Skating Downtown

We headed downtown tonight for dinner and ice skating.  Meme, Papa, Alison, and Aunt Missy all joined us as well.  We had a great dinner at Hard Rock, and then walked across the street to Campus Martius.

The smallest skates they had were a bit too large for Jake, but for his first time, it was tough to gauge if it really made a difference or not.  He had fun skating between our legs and kept urging us to go faster.  The best setup we found was Mommy supporting Jake under his arms while Daddy pushed and slowed the two of them.  It was the best method for Daddy's back at least.

When our backs couldn't take any more, we let Jake know that we were tired, and he replied, "But I'm not tired at all!"

Alison started off about as shaky as last year during the Motown Winter Blast, but by the end she was able to go around the rink several times by herself without holding onto the wall.

Here are a few of the photos we took tonight.

Merry Christmas!

We had a great time celebrating Christmas with all of our family.  The celebration started early in December when Jake and Mommy went up to the Christmas party at the Moose.  It continued on through a party last weekend at the Herman's house, Christmas Eve at the Husted's last night, and the Christmas Day at home.

Jake was a lot of fun this year.  He knew exactly what to do to get gifts out of bags or wrapping paper.  He kept asking people to not tell him what the gifts were as he got parts of it exposed.  He wanted each gift to be a grand reveal.  Even with splitting up the two sides of the family over two weekends, he still got a bit overwhelmed this morning and told us he just wanted to open the rest of his presents, "next Saturday" since Mommy usually tells him we can do fun stuff on the weekends.

You can find all of the photos we took over the past month in our online photo album.

We hope you enjoyed your time with family and friends and we hope you have a very happy New Year.

Thanksgiving 2009

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We sure did.  This year, besides all the usual suspects, we were probably most thankful that we had all finally gotten over the Swine Flu.  It wiped us out pretty bad for about a week.

Our celebrations started on Wednesday when we got to see the Pruss family who was up from St. Louis.  Jake, Elle, and Zach all had fun playing together.  The adults enjoyed some takeout from, where else, East Side Mario's and then played a little bit of Little Big Planet on the PS3.  The visit came to and end much to soon, but we look forward to seeing them again around Christmas.

We spent Thursday at Grandma and Grandpa's house where there was plenty of food, and with DLCnM, there was also plenty of family to hang out with.  The weather was cooler, but still nice enough to let us throw the pigskin around for a while.  Dan and Colin then played hide and seek out in the yard and woods for about an hour even after they had to take a break to grab flashlights since it had gotten so dark!

On Friday, we headed over to Meme and Papa's house.  Jake got to hang out with them, and Alison, for a while by himself while Michele and I went to the movies with Nez to see New Moon.  While I didn't lose my breath every time a character took of his shirt like the two Twilight mom's next to me, I did enjoy the movie over-all, regardless of what Mark might think about me for even going.  After that, we spent the rest of the day hanging out around the house and playing board games.  Then, after Papa and I moved it up from the basement, we played some Wii Sports Resort.  Hopefully, getting the console up on the main level will get them playing it a bit more often.

Today, we got started on the Christmas decorations around our house.  Jake has been waiting patiently, and was very excited to get out Rudolph, Frosty, and Homer Santa!  He then decorated his fish tank with some window clings and hung the mini ornaments on the little tree in his room.  Hopefully tomorrow we'll get the last of the leaves taken care of and then get the outdoor decorations up.

You can find the updates to our photos starting here.

November? Already?

This post is coming in a bit late, but in case you were worried, we did celebrate Halloween in the Anderson household.  We started off by going to a function at Michele's school earlier in the week where Jake got to wear his costume and go to a few different rooms with different activities.  Then, with Halloween falling on a Saturday, it was actually busier than normal.  Jake had both sets of grandparents to help him celebrate.  He also had his buddy Jack with his parents, Melissa and Steve.  The boys had a fun evening of playing and then trick or treating followed by more playing!  Here are some of our shots from those days.

The day after Halloween, we added DLCnM to our overnight guests, GnGT, to celebrate Grandpa's birthday.  We had a nice brunch and ended up spending a bit of time playing outside since it was so nice out.  You can see a few of those shots here.

Busy Fall

We've had quite a busy fall with something going on pretty much every weekend.  At a 1,000 foot level, here's what we've kept busy with.  As usual, there are more comments with the pictures, so you can get a better feel for everything.  You can find bigger versions of the pictures below along with a lot more here.

Jake got to see his first movie at a theater, and it was a double feature!  He sat very well through Toy Story and Toy Story 2.  He's even more excited for the third one now that a full trailer has been released.  We're OK for now since he knows it won't be out until he's four.  Once his birthday rolls around, however, it might get tougher to get him to wait until June!

The following weekend we finally made our way to a cider mill.  It also happened to be the weekend before my birthday, so the family came over and we had a great dinner at Claddagh, and then had a sundae bar back at our house.

