Holiday Cheer

I had a couple of new friends and old friends over to have a cooking party. We made a ton of different things lots of fun to hear stories and catch up on the "old times."

This is Logan and his Jingle Jog certificate. We were all so very proud of him. He had to wheel for 8 minutes straight. He walked right before this too so he was really tired. I went to school early to watch him walk again and to make sure I was doing everything right. Logan was telling me I was not putting his braces on right....well I was, what does he know. Brian also showed up early and watched him a little. Brian goes "wow this is kind of a tear jerker" Well thats all it took and the water fountain began. I kind of felt like I was going to cry earlier when Logan was whining and didnt want to walk but I pulled myself toghether. I thought I did all of that the week before. I guess not and it didnt stop until Logan was done with his jog, people probably thought I was the craziest mom. I have to say he was soo cute.. everytime he came around the bleachers he would wave at everyone. He loves all the attention!!

This is one of Logans helpers, she actually helps on Mondays when they have gym. She came in special just for him to keep him going. He sure is loved by all.

This is all of Logans cheering squad...well the loudest of Logans fans. We ALL pulled ourself together for a picture. Sorry its not the best picture but you get the jist of it. It was funny because Deb was going to say something to me and she saw me crying and then she started. Its just sooo amazing to see Logan doing all this and accomplish so much in life. We had a doctors appt this morning to see what we can do with his vesicostomy, we are soo sick of him getting wet all the time. If you know Logan you know what I am talking about for those of you who dont know what that is.. well it is where Logan goes to the bathroom... Enough of that, that could be a book in itself. We have to talk over a couple of things and get a second opinion on a potential surgery.

This is the snow on Sunday. WOW can you even believe all of it. I love the snow but when you cant even go out and enjoy it, it kind of stinks. And Logan hates the snow, he thinks he is going to melt. The girls went outside to play or shovel the steps(they said that I would make them do it anyways so they might as well get to it..Wow I wasnt even going to tell them that but how should I take that???) I told them dont worry about the steps since its going to be nasty all day and it would be bad again in 1 hour. So Mike told them to clean off the trampoline. It took them over 1/2 hour to do that with no complaining????? The dogs are having a hard time trying to find a place to go to the bathroom and the horses..well their another story. I have a horse right now who is on the verge of going colic. This time of year horses have a tendancy to have this happen with the weather. He is not eating the greatest or drinking or going to the bathroom. I had the vet over and he gave him a clean out, through the rear end and stuck this tube up his nose and ran some sort of oil through it to try and clean him out.. Still didnt work so I was off to Coopersville vet on Saturday afternoon to get some more meds for him... the joy of horses. Sorry that was probably disgusting for some of you. Brooklyn might have a different view now on being a vet, and Lexi got a great eye opener.

W e were supposed to have Mike's mom's side over on Sunday but that got cancelled. Tonight we are off to my parents for Christmas, I cant wait for her great food. She is the best cook. Have a great Christmas!!

When Logan got home from school I read one of his stories that they talked about in school today. We were reading about Mary and Joseph and how their was no room in the inn and then it got to the part where she had a baby boy. and Brooklyn pipes in and says i wonder what Mommy is going to have a boy or girl and then Logan goes I have a baby too see. We all thought that was quite funny, only out of the mouth of Logan.So this is a picture of Logan showing us his baby in his belly. As the story continued I would read a little and then see if he knew what to say and I started to read and then I asked him if he knew where Mary had her baby and Logan goes "yes yes I do she had baby Jesus at the Fair" OH BOY I thought I have heard it all. So we went on to read the whole story again without asking questions and making sure Logan knew that he was born in a stable and layed him in a manger.....He should know this since they are constantly reading about Jesus birth at school.. These pictures are in the wrong order and I couldnt get it to work to change them. Today I went to school to watch Logan walk with his sticks. Wow I couldnt believe it no tears and he was so excited to show me. He told me he was going to walk like Braxton...I thought Oh boy he is a crazy boy with his sticks. If you know Braxton you know what I am talking about. The first picture is of Logan walking into his classroom to show his class how he can walk. At that point I got a little teary and then Logan says"Look I can walk, Look at me" and then the class goes "Hi Logan, wow look at Logan." OK at that point I had Alot of tears and so did the adults and then I kind of lost it. Wow what an experience to see that. And to see the kids care so much for him and the Love they have for Logan just amazes me, they treat him no different than anyone else. He also has a little girlfriend in his class.. So precious. As I am writing this I am tearing up, It just amazes me at how awesome Logan is doing in school, his reading, his walking, therapy, speech and the list goes on. Wow Thank You God. We always seem to ask the question Why.. why did this happen to me, why does this have to happen to good people, why, why why, but we alot of times forget that we need to thank him in times like this. We truly have so much to be thankful for in Logan, everyone always says Logan always bring the best out in everyone.

