buddies

we were so happy to have a sunday playdate with jenna and her kiddos last sunday while brad had to be out of town. they showed up bright and early, we had cinnamon rolls and lots of coffee waiting! the boys played downstairs and it was a great way to help pass these long house-bound winter days!

i want to point out that parker requested to eat his goldfish with a spoon so we grabbed one from the play kitchen for him. then declan had to copy and he soon was eating his goldfish with a pasta spoon. funny times!





how do you turn her off?

cute mommy and baby kate

car show

over christmas vacation we took a family adventure downtown for dinner followed by the indy auto show. we will be in the market for a new car in a few months when the lease is up on my car so it seemed like a fun way to check out various vehicles from multiple manufacturers with no pressure.

we didn't expect declan would have such a blast! the cavernous convention center was like heaven for a busy 2 year old boy. he giggled and ran all over while we pushed our coats in his stroller! he loved sitting in all the cars too.

no far-and-away favorites, we're going in a few different directions right now, we'll keep you posted.



this genuine smile says it all!!!

christmas celebration, take 3

so we planned to spend the afternoon and evening the saturday after christmas with my dad and stepmom shelly out in grand haven but the weather had other plans for us. i'm used to michigan blizzards and white-out road conditions having driven through the snowbelt to come home from college every thanksgiving and christmas since 95. the day after christmas tim, declan and i actually got dressed up nice to celebrate and do christmas with grandpa and mimi since we lived in loungewear most of our visit to gr (!). we loaded up our car with presents and buckled up for the 45 minute drive over to gh. halfway through our pleasant road trip we started to see lots of brake lights up ahead on the highway and car after car in the ditch! hmmm, tim took it down to 25 mph and noticed the road suddenly turned to pure ice. we proceeded cautiously for another mile until we witnessed the car in front slide into the median. we pulled off the next exit and had a pit stop at mcdonalds to decide what to do. declan got a vanilla sundae and entertained the coopersville crowd goofing around in his holiday cords and peacoat. sadly it was too dangerous and we knew we'd be driving back in the dark so we turned around and headed slowly back to gr. we just hated to miss that day, but it was the safe thing to do.

at mcd's, looking out at all the snow and trucks

we were so happy that my dad and shelly could come visit us in indy one saturday in january to celebrate. we also got a sitter and and enjoyed a lovely dinner out at petite chou, a darling little local french place. my dad is still talking about it so i know they liked it too!


opening one of his super cool new toys, most of them were the beloved melissa & doug! plus lots of cute new clothes and pjs.

took a quick photo break from playing basketball, which is the current obsession!

christmas celebration 2

still playing catch up! almost there...

we spent actual christmas week in grand rapids this year with my mom and stepdad lynn, my grandma and grandpa and part of the osbeck family on my mom's side. brother andy works down in bonita springs, FL at a golf course and couldn't make it up for christmas this year. all the lucky snowbirds from up north start migrating down there around december so he was ramping up for busy season.

poor little declan wasn't feeling well the whole 5 days we were there, and therefore his little personality really did not come out too much. he had thrown up once a few days prior to our trip but then seemed fine. then he threw up again in the middle of our first night at grandma's and laid in it all night in his crib, HATE that! not the first time either. he was up several times each night until i figured out on christmas morning, "i wonder if he has an ear infection..." we've been through this it seems like a hundred times with him so i feel like a pro in spotting them, but prior to this, they had never been accompanied by fever or vomiting. so for days i thought he had a flu virus. visited the urgent care clinic in gr that day, so thankfully were the only ones there so we were quickly in and out with our ear infection diagnosis and omnicef prescription and back home in time for christmas dinner with the osbecks!

it took a several more days for him to start feeling better, it was a really bad one. poor little man. we didn't leave the house too much during our visit which was kind of by design, a lot of r & r and family time! oh tim and i did get to go out for dinner once and checked out a new pub in gr called the winchester which my high school friend owns. it was one of those super snowy nights and i always enjoy the contrast of being in a warm noisy pub glancing out the window at the quiet, snowy neighborhood outside. i think it brings me back to my 20s living in chicago... lots of pubs and snow i guess!

some pictures from our week, i need to remember to take more of actual people not just my child!

christmas eve, with his new sesame street bus from great grandma betty and great grandpa gord. he is a bus lover, this is a hit!

shown with daddy's new trimmer, edger, whatever-power-yard-type-thing

with grandma nancy opening his cool new little people nativity set on christmas morning, his face screams "i have an ear infection" how did i not know... can you tell i feel guilty?


of all his toys, he was most interested in grandma's vera bradley eyeglass case, but of course.