9 Months Old

Jack is 9 months old already! Here's the latest:

*He is crawling all over.

*He is starting to pull up on things that are at his level.

*He makes all kinds of sounds, including ya, ba, ma, da, and most recently a throat clearing sound that he does all. the. time.

*He definitely doesn't like it when things get taken away from him and isn't afraid to cry about it (can you blame him?)

*He is right on the verge of outgrowing size 9 month.

*He is very interested in JJ and particularly likes to go after his ears and tags.

*He loves reading (eating) books and nursery rhymes. His favorite is "This Little Piggy." The "wee, wee, wee" gets him every time!

*He LOVES bath time!! He flaps his arms and legs like crazy even before he gets in the tub. If we lay him down in the water, his arms and legs move like mad. I'm looking forward to how he'll react to getting in the water this summer.

*He has 2 teeth on the bottom.

This photo shoot is over!

Two Kids in a Tub

Now that Jack sits up, the kids get to do bath time together. Boy, let me tell you, it is crazy in there during bath time. It seems like the whole bathroom gets soaked from all of the splashing, but they have fun.

Yup, Jack sucking on his wash cloth.

And Hannah drinking bath water (Gross!! The things that Daddy lets them get away with!)

It was just after I took this picture that Jason started washing Hannah's hair. As I was leaving, I heard Hannah yelling "No, Jason, no! Jason, no!" Fun times.

In the vertical position

Jack doesn't pull himself up yet, but he is very good at standing when we prop him up. I'm sure it won't be long and he'll be walking along the furniture all on his own.

Visit with Kara

This past weekend, we had a couple of special visitors. Aunt Courtney and Kara made the trip over to hang out with us for the day. Uncle Todd was supposed to come but ended up having to work.

Since it was another gorgeous, sunny day, and we knew the butterflies were out, we took them to Frederik Meijer Gardens.


The butterflies were once again out in full-force!


Could these two really look any more opposite??? Thankfully, their personalities mesh really well, and they play great together.

Originally, they were going to spend the night, but with another forecasted snow storm the next morning, they took off around bedtime that night. Before they left, though, all of the kids got in their jammies and watched some Mary Poppins.

Jason finished off the evening with group devotions. It was short enough that they all actually sat really well and listened to the story. A good ending to a fun day!

Hide and Seek

Butterflies

This past Friday, Jason had the day off of work. What a perfectly sunny, mild day! We started off the day at the boat show. However, due to a couple of meltdowns by our precious little girl, we lasted there only a short time.


After refueling for lunch at McDonalds, we decided it to chance the mood swings and check out Frederik Meijer Gardens. Much to our surprise, the butterflies were already out! The sunshine, warmth of the atrium, and the dancing butterflies put us all into a better mood.


Hannah was mesmerized by the butterflies flying all around.

At first glance it didn't appear that there were many, but looking a little closer you could see all kinds of butterflies restings among the plants and flowers.

Hunting for more butterflies.

Another beautiful butterfly.

It ended up being a very nice family day together.

35 months old

Oh my goodness, we have an almost 3-year old!! Where does the time go? Hannah certainly keeps us busy. Here's what this busy girl is up to:

*She commonly tells us "Bye. I love you," when she leaves the room.

*She loves to tumble.

*Her favorite movie continues to be Mary Poppins. She asks to watch Go Fly a Kite, Medicine Go Down, and Step-in-Time every night.

*She talks about her upcoming birthday all. the. time. She wants a pink kite, pink cake, and pink balloon. Today she even threw in a pink wagon, but I don't think that's happening since they already have one!

*She has developed the bad habit of picking at her lips, particularly when she's nervous or bored. We're working on diverting her attention to something else and having her wear lots of "lipstick" (chapstick).

*She likes to lead our family prayer at dinner time, praying for her friends and thanking God for our food.

*Now that she's sleeping in her "big girl bed" she is pretty good about making her bed (most) mornings.

*She is a big helper, particularly in the kitchen. She loves to help me bake and pack Jason's lunch. She's also great at helping unload the dishwasher.

