The Latest and Greatest

Just thought I'd do a little update on each of us.
Marissa:

She is 7 weeks old now and we have loved having her in our house, especially Shane!  She is pretty happy and smiley, until she needs a nap.  She hates sleeping in her crib during the day, and pretty much insists on napping in the swing, carseat, or stroller instead.  I have given up fighting her on that (for now) and figure I can't complain because she has slept a 7-8 hour stretch every night for the last week.  And now I have jinxed it by saying it out loud ha ha.  And I guess it works out well because Shaners and I like to be out and about during the day, and apparently she does too.   

She rolled over a couple days ago from front to back but I'm pretty sure it was a fluke.  And her favorite time of day is bathtime.

Shane:

Oh Shane.  We love him but he sometimes frustrates the heck out of us too.  When he does not want to do something he is so stubborn.  We are still battling him to feed himself (at the ripe old age of almost 2 1/2 ha ha) but he is doing much better.  And yet he has known all his letters for awhile now because he wanted to learn them.  He gets frustrated easily and thinks he needs help with everything so we are trying to show him he can do a lot of stuff on his own.  Burger King was the first place he realized he could go down the slide on his own and that it's fun. 

And yesterday we went to the school next to our house for the first time and Shane headed right for the tallest slide there!  I wondered if he would actually go down it but sure enough, he went down, backwards on his belly, and had a blast!

He is still oatmeal's biggest fan, wants to read books all day, and in case you were worried- the happy dance is still alive and well!  We sure love this kid and he makes us laugh every day.

Kelly:

I am adjusting to life with 2 kids, feeling like superwoman some days and a complete failure others.  I am getting back into running and remembering how much I missed that release.  Feeling good, but wishing I were back into island shape.  I've been really into reading lately and have somehow managed to read more lately than I have in awhile.  Since Marissa was born I've read Salem Falls by Jodi Piccoult, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Triumph by Carolyn Jessop, and The Memory Keeper's Daughter and have loved them all!  I've also been into finding and trying out new recipes. Josh would be happy eating the same 6 or 7 dinners all the time but I get restless and have been trying a couple new dinners a week.  So if you have any favorites I would love to try them!

Josh:

Josh plays pickup basketball every Tuesday night, takes Sundays off, and spends pretty much every other waking moment studying for his Step 1.  He was looking at his study schedule the other day and realized he's been going at this for the past 43 days now.  Needless to say, he is exhausted and ready to be done.  Thankfully, his test is on Wednesday and he will have a good chunk of time off after it!  Woohoo!   

Melting Me

Even though it has only been a couple years, I feel like there are things that come with a newborn that you forget about until you have one in the house again.  Like how little it actually takes to stimulate them- let me tell ya, we apparently have some pretty fascinating walls around here. Or how they will sleep their first 6+ hour stretch at night and you will genuinely (but mistakenly) think that performance will repeat itself the next night.  Or that sometimes you will wish they just made mustard-yellow onesies (you know what I'm talking about).  But, more importantly, you forget how good it feels the first few times they look up at you, hear your voice, and give you a smile accompanied by the most adorable coo that pretty much just melts you to the floor.  Love this girl. 

Fun in Fremont

It is kind of ironic (and lucky!) that of all the places in the states, we ended up just 2 hours away from my aunt and uncle's house almost exactly due east.  I made the trip out to Fremont with Shane and Marissa last week because my cousin Corrie and her kids were there from Florida, and I couldn't believe how close it really is!  Corrie and I have always been good friends but it is even more fun now that she has a little girl Clare who is 4 months older than Shane,    

and a little boy Isaac who is 5 months older than Marissa.

I didn't get any pictures of us because, well, probably because most of the time we were nursing babies.  But we had a lot of fun just chatting and hanging out, walking, eating yummy food, and going to the park.  It was funny to see how opposite our little ones are, Shane my contemplative, content, and often wussy little boy

and Clare the adventurous, busy, and brave little girl.  But I think they had fun together. 

And we even managed to do a little photoshoot with my little chunk.  Here are a few of my favorites:

And the reality behind those cute shots:  bodily fluids coming out of all ends!

