As you all know, Kevin & I have been trying to raise money for our IVF costs through GoFundMe.com. We have reached a remarkable $3,500 which is halfway to our goal of $7,000. We know that this is a huge amount of money to raise, but we are incredibly grateful for all that we have raised so far. We have had a numerous amount of people donate and share our gofundme page link. We can't believe the out-pour of love we have gotten. We are truly blessed by all of those who have donated. We ask that you continue to share our link on facebook and twitter. We are slowly but surely reaching our goal. And before we know it, we'll be able to try round #3 of IVF and hopefully finally start our family! :)
Here is the link for you to share! We appreciate all that you all have done for us.
http://www.gofundme.com/klassenbaby
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Christmas Traditions
We have our own Christmas traditions, like many of you. Christmas time is my favorite time of year! We love the traditions, the colors, the decorations, the music, etc. It truly is the happiest time of the year!
The day after Thanksgiving, Laura decorates for Christmas. We put up the tree, the stockings and she sets up her Christmas village. All of this while watching the movie "Elf." This year it took her 2 days to get everything set up. For some reason, she wasn't totally in the mood to set everything up in one day. Maybe it was the lack of snow. Maybe not. This Christmas will be weird without any snow. As much as we both despise snow, Christmas just isn't Christmas without a little bit of snow.
Tonight, we are getting together with the Parker family for Laura's family Christmas party. It's always fun to get together with everyone and watch the kids enjoy their gifts. They are what put a smile on our face; the joy of seeing them open their presents and get excited about what they have received.
We hope you all enjoy your Christmas season! :)
Buddy's little Christmas room!
Monday, December 8, 2014
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
My Parents Celebrated 40 Years of Marriage!
On November 9, my parents celebrated 40 years of marriage! That is amazing! I have learned a lot from their marriage and their love for each other. They have been a great example of what a marriage should be by putting God first and each other second.
My brother and I put together a surprise anniversary party for my parents. They enjoy planning surprise parties for each other and we wanted to pull one over on them. They were genuinely surprised when they showed up and mine & Kevin's house on November 15th. They thought we were having a birthday party for my nephew who's birthday is right before Thanksgiving. They were certainly confused when they walked in the door and realized the party was really for them! They loved it and were very appreciative of what we planned for them. We played "The Newly Wed Game", ate some great food, enjoyed a sweet treat (cake from Goobers Bakery) and watched a slideshow my brother put together. My parents also received gifts and cards from the guests. The gift I gave my parents was an idea I found on Pinterest and it turned out great. I took a canvas I had and created this:
1. First, I created this in Microsoft Publisher and printed it on my inkjet printer. I taped the two pages together to form one. It was the perfect fit for the canvas.
My brother and I put together a surprise anniversary party for my parents. They enjoy planning surprise parties for each other and we wanted to pull one over on them. They were genuinely surprised when they showed up and mine & Kevin's house on November 15th. They thought we were having a birthday party for my nephew who's birthday is right before Thanksgiving. They were certainly confused when they walked in the door and realized the party was really for them! They loved it and were very appreciative of what we planned for them. We played "The Newly Wed Game", ate some great food, enjoyed a sweet treat (cake from Goobers Bakery) and watched a slideshow my brother put together. My parents also received gifts and cards from the guests. The gift I gave my parents was an idea I found on Pinterest and it turned out great. I took a canvas I had and created this:
1. First, I created this in Microsoft Publisher and printed it on my inkjet printer. I taped the two pages together to form one. It was the perfect fit for the canvas.
2. I then turned the print over and traced the letters with a pencil. I pushed hard so there would be enough lead on the paper for the transfer.
3. Next, I flipped the paper back to it's original side and taped it onto the canvas for transfer.
4. After that, I took a blue crayon and colored over the letters. I pressed hard so that the lead from the pencil markings would go onto the canvas. After I used the blue crayon, I realized that it wasn't transferring very well, so I colored over that with a black crayon. The black crayon worked much better.
5. The lead from the transfer was very light, so used a pencil and traced over the light lead markings. This was a tedious task and gave me a sore arm by the time I was done.
6. When I was finished tracing over the lead markings, I used sharpie to trace and color in the letters. I used a red sharpie on "married" to make it stand out more. As you can see, this word was also a different font than the rest of the saying.
7. Here is the finished project. I really like how it turned out and my parents loved it. I think it will be a special gift for them to look at and be reminded of how much love they have in their lives.
Here they are with the gift! 40 years and going strong! :)
We all had a really good time at the party. I am blessed to have the parents that I do and the love that I see between them. What an excellent example of marriage they are to me.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Trick or Treat
As it always is in West Michigan, it was cold and wet on Halloween. In fact, on Halloween, we had our first snowfall. Boo!
But, we got to see our nieces and nephews in their costumes!
But, we got to see our nieces and nephews in their costumes!
Henrik the turtle!
Myla as Doc McStuffins!
Penelope, the cute little strawberry!
Remy, the vampire!
