ring around the rosie

one thing that i really like about daycare, is that boden learns things there that i know i wouldn't think of teaching him myself, or at least not for a while. example: wednesday night boden is sitting at the kitchen table and starts saying in rhythm -'ashes, ashes, we all fall down.' we were like, where did he learn that??? oh, daycare :) so, we all got in a circle in the kitchen and played several round of ring around the rosie! at first he seemed all mystified as to how mom and dad knew this song/game too??? then he really got into it, just having an absolute ball!!! what fun we all had! :)

friday night fun

boden went out on the town friday night. he went to the park, here he is checking out the lake. he also got to watch a few boats.



after that he went on the playground, where he had a ball. he loved going around and around on the elevated walkway.



boden also had a breakthrough. here you can see he is in a tunnel! we have tried in the past, but tonight was finally the first time he went conquered one. what fun!

then, even though he was have so much fun, at first mention of ice cream it was 'bye bye slide'.

construction!

boden sure enjoys rocks and construction equipment. here are some shots of him exploring a construction site with papa....

papa is in this picture, look by the right hand rear tire

boden loves rocks!

yeh!

fun with auntie liz

while mommy is ohio, boden got to spend the day with auntie liz. boy, did they have fun! they ate lots of toast, played with macy the dog, rode in auntie liz's blue car (you don't even know how big of a deal that is), went to the zoo (monkeys! lions! bears!), ate chicken and ice cream, shopped at barnes and nobles, road on the merry-go-round, visited ammy at the library, saw uncle mike on the hi-lo at the celery farm, took a nap on a race car sleeping bag, played with sadie the dog, drove the lawn mower, played with rocks, and a whole lot more. below are some pictures of the day...

birthdate!

we have a birthdate people! just confirmed today that our little baby girl is scheduled to make her appearance on december 26, 2008 at zeeland hospital sometime after 7:30am! that is, if she doesn't decide to come early. but if she is anything like her big brother, she is gettin' all nice and cozy in there and has no intention of coming out unless made too :) crazy, crazy stuff.

rainy day fun

with literally two straight days of rain, boden was not the only one in the house going stir crazy. as antsy as a little boy, daddy decided it would be a great idea to go head first into the rain and play! without a moments hesitation, boden jumped right in! i stayed on the porch and just took pictures. someone had to keep the camera dry, right? :) from my vantage, it was hard to tell who was having more fun. though, i do think daddy got colder quicker :)

it took boden a little bit to get the hang of running thru the deep puddle without falling headfirst. most times he didn't fuss at all after he fell. when he did start to cry, it didn't last very long. there was too much fun to be had!

my boys :)

the higher you jump the bigger the splash!

who is having more fun? can you tell?

splish, splashin' away

a muddy puddle has a higher ranking on the puddle scale...

these guys had fun!

my absolute favorite!!!

baby girl

ok, ok, ok. i know i have totally fallen off the blogging boat! i could give you all kinds of excuses about how sick i've been with this baby, how much work boden has been lately, how we've been gone on vacation, how school it starting up, blah, blah, blah... all of it true, but instead i'll try and make it up to you by trying (key word here) to get back in the boat and give you all some great blogs in the days to come... it is sad that i've dropped off, because so much is happening and boden is developing by leaps and bounds and does so many cute and notable things.

i'll first start with our baby girl. yes, baby girl. most of you that read this blog have probably already heard, but if not - SURPRISE! WE ARE HAVING A BABY GIRL!!!

we had our ultrasound at 21 weeks (could have been earlier, but we were gone on vacation). both grammas were able to attend, which really made it special for us. i remember when boden was born, our hospital room was flooded with family within the hour after i got out of recovery from my c-section. before that i was pretty sure that i would not have liked that and would have preferred to just have many quiet moments with eric and our new family. well, whether or not it was induced by all the drugs i was on at that point or not :), i remember distinctly looking around the crowded room at all our loving family that had come to see our new baby and love on us and thinking how surprised i was that i was really enjoying everyone being there. soon after that, eric and i decided that if we were blessed with another child, we wanted to share more of that with our family by having our mothers come to our ultrasound (ultrasounds were not commenly done when they were having children). all that to say, it was really exciting and made us very happy that we could share that special time with our mothers.

the technition was super in explaining every little thing she did as she went about the ultrasound. she, as well as the nurse, and then later our doctor all commented on how everything was well formed and developing just as she should. 'thank you Lord, may she continue to grow and develop beautifully!' all the measurements came within three days of my due date, so they kept it the same at january 2, 2009. the technition gave us a 95% on being a girl. of course i obsess on the 5 %, but eric keeps reminding me that it should be as good as 100% to us :)

below is a video of our sweet baby girl... enjoy!