Pat got christened many times and was a very good sport about it, on top of letting us spend the night, preparing a delicious hoisin chicken dinner, and just generally spoiling us.  We had such a good time and are so happy to be so close!

Spring Has Sprung!

Well, after a full week of beautiful weather and more in the forecast to come, I think I can officially say that Spring has finally reached Michigan. 

Within just a week everything has turned super green and trees and flowers are blossoming everywhere.  Saginaw is actually shaping up to be kind of lovely, who would have thought? (Cough, cough, Mom! ha ha) 

The best part of all this is that I can get out with the kids.  (I have kids, plural, that sounds so weird!)  After much debate and research, we betrayed the BOB and went with this Canadian brand, Chariot because it can actually fit in my car and can be turned into a bike trailer and a few other things.  I was nervous about the change because a good jogging stroller is pretty important to me but so far I have loved it!  Shane loves riding next to Marissa and she loves her little hammock thingy that goes in it- she stays asleep in it well after we come home which I am loving!

We have been able to go on a walk at least every day and it has been a good way for me to ease into this whole getting out with two small children thing.  This may sound strange but I actually really enjoyed walking everywhere in Dominica (minus getting all my groceries back home) so it has been really fun for me to walk again and find excuses of errands to run closeby to walk to.  Of course if Shane has any say we walk to this train park;)

Now if June could come quickly so that we can do these kind of things with Josh!

Cute.

So I realize these are all essentially the same, but I just couldn't decide between them.  And I figure you'll indulge me because only a handful of you even live close enough to actually see her in person ;)

And how could I leave out big brother? 

Too Funny Not to Record

So Shane always makes me laugh, but he has had a few real gems lately that I would regret not recording for posterity.  A few of my favorites:

*We were playing in the grass outside and I said "watch out Shane that's dog poop."  He looked at me straight-faced and said, "that's tiger poop."

*He listens to every phrase we say and sooner or later he will end up repeating it somewhere (which can be quite embarrassing at times...).  But it always makes me laugh to hear him say things like "should we play for a little bit?"  or like today at the library in the midst of a freak out about having to hand his book over to the librarian he stopped crying and said in a serious voice, "we don't act like that." 

*The other day Josh was singing and after a minute Shane looked up and said, "No thank you Daddy."

(and my personal favorite)
*Yesterday I was watching The Today Show and there was a clip of the girls from Sex and the City all dressed up walking down the street.  Shane looked up and said, "They're going to nursery!"  (that's his class at church.) 

And, had to throw in this cute picture.  He loves his sister now.  Phew!

Our Easter

I have been so excited to celebrate holidays since coming back to the states and now that Shane is old enough to have fun with them too.  So even though things are a little crazy with a newborn now, I wanted to make sure to do some fun Eastery things this year.  I picked out a Easter egg painting kit for Shane because I figured that would be easier for him (and less messy...) then dying them.    I was really glad I went that route, he had a lot of fun and I didn't stress about cups of dye dumping out on our carpeted dining room.  I had to pick this picture because it shows Shane's true colors: loud! 

The finished products.  I know, I know, I have a real artist on my hands :)

And we debated about whether or not Marissa and I should go to church but decided we were ready. Dressed up for church

This was before, she was tired and not happy about me putting her down to take a picture!  But I had to take a picture of her in her cute Easter dress.  Our first time at church with two kids went much better than I had hoped, and Shane was so happy to have his mommy there again.

Both our sweet moms left us Easter baskets while they were here so we opened those after church and after Shane's nap I hid some eggs outside for him.

I kept wondering what he was doing fumbling around i n his bucket...

duh, he was trying to find the candy!  And he succeeded.

And I decided to go crazy and cook a ham this year.  I tell you though, if you want to do one, get one of these bad boys from Sam's Club.  They are already cooked, boneless, it's all good meat and not super fatty, comes with a glaze and all you have to do is warm it in the oven.  And of course the little "gluten free" label on the outside had me from hello.   

The Easter feast.

We had fun doing some new traditions this year, but especially enjoyed remembering the triumph of our Savior and that because of it we can live with our loved ones and Him again.