Houston to Holland

January 4-7, 2016

I feel like our move from Houston to Holland, was crazy, but went very well. We had a lot of help from family and friends, which made all the difference! First, Kris came back out from Alaska to help with loading the truck and then driving to Michigan. We also had all the young men from the ward there to help load up the truck, as well as the missionaries. It was Ryan's idea to invite the young men.

For one thing, it was a Monday morning with school still out, and most the Elders' quorum men were back to work. It was also a great idea because it was a chance for Ryan to see the young men one last time before we left. They were really good workers! :-) After the truck was completely packed, Kris and I did a quick clean of the house and we were off on our journey's by about 3pm.

For the first night of our trip, we stayed in Humble, near Houston. That was our way of being able to have a good night rest for the first night, and not have to fight as much traffic when we were ready to leave early in the morning.

The next night we stayed in Marion, Arkansas, near Memphis, 

The next night we got to stay in Evansville, Indiana, with Ryan's brother, Eric and his family, Becky, Thomas, Philip, and Olivia. Ryan got up early that morning ready to drive, so we were able to make it to Eric's house by the afternoon time and spend most of the day with his family.

 The next night we made it to Holland, Michigan, our new hometown, and stayed at a hotel for the night. The Wells were able to come see us that night and stay in Gramma Kris's room with her. They all went swimming and Jared and Karl had a great time playing with their cousins. Karl also thought it was fun to keep climbing out and jumping to Gramma Kris and then later splashing water out of Aunt Alisha's hands. Jared was so excited to see Ben and played with him the whole time.
Yay!! We made it to Holland!! :-D

Christmas Morning

We ended up having two Christmases, this past Christmas, but no tree. We had one of our Christmases when Mark and Kris were visiting, with a dinner and opening the presents that they had for us. Then, on Christmas day, we opened our stockings from Santa and a couple things from our local friends and neighbors.

So, from Santa, Emmaline got a Minnie Mouse and the boys got transformer toys. Just like Karl did two years ago, Emmaline slept through most of Christmas. :-)

The boys really liked these new pajamas our next door neighbors, Aurora and Linda, gave them. Karl's had polar bears on his feet and Jared's had reindeer.

Ryan gave us all our booties for an early Christmas present, especially since he had to make them while he was home with us. I made us all something for Christmas too, but this was a complete surprise for Ryan since I was able to make them while he was gone at work.

 I haven't done a whole lot of crocheting, but I got this pattern for making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle masks thinking I could figure it out. I ended up needing to do two skype sessions with my sister, Jacque, who does a lot of crocheting. But, after that I got it down pretty well and by the sixth mask I was pretty good at the pattern and was able to adapt it for a braid and a bow. The boys and Ryan really liked their masks and we even got Emmaline to try hers on. Sometimes still the boys will bring my my mask too and we'll pull out our ninja moves. ;-)

Anderhand Boardgames

This past Christmas, we gave out our last homemade board-game of the four we made for our siblings and their families. It was a lot of work, but it allowed us to be creative and work on something fun together. To make the board-games, Ryan picked out the wood at the hardware store in a big slab, and then sectioned it out with his circular-saw and put on the hinges. Next, we came up with a concept and themes, and Ryan designed the layout of the board-game. Then, I traced the layout on and drew a nice title for each cover. It took us a little while to come up with just the right logo for ourselves, but finally Ryan liked this sun idea I came up with and we made the sun beams triangle shaped for easier wood burning.

Ryan used his wood-burner to go over everything I drew and did a little sanding around the edges. He also carved out a nook for the tokens to be able to sit in when you closed the board-game. I stained the wood and let them dry, then they were ready for paint. This part was really hard for me because I needed to come up with what each picture would be and make sure it coordinated well with the rest of the game, and also come up with what the token characters would be. We were able to get the wood pieces for the tokens from a craft store. Once all that was decided it was easy to get the painting done, though it did take hours to do the painting.

I also painted on the background for the instructions and came up with what they would say and Ryan would help me with any tweaking of the wording and then he would write it on with a fine sharpy. Once the painting was done, I sprayed it with some varnish and they were DONE! Each board-game probably took, by my estimate, about 35 hours between my and Ryan's time, over the course of several months. Here's a gallery of how they turned out! =)

UNDERSEA ADVENTURE:

Clown fish, Seahorse, Starfish, Angelfish, Shark, Dolphin

SUPERHERO ADVENTURE:

 The sister missionaries were interested in what we were doing, so we let them try out one of the games with us when we were finished with it.

Iron Man, Fantastic 4, Captain American, Hulk, Black Widow, Thor

BOOK OF MORMON ADVENTURE:

King Benjamin, Abish, Enoch, Nephi, Sister, Moroni

FAIRY TALE ADVENTURE:

Little Red, Thumbelina, Belle, Peter Pan, Aladdin, Cinderella

Beaman girls opening their's on Christmas 2015!