Later that week, we had tickets for the Zoo Boo with the Herman family and Grandma and Grandpa Trosko.  The kids all seemed to have a good time even though it was more crowded than we expected.

  

The next few weekends found Michele going to MSU to tailgate with Tiffany and Jen, and then both of us heading back to tailgate with our usual crew.  Unfortunately, Mike and Dana had to miss out this year since they were both sick.  The rest of us battled through the rain with the help of Craig's canopy and kerosene heater.  Then, when BW's was too packed with the people that weren't tough enough to tailgate outside, we made our way over to Wild Wing Cafe where we enjoyed cheap beer, great food, and an amazing array of flat screen TVs.  Unfortunately, the excitement of the day ended as time expired in the game and Iowa scored a TD on their final play.

On Sunday, we made our way up to the Wilson Barn to let Jake pick out a pumpkin.  He's been wanting to go since they started setting up at the beginning of the month, so he was glad to finally get up there!  He got to pick a pumpkin, ride a pony, jump in a bounce house, and eat a donut with cider.  All in all, he had a pretty good afternoon!

Our Weekend

We had a nice relaxing weekend. We spent Saturday hanging out around the house. In the morning, after playing some foosball, Jake and I built the biggest tower out of Tinkertoys that we've ever attempted. It went all the way from the floor to the ceiling! After his nap, Mommy took him to the park where he got to play until it started to rain on them. We then lit a fire in our outside fireplace and enjoyed some leftovers from East Side Marios in the cool fall evening. Jake liked the fire so much, he got Mommy to take him back out to read his book before bed!

On Sunday, we headed over to DLCnM's to help celebrate Colin's birthday. We had a great time with the Herman family, including Bill and Joanie. Grandma and Grandpa Trosko were also there, so Jake had fun spending time with both of them as well. And, possibly the best part of the day for at least the guys in the house, the Lions finally won a game. It was just too bad we had to experience their first win in 20 games on the radio and nfl.com instead of on TV. Maybe they should black out ALL their home games if it'll keep them winning! You can see some of our photos from the weekend here.

While playing foosball with Jake, I was really impressed at how much he's improved. I've helped him to understand which way he's supposed to shoot, and how to spin the guys to get them behind the ball, but that's about all I've taught him. Through watching me play with him, apparently, he picked up the proper way to perform a wrist shot (no wild spinning in this family) and actually got some pretty good speed behind it! I can imagine it's going to be even more fun when he doesn't have to step up onto a stool just to reach the game. Here's a quick video I shot of him taking a great shot from the 5 line and then performing our standard, post-goal celebration.

Labor Day Weekend '09

Jake is really enjoying his new classroom. A lot of his classmates "graduated" this past week, which means he won't be one of the smallest kids come next week. It also means that his friend, Lincoln, should be coming up to be with him again. I hope their teacher is ready!!!

We had a great Labor Day weekend (at least the first 2/3rds).

We spent Saturday hanging out with Meme and Alison. They met us in the morning at the Detroit Zoo. We wanted to make the trip so that we could see the dinosaur exhibit that was ending on Labor Day. While the rest of the animals seemed to be taking it easy in the heat, the robotic dinosaurs weren't bothered at all! We all really enjoyed the dino trail. Afterwards, they hung out at our house until dinner time, and played a few board games and games of Boggle before heading back.

On Sunday, we headed up to Fenton in the afternoon. We spent the early evening on the boat with Grandma and Grandpa and the Herman family. The lake was not as busy as I expected, and I thought the water felt great. Everyone else seemed to think it was too cold, but I don't think they remembered the temperature of Lake Michigan on our Shelby trip! After the boat, we went back to the Troskos for some dinner and desserts. When their bellies were full, the kids had a good time riding their bikes, scooters, and anything else with wheels up and down the driveway.

Tomorrow, we're hoping to just hang out at home and take it easy. I'm guessing we'll spend a good chunk of time on chores and yard work, but we'll make the most of it!

Here are a few photos from Jake's first day back to school. Our photos from this weekend can be found here.

Port Crescent 2009

We spent the weekend, wet, in Port Austin. We thought Friday was bad when the rain sprinkled and misted pretty continuously at Port Crescent State Park. Then, Saturday brought the torrential downpours and we realized Friday wasn't so bad after all.

Even with all the rain, we still had a great time. There were a lot of us camping together this year. Besides the regular crew of us (3), the Herman family (4), and the Wegienka's (5), we also had the Wingblad's (4) and their friends Kitty, Brian, and Layla (3). We were spread across three campsites with two campers and two tents. Kitty's family stayed in Caseville at a friend's cabin.

Thankfully the wind that blew ALL NIGHT Saturday evening pushed all of the rain away so we were able to pack up this morning with the only water coming from the tops of our screen tents!

You can see our camping pictures here.

Tomorrow, Jake heads back to daycare where he'll be in a preschool room now. Michele also starts heading into her school on a regular basis next week as well. Me, I just get to keep working like I did all summer. We'll see who has the easiest transition!

The End (of Summer) is Nigh

We sure did a good job of saving our summer trips until right before Michele had to start getting ready to go back to school. We've had a busy couple of weeks, but they have been well worth it as it meant we got to see some new sites and spend time with family and friends.

We got to visit and have dinner with MPnA at Camp Dearborn. They took their first trip in their new "hotel on wheels". It sounded like everyone had a great time.

We took another shot at Music at the Zoo and met up with the Jurado family this time. Thankfully, this time there was no rain. I also enjoyed the kid music, The Candy Band, more this time around as well. Jake and Addy spent a lot of time playing AROUND each other going from dancing, to climbing into and out of the strollers, to climbing on all of us. Whenever the music would stop and people clapped, Addy would start clapping and then look at the rest of us to make sure we were clapping as well!

The next day, we packed up the car and headed up to Alpena to visit with David, Anna, and Reid. Jeff, Marie, and Addy made the trip as well as this replaced our camping trip with each other. We met up with them on the way for a stop at a McD's with a playland before we finished getting up north. Jake and Reid played really well together, and when he was interested in what they were doing, Addy joined in well too. It was great to see the kids all playing together and having fun. We had some cold weather which I didn't mind, but it kept us from getting out onto the lake. The three days passed much too quickly.

A few days after getting home from Alpena, we were packing the car up again to visit the Pruss family. We decided to cut the trip about in half on the way there. We got a hotel room in Naperville, IL which is just outside Chicago. After checking into our hotel, we headed to the train station and hopped on a train to take us into the city. Jake had a good time both coming and going. Michele didn't get motion sick at all, which meant I got to have a good time as well.

Once we got to the city we rushed around to try to get as much in as we could. Our first stop, after finding our way out of Union Station, was to the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears tower) so we could head up to the Skydeck. Luckily, we were visiting on a Thursday so it wasn't quite as busy as it had been the last time that we went on a weekend. After zigging and zagging through the lines and sitting through the mandatory movie, we hopped on the elevator and zoomed up to the 103rd floor. We think Jake thought it was cool, but he's probably a bit young to truly understand how high we were. Once we stepped out onto "The Ledge" he did think it was neat that the cars on the street below us looked like his toy cars from that high up.

After the Skydeck, we headed grabbed some Jimmy Johns and headed to Millennium Park. And, yes, I realize this is the post after the post where I complained that I'd probably never see it. We enjoyed our dinner while watching kids play in the Crown Fountain. After he finished eating, Jake got to go and splash around too. He was not thrilled about the water when it came out of the mouths, so he tended to keep his distance during that time. After we switched him into some dry clothes, we dashed over to the Cloud Gate (shiny bean) and then got back to Union Station to catch our train back to the motel.

Friday morning, we got our breakfast at the hotel and then went swimming for a while before hopping back into the car to finish our trip to Missouri. About 7 hours later (hit rush hour afternoon traffic) we pulled up at the Pruss' new house. That evening we got unpacked and just spent the time visiting while the kids played together.

The next day, we all piled into our cars and headed into downtown St. Louis. We spent the majority of the day exploring the City Museum. I had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into. When you hear museum, you typically think paintings and sculptures, or a kids museum with hands-on interactive displays. The City Museum is more like a real-life chutes and ladders game with various tunnels, stairs, and slides. We probably could have spent twice as long there and wouldn't have tried everything. Before we head back to that museum, I think I'm going to need to shave off 20 or 30 pounds to be able to fit all the places Jake wanted to go. I'd probably also be tempted to wear some gym clothes! After exploring the lower level and eating lunch, we headed up to the roof. They had some cool water fountains, a suspended bus, and a big wall slide on the roof along with other slides and tunnels we didn't even try. Jake and I also waited in line to take a ride on their antique Ferris wheel. Elle and Zach really had a lot of fun playing with the water jets. All three of the kids were soaked by the time we decided to venture back into the inside portion. After heading back in, we spent the rest of the time playing with arts and crafts and then playing on skate ramps and in ball pits.

We grabbed some dinner, then Jason and I said goodbye to the wife and kids and headed over to Busch Stadium. We watched the Cardinals beat up on the San Diego Padres. I also kept an eye on the outfield scoreboard and got to watch the scores change as the Tigers smoked the Royals, so it was a good baseball night all-around.

After going our separate ways for Church on Sunday morning, we met back up for some breakfast in between and then headed back to their house. We spent the afternoon playing with the kids and then Jason and I went out and golfed 18 holes. We got hit with some rain and had a thunderstorm go right by us, but were luckily able to get all 18 in. Neither of us did great, but we both managed a few pars, and I got the sole birdie of the day so there were some bright spots. We forgot to grab the scorecard out of the cart, so we don't know what the total damage was, which is probably for the better.

On Monday, Jason had to get back to work, but the rest of us headed back towards the city and visited the Butterfly House. Besides the impressive amount of butterflies, they also had some various insect displays and a movie about how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.

