the boys first concert

yesterday, the whole wu tang family traveled out to grand rapids to see justin's band, fireflight. justin has been touring for awhile now and he was only in for the day, so it was good to see him again.
we got to van andel arena right about the time they were going on for a sound check. jenn, don and rainah had just gotten there as well and were all hanging out up front by the stage with jessica and mom.
jenn had made the kids "fireflight security" t-shirts and also printed some lyrics from their single, unbreakable, on the back. as soon as we got there we put the t-shirts on the boys so that they were official and everybody knew not to mess with them...or the band.
right away hayden asked if he was going to go up on stage with the band, of course. but thankfully there was no meltdown when we told him he wasn't allowed up there...even after justin grabbed talan and carried him around the stage.
when the band started sound checking, hayden kept covering his ears saying that it was too loud. but as soon as they turned the lights down and put on the stage lights, he immediately uncovered his ears and started dancing. rainah continued to walk around while talan just looked around while dave held him.
when the sound check was done we all headed to lunch which consisted of the best bbq chicken pizza we'd ever had. the restaurant was packed but we managed to squeeze 7 adults and 3 kids into a table for 6. as long as rainah had food she could shovel in her mouth and as long as we kept everything on the table away from talan, things were fine.
after lunch we headed back over to the arena and hung out until the bands went on. we headed over to our seats and as soon as the first band played hayden started rocking out. all of this kids loved it, actually. rainah and talan were clapping and dancing and staring at the lights while hayden was dancing and screaming ("yeahhhhh" "rock and roll!" "woooohooooo!") with the rest of the audience. it wasn't long before hayden noticed the microphone that was sitting in front of our seats and he grabbed it and started talking/singing/screaming into it. he's bound to be a front man.
fireflight came out and hayden was so excited to see justin up on stage. we think they did great, although we've heard justin was a little bummed about their performance. if hayden noticed, he forgot all about it by the end when the "explosions" went off.
when they were done playing, we all headed out to the merchandise table where dave stepped in to help the poor guy that was left to man the station by himself. the band was on the other end of the arena signing autographs while we tried to occupy the babies and hayden ran back and forth to the water fountain. the kids did unbelievably well considering we were there ALL day and there were no naps. poor talan wasn't even really able to just get down and crawl around all day.
at one point, i took the boys for a walk and talan fell asleep in his stroller while hayden found a group of kids playing "duck duck goose" in the middle of the hall and joined them. he was bummed when it disband before he had the chance to be it. the rest of the day he kept trying to con mom, me and jessica into playing with him. it never did work.
when the autographs were finally done, justin came back up to say goodbye to us as he didn't have the time he thought he might to hang out. we said goodbye, made plans to see "semi pro" on easter (it's becoming an easter tradition to see a will ferrell movie...although this time i won't be giving birth hours after watching it) when he comes back and we all packed back into the car and headed home.
hayden was quite upset that we weren't spending the nite at jenn's house and kept insisting "but i need dinner! i didn't eat dinner yet!" when we finally stopped and grabbed him some mcdonalds in the car, he ate about 2 of his apples, handed them back to me and said "i'm tired." he grabbed his blanket and 2 dogs and instantly fell asleep.
thanks for the boys first concert experience, justin. see you in a few weeks!


the shirts. this photo session was impossible:



the man who helped me give birth. and the thing that popped out:
talan and jessica:
talan keeping the crowd in check:
"it's too loud!":
sound check:
talan at lunch. his new favorite crackers are club multi grain:
the meanest couple on earth:
rainah loves to eat:
fireflight:



rockin' out:

during sound check hayden yelled "look! it's the sun!":
the gang:
talan loved it:
he discovered the microphone:

talan had a fun time pulling dave's newly grown hair:

this guy:
keeping himself entertained:
how we all felt by the end of the day:

