around here lately

These are a few of our (aka, Elise's) favorite things lately:

Eating as much guacamole as we'll let her. She's learning the word "spicy" and loving it!

Making forts under the kitchen table


Sitting, laying, crawling, and pretend sleeping on the floor



Tubbies. We take lots and lots of tubbies!



Celebrating lots of February birthdays with friends and family. She loves to sing happy birthday, and eat the cake. YUM!

Playing in all the fun winter snow



Other fun things Elise is up to include: singing her ABC's, throwing and trying to catch a ball, coloring, painting, dancing, jumping, taking care of her two babies=putting them to sleep and feeding them pretend waffles, riding on dad's back, feeding Indy dinner every night, and talking about the baby in mommy's tummy. She's so much fun right now, and our days are full of new things to do and talk about!

The Linn Girls

As we were growing up, my sister, Abby, and I were affectionately called the "girlies." I'm not sure if I'll continue that nickname for my kids, but I can't help but smile as I've talked about my "girls" the last few days.

Here are two of the best ultrasound pictures of baby girl Linn. For anyone who's had an OB ultrasound, I think you'll probably agree that these pictures make the baby look just like an alien, so it's kinda hard to get an emotional attachment to them. But, all the same, I loved watching her little heart beat and her mouth move open and closed while her hands and feet moved all over. The Bible verse about how God created us in our mothers' womb comes to mind over and over again as I look at my baby girl. What a miracle it is that she is in there, growing and being formed by the Creator of the world. Oh how I pray she will know Him as her creator and savior one day.

We are thanking God for a healthy report and for blessing our little family with this child.

off the bench!

I once heard about a book called "My Mom Hates me in January." I thought, that's funny, I wonder why anyone would write a book like that. Then, I became a mom. :) January was a long month, and February is feeling long, too. It's not that Elise is naughty or anything, it's just that we're kinda stuck. Stuck inside. All. The. Time.

So, we think up fun things to do on these very very cold winter days. A favorite for both Elise and me is a trip to the Grandville mall. I get to sneak in a few minutes of shopping, and Elise gets to play at the tree and ride the carousel. Talk about fun!

The carousel is by far the highlight of a trip to the mall. Until today, though, Elise always picked to sit on the bench seat of the carousel. While I felt like a complete dork sitting on a bench while the cats, frogs, and horses paraded up and down around us, I just figured if Elise thought that was fun, so be it. Then, my two-year old totally surprised me today and chose to ride on one of the biggest horse on the carousel. She totally loved it and sang "up and down" the whole time. The horse is way way more fun than that bench. We actually rode twice. I don't miss that boring bench one bit, and I'm hoping she doesn't either. There's still quite a bit of winter to go.

We even got to share our fun day with some of our favorite friends, Aunt Angela and cousins Charlotte and Isaac.