On Tuesday, we headed out early and drove the entire way back to Michigan with only a few bathroom breaks and a stop for lunch. We really enjoyed the time we go to spend with the Pruss family and really wish we didn't have a 10+ hour drive in between us. It's remarkable how much Elle and Zach have each grown since they left.

Our summer travels should be wrapping up this weekend as we are heading to the thumb for our annual camping trip. We're hoping for some nice weather since we still use a tent when we camp!

Until then, here are some pictures to browse through if you're interested. There are just a few left here from the end of July, and then the August pictures, including these trips, can be found here.

Girls' Weekend

Michele spent the past weekend in Chiago with her girlfriends from college. They packed quite a bit into their three day trip including a show, brunch, and some sightseeing. It sounded like they all had a really nice time. I'm very jealous because I've been wanting to go to Millennium Park since the first time I heard about it. Maybe I'll get to see it eventually if they make a Midnight Club: Chicago or some other Chicago-centric video game.

With Michele out of town from Saturday through Monday, Jake got to split time between his grandparents. If this weekend was any indication of how this fall is going to go, he's going to have a hard time adjusting to not having Mommy around.

Please click through to see the rest of the pictures from their weekend. There are also a few pictures from our latest zoo trip and Jake with his puzzles.

If Michele were part of a TV show when she redecorated Jake's room, this would have been the reveal scene. Try to listen to catch the two things that he notices are missing! The pictures of the finished room can be found above as well. The video was taken after the painting was done, but before Meme and Papa brought down the bed they were so kindly storing for us.

July '09

July has really flown by. From celebrating the 4th to our annual trip with the Trosko family to Shelby, we've been cramming in about as much fun as possible.

During the weekend of the 4th, we got together with MPnA at MKnE's house for a cookout. Meme had bought the kids matching sweatshirts so we all tried our best to get a good shot of all three kids. The experience makes you really appreciate how tough professional photographers have it when dealing with kids. In the end, I was able to make this photo by combining two other photos using an old tool from Microsoft called Group Shot. It'll be interesting to see if it prints well.

We had a great time in Shelby this year. Jake found that being in between Colin and Maiya really has its benefits. If he wants to do something older like play Candy Land, he can play with Colin. If he just wants to run around and be crazy, Maiya is happy to comply.

We went back to Michigan's Adventure again this year. Jake was about a foot too short to go on a lot of the rides, so he had to make due with the carousel and the whale ride. He REALLY wanted to go on the big water slides, but as we walked to each one so he could see if he was tall enough, he realized he was not. We did send him down one slide that I thought I could go with him, but was turned away. He said he still wanted to go and got flipped over at some point so he came out face-down. Michele said he had a big smile on his face, but he lost a lot of his nerve after that. He still had a really good time, as did we. We've told him when he's over 48 inches tall we'll go back. I'm hoping he'll like riding all the rides with me!

The three of us also headed back to Ludington this year. Jake definitely remembered the park with the roller slide. It's amazing to see how many of the toys he can use now that he couldn't last year or the summer before. We found a great new restaurant, called The Blu Moon, that will probably be our go-to place any time we're over there. The atmosphere was very unique and the food and coffee drinks were outstanding. Jake was uncharacteristically outgoing while we were there. He chatted with the host and waitresses. Then, while we were getting coffee at the end of our stop, he ended up chatting with two ladies eating lunch and the next thing we know he's doing muscle poses for them! We're not sure what got into him, but we really liked seeing that side of him outside of our house! Right before we got ready to head home, we caught up with Grandma who came into town on her own to meet up with an old friend.

As usual, we tried to get a family photo on the beach. I used that trusty Group Shot program again to merge three different pictures this time. We'll see if it turned out better than any that Lynette might have captured.

If you'd like to see the rest of our pictures from July, you can follow this link.

Hello Summer

So, it's been a little while since the last post. The weather has changed drastically from being cool and comfortable, to the point where Michele gets too hot after being outside for only 5 minutes. Yes, you read that right, Michele got too hot. Of course, she also recently bought a kiddie pool for the backyard, and the neighbors don't seem to mind her being out in it with Jake. If they saw me in a bathing suit, I'm sure authorities would be called. I'm not sure we have the correct zoning to have an albino sasquatch walking around in our backyard.

Per usual, the summer calendar is filling up faster than I'd prefer. MKnE came up for a while and met us after Church on Father's Day, but they had to head back for an Open House before we made it to the Trosko's. Emily is getting so big, and smiles adorably when she hears Kelly talk. Of course, pulling the camera out negated the effect, meaning I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of it.

We then moved most of the group over to Fenton at GnGT's. We did a little boating, and then headed back to their condo for some dinner. Papa was there for a bit, but got called back into work, leaving Meme and Alison with us and the Herman family.

Alison got to use her new fishing pool for the first time at the Trosko's. I was very impressed when she actually followed my instructions on how to remove the fish she caught. She didn't quite get it, but she wasn't afraid to touch it and actually tried taking the hook out herself. I ended up pulling it out for her, and I think the fish will live to nibble at hotdog on a hook another day.

