cora grace.

on monday, april 25 at 9:10 am we welcomed cora grace into our family. 

here's her birthday story:

my due date was april 19. i was really hoping the baby would come before that because i was really uncomfortable. my doctor even thought "you'll never make it to your due date." in my mind i need i would be close to the 19th since parker and madalyn were right at their due date. i had been walking the neighborhood, eating pineapple, doing everything in my power to get the show started...and nothing. sunday, april 24, was a lazy day for us. the kids had colds and i woke up with one too. we relaxed and stayed home from church. sunday evening as brandon and i relaxed and watched some parenthood i had a few, probably 6 contractions over 3ish hours. they then went away and we went to bed. i woke up monday morning a few minutes before parker came into our room to announce "the sun is out, its morning you guys!" i had had a contraction. i then had another one about 10 minutes afterwards. i started to time them and told brandon. he got parker his banana and a show going and hoped in the shower. i texted garth and mary saying that we would check in around 8:30 but hopefully we would be heading to the hospital that morning! within the next few minutes i had another contraction...like 5 mins after. and then another at 5 minutes. i was a bit worried because they were pretty strong and i knew labor would go pretty fast. i called mary and said she needed to come right away. brandon quickly got ready. by the time mary come around 8:15 the contractions were about 4 mins apart. i finally got out of bed so we could go and my water broke. this sent both brandon  and i into a bit of a panic. we quickly said goodbye to the kids and got into the car. thankfully we are super close to the hospital. we got to the hospital and my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart. by 8:45 we were at the hospital and  headed into a labor and delivery room. my doctor arrived and within minutes i had cora at 9:10. we weren't even checked into the hospital yet! it was a crazy morning and one i'll never forget. we are so thankful for the blessing of another healthy beautiful baby!

cora grace deur weighed in at 8lbs 7ounces and 20" long. she was born with a full head of dark brown/black hair, chubby cheeks, and a serious face. we can't imagine life without her ;)

first photo!

meeting big brother and sister!!

"my baby cora grace"

things to remember...

parker and madalyn are at such sweet ages right now. don't get me wrong we have our share of whining, crying, timeouts, and fighting but overall they are just a lot of fun.

madalyn is a nonstop chatting machine. she is constantly saying new words and phases that make us all laugh. current favorites are:

look obber there

look at me 

watch me daddy (in a very high pitch voice)

paco (parker...although she now prounnces parker)

i see horses, cows, sheeps, and pigs (everytime we are in the car)

a lion licked me in my room. it scary.

counting starting at five, six, sebben, eight, nine, ten, eleven, fourteen

parker continues to be all about construction, digging, and trucks. he spends most afternoons in the backyard with a large amount of trucks digging in the dirt. messy but keeps him occupied for hours. he is so sweet (most of the time) to madalyn. he is constantly on the move with some plan in mind...usually construction.

parker and madalyn.

wow. these two are just about the best things ever. together and separately. 

the relationship between them is priceless. brandon and i couldn't be more pleased with how they interact together. they play with each other, snuggle, laugh and get into trouble ;)

and of course they have their rough times too!

i love watching and hearing their conversations. parker loves to ask madelyn questions and hear her funny answers. she loves to follow him around and copy his actions. they build towers with legos, play trucks, take babies for walks, read books, watch mickey mouse club and so much more. just the other day they both were snuggled up in parker's bed together reading books...too cute!

renovation + two kids + pregnancy = exhausted

the title says it all. i'm tired. i had grand hopes of restarting the blog a while ago but napping always wins ;)

but to document the last few months and our amazing house transformation, here are a few pictures!

 tile going in the kitchen, bathroom, mud room area

 master bdrm/master closet

 kitchen

 living room

 front entry closet

 front entry

 new front closet (smaller and more usable!)

 p in his new room!

 front entry/stairs...bye bye two different shades of green!

 living space with refinished floors

 fireplace...now painted white

 cabinets going in

 bdrm lights

  front entry way

we are so excited for this project to be finished! although we are not the ones doing the actual work it has been very time consuming...more than we originally thought! Hopefully we will be able to move in soon and get settled before Baby Deur #3!!

oh hello...

i started this blog with the intention of keeping folks back home up to date...then after we found out we were going to have parker i wanted to document our life so we would remember fun events, ordinary days, and just to see the changes in our little family.

fast forward to today and my last post was in june! aah! so much has happened and i just couldn't find the time or the motivation to blog. in a way i'm sad because we have done so many great things and the kids have changed soon much and i have the pictures to document but no thoughts written down to go along. oh well. a quick catch up post! and maybe if i get a chance ill go back and write about the past!

last spring we made the decision to move back to michigan. in june we went to michigan on vacation and put our house on the market while we were gone. it sold in 5 days ;)

the rest of june and july were spent packing and preparing to move, enjoying the seattle summer and preparing for my last mission trip with the bcrcyg. 

the last week of july i went to manhattan with the first intergenerational mission trip group. it was an amazing trip and definitely bittersweet seeing that it was my last time with the yg. during that time madelyn decided to start walking (that stinker!)

and she hasn't slowed down since!

we moved three days after i returned from new york. note to self: that was dumb!

it was exciting to move back to michigan but also super stressful. saying good bye to all our seattle friends was difficult.

we moved to michigan and moved in with garth and mary. brandon worked remotely for his company in seattle and we began our house search!

shortly after arriving in michigan we discovered that we would be have baby #3! so exciting!!

we found a house in late september and by the first week in october it was ours ;)

the house in in the downtown holland area and needs some work. so a complete renovation of the main floor began at the beginning of november.

we are currently living in a condo while the renovations take place and are hoping to be in the house before april (when baby #3 is due!)