Artprize

Our city has this neat thing called Artprize and we got the courage up to take the kids downtown to check it out. I am glad we did. It was a beautiful night and we all had a great time looking at some pretty amazing art. We didn't see as much as I would have liked but for having the kids along and a giant double stroller I think we did pretty well. The kids did great and now that I look at my pictures that I have a lot more pictures of them than the art. My favorite piece of art was this picture of Grand Rapids made with hundreds of thousands of little balls. See below. Pete loved this piece that played music that you could feel when you sat on the seat, hear the song and see the lights flashing to the music above you.

Outside the Gerald R. Ford Museum.
My favorite. All of the little dots are tiny balls. Amazing.Pete favorite.Jamie with some messy blown glass art piece behind her. Finally out of the stroller! Yes that is a large pig head behind her.
Taking a break on a bench.Carousel ride. Jamie LOVED it. Can you tell?Pete had a good time too and we plan to take him back downtown in the next week or two to ride it again.The last piece we saw, a wooden piece with a mans face and different animals carved into it. Very, very cool.

My Little Man

It's hard to call him my little man these days. He may still be little but he is acting so big. He says the funniest things, is so smart, does big boy things on his own and gets more and more fun every day.

I used to talk about how the current stage of his life was my favorite. I went for a while without feeling that but now I can say, "I love this stage!" I love having a conversation with my son. I love asking him a question and getting a smart or funny answer. I love hearing what is on his mind and in his heart. I love watching him try to figure things out even though most of the time he doesn't have much patience with things. Can't blame that on him though!

Pete is a sweet boy. I know I have said that before but he is really a kind-hearted boy. He loves his mommy, daddy, sisters and dog with all his heart. He thinks about and prays for his grandparents and friends. I am proud of the little boy he has become and have confidence in the good natured, faithful man that he will become.

The other night I got a babysitter so I could go to a jewelry party. I got home and we were sitting outside looking at the stars when I asked him how Jamie did with the sitter. He said, "Not too bad." I had to laugh. Not too bad!

He has many passions, interests, ideas and opinions and I love them all. Here is his current "favorite's" list:
1. Buzz & Woody
2. Bulldozers, Backhoes, Dump Trucks, etc.
3. The moon and stars
4. Thomas the Train and all trains
5. Firetrucks. Sometimes we drive by the fire station just to get a look at the trucks in the garage.
6. Outside. Pete loves to be outside.
7. Chocolate milk.
8. Airplanes. He can find an airplane in the sky anytime, anywhere.
9. Play-doh. This is hard because Jamie loves to eat play-doh.
10. Taking pictures, getting pictures of him taken, looking at the pictures of him and going through old pictures on my computer.
11. Wearing his boots. He wears them everywhere I will let him. He desperately needs new ones, these are way too small for him.

Pete used to be potty trained. Potty trained by 2 years and 3 months was pretty good. Then we went to CO. Pete is no longer potty trained. We are starting the process all over again. I knew we should have waited. It did save us some money in diapers for a while though.

Here are some recent pictures of our handsome boy. He is enjoying the new camera almost as much as I am. I bought this frog costume a couple years ago at a garage sale. He loves it. He wants to sleep in it (we don't let him), eat in it (it's fun to pick up food in the webbed feet) and play in it. How cute is this?
Omi and Opa sent Pete a get well card and $5 after he hurt his tongue. They asked that we take him to the store to get him a "feel better" present from them. We told him about it and that he could get something at Meijer that night. He held his $5 and we spent about 20 minutes in the toy aisles until he found just the right toy and low and behold it was under $5. He paid for it himself and got his change for his Hamm (piggy) bank at home. Here is proud Pete and his Little People bulldozer, driver and rock.We played outside last night and I captured this fun picture of him. He's hanging off the side of the garden we keep on the porch. What you don't see is his butt crack hanging out because his pants are too big and he didn't have a diaper on. And here is my boy this morning. It was cold and most things were covered in frost so we bundled up and put a towel on the wet chair. I fully and completely enjoy being Pete's mom. I think God has blessed him with some amazing qualities. I know he has a bright future, will do incredible things and be liked by many people. He is not only my son but he has become my friend and I have fun doing things with him. And right now, I am especially liking that he is asleep. Bye!

Playing With My Camera

So, I have been playing with my camera and I love it. And you thought I took a lot of pictures before, just wait! We haven't done anything exciting lately so they are just pics of the kids around the house. Really cute pics of the kids around the house!!!!!

Camera

I got a really nice, new camera today. Happy "every holiday for the next year" to me!

Rewind

The Saturday before we left for CO we went to Craigs Cruisers, like a Camelot for my CA readers. Miniature golf, go-carts, arcade, etc. ITT does this wonderful staff appreciation day once a year for the staff that includes pizza buffet and rides for 3 hours. We love going and Pete was at a great age to start enjoying more of the activities and games there. Our strategy. Arrive at 3pm, eat everything you can at the buffet. Go play until 5 minutes before your 3 hours are up and go back to the buffet for another round. Leave totally stuffed but really happy.

