Once again...catching up!

It feels as though the past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind!  Preparing for our camping trip took quite a bit of work and advanced planning!  In the week following our trip we had wonderful visits from Grandma Poelstra and Aunt Joan and Grandpa and Grandma Bruinsma!  We loved seeing all four of them, but it once again made for an unusually busy week!  Finally this week was more "normal", but after feeling like this week too was jam packed, I've come to realize that this is just our phase of life!  Especially since there is a one year old in our house!  She sure is a doll, but she keeps us on our toes!

 

In preparation for Grandpa and Grandma's visit, Faith wanted to fill the house with snow flakes so they would feel at home!  I tried to explain their desire to escape the snow, but as one who is in it for a week a year and loves it, she had a hard time understanding that!

 

Last Friday we went to the zoo as it was a gorgeous day!  We had the chance to hear three different animal talks, which was really interesting!  And it was fun to see the gorillas up close!

 

The kids are still pretty Star Wars obsessed!  Since Disney is producing the next three Star Wars movies, Star Wars paraphernalia is now at the Disney Store!  Shane was thrilled that we found some Darth Vader pjs for him!  I think he wore them five nights in a row!!

 

Faith has been into wearing her hair in different styles lately.  This past week she wore a ponytail two days, pig tails two days, and today she asked for two braids in her hair!  It's been fun for both of us!

 

And sweet Olivia loves to get into anything and everything!  Of course some of her favorite things are her big brother and sister's toys they do not let her have!  When they are gone, she usually heads straight for those toys!

 

She also loves to pretend with dishes and my kitchen gadgets!  Playing outside is her most favorite thing to do, especially to go in the play house and bring us a plate and a utensil!  She really is becoming more and more fun!

 

Tonight these two were my kitchen helpers.  After Olivia went to bed, we baked chocolate chip cookies together!  It's fun to be able to bake with them as they actually can be helpful now!

Desert Camping 2014

This past weekend was our annual camping trip to the desert with our friends!  As always it was quite the adventure!  Not being a natural camper, it's always a challenge for me to be in that type of environment!  This year Olivia's stage of life increased the challenge quite a bit!  She is just everywhere and into everything, which I am used to at home, but in a trailer is another thing! 

 

She really embraced the dirt and loved it, which forced me to do the same!  One of her favorite things to do was just scoop up dirt and try to put it in the nearest trailer!  We tried to coach her into picking up dirt or rocks and putting it into a pail!  What a huge load of laundry I am working on as a result of her love of the dirt! 

 

Both Faith and Shane really had fun riding the quads once again!  Unfortunately I did not get a close up picture of Faith!  They did really well and both liked to go fast!

 

Olivia thought the quad was fun too!  She called them "beep beeps" as that is what she calls her riding toy at home!  Don't worry!!  Of course she did not actually ride on one!  Sitting on the quad was fun enough for her!

 

While it is always fun to see all the kids play together, it was especially fun to see some of the older girls take a liking to Olivia and watching out for her!

 

Karlene was great about having fun activities for the kids!  Here they are creating things out of gum drop candies and toothpicks!

 

Passing time in the truck, Olivia played peek-a-boo with me! 

Tea Parties!

 As Olivia continues to grow and show us more of her personality, we are seeing the she may become quite the girly-girl!  And I love it!  She loves dolls, accessorizing, and most recently tea parties!  She has always loved to play outside, but now in addition to going on the swing, slide, and trampoline, she spends quite a bit of time playing in the play house and making me tea!  And while I was having an incredibly busy day trying to get us ready to leave for camping the next morning, last Thursday we played outside together and had a little tea party and just enjoyed the moment!

 

I was told by a friend that an important element I need to incorporate with my girls and their tea parties is to make sure that they ask the question, "And how is your mother?"

 

In addition to having tea parties, Olivia is really into brushing her teeth!  What is funny is that I remember Faith having the same obsession!  I think it feels good with the molars breaking through the gums!  And for Olivia, any chance to do something the big kids are doing is very exciting!  In this picture she is using Shane's toothbrush, but give her any toothbrush these days and she is a happy girl!

 

My cutie Shane!  He's not into posing for pictures these days, so I have to post this one that he let me take!

 

And this is what happens when the kids decide to play all together in their room!  I love the few minutes it gives me to actually sit down, but the ensuing mess is always shocking!  They sure can have a great time together!

Walking, Talking, and Rainbow Loom!

As of this past Thursday, January 20, Olivia is officially walking!  It was that day that the amount of time walking (on two feet!  With her we need to clarify as she was an expert knee walker!) was greater than all other forms of getting around the house!  And of course each day she is better and better! Yesterday she even started showing off doing laps around the couch and the island in the kitchen!  The picture above is from today!  She grabbed Faith's ballet bag, said "bye, bye" and headed for the door!  I think I'm going to have my hands full with this little lady! And she is talking more each day too!  She is really growing up fast!!

