Daddy Day-February

J took us all to Dallas to visit a new park called Klyde Warren park. The girls loved the play area and kept warm running around. We had a picnic lunch and afterward went to get hot chocolate to warm us up. It ended up being a little bit colder than we expected but overall the day was a success!

Gracie and Hannie

Sweet Claire

Daddy and Gracie playing together

Hannie and Luke

getting spun

Look at all those climbers

Hot chocolate to warm them up

Mommy with Claire and Grace

Me and my girls

Father and son

Luke is 9 months

Luke is 9 months and still as cute and cuddly as ever. He loves to say, "dada" and just yesterday decided to say, "mama"!! He waves hello and bye-bye and loves it when we sing during family worship. He enjoys being carried around the house by big sister Claire and eating whatever food he can get his hands on. He is working on getting 2 more teeth to bring him to a grand total of 4. His sisters entertain him constantly and rarely let him cry. We love our little man!

Daddy Days

This year J decided to plan a fun outing for all of us once a month. He planned out the whole year and starting in January we went on our first "Daddy Day" outing. He took us all to the Gaylord Hotel and made reservations for us to eat at a restaurant on the hotel river walk. The kids had a blast exploring the hotel and of course eating on the river walk.

She lost her tooth!

Claire at the age of 4 lost her first tooth! She was so excited about losing her tooth and spent her tooth money to buy lollipops for her and her sisters.

Luke at 8 months

My sweet boy can now army crawl across the room!! He's getting faster and loves putting everything he can find into his mouth. Thankfully he has 3 older sisters who make sure he isn't eating anything off the floor. They watch him and take away paper, crayons, or whatever else he finds. Claire has started to lift him and move him across the room when I am not looking. Luke usually lets this happen once or twice before letting me know he has had enough man-handling. Luke loves to clap and he loves the attention he gets when he claps. The girls get all excited and clap with him. He claps during songs and when he gets excited. He is now confident enough to let Hannah hold him and the only reason we had to take him off her lap was because he kept trying to pull her hair. He is eating table food and becoming increasingly uninterested in his baby food. He loves pasta and meat (chicken and beef) and avocados. He loves to sit near Grace during dinner time and this is probably because she is always sneaking him bits of her food. Our gracious and good God has blessed us so much by giving us our little Luke. 

Hannah and Luke

Luke and Mommy

Hannah, Claire, and Mommy

The main attraction

clapping

still clapping

Getting the attention for clapping

Luke is over 7 months

I barely made the 7th month pictures with all the craziness around here. Luke sits up by himself now and loves playing with his sisters. He still loves his feet and can really yell for attention. He laughs, smiles, and talks all the time. He is still my happiest baby. He eats more food than any of my girls did at his age. He eats more than twice the amount of solid foods than they did making it so I am in the kitchen every other week making more baby food. Such a big eater! He started eating table food this month and has enjoyed bits of meat, rice, noodles, beans, and so much more. This little man still has such a special place in my heart. 

Oma and Opa came to visit

Since Oma and Opa decided to visit during the holidays we decided to wait for them to get our tree. The girls were so excited to have Oma and Opa here and it made getting ready for Christmas so much more special. The girls had fun running around looking at the different Christmas trees and at the end they all got candy canes. After we brought our tree home I lugged out all the decorations and enjoyed all my little helpers this year. Claire and Grace put up all the ornaments (with some Oma help) this year. The girls enjoyed looking at all the Christmas books and putting up the nativity set while I baked the Kruis almond cookies. I have been baking these for the holidays for the last 7 years and they are always a big hit. Last year Claire was old enough to help me decorate them but this year Gracie was ready to help. I couldn't frost the cookies fast enough for those girls. We finished in record time. Oma and Opa were able to be here for our church's candlelight service. This is extra special because all the kids perform Christmas songs. This year Claire and Grace were up on stage together singing "Away in the Manger". They were so sweet up on stage singing their hearts out. The girls were so sad to see their grandparents leave. 

My Claire is growing up too fast.

My sweet girls

Look at them run towards those trees

We found our tree

Oma and my sweet Luke

Love this cuddle picture of Daddy and Hannie

They were so excited about their candy canes

I love her ears in the picture