Smarty pants

My little girl is getting so big! I was just tucking her in for her afternoon nap and we were cuddling in our bed reading books. She definately has her favorites that we read all the time, and then those that she will let me read a page or two before she shuts it and says "awww done". One of her favorite books is a counting in the desert book that Grandpa and Grandma Koops brought back for her from Arizona. As she holds the book and turns the pages, she reads it backwards and tells me the 5 owls "who, who", and then the 4 geckos "scoot, scoot", the 3 road runners "hot, hot", and then 2 tortoises "meet".........which amazingly enough is exactly how the story goes! She read me the book, and I understood everything that she meant!



She is definately a smart one, and this is how she amazes me everyday!



I posted a couple pictures of Lucy, her first (and only) meeting with Santa. She definately doesn't want Santa to touch her, but she'll take the gift, and later point at him and say "ho-ho". She also walks around our house most of the day with her shirt pulled up. She loves to rest her belly on anything cold; the fireplace, garage door.... This picture was especially cute because it's the first time she put on her cowboy boots. I think they are just too cute, but she has resisted putting them on, until now. We put on some music and I got her to dance on the fireplace marble. Those boots make the best noise, just like my Sunday shoes that I used to dance on my fireplace with. The last picture is Lucy supporting her daddy's Pistons. He was so excited when we surprised him with that outfit and Lucy saying "pissons"! Please tell me you all knew how big of a game is on tonight?!

Procrastination

Again....procrastinating....well actually I have got a lot accomplished since I've been waiting for something to post on-line for part of my final stats exam. I wonder quite a bit why I've choosen biostatistics (it sounds even scarier to me when I use the official class name) as my first class in a long line of grad school classes. Partly to get it over with; well mostly that exact reason. I'm sure after Thursday I will feel that way. I will be very glad to have the class behind me.



What an amazing weekend. Jim and I got to spend a relaxing day with Lucy on Saturday....something that doesn't happen very often around here lately. Nowhere to go at all, due to some last minute schedule changes. We were very happy about it. Lucy got to play in the snow, and we even taught her to eat it! It is so cute to hear all of her words for everything, I think that's why I post so many videos. You have the opportunity not only to see pictures, but hear her developing too. She is quite the talker, if you can get her going.



Today we got to see Justice's baptism, and a chance to hang out with both sides of our families. I'll post some pictures later on that. I will continue to call Justice my little butterball. He is so cute, and an amazing little cuddler.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had as good of a Thanksgiving as we did! We had many different parties that we were able to make it too! The kids were the best part. They are all reaching many different stages and learning all sorts of things. Justice is our little butterball, his thunder thighs are amazing. Lucas is crawling, even though I think he secretly can walk. Jovie is a great big sister, and has dance moves like Justin Timberlake.

Reagen is so funny. She's starting to talk more, and can get everywhere! Our little Lucy is growing in to a big girl. She repeats everything that we say, and as of tonight officially knows her colors (she says them all but orange)! We have so many things to be thankful for and it is nice to sit back and think of all of those things and people.

This is one of my favorite times with Lucy. We sing and dance, and the more motions to the song the better. The lighting is not the best quality, but it really shows you how much fun she has. As many of you know we are expecting our second baby in May. Lucy loves (that may be an understatement) her mommy's belly. She talks to the baby, brings it toys, things to smell, kisses it, gets mad if I put my shirt back down (to put the baby nigh-night)....... We don't really know really know how she became so interested in my belly because we have maybe mentioned once or twice that a baby was in my belly. We never thought she was even paying attention. It is so beautiful though. Hopefully she loves the real deal just as much in 6 months.

I can't believe that the holidays are fast approaching. It seems that we have every weekend planned with fun stuff from now until after Christmas. I will be glad to finish up my statistics class. It definitely feels good to be back at school, and to have one of the hardest classes behind me soon. It's on my mind because I am blogging instead of my take home test! Still a procrastinator.

Happy Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween with our little princess. Lucy started the afternoon with a party at her daycare. It was fun to go and play games and eat some food with all of her friends. As soon as daddy got home from work we ate a quick dinner, put Lucy back in all of her "pretties" and took her out. We were so disappointed when the minute we walked out into the driveway it started raining. (that's Lucy and daddy together on the trunk of the car while I was searching for an umbrella) We went to a couple of neighbors houses, I think Lucy had fun. She ate a lot of chocolate and juice tonight, hopefully she sleeps well! We hope everyone else had a wonderfully fun night with their kids!

End of the week

I cannot believe that it's Friday already. I'm suppose to be napping because I work tonight, but of course I can't sleep. The house is quiet, I have all the time in the world, and Lucy is at day care. Oh well. Since I work this weekend I have had the rest of the week off. Lucy and I have been enjoying the cooler fall days at the park. She loves the slide. She goes up the steps all by herself, and yesterday finally went down without the help of my hands. She loves underdogs on the swings and she can't get enough of riding her bike. She took off across the park to try and get on this 2 wheel, shiny, red bike that someone had parked at the edge of the park. She didn't seem to understand why she wasn't able to ride it. I love this weather, with the sun. I wish it would go from this to sunny snow days. I can deal with the snow, just not the grey weather. Jim looks forward to his weekend with Lucy. It's fun for them when I work, they get to do special dad and daughter things. Hopefully this beautiful weather holds out for halloween, we all know how it can be!

Lucas' first birthday party

What a gorgeous afternoon to celebrate Lucas' first birthday. We had such a relaxing and fun time. Lucy was so excited to see "Jo-Jo", she had been asking for her all week. We picked up Grandpa Herrema and joined up with the rest of the fam at Carrie and Chris'. I'm putting mostly videos up here for Ryan (you are reading this aren't you?!), but they all made me smile--from singing, to watching Jovie and Lucy play, to the boys finishing off the evening taking out a fire hydrant. Thankfully no one was hurt in the process! I can't believe that Lucas is already one. He is such a healthy, happy boy. What a blessing!

bath tub fun

Well the weather must be wearing on my mood. Just kindof blah; I hope the sun comes out today. Lucy has been a little stir crazy, she had to stay inside yesterday because of the rain. We had a great time this weekend with Chris, Carrie, and Lucas. They came over Saturday for dinner and we just hung out and let the kids play. It's so nice to have them only a half hour away, instead of 2 states. We will be celebrating Lucas' first birthday this weekend. It is fun to see him grow and change.

Our little pianist

Lucy's hayride

We spent Saturday at Koetsier's kissing puppies, looking at pumpkins, playing in corn seeds, and going for a hayride. Who would have thought that it would be 85 degrees out?