Pony

Lately we've been doing some painting around our house. Not painting the walls, but Drew and Kate have gotten into some painting. Jana pulled out some of my old shirts, got the kids well covered, and let them have at it with the paints. Kate didn't get the real deal, but instead got to dabble a little with watercolors. Much easier to clean up!

For a while now we've been praying with Drew in his bed before he goes to sleep. Several months ago we started including Kate in this part of our nightly routine. We read a story and have a snack on the couch, then at the end of the story, Kate runs to Drew's room yelling, "Jesus!" As you can tell, they have tremendous fun sitting on Drew's bed and praying together with us.

Since I've last posted we've had some snow here in the Lansing area and the kids have helped me shovel several times. Here they are all bundled up for the weather and helping me shovel. Kate uses Drew's small spade and Drew uses his snow shovel. They're very helpful :)

This is probably the oddest looking snowman you'll see, so we had to take a picture of it. It has two crackers for "googly" eyes and a carrot nose. It was so cold out the day after we built this that I wet the carrot a little and it froze into the snowman. Drew was quite proud of this creation and commented on it every time we pulled into the driveway.

Jana and I have been enjoying some of the simple pleasures in life. One we try not to enjoy too often is Quality Dairy's "Death by Chocolate" ice cream. It is pure deliciousness. A pleasure we enjoy every single night is checking in on Drew and Kate sleeping. We never can get enough of that!!

A cold, snowy girl coming in from helping me shovel. You can't see her hood, but it was filled with snow. Drew gets a little crazy with his shoveling and doesn't always look to see where the snow is going!

A toy went under the stove and we had to rescue it.

Is Kate wearing her heels? Why yes, she is. Kate got these play shoes and wears them all around the house. How that can be comfortable, I have no idea.

Kate's hair is finally getting long enough to do things with it. At daycare, her favorite thing is to get her hair put up in a "pony," which is her shorthand for ponytails. She loves having her hair done and will walk around the house saying, "Pony. Pretty. Pony. Pretty."

Here's another attempt at a photo of Kate's hair. We tried FOREVER to get these two shots. Finally, we gave up and just enjoyed playing with her.

After giving up on photos, I tried taking this video. Kate's hair is highly amusing to us, so we are trying to show it off as best we can. Enjoy!

Christmas 2009

It's way past Christmas, but it's finally time to post on our Christmas 2009 experience. The most memorable part of Christmas this year was our effort to begin the process of training Drew and Kate in generosity and gratitude. For some reason, the "I want stuff" bug caught Drew for the first time this year, so we've been working hard on gratitude for the things you have and also implementing ways for the kids to be generous.

One way of working on generosity is that Jana and I decided that presents for each other this year would come from the kids. Drew and Kate were encouraged to put some thought into it and to choose a present for mom and for dad. We talked extensively about picking something that the other person would like and would show some thought. After spending lots of time on it, the kids came up with some excellent presents, including Jana's present pictured below . . . bleach!! I should offer some explanation of this particular gift. Drew was the originator of this idea and he knows that mom "likes to do laundry" so he thought it would help. He also convinced me that she needed a new off-white bathrobe (it's a nice bathrobe, actually) and that the bleach would help keep it clean. Clearly, he put some thought into this and is making a great effort to understand his mom! From Drew and Kate, I got a hand saw, some paint brushes (because I like to paint the rooms in the house), and a toolbox (that Drew wanted :) Jana and I were both thrilled with their choices and touched by the reasoning behind their gifts. The kids are immensely proud of their gifts and love to watch us use them. I think we've started a new tradition!

In an effort to fit with the spirit of our Christmas, I don't have a lot of pictures of gifts or gift opening, but we are extremely grateful for all that we received this year. Below is a representative picture of Kate opening a present with Drew helping. Drew did a great job this year of helping Kate open her presents without taking it over. It was fun to watch him help her.

They have also done a pretty good job with sharing presents. Not always, but most of the time! Kate received this train set and they both quickly took to playing with it. After some initial sharing issues, they settled in to play together.

You can see that as they played longer, Kate and Drew interacted more and more. Drew is either making a car noise or a train noise here :)

Drew has been treating us to "songs" of his creation for quite some time. He will use just about anything he can find to turn into a guitar for accompaniment, so he was very excited to try out his guitar. He strums away on it and sings some of the most horrible, yet endearing notes. We love listening to his songs. What Drew lacks in training, he makes up for with enthusiasm!!

This year in daycare Drew and Kate made ornaments for our tree. Kate's is the snowman below that she colored herself, while Drew's is the ball in front of the hippo (not sure why Drew put it so close to another ornament).

Kate is beginning to work on potty training, and she was thrilled to receive a pair of princess underwear for Christmas.

Although she clearly doesn't totally understand the concept of underwear yet, as she loved having them on over her diaper and tights and proceeded to strut around the house showing them off. I hope she's super-modest someday and I can pull these pictures out to show her :)

My mom has been busy knitting and she made everyone in my family slippers. After receiving them, we all gathered around for a slipper picture. I hope this is the first and last picture my family takes of all our feet.

Kate loved this doctor's kit and immediately came over to check me out with it (although I think this was Drew's present). Jana took this picture as I thoroughly enjoyed my daughter giving me a check up.