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Halloween Traditions
As Halloween approaches, I think about the traditions that Kevin & I have started as a family. Halloween in Michigan is often a cold and wet holiday where kids trick or treat with winter coats on over their costumes. We hardly ever get to see the children's costumes as they come to our door. I do wish it could be a warmer holiday here so we could see the cute (and scary) costumes parents spend way too much money on each year for their children.
Sometime the week before or the week of Halloween, I like to carve a pumpkin. Usually, I carve a regular pumpkin face but this year I decided to get a little more creative with my carving "skills" and carve Doc McStuffins. Our niece is going to be her for Halloween, so I thought it would be fitting. It turned out pretty good and I am proud of my handiwork.
At dinner time, probably around 5 o'clock or so (since trick or treating starts at 6), we have Chili. Kevin likes to load his up with sour cream, cheese and fritos. He hates tomatoes so this apparently covers up all that yumminess. I like to eat my chili plain with a little bit of sour cream. This is a tradition we started a couple of years ago. Kevin grew up eating Chili every Halloween before he went out trick or treating. It's a great meal to have before you wander off in the cold collecting lots of candy that will probably rot your teeth one day.
Around 6 o'clock, I like to turn on Halloween music on the TV or an ABC Family Halloween movie to get into the mood. Our first visitors are usually our two neighbor girls (they always get extra candy)! Lucky ducks! :) It seems like kids don't like to say "trick or treat" anymore, it's usually a simple knock or a doorbell ring. If we know the kids, we make them say "trick or treat" before they can get their candy. After all, it is Halloween and that's how it should be done. We usually sit around listening to the Halloween music or watching a Halloween movie, like Hocus Pocus while waiting for our next batch of Princesses and ghosts. Our niece and nephew always visit our house and get lots of candy from their favorite aunt and uncle. We enjoy seeing their costumes every year!
Buddy isn't too keen on people ringing our doorbell constantly. He likes to jump at the window and bark at everyone and I mean EVERYONE that comes to the house. We dress Buddy in a glow-in-the-dark Halloween shirt and take him for a short walk once the trick-or-treaters have died down. It's usually a cold walk but a good one to calm him down after an anxiety-filled evening.
We usually always have left over candy, which Kevin very much enjoys. We should divide it up so that we don't eat it all up in the following week, but nonetheless, it's pretty much always gone a week after Halloween has passed. And of course, we regret eating it so quickly then.
As per the usual Michigan weather, this year Halloween will be 41° with a 60% chance of rain. Awesome! (insert sarcasm here). Have a Happy Halloween!
What are some of your Halloween traditions?
Sometime the week before or the week of Halloween, I like to carve a pumpkin. Usually, I carve a regular pumpkin face but this year I decided to get a little more creative with my carving "skills" and carve Doc McStuffins. Our niece is going to be her for Halloween, so I thought it would be fitting. It turned out pretty good and I am proud of my handiwork.
At dinner time, probably around 5 o'clock or so (since trick or treating starts at 6), we have Chili. Kevin likes to load his up with sour cream, cheese and fritos. He hates tomatoes so this apparently covers up all that yumminess. I like to eat my chili plain with a little bit of sour cream. This is a tradition we started a couple of years ago. Kevin grew up eating Chili every Halloween before he went out trick or treating. It's a great meal to have before you wander off in the cold collecting lots of candy that will probably rot your teeth one day.
Around 6 o'clock, I like to turn on Halloween music on the TV or an ABC Family Halloween movie to get into the mood. Our first visitors are usually our two neighbor girls (they always get extra candy)! Lucky ducks! :) It seems like kids don't like to say "trick or treat" anymore, it's usually a simple knock or a doorbell ring. If we know the kids, we make them say "trick or treat" before they can get their candy. After all, it is Halloween and that's how it should be done. We usually sit around listening to the Halloween music or watching a Halloween movie, like Hocus Pocus while waiting for our next batch of Princesses and ghosts. Our niece and nephew always visit our house and get lots of candy from their favorite aunt and uncle. We enjoy seeing their costumes every year!
Buddy isn't too keen on people ringing our doorbell constantly. He likes to jump at the window and bark at everyone and I mean EVERYONE that comes to the house. We dress Buddy in a glow-in-the-dark Halloween shirt and take him for a short walk once the trick-or-treaters have died down. It's usually a cold walk but a good one to calm him down after an anxiety-filled evening.
2012, he was a Michigan football player
We usually always have left over candy, which Kevin very much enjoys. We should divide it up so that we don't eat it all up in the following week, but nonetheless, it's pretty much always gone a week after Halloween has passed. And of course, we regret eating it so quickly then.
As per the usual Michigan weather, this year Halloween will be 41° with a 60% chance of rain. Awesome! (insert sarcasm here). Have a Happy Halloween!
What are some of your Halloween traditions?
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Aunt & Uncle
On August 8th, Kevin & I became an aunt & uncle again to 2 beautiful babies. We are so happy to welcome Henrik & Penelope into our family. We love snuggling the babies! :)
Everyone is so excited to meet the twinsies!
Kevin & I with the twinsies
Our nephew Remy, our niece Myla and our new nephew Henrik
Our niece Myla with our new niece Penelope
The twinsies & me
My beautiful niece Penelope & me
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)