our trip to the west siyyyyd

hayden is off of school this week so we decided to take a trip to grand rapids on tuesday to hang out with jenn and rainah. many people go to florida for their mid winter break. not us. we decided to travel to the west side for some lovely windy 12 degree weather. i honestly don't know how you west siders do it. i went to western for a year and i remember walking to classes in that weather. michigan is bad enough, you don't need to make it any worse on yourself by moving up north or even to the west side. it really wasn't much warmer here in the detroit area. but there wasn't the wind. or the snow that caused me to travel at 35 miles on the expressway because you couldn't see a darn thing except snow.
we really did have a wonderful time though. we showed up to jenn's and after transferring 2 car seats into her mini van we headed off to the grand rapids children museum. hayden actually had been to the museum last year at this time when mom took him on a trip to visit 1 1/2 month old rainah while i was still working. i believe that he remembered quite a bit of it as he kept asking to go see "the cars" which turned out to be a yellow slug bug.
they were doing a "bob the builder" thing so they had all sorts of tool type things and all of the cars from the bob the builder show. at one of the tables they had nuts and bolts and screws that you could put on a magnetic strip. hayden played for a couple of minutes while rainah and talan could have stood there for hours putting them in their mouths while we told them "no" and took them out. many minutes after leaving the table i looked in talan's mouth and found one of the washers. awesome parenting, i know.
hayden's favorite part at the museum was the bubble tables where he could make giant bubbles and one where he could actually pull a lever and stand inside of a giant bubble. he actually never was able to make the bubble go above his head, but he got close.
hayden, talan and rainah all also loved this little ramp that had different size bells that you could move around and then push golf balls down and listen to the dinging. they stayed there for quite awhile. and hayden even actually shared occasionally.
at the end of our visit we somehow got hayden to go into the arts and crafts room where he made his own rubber stamp that he was able to take home.
keeping the amazing parenting alive, at about 2pm we decided it was about time to leave and go get some lunch. lucky for me talan will still happily take a bottle and hayden could care less about eating so 2pm wasn't so much a big deal.
don met up with us and we had a really good lunch where hayden ate 1/2 of his french fries and drank his chocolate milk and talan and rainah had more food on the floor than in their stomachs. but they still managed to get quite a bit in there too. talan even ate quite a bit of the ham from my omelet. while in the car hayden said "talan still has a piece of ham in his mouth." that piece of ham probably stayed in his mouth for about 1/2 hour....just like his brother. oh well, at least he eats more than hayden.
after lunch we headed back to jenn and don's and let the kids play for awhile. i tried getting hayden to eat his leftover mac and cheese from lunch, which he didn't do, and then we packed up and left for home around 6pm. besides the spots where it was snowing, the ride was uneventful and we got home a little before 8:30pm.
we'll be taking another trip out there on the 1st to see justin's band play. i'm hoping for a little bit warmer weather this time around.
thanks for having us jenn, don and rainah! we'll see you next weekend.


hayden and talan in the mirror tunnel. hayden kept saying "there's so many of me!" yeah, that's just what this world needs:
rainah and talan in the mirror tunnel:
the bubble table:
more bubble fun:

this was a bob the builder water pump thing that all three kids loved and stayed at for quite some time:
doin' their own thing:

talan picked the flowers in the flower garden and then ate them:
helpful hayden planted the flowers:
talan watching rainah put washers in her mouth:
talan looking around to see if anyone was watching him:
about the time i thought "i think there's something in his mouth":
the bell ramp:
they all enjoyed it:

proof hayden actually did a craft. and talan shoving food in his mouth:
the masterpiece is finished:
hayden driving home:
minutes before the crash:

family dinner

jenn was in town the other weekend so everybody went over to mom and dad's for dinner on sunday nite. here are some of the highlights:

talan and rainah shared. or were they taking toys from each other? not sure:
talan and grandma threw a ball:
rainah tried playing with hayden, but he really wouldn't let her. even though it's a baby toy:
talan crawled through the table:
apparently after over 8 years of shaving his head, dave has decided to grow it. so jessica gave him a little trim:

our most recent purchase

other than recently FINALLY signing up for netflix (something i suggest everyone does), things over here at the palace of redford have been fairly boring. so boring, in fact, that i am posting before and after pictures of our kitchen table and chairs.
shortly after we got married, dave's parents gave us their old kitchen table and chairs as they were upgrading. i have no idea how long his parents had this set but i know that we have now had it for 11 1/2 years. we started out with 6 chairs. by the time we moved into this house about 7 years ago we were down to 4 chairs. within the past year we threw out two more and brought up 2 folding chairs. and just the other month, after sitting in one of the original chairs, dave decided it was finally time to throw away the last 2 chairs. so for several months we've been eating and playing catan with 4 folding chairs. one evening we had 5 players so jessica had to bring her own chair.
we went out looking for tables that would actually fit our tiny eating area and came up empty handed. we need a smaller table with a leaf so if we need it, as tight a fit it might be, we have it. after looking online we found a set that was being clearanced out and we ended up getting a great deal on it.
so last thursday, while watching lost, we put together the table and 4 of the 8 chairs. we now have a fully functioning counter top, table and chairs! now all we need is to patch up that hole in the wall and put some tile up. oh, and probably get some new flooring at some point too.
the chairs are quite comfy. so if you're ever in the area, you should stop in for a meal, a game of catan, or just come over to sit in our brand new chairs.

it was time:
i was far to engrossed in lost to take pictures of us putting this all together:

rainah turns 1

the end of december is a busy time of year for us what with hayden's birthday being december 30th and all. but last year, rainah noelle decided to make it an even busier time as she made her entrance into this world 2 weeks early on december 29th.
so this year we had christmas, started getting ready for hayden's party and then headed off to grand rapids for the day on saturday, december 29th for rainah's first birthday party. the theme was "winter ONEderland" and it was so cute. jenn had a snowman cake on top of cupcakes and little snowflake cakes (one of which rainah ate almost the entire thing herself!). she also had a huge hot chocolate bar that had all sorts of fixin's and she made chocolate dipped pretzels that looked like snowmen.
besides us, mom, dad and jessica drove out and don's sister lynn had flown in for the event. jen, joel, anna and simon zwart were all there too and it was great to see them. hayden had a friend to play with in anna which was wonderful. they were playing quietly in the basement riding on rainah's little roller coaster until hayden came up and when asked where anna was he stated "he's dead" (everyone is a he). we went downstairs to find anna laying on the ground crying because hayden wasn't playing with her anymore. i feel bad about that, but i feel more relieved that that was the reason she was crying and not that he had punched her or something. anyway. hayden got bored upstairs and started playing with her again and all was well.
rainah really didn't care too much about opening presents but she loved looking at all of her books and pressing her talking farm animal magnets that drove jenn insane. and that made me laugh. jenn somehow hasn't been able to tune out all of the loud obnoxious children's toys. i, on the other hand will sometimes not even notice when 5 toys are all going at the same time.
unfortunately, rainah didn't take her morning nap and was exhausted by cake time. she had no problem eating but then slowly started fading away. she went upstairs and took a great nap before coming back down to play with all of her new toys again.
dave slept the majority of the afternoon as he started feeling like he was getting sick. fortunately, he woke up the next morning and felt fine so hayden's party could continue as planned.
the party was great but we had to get back home so the boys could get to bed and rest up for another busy day on sunday (see hayden's page for his birthday post). hayden played his video game in the car most of the way until he started complaining that if he had to sit in the car any longer he was going to die. (if you can't tell, that's his new thing even though he really doesn't even know what the word means...the other nite he was afraid of the dark because he would die.) but he eventually fell asleep shortly before arriving back in beautiful redford.
thanks for all the cake and pretzels and hot chocolate. and happy first birthday, rainah! we love you!

thanks for the toy, but i'd rather just look at the instructions:
jenn helping rainah out:
"sooo big":
rainah driving jenn crazy by constantly pushing the magnetic cow:
she loved her stuffed rocking dog:
the spread (thanks for the photo, dad):
the cake eating begins:


the zwart clan. anna, simon, jen and joel:
talan was there too:
this is what dave did:
the cake is almost gone and so is she:
this was all hayden's idea, obviously: