I had to include this video as well. If anyone has been around Lucy in the last couple of weeks you would have noticed the return of her "princess"..."jazmin" ...... She somehow got lost in the couch for awhile. "mommy find it" is what she will tell you. So we now take Jasmine everywhere. She is like our second child. She has her own blankie, Lucy's is white, and Jasmine's is pink. She eats, plays, and marches. Whatever Lucy does, she does as well. Today she has played the piano, read books, and I believe sat on the potty. She is quite the princess. We even woke up to Lucy this morning, not calling for mommy or daddy as she usually does, but saying "where Jazmin go?" (keep in mind this is a 3 inch hard statue, that was given to Lucy, but I'm sure it came out of a happy meal) To introduce the video Lucy dropped Jasmine out of her blanket and she wrapped her back up and is rocking with her on her couch because "jazmin cweyeing (crying)". It was quite touching, the way she shushed, patted, and rocked with her princess.....we can only hope she is as loving to her new sibling.

mine, mine, and Lucy's

So we've reached it! The time all parents look foward too I'm sure. Everything belongs to Lucy, and mine is one of her favorite words. We had such a good time at Chris and Carrie's; and while I was taping Lucy and Lucas laughing, as they chased each other, I caught Lucas ALMOST touching something that belonged to our loving daughter Lucy. This was quite subtle for her, but nonetheless still caught on tape! The funniest is you catch Lucy calling Lucas "bubba" at the end (she takes in everything Aunt Carrie!)

The big 3-0

It's been awhile......but we have been busy! Jim took me on a week vacation to Ft Myers for my 30th birthday. We left Lucy behind (our first time). I thought it was going to be much harder, but how can you not enjoy sun, 85 degrees, relaxing by the pool and on the beach, sleeping in....need I say anymore to any parent. We really did spend most of the time just relaxing, no agenda, no deadlines, no rushing. I was treated to an amazing massage and pedicure on my birthday. Ryan came down and spent the night and took a day off to relax too! It was so fun hanging out in his territory and catching up. We ate well, slept well, and just enjoyed some time alone before the arrival of baby number 2. Who knows when we will be able to do this again without kids!

Lucy was busy being spoiled by her Aunt Jodie and Uncle Justin and then by Grandpa and Grandma Koops to notice too much that we were gone! She seemed to grow up even after a week! We got some fun pictures of her from Grandma and Grandpa; building a snowman inside, having tons of fun in her big bubbly bathtub, and playing outside.

She is constantly making us laugh with what she says and what she is copying. She loves to go "shopping" with her purse, she blows us goodbye kisses, and brings us back pop! Purple pop for daddy and white pop for mommy. She also is a little budding artist. She loves to paint and draw circles, and colors some pretty detailed pictures. She refers to everything in the third person which makes the things that come out of her mouth even funnier "siwwy (silly) woocy", excuse me woocy, no mommy do-woocy do.

Little miss independent

I'm still trying out how to configure some of these pictures, but you will see a little bit of Lucy's personality in her choice of bedtime outfits. "no swippers" she tells me, but prefers to run around in her boots. It is quite cute to watch her tromp around with her big snow boots or cowboy boots on with her little pj's.

This was a before bed picture also. She has the coolest hair
sometimes!

Happy New Year!

So I can't believe that it has been almost a month since I've posted anything. We had an amazing Christmas season. Our whole family was together once again, which felt good. We also had plenty of time to spend with all of our family and friends due to my work schedule this year. It just worked out that I had my weekends and holidays free to make it to all of our holiday parties.

Lucy did so well with all of the excitement of Christmas. She was into opening all of her gifts, and I'm sure since she knows what to do with them I will have to leave the bottom of the tree empty until Christmas morning next year. The kids definately bring an excitement to Christmas that is contagious.

I'm taking a break from classes this semester. It makes me feel like I have an abnormal amount of time on my hands. I'm sure by the time the baby comes I won't be feeling that way anymore. I was not pleased with Grand Valley and the changes they were making to their nursing program. I am now researching others, and trying to figure out how to not overtax myself, overspend my school budget, and still get my masters in a timely fashion. I'll keep you updated.

JIm and I have plenty of projects on our hands around the house. We are making our upstairs office into the newest bedroom on the main floor. That means the office is going to be part of the new playroom that we have to make downstairs. That involves a lot of rearranging and fun decorating! I'll be sure to put some pictures up as we get some of those started around here!

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.