joe the snowman

It was another snowy Sunday.   Today the snow was perfect for a snowman.  Grandpa & Daddy made this awesome snowman -  Elise says his name is Joe. 

...and a little twirling video from this week. 


I promise to take more pictures this week.  Lauren is coming to visit so we will have lots of things to do!

snowy sunday

Last Sunday was the perfect day to play in the snow.  Not too cold, not windy, and not too much snow.   Doesn't happen often.  Elise played out there for over an hour! 

The best snowman we could make.  The snow wasn't great for snowmen.

"happy best-times day"

It was sort of a big weekend around here.  

Valentine's Day marked one year since my last chemo treatment. 

Today we went to see my doctor where I just had some simple bloodwork.   If there had been anything weird with that they would have seen it and ordered more tests - but it was all good.  I scheduled a CT scan for May which will mark a year since the end of radiation, and took home a goodie bag filled with a berry-flavored barium sulfate smoothie.   We took Elise with us and I'm pretty sure she cheered up every single person there.  

Remember last year?  This year was way more fun.  Grandma & Grandpa Goote took care of Elise overnight and my Dad used his points and got us a fancy room at the JW Marriott downtown.  Bow chicka wow wow...just kidding.  Kind of.  Hi Mom.  

Anyways...

We went to dinner and the comedy club, and finished off the night with some drinks at the hotel.  The next morning (after their Saturday morning donut) The Gootes brought Elise to pool to go swimming.   Such a fun day.    

Our actual Valentine's day was pretty uneventful.  We went with my mom to Meijer to pick up some groceries and Qdoba for their BOGO lunch (if you kissed someone in line - Elise was my happy partner).   At one point she was carrying a valentine's balloon, a pack of stickers, new Elmo band-aids, and a penny for the pony.  Lucky girl.  

 I gave her a card to color for Nick.  

She added some stickers.  The selection of stickers cracked me up - mean Rapunzel wielding a frying pan, "'punzel's froggie" about to punch someone, and a scared Flynn with his hands tied.  Love you, Daddy.  

So - from Elise - "Happy Best-times Day" and from the rest of us - thanks for keeping us in your thoughts the past year.  I know a lot of people read this blog and have followed along with us this past year and a half - so thank you!

donuts and swimming

Nick and Elise have a little Saturday morning tradition.

They meet Grandma & Grandma Goote at the tiny little Jenison Donut & Coffee shop where Elise eats her entire donut and most of Grandma's. 

I got to tag along this time because we had to run some errands together and pick up Nick's car - which we left in town the night before after we met for dinner.

And then this lucky girl got to go swimming with her other Papa!  She was SO excited and talked about it for days before - but was pretty apprehensive once we actually got in the water. 

She clung to me like a monkey or sat on the side.  We got some smiles when she splashed Papa

The water was sorta cold - but I think we will do it more often and she will start to think it's more fun.  Anyone in GR know of a good Parent/Child swim class?  There is no way this child will go without me. 

And - to top off this fun Saturday Papa took us to McDonalds for a little after swimming treat.  Pretty great day for a two year old.  She's got some pretty great grandparents.   :-)

i hate busytown & snow

Oh, Busytown.  

Elise LOVES these books lately.   I kind of despise them.   When I read them I skip pages on purpose.  She hasn't caught on yet.   Sure - they promote learning; counting how many Lowly Worms are on each page, Mr. Frumble's hat finding,  naming all the colors and a hundred pages that look exactly the same of cars, trucks, and things that go.   There are pigs who are butchers selling ham, cats who are the same size as worms, and mice riding in cheese cars.  It's bananas.  And it takes for.ev.er. to read.  I hide them at bedtime and hope she doesn't look for them because she probably knows where I put them.  

By 8pm I'm ready to read Goodnight Moon and call it a day.  Nick likes to read her the Space book and teach her about science.  By the way - she knows the words "telescope" and "satellite" and can name most of the planets. 

Also tonight (while facetiming my parents) we brought in some snow to play with in the sink.  She did this at MOPS earlier this week and thinks it's awesome. 

Speaking of "awesome" - it's her new word (thanks Auntie Aubrey) and it's totally hilarious. 
It goes like this:

Me:  Elise you are so awesome!

Elise:  No!  Not awesome.  You awesome Mommy.

Me:  Yep totally right. 

Her hair was in french braids today which is why it looks so weird.  She insists on taking out all hair accessories before nap time.  

(the best part is at about 1:10 where she says "this soup deeee-yishuss")

Happy Birthdays

yay!  It's birthday time.  It's Auntie Lauren's and Papa's birthdays this week.    We are so happy Lauren and Carl drove up so we can all hang out.  We went to the new Grand Rapids Brewing Company for dinner.  SO yummy.  

It's basically a competition between Grandma and Auntie Lauren as to who has the best goodies in their purse.  It might have been a tie. 

EVERYONE came to dinner.  Even Tyler and Erika (who is finally back with us after her world travels to Hungary and Mexico). 

Yay Erika's back!  (And she has a dreadlock - sorta hippie-ish for us...)  Bahaha love you Erika!  :-) 

Grandma is a whiz with pipe cleaners...

Elise was SO happy to sit by Uncle Carl for a little while. 

Elise was SO good at the restaurant - even though her dinner consisted of 5 french fries, a pickle, milk and an applesauce pouch.  Now that's a well-rounded meal.