After two months, a long update is here!

Other than my text post earlier today, it has been FOREVER since I've posted on here. What have we been doing? We've just been busy, and I haven't had the chance to sit much and spend time on the computer. As my knee has improved (slowly) I've returned to working out, playing more with the children, and I've generally been doing more things that fill up the day. I haven't forgotten the blog though, and I'm back with many pictures!!!

What have the Aupperlees been doing over the past month or two?

Well, a long time ago we celebrated our first Christmas of the season with the Vryhof side of the family. Kate was teething then, and she's still cutting teeth left and right, so she loves chewing on everything in sight. Great-grandma was amused by Kate's chewing! Drew loved passing out presents at every single Christmas celebration. He likes being in all the action.

Until he gets a book, then Drew plops down and immediately starts reading the book. His world shrinks and you can't pull him away from the book until he's checked it out. This might be a learned behavior (from me) or a genetic behavior (also from me), either way it's startling for me to see how difficult it is to tear Drew from a book!

Kate was busy all Christmas going from lap to lap. She loves being held!

Kate has been full of smiles.

Drew has been a great boy. He's a wonderful big brother, and it's been delightful to parent him. He's quick to learn new things and he's constantly talking with us about everything he sees or thinks. It's so much fun to be around him!

We've been doing a LOT of reading!

Drew has been riding his new Big Wheels around the basement. He calls it his red fire engine motorcycle. That's quite the combination isn't it?

Kate's been riding around in our new Ergo. She fits on Jana's back snuggly and it's very comfortable. It's been great for walks!

Drew was really into opening up his stocking at my parents' house.

Kate was a little less interested in the whole present thing.

Kate has been warm and cozy in a new hat from Grandma (she's gotten a couple hats from Grandma).

Despite Grandpa's efforts, Kate remains an MSU fan. Go State!

Drew has been making fun shapes with his new playdough.

Kate stands next to anything and everything.

Drew has been helping me shovel all the snow we've had in Lansing. It's been a snowy winter!

We've also managed to do some projects. Drew loves taking out his drill and helping me with a project. One night I had my DeWalt drill and Drew had his drill and we were working together. I think he was about overcome with joy (me too :)

We celebrated Christmas with Jana's family too.

With it being Kate's first Christmas, she was usually the center of a lot of attention.

While Drew got right to the hard work of playing.

We ended up back at my parents' house for another celebration, and this time Uncle Todd got a turn with Kate.

Kate had a wonderful first Christmas.

Kate has been fun to hold after a bath. She's so cuddly!

Kate is always wide-eyed and always exploring.

Kate's full of smiles whenever Jana or I walk into a room.

Drew and Kate have been enjoying great times in the bath together (Jana and I enjoy it too!). Kate never stops working it for the camera.

At times, we've gotten pretty tired out and we've had to take a little nap on the couch. Jana found Kate and me like this one night after getting home from a meeting.

Usually though, Kate is on the go opening doors, trying things out, and moving all around.

Kate has learned to stick out her tongue, cluck, do "so big," clap, wave, and be super-cute (that's her most consistent skill).

Drew, as usual, has been obsessed with firefighting. He often wears his firefighter hat for the entire day. He wears it out running errands, he tries to wear it to daycare, and he only hasn't tried to wear it to bed.

Drew also likes to wear his fire coat everywhere. This too gets worn on errands, around the house, and about whenever he can have it on. We've had MANY conversations with total strangers about Drew's outfit. We've had even more knowing smiles from other moms, dads, grandmas, and grandpas.

Kate crawls all over the house.

She can really move!

Drew brought his bug cupcakes to daycare. They consisted of bug graham crackers on chocolate frosting with "dirt" (crushed graham cracker) sprinkled on them. They were a big hit!

After eating at the peanut restaurant (Texas Roadhouse), Drew ate some birthday cake to celebrate his third birthday. He blew out his candles several times, and only our decision to eat the cake ended that fun.

Kate liked sitting next to Drew and watching him blow out his candles.

Phew! That was a lot to catch up on! That's some of what we've been doing lately. From now on, I'm going to stay caught up with the updates!!!

Blog? I have a blog?

I have been reminded by several people lately that I have a blog and that people are waiting for new pictures! I don't have pictures to post at the moment, but I thought I'd start by writing some things out. When I get the chance to post pictures, I'll focus on getting those up and not on writing very much.

First, Jana and I had lots of fun last week celebrating Drew's third birthday. I can't believe our little boy is already three! As we watched the Super Bowl I remembered holding Drew in my arms for his first Super Bowl the Sunday after he was born. We were still in the hospital, and we watched it in Jana's hospital room. Drew and I both got all sweaty and my arm fell asleep, but I loved every minute of that game. Drew's birthday this year fell on a week day, so Jana and I got him up early that morning and spent some time with him before daycare. At daycare Drew brought "bug" cupcakes covered with "dirt" to share with his friends.

On the evening of Drew's birthday we let Drew choose where he wanted to go for his birthday dinner. He chose the "peanut restaurant," which is his phrase for Texas Roadhouse, a restaurant where you can crack open peanuts, eat them, and drop the shell on the floor. Drew loves it! While we were there, the serving staff came over to sing Happy Birthday to Drew and he got to stand up in his chair while the whole restaurant gave him a loud "Yee-haw!" We asked Drew later if he liked that experience, and he said, "No, it made me pretty nervous!" A very honest answer! At least he liked the peanuts :)

Kate recently had her nine-month doctor's appointment, and she is right on track developmentally. She weighed in at a solid 20 pounds 12 ounces, and was only 27 1/2 inches long. Her weight is in the 75-90th percentile and her height is in the 25- 50th percentile. In other words, she's currently shorter and heavier than most kids her age! (how funny!) How she gets that with Jana and I as her parents, we don't know, but she's very cute and solid and moving EVERYWHERE! As she moves around, we're confident that she'll grow a little more and thin out.

