Preparing for the Holidays

The last week or so has been a lot of fun gearing up for the Holidays.  We kicked off the Holiday Season by going to the Santa Parade downtown Grand Rapids.  It was a VERY cold morning, but a fun way to begin celebrating the season.  This week we took down the fall decorations and put up all the Christmas decorations.  I have found that the decorations I had for the condo are a bit scarce in the new house, but we will add something new each year.  This is by far my favorite time of the year!  I LOVE decorating the tree and enjoy it even more now that I can do it with Allison and Connor (Ella took a nap).

                         Allison is getting the weather report from the TV 8 weather man.

                                                          Allison enjoying the parade!

                       Ella having a snack at the parade.  This was before her hands were frozen solid

Craig and Connor liked the "dragon".  I thought it was a dinosaur from far away and Craig thought a gingerbread man.  I thought my guess was a bit better, but Craig disagreed.

Having a sucker and trying to stay warm.  

Santa's little helpers.  Connor and Allison help decorate the tree

My little elves

The stockings are hung and the Nativity collection is up. 

The tree is completed!

The kids have two sets of stockings and I thought this was the perfect place for them.

Halloween 2010

Spiderman getting ready to go to Allison's party

Allison's class

My little Bee

Spiderman and Cleopatra ready for the zoo

Allison at the zoo. They had face painting too!

Spiderman, Bumblebee and Cleopatra

Craig and Allison

Craig dressed as his mother, Mary Kay

Elmo, Belle and Spiderman

Allison and Aden

My little bumblebee helping me hand out candy

With Halloween falling on a Sunday, our weekend was jammed with festivities. The kids had a great time, but they had WAAAYYY too much candy and so did I! We kicked off the beginning of Halloween by heading up to Allison's school for her party. Unfortunately, we missed the parade (I thought it was at 10:30, but it was 10:00). We managed to see all the kids dressed in their costumes and get a class photo. Allison didn't even mention the fact that we weren't there. After her party we had lunch at Panera and then headed to Boo at the Zoo. The kids had a great time getting some fun treats and books at the zoo as well as seeing some animals. Then we were off to Allison's swim team practice. She is becoming quite the little swimmer and can definitely keep up with all the first and second graders. Saturday we went to Grand Haven to watch the Spartans get creamed and went trick or treating with Allison's cousins. She had a great time and got a ton of candy. Ella fell asleep in the high chair so she stayed back with grandma and grandpa and handed out candy. We stopped by and saw my grandparents and my aunt and uncle, which was fun for the kids since we are typically not in Grand Haven for Halloween. Sunday we went to our friends' house for a Halloween party and then back to our house to see all the neighbors and hand out candy. Craig took the kids around our neighborhood and I stayed back with Ella to hand out candy.

Craig turns 34!

Ella, me, Court and Ryan at the game

Craig, Todd and Amanda

Ryan and Connor at the East vs. Northview game

Craig on his birthday.....studying for boards

Uncle Craig with all the girls and Connor

Last Friday Craig turned 34 and much of the weekend was spent celebrating this milestone. After 12 days straight of work, Craig finally had a day off. He started it off with studying for several hours for his board exams and then picking up Allison from school. Friday night we took Allison to swim lessons and then we all headed to the EGR vs Northville football game. We met Courtney as well as Todd and Amanda. Connor had a great time playing with Ryan and we enjoyed the company of our friends. Saturday we went to Allison's final soccer game of the season and then on to Grand Haven. We watched the MSU football and thrilled to see them come back and win against Northwestern. Saturday afternoon Craig's parents had a fun party for him and then we dropped the kiddos off to my parents for the night!!! Craig and I went to the movie Inception and then we went to Rose's for dinner. Sunday morning we slept in, exercised and then headed to Spring Lake to pick up the kids. It was a wonderful weekend.

Impossible Task?

Not too bad, minus the camera case and fire truck.

I was doing something sill to make these crazy kids laugh.

At Clover Bar
I have been trying for months to get an updated photo of the crew, but it is not an easy task. In fact, I am beginning to wonder if it is an impossible task. Allison is almost always a sure bet, but Connor and Ella take turns being a real pain:) Anyway, here are few shots of them.

Craig has been working a lot of hours and by Saturday I am spent. So we decided to go to Spring Lake for the day and hang out with my parents. It was a fun day. I went for a nice long run a long the bike bath by myself and then we went to a cider mill and to Clover Bar pizza for dinner. We headed back to EGR around 7:30....just in time to say good night to Craig.

October Fun

Enjoying the MSU game at my friend Courtney's house

Allison made this dress!!!

Watching MSU beat U of M:)

The Elephants for Artprize

Riding the Carousal

Allison at her Kindergarten parade

Allison and Connor at The Breton Boogie

Dance time at school to raise money. Allison is jamming!
Well, October has turned out to be a busy month for us. Craig has been on call a lot, Allison has been busy with school, soccer and swimming, and the rest of us are just along for the ride! Connor, Ella and I have been enjoying going for long jogs around the lake, playing at the playground and just hanging out together. Here is a brief summary of what is going on with each of the kids.

