Luigi and Leah

Daddies are so creative and silly especially when it comes to electrical tape and their children.

Baby's First Tats

Here is our precious little man with a precious new tattoo he received at the school family picnic. I'm sure he picked it out himself.

2.75 going on 15...

We sure love summer! Sprinklers and bike riding are taking up a lot of our home time! But, never is she too busy to talk on the phone.....

SOOOO big!

Bryce has hit the 9 month milestone! He is doing marvelously! He is crawling, pulling himself up and starting to respond to common phrases such as 'So big'. We have his 9 month well-child this week and I am interested to see what percentile he fits into.
He says "ma ma ma ma ma" which I am sure is translated to Mom, I love you....We sure love him!

He Is Risen!

Easter, 2011. The kids were dressed to the nines even though I wasn't able to get a good shot of them both looking at the camera together while smiling, they still were cute!

My parents gave each of the Okkema grandkids a balloon to signify Jesus rising from the dead. The balloons were a big hit - as well as Easter Eggs full of candy!

Then, later in the evening the Gonzalez family came to our house and we were visited by a special friend....the Easter Bunny!

Spring 2011

The VB's have been pretty much holed up in hybernation mode this winter. We've had some illness and trying to prevent illness...however...we didn't forget to take pictures!!
This picture of Bryce trying to eat his foot was a while ago, but too cute not to post.

The little guy has learned and mastered sitting on his own. He's taken a few tumbles face first, but he's learning that's not in his best interest.

Bryce is also eating at least 1 fruit or veggie a day and is really enjoying solids! He is also

really growing FAST!!

Last Saturday evening was such nice weather we were able to take our first bike ride as a family of 4. Rick was able to put the trailer behind his bike and Leah also has a bike seat...it looked pretty cute with him riding toting both the kids behind him. I was perfectly ok with just trying to keep up!

B - 4 Months!

We're surviving winter so far....having lots of fun staying...in. Bryce is learning many new tricks lately. He can roll from his back to front AND front to back. He enjoys sitting in his Bumbo even though he spits up about every time he does. He feels like he is part of the team and enjoys helping me make his bottles before school in the morning from his Bumbo.

We also have gotten the exer-saucer out. Apparentely, in this picture, Bryce thought it was going to take off at top speed...notice the grip he has on the toy.

And of course, Big Sister Leah, the great helper that she is, wanted to make sure the exer-saucer was SAFE for her little brother and had to test it out for him. She now gets a "mime-out" if she is found playing in it.

Leah is also enjoying potty training her babies. Here this picture shows her 'white baby' taking a turn on the potty. She tells them "good-bob" when they're all done while nodding vigorously! It's funny to watch her interpret how she see's me!! She is doing a great job telling us when she needs to go and has had many successful trips but I feel as though we're not very close to big girl pants yet...a few more weeks of good practice may do the trick!

Our little rockstar, Bryce turned 4 months old yesterday. It's so hard to believe. He is laughing and squealing and singing a lot of the time that he is awake now.

We went for our 4 month wellness checkup this week and his stats are firmly in the 50th percentile. 15 lbs, 3 oz. We are very thankful for his development and health!!

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas from the VB family to yours!! We had a great holiday week. We spent Christmas Eve with Rick's mom and sister's family. The kids play so well together. It was a great time!!

Christmas morning we went to my parent's house for waffles a la Kyle and presents and naps...

Auntie Holly showed up with Santa hats for the kids.

This one I thought was cute - what a great big sister making sure his pacifier is in his mouth...

We are so blessed with such great families and warm homes with food to eat, and the ability to give gifts!!

Early Winter 2010

Leah is becoming such a great big sister! She shows Bryce how to take a bath and play with his toys!

I was getting Bryce out of his bathtub (yes, it's pink) and Leah decided it was time for her bath. I heard some rustling in the bathroom and she had proceeded to take all of her clothes off and hopped into Bryce's tub.

Bryce's First Day of School (and other pictures too)

Real life has started for us now that I am back to work and Bryce has started school. If you can go all the way back (I cannot figure out how to put a link to Leah's post), there is a similar picture of Leah on her first day of school - Bryce seems about twice her size!! He is doing very well at school and is learning a lot. He enjoys seeing his cousin Tyler everyday (as well as his aunt or uncle) and I am sure they will learn how to team up on their teachers!

Leah is hilarious these days! She is mimicing pretty much anything I do with Bryce with her baby. She hasn't given her baby a name yet, I am waiting for that one! This is a picture of her

'eat, eating' - that means feeding her baby. She likes to tell me what Bryce is doing all the time...her favorite is "AWAKE...OPEN", then she says "HI BWICE" with the C being a TH sound.

Saturday mornings are fun around our house because we aren't rushing off to school in the morning and it's much more relaxed. I thought this picture was kind of funny with Leah eating her oatmeal reading her US Weekly and Bryce hanging out in his bouncy seat.

Of course, I cannot forget to report in on the precious smiles that we're starting to get from our little guy!! Sometimes I will look over at him and he is just ALL smiles at someone or a random toy - or yes, the ceiling fan.

He is a happy little fella. We figured out if he is fussy, he normally wants to be put down on the floor and have his independant play time. I wish I had figured that out a few weeks ago, but it's making the VB house a little lower on the decibal level!!

Happy Halloween - 2010

Halloween was a fun holiday with the 2 kids this year. We kicked off the week with a kid's costume party and hayride complete with pumpkin carving and a hotdog roast in the woods.

We have so much fun with all of our friends and their kids!! We were pretty proud to get almost all of them on the wagon minus one 3 month old ghost.

