Snow Bunnies

Ella is a big snow fan so here are some pictures of her playing in the snow this winter...and apparently she loves to eat it too...

One cold day she was begging by the door to go play outside but it was super freezing out so I just brought in some snow for her to mess around with and she started gobbling it up. Now she begs at that door for snow to eat... What a little snow bunny:)One night we were downtown Holland walking around after eating dinner (I guess I should mention we were walking around in the cold because I locked our keys in the car and were waiting for the neighbors to bring us our extra set:) and all Ella wanted to do was eat the snow along the sidewalks.Our neighbors invited us out one night to go sledding. We have a hill in our back yards so we headed out...the snow was so deep Ella couldn't even walk in it but she did like going down the hill with Brad and our neighbor boy Grah.One gorgeous afternoon Ella and I headed out to play around in the snow...she loved rolling around in it but once again it was pretty deep so she got pretty frustrated trying to get around.

There she goes again...

Post-Christmas Christmas Party

A couple of weekends ago (trying to get caught up on my blogging:) we had some college friends over for a post-Christmas party. Since the holidays were so busy, it was nice to have them all over once all of that was past. We just got together for pizza and hung out. The guys congregated around the table for much of the night and discussed the usual - politics, religion, and work while the girls watched the kids and mainly talked about the kids and family stuff:) At the end of the night before the kids went down to sleep, we did a gift exchange between the children (born or soon to be) which was really cute. It was nice for all of us adults to spend time together because life gets busy and we don't see each other as much as we used to and the kids have a lot of fun playing together too. The boys- Darrell, Jim, Joe, Johnny, Curt, and Brad

Just chillin - Mere with Ella, Johnny, Kishon, Brad, Curt, Jamie, and Alden

The pregos - Lindsey and Jamie - both due in March only 3 days apart
The kids playing together (toys everywhere!)Ella and Julie - baby Thrower got Ella a drawing pad and markers - perfect since Julie is an art teacher!The kiddos - Layla, Jonathan, Ava, Alden, and Ella...

Baby Gibson Geurink could not join us at the party since he needed to be stay at the hospital(born 5 1/5 weeks premature on December 30 - 5lbs 7oz, 18in) but thankfully on January 11 he was able to go home with Mere and Joe! Thank God for blessing this sweet little baby with good health!

Our Baby is 15 month old!

Our little peanut is now 15 months old. It is amazing how much she has grown up over the last 3 months. She went to the doctor recently and was 25 lbs and 32 1/2 inches tall with a head circumference of 47.3 cm. Not only has she grown up physically, she has developed a lot in how she communicates and expresses herself. Although she doesn't talk a lot yet, she is good at letting us know what she wants and what she is trying to tell us. Right now her vocabulary consists of: Dad, Mom, yeah, ball, duck, and her favorite word is bug - go figure! She likes to make animal noises and does her own version of sign language for more, please. We are really looking forward to her talking more but we know she will do that in her own time. It is just nice at this point that she understands what we are saying to her and can listen to what we ask of her. Obeying the word "no" I think will continue to be a process;) She is a little pistol with lots of energy and is always running around the house leaving a little tornado behind her:) Although she is a busy girl, she is very much still a little cuddle bug and likes to just sit on our laps to cuddle and to read books. She is very friendly to people she comes in contact with but at times she can get sheepish and shy away from people...she is going through a phase I think. Her favorite things currently are playing with her little kitchen and her fake food, playing in the snow and doing really anything outside, looking through her books and pointing out things in the book that she knows/likes....she is really into animals so she loves animal books and her favorite movie is Baby MacDonald:) She loves to play with other kids and we hope she continues to love to be social in the future. Although she can throw tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants, she is a sweetheart and a ton of fun - we are blessed! These are some random pictures from the last 3 months.

Putting on a pouty face:)

Haming it up!

Ella is absolutely insistant that she is independent with her food. She likes to use her fingers and loves adult silverware and does not want to have help - she wants to do it all herself. Just recently at restaurants she has started wanting to get her own cup full of ice and chewing on them and getting her own water with a straw. Meal time is definately messy but she is a great eater!

She now has 16 teeth so we have to work hard to keep those pearly whites clean...thankfully she loves brushing her teeth:)

Her favorite thing to do when we drive around has been to look at books. She would literally look at books for the entire drive and I have had it where she wants the light on by her seat at night so she can look at her books even when it is dark out. In the last week or so she has grown less interested in it, but my goodness, for a while there she was a fanatic about books in the car.

Her favorite attire, if I let her, for playing around the house:)

She is really into bows right now - she likes to play with them and put them in our hair but unfortunately doesn't like to really wear them herself, at least for any period of time. She will put on headbands but that is about it. Here is her playing beauty shop with her cousin Lily.

Sharing is something that she has had to learn especially since she spends time with her cousins each week. Although she can be a typical kid and want to play with whatever someone else is already playing with, she does a pretty good job with sharing her toys.

