March '11

March 3 was Jameson's mom's 60th Birthday so we traveled down Friday afternoon and had a supper at Jordan and Joy's (where we stayed). Saturday morning we went down to the Red Rock Dam and looked for Bald Eagles as part of 'Bald Eagle Days'. We also went to a presentation at Central College and got to see 4 birds including a Bald Eagle and an Owl.

After a quick lunch and naptime, we went back into town for an afternoon/evening of birthday fun...coffee time at Great-Grandma Roose's, bowling, and supper at Happy Joe's. Bowling was great fun!!! Here are a few pictures.

Grandpa & Jordan

Jameson

Alice & Mommy


Sunday morning we went to the Pella OPC church plant for church. We really enjoyed the message and the fellowship with the people there. We certainly pray that the Lord will bless the labors of this congregation as they strive to serve the Lord and uphold his holy word. Here is a picture of the cousins before church.


Also, for those of you that may not have heard, we are expecting again! We heard the heartbeat the week before Christmas so Alice showed off her 'I'm going to be a big sister' shirt at Christmas to family. We saw the ultrasound (and once again did not find out the gender) in February and are due July 15. We are supper excited to have a new baby again and for Alice to get to be a sister!


Updates on Alice:
I don't have pictures of these 'everyday events' but I don't want to forget them so I'm going to write about them and then hopefully do a better job of getting out the camera.

Alice continues to eat great and is starting to master getting food that's on her spoon or fork into her mouth! She still struggles to get some food onto her utensils so she will hand them to me for help because she wants to use them and get big bites. She's only had a few meals in her whole life where we've had to force her to take a few bites because she wasn't eating. She seems to thrive on variety. If you give her the same PBJ or pasta several days in a row, she gets tired of it and won't eat as much. As long as she keeps getting variety and/or new foods she eats great with no complaining, for which we are very grateful!

Alice loves reading/looking at books, playing on the floor with mommy & daddy, coloring, and being mommy's assistance with cooking and cleaning. She does a great job greeting daddy at the back door when he gets home from work, telling him to take off his shoes, and trying to open the closet door so he can hang up his coat.

I recently discovered that she Alice to walk from the car into places by herself, rather than being carried. I make her hold my hand, which took only a little training once she realized if she let go I would carry her. She thinks it's great and I figure it's a skill I'll be thankful she's acquired 4 months from now!

Alice LOVES going/being outside!!! We had one nice week in Feb. and ever since then she points to the door or brings me my shoes implying that she wants to go outside. When the weather turned cold again our trips outside consisted of a few minutes to run around on the driveway, getting the mail, and coming back in. Now that it's mid-March we are getting outside for some playtime, a walk, or trip to the park almost everyday. Jameson and I also LOVE being outside so we are thankful that she loves it and are looking forward to many fun times this summer. We have decided that this summer is going to be an 'outdoor summer' and are supper excited about lots of grilling, walks, picnics, frisbee throwing, playtime at the park, canoeing, and camping.


More from March:

Swinging at Grandma & Grandpa Teeselink's

Another activity Alice LOVES to help me with... taking paper out of the printer as it prints. While at times her 'help' requires patience, I appreciate her eagerness to try to help me.

The end of March and hosted a shower with several other ladies for my friend Elizabeth, who's expecting her first in beginning of May. Our theme for the party was Children's books and I was impressed with how everything can together.

I made a 'book cake' for the shower, putting my decorating skills to the test. My mom and aunt make beautiful cakes but this was one of my first attempts to decorate a cake for someone other than family.

Feb. '11

Alice turned 16 months old this month and has continued learning SO much. This has included learning more signs to communicate her thoughts and wants such as please, help me sit up here by patting the chair or couch, hat by patting her head, and come play with me by patting the floor (and continuing her signs for milk/drink and more please). She has been learning where things belong and how to put things away- her shoes and coat (and ours), her toys, her books, her laundry. When I tell her it's time to go, she'll run to our 'mudroom' and get my shoes and/or go to our coat closet and reach for the knob, which she can't quite open yet. She still LOVES peek-a-book, horse rides on daddy, and anything that gets mommy or daddy to make silly faces. Her giggles are absolutely adorable!

A few highlights from the month:

UNI Men's Basketball game

This was Alice's first UNI sporting event. TC (the mascot) came up our aisle and following that she enjoyed spotting him around the stands throughout the game.


Visit from Jordan and Joy and cousins Feb. 4/5.

We had hoped to go sledding but couldn't find a good sledding hill (that wouldn't require exhausting amounts of carrying for the moms) so we ended up at the park. We all had a great time, and was particularly nice for Alice & Lydia who were able to play on the playground much better than they could have walked through the snow.


Pictures for Valentine's Day card

Alice just learned how to 'mount' her rocking horse all by herself. Now she is working at getting it to rock faster and faster.

