Buddy "the hunter!"

Apparently, Buddy likes to hunt polar bears and sea lions! :) This video is worth a look, the whole 2 minutes and 52 seconds. Enjoy!

Parker Family Tree

I am currently gathering information and putting together a family tree for the Parker side of my family. There is still a lot of information I need to obtain. If you are reading this blog and are a part of the Theresa Parker family, please email me (klassen.a.laura@gmail.com) or send me a message on facebook with family information.

I started this project in 2011 and am just now picking back up on it. (I guess I must have gotten busy in the last 3 years to bother with it). This time, I am adding pictures to it in order to make it look more visually appealing. I am having fun with this project and the research I am doing. I am not sure when this project will be complete, but let's hope it doesn't take another 3 years! :)

IVF Journey

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

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!

tis the season!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

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.

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. 

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!

 Henrik the turtle!

 Myla as Doc McStuffins!

 Penelope, the cute little strawberry!

Remy, the vampire!