It was such a great Halloween, here are some pictures from the festivities. They include Evie's Halloween dance outfit, carving pumpkins, making a haunted house, Evie Trick-or-Treating as a Care Bear with Micheal, Tav and Evie partying at Nana's, Tim, my Dad and Bill in their Star Trek T-shirts, and Ben as a pumpkin and kitty cat. We really had fun this year and Evie is still talking about it:)
I can't believe Benjamin is 2 weeks old already! He has been doing really well, he has gained over 1lb already and eating soo much! Evie has continued to adjust well, and has been able to attend all her classes and enjoy our family time. Here are some pictures from Bill's 34th birthday and us just hanging out with our new little guy.
So far, so good being a mother-of-two. Ben came home Monday afternoon, and has been a great baby. Evie is so sweet to him, and has adjusted better than I had hoped. She doesn't want to hold him, but is a great helper and always watches and talks to him. Here are some pictures from this past week, my hansome little guy is so snuggly and sweet:)
Well, after 3 days of bad co
ntractions (and being dialted to 3cm for 10 days) he decided to come early. My Mom drove me up to Holland Hospital last Friday night (Bill was already there working) at 9pm and I was dilated 5-6cm. My doctor broke my water shortly after I got there, and I had him at 2:16am. Everything went awesome, and I felt sooo much better 
after he was out! I pushed for only 15 minutes, and had no injuries from the birth (just minor swelling)- that has made the recovery much shorter than with Evie. He was 8lbs 1oz and 20 inches long. Here are some pix from that night:
The last week before Benjamin was born, we were VERY busy! We tried to do everything we could with Evie, and get everything in- because we knew he was coming sooner than later. We took Evie to her Big Brother/Sister at Holland Hospital, Critter Barn (in Zeeland), Klackles Orchard, and got our Halloween decorations up. Here are some pictures of these events:
Wow, we have been blessed with some great weather this September! We have really taken advantage of that by heading up to my Mom & Dad's each weekend and going to Binder Park Zoo too. Evie has always been a big fan of giraffes, so feeding them was the major highlight of the zoo trip (she even sported a giraffe outfit). 
Up at my parent's house on Cowden lake, Evie has mastered jumping in off the dock and tubing with her dad behind the speed boat. She also likes to go for rides in their peddle boat and our pontoon boat too. She has a huge shell collection from the beach, and is really good at making "sand cakes". 
Evie's fall classes just started this week, we are only doing Art and Dance due to her baby brother coming soon. I am feeling well- I still have the frequent contractions, but am used to them by now. My Dr. still is saying he is going to be big and long (which scares me), but I am just trying to keep moving this last part of my pregnancy. We are taking Evie to her "Big Sister/Brother" at the hospital this week, I hope that will be helpful for her to understand a little more about what is going to "go down". She has really been attached to me these last couple weeks, but keeps saying she is excited about him coming...we will see.
Last Saturday we took Evie to this event downtown Zeeland called "Dog-O-Rama". It was an event with hundreds of dogs that had multiple contests for them to enter. Evie loves dogs, and we knew this would be right up her alley. She got to see so many different breeds and pet some cute dogs all in one place. While we were down there, she found an awesome pink cowboy hat she had to have, and rocked it the rest of the day. 
We also had a great time this past Tuesday when we took Evie to Michigan's Adventure for the day (we are trying to do as many special things with her that we can before the baby comes). She had a blast! She rode all of the kiddie rides and played at the kiddie pool too. Here are some priceless pictures from an unforgettable day:
