Jared/Belen + John/Kelly = SNOW!

The weekend after Thanksgiving, John and I bought tickets to go to New Haven and visit Jared, Belen & the kids this past weekend. A week before we were set to leave, we had a little bit of a hiccup and I had an unexpected appendectomy (who needs their appendix anyway?!) and weren't sure if we were going to make it! My sweet mom flew down and spent the week mending me back to a point where we could go. It was a bit over ambitious (and totally worth it!), but less than a week after surgery we hopped on a plane and headed to Connecticut!

We arrived late Friday night and when we woke up Saturday it was snowing! For some reason that always seems to happen when we go to visit Jared & Belen. When John & I went to the National Prayer Breakfast two years ago we were supposed to stay with Jared/Belen for one night and ended up staying almost a week later because of cancelled flights, due to the 'DC Snowpocalypse'! No different this time, it snowed ten inches on Saturday! We haven't gotten a dusting here in North Carolina so we had almost forgot what snow looked like! 

There was almost no point in shoveling because it would look like you hadn't touched the sidewalk half an hour later!

Jared took us on a mini tour of Yale on Saturday morning and it was so fun to see where he spends his time! He took us through campus when we helped them move up to Connecticut last summer but that was before he had started classes and didn't have access to the inside of any of the buildings. This time he took us inside his colleges and the libraries- which were so cool! Starting my senior year in high school, I discovered that studying in a library made it a lot more fun (OK, manageable may have been a better word at times!). In college I loved getting a cup of coffee and heading to the library for hours to study- that was a fact that John is still trying to make sense of (He hates libraries, coffee and studying!).

The Yale rare books library- so cool!

There were libraries all over the campus- Jared explained that each college has their own library and Yale has the second largest library in the world (right behind Harvard and right ahead of Oxford). We also got to see 'Occupy New Haven'- it looked pretty intense with the snow being so heavy! We also stopped at a local coffee shop for some good conversation and were able to just watch the snow fall- it definitely made me miss the snow!!

On a side note, John and I were talking about how we've had the opportunity to go on a lot of fun adventures together- looking back at all of the pictures of us just makes me so thankful to have such a great guy to spend the rest of my life with!!!

After everyone had nap time, I got a little bit of James time before we did an adult dinner out. James is at such a fun stage and I always love hearing his thoughts and how his mind is processing the world around him. For example, when I told him that I was going to take a shower he explained that in the morning it is called a shower but at night before bed it's called a bath. It makes complete sense, it was just fun to hear him process thoughts like that. Something that James does that I really really like is he tosses your name in if he says something to you that just makes it sound so much more meaningful- a couple examples being when he says "Thank you aunt Kelly" or when I asked "James, isn't your sister so pretty?" He responded with "Yes, she really is aunt Kelly"- so sweet! We loved our James and Elena time- it's very rare that we ever get to spend time with just the two of them and see their personalities!

We loved that Jared/ Belen were willing to host us! We always love the time that we get to spend with them, and it was fun to grab dinner just the four of us! Belen and I also got a little but of girl time and were able to sneak away for an hour to get our nails done. I am so so grateful to have such an amazing sister-in-law- she is absolutely incredible!!! We also got a few games of 'Settlers of Catan' in- I think we all have a special place in our hearts for that game after the amount of time we spent playing it during the 'DC Snowpocalypse'. 

Before we knew it, Sunday had arrived and it was almost time for us to head back to the southern weather! We grabbed a quick lunch at a Jonker favorite, Five Guys, and got a little more time with the kids before naps. Whenever we see sweet Elena, it always takes a little while for her to warm up to John. Not sure if he's just because he's a pretty big guy, but I think it took until Sunday before she let John hold her. Since we don't see her very often I feel like she grows so much every time we do get to see her! And in another month she'll be a big sister- so crazy!

Love this girl!!

This is one tired little boy! I think we were all ready for a nap by the time we left on Sunday afternoon, but James fell asleep like this watching a movie! I think he started totally on the couch and rolled over- but slept like this for close to an hour!

We are pretty blessed to enjoy spending time with our siblings so much!! We only wish we could do it more often!!

New Year's Eve

I'm running a little behind on my blogging, but I wanted to make sure to get a quick excerpt in on what we did for New Years Eve, because as usual it was tons of fun! :)

My dad and I must have been on the same page that morning because a big breakfast sounded good to both of us! One of the former Chef's at Steelcase started his own cafe in the Alger Heights area called 'Real Food Cafe'. It's a diner style restaurant and usually a long wait, but it's totally worth it!! You get way more food than you could ever want and it's delicious! Even John couldn't finish his pancakes (Ok, a little confession- he did have five cinnamon rolls right before we went to breakfast)! This is always a hot spot for the Malburg family!

