Fabulous Photo Friday - Our Week in Pictures!

 Warming up after a swim in Papa's pool!

 Playgroup at the park - Amelia wasn't in a cooperative mood :)

 Lots of time reading!

 Abram was helping the girls make brownies!

 Sophia doing the dishes

 Sister snuggles

 Amelia learned how to do a puzzle ALL BY HERSELF this week!

 A hot day in the pool - again, not in a cooperative mood!

 Watermelon at the Farmer's Market

 YUMMY

 26 Weeks with baby #4 (this is my "hurry up and take the picture already" face)

 Amelia found a bag of clothes pins and decided to clip them on the edge of the cookie sheet...

 Bike races (and yes Sophia is wearing winter boots)

 Weeding

Helping in the yard

 Abram vs. the coffee table... the table won

New swim suit, ready for a dip in the pool!

 A fantastically busy week!

A Bit of a Change

In an effort to keep me more disciplined and our life a bit more “documented” I'm going to be changing things up a bit here on the blog. My goal is 3 posts a week (maybe more depending on the week). So here's the schedule:

“All About Me” (Mondays) - talking about what God's teaching me as a wife and mom, and a look into the life of a mommy with 4 littles under 4!

“Teaching Toddlers” (Tuesdays/Thursdays) – our first year of homeschooling is bound to have all kinds of fun moments! Follow our exciting school days, posts about curriculum, field trips and learning experiences!

“Fabulous Photos” (Fridays) – No long journal entry on these days, just some of my favorite pictures from the week of the kiddos and us doing things I want to make sure and remember!

So, that's the plan, be sure to subscribe via e-mail (on the right side of the page) to get a notification when I update! It's going to be a fabulous year with lots of change coming to our family!

Where has the time gone?

Wow how time flies.  My last update was at the end of the summer (2011), it is now the beginning of the summer (2012).  For some reason time has gotten away from me... I wonder why!?

Anyway, in an attempt to keep everyone up to date, here is a massive overload of pictures from the last 10 months or so!  Enjoy catching up on our life!

 

 Above: Abram at 2, 3, and 4, months, and getting ready for his first taste of cereal!

Left: All three kiddos ready for Trick-or-Treating.  In case you can't tell, Sophia is a dinosaur, Abram was a very sad giraffe and Amelia was a clown!

 Below: Abram all bundled up for a fall outing to post family farms!  Oh how yummy those donuts sound right now! :)

That brings us to November of 2011.  Amelia turned 3! Can you believe it, my sweet little first born is 3 (going on 16)!  We celebrated with Grandma and Papa and Grandma Gates and Great Grandma Wiersma!

Amelia wanted a kitty cat cake, and got spoiled rotten with lots of fun gifts!

Abram was 5 months old in November!

 December brought the cold weather!  The girls LOVED the snow, although we had a pretty mild winter compared to the year before.  We started decorating for the holidays, after we got our Christmas tree we came home and put together a gingerbread house!

 

Amelia was old enough this year to light one of the Advent candles (a big deal at our family Christmas party)

 

                                The kids all dressed up for Christmas morning church service!

 Opening presents on Christmas morning.  Abram was totally clueless!  Amelia and Sophia got lots of fun packages to open, including a new kitchen set that daddy built just for them!

                                                              SPRING TIME!

 Abram has graduated to the big tub and LOVES to take baths with his sisters!  He screams bloody murder when we try to take him out and anytime he hears the water running in the bathroom he crawls there as fast as he possibly can and pulls himself up on the tub!

 March brought unseasonably warm weather for Michigan!  Sophia turned 2 and she is a total two-year old.  Oh my goodness we are in the throws of toddlerhood over here!  She wanted an Elmo cake and a tricycle for her birthday so that's what she got.  Grandma Gates couldn't join us for this party but she did make the girls some very special slippers (see picture below)!  Abram turned 9 months this month!

 

 April was Easter and Abram turning 10 months (he also learned to stand up independently). 

Amelia has found a new love for building with blocks.  Both of these pictures are things that she build all by herself!



