Saturday, May 30, 2009

jayce irwin emmert

My newest nephew Jayce was born on Thursday, the 28th to my sister Katie and Matt. He's such a cutie. It's their forth baby - they now have 2 boys and 2 girls - and for once, this baby looks like his mommy unlike his siblings when they were born who looked like their daddy. Things went pretty well for Katie giving birth. She had to have a cesarean but thankfully they did it in time because her uterus could have ruptured. I love him so much already! You can check out their blog to see a picture of him.

knap wedding

Last night, Jordan and I attended Jamie Harrington's and Josh Knap's wedding. Jamie and I have been friends for 9 years now! We met in our freshman year of high school. Wow, time goes so fast! She was so gorgeous and was seriously glowing because she was so happy. Josh looked good too! Jamie was so on top of things for her wedding. Everything was soo coordinated and perfect. The placecards were beautiful (thanks to her wonderful friends who came up with the idea....ok, maybe we just helped her put them together!) as was everything else! The little flower girls and ring bearers were adorable. They kept running up and down the aisle just giggling! So cute! In the matron of honor's speech, she mentioned how happy Josh and Jamie look when they are holding each other and I have to agree with that. You can just see that they are so in love! I don't know about Josh but knowing Jamie they are going to have a fun and adventerous marriage!! Congrats!


In 5 months, Jordan and I have had 5 weddings and we have one more to look forward to in August where Natalie will be the flower girl!! I think we'll be done with weddings for awhile after that one.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

our memorial day weekend

Every Memorial Day weekend, we go up north camping with our friends and some of their families. Jordan and I have gone up for 6 years now, the last 4 being at the Silver Lake State Park. We had a great time and we were grateful for the awesome weather this year - not too cold, but not too hot. Jordan left on Friday afternoon but I drove up later because I had a bachelorette party that same night. So I got up there at 12:30. Apparently, the girls (or Ruby, more specifically) were not such happy campers from the time that Jordan got there until bedtime. Ruby is kind of attached to me lately and I don't think it helped that she didn't know where she was. Natalie just cuddled with our friend Crystal for a couple of hours. But other than those first few hours, the girls did really well and both slept through the night. And everyday after that went well. I was a little apprehensive this year because we sleep in a tent and I didn't want Ruby waking up the entire camp if she would wake up during the night. At least I didn't have Gary to take care of this year. We left him home and these girls who own 'Woof Washers' in our neighborhood, fed, played, and even bathed him while we were gone!! Everyone seemed to have a good time whether playing in the dunes, hanging out at the camp, fishing, or driving the go-carts. Here are some pictures of our weekend.


Aaron and Ruby sharing a piece of licorice :)



This is our friend Jeremy and he got kicked off the slick track for riding without hands!! So he went in to park and our friend Brad followed him in thinking the race was done :) Last year, the guys were actually banned from the race track!!



Dominic took Natalie for a ride on his gator. She loved it. He even let her drive but helped her out with the steering. So CUTE!



Ruby was in bed by sunset.


Sunday was also Jordan and my 6th anniversary of when we had our first 'official' date! On our first date, we did the typical dinner and a movie and then went to Ruby Juice in Holland and Meijers and back to Jordan's house. The next morning, Jordan picked me up and we went to Gun Lake where everyone was camping and hung out there for the day. I can't believe how fast the time goes, I wish I could do it all over again! The joke while camping last year was that I'd be pregnant again this year - the last 2 years, I've been pregnant- but I am not and don't plan to be anytime soon! I enjoyed not sleeping on an air mattress with a big belly and a sore back. I also took a ride in Brad's truck through the dunes which I haven't done for either 3 or 4 years. So I think I'll plan my pregnancies around this camping trip every year :)
And on Memorial Day, we remember those who serve our country and for those who have given their lives to protect us and all of their families. I know I take Freedom for granted. Thank you!!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

firsts

We had a couple of firsts in the Barkel household yesterday. I had been wanting to try out a new recipe of shish-kabobs (sp?!) with meatballs, pineapple, red and green peppers with a sticky BBQ sauce. Jordan's been working later than usual lately so I decided to do the grilling so we could eat right away when he got home. That's one of the firsts: I grilled. I don't know how it is with other women/wives/moms my age but I have never grilled before (unless if the George Foreman grill is considered grilling which I don't think it is!) The kabobs turned out good and I didn't burn anything so I was pleased with my small success!

YUM!



The other first is that Ruby ate her first cracker! She loved it... gobbled it right up which wasn't a surprise! She went in for her 6 month checkup yesterday (that's right, my baby's 6 months now) and weighs 18 lbs 6 oz and is 26.5 inches. She eats baby food regularly and can sit up by herself with just the occasional topple-over (or push from Natalie). She's growing so fast. It's true what they say about the second child growing even faster than the first. And a quick update on Natalie - terrible twos: here we come. Yesterday, while Natalie was supposed to be napping, she instead was smearing poop all over her crib. It took me an hour to clean it and her up! She's never done that before (or at least not to that extent). So I guess we had 3 firsts....



