The Veldmans: Thanksgiving

The past week flew by and I know that this upcoming week is going to go even faster. We were able to celebrate Thanksgiving here in the cities with Nate's family. The holidays are always a time to reflect and take a step back to look at our blessings...and we have been so blessed this past year. The year brought us many unexpected surprises (no, Grant was not one of them). We sold our house in two days, moved in with Nate's parents, and built a new house to name a few. God gave us our amazing little boy, and has continued to bless us with a happy and healthy little girl. So needless to say, we are blessed and oh so thankful!

Grant is now almost 5 weeks old and he's starting to smile more and even giggle once in a while. When he giggles his whole body shakes and you can't help but laugh along with him. He is still pretty chill most of the time, but does have his cranky time around 8 pm. He's still getting up once around 2:00, and is now getting up again around 6:00. If I could just get him to wake at 3:00 and 7:00 that would be wonderful since our daily feeding routine starts at 7:00. I know that in time he'll be sleeping through the night (hopefully by 11 weeks like Ava was since I go back to work at 12 weeks). In the meantime, I'm just thankful that he's not up every hour.

This week is extremely busy as we prepare to get into our new place. Tomorrow afternoon we have our walk through. Wednesday I'm hoping to get some stuff packed up. It's much more difficult to get stuff done when there are two kids as opposed to just one. Thursday Ava will head off to her last day at her current daycare as Grant, Daddy, and I go to the closing. We then have to get down to our new place to unload our POD before they take it away on Friday. Thursday night will be our last night at Mema & Boppa's. Ava on the other hand will stay an extra night and have a sleep over Friday night so that we can be a bit more productive moving all of our stuff in on Friday and Saturday morning.

We've spent the last few days finding stuff to fill our house. We ended up purchasing some new furniture for our new family room. It should arrive in about 6 weeks. We're anxious to get it and see it in our new space. Tonight we went and bought our Christmas tree. We've always had real trees in the past, but I decided that this year we should invest in an artificial tree. I say invest because Nate had a bit of sticker shock when he saw the price of an artificial tree. I had always loved going to get a real tree, but the last two years we ended up just buying pre-cut ones out of a lot. With two small children it just seemed like too much work and way to cold. Now I don't have to deal with the sap, the needles, watering it, and worrying that it's going to spontaneously go up in flames because it gets to dry when we go to IA to celebrate Christmas. I tried to talk him into the 12 foot tree but he just laughed. :) Ava, Grant, and I went and looked at them this morning and then Nate met me at the store this evening. Of course during the day they sold a bunch of them and the tree that we wanted was gone except for the floor model. So, poor Nate ended up driving all the way Fridley tonight to pick up the tree. He was sure that it would still be there if we waited until Thursday, I was sure that it wouldn't be. So, off he went to get it. It's now safe and sound in the garage and I can't wait to get it up and decorate it. Thanks honey, I really did appreciate it!

So, it may be a while before the next update. Who knows when we'll actually get our kit for our internet service, and then hooking it up myself is another story. Not to mention that I'm sure that we'll be a bit preoccupied unpacking. I know that our house won't be all in order by the end of the weekend, but I'm really hoping to getting a huge chunk of it done. My sister and brother-in-law are coming up Saturday morning to help us move stuff. If you've never met my sister, she is a super anal type A person (I mean this as a compliment) who should have our house put together in a day. I will get updates up ASAP. In the meantime, wish us well. It could be an interesting week. :)

This picture is from last weekend when we got to help Lauryn celebrate her birthday over dinner

This is how Grant prefers to do tummy time

Ava reading to Grant

This would be Grant's 4 week picture without the sign. I didn't quite get around to getting that done.

Mike, Kristi, & Cora were nice enough to invite us over for dinner Tuesday evening. We were so happy to be able to catch up with them and Ava loved seeing Cora. Cora did a great job holding Grant. She grinned from ear to ear when she got to hold him. She is going to be an amazing big sister come February!!!