Happy Valentine's Day

This being my first year as a full-time stay-at-home mom, I was so excited to have the opportunity to spend the full day with the kids and make Valentine's Day really special.

When Hannah woke up, I told her I had a special surprise waiting for her.

We made pink heart-shaped chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.

However, the pink princess purse with the chocolates inside seemed to make Hannah even more excited than the pancakes.

The pancakes were pretty good, too!

Two of my three Valentines

After we got dressed and got Jack down for a nap, Hannah and I made heart cut-out cookies. Aunt Courtney would be so proud!


Our very first attempt at making cut-out cookies ever turned out surprisingly cute and very tasty!

For lunch, we had heart-shaped PBJ with strawberries (can you see we're big on food??).

We then had a picnic on Hannah's table.

For dinner, we made chicken parmigiana with linguine, Italian herb muffins, salad, and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. A sweet ending to a sweet day.

Can we say it's official?

Let's just say that the gate is now back up at our house.

Little Engineers

Super Bowl

Even though we aren't big football people at our house, we do still watch the premier football event of the year - the Super Bowl! This year, it was the Green Bay Packers vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers. Since Wisconsin is closer, we went with the Packers, although honestly we really just watched for the commercials!


During the pre-game show, Jason blew up Hannah's "trampoline" (a.k.a. tube).


What's Super Bowl without the food?!? I made sub sandwiches, stuffed mushroom caps, and nachos with guacamole.


I thought about eating in front of the tv, but then thought again. Maybe next year.

Watching the National Anthem.

It didn't take long for Hannah to have much more interest in her trampoline than the game. As she was jumping, her pants kept falling down (skinny girl!), so we let her take them right off.

Catching some air!

Jack doing his 8 oz. curl before the end of the night. What a big boy, holding his very own bottle!

As for the game, I know it was a close game, but don't remember the score. I do know that we chose the right team, and Green Bay won.

Auto Show 2011

As has been our annual family tradition for a few years now, we made our way to the GR Auto Show today.

We saw all kinds of beautiful vehicles.


We went during Jack's naptime, hoping he'd fall asleep in the stroller. However, he didn't want to miss a thing and stayed awake the entire time.


Hannah had fun trying out all the new cars with Jason...


...and testing them out on her own as well!


Of all of the foreign luxury cars Hannah had to choose from on the Million Dollar Mile, she picked the red Corvette as her favorite. Can't blame her. She has American Muscle in her genes :-)

We happened to have a primo view of a couple of cirque de soliel-type artists performing on platforms high above the crowds. (Side note - Notice the thumb in the mouth. We had a pretty miserable night last night as Jack cut tooth #2!)

Oh yeah, ladies, check him out!

Of course, Jason and Jack's favorite car was the new Porsche sedan. Our next family vehicle perhaps?? All ours for only $110k!

After all of the hustle and bustle of the show, we had one tired guy by the time we got home.

Snow Babies

After our snow storm, we had a few beautifully sunny days. Tired of being cooped up inside, I bundled the kids up and took them out to play in the snow.

Jack on top of the mountain of snow.


Jack was happy to get some much needed fresh air.

We love sunny snow days!

So close

I think we're going to be getting our gate back out very soon.



(Please ignore my voice!!)

Blizzard 2011

We survived Snowmageddon.

This is what we woke up to on our deck this morning.


Hannah was so excited to get outside and play. Jack was just happy to stay in his jammies all day.


Jason spent A LOT of time blowing out the driveway. It was so deep that it buried the snowblower.

I heard the official GR total was 16".

Later in the afternoon, the sun came out, so I took Hannah outside. She kept asking to "get up there" on top of the piles of snow along side of the driveway.

Thankfully she's light as a feather, so she could walk on top of the snow. When I walked on it, I was up to my knees!

JJ was swimming through the snow and loving it!

After a short time, we discovered that the sun was deceptive, as both Hannah and I were freezing! Time to go in for the night.