a moment...

It really was just a moment. But after a week of long hours at work for dadda, overly crazy fussy kids, a one-year old who will not be set down, a crabby momma, housework unable to be finished, projects left undone, naps fought against and not taken, and too much yelling and crying from everyone...

...I enjoyed the peace and perspective of the moment this afternoon:

(now, before you criticize how I dress my son, G got a big box of dress-up clothes for Christmas and he was playing dress-up with her before his nap and asked so sweetly to keep it on - and I was up for ANYTHING as long as he would sleep! =)

"happy birthday...happy birthday boy!"

Our baby C is 1 year old! How did that year fly by so fast? We had a very peaceful start to C's birthday (see previous post), and then things got a little more hectic from there.

Now when you are one, you really don't understand birthdays yet (the hoopla is really all for your siblings and your parents, and also so you have some pictures in your baby book). So you really don't care, being that you have a New Year's Day birthday, that your extended family will not come to help celebrate being that they just saw you at Christmas. You will not care if your momma doesn't get you a big balloon (because it was -18 degrees F and no one wanted to leave the house) like she got your siblings on their first birthdays. And you will not care if your birthday party doesn't actually happen on your birthday because your dadda and momma were busy with a project and you and your siblings were too crabby to celebrate it on your actual day (sister and brother cared, a lot, but they were in too much trouble to get dadda and momma to change their minds)! All you care is that your momma and dadda and your brother and sister are by you (and we always will be since it is a holiday!), and that you are fed and entertained.

And that we certainly did, just on Saturday!

who needs a birthday balloon when you have a 4 yr old sister who will decorate your high chair with leftover and clearanced Christmas ribbon!

presents!

C had no problem figuring out how to open them.

felted car and plane from Auntie C - he really liked these, and it is so funny because whenever he plays with them, he makes the same "car" noise with his mouth (as pictured!)

chewy giraffe from us, and look, C is standing! (he has been doing this for a while, but we realized this is the only picture we have of it so far!)

loved hearing us sing Happy Birthday to him (so much we did it 3 times for the giggles!)

Birthday brownies for everyone!

Ok, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to put fire in front of a 1 yr old - we quickly "helped" him blow it out.

obligatory face full of frosting on first birthday picture!

Happy Birthday little C! We all love you so much!

more peaceful...

S and I rung in the New Year watching the first Harry Potter movie (I finally have gotten S to start reading the books!). We hadn't talked too much about C's birthday during the evening, but as we were getting ready for bed around 12:30 am, I made the comment..."Last year, I was in a lot more pain right at this time!" We smiled at each other and reminisced about the crazy New Year's Eve that we had last year ending in the unplanned, wonderful, beautiful, natural birth of our son C on the couch in our front room about an hour into 2009.

We were thankful again for his Auntie C who was there.

And we were also very thankful for a more peaceful start to 2010.

us...

Trying to get


our family


to sit still


is quite


the challenge,


but, we do look ok when we do!

(thanks Auntie A for taking our pictures!)

Happy New Year
from us!

white Christmas...Nebraska style

The "Christmas Blizzard of 2009" (duh-duh-DUH) tried to stop us from getting to Nebraska to celebrate R family Christmas hosted by M&A. It didn't - we made it down there on Wenesday before the worst of the three day storm hit, and everything was mostly clear for our trip back on Monday. Unfortunately, the "Christmas Blizzard of 2009" (duh-duh-DUH) did prevent Gma K, L&J from making it though. Even though they were missed, we made the best of it:

While it did this outside, leaving us housebound for 3 days,

we made Christmas cookies,

and decorated them,

we knit,

we colored,

we read books to ourselves,

we read books to kids,

we played,

and played,

and played,

we relaxed and snuggled,

we danced,

we ate,

we opened presents,

and more presents,

we worshiped,
(church was right next door!)

we opened stockings,

and had a very merry Christmas together!

Christmas letter 2009

Carsten 11 months, Willem 2 1/2 years, Grace 4 1/4 years

Christmas tree ornaments that Grace and Willem helped make this year – they painted the cardboard trees glued to clothespins and stuck on the star and “lights.”

The kids had so much fun with decorating the Christmas tree! It was hard to keep Carsten from getting into everything though!

Perspective

Perspective has kind of been the theme of our year in the Bruin household. Our lives are very focused on our 3 small children. The world literally revolves around them and their needs. We can get overwhelmed by this, but then we have to step back and remember that life will not always be this way. Trying to keep a bigger perspective has helped us live in the moment and truly enjoy this stage of life that we are in right now.

The year started in a huge way with the incredible unplanned home birth of our son Carsten, just an hour into 2009. God truly blessed us with the safe arrival of this little one into the world and also into our family.

Carsten has grown from a tiny helpless newborn into a big (almost) 1 year old who is happy, determined, very mobile (almost walking!), loves to eat, and who is starting to communicate with words and signs. We all love and dote on him and have been amazed to watch the very many milestones that he has gone through this first year!

Willem turned 2 this summer. He goes from snuggly and sweet to tantrums and back very easily. He loves to talk and sing almost as much as his sister and knows all his letters and colors. He enjoys reading books, and is starting to turn into our “boy” boy who loves blue (rather than pink which was his favorite color earlier), wants to rough-house, play ball, be outside and play trucks and tractors all the time.

Grace turned 4 in August and is becoming our little social butterfly. She is always asking if we can go somewhere or play with someone. She loves to play with her brothers and has a very active imagination in coming up with things for them to play or act out. We get “shows” from her regularly, complete with stories, singing and dancing. She is our “girly” girl loving all things pink and princesses! She likes to write and sound out words with our help as well as coloring, reading books, being outside, and helping momma.

Steve has been blessed with a steady, good job that he enjoys as manager of the Costco Pharmacy (less than a mile from our home – great commute!). And Cary is very happy to be able to stay at home and take care of the kids and try to keep the household in order (once again, that whole perspective thing!).

Connecting with family and friends is always fun and such a blessing, and we have been fortunate to have had some good road trips (the kids have traveled well!) this year to visit some of you in Edgerton, Willmar, Grand Rapids, Orange City, and Brookings.

We wish you all blessings and peace this Christmas season. May the big gift of the Savior give you the perspective to enjoy the little moments with your family this holiday.

2009 Christmas card

Merry Christmas!

a little more Christmas in the air...

some snapshots of the holidays in our house so far...plus a little fun bonus...







and oh...what holiday decoration is this?

why, they are 2 holiday eggs of course! and oh look, they are hatching...



cheep cheep! merry christmas from our crazy birds!

little C report...

Little C is just under 2 weeks away from his first birthday. (where did that year go!)

He now is crawling up stairs like a pro and standing up more and more by himself.

Just waiting for what will come next...=)

update on W...

We called into the Gastroenterology office this morning and are happy to report that W's polyp was benign! Praise the Lord for this good report!

We thank everyone for their prayers for us in the past couple of weeks.