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.

Nov. 10

November flew by! Looking back, though, I'm not sure what kept us so busy. Alice enjoyed some time outside while we racked leaves several times. I thought she would like the crunchy sound they made but she wasn't sure what to think about them at first. Our final time of racking we loaded the pick-up full and let Alice play in the big pile.


Alice has also started enjoying climbing over and sitting on daddy and going for piggy-back rides. I had several Discovery Toy Parties in Nov. so Alice enjoyed some fun daddy-daughter 'date-nights'.

Over Thanksgiving we first traveled to Jameson's parents Tuesday night through Thursday evening. We got together Wednesday night with the whole family at Jordan and Joy. Here is Alice and daddy with her older cousins.

Thursday after supper we traveled to my parents and spent Friday and Saturday with them. We were able to see most of my relatives for a soup supper Friday night. Friday and Saturday we helped my parents move 'living necessities' (bedroom furniture, clothes, kitchen things, and basement furniture) into their new house as they were ready to start living there. They are keeping some furniture at the old house as they are still trying to sell it. Alice spent a good portion of the time at grandma and grandpa T's playing with this toy.

Before leaving for Thanksgiving festivities we put up our first Christmas tree! (Last year's 2 foot tree really doesn't count.) I also put away fall decorations and got out the rest of our Christmas decorations. It was fun to come up to a house ready for the Christmas season! Here's Alice and daddy spreading out the branches. (We bought an artificial tree so this first year some work was required to get it looking nice.)

And the all-most finished product! (Missing a tree-topper)

Oct. '10

The first weekend in October (Oct. 1-2) we went to Davenport to help my parents begin moving things into their new house. They are going to continue living in their current house until it sells (hopefully soon) so the guys just moved a lot of extra things they don't need for now. (This included a lot of heavy cabinets!)

Mom, Grandma, and I started taking down the wallpaper in the dinning room. (This took several weeks of work after this as the glue was on THICK!)

Alice continued working on her stair climbing skills and learned how to go down.


Oct 8-10 we went to visit Jameson's cousin Stephan's family in WI along with Jordan's family. On the way up we stopped at a park for lunch. We had a great view of the lake for lunch.

After lunch the kids had a great time playing at the park. This is the first time Alice has really enjoyed anything beyond the swings at the park.





Enjoying the beautiful weather outside.

Alice enjoyed playing in and with this car.

Just down the road from Steph and Dawn's is a beautiful lake with CRP and trees that they have permission to ride four-wheelers on. Jameson took me on a ride down there and then we all walked down there after coffee time (trying to work up an appetite for supper).

One night at supper Alice just started clapping for the first time- super cute! (Oct. 11)

Recently Alice has been having fun looking at books w/ flaps and sliders. She plays peek-a-boo with the pictures and frequently will giggle when she uncovers the picture. She also like to play peek-a-boo with her curtains when I'm changing her diapers.

I recently got several new Discovery Toys which are age appropriate for Alice. I find it SO fun to watch her play!!!
Playing with Sunshine Market.

Playing with the Story Stacker.




ALICE's 1st BIRTHDAY!
Alice turned 1 on Saturday. We celebrated Saturday afternoon with Jenessa. (Our parents will both be up in the next week so neither of them came for her birthday). We began by singing and giving her a cupcake. She wasn't sure what to think at first but after a slow start, dug in and got messy!




After cupcakes we gave her some playtime in the bathtub (which was obviously VERY necessary).

Then we gave her a few presents. She enjoyed pulling on the ribbon and thus she needed a little assistance getting started with her toys.

Fun telephone!

Hammer Away! (Discovery Toys)

Winter coat, hat and gloves!

Jameson playing Ultimate Frisbee. He started playing with the Waterloo Team at the beginning of the summer and then took several months off after hurting his ankle. Now they are playing at Peet (just across the street from us) on Thursday so he's starting playing again this fall.

Alice and I went to watch for a little while when the Waterloo Team played the Wartburg team. I did a mini photo shoot while with Alice while they were warming up.




My parents came through Cedar Falls on their way to/from Rochester the Tuesday and Thursday after Alice's birthday so we celebrated her birthday with them then. They got this rocking chair at an antique show and my mom refinished it to match our furniture. Alice LOVES it and plays on it A LOT!!! It looks great with the rest of our furniture and will certainly be a keepsake! It has a home in front of our big picture window where Alice spends most of her playtime.

Alice reading a story to Grandma T.

My grandpa made me this cradle for me when I was little. Alice likes to take the dolls out and climb in herself.