Jendy Van Roekel

What happened to the Van Roekels?

2011-04-14T09:32:00.005-06:00

Hello Everyone!

What has it been one and a half years since our last update! So long I hardly know where to begin. We do not face-book or tweet or any other fancy forms of communication so I do apologize to our beloved friends who only hear whats going on in our lives from our blog. We love you we really do. It has taken me this long to finally take the time and start blogging again.

After our Washington DC trip and our last post. God amazed us again, we were expecting a THIRD CHILD! We cried when we found out we were expecting Lily and Alexander. This time we were speechless and when the shock wore off we laughed! Baby was due in early May! Lily had not even turned 3 yet! Wow, to think the years that we really wanted children. Boy were we making up for lost time!

Pregnancy in a nutshell:

Much more difficult this time. I got Pneumonia early in my pregnancy and could not take any thing that would get rid of it. So I had pneumonia for a few weeks hoping to get a little farther along without taking any medication. It got to the point however, that my doctor was worried that I was going to miscarry so he did give me antibiotic. I took 2 rounds of it to clear it up.

A few weeks after I was over the pneumonia I got food poisoning! Not Fun!

Much more tired this time around. Mostly due to running after two kids.

3 weeks of bed rest. Really hard for me to have Lily and Alexander have to go somewhere else everyday. Family and Friends were so awesome to help out with watching our kids and bringing us meals.

May 4
Really fast Labor! 8:00 Contractions start. There were no 15 min. apart. Every Contraction was 3-5 min Closer than the previous one. 8:30 Jeff was pulling his pizza out of the oven at home. I said we have to go now! He was not moving fast enough for my liking. Nor were the nurses or the doctor.

Abigail Esther Van Roekel was born at 9:27 pm no pushing needed. If the doctor would have been around I know I could have push her out 10-15 min earlier. ( Sorry guys, too much info, but the girls love the details!)

Lily was very excited about a baby sister. Alexander was not ready to be the middle child or maybe he was hoping for a brother. It took him a few days to realize that mommy was going to need to hold the baby a lot.

The picture below is one of my favorites b/c Lily is asking "Did God take the baby out of your tummy?" I say "yes" Lily responds " So now you can bend over?!" Love It!

We'll close today on that. Promise to keep posting.

Virginia Part 2

2009-09-15T13:37:00.009-06:00

One of the fun things we did while we were in DC is we went back to the Linclon Memorial. We had taken Lily's picture there last time and took some of the same shots as last time. I think she grew a little.

Jeff with Lily in May 2oo7 and with Alexander and Lily Last week.

Virginia

2009-09-10T18:30:00.012-06:00

We made it to Virginia. Sunday morning we left in the Van for Virginia. We took both Kids and they traveled so well. Jeff and I were very impressed. They really didn't get upset at all. WE traveled 12 hours the first day and stayed at a hotel in Michigan City. They kids were ready to swim and run around for a while. We started out fresh the next morning and arrived at Jeff's Aunt and Uncle's around 7:00 pm.

We could not believe the toll Roads and the prices!

Korean Memorial

This memorial is special to us since Jeff's grandpa served during the Korean War.

Fountain in front of the National Archives

National Park we visited.

This is what they are looking at. These little guys were running around on this board walk to the falls. They were way to close for comfort for this girl.
I told Bev that I like wild life behind glass at the zoo, She agreed. I was a little jumpy after seeing these little guys.

More to come

Alexander Turns 1!

2009-08-25T09:21:00.008-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Last Saturday we celebrated Alexander's birthday. We had such a good time and were able to enjoy the day with many family members and friends. Jeff had to do the dad thing and rent a blow up castle. I'm sure Alexander will remember it forever:) The adults had just as much fun and the kids did.

The kids were very amazed at mommy jumping, something
I must not do very often:)

So we are on a kickball league

2009-08-07T11:42:00.010-06:00

Yes, it is true we are on a kick ball team which plays real games on a city league. Who would have thought. Certainly not me. When Jeff came home and announced a few months back that Luan had this crazy idea to have a Sencore kick ball team I simply just laughed. He said yea Russ is designing shirts, our team name is We're Huge in Japan. (The engineers were/are very excited about their creative name). I however have no idea what my number is due to it being written in binary on the back of my shirt. There is also some Japanese written there as well, I have not even asked what that stands for.

They said they had need for girls to play so I said sure. I mean it's kick ball people, who takes kickball seriously. Apparently kickball leaguers.

Our first game we lost by a landslide. I don't even think we got one run in. It was 1 out, 2 outs, 3 outs. back to the field. We struggled Umps telling us about the rules, opponents upset b/c someone was standing in the baseline, bad ball handling, outfielders standing with their hands in their pockets. Meanwhile I'm thinking to myself, I don't think that I'm the only one out hear who was lasted picked in gym. What are we doing out here? I thought this was a child's' game.

So the next day at Sencore, Sara (who is just a little competitive) rallied up the guys and they started a game plan. They even made a line up.

The next game I was not in the line up so Lily and I cheered on the team. They didn't win but it was not near as embarrassing as the time before.

So this week I was in the line up. About 5:00 it starts to pour down rain. I call Jeff and ask"what about the game"? He replies " apparently we play" "You've got to be kidding me" were the exact words out of my mouth. So there I was, last picked in gym, heading to a kickball game in the pouring rain. Fortunately, the rain stopped during the first inning. We had to leave the field for awhile because of lighting. It ended up being a great time and we actually won. I have know idea what the score was, I never keep track.

Lily gets excited to go to the games. This is at our second game.

Such a Funny Girl

2009-07-09T20:18:00.010-06:00

Two really is a fun age. I absolutely love watching Lily learn about life everyday and attempting to see life through her eyes. Lately I have been just sitting back and admiring this great gift God has entrusted to us.
Here are some of my Favorites lately.

Lily has these pink sunglasses that she loves. She put them on the other day and I asked her "If she was a cool cat" She responded by saying "No, I'm a girl, Mommy" I had to laugh out loud.

