Catch Up

Okay - here's a glimpse of our lives in the last few months... captions will be few, pictures will be plentiful. I'm sick of playing catch up so here goes nothing!

Easter - 3/23/08
Easter also fell on Addy's birthday this year but since we had her birthday party the day before she was pretty oblivious.

This year was neat though because with all the hype about Easter we were really able to talk to Addy about what Easter is not about (Easter baskets, pretty dresses, Easter eggs, etc.) and more importantly, we were able to plant some seeds in her head about what Easter is about... celebrating Jesus' death and ressurection for the forgiveness of our sins. By the time Easter was here she had it down!

But that doens't mean they didn't get Easter baskets... :)



John Michael's cute hat:



John Michael chose Easter to make his debut in Dr. Mario.. yes, the original NES game.




a poor attempt at an Easter picture... Thats M&Ms on John Michael's mouth.

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John Michael's favorite position:




Addy & John Michael's cousin, Ajai, wasn't able to be at Addy's birthday party so he stopped over with his cousin with some cupcakes and candles to have a mini party for her. She loved it~







This was one of the first nice days we had outside.... it was probably last week. haha.. just kidding - i think it was the end of march/beginning of april.




Addy complaining that she didn't want me to take her picture...




But here she is cooperating in her new house she got from GG & Bampa Bampa for her birthday. She loves this house - and especially loves to pretend she is a pig and someone else is the big bad wolf coming to blow her house down.



Here's John Michael taking a crack at the teeter totter with me.




not too sure.....





ahh... this is fun!






this year addy's finally mastering the art of bubble blowing.





A quick picture from Julie's Shower out here. This is "the family" that was there. Shannon has since had her baby as you read about several weeks ago. :) I can't believe Julie gets married in 5 days!!





Daddy bonding time








Addy has this funny habit of pretending to sleep when we go to get her out of the car seat. She thinks its so funny... so we always play along and tease her by saying things like, "Oh, how sad! Addy's sleeping, now we're going to have to go eat dinner without her." Then she will open her eyes and giggle.




John Michael thinks its funny too. For months he's been watching Addy do this and now he is trying to play along.... but he can't seem to keep his eyes closed very long so he usually just ends up turning his head away. :)




Some pictures from our trip to the zoo






John Michael is such a stinker.... One of these days I'd like to write about all the stinker-like things he does. It reminds me so much of Johnny... Here he is being silly and making faces for the camera. I didn't quite capture the moment but thought i'd post it for my own memory's sake!




John Michael also loves cars. He loves to get in th van and pretend like he's driving and he is rather obsessive about his Uncle DD's motorcyle. (I'll post pictures of him on the motorcylce soon) Here he is at a park playing with the pretend car.





this picture is a bit haunting to me but I kinda like it. :)




A few more from atlanta.

So, for whatever reason my kids, who really aren't picky eaters, never quite took to steak.... but when we were in Atlanta my sister and Adam made this awesome beef steak-ish thing for dinner... and made the kids chicken. But they both kept wanting to eat the steak! Thats when it occurred to me.... they always like my steak... they just don't like it when its their own... Why is that I wondered? And it occured to me that I always order their steak medium and mine medium rare... and probably because of the size of a kids steak, theirs usually ends up more like medium well... So, since then I've been ordering their steak medium rare and they DEVOUR it.

Here are some pictures of them in Atlanta enjoying their new treat.



she'll kill for posting this one day.... hehe



Thats it for now! Happy Memorial Day everyone!

new blog

well, i finally caved in and took the advice of a lot of friends and started a photography blog! I wasn't sure this was really in my best interest considering my update history on this blog over the past several months... but it will give me an easier way to display my newer work without overtaking this blog or having to udate my website all the time (which proves to be a lengthy process...) So, without further ado, please allow me to introduce

Michelle Hamstra Photography Blog

Here's a taste of some new looks going on....




Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Tara!

Today is my favorite sister's birthday!!



The reasons I love and respect Tara are endless but I'll share a few with you and end with some pictures of our trip to visit her and Adam in Atlanta!

Tara is:

1. One of the most thoughtful people I have ever met. She not only thinks of extravagant and special ways to encourage or bless people but she actually does them too! Which leads me to number two.

2. She is extremely generous. There is no price limit or sphere of closeness that makes sense when Tara gets it in her head to bless someone. She is regularly putting me to shame with her level of generosity toward me, our extended family, her close friends, MY close friends and people that she isn't even close with!

3. She is compassionate. It seems like there have been a lot of people in Tara's life (close friends or just friends of friends) who have gone through traumatic experiences over the past few years. I am always amazed at how deeply this affects my sister. She will be overwhelmed with compassion when she hears of someone's hard situation and I believe this is a direct reflection of the heart of God.

4. She adores my kids. I am so grateful to God to have so many people in my life who love and enjoy my kids... but Tara takes it to a whole new level. She laughs at the stories I tell her, will talk with my kids on the phone regardless of whether she can understand them. She showers them with gifts and love and attention... and she will lay down her comfort to care for both their needs and wants. Unless you are a mom yourself you can't possibly know what its like to have people in your life who love your kids like you do!

5. She is my best friend. There was a time when our family would have laughed (and we probably would have too) to think of Tara and I even being civil to one another (oh, adolescence!!) but though over the years I have made some deep, incredible friendships with several girls, I have found no friend more faithful, more caring, more available than Tara. She will drop anything and everything to help me through any situation I have - from dinner recipes to marital conflict. She is the first person I call and I'm so glad!

6. She loves God. I saved this one for last because it is the most important thing you can say about a person. Over the past couple of years I have watched God unfold a new dimension in my sister. All of these characteristics of my sister are nice and commendable but without God they would all be lacking. However, my sister has taken these God given gifts and given them back to Him in the way she loves Him, serves Him and enjoys Him.

I'm so grateful to God Tara for both the work He has done and is continuing to do in your life and for giving you to me as a sister. I am truly blessed. LOVE YOU and Happy Birthday!


As promised - here are some pictures of our trip to Atlanta in April.

Uncle Adam bought us all tickets to go to a Braves game. It was rainy so we thought about ditching... but I'm so glad we decided to "brave" it! We didn't stay for the whole game but the kids had a blast.




Addy & John Michael at the Braves game excited to stand by the number 3!! I had to post two since we couldn't get them to look at the same time... hehe





My mom was able to go with us and I'm so glad because a trip through the airport with two + one on the way by myself might've killed me! Besides the fact that I just lov being with her of course.... :)

And it wouldn't be an event with GG unless we had popcorn!







I'm so sad because I had this awesome picture of John Michael eating a snow cone that Adam bought for him but I seem to have lost it!

Anyway - a sweet end to a great day:

Addy reading a bedtime story with Uncle Adam:

fast forward

We had a lovely Mothers Day! We were able to see both of our moms and both of my incredible grandmas! Thank you moms & grandmas for all you do for us. I'd loe to do some posts on you guys in the near future!

For Mother's Day gifts this year I was thinking about buying the moms some plants.... boring I know! But in the end I decided to take some pictures of the kids and have them developed. So, I thought I'd share the pictures we took.







Peek a Boo!!!