Earlier this week we had our first parent-teacher conference at Drew's school and he's doing very well. He knows everything he should know at this point and he's interacting well with his classmates. Way to go Drew!!Thursday, November 05, 2009
School pictures
Drew got his first school picture back today! I'm frustrated that I can't make the picture below less blurry, but for some reason blogger isn't cooperating with me. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, then it's a lot clearer. Jana and I are thrilled with how Drew's picture turned out and we're looking forward to seeing his class picture. Drew looks like such a big guy in this picture, doesn't he? It's hard to believe he's only three!
Earlier this week we had our first parent-teacher conference at Drew's school and he's doing very well. He knows everything he should know at this point and he's interacting well with his classmates. Way to go Drew!!
Earlier this week we had our first parent-teacher conference at Drew's school and he's doing very well. He knows everything he should know at this point and he's interacting well with his classmates. Way to go Drew!!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Another firefighter
A little while ago MSU celebrated homecoming and as part of the festivities we went to the homecoming parade. Kate and Drew were very excited about the parade, although it's hard to tell from Kate's expression in this picture! Just like Drew, she's quite the observer and loves to sit and take things in.
Drew was very excited about the parade. His favorite part? The bands! Who would have thought that the son of two total non-musicians would find the bands fascinating? I will admit though, that the MSU marching band was quite impressive as they stomped past us doing their Spartan yells and playing the fight song.
All attention was on the first fire engine that came by. It was quite cool outside, so both Drew and Kate had on their MSU knit hats. They were nice and warm!
Here is a group shot of the Aupperlees at the parade. Todd came up to join us for homecoming and on Saturday Todd and I went to the homecoming football game.
Kate loves to ham it up for the camera. Usually she does a silly smile and says, "Cheese! Cheese!"
We recently celebrated Grandpa Bill's birthday and my birthday. Drew was a big help in blowing out the candles on the cake.
Kate was a big help in eating the Kate. She loved it! 
One night Kate was incredibly tired and cried through most of her nighttime routine. Eventually, I set her down on the couch and gave her a cup. After helping Drew, I turned around and found that Kate had pulled a blanket up on herself and was sitting there forlornly drinking her cup. She was such a tired, but sweet little girl!
Drew got a new firefighter outfit for halloween and Kate immediately claimed Drew's old outfit. As you can see in this picture, Kate looks up to Drew and loves doing whatever he does.
Our latest child to be enamored with the firefighting profession!
Kate's making good use of her toy cell phone in this picture below. Kate has a wonderful temperament and she is so much fun to parent! This picture captures some of the joy she seems to have quite often (and that she shares with us).
Here's another shot of our two firefighters in full outfits. They have lots of fun running around the house putting out pretend fires.
Drew was very excited about the parade. His favorite part? The bands! Who would have thought that the son of two total non-musicians would find the bands fascinating? I will admit though, that the MSU marching band was quite impressive as they stomped past us doing their Spartan yells and playing the fight song.
All attention was on the first fire engine that came by. It was quite cool outside, so both Drew and Kate had on their MSU knit hats. They were nice and warm!
Here is a group shot of the Aupperlees at the parade. Todd came up to join us for homecoming and on Saturday Todd and I went to the homecoming football game.
Kate loves to ham it up for the camera. Usually she does a silly smile and says, "Cheese! Cheese!"
We recently celebrated Grandpa Bill's birthday and my birthday. Drew was a big help in blowing out the candles on the cake.
Kate was a big help in eating the Kate. She loved it! 
One night Kate was incredibly tired and cried through most of her nighttime routine. Eventually, I set her down on the couch and gave her a cup. After helping Drew, I turned around and found that Kate had pulled a blanket up on herself and was sitting there forlornly drinking her cup. She was such a tired, but sweet little girl!
Drew got a new firefighter outfit for halloween and Kate immediately claimed Drew's old outfit. As you can see in this picture, Kate looks up to Drew and loves doing whatever he does.
Our latest child to be enamored with the firefighting profession!
Kate's making good use of her toy cell phone in this picture below. Kate has a wonderful temperament and she is so much fun to parent! This picture captures some of the joy she seems to have quite often (and that she shares with us).
Here's another shot of our two firefighters in full outfits. They have lots of fun running around the house putting out pretend fires.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Lots of smiles
Both Drew and Kate have been shooting up lately, and I think the picture below shows you how Kate continues to thin out. She's been wearing the same size clothes for months, but they fit better and better in the waist and her legs have been getting longer and longer. Also, her hair is getting thicker!! It's so much fun to watch Kate grow up and move out of the baby/toddler stage into being a little girl.
Kate still loves to play on the floor and here she is putting her feet up in the air during a game with Jana.
One morning before heading off to work and daycare, the kids gathered around mom. They both get really cuddly with us before we leave for the day . . . and we love it! :)
Kate is showing off her school spirit here in Drew's old Spartan jersey. Go Green! She's also wearing Drew's shoes.
Throughout the day Kate likes to grab a book, plop on the couch, and start reading. It's so cute!
Using the action setting on our camera, I got a good picture of Drew! He's smiling AND looking toward the camera!!