Alice's Valentine's Day Lunch



Jameson's parents and brother Austin also came to visit Jenessa and us Feb. 18-19. My parents stopped by on the way back from Rochester Feb. 21. It was nice to be able to have all our family (except my brother) visit us this month!!!

Jan '11

Alice has started being much more interactive in her play this month and it is SO much fun! One of her new favorite activities is horse rides on daddy. This has become almost daily activity while I'm making supper or cleaning up after supper. Other favorites right now include her toothbrush (she got a new one for Christmas from Grandpa and Grandma Teeselink), coloring (which is very helpful when I'm working on supper), her dollies, building towers on her pegboard and then knocking them over, and playing peek-a-boo / chase mommy around the ottoman.


We have enjoyed being home the last few weekends and have got a few projects done. We finally cleaned up some leftover building materials from our basement project (yes it's been done for a year and a half already). We made some returns and made enough to buy a utility sink. Jameson installed this next to the washer and dryer and I'm excited to have a good play to soak clothes and clean out paint brushes! This was his first plumbing project, so he got to try his hand at soldering (which he quickly learned) and did the necessary work to tie the new sink drain into the washing machine drain.

Jameson also made me a new spice rack and I LOVE how organized my spices now are!

On my birthday Alice and I made puppy chow. She mostly wanted to eat the cereal and the chocolate chips, but she did enjoy watching me shake it up and it was a nice quick dessert with minimal clean-up. She is starting to help me with some housework such as putting her toys away, lifting plates out of the dishwasher and handing them to me, and helping me take clothes out of the dryer. Having her help is still more work than doing it myself but I love her company and look forward to all the things we'll be able to do together in the future.

Dec. '10

We got a lot of snow the beginning of December and began introducing Alice to the snow. She wasn't sure what to think the first few times we went out, probably because her mobility is quite limited with all her winter gear on.




Dec. 23 we celebrated our family Christmas (the three of us). Alice had been taught to stay away from the presents under the tree, so she wasn't sure what to think at first but after opening a few presents (she got to help mom and dad with each of theirs in addition to her own) she got the hang of it.
Alice's helping daddy and mommy open presents.


Alice's new tricycle. She quickly figured out how to get on and where to put her feet (though the barely reach right now).


Dec. 24 we headed to my parents to spend the next three days with my family. Alice had a lot of fun Christmas morning pulling things out of our stockings and helping open gifts. She did a great job considering the busy day at my parents and my grandma's.
Emptying our her stocking.

Opening presents Christmas morning.


Granger family Christmas diner.

Alice helping daddy open his present at great-grandma's.

Christmas Day family photo


My parents got Alice a sled for Christmas, so we had fun taking her out on all the fresh snow and taking her down my parents little front hill.




Monday and Tuesday Alice stayed with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Matt while Jameson and I took a mini-gettaway trip to Chicago. This was our first overnight away from Alice.
Taking the train downtown.


Millennium Park


Our highlight of the whole trip...eating at SMOKE! Smoke is a restaurant that serves Smoked BBQ which we learned of through the Food Network show Dinners, Drives, and Dives. Jameson ate there on a business trip and couldn't wait to take me. I was beginning to wonder if the food could possibly be as good as he was raving it up to be, but it was!!! We had a rack of ribs, sampling of pulled pork and brisket, fries, coleslaw, and peach cobbler. The smoke flavor was AMAZING! We are already wondering who wants to join us on a trip to Chicago for an excuse to eat here again.


Tuesday we returned to Alice & my parents house and Wednesday morning we came back home. We spent the day Wednesday unpacking, doing laundry, and relaxing before heading out again Thursday. After a wonderful nights sleep in our own bed, we headed down to Jameson's family. We stayed at Jordan and Joy's this time (in a nice new bed). I really enjoyed being able to visit more with Joy and spend time playing with their three kids.

Thursday night we got together at the farm for our 'Christmas supper' and presents. Here is the family gathered in the family room after supper (I always forget to take a picture during super).

The girlies helping grandma open her present.

Friday we spent the day with Jordan and Joy and the kids. Jameson and Jordan worked on his shed and made progress though the cold, rainy weather was far from ideal. Playtime with the kids frequently consists of reading, doing puzzles, playing games & tractor memory, and of course doctor! Timothy and Arie always fix me up and this time Alice got to dress up and help out to. Here she is in doctor uniform!

Friday night Jen, Austin, mom, and dad came over for a little New Years Eve fun. The kids enjoyed Aunt Jenessa's light bright (excluding Alice who we worked to keep away from the little light pegs).

After the kids went to bed, the adults played 'What is your like?' until we too got tired and decided to call it a night. Saturday we went to Great-Grandma Roose's for lunch and visiting. She is such an amazing lady and her faith is so inspiring that we always leave feeling blessed by our time together. We then stopped by the hospital to visit Grandma Roose at work and then headed for home.