A New Girl

Becca has been asking to get her hair cut short for a couple of months now.  And then she remembers that she can't have braids with short hair and reconsiders the thought.  About a week ago she approached me one morning asking if she could have braids one last time before getting her hair cut.  So we did, and then last Thursday we headed out to the salon.

The stylist showed us some pictures from a book and after passing on one that was really short and way too grown up looking for me, I saw a cute cut with bangs.  The page showed 5 pictures of the same cut, all from different angles.  I showed it to Becca and asked her if she thought this was a good one.  She thought for a minute with her hand on her chin and then smiled, pointed to one of the pictures and said, "This one."







She is so proud of her new look.  Everywhere we go she keeps talking about how no one is going to recognize her since she looks so different.  :)

Becca Reading

With Michael reading book after book and Jon now learning to read new words every day, Becca has been feeling a bit left out.  But the other day we found a book at the library that she can read all by herself.  Check it out:

Through the years

Posting pictures this week got me thinking that we have had Easter pictures taken each year, so I went back for a trip down memory lane.

2006


2007


2008


2009


2010


2011


2012


2013


2014


Oh, my - where has the time gone.  They look so grown up this year!

Becca's Birthday #1

This week is Becca's birthday.  The actual day is on Thursday, but our Thursday is a bit out of control scheduling wise, so we are spreading out the celebrations.  Yesterday was part #1.  Per Becca's request, we took a family trip to Crazy Bounce.  In the past, she has always gotten too scared of the big slides here, so I was a bit surprised that this was where she wanted to go to celebrate her birthday.  In fact, she has been waiting since Michael's birthday in August, always insisting on Crazy Bounce for her birthday.

My goodness did she have fun.  She went on everything in the building and had a huge smile on her face the whole time.  I guess the fun anticipation helped build her confidence.  I can't believe she is just about 4 years old.

Swimming Lessons

Jon and Becca just finished up a session of swimming lessons.  I am happy to report that they have both become a ton more confident in swimming without life jackets on.  They were even jumping in on their own.  And our big news is that on the last day, Jon actually swam for 6 seconds without any floatation devise before his face started going under water and he grabbed the edge.  They both can't wait to go back to the pool again soon to play around.

What's in a name?

The picture is a couple weeks old, but Becca now knows how to write her name and boy is she proud.  In fact I've found the name written on papers, walls, and tables all around the house.



She is also starting to find the letters for her name in other places.  "That's in my name!"  Now we need to work on the name for the letters.  :)

Becca and buttons

Becca has been so into buttons lately.  The other day she insisted that she could do them herself.  Since we weren't in a rush that morning I left her to it.  About 15 minutes later I saw her walking around like this.  "Who helped you with your button?" I asked.  "I did!" she beamed.

My Little Hobbits

My kids have always been pretty good eaters, especially in the morning.  And then there are times when one of them will increase their eating by 200% for a week or two preceding a growth spurt.  This past month all three of them were gearing up for growth spurts.  They all started eating and eating and eating and I started getting flashes or what life might be like when they are teenagers.  Michael was eating more than I did during meals.

It got to the point where they all got up in the morning and stated "For my first cereal, I want...."  First cereals, second cereals, cereal bar, snack, second snack, lunch, ....  You get the point.

Unlike Hobbits though I guess they are now growing.  Jon proudly walked out of the bathroom the other day proudly announcing that he could turn on and off the water without using a stool.  Becca has been sitting on a stool at the table but recently sat on a chair and jabbered on and on about how tall she was and how she could see over the table better.  She also keeps announcing, "I grow bigger!" and running her pointer fingers up from her toes to the top of her head.  And Michael, who has been wearing the same size clothes for two years now, put on a pair of his jeans which barely reached his ankles.

A Day At the Park

During tennis season we often go to the park by Tim's matches after school.  My kids love playing there.


Recently the boys have been playing Star Wars and this day Becca wanted to join.  Jon couldn't figure out how she could though because Princess Leia is the only girl.  She is a good guy but they were playing the bad guys.


I told Jon that maybe there were some girl bad guys and pointed out that many of them where helmets and maybe there are some girls under the helmets.  He was completely baffled by this idea and took a while to ponder this possibility.


Eventually they agreed to let her play but...


She of couse had already moved on to other things.


I simply can't believe how big these kids are getting.


I love them to pieces.


So while Tim coached his team


We were there to "watch" the match that day.

B is for Becca

Or actually as Becca said it to me so proudly the other day: "B" is for "Gecca!" as she can't yet make the B sound well.  :)

My cute kids!

On Easter I love to get pictures of the kids and I was thrilled that all three kids were excited to help me with it this year.

