Dan & Carol Bruxvoort

Annie Surgery Update

2009-05-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

Annie had her surgery on Tuesday morning we arrived at the hospital around 6:30 am and the brought her in for surgery around 8. From start to finish the process took a little over 4 hours. They were able to accomplish what they wanted with no suprises. They reattached her two ureters to the bladder to fix the uriniary reflux, plus they attached her 3rd ureter to the bladder.

Annie continues to recover and seems to be doing well. She ran a low grade temp yesterday evening and was decided to keep her for the night. Her fever appears to have broke but she has been easily agitated. They gave her a dose of morphine to help her relax. Her incision looks good and her urine culter from last night does not show any growth.

Hopefully we may be able to head home this afternoon, but we will see.

Dan

Annie's Surgery Tomorrow

2009-05-04T18:09:00.000-07:00

Well we have arrived in Iowa City and have settled into our hotel room. Annie is scheduled to arrive at the hospital tomorrow morning at 6:30 with the surgery scheduled to start at 8 AM. We appreciate all the prayers and encouraging words from everyone and are looking forward to putting this behind us.

Annie's Baptism

2009-04-04T18:25:00.001-07:00

We were very happy to have Annie Baptized last week. It was great to have our friends and family present to celebrate with us. We would also like to give a big thankyou to Amy for making Annie's dress. We now have one of our first family heirlooms. The dress was actually made out of Carol's Mom's wedding dress.

Annie posing in her new dress

Fun Time at the Bruxvoort House

2009-03-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

Well this has been one of the more interesting weeks. Last weekend started out well with us visiting my parents in Osky. We got home Sunday evening and Annie was not quite acting herself. The next morning she was starting to caugh, so we decided we should have her checked out. Annie ended up having a cold and her 1st ear infection. She can credit her father for this as apperently I was 4 months old when I got my 1st. So she was prescribed some antibiotics and things were fine, until Carol came home. She wasn't feeling so well and by Monday evening had a full blown case of the stomach flu. Right now I am so glad I don't have that, until about 3 am, when I decided I would share in the fun. So on Tuesday we got to have a family day with all three of us at home, what a fun bunch. Fortunately we are all feeling better and the episode passed.

Other than that things are going well. Annie continues to grow, and at her appointment on monday weighed 14.1. She is discovering that she is incontrol of her appendages and likes to stare at her hand, it's cute. Carol has gone to 30 hours a week working to spend more time with her and gain some flexibility with her afternoons. I continue to work at De Lage Landen and am glad we are plenty busy. DLL did have a very good 2008 and our parent bank Rabo Bank was named the 5th safest bank in the world, which right now is assuring.

Amy, Carol, and Annie

Taking a snooze

The girls at Mom & Dads

The Grandkids

It's Been A While

2009-02-19T18:09:00.000-08:00

Well it has been quite a while since I last posted anything. I could make a good excuse as I was to busy or tired, but honestly I just didn't feal like it. I have been using Facebook much more, it's easier to post pictures and comments. Things have definately changed from the past 3 weeks. Annie continues to grow and be more active. Carol is back at work and Annie is starting daycare.

Annie is starting to sleep more over night and getting chatty. It's a lot of fun to get her going and she just talks away. We have gotten her to sleep in her actual room instead of the living room, which is a nice step.

After a Bath

The Family

Back from Annie's Appointment at U of I Hospital

2009-01-26T14:48:00.001-08:00

Well we made it to Annie's appointment at the Pediatric Urology Clinic at U of I today. We left home around 7:30 and the trip went uneventfull. It was pretty slick in Des Moines this morning but once we got to around Mitchellville it was normal driving. Nothing to unexpected came from her visit. It was confirmed that she has an ectopic ureter. This means that her left kidney developed with 2 ureters, one of which does not fully go into the bladder. She also continues to have urinary reflux which will be monitored. Annie will most likely have surgery when she is around 6 months old, unless she developes a number of infections before then, which the surgery would then come sooner. The surgery would reconnect the ectopic ureter, and depending if her reflux has not improved, would correct that as well.

So now atleast we now have a game plan as to what needs to be done. We continue to pray that all goes well and are thankful for the Dr's and Nurses who have helped us through this.

Almost 7 weeks old

2009-01-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some new pics of Annie from the past few weeks. She is definately growing and changing. As of a week ago Friday, she weighed 11.5 lbs and was 22.5 inches long. So she had gained almost 3 lbs and grown 2 inches. We will be heading to Iowa City this Monday to meet with a pediatric urologist to see what they think needs to be done if anything about her kidney and urinary reflux. Hopefully the trip goes well and we get some answers.

Annie after taking a bath

Annie with neighbor Isabelle (01/04/09)

Hanging out in her new swing (01/17/09)

Annie 01/22/09

Annie 01/23/09

More Christmas Pics

2009-01-09T19:09:00.000-08:00

Well it has been over 5 weeks since Annie was born. Carol and I are getting a little more sleep but it seems like Annie does something different all the time. She is becoming more alert and aware of her surroundings. We are enjoying being parents, through the good times when she almost cracks a smile to you, and the bad times when the smile is followed by screaming in my ear.

It's been a while since I posted an updated blog so here are some pictures from Christmas's on Carols side of the family.

Annie with Great Grandma Ver Ploeg

Ver Ploeg Christmas at Megan and Brad's

Annie with her Aunt Jaclyn

Annie with her Aunt Brenda

Ready for some sleep

Annie's 1st Christmas

2008-12-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

Annie will be three weeks old tomorrow and just celebrated her 1st Christmas. We packed things up and headed to my parents for the weekend. We had a good time hanging out with our family and getting a break thanks to everyone. The weather was definately different, from snow to 55 degrees, to ice. I believe that my niece and nephew Lillian and James are the 1st to be able to sled down the driveway, due to the ice.

For the most part Annie did pretty well, Wednesday night was a little rough but Thursday and Friday went well.

Almost 2 weeks down

2008-12-21T17:01:00.000-08:00

Well tomorrow will mark two weeks sense Annie was born. It has been the most interesting and hardest two weeks of our lives. Nothing we have ever done has required our attention all day, every day. Still we wouldn't trade this time for anything else, except maybe a full nights sleep. Annie continues to do well and is sleeping and eating better. We are all still figuring each other out with what works and doesn't, so we continue to learn. We did venture out as a family on Friday to our neighborhood small group. It was nice to be able to get out together and talk to our friends about our experiences and receive encouragement.

Hanging with Annie

Taking a snooze

Annie with Grandma Derringer

Hanging with my ladies

2008-12-13T19:06:00.000-08:00

Well it is Day 4 of being home and I am discovering how much sleep is actually required to function. Apperently aroud 4 a night. Annie started out pretty fussey but seems to be improving every day. Nursing is going well and Annie just started to be able to sleep without someone holding her. We have been so greatful for friends and family for providing food and helping out. Thank you Mom for helping today, that was great. Below are a few more pics from the past few days.

Galadriel holding Annie ( in the background you can see their daughter, who just turned 1. It's interesting to see what Annie will be like in a year,)

Getting ready to go home

Well we got her home, Now what?

Annie with her Grandpa Stursma

Annie with her Great Grandpa and Grandma Stursma. (To Grandma's defense, Annie was getting hungry.)

Finally sleeping on her own

We're Home

2008-12-10T17:09:00.001-08:00

Just thought I would quick post that Carol, Annie, and I got home this afternoon around 4:30. All three of us are trying to take it easy by hanging out in the living room. A little supper for Carol and I and a feeding for Annie. Carol is napping on the couch and Annie is asleep on the floor. It's nice to be home but a little scary, no nurses to help tonight.

Annie went through some tests today for her kidney and is showing some reflux. She will be on a small dose of antibiotics to keep her urine clean, this is to keep infections away from her kidney. We will have a follow in 2 weeks and see if anything has changed by then.

More new pics

2008-12-10T08:49:00.000-08:00

Well it's Wednesday morning and Carol is busy feeding Annie. We are waiting to have one more test done to look at her kidney, and then so far the plan is to some time in the afternoon we will head home. We pray that the tests come back alright and things continue to go well.

Foot Prints

1st bath, as you can see, she loved it.

The Family

Annie with her Grandma

Annie with Aunt Angie

Baby Pics

2008-12-08T20:10:00.000-08:00

She's here!!

2008-12-08T19:42:00.000-08:00

Adrianna Danielle (Annie), Is here!! Annie was born at 8:02 pm, and weighed 8lbs 11 ounces. She is 20.5 inches long and doing well. Carol go roughed up by the delivery some, but is resting well. She pushed for about 3 hours and needed some help by the vac to get Annie out. Her head was a little tilted which made it difficult. I will try to get some pictures posted soon.

Love,
Dan & Carol

Labor Progress

2008-12-08T11:21:00.000-08:00

Well we got to the hospital around 7:30 this morning. After getting settled in they started the induction around 10. Carol was already dialated enough that they decided to go ahead and break her water. She continues to have some strong, very regular contractions and hopefully will be able start pushing some time soon.

Last Pregnancy Picture

2008-12-07T19:07:00.001-08:00

Well time is almost here. We will be going in tomorrow at 7:30 to start the induction. We pray that the delivery goes smoothly and quickly. With the pending delivery of our daughter we thought we better post one last picture of Carol pregnant. I can't believe it has been 8 months from when we found out Carol was pregnant to the evening before Carol goes into labor.

We appreciate all the support from all our family and friends up to this point and will definately appreciate any help after she is born.

I will try to post some updates through the day and post some pictures once she is born.

VerPloeg Baby Shower

2008-11-30T18:19:00.000-08:00

We had a couples baby shower for Carol and I today on the VerPloeg side. It was a good time being able to visit with the family, and we got a lot of good gifts. We all fit in our cousin Andrea's condo, making it nice and cozy. Unfortunately the weather did get kind of bad by the end of the shower with things getting slick, so hopefully everyone was able to get home alright.

What's wrong with our geese?

2008-11-30T18:14:00.000-08:00

It's going to be December tomorrow, it's snowing, and it's cold out. What are they waiting for? There were 100's of them in the field across the street this morning, just hanging out apperently waiting for the weather to get really bad before they head south.

Things to come

2008-11-23T19:14:00.000-08:00

Today the realization of things to come came in two forms. One is that winter is just around the corner. It was nice that it did get up to 57 degrees today, but this is what welcomed us this morning.

It wasn't much, and had melted by the time that we got home from church, but it is coming.

With the changing season upon us our daughter arrival is getting closer every day. We anxiously await her arrival as Carol continues to get larger and more uncomfortable. Here is Carol at just about 38 weeks.

The last ultrasound

2008-11-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

Well we had three appointments today. The 1st was Carol's regular OB appointment this morning, which went well. Carol was happy to hear that she was released from bed rest, but I think she was enjoying sleeping in. Since she finished 36 weeks they said she was in the clear and if she went into labor they would let her go.

The second appointment was with the pediatric kidney Dr, to go over what they will do once our daughter is born. They will pretty much will just run a few tests a day or two after she is born to see how things are flowing. This will determine if she is having any reflux and determine if she needs to go on some antibiotics. Other than that they couldn't really say anything, as their patient isn't born yet.

The 3rd appointment was the final ultrasound before she is born. Everything is looking great and she has really grown. By the ultrasounds estimation our daughter weighs 7 lbs right now. Carol was a little freaked because she still has a month left, but due to the babies position and Carol's progression, Dr. Drake was pretty certain Carol would go early.

Here are a few pics from the ultrasound.

This one is different. It shows her hair!

Foot & Fist

Carol at 36 weeks

2008-11-09T18:31:00.000-08:00

Well its been awhile sense I posted a picture of Carol so here is her at 36 weeks. She is still on "bed rest" but hopefully will be released from that at her next appointment on Tuesday. She continues to get larger and her braxton hicks contractions seem to increase in the evening. I think we are pretty much ready for the little tike, house wise that is. As for personally, its hard to believe that she will be coming soon. I believe we have settled on a name, at least for know, and everyone will find out once she is born.

It doesn't seem that long ago that we found out she was pregnant, but on the other hand it seems like she has been pregnant forever. I don't think any 1st time parent thinks they are 100% ready for a child to be born. Everything is going to change, in a good way, but it will be quite an adjustment.

Its November, That means Water Slide!

2008-11-02T17:49:00.000-08:00

Our neighbors decided to take advantage of the upper 70's weather today, on November 2nd, and get the water slide out. It seemed a little bit crazy but it was a beautiful warm day and the kids had a blast. Carol was not to happy that she couldn't go out and enjoy the day, but Jill kept her company for some of the afternoon.

It's Getting Closer

2008-11-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

Well Carol may be doing a lot of this.

On her last appointment on Thursday Carol was informed that she was 1 to 2 centimeters dilated and that needed to go on bed rest until her next appointment. This was the 1st time they had checked this and as far as the doctor knows she has been this way for some time. But in the mean time they want her to be idle, and if nothing changes at her next appointment on Tuesday she will be free to go back to doing what ever she wants. For Carol's sake I hope that becomes the case.

It did freak me out a little bit (a lot) when she called me after her appointment telling me she was supposed to go to Methodist to have them check her out. The bag was not packed yet!

This situation has made the realization that our daughter may be coming sooner than expected, prompting me to finish up on the baby projects. The nursery is officially done. The crown molding is up, the changing table is done, and sheets and clothes are washed. Here is a short tour of the nursery.

Visiting the Fam

2008-10-26T16:32:00.000-07:00

After Carol got done with her shower we packed the car and headed to Osky. My brother Jason and his family were visiting and it had been to long sense we had seen them. My sister Angie and her family were around as well. Unfortunately it was still to wet to harvest corn but we still had a good time visiting with each other.

Nephew James

Niece Lillian

Newest Member, Claire

Jason taking the kids for a ride

The combine, ready to go

Neighborhood Shower

2008-10-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend kept us busy with baby showers and seeing my family in Osky. Saturday started out with Carol having a baby shower with our neighbors hosted by Jill and Galadriel.

She received a lot of really nice gifts, which will all come in handy once our daughter arrives. Our neighborhood is something of a rarity, with having such a large group of friends around us. We are truly blessed to have some many people care about us within one block.

I think they had the camera on nightshot for these

Mean while, as Carol was having her baby shower I was putting the finishing touches on the changing table. It has a few flaws but I think it turned out pretty well, for being my first furniture project sense high school shop.

I may actually have to rake this year

2008-10-21T19:21:00.001-07:00

It's getting almost time to rake. Another week or so and my two trees will have dropped all of their leaves. I will need to buy a compost bag, rake the leaves, bag the leaves, and set the bag out on the curb to be picked up. The city discourages burning? The trees have grown quite a bit this year, so maybe I should get a leaf blower for a job this large.

Carol's 1st Baby Shower

2008-10-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

Carol had her 1st baby shower this past weekend in Pella with her friends. Alisa and Lisa hosted the party at Alisa's house. While Carol was having a fun time opening gifts I spent the day helping Dad work on the Shop. We discovered that installing a 20x16 overhead door is a little more complicated that a garage door. Here are a few pics from Carol's shower. Enjoy.

Cake Thingy

Carol with Alisa & Lisa

Friends

Gifts

Ummm, I don't know. You'll have to ask Carol

Baby B's latest pics

2008-10-10T18:57:00.000-07:00

Carol had her monthly ultrasound this afternoon and everything is progressing right on. They estimated that our daughter weighs about 4 lbs now and is within the 60% percentile. The fluid is good and everything besides the one kidney looks great. Dr. Mahone was very pleased with what she saw but said that the bigger our daughter gets the easier it is to see her bad kidney. She is not at very concerned about it and said that she is going to be just great. We will still need to be careful managing any UT infections to reduce scaring, which will help her when she is older.

We also start our parenting classes at Methodist this coming Monday, woohoo.

The following changing table is brought to you by...

2008-10-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well the changing table is taking form and I am ready to start sanding and finishing. Besides a few wrong cuts and nailed pieces (apparently the 1/4 sheet of plywood for the back of the table, goes on the inside of the frame, oops) the building went well and was fun. Here are a few pictures of the final rough assembly.

Below is a picture of the major tools used in this project. It's no Norm Abrams shop, but they did the job well.

The following tools were used for this project:

- Irwin clamps and levels, Jet 10" table saw, Craftsman 10" compound miter saw, Porter Cable compressor and brad nailer, Bosch router, Bosch router table, Kreg pocket hole jig, Makita 18v drill, Bosch 10.8v driver, B&D jig saw, Hitachi circular saw, & keeping it all clean ..the Shopvac.

I Didn't Think We Live in the Country?

2008-10-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

The oddest thing went by the house this evening. I mean I know that we don't live to far from the country but we still live in the suburbs. Plus unless you live on our street there really isn't any reason to drive on it because it just circles back to the same street. So as I am sitting in our office this evening I hear something loud slowly going by the house. I look out and its a John Deere 8430 with a Kinze grain cart, that seems kind if odd. Then a pickup pulling a 30ft platform, followed by a 9750 combine. I don't know where they are going but its just not something you see everyday in the burbs, I thought it was awesome.

Here are a few new pictures of my progress on the changing table. Its been going pretty well but now I have a lot of routing to do making the drawers and finishing the top.

Week 30

2008-09-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well today marks week 30 for Carol and the realization that this is going to happen is starting to feel more prevalent. Carol continues to get bigger as shown in the picture below.

We continue the preparations by starting to get the nursery put together. Some friends of ours were kind enough to give us a crib which was barely used and still looks great. Some trips have been made to Babies R Us for the early essentials and Carol has gotten numerous clothes and smaller items from friends and garage sales. Below are a few pictures of the progress on the nursery.

Step 1: Paint

Step 2: Trim

Step 3: Crown molding and build changing table

The crown molding will go up quick and I started on the changing table yesterday and so far is going well. I got quite a few parts cut yesterday, and the front and back frames assembled.

It's that time of year again

2008-09-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe that its harvest time already this year. Dad started harvesting soybeans on Friday and has been going pretty well. The moisture was consistantly around 11.5 to 12% and the yields seem to be alright. Some spots were great then you go 200 feet and not so great. You could really tell where it stayed wet. I was able to help on Saturday while Carol stayed home and went with our friend Jill to register for baby stuff at Target. I was very disappointed that I couldn't come, but you have to make sacrifices during harvest season, yeah right. Here are a few pic's from Saturday.

Happy 30th Birthday Carol!

2008-09-17T04:43:00.000-07:00

Carol turns the big 30 so wish her a happy birthday today.

Latest Ultrasound

2008-09-11T16:47:00.001-07:00

Carol had her latest ultrasound this afternoon and everything is progressing great. The kidney problem does not appear to have gotten worse and her size is good. Our daughter is in the 56th percentile for her age which is right on tract and the amniotic fluid is good. The fluid being good is a sign that the kidneys are working well, because the fluid does get processed through them. It was kind of cool they also did a 4D ultrasound today and got a picture of her face. Carol already thinks she looks like me, I don't see it quite yet.

4D Image

Profile (with her hands infront of her face)

Building & Baby

2008-09-04T18:58:00.000-07:00

I thought I would quick post some new pictures of Carols progression along with Dads new shop. This is kind of an odd combination of pictures but it they are both things that are effecting our families lives. Dad is preparing to start his new business which is exciting yet a little scary for them, and Carol and I are preparing to become parents which is exciting yet really scary.

Carol at 26.5 weeks

Dads Shop in progress

My new ride

2008-08-28T19:43:00.000-07:00

With fuel prices high and me feeling like it may be time to replace my 1990? Murray, I decided to go ahead and buy a new, you guessed it! Bike. After living in the country all of my childhood riding on gravel with the closest pavement being a highway, Yeah I don't know why they didn't let us ride on that, I am enjoying going for a little joyride during the evenings around Grimes and it's bike trails.

My first ride was interesting as a stumbled on a crime scene in the park where they found a dead body a 1/2 hour before I got their, but hey, that happens right? To clarify apperenty the man died of natural causes along the trail by the park but it still was wierd coming up to a pedestrian bridge with police tape around it. I just figured the bridge was out, until I watched the 10pm news and found out what happened. Here is a pic of my new bike, and I do wear a helmet when I ride, because thats what cool people do.

Dinner and Minigolf

2008-08-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were able to get together with some of our highschool friends for dinner and minature golf. I don't have any pictures of us actually together but it was a good time. After dinner at Court Ave Brewery we headed over to some mini putt course on SE 14. It was fun and we played as two teams, Men & Women. Below are the score cards incase anyone was questioning how well they did. Kevin of course won but he is a pro-am mini golf player.

Here is the Mens score card, Kevin is on the end with a final score of 43

Here is the Womens score card. Karen is the one who filled it out and probably the only one who can decipher some of her coding but apperently Carol won. I believe Melinda's score is on the far right but I can't tell what she actually got.

Claire's Baptism

2008-08-17T14:40:00.001-07:00

This morning we were happy to witness the baptism of our niece Claire. It was fun seeing some of our family along with getting caught up with some friends that were at church for another baptism that day. Claire did really good through the baptism and service and was curious about the ministers mic by trying to pull it off. She's so cute.

Carol's Progress

2008-08-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

Well it has been another few weeks so I thought we better post another picture of Carol. She is definitely getting bigger and our daughter is kicking a lot. I've felt her a few times, mainly in the evening. Apparently she was also cheering on her cousin Claire this morning at Claire's baptism. She didn't kick much during the service but once Claire was being baptized she really got excited and was kicking up a storm.

We also had our second ultrasound on Friday. They confirmed it is a girl but they believe at this point that she may have a problem with one of her kidneys. This really did not make my day. From what they said one kidney is fine but the other is a duplex kidney. This means that it is segmented into two pieces with two ureters going to the bladder. They said on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being a serious problem this is a 2. That made me feel some what better but when some one tells you there is something wrong with your child it still is not pleasant. We will be having another ultra sound in a month to track how things are progressing and set up some time to meet with a pediatric kidney specialist to discuss what we can expect. We pray that everything will be fine and our daughter may just need to be carefull with certain things that are hard on kidneys, such as different medications.

Now you see it, Now you don't

2008-08-03T18:33:00.001-07:00

Carol and I decided to take a three day weekend and headed down to Osky/Pella area for Friday and Saturday. We first went and saw the Dark Knight Thursay evening to begin our weekend. I thought it was pretty good but still not as fun as Batman Returns, but thats my opinion. We think our daughter thought the same thing because she was kicking through a lot of the movie.

I was glad that the weatherman was a few days off on the heat wave because most of Friday afternoon and Saturday was spent building posts for Dads new Shop. It was really nice working under the tree and we were able to answere the age old question, which is better, DeWalt or Makita. My Makita vs. Dad's Dewalt. Our exact scientific measurement was who could drive in the 3 inch screws the fastest. Unfortunatly my Makita lost, but to its merrit I was still on my 1st battery when we decided to try and Dad had a fresh one. So after reviewing the results Makita is still the best, I can say that, its my blog.

The posts are going to be used the build the new shop in the space created as shown below. The place looks different with the old machine shed gone.

The posts

The Man Room

2008-07-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

With the realization that in less than five months I will be outnumbered 2 to 1 along with my tractor room being taken away to become the new guest bed room (The old one will be the nursery), I thought its time to be proactive. So off to Home Depot to get supplies to claim the last remaining part of the house that hasn't been taken over, the unfinished part of the basement.

With a little lumber to make some shelves this is one area that will not be invaded so easily. Plus it will be a nice retreat when you just need a little quiet time. Power tools are a different kind of quiet. :)

Baby Bump

2008-07-20T17:55:00.000-07:00

Well It's been a few weeks sense I have posted a new picture of Carol. These past few weeks she really has started to look like she is going to have a baby.

Our little Girl!

2008-07-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

This morning was an exciting one as Carol and I were able to have her 19th week ultrasound and able to find out the sex of our baby. We are happy to announce that we will be having a little girl. Everything looked good, she had a heart rate of 150 and the measurements were within 2 days of the expected due date of December 10. They were able to determine the sex pretty easily but she would not cooperate with a good picture of her face. She kept her hands by her face and looked like she was sucking both of her thumbs. Thats my Girl!

Spoiler Alert !

2008-07-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

This will be a quick post and will have more information and pictures this evening. Carol and I just completed our 19th week ultra sound and were able to find out what we are having. If you would like to know, just scroll down!

ITS AAAAAAA

GIRL!!!!

Is it Sunday already?

2008-07-06T18:21:00.000-07:00

Where do these three day weekends go. One minute you are getting home from work Thursday afternoon, next thing you know its Sunday night. We spend the weekend down in Oskaloosa with my parents visiting family and helping Dad clean out the machine shed.

We need to get the new machine shed built so that we can put our good tractor inside as shown below. Don't want the paint to fade :)

Friday evening was fun with the sparklers with the niece and nephew. They sure don't make sparkers like when we were kids. The one's we had were like welding rods, but I guess these are safer. So where is the fun in that?

Here is my Niece having a go at sky writting with sparklers.

James and Lillian

Mom & Dad's neighbor out for a joy ride

17 weeks

2008-06-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

Time to post another picture of Carol's ever expanding belly. Nothing else to exciting going on. Carol went to Pella today for her step dad Don's retirement party at Pella Corp. He was there for 41 years, now thats impressive.

With the baby coming and our current digital camera getting out of date we decided to upgrade to a new camera. I thought I would play around with it a little tonight and took these pictures. I was able to park this big guy on the sidewalk in front of our house.

Another Good Appointment

2008-06-23T16:10:00.001-07:00

Well I was able to go to Carol's OB appointment today and hear our babies heart beat. The doctor said everything looks great and they were able to pick up the heart beat pretty quickly. We also have scheduled the next ultra sound on July 14 and should be able to determine the sex then. I have a video of being able to hear the heart beat below if interested.

New Niece!

2008-06-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Carol and I are excited to welcome our new niece Claire Marie, born Wednesday morning. When you combine a Groenenboom and a Bruxvoort you get one cute looking baby. Carol and I were able to go see her yesterday and everyone is doing well. Doug and Angie are a little sleep deprived but I don't know why, Claire slept great when we were there. I guess we need to go around 4:00 am to see her awake.

Belly Watch June 8th

2008-06-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

Well Here is an updated picture of Carol. There isn't much difference yet but things are progressing. It seems like the baby is starting to move up. She is coming up on 14 weeks.

June 8

May 18

It keeps on raining

2008-06-08T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well this has been one of the more eventfull weeks with weather than I can remember for a while. Thunder storm after thunder storm seemed to hit us through the week and even a few Tornado warnings. I went and bought a weather radio on Thursday and was broke in pretty fast. We had a tornado warning go off right when we went to bed that night and spent a half an hour in the basement. It didn't seem to bad out side but the path was projected right over our house. We woke up this morning to more storms and another 2 inches of rain. I'll have to say that my lawn hasn't looked better but the water was flowing behind our house.

It's starting to feel like summer

2008-06-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

Well things are progressing well in the Bruxvoort household. nothing to exciting but Carol was able to hear the baby's heart beat on her OB appointment on Friday. We had the intention of recording it with the digital camera but due to "technical difficulties" she was not able to get it. Oh well, its just nice to be reassured everything is progressing. After going five weeks without hearing or seeing anything you start to worry. Carol is now almost 13 weeks along and feeling pretty well. She has her moments but for the most part it isn't to bad. She has developed an aversion to good steak so that has put a damper on the grilling season, more for me I guess. I'll post more pictures of her belly progression soon but it hasn't changed a whole lot. Apparently the baby is progressing up out of the pelvis so she will start to show more later.

It was sad to see two moving company semi's parked on our street this past week as the Godseys and the Rossies were both leaving. One nice thing is that we now have a good excuse to go to Monterrey California, but we should go in the Winter. Apparently its average high is in the 60's during the summer, but an average high in the 60's during the Winter, How boring.

Well its hard to believe but it was 3 years ago that we got married. I was a young 25 year old and Carol was an elderly 26. Well I did turn 26 a week after but that's beside the point.

what a good looking groupIt's definitely starting to feel like summer. We have in the past years had a family of finches live under our deck but they did not return this year. Instead we now have a family of robins living around our house. I usually like robins but do you know how much of a mess this little guy makes! Between the rabbits and the birds who needs pets.

Tracking the belly

2008-05-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

Well I got through my 1st week at my new job and went pretty good. Nothing to exciting yet but that is typical for beginning a new job. A lot of meet and greets, training, and sitting in some meetings that you feel clueless about. It should become really interesting once I get into the grove of it and my coworkers are really nice. I also caught up with some old friends that I knew when I worked their 5 years ago which made it better around lunch when you know people to eat with.

Carol and I have been having fun with the neighbors this past weekend with our small group on Friday and a going away party on Saturday at our friend's the Rossi's. A good portion of the neighborhood was their and was a great time. The Rossi's are moving to Milwaukee Wis where he accepted a job with Milwaukee tools. It's really sad to see them go as Carol and I have gotten to know them well. But that will be the trend for such a young neighborhood, it's kind of expected that people will be moving due to new jobs, family etc..

It was neat to see how things are going to progress for Carol as two other neighbors are pregnant. One being 15 weeks, and the other being 20 weeks along. Seeing this Carol and I decided to start a photo log of her progression of being pregnant. So the 1st photo is her at almost 11 weeks. It may not look like much but if you had seen it before it's definately progression.

2008-05-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

Well another Sunday is here with a new anxious week coming up. I am starting at Agricredit tomorrow which I am excited about but some what anxious, as with anything new. Working at the Bank was great but new challenges bring new opportunities. The new job will also save me about 60 miles a day of commuting, keeping me closer to home. This will be a necessity once this little person comes around December 10.

Praise the Lord, Carol and I are expecting a baby in early December. This ultrasound was taken about 2 1/2 weeks ago. We had a little scare when she was about 7 weeks along but everything checked out fine and we were able to see the heart beat. Isn't technology awesome. So Carol is about 10 weeks along right now and besides being nauseous during meals is doing well. We pray that the pregnancy continues to go well and a healthy baby arives early December.

In other news Dad continues to get the crops in between rains and was able to get all the corn in before it rained again on Saturday. He is now busy getting the planter switched over to beans and hopefully will be able to plant them soon. This is the first year with this planter and has been going well. There has been a learning curve but is definately a step up from our old planter. We will be able to plant on 15 inch rows for beans but will take longer as it folds to the equivilant of a 7 row when we do so.

Lets Make a Blog

2008-05-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

Well here we go. As many of our other friends and family are now doing I have seen that making a blog is a good way to communicate important information happening in ones life. I guess we can start from the beginning of Carol and I's relationship and then lead up to current events. Dan and Carol Bruxvoort were married almost three years ago on May 28th 2005.

We purchased our first home and moved in 2 weeks after the wedding. We live in a wonderful community in Grimes, IA and have created some life long friendships. There is nothing like having a yard to bring people together. We have had a great time doing projects on the house from simple things as painting to more complex as finishing the basement.

Carol continues to work at GuideOne Insurance doing accounting in their I.T department (if you want to know exactly what she does you'll have to talk to her because I don't know), and I am at Exchange State Bank as a loan officer for the next week. Starting on May 12 I will be working at Agricredit Acceptance. More information on that later. I think this is a good start to a blog and I promise that we will have some more information coming up.

This weekend we also made it down to Pella for the annual Tulip Festival. our neighbors the Godsey's came down before they leave for California at the end of the month to see what it was all about. Unfortunatly the weather on Friday was some what to be desired as it was rainy and windy. We were still able to see the afternoon parade and look at some tulips.