Dance Class

I signed Elise up for a dance class at Zeeland Rec.  I never did any dance when I was little, so it's been fun to learn a little bit as Elise and I figure it out together.  On monday, the moms and dads were invited to watch what the girls had learned the last 3 months.  What fun!  Just the 10 little girls in their pink dance clothes was cute enough, and then to see them twirl and hop and count....oh my!  Check out the cutie pics and video of Elise doing her thing...

singing/bouncing the plie song

 

Circle time with Miss Cindy

 

dancing in front of the mirror

 

all lined up to practice hops, skips and jumps

 

Here's a favorite video of Elise practicing her jumps:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

overdue post

So, it's been about 3 months since a blog post.  It's not because we've been so busy or because I'd rather do other things.  It's because since blogger changed its format, it's more difficult to upload pictures.  And while I have near hero patience for my kids and my patients at the hospital, I have nearly none for this computer or anything online.  That being said, tonight is the time I just press on and post.  Overdue. 

Christmas is well underway in our house.  We've done everything from bring home the tree and decorate it to make christmas cookies, create homemade ornaments, and we read the "baby Jesus story" almost every night.  Our December is always jam packed busy early on, and then things calm down for the rest of the month until the actual Christmas holiday.  We're living that "calmed down" week now, and it's FaNtAsTiC!

Elise has done great at 3school and LOVES her mornings there.  The only thing she likes better than school is dance class on monday afternoons.  If you need a smile or a laugh, just ask her to do her plie song-it rocks.

Macy is almost 17 months and becoming more independent each day.  Her favorite response is "no," but she's easy to convince in light of severe prostests.  She has figured out how to climb up the ladder into the new bunk beds all by herself, although she doesn't care to sleep in the bottom bunk quite yet.  We're trying to decide how to handle it, and hopefully we figure it out before february or the new baby and Macy will be sharing a crib.

Baby 3 is doing well and full of energy nearly all the time.  Feeling her move and kick is the very best thing about pregnancy.  And while I certainly don't daydream or talk to this baby as much as I did with Elise or Macy while pregnant, I often find myself wondering who she'll be like, how she will fit in, and in what ways she'll change our little family.  February 19 is the official due date, and she's already measuring a couple weeks ahead.  I suppose big babies will continue to run in this family.

Here are a few pictures from the past couple months:

 

Elise turned 4 in October

 

Catching fish with the Bush family at the cottage

Happy Halloween!

 

Happy Thanksgiving, our thanksgiving tree was FULL!

 

First we went to get the tree and forgot it was on top of the van.....

 

Then we decorated it with all of our collected ornaments

                                             

 

 

after a few minutes, Macy decided she'd rather take advantage of an open lap and

read books with daddy

 

"Feeling the Zeel" on the horse-drawn carriage ride downtown Zeeland wednesday night.  We also pet reindeer, visited santa, and enjoyed a free dinner at pizza hut thanks to our power dollars.

 

Baking Christmas cookies with my favorite girls

 

All those sprinkles!!!

 

this is what Macy does whenever she has a free moment.  Apparently, the coffee table is where she thinks I should store all of my spices.

 

Merry Christmas!!



Sister Fun

As Macy gets bigger, Elise finds more and more ways to share her favorite things with her little sister.  Macy really adores Elise and wants to copy just about anything she does, good or bad.

 

Sharing the race car cart at Lowe's

 

 

playing at Timber town, "our park"

 

 

somehow, they ended up in their jammies playing in the van one evening. 

Anything can be fun when you're with your sister.  :)

 

 

reading books in Elise's bed

 

 

Sharing the double stroller on our walk at the cottage

 

 

Loving these girlies and all the fun we have together.



Macy turns ONE!

We celebrated Macy's first birthday a couple weeks ago.  How can she be ONE already!?  It was a great party with all our family, and she seemed to enjoy all the excitement and attention.

 It was a bumblebee theme, so we had all yellow and black and white balloons.  So fun!

 Macy is daddy's girl through and through.  When Bryan comes home from work, wherever Macy is, she makes a beeline for the kitchen to greet her daddy with HUGE smiles and sometimes even laughs out of pure delight in seeing him.

 We had fun opening present with Macy.  She had no idea what it was all about, but it's great to have some "Macy" toys around the house, even though Elise has taken them all to her room, for safe-keeping, of course.  :)

 the cake, which I worried about a ton, but turned out pretty cute!

