Darin and Tricia were here for the 4th of July

Family Picture

"Cool Dude"

Only a month apart. Triple trouble!!!!

Ella and Nathan having fun at Tunnel Park

Who says I couldn't have had triplets

What's up for today...were ready to go

Brayden was a big help entertaining the babies

Nathan exhausted after a long day of playing

I'm a ham in these shades



Again..it has been awhile since I have blogged. We had a great 4th of July. Darin, Tricia, Brayden, and Breanna flew out from Minneapolis for a long weekend. It was so nice to have them here in Michigan and us not have to drive 12 hours to see them!!!! We spent a lot of time at Tunnel Park which is on Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan was still kind of cold so, but Darin and Tim did venture in the water and Brayden got his feet wet. Brayden was more interested in making sand castles and checking out other people's sand toys!!!! On Saturday, we went to the Farmer's Market and then the guys went golfing. At night we watched a movie after the kids went down for bed. Sunday night, we were able to get together with all of the Terpstra cousins. Darin had not seen some of them for 3 years or so. We were introduced to the newest little Van Dyke great grandbaby, Mercedes! What a cutie. On Monday, we went shopping (due to it raining outside). Of course Tricia and I found some good deals at Old Navy, but it was quite a challenge to try the clothes on with one toddler and 3 babies. Both Ella and Breanna had dirty diapers and so were stinking up the dressing room and they all started having melt downs half way through. Good thing the dads showed up and could entertain them somewhat so we could try on a couple more clothes! All in all, it was a nice visit and I was sad to see them go. Hopefully we'll make it back home at the end of August or September.

Our trip home to Minnesota

The 7 Beckering Grandchildren

Ella and Nathan liked to be outside on the farm

Happy Father's Day Dan

Grandma got pretty attached to the babies while she was here

Nathan relaxing after his first dip in the pool

Ella fell asleep when we got there and so she didn't get to try the pool

Caleb, Bennet, and Kylie loved the water

Could you babysit all three cousin Kara?

Brayden is tired and loves to rub his mom's ear!

Kylie always has cute smiles for the camera

I think this is Bennet holding Nathan...am I right Laura?

Grandpa loved having all the grandkids home!

We even got to see cousin Trevor!

Grandpa and Grandma V.D. holding Breanna

The girl cousins...Ella, Kylie, & Breanna

Their first ride on a lawn mower

Boy, it has been awhile since I have written anything. Tim has needed the computer at his work and so I haven't been able to use it during the day to blog. This has been my first opportunity at night to get pictures downloaded from the camera and then uploaded to the blog. Where to begin. We got back last week from our trip home to Minnesota. On the way there, we managed to get the babies, my mom, us, our luggage and other stuff all into the Pruis, with room to spare. The trip went really well. We drove through the night and the babies slept most of the way. Tim and my dad left the next day for Minneapolis to pick up my brothers and then head up to Canada to go fishing. Laura and Tricia and the kids came down and stayed at my mom's for a couple nights. It was great to have all the cousins reunite. Occasionally there were some chaotic moments, but wouldn't there be with tw0 4 year olds two, 2 year olds, and three 5-6 month olds!!!! We went swimming, went to the park, played on the farm, got to see many cousins, aunts, and uncles, and more. The guys came home on Sunday night very tired, but had had a good time fishing. Ella stared running a slight temp on Sunday afternoon which made me worried that she had an ear infection. Nathan also started having a runny nose. Needless to say, this did not make our trip home to fun. We had to stop often due to crying and then when they finally went to sleep and we could drive for longer periods of time, we got tired. Towards the end of the trip, I would keep bugging Tim to make sure he was staying awake. We probably were illegally driving for as tired as we were. It was good to be home, but I right away, I missed having my mom here. I was going to have to relearn how to take care of them by myself again.

Ella continued to have a fever and was more fussy. I took her in last Wednesday and thankfully she did not have an ear infection. Probably something viral. They both have runny nosed yet, but all the fevers are gone.

Things are back to normal. Tim has been busy on another contract engineering project and I am still putting my 20 hours at work. Nathan and Ella are 6 months as of today! They love to get up on all fours and rock. They can get around by army crawling or moving in circles. They are getting better at eating and love to grab for our food too. Nathan is convinced that he can drink out of a big glass and gets angry if he cannot have it. The cutes thing is when they are playing together and make each other giggle. One will start laughing and then the other one giggles and so on. I haven't been able to get it on video, but when I do, I will post it. We have been also trying to get the babies in the habit of going to sleep in their beds without us rocking them to sleep. This means we are letting them cry it out. I am convinced it is more horrible for the mother than the babies. I try to busy myself with something. Thankfully they haven't gone too much longer than 40 minutes. They have been sleeping longer through the night so I guess it is worth. It just breaks my heart to hear them cry, but I know it also breaks my back to hold them forever while they try fall asleep. We are looking forward to have Darin and Tricia come out to visit us over the 4th of July. We'll have to take Brayden to see Lake Michigan and show them around Holland and Grand Rapids. Well that's all I have for now.

