Our (very) temporary pet

This cat showed up on our doorstep one evening. We have a lot of stray cats in the neighborhood but they are all annoying and skittish. This cat was a super friendly cat that loved to be around people. I made the mistake of giving it some food . . . but I felt bad for the poor thing! It just sat there crying and crying. We called a few people and posted in on facebook but all our cat-lover friends all said the same thing: they have enough cats already and don't need another one. I really didn't mind it hanging around our house . . . except for one thing, my kids were petrified of the thing. Like scream and run if they were outside and it came anywhere near them. Last Saturday was a beautiful day and we were outside doing yard work and playing with Samuel while the girls napped. All the cat wanted to do was be by us and rub up against our legs. Samuel wasn't having anything to do with that. I ended up carrying the cat across the street, into our friends' backyard, and dropping it over their fence into the backyard of the people that lived behind them. It took about . . . 30 minutes before the cat found her way back to our house. She would follow us around the house (her on the outside, us on the inside) all day long meowing/crying for attention. If we were in the sunroom, she was on the back step. If we were in Samuel's room, she was on the deck right outside his window. If we were in the living room, she was at the front door. Not kidding! About the time I had a plan in place (or at least a couple of options of what to do with the cat), it disappeared. The weather turned cold, it snowed, and the cat went on to search for a house where the people would actually let her inside. It wanted inside our house so badly that it would sneak inside if you so much as opened the door a crack. One night when I was unloading my kids from the van, I had to remove the cat from our house 4 times. Imagine the shrieks and screams coming from my kids that night!! It would even climb into our van when we were loading the kids up to go somewhere. Samuel asked for days after she left, "where did my poor friend cat go?" We don't know - but we hope she found a nice warm house and a nice new family to go with it!

More Random November Pictures

Picking up or playing? I'll let you come to your own conclusion! ;)

Aliyah reading a book to her new bear, Cooper. How cute is that?

This is where the kids eat when Mom and Dad want to watch the Michigan vs Ohio State football game. (Michigan won!)

Thankful Tree

This year, for the month of November, we did a Thankful Tree. I remember doing one when I was kid and I thought it would be a fun thing to start with my kids. Every night at dinner everyone would take a turn saying what they were thankful for. We would then go around the table and pray a quick prayer thanking God for what we wrote on our leaf. Then we'd go and stick them up on the tree (the kids' favorite part!). This is what we all were thankful for this year:

Daddy: Mommy, Time to play with Samuel and Hope and Aliyah, A warm and dry house on a cold rainy day, birds, sunshine, Samuel and Hope and Aliyah

Mommy: Family, Coffee, Daddy, Samuel and Hope and Aliyah, Bubble baths, Warm and cozy beds, Tuesdays (my Bible study day), Church

Samuel: Mommy, Food, Grapes, Books, Cookies, Aliyah, Grandma, Hopey

Hope (she picked out an orange leaf every single time!): Grandma, Aliyah and Mommy and Daddy and Samuel (twice!), Supper, Muffins, God, Cookies, Chips, Grandpa and Grandma Neil and Dora and Monkey (Boots)

Aliyah: Baby Dolls, My new tooth, Laughing and being funny, Dah-dee! (Daddy), Trampoline, Michigan won and OSU lost, My cup, Milk

Grandpa: Bible Stories

Grandma: The Huinink Family!

As you can tell, we were not faithful to do it every night of the month but we gave it a good effort and the kids had fun doing it! Definitely a tradition that will continue. :)

Christmas is Coming!

Christmas is coming . . . and we are ready!!

Christmas Pajamas

My Mom buys the kids new Christmas pajamas every year. She let them open the pajamas today so that they can get a lot of use out of them over the next month!

Bronson Park Christmas Lights

Tonight we headed downtown for dinner at Bimbo's Pizza and then to Bronson Park for the annual Christmas lighting ceremony. Bimbo's pizza was great (as always!) but crazy busy. They "kindly" (if you can do it kindly) asked us to leave after we were done with our pizza so that they could seat the next group. When we walked back towards the park (around 6:30) we noticed that the lights in the park were already on. Weird. The ceremony was supposed to be at 7pm. We headed into the Radisson so the kids could see the fish in the big fish tank and play on the escalators for a few minutes before heading over to the park.

Looking at the fountain inside of the Radisson Hotel. We're so cheap that I fished coins out of the water fountain and let the kids throw them back in. Cheap entertainment! ;)

We don't look anything alike, do we? ;)

Aliyah watching fish in the fish tank.

Love this picture of Samuel looking at the fish.

Hope was pointing out the Mommy fish and the Daddy fish and the Grandma fish. She is such a creative girl!

Yup. The lights were already on. Apparently some technical glitch caused the lights to come over 1 1/2 hours early. Kind of a bummer! But we still walked around the park and enjoyed the lights. It was a super warm night (mid 50s!) so it was a perfect night to be there!

