Getting Up To Speed

Well, I think I'm all caught up...I think.

Over a weekend in January, Alan released me from mommy duty and I headed to Chicago to spend the weekend two of my dearest friends, Chel and Aners (two girls whom I lived with all four years of my life at Hope). Chel turned 30 back in December, but we celebrated together with a little "spa" weekend! We definitely missed the 4th roommate, Sarah, but she was 36+ weeks preggers and couldn't make the journey from NYC!

Kirra is just starting to get into playing dress up! I love it! Luckily we have some older friends in our life, so we get all the hand-me-downs!

Kirra's bestest friend in the whole entire world is Norah...and she got to dress up too!

Happy Valentine's Day 2010! On Valentine's morning we took it easy and just had a family dance party (Kirra's newest thing before heading to bed is having a dance party of some sort. Sometimes I ask her what music she wants and she says, "The music in my head mama!")

I am realizing that I have not taken any preggers pics of myself, you can kinda see a little baby bump in the above pic, but I'll try to post some soon!

Ah, tulips! This is just a reminder that spring really isn't that far away!

Singing

This was taken back in October, but I just had to post it...

Kirra's Tricks

Christmas 2009...Part 2

Okay, so I wasn't patient enough and these pics are completely out of order, but oh well!

We all made it to Branson, MO safely and enjoyed a nice long week being a whole family!!

Happy 2010...they did fireworks over the lake outside of our condos...quite a display (much better than Roscommon's on the 4th of July!)

Kirra enjoying her "pool" time in the tub when the pool was closed one day.

A view of one of the lodges on the property!

My sweet little Tate...and my beautiful sister too!

Nana playing with her girls and their new Leapfrog toys!

Almost looks like Kirra's looking for lice...but they were just enjoying their tub swim time together!

Tate just chillin' while the girls ran around with their dolls and strollers!

Mom and Dad treated us all to a Limo ride that took us around Branson to see the Christmas lights...wasn't the greatest light show in the world, but it was lots of fun being cramped together in a limo for almost 2 hours! :)

Finally, the pool was open for business!

One of MANY attempts at getting a good photo of all 5 of them!

On our way to Branson, we stopped in St. Louis to visit a friend of mine from High School, Michelle Hartzler and her kiddos.

Daddy and Kirra enjoying the pool...

We got creative with our stockings since we weren't able to put nails in the mantles!

Christmas 2009...Part 1

December 21, 2009 marked our 7th Anniversary! It's so hard to believe that that many years has already gone by. We are so excited for at least another 7...I love being married to my best friend! Each year we alternate planning something special for each other. I'm on the odd years and Alan has the even years. This year we did a few different things...

1. Kirra went to spend the day with Miss Shelly and we went shopping, ate The Melting Pot for lunch, and just enjoyed being together during the day.

2. I surprised him with an overnight stay at the Grand Traverse Resort in Traverse City. We dropped Kirra off in Higgins Lake with Nana and Papa and headed north for a little "get away". It was a relaxing afternoon/night of just being us and celebrating all that God has blessed us with.

We headed back to Higgins Lake just in time for our annual Family Game night with the Micks/Mercers, Ashworths, Carrolls, McDonalds, and Zeneberg/Freudigmanns. Kirra surely loved her time with Uncle Eric, Uncle Alex and Aunty Beth!!!!

Our plan was to stay in Higgins Lake until Christmas Day, but the weather was not looking promising and we had to make it to Branson, MO in time to meet up with my sister's family for the rest of our Christmas break, so we packed the car quickly on Christmas Eve night and drove down to Grand Rapids for the night. We didn't have much of a Christmas dinner, since all we had was leftovers, but being together with my mom and dad was all we needed. On Christmas morning Alan and my dad went out to find anything they could that would resemble a yummy breakfast, but nothing was open. Kirra was able to open her gifts, and then use them as we packed the car to begin our long journey to Branson. ART was the theme for her Christmas...sticker books, an easel with paints, coloring books, markers, etc.

On Christmas Day we drove as far as we could through nasty snow storms and made it about half way to Branson. We ate at Denny's (the ONLY restaurant open for miles) and then relaxed in a hotel for the night. Papa and Kirra had some quality "bonding" time!

Where to Begin...Again

For those of you who have followed my ramblings over the past five years on our previous blog, you will know that something "happened" in November that caused that blog to disappear. I won't go into details (Alan deleted it by accident), but took a little break from posting, creating, and blogging altogether. However, I'm back and ready to roll with new stories, pictures, and reflections on life! Hope you enjoy....

Back in November, I headed off on a little adventure with three other girlfriends from college to a fabulous place called Barcelona, Spain! One of our dearest friends, Amy Woolard was getting married and none of us wanted to miss it (and reallly, who could turn up a vacation to Spain?!). We took a nine day trip across the Atlantic, saw fabulous sights, "lived" some of the authentic Spanish life with Amy, and most importantly got to be witnesses to one of the most beautiful weddings ever! Unfortunately, I left my camera battery charger back at home and only was able to take one day's worth of pictures...but the memories and the mental pictures are still quite vivid for me!

This was Segrada Familia (if you are into architecture, then you may know who Gaudi is, if not, this really won't mean much to you). It was a magnificent church that has been under construction since the early 1900's and is not scheduled to be completed until 2050 or something like that!

After returning home from that trip, I was definitely eager to see my sweet Kirra, and of course Alan too! Fairly soon the snow began to fall and we were able to get outside in our "backyard" to play a bit!

Kirra has become quite the little helper in the kitchen since her 2nd birthday, which is wonderful for me! We can spend quality time together AND get things done on my "to do" lists at the same time! Below, she is helping me do the dishes, while wearing her Dora apron that her Aunty Jen gave her for her birthday!