Fantasy Baseball

With spring training beginning, it's way past time for me to post these pics. One month 'til draft day 2010!

February Happenings

Things were really quiet upstairs; this is what I found when I opened the door to the bedroom. . .a tent city.

Never too young to start - Audrey's reading "The Banner."

They are smiling now, but they weren't smiling when they both tried to get out at the same time.

This picture is taken from above of our coffee table. I left the room for a couple of minutes and this where I found A & S.

Sleeping Beauty.

Goin' Solo

Last fall I mentioned to Karl that maybe someday I could go and visit the McBrides in San Diego by MYSELF. . .He surprised me with "Sure, when do you want to go?" I think he was looking forward to the challenge of watching all 4 kids by himself for a long weekend, but thankfully, Grandpa and Grandma Pollack came to help. I didn't quite know what to do with myself after I was dropped off at the airport. . .is that crying baby mine??? NO! This is Balboa Park from the air. . .the McBrides live a couple blocks East of the SE corner.

That's not my plane, but it is the McBrides house. The incoming flight path goes directly over their house.

We took a 10 minute walk to the dog park. This is the view of downtown from the edge of the park.

You'll have to ask Mandy why she requires the kids to wear helmets in the dog park. Ridley is hard to see, but she is waiting for Olivia to throw the ball. It was fun to meet some neighbors at the dog park and the playground.

I enjoyed spending a couple of afternoons in the backyard soaking up some California sun and reading my book. I even picked a few grapefruit off the tree. The only thing missing was the diapers hanging on the line. . .those will be coming in about 5 months.

Olivia and Joseph both enjoy riding their bikes - here she is in front of her house.

Olivia, Joseph, and Baby in front of a Bird of Paradise plant in bloom. . . in January!

A walk near Seaport Village.

Flying kites at Seaport Village. Yes, the weather was absolutely perfect.

Love this family! We definitely miss having them in St. Louis, but it was great to see the way the Lord is blessing their ministry in San Diego.

Visitation

Aunt Lesley stopped by for "visitation." She termed the twins' jail "the Octagon." How long before A & S figure out how to knock over that gate?

It's all smiles inside the octagon.

The girls are all ears as Grandma reads a story.

Grandpa and Grandma were kind enough to share their "Avatar" glasses with A & L.

Playing on Grandpa's legs. Audrey with another winner of an expression!

January at the zoo

Audrey's first carousel ride - on a warthog no less.

Sami's first carousel ride - on a lion.

It was a bit chilly, so we moved indoors to Zoomagination. This puzzle ended up in the "needs to be sanitized" bucket.

Annika and Lauren both spent quite a while listening to and trying to identify animal sounds. I think the experience of wearing headphones was half the excitement.

Audrey pulled herself up against the mirror. It was confirmed that she really does like herself.

It was pretty amazing to watch her discover herself in the mirror.

January Happenings

We were finally able to get to art hill for some sledding. Granted, it was bordering on grass sledding, but it was still a lot of fun.

Annika did a great job making the trek back up the hill.

A couple of girls REALLY like their birthday umbrellas.

I needed somewhere to put the twins while Annika and Lauren took baths. This was the best option I came up with. . .thankfully, no one had to go potty.

Just hangin' out.

Christmas in Michigan

Grandpa and his youngest granddaughters. Can you imagine family reunions in a couple of years? Will we ever again have peace and quiet?

The "train" is ready to descend the sledding hill.

Hmmm. Maybe the "maximum occupancy: 1 child" label was correct. Sami doesn't seem to mind the fact that she is almost falling out, but Danielle is not amused.

Audrey, on the other hand, should be happy since she gets the whole sled to herself . . .Maybe it has something to do with the fact that no one is pulling her, the wind is blowing in her face, and she is dressed like a boy.

Clearly, she was not happy.

No, Audrey is not picking Lauren's nose. It just looks that way.

Cousin Sarah taught Annika and Lauren lots of fun imaginary games. I loved this note she wrote. Seems like a good jingle for a song.

All the cousins. . . with only 1 crying!

We went to a minor league hockey game on New Years Eve. We ended up parking quite a ways from the arena. At first we were disappointed with how far away we were, but we soon realized it was a great walk through downtown G.R on a happenin' night. We almost felt hip again. . .Hmm, let me rephrase that. We almost felt hip (I shouldn't have implied that we were hip in the past).

Grandma french-braided the girls hair. This brought back lots of memories for me. Every game day, Mom would braid my hair.

Lauren loved clappin' and dancin' with Aunt Cathy at the hockey game.

As most of you know Annika LOVES food. Here she is making sure the popcorn won't be gone before she wants more.

Grandpa was kind enough to share his snowshoes with Annika. She lasted about 5 minutes before she realized it was hard work.

These 3 (the babies, that is) were in utero a year ago. Little did we know they would be born 5 days apart.

The Spricks treated us to a fun night at the "critter barn." The girls were excited about the bunnies and cats, but not so excited about the live nativity scene.

You would not believe how long it took to figure out who sits where. . .can you say too many variables?

Who needs a bathtub when you have a utility sink?

Big sister Lauren showing off her muscles.

An icicle garden. Remarkably, nobody fell on top of it.

A year ago both Annika and Lauren panicked and refused to go on the ice. This year Annika loved it and didn't want to leave. She even skated by herself for a little while.

Lauren, on the other hand, gripped our hands as tight as possible and lasted 2 trips around the ice.

Not sure if she likes it, but she's definitely cute.

With all the adults (potential babysitters!) around Karl and I were able to get out skiing for a couple hours. Here we are by the Grand River.

New chairs for Audrey and Sami.

The cousins love attacking Uncle Jay.

The giant has fallen!

Grandpa took Annika and Lauren on a sled ride. This is the way Lauren came back. Apparently they went through the woods and were attacked by "cockleboogers."

The cousins loved playing "king of the mountain" on the snow banks. Here, Annika is king.

Here, she is not.

Are these all for me??!!

JoAnn Tobak was our angel when Annika was going through her procedures up in Minnesota. She happened to be in Michigan as well so we met her and her husband for lunch.

Nothing says "had a great time in the snow" more than smiles and rosy cheeks.