You can find our latest photographs here and here. I also finally got around to sorting through some of the videos. I'm going in reverse order, so don't freak out if sometime down the road I make another post and Jake seems to get younger and younger!

This is from one of Jake's last swim classes. At the end of each session they would play a game with the older kids. The first week Jake wanted nothing to do with it, but talked about it the whole way home. He didn't miss playing it after that!

Near the end of the school year, Jake started making what he called, "sticker projects". One day he decided that paper just wouldn't work as an acceptable medium any more.

Here's a quick video of one of the games Jake likes to play in his new pool.

Lastly, we have a montage of three songs that we were able to record him singing. He does a pretty good job at remembering songs, and can usually recognize his favorites in just a few beats. On the last song in the video, he typically only sang the ending to the verse, but then, all of a sudden, busted out with the whole thing and amazed us. He gets most of the words right, but in his defense, I had to go to about 5 different lyric sites to get the words since they all differed slightly.

Memorial Day Weekend

It's Wednesday, and I still don't feel recovered from our Memorial Day weekend. It started off with a get together with some friends. They had a bounce house which Jake barely left. While he was bouncing away, we got to just hang out like adults and even catch up with some friends we hadn't seen in a while.

On Sunday we headed North and met Meme and Alison for breakfast after going to Holy Family for Church. We then went back over to GnGT's house for some boating and a cookout. Lynette and Maiya joined us while Dan and Colin were having fun down in Indy.

Michele and Jake hung out around the house on Monday while I was working, but they seemed to have a pretty good day.

We hope your weekend was as enjoyable!

Click here to see some pictures.

Flower Day

On Sunday, after Church, we headed down to Eastern Market for their annual Flower Day. It was very cool to see all the different flowers and plants that were available. There were a ton of people, so it took a bit longer to get parked and move around, but it was definitely worth it. The weather was on the cooler side, but it was great for walking around. Jake had a great time, especially when we got near the people performing with various drums including metal drums. He had a great time dancing and besides bringing smiles to some of the strangers' faces, he even got someone to dance along with him! You can see some photos from that and some bubble fun from later in the day here.

Lots of Happy's

In the past week we got to celebrate Mother's Day, Michele's 31st birthday, and Emily's Baptism.  That means we also got to see a lot of family and friends!

Michele is getting anxious for the end of the school year.  If Jake realized that means he got to stay home with Mommy for the summer, I think he'd be even more excited!

I'm really going to have to sort through all the movies that Michele has taken so that I can get some of those uploaded, but for now, here are some new pictures.

A Day of Firsts

Jake has been looking forward to Saturday and hoping that it would be a sunny day. All through the week, including Thursday when Mommy and Daddy both went to his school for their art gallery, and Friday when it was so nice he got to run around in shorts, he knew that Saturday was "the day". Luckily for him, Saturday did bring a sunny Morning, so our day's plan was put into action (regardless of what the weather forecast was actually calling for).

We started out the morning by going to Jake's FIRST new swim class. The class is called Parent Preschool because by the end of his lessons, the goal is to have the parents weened from getting in the pool with our children. If he succeeds in this, one or both of us will have no excuse but to work out at least once a week when he gets into the next class and we don't even get in the pool with him.

After his swim class, we came home and played for a little bit before scarfing down a lunch and hopping in the car to head to East Lansing. Jake knew he had to take a nap in the car to be "happy" later, and he actually did. It might be the FIRST nap he's taken in the car since he turned 2 (you may recall he turned 3 a month ago).

We drove through quite a storm getting there, and then were trapped temporarily in the parking deck, and then the Student Book Store, but eventually Jake got to go into Spartan Stadium for the FIRST time. It was also the FIRST time for Papa, Meme, and Alison as well. Dan and Colin also met us there for the Green and White Pracitce Scrimmage, but I think Colin might have been in the stadium before. (If not, another FIRST!)

This was our FIRST time going to the stadium knowing that Michigan State would win, and they eventually did. The Green team had a great comeback at the end to come within 1 as regulation time expired. After being moved back for excessive celebration, they lost the option to go for two, and successfully made the point after try tieing the game. We decided to take off at that point, but were still close enough to hear the stadium errupt as the White team eventually won in overtime.

After leaving the game, Jake got to feed the ducks in the Red Cedar for the FIRST time along with Alison.

Then, after Church, we all headed to Michele's and my favorite East Lansing restaurant, Charlie Kangs where Meme and Papa both, reluctantly, had their FIRST orders of Bibimbap (without the spicy sauce) served in a hot stone bowl. Luckily they both loved it!

We then wrapped up our fun day with their FIRST trip to Melting Moments. Alison pulled a rope-a-dope, getting Jake excited to order vanilla ice cream and then switching her order to Snickers after he ordered his. Luckily he enjoyed his plain vanilla ice cream and Alison plowed through hers before helping everyone else finish theirs. Meme also had her FIRST scoop of gelato and loved that too!

