Happy New Year

We wish you a happy and safe New Year! We are staying home tonight. Uncle Eddie & Megan came over for supper and we are just hanging out and watching movies.

Morgan "special" message for all of you!!!!

Is it midnight yet?

Uncle Eddie get out of my face!!!

Visitors

On Saturday night we had "Aunt" Hillary and Adam over for supper. It was fun to visit with them and Morgan had a good time too!

What do I do now????

"Aunt" Hillary has it down

Hopefully Adam figures it out before they have kids. Which according to them is going to be a few years. I think we have some babysitters now! :)

It was great seeing you guys! Thanks for coming over!

Morgan's First Christmas

We opened our family presents on Christmas Eve. Morgan got new jeans, pants, shirts and a sweater. In her stocking she got a book, an ornament and a rattle. Morgan had an eventful first Christmas Day. The morning started out by going to church and then going to Grandpa & Grandma Burton. We had lunch there and then opened gifts. Morgan really could have cared less here but she did get a few cool things. Clothes and books from Grandpa & Grandma and a Bear from Uncle Travis & Aunt Marcy. It even talks!

So tired!!!!

For supper we went to Grandma & Grandpa VZ. She got lots of gifts there too. Toys that make noise (they have batteries!!), a new Michigan football jersey, a stocking full of goodies, a bag full of stuffed animals!!! Morgan had lots of fun. It was fun to see Uncle Eddie and Megan too! Morgan sees Megan more than her Uncle Eddie (who lives in our backyard!!!)
We still have two more parties this weekend. Those are with my mom & dad's sides. So Morgan will get to see all of her cousins. We'll post pictures from that later.

Neal thought that Morgan needed a gift from him. So he went to Meijer and found this wonderful doll! It is possessed. It does five cheers. Two of which are on the video that hopefully you can see!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Our attempt with Boomer!

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We hope the excitement and joy of the birth of Jesus is felt throughout the entire year. Neal and I feel truly blessed this year. We are excited to celebrate our first Christmas with Morgan and teach her the true meaning of Christmas. For those of you that get time off, enjoy it! Life is precious and we are thankful for each day we have with each other, as well as all of our family and friends. Happy Holidays!!!! Love, Neal, Rachel, Morgan & Boomer

Morgan's First Minor Boo Boo!!!!

Morgan gave herself her first boo boo! It really isn't that bad, I'm just glad we don't have pictures this week. She scratched herself really good under her eye. Plus she has plugged tear ducts and we are constantly wiping her eyes. So her other eye is red from wiping it so much! So it has been a rough few days! Poor thing!

5 months Old

It is so hard to believe that Morgan is 5 months old today. It was just last year we were telling everyone that we were expecting and now here we are with a 5 month old. There really isn't anything too new to tell about her. We are still waiting for her to roll over. She has a little tooth trying to poke it's way through but that will be quite a while yet before we see that. It is fun to see Morgan doing "new" things each day. She is starting to really form a personality. She likes men way more than women (watch out Daddy!) Neal & I feel truly blessed and we can't imagine life without Morgan.

O Christmas Tree!

I thought I better put our Christmas tree pictures on here. We went and picked our tree out of Neal's cousin's front yard (yes, they were for sale!!!!!) Next year we will do the Christmas tree farm but this year we figured Morgan could careless. We didn't have any rope so Neal rigged something up...electrical wire with the casing taken off. Good thing we only had to go a mile up the road (as you can tell we wouldn't have made it much further!!!!!)

Morgan wasn't too impressed with us decorating the tree and not paying attention to her. However, once I plugged the lights in she thought it was pretty cool!

What a beautiful tree!

"Big Brother"

This morning when Neal was suppose to be getting ready for church he thought he should talk to Morgan and Boomer thought he better watch her too! So of course I had to get a picture of it! Morgan will probably never have a big brother...but she will have Boomer looking after her.


Seriously, she isn't going to do anything!!

Are you guys done looking at me? Just leave me alone!!!!!

4 Month Pictures

I learned my lesson after Morgan's 2 month pictures. DO NOT GO TO WAL MART!!! In the words of Neal, "I got what I paid for." Which isn't true because I paid the same price at Sears, got more pictures and they are super cute!!! So here are just a few of the different pictures that they took....

Yummy Carrots!

Who is that Orange Baby?

Morgan has moved on from just cereal. She is now eating her veggies (good thing she doesn't know I hate them...I just keep saying yummy) Morgan seems to enjoy it! I think she is at least getting some into her mouth. Tonight she was so messy that she ended up in the bathtub!!!

Morgan's First Thanksgiving

All ready for church...just waiting for Daddy (Again!)

Morgan's first Thanksgiving was a busy one! We went to church in the morning. Stop for coffee at here Great Grandpa & Grandma Lynema. Then we had lunch at her Great Grandpa & Grandma Burton's. After watching the Lions lose we headed back home. Then we had Grandpa & Grandma VZ, Uncle Eddie & Megan and her Great Aunts & Uncle and cousins. She is still recovering from the day, since she didn't take any big naps!

Santa is coming to town!

Santa is coming...well at least Christmas is! I did get up yesterday morning at 3:30 to catch the good deals at Kohl's!!! Our shopping is almost done already! Today Morgan & I met my mom at Wal-Mart. My mom called to tell me that Santa was there. So when we got there we went and had a picture with Santa. He was quite funny looking (check out those glasses!!!) I thought Morgan would cry (since Neal always cried) but she just sat there with the Neal look (no expression). Good thing it was free!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

On the eve of Thanksgiving, Neal & I are very thankful! We have been blessed with a beautiful daughter and a wonderful dog (well most of the time). We have been blessed with a wonderful, loving and Christian family. We are thankful for the MANY friends that we have. We each have a job, a warm roof over our heads and food on our table. We are thankful for the men and women protecting the land that we live in. We have so much to be thankful for and we thank God for each and everyone of you, as well as all that He had blessed us with! Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your day and be thankful for what you have, not what you don't!