This is Logan having a little break down about 10 steps before entering the classroom. His hands were getting soar. Which the therapist said all his upper body weight is on his hands so it probably does hurt. I always tend to think he is milking it.. All I had to do it tell Logan no tears and I will go and tell the class that you are coming to show them how you can walk and the tears were gone.

This is when we was coming out of the therapy room, he was a little nervous(ok alot) when he went from carpet to tile because the sticks would slip on the tile. Once Linda assured him that she has him he will not fall he was off. She said Logan you dont have to be scared I have you and he told her "Yes I do I am frightened that scares me" the other Linda and I just looked at each other and said "did he just say that" And started laughting, again, oh the things Logan will say. The teacher says he loves the attention and always gets it. I should explain that the therapist hold on to the back of a scrap on Logans back to keep him up right, he has a tendancy to lean forward, which they say is a learning process.

These are Logan's 2 therapist at Zeeland Christian. They are wonderful, One of the Linda's worked with him at OAC along with Kathy(who we miss). As you can tell Logan is so happy, and loves to get his picture taken.

Tis the season

I took some pictures of the kids by the tree the other day hoping to capture the "perfect" picture.. I dont know if we got that perfect picture but a couple of them turned out. This one is not the one we are sending out but I thought it was so cute and so funny when we were trying to explain to Logan how to make a fist and put his hands under his chin. He kept looking at Brooklyn or Jess to see if he was doing it right. I dont know why it is dark on the right side, I have no idea how to use my camera.
I just had to post another picture of the animals, they are always so cute snuggled up together, Titan and the cat Butterscotch are like mother and daughter and Boscoe he is just the dog who doesnt care for the cat. I failed to mention we had a death in our animal family 2 weeks ago. Titan likes to act like a mother cat and play with the cat in his mouth and shake it around. Well the cat didnt look to good at night so Mike put the cat in the bed(cat bed) and covered it with a blanket after checking it all over. He said he didnt know if the cat would make it, it didnt look to good but it wasn't bleeding or no bite marks. Well the next morning it was stiff as a board with its legs and arms(is that what you call them on a 4 legged animal?) were straight up. SOOO.. I could have cried but kept it together, I had to tell Brooklyn something, it was kind of her cat, they were supposed to be barn cats but they like the garage better. So I told her I think Oreo went to find a happy place to run away and die, since cats do that. Right??? So she was ok with that but still sad because the cats would walk with her down to the bus stop, play with the kids and run back up when the bus came, it was quite cute. Now everyone keeps telling Brook "I think I saw your cat by my house" or "I saw a black and white cat in the tree or in the bushes" and on and on, so I still think she thinks their is hope. Little does she know.. Poor girl or should I say Poor cat. So we really dont know if the dog killed the cat or if it had some internal problems. Who knows. WOW sorry that was kind of long. Does any of that make sence to you?

Logan and I trying to bake some Christmas cookies. I bought some sugar cookies thinking how easy is this, I will just roll it out and make some cookies. Well it didn't roll well at all. Logan ended up smacking them with his hand and then I gave up. Are sugar cookies not meant to roll out?? I just bought the pillsbury roll ones??? I have no idea. I usually make the dough(my mom usually makes the cut outs, I cant lie and hers are the best). I thought this would be really easy and the kids love to bake and frost cookies. Maybe next time for something fast and easy I will have to buy the ones that are already cut out.