Ugly Sweater

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

At work, Ryan and his coworkers had a Christmas lunch, provided by the company. They also had an ugly sweater competition. Ryan wore his elf-T-shirt, his mom had given him, and his Christmas vest he had sewn a few years ago. I guess it was a winning combination!! The contest was determined by the votes of the employees there at the lunch. There was some competition, but they voted for Ryan's shirt and vest. It was so funny when he came home and told us.

He won some gift cards to a movie theater, so we went on a little date while Mark and Kris were there and could watch all three of the little ones. It was so fun; we hadn't been to a movie together in a very long time. So, we went through a drive-thru for dinner and then we watched the finally Hunger Games movie. Maybe we hadn't been in a theater for a while, but it was really clean and the seats reclined and were very comfortable. It was great and the movie was pretty good. It was a fun date night!

Gramma Mary's Visit

December 10 - 15, 2015

In the middle of December, my mom was able to take some time off of work and fly out and help us with the kids and house while I was still trying to get the rest the nurses at the hospital insisted that I have. As they put it "no cooking, cleaning, picking up the kids, or driving for a month"! I definitely struggled with that, but it was easier having first my in-laws there to help and then my own mom.

My mom came just before Ryan's parents left, and the boys knew that once Gramma Mary was here it was time to play until you can't play anymore. So, for a few days they were outside a lot. Mom was a good sport and would play whatever they wanted to with them. She even got to go with Karl to his nursery class on Sunday. They had a great time!

She also was very helpful with the cooking and cleaning, and I was able to relax and spend time with Baby Emmaline for a few more days before it was time for me to be on my own again. But, I'm so grateful for all the help and that she got to come see the baby, and the boys really appreciating having such a great playmate. They're very blessed to have such fun and loving grandparents!!

Grandparent's Visit

November 29 - December 11, 2015

As always when they visit, Ryan's parents were very hard workers. Their purpose in coming to visit at this time was to be able to help with the boys while I was recovering and taking care of the baby and Ryan was back to work. They did that, but then they also did some sewing, plumbing, packing, cleaning, and grocery shopping. I don't know what we would've done without them at this crazy time of year.

Karl with his tools, wanting to help with the work. :-)

Jared playing Halo with the leaves.

As far as plumbing goes, the night that they were to come into town, I was giving the boys their bath before bed, and it seemed like I heard something staticy near our entry way. When I'd open the front door it was silent outside, so I realized the sound was coming from somewhere inside the house. I put my ear to one of our walls and it was definitely coming from inside the wall. I told Ryan, but that was news he definitely didn't want to hear, especially since we were almost out of this house and all it's plumbing problems. But, he got to work cutting a hole in the wall and finding the leak that was spraying.

 
It was very frustrating to have to work on this when his parents would be coming soon, but luckily when they arrived they were only helpful and made things easier for Ryan getting it fixed. Ryan and Mark were able to work on it all day the next day (the 30th) and Ryan was able to have the new piping in a good situation by the evening time when he and I went to hospital.

Later in the week, they also worked on installing a new dishwasher and the piping problems in the family-bathroom. Now that tub does hot and cold water, where before it only did hot, which was a okay to work with when you're running a bath, but not when you're trying to shower. When not doing that, Mark also made some great sugar cookies with Jared, did some backyard camping, and made us lasagna with homemade noodles and all.

Kris, while she did a lot to help with kids, cooking, dishes, and making Home Depot runs, she also used much of her free time to start packing boxes for us of all our books and decor. They ended up setting us up pretty nicely by the time they had to leave on the 11th, with the packing started, the plumbing fixed, and leftovers in the fridge. Kris even picked up my mom from the airport the night before they left. We're so blessed to have such great parents/in-laws!!

Ryan's Baby Shower

Monday, December 7, 2015

Ryan had about a week of vacation during the time that his parents were in Houston visiting, but the day he went back to work, there was a surprise baby shower thrown for him. This guy has never had his own baby shower, and I don't know if he's ever even gone to one himself, so this was a new experience for him.

It was thrown by his friend, Brenda, who has been so sweet to us and practically adopted our children has grandchildren. She gave Ryan a beautiful diaper cake and a few other things. He also got a nice fluffy blanket, some outfits, this keepsake box that you can put all her "firsts" of different things in, a cute picture frame, etc. The group gave him a generous gift card as well.

It was a great surprise for us at home too, when he brought a ton of cookies and all this great new stuff for our baby Emmaline. Though he has moved on to a new job now, we're so grateful for the good friends Ryan was able to make while working at Goodman. :-)