Fort Douglass

It has been rainy and grey and just kinda yuck outside lately. Over the weekend we were getting a little stir crazy (ok I was getting a little crazy with little people hanging from me while I made dinner) so Craig did what any good dad would do on a rainy afternoon to entertain his children... he made a fort with the girls.

Georgia was a fan of the fort.

Charlie was a fan of the fort...

Madelyn was not really a fan of the fort.

The girls ate some snacks and read books in the fort. Then  the leftover fort proved to be a good location for climbing and reading for the rest of the day... and sadly the next couple of days until I packed it away. oops.

Big Shoes...

Oh man, these girls crack me up. Over the weekend they wanted to go play so I told them to put some shoes on so we could go outside. I think I need to be more specific because this is what they ended up with:

On a funny side not, before some of you can say it... yes my feet ARE actually bigger than the girls' feet. For now anyway. :)



Baby Update

Well we are at 22 wks now with my pregnancy. For the most part I have been feeling great. The baby is doing well and there are no signs of preterm labor developing. (yay!) For those who are new to our blog or maybe don't know our whole story, when I was pregnant with the girls I was put on bedrest at home at about 17 wks. At 23 wks in my pregnancy I was put on bedrest in the hospital and just after 26 wks gestation the girls were born. It was a roller coaster ride to say the least and is still an ordeal that is fresh in our minds.

It's hard to not be a little paranoid/over cautious about things. I still find myself counting days until we make it to another week on the pregnancy calendar as I did so often last time. Every kick and pain is analyzed and then analyzed again. As far as the doctors go we are being checked out with lots of ultrasound photo sessions every couple of weeks. It has also been reccommended that we stay close to home after about 24 weeks. Just in case.

On a lighter note it is so great to try and involve the girls in the pregnancy. They kiss my belly and talk about the baby... and constantly elbow and try and climb on my belly... ugh.  If you are looking to find out the gender of the baby don't ask Georgia.

"Georgia are we having a baby?"
Yeah
"Is it a boy?"
No
"Is it a girl?"
No
"Are you excited?"
No... cue Georgia's exit from the conversation.

Thank you for everyone who has been hoping and praying for a long and healthy pregnancy.

Popcorn and Tea...?

I love that as the girls are getting older they are more and more able to express their wants and needs... ok well I usually like it. I don't think they appreciate the times that I can understand them but have to use that dreaded "no" word.

As the evenings cool the girls have added a new activity to some of our evenings. Snuggling with a movie and popcorn and... tea? The girls love tea. A little odd but I much prefer them wanting a nice warm cup of chamomile or berry tea before bed than some soda. Usually sometime in the afternoon one of them will ask me if we can watch a "moo-mee" and have some "pop-nu" and tea.

Charlie likes to get in on the snuggling/popcorn clean-up.

Here's to lots of upcoming moo-mee nights and snuggles and also to hopes that we can convince the girls to watch more than just Rio or Finding Nemo.

Berry Picking

Craig and I love to pick berries in the summer, we look at it as a fun activity and a discount. There are so many great u-pick farms in West Michigan. Last year the girls tagged along.

This year, they got to help... well kinda.

First we picked some blueberries with Craig's parents. We had fun and there was even a helicopter at the berry farm that day, Georgia loved it.





We even managed to squeeze in a visit to our favorite wine place in Fennville.

A few weeks later the girls and I went out and picked raspberries while Craig was at work. We had a ton of fun. We did not pick a lot of berries, well scratch that. We did not get a lot of berries into the bucket, but we had fun. We of course had to go back with Craig and actually pick some berries to take home.

As an added bonus the farm also had chickens, pigs and cows.

The girls each had their own bucket. It generally looked like this:

Mainly because they did a lot of this:


I kept telling the girls to put their berries in their bucket and they would happily tell me "NO" and continue picking. Every once in a while they would pretend to put on in or put a berry in and immediately remove it.

By the time we finished picking Madelyn was filthy with berries, but she had fun. Good thing they don't kick you out for eating berries while you pick.

Zoo Trip 2011

This summer we tackled the zoo... without a stroller. Crazy, I know. I get so sick of taking them out to look at animals and then listening to Georgia chant "walk, walk, walk..." that I decided not to even both with it. The zoo in Grand Rapids is just the right size to tackle in a morning and I decided we would power through until the girls got too tired/cranky. The girls did great, luckily Craig's parents came with us and were a great help holding hands and helping the pregnant lady lift little ladies.

I love this picture of Georgia and Grandpa looking at the fish.

The John Ball zoo has an exhibit where you can feed and pet the stingrays. As we entered the exhibit i asked Maddy if she wanted to touch and almost immediately she said "NO.. no, no." haha so she did not participate. Georgia and I had fun touching the slimy stingrays.

The butterflies were also pretty exciting to Georgia...

About halfway through the girls started getting a little whiny and started lots of "up, please" begging. Grandpa got them some slushies and they perked right back up and were ready to go.

We tried to get a cute picture including the new growing addition (and the pregnant lady in her practical tennis shoes instead of the much loved flip-flops) at the end... I really need to remember to do this BEFORE we tromp through the zoo. Oh well. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for coming with us on our stroller free adventure. We had a great day!

Biker Babes

A couple of weeks ago my parents came over with some new wheels for the girls. Their little feet just barely reach the pedals. They were so excited to climb on and get going, well kinda....  

They weren't exactly thrilled about having to do all the work themselves. Luckily the bikes come with these great little poles on the back that let us push them/stop them from rolling down a hill.

We're still working on that whole "steering" concept.

The bikes are great but the helmets are still my favorite. haha

Thanks mom and dad, our girls are definitely too spoiled well loved by both sets of  grandparents.