Construction Day 0

Well... we haven't formally broken ground yet. We own the land. We closed on the construction loan after deciding that every person that our loan had to be approved by was on vacation the week we needed them. Now, we're waiting on the city officials to approve our soil erosion plan. C'mon already!!

Needless to say we're anxious to get started. Nobody wants to be moving in right before Christmas so, child labor laws aside, the girls decided to grab their shovels and get started.

Let's just hope the next update involves a large hole in the ground. :)

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We're going places

I put Ana down right here and now she's... over there!

Yes, dear sweet Ana is mobile. Not in the way that you might think. She's got all the mechanics down to crawl, but she's 20lbs of sweet love, and that's a lot to move for a 6 month old. Don't worry though. She uses her "roundness" to her advantage. She's a smart kid. She's found that if she throws all of her weight forward while sitting, she moves ahead toward what she wants. She can also crawl backward but that usually just lands her in a pickle.

Obviously she's sitting well these days. She started at about 5 mos just like her big sister. She really enjoys the new view, but she's a generally happy baby overall anyway. She's getting a few teeth on the bottom and it's been hard on us. Not a lot of sleeping going on in our house.

The girls are having a good summer so far. Both love baths so we have a little pool on our deck for them to play in. We've also made a few trips to the splash pad and tons of playground visits. Our next adventure is to get a library card in our new suburb. I guess they must have some super secret book stash or something because you MUST prove residency with a water bill and your drivers license to get a library card. Our first attempt wasn't pretty and they made Katen put her book back because I didn't just have a random water bill with me. (Meanies!)

Tomorrow we're heading to a local organic farm to pick strawberries. With all of the rain we've had it should be interesting. And muddy. According to the farmers, many of the berries are rotting so we'll see what we can find. We picked up a few pounds at the farmers market today just in case. :)

Katen has been keeping us laughing with her own words for things. Some of the latest are:

That's a bummer! ...and everything is "really." She'll say, "I really really have to go." or, "I'm really really hungry." Out of the blue one day, daddy came home and she said, "How was your day Daddyroo?" We're not sure where "Daddyroo" came from. She's also a big fan of her peanut butter, but she calls it "Peter Butter." When getting in the car, she can often be heard saying, "Let's rock this puppy!" from the back seat. She also likes to parrot the GPS in the car. "Turn left mommy! Turn left!"

Katen is really into pretend play. She'll tell me she's going to the store or will pour me a cup of pretend coffee. She can also be found singing to a variety of songs that she can sing from memory and dancing along. Some of her favorites are Take me out to the Ballgame, Little Teapot, The Iowa Fight song, Hot Dog (from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), and a handful of others. She's good at singing Little Teapot and ABC's to Ana when she's upset. Lots of times I hear these songs coming from Katen's room at the high volume during naptime too.

The girls are at such fun ages right now. We're enjoying summer to its fullest and look forward to our new home being complete later this fall. Finally.

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Here are some fun videos taken recently, starring the famous Katen and Ana. If you're reading this via email you'll probably need to go into the actual blog to view these.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Ana, rockin' it.

Crash!!

Seriously sweet - sisterly love

State of the family

Well Ana's been busy working on her milestones. She is now sitting very well. She started kind of tripodding about the time she turned 5 mos and now she's totally got it. She loooves her new view and spends a lot of time sitting on the floor with me playing with her toys. She especially enjoys a ball that rolls around on its own with songs and lights.

She's very good with her hands and can pretty much grab anything she wants. ...including food. She makes us feel very guilty for not sharing ours with her. I think that chubby little belly is always up for a good meal. :) She actually shares cheerios with us in the morning and eats them like a champ. If we don't share, she basically begs and raises a real fuss.

She is also able to roll both ways and prefers sleeping on her belly. She can also push up on her arms when she's on her belly and I think (fear!) it won't be long before she's learning to crawl. She would love nothing more than to keep up with her big sister.

Ana thinks Katen hung the moon! She always smiles when she sees her and loves to laugh if Katen makes a sudden move or is being silly. I've got some video coming showing Ana belly laughing while Katen circles the room and then pretends to crash.

Katen is an amazing big sister most of the time. When she hears Ana on the monitor she loves to be the first to go up and see Ana. She talks to her and rubs her head from outside the crib. She is also good about giving Ana kisses and hugs... and the random cheerio from time to time. (How do you think we figured out that she could eat them, after all?) Sometimes Katen has a little trouble sharing. She'll ocassionally take a toy away and recently, since they wear the same size, Katen will have trouble letting Ana wear a shirt or bottoms that were previously only hers. I'd hoped we could make it to the teen years at least before the girls started fighting over clothes. Oh well!

Last weekend we visited the Tulip Festival in my home town. We braved cool temps, wind and a little bit of rain. Katen got to Dutch dance with Grandma ("Mamo") Debby and both girls rode in the baby parade with their Dutch costumes on. After riding in the parade we watched the rest with Great Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Tammy. Katen especially enjoyed the marching bands. I think we have a future drummer on our hands. Ana wasn't overly impressed with the whole operation but didn't really complain too much either.

As an update to the housing situation, we have sold our house. The home that we'd picked out to move into got 5 other bids on the day ours was sold and we did not win that game, which left us homeless. After searching for just the right opportunity, we came across a great piece of land that fit all of our criteria for the house we'd intended to build later, so we jumped on it. In two weeks we secured a six month lease on a townhome near our land and called our builder. We should be breaking ground in the next three weeks or so. Living in a townhome is pretty cramped (our cars sit out because the garage is totally full) but it's a nice place overall. Close to our future home, Grandpa R's house, a little Dutch ice cream shop (!), and it's very sunny and bright. For a short time, it will certainly do just fine.

I think that brings everyone up to date on the state of our family. :) Always lots going on around here!

Here's some video of Katen dancing to the marching band...

(you might have to go to the actual blog to see this if you're reading this via email.)

Slip Sliding

I took the girls to the park the other day and somehow Katen pooped in her little pants without me noticing. Usually she's good about telling me she has to go. I guess that day she was on vacation.

So... that's not terribly bad but then she proceeded to slide down the big tornado slide and smear poop allllll the way down which in turn smeared a nice stripe up her back as well.

There was no way I was letting her back into the stroller, and we hadn't taken the double stroller that has a standing platform, so she couldn't even ride on that. She had to walk back home beside me. Poor kid. I couldn't even carry her because I already had Ana in the carrier strapped to me asleep and it would have been too much for my back. ...not to mention the poop all over. She did really well though and didn't get tired. Hopefully next time she'll let me know if any bathroom time is needed.

You just have to laugh at all the random things that happen, don't you? :)


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