Drew was an equal-opportunity helper all Christmas with other people's Christmas presents. Here he is giving Jana a hand with opening a present.

Kate is so excited about shoes, the she grabbed a jewelry holder from one of Jana's presents and tried to put it on her feet. Kate also got some dress up shoes that I'll have to find a picture of her wearing. She's quite stylish.

Another picture of Drew and Kate working together to open a present. We had a wonderful Christmas and completely enjoyed the time spent together with family. What a fun time of year and fun age for Drew and Kate!

Station 5

This afternoon Kate, Drew, and I made a trip down to Battle Creek to visit Uncle Todd's fire station. He moved a while ago to station 5 in Battle Creek, and none of us had seen the station or the fire engine yet. All three kids (including myself there) were pretty hyped up about the trip. Kate chatted away in the back seat and was so cute that I had to risk a quick picture. Kate liked sitting in the back seat of the fire engine. She made sure to wear her fire jacket and helmet and pink boots for the occasion. The pink boots seem to be an essential right now for ANY occasion.

Kate had fun looking out the windows of the fire engine.

I rolled down the window and Drew said hi to me from inside the fire engine.

Todd is currently rotating as the driver of engine 5, so it is his responsibility to man the pump for the engine at a fire. Here he is showing Kate how it's done.

Drew was already familiar with the pump controls from his previous experience on engine 3 (engine 5's twin), so he moved right to the controls.

There are a fascinating number of gauges and things to push or pull.

Drew, Kate, and I perched on top of the fire engine. We had a blast!

Kate was a little wary about being placed on the front of the fire engine.

Drew got his picture taken with the thermal imaging camera (it didn't really take a picture, but just showed a live image). If you click on this picture below, it will blow up and you can see the thermal image better. It was pretty cool!

Todd drove the engine outside for us (the kids and I rode in the back while he drove it out) and once outside, Kate paused for a picture.

While the truck was outside with the lights going, Kate hopped in the driver's seat to take the engine for a spin. Todd also ran the siren and hit the horn for us. Drew found it to be very loud, yet couldn't stop talking about it later.

Both Drew and Kate loved holding a spanner wrench from the fire engine.

Drew was very excited about seeing all the tools on the fire engine. As I'm sure you've noted, both of them had a strong desire to wear their firefighter outfits during their visit with Uncle Todd.

This was Drew's favorite tool and he kept on repeating that it was a "Drew and Kate-sized tool." He made sure to tell Jana about it when we returned home.

I'll admit to being a little nervous (even as a dad) when Drew was waving this thing around. I think Jana would have made him put it down :)

I was trying to get Drew and Kate to look at me while riding on the back of engine 5 and finally semi-succeeded once I asked them to wave to me. They never both waved at the same time :(

I think Drew sometimes forgets just how big a fire engine is (and loud too), but this picture gives a reminder of the scale. Drew and Kate are tiny next to it!

As Uncle Todd showed off more equipment, both Drew and Kate were glued to the things he was showing them.

This is Todd's equipment locker, which Drew fits in quite nicely! Todd's stuff was on the engine, but usually it would be hanging in here while he's not on duty.

Kate was very proud of her sticker (on her pink shirt) and climbed all over the fire engine wearing it. Both Drew and Kate warm up slowly to the fire engine, then are climbing all over it by the end of the visit.

It was tough to get Drew off the fire engine after a while, even when we wanted to look at the rest of the fire station.

Here's another picture that gives the scale of the fire engine and shows Drew climbing up onto it. He scoots up and down onto the fire engine and off it over and over.

Kate was very excited about her visit to the fire station. This was the first time she was able to say much at the fire station and she had a great time.

This video (it's a little dark) shows Kate driving the fire engine outside.

In this video Todd is showing Drew and Kate the pumper controls.

This last video shows Drew looking at the fire engine after Todd pulled it outside. It was very loud!

tummy sleeper

Kate is almost always a honey after coming out of the bath, so Jana and I cast lots to see who gets to dress her after her bath (just kidding, but it is something we almost fight over!). Kate loves to play with toy cell phones. This is an old one we picked up for the kids a while ago, but she just got a new one that makes sounds. It is the height of excitement for her (almost as exciting as shoes :)

Drew and Kate have loved playing with this old camera. There is no film in it, but the flash still works, so they've been having fun going around the house pretending to take pictures. Drew decided to get silly for this picture and put the camera on his head.

I realized the other day that we don't have pictures or any sort of recorded evidence for this memory and it's one we don't want to forget. Every night we cover Kate with a blanket or two, and every night she scrunches them up and puts them under her tummy. She sleeps on her stomach with her legs hunched in and her little buns up in the air. It is both the weirdest and the cutest thing!Here Kate is from another angle. This happens EVERY night. I don't know how she would sleep if she didn't have a blanket to ball up under her.

Speaking of Kate and shoes, Jana wore a pair of heeled shoes lately and Kate was fascinated by them. There is a video a little further down of her moving through the house, but this picture captures some of the cuteness of Kate in the shoes.

Drew and Kate continue to get along very well. Earlier today things got really quiet (usually a bad sign) and when I went to check on them, they were playing cars together very nicely. It's so much fun to see them playing together!

Kate enjoyed prancing around in Jana's shoes. I think for Kate's birthday, her present will be lining up all of Jana's shoes and letting her try them on one-by-one :)