Kate, on the other hand, smiles and grins and says "cheese!" as soon as the camera comes out. As long as she's sittting still, she's fun and easy to have pose for pictures.
I haven't been home a lot lately, so Drew has been soaking up the attention whenever I'm around. I think this picture was taken on a weekend afternoon, when Drew loves to turn on sports on TV and watch with me. Male bonding!
Kate comes over too and vies for my attention with cute smiles and noises. She loves to peek her head around things and giggles away when I look at her.
Last week Drew had his first school field trip! He got to ride on a school bus as his class went to visit a farm. For the field trip, each child in Drew's class wore a yellow school shirt. It was so much fun to see his class of nineteen 3-year-olds all wearing yellow shirts and excited about the trip. Drew brought home a small pumpkin and was very excited about his ride on the bus (that's been one of his life goals :)
Kate still loves to play on the floor and here she is putting her feet up in the air during a game with Jana.
One morning before heading off to work and daycare, the kids gathered around mom. They both get really cuddly with us before we leave for the day . . . and we love it! :)
Kate is showing off her school spirit here in Drew's old Spartan jersey. Go Green! She's also wearing Drew's shoes.
Throughout the day Kate likes to grab a book, plop on the couch, and start reading. It's so cute!
Using the action setting on our camera, I got a good picture of Drew! He's smiling AND looking toward the camera!!
Kate, on the other hand, smiles and grins and says "cheese!" as soon as the camera comes out. As long as she's sittting still, she's fun and easy to have pose for pictures.
I haven't been home a lot lately, so Drew has been soaking up the attention whenever I'm around. I think this picture was taken on a weekend afternoon, when Drew loves to turn on sports on TV and watch with me. Male bonding!
Kate comes over too and vies for my attention with cute smiles and noises. She loves to peek her head around things and giggles away when I look at her.
Last week Drew had his first school field trip! He got to ride on a school bus as his class went to visit a farm. For the field trip, each child in Drew's class wore a yellow school shirt. It was so much fun to see his class of nineteen 3-year-olds all wearing yellow shirts and excited about the trip. Drew brought home a small pumpkin and was very excited about his ride on the bus (that's been one of his life goals :)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Dress up
Another blog post starting with Kate in someone's shoes. In this case, Jana's running shoes are being worn by Kate. Kate's new thing at daycare is a love of playing dress up (this is totally uncharted territory for me). I had to ask Jana what that even meant, and I guess I did it too as a boy, but I always wore a cowboy outfit or an astronaut outfit and I NEVER actually called it "dress up." I'm being welcomed to the world of girls! 
Drew pulled a chair up to one of our cabinets to do a little work on a project. He was banging away while working on it.
I grabbed Kate for a picture . . . she's getting much harder to get in a good picture as she's on the move more and more.
Drew saw me on the ground and took the opportunity to climb up onto my back.
Before long, both kids were riding high on my back as I plodded around the living room.
Drew has been growing like crazy and he keeps on getting taller, but pictures like this one remind me that he's still a little guy!
I've got a video below that was taken around the time of this photo, but I also love the photograph. It captures how much fun Drew and Kate have playing together.
We started with Kate posing in her mom's running shoes, and here is Kate in Jana's work shoes. Pretty!!
Drew was working on his puzzle one day and Kate was somewhere in the background playing. It's not the most exciting video ever, but it gives you an idea of what it's like to interact with Drew. He's learning a large number of the states and he whips right through this puzzle.
Drew pulled a chair up to one of our cabinets to do a little work on a project. He was banging away while working on it.
I grabbed Kate for a picture . . . she's getting much harder to get in a good picture as she's on the move more and more.
Drew saw me on the ground and took the opportunity to climb up onto my back.
Before long, both kids were riding high on my back as I plodded around the living room.
Drew has been growing like crazy and he keeps on getting taller, but pictures like this one remind me that he's still a little guy!
I've got a video below that was taken around the time of this photo, but I also love the photograph. It captures how much fun Drew and Kate have playing together.
We started with Kate posing in her mom's running shoes, and here is Kate in Jana's work shoes. Pretty!!
Drew was working on his puzzle one day and Kate was somewhere in the background playing. It's not the most exciting video ever, but it gives you an idea of what it's like to interact with Drew. He's learning a large number of the states and he whips right through this puzzle.One afternoon we were all having fun playing in our living room when I captured this video. Jana was the primary instigator and Drew and Kate were loving it.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Preschool starts
As usual we've been keeping busy and at times the blog hasn't gotten as updated as I'd like. I'll catch up a bit here and tell some stories to go with the pictures. Kate has been an absolute delight to parent and we're excited by all the new words and phrases she's picking up. She's in that parrot stage where she repeats EVERYTHING we say. Also, she's finally getting a little bit of hair. It doesn't help though that it's so blonde or else it might show up better. Oh well, I think you can see her hair in this picture.
Kate has been picking up new words every day and she's become quite the reader. She loves to cuddle her soft toddler weight onto your lap to read books. She especially loves animal books at this point and she'll point to all the animals and make animal noises.