Apparently it is easier to feed Alexander if you hold your mouth wide open as well.

This little house was one of our garage sale finds. A Whole dollar. When she was playing with it later that afternoon she was all excited "look at all the peoples Mommy!" I said" Wow that is so cool Lily, but who is that" I was referring to the lone man in the bathroom. She responds with a matter of fact "Daddy" Another Laugh out Loud moment.

My College roomie Sandra turned 30 in may, her husband threw her a little surprise party. So us old roomies and our kids were all together. Above Lily is meeting Kendra, Ryan and Lorinda Breems' daughter. Lily had been at a birthday party earlier in the day with all boys. She was so excited to see Kendra. I think Kendra was a little overwhelmed. It's something I love about her. She has such a tender heart. Plus we had to get their picture taken together since they were dressed so much alike.

It was really cute, the first thing she did when she saw her was pointed her finger at her. "Your a girl!" Then she bent down touched her shoes and said "I like your shoes!"

I love it all girl!

Latest Project

2009-07-09T12:00:00.012-06:00

Jeff took some time off around the 4th of July to work on our Landscaping project. It was the first time that he had not gone camping over the 4th in probably 20 years or more. It was time well spent. We worked on the rock retaining wall, leveled out the black dirt and even clean the garage on the rainy days.

It was a lot of fun to go the gravel pit, pick out our rocks and bring them home to make the wall. We had a huge load. We took back roads back to Sioux Falls to avoid a ticket, but that was scary too because we had to go over a bridge that said it's weight limit was 6 tons which we were way over.

After we hauled the rocks home I noticed baby birds up under the hitch. I felt horrible! We borrowed the trailer from Sjaardas so here we had taken the babies all the way to Sioux falls away from their mommy. I was quite concerned b/c Sjaardas live in Minnesota. How were the babies going to eat with out their mommy?! Well the horrible truth is they don't. They died a couple of days later. I felt and still do feel terrible. I knew I should have called animal control then maybe I wouldn't have this guilt gut.

Micheal came and gave us some pointers the first night to help us get started.

Lily loves to ride in the
scidloader with Daddy. " I drive it Mommy"
She rode for hours with Jeff.
Alexander loves to watch too. He likes to be outside, here is a clip I caught quick at the end of a tantrum he had after I brought him inside.

My Gladiator

I was very impressed with my husband this weekend. In one afternoon he finished the middle section of the wall for the patio area. Then at five o'clock he started the wall that starts behind the garage goes around the dog kennel and back around the garage to the front of the house. He was finished a little after Seven o'clock. It was incredible hot that afternoon. It's really something to look at that wall and think how Jeff placed each one. Jeff you are such a hard worker it looks so nice thank-you.

Settled

2009-06-21T14:47:00.012-06:00

Things are getting more and more settled all the time around here. Jeff finished the wood floors they are wonderful. Lily is riding her first bike and Alexander is crawling all over the place. Here hare a few of our recent happenings.

I now have my very own laptop! I 'm excited to be able to scrap book, email, and update the blog from anywhere.

Lily loves playing on the dirt pile in the back yard. On this particular night Lily was so dirty.

Lily on her new bike. She loves riding around the development.

We went camping in Rock Valley, IA over Memorial Day Weekend. Lily was soooo excited about camping.

Settling In

2009-02-07T21:11:00.007-06:00

Moving In

We are finally getting settled in to our new house. Here are some of our latest events at home.

Alexander making a new friend.

Building a tower with daddy. Notice Lily's concentration tongue.

Christmas Trees!

2008-11-28T21:32:00.006-06:00

We had a beautiful day to pick out our trees. It was warm enough that even Alexander was able to come out with us and cut down the tree.

Lily loved running along the path while Daddy carried the tree back.

Four Generations

2008-11-28T20:58:00.003-06:00

Thankful we are! Words can not express the thankfulness we have in our hearts. Just today I was driving and thinking to myself that it was less than 3 years ago that I was praying so desperately because I wanted to be a mom.

Now, here we are entering into yet another Christmas season and enjoying the bounty of blessings the Lord has given us. Two beautiful Children, a new home that we are very close to moving into and wonderful family and friends to share it with.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Update

2008-11-13T18:02:00.005-06:00

Alexander Found his voice and he is so cute. He sounds like a little monkey. He is such a good baby. I honestly did not know a baby could be so good. He rarely cries and he is soooo layed back. He goes to sleep on his own and sleeps most of the night. Getting up only once a night if at all. God so knew what we needed at this stage of our lives.

Lily is a very busy soon to be 2 year old. She will be 2 on the 17th of Nov. I can hardly believe it has been two years since we started this blog and were so concerned about her in the intesive care unit. She is full of life and a very fun little girl. Here is a video of her showing off her jumping skills.

So sorry for the long absence. Life has been extremly busy. Jeff has been working on the house every spare minute that he has. We are hoping to move around the first part of December.

Before I close I want to say thank-you to all of you who have sent us such nice baby gifts and gifts for lily. You are all so gracious. God bless you all.

Outside Work

2008-09-07T19:32:00.003-06:00

102_0560, originally uploaded by jffvnrkl.

Josh is back at school now but here is a nice picture of them working on the front porch. We've uploaded some additional pictures of the house to a web album that you can go visit by clicking on the picture above.

2008-08-22T07:11:00.004-06:00

Latest pics of our little man.

Its A Boy!

2008-08-07T15:21:00.005-06:00

So sorry for the delay everyone. On August 6 we had a precious baby boy. We named him Alexander Neal. He is already being referred to as Zander.

Lily has no idea what has happened. She loves seeing her new little brother. Grandma Dawn has been taking care of her and she thinks it's great.

We are so blessed that Zander was born healthy. My Labor was smooth and quite quick. God has been and is so good to us. Thank you all for your support and prayers.

