Florida {Day 3}: Part 4

Pajama Party!

My Mom bought all of the kids matching pajamas.  We had to do a photo shoot with all 5 of them wearing them!  Grace wasn't exactly happy about it but we managed to get a few pictures without her crying.  Aliyah also refused to crack a smile . . . I think she was a little annoyed with the screaming baby next to her.  Ha!

Florida {Day 3}: Part 3

Stegink Family Christmas

We had a special time celebrating Christmas a family in Florida.  We didn't have a real Christmas tree to put the presents under . . . but that didn't matter!  Everyone was together and that was enough!  My present from my parents was beautiful diamond earrings to replace the earrings that I lost (that were from Rosie Jo).  So excited to have nice earrings to wear again!

At school, Savannah bought presents for each of my kids at the "store" they set up so the kids could go Christmas shopping.  Aliyah got a cute stuffed flower with a smiley face on it.  

Anna had Kaye's name and bought her a monogrammed scarf.  I had Anna Marie's name and renewed her subscription to Real Simple magazine.  Daryl had Tim's name and bought him a Tiger's shirt.

Savannah with her new barbie.

Aliyah got princess dress up clothes.  She was pretty excited about it!

Samuel helping Uncle Ben open his presents (some treasured piano books from my parents since he has a piano and no piano books!)

The three girls all got princess dresses.  Savannah's and Aliyah's were from my parent's and Hope's was from Anna.

Our "Christmas tree" :)

Dad reading Luke 2 before we opened presents.

Samuel opening his fire trucks from Savannah (which is just what he asked Santa for this year!!)

Hope's peace flower from Savannah.

Samuel got legos from Uncle Ben and Aunt Anna!  I'm not sure who was more excited about this gift - Samuel or Uncle Ben! :)

My scarf was from Kaye (LOVE it! and love having a sister-in-law that has way more style than myself!) and Aliyah opened a brand-new "Callie" from Grandpa and Grandma.  "Old Callie" is falling apart and she is so attached to it that Grandma decided a brand new one was in order!  Aliyah was SO excited.  When she opened it, she kept saying "get it out! get it out!"

Hope got a Loving Family motorhome from Grandpa and Grandma.

Samuel's big present from Grandpa and Grandma was the barn that he opened on Christmas day back in Kalamazoo but he did get a few little presents from them to open in Florida.

New pajamas from Grandpa and Grandma.

Daryl got the marble game from my parents!  It's extra special because my Dad made it.  

So excited about his base set from Grandpa and Grandma!

Playing "Sorry!" after all the presents had been opened.

Florida {Day 3}: Part 2

Everyone Together!

There is absolutely nothing better than having the whole family together under one roof.  Today we celebrated Christmas with everyone.  It was a special day filled with a lot of good memories and good laughs.  We are so grateful for Tim and Roslyn's (Kaye's parents) generosity in letting us crash at their beautiful beach house for the week.  They are so good to us and always remind us to come and stay at the beach house whenever we want because "they bought it so that family could use it".  Below are random snapshots of special "family together times" during the day - so blessed!

Florida {Day 3}: Part 1

We didn't have a very restful night of sleep last night!  Aliyah went to bed last night very cranky and complaining that her right ear hurt.  I gave her motrin, hoping that she'd sleep well and wake up  happy with no earache.  Wishful thinking!  She woke up around 1am and tossed and turned in bed between Daryl and I (good thing we have a king size bed!) for a couple of hours.  I gave her tylenol   sometime during all that tossing and turning and it helped her to sleep until almost 7.  I called Rambling Road (well, the answering service since it's Sunday morning) and finally got through to a phone nurse.  She was sympathetic, but doubtful that the doctor on-call would do prescribe anything over the phone for Aliyah.  She said that I might need to call back during office hours the next day and then they might be able to help me out.  Out of desperation, I asked who the doctor was on-call, hoping for Dr Dyk but knowing that the chance that it was him was slim to none.  She told me the name of another doctor that I'm pretty sure my kids have never seen.  Then she said, "Oh wait, actually it looks like Dr Dyk is on call this morning from 5-8am."  At this point it was 7:40!  I asked her if she could please at least call Dr Dyk and explain the situation to him.  I told her that Dr Dyk knows me and my kids really well and I'd feel better if she at least asked him if there was anything he could do for us.  She was very kind and told me she could do that for me.  It wasn't long before she called back and told me that Dr Dyk was calling in a prescription for Aliyah!!  Thank you, Lord!!

After heading to Family Christian Chapel this morning for worship, we made our way back to the beach house.  We had lunch and then the guys took the kids down to the ocean to play for an hour or so while the ladies stayed back at the house and got the food ready for our "Christmas dinner".  The kids had a great time at the beach even though it was pretty chilly outside - in the mid 50s.  Savannah and Samuel both got pretty wet running in and out of the waves but Hope and Aliyah preferred to stay where it was dry!!

