl. My little man has captured my heart and I really am enjoying boyhood. We decorated our nursery neutral but after Sullivan was born found little airplane touches (a mobile,a print, and a crib sheet) which have made it into a little boy's room. My favorite find was a wall decal of an aerobatic plane with sullivan's name in smoke coming out of it. I've been waiting anxiously for it to arrive and it came today. I am soo excited!!! Crazy how a little thing like the ups truck can bring soo much excitement. I'm a little nervous about wrecking it when I put it up cause it was kind of spendy to personalize it. Shane and I are going to try to put it up tonight, and I'll post pics if it goes well. Here's to hoping it is an easy project!

Baby swimming lessons

Way to go to the Pella aquatic center for offering swimming lessons to the smallest customers! Sullivan and I went to our first lesson last night and had a blast! The teacher was great and I was impressed with all the activities we did. Sullivan was a natural and kicked without any cues. The only thing he didn't care for was lying on his back but once he got used to it it almost lulled him to sleep.

Sullivan's seventh month

Here are the highlights of Sullivan's seventh month!

what day is this

I'm starting to finally to adapt to the 180 my life has taken in the last seven months. Quiting my job and having a child were maybe to much change at once for me plus the post pardum on top of that were at times too much to handle. I'm happy to say that I feel good about where I am in life, and am thankful that my faith and family have helped me through. What frustrates me is that nobody talks about post pardum depression. I honestly have had some of the scariest feelings I've ever had and at times felt completely alone. It is crazy though how many people I've talked to as of late that have had those same feelings. Why aren't we sharing these feelings? I think the biggest adjustment for me was having another human being totally reliant on me, I sometimes felt like I was suffocating. Don't get me wrong there isn't anything I'm more devoted to than my family (well, my faith) but wow! The other big change for me was being in the house all the time. I'm finally not as stir crazy as I used to be and am settling in to my new life. I no longer know what day it is and i'm okay with that. Today, I know it is a monday but couldn't tell you what day in January it is.