Beauty and the Beast Play

Calvary Schools of Holland presented their version of the Beauty and the Beast musical. Jakob was fortunate enough to try and out and be a part of the play. He was in the ensemble. The kids put tons of hours into rehearsing, but it definately paid off because the play was awesome!
They will wrap up the production this week with the last two performances. Although it has been fun and a great experience, it has also been a lot of running with late nights, so it will be good to get him back on a normal schedule.

A good lesson.

God provided us with an amazing teaching experience on the way to the airport last week. We stopped at a gas station for what was a close to "crisis" potty break for Grant. When Nate stepped out on the sidewalk he glanced down and saw a wallet that had about six $20.00 bills sticking out of it. He picked it up and tossed it in the car and said "figure out what to do with this" and he preceded in to find the restroom. Well the older boys that were in the car saw this and began to freak out at the sight of "ALL" this money that we had. But the most amazing thing occurred. They almost all immediately began to brainstorm on how we would find the person who owned the wallet to return the money. Not one of them verbalized the idea of keeping it. After Nate returned to the car, it actually sparked about a 20 minute family discussion on why it is the right thing to do (primarily led by the boys) and how people could have been tempted by finding that. Long story short, we found the owners number in the wallet and called him and he was so thankful and overwhelmed that we had. The boys were actually excited to give him his wallet, just because it feels good to do the right thing! When he came to meet us, he reached in the wallet and insisted that we take $40.00, ten for each of the boys. I think for the first time in like 10 years we had a jaw dropping moment with all the children dead silent. Even though we were under the pressure of having a plane to catch, we were SO thankful that we had made that stop. There was never a lecture or teaching that we could have provided as parents that would have taught them more. An amazing example of how rewarding it can feel to do a random act of kindness.

Our Florida Vacation

Well we had a very successful first vacation as a family of 7. We flew to Florida last Saturday and stayed in Bonita Springs with my mom for 6 days. We had a great time and made tons of memories beginning from our crew trecking through the airport down to sea shells and alligators. The only negative about the trip was that we couldn't bring the sunshine (and my mom) back with us.
It was so fun to see the boys experience things for the first time. They were blown away by the weather change, the different vegetation and animals that we saw. We spent a few days at the ocean, one at the zoo and of course one shopping :0) The rest of the time they were pretty much in grandma's pool 24/7! The boys also got a great boat trip down the channel out to the ocean in search on Manatees. Although they did not see any we were very excited to see a family of dolphins at Fort Meyers Beach on Friday.
We had a fantastic time. It was really great to get away from the hustle and bustle of our busy life to spend a week as a family just having fun!

Six months old!

It is so hard to believe that our little Ella is 6 months old already! It seems like yesterday that we were bringing her home. Time has flown by and so have the changes that she has gone through in her short little life already. She has such a sweet disposition, although she is not afraid to let you know if she wants something. She has recently started noticing her bottle, and also will get a little frustrated if it is taking longer than she would like for you to get it to her! She likes to play a game with her brothers and drop toys, (knowing that they will pick them up). She just started sitting up (a little wobbly), but it seems to have opened up a new world for her. She has also discovered when she is on her back that she can grab her feet, so that is a fun new toy! She has some fun babble noises, the most common one being....dadadadadadada! She still has not picked up the "mama", although I am sure it will occur anyday ;0)

After much resistance she has finally accepted the fact that she will have to try some baby food. She spent a good month pretty tight lipped and frustrated when we would try to get her to eat food! Kind of surprising for a girl that isn't exactly of the "petite frame". She has now opened her diet to oatmeal, applesauce, bananas and sweet potatoes. She is quite a big girl sitting in her highchair while we have dinner. She is definately noticing table foods as well and has mastered reaching for anything that is in front of her. (This may include my hair or jewelry).

She is such a great little girl! (Of course we are not biased). It is easy to lose time by watching her play and learn......and even sleep! We look forward to the next 6 months as she continues to reveal herself to us. We aren't sure about the becoming mobile part though.....

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Snow Day!

After weeks of feeling like it would never happen, the boys finally had a SNOW DAY! Even though it was absolutely freezing they spent a great deal of time outdoors! Brrr....

Slackers!

Ok, so we have been total slackers in updating our blog! We won't totally beat ourselves up because ok...5 kids, but from this point on we would like to have a once a month blurb about life with the Sandstedt Clan!

So we left off with the news of our baby girl. Well, joyfully she has arrived, healthy and it is hard to imagine our family without her. We have survived the newborn days and are loving seeing her personality unfold. She is almost 20 weeks old and 19 pounds which took her off the chart at the pediatricians. At what point do thick chubby thighs create a complex for a girl? We are blown away by how much growth takes place in such a short time.

The school year started out well with 3 of the boys at Calvary Schools of Holland. They are all doing great. It is hard to believe that Jakob will be in middle school next year!

The holidays flew by. We traveled to Sand Lake for Thanksgiving where we filled Nate's Aunt Lyn's cottage with lots of food and little ones. It was a great time!

We stayed close to home for Christmas (which seems to make sense for a family of 7). We enjoyed having Jenni's brother and sister and families here early December. We also had Nate's brothers family and parents here for Christmas eve and the kids were thrilled to have grandma and Papa stay for a few days after. We followed up Christmas with a 6th birthday party for our little Brayden. We had 15 five year old boys at a bowling alley. It was a really special day for him.

We rang the New Year in with our good friends Dan and Sarah from Traverse City. It is hard to believe that we have reached that age where our kids stayed up as late as us. We had a great time, just value sleep a bit more than a ball of light in New York City!

Nate will be celebrating his 32nd birthday this Sunday. Is it just me or is it odd that his wish list includes a skateboard and a new electric guitar? It is obvious that God knew what he was doing when he gave him 4 boys!

We are excited for what is in store for our family for 2008! Stay tuned.....