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Thursday, January 14, 2016

the big announcement

We had a special surprise wrapped up for the family this year.


Mr. Gryce spent a lot of time planning out how we were going to announce our pregnancy to his family at our Christmas get-together.





He finally decided we should put some helium balloons in a big box for his parents, and attach our ultrasound pictures to the balloons.


After reading the tag, his mom was worried that something was going to leap out of the box and scare her. 

 

The big reveal! 
It took a few moments for the news to sink in.



Congratulations Grandma, Grandpa Larry and Grandpa Gryce!

Monday, January 11, 2016

reflections on 2015 (belated Christmas letter)

Dear Family, Friends, and Blog Readers,

How is it possible that yet another year has nearly come and gone? It seems like just yesterday we were writing last year’s Christmas letter! It’s hard to believe that five years ago we were planning our wedding…where has the time gone?

This year has been another whirlwind for us. Here are a few highlights:

Mr. Gryce celebrated his 5-year mark of being employed as a Senior Software Developer with his current company. Although his work is often challenging, he enjoys it and maintains a great relationship with his boss and co-workers. It is not too often that jobs like this are available so close to home! We are thankful for the continued growth of the company and he hopes to stay there for many years.

Mrs. Gryce had a busy year supply teaching with the local school board. She also had a full tutoring schedule for much of the summer. Since September, her teaching schedule has slowed down considerably and she is enjoying some down time. She still tutors from home 5 nights a week and occasional Saturdays. Over the summer, Mrs. Gryce was busy picking berries, making pickles, relish, and jam, as well as canning rhubarb and applesauce. Our pantry is well-stocked for the winter months!


If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you will know that our big renovation project this year was the demolition of our old wood shed, and the building of a 2-storey 24’ x 24’ addition to our house. This has allowed us to have a 2-car garage with upstairs loft. We now have storage for two cars and the wood pile, plus an area for Mr. Gryce’s work bench and tools. We were very pleased with the contractor we chose for the job and hope to work with him again in the New Year as we make plans to finish the loft portion into living space.


At the end of July, we took a road trip to Michigan, where we stayed with Mrs. Gryce’s cousins for a few days. 


It was lovely to get away, and as always, the Bakkers were generous and hospitable hosts. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and spent a full day in the water park at Michigan’s Adventure. It truly was an adventure—especially for Mrs. Gryce, who is nervous about heights, water, and rides that spin. Nevertheless, we both thoroughly enjoyed our time together.


Back at home, we enjoyed several trips to the beach, including a beautiful, little-known spot near Pleasant Bay. 


We also had a great time at the Sandbanks Dunes Beach with the Broekemas. Now that our nephew and twin nieces are getting older, it has become easier to plan outings and family dinners together. 


We also spent one summer afternoon at Mr. Gryce’s dad’s house, learning about his bee-keeping business. Mr. Gryce enjoyed lending a hand in the honey-extraction process. Maybe one day, we’ll get into it ourselves!


In September we were saddened by the loss of our beloved uncle, Glenn Gryce. He had a tremendous influence in Mr. Gryce’s life during his growing-up years, and was also the inspiration for our living room design. He will be dearly missed!

This fall, we adopted a new kitten named Chester. He is a lively playmate for Charlie, and the two get along (most of the time).



 Since many of you may have thought Charlie and Chester would be our only babies, we have saved the best news for last: We are expecting a baby in June! So far, all is going well. Now in the second trimester, Mrs. Gryce’s nausea is gone and she is not as tired. We continue to pray for health and strength for both Mrs. Gryce and Baby Gryce in the coming months.


We hope this post finds you well. It is our hope that you experienced a merry Christmas with family and friends, and we wish you all God's richest blessings in 2016.                                                    
With Love,

            Mr. & Mrs. (and baby) Gryce

the new additions

It's no secret that we've been renovating our house for a really long time. Almost ever since we began renovating, we'd wanted to build a garage. Unfortunately, there were always other projects that were higher priority (read: the rest of the house.)  But with our little house finally renovated from top to bottom, we finally built our garage addition last year.



We're glad we finally got the garage built, because our next addition has been a new car! Our old Hyundai finally died, so over Christmas we had some time to shop around. I am happy to report that after driving my Civic for the last couple of years, Mr. Gryce has been fully converted to a Honda driver for life!  We finally brought home our new Civic this past Saturday and Mr. Gryce is certainly enjoying all the new technology and gadgets that this upgrade brings.



Our third addition will be taking place in the coming months, as we hope to connect the upstairs loft portion to the rest of the upstairs and to finish it into living space.  We're still working on a final blueprint.


Finally, while I have already told you about our addition Chester in a previous post... 


I'm excited to announce that our little family is growing again....



That's right! We are expecting a baby in June!




We can't wait to share this exciting chapter of our lives with you all. Please stay tuned for more updates.