Elise had fun picking out a present for Macy.  She selected this baby doll, Stella, who has a pipe.

The last present was a onesie from us, which read "big sister," announcing to our family that we will be welcoming another baby in February!  It was the perfect time to share our big news.

 Happy Birthday, Macy!

LOVING her cake.  This girl has a sweet tooth that rivals her mommy's.  :)

At 12 months, Macy is:

Pushing her walker around very confidently, but not walking yet

Eating almost anything, bread being her most favorite

Sleeping well, taking two naps a day and sleeping from 8-7 every night

Signs all done, more, and please

Has 8 teeth!  And I think a few more are working their way in

Is in the 60th and 70th percentile for height and weight

LOVES attention from Elise and Indy

Sweet, sweet, sweet.  With all that has changed in one year, the one thing that is very much the same is Macy's laid-back sweet temperament. 

Love you, Macy girl.  Happy ONE!!

11 months

Macy turned 11 months old in June. She's certainly on the move, crawling all over and getting into everything, especially electrical cords and Indy's water bowl. While she's still a great eater, she has become a little particular over the past couple weeks, refusing all sweet potatoes, waffles, and avocados. She definitely has a lot of personality, and it's coming through more and more. She is delighted to see any dog, and will even crawl over to strange dogs to get a closer look/feel/kiss. Indy tolerates all her attention very well.  She loves to swing, play in the kiddie pool in the backyard, and watch the ducks at the park, and take baths with Elise.  It's fun to talk to her and find out that she can follow what you're saying even though she can't say any words back. Macy can sign "please" and "all done," and she can give kisses: big, open mouth, sloppy, baby kisses. Love her kisses, and I love this age. Looking forward to celebrating 1 year next month!

Visser Farms

On Monday, I woke Elise up with the very exciting news that today was the day we were going strawberry picking.  She was beyond excited.  All morning, she wondered when it would be time to leave.  She wanted to know if the strawberries would be red, if they would be big or small, if the strawberry farmer's name was Jed like in her farm movie, and if we could pick blueberries, too.  :)  I explained the best that I could, and we headed off. 

It was a PERFECT day for picking.  We turned into Visser Farms and saw the sign with a strawberry on it.  Then we met farmer Jill, and she showed us to a row where we could pick.  Picking strawberries is a little trickier than picking blueberries because you have to look a little harder.  Elise did great, and she was thrilled to find the strawberries were DELICIOUS.  Macy was content to ride along in the stroller, and we were sure to give her a strawberry or two, just to be fair.  Elise insisted that we take her doll, Alex, along.  And so Alex picked strawberries, too.

 We picked just over 4 pounds, which isn't very many, but it was plenty for our family to enjoy for the rest of the week.  We ate some strawberries for lunch when we got home, and that was Macy's favorite part.

Elise held on to her doll, Alex, the entire time.  So sweet!

Yummm!

Beautiful Strawberries

Macy girl loving her strawberries for lunch

10 months, almost 11

10 months!  Crawling, eating mostly table food, saying mama, dada, and amen; giving kisses, clapping her hands, signing all done, petting Indy, sleeping great, pulling up on anything vertical, and laughing at almost anything that Elise does.  Macy is a JOY! Although my bundle of joy didn't really cooperate for the 10 month picture....

Here's Macy's first real crawling success:

Fun in May

It's been a fun month!!

The warm weather gave us many afternoons to play outside in the sunshine. 

Elise came to watch us dutch dance every night of tulip time, and we had so much fun together!

Fun downtown together in our dutch costumes

Scrubbing streets before the wednesday parade with my family

Picnic dinner and playing on the beach as summer begins

Macy likes the beach as much as the rest of us do!

 Daddy and Elise's newest favorite game:  blocks!

The girls need tubbies almost every night from all of our outside fun.  They both love taking baths together!

Macy's first trip to Buchner park in Fort Wayne

All the kids had such a blast at Buchner Park. Here they're all swinging together.

Running Elise through the splash pad.  What a beautiful day for fun at the park!

The Linn family plus the Riekens ready for the Indy 500, the greatest spectacle in racing!  What a great race day:  lots of sunshine (hot!), lead changes, fast racing, and an exciting finish.  Congrats Dario!

Indy's summer cut.  He's loving less hair with the warm days.