March '11

Alice has taken an interest in folding laundry now. (Previously she just helped identify who each item belonged to.) She started with washcloths and can now also do hand towels, her and Anna's pants and helps match some of the socks. I think her favorite part of laundry day is playing in her 'boat' a.k.a. the laundry basket.  

One day she set up her chairs like this in her room. I called it a bus and for the next handful of days, we had to set up her 'bus' everyday. Now her bus chairs are permanently (for now) set up in her room.

Our precious little Anna!

Anna is a sweet little girl, most of the time. She is quite patient with her overly loving sister who likes to give her big hugs and tons of kisses.

Alice is quite thoughtful in making sure Anna has toys and books to play with. Sometimes she is overly helpful and tries to do what we refer to as 'mommy's jobs' such as feeding her cheerios or washing her face, but from what I hear I tried to be a little mommy to my brother too.

Anna pushing herself up. She can scoot back and turn herself around quite efficiently.

Anna learned to bend her knees at the beginning of spring break. She has yet to make much forward movement.

Spring Break Fun!

We had AMAZINGLY beautiful weather for Spring break. I only tutored one day and we spent a lot of time playing outside, taking walks, playing at the park, etc. It was a nice change of pace and makes me excited for summer!!!

My mom came up for a visit Monday afternoon thru Tuesday. We enjoyed the beautiful weather by playing at the park and a picnic lunch.

Whee!

This was Anna's first time playing at the park.

She wasn't quite sure what to think of swinging this time, but when we went to the park at the end of the week she had a blast!

Alice enjoyed getting her bicycle (w/out pedals) and tricycle out this week. She can now reach the pedals on the tricycle so she's been learning to pedal and steer. She got the bicycle from my brother for her birthday in October so she hasn't had a lot of opportunity to ride that until this week either. She goes from one to the other.

Anna posing in Alice's dolly stroller.

When I went inside to grab my camera, Alice had to get her 'Hello' (one of our old cell phones that she uses as a toy phone) to take pictures too. We don't take very many pictures with our phone, but somehow she knew that cell phones can take pictures too. Her's Alice taking Anna's picture.

This reminds me, Alice has yet to realize that her cell phone doesn't actually make phone calls. Lately when I say we should call someone, she gets her phone and wants me to put my phone away b/c she wants to make the phone call with her phone. It's hard to get her to make pretend calls with her phone but talk to family/friends on our phone when we want her too.


We took both girls for our first family bike ride. Alice was very excited to ride in the bike carrier behind daddy and enjoyed it! Anna didn't show much expression, just rode along contently. I look forward to many more bike rides this spring / summer/ fall!

Feb '11

Alice reading a book to dolly. 

My attempt at a Valentine's Day photo shoot. I was going to take pictures for all our immediate family but failed to realize that Alice couldn't hold papers straight and Anna would (of course) reach for the papers in attempt to crumple or eat them. I started with 'I Love You Daddy' and this is by far the best we got. Needless to say, I decided I should store that idea for a few years down the road.

Alice loves taking pictures with our camera. She doesn't aim, she just snaps away. I think she likes that she makes the flash go off. I try my best to pose in front of her pictures but they usually end up something like this.

Daddy taking Anna for a ride :)

We went to my parents the middle of the month b/c my brother and aunt and cousins from Kansas City were going to be in town.

Alice and Anna reading books after waking up at Grandma & Grandpa Teeselink's house.

Anna and Great-Grandma Granger.

Anna with Great Aunt Carol and Great Aunt Cathy

Our last snowfall for the year . . . gorgeous!

Alice and her cousins (pretend) reading. Timothy, Arie, and Lydia each have a chair and book, of course. Alice make-believe plays with her cousins many times everyday.

January '12

We went to the Caucus as a family. All of Black Hawk county is held in one location, this time at the UNI dome. We heard Michelle Bachmann and Newt Gingrich speak.

Alice (and dolly) got to say 'hi' to Newt and Callista. This is her first time meeting someone famous.

We got our first sizable snow the middle of January. The following Monday was Martin Luther King Day, so Jameson had off work. Jameson, Alice, and I built her first snowman together that morning. 

We then had fun throwing snowballs at the tree. Alice got right up next to the tree so she could hit it too.

Later that week, we had a big snowstorm. My mom had came up for my birthday Thursday night and we got a big SNOW DAY Friday! Alice was eager to get out and play.

Grandma had just gone out to shovel a little but soon found herself making a snow angel for Alice!

Alice swinging in her snow gear!

The cold has not seemed to bother Alice at all. She loves getting her snow gear on and going outside. Several mornings she tried getting her boots on to go outside before we'd even eaten breakfast! She learned that Anna could not. 

Alice eating pudding she helped make. She loves making jello and pudding.

Anna loves feeding herself puffs.

The girls playing together in Alice's fort. Alice LOVES having Anna play along with her. She is always getting Anna toys and asking her to sit here, lay there, etc.

Alice helping me make Chex Mix.

 Anna is 6 months!!!

 Alice and I made a snow turtle.

