Monday, January 19, 2009

Catching up

Again, I find myself way behind in blogging, but I'm getting better.

John and I went to a place called Pump it Up with my friend's homeschooling group. Pump it Up is a facility that is full of inflatable bounce houses and slides. John had a great time there with his friends.


This was one of the big slides that John would not go on at first. Jan finally just picked him up and took him up the ladder and down the slide and from that moment he was hooked. John is the kid on the bottom of the ladder. He was much slower than the other kids and was trampled on many times, but that didn't stop my boy!


John and Jan





Yesterday we went to the Children's Museum here in Denver. Mark gave us a membership for Christmas, which will be put to good use this year.


Letter rubbings...they were rubbing John's name. John's been able to spell his name for awhile, but lately he has been saying J-O- H... IJKLMNOP! So he is mixing up his name and alphabet. I'm pretty sure he is doing this to be funny since he laughs hysterically after he says it.


The museum has a great room for kids newborn-4. This will be where we spend most of our time when the baby is born. There are all kinds of centers in this big room. In this picture John climbed up a tree trunk and is sliding down the slide.


And...here is me 30 weeks preggo! I was just telling Hans last night that we could have this baby is 6 weeks, but my doctor will probably make me wait 8 weeks. We will have a sonogram in 5 weeks or so to determine how much this baby weighs and go from there. From the looks of my belly I'm sure he/she is already 7 pounds...as least that is what I'm telling myself.

I'm sufficiently sick and tired of being pregnant. I remember having a conversation with someone who was pregnant when I was in my late teens/early twenties and they were telling me how much they just wanted the baby out. I didn't understand this at the time because I couldn't fathom how someone would not want to be pregnant. All I have to say now is I was stupid and didn't know anything because I was never pregnant. I love this baby very much, but I would like my body back!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Grandparents come to visit

This is a rather long post but there were just too many pictures to make it shorter.

My parents arrived on the 26th and we had our family Christmas that evening. Hans and I got a beautiful grill and John got a tricycle, which he is afraid of at the moment. Those, of course, weren't the only things we got, but this post is long enough.

This is all of us at church on Sunday. We haven't all been in the same place since John was a baby.


John would throw a ball down the stairs behind Mark and Mark would have to run down the stairs and get the ball. This was a good work-out for Mark and left him rather winded as the high altitude got to him. John thought it was the best game ever.





I'm not sure how John got this messy, but it must mean he had fun!


Grandpa and John reading Curious George


Watching Thomas...of course


Relaxing and watching some morning toons.


My mom and dad took him to our neighborhood park one day and John had so much fun.


The swing is his favorite part and he likes going in the baby swing so he can swing higher.




My parents sent Hans and I out on a date and took John to the zoo for Zoolights.




One night we went to Casa Bonita. This restaurant is very unique and has cliff divers, puppet shows and cave to walk through and much more.






John actually watched the puppet show.


On our last day together we went to Garden of the Gods and Red Rocks.


At Garden of the Gods John found this stick he wanted to use as a walking stick. As you can see, it is a little big for him.


This stick is much better.






The view from the Red Rocks Amphitheater.








We had a wonderful time and as always the trip seemed too short.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Christmas Day

Christmas Day started off with just the three of us again. I made the danish pastry wreath that has been a tradition in my family for many years. I don't think it would be Christmas with out it. I was very nervous about making it being in high altitude, but I not only made one for us I bravely promised two of my friends pastry wreaths for their families and everyone loved them.



John got Great Gramma-jammas which he loves because they are soft and have trains on them. I love them because they fit his short legs!




After church we picked up my brother, Mark, at the airport. John was very excited to see Uncle Mark and managed to monopolize all of his time. Mark is now familiar with all the Thomas and Friends names and their respective colors.

Later that day we went over to our friends house and enjoyed a great dinner. John had a great time helping the kids break-in their new toys.






The guys decided to play poker after dinner. Mark won several times, so I think he enjoyed the game. We also learned a card game called Nertz and Mark became very good at this, almost to the point where it wasn't fun playing with him.


What we all thought would be a nice, but short stay for dinner ended up lasting 9 hours!!! We all had a lot of fun and look forward to doing it again...Jared and Mark need a Nertz rematch.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Christmas Eve

It was just the three of us for Christmas Eve this year. Hans and I have been having a debate for three years as to whether to open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and this year I gave in. This is not to say that Christmas Eve present opening will be our tradition, but I'm keeping an open mind.

I dressed John in a cute herringbone blazer for church and tried to take pictures of him. I couldn't get him to stand still, so here is what have.


He loved his new black shoes and decided to tap them on the floor in the sanctuary all night.






He was very tired of taking pictures at this point and as you can see I'm having a hard time holding him with my big belly.


After church we ate a wonderful dinner and opened up presents. His first present to open was from Grandma and Grandpa Fiene and he was very excited to play with his new easel.




We made huge mistake by letting him open a train next and then it was hard to keep him focused on opening up the many other presents he had.


He got 5 new trains!! This isn't even counting the ones from Uncle Mark and Grandma and Grandpa Huebel that he got the day after Christmas.