Life Lately

Here are some random pictures from this past month. Below Lyddi is about to blow out the candles on her cake. 

Daddy and Lyddi reading a story together.

Here we are just hanging out in the morning looking at pictures from our trip to SkyZone.

Lyddi was Daddy's little helper this month for a couple projects.

Our beauty all ready for church.

Below are three attempts of me trying to get a picture of Lydia. As you can see, she is still really good at closing her eyes when I take a picture of her. First try...

Second Try...

Third Try...Ayaye.

Sisters (I have no idea why Carrie is shirt-less).

This is Lydia in one of Carrie's summer hats. She just loves it.

Lydia playing with some toys at the library.

This is a picture from a recent wedding that was too cute not to post. Lyddi getting some lov'n from Grandpa O and Mimi.

Laundry basket rides!

This last few posts sum up March! Onto April, and hopefully some warmer weather. :-)

Care Bear

Our sweet Carrie is growing well. She reached the 6 month milestone this month and was also introduced to solid food!

Below she is enjoying some rice cereal. I think we got as much in her mouth as on her face. :-)

Sweet potatoes!

Carrie is a ray of sunshine! She is our little smiler. She sure can brighten a room!

Seriously cute. 

She is also starting to enjoy her Jumperoo. We have been putting her in it every day, but she would just play. This week she learned to jump!

 We had a scare this month with Care. She got sick and she had some blood in her vomit so we had to take her to the hospital. After staying overnight with her and watching her endure numerous tests, we learned she had a small tear in her throat from throwing up so much, which caused the blood. Praise God that is all it was! It was so tough watching her being poked and prodded so much, but she was a trooper. We thank God for His care for our Care. And we thank our friends and family for your support and prayers during a scary time.

 Here she is in her gown and crib. Tummy time at the hospital.

 Here she is taking a nap on me. After a night of being woken up every hour, she was one tired cookie...so was I.

Carrie, we love and adore you. It brings us such joy to watch you learning and growing as you explore the world around you. We thank God for you every day.

Visitors

We had some friends from Clinton, Ontario stay with us for a few days. They are considering moving to Grand Rapids to attend Calvin seminary so we hosted their family while they checked out the local schools. Here are a few of us watching a movie together.

Eating dinner together.

Lyddi and Dana quickly became friends.

Brian and Aileen, we are praying for you guys. If you do decide to move to Grand Rapids, we will be looking forward to future game nights!

Fun March Outings!

One of the things I love about living in Grand Rapids is all the cool places there are to go for kids. One of our favorites this winter has been the Children's Museum. This month we went 3 times. Lyddi just loves all the activities there and it's fun for us too!

 Dad and Lyddi building a track for the car.

 Bubbles!

 We always spend a good chunk of time at the bubble station...for obvious reasons.

Running through the triangular prism of mirrors.

 We also went with some of Lyddi's cousins. Grandpa and Grandma Koots even came!

This station is pretty cool!

 Trying to get a picture with some of the cousins was...a challenge. :-)
Attempt #1: See the two feet sticking out? That's Sarah.

Attempt #2

Attempt #3

Attempt #4....we'll take it.

 The girl cousins shopping together.

Fun times at the Children's Museum!
Another fun outing this month was going to another Lollipops concert. This time we saw "The Snowman." It was fun, but didn't hold Lyddi's attention as well as the first one we saw. Here she is trying to get a good look! Unfortunately we had to leave early...due to a "code brown."

Another fun outing was visiting Meijer Gardens and seeing the butterflies! We were able to meet up with some of Lyddi's cousins for the morning (Jayne, we missed you)!

 Trying to get a butterfly to land on her hand.

I am always in awe of God's creativity and workmanship when I see something as lovely as this.

 We also visited the log cabin- pretty cool, and pretty cold!

Our beautiful niece, Sarah, posing for a quick, cold, picture.

We also met up with my friend Jodi and her girls at the Byron Center Community Center. They have toddler time Friday mornings. They set out a bunch of gym equipment for the kids to play with. This time they also had a big blow up play thing. Lyddi had a blast jumping inside it and going down the slide.

My high school friend, Adri, was in town from Missouri so we got together with her for one morning. Our good friend, Jodi, also came. Between the three of us, we have 7 beautiful little girls. Below is a picture of 6 of them (Tatum was at school).

Flower Girl

Zach's sister, Alicia, tied the knot with her fiancé and Lydia got to be the flower girl for their special day. Here we are getting ready for the ceremony.

We arrived a couple hours before the wedding so we had Lyddi run sprints to get some of her energy out.

Go Go Go!

She's off!

Another entertainment tactic...

A quick family shot before heading to the ceremony.

She did awesome! It was fun to have her play such a special role in her Aunt's wedding.

Here are a few pictures from after the wedding.

Introducing....Auntie Alicia Kleyn!! (I was so busy keeping Lyddi in line I didn't get any pictures of the happy couple together.) Congrats Alicia and Ben! We wish you great joy in your marriage. Love you!