Our First Time at the Beach

Ella's ready to go to the beach

We are having a great time with my mom. She has been a huge help to us. We actually had a "date day" yesterday and it was nice to bum around without worrying about the babies. We went to a movies and out to eat. We so appreciate all her babysitting and I know Nathan and Ella are loving their grandma time. We went this past Monday to the beach. It was Ella and Nathan's first time. We had fun putting their feet in the sand and probably would have eaten the sand if we would have let them. The water was a little cold, but we did dip their feet in Lake Michigan just to say we did. We plan to head out to Minnesota on Monday. We hope and pray our trip goes smooth since they don't always appreciate the safety and confinement of their car seats. I am sure we will have lots of pictures to share when we are all together with the cousins. This coming Saturday, we might head to the beach with Eric and Jessica. We like the nicer weather, but the humidity is hard to adjust to.

Random Shots and stories

Family pic

smooches for Ella

Are we cute or what

Wonder how long this affection will last?

Close up!

Ella loves to pose for the camera

Nathan smiles for the camera

Nathan pins Ella

Here we are eating carrots

I think Nathan had more on his face than in his mouth

In my Sunday best

All these pictures make me tired

Ella is a natural with the camera

Serious look

We have been busy here at the Stuive's. We opened up "Hotel Stuive" this past weekend for my grandparents, aunt Marilyn, and my mom who came for the wedding of my cousin Joel. It was so good to have some of my family here to visit. We had a good time at the wedding and were able to spend some time with the Terpstra cousins. The even better news is that my mom is staying with us for 2 weeks. We are going home in the beginning part of June and so it worked out perfect for my mom to spend some time here in Michigan and then ride back home with us to Minnesota. It has been so fun to see Ella and Nathan spend time with grandma. She has been a huge help too. She helps with the babies, "enjoys" doing laundry for us, has made her famous chicken soup for us, and has become our short term babysitter. I was able to work an extra shift at work and Tim has been able to get more done outside.

Ella and Nathan have been enjoying trying out some new foods lately. We started with rice cereal. It took a little time to figure out the texture and taste, but now they are pros at it. They love bananas and are still trying to figure out if they like carrots. It is so fun to watch them roll the food around their mouths and Nathan often time triggers his gag reflex.

We had some panic and excitement yesterday at Spectrum Health. The aeromed helicopter crashed on the landing pad. We later found out is was a routine training run and the tail or rutter hit an antenna and crashed down and exploded. Thankfully the 2 passengers were able to escape without any major injuries. Smoke could be seen for miles and the biggest event was having to evacuate 3 patient floors due to a gas leak. It was very scary. Our unit had to prepare to take patients since the downtown campus was closed to any ER patients. It was all over our local news and even made a moment of national news.

Our First Fruits

Here is Nathan and Ella eating their first bites of banana. Yummy......they liked this a lot more than the rice cereal! Next week avocados!

Our first camping trip

We just got back from our first camping adventure with children. We went with Kurt, Carissa, and Trenton and we had a great time. It was a short trip. We were going to leave on Thursday evening, but ended up leaving Friday morning. Kurt and Tim were able to get some mountain biking in and we took some walks and got to take the "chariot" stroller off-roading on some trails. We set up our pop-up camper, but ended up sleeping in Kurt and Carissa's trailer because they had a heater and the nights did get a little cool. The babies actually did very well. They loved being outdoors. There were lots of hands to hold them and they enjoyed their stroller rides and sleeping in between mom and dad at night. We feel a little more confident for our next camping trip. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we it felt so good to leave all our work and such behind and just relax and enjoy God's creation.

Tim and I were able to go to a wedding of Tim's cousin this past Saturday (without the babies). It was nice to catch up with Tim's brothers and sister-in-laws. We had a fun time and even got the men out on the dance floor a couple times. The babies were well taken care of by our small group friends. We are attempting a quick camping trip tonight till Saturday. We'll see how it goes. We are going with Kurt and Carissa. We got a used pop-up camper, so we'll see how the babies tolerate camping. Tim and Kurt hope to do some mountain biking and Carissa and I will relax and take Trenton and the babies for a walk. I am sure we'll have lots of stories and updates for you soon.