Saturday, January 22, 2011

Kaylee Lost her First Tooth!!!!



Kaylee has been dying to lose a tooth and today her wish finally came true. With a little help from her Daddy, she lost her bottom left tooth tonight. She looks adorable with her new gap and her new tooth is already coming in. She is excited to see what the tooth fairy in the morning...

Tracks are for Kids


Today some friends of ours, The Anderson's, stopped by and gave us all of their Geotrax collection. It was an amazing gift. Trace already had some Geotrax, but compared to what they gave us he had very little. We all had fun creating a new, improved, and much larger train route, especially Trevor.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Trace's 2nd Birthday





I can hardly believe that our baby boy is 2 years old! He still likes to cuddle and give hugs, so life is good. He also still loves balls, cars, and playing with his sisters. He and Kianna have developed an especially tight bond. He calls both of his sister's Nana, as well as himself Nana. Trace loves to climb. He was beginning to climb over the back of our couches, so we brought his climber indoors and he and his sisters are having fun climbing on it and going down the slide. Trace got a new train set for Christmas. He really enjoys pushing the trains along the tracks. Trace also likes playing with the kitchen and making food for us. He gets all excited when he brings us a glass of milk or something tasty on a plate. Trace loves babies, real and pretend ones. He often calls other kids "baby" even though they are the same age as him. He also says "baby" when he sees a picture of himself. The interest in baby dolls, I'd say is a direct result of having two older sisters!

Trace has developed a bit of an obsession with Elmo, who he calls "Melmo". He loves watching Melmo on "TT" (AKA: TV). Trace is quite the talker and has begun putting two to three words together. He is a very polite little boy and often says "kuz me" (excuse me) and "tank ew" (thank you) unprompted. Trace is very into using the words "mine" and "me". He has a pretty silly personality and loves to go "boom", where he just flings himself onto the ground. I never thought I would have the kid that bangs his head against the wall on purpose, but I've learned never say never! He also likes to roll his eyes, just to be silly. Trace is a super cute bundle of energy and joy! I think we have a little T-Bone in the making...

We celebrated his birthday on Monday by taking him to a place called Jungle Java, an indoor play area. The girls were both off school, so they had a great time too. Then on his actual birthday we went to The Centre and let him run around one of the gyms and play with balls. For a little guy who loves balls and is a bundle of energy, it was a fun way to spend a birthday! Trace also loves Elmo so he had some Elmo cupcakes and balloons to help him celebrate his special day. Trace received lots of fun gifts including: a Hawkeye baseball hat, football sleeping bag, hot wheels race track, lots of ramps for his cars to race down; a huge digger truck, which he pushed all over the store prior to purchasing; a new lawn mower, and his own zhu zhu pet named Stinkie. What a great day!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Snow





The kids had a blast playing in the snow and eating it too. I don't think Trace realized he could actually play outside when it is cold out, until this evening that is. There is an empty lot across the street from our house, which is on a slight incline. We took our sleds over and let the kids have some fun. It was pretty tame, but good for Trace's introduction to sledding. Since then we have discovered that sledding down our driveway is even better!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Christmas in Iowa







We traveled back to Iowa December 20-30th. We had five additional Christmas celebrations while in Iowa, so there were no shortage of gifts.

A few of the highlights from our time in Iowa were:
  • Anticipating whether or not Santa Clause would find us in Iowa. Before leaving Michigan we left a note for Santa Clause giving him the address of where we would be staying (Grandma Becki and Grandpa Bob's house) and asked him to deliver our stockings to us. The girls had fun keeping track of where Santa was throughout the world via the computer. When they went to bed he was in North Carolina, so they were pretty excited he had made it so far. Sure enough on Christmas morning our stockings had been delivered and were filled to the brim.
  • Girls decorated Christmas cookies with Grandma Sue and their cousin, Alyssa.
  • Pedicure with my Grandma Carie and mom.
  • Christmas shopping with my mom.
  • Becki's Cheeseburger soup. Yummy!
  • Hawkeyes won their bowl game, while we enjoyed great company.
  • Doing a crossword puzzle with my 99-year-old grandma.
  • Trace discovered escalators and loved going up and down them, despite his initial fears.
  • Time spent with friends and family members. The kids especially enjoyed playing with all of their cousins!
On our way back to MI, we spent a couple days including New Year's Eve with The Wenzels. We had some good hospitality and fun times playing games. After 12 days away from home we were ready to return to life in Michigan and get back into the swing of things. Life is good and we are so blessed!