This September we had a big milestone in the Aupperlee family: Drew started preschool!!! I know the photo below is blurry, but it's literally the ONLY picture of a smiling Drew on his first day. I'm not sure if he was nervous or tired or what, but most of the morning he had a neutral expression on his face. We took several pictures out in our driveway before taking him to school and this is the best one.
Then we took more pictures in front of Drew's school. Drew is very excited about his backpack (as you can tell from his expression :) He wears his backpack all around and knows exactly where to put it in his classroom at school. He's got his own cubby with his name, "Drew," posted on it. We've also created a hook at home that is for his backpack and he keeps it there at home.
Upon arriving in his class Drew pulled out the puzzles and started playing by himself. We were worried at first about him just keeping to himself, but he's gotten more and more interactive each day. By the end of the first day he had sat next to and identified a girl in his class who is "pretty." We still don't know her name yet, but apparently she's caught Drew's attention!
There's not much better than sitting on the couch with Drew and Kate reading stories before bed. Drew remembers all the little kid books that we read Kate, so he likes to help out with reading Kate's stories.
Here's our big guy wearing one of his favorite shirts. Drew, not surprisingly, is the tallest boy in his class. You can tell we don't live in West Michigan (land of tall Dutch people). There is one girl in Drew's class who is the same height as he is.
Kate is always up to something and always smiling. You can probably just make out a golfer on the TV screen behind Kate. One of the my favorite things to do late on Sunday afternoon is to watch golf for a bit with Drew and Kate. Drew loves it and will ask throughout the week or even throughout the day on Sunday, "When is golf going to be on? I want to watch golf . . . because it's your favorite." He cuddles up next to me on the couch and he asks me for each golfer, "What's his name?" He likes the name Steve Stricker, but his favorite golfer to watch is Tiger Woods. Kate joins in watching the golf and climbs all over the two of us (she doesn't sit still too much).
A family game of "airplane." Kate saw Drew up in the air and decided she needed to join in the fun. We spend a lot of time on the floor of our living room romping with Drew and Kate.
Drew being silly. He wore a green shirt the other day for "Green Square" day at school and I wanted a picture of it. For the month of September, his class talks about a different color and shape each day. The kids are encouraged to wear the color of the day.
I realized we don't have many videos of Kate, who is doing the coolest things right now. I'm working on correcting that! In the video below, Kate had pulled a stool up to the wall and is discovering the joy of the light switch. The changing light in the video is due to her actions.
Kate has been picking up new words every day and she's become quite the reader. She loves to cuddle her soft toddler weight onto your lap to read books. She especially loves animal books at this point and she'll point to all the animals and make animal noises.
This September we had a big milestone in the Aupperlee family: Drew started preschool!!! I know the photo below is blurry, but it's literally the ONLY picture of a smiling Drew on his first day. I'm not sure if he was nervous or tired or what, but most of the morning he had a neutral expression on his face. We took several pictures out in our driveway before taking him to school and this is the best one.
Then we took more pictures in front of Drew's school. Drew is very excited about his backpack (as you can tell from his expression :) He wears his backpack all around and knows exactly where to put it in his classroom at school. He's got his own cubby with his name, "Drew," posted on it. We've also created a hook at home that is for his backpack and he keeps it there at home.
Upon arriving in his class Drew pulled out the puzzles and started playing by himself. We were worried at first about him just keeping to himself, but he's gotten more and more interactive each day. By the end of the first day he had sat next to and identified a girl in his class who is "pretty." We still don't know her name yet, but apparently she's caught Drew's attention!
There's not much better than sitting on the couch with Drew and Kate reading stories before bed. Drew remembers all the little kid books that we read Kate, so he likes to help out with reading Kate's stories.
Here's our big guy wearing one of his favorite shirts. Drew, not surprisingly, is the tallest boy in his class. You can tell we don't live in West Michigan (land of tall Dutch people). There is one girl in Drew's class who is the same height as he is.
Kate is always up to something and always smiling. You can probably just make out a golfer on the TV screen behind Kate. One of the my favorite things to do late on Sunday afternoon is to watch golf for a bit with Drew and Kate. Drew loves it and will ask throughout the week or even throughout the day on Sunday, "When is golf going to be on? I want to watch golf . . . because it's your favorite." He cuddles up next to me on the couch and he asks me for each golfer, "What's his name?" He likes the name Steve Stricker, but his favorite golfer to watch is Tiger Woods. Kate joins in watching the golf and climbs all over the two of us (she doesn't sit still too much).
A family game of "airplane." Kate saw Drew up in the air and decided she needed to join in the fun. We spend a lot of time on the floor of our living room romping with Drew and Kate.
Drew being silly. He wore a green shirt the other day for "Green Square" day at school and I wanted a picture of it. For the month of September, his class talks about a different color and shape each day. The kids are encouraged to wear the color of the day.
I realized we don't have many videos of Kate, who is doing the coolest things right now. I'm working on correcting that! In the video below, Kate had pulled a stool up to the wall and is discovering the joy of the light switch. The changing light in the video is due to her actions.These last two videos are two of my favorite videos of Kate and they just show how interactive she is. She talks to us and parrots things back. Enjoy!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
