Snow Shoveling!

Since Ryan has been home on Christmas Break him and Levi are such buddies together. He sure loves his "papa". Lately, when Ryan wants to go outside and shovel or snowblow Levi wants to come too. He grabs his "oots", "ittens" and coat and cannot wait to do outside. He can last a lot longer outside than last year. He wants to move faster outside and pick up his shovel but it is hard for him because of his snowpants and his mittens...he is figuring it out though, sometimes the hard way.

Christmas Snapshots

We had a fun Christmas. We spent time with both families and enjoyed seeing Levi open all his presents..too many. We feel blessed to have such great Christian families who know the real reason of Christmas. Here are some pictures of our time together.

More Christmas Fun

This year I bought Levi an Advent Calendar. He loves opening tabs like the ones on the calendar(some of his books have them) so I knew that he would love it even more if there was a chocolate treat behind. Plus, I get to have some candy too. In the morning when he wakes up he goes to the counter and pulls his step stool over and says "up", "num num". But the routine now is that he gets his treat after his nap...he says "ooohh" when he gets it. This past Saturday, we went to Blandford Nature Center for there Homestead Holiday. Blandford is about 5 minutes away from our house so we bundled up and headed over. I used to go there all the time growing up with my parents to walk the trails and to see the injured animals. We were not sure what the event was all about but we were ready to get outside after all the snow days the past week. Ryan sure was excited when he got "a threepeat" with the snow days. I am sure that will not happened again. But it was nice to be home as a family for those 3 days. At Blanford we got popcorn from the General Store and then waited in line for a horse drawn carriage ride. Levi never had popcorn and loved that. He was pretty nervous around the horses and clung to his "papa". The carriage ride was fun with the jingle bells that the horses were wearing. After the carriage ride we went to play Snow Snakes, a native American game. Ryan did alot better than me at that. We wandered to the old cabin and looked in side and then saw the horseshoe shop. It was good to be reminded of the simplicity of life back then and how family was really important. We ended at Blandford Building to warm up and have cookies and hot cocoa. Levi saw a turtle..but was scared of that...and an owl. It was a fun little outing...when Ryan asked me what my favorite part of the afternoon was...I said just being with my family...its is the best!

Santa Claus

This past Sunday the Ford Museum had a Holiday Open House. The admission to the museum was free. They had carolers, cookies and Santa and Mrs. Claus were there too. We looked at some of the exhibits at the museum and then went to find Santa. It was nice that we did not have to wait in a long line. Levi was not scared of Santa for about 10 seconds and then started screaming. Ryan went to rescue him. We kinda figured that he would be scared. It was funny to watch his reaction though. It was a good memory of his first time seeing Santa.

Bible Study

I have been attending a womens Bible study at church for the past 3 months. We meet on Thursday mornings. It works great with my schedule because I have most Thursday mornings off. Levi comes too and plays in the nursery with all his church friends. It has been great learning and studying the book of Esther. I encourage you to read what amazing women Esther was. We are using Beth Moore's study and DVDS she is such a great speaker and is coming to Van Andel in the spring...maybe I will attend that conference?:) I thought I would post her blog on my links list so that you may be encouraged by her as I have.

A Few Warm Fall Days

Here are some pictures that I took in the last couple of weeks when it was warm enough to get outside. Usually, Levi wants to go "side" with "shoosh on" even if it cold and we do. We go for a walk or play in the park. But when it was warm out last week we spent a good hour and a half outside. He loves being outside and has since he was a newborn. He picks up sticks and rocks and looks at all the "bees" every bug now is a bee. He will dig in the "dirt" or wood chips and I will sit and watch him. How can he be so into rocks, woodchips and leaves..pretty cool. Two weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon, we went as a family to Richmond Park to feed the ducks...Levi loves "ducks" although when we got there he would not throw them any bread or stand on the ground..he was taking in all in. One morning last week, I made pumpkin bread and Levi "helped". He like crushing the egg shells, pouring the flour and banging all the measuring cups together...what a little helper he tries to be!
If you notice most of the pictures he is looking down..he is just to busy
for the camera.

Trick or Treat

We had a fun Halloween. In the afternoon, we headed over to Grandpa and Grandma Roedema's house. Mom and my sisters and I made soups to freeze for the winter. We made 5 different kinds. We also made pigs in the blanket. We had fun eating dinner there too and the guys spend time watching football.Levi liked his cousin Katelyn's costume, a chick...he liked pinching her "beak". Levi was a zebra for Halloween and did not like being in his costume for more than 10 minutes or so. He did look really cute in it though. We would ask him where his tail was and he would spin around in circles. He loved eating "num nums" and even wanted candy for breakfast on Sunday morning..After dinner, we stopped by Dan and Mel's house. Grandpa and Grandma Koopmans were there. Levi had fun playing and seeing his cousin Collin, the pumpkin.