Picture link

We had portraits taken of Maria for 2 years at the local Olan Mills.  I think you can get to the proofs online through this link!  She wasn't in the best mood that day, so she didn't smile easily.  Plus the lady thought peek-a-boo would obviously work on a two year old...not Maria, and not that day!  Must have been a wrong side of the bed morning!

Click here to see Maria's pictures.

I think you should get the login page.  Enter mom2maria at hotmail dot com for the email, changing the at and dot of course, and enter 124851 as the password.  Hope that works!

tea and more

Maria and I went home for a quick trip to be at our nephew/her cousin's baptism.  Larry stayed behind for church.  We went Saturday afternoon and were at my mom's church for a Victorian Tea.  We had a fun time, lots of goodies to eat, and fun with grandma and g-g.  The baptism was Sunday morning and after service we went to my brother's place and they had a nice lunch for family and friends to celebrate Easton's baptism.  We stayed for a couple hours and then had to drive home.

Our four generation picture after the tea. Great grandma(g-g), Grandma, Mom, and Maria.  Don't you like our hats?  Maria had a headband as she wouldn't keep the hat on.

Easton William being baptized.

Grandma and Grandpa with Maria and a very tired Easton after the baptism.

We have plenty to praise God for; new life in Him.

a new ride

Make a Smilebox slideshow

So for my birthday we didn't exactly buy a new van, but it did happen to occur about the same time, so I guess you could say it's my present, since I am the one who will drive it the majority of the time. We purchased it on Wed. and were able to bring it home, although we took it back to finish paperwork and get it detailed. It is an 07 Honda Odyssey, and will give us the room we need for all the "stuff" that comes with the kiddos. Our camping trip last summer proved to us that we definitely needed something with a bit more room for kiddo #2. Maria was literally packed into the back seat between two tubs of camping supplies!
Also for my birthday we went to the doctor. WooHoo! Maria had her 2 year checkup, I had my 35 week checkup. We're both healthy, although I am measuring a bit small so I have another, third, ultrasound scheduled on Monday.  After the doctor we were able to tour the OB department at the hospital. Since we will be a different hospital than where Maria was born, I figured it would be good to at least see where everything was, where to check in, what the rooms are like, etc. After the hospital visit we ran some errands and took Maria to get her two year pictures taken, had lunch and ran another errand.
Then we drove up to Benton Harbor to the dealer to have the van detailed a bit.  We went over into St. Joseph, MI and spent about an hour on Silver Beach.  The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed our time there soaking up some sun. Maria got to try her hand at flying her new kite, splash in the water some(which was freezing!), run around in the sand, and play on the awesome playground at the beach.  We ate at Silver Beach Pizza, walked around downtown to see some of the shops and stopped at Kilwins to have some yummy ice cream, chocolate with peanut butter swirl, my favorite.
We have plenty to praise God for; provisions to purchase a new/used van and a wonderful day to celebrate my birthday!

that time again

Turning one year older kind of lost it's excitement somewhere in my 20's. Now it's just another day, something that happens whether you anticipate it with excitement or dread. I don't have either really, but hopefully something will happen today that will make my day more exciting than full of dread. Last year Larry was sick, so my birthday wasn't too exciting, but the year before I had a 4 day old baby that I had just brought home. If that doesn't ring of excitement, and maybe just a bit of fear, I don't know what does. So this year I am open to another exciting day, although I don't expect to have a newborn for several more weeks...if all goes well! Let's just hope for some everyday kind of excitement, maybe something that could be ordinary, but on my birthday seems extra special.

We have plenty to praise God for; each new day.

mary, mary quite contrary

How does your garden grow?

Such a good little helper!  Although we may have a few scattered seeds from her help.

We have plenty to praise God for; wonderful weather that let us get the garden started.

two years?

three days old

6 months old

one year old-birthday gift from grandma and grandpa

Yep, we can hardly believe it ourselves, but Maria turns 2 today.  We had a nice quiet celebration this weekend complete with both sets of grandparents. 

Maria was excited to get her very first tricycle...and there were also other gifts she seemed to enjoy getting.  A Michele doll from her aunt Michele, a stuffed pig(she is very into the 3 Little Pigs story lately), some play dough, a Doctor kit, a tea set, a Sesame Street kite, a cowboy hat and pom-pom for dress up.  A couple pairs of pajamas, waffle blocks, some books, a play phone and a jacket that grandma made.

