preston's dedication

I'm a little behind in blogging but so it goes, right?!

At the end of September we had Preston dedicated. What a special day it was! We decided to do it at we consider our "home church" even though we absolutely love our current church, it just felt right. We got married in this church and Lily was dedicated at this church as well, so I opted to have our son dedicated their as well. 

I asked Doug Tensen, a family friend, an awesome pastor, the man that married and counseled us, and a wonderful man of God do our private ceremony and it was perfect.

We invited our immediate family and grandparents and that room was sure full of love. Doug shared some verses with us about the promises of God, the blessings of children, and our role as their parents and providers. He asked us to affirm our faith and publicly share that we promise to raise Preston in the truth. And to us that's what this whole deal is really about.

When we first had Lily and talked about the differences between baptizing, dedicating, or doing nothing until they could decide from themselves we surprisingly both felt passionately about the same thing. It was incredibly important for us both to publicly profess our faith and our desire and commitment to raising our child/ren in a home that will know about Jesus. We want our children to see love through our actions, words, and service. My heart longs for them to find their own faith and come to know the Lord as their own. What a responsibility that is as parents, but what an honor! And then our vision for our children is that they will make the decision to be baptized on their own - when they have accepted Jesus into their heart and fully understand what being baptized really means. And what a day of celebration that will be!

So happy dedication day sweet James Preston - our prayer for you precious son is that you love Jesus with all his heart. That you will learn about Him through us and come to know Him as your own. 

jimmy & preston

LOVE this picture of our family surrounding us with their support

how quickly our lives can change

Two weeks ago we had quite a scare. We spent the afternoon sitting in an urgent care on pins and needles as we waiting to hear if our son was alright. So so scary and something I hope to never live through again, but as parents I'm sure we will.

It was a Wednesday and we had spent the beautiful afternoon having lunch with a friend and playing at a park. We came home around nap time, 2ish, and I quickly wanted to finish a few chores before putting the kiddos down for nap. One of which included changing the clothes in the washing machine to the drier. Simple and quick task - right?! Well my littlest was whining at my feet because he was tired and wanted picked up. So in an attempt to occupy him I handed him the closed container of Tide laundry pods that I use in our washer. I proceed to switch my clothes from the washer to the drier and glanced down at my son to find white soap on his hands and dripping from his mouth. Slight panic but I quickly scooped him up and headed to the sink, doing my best to rinse his mouth out and he begins to SCREAM.

I quickly read the back of the container to see that if ingested I should give them milk or water and call poisoin control immediately. So I do, in the meantime he throws up. The posion control lady tells me to go the ER immediately. After a little further discussion she decides Urgent Care may be the better option, because it's much closer, and we hang up. I rush around to quickly change Preston's and I's clothes, as they are covered in throw up, call Jimmy, call my sister to see if I can bring Lily there, and hop in the car. I call Jimmy again once in the car to let him know which clinic I'm going to and then Preston starts throwing up again, alot. So much so that he begins choking in his carseat. I barely get the car pulled over, hop out of the car, and begin scooping it out of his mouth. He has soaked his clothes, the two blankets I had given him, and his entire carseat. Jimmy yells from the bluetooth phone call to go to the Urgent Care immediately, bring Lily along, and he will meet me there. 

We jump out of the car and arrive at the Urgent Care - they were waiting for us. He's taken back almost immediately and they begin to check him over - looking in his mouth, listening to his breathing, and just examining him. They of course ask me several questions, all of which I could thankfully answer because I was right there. And then they scare me deeply. The Dr proceeds to tell us that ingesting these laundry detergent pods kill children. That because the soap is such a concentrated amount it can burn the child's mouth when swallowed, and then creates legens on the inside of their body/organs that cannot heal, and consquently causes them to suffocate. Crazy, insane, completely freaked out, so scared. He proceeded to tell us that they had an ambulance ready and that if at any point he wasn't comfortable with what he saw, he would be ambulanced down to Blanks Children's Hospital downtown. And then I completely lost it. How could this have happened? How could I have been so stupid? How did I not know how bad those things are? How could I have given him that container to play with?