Allison has been busy with school and playdates! She absolutely loves going to school and can hardly wait to get their. She is enjoying the friends she has made at school and has had several play dates with girls in her class. She also enjoyed a fun birthday party at her friend Emma's house where she had a tea party and then this week a birthday party for her friend, Ryan at a farm. Allison has enjoyed playing soccer on Saturday mornings, "Unless it is too cold or too hot". She is good when she wants to be, but needs some encouragement to be aggressive. She has practice on Monday nights and then games on Saturdays. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights are devoted to swimming. She loves being on the swim team and is becoming quite the swimming. It looks like torture to me, but she LOVES it! I am hoping she sticks with it because she pretty good at it:)

Connor is working on being a big boy. He has been working on being trained for over a month now and it is all about the same. We resorted to using pullups and he goes on the potty about 75% of the time. We are hoping it will get better. He has become quite the talker....meaning he talks NON STOP! He is pretty darn funny! When we arrived at the farm he said, "Wow, this is AMAZING!" He talks super cute.....Soy latte is soy watte, Allison is Alyeah, look is wook, you get it. He is constantly cracking us up.

Ella is off....she is walking all over. She talks a ton, repeating whatever her brother and sister say. Some of her words are mama, dada, con ta (connor), All sa (Allison), diapa (diaper), stinky, doggie, turtle, dinsor (dinosaur), banket (blanket), Elmo...the list goes on. She is showing a bit of a temper when she doesn't get what she wants and she guards everything from Connor! She is still such a sweetie.

So, the crew is doing well and we are gearing up for Halloween! More to come soon. Oh, I almost forgot...we enjoyed watching MSU beat U of M at my friend Courtney's house! So much fun!

Ella Turns One!

Ella was born at 3 am on September 21st and she was 7 lbs 11 ounces

Ella is one!

Allison and Connor help with presents

Celebrating with GG and Papa

Cousins Kathryn and Mary Violet feed Ella her birthday cake.

Ella wearing her new hat made by grandma Alguire

It is hard to believe that Ella is a year old. The last year really has gone by like a whirlwind. Between having Ella, Craig finishing up his final year, selling the condo and then moving to Grand Rapids, her first year was filled with excitement. I have to say that I was actually sad to see her turn one. She is such a little sweetie pie and I just hate to see her grow up. We celebrated her actual birthday with GG and Papa (my parents) with some pizza and cupcakes that Allison, Connor and I made. Then we had a party for her on the 26th with all of her cousins, her grandparents, great grandparents and a few close friends. There were a ton of kids, but it was a lot of fun. She is loving her new Bitty Baby, Elmo, and Peek-a-Boo book. The knitted outfit that grandma Alguire made is priceless.

Here are a few things she can do as a one year old.

1. She can climb up the stairs in record time, so we now have a gate up!

2. She takes 4-5 steps consistently and has taken as many as 10.

3. She talks up a storm. A few of her words: Mama, Dada, blanket, hi, NaNa (Connor), ganma (grandma), GG, Papa, puppy, Elmo, baby. She tries a ton of words and many times just says random things.

4. She loves to copy Connor and scream back and forth with him.

5. She loves to hug and kiss.

6. She loves her pink swankie blankie, she calls blanket.

7. She has three teeth and her top two are coming through as we speak.

8. She loves to play in her kitchen with the play food.

She is 21 lbs (70%ile), 29 1/4 inches (75%ile)

What a joy she has been. I feel so lucky to have such a sweet and fun little girl. We are so happy to have her in our family.

September Fun!

Connor at the East game

Connor and I enjoying the field at the Pioneer picnic

Going for a bike ride

Dress up at grandma's

New $2 stroller from a garage sale

We love East!

Sisters

My little climber

Charlotte and Owen's party

Having fun at the b-day party

Connor was so tuckered out

Breakfast at the Cherry Inn

Birthday party for another friend

We have been having lots of fun this September. We spent some time in Grand Haven and Allison had a playdate with her cousin, Grace. We also traveled to Ann Arbor to spend some time with our good friends, the Bruderly's whose twins, Charlotte and Owen celebrated their 5th birthday at Chelsea Treehouse. Later we went to another friends' house to watch some football and eat lots of good food. We took in our first East Grand Rapids football game and we all sported our new EAST sweatshirts. Connor loves his so much he has slept in it on several occasions. On Sunday we went to a new restaurant, the Cherry Inn and then to a birthday party for a girl in Allison's Class. Connor and Ella went too and we all had a great time bouncing! Needless to say, the kids were pretty tuckered out. It wasn't easy getting them out the door this morning for school.