 

The lack of blog posts lately is a direct correlation with the health of the kids in the family!  Last Tuesday Shane woke up not feeling well and seemed to have croup, or something like it!  When that went away, Olivia developed a fever and cold. So, we were house bound for a few days!  But today was the turn and I think we are all well again...at least for a while!

 

Little Livy still has a cold, but she is more herself today, which is wonderful!  A needy, crying baby is only pleasant for about five minutes!

 

Yesterday my college roommate Sarah stopped by as she was driving through Ventura!  What a joy it was to spend the afternoon and early evening catching up with my longest Calvin friend!  While we first lived across the hall from each other our first year at Calvin, we now live across the country from each other as she lives in Tennessee!  But thankfully her sister moved four hours north of where we live, so there is a chance we will see Sarah in CA again!!

 

From last Monday evening - Faith learned how to sew on a button at American Heritage Girls! Something she would not learn at home! :)  One thing that there is no pictures of is the Rainbow loom!  That is the latest craze with kids!  And our kids have joined in!  They love making bracelets, and it was actually a great thing for them to do while they were a bit under the weather!  Faith even took a class on Saturday at Michael's with a friend to learn about different, more complicated bracelets to make!

New Schedules!

The theme of this week has been new schedules!  Not only did Steve start his new position, which includes a totally different schedule, but Faith started some new winter activities changing our schedule too! 

On Monday Faith started ballet once again!  She is thrilled to be back at the ballet academy, and she had a very fun first class!

 

Tuesday afternoon was the first class of Cassie's Dance Class!  This is the same Cassie who does Dance Camp in the summer, and for the first time she offered an eight week class during the winter!  Faith is attending that from 4:30-5:30pm that day.  And because the kids have to be at Awana by 6pm Tuesday nights, I wondered what we should do about dinner??

 

This week we tried a parking lot picnic!!  The kids thought it was the greatest thing ever, so I'm sure that's what we will be doing for the next two months!  Before leaving for dance class (because it is on the other side of town), I made hot dogs and wrapped them in foil.  They stayed warm until we reached the Awana parking lot at 5:45 and had our dinner! 

 

And an update on Olivia's walking status for those of you curious...she has taken as many as eight steps totally on her own, but still lacks the confidence to really walk!  I'm sure she'll be there soon!  It seems as though every day she is standing without holding onto anything more and more, and each day she practices walking quite a bit too!  She'll probably be off and running before we know it!

Bonus Time!

We made it home from the polar vortex...or the winter wonderland, depending on your perspective!  Since we were forced to stay a few extra days in Michigan, we labeled those days "bonus time"!  And we made the most of it!!

 

Monday afternoon Steve and I took Shane to see the movie "Frozen," which seemed like a very fitting movie for us to go see!  On Monday Tuesday morning we were feeling desperate to get out of the house, and so we braved the sub-zero temperatures and went out for breakfast!  It proved to be a great time to go out as the restaurant was eager to have some customers! 

 

Here is a picture of a snow covered street in Grand Rapids.  We saw many cars that were plowed in and totally snow covered!  Because of the snow and extreme cold, all the schools in the area had Christmas break extended by two days!  The schools did open on Wednesday, and Faith and Shane went with Grandma Bruinsma to her school to help her teach her four P.E. classes in the afternoon!

 

Olivia sure enjoyed a few extra days to shop at Target!  She started putting toys into the shopping cart and pushing them around!  It was too cute!

 

While it was a great trip, there is something nice about being back in our own house!  We are getting back into the groove of normal life again with school and activities!  And maybe this week we'll even find an evening to take down the Christmas tree!



More from the Mitten

Our trip to Michigan has been extended...as dictated by the snowy conditions here and all over the midwest!  While we had planned on leaving today - the suitcases were packed and we were ready to head out - until we received word that our flight out of Grand Rapids was to be delayed causing us to miss our connection in Minneapolis.  Since this is not the first day of bad weather and cancelled flights, we would not be able to get on another flight to LA today! So, we are now booked on flights to leave Wednesday evening, giving us the chance to experience some of the coldest temperatures in decades in Grand Rapids!  Here are some other highlights from our trip...

Being from California, shoveling snow is  actually fun instead of a dreaded task!  Faith "helped" Uncle Dave shovel the back walk!

The little snow angel!

Here the kids are at the Children's Museum!  This is always a highlight, but especially in the winter!  They loved the new construction area!

Little Shane out for breakfast!  

Ready to go out and play in the snow!  It's really nice that the kids can put their own snow gear on this year!  

Both kids enjoyed helping Grandma make her special chocolate sauce to go on top of ice cream!  

Heading out to church wearing the coat that I wore to church when I was in second grade!  Faith thought it was pretty special to wear something that was mine!