We lost Aliyah's hat . . . this is where we found it. So thank for the people that put it there.

Samuel didn't want his picture taken.

Me and my girls. SO much happiness in one picture. :)

The whole crew (except for Grandma who was taking the picture)

Aliyah loved the lights!

Riding on the sheep at the Nativity set. Aliyah is throwing a fit in the background because she wanted to ride the sheep that Hope is on. She didn't want to ride it with Hope . . . she wanted to ride it all by herself!

Samuel on a sheep :)

Grandpa needs to join in on the fun, too!

Working up the courage to pet the police horses. He did it! So did Hope!

Even though the technical glitch made the lighting ceremony a little bit of a flop we still had a great time. The weather was perfect and the kids had fun running around and looking at all of the Christmas lights. We had a little bit of a problem when Aliyah saw Baby Jesus because she wanted to climb into the stable and get Baby Jesus. Because we wouldn't let her there was a *little* temper tantrum in the midst of a lot of people.

Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful day. I think Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays for sure.

We had a lazy morning (we went to our Church's Thanksgiving service last night) before heading up to my Grandpa and Grandma Stegink's house for the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. And the traditional Thanksgiving day "watch the Lion's lose" Lion's game. The dinner was great. The kids ate pretty well, but Hope wins the prize for the enjoying her food the most. She just sat and slowly ate her food, savoring every bite. She especially liked the turkey. The afternoon was relaxing - looking at ads, watching the football game, hanging out and conversing with relatives. Tiffany (my littlest cousin) loves little kids and she pretty much entertained Hope and Samuel for the whole afternoon. I'm still trying to figure out how I can get her to come and live at my house. The above pictures is of Tif and the kids - she was reading books to them. Aliyah slept in until like 10:30 so I ended up not laying her down for a nap. Hope had a late nap/rest time (otherwise she is impossible to manage in the evenings) before we headed off to my Mom's side of the family!

We celebrated Christmas with my Mom's side of the family. We've never done it on Thanksgiving before but this year we had to because my cousin Kristi is getting married down in Florida on December 17 and so that messed with the traditional Christmas plans.

All of the kids got one of the Hallmark interactive animals that talk when you read their stories to them. They are super cute! Samuel laughed and laughed the first time we read him his story and Jingle barked along.

Aunt Anna reading Aliyah her story about Cooper the Bear.

Samuel got the duplo camping/fishing set. My favorite part about this picture is my Grandpa's and Grandma's faces. They just adore their great-grandkids!

Hope got the Melissa and Doug cookie baking set. It is so cute and has already caused numerous fights between all 3 of the kids.

Nick and Kristi trying out Cambry's book and talking rabbit. Cambry is my cousin Andrew's little girl. He and his wife Trisha are both so sweet - it's fun to watch them with a little baby!

Aliyah got the duplo pet shop and the duplo zoo. My Aunt Sandy absolutely spoils my kids!

Aliyah with her penguin ornament from Aunt Sandy. She is in love with penguins (she calls them "waddle") and refused to let anyone even so much as touch her penguin ornament!

Samuel got a Thomas the Train and Toby. He told us later that these were his favorite presents. I have no doubt!!

Aliyah's already getting the hang of opening presents!

This is Hope's new doll from my grandparents that Aliyah absolutely had to have. Thankfully, Hope is gracious and let Aliyah hold her for a little bit. Aliyah had an all out temper tantrum when Hope opened the baby because she wanted it. She kept crying "bee!! bee!!" I think Hope got sick of the crying and decided to just let her have it!

My grandparents. Aren't they adorable?

Meeting Cambry. Aliyah was fascinated with her and didn't want her out of her sight!

A little conversation happening between Aliyah and Cambry. So sweet!!

And that was our Thanksgiving!!

Happenings at the Huinink House

This post is pretty random . . . mainly because I have a bunch of (cute!) random pictures on my camera!

Aliyah and her babies. And her new hat that I bought at a craft fair. I'm in love with it! And Aliyah is nice enough to keep it on for at least a few minutes at a time! The baby she is holding in her left arm is by far her favorite baby around our house.

We got a new futon cover so I pulled the mattress off of the futon to take off the old cover. I left the room for a few minutes and came back to all 3 kids sitting on mattress looking at books (or, in Aliyah's case, playing with a sock and a bracelet).

Aliyah often will lay on her belly while she plays with toys. Adorable.

All 3 kids made a turkey craft for Thanksgiving. I was a little over ambitious and didn't really think about how much work it would be for me to cut out all of those hands (6 for each kid!) . . . but they turned out really cute! Hope was my only willing participant for a picture.

Samuel's first person that he's drawn. I think he did a great job! In the picture below he told me that he gave it "crazy hair" and covered up the person's eyes.

Aliyah is really into building towers with mega bloks right now. She built this tower all by herself!