Pictures that just HAD to be shared

I still had some pictures on my camera from when Amy and her family came to visit at Christmas and I thought they needed to be shared. Grandma had taken Taylor and Sam to the thrift store for dress up clothes so the bigger girls spent much of their time here wearing dresses and shoes that were much too big for them. But they looked fabulous, darling! (In the first pic the girls were in their "fort" hiding out and eating crackers and Jackson would just stare at them all under there as if to say "crazy women".) Us big kids also played dress up for an 80's themed prom on New Years Eve at Tod and Jen's house, don't we look fantastic? (Unlike the little girls, I had a VERY difficult time finding a dress that was too big and thus would go over my very pregnant belly.)

Taking out the Trash

Ava thinks its great to take out the dirty diapers and hey, if she wants to help out, super! This morning she put Grandma's snowboots on and was ready to go out. She had a little trouble walking in the boots but got the job done. :) (Apparently she didn't want her picture taken, how embarassing to be caught taking out the trash!)

Big Sister

Ava loves to help with the baby and the pacifier is pretty much an obsession with Ava. The baby ALWAYS needs her pacifier, according to Ava. Here she was holding Michaela and had to make sure that baby had the pacifier in her mouth. If Michaela is crying Ava will find the pacifier and try to pop it in her mouth. She's usually pretty gentle but we still have to watch her closely.

Our girls are loved

Jeff and I feel so blessed in our girls. Both are lovely, healthy little miracles and we couldn't ask for more. But we are also blessed in the family that we have that love our girls, too! Here are some pictures of Grandpa Kingma with his girls, Auntie Ellen with Ayden and Michaela, Auntie Jeni with Michaela, and Grandparents Lacey with Michaela.

What is wrong with this picture?

Ava got to go play outside in the snow yesterday. Here are some pictures. Now, you tell me, what's wrong with these pictures? Notice anything? Nothing? Hmm... Perhaps I could give you a little hint: It is April 5th. Does that help? No? I'll just give it to you straight then, folks.

THE SNOW IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE PICTURE!!! SNOW, AND LOTS OF IT, IN APRIL!!!! IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE SPRING AND WINTER IS TRYING TO REAR ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN!! OUTRAGEOUS!!!

Ayden and Michaela

Wendy and I had a fun time being pregnant together and I thought you might like to see our prego pics and then the results of our 9 months of waiting. :) I'm not sure that it was "fun" to be pregnant this time around but it was really nice having someone to commiserate with during those long months!
Here they are the day after Ayden was born (03/06/09). We went to the hospital to meet him and had to take some pictures. Michaela is 10 days old here but when she was born she was 6 lbs 8 oz. Ayden is 8 lbs 11 oz. Our Aunt Bev has said "its Bobby and Kari all over again" because we were born about the same days apart and he always looked so much bigger than me. We'll see what happens as these two grow, won't we?

Where's baby?

I wanted to write and say that life is finally getting "back to normal" but that's all wrong, isn't it? We're never going back to the same normal that we had before because before we were a family of three and now we're a family of four. We now have a toddler and a baby and life couldn't be MORE different than it was just two weeks and one day ago. We have had a couple of crazy weeks with the birth of Michaela and then treating Ava's RSV (and croup and ear infections). But it seems that everyone is well now and maybe life will settle into our new "normal" now with both girls at home. Everyone is adjusting to Ava and baby being together in the same house but mostly it seems it is Ava who needs to do the most adjusting. I'm trying to give her lots of hugs and affection but she's like a little tornado (my parents' very appropriate description of Ava) whipping through the house (and every room and every closet and every drawer)... Hopefully she'll settle down the tiniest bit before too long but after 10 days away at the other Grandparents' house I am sure she's just in adjustment mode. Or making me pay for her being away so long... :)

Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know that Ava is LOVING having a baby and wants to shower her in hugs and kisses CONSTANTLY. On Monday, our first day home with just me and Ava and Michaela, I effectively hid the baby from Ava for a whole five minutes. She was sleeping in her carseat on the kitchen table but Ava couldn't see or hear her. So Ava started running through the house yelling, "Baby, baby! Baby!" trying to seek her out. Through the laundry room, by the bathroom, into the kitchen and then looping through the living room where she turned back and started back through the house again. I think she did three or four circuits before she realized where baby was hiding and then it took her less than five seconds to climb onto the table with Michaela. Oh, well, at least I had five minutes...