Baking

Here is me trying to be the mom I so desperately want to be. The one that cooks, cleans, has perfect happy kids, and welcomes her husband home with a smile on her face. It's a good goal to shoot for though right now I am way off track. We did make some good brownies though. They put a smile on my face at least.
Messy hands. Pete enjoyed the feeling of flour.And the feeling of green icing.

This and That

Some more old stuff, trying to catch up to Christmas. Here and there, this and that, cute pictures of different things. Don't want to miss anything cute my kiddos do.....

Wrestling with dad.Pete has learned to kick, and splash.Pete's first boo boo. He shows everyone, and I mean everyone, his first real ouchie. We think it is a rug burn from dad dragging him around on the ground.
Little angel has started sleeping on her tummy. Naps are much better and longer these days. Praise the Lord.
With my kiddos.
More of my little ones hanging out together. Can't wait for them to play together someday.

More Old Stuff

We went to an afternoon at Gymboree a couple weeks ago with the West Michigan's Parents Network . Pete had a great time of course and I secretly wished we could spend a ton of money on a monthly membership but holy cow is it expensive! More than a gym membership and I would much rather have a gym membership. Family time laughing and playing.Another big snow.

Old Stuff First

It's the day after Christmas and I am going to blog about Christmas but I want to catch up on some good old stuff first.

More snow pictures. Watching the boys from the garage with mom. Decorating our tree. Watching the decorating from the bouncer.The finished product. It's perfect. It was a lot of fun decorating with Pete this year. Hard but fun. We would put something up, Pete would take it down. But I enjoyed watching him explore all the new "Christmas" things like the tree, ornaments, decorations and lights. It's so fun experiencing things through your child's eyes for the first time. Smiling while turning over. Always smiling. Can't wait for Jamie to join all the fun next year.

Dad

Isn't this a precious sight? Reading with dad. It melts my heart. Our children have been blessed with the best dad they could possibly have. If P. is home, he is caring for them, loving on them, spending time with the, holding them, playing with them and teaching them. They have no idea how lucky they are but someday they will know and they will feel as blessed as I do.

Pete Likes It

Pete likes snow. I guess he doesn't know any better right? Mom on the other hand dislikes snow more than ever. Not only have the majority of my plans been ruined by bad weather but it takes twice as long to go anywhere. Bundling the kids up stinks. The roads have been slow and dangerous. Our days are twice as long when we can't go outside. Pete begs to go outside every day not realizing how miserably cold it is out there until he gets out there. I have to distract him, bribe him, stall him until Jamie goes down for a nap then we head out into the cold. I hate it. He loves it. For a little while. One day he was so torn. He wanted to stay out but he was so cold. He would start to go inside and cry and head back out, then stop and cry. Then head back in and cry and stop and try to figure out what to do. So, I dragged him inside because if I stayed out any longer my tears were going to freeze to my face. It's hard to have an outside boy, inside.

Here are some pictures of our first snow. One good thing about it, it didn't hit until a few days into Dec.

Love

I love every feature on my baby girl's face. She is perfect.

Look A Likes

There are some pictures that I take and Jamie reminds me so much of Pete when he was this age. In these pictures they look NOTHING alike. Nothing! I love Jamie's serious face in all of them.

Other Stuff

My BFF Kristyn sent this Paul Frank shirt to Jamie. Isn't it adorable? Dad reading us the Bible while lighting our advent calendar candles.
Breakfast at Real Food Cafe before getting our tree.
We found a mildly cold, non snowy day to go get our tree. It's perfectly beautiful and Pete loves to look at it, study all of the ornaments and point out the Santa, snowmen, angel and dog ornaments. The bottom half of the tree has since been rearranged a hundred times since the initial decorating. That's OK, I love knowing my boy was involved in how it looks.
Hat on the dog, again.....
First snow of the season and Jamie's first snow ever. And it was a big one.I thought this was cute. Jamie's perfect China doll face and Pete's little feet.

Our Little Helper

Pete loves to help with anything you are doing. This is Pete helping me change Jamie's diaper, helping her roll over, and helping me take a picture of her.
Not bad for a beginner photographer.