You can find our updated pictures here.

Happy Easter

First of all, we'd like to wish everyone a Happy Easter.  Easter Sunday finished off a whirl-wind week for us.

Our week started on a very sad note when our Aunt Vickie passed away after a 14 year battle with cancer.  With Michele out on Spring Break, we were able to re-arrange and work around the busy week she already had planned to get up to Flint to be with our family for the viewings and services.

Besides the services, we crammed the following things into the week:

• Jake's three-year photos and a new family photo
• A trip to Frankenmuth for Jake and Mommy to play at a water park wth Grandma and Grandpa
• A play-date with Isabelle, Jack, and Helena
• Two fun days of day care including a marshmallow drop from a helicopter on Friday

The weekend found the Pruss Family in on a quick visit from St. Louis.  It was great to see them again.  Jake and Elle played together so well, it was almost like they never left.  We can't wait to get down to see them longer sometime this summer.  Jason also got to help Michele and I put up a new playset for Jake in our backyard.  We capped the night off with some dinner from East Side Marios before they whisked away to see more family and friends in their quick 4 day trip which includes almost two full days in the car.

On Easter, after Jake hunted for Easter Eggs in the house, we went to Church and then found a little time to play in the backyard before lunch and naptime.  MPnA then stopped by for lunch before we all headed over to MKnE's house where Great Grandma, Melissa, and Uncle John were already asking for their turns to hold Emily.  GnGT also came down for Easter dinner, so Mark and Kelly had a FULL house.

Here are all the photos from the past week.  Hopefully the new photo service doesn't throw too many people off while looking at the albums.  We were very happy with dotphoto for several years, but there were just a few "geeky" things they weren't providing, so I figured I'd go ahead and give Picasa a try.  Right away, you should notice that the pictures are a little bigger.  I also think the service loads a bit faster.  Lastly, if you ever wanted to order prints, there are now more options, including the option to print them out at a local Walgreens!  This is more of a grandparent feature, but you never know when you might want to throw together a random scrapbook of our family!

Lastly, we want to congratulate our friends Ryan and Heather who welcomed their new son, Isaac on April 6.  He was born weighing 7 pounds and 3 ounces and measuring 21 1/2 inches long.  The whole family is doing great!  Now we have an even bigger reason to get up to Traverse City sooner than later.

Fun at a Museum

Last weekend, Michele took Jake to the Hands-On Museum in Ann Arbor. They met up with Melissa, Steve, and Jack. Michele said that Jake had a lot of fun, and can't wait to go back. Hopefully, next time, I won't have to work and will get to join them. You can see the pictures here.

Jake had his three-year check-up today. He was so excited for his "big boy check-up". It made his day when he got to pee in a cup. Of course, a little while later he had to poop and said he wanted to go in a bucket! The doctor confirmed that he's doing well health-wise and was happy that she hasn't seen him since the fall! He's now 35 3/4 inches tall, and weights 28.6 pounds.

The doctor also confirmed that while the two's might be terrible, the three's are horrible! She nailed some of the responses we've already begun seeing, like the fact that any decision we give him seems to result in a melt-down. Apparently, at two, they just say what they want. At four, they know what they want. At three, they just say whatever, and then decide they want the other, or the first, or both, or none, and completely lose it!

On that note, Jake got his "big boy bed" converted back to a crib tonight when he decided that he didn't need to sleep, and kept getting up and pounding on his door. So, after he screamed for an hour that he needed to go potty, needed water, need to get out, and eventually resorted to just saying "no no no" over and over, Michele broke down and took him into our bed. Good times!

Switching topics, someone from Michele's school passed along some photos from the staff meeting when she was awarded with the teacher of the year award. You can see those photos here.

Happy Third Birthday, Jake!

Jake turned three years old last Saturday.  We had a great day with a fun birthday party.  Jake was very into opening his gifts this year and showed genuine excitement with everything!  You can see some photos including the birthday pictures here.

We shot the following video the night before his party.  I'm hoping that posting it here will help the Spartan's to win in their game later tonight!  Go State!

Emily Meets More Andersons

We were finally healthy enough to make it over to visit with Mark and Kelly (MKnE from no on) and meet our new niece/cousin, Emily.  It's amazing how much changes in just three years, and how you forget how small a new baby can be!  I was reminded how cool it is to have a baby that doesn't move that will just sleep on your chest, but also how much those little babies are also like little radiators with all the heat that they put off!  MPnA were down visisting with Emily as well, so we got to TRY to eat dinner with them after our visit.  Mark and Kelly had more people comin over so they stayed in.  We tried to go to East Side Marios for the first time since the Pruss' left, but there was some dance going on, and the place was packed with high school kids in fancy clothes.  We then settled on Potbelly, but only got to enjoy part of the meal as Jake started to show everyone what Terrible Two's/Three's should look like.