Also in April we went to Chicago, our first getaway since having Abram.  We were gone for three days for a surprise trip for my dad's 60th birthday.  All the siblings and spouses spent the weekend taking in the sights and yummy food, along with a Tigers games to celebrate with my parents!  It was a wonderful weekend but we were ready to get back to our kiddos!

 

 They just keep growing! 

 

 So do I!  This is baby #4 at 20 weeks, we just found out we'll be welcoming another little girl to our family! 

May: Abram turned 11 months old, is taking steps, is completely weaned and is babbling like crazy!!!

I have put reminders on my calendar to update my blog!  Hopefully I can actually remember to do it!  Trying to catch up on almost a year is not something I enjoy doing!!!  We've been enjoying playing outside and going to the farmer's market and it's only the beginning of June.  Hoping for a wonderful summer!  Until next time...

Summer's Almost Gone...

So much for keeping up with updating the blog. Last update was in May. Much has happened since then, a finished basement, a new baby (who is now almost 2 months old), changes at work for Tim... here's some pictures of what we've been up to!


June 20th - Abram Dean! What a precious gift God has given us!


July 20th, one month old already!


Abram enjoying his first swim with Grandma!


Little Sosie enjoying the water!


The girls are enjoying the swings (thanks Grandma and Papa) in the backyard!

More to come later... baby just woke up from his 'short' nap!

It's Spring!

We've had lots of fun so far this Spring. The weather has been hot and sunny, cold and snowy, and very rainy... typical Michigan. Needless to say we haven't had a ton of time to play outside. We bought a picnic table for the girls (for the back yard) to use this summer but have been enjoying having indoor picnics at lunch time!

Here's some pictures, I'll start with Easter!


Amelia all dressed and ready for church on Easter Sunday!


Sophia smiling pretty in her Easter dress!



Easter Baskets! After a wonderful worship service at church we gave the girls their Easter baskets - sans candy since they had enough at the egg hunt the day before!


Sophia, trying to figure out what was on her head!


Amelia got her first haircut - thanks Auntie Cara! Amelia wasn't really sure what to think and refused to wear the cape, she sat with her head down for the most part but at least she sat still!


Amelia loves to have piggy tails! They completely go with her personality. There is rarely a dull moment with Amelia!

Enjoying a blue popscicle on a rare 70+ degree day in April! Notice the spot in the middle of her forehead!


We took a road trip to Lansing. Unfortunately it was for my great grammy's funeral. Both girls did great in the car, Amelia even kept her pants dry! She had lots of questions about why grammy was sleeping, she was very curious about it all.


Sophia has learned how to undress! She is constantly taking her arms out of her sleeves!


Amelia loves to pull Sophia around the island in the kitchen for rides. Thankfully this is how they entertain themselves while I'm getting dinner ready! At least it keeps them busy!


We are well under way with our basement project. Framing and electrical were finished up this week and we are waiting on two inspectors to come in the next couple of days. Drywall is starting either Monday or Wednesday next week! Once the drywall is in then it's paint, flooring and the details! I'll post pictures when it's finished... right now it just looks like lots of pieces of wood and wires! But we're almost there, which is good because there's only 7 weeks until baby boy will be joining our family!



First planting

4 weeks later!

Amelia is LOVING helping me in the garden. We put Sophia down for her nap and then we got out and pull weeds and plant more veggies! She loves to dig but hates getting the dirt on her hands! So far we've planted Sugar Snap Peas, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Romaine Lettuce, along with 4 other kids of lettuce, and Strawberries! We are waiting a couple of weeks for some warmer weather before we plant the Tomatoes (Amelia's favorite), Green Peppers, Okra, Green Beans and Cucumbers!


Amelia planted a flower seed in a cup and we've enjoyed watching it grow!

and grow!



In baby news... I'm almost 33 weeks and feeling it. As pregnancies go this has to be my most difficult, nothing in particular, but having to chase around two toddlers and dealing with construction in my house has added to the stress of being pregnant. We are very much looking forward to meeting this little guy and seeing what it's like to have a little boy in the family! Amelia is beyond excited to meet her baby brother and asks me daily if he's coming soon (we told her when it was hot outside and we could swim in Grandpa's pool then he'd come). She can't wait to give him the paci's she picked out for him!