Today it has been one week since we've brought Peter Thomas home. He's so great. Even though his first diaper change at home he peed all over my face! Have I mentioned I hate changing diapers?
Luckily he's still pretty quiet, he only wakes up twice a night, and during the day he will sleep through anything! (God obviously knew what kind of family he was headed for and equipped him well.) We even brought him to church Sunday, and passed him all around and he didn't wake up. He was pretty loud during the service, though. :-)
It's been great to watch him, he's not just the baby anymore, he's becoming a person. Dozens of new facial expressions, new little sounds, and little bits of personality are showing up every day. All the little girls love him so much; they're so proud of their little brother. All of us are. We fight over who gets to hold him, burp him, tuck him in. (I'm not sure about diapers, I've been avoiding that subject completely.) If you've held the baby too long and won't share, you're dubbed a 'baby hog.' Rachel is a real 'baby hog,' but she also volunteers to hold him while he's screaming his head off in the middle of the night, when he's suddenly less popular.
Thanks so much to all you who have brought meals, baby clothes, blankets, and so many other things! You guys are amazing!

Weclome Peter!
We are now a family of 10. Gosh that's fun to say. He's so darling, you have to come visit! Sure it took him forever to arrive, but I think he's worth it. ;-) Here are the stats:

Name:Peter Albert (#8)

Born: Sunday, August 21, 2005 at 2:02 am
Length: 21 ¼ inches
Weight: 9 lbs. 11 oz. (yeah, he's pretty big!)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: well, there's not much yet, but it's sort of dark blondish

Here he is, just hours old. I think he looks a little like ET, but way more adorable. Peter is pretty quiet, but that, of course, is subject to change.

Here are my parents just minutes after

the birth. You have to keep in mind that its 2 am, and my parents have been at the hospital since 7.

My mom's OB is a good friend of the family, and he ended up giving my dad a ride home at 3.30 in the morning. (How's that for service?) Also, since Peter was so long in coming, my grandmother who had taken the bus up from Denver got to be there for the birth.

Nothing yet. My parents biked to Saint Joe’s about 15 hours ago. I’ve gotten three calls from them here at the hospital, and each time they were just sitting there, waiting. The water has been broken for over 10 hours, and my mom’s finally been having major labor pains, (not that she can actually feel them, she’s on epidural for the first time in her baby producing career), and so hopefully things will start speeding up. My mom feels funny about getting an epidural, since she’s always gone without before. But I figure we’re living in the 21st century, enjoy all the benefits. I’m not planning to have kids, but if I ever do I’m definitely getting one . . . either that or adopt. Keep you posted. (I meant on the Peter’s birth, not whether or not I’ll have kids with or without epidural ;-)

Saturday. We're having Peter on Saturday. Golly, it's really finally happening. If the baby isn't born by the 20th, he's going to be induced. Nothing wrong, he's just ready to come out, and we're ready to have him! All those tiny clothes, the tiny bassinet, the adorable stuffed animals, the tiny diapers are even cute! (I'll have changed my views on the diapers in a few weeks, I'm sure). I was going to go to the fair on Saturday, and see so many of my friends, but sorry guys, I guess I have more important things to do. (No offense, right? I was really looking forward to it! )So pray for my mom, and for the baby, feel free to come visit at the hospital (just call first), and I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as he comes!

This was fun:
1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:09
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds, preferably set in platinum
3. What was the last film you saw at the movies? Star Wars 3. . . turned down one guy’s offer, missed seeing it w/ my girlfriend, ended up seeing it w/ a Miksovsky. . . I’m *still* in therapy.
4. What is your favorite TV show? I don’t even have a tv. But you know what? I’m better off that way, cuz I’d be a really hopeless addict.
5. What did you have for breakfast? Hot chocolate, a tomato bagel.
6. What is your middle name? Jean
7. What is your favorite cuisine? I like a lot of things, but Chinese and Thai are the best.
8.What foods do you dislike? Miracle Whip, marmite, and this really nasty rye bread that comes from Germany, it’s like really nasty.
9. What is your favorite chip flavor? Vinegar and Salt
10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? I don’t know if I can narrow it down to one. The ones I’m listening to most are the latest Reliant K, and all of the Switchfoot ones.
11. What type of car do you drive? I don’t drive yet, but let me tell you one thing—I am so not driving my parents big white van. You can so not pick up a date in something like that! I absolutely refuse! I’ll probably end up getting some little rice burner, and I’ll make my sibs pay me under the table for all the chauffeuring I’ll do.
12. Favorite sandwich? Grilled Cheese
13. What characteristic do you despise? Gossip
14. Favorite item of clothing? I would probably wear my pajama pants all day long—forget probably, I do! I’ve worn them camping, to quiz meets (and therefore all over Bellingham), too.
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Only one place? Does ‘Europe’ count? lol
16. What color is your bathroom? The walls are yellow, and I have daisies painted all over.
17. Favorite brand of clothing? Old Navy!
18. Where would you retire to? Germany. Ok, maybe not. I still really like Colorado, but given how much it’s changed since I lived there, who knows what it’ll look like in 50 years.
19. Favorite time of the day? Early in the morning, I lie in bed with my eyes closed, because I know that as soon as my eyes are open I have to get up, but until then I still have the chance of drifting off again.
20. What was your most memorable birthday? 9 years old. My kid sister Kathleen was born.
21. Where and when were you born? January 27, near Denver.
22. Favorite sport to watch? Hmmm. Swimming. . . . . just kidding.
23. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? Lol, yeah, this was an e-mail survey that I wanted to fill out but was sick of forwarding. But since this is my blog and you can’t make me shut up, I’ll point out that although these surveys are fun, I hate those stupid urban legends people pass on; I will never sign those petitions so don’t even bother; cute pictures of animals? fogetaboudet; and if you send me one more thing about how much you love me, and cover it with cheap emoticons, our friendship is over! 24. Red wine or white? Since I’ve ever only had a full glass of red, I’ll say that’s pretty good.
25. What fabric detergent do you use? Um, I should really know this, considering that I run the laundry through every day, but it’s something without anything smelly.
26. Coke or Pepsi? Coke!
27. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Well, considering the fact that I sleep through the better half of the morning on a daily basis (today was a very rare exception), I’d have to say night owl. 28. What is your shoe size? 9 ½ or 10. I have huge feet.
29. Do you have any pets? Yeah, we have a goldfish. He doesn’t really have a name, or rather, in an effort to avoid conflict, we decided to just let everyone call him something else. I don’t even know where he came from, I think that some friends of ours found him in the house they were moving into, all abandoned.
30. Is there any exciting news you would like to share with your family and friends? If you want me to call you when Peter is born, send me an e-mail. I’m getting yelled at cuz we’re supposed to be going somewhere, so ttyl!

I’m normally happiest when I don’t have time to blog, because that means that I’m really busy.

Lets see, since posting last, the relatives have all gone and all last week my family has been doing a singing camp. We’ve learned a bunch of old folksongs, and this coming week we’ll perform them at different nursing homes around town. I don’t really like to sing—I don’t think I have a very pretty voice, --but it does give me an chance to be with my friend Hadassah, and I’ve met some other fun people there as well.

This Saturday I was face-painting for 7 hours at the Lynden Transport Inc. company picnic with my friend Micaiah. It was really fun. Not just because I was being paid $15 an hour (100 bucks), but also because I love to paint. Unlike so many things in my life, paint just works for me. And I’ll probably get the same job again next year, which is pretty sweet.

After that, I went to a barbeque at Hovander with a bunch of other teens, and that was fun. I got absolutely covered in bug bites though! I have a huge one right next to my eye, and all the way up my legs. . don’t ever wear a skirt outside after dark, the bugs fly right up and chow down. (Not that any of you needed to hear that!) When I finally got home I was kinda dehydrated and totally wiped, having been outside doing stuff nonstop for over 12 hours, but it was worth it.
If you think the above sentences were random, brace yourself: Lets see. . . I slept in till 9.15 this morning-- and I still had time to preen, eat a big breakfast and *still* got to church on time. New record! Today was the first time I’ve been to church in almost a month. But with only a week to go until Peter is due, I’ll probably not be abroad as much . . .not that I don’t plan to be busy! I need to start work in earnest on my bible quizzing stuff—my friends on the east coast are already quizzing! (Emily, Rachel, Andrew, Maggie: You’re all nuts!) Golly, only 3 weeks left till school starts too, we still need to order textbooks. Although rotting my brain this summer has been fantastic, I’m kinda looking forward to studying. I could keep rambling, but I’d better just post this and let y’all try to decipher it.

This picture I'm rather proud of. What you see here is the one hundred-ten toes of my mother, Aunts Jet and Erin, cousins Lonneke, Swenne and Alexa, and my sisters, Rachel, Laura, Kathleen, and Jamey. Oh, my toes are in there too. Just before camping I painted all girl relatives' toenails this really bright green, and then we just *had* to take a picture.


I guess I should also include some faces,so here you are. I told you we cousins look similar! And then of course there's my dad and his twin, Geoff, but that's to be expected. My dad is the one in the muscle shirt (my uncle has one just like it, but the weren't wearing matching outfits that day, which is nice, because they normally did). To the left of my mom are My aunt Jet and her daughters, Lonneke and Swenne(in orange). Between my brothers is Max, Geoff and Jet's son. Geoff and his family live in Holland. Sandwiched between my dad and Geoff is my uncle Dana and his oldest daughter, Alexa. To the right of Alexa are her mother Erin and her little sister Lindsay. Dana and his family live in California. The proud patriarch in the hat is my Grandfather, Harry who lives in Colorado. Today everyone is heading home. So sad!