Me and Sugar before we left. Kind of showing off my new haircut that isn't so new anymore.
This is how Pete plays air hockey.
That's P. and Pete in blue #27. Every time they passed us I saw a huge, but a little frightened, smile on Pete's face.
Bumper boats.

Pizza buffet.
We get to do a lot of fun things. And we have a lot of fun together.

Another update: Pete had a horrible morning but a much better afternoon. When he woke up this morning his sheets were covered in blood from the night. He couldn't talk, eat or drink. I prayed for God to help us through the morning more than once. And He did. It will take some time for Pete's tongue to heal but he will be ok. And we will survive this but I have to say this was one of the harder days of my life. It's so hard to see your child hurting. Especially your sweet, kind, gentle boy that you love more than yourself. We are treating him with a mouthwash prescribed by the doctor and Tylenol. Liquids and soft foods. And lots of loving. Please keep him in your prayers. Jamie up. Later.

Feeding Jamie

I decided to let Jamie try her hand at feeding herself more. Here are the results:

1. Gives it a try with the spoon.2. Tips the bowl up to lick it and suck the food in.3. Cleans up the leftovers.

And again with yogurt. Both times I spent about a half hour cleaning up afterward. Is it worth the time and energy? Not really sure. But it sure is funny and makes for a cute picture.

Colorado

Boy, where do I start? I am sitting here worrying about my son who is at the ER with his dad after falling off the couch and hitting his chin on the coffee table. After the screaming and the massive amounts of blood coming out of his mouth we could see that he had bitten his tongue almost in half. They have been at the ER for 3 hours now. My poor little man. I am still waiting to hear and praying for comfort and pain relief for him.

Colorado was wonderful. Boy was it nice to be back. Back to old friends, the mountains, and to be involved in one of my closest friends marriage. The whole family traveled to CO last week. I am going to try to summarize the trip so as not to be up all night!

Neither Pete nor Jamie slept all the way there, or all the way home. In fact, Jamie didn't sleep the whole first day we traveled and were in CO. Yikes. Pete took a snoozer in the car on the way down to Colorado Springs from the Denver airport. Nice.

Pete and his toys, I mean, distractions. Good for a while, not 2 1/2 hours. Pete always gets to sit in the pilots seat and play with the controls. They see him, he says hi, and they invite him up. Here touch this, move this, push this button. It's so weird they let him, want him, to do that. The first day we arrived, settled into our friends house that we were staying with, then saw my long time friend Beth and her family for dinner that night. Let's just say I have a few extra pounds now to exercise off. We were fed so well! Like Kings and Queens. I loved every minute of it. P. and Jamie early the first morning sitting on our friend's beautiful deck overlooking Pikes Peak.
During the week P. worked on some of our houses, Erin and I had lunch, we visited the Navigators and spent a lot of time at the house to make sure the kids got their naps. Didn't always work but we had to try.

Erin meeting Jamie for the first time.Dinner at the White's house.Hanging out with the Bradleys. Boy do we miss all our friends. And we have such wonderful friends there. Thursday the bridesmaids and Erin had a spa day. We had a treatment ourselves and treated Erin to a wedding pedicure and manicure. Boy was it fun to spend a day with just some girls, girl talk and doing girl stuff.
The bridesmaids at the rehearsal. We had so much fun together even though we had never met. The rehearsal went smoothly and we were well prepared for the next day.Rehearsal dinner at the Sunbird restaurant. What a wonderful, fun night. Erin and I on her last night as a single lady.Getting our hair and makeup done at the salon on wedding morning.
Getting ready for the big moment. I am so happy for my beautiful friend. She deserves all the happiness in the world. Getting hitched. The wedding was perfect and the reception was a lot of fun. I was so proud to stand up for her in front of all of her family and friends and watch her marry Jeremy. What a beautiful day in every way.We squeezed a lot of things into the last couple of days. We saw more friends, went to Garden of the Gods and had to get ourselves back up to Denver to fly out on Sunday. Besides the wedding one of my favorite memories was taking the kids to Garden of the Gods. It is one of my favorite places in the world but sharing it with my kids made it even better.


My little rock climber.

And another view from the back deck. I never get tired of these mountains. And here we are waiting for our flight home. Again, no one slept and it was frustrating but that's just my kids. And even though they don't sleep, they are so good. You would never know it. We got home really late and I am pretty sure we are still not back on a schedule of any sort yet. But that's ok. We were blessed to be able to go to Colorado and blessed to be part of Erin's wedding. We are blessed by all the friends we still have there after being away for 5 years. We are so thankful for our friends who let us stay with them all week and put up with our noise and mess. And to all our friends who had us over, fed us, took us out to eat and gave us sweet, thoughtful gifts. Colorado is where I met my husband and now we have a wonderful life with two wonderful children. And it's not a bad place to visit every once in a while.

Update: Pete didn't need stitches, needs to be on a liquid diet for 2 days and will need pain meds so administer as needed. Gotta love emergency rooms. All that info 4 hours later. Goodnight.

Colorado

We were in Colorado last week for my friend Erin's wedding. Since I am still recovering from the trip I will post this picture of us at Garden of the Gods and leave the longer post for later. Goodnight!