On Sunday we headed over to DLCnM's house to celebrate Teri's birthday and see if we could lend Lynette a hand (or arm as the case may be).  After a home-cooked meal, we headed to a new gelato place near their house.  It had been a while, but I still LOVE gelato.  Maybe we'll get a new gelato shop in one of the various areas that are being built up by us.

Now we are getting into preparation mode as Jake turns 3 on Saturday.  It might be a bit of a bummer for him since we have him convinced that 3-year-olds no longer need binkies.  Hopefully we can offset the dissappointment with the party, presents, and family.

Please click here to see photos from the first part of the month including our past weekend.

Congrats to Mark and Kelly

On March 7, 2009, Mark and Kelly welcomed Emily Marie into their family.  Emily was born weighing 6 pounds, 1 ounce and measuring 20 inches long.

Because our whole family has been sick since she was born, we haven't gotten to see her yet, but everyone says she's adorable or an angel or both!  We can't wait to meet her, but don't want to give her anything that's floating around our house currently!

Here are some pictures that were shared by the proud Grandparents.

From Kelly's side, follow this link and if you don't have a Kodak account, you can use andersonannex@gmail.com with the password anderson if prompted for one.

From Mark's side, follow this link.

Salem Elementary Teacher of the Year

I just wanted to put up a quick post about how proud I am of Michele for being selected the Teacher of the Year for her school.  As part of a process for recognizing the best teachers in the county, each school nominates a single teacher.  The nomination includes letters from the principal, a colleague, a parent, and a student.  Please click here to read a portion of the submitted packet.

Along with the certificate below, Michele also received a party during a staff meeting at school.  Jake and I were lucky enough to be invited to attend.  As part of the celebration, they read the recommendation letters aloud for all the teachers to hear.  They also had a cake, which Jake thought was awesome, especially since he got the first piece!

Great job LOML!

One more for the month

February has been quite a month.  Some parts seemed to drag by while others flew right by.

For anyone that doesn't already know, we've had some sad days.  Our friend, Jen, lost her husband earlier in the month.  Jake spent some time with both Grandma and Grandpa and Meme and Papa while Michele and I were over in Holland.  We told Jake that he got to take a trip by himself like Mommy and Daddy have done before.  Michele spent most of the week with Jen, while I made it over the night before and then stayed through the funeral.  While it's hard to find anything good in something like that, it was a beautiful service.  The priest that married them officiated, so he was able to get quite personal, which I think helped.  Our thoughts and prayers are constantly with Jen, hoping that she can move on from this.  She is, afterall, not only a friend, but one of the biggest readers of this blog!  You can view the site that they put together for Bret here.  There's even a nice video that they put together that played during visitation.  He will be missed!

Aside from that, we had a few spring-like days that found Jake excited to play outside without being all bundled up.  Pete and Teri are down in Florida for a vacation and getting even more spring weather than we had here.  Based on Facebook pictures and postings, it seems like almost everyone we know has been to Florida recently.  While they are down there, we are watching Chelsea the kitty cat for them.  Jake is having a blast.  Even if she's bad and hissing he gets to tell her "No, no Chelsea.  That's not nice."  He gets a kick out of that for some reason.

Then, to end the month with a bang, Jake came down with the flu.  Luckily he was only sick to his stomach for about 12 hours, but they were rough.  He's old enough where he can tell us he's about to be sick, but not old enough to hold it to get anywhere convenient.  Luckily, he has no problem using a bucket for his business.  Michele stayed home one day with him after having to get up a few times during the night.  Since a queen-sized bed is no room for two adults AND a toddler, I got to sleep throught he night downstairs while Jake and Mommy slept in our bed.

You can find our photos from the month here.  Michele has been going crazy with the video feature on the camera, and one day, I'll get around to posting some of those as well.

Winter Blast 2009

On Saturday we headed downtown to check out the Winter Blast. Jake was surprised when MP&A met up with us! The weather was gorgeous for early February. While that was great for us, it wasn't so good for the ice rink. Please click here to see the photos.

Jake learned that while he IS indeed getting bigger, he's still got some growing to do. He wasn't tall enough to ride on the ice slide with Alison and I. Initially, I figured he should be able to ride on my lap, but after zipping down it as fast as we went, I understood why that wasn't an option. On top of that, he didn't get to go out on the ice when I helped Alison skate for the first time.

Alison tried really hard to get the hang of it, but I think she's going to need a lot more practice. She only fell one time when I couldn't keep her from going all the way to the ice. Unfortunately, the one time was right into one of the big puddles that the warm weather caused to form at different spots on the rink. At least she had on snow pants and a winter coat, so she didn't get soaked to the core.

Jake WAS big enough, however, to enjoy some marshmallows! They had fire stands set up for roasting, and Jake really got a kick out of helping Mommy catch the marshmallows on fire.

We finished up our trip downtown with lunch at the Hard Rock and then a ride on the People Mover back to the Ren Cen.

