new activities

Ah, yes, long winter days. Sometimes it's hard to think of new things to do with the kids. Here are a few things we have been up to:

Making a city for his cars, complete with roads, a house, a farm, a parking garage, and a bridge

We took Sylvie for a ride in her sled.  The first few minutes she was happy, but after a while she was not amused

I think she is finally understanding what her jolly jumper can do and loving it!

Helping Mama shovel snow

Believe it or not, today was only the second time this winter that we have had to shovel. Winter has been slow in getting here which is fine with me. But every once in a while getting out and shoveling snow sounds refreshing. Today was one of those days, so I invited Andrew to join me. He had a blast! Good thing since this will be one of his future chores (though he does need to learn to shovel the sidewalk, not the lawn :)

Happy little girl

This girl is just a light in my life! I capture way too many cute pictures of her, so I always have a hard time choosing which ones to share. Sorry if some of these pictures seem the same to you, but each pose is unique to this Mama :)

8 months old

My dear Sylvia is 8 months old today. I can't believe it! Here are some new things we are noticing about her:
-she will smile at almost anybody...she loves attention!
-she can sit up on her own
-she can hit two toys together
-she loves to say da-da
-she loves to play with and chew on her toes
-she can stand up momentarily if she is leaning against something
-she will occasionally shake her head or clap when asked to
-she gets more excited by the anticipation of something rather than the actual action

(this photo was taken by my brother, Matt. Even with her slobbery face, she is still the cutest!)

my heart laughs, my heart melts

Oh the joy of being a Mom! Here are a few precious moments that make me laugh, make me proud, and make me melt:

Andrew trying on my shoes, over his pj's of course for an extra fashion statement

"Look Mom!  My cookies are a question!"  (so proud of him!)

Cheese!

Love this

This one too

The Grand Rapids Public Museum

We recently visited the GR Public Museum with the kiddos. It was hit! I think Andrew's favorite was the carousel, but I couldn't get a good picture. Here are some other fun things we saw while we were there:

Ryan and Andrew testing out popular beards during the civil war

Sleeping in a soldier's tent

Andrew loved these drums!  Do we see a drum set in his future?

Sylvia enjoying pressing all the buttons, the ones she could reach at least:)

Peek-a-boo!

my cute caterpillar

Christmas 2012

Making a Christmas blog post this year took a little bit longer than usual because we were all sick with the flu, and then sick again with a different flu. So as you can imagine our Christmas was not the most fun. But we made the most of it despite this. So here are a few pictures we captured before and after the flu hit.

Ryan and Andrew making red velvet cupcakes

Sylvia snuggles with her first stuffed animal

Andrew opening his new box of crayons on Christmas morning

Sylvia standing up momentarily to check out her new toy

Andrew enjoying his own personal fan, a gift from Uncle Matt & Uncle Eric