Saturday, May 9, 2009

riverbank 5k

Today was the day that I've been training myself for (up until about 4 weeks ago, that is). Jordan and I ran the Fifth-Third Riverbank 5k Run. It started at 7:30 so we got up bright and early and headed to GR. It didn't take long for us to find a parking spot and a good one at that! We were both a little leary (sp?) about running in the morning because both of us run best at night. I ran the whole way (which I was super excited about) and Jordan ran most of the way. Jordan has had problems with his knee and was doing fine until about 2.5 miles. Then it really hurt him so he had to walk. I turned back to look for him and saw him behind me walking and thought "aww.... what do I do - walk with him or run?" Then I thought, "what would Jordan do?" I ran, sprinted actually, the last 1/4 mile. I broke my own record. The longest distance I've ever ran straight without stopping is 2.5 miles on the treadmill. My time was 31:53 and Jordan's was 32:02. I was thrilled with that time because I've really been slacking on running lately. It started to rain just minutes after we got done too, so we were grateful that it held off before that. So then, Jordan and I were getting into our van to leave and were bragging to each other about our wonderful (free) parking space and started to drive and realized we were blocked in.... the race route was all around us!! No worries though, a nice (cute) policeman let us through the yellow tape when there was a gap! So we had a good time and plan on doing more runs throughout the year. We were thinking of making it a goal to do the half marathon (I think?) in Chicago in September but we're not sure if we'll be able to work up to that. We did just buy a double jogging stroller and are hoping that it encourages us to run more.... We'll see! So here's some pics:

Friday, May 8, 2009

my little dutch girls

We went downtown Holland last night to eat junk and to get pictures of the girls in their costumes. The costume Ruby is in is the one I bought before Natalie was born and the costume Natalie is in is her cousin Ross'. Of course, the girls weren't going to go the extra mile to give me a good picture so this is as good as it gets (at least they weren't crying!)


These are the girls with 'aunt' Crystal. They love her!!

horsie pictures and more...

Jordan thought it would be appropriate enough to post a picture of Natalie naked on her horsie (from earlier post)! So here she is!

Isn't that funny?! I love it!
And here are some more just random pictures of the girls.


I was trying to get Ruby's outfit off.... isn't she cute?!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

funny moment

So I was painting that cabinet (remember the one that Jordan and I hauled up from the workshop in the basement....'pivot'!) and Natalie and Ruby were both playing and talking/babbling to each other. They sounded so cute and like they were actually carrying on a conversation. Natalie just got a new (old) rocking horse and I heard her get on him and Ruby was starting to get mad that Natalie wasn't paying anymore attention to her. So I decided to take a break from painting to give my girls some attention and I found Natalie butt naked on her horsie. She had taken all of her clothes and her diaper off. I was laughing and Natalie would hold her head back and laugh with her eyes shut like she was soo funny. I took some pictures and they turned out super cute but because there are so many sickos on the world wide web, I've decided I shouldn't post any.

Natalie was so hyper tonight. She is as fun as can be and a little chatter box. I can't believe how many words she knows. But she is almost 2. It just seems like she was just 6 months like Ruby is. Ruby is happy as always. Everyone says that she's the most smiley baby they've ever met. She's almost sitting up on her own and she's got 2 bottom teeth. She sleeps awesome and isn't spazing out when we leave her with babysitters, like she used to. But she's stilll a momma's girl. Jordan's and my love deepens for those girls everyday.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

groendyke wedding

This weekend, I was a part of Michelle Gebben and Bret Groendyke's wedding. I had such an awesome time. Michelle and I have been friends for about 6 years now. We have made many memories in that time. One of the first times Michelle and I hung out together, she had invited me and a bunch of other friends to a reinactment of a car/bus accident for practice for the fire department -which was a ton of fun. (Michelle had all these firemen friends that hooked us up.) So anyway, we did the accident reinactment and then went to Silver Lake for the day to drive in the dunes. (I cherish the other memories that Michelle and I have in Silver Lake as well ;))That's actually when Jordan and I really hit it off. We sat in the car, waiting to get brought into the dunes, for a good 2 hours and just talked the whole time. We went on our official first date shortly after and the rest is history from there! So I guess I owe something to Michelle for inviting me in the first place. (And to Aaron who first invited me to hang out with Jordan and the group!) Michelle and I have shared so many tears over the years as well - both good and bad and I value our talks.
I had a great time the day of the wedding and at the reception at night. Jordan and I got our dancing shoes on again. As much as I love being a stay-at-home mom, it is also so much fun to get out once in a while and I have so much fun dancing and hanging out with friends. This was our 3rd wedding in one month so we've really been 'livin' it up'! We're thinking it sounds fun to be wedding crashers! So here are some pictures....








I'm so happy for Bret and Michelle, they are so perfect for each other.


Congrats you two!! We wish you the best. I just know that you will be so happy together!! I loved being a part of your wedding day!