Here she is Sunday afternoon after visitors had left for the weekend, chillin while watching a Baby Einstein's video...she missed her nap both days, and did so well despite the fact.  She did sleep in till almost 9:30 Sunday morning, 1 1/2 hours later than normal.  It was a great weekend to celebrate her birthday as Saturday was gorgeous weather.

We have plenty to praise God for; 2 joyful years of memories.

celebrate good times!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

bunny tails

Maria's 2nd birthday cake.  She helped me make and decorate lick batter and taste sprinkles on her bunny cake. We chose this since her birthday was so close to Easter.

Grandparents  and G-G(great-grandma) come today to help us celebrate her birthday(which is on Monday), check back tomorrow for more pictures.

can it really be spring?

A bit of static from the slide!

Trying to touch daddy in the bubble window.

We spent some time at the park and Maria had a great time playing.  We are loving this warm spring weather we are having and look forward to the weekend being as equally nice so we can plant the garden and celebrate Maria's birthday with the grandparents.

We have plenty to praise God for; a great new park in town to enjoy this summer.

"come out baby"

Maria has shown more interest in the baby lately and since the baby is bigger, the kicks and jabs can actually be seen better from the outside. She does like to lay her head on my tummy and say she can hear her. She was trying to get the baby to come out by pushing on my stomach, and thought that she would come through my belly button...uh, yeah, so glad we don't have to deal with that topic quite yet, thank goodness!

We have plenty to praise God for; an active baby and a curious toddler.

two times!

One for Maria, in a year or so and a matching one for the baby.

Happy Easter!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Maria's fancy Easter dress is courtesy of grandma...doesn't she look all springy! And the picture of her in the white onesie has an Easter rabbit on it. She wore that as her pajamas last night.

We pray that this Easter is a joyous reminder of what a loving Savior we have, how generous He wants to be to us, and how forgiving He is.


We have plenty to praise God for; Christ is Alive!

at it again

Here are the skirts/onesies I made as gifts...since they have all been sent now!
Sure enough, another project done.  I have other projects I have finished that were all similar to each other and sent off for birthday presents, but since a couple birthdays have yet to come and I think of the recipient parents a few may frequent the blog...I don't want to spoil their surprise, so those will have to wait.  But this project was for our own daughter #2, so I am safe.

This is what is started as, a super soft, almost fleece type material, but flows more easily...if that makes sense.  I thought it would make a perfect baby gown.  So online I found this tutorial for just that.  It was SO easy, I did it in a total of maybe an hour and a half.  

both?

When she learns something good, she wants to use it to her advantage.  If I give Maria two options for a snack, lets say raisins or crackers, which happen to be two favorites, she will come back with "both?".  Kind of a question/statement inflection to her voice.  She also holds out both hands and kind of twists them in her own sign language way of reiterating the point that she really wants both I guess.  I am not sure when I gave her the option of both, but now that she has figured out what it means, she is sure going to make use of it!  Gotta love the girl for knowing a good thing when it comes her way.

We have plenty to praise God for; a clever girl.

watch me color

I seriously had to ask Larry if he had been teaching Maria to hold her pencil/crayon properly while she colored. He said no, so we both were amazed watching her color the other day. She was taking her time, holding it well enough to make any Kindergarten teacher beam with pride, and making these short little strokes on the paper. Like she is so beyond scribbling...well, that day anyway! It's fun to see what she will do each day. It's never the same that's for sure.

We have plenty to praise God for; a daughter who still entertains us daily after almost 2 years!

I can jump

How excited she was over having plain yogurt for her snack.  I offered her a flavored kids yogurt and she opted for plain homemade yogurt, which I can hardly even handle eating without fruit added.  So she did a couple jumps for us where both feet were off the floor simultaneously, she has been doing this a bit lately, her newest trick.

We have plenty to praise God for; who knew jumping with both feet was such a hard thing to learn, but she's almost there.

Otay

Just the other day Maria started responding to us with okay, which really comes out more like "otay".  Of course that made me think of The Little Rascals and Buckwheat when he would say that and make his okay sign.  I couldn't find a clip from the original series, only one from the movie version.  This clip isn't actually Buckwheat who says it, but Porky.  And I thought this clip was TOO cute and made me smile since Maria loves pickles so much, and was actually eating one in the video we took of her saying otay.