Florida {Day 2}

We made it!  We are safely in Jacksonville after two long days of driving!  Today, we left the hotel at 8:15am and we got to Tim and Kaye's house at 4:15.  We made one stop south of Macon, Georgia, a little after 12:30 for gas and bathrooms.  The morning was rough, I-75 was a parking lot south of Atlanta.  It was a mess and I think it was all due to the heavy volume of traffic and some construction that was going on.  We were stuck creeping along for about an hour before we finally made it to an exit ramp and got off the highway to travel south on a two lane highway for awhile.  The two lane highway was packed with cars doing the same thing that we were doing.  It was all just crazy.  But it was fun to see a little bit of southern Georgia!  After we had our gas/bathroom stop, Samuel rode with Grandpa and Grandma and Savannah for the rest of the way (3 1/2 hours) to Jacksonville and Anna rode with us.  It was a nice change of pace and helped the last leg of the trip go by fairly quickly.  

We stopped at Tim and Kaye's house first because we needed to get the key for the beach house from them.  The kids warmed up to Uncle Tim and Aunt Kaye quickly.  We got a tour of their new house and Samuel and Savannah went up to their knees in the freezing cold pool.  Crazy kids!  We chatted for a bit before taking off and heading to Ben and Anna's house.  We were all so excited to meet baby Grace!!  She is so precious and it is fun to watch Ben being a Dad. :)  Baby Grace loves her Mommy and is definitely the most content and happy for her - but she tolerated all of us passing her around!  Aliyah and Hope both held her but Samuel had no interest at all.  He was more excited about Uncle Ben's trains and building a train track. :)  We weren't there for long because we didn't want to overwhelm Ben and Anna and we had to get to the beach house to unpack and have some supper!  It was so good to finally reach our destination!!  We unpacked, had some supper (grilled cheese and tomato soup) and let the kids play for a few minutes before settling them into bed.  Mom and Dad went grocery shopping while the rest of us chilled and enjoyed not sitting in the van!!  Can't wait for the fun week ahead!!

Florida Trip! {Day 1}

 And we're off!  We left Kalamazoo at 6:30am this morning to head for Jacksonville Florida - just over 1100 miles of traveling to get there.  Our goal was 6am but we had to take a little detour when my parents (and Anna and Savannah) got to our house and then realized they forgot to turn off the water at their house.  The kids were great today.  Our first stop was just south of Indianapolis for gas and a bathroom break about 4 hours after we left.  Our next stop was about 4 hours after that at the Tennessee Welcome Center rest area.  We were surprised at the heavy amount of traffic heading south.  It definitely slowed down our travel but we still made really great time and ended up arriving at our hotel in Chattanooga just after 5pm - 10 1/2 hours after we left.  

The kids, like I previously mentioned, did great in the van!  We watched a few DVDs between Kalamazoo and Indianapolis and then they didn't ask for it for the rest of the day!  The girls both napped in the afternoon and Samuel had some quiet time by playing on the Kindle.  We fed them breakfast and lunch in the van and made our stops more about running around and getting energy out.  Eating is a great activity for the van b/c it takes up a lot of time!  We also did their stocking presents in the van so every 100 or so miles they got another present to open.  I read a LOT of books to them . . . so many that by the time we got to the hotel I felt a little dizzy and nauseous.  

The van ride today was too uncomfortable for me.  I made sure to do a lot of ankle pumps to keep the blood in my legs flowing!  I didn't even tell my OB doctors that I was taking a 18hr car trip to Florida because I didn't want them to try and talk me out of it! ;)  But I was careful about walking around a lot at our stops and moving around a lot in the van (well, as much as I could with being buckled!).  I let Daryl do all of the driving because I figured I could move around more and adjust my position more frequently with being the passenger.

We stayed at a great hotel in Chattanooga.  Our hotel and most of the hotels around us were full.  I think a lot of the traffic was snow birds heading down south as well as some holiday vacation travel and football (a few bowl games down south) travel.  We had Wendy's for supper, then let the kids jump on the beds for awhile, and then headed to the pool for about an hour of swimming before bedtime.  The kids all loved the pool!  It was hard to get them out when it was time for bed.  Samuel asked me, "Mommy, when we wake up in the morning can we get our swimsuits on and go down to the pool again?"  Aliyah loves swimming and did really well paddling around the pool with her puddle jumper on.  She even jumped in a couple of times and said "I don't want you to catch me!"  She did great with going under the water and not swallowing any!  She says the word "pool" more like "pooooo" (with maybe a little "l" on the end that you can just barely hear) - too cute!  Hope is my girl that is a little nervous and tense in the water.  She also gets cold easier than my other two, which doesn't help.  She swam for a little bit, but then preferred to sit on Aunt Anna's lap and watch everyone else play.

Tomorrow: Jacksonville!!! :)