We also made some Hot Chocolate, probably not again with the kids, very messy since its all powdery stuff, but again the kids LOVE to bake. We turned on the Christmas music and went to town. Its so cute listening to Logan sing Christmas songs, expecially Away in A Manger. Or Rudolph, he comes home with a new song every day. You probably wouldnt know what he was singing since his letters dont come out quite right but I know and its so precious. I actually recorded him singing and doing his memory verse which is Luke 2: 6 & 7. So amazing how he can memorize that. And ask so many question about Jesus. He told me yesterday that its Jesus Birthday at Christmas!

I almost forgot to mention that Mike and I went to the doctor on Monday for an Ultrasound. And everything is Perfect. Praise the Lord!! The baby was in a position where we couldnt tell what it was, so hopefeully we will find out in 4 weeks when I go again. The technician said the baby was in a great position where she could get some great pictures. Mike thinks its a girl and I think a boy, we are all wishing secretely for a boy. I am hoping and praying for a healthy baby. The babys heartbeat was 140. I dont know how to scan the pictures so I will try and have Jessica do that some time soon.

Mike left today for Florida with some guys from his race team and Josh, his employee. They went to a PRI show, its all about Racing stuff. To but to be in a warm state would be great, he will be home late Saturday night. Chris has the kids this weekend so I am kid and husband free, what a girl to do???? I think I might shop on Friday and on Saturday morning I am going to help Tressa and Chad clean their house, so they can hopefully move in. They have been living with her parents for over a year.

I think that is all for now, enjoy the snow!! :)

Arena Racing

Mike and Bobbis have been racing at the Delta Plex for about a month now and having a blast..well having fun at times. This is a new kind of racing and they are still learning. but all in all having fun with it. The kids also love to go, Logan has a blast and Brook has fun going too, she usually takes a friend and they walk around and eat junk food, and then watch a little racing. They also have freshly squeezed Lemonade just like the fair...YUMM!! If you have not been their yet, come check it out, they have a webiste which is www.arenaracinggr.com. Bobbis actually lost his ride last week to Mitch Meppelink who just turned 14, so now he is the back up driver for Mike in the #23 car. He drove the 18 car and did a GREAT job for his first time in a race car(a legal race car). It was fun to watch them at times racing with each other. The first month they usually qualified 1 and 2 so that was fun. Those competative Bursley Boys!!
This is Brook, Logan, Cole Machiela(Mitch helps) and Seth Brower. Some guy gave Logan a tire.

Grandma Bubbles loves to spoil Logan. This week she bought him a flag. He loves acting like the flag man. We have been sitting on the bottom row lately, its a little bit easier with the wheelchair and for some reason Logan likes to sit their. You know the saying if your kids are happy you are happy!! :)

After the races someone gave Logan this t shirt. Logan gets something every time we go, maybe next week we can get a free Lemonade. He got Another tire this week too but we gave it to some girl who wanted one. In the pits Logan thought he needed to put on Mitch's helmet and race.. So of course Grandma cant say no so they were off acting like they were racing and Logan was having a ball, telling people to move and so on.

Mike after he won the race. We were so excited. While they were interviewing Mike Logan kept interrupting and saying "Baby, Baby, you won, talk to me." It was so funny. For those of you who dont know this and Mike would probably not be too happy at me for me for putting this up for everyone to see but Logan calls Mike baby since I always call Mike Babe. We are trying to teach him to call him Mike but it is not working... Oh well its kind of cute. Mike got a big trophy and Logan said that it was his and he was putting it in his room, well Brooklyn beat him to it.

