Happy Birthday Sweet Girl

Dear Halle Joy,
Today you are one. I cannot believe how quickly your first year has gone by. It is difficult for me to even remember what our lives were like before you were a part of our family.
Your name means praise and joy, and my sweet girl, that could not describe your disposition any better. You are a joyful, content, happy little girl. You rarely cry- when you do, we know it's something serious. You are loving and sweet and super affectionate. You love to cuddle and snuggle. As I pray over you at night I pray that you will keep that joyful disposition all the days of your life, and that your joy will be rooted in Christ and you will live a life of praise to the God who loves you more than I ever could.
You thoroughly enjoy your big brother, and nothing gets you to squeal more than when you "get him" by grabbing his hair. He truly delights in you Halle Joy. You have a precious gift in him, and we pray that you two will always treasure and prefer one another.
You recently started crawling, and there is no stopping you now. You want so badly to pull yourself up on things, but you haven't quite figured it out just yet. You love to bounce on our laps or in your jumper. You are trying to stand up from the floor, but it looks like you are doing the downward facing dog position. It's a riot. We often call you "Thumper" because you thump your legs on your crib before you even cry or talk to let us know you are awake.
You are quite the chunky monkey my girl, and you love to eat. We like to joke that even your rolls have rolls. Your eyes are beautiful, and they often smile before your mouth does. Your smile can captivate me like nothing else. When you reach for me, I melt.
Halle Joy, you are more precious a gift to me than I could ever ask or imagine. I look forward to watching you grow and learn... but for right now, I simply am basking in your "baby-ness". I love you and I celebrate you today.

From Iowa

We are in Iowa, visiting Grammie and Papa this week and next. Despite the fact that both kids have gnarly colds and I am sleeping in the same room as one of them and directly across the hall from the other (and I am a RIDICULOUSLY light sleeper), we are having a great time :). Seriously though, Markus and Halle Joy are thoroughly enjoying their grandparents- and I have a feeling their grandparents are enjoying them too :). I had to jot down a funny from the dude today. We were listing off all the people in his life that love him (long list!). Then I asked him who did he love? "I love Jesus and God. And all my people." His people? Does he have an entourage I am not aware of? But how great that this little man listed Jesus and God first? Love it. Love his tender heart. I said to him today "I love you to the moon and stars Markus." He responded "Well I love you to the cow jumping over the moon Mommy!"

I love him

Markus makes me laugh so much. Somedays he makes me cry, too, but mostly he makes me laugh. Here's some more recent funnies...
1. I made cupcakes last night for Halle Joy's birthday party (we are having family over and a couple close friends to celebrate early as we will be in Iowa for her birthday). Markus, of course, wanted one. I told him that he could have one the next day when we celebrated Halle Joy's birthday. When he woke up this morning, he asked me if it was Halle Joy's birthday yet. More than once.
2. To continue with the cupcakes... he was eyeing them again this afternoon, and again asked if he could have one. I told him he would have to wait until we sang Halle Joy "Happy Birthday". He promptly started singing, and sang "Happy Birthday" in it's entirety to Halle Joy.
3. We were looking at "The Barnyard Dance" book before bed a few nights ago. On one page you can only see the bottom half of the horses. He said "Mommy, can you ask those horses to jump down so I can see the rest of them please?"
4. Yesterday, out of nowhere, he came up to me and said "I love my sister Mommy."
5. A few days ago, he was in the car with Mark. Mark turned at a stoplight- the only time we ever turn at this particular stoplight on our way home is if we are getting coffee. You can't even see the Starbucks from there. But right as Mark turned, Markus piped up "Who wants coffee Daddy?"
6. Today, I told him it was time for nap. He said, "I'll go lay down in my bed, close the door and turn the light off all by myself for nap." And he did! He totally put himself to bed. I went to check on him after about 30 min and he was snuggled under his comforter, sound machine on, lights off, fast asleep.

Before I forget...

1. Markus new train batteries died last week. I told him that I would be happy to get him some new ones. He looked at me and said "OK mommy, here's the plan. I will stay home with daddy and play, and you go to the store to get the batteries." Here's the plan? What?
2. Mommy to Markus-"Markus, mommy is married to daddy." Markus to mommy and daddy- "I want to be married." Daddy to Markus- "Who do you want to marry Markus?" Markus to mommy and daddy- "I want to marry mommy". Awwww.
3. Today, Markus was asking for daddy to come home. ALL DAY. On one occasion, I said "Markus, you are so blessed to have such a great daddy." To which he replied "You're a great mommy too, mommy. And Halle is a great baby."

Merry Christmas Eve

More sledding adventures

Playing in the snow

Decorating Cookies

My dear friend Katie hosted some of us and our kiddos to decorate some sugar cookies last week and make Christmas play-doh. Markus had a grand time- especially when eating the frosting with a spoon.

Sweet Girl

Halle Joy is still as sweet as could be. She has two teeth now- they are so cute! She figured out how to play peek-a-boo last week, and does it all the time now. The pics with her and the plate are of her playing peek-a-boo. She is still loving big people food- she inhales grapes, eggs, grilled cheese, peas and chicken faster than you can put them on her plate. She will allow us to feed her, but she definitely prefers to do it on her own. She tolerates pureed food, but only if it has some texture to it and only if she knows she is getting some big people food too. She still is super serious sometimes and is starting to show very mild separation anxiety. No crawling yet, but she is trying so hard and wants to so badly. I know it will be soon. And I am excited for it. She will be so happy moving around.

Sugar cookies

Markus and I had so much fun making sugar cookies last week. He loved rolling out the dough, cutting the shapes and putting them on the cookie sheet. Of course, the best part was when he started scraping up the bits of dough on the board and eating them. He thought they were pretty tasty.

He is hilarious

1. While shoving his thumb in my face (said with total serious and need in his big brown eyes): "I need to go upstairs and suck this".
2. While playing with trains with Halle Joy: "Halle Joy, you little stinker. You broke my trains!".
3. While sleeping in bed with us when on vacation (at 4:30 am) he rolled over, put both hands on my face and said "Mommy, should I be awake right now?".
4. While driving home from church on Friday night in the dark "I need the light on in the car Mommy". "Why?" I responded. "So I can see Halle Joy my little sister".
5. While in the bathtub last night, holding a farmer near the tub ledge: "Mommy, can I put the farmer on the stage to sing?".

Zoolights 2008

We spent a wonderful evening at Zoolights with our great friends, Zach, Jennifer, Claire and Ethan. It was freezing, and poor Halle Joy was so bundled up she couldn't even lift an arm in her stroller, but we still had a great time. The photos aren't great; darkness + running, excited children = poor quality photos. But you get the gist.

Christmas Tree 2008

We had our annual trip to Starbucks and Schilter Farms last week. We picked out a great tree and had a fun time as a family!