2008-07-22T07:58:00.005-06:00

This is the most current photo of the outside of the house. Jeff has been working night and day to get the wiring finished for the rough in inspection. Many Hands have been working on this project. Thank-you everyone who has been helping from bringing food to pulling wire. We are very appreciative of your willingness, bless you all we could never have been this far without you.

Lily was not a big fan of Jeff on the Stilts. This was the only time she let him hold her and as soon as I took the picture she wanted down.

Lily loves her puppy. Ever since she could crawl she has sat on Einstein so I have multiple pictures of her sitting on his back. I have not taken one in a while and it is amazing to see how much she has grown. Everyone keeps telling us that when the new baby arrives she will seem even bigger. She is at such a fun age right now. She will repeat most words on cue and she is a little organizer. She likes to make sure things are in their place - phone on the hook, toilet seats down, toys in their spot, paper thrown away etc. She will be my little house keeper.

2008-07-11T17:34:00.004-06:00

Cousin Grace came to visit and they swam in a baby pool in the garage. They had so much fun giggling and playing in the water. At supper they sat and shared their chicken Pieces together it was so cute.

Flash back

2008-07-10T07:14:00.003-06:00

Can you believe my Hair! I don't know who is more scary the Shupe brothers or me!

2008-07-10T06:13:00.010-06:00

Things are going well here in Sioux Falls. I had a Doctor's apt. Yesterday and Everything is good. I have not had any contractions and I am feeling well. So I'm back on my feet again doing things around the house. Staying at my parents also made up for the weight gain I needed. I gained four pounds while I was there!

As for the house it is going so well. The guys have been putting in many hours. I do not have a good picture of the house with all the windows in, here are a few of the updates.

The windows are here! Josh hauling in a window.

Right- Jeff installing family room window

Jeff and Josh putting the house wrap on.

Einstein rode the lift up and hung out with Jeff while he finished the ridge cap.

Lily's first electrical lesson.

2008-07-03T06:55:00.003-06:00

It's been a while since my last update. The house project is going verywell the roof is shingled, the windows are in and the house wrap is on. Sorry, I do not have any photo to show. In fact I have not seen these new additions myself.

Lily and I have been staying at my parents since Monday. Last week through the weekend I was having some mild contractions so I was put on temparary bedrest Friday though Sunday. Lily stayed at Uncle Eric and Aunt Rachel's a couple of days and at Nana and Papa's on Sunday.

Saturday night Jeff and I went in for observation because I was having some contractions with backpain. Everything went well they monitored me for a few hours, did an ultra sound and sent me back home.

Things have been going well since Sunday night. I have not really had any contractions and I have not dilated at all, unlike when I was pregnent with Lily.

So since Monday I have been up and around some and feeling good. No bedrest and no Procardia (Medicine to help stop Contractions). Huge blessing!

So Lily and I have been hanging out at the Claus farm taking it easy and eating lots of good food. I do not think I will have a problem gaining the weight my doctor says I need to gain to make up for the last couple months of no weight gain. Being away from the stress of building a house has been benificial as well.

Lily loves being here. She could play outside from sunup until sundown. Mom and Dad just put up a new playground and she loves it. The first night she was here we had to carry her into the house Kicking and screaming because it was bed time. I think she would have gone down the slide all night long.

Summer time

2008-06-23T11:25:00.003-06:00

On the hot days Lily and I are spoiled and get to hang out by the pool while the guys slave away in the heat.

Flash back

2008-06-20T09:30:00.005-06:00

Our Computer is starting to get so full b/c of all the pictures we have so I am starting to go through old pics. and move them into storage. Let me tell you it has been quite the flashback.
So I thought that I would share some of them with you. It is hard to believe that it has been 10 years since our freshmen year at Dordt! Wow time flies. So I thought that I would begin our flashback series with one of our most distinguished friends.

East Campus Junior year

Tune in - More to come

Reaching High Heights

2008-06-20T08:12:00.014-06:00

The Rafters are Officially set in place. We were so blessed by the many guys who came to help, many of them busy farmers. It was incredibly hot and humid as well, however, there was no wind which made the process go smoothly. It also helped my nerves, it is bad enough to watch the guys walk across rafters 2 stories up. It is much worse when the SD wind is blowing so that was a huge blessing as well.
I was amazed at how well the process went. The guys worked like a well oiled machine. I think the other contractors in the area would love to employ these hard working guys. They seem to be impressed with the progress that we have made this far.

Brother Eric and Cousin Josh guiding a rafter into place.

Jeff looks like he is in the rodeo, lassoing his calf.

This is one of those times I went to the lot unexpected. The guys told me the wife shouldn't be there to see the precarious way Jeff was on a balancing Ladder. Yes, that is Jeff way up on the peak of the house.

If that was not bad enough they had reposition the Ladder while he was up there. I think I held my breath the whole time.

2008-06-16T20:26:00.004-06:00

Our First Family Photo in our house. As you can see I am becoming quite the butterball. I'm at 31 weeks now and slowing down. We also had a huge accomplishment on Sat. I attempted and succeeded in putting a pony tail in Lily's hair. It is just long enough but it is so thin it comes out easily. The trick is getting it in with out her noticing.

Lily loved seeing her reflection in the Pick up window.

Surprise

2008-06-12T20:34:00.010-06:00

Today my parents decided to come up and help for the day. I had no idea that they were coming. I did some running around this morning for Jeff and when I arrived at the lot at about 10:00 my parents were already helping on the house. It was a great surprise. Dad helped with the framing and my mom gave me a break and ran after Lily.

Both of Lily's Grandpas putting up sheeting on the garage.

Jeff Standing by the Electrical Panels he hung last night. Look at this guy, you can hardly tell that he worked in an office for a living. All scruffy and you should see the farmer's tan he's sporting. Wow- wee I better keep my eyes open. You know how those Midwestern girls love a good farmer's tan! Right Shawna:)

Framing

2008-06-11T17:05:00.004-06:00

Framing is well on it's way. This is the front view of the house from the street. 2nd floor rafters are in place. I love the framing b/c you see so much progress in such a short amount of time.