They told us that we'd be staying awhile and that they wanted to continue to monitor him for a few hours. And so they did. At first Preston seemed out of it, which I don't know how much of it was just due to him being tired and how much was because of the soap. But then after an hour or so he began to play with Lily. They read books and discovered the room we were in and I started to relax a bit, but not entirely. What if something happened when they sent us home? How do we know what to watch for? How do we know he's ok?

After a few hours the doctor told us that he thought he was in the clear and that we could go home. He told us that in the majority of these cases they see the signs within the first hour. I was still nervous to go home unsure of what the night would bring. However, he gave us clear instruction on what to look for and advised us to check on him every hour. Needless to say I didn't sleep much that night. But morning came and he was fine. He's been fine ever since. Amazing.

So crazy to think about how differently that day could have gone. How our world could have been flipped upside down. When I think about those possibilities it literally breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes. He is such a gift to our family - what in the world would I do without him? Children are so fragile, God entrusts us to protect them and keep them safe and what a good reminder that we should never take that job lightly. There's no doubt in my mind that God was watching over little Preston that day and only allowed him to ingest some of the soap. May we always remember how small we are and how powerful and BIG our God truly is.

northern michigan

We just got back from an awesome trip to Northern Michigan for my cousin's wedding. We left Thursday after work, drove through the night and arrived in Petosky, MI early Friday morning.

After a failed attempt at getting our kiddos back to sleep we got our room settled then headed down for breakfast with family. It's so fun seeing family we don't see that often, some of my cousins I hadn't seen in over a year! We spent the day Friday exploring the awesome downtown, walking along the Lake Michigan harbor, attending rehearsal lunch, Jimmy golfed with the men of the wedding, and then after pizza in the hotel we hit the town for the night. One of the bummers of traveling with small kiddos is one of us always seems to miss out on something - Jimmy stayed back with the kiddos that night while I caught up with several of the ladies and enjoyed some yummy appetizers and drinks at a local restaurant.

Saturday was wedding day! We spent the morning at a park and a fun coffee shop on the pier before heading back to get ready for the wedding. We had previously decided that just I would go to the wedding and Jimmy would stay back with the kiddos. That worked well because it was a 2pm wedding - aka nap time - and then they'd be well rested for the reception - so we thought. Funny how things never quite go as planned :) Turns out Lily didn't nap and Preston didn't sleep long. So sure enough by the time we drove the 20 minutes to the reception site they were both tired! Turns out Preston really can sleep through anything and slept a good hour in the corner in the stroller while we ate dinner and visited. Then before the dance even started Lily switched him places and slept the entire rest of the reception asleep in the stroller as well. Preston was a party animal and stayed up dancing with us until the last dance!

Sunday we took our time getting packed up and hitting the road and took a scenic drive back to Grand Rapids, MI where a few of my cousins and aunt and uncle live. We were able to see both of their places, the kiddos were able to play and run around with my cousins kid, have dinner with them, and then load back into the car for the drive home through the night Sunday.

Last stop was Monday morning to spend the day at the farm. It timed out perfectly that Jimmy's dad was ready to harvest our field so Jimmy actually did that himself this year and ran the combine all day Monday, while the kiddos and I spent the day at Grandma's! Both kids loved riding in the tractor with Aunt Jissy and in the combine with daddy. Such fun memories being made. Then one last time in the car Monday night to drive the last few hours home to Ankeny.

It felt like we spent days in the car but it was well worth the trip! I don't think we've missed a family wedding yet and I love that. Sometimes it's the only time you see some family that lives far away and marriages are such a big celebration. 

Congratulations to Brett and Biz - may you experience the blessing of marriage in a real way and work daily to follow Christ through your marriage.

Lake Michigan harbor

Great Grandpa Dieken playing with Preston

sisters

babies & grandma

ready for the wedding

brett & biz

they're married!

their wedding site

mom, dad, cinda & i

party time!

ready to get in the combine

harvest

preston & daddy

northern michigan