No Snowman Today

Well, Matt did want to build a snowman with Anna this afternoon, but with a late lunch, nap time, and a drop in temp this afternoon, that didn't work out. Instead, we got a small pine tree out of the basement and let Anna have a little fun. She had a blast "decomating" her tree.
Later on, Matt made wet burritos (a GR thing) for dinner. They were tasty!

Snow

It snowed! Anna got all bundled up to have her first real snow experience this morning. It took her a little while to "warm" up to it. She wasn't quite sure what to make of all this white stuff on the ground that made this strange sound when she walked on it.


It didn't take her long, though, to get into it. I showed her that she could pick it up, make snowballs, and even eat the snow.

She only wanted to come in after her nose and cheeks were rosy and she was getting a little cold. Watch for more pictures and an additional post today. I am sure Matt will want to go out with Anna after he comes home from classes, so they can build a snowman together!

Now It's Cold

I think I might have mentioned awhile ago that it was cold. I was wrong! Now it's cold!! (Look for this line again in a few weeks :) My internet weather desk said it was 27 degrees but felt like 17 degrees. Brrr!! We are getting used to getting bundled up to go anywhere. Fortunately, at least for now, Anna loves wearing her princess boots and her mittens. She's been a little bothered by cold wind in her face though. We had a little snow on Thanksgiving and yesterday and today it snowed, but we've got no accumulation on the ground. We're looking forward to building a snowman and going sledding!

If Only...

If only I'd had my camera today when...
*Anna was under the dining room table this afternoon playing so quietly with my cell phone
*Anna was at the library wearing a fire fighter's hat (we have the coolest library!)
*Anna saw Matt down the street coming home from school and started running toward him
If only I'd had a recorder today when...
*Anna said "bless you" after I sneezed at breakfast this morning
*Anna was running toward Matt and said "how are you?"
*Anna sang Kumma Bye-a, Yord (Kum Ba Yah, My Lord)

I guess I can't capture every moment, but I sure do enjoy them and count them as huge blessings!

Thanksgiving Fun

We got together with Matt's extended family for Thanksgiving and this is the only picture I took. Anna and her "cousin" Aubrey were having such fun "reading" together. (Actually they were having more fun climbing all over Grandma's furniture.) It was a wonderful day filled with food, lots of fun with family, and great thanks to God for all his blessings to us.
My sister Sue and her family came over for a little while on Friday afternoon. I asked my niece Kelly to take a few pictures while Sue and I ran to get a few groceries for dinner. She got some fun shots of Anna with a few of her current favorites--her new kitchen (from cousin Amanda) and her slide!

Pre Thanksgiving Fun

We got together with my sisters and their families tonight. Anna loves playing with her cousins! She tries to do what they do and follows them around. It was great to get together and have a relaxing, fun evening together. I managed to get the kids to actually sit down together before all the gaming began. What a good-looking bunch!

One Down

This is Matt looking relieved and relaxed after all of his exams are finished. It'll be awhile until he finds out exactly how well he did, but he feels pretty good about how they went. We're glad he's got a little time now to relax and spend lots of time with us before the winter quarter gets started. One quarter down, 8 to go (plus summer internships)!

A Fashion Statement??

When I went in to get Anna up from her nap, she was sporting a new look. I'm sure it wasn't a look that was easily achievable since she was wearing a turtleneck!

More Leaves

You wouldn't know it by looking at our yard today, but yesterday we spent a good part of the afternoon raking leaves. Anna has her own little rake (but much prefers using mine) and loves to help. She got a big kick out of getting in the wheelbarrow and getting a ride from her Papi. She had a blast running through and jumping in the leaf piles. Matt had just gotten home when we started, and was glad to take a break from exams and studying. He's taking a Greek exam right now and then has 2 more this week. Thankfully, he has all next week off!

My How She's Grown

Anna at 6 months eating very watery rice cereal.
Anna at 19 months feeding herself butternut squash soup.

A Yesterdog Night

My sister, Sue, and her girls came over on Friday. We spent the day playing, shopping, and making homemade pretzels. (Matt works hard to maintain favorite uncle status.) For supper we had our own Yesterdogs. For those unfamiliar with Yesterdog, let me fill you in. Yesterdog is a hot dog restaurant in Grand Rapids that serves dogs with various toppings. Since my sister's family lives closer to Lansing than GR, they have their own Yesterdog suppers at home. It's a big hit with them, so we decided to do it too. It's fun to get all the ingredients together and assemble dogs to our liking--of course, we have to follow the menu exactly! (We pulled it off the internet.) So even Matt eats his ultradog with mustard and pickles. It's a sight to behold. Our nieces LOVE seeing their uncle eat food he intensely dislikes. He made pretzel dough, so we got to roll our own dough into whatever shape we wanted and made our own pretzels. It was a fun day. It's fun to be able to see them often.

A Little Flurry

OK, so it's getting colder here now. In fact, this afternoon we saw our first few flurries. OK, so it didn't last more than a couple of minutes and there was certainly no accumulation on the ground, but still, IT SNOWED!! This picture doesn't have anything to do with flurries, but what's a blog post without a picture? Isn't she cute?

Wild Hair

Matt gave Anna a bath the other day. I'm not really sure how he ended up getting her hair looking like this, but I'm glad we got a picture of it! What a sight! (Good thing it doesn't stay like this.)

Matt's still plugging away at schoolwork. He's got 2 big and one little papers due next week. The following week is exams. He has one every day. He's been working really hard and is doing really well--even in Greek! (Don't tell his classmates, but he actually enjoys Greek.) Anna and I stay busy with Coffee Break, going to the library, and hanging out with friends and family. I'm loving watching her learn and am constantly amazed at her vocabulary. She picks up words easily and sometimes talks about events for days--she still talks every once in a while about the baby cow we saw at the pumpkin place. Today at lunch, I told her we were going to pray and thank God for our food. After we were finished, she said, "Thank you, God", with no prompting. We were quite impressed.