Below is the backside of the house. Kitchen and Breakfast area.

Josh and Jeff stayed late last night to finish this window well so that we could get electrical service to the house.

Subfloor

2008-06-05T07:23:00.005-06:00

Well things are coming together. We have had many rainy days here is Sioux falls and progress has been slow. However, the guys are making up for lost time and things are moving along well now. Jeff was blessed with a sabbatical from Sencore so he has been able to work full time on the house. Jeff's dad, Jerry, is also coming everyday and we hired Jeff's cousin Josh as well for the summer. So with the three of them there each day progress has been speedy. It is so wild seeing wall up and a floor down.

Chocolate, Jazz and Motherhood

2008-05-08T20:00:00.002-06:00

Lately Jeff has been putting in many hours on the house. This has greatly changed our schedule which has greatly effected Lily. The past few nights Lily has been having a difficult time going to sleep. Fussing, who am I kidding, screaming for one to two hours before she will go to sleep. Nothing seems to console her I've tried it all.

Well today Lily had one of those days where she tested every boundary there was, as all toddlers do. By bedtime I was spent. I decided it was time for a drive to go see daddy which usually works. Tonight however it did not. On the way home I thought once this child is asleep I need some chocolate. I pulled into the parking lot of our local Milky Way. I really think God drove my van right there b/c behold the special of the day Brownie Sundae. Could there really be a more perfect dessert after a day like today. I really should have taken a picture of this delectable masterpiece. The densest chocolate brownie you could imagine topped with ice cream, smothered in hot fudge and sprinkled with Oreo. Now you want one.

So I took my brownie masterpiece home while my child was screaming at me from the back seat.
When we arrived at home I took Lily in the house and put her to bed. She was not happy about this idea. I turned on the public radio station (classical) it usually helps put her to sleep.

I however went back out to the van. I turned on my favorite Jazz station, ate my incredible brownie sundae in peace and never thought once about what it would do to my already expanding waistline.

However, I did think about motherhood. Mothers' Day is this Sunday, a day that I use to dread. Do to the simple fact that I was not a mother and I so desperately wanted to be. How 3 years ago I would have done just about anything to have an upset child on my hands and another growing inside me, who is enjoying the brownie sundae about now.

So after my 15 minutes in Brownie Heaven I was refueled and ready to face the screaming child who I love so dearly again.

So for mothers' day I hope you are all able to take some time to listen to some Jazz and go to brownie heaven.

I want to wish you all a Happy Mothers' Day.

Sundays Ahh

2008-05-04T08:02:00.006-06:00

Today is Sunday and now that we have started the house project I long for Sundays even more than before. We love working on the house but it is so nice to have a day to rest.

The weather here in SD has held off and we did not get the rain or snow they were forecasting yesterday. It turned out to be a great day. Today is suppose to be even more beautiful. It think we are going to enjoy every minute of it.

Yesterday lily spent the day on the Farm with daddy and uncle Eric. I went to a Scrape book event with my sister-in-law Rachel. When I returned Lily looked like she was auditioning for a part in an Oliver Twist production. She was the dirtiest child I have ever seen. She had a wonderful time and slept like a rock. In fact she is already down for her first nap and it is only nine o'clock. One of her favorite parts of the day was seeing the new baby chicks.

Pouring Walls

2008-05-02T15:04:00.005-06:00

Even the weather was less then ideal we poured the basement walls today. It was a wet cold morning for the guys. As far as I could tell things went well. We had great help again, Jeff's dad and Nick helped all morning. Thanks again.

Yesterday, Lily and I hung out in the van to watch daddy and papa work. Here is a picture of Lily reading the Nutrition Facts.

Lite Form

2008-04-29T15:32:00.008-06:00

The light form is almost completed. Monday Jeff took the day off and we had some extra help come. Lily, Loves being outside. She didn't even complain about having her diaper changed out in the S.D. Breeze.

What's down there guys?
Jeff on left, Brother Eric on right sometimes even I get them mixed up.

Hi, there! One of Lily's most favorite phrases.

Watching Daddy.

Thanks everyone for your wonderful help!

Footings Are In

2008-04-22T19:45:00.010-06:00

We have had a great week! The rain has held off and the footing are in. We have had some great help. Jeff's Dad, Jerry, is comming 3 or 4 days a week and we have had great help from some of our good friends Ryan and Nick. Thanks everyone!
The truck that came to pour the footings was crazy huge! I couldn't believe it when I pulled into the development.

Sorry about this picture being on it's side. I can not seem to figure out how to flip it so your stuck with it. Jeff, Mike any savvy blogger... I need help!

Jeff loves playing in the dirt.
This was on Sat. and it was very nice that day and the sun was shinning bright. Both of the guys came home with their farmer's tan.

Lily and Einstein are having the time of their lives. Lily is an outside girl. It does not seem to matter the weather conditions she will stay out for hours. I'm also surprised that she has no fear of the equipment running. Over the weekend she walked right next to the packer while Jeff ran it. She already has the Van Roekel work ethic.

Our Quarterly Update

2008-04-09T07:28:00.008-06:00

It seems that we are making our posts on a quarterly basis. It has been 3 1/2 months since our last post and so much has happened during that time.

In Dec. we found out were expecting a Second baby! We were surprised and very excited. So far things have been going well. Since Lily was so early they are taking some precautionary steps this time. When I was at 16 weeks they started me on progesterone shots once a week. My OB says they have had a great success with the shots preventing preterm labor and lowering chances of bed rest. We are currently at 21 weeks and doing great! We had an ultrasound last week and everything looks great! We are so thankful! Here is a couple photos of the little guy or gal, no we did not find out it will be a surprise again!

Baby is due beginning of August. We are incredibly excited, grateful and humbled at the same time. Our hearts go out to those of you who are still in waiting for a child. What ever your journey if you are waiting for your first, your second or third child please know that we are praying for you. The journey from month to month can be so long. Sometimes you don't even have the strength to pray yourself, we know because we have been there. Please don't loose hope, don't give Satan ground, cling to the Heavenly Father, he is our only hope and strength.

So, with baby on the way we put home building to the front of the list. Some of you have been able to visit our little 400 some square ft. house. People thought that our home was a little squishy with just Jeff and I. Then we were blessed with Lily so things became a little more squishy. Now the idea of another little person in our house has Jeff's mom (AKA-Momma Pam) a little nervous.

So with a lot of planning mostly on Jeff's part we broke ground on our lot yesterday. It's crazy that it is actually happening. We have been planning this for years and now things are falling to place.

During the first day they had almost the whole basement dug. They will finish up today.

Also on March 29 Jeff's brother, Micheal was married. Lily was a flower girl at the wedding she was so cute. My mommy heart was just bursting as she walked down the isle. We do not have any pictures yet but hopefully soon.

Bless you all, I hope to post again before the next quarter!

Christmas round one

2007-12-13T14:22:00.000-06:00

We Celebrated Christmas with my family this last weekend. Our house is about to burst with the bounty we brought home.

Mom made prime rib it was delicious. Way to go mom!

Bread any one?

2007-12-05T18:12:00.000-06:00

Introducing the newest addition to our family of random vehicles. Yes, we officially own a bread Truck. It was in the adopt a truck program. The poor thing was left and abandoned by it's former owners. While driving past Jim and Ron's Tow Company on the way home from work, Jeff, felt it was his duty to give this poor old late 1960's truck a home. She runs great, however some brakes would be helpful! Jeff is so happy to have a place to store all his tools and yard equipment. We haven't thought of her name yet - I'm thinking Sara Lee!

Fall Leaves

2007-11-28T11:13:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it is almost Dec. and we are racking leaves in 50 Deg. weather. The grass is even still green here in South Dakota!

Jeff and Lily prepared the yard for winter the other day.

Mommy's New Job

2007-11-27T08:14:00.001-06:00

In Oct. I started my own Business. I am a consultant with Creative Memories. I have always enjoyed scrap booking, Jeff's mom has been a consultant for 15 years so I signed under her. I am enjoying myself. I have had one successful open house and great sales so far. It has provided a great opportunity for me to get out and meet new people and get to know them on a deeper level. The profits that are made from this venture are going towards our future adoption.

Lily enjoys getting new product and pulling it all out for me.

Congrats Daddy

2007-11-26T17:00:00.000-06:00

Lily and Candy want to say Congrats to Daddy!
He recived the Outstanding Engineer Award for his accomplishments in the Engineering profession. Presented by the IEEE Siouxland Section.

Jeff, I really am proud of what you do everyday. Most of all I am proud that you attempt to get up everyday and work in an industry that voices it does not need God. You are so much stronger then I am, you take on moral and spiritual issues and stand strong. It has been made known by your peers in the industry that you believe in God and Family and they respect you for that. You have done this in way that they still listen to what you have to say, this is not easily done. I truly believe you are doing the work of the Lord in your work even though you do not always believe you are. I love you with all my heart. Candy

Happy Birthday Lily

2007-11-21T10:23:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone Lily is Walking! She started walking on the 5th of November. We also Celebrated her 1st Birthday on the 17th. We can hardly believe it.

We went to the Shubeck Farm b/c our little house in town is way to small for such a gathering.

Candy made a lady bug cake.

Lily wanted to share her cake with Grace but she was not at all thilled with the idea of eating it off of her shirt.

Thank you everyone for joining on my Special Day! Lily

It's Been a Long Time

2007-10-19T11:41:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone, it has been a long time. This is my first post, so we will see what happens. I thought that I would give you an overview of the past 6 months. We have been having such a great time being parents. Lily is growing and learning everyday and it is so fun to experience. We had so my great pics of Lily I thought that I would share a few with you.

Lily 5 Months Old

This was my first mothers day. It was a very special day that I
Longed for, for many years. God is good! Amen!

In May Jeff's Cousin in Virginia, Britney, Graduated from High School. So Lily was off to the east coast this time. Since they do not live far from D.C. we went on Sat. to the Mall. Here Lily is touching the Washington Monument.

We stayed at Jeff's Aunt and Uncle's while we were there. It was great to get caught up face to face with family.Jeff and His cousin Ben (who is a proud 5 years old). Thought that Lily would like to go down their water slide. She however thought that it was the worst idea ever. That's for the boys!

God is so cool. He planned it that we would just happen to be flying back on the same flight from Minn. to Sioux Falls as our good College friend Kraig Bleeker. What a great gift! Jeff and Kraig were able to sit by each other and get caught up on each others lives.

Kraig was also able to see Lily in action. Now he too has a beautiful baby girl! Congrats Kraig and Danielle!

Summer Livin

The Van Roekels Love to go camping. Lily was a great camper. She loves being outside so camping is her thing.

4th of July with the
Van Hollands

Every year Jeff's Family Camp's at Yankton,SD over the 4th. This year the weather was perfect and we had a wonderful time having a baby around the campfire for the first time.

Daddy's Little Geek

Life is Grand
It was a Abnormally warm day for South Dakota so we brought out
the Steel Tub for Lily to play in. She had a blast and I got some great Pictures. It is so neat to watch her discover something for the first time.

Lily is almost 10 months old in these Photos

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Lily's first Plate of spaghetti. We went straight to the tub after this meal!

Our Van Roekel Family Photo Shoot

Eric, Rachel and Grace

Jeff's Brothers

Matt, Micheal, and Eric

We are excited to have a future sister in-law!

Micheal and Becky are engaged to be married in March.

Congrats and Welcome!

Well I think we made it. Sorry about the length but it is so hard to pick the highlights of the past six months. Lily changes everyday. As I type this she is practicing her steps. She has gone from sitting to almost walking in a matter of weeks. Her Smiles and her Laughs are contagious and we never tire of them. She is full of energy and very curious, she keeps us busy.

We wish you all well, God bless!

The Last Supper ( of the ESC trip )

2007-04-07T22:35:00.000-06:00

Well, the second trip to our favorite little Mexican restaurant in this area was a fun evening. Candy is a big sea food person so she ordered the lobster. Check out the video as we enjoy the last evening together on this great trip.

I don't appreciate good sea food like Candy does so I stuck with the enchilada's. They were good. Lily fell asleep to the sound of the live band that was outside. I recalled a couple more Spanish phrases. Buenas nochas and muchas gracias. It made the locals laugh.

Conference Over

2007-04-07T19:17:00.000-06:00

Well the conference is over already and all the vendors with their new gadgets and gizmo's have left. The conference was over on Thursday but we are staying till Sunday. I only had to take 1 day of vacation and the plane tickets were the same price either way.

Friday we drove around stopped by some wineries and make our way through a state park with plenty of large Redwoods. We ended up in Santa Cruz and ate at a restaurant called Ideal. It was the last time we will get to see the ocean or a boardwalk for quite a while.

Candy found some neat flower that I can't remember the name of at one of the wineries.

This is all the further I could make it up. :( I blamed my bum foot.

Today we decided to just hang out at the pool and go back to a great Mexican rester aunt. It seems like the less English they speak the better the food is. It's been great I got to ask "where is the bathroom" in Spanish for the first time. Those 3 years of high school Spanish really payed off. :)

First time to ever see a pool. Obviously she can hardly contain herself.

Some rare flower again that I can't remember the name of.

Here are some of my favorite parts of the conference
-I met some really cool guys from Flagstaff Arizona that work at a company that makes household wind turbines. We are sure to be corresponding in the future on an open source hardware Linux project. Great stuff.

-The Intel guys had the Orange County Choppers build them a theme bike. The Teutels were even their to drive it on the stage! Besides being 250 horse power it's completely controlled by a computer. Even the kickstand, which they couldn't get to work the first time. :) I have a recording I'll post later.

Probably the most technical bike ever built. There aren't even any mirrors because it has a built in camera, finger print scanning, GPS navigation, Internet access ....

On Monday Evening I was finished with classes around 5:30 so we drove up to San Francisco to show Candy and Lily the Golden Gate bridge. We also ended up cruising the SF streets, stopping by the Pacific Ocean, walked by( really fast) fancy smancy shops, and ate at the Cheesecake Factory. Man things sure get pretty snug in that city. A lot of homeless people to.

Candy really likes it when I say peace out at the end of my posts. Umm, not so much. So I'll close with.

Time to go eat.

Here we are in Sunny CA

2007-04-02T13:23:00.000-06:00

Well we made it. I don't have the pictures with me right now so I'll have to post some pictures later. The flights went pretty well. Candy did a great job of orchestrating the times Lily was eating to be the same time we would take off and land. The 2.75 hour flight from Denver to San Francisco got a little long at the end.

We landed about 11:00am Saturday morning, got the rental car and checked into our hotel. We were all pretty tired and checked in pretty early that evening. The first day of the conference was Sunday so I already have 1 day of classes under my belt. The speakers are great and the content is inspirational. I can't hold myself back from going to Dan Sak's presentations again. A couple of years ago when I went to his stuff at the ESC in San Francisco I was really impressed. This time I'm recording the content so I can review it later.

Some of the highlights so far:
-Candy really like the hotel and the CA weather. She's getting lots of stroller time in around the hotel courtyard while I'm at the conference.

-We found the answer to marital bliss and if you read this blog, have a laptop, and are soon to be married, you'll discover what our new staple wedding gift is going to be. Our previous plan for wedding gifts was usually to wait until the couple opened all the other gifts, find out what they still need and get if for them later. We had a couple people do this with us and we like the idea of spreading out the fun. Anyway our new staple is: "Microsoft Streets and Maps 2007". It pains me to even have the word Microsoft on this blog but I can't deny what a killer solution it really is to road trips. Candy and I have no maps and are cruising around San Jose streets and CA freeways like natives. We find malls places to eat, points of interest, and get back to the hotel in minutes. Navigation has turned from a time of cultivating patience to a fun adventure. Even when I don't follow the instructions we press the magic button "F3" and it recalculates the route based on our new bearings. It's just simply super duper. All I have to do now is find a version of the software that doesn't have the name Microsoft.

-As I was cruising back to the hotel in the rental car yesterday I heard a commercial on a local rock station for Seagate! Seagate is a hard drive company. Just goes to show that Silicon valley is to computing as Northwest IA is to hog farming.

Peace out,
Jeff

Good Stuff

2007-03-30T22:39:00.000-06:00

Well, so much for trying to get at least one post per week. Regardless I'm still here and will keep trying. Reflecting back on the past couple weeks I can't really think of any one thing that has consumed our free moments but there have been some great normal life highlights. One thing that sticks out is last weekend we went down to my parents place and worked on the addition. Last Christmas we gave our parents a weekend worth of work on the house. We installed tile on the laundry room and office floors. Most of the time was consumed by installing the heating coils used to heat the tiled floor. We installed the heating coil in the upstairs bathroom a couple years ago and hooked my mom on it. So here we are again installing it in the main floor as well. So anyway.

Some of the highlights over the past couple of weeks:
-Small groups started again with the Young Peoples on Wednesday nights.
-Einstein our dog is a papa! More pictures sure to come.

-Lily went to her first hockey game! Some of the fans were a little to loud and we didn't have ear plugs we had to take her home before the game was over

-Greg and Dawn came up to celebrate my birthday this month. We went out to eat at the Texas Road House and I had one of my favorite meals. The 24 oz. ribeye. Greg and Dawn have the pictures of me with the steak, sorry.

Sleep when you can where you can around here.

-Working with my dad and brothers on Nana and Papa's castle. Notice who is running the power tools. I always did have to run the dangerous stuff or Eric would end up hurting someone. :)

One cool thing is that spring is upon us and things are showing a little life around here. Another super thing is that next week Sencore is sending me to one of the best techie conferences of the year. It's the Embedded Systems Conference. Geeks from all over the country get together and drool over all the latest gadgets and attend classes put on by some of the best programmers in the country. Of course what better place to hold such a conference but the the tech capital of the nation, Silicon Valley San Jose. And best of all, since Candy's job is mobile she and Lily are coming along. It's going to be quite the adventure so we'll be sure to post some highlights along the way. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 6:45 am so I need to get to bed.

Peace,
Jeff

Reading to my Niece

2007-03-11T00:26:00.000-06:00

One of the things I like to do with my niece is act like a monkey. Sometimes it freaks her out but I love it when she shreaks with laughter and excitement as she runs to the nearest adult for rescue. Sometimes I get brave enough to capture her and carry her off like Tarzan would Jane. It definitly leaves an impression.

Well naturally with all this monkey business one of our favorite books is the story about Curious George. Here is a little clip of me reading or more like skimming the book with her.

Birthday Month

2007-03-10T10:36:00.000-06:00

Candy and Lily are out spending time with Candy's old roommates children this morning so I decided to use a few minutes to post something. By the way thanks for all the visits and comments.

Well it sure has been a fun couple of weeks. One highlight is the snow storm, actually blizzard of 07. I love getting lots of snow in the winter so it was a highlight for me. This past Sunday we went to celebrate my 28th birthday at my parents and spent some time in the snow. I've never seen that much snow around there. That Sunday was pretty warm so we were able to build a a few snowmen with my niece Grace. Eric pulled some strings to get a couple snowmobiles, Candy made a three tier cake, Grandpa and Grandma VH came for dinner, Grace and I decorated the new room, and Michael even brought some !explosives!. It was a great birthday.

Oh and some technical cool stuff that I have to comment on. I got the latest version of MythTV running which is really exciting. I've had Myth running for over a year now. One of the interesting things is it creates statistics based on what we watch.
http://www.mythtv.org/

Anybody know what the number one recorded program on our MythTV is?

Peace out,
Jeff

Enjoying the winter weather.

2007-02-25T12:33:00.000-06:00

This weekend we've been taking it easy on the home front. It's Sunday afternoon and we've gotten at least 5 to 6 inches of snow in the past 24 hours. It's great. On Saturday I took a little video of Lily so that those that haven't met her yet can watch and listen to her. She doesn't do much yet but she is amazing to watch.

Normal Day

2007-01-30T21:35:00.000-06:00

Here I'm introducing Lily to the Shupe family. She seemed a little unhappy at first but I told her not to worry, they're great people. Candy warned that Shupe seems a little crazy at first but he really grows on you.

Baptism

2007-01-29T23:28:00.001-06:00

Baptism and Crib Assembly

Hello Blog readers,
Some exciting stuff has taken place the past couple of weeks. Last week Sunday Jan. the 21st we brought Lily to our church family and had her baptized. It was great many of our friends and family came and shared this moment with us. Check out the photos of the event by clicking on Lily's baptism picture above.

We also purchased a few more things for Lily. We went and picked out a crib and my dad who wants to go by "Papa" helped assemble the crib. We also got a wonderful pack an play with some of the money sent to us for baby gifts. We are very thankful for the showering of gifts and encouragement these past few months.

Winter has definitely arrived around here. Right now the thermometer says a whopping 1 degree with windshield of -25. Candy and Lily are sleeping soundly right now and I should probably try and get some sleep as well. Instead I'm going to do a little reading about the embedded Atmel processor bootloader options. Fascinating stuff.

Jeff VR

Starting to sink in

2007-01-18T18:09:00.000-06:00

Well after Candy being pregnant for 9 months and a couple months of Lily living out of the womb I think it is starting to sink in that we have a child. These past few weeks have been pretty ... interesting. Lily almost weighs 10 pounds which is close to double what she was when she was first born. She sleeps most of the time but has been a little uncomfortable the past couple of weeks. On Monday, maybe it was Tuesday, Candy took her to the hospital and they diagnosed her with the stomach flu and gas bubbles in her intestine. This explains why she wasn't sleeping for very long stretches of time.

I've found that it works best for me to just stay up until about 2:00 AM each night rather than sleep for 1 hr, wake up, sleep 1hr ... Candy goes to bed around 9/10pm and gets up the rest of the morning so I can crash for a few hours before work. While I'm up and she is sleeping I mostly work on my home computer projects. It's been kind of a switch before Lily was born I was strongly discouraged to stay up late into the night now when Candy wakes up she is all excited and thanks me.

What else...
Oh, we are starting to feel the house is too small and have been activly searching again for a new place to call home. An acreage has always been the preference but we might buy a lot in town and just build a house instead. So this is pretty exciting as well.

This weekend there's going to be a baby gift shower at Rachel and Eric's house. I'm not sore what us guys are going to do but I'm sure we'll keep busy. The official dedication and baptism will be held the 21st at the 10:30 service so if you can make it we would love to have all family and friends there to publicly pledge to help raise Lily in Christ.

Time to go eat some supper and watch Lily sleep for a while.

Take care,
Jeff

Growing like a weed

2006-12-18T22:55:00.000-06:00

It's been a month and 1 day since Lily was born and she is really growing. She's laying in my lap now is I type together a post for the blog. I bet she weighs more than 8 pounds and growing longer each day. I think she likes the sound of my typing. :) Tonight as I was putting together a review for my students at CTU I started teaching her about binary numbers and converting them to decimal and BCD. I told Candy there are only "10" base 2 types of parents in the world, those that understand binary and those that don't; Lily has both. Hopefully some the geek reader will get the joke. I'm trying to work on my embarrassing dumb dad jokes.