Logan and Baby Liam

Brooklyn and I finally went to see Tim and Jen and Baby Liam.. Adorable!!! He is so little and so precious. It brought back so many memories of Logan and Jess, only because they were that little and had to wear that awful noisy and annoying monitor. Brooklyn wouldnt share to nicely though, I think I am going to have a baby hog on my hands once I have mine. Jen hauled out the Wii and played with Brook so then I got to hold him intil Jess came and snagged him from me. She is another baby hog until they start crying. She was doing a report and needed a break. It makes me feel really old to go over to Tim and Jens house(our old house) and hold her baby since she always babysat for me and I would babysit for her or Ashley when they were little. And now I am starting all over with the baby stage, but I cant wait only 5 more months. I know it sounds like forever. we go next Monday for another ultrasound, I cant wait! Jen and Tim sure have a preciouis gift from God.

This is our little stinker Logan. As I said in the previous post, I learned alot about Logan that I didnt know. Sounds terrible ha. Well one of the things was that he can do is put on his braces and shoes and take them off by himself. So I wanted to see for myself. After therapy yesterday I told him to take his braces and shoes off so we could get him in the shower. His first words were"I cant do it." In the meantime he wanted a snack so I told him once he gets his braces off he can have a snack and he still said that he couldnt do it and again I reminded him that he was NOT going to get anything until he took his stuff off. WELL... about 5 minutes later after alot of grunting and exhailing...basily alot of drama, he had his braces off. And he was proud to show me that he could do it. He is our other strong willed child. Another answer to prayer is that they want to start Logan with walking sticks some time before or after Christmas... Wow God is great. He is doing so good at walking with a walker that they want to keep him going, who would have imagined Logan even walking. Just goes to show God does answer our prayers.

Holiday Pictures

Here are a couple pictures from Thanksgiving and a Christmas party. Enjoy.. I will be posting some more later.
Jess and I. People keep telling us that we look alike. What do you think? They also say she acts just like me :} That makes me a little nervous.

This is Brook picking out a Bingo gift. She looks kind of dorky but I totally cought her off guard. We had the Langemaat(moms side) Christmas party this past Saturday in the Grace Center At Ottawa Reformed. It is always nice to see everyone, expecially my Aunt and her kids from Kentucky. They go to the Lions gave every year(dont ask me why) and since they are so close we just do Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. The kids love playing bingo and then we play dirty bingo, which can get a little crazy.

Here is Logan in the massage chair watching Barney after our Thanksgiving meal. Life cant get a whole lot better for Logan right now.

Here is the family picture after stuffing the turkey which is a tradion. We all go over to Mom and Dad's house Thanksgiving eve and the kids stuff the turkey, some of them love it and others prefer not to touch it. Logan this year surprised us all, he grabbed the stuffing and shooved it in. He is a kid that does not like his hands dirty.

A long time coming.