Our extent of Trick or Treating was going to my Grandparents and Rick's sister's house. I love this picture because Leah is giving GG a kiss. What a sweetie! The pumpkin is cousin Tyler who is 6 weeks older than Bryce.

And of course, Papa and Ima had to witness this trick or treating event...although the doggie was not really cooperating in the picture.

Bryce - 1 Month!

It's amazing to think that at the end of August I was dreading the LONG month ahead...then after Bryce was born, this first month has just flown by. He is currently working on being able to hold his head up and he did roll over twice from his tummy to his back, although it hasn't been repeated since. The longest he has slept in a row is 6 hours and it delighted the entire family. :)

He is so much fun and is starting to coo and squeal. Big sister Leah enjoys mimicking him and makes us all laugh.

School Picture Day, Fall 2010

They practiced smiling all day for this! Love it!

Fun in the Sun

Bryce came home from the hospital with a bit of jaundice so we were instructed to have him exposed to sunlight. We hoped that that would be enough, but his bilirubin count continued to rise after we got home. The doctor decided he needed some additional treatment and prescribed 24 hours on the bilirubin phototherapy light. :)

It was kind of cute how he "glowed in the dark" for a night. It was kind of a pain because he had to be on it as much as possible - so pretty much we only took it off for diaper changes. The rest of the time he seemed as though he had a tail. The light wand was really thin and fit under his

onsie...thank God he only had to stay on it for a day and his jaundice went away pretty quickly.

On a positive note, we were able to get some extra snuggles in - I didn't want him to get all wrapped up in the (really short) chord after all!

The Scoop on Bryce's Birthday...

After being discharged from Holland Hospital Friday 9/24, we were instructed to go home "get some rest" and come back at 8 am Saturday morning 9/25. Easier said than done! Saturday 9/25 was a date that we had anticipated the first annual Walk for Water fundraiser for Water Missions International for a long long time. Well, babies come when babies come! We were blessed with friends that were willing to take Leah so my parents could run the fundraiser all day with out a 2 year old "helper". This is us, dropping Leah off on our way to the hospital (which incidently, we passed the water purification machine and my parents on their way to setting up). I have labeled this picture 'Before there were 4'

The day went smoothly, but a bit longer than we had expected. I went in and was dialted to a 3 and almost all the way efaced...but it still took 12 hours for our little one to arrive. I was hooked up to pitocin and a bunch of fluids and away we ..sat around. The epidural was granted and put in about 2 pm in the hopes that it would allow them to crank up the pitocin and get the party started! We sat around some more....mainly because I was numb and was a captive audience.

At 7 pm our wonderful nurse was leaving...but she wanted to check one more time if I had progressed and if I had, she was going to stay until he was born. How sweet!! I hadn't really, so we said our goodbyes and thankyou's and the new nurse was going to come in...Between 7 pm and 7:13pm, I went from 8 cm to "complete"!! It must have been the whiff of a competition between me and the lady in the room next door. We began pushing, the dr. came in and Bryce Matthew was born at 8:02 pm. What a miracle he is!

Leah came to meet her baby brother the next morning. She was wearing a big sister shirt that was given to her by her babysitters the day before. Cute guys!! She was very interested and loving for about 3 minutes and then tried to destroy the hospital room for the rest of the time she visited...we knew our work was cut out for us!

This is Bryce chillin' in his bed. We were checking out name books in the hospital...just to be sure on his name and came across Bryce....meaning "Alert and Ambitious" yep, looks about right?

We passed the 'put your baby in the carseat' test and were cleared to go home to start a new chapter in our life! What a great time it has been so far!! to be continued...

Tractor

Rick and Leah are doing lots of yard work together while I am inside keeping tabs on Bryce.

Rick figured it was time to teach Leah to drive the tractor - which is her dream come true. She LOVES all things tractor!!

Apparently there is a song that the singer yells out "Big Truck" and that is what she is yelling at the end of the video though it is almost impossible to decipher.

baby boy

bryce mathew vb, born

8:02pm, 20.5" long, and 8.3lbs, healthy and hungry, love him.

its go time, yeah.

6 hours in....

I finally have some good news to report. I am now dialated to a 4 and 90% effaced. The doctor just broke my water and the epidural is on it's way!

The staff all seems to think this was the "jump start" that we've been waiting for and things will move quickly from here.

a Baby Story Part 2

Hello He-VB fans! Today is finally the day we get to meet our little guy!! Yesterday we went to the dr and found that my blood pressure was quite elevated and they put me on a monitor to watch the baby's movements. From there, they decided there were a couple red flags and they sent me over to the Hospital for a "Biophysical Profile". That included sitting on the monitor for a few hours and an ultra sound to meaure movements, breathing patterns and fluid levels. The baby checked out GREAT but they found that my fluid level was a 6.5 and anything under 10 is a concern. I guess they don't let you leave the hospital if you're under 5 because of the risks to the baby. SO, the decision was made to move my induction up from Tuesday, September 28 to Saturday am, September 25. They put me on bed rest and told me to take it easy for the night.

It was stressful to sit on the couch and try and relax when there were so many things to get done. All in good time, right?

So, at this point, it's 10 am, we've been at the hospital for 2 hours and on pitocin for about an hour. The doctor says my contractions are coming along very nicely and regularly and the baby looks good so far!

There was only 1 scare this morning when they noticed my elevated blood pressure they said there is a slight chance if my blood platelet level is low I MAY not be able to get an epidural....uuuuhhhh, yeah. So, we're praying that those levels stay within normal and I can be as comfortable as possible through out the day.

We're excited to see how the day unfolds!!!