Real Food?

Well if that is what you call it! Morgan had her 4 month check up today and the dr. said we could start trying cereal. So tonight we did. It was quite funny and cute!!! What a mess! We had a good report at the dr. too. She sounded good and looked good. She weighed 14lbs. 15oz. and was 24 1/2 inches long. Morgan is in the 75th% for her weight (imagine that!) and 60th% for her height. Here are some pictures of the cereal.

I really don't think anything made it down...lots made it out though. It was fun watching her little tounge trying her new food!

She worked so hard eating her cereal that she fell asleep!

The Holland Sentinel

Our generational picture made the Holland Sentinel today. http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/112007/local_20071120023.shtml

VanderZwaag's Christmas Party

I told Jodi I would be the first to post...so here we go!!! Tonight we had the VanderZwaag's Christmas Party. We usually do this in December but Neal's cousin, Kevin is leaving for Iraq. (Please pray for him!) Here are a few pictures of tonight. This was the first time Morgan got to meet her 2nd cousins or 3rd...whatever, they are Neal's cousin's kids. Last Christmas there were 8 of us that had announced or made the announcement that night that we were expecting. One more cousin made an announcement a few months later. Tonight we weren't all there but we still took some pictures. FYI no one made any announcements this year!

This is a picture of the babies born within the past two year. Josiah being the oldest at 2 years and Luke being the youngest at about 1 month. We are missing three little ones. What a group!!!


All of the grandchildren and great grandchildren. In all there are 59, we are missing a few. Yes there are a lot of us!!!!!

Tonight Morgan also got to meet her cousin Jackson. Jodi & I were suppose to be due a week apart however, Jackson thought he wanted to come a little bit earlier. They are about three weeks apart. They did enjoy looking at each other but we did remind them they are cousins and that's not right!!!

Home!!!!!!!

We were actually discharged last night. Grandma B. came and watched Morgan for a little bit yesterday afternoon and was able to get 6 ounces down her. So at 5:15 the nurse walked in and said that the doctor said it was ok to leave. So we got home a little after 6:30 after stopping at Meijer to pick up the medicine that wasn't there (another story for another time!) We are also celebrating Morgan's 4 month day today. It is hard to believe that she is that old already. We are thankful each day that we have with her. Thanks again for all the prayers and support the past couple of days. We are glad to be back in our own house (Boomer is glad we are home too!)

Morgan laying in her "big" girl bed. You can see where they poked her twice on her arm. Two of the many, many pokes that she received.

Morgan sound to sleep with Mr. Turtle

Morgan busy watching T.V.

Morgan with Mr. Moo & Mr. Turtle, still watching t.v.

Free, free at last!!!! This is Morgan leaving the hospital. She has no clue what is going on besides she knows that her fingers taste good!!!!

Vacation??

I thought I would put a quick up date on here. I will put pictures of Morgan's stay when we get home for good!!! Morgan thought that we need a vacation from work so she decided to have us spend some time at the Hilton (I mean Holland Hospital). Morgan was running a high temp and just really crabby. So we took her in on Sunday night. After they finally were able to get a blood culture (along with a urine culture, blood sample, chest x-ray and a spinal tap) we were admitted at 2am Monday morning. Neal & I both agreed this was probably the worse thing we have been though. I said I would go through labor 9 times and Neal said he would have a root canal with the infection (that's bad!!!) than to go through this again. The test results finally came back this morning. Everything is NEGATIVE!! Praise God! She is spending tonight there yet just because she isn't eating a 100% (she doesn't have her VanderZwaag appetite back yet) and they don't want her to get dehydrated....so we are spending another night. We are hopefully returning home tomorrow. Thank you to everyone that has been praying for us. We have felt them!!! Neal, Rachel & Morgan

Morgan's New Toy

We thought it was time to bring up Morgan's new toy from the basement. As you can tell she loves it. She still has some room to grow! She doesn't quite reach the bottom of it and she really can't move around and play with it yet. Morgan has managed to hit the buttons that play music (of course she would find those right away!!)

Baptism

Morgan was baptized this past Sunday (Oct. 15). There were lots of people there to see her. We had over 50 people for lunch after church and I know that some didn't stay for lunch! That's a lot of people!!!!!

Proud Mom and Dad!!!!!! Morgan did so well. She was fuzzy before we had to stand up but she did great after that! After "Aunt" Hillary sang her song she was out like a light! (Sorry Uncle Eric!)

Morgan in her beautiful dress that her Great Grandma Burton made.

Morgan pictured with her four-generation picture. Her Great Grandpa Lynema and her Grandma Burton.

Morgan pictured in another four generation picture. This time with her Great Grandma Lynema.

Morgan pictured with her Great, Great Grandma Burton, her Great Grandpa Burton, her Grandpa Burton and her Mom.

Morgan with her Grandpa and Grandma VanderZwaag
Neal & I (Morgan too) want to thank everyone for making this day so special! :)

The First Blog

Well I thought that this would be a great way for family and friends that don't live close to see Morgan. I also figured this way those that are living close can see her too!!!! I will add pictures soon!!!!!