Jon picked the couch as a good picture spot and I think we got a great one there:


Michael asked for some on the stairs.  Our serious ones didn't turn out well there but we got some great "We love each other" pictures that are precious.

Saturday Mornings

There are times when I miss having a baby and I can't believe that there are so many stages of my kids lives that have already past.  Saturday mornings recently have not been those times.  Instead, I'm thrilled at how big my kids are getting.

You see on Friday nights I put out bowls of dry cereal on the table.



And then I pour milk into three small cups.


And my kids can get up Saturday morning, pour their milk, eat their cereal, and watch cartoons all by themselves, while Tim and I sleep in!

Rock, Paper, Scissors

My boys use Rock, Paper, Scissors to settle many of their differences.  Who gets to have the football first, who gets the last piece of cheese pizza, who gets to pick first in the car draft.  This has worked great for a long time, but poor Jon seemed to get the raw end of the deal more than not.  He was fairly predictable with the game (as in he had his favorite sign at times that he'd use more than the others) and when Jon won, Michael could usually convince him to do best 2 out of 3.  Jon has been getting a lot better though and a couple weeks ago he won and then they went to 2 out of 3 and Jon still won.  It must have been a rough day for Michael, because it sent him into hysterics and he had to wait it out for a while in his bedroom.  I think that was a hard wake up call for Michael.  The boys still do a lot of Rock, Paper, Scissors, but now Jon is winning just about his fair share of the stand offs.

I'm big now

On Monday morning this week, I talked to the boys about the schedule for the day which included them going back to school.  Becca who is always watching and listening, came up very excited and announced "Me preschool too!"  As I have done at least 100 times I tried to tell her that she will need to wait until next year, but she interrupted, "Me big now, see" and raised her hands as far over her head as she could.

And she is getting quite big already and almost 3 years old.

For Christmas Tim's mom made the gals neck warmers.  With the extra yarn she was able to knit a matching one for Becca.  Don't we make a cute pair?!

A Few Updates

The Family:

Check out what wandered through our backyard this month:


And what we were finally able to purchase:


We have also made a transition in our church life.  While we LOVED our church, it was located in Grand Rapids and we really felt that it was time to find a church family closer to home where we can invest in our local community.  We were nervous about the search, especially since we didn't want to put the kids through visiting 30 different places.  We are so blessed to have found a new church home quickly.  If you would like to check it out, here is the website: Engedi.


Becca:

Oh my goodness, my baby girl is entirely gone.  Isn't she getting so big and cute?!!





Jon:

Jon is proving to be our builder.  His favorite thing to build has been "shooters" but as I try not to pay much attention to them, I one day told him that I'd love to take a picture of his buildings if he built something other than a gun.  A few minutes later he came down with this, announcing that he didn't even have to use "structions."


And then he wanted pictures of more and more creations.





Michael:

Because Michael is in school all day 5 days a week, I am finding that I don't have near as many pictures of him, but here are a couple of fun things:

Michael finished his fall soccer, loving every minute of it:


And he is one of the stars in a new movie that has come out: STACKER.  You can check out the trailer here and see if you catch the shot of Michael.

More Becca Stories

My boys must be reaching ages when their growth slows a bit, because I feel like I talk about all the new things Becca is doing more so than for them.

She has really been displaying quite the personality lately.  One of her newest faces is her thinking face.  When I ask a question and she says "mmm" and does this:


She has also been into counting a lot recently.  Here is a video of her.

(I should say that this video took a couple takes.  She usually starts with "two" with two fingers up, followed by "three" with four fingers up, and ending with "four" while showing all five fingers.)

She still dislikes most vegetables, but unlike her brothers can't even be talked into eating them for a treat.  She will just sit out of dessert, even if everyone else at the table is eating it.  The only thing that works sometimes is to leave her alone at the table and not let her get down until she eats a couple bites.


And of course she still is all cuteness.  Nothing like sunglasses to soften the bright lights in house when you just wake up.

Becca successes

Becca has had success in two major areas recently.

1.  She has just completed two full days of being dry.  AND she has even started go to the bathroom on her own without me asking her and while we were out, even told me once that she needed the potty.  I don't by any means want to think that she is fully potty trained because we could backslide, but I'm so excited and proud of her.

2.  She talks all the time now.  For a while I was starting to worry.  Now if we could only figure out what she is saying:

Back to School

We had a back to school ice cream social this week.  And while it freaks me out a bit, I now have two children who will be going to school.  We got to go and visit their classrooms and talk to their teachers.  Jon will be in 4s preschool 3 afternoons a week and Michael will be all day everyday (sob) in 1st grade.  Here are my big boys showing off their lockers.