Not a great picture, but it was so fun to have breakfast with them, and we were so glad Steph's friend Lauren could join us too! The only thing that would have been better would have been if Dylan had been able to make it!

As for the actual 'New Year's Eve', it's become somewhat of a tradition the last few years for my parents and siblings to get together with my dad's brother, Marv and his family. They are the family that we spend a week with in Pentwater every year and spent a fair amount of time with growing up since they are also in Grand Rapids. Last year my parents got a hotel room downtown and the Marv Malburg family joined us for games and festivities, but my cousins James/Missy recently had a baby and James' sister Jolanda and her husband, Jim, are also expecting! Fun news! So needless to say, it was easier (but equally as fun!!) to stay in together!

John loves the time that he gets to spend with James! These are two of my favorite men- lots of laughs when they're around!

My dad with the proud new grandparents!!

Jeff & Annie live on the East side of Michigan so we didn't get to see them nearly as much when we were in Grand Rapids, so it was so great to get to spend some time with them! A super fun couple!

Prior to a few intense games of Catch Phrase, for the second year in a row, we filled out a few '2012 Predictions'. My dad put together another sheet with questions such as who the #1 male and female golfers will be at this time next year and the Steelcase stock price. There's also an open ended prediction at the end of an exciting event that will happen in the Malburg family in 2012. We "graded" last years sheets and James won! It came down to a tie-breaking question between James and John, which I thought was pretty great for John having just joined the family last year!

Helping Jaxson welcome in his first New Year! It's unbelievable how big he's gotten!

It was so much fun getting to spend time with family playing games and catching up with cousins! 

Lunch Dates and Video Games

One thing that I was really glad that we got to do while we were in Grand Rapids, was have lunch with my dad at Steelcase. I have been doing that since I was little and it has always been such a treat! It used to be a really big deal when I was 5 or 6 and I would wear a dress & my shiny shoes and my mom would curl my hair, etc.- a special date with my dad! As the years have gone on, I've still done that whenever I can, and it's amazing how much I've seen the office change! John and I talked about it after we had lunch there- it used to be so much more stuffy than it is now! I remember my dad wearing a suit and tie to work, and now he's wearing jeans and has a TV in his office! Something that I still think is really cool, is since my dad has worked at the company for 28 years (praise God for that!), I've known several of his co-workers my whole life! 

When we're in Grand Rapids, John like to get some special quality time with McLleyton, so we invited him to lunch too! My dad LOVES hanging out with little kids, so if we bring around a few of the nieces and nephews every now and again we can hold him off on the pressure (on us!) for grand kids of his own just yet! ;) My brother and sister also joined us for lunch and we had a great time!

McLleyton was totally baffled that you could color on the tabletops (some of the tables are made with pads of paper as the top), so I had to worn his mom, Jayne when we returned him that she should keep an eye on him if they decided to color in the few days following our lunch adventure. Jayne said that when she asked McLleyton who all went to lunch, he replied "Aunt Kelly, Uncle John, a dad and two friends". But while we were there he kept asking "Where does my friend Gary work?" It was so sweet!

Another night while we were home, we invited Brent & Blair Ellis and Tim Ofield over to my parents house to hang out and catch up on how life has been! We had a half hour to spare before they arrived and discovered that John had left his Nintendo in the basement for my brother to use. Dylan and John decided there was enough time to play some James Bond and Mario Kart- I attempted to play but I was no match for those two! While we were in the middle of a round, the other boys arrived and were so excited about the games! They decided they were going to play a little bit, and then a little bit turned into an hour! I sat on the couch and just watched these grown men reminisce about how they used to go over to Tim's house and play these games until all hour of the morning. It was pretty funny how excited they still got about the game, and even more funny that they were now able to have a beer while playing and were still yelling things like "I'm so going to get you with my banana tail!" during round of Mario Kart.

I was really glad that Dylan felt comfortable playing with them too! My parents never let us have video games growing up, so it was really fun to watch Dylan get just as into it as these guys were and then everyone would just start laughing uncontrollably! I had just as much fun sitting on the sidelines watching all of this happen! :)  

My dad came downstairs after the football game was over and couldn't handle the video games, but challenged the guys to some doubles ping pong- and the tournament began!

It was full contact ping pong and everyone got a little rowdy! Wine glasses were broken, there were a few choice words and by the end of it (hours later!) all of the windows in the basement were open because it was heating up! 

I don't think by the end that we could say with certainty if there was a winning team- Steph came home from work and we added another person to the mix of teams- but it was s super fun night! We love these guys and are so glad that it worked out to get together with them!

