Kate: 11 months old

Kate has one tooth! She's very close to cutting her second lower incisor.

Lets go of furniture and stands unsupported for long periods of time. This is such a relief! When she was younger she hardly ever put weight on her legs. Looks like she was just being stubborn!

Screams and yells for food whenever anyone else is eating. Especially at dinner. It's embarrassing when we are eating with guests! We can hardly talk because we're so busy trying to keep food in her mouth. She is most certainly a jealous little girl. She wants what everyone else has.

May have had an allergic reaction to eggs. Her face got red and splotchy. She didn't have any breathing issues so we're not too worried. It's possible the redness was from the enzymes in her saliva but we really have no clue. We'll keep an eye on it and find out in time.

Loves whacking her pacifier on the crib slats. It lets us know she's ready to get out of bed.

Down to 2-3 pacis at night, we wrap her body but her arms are unswaddled!! This is a huge triumph! Perhaps a bit ridiculous, but with the lack of stability we've had around here, swaddling has been a huge comfort for Kate.

Her eyes are still blue as can be-- but that could always change as Vince had blue eyes at this age too.

When she eats her finger occasionally gets caught up her nose and she just leaves it up there!

Learned how to use a big straw! She's been doing food pouches but we mostly just squeezed it into her mouth. With the temptation and reward of a smoothie, she learned to use a big straw. This helps her to eat soup and smoothies with the family.

This girl still spits up after nursing! She must gulp tons of air because she's guaranteed to spew 3 times a day. thankfully it's not all day long like it used to. We expect a little bit after milk and then we're usually in the clear.

She's got a love/hate relationship with Vincent. Really, she adores the boy. She wants to be close to him... but it almost always ends in tears. Vince thinks he's big enough to hold her so he's constantly trying to pick her up... aka putting her in a headlock and lifting. He also tries to help her stand and walk... you can guess how that story ends. Sharing is especially difficult for these 2. When Vince was a baby he didn't care what toy he played with. Set something in front of him and he's happy. Kate, on the other hand, is happy for a fraction of a second until she sees that Vince is playing with something else. She drops hers and tries to get whatever he has. Vince isn't a great sharer either. It's the big struggle of every single day.


She is still happy as a clam. I seriously don't know how she does it. She wakes up happy, goes to bed happy, and perks up within seconds after crying. I love her smile and the light that she brings into our lives.

The First Four Years

4 years

3 college degrees

2 kids and

1 house later...

I still couldn't ask for a better marriage.

Vincent's 3rd Birthday!

My big boy turned three!! He is crazy, loud, and headstrong but he's also the sweetest and most kind hearted kid I know. He loves the the "Cars" movies and is addicted to the show "Octonauts". He acts out scenes from Cars all day long and loves to pretend being Quasi the Pirate.

Vince has blossomed into a good eater! He eats practically anything I put in front of him. He also understands that we always try at least one bite of a new food. He's such a good sport! I've also been shocked to find that Vincent can actually contribute when it comes to taking care of the house and yard. He helps move rocks, rake, weed, clear the table, put clothes down the laundry shoot, "folds" washcloths and burp cloths, picks up his toys and helps Kate when she loses her paci. He's always begging to help whenever he can-- especially in the kitchen!

He knows all of his letters and on a good day he knows all of the letter sounds too. He has shown an interest in reading so we'll be starting him on a reading program next week. I frequently find him sitting on the couch reading a book. Vince could flip through pages for hours on end. It seems like he's a little sponge that wants to soak up every bit of knowledge he can. My jaw drops when Vince spouts off something he learned or saw months prior. His memory is better than mine any day of the week.

Like any 3 year old, Vince doesn't like to listen. He is a free spirit and he runs off to whichever direction his heart desires. And boundaries? Vincent doesn't even know what those are. He runs up to strangers and calls them friends, he tries to follow other kids into their cars/houses, he gets as close to you as possible and he hugs any kid he can get his arms around. He has even climbed over a chain link fence to "find his friends". He's wild!

Vincent lives to play and I live to love Vincent. Happy birthday, Son!

Home Tour

Apologies for how long it has taken to get these photos up! It has been a crazy 1st month of home-ownership. We painted four rooms, one bathroom, the hallway, entryway and the kitchen! We had a tree chopped down in the backyard and a crack fixed in the basement too! Posts on all of that to come.

But here a quick run through of the house before we made any changes. My camera died so most of these are taken with my phone while holding a squirming baby girl. But you'll get the picture (ha!).

First up is the entryway. We have a large closet and fun flooring. You see a lot of that flooring in Grand Rapids. At least we did while house hunting, so obviously is applies to the entire city.

To the left of the entryway is the living room. Newer carpet, large, no ceiling lights, big windows.

The living room is connected to the dining room.

Which is connected to the kitchen.
Which is connected to the hip bone.
The kitchen is a dreary pink and also sports some wall paper! I had the exact same flooring growing up before my mom did a re-haul of the entire house. It's so bad. Not to mention, the floor is a bit uneven with a dip or two.

To the right of the kitchen is a hallway leading to the entryway with a half bath off to the right. Going through the eat-in kitchen you are led to the family room & three seasons room..

One door is a laundry room that leads to the garage, the other is a coat closet. Good luck figuring that one out.

Can you find the "dark corner". We call it that because... it's dark. The family room doesn't have ceiling lights either. It gets a fair amount of light from the huge slider door, but the wood paneling does everything it can to counteract the natural light. However, they spoiled us rotten by leaving us this Ethan Allen sectional and the patio furniture!

What do you call this room? Paul and I are having martial woes over what this is called. When referring to it on a regular basis "three seasons room" is too much of a mouthful. I call it the porch. Paul pouts and tries to get me to agree to "Sun Room" because a porch is on the front of the house. Sigh. What ever shall we do?

Okay, I'll give you a hint about the afore-pictured doors.

The half bath, sporting more lovely wallpaper with both upper and lower borders.

The entry from the stairs. Our carpet is green.

Now that we're upstairs, we'll head all the way down the hall to the master bedroom. It's great size, though lacking a walk-in closet. It has a small en-suite bathroom which suits me just fine. The carpet is good quality, but from all the tread and dirt there is a clean, light outline marking exactly where the bed used to be.

You can't tell but that little cupboard is like 3+ feet deep. It's as deep as the shower! Cobwebs galore because no human arm could ever reach back there. Although it's petite, little changes will make a huge impact when we update this little lady.

The previous owners had the guest room right off the master. Its closets are larger than the master and it has a slider to a balcony that spans the entire top floor. It really should be the master, though it's smaller and doesn't have a bathroom. Extremely bright from the awesome window/door but has carpeting that needs to be re-stretched. P.S. they left this furniture for us too!

A look down the hallway from the master bedroom. Unpictured to my immediate right is the guest room. Linen closest and another bedroom on the right. Bathroom on the left. Out of view is the 4th bedroom on the left.

You can't see it in the picture, but the counter top is green, like the carpet in the hallway. It's screaming for help. Rest assured, tiny changes will make a huge impact in here.

The other room on the right. Not hardwood, but excellent condition. That closest is deceiving too. It's huge. You walk in to it and it's wider than the door.

This is the room at the top of the stairs. Not pictured is another excellent two door closet.

I don't have any pictures of the basement to show you at the moment. It's mostly unfinished. There is a finished room with egress windows (craft room/guest overflow). Also, there's a second fireplace in the basement! Not to mention that the previous owners were kind enough to leave their pool table for us. They are kind and generous people. They lived here for 45 years and have left quite a legacy for us to follow. We love this house and it's quickly beginning to feel like our home.