Kate has been crawling all over the house and getting into everything. She pulls up on everything to standing too and cruises around (that's walking around holding onto furniture). She has even let go many times and can stand for a few seconds unassisted. Finally, she recently took a few steps unassisted. She's rapidly gone mobile on us and it's been fun to watch! I'll have to provide you with some video of her moving.

In addition, Kate has started talking and she frequently melts our hearts by saying "Dad-dee" or "Mom-ma" and grinning when one of us walks in the room. She's also saying "Amen" at the end of our prayers, "All done" when she's done eating, and she recently picked up every child's favorite word: "NO!" We knew it was only a matter of time before she learned that one :)

In other Drew-related news, he has been doing wonderfully with potty-training. It's been weeks since he's had an accident, and he wears his big-boy underwear all day now without a problem. We've had some interesting experiences with public restrooms (things Drew says or does in them), but he's done very well with all aspects of learning to control going to the bathroom. Without diapers, it seems like he's growing up quickly!

One final story is that for the past few months Drew has been carrying around a stuffed bear that he named "Harrison" (in honor of our friends Nate and Meg's baby). He will lift up his shirt occasionally and feed Harrison like he sees mom feed Kate, but he mainly carries Harrison around saying that he is Harrison's dad and Harrison is his son. He reads books with Harrison, hugs him, plays cars with him, and basically mimics all the things I do with Drew. Often at night, I have to give both Harrison and Drew a kiss and tell them I love them. It's both heart-warming and unsettling to see how similarly Drew treats his "son" to how I treat him. He is paying attention to everything I do! Very cute!

2008- a year in review

Eventually I will get to posting some of our Christmas pictures, but I wanted to start with a couple of my favorite pictures from 2008. Jana and I had fun going back through some of the pictures from the past year and choosing our favorites.


Where else could we start 2008, but with the birth of Kate?! Katherine Lynn Aupperlee was born on April 7, 2008, and this was my first time holding my daughter. I am a very proud dad!
Kate immediately reached up with her little hand and grasped onto my finger. She's a smart little girl because this move melted my heart. It was pure joy to hold my daughter and to admire her. This is my favorite memory of 2008!
Drew was fascinated to meet Kate for the first time. After hearing so much about his baby sister, he was excited to meet her. He didn't entirely understand what was going on, but he knew it was exciting!

Kate was such a little peanut when she was first born!

Drew welcomed Kate home from the hospital, and he's been incredibly good with her ever since. It's been a lot of fun to watch the two of them together this past year.

This was one of Drew's first times holding Kate. He has been thrilled to be a big brother.

Getting Kate to bulk up was quite the struggle for us initially. We were extremely grateful how helpful Drew was with Kate and how quickly he adjusted to having a little sister.

We've had lots of fun this past year sitting on the couch and enjoying Drew and Kate!

Drew went to the zoo for the first time this year. We'd never taken him before! He liked looking at all the animals.

Drew has been getting more independent, and this year we enjoyed going for walks where he hiked along with us. It's so much fun to explore the outdoors with a two-year-old!Other than Kate's birth, our family highlight this year was a family vacation to a cottage on Lake Michigan. Drew and I had many special moments around the cottage while Jana and Kate rested.

We have so many favorite pictures from the beach that we had to choose a few. Drew was an absolute delight at the beach. His favorite thing was throwing sand, rocks, or sticks in the water.

Drew was so proud of his shovel and pail. He strutted up and down the beach playing hard.

Drew has quite the arm and he had quite the wind-up for his delivery. He threw the sand far!

This is my favorite picture of Jana and Drew from this past year. We had a great week together as a family and we look forward to spending a week like that again.

Kate became much more enjoyable around that time as she finally got the hang of eating and started to bulk up a little bit. It was nice to be able to just enjoy her without having to put so much work into feeding her!

Drew loves it when Kate joins him in his bed.

It's been so novel to me to have a daughter who wears little dresses!

Drew got more and more comfortable IN the water as the year progressed.

Drew got to make good use of this lifevest for swimming and for his first sailboat ride.

This year has been a year of firefighting excitement for Drew. That included a few trips to Battle Creek to Uncle Todd's fire rescue. Very cool!

Drew still talks about feeding the giraffes at the Binder Park Zoo.

Having two children around has been exhausting at times, but it has always been an enjoyable adventure!Kate has gotten cuter and cuter, and we've thoroughly enjoyed watching her grow. Look at those big eyes.

Drew has loved it that Kate has gotten more and more active and interactive. He's looking forward to playing with her as she gets older.

Jana and I loved Kate in this dress. She looks like such a little girl!

This is a relatively recent picture that I still enjoy. Kate always lights up whenever I walk into a room. It makes me smile too!

Here is one last picture of Drew and Kate playing together. As I'm writing this Drew is in the living room sharing toys with Kate, talking to her, saying "I'm playing with her," and giggling away. Kate has been crawling around and Drew is fully potty-trained. It seems that they both are growing up so fast!

We've had lots of fun this past year as a family and we're looking forward to 2009!!