Growing Up

It's amazing how fast our little girl is growing up. It feels like not long ago I posted a video of Kylah as she had just learned to sing her ABC's...now that's completely second nature and she's moving on to doing other big girl things. Such as - sleeping in a full size big girl bed! About a month ago we moved her crib into Conner's room and bought her all new bedding for her new bed - and she loves it!

Not only is she sleeping in a big girl bed - but we got rid of diapers all together about 10 days ago. She's doing better than we could've ever imagined with potty training, she loves feeling like a big girl, and even hates pull-ups so we've completely moved on to underwear. We're so proud of her!

If she could stay at this stage forever, Craig and I would be very happy with that :)

FINALLY...

Here's the post I've been meaning to get to all month, finally :)

In January we took a family vacation with Grandma & Grandpa T and Uncle Mark up to Boyne. Although I had a terrible cold, we still had a lot of fun together. On Saturday, the sun was shining, it wasn't very cold out, and the guys decided to take Kylah skiing for the first time. She was excited to put on her snow gear, but definitely wasn't happy about the ski boots. I can't say I blame her, they aren't the most comfortable things to wear! Once we got outside, she perked up right away - until we clipped her into the skis. Again, awkward for a 2 year old to be trapped on something like that...



However - once daddy got her comfortably situated on the "magic carpet" and they got to the top of the hill, she stopped crying and actually had fun going down!
She made it down the hill twice, and had enough. She was all smiles when we told her she could take the skis off :)Since watching skiing on the Olympics, she's let both of us know that she wants to ski again herself. We'll have to get her back on the hill before winter ends to see how she does the second time around!

On Sunday the boys skiied again, while Grandma and I took Kylah to Avalanche Bay, the indoor waterpark. Kylah absolutely loved every minute of being there. Her favorite was the lazy river, trying to avoid the waterfalls while watching Grandma get soaked! Unfortunately our pictures from this didn't turn out so well, but we did get a few to remember the experience by.

A little nervous at first, but she quickly got over that once we got in the water! We stayed for 4 hours, until her little fingers and toes looked like raisins :)

Overall, it was a great little vacation for us all, and Kylah still talks about it all the time. She's so excited for the summer now when she can swim some more, and I know we are too!

Update

I know I know... It's time to post an update! I've been meaning to, honestly, but we've been so busy (and sick) lately that I just haven't had a chance to. So much has happened the past month, between Christmas parties, New Years, a trip to Boyne Mountain (Kylah's first ski adventure, and a fun day at the indoor waterpark!), and our most recent ultrasound results, just to name a few things. I promise I'll post pictures soon, but in the mean time, I'll provide a short update...

Craig, Kylah and I are THRILLED to announce that our baby on the way is definitely a BOY! The ultrasound showed he's doing very well, heart rate is 140, and he weights 13 ounces which puts us one week ahead of schedule. Our due date is June 7th - but a week ahead means it's more like June 2nd. Unfortunately most doctor's won't change the due date on paper unless the ultrasound shows at least 2 weeks different. But - we're happy either way, and he'll be a great 30th birthday present for me! Kylah was with Craig and I during the ultrasound appointment, and she was excited to see a baby on the monitor, even though she doesn't completely understand the whole situation yet. She kisses my tummy and says hi to baby though - it's adorable. She's going to be a fantastic big sister, we just know it!

As I said before, I'll post pictures when there's more time. But thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers with our new little one on the way!

Decorating for Christmas

We put up our Christmas tree and decorations last weekend, and Kylah was all about helping us. Christmas is going to be so much fun with her this year!

Holy Snow!

After some pretty good fall weather in November, December has officially kicked off winter with our first massive snow storm! On Friday we woke up to 12-14 inches of snow, and we've been told there's another storm on it's way this week. So brace yourselves Michiganders!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving this year with Craig's family, and had a great time together. Craig's family from Wisconsin came to visit, as well as his Uncle Duane from Nevada - such a great surprise! Dad T made a fantastic Thanksgiving meal for us all at their house in Lansing, and then Uncle Carey, Craig and Duane cooked a fabulous meal for us on Saturday at our house. We definitely ate well, and enjoyed each other's company all weekend. Can't wait til we see you all again!

Halloween!

Halloween was fun this year, cold - but fun! Kylah had her day care party on Thursday, and she refused to wear her costume. Grandma had all kinds of snacks, balloons, and bubbles for the kids to play with!

On Saturday, she had a much better attitude about wearing her costume. She let me do her hair, and then ran around the house yelling "Go Tigers"! She's like a little "mini-me" :)

We took her to the Elk's for their kids halloween party, and met up with her cousin Caleb. Caleb was a pirate, and won first place for his costume!

After a nice long nap, Kylah was ready for her first night of trick-or-treating! We all bundled up and spent a good hour collecting candy from the neighbors, while the Wibbeler's and Lefevre's passed out candy for us at home. Kylah and our neighbor Shannon had a lot of fun trick-or-treating together!

Wearing gloves and grabbing candy from a bowl is not an easy thing to do :)

Brrrr! After about the 15th house we started to head back...

Our last stop was at the next door neighbor's house, where Rusty thought Kylah was bringing him treats!

It was a fun night...hopefully next year it's a little warmer though!

Kylah's 2 year photos

I know, these are long overdue. But now is better than never, right? :)

We took Kylah to Marty & Michelle Lenger's photo studio for her 2 year pictures back in September. Kylah was very shy in the beginning, but warmed up after Michelle gave her a pencil and allowed her to draw all over the backdrop! They did such a great job, it was difficult to narrow down our favorites! Thanks again for your time and talent Marty & Michelle.

We love you so much Kylah, and are so proud of you!

*Mommy & Daddy

Our little gymnast

Kylah had her first gymnastics class at Alpine Gymnastics last week Monday, and she absolutely loved it! She was a little hesitant at first, as were the three other students (all her same age), but it didn't take long for them to warm up and have a great time. We started with stretching:
The first activity after stretching was to follow a little circuit learning things like walking across the beam, somersaults on an inclined mat, hanging from the bars, and backbends. Kylah loves to hang from the bars - she swings back and forth, and can pull her knees up to her chest. Kylah's new friend Sonya caught on right away too!

Time for a backbend! This one was slightly more difficult...she kept wanting to put weight on her head, instead of her hands.

The second circuit included jumping on three different types of trampolines, jumping into the foam pit, and jumping through hoolahoops. Jumping on trampolines was by far her favorite thing to do, and I guess I'm not too surprised that she's really good at it! She jumps around the house all the time, but jumping on a tramp brought about a whole new level of excitement.

The goal was to jump on the smiley face. She fell a few times, but she'd pick herself right back up and keep jumping!

The trampoline below is the highest tramp they have. One jump on this sent me flying super high. Again, Kylah had no problem on it - higher just means more fun!

Her class is about an hour long every Monday for seven weeks. She's so excited for tomorrow's class - she keeps saying "I jump trampoline!" Too cute :)

Heaven on Earth

These pictures represent exactly why Craig and I love West Michigan. It doesn't get much better than this.