Sorry it has been so long. I am trying to upload some pictures but for some reason it is not working. Very frustrating. I will try later. Not a whole lot has been happening so maybe that is why i have not posted, well as I think about it alot has happened, I will try not to bore you with my life over the last 3 weeks. Perfect Circle Race Shop has moved to Jenison, with a bigger and better building, so now we can get our barn back. Jessica cant wait for the snowmobiles to be back and I cant wait for the lawn mower and golf carts to be back in the barn. Mike has been VERY busy moving things over and meeting with people. I am not quite sure if I like him gone from 8:00a.m until 6:00 if not later. I guess I have been spoiled with having him work behind the house. Jessica has been a normal teenager, here their and every where. For those of you who do not have teenagers yet, start praying now. They are very challenging!! People keep telling me it gets better, they also tell me she is alot like me!! Which scares me even more!! Brooklyn loves school and loves to bake. We had conferences this week and she is doing great at school. And Logan is quite the character, he amazes me everyday at what he says or does. We learned at conferences with him that he can do alot more than we thought he could do, he has got us all fooled. He also continues to love school, he continues to walk every day and getting better and better at that with hardly no help. Praise God! Who would have ever thought that 5 years later Logan would even be here, or walking or going to school. He is such a blessing to all of us. At school he is in a normal Kindergarden class in the morning and then in the CLC room in the afternoon with extra help and pt, ot, speech and reading. He is even reading books. It is so fun to listen to him read to us even if they are repetative books. He goes to Holland rehab on Mondays for extra pt, ot and speech, we are working very hard on his studdering. As for Me... well I havn't done a whole lot lately, I am 14 weeks along and feeling great. I just went to the doctor this week and the heartbeat is 150. I go for another ultrasound in 2 weeks to make sure everything looks OK. With this pregnancy I am a little, ok alot more nervous. I can carry up to 20 pounds now. Yea I know whoopty, it was 10 pounds so I was excited and I can vaccuum a little..YEA!! I love to vacuum. I have been helping out at the cafe when I can. If you have never been their you need to try it out, they have the best muffins, cookies, soup and sandwiches. Its all homemade and cheap. Deb or I can make you a coffee. Thanksgiving was great, I love to go to my moms and eat, she is the best cook in the world, and all I had to bring was my famous green bean casserole!!:) Its kind of a joke to my family. We went to my moms during the day, well all day, Mike hunted for the first time this year and I tried to take a nap but Logan was not going to let that happen. And then at night we went to Ottawa Reformed Church to celebrate with the De Witt side. Again great food!! We have so much to be thankful for. Tonight we are going to watch Mike race at the Delta Plex, if you ever get a chance to go they are fun to watch, and the kids love it. Sorry this is so long, I think I will end now before I bore you any more. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and now its time to get ready for Christmas.
Blessings,
Kathy

This post goes out to all of Logan's old teachers

Here's a picture of Mike and Brian Campbell after his win in Tennessee! They received a guitar instead of a trophy.



Here's a couple pictures of Logan reading his books on the potty. Logan goes faithfully on the potty after an enema, so he no longer poops in his diaper. I bet you wish he would have done this last year when it was swimming time! :) If Logan only knew what I was posting!!!

First win with the ASA Perfect Circle race team!!

Brian Campbell in the new Perfect Circle Racing house car won the All American 400 race in Nashville, Tennessee. Congrats to Brian and team and of course to my hubby. Very proud of you boys. All the hard work and no sleep has paid off.

I promise these are the last pictures for today

Family tradition is carving pumpkins at my parents' house.


Isn't he cute!


Mike is trying to get Logan to scoop out the pumpkin seeds. Logan wants nothing to do with it!


Jessica's fake baby "Trent" from school.

The final result!

Good times, great food, and lots of great memories. Thanks grandma and grandpa!

And some more pictures...

Logan ended up having emergency surgery on October 9. To make a long story short...he fell in his wheelchair at school, took him home to watch him, threw up 2 hours later, all he wanted to do was sleep so my mom and I took him to Spectrum. After a CAT scan and xray, we found out he had a small skull fracture and his ventricles were enlarged. Dr. Foody ended up doing surgery at around 9:30 p.m. His shunt was fine. It was basically the tubing was not draining properly. After two days in the hospital, he got to come home. The nurses said he was the "best patient ever." How could you not want a patient like Logan...who loves to watch tv!

More pictures

Heather, me, Kim and her mom wrapping the carmel apples.


Mr. and Mrs. Jon Ray


Pictures on the golf course.


The newly married couple.


Doing some Dirty Girl Scouts at Kirby's.

My first attempt at blogging!

I have been wanting to start a blog for some time...since I love to check out everyone else's blogs! Mike is gone this weekend, so Pam came over to help me get started. Logan and Brooklyn are at their dad's this weekend. Jessica and Grandma Bubbles (Bursley) are hanging out with me. I have several pictures to show. I didn't know where to start, so here is a glimpse of what we've been doing over the summer/fall. I hope you enjoy reading!


Grandma and Brooklyn at the races.


Caleb, Rylee and Brooklyn jumping off the boat at the cottage.

Heathe, Bursley and Bobbis playing ball with Logan at the cottage.

Logan loves to go fishing. Little does he know...there is no hook or fish!