Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from us! Even though Easter was really late this year, it seems like it kind of snuck up on me. Last Saturday we went to our church's egg hunt, which the kids LOVED, as you can see...

Cotton Candy

Egg roll! Amelia's broke...

But Andrew's didn't (well he did cheat a bit, ha)!

My purple bunny

Andrew only picked up blue eggs, for some reason. Hmmm.

Amelia had Friday off of school, so we dyed eggs! Both kids had a lot of fun watching the eggs change colors and decorating them with stickers.

lots of options for colors

Amelia's favorite...the purple one

Andrew's favorite...the "red" one

You know how when you're a kid, and even when you are an adult (before you have kids), there are things you say you'll never do to your kids? Well...one of those things for me was making my daughter sleep with her hair in sponge rollers. Every Saturday night (for church the next morning), my mom would roll my wet hair in sponge rollers while she watched M.A.S.H. and Fantasy Island. I hated sleeping in those things because they hurt!! The next morning my hair would be very cute and curly, but I decided that was something I wouldn't need to pass along. Fast forward to the present, and I have indeed sponge-rolled Amelia's hair. However, I think the few times I've done it, it's been in the morning for something later that day. So...guess what I ended up doing last night??

Ah...memories!! However, at least I participated in her pain (well, sort of):

But look at the results below...so cute! Oh, and Andrew's not bad himself. ;-)

Excited about the toys in their baskets

my beautiful girl

my handsome (goofy!) boy

I hope your Easter was as great as ours. We had a great day celebrating the resurrection! Blessings to you on this great day!

Signs of Spring

Well, I just noticed that all of March went by with no post. Such was March! There wasn't a whole lot exciting going on last month, just our day-to-day stuff, and after looking at my picture folder for March, it's pretty sad...almost no pictures last month! Oops! I guess a late return to the blog is better than never, no?

I've said many times that I really like the weather here in Michigan...until about the end of February. By then, I'm just DONE with cold and snow, and I know there are still a good two months or so where it's not only a possibility, it's the likely forecast. Well now it's April, and things are looking up! Sunday it was 83 here (practically summer!) and everyone was out. Our Life Group meets Sunday nights; all the kids were playing outside and the adults enjoyed hanging out on the deck. It was such a great reminder that it does eventually get warm here! Of course those warm temps didn't last long, but at least we're warming up. This week I noticed some sure signs of spring!

Rain gear: it's been very wet here! By the way...
doesn't Andrew look a bit like the Gorton's fisherman?

A little windy, but still a great day for the park!

Buds on the lilacs!

Buds on the hydrangeas!

Fletcher is SO enjoying going outside to wiggle around in the grass.

For some of you it's probably been springy for a while, but please accept our very heartfelt greeting: happy spring!!

Mandrew's birthday

Yes, you read correctly: Andrew's nickname (well at least what Bryan calls him) is "Mandrew." Mandrew just celebrated his third birthday this weekend. Time flies, and this little man is definitely no baby anymore! He is making great strides in potty training, doing very well staying in his big boy bed, and constantly amazes us with the things he says and does. We didn't do a "kid" birthday party for him (a bit overwhelming, I think) but we did our traditional family + friends birthday dinner at Red Robin. Andrew was SO excited to eat his ice cream! He also had a little celebration with his friends in his class at school. Here are some pictures!

Birthday treat: cupcake pops...my new favorite thing to make! Check out this book and this website for more info.

The finished product...cute and delicious! They were strawberry flavored, inside.

Andrew's party at school; his class painted the banner behind him!

Getting ready to sing, light and blow out the candles

Red Robin birthday sundae!

My valentines

These three are my valentines, the most important three people in my life.

This goofy little guy brightens my day with his sweet spirit and frequent hugs. He always makes us laugh!

This girl is super-smart, loves her some hot chocolate, and is always eager to help out. I'm so proud of her!

This handsome fellow (with his loving wife) is a fantastic dad, the best friend in the world, and I love him more every day.

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm thankful for you three, and thankful for you, my friendly readers!

New Year, New Phase

Happy New(ish) year! I hope all of you had a great holiday season and are back in the full swing of things. As much as I love the holidays, it is indeed nice to get back in to a regular routine! We got our Christmas decor put away amazingly early and quickly this year, and putting everything away (in addition to finding places for all our new, acquired gifts) really put me in the mood to go through everything, re-organize, and purge! We donated lots of old toys and clothes, recycled a T.V., threw away lots of trash, re-hung clothes in our closets on nice, slimline matching hangers (thanks to Abby for the gift!), and--put away the crib!

Andrew is now sleeping in a big boy (toddler) bed. I had been dreading the move to the toddler bed for a while, as I knew it'd be a whole transition process and my sleep might suffer. However, in order to seriously focus on potty training Andrew (who turns three next month), we had to first get him in to a bed that he could get out of, should he need to go! So, after all the company left, we took the crib down. Here is a picture of the kids saying "bye" to their old bed, and one of Andrew in the new bed!
I'm happy to say that after two full weeks in his bed, he's napping very well during the day. At night, he often wakes up once, comes in to our room, we take him right back, and he goes back to sleep. He's waking up pretty early (6:30 or 7 usually), but I'm pleased with how relatively smoothly it's going. Since we're getting this routine down now, I'm going to start tackling the potty training here in the next couple weeks. Wish me luck!!

Amelia also had a major event this week: she lost her first tooth! She was SO excited to show everyone her wiggly tooth (it was loose for a good 2-3 weeks), and even more excited when it came out. Now she tells everyone her mouth looks like a jack-o-lantern. I'll let you decide...


Amelia's still doing really well in school. Today her teacher told me she thinks Amelia's reading on about a 4th grade level! She's also the top of her (K-1) class in math. We are so proud of her, although we're going to have to decide what to do to keep her challenged and interested next year!

Not much else to report here. Like I said, we're just getting back in the swing of things and enjoying our life together! Here's one last picture from this week...lots of snow to play in. Have a great weekend!

Merry Christmas!

We hope you had a wonderful holiday with family and friends. We did! Love and Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

The Big Chill

This past Saturday Bryan and I participated in a historic event! We were spectators at the Big Chill, an outdoor hockey game between Michigan and Michigan State. What made it historic was the venue and attendance: the hockey game was at the Big House (Michigan's football stadium) and the crowd was 113,411, making it the largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game anywhere in the world. The Guinness Book of World Records was there to present a certificate and everything. Pretty cool...literally! It was COOOOOLD. We wore lots of layers and were well-prepared (well, except for my toes; I should've worn multiple pairs of socks!), but brrrr! Even though we're not big hockey fans, it was a really fun experience. Here are some pictures!

On the way to the game

Here we are!

Good seats!

Players take the ice

the record-setting crowd

Blowout win for Michigan!

An ice sculpture at the stadium of the Big Chill logo