Having some fun

Rebecca loves to laugh a giggle and show us her tongue!

Dan and Scott made great progress on the bathroom last night by laying the tile floor. It looks great, but I think we might change the wall color. I didn't consider the tile when I got the wall color and it doesn't look very good. The guys think the walls look pink (they are actually "lama brown"). I don't think it's that bad, but I am going to change it soon.

Next is the sink, toilet, ceiling, and some decorating :)

Frozen Ponds

I think that frozen ponds are one of the great things about living in the country. Sunday afternoon I dusted off my iceskates and enjoyed the smooth ice on our pond and the slightly warmer temps. Dan and Rebecca came out for a while also. It was pretty funny to watch Rebecca try and stand on the ice!
The only down side was getting one skate caught in a crack and wiping out. I'm still sporting the bruises, but can't wait to get out there again :)

Cold Day

I'm home from school today because it's too cold. The temp is about -18 F and the windchill is right around -30 F. So we are home trying to stay warm and doing pretty well. I'm sure my parents in Neerlandia are thinking, "-30 F that's nothing," but I'm sure you still remember the feeling of an Iowa wind. Rachel, in Nicaragua, is probably thinking, "How do I even begin to explain to my students that where I grew up they cancel school because it's too cold?"

Anyway, we are enjoying ourselves. Rebecca loves bananas and Cherrios for breakfast. The banana makes the Cherrios a little sticky, but I think she was enjoying it all.

More please!

little person

I was struck today with the thought that Rebecca is now a little person and less of a baby. I was walking behind her down the hall and watched her as she walked. She doesn't teeter or flair her arms as she walks like she did when she was just learning. And although she just babbles when talking, her inflection is perfect when asking a question or demanding something of us. I love to watch her growing up!

Holiday in Review

So I'm finally getting around to blogging about our holiday break. Nothing too exciting, but here are some pictures. We had Christmas as a family on Christmas eve. Here is Rebecca opening her presents. It was great to see her take interest in ripping open the paper and playing with her new toys.

Kitchen goodies from mom and dad, a dress outfit from Millie, pjs from Uncle Dave and Aunt Andrea, a quilt from Gramdma P., and that asparagus in her had is from the Barnes family.

Here we are after opening presents in our new pjs ready for popcorn and a movie.

On Christmas day we spent the day with Dan's family at his parent's house. Unfortunately our camera batteries died so I'll have to get some pictures from his sisters.

The weekend following Christmas Rebecca and I went up to MN so see her new cousin Jesse. Here is Rebecca, Joanna and Jesse.

New Car

Rebecca is really enjoying her new car she got from Angie at daycare. She loves to ride it all over the house and keeps her little cell phone under the seat.She was also quite the little kitchen "helper" last night!

Oh Christmas Tree

Each year Dan and I go back and forth about a Christmas tree. I am adamant about getting a real tree and he is an advocate for the fake ones. So far we've always gotten a real tree :) We have always gotten our tree from Menards - no adventures to the tree farm, but it gets the job done. This year Dan was headed to Menards with the truck and I entrusted to him the task of picking out a tree. When he got home and I saw the tree he had picked, our conversation went something like this...

"Ok...were the trees pretty picked over?"

"No, they had a ton of them."

"And this is the best you could find?"

"Yes."

"Really? Can you see that it is shaped like the moon?"

"It's fine, just turn that side toward the window."

"I don't think that is going to help, but I'll try..."

In the end we got the tree standing up straight with only two bricks on the stand to help balance it. And when we cut the netting off there were no big bare stops. The tree only took a day to grow on me and now I think that it is one of the best ones we've had.