Blue Eyes

First Smiles

These are the first pictures we have of Ellie smiling "for real." :o) She's been smiling for a week or so already, but now they are coming more frequently and it's so exciting!

Michigan

Hannah, Ellie and I were up in MI from last Tues. until this morning. Brian had to travel for work last week, so I figured that I'd spend time in MI, getting help w/ the girls, instead of sitting home by myself. It was a great time to spend with my family and friends.

Brian came and joined us Friday night and then we were able to get together with our Hope College friends Sat. Our dear friends Tim and Lyndsey Dykstra were in town from ID with their two children, so it was great to see them and catch up a bit.

Here's a funny Hannah story I had to add here...
We were sitting at dinner with my mom and she asked Hannah if she wanted some "Catsup" (apparently that's the "Dutch" way of saying it) on her hamburger. Hannah quickly replied, "It's NOT catsup, it's ketchup Grandma!" She doesn't miss a thing!

Grandpa Barker and Trudy meeting Ellie for the first time


Grandma Smith with her great-grandchildren Luke, Taylor, Hannah and Ellie (Grandma is 93 years old!!)


Great friends (aka "Hope Gang")

They just keep comin'

Hannah just keeps them coming!

Since having Ellie, she's only been a little bit curious about the whole nursing thing. I think it has helped that she's seen her Aunt Heidi feeding Jeremy over the past few months. Well, despite this, she does get a little intrigued when I'm feeding Ellie. Last night, she was sitting next to me while I Ellie was eating and gave me a funny look.

I looked back at her and she said, rather casually, "I'd like some of that."

Oh too funny! As soon as she said it, she grinned b/c she knew that she was being silly, yet somewhat serious. I had tried hard not to laugh as I explained, again, that this is how babies eat, not big girls like her. (although some la leche supporters might argue that "big" girls at 2 1/2 can eat that way too...hmmm, that's not my thinking) ;o)

Looking up to big sister


Pretty girl

Who is our president?

We watched part of the President's address on 9/11 and told Hannah that our President's name is George Bush.

Last night, out of the blue, Brian asked her what are President's name was?
She confidently replied, "Curious George Bush."

We haven't laughed so hard in a while...Ok, since the last funny thing she said.

A special man...

Gary Nederveld

Many of you reading this (if there are any of you out there) have probably already heard about the passing of my uncle Gary. He was my dad's twin brother (age 65) and a special uncle. He and my aunt Kathy have three kids who are close in age to my brother and I, so we were pretty close to them growing up. He died on Sept. 2 in a mountain biking accident while visiting his daughter and her family in Idaho. His death was tragic, sudden and very shocking. I wanted to write about him, even though I haven't ever done anything like this on this blog. I guess it's meant to be about family, and he is family. Uncle Gary was a generous, caring, hilarious, spiritual man. He made everyone smile and as they said in his funeral service this past Friday, he loved kids and never really grew up himself. One memory that will always stick out in my head was of our Christmas parties together as a family. Every Christmas, after a delicious meal, Uncle Gary would slip away unnoticed and sure enough, a few minutes later, Santa would arrive. He MADE everyone sit on his lap to get their gift, even Grandma Nederveld! He would have no problem embarrassing you and making you squirm just to get a laugh. At the service I learned that "Santa" made a lot of appearances over the years w/ friends and family. There are a lot of memories of this great man.

I looked at new baby Ellie several times over the past few days and thought about what a precious gift she is and what a precious gift life is. I thought about how we could have her for the next year or the next 65, as we had my uncle. I pray that both Hannah and Ellie will be healthy in life and grow to have the experiences of a lifetime no matter how long they are here. I also pray that Brian and I and the rest of our family will be blessed with sharing many of those experiences with them for a long time to come.

Sorry if this is sad, but it's what's been on my heart. Life and death...both precious. My uncle was taken way too soon, but I'm thankful that he is w/ Jesus right now, no doubt hamming it up and showing everyone a good time. We will all miss him dearly. If you think of it, please continue to pray for my aunt and cousins. I'm sure the next few days, weeks and months are going to be extremely difficult. Thanks.

Perfect

Conversation to remember...
Hannah - "Daddy, you're awesome."
Daddy - "You're awesome too Hannah."
Hannah - "No, I'm not."
Mommy - "Well, then what are you?"
Hannah - "I'm perfect."

Perfect or not, we feel so blessed to have these two little girls in our home.

Sisters...beautiful sisters.

Fishing with cousins

Matt, Stacey, Luke and Taylor came from MI to meet baby Ellie this weekend. Saturday morning was spent fishing in the neighborhood pond.