my new room

we have been getting ready for our 'baby on the way' by making a 'new room' for meredith. soon the nursery will be for our 'new baby brother.'

it has been exciting getting the new room all ready. sadly the old dinosaur boarder on the walls needed to be removed, but it was a simple project. the painting of the walls however wasn't as easy.... i picked the 'wrong' shade of yellow at first. hmmmmmm i wouldn't recommend the shade 'decisively yellow' to anyone! scott was really patient and did most of the work in preparing the new room and painting the perfect shade of yellow for our happy little meredith. we think yellow will go great with her ladybug quilt and bright colored toys. the funny thing is that they yellow is still so bright on the walls that scott and i will often go in there just to 'shut off the light.'

meredith and i enjoyed some time in the wrap together. this green wrap is called 'simon' and she looooooooooooves going for rides on mommy's backk in it! it is actually still possible to do with the baby in the belly :)

time to enjoya lovely felt lunch..... just don't ask meredith what the peanut butter felt piece is :)

a cousin my size

we had a fun playtime with 2nd cousin sarah tonight!! sarah is only a 1/2 year older than meredith so she fit right in with playing red sparkly dress up shoes and serving up tea in the play kitchen!

dolly and me

today we had some tasty cinnamon rolls and pierogies for breakfast. somehow we've started a weekend ritual now with the cinnamon rolls and pierogies.... i don't think aunt fran and uncle john realized what 'traditions' they would be starting!! i can't wait for meredith to be able to help me make the cinnamon rolls in the morning too. its fun to bake from scratch again :)

here are a few pics of meredith and her homemade amish dolly named 'baby frances.' aunt frances made the dolly and the clothes. here is meredith wearing one of the matching outfits :)

pancakes

its fun to suprise meredith with her new felt food at the dinner table. blueberry syrup on your pancakes is the best....

felt food

aunt frances and uncle john have been busy making felt food for meredith to pretend with...... yummmo!!

my farm

today momma captured me playing with my fun play farm, house, and fairy mushroom. my wooden animals hand made by great aunt rosemary fit right into my farm tooo. check out the cute 'heiny' picture of them all in a row! i was playing with the deer like it was an reindeer. did you know that santa claus lands on the roof with his reindeer and goes down the chimney? my barn has a chimney and this whole idea is just sticking with me... how awesome! the toys you see in this picture were all new toys for me this christmas and i'm just beginning to really use my imagination to play with them. thanx for all the cool and fun toys!

the pizza

today meredith is cooped up with us again in the house.... with her snotty cold. so today we kicked it up a notch. most of our dollies attended our first pizza party! thanx to aunt fran and uncle john for crafting up some awesome felt pizza accessories and some bacon and eggs. today was the first day we got them out and i could barely get meredith to look up from her 'cookin'. she didn't want much assistance. she loved calling each piece by name and making it the tastiest pizza ever. she had fun with the bacon and eggs too. chef meredith. notice how dolly patty is still dressed in meredith's christmas outfit from 2007. as a special treat we ate pizza for lunch after we played. it was a hit too!

holidays for littles

we had a fun holiday playdate with friends today. the girls enjoyed special treats and exchanging gifts with each other. meredith learns quickly from her 'older' friends and they are suprised how quickly she is catching on.

like kids

we enjoyed our visit with friends at the grand rapids children's museum. its great to see so many different exhibits geered towards the developing young minds. we especially loved the kitchen area and kaleidoscopes. andother favorite for meredith would be the nuts and bolts that you can stack on the magnetic strip or having 5 adults chase after you in the museum to see what you'll discover next.

college friends

our lives have been enriched in different ways since the good ol college days and it was fun to get together while we were all in the same state! it was extra special to visit our friends during the holidays on the west side of the state this weekend. everyone is changing so fast and we felt welcome into their warm homes. meredith enjoyed catching up in her own way too.... lots of smiles and exploring like mad! thanx for such warm visits!

happy new year

we welcomed the new year at aunt kerry and uncle joel's house. well its definately called jake and baby katie's house now as its all about playing and adoring her cousins in meredith's eyes. we got lots of play time and great eats in before the apple dropped (and some of us fell asleep!) happy new year everyone!!!

christmas all over again

howabout our first family trip to frankenmuth?? all right! we had an excellent day with family and christmas all over again at this very special place. poor meredith couldn't understand why she couldn't run free all the time in the largest christmas store in the world, but she loved taking as much of it in as she could. we kept having to remind her to, 'look up' at all the pretty decorations overhead. she was consistantly pointing out most of the santa claus and frostys. she is almost as big of a fan of santa as she is of frosty! its cute to hear her talk about santa claus and the chimney. it is an amazing concept to her. she also will say reindeer with great passion. what a beautiful store bronners and zehnders both are. we had hours of fun and tasty chicken and sausage dinner together. thanx for meeting us there aunt rosemary, aunt fran and cousin mark! ohhhh i almost forgot. we got a pickle ornament for our christmas tree at bronners. next year we will start the old tradition in our family where santa claus can place the ornament on the tree and our children can find it on christmas morning. the lucky one to find it first will get a special treat. how fun right?? and we got the coolest nativity scene ornament that fits into half of a walnut shell. i thought that was cool and well, unbreakable. he. he.

down in detroit

our first visit to downtown detroit as a family. we had fun at the detroit science center with friends. what a hit! meredith gets pretty excited about going to 'special places' like museums and her and her friend were so busy exploring all of the hands on toddler exhibits. you can see quite a few pics of meredith on the forklift that was part of the industrial exhibit, because her papa used to drive a forklift too. well thats all we had to mention to her..... she started bouncing around even more on that thing! lol

baby julie

 

here is baby doll julie. she is named after the special nana that found her and thought she had a striking resemblance to litle mommy meredith. she is well loved already and is doing a great job on her stroller rides!

baby nelda

here is baby nelda, named after the sweet grandma who knew that she would be just perfect to cuddle and love for meredith. she is a little doll who looks like mommy meredith don't you think??