Here's just a cute pic of her after her aunt Daysha dressed her up while babysitting

Having a "ball" with Daddy!
As noted in previous blogs, Ella loves to sit in baskets. Here she is sitting in her book basket in her room - it doesn't matter how big the basket is, she thinks she can fit in them.

She really loves bathtime. She plays in the tub as long as she can stretch it out...even long after the water is all out.

Our Florida Vacation

Christmas night we took off for our vacation to Bonita Springs, FL. My in-laws just got a place there so we were going to spend the week there with them along with Brad's sister Betsy, her husband Jake and daughter Lily, and Brad's other sister Kylee. We decided to do a park and fly in Detroit so we left the day before our flight took off just in case the weather was bad and so it wouldn't be such a long day of traveling for Ella. She did great on the drive there and was really excited to see Grandpa and Grandma when we arrived to the hotel. She had a ton of fun racing up and down the halls and jumping on their bed in their room. She was in such a good mood that we were not prepared for what happened next - she started barfing all over the bed and me:) She wasn't sick but I think that it had been a busy couple of days with a weird sleeping schedule and she had a little bit of ice cream at dinner - it was all a recipe for a disgusting disaster:) Of course that hotel room did not have a bath so we had to take a shower - slippery wet babies in showers are challenging:) The room stunk and our bedding was a mess and our clothes had to be soaked in the sink. We were off to a great start!

We flew out from Detroit on Saturday with Brad's siblings. Ella had never flown before but she did great! She fell asleep as the plane took off and woke up about 20 minutes before it landed in Fort Myers. Boy, was it great to land in warm weather!

We started out our vacation by spending a couple of days by the condo pool. Ella absolutly loved it! She walked right in and had no fear. This past summer she was semi scared of water but I guess she got over that. I wish I had some more pictures of her swimming because she was so happy but these are cute too. Grandpa tried to help Ella learn to swim and blow bubbles in the water but she was not having it...she just liked to watch him do it. Later in the week all she wanted to do was try to hang out with the other kids in the pool. She would literally walk into the pool all the way up to her mouth because she wanted get over to play by them. She would walk all over the shallow end and just laugh and giggle at the kids like she was somehow part of their games:) I think being in the pool was her favorite part of the week.

Uncle Jake, Ella, and LilyElla and Brad exploring the grounds around the condo - so cute

It was very odd to be in summer weather yet see Christmas decorations all around. One night we went to an outdoor mall area in Bonita Bay for dinner and this was one of the Christmas trees displayed in the courtyard area...Ella was pumped to see such a big one with so many pretty ornaments, she had to check them out - I thought this picture of her and Grandpa was sweet.On Tuesday we decided to head out to Naples Zoo! I love going to zoos and we all thought the girls would love to see the animals too so we checked it out - it was a great zoo...quite a step up from good ole John Ball:) It was so beautiful there and the exhibits were really nice with tons of animals. Ella really enjoyed it...watching all the animals and pointing at them. Grandma and Ella looking at the alligatorsThe family walking the paths around the zoo - I loved seeing all the palm trees everywhereElla got a kick out of seeing this big toucan:)Grandpa spoiling Ella by sharing his ice cream coneJake and Lily - she is such a happy little girlBrad and Ella checking out the monkeys

There was an area where there were hundreds of birds all up in the trees above us. Ella was loving it because she really likes birds, but after a bit she got a little freaked out because there were so many and they were really loud:)The family checking out the zebrasBetsy and LilyIt was a ton of fun to spend the day at the zoo! Another night we went ro Naples Pelican Bay for shopping and dinner. I just love how Naples has all these outdoor malls with such beautiful water features. I couldn't resist getting a picture of Ella with Grandma.

I thought this picture was darling of Brad just chilling with Ella in the condo - feeding her lunch and watching the fountain outside, another favorite thing of hers that week.Ella played hard on our vacation, but she also slept hard.

The highlight of the trip for me was going to the beach a mile up the road. I couldn't wait to have Ella see the ocean for the first time. I was in my glory...being at the beach and taking pictures of baby girl. She liked the water but only wanted to get her feet wet. Also, the beaches were full of shells so needless to say Ella enjoyed just sitting and picking up the shells and digging in the sand. She also loved walking the beach and playing in the sand with Grandpa and Grandma and chasing the seagulls with Aunt Kylee. I wish we could have spent more time at the beach, but I feel blessed that we got to spend the day there at all - it was just gorgeous.

New Year's Eve we went to downtown Naples for shopping and dinner. They have a really cool downtown sort of like a Holland/Saugatuck. It was fun just walking around the shops and sitting outside people-watching and watching Ella run around and be social. We had a nice dinner at a fishhouse as a family and were supposed to see fireworks on the beach but we got done with dinner too late and watched them from the streets downtown instead:)

The last day of our vacation we went to some outlets because it rained all day but it was fun just hanging out. It was a great week and we really enjoyed our time together. It was cool sharing a condo with Betsy, Jake, and Lily for the week and getting to spend mornings and evenings with them. We had a wonderful time with the Koning family and we were glad to have a week away from the norm and just chill out as family. Although I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked laying out and reading (things are different when you are a mom:), I wouldn't have changed a thing!