Let Me Help Myself

This is at Nana B's house over Easter. Dad found him in the kitchen all by himself eating his second helping of breakfast. Taatjes being a second child has learned from big brother how to help himself to all sorts of things he desires. While at times it can make for this kind of mess; other times it is great to have a self sufficient toddler. (He gets himself dressed and can put his own coat on. He refuses to let me help him.) Yes, that is snow you see through the window on the ground Easter morning.

Piece:"Its Raining Sugar" By:Trey

More of FL

Here are a few more pics from Florida. We stayed with our friends from TU the Wolgemuths! We all loved swimming in their pool, hunting lizards, and eating fresh grapefruit from their grapefruit tree. It was a good to get down to the sun a relax.

Disney

We had great time at Disney. Our boys were overwhelmed with the fun that awaited them around every corner. They went on a Safari, saw the Nemo musical (a favorite of the day), watched a parade, and were in awe of amazing fireworks. Trey tells everyone that Pluto came up to him during the parade to say "hi". Taatjes loves to tell everyone he touched Mickeys nose. To no ones surprise Trey hid in the corner when we meet Mickey. We waited in line all that time because he said he wanted to meet him and when his moment came he refused to leave his new found safe heaven...the corner of the room far away from Mickey. We all loved it. We went with our friends the Waters and the Cubba's. This made it all the more fun and allowed us grown-ups to ride Everest multiple times!!! I am already a huge fireworks fan and Disney's were truly magical. My favorite part for sure.

The Sights

The Rides

Safari, Triceratops, Racing, and Dinosaur...

Turkey Leg...Yum!

There is nothing like watching a friend bite into a big ol' turkey leg while enjoying a beautiful Disney parade. Really its a paradox of worlds. (Ha Ha) This is one of our friends we went to Disney with, Cubba. Cubba and his wife Chelsey are Disney experts and made our time at Disney a blast. We did Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. The boys are still asking if we can go back to Mickey's house. More pics to come. (Chris Cubba can be made available if you would enjoy your own personal Disney outing with him. )

Watch Out He's 4

These are a few pictures from Trey's birthday party. We went to the Jungle Java! Trey was so excited to have his birthday party at the Jungle Java that he was unable to eat any of his dinner or stop singing about the Jungle Java. All the kids had a great time running around until their faces turned red. It was a great day for Trey. He said he loved spending time with all his friends!

Dad's Day at School

It was Dad's day at preschool! They did a Cowboys unit. Trey and Dad are driving the horses on their coach. They had a lot of fun. Trey liked introducing Dad to circle time. Justin can't wait to go to Taatjes' and Teagues' Dad's day.

A Little Fun w/Gel

???

That is Scotch tape on his eyes. If only I could get him to put a couple pieces on his mouth for an hour or so, just to give me a little break from all his questions. JK one day I will miss all those funny questions. He keeps my brain working i.e. "mom why do we have squishy bones in our ears and not in our arms?" I need to brush up on the Encyclopedia Britannica series.

My 2nd Set of Hands

He loves the jumper:) I love getting a long break from holding him. He is quite content to stay in there and watch his big brothers play around him.

3 months

I took this myself. He looked so cute when I walked by the mirror.

He is doing so well. Already he is trying to roll over to get to toys laying next to him. He loves babbling and making noises at his brothers. His full body smiles are the best! We are just starting to see some of his personality come out. He is a very vocal baby reminding me more of Trey than Taatjes. I don't know if there is any room for another non-stop talker:)

Love

"If human love does not carry a man beyond himself, it is not love. If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculating, never carried beyond itself, it is not love at all. It may be affection, it may be warmth of feeling, but it has not the true nature of love in it. "
Oswald Chambers

Yeah for Cup Cakes

Taatjes is 2!!! He had such a great night. Dad brought home balloons for the birthday boy. We ate one of his favorite dinners, mac n' cheese w/hot dogs. Best of all he loved digging in to his dinosaur cup cakes. Taatjes ate the frosting off and put the dinosaurs back on the tops. He knows what the best part is. After all that he got to wrestle with Dad (no Trey) until bed time. He was in heaven on his special day. When we put him to bed he couldn't stop smiling and singing happy birthday to himself. It was fun to give him a special day full of attention he is not used to it. It helped that Trey did such a good job remebering it was Taatjes' special day. He even let Taatjes take 4 cars to bed instead of 1. (he said this was something special he could do for Taatjes.) These pictures are Taatjes to a "t", he is an easygoing happy little boy.

Look Who's 2!!!!

A few more things we did. The Golden Gate Bridge of course. No, we did not walk across it. Way to windy for Teague. Justin was thrilled to get to see the famous Lombard St. Yes we did walk all the way up from the bottom you can see in the picture then down again. Anyone would have killer calfs if they walked that daily. I am just glad he did not want to drive it. You heard a lot of screeching breaks all the way down. I can only imagine how often people who live in this city have their brakes changed. The guys in the next picture were fun. They acted like robots to some Snoop Dog music for money. They gave any kid who put money in their cans a sucker. I don't think they saw all the parents quickly grabbing the suckers away from their children, but nice touch. They stood out from all the other street corner acts. They had a huge crowd. I was impressed with how long they are able to hold one position. Again it was such a great time to get away and enjoy ourselves.

San Fransico

What a beautiful place. I loved San Fransico! The weather there is perfect. Winters do not get lower than the 50's and summers not much higher than the upper 70's. We had upper 60's the entire time we were there. What a great time to go with the snap in cold temps here in good old MI. Here is a preview of some of the things we did. The city (my legs are still hurting from all those hills), Nappa Valley (wine country), and we saw the Red Woods (awesome).
Here is the street I would want to live on if I lived in San Fransico. Right across from a beautiful park and a great view of the bay. Me standing in the middle of a burned out Red Wood tree. One of the vineyards we toured in the middle of Nappa Valley. It was hard to come home to below freezing temps but we are adjusting. It was great for Teague to get some sunlight and tons of fresh air. Oh I also discoverd Ghiredelli ice cream, yummy! I have a few more pics to post when I get them downloaded.

Rock'n It

Teague and Kingston Stefani kicking it via baby JaR blankets.
Check out www.babyjar.com for cool baby blankets and burpies.

Screaming

Screaming can all to often consume about 70% of my day. Here is a breakdown.
20% - screams of joy
20% - screams of I am not getting what I want and I'm letting you know this
10% - Trey vs. Taatjes
10% - Teague just needs to
10% - in my own head when I can't figure out how to overcome my screaming problem

I do love the screams of joy but the rest I could live without. But as we all know it is a package deal. For example - Trey playing with Mator (from the Cars movie) with squealing delight as he races him and says a few of his lines from the movie; until Taatjes decides to block his way and the delight turns to Trey vs. Taatjes followed by a slap from Trey to Taatjes, mom steps in and takes Mator for the bad choice by Trey, this is followed by the extreme screaming of not getting things the way he wants; which in turn wakes up Teague crying because he his hungryand leads me to the inner screaming of frustration. I am finding myself caught in this maddening cycle all to often. January can be one of those months.
Like all of you up North the snow is great when you can get outside and play in it...but I am looking forward to spring and letting my kids scream outside.