After some people took naps and others played PS3 back at our house, we headed over to Mark and Kelly's to eat some Macaroni Grill takeout and celebrate Papa's birthday. Mark and I (and families) bought him Deer Drive for the Wii, so we were able to test it out on Mark's system. It was a pretty fun arcade-style hunting game. Now, we just hope that Dad will actually play it at home!

On Sunday, Pete and Teri drove down and went to Church with us. We then came back to our house where I made some delicious pancakes using our favorite Trader Joe's pancake mix. They hung out with Jake until it was time for his nap, and then they headed back up to Fenton.

After Jake's nap, we continued to exploit the warmer weather and took Jake on a wagon ride to the park. Jake was thrilled that he got to wear his rain boots, and didn't need snow pants since his pants could tuck right inside the boots! The park was a bit of a mess, but he did get to burn off some energy before the wagon ride back home.

Great Weekend

You know it's a great weekend when you get the best weather of the month, a happy child, and the Super Bowl all packed into two days!

We've been trying to teach Jake that if he goes to sleep right away (instead of talking or singing or playing) that he'll be a happier baby the next day. He seems to be getting it. This weekend went very well. He got to play with tons of stuff in the house, and then he and Mommy finally got to play outside for a bit on Sunday giving Daddy the house to himself for the pre-game shows.

I thought the Super Bowl was a very good game. I was rooting for Pittsburgh, so in the end I was happy. Of course, with the Cards scoring as much as they did, I blew my playoff pool chances that I lead going into the game.

Michele and I both thought they had some pretty good ads again this year. Our favorite were the E*Trade commercials, especially the one that gave Uncle Mark his new nickname on the golf course of "Shankapotamus" (the other is here). The Pepsi "I'm good" commercial was pretty good too. Our favorite "artsy" commercial was probably the Coke commercial with the heist.

Since the weekend split up over two months, you can see our latest photos here and here.

Plymouth Ice Sculptures

Last weekend we bundled up and headed over to Plymouth for their annual ice sculpture competition. I think we were initially disappointed as we were expecting something on par with Frankenmuth. But, considering the area that they were displayed in, they had quite a few scupltures, and some were pretty extensive.

With how cold it was, the smaller size of the exhibit was probably better. We all enjoyed it, and are planning to go back next year. Jake spent the whole time "dying" to touch something. At one point he even asked if he could touch a garbage bin! We found a block of ice that hadn't been carved yet, and figured he'd be fine to touch that. A bit later, we found a cow sculpture that people were petting, so we let him touch that one as well.

After our quick trip through the park, we headed over to Panera to eat and warm up. Jake did a great job and ate half of a grilled cheese sandwich (probably twice the size he'd get at home). Of course, he shared bites between the sandwich, an apple, and a GIANT chocolate chip cookie.

We are pretty sure that he's beginning a growth spurt. Some pants that were just right are starting to look short. Besides that, he is eating a lot more at meals. The other night, he finished dinner and before Michele could get back to the table after clearing his plate, he asked if it was time for a snack yet!

Indoor Fun

With the bitter cold that we've been having lately, we've been playing inside a lot. That means Jake spends most of his time playing with Lincoln Logs, Lego's, and puzzles. We've also started downloading some demo kids games on the PS3. He's starting to get the hang of one game where you tilt a "tub" to help the momma rubber duck collect the babies. His favorite part is keeping away from the toy shark and bouncing it right out of the water.

We've also plunged full force into potty training. Since Jake wasn't showing much initiative on his own, we decided to put him in underwear and see if that was incentive enough. Luckily, he's only had a few accidents since we started, but it also means we spend a lot of time in the bathroom "trying". He has gone a few full days at day care where he didn't wet himself, and only needed a diaper at nap time (he gets the diaper at bedtime again as well). We started off rewarding him with hershey kisses and m&m's, but as he goes more frequently, we're trying to convert those rewards to fruit snacks and other healthier stuff. Unfortunately, his biggest incentive is "chocolates" or hershey kisses.

We're hoping that the weather will warm up a bit so we can get outside and enjoy all the snow we've gotten. Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to be another VERY cold weekend.

Until next time, stay warm, and enjoy the photos.

Happy New Year

We hope that everyone enjoyed their New Year's celebrations. This year found us over at the Herman household. The kids all got to party early before going to bed. We had fun with umbrellas, hats, and noisemakers. All three kids were down around 8:00, which gave the adults several hours to talk and play some Wii Fit before the big countdown.

On January 1, we had to convince Jake that he should be saying "Happy New Year" instead of "Happy Halloween", but he did say the latter to at least one person at Church. The afternoon consisted of watching the Wings battle back and then dominate the Winter Classic and the Spartans look very good, but unfortunately not good enough to win their bowl game. Dan added a second TV in the living room which worked out pretty well. He had the audio on only for the hockey game, so I found the football game online too and could listen in one headphone to my notebook while listening to the hockey game with the other! As usually happens on New Year's, our photos are split between the December and January albums.