Alice loves sorting by object and by color.

 Practicing walking through the snow.

 Throwing snowballs at the driveway and each other... one of Alice's favorite activities.

A Look at Our Daily Lives

Sometimes I think back to when Alice was a baby and wonder what 'daily life' was like with just her and I. Thus, I decided I should blog about what our daily life looks like. 

Daily Happenings:

6:30     Jameson's alarm clock starts going off

6:45     Alice comes wondering in our room, Jameson and I (reluctantly) get up.

            Jameson showers and gets ready for work. I pack his breakfast, lunch, and coffee. 

            Alice and I tell Daddy good-bye and Jameson is off to work for the day

7-7:30 Alice and I read books on the recliner. (Most likely my favorite part of the day!)

7:30    Anna wakes up and I nurse Anna. 

           Alice, Anna, and I eat breakfast, usually cheerios or raisin bran. 

           After breakfast I go through catechism for young children questions or a scripture memory verse and a hymn or song of the week. At this point, this is as much for my benefit as Alice's, but hopefully it's forming good habits. 

           Girls and I get dressed (and bathed depending on the day). 

           Hopefully all this is done by about 8:30. 

8:30-9:30 'Intentional Playtime / Learning time' with the girls. This is the time of day where I try to forget about any cooking and cleaning responsibilities I have and focus solely on the girls. I really enjoy this time although it is surprisingly hard for me as I find myself easily distracted by other tasks that pop into my mind. I try to think of fun learning activities we can do such as puzzles, make simple foods to work on stirring and pouring skills, color pictures, make cards, learn songs with actions or sounds (Old McDonald is Alice's favorite right now), etc. 

9:30         Anna goes down for her morning nap. 

9:30-10    Alice watches Sesame Street while I have devotions and check e-mail. I started trying to read through the Bible in a year (chronologically) last January and made it about 1/2 way by the time Anna was born. I've resumed my efforts and my goal is to finish by the end of August. Weekends seem to be my biggest challenge. 

10-10:30/11  Cleaning tasks of the day (vacuum, dust, sweep, mop, clean windows, bathrooms, misc.)

                Play / Misc. until Anna gets up between 11 and 11:30.

11:30-12:15   I nurse Anna and then the girls and I have lunch. Most days we have peanut butter and jelly or honey sandwich, fruit and veggie or yogurt. If there are more leftovers than Jameson can eat for lunch, then we have leftovers. Occasionally we have ham or turkey sandwich. After lunch I read from 'Training Hearts, Teaching Minds' by Starr Meade. The content is above Alice, but I find it very profitable and once again it is teaching her the habit of devotions / Bible reading after each meal. 

 12:15-12:45   Play / Misc then clean-up toys and Alice goes down for a nap till about 3:00.

                       Anna stays up with me until she goes down for a nap at 2:00 till about 3:30/4. 

1:00-3:00 Mondays- Fold laundry that I've been cycling through the wash and dryer all morning, plan menu for the week, make grocery list. Read or computer time if time allows.  

                Tuesdays- Tutor Rachel and Lydia

                Wednesdays- Tutor Aaron and Alan

                Thursdays- Tutor Melissa and then a little down time if the girls are still sleeping :)

                 Fridays- Go through the mail from the week, pay bills, prepare for Sunday School, misc. 

                                Read or computer time if time allows.  

3:00-4:30 When Alice gets up she and I have a snack. When Anna wakes up I nurse her. Otherwise we  play, read, work on supper, etc. until daddy gets home, usually between 4:30 and 5. 

5/5:30-6/6:30 Supper

After supper, Jameson gets some time with the girls while I clean up and do dishes.

7:30/8-8:30  Get PJs on the girls, brush Alice's teeth. I nurse Anna and put her to bed. One of us reads to Alice, say prayers with her, and she goes to sleep.

8:30-10/11 It's just Jameson and I! :) We spend time on the computer, read, watch TV, play a game, call family, work out, whatever till about 10 or 11 and then go to bed. Alice usually sleeps all night without waking up. Anna usually wakes up once (although when company is here it seems to be twice) to eat, sometime between 1 and 5. This middle of the night feeding is actually another favorite part of my day (as long as there is only one). It's the only feeding where is just Anna and me and she is so snuggly! She eats and then falls sound asleep back it my arms. It is so quiet and peaceful I just enjoy her for a few minutes before putting her back to bed. She always goes right back to sleep in bed and I usually fall back to sleep very quickly myself. 

Weekly Events: 

Grocery Store Monday afternoon (after lunch of after nap time)

Bible Study Wednesday morning 10-12

Library Fridays 9-9:45

Writing this all out makes our days sound much more rigid than they probably are, but this is our general guideline schedule. I've found by taking time for reading and intentional playtime in the morning, I can make sure it happens. Otherwise, I easily get caught up in cleaning and misc. things and before I know it I'm tucking Alice into bed an wishing I'd spent more quality time with her during the day. I'm also trying to keep cleaning at a set time each day so I so a little each day instead of getting to Friday and still needing to do all my cleaning for the week.