We had a few more visitors this week including one of our first big outings into the Brave New World. We attended Christmas at the extended Van Roekel family. Many of the cousins were really excited to see and meet her. Tim and Cherish Fedders stopped by last Friday with some homemade pizza. They were excited as well as they got to see Lily's great looks, must be the mother genes. I was a little groggy from the pain killers I've been on. Oh that reminds me I'm on crutches for a while since I had surgery on Tuesday the 18th. I didn't think it was going to be that big of a deal but having bone surgery on your foot will definitely keep you watching the clock waiting for the allotted time to past before popping that next pain pill.

Well better go check my e-mail before I head off to bed. Again we want to thank everyone for the wonderful cards, gifts, words of encouragement, meals, books, and prayers. We cherish them all.

Over and out.
Jeff

Grace's first visit

2006-12-09T21:52:00.000-06:00

From Cousins

Last night Lily's cousin Grace met for the first time her newest cousin and sure to be friend. It was hard to communicate why Lily can't be touched but it was clear Grace understands how precious we think she is. Brad and Cindy (my Aunt and Uncle) and clan also stopped by tonight. It was a busy house for a few minutes while we caught up and shared chai tea, smoothies and hot chocolate. Making the most of every moment Jennifer and I decorated our little Christmas tree.

Lily comes home

2006-11-27T22:18:00.000-06:00

Lily Comes Home

Well the day we've been anticipating has finally arrived. It was kind of funny, the doctor asked if we felt we were ready to take Lily home? What kind of question is that, I mean really what parents can be prepare to be responsible for the well being of a miracle so wonderfully crafted. It's a gift we truly can't describe. Nevertheless Candy quickly chimed up "Yes were ready", so here we go. We strapped Lily in her 5 point buckle car seat and walked out of the hospital! The main picture in the album is Candy, Lily and I standing on the doorstep. Lily really is in the car seat I just wasn't willing to take the blanket off and expose her to the elements of our damp Fall weather. You'll just have to trust me that she's in there

The doctor warned us that it's high flu season and it would be extremely detrimental if she were to get sick. So, I'm kicking in the protective instincts, which Candy says are working pretty well. Regardless if you've been sick or been exposed to someone that is feeling under the weather it would just make us more comfortable if we waited a couple of weeks for visitors.

The message posts may be a little sketchy for a while. Lily's room preempted my need for an office and I just found the laptop stuffed under the couch in the living room. I finally tracked it down so I could send out a quick update to all those that have been encouraging and praying for us the past week.

It's pretty fun how Lily is teaching us how to be parents. We are starting to learn some of her patterns and tonight we plan using our strengths to combat this all night feeding plan Lily has us on. I'm going to take the late night shift and Candy is going to take the early morning.

Well, that's all for now I need to go figure out where to keep stamps, envelops, office computer ... etc. Remember the dorm room in college where it just never seemed possible that you would fit everything you needed in those rooms for 8 months. I always loved that challenge which is probably one reason Candy and I probably like our house so much.

Bless You All,
JVR

Great News

2006-11-24T22:54:00.000-06:00

Well, this afternoon Lily's doctor and nurse practitioner said that if she continues to gain or hold her weight she can be released on Sunday! Please pray for us as we anticipate and prepare to take home our fragile little girl.

Blessings of Progress

2006-11-20T22:39:00.000-06:00

From The blessing ...

We are making good progress and we embrace the blessing of peace. Lily is still in the Neo Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and we don't have an estimate of when she will come home. Candy has been released from the hospital and is doing wonderful. The requirement for coming home is she has to maintain or gain weight for at least three days. She has to have at least 52 cc's of milk every 3 hours. This seems like a lot when she is currently only taking 20-25. They had to put her on an IV to keep her blood sugar count up but they, the doctors, hope to be weaning her off of it over the next couple of days.

As you can see from the from the photo's in the album some Great-Grandparents are getting their first look at their newest great grand daughter.

The day our family changed forever!!

2006-11-17T19:00:00.000-06:00

Baby (Lily) arrived!!

We are the proud new parents of a baby girl!!! Lily Darlene Van Roekel was born yesterday Nov. 17 at about 3:40pm. Mother and baby are doing well. We made it about 35 and 1/2 weeks with 40 (I think) being the target age. Anyway any baby less than 36 weeks automatically needs to be evaluated for a undetermined period of time in intensive care. So far all of the tests have come back favorable. She is 6 pounds 1 ounce which is a really good size baby for her age. If she would have gone full term she would have been 8+, pretty big I guess. :) She is 45 cm long or about 17.79 inches.

Based on the information we have at this moment Candy should be coming home Sunday night. She is pretty tired and having trouble sleeping but recovering pretty well. I snuck away from the hospital while she attempts to get some sleep. Unfortunately I can't get the wireless Internet at the hospital to work and nobody seems to know anything about it. So this may be the only e-mail for a couple of days but I wanted to update our friends and family who have been so wonderfully supporting us the past couple of years. We have given many prayers of thanks the past couple of days!! I hope this e-mail finds you well as we love and think of you all often.

We haven't been really given an estimate of when Lily will be able to come home. I'd be pretty optimistic to think that she would come home with us already tomorrow (Sunday )night. Although they hope to graduate her to a crib today instead of the little warmer (Glass Hut) that she's in right now. Hopefully she can maintain the needed body temperature on her own. Last night they put her on an IV because her blood/sugar count wasn't staying high enough. The doctor said we can start weaning her off the IV and getting her to eat from a bottle.

Hopefully you enjoy the small photo album I've put together. You can view the pictures by clicking on the picture or link below. Time for me to go feed my little Lily Darlene. :)

Blogging inevitable

2006-11-17T10:34:00.000-06:00

Well, for some reason I've resisted this whole blogging phenomenon. Probably for the same reason I resisted the the cell phone and bottled water. I was just always annoyed listening to people on TV talk about I'm going to "blog" this or "blog" that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Anyway, we now have a wonderful daughter and could probably put a dynamic content management system(blog) to good use publishing an online diary of our family.