Part of the fantasy of lights parade on Friday night
Lily and Mary snuggle up to watch the parade
Just part of the candy table for gingerbread houses
Elijah, Emily, Mary, Dylan(?) and Noah(?)

We are home from our flurry of a weekend in Michigan. As I look back over the pictures (and maybe based on how tired I am today) we stayed busy while we were there. We celebrated Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family on Thanksgiving day. Mary got to ride up with my parents on Wednesday and Brian, Elijah, Emily and I drove up Thursday morning. We listened to The Magician's Nephew book on tape and Elijah LOVED it! He was making all kinds of connections since he is so familiar with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It made the 5 hours go by pretty quickly. The weekend was so fun because my kids had playmates wherever we were. Between both sides of my family my cousins are between the ages of 2-21. On Friday we got to spend the morning at my cousin's house. Their twin boys are 2 years old. They just bought a new house and it is super fun! They have a finished basement that is a huge playland. The adults might have had a little fun too, playing air hockey. From there we went back to my grandparents' house and got ready to make our traditional gingerbread houses. We put tablecloths over the ping pong table and decorate like crazy. That night we took the kids to the Fantasy of Lights parade through Howell. They absolutely loved it! The floats are all lit up with Christmas lights. Our evenings after the kids were put to bed included some intense games of Rummikub. Saturday my grandma made waffles, and we started packing up a bit and kind of relaxed before my grandpa's 80th birthday party at an old car museum. There was a Fabulous Hudson Hornet that Elijah was nuts for! They had a big display about the movie Cars next to it, and the man who worked there gave him a postcard with a picture of Doc Hudson on it (from the movie Cars). Elijah stayed with my mom and dad to drive home today, but the rest of us drove home late last night. We had a fantastic time seeing all of our family. I am so glad we got to go.

Birthday party #1

I just really looked at the calendar

I realized it is exactly 1 week today until Emily turns 1. And it hit me. She is growing up! So, I will take this moment to reflect a bit on her 1 year of life outside of me. (As we will be out of town on her actual birthday and I am home with sick kids who are sleeping). Unfortunately they are in reverse order, but I am not messing with moving them all around now. I guess if you want to view them in chronological order scroll down to start and work your way up.

Early October 2008-Eating solid foods, loving cheerios by the fistful. Drinking out of a sippy cup.
July 2008-Owls Nest Macatawa. hanging on the beach with the fam. Not crawling yet. Likes sitting in one place playing with toys or laying on tummy.
May 2008-At the wedding of her godparents. Sitting upright is fairly new. Likes to be held most of the time. Spending days with the Fish family while mommy is back at work.

February 2008-big sister loves holding and snuggling. Emily prefers to lie down on her back, but will sit up when someone is holding her.
At one week old. Man, do I even remember what was happening? I wasn't doing much sleeping that's for sure!
Brand new baby. Just minutes after delivery. You can still see the umbilical cord on her. Technology is amazing. Since I was all drugged up and in recovery I didn't even see this particular moment live. So I am thankful that Brian had the camera in with her.


We love you Emmaroo!

The Friday night blues

Here I am at home alone on Friday night. The kids are asleep, Brian is out playing music and I opted not to get a sitter and go too. What am I doing instead? Mopping floors, scrubbing behind the toilet, and dusting. All things that don't get done enough in this household. I am trying to remember that the end product will be a clean, happy home that I will feel comfortable to relax in. I sometimes feel like there is a list two miles long of jobs that need to be done around here. Not just the weekly chores, but the bigger things. I'll try to be grateful that I have a home to clean. It could definitely be worse.

UPDATE: Just 30 minutes later and I really do feel like I like my house again. Just goes to show you how fickle I am.

Not to keep the suspense going for so long

Yes, it is indeed Wheel of Fortune. Or "the wheel" as Elijah affectionately refers to it. He structures his whole evening around it.

At 6:30 pm: "Mom, it's almost 7:00 I can't ________." (fill in anything I might ask him to do...brush your teeth, clean up your room, do your homework)

He always roots for the coolest looking male player and wishes "bankrept" on anyone other than that. Unless the coolest looking male starts to lose. Then he roots for whoever has the most money.

It's seven o'clock...where are we?

Gathered around the tv watching Elijah's favorite show. Any guesses?

There are so many little posts swimming around in my head, but lately I barely get time to sit down at the computer. We just keep passing around different types of illnesses (read: mom and dad have been writing a lot of sub plans and not getting much sleep over the last few weeks). There are so many good things to write about though, so I don't want to dwell on all the germs!

Emily's first birthday is in three short weeks. The past year has gone fast and slow at the same time. I am so thankful for my extended maternity leave and then summer vacation. I really do feel like I got to spend a lot of time with her. She still only has one tooth with one just about to break through. I am hoping it will be there for her first birthday. We have yet to get her professional portrait taken, so I think I will do it in the next couple of weeks (once she doesn't have the double snot drips). She is close to walking, but I think it will be after she turns one. She amazes me with things all the time. It's like she's a real little person in there. She thinks it's uproariously funny to pull her socks off as soon as I put them on her, she has all different kinds of babbles that sound like her own little language. She adores her friends Caroline and Lucy. The other day at church Lucy was fussing and Emily flung her head around to see what was the matter with her and then she started "talking" to her. It was so sweet.

We're going to Michigan over Thanksgiving weekend to celebrate my grandpa's 80th birthday (and to have Thanksgiving of course) so I am starting to gear up for traveling with 3 kids. We always do fun stuff up there like make gingerbread houses which my kids are really looking forward to.