I didn't get any pictures, but I was also so thankful to have been able to grab breakfast with my friend Lindsey Freiburger and coffee on separate occasions with my friends Kelsey Merrill and Allie Michaels. I've known all of these extraordinary women since high school and they have all had such an influence of my life- I always enjoy the time I get to spend with them and am so thankful to have them in my life!!!!

Broadway Bar and Michigan State Basketball!

Something that has become a Malburg tradition over the last few years is dinner at the Broadway Bar in Grand Rapids. It's a small hole-in-the wall place in a rather sketchy part of town, but they have an unbelievable burger!!! In addition to that, they decorate in a very gaudy, over-the-top way for Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day and Christmas- Christmas being our favorite! We always go with my mom's cousin Jodi and her parents, Mary and Bob- and my sister, Stephanie occasionally works with Uncle Bob at Dick's Sporting Goods. Another highlight is the juke box that my dad usually takes on the responsibility of "being in charge of" :)

I love that he is now part of all of the traditions that I grew up with!!

In addition to all of the lights they have hung, they have these glasses that look like 3-D glasses, but when you put them on, it turns each light bulb into a snowman or Santa Claus, depending on which pair you try on. So instead of a string of lights you would see a string on snowmen! They let us take them outside when we were there last year for Christmas and you would see a car coming down the road and if you wee wearing the glasses, the cars headlights were snowmen that would get bigger and bigger as the car approached!

You can see some of the over-the-top decorations in this picture of the whole gang. There are Christmas things on each table that sing or dance or do something when you push a button or squeeze their hand- it's unbelievable how many Christmas decorations are out there!

Amidst all of the business of the Christmas week in Grand Rapids, we got to sneak out for a double date with Matt and Jayne on Wednesday night to a Michigan State Basketball game! When we lived in Grand Rapids, we always really enjoyed spending time over at The Shatto's house and just being with them, so we were so thankful that we got to spend some quality time with them- a super fun couple to be with!

Earlier in the week, John stumbled upon the fact that there was a Five Guys' restaurant in East Lansing, and being a favorite for both the Shatto's and John we stopped there before the game! 

Michigan State was playing the Indiana Hoosiers, and Matt being a native of Indiana was cheering for them most of the game! We had great seats (the first row behind the Izzone) and since the students were all on Christmas break, it was an 'Izzone reunion'. It appeared to be alumni seated in the Izzone section doing all of the taunting and cheers. The band was also all alumni and it was amusing to see all of them re-living their glory days! Fortunately, Michigan State pulled through for a win in the end! 

It's also pretty amusing watching John watch a game because he gets so in to it- and Matt is the same way, so they were the perfect people to go to the basketball game with!

You can notice their Indiana red in this picture :)

It was such a fun date night with the Shatto's and we are so grateful they asked us to join them!!

Jonker fun in Grand Rapids!

I was going back through all of our pictures from Christmas/New Year's in Michigan and we crammed so many fun things into that trip that I decided to break it up a little more to avoid a novel of a post! 

We went back to the Jonker's on Christmas Day after we had celebrated Christmas with the Malburg side and had fun with one particular Christmas gift! We were all so spoiled with gifts we had received, but the home run gift was.... a Nerf gun! I don't think anyone could have predicted that the two year olds would have fun with it, along with every other grown man in the Jonker household! The night John, Jared and Poppy had disappeared for a bit and when we noticed and went looking for them, they had set up an array of targets (short range and long range) in the living room. Everything from Nanny's really nice Christmas knick knacks to decks of card and a toy sheep from a set one of the kids had opened on Christmas Eve.

They had even come up with a way of scoring, and it was really funny to see those grown guys aiming a Nerf gun and laughing hysterically for hits as well as misses.

Slowly but surely, one by one, more of the family members stepped into the game.  I really liked this picture of Darren and I- I'm so glad that Belen snapped it. We only see the Loftin's a couple of times a year, so it was really fun when Darren hopped up next to me and snuggled in! He did it a few times while we were together and it made me smile every time! 

The boys kept trying to hit all of the targets, but just for the record, Nanny and I tied for the most target hits- sharp shooters we are! :)

It was really fun to see the younger boys having so much fun with the game as well- Darren was actually pretty good for only being two! The game started with short range targets, and then they set up long range ones and then things started getting silly, and Jurrien became the target!

You can see some of the targets that John, Jared and Poppy had set up, and after it was established that they could hit Jurrien, he started ducking behind the couch and then jumping up sporadically- and then they would try to shoot him. For as simple as a game as it was- there was a lot of laughs by everyone playing!!

One of the things that I am so grateful for since marrying John, is having older sisters!! I love my sister Stephanie so much, and our bond will never be duplicated but being the oldest I always thought having an older sister would be so fun!!! Steph might argue that it's not always as great as I probably romanticized it to be, but I love when I get some quality time with my Jonker sisters (Jenn, Jill, Jayne & Belen)! On Tuesday morning Jan took all of us to get pedicures and manicures and then we had a great lunch at the new PF Changs!

It was a perfect set-up, there were six chairs in a row and then six table for manicures- we took over the salon for the morning! :) It was so wonderful to be able to catch up with all of them and have some good girl conversations without all of the kids running around (not that I don't love that chaos!!!!).

I am so thankful to have married into a family with such amazing woman that I get to 'do life' with for the rest of my life! Not many woman can say they love spending time with each of their sister-in-laws as well as their mother-in-law! I'm a lucky lady!!!

24 Hours of Christmas!

We were so blessed this Christmas to have been able to spend ten days in Michigan with our families! That would have turned into a long blog post, so I figured I'd start with Christmas and then get to all of the other fun things we were able to do in a separate post!

Michigan has been having a really mild winter thus far and there was no snow forecasted for while we were in town, which was a huge bummer! I can't remember when the last time we had a green Christmas was! I prayed really hard the day we flew out that we would at least see a little bit of snow while we were in Michigan, since this 60 degree weather in December here in NC isn't leading me to believe I'll see any snow this winter. My prayers were answered rather quickly, because we landed in Grand Rapids late on the 23rd and it was snowing!!! It wasn't a lot, but enough to cover the ground and still have some falling- it was completely magical! It's amazing how we take something so beautiful for granted (OK, I'll admit, come the beginning of February it may lose it's magic if we lived in Michigan- but at the time it was pretty incredible!)

I was stressing out a bit again as we were preparing to head back over who we were going to see when to make sure everyone felt loved. Fortunately, my mom gave me a little reality check earlier in the week that I really do just need to be thankful that we get to spend Christmas with both sides of our family since they all live in the same city! Most couples have to alternate holidays between families. Not only do our families live in the same city, but the Jonker's have always celebrated Christmas on the 24th and my family has always celebrated on the 25th! So we don't even have to split up where to celebrate Christmas- we get to participate in all of the festivities!

When we landed in GR we had a few more presents to wrap for the Jonker's so we stopped by my parents house to wrap them and visit a bit before headed to Holland. This was an "on year" for Christmas in the Jonker household, so Jared & Belen and their kids, along with the Loftin's were all in town for a big celebration. All of the adults had waited up for us to arrive- which was such a warm welcoming to come back to!!! 

Christmas eve morning started bright and early! By the time everyone was up and had finished breakfast, the festivities had begun! The morning started with a sweet nativity play by all of the grand kids (and a little help from uncle Darren- talk about an awesome uncle!).

The play started with three "Little Drummer Boys" and some singing from the group. Following that number, Uncle Darren (The Donkey) carried in Mary (Lauren) where she was turned away at The Inn.

After her and Joseph (Jurrien) had sound a stable, a few angels appeared (Meagan and James), but at this point in the play, the personalities of all of the kids really started to come out- and to be honest, that was half the fun of watching the whole ordeal! There was some arguing about who was really an angel and who was supposed to just be a shepherd, etc. Fortunately, we made it through without a whole lot of tears and it ended with Sophia reading a verse. It was pretty good for putting it together that morning- my favorite line I heard when the idea of a nativity play was in the making was Lauren telling Shaelyn she could be a shepherd so she could "lead around all of the little kids" :)

We had an early lunch for the kids at 11:30 and then the gift-giving began! The adults all get the name of  one other adult to buy for and the same ordeal with the kids. Each family also gets Nanny and Poppy a gift, and they are always very generous with what they give to all of us!

In theory the gift giving goes one person at a time, but with 13 kids under nine years old, the anxiety is too much to handle sometimes! :)

I just love the look of sheer joy on Darren's face here! It encompasses Christmas through a child's eyes so perfectly I think! We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with new toys and enjoying just being together catching up with everyone!

This was my third Christmas with the Jonker clan, and each of those three years, all of the grand kids have gotten matching pajamas to sleep in on Christmas Eve. Looking at this picture, it's amazing that my first Christmas around, three of the boys were only six months old, and two of these kids weren't born yet! It's hard to get them all to sit still for a picture, but I'm glad that someone tried!! I know Nanny was bummed that we didn't try to get one of the whole family- we'll have to make a better effort of that next time we're together. I did notice looking at the pictures we took with my family and the picture we took while we were staying with Johns family, that there are a lot more candid shots with the Jonker's and more planned shots with everyone looking with the Malburg's- I guess that's what happens when you start having kids!! 

After all of the kids had gone to bed, we had a delicious adult dinner in the Jonker house, followed by a few intense games of Catch Phrase- the perfect way to end Christmas Eve! 

Steph is up and about spearheading the early morning Christmas tradition of opening stockings, but John and I arrived and had to drag her out of bed!! It was quite the change from what I'm used to!

Ready for some adult only Christmas! :)

As much as I love the chaos of all of the kids opening presents and the excitement of sharing those fun moments with cousins, I would be lying if I didn't admit that I did really enjoy cuddling with John and enjoying a cup of tea on Christmas morning while we watched my parents and siblings open up gifts! My mom told us that a friend of hers had asked earlier in the week what she had gotten Dylan and she responded with "To be honest, I have absolutely no idea!" and I think that was the same with all of us! We all got him something off of his Christmas list, but none of us could knowledgeably speak to what the items were for! :) It was kind of a running joke that morning that Dylan gave us a web of gifts he wanted, and if we wanted to buy him gift B, we would have to buy gifts C, D, & E in order for B to work, and if we didn't get him gift A, none of the items he got would work! Fortunately, he seemed happy with everything! 

Every year, my siblings and I make a calendar for my parents and that's always a highlight of the morning. There are always plenty of laughs and reminiscing on all of the fun things we had done in the past year! This year it was my turn to put it together, so they all saw it for the first time on Christmas morning, which was really fun to watch! The big gift of the morning was......

Stephi got a mac book pro! Clearly, she was pretty excited! She tried to rope Dylan into explaining how it all worked and how to use it- fortunately John was around and loves doing stuff like that, so he helped her figure it all out. 

It's become a Christmas day tradition the last few years to go see a movie as a family! We agreed on seeing the new Sherlock Holmes- and I don't think my mom, John or I realized how long the movie would be!! Whew! It was a long one, but the wit in the movies is always pretty funny! It was definitely a fun family outing. After the movie, my grandparents (on my mom's side) came over for dinner. Although it was good to see them, it was kind of hard! It's been a while since we had seen them, and my grandma's memory isn't doing too well- she had to ask my mom several times who each of us kids were. It definitely made me start thinking about life as a whole- you never really think about the last quarter of a person's life on earth until you see it right in front of you! But all in all, it was great time spent, and it was wonderful to see them!

Fortunately we had time for a few sibling pictures before John and I headed back to Holland. With all of his siblings being in town for the first part of the week, we spent that part of our trip in Holland with them!

Dylan's not the tallest in our pictures anymore! :)

Steph thought she would take the tallest award in this one!

It was a whirlwind of Christmas celebrations, but above all we are most thankful to have families who celebrate the birth of Jesus and live lives that we look to as examples! Although this was the main event that we came home to celebrate, there were plenty more fun activities that we got to partake in that I'll make sure to post pictures of later! Merry Christmas!

Christmas in North Carolina

December was a crazy month for us and filled with fun activities but I'm a bit behind on blogging! We knew that we were going to be spending Christmas in Michigan so we didn't go all out in decorating our apartment, but it was fun to see what some of the decorations looked like here in North Carolina. The decorations were definitely needed to help get us in the Christmas spirit! Both of us grew up in Michigan, so were conditioned to associate the cold weather and snow with Christmas.

This was one of the prettiest Christmas trees we saw in Greensboro! Each branch was laced with a strand of lights and it looked so cool! 

One other Christmas decoration we found that is unique to Greensboro is Christmas light balls. 

Janice, who Jan and I had coffee with when she was in town explained how it was done. It's a bunch of chicken wire all wound up and then a strand of lights wrapped around it. Some friends of hers started this trend and it's become so popular that they do a free seminar each year on how to do it with materials provided as long as as an attendant, you bring non-perishable food items to donate. Janice said that now they get truckloads full of food items. There is one neighborhood in Greensboro that has hundreds of these balls hung in their trees. It's an established neighborhood, so the trees are all very large and have grown over the road- it's so cool! I tried taking pictures, and they didn't come out very clearly, but you can get the idea.

You can get the idea here of how many there are as you drive through this neighborhood, but I also took a video (Ignore the fact that it sounds like a wind tunnel! :)

Within this neighborhood, there are a few corners that are all decorated and have a sleigh set out for people to donate more non-perishable goods throughout the Christmas season. There are a few people who have gotten creative with their chicken wire and made stars or candy